American History, Mind and Machine - Essay Example

In many ways after the divisiveness and devastation of the Civil War, the United States searched for order economically, politically, geographically, socially and racially. Select one of these areas, or suggest another, and make a case for the reasons why it was the most vital area that America needed to address. Some examples include the westward expansion of the nation, the reunification of a national political system in the north and south, the influx of immigrants, conflict with Native Americans, and an increase of racial segregation.

It seems that the most vital area that the United States needed to address after the end of the Civil War was the reunification of a national political system since it established the United States as a unified state. While before the outbreak of the Civil War American used plural to speak about the United States (the United States are…), after the end of the war it became a norm to use the United States in singular (the United States is…). It means that the reunification took place on the highest constitutional level, with issues of secession as well as state veto power properly addressed.

Specifically, the political unification meant creation of the central government that took under control all U.S. territory. In some way, the motto by the Founding Fathers “From many, one” eventually became a reality, but strong national government was “more powerful than even the most nationalistic Americans had imagined before the war” (“The Civil War, Results of the Civil War”, 2012, [online]). 1b-Most people have views that are strongly influenced and informed by philosophy, often without realizing it.

Identify a view you have—whether on politics, religion, science, culture, or even the media and entertainment—that might be regarded as being related to philosophy. What kind of reasons do you have for holding that belief? What figure from the history of philosophy section do you think might have some views that are similar, or at least relevant, to your own? Explain why you chose that particular figure. Aristotle spoke of Socrates as of a philosopher who restricted his quest with ethical enquiries.

Therefore, Socrates is generally known as “the first moral philosopher”. Indeed, according to the account of Xenophon, Socrates persistently discussed human affairs and did not stop asking questions like “what constitutes the character of a citizen?”, “what is the just?”, and “what is the unjust? ” (Xenophon quoted in Aristotle, 2001, p. 161). This way of addressing the world – in a moral quest – is quite close to my understanding and my life philosophy. Similarly to Socrates I believe that one should rather concentrate on moral self-development than on amassing material wealth.

In other words, developing virtues is seen as the primary objective. This position is quite close to Socrates who is known to have said “virtue was the most valuable of all possessions; the ideal life was spent in search of the Good” (Socrates quoted in Michael, 2007, p. 16). 2a-During a remarkable period of change from roughly 1865 to the early 20th century, the great cities that we know and love today expanded at an incredibly rapid pace and went through a fundamental transformation in composition and construction.

Select one of the ways that the American city was changing and analyze its historical significance (explain why this topic is important to the study of the history of the nation). What short and long term effects did the transformation of American cities have on the nation? The decades after the end of the Civil War were the time of the move from the rural areas to the city. While these were initially migrants from small towns or remote farms that filled the cities, in the 1880s American cities were flooded with immigrants from overseas.

Immigration became the major factor of population growth in the cities like Chicago (Monkkonen, 1990, p.95). It ensured a constant supply of