...Founding Brothers Introduction When I first heard the name of Ellis’ Book “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation”, I could not understand why the author called the revolutionary generation “brothers”, but not “fathers” as usual. Now, after I have read the book, I understand why. Ellis did not write the history of the United States, he wrote the story of a group of men, whose remarkable personal qualities made possible the emergence of a new independent country. Although, the members of the group were different in their personalities, backgrounds and experiences, it seems like all of them shared a superhuman gene of the ability to change the history. Since Founding Father’s agendas on the political course of the U.S. had differed drastically, they were not friends and, often, even allies. However, the devotion to the U.S. independency was literary in their blood, so it made them...
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...The Whiskey Rebellion, also known to others as the Whiskey Insurrection, was a tax protest in the United States that started in 1791 when George Washington was president. The tax was the first to tax domestic products like distilled spirits (whiskey). Whiskey was the most popular distilled spirit in the 18th century, due to this it became known as the “whiskey tax.” The tax was part of Alexander Hamilton’s program to fund the debt that was generated during the American Revolutionary War. The whiskey tax created issues with Western grievances, resistance, and insurrection. Whiskey tax became quickly controversial, people of the frontier region believed that this tax unfairly targeted westerners. Whiskey was a very popular drink, farmers of this area made lots of their income by operating small stills to create whiskey. Farmers who lived west of the Appalachian Mountains distilled a very fine grain to create their...
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...Most Americans nowadays like to think that they have the American Revolution pretty well figured out. Conventional wisdom starts the saga in 1763 when Britain, saddled with debt at the close of the Seven Years' War, levied new taxes that prompted her American colonists to resist, and then to reject, imperial rule. Having declared independence and defeated the British, American patriots then drafted the constitution that remains the law of the land to this day. With George Washington's inauguration as president in 1789, the story has a happy ending and the curtain comes down. This time-honored script renders the road from colonies to nation clear, smooth, and straight, with familiar landmarks along the way, from Boston's Massacre and Tea Party through Lexington and Concord, then on to Bunker Hill and Yorktown before reaching its destination: Philadelphia in 1787, where the Founders invented a government worthy of America's greatness. Those Founders are equally familiar. Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison, Sam and John Adams, Patrick Henry and Alexander Hamilton: in the popular mind this band of worthies, more marble monuments than mere mortals, guides America towards its grand destiny with a sure and steady hand. "[F]or the vast majority of contemporary Americans," writes historian Joseph Ellis, the birth of this nation is shrouded by "a golden haze or halo."(1) So easy, so tame, so much "a land of foregone conclusions" does America's Revolution...
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...in the United States Army from 2003 to 2010. I was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and several other operations. However, when I left the Service it became clear to me years later that Veterans Affairs weren’t ready to treat our Men and Women coming back from War. So I did some extensive research on how the system may have failed the people it was supposed to serve. And a good example of the system’s failure was the second Fort Hood incident in 2014. Keywords: Veterans Affairs, Fort Hood, Service The Department of Veterans Affairs Information Management System: Serving those that Served The reason why I chose this subject is because it is close to home and it also affects me. After two weeks of this class I wanted to dive deep into information management. I want to know why our system at the Department of Veterans Affairs do not stand ready to serve the Veteran population of our Nation properly. So many Veterans complain about loss or insufficient pensions because the VA hasn’t track them sufficiently. Sitting at Veterans Hospital in Orlando, FL I hear two Vietnam era Veterans talk about not having VA ID Cards. And they have been waiting for it since 2009. I asked them why it took this long, and they said, “The system was backlogged”, or at least that’s what the VA told them and this was back in 2009. So the premise of this paper is really for me to uncover answers to three major Questions that I personally have: 1. How long is the integration process...
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...Except from Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer CONCLUSION ~ The War and the American Revolution We have a very difficult card to play. We often have to act by the moon or twilight and leave the World to judge it in the clear sunshine. -General William Maxwell to Adam Stephen, April 10, 17771 On New Year’s Day in 1777, Robert Morris sent George Washington a letter that rings strangely in a modern ear. “The year 1776 is over,” Morris wrote. “I am heartily glad of it and hope you nor America will ever be plagued with such another.” Washington shared that feeling, which was very far from our own. We celebrate 1776 as the most glorious year in American history. They remembered it as an agony, especially the “dark days” of autumn.2 Americans have known many dark days, from the starving times in early settlements to the attack on the World Trade Center. These were the testing times and the pivotal moments of our history. It was that way in 1776, after the decision for independence and the military disasters in New York. In early December, British commanders believed that they were very close to ending the rebellion, and American leaders feared that they might be right. Then came a reversal of fortune, and three months later the mood had changed on both sides. By the spring of 1777, many British officers had concluded that they could never win the war. At the same time, Americans recovered from their despair and were confident that they would...
