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Key Moments in American History

Key Moments in American History. Historiography. Narrative Forms Comedy: bad things working out in the end Tragedy: fatal flaw (original sin: slavery) Irony: unexpected outcome Not the Alanis Morissette song

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Key Moments in American History

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  1. Key Moments in American History

  2. Historiography Narrative Forms • Comedy: bad things working out in the end • Tragedy: fatal flaw (original sin: slavery) • Irony: unexpected outcome • Not the Alanis Morissette song • Teleology: Hegel—thesis, antithesis, synthesis ultimate outcome guided by “Spirit” Material determination: Karl Marx • Base and superstructure

  3. Overall Interpretations • Germ theory: “germs” of American society come from Europe (esp. England and Germany) • Frederick Jackson Turner: frontier thesis American exceptionalism • Richard White: middle ground / borderlands • Progressives: class conflict; Charles Beard • Consensus: ideological commonality; Richard Hofstadter • (New) Social History: demographics, non-elite • Post-CRM: Black history, Feminism, neo-Marxism, microhistory

  4. Colonial • Declension model: falling away (jeremiads) • Perry Miller: New England mind, jeremiads as proof of continuity; take words (+ religion) seriously • Edmund Morgan: slavery democracy • Jack Greene and J.R. Pole: developmental framework: simplification elaboration replication • Anglicization • Atlantic World: comparative method linking N+S America, Europe, Africa • Ira Berlin, “From Creoles to Africans”

  5. Revolution • Classical Republicanism, ideology: Bernard Bailyn, Gordon Wood • Neo-Progressives: class conflict w/focus lower orders (pre-elite rebellion against authority); Gary Nash, Howard Zinn

  6. Antebellum • Charles Sellers: The Market Revolution (neo-Marxist analysis industrialization and impact society) • Arthur Schlesinger, The Age of Jackson (neo-progressive: class and ideological conflict; reading FDR into AJ) • Paul Johnson, A Shopkeeper’s Millennium (reform as middle class control)

  7. Slavery and Reconstruction • Plantation School (Booker T. Washington, U.B. Phillips) vs. Stanley Elkins (infantilizing concentration camps) vs. Eugene Genovese: Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made • “Birth of a Nation” vs. W.E.B. DuBois and Eric Foner

  8. Points of Conflict • Industrialization: Robber Barons or Captains of Industry? • Populists and Progressives: Reformers or Conservatives? • Great Depression: Free market critics of government (Milton Friedman) vs. Critics of capitalism (J.M. Keynes) • 1950s: Conformity or Rebellion? • 1960s: Success or failure of social movements

  9. Key Moments: Colonial (1492-1763) • Spain dominates; English privateers colonies as refueling/bases for attack ( Armada) • 1607: Virginia Company of London Jamestown • English Conquistadores, Starving Time (1609-10), Cpt. John Smith, Powhaten Confederacy, John Rolfe, 1619: House of Burgesses, 1st slaves • 1620: Virginia Company of Plymouth Plymouth • Pilgrims (separatists), Mayflower Compact, Squanto • 1630: Massachusetts Bay Colony • Puritans, Arabella, John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity,” Roger Williams + “Rogue Island” (1634), Anne Hutchinson (1638)

  10. Virginia (South) vs. Massachusetts (New England) • Indentured servants vs. families • Slaves in both (Mass 1st to legalize) • Monoculture (tobacco, rice) vs. mixed agriculture/trade (timber, rum, slaves: Triangle Trade) • Anglican vs. Puritan (still Anglican) • Individualistic capitalism vs. communitarianism

  11. Middle Colonies • 1631: Delaware (Dutch + Swede New York) • 1664: New Netherland New York • 1682: Pennsylvania (Quaker) • Deep South • 1663: Carolina (later split N + S) • 1733: Georgia (initially no slaves; barrier to Spanish in Florida)

  12. Violence • 1642-1660: English Civil War, Commonwealth, Cromwell Protectorate • 1675-76: King Philip’s War • Metacomet, Praying Indians, bloodiest war US history (%) • compare Pueblo Revolt (1680) • 1676: Bacon’s Rebellion • Anti-Indian biracial burn Jamestown (Declaration of the People); “unthinking decision”: slavery democracy • 1688: Glorious Revolution in England • 1739: Stono Rebellion • South Carolina + racialization + deskilling • 1754-1763: French and Indian War • George Washington, Braddock’s Defeat, Albany Congress, Pontiac’s Rebellion, Proclamation 1763

  13. Revolutionary America: 1764-1800 • Debt taxes: Sugar (’64), Stamp (’65), Tea (’73), etc. • Sons of Liberty, Boston Massacre (P. Revere + S. Adams; J. Adams), Boston Tea Party Coercive/Intolerable Acts 1st Continental Congress Lexington + Concord War Declaration of Independence • Articles of Confederation (no executive, unicameral Congress w/equal rep., no national judiciary, no army, no tax debt) • 1786: Shays’ Rebellion • 1787: Northwest Ordinance, Constitution (3 branches, bicameral, Senate equal rep, tax + army)

  14. 1789: Washington (+ French Revolution) • Alexander Hamilton (Federalists) vs. T. Jefferson + J. Madison (Democratic Republicans) • 1794: Whiskey Rebellion • 1795: Jay Treaty • 1798: J. Adams’; Alien + Sedition Acts • 1800: “Revolution” Jefferson (we aren’t France, Russia, etc.)

