American History Questions, Essay Example

How did the U.S. become a great power between 1890 – 1920? America had spent the 19^th Century gradually becoming a great manufacturing and agricultural power through high tariffs. Tariffs helped America compete against European manufacturers. Without a tariff, American industry could not compete in quality or price, even when transportation costs were factored in. By 1890, American manufacturing was also revolutionizing agricultural production in the Midwest (just as it had revolutionized the processing of cotton in the South with the cotton gin), as well as transportation through Henry Ford’s mass production of cars, which in turn led to improved roads. The Great War destroyed much of Europe’s industrial capacity while leaving America’s untouched. America then became an exporter of both food and goods, and capital as well. So America became a great creditor nation, rather than the borrow nation we are now.

What were the causes of the Great Depression (1929 – 1939)? The stock market crash of October 1929 was the decisive event. The crash was made worse by the great popularity of buying stocks on the margin, which meant to borrow money from your broker in the hopes that prices would keep going up. When the bubble burst, people and businesses went bankrupt. Some historians argue that governments’ attempts to return to the Gold Standard also contributed.

What ended the Depression: the New Deal or World War II? It depends on what historian you read. The New Deal helped a lot of people by raising people’s morale; banking and securities reforms; and new legislation for programs to put people back to work. But it surely did not end the depression, especially for farmers, who suffered from very low commodity prices. Historians also debate whether WWII ended the depression, but I think it could be argued that the end of the war ended the depression, because many of the New Deal’s laws and programs began to be rescinded. Pent-up demand and the Baby Boom probably did the rest.

Explain the progress of civil rights in America from the Civil War to 1974. Mention specific groups – or even individuals – who have taken part in this struggle. During this period, civil rights in America was primarily an issue for women and blacks. American women had long been denied the vote, and did not gain that right until 1920 with the passage of the 19^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Many western states were also in favor as a way to increase the voting population in areas with fewer people. Many women voting-advocates were also involved in the temperance movement to ban alcohol. There were many suffragette leaders over the years. Susan B. Anthony is the one most often named.

Blacks faced different challenges, depending on whether they lived in the Jim Crow south, or the slums of northern American cities. In the South they were denied the vote through intimidation and corruption. In the north, they were denied economic opportunity. The great divide among the leadership was whether blacks should work within the system and improve their educations and job skills themselves, or advocate to change the system itself. Booker T. Washington advocated the former way, and W.E.B. Du Bois argued for the latter. Later Martin Luther King became a strong advocate for political change until his murder in 1968.

Postwar seminal acts were Brown vs. the Board of Education in 1954, which outlawed state segregation of public schools; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, both of which outlawed practices that denied women and blacks their constitutional rights. Miliken vs. Bradley (1974) was a follow-up decision to Brown, and limited school busing.