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...the answer be both yes and no at the same time”? The answer comes in the forms of rules and regulations that once prohibited women from even training to take on the jobs that are considered the Combat Arms of the military. Sometimes non-military members don’t have the luxury of seeing how the military operates from the inside. The military is like a small microcosm of the world and the citizens that they protect. There is a specific job for every task, no matter how menial or prominent, that must be trained for before being allowed to officially have it as a job title. This is especially true when it comes to Combat Arms; these are jobs that will intentionally put the Soldier in the direct line of fire. The training is intense and grueling and requires a lot of very physical strength and stamina to complete the courses to become members of their ranks. Women are currently allowed to serve in Combat support roles, but the fight has been for women to be able to serve in combat positions such as Infantry, Field Artillery and Engineers. Women and men have served along side one another in combat in every war that America has fought, from the Revolutionary War right up to the current war in Afghanistan. “Does integrating women into combat positions act as a combat multiplier?” (Summers C. Women.) That means, Does adding women to the mix in combat make a measurable positive difference in the battle? The purpose of...
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...Chapter Three Federalism: Forging a Nation Chapter Outline I. Federalism: National and State Sovereignty A. The Argument for Federalism 1. Protecting Liberty 2. Moderating the Power of Government 3. Strengthening the Union B. The Powers of the Nation 1. Enumerated Powers 2. Implied Powers C. The Powers of the States II. Federalism in Historical Perspective A. An Indestructible Union (1789–1865) 1. The Nationalist View: McCulloch v. Maryland 2. The States’ Rights View: The Dred Scott Decision B. Dual Federalism and Laissez-Faire Capitalism (1865–1937) 1. The Fourteenth Amendment and State Discretion 2. Judicial Protection of Business 3. National Authority Prevails C. Toward National Citizenship III. Federalism Today A. Interdependency and Intergovernmental Relations B. Government Revenues and Intergovernmental Relations 1. Fiscal Federalism 2. Categorical and Block Grants C. Devolution 1. The Republican Revolution 2. Devolution, Judicial Style IV. The Public’s...
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...PAUL VOLCKER AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE: 1979-1982 1. What factors contributed to inflation during late 70s? One of the factors that contributed to inflation during the late 70s was a second oil shock. 1979 was supposed to be a moderate year on world oil markets, but the situation changed rapidly and spiraled out of control with Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) preannounce price increases to 14.5% over the year. In 1979, the Shah fell in the Iranian Revolution and the western influence over Mid-East oil shrank even further. Two weeks after the fall of the Shah, the anti-western Ayatollah Khomeini came to power and took control over Iran and soon brought havoc to the energy markets that were reminiscent of the initial energy crisis of 1973-1974. As a result, the second oil shock hit the western countries in 1979. During the second oil shock, there was no shortage in the supply of oil but production fell from six million bbl./day in 1978 to next to nothing during the months of revolutionary upheaval. The impact on oil prices was devastating, causing oil price spike in price from $12.70/bbl. to $18.70/bbl. by midyear. After recovering slightly from the 1978 low, it was followed by the depreciation of the dollar; thus, this caused the inflation of the late 70s. According to Exhibit 14, the effective exchange rate index fell to the lowest of 92 points during 1978-1980. The weakness in the U.S. dollar continued to push U.S. consumer prices to increase thus...
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...Lincoln High School IB History Internal Assessment Student Handbook Table of Contents What is the History IA? Planning Your Historical Investigation Examples of Types of Investigations Examples of Research Questions Choice of Topic 20th Century History of the Americas Alternative The Written Account & Assessment Criteria A. Plan of the Investigation B. Summary of Evidence C. Evaluation of Sources D. Analysis E. Conclusion F. Sources and Word Limit Sample History IAs 1Trotsky and the Russian Civil War 2US in Chile 3Women in the French Revolution 4PreWWI Alliances 4 7 9 10 11 12 13 14 14 1 2 2 3 4 10 16 Information in this guide is gathered from a variety of sources, including, but not limited to: The IB History Course Guide, Oxford’s IB Skills and Practice, IBOCC, and anecdotal experience. What is the History IA? The History IA is your chance to explore a period, theme, or event in history that you are interested in. For full IB Candidates, it also serves as 20% of your final History Grade. The final paper will be assessed by your teacher, with a sampling sent off to IB for score moderation. The History IA asks you to use the full range of skills you have been taught in class. In particular: ● knowledge and understanding ● application and interpretation ● synthesis and evaluation...
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...terrorist. * To compare both of them. HYPOTHESIS: ARE NAXALITES TERRORIST? INTODUCTION: Our country INDIA has battled and is battling with so many ‘isms’ such as NAXALISM, TERRORISM, COMMUNALISM, CASTEISM, REGIONALISM. Such ‘isms’ has marked a place in the minds of people. But when the people hear about the terrorism and naxalism they are taken aback. We the people of India feel very much proud about our ‘unity in diversity’. It is quite true that India is only the country with such diversified caste population. And still we look forward to communal harmony and national integration. Since independence in 1947, India have fought dozens of campaigns against the insurgency, i.e. the terrorists and the Maoists. LITERATURE REVIEW “How did they dress?” “How they look?” “What they eat?” These are the questions that comes in the mind of a child when he hear about the word terrorism and naxalism and it it quite obvious to have these thoughts as no one really knows about terrorists or the Maoists. Definition of terrorism: Terrorism is a global phenomenon. It is quite easy to recognize terrorism but very difficult to define it. Terrorism appears in the Bible's Old Testament. Many scholars had defined terrorism in their own ways. Some of them are texted below: Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate...
