Topics in American History Series: (14 lectres)

Topics in American History Series Agriculture, Part 1. Selected theme: What is the very significant impact of the building of the Erie Canal in the early 1800s on the dynamics of where farm products would go, the status of NYC, and ultimately the Civil War? Agriculture, Part 2. Selected theme: The Great Plains Dust Bowl due to lack of rain and misuse of farmland destroys farms, causes a great migration west. Dire conditions in the South causes migration to northern cities by blacks and whites who are often met with great hostility in the competition for jobs Business, Part 1. Selected theme: How is John D. Rockefeller able to create a benign image of himself after being responsible for such events as the Ludlow massacre in the 19-teens? Business, Part 2. Selected theme: Jim Crow Era begins. With the demise of the Populist Movement, the upper class whites win control of one-party South, and no longer need to vie with the lower class whites for the black vote. Business, Part 3. Selected theme: The Reagan revolution of 1980s. The "trickle-down" supply-side economics, windfall profits, investing overseas, risky loans, huge increase in military budget. Dwight Eisenhower's earlier warning of the military-industrial complex as a threat to American democracy. Constitution, Part 1. Selected theme: Why is the Dred Scott case in the 1850s such a crucial victory for slavery and the South? Constitution, Part 2. Selected theme: Crises of constitutional interpretation. Examples are World War One hysteria, internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War Two carried out although they were known at the time to not be a security threat. Immigration. Selected theme: In the new immigration from the South and eastern Europe what are the generational differences as seen in the dynamics of retaining tradition, assimilating to the new world, and rediscovering old ethnic roots? Labor, Part 1. Selected theme: What is the wide range of ways workers respond to the abysmal living and working conditions of the Early Industrial Era in America? Labor, Part 2. Selected theme: President Theodore Roosevelt is erroneously seen as champion of labor for his role in settling the violent and bitter anthracite coal strike of 1902. The workers win only the restoration of cut wages. Roosevelt's motivation is the need of coal by industries and for home heating, not the workers' cause. Political Parties, Part 1. Selected theme: Why can't the new Republican Party of 1854 be called the anti-slavery party? Political Parties, Part 2. Selected theme: Reagan wants deregulation and limited government role in general but also wants strong government to intervene in moral issues. He espouses fiscal responsibility but hypes military budget into huge deficits. Religion, Part 1. Selected theme: What is Deism, the acknowledged religious belief of many of America's founding fathers, and how does it manifest itself in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights? Religion, Part 2. Selected theme: Slaves, with their animism brought from West Africa, are seen as not worthy of Christianity. A shift in the 1800s to conversion as a way to control the slaves by sermon to obey the master.