  15. Antebellum • 1790-1830: 2nd Great Awakening • Temperance, Abolition, “come-outerism,” utopianism • 1803: Louisiana Purchase • War of 1812: A. Jackson + New Orleans, status quo antebellum • 1820: Missouri Compromise, TJ: “a fire bell in the night” • Industrialization: Lowell Girls • King Cotton: Eli Whitney’s interchangeable parts (guns) + cotton gin (1793) • 1830: Indian Removal + Wars (-1890) • Cherokee Trail of Tears • 1887: Dawes Severalty Act + reservation policy • 1832: Tariff of Abominations + Nullification • 1840s: Irish Potato Famine + mass immigration • 1846: Mexican-American War • 1848: Seneca Falls Convention

  16. Civil War • Compromise of 1850: CA, Fugitive Slave Law  Uncle Tom’s Cabin • 1854: Kansas-Nebraska “Bleeding Kansas” + John Brown • 1859: Harper’s Ferry • 1860: A. Lincoln elected (split Dems) • 1861: Secession + Sumter • 1862: Antietam  Emancipation Proclamation • 1863: Gettysburg + Address • 10% Plan vs. Wade-Davis (Ironclad Oath) • 1865: Appomattox, Lincoln assassination A. Johnson

  17. Reconstruction • Johnson 13th Amendment + Black Codes (de jure vs. de facto slavery) • Congressional (Radical) Reconstruction • Civil Rights Act 14th + 15th Amendments • Ku Klux Klan Enforcement Act • Freedman’s Bureau • 1873 Slaughterhouse Cases + United States v. Cruikshank Mississippi Plan + Jim Crow South • 1895: Booker T. Washington Up from Slavery and the “Atlanta Compromise” • W.E.B. DuBois, 1905: Niagara Movement NAACP • 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson

  18. Gilded Age • 1870: John D. Rockefeller + Standard Oil • Ida Tarbell, The Octopus; Upton Sinclair, The Jungle • 1877: Great Railroad Strike • 1892: Homestead Strike • Panic of 1893 and Bi-metallism • Inflation (debtors) vs. Deflation (creditors) • 1896: William Jennings Bryan, former Populist, Democratic National Convention: “Cross of Gold” speech

  19. Foreign Imperialism • 1898 Spanish-American War (McKinley) • Remember the Maine • Filipino-American war (decades; 4,ooo US; 100,000 Filipinos; free fire zones; concentration camps; “water cure”) • 1899 Open Door Notes • T. Roosevelt Corollary + Panama Canal • Dollar Diplomacy, Moral Diplomacy •  World War I (US: 1917-19) W. Wilson, Treaty of Versailles (League of Nations) • Red Cross, NAWSA, NWP, 19h Amendment

  20. Normalcy • “The business of America is business”: turn away Progressive reform, international entanglements (except Latin America), nativism, revival KKK, fundamentalism • Fords, Flappers, and Fanatics • 1925: Scopes Monkey Trial • 1929: buying on margin + lots of other, more important things Great Depression • H.Hoover (Great Engineer) FDR + New Deal • 1st 100 Days, Alphabet Soup agencies, Wagner Act, Indian New Deal • Dec 7, 1941: Dr. New Deal Dr. War • Stalingrad vs. D-Day; Hiroshima + Nagasaki; Double V vs. Japanese Internment + coming out under fire

  21. Cold War America • Marshall Plan, Containment + Truman Doctrine • 1950-3 Korean War • Kim Il Sun, Police Action (UN), MacArthur Controversy, China • Iran (’53), Guatemala + Vietnam (’54), Egypt (’56), etc. etc. • 1962 Bay of Pigs Cuban Missile Crisis • Secret deal: missiles for missiles • 1964 Gulf of Tonkin US longest war • 1972: Christmas Bombing fear of leaks plumbers Watergate Nixon resignation

  22. Civil Rights • 1954: Brown v. Board • ‘55: Rosa Parks + Montgomery Bus Boycott • MLK, SCLC • ’63: Birmingham + March on Washington (“I Have a Dream”) ’64 Civil Rights Act (LBJ “Great Society”) • ’64: Selma + Mississippi Freedom Summer ’65 Voting Rights Act + splintering SNCC • Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, Black Panthers; SDS Weather Underground • ’68: King assassinated, RFK assassinated

  23. Post-Watergate • People’s Temple; Gay Liberation; Energy crises, stagflation, + Carter’s cardigan Morning in America (“Mr. Mom” + “Gung Ho”; “Rising Sun”), the Laffer Curve, Reaganomics, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” • Iran-Contra: selling missiles to terrorists to get money for other terrorists • 1991: Panama + Iraq; “it’s the economy, stupid” • 1993: 1st WTC attack; 1995: Oklahoma City • 1994: Gingrich Revolution, Welfare Reform, NAFTA; “Arkansas Project” and the “elves” Ken Starr’s report/witch hunt 1998 impeachment • 2000: Florida + “hanging chads” (Diebold, Katharine Harris, felony disenfranchisement) Bush v. Gore

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