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...Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation. But July 4, 1776 wasn't the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776). It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775). And it wasn't the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn't happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776). So what did happen on July 4, 1776? The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They'd been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes. July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered. In contrast, we celebrate Constitution...
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...happened to the Lusitania on it's last journey across the Atlantic Ocean? Why did the ship get torpedoed? Was it against laws set forth by many of the countries of the early 1900s? These are many of the questions often asked when World War I is being discussed in many history classes. With the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the countries of Austria, Germany, Russia, France, Britain, and Serbia initially felt the tensions increasing either through the arms race or the forming of various alliances and treaties. On, 28 July 1914, the war was official and new types of warfare had been implemented in ways never before used. The early machine guns were now employed to keep enemies in their trenches, airplanes were soaring in the skies, tanks were rolling over trenches, and the most devastating of all, the submarine was now an effective and efficient killing machine. The submarine could stalk enemy ships and attack them without any warning or retribution. The earliest submarine, the Turtle, was used in the American Revolutionary War, but it had little success. (American 1) Now, the submarines used in World War I were redesigned and fitted with better weaponry for fighting a war of stealth and destruction. Submarines had many famous or infamous attacks on naval vessels depending on which side of the history books the country was on. (Germans 1) The one attack that changed World War I was submarine attack on the Lusitania. The Lusitania was a ship that made...
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...Gandhi's Hind Swaraj takes the form of a dialogue between two characters, The Reader and The Editor. The Reader essentially serves as the typical Indian countryman whom Gandhi would have been addressing with Hind Swaraj. The Reader voices the common beliefs and arguments of the time concerning Indian Independence. Gandhi, The Editor, explains why those arguments are flawed and interject his own arguments. As The Editor Gandhi puts it, "it is my duty patiently to try to remove your prejudice." In the dialogue which follows, Gandhi outlines four themes which structure his arguments. 1. First, Gandhi argues that ‘Home Rule is Self Rule’. He argues that it is not enough for the British to leave only for Indians to adopt a British-styled society. As he puts it, some "want English rule without the Englishman ... that is to say, [they] would make India English. And when it becomes English, it will be called not Hindustan but Englishtan. This is not the Swaraj I want.” 2. Gandhi also argues that Indian independence is only possible through passive resistance. In fact, more than denouncing violence, Gandhi argues that it is counter-productive; instead, he believes, “The force of love and pity is infinitely greater than the force of arms. There is harm in the exercise of brute force, never in that of pity.” This is essential throughout Hind Swaraj. 3. In order to exert passive resistance, Gandhi reasons that Swadeshi (self-reliance) be exercised by Indians, meaning the refusal of all trade...
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...Leadership and the Use of Power to Achieve Social Change Introduction The United States changed forever on November 4, 2008. Anyone watching a television on this important evening knew that everything had changed. Barak Hussein Obama had just been elected the 45th President of the United States of America, and he represented the first African American to ever win this office. To many the election was a fulfillment of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream for social and political equality for African Americans. Still others, including the newly elected President, reached back to Lincoln. President Obama would also, invoke the founding fathers, giving credit to the social experiment that democracy is and thus hinting to the efforts of Washington and others. The days that followed the Obama election would be filled with symbolism leading to the concert on the steps of the Lincoln memorial, and the day of service, called by the President, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the day before inauguration. The election of President Obama seemed to have brought full circle the experiment of democracy. The dreams of the founding fathers were present, the echo of Lincoln’s consequential Presidency were present, and certainly the dreams and speeches of Dr. King were front and center in this cultural moment. Yet the cultural moment represented so much more than a continuum of ideas and dreams of significant men. This moment was one of the first major societal changes in a generation...
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...AFRICAN POVERTY Duncan Kennedy* Abstract: African extreme poverty is probably a function (although not solely) of the balkanized post-colonial geopolitics of Africa. It is also probably a function (although not solely) of the income distribution generated by a typically perverse African political economy, through its effect on the allocation of resources to development. As between these two causes, the second is probably much the more important. This reinterpretation puts considerably more of the blame for African poverty on the Western great powers than does the “poverty trap” analytic that is a common contemporary way of thinking about the African economic situation. INTRODUCTION This essay, which really is an essay rather than a sustained scholarly encounter with the problem, proposes an alternative to the “poverty trap” analytic for understanding extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The poverty-trap idea is well instantiated by the following quotation from Jeffrey and Lisa Sachs, and it is common among liberal Western commentators on African economy. For the world’s poorest people, daily life is a struggle for survival, with millions of impoverished people each year losing that struggle to famine, disease, environmental catastrophes, and violent conflicts that arise in conditions of extreme deprivation. . . . One basic point, not always remembered, is that impoverished countries lack their own budgetary resources needed to supply vital—indeed life-saving—services such...
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