Over the course of the semester the coursework discussed many important themes that are important to the understanding of the history of the United States from the civil war to the modern era. Many would respond with concepts that relate to their personal narrative and that of their ancestry. It might involve a sense of identity as an American, a sense of one’s place in history or it may involve the culmination of lessons learned over the course of many trials of Americans who paved the way for following generations.
Moreover, the Founding Fathers, in the Declaration of Independence, suggest that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness best express what ideals speak to the educated polity of the United States. In terms of discussion, …show more content…
Social equality and its improvements over the course of the text is the most dynamic of the elements discussed. The text begins with the concept of the death of the institution of slavery in America and bookended by the Presidential Administration of Barrack Obama, a President who identifies himself as African American. The transition from chattel slavery to access to the highest office and most powerful position in the free world marks an undeniable demonstration of the American concept of social equality. Although the narrative of African American slaves begins in the period of Reconstruction in 1865. Then the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 gives the former slaves the beginnings of social equality through access to the ballot box. Resulting in the first African Americans elected into the United States Senate. Shortly after, in 1875, the first of the Civil Rights Acts passed preventing discrimination on the basis of race in public places thereby furthering the sense of social equality. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas overcame the auspice of segregation in the American South in 1954. The second Civil Rights Act followed in 1964 in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 and ushering in President Johnson’s Great Society as an answer to black poverty in 1964. Although civil rights legislation and initiatives such as the …show more content…
The concept of individual liberties as expressed through the idea of what many consider to be the four freedoms from World War II are the freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. Consequently, President Roosevelt spoke of these freedoms in a speech in 1941 before Congress naming them as the “essential human freedoms”. Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, founded during the first world war in 1917, sought to play a major role in protecting the liberties of Americans such as the right to privacy. The landmark case in 1925, the Scopes Trial was a case where the American Civil Liberties Union sought to defend the right to independent thought and individual self-expression. There are darker sides to the idea of American individual liberties as well. The Second Amendment gives Americans the right to bear arms and also places the United States as the country with the highest rate of murder using firearms in the world. Although women have many individual freedoms they lack a national provision for paid maternity leave from their employment with which the United States has in common with only three other countries; Liberia, Papua New Guinea and
Moreover, the Founding Fathers, in the Declaration of Independence, suggest that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness best express what ideals speak to the educated polity of the United States. In terms of discussion, …show more content…
Social equality and its improvements over the course of the text is the most dynamic of the elements discussed. The text begins with the concept of the death of the institution of slavery in America and bookended by the Presidential Administration of Barrack Obama, a President who identifies himself as African American. The transition from chattel slavery to access to the highest office and most powerful position in the free world marks an undeniable demonstration of the American concept of social equality. Although the narrative of African American slaves begins in the period of Reconstruction in 1865. Then the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 gives the former slaves the beginnings of social equality through access to the ballot box. Resulting in the first African Americans elected into the United States Senate. Shortly after, in 1875, the first of the Civil Rights Acts passed preventing discrimination on the basis of race in public places thereby furthering the sense of social equality. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas overcame the auspice of segregation in the American South in 1954. The second Civil Rights Act followed in 1964 in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 and ushering in President Johnson’s Great Society as an answer to black poverty in 1964. Although civil rights legislation and initiatives such as the …show more content…
The concept of individual liberties as expressed through the idea of what many consider to be the four freedoms from World War II are the freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. Consequently, President Roosevelt spoke of these freedoms in a speech in 1941 before Congress naming them as the “essential human freedoms”. Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, founded during the first world war in 1917, sought to play a major role in protecting the liberties of Americans such as the right to privacy. The landmark case in 1925, the Scopes Trial was a case where the American Civil Liberties Union sought to defend the right to independent thought and individual self-expression. There are darker sides to the idea of American individual liberties as well. The Second Amendment gives Americans the right to bear arms and also places the United States as the country with the highest rate of murder using firearms in the world. Although women have many individual freedoms they lack a national provision for paid maternity leave from their employment with which the United States has in common with only three other countries; Liberia, Papua New Guinea and