The Great Depression in America - Assignment Example

Name: Course: Institution: Date: 1. Q1 During the start of the 1960s, the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy became inaugurated. United States went into revolt in 1963 when the President Kennedy became assassinated. The president was very popular among the young Americans than the older ones. The untimely death of the president led to hell breaking loose in the United States and hence caused the most chaotic years in the history of the Americans. The sixties in the American history were not as laid back as the other past years. During the 1960s, student protests became a common thing. Rebellions spread from one campus to another with students protesting due to a variety of issues from the nature of the university, the rights of women and the Vietnam wars. The student protests only increased and their numbers grew when the police tried to intervene. This led to the university buildings damaged, offices being ransacked, professors who were uncooperative chased from classes and in turn universities shut down (Sage, 2005). All hell broke loose in 1964 when the American troops went to Vietnam and the civil rights grew and became more violent with the protests occurring daily. The sixties turned out to be a time of trouble and turmoil. 1968 was the peak of all turmoil because in that year, violence broke out and increased in Chicago especially during the Democratic national convention. The violence led to the more bloodshed of both the demonstrators and the innocent people. It was during the year that Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. 2. Q2 American popular music was of profound effect on music across the world. America has seen the popular music and styles rise. The 1950s were considered a time for revolution for the social culture of the Americans. Popular music was important t the country due to the influence it has on global culture. 1950s and 1960s was considered the middle of the 20th century and it is through it that a number of changes in the American popular music were seen. In this era afterwards, pop music remarkably developed. Music marketing also grew and became more and more prominent (Booth, 1983). During and after the 1950s, new forms of pop music were raised. The new pop music gained more permanence and achieved presence in the American Popular music field. The 1950s and 1960s led to the development of the counter culture which had the objective of explicitly countering the mainstream music that was in tandem with political and social activism. It was during this era and afterwards that the R&B gained popularity among the black audiences. The 1950s promoted and showed a number of advertisements that ended up having greater impacts on the future style of the American Popular music. The decade influenced innovation that enabled and influenced all kinds of music till the modern era. The American Popular music affected the teenagers as they started their own cultural and social category among the citizens of America. The teenagers got eager to exercise their values and freedoms. The explosive economy during the era made the teenagers spend more than any generation ever did. Popular music made the teenagers flout authority and go to the extent of challenging the social environment. They also sought to not write about the war and even denounced the common life and cultivated rebellion. 3. Q3 The Great Depression in America started 1929 and ended in 1941. The Great Depression can be said to be the worst economic time in the history of the United States. During the Great Depression, United States had many recessions some of which included the bad monetary policy. The bad monetary policy was taken as the major recession during the Great Depression. This is because there was increase in interest rates by the government and the government found it difficult to stabilize the supply of money during the Great Depression. During the same period, the prices of foods dropped which led to a fail in the banks due to the government failure to restore the system of the banks. The Great Depression led to an increased rate of unemployment. The unemployment rate increased by seven times made most Americans lose their jobs (Degraied, 2011). Due to the poor monetary policy, income to the fewer working employees was reduced. It also led to deflation which made the prices for goods to be reduced. It was during this time that a draught hit the Great Sea Plains. The draught led to the close down of several companies. The Great Depression led to an increase of homeless persons in the country. Through the Great Depression, the United States government changed its roles. During the period, several legislations were enacted some of which include the Securities Exchange Act which aimed at regulating police activities The Great Depression placed on the government a heavier role. Through this, the government was to ensure that the workforce in the government who had to ensure smooth running of all the activities. The Great Depression through the combination of the monetary expansion policy, spending and the World War two helped in ending the Great Depression. 4. Q4 During the 1950s, television was one of the media that struggled to become a national mass media. It instead became a cultural force. Television proved to be having a very significant impact to the Americans since 1950s. Television news could be broadcasted in the rural America and which made the rural Americans have access to news of who were running for presidency in 1952. It was during the 1950s that television signals could reach the remote places of America. Television positively impacted America in the 1950s as people could now be able to share the national experiences such as news, sports and popular television shows (Barnouw, 1990). Television since the 1950s made immigration appealing as people familiarized themselves with other regions of the country. Television since the 1950s promoted both the American culture and the other countries culture as the Americans were able to associate and appreciate the other cultures that were not theirs. It was through television that the civil rights movement gained popularity. This was because there was a live coverage of Dr. Martin Luther King hence the issues he was demonstrating on were bought into sharp focus for all Americans to see. Television brought about a time for abundant escapism to the Americans as producers added more genres like science fiction to the mix of genres on television. Television brought about competition between the newspapers and the television as newspapers were the prominent and primary source of all information for the country. Through television after the 1950s, evidence of how intensely television would affect politics was deduced. After the 1950s, television development followed different guides in several countries. Programmers came about and in turn a tax on the sale of television emerged. 5. What was the impact of the Cold War (1945-91) on American life? The Cold War greatly influenced the American society in many aspects during the second half of the 20th century. The war was different from the other kinds of wars ever experienced as it had so much propaganda and was a war with military engagements. The Cold War had a drastic affect on the foreign policy of America; it also affected the domestic, social, cultural and economic status of the country. Through the Cold War, cultural battles rose between the super powers and this heavily impacted on the daily lives of the American civilians. The cultural battles also caused and brought about racial inequality despite the freedom from slavery and anti discrimination black people were still discriminated and treated unequally. Because of the Cold War and the cultural battles and discrimination President Johnson helped pass the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 which aimed at prohibiting discrimination both at the public and the private accommodations. The Cold War impacted the American society in that the American citizens could be able to see the contrast values that they were professing and realized the kinds of changes they needed to live peacefully. Through the battles with the Soviets both culturally and politically, the presidents of the two nations waged the economic warfare with the Soviet Union in the course of the Cold War (Calhoun, 2009). The Cold War also enabled the Americans to realize their patriotic duty to their county and in turn buy consumer goods s as to help the nation’s economy to grow. This led to the United States being the world’s dominant economic power. Due to the Cold War, the cultural antagonism between the American and the Soviet Union, several repercussions were realized. The war brought about mutual fear between the two countries which promoted the political confrontations between them. The nations sought to learn and understand the different philosophies about what freedoms meant. 6. Q6 Region remained to be a very vibrant and vital part of the Americans in the 1960s and the early 1970s. Although new issues emerged during the period, religion among the Americans has remained undiminished. The religious revival was developed in the mid 1970s so as to celebrate the route of the African Americans and the Native Americans. The 1960s and the early 1970s were a turning point for the religious roles of the Americans. The concept of the divine providence played a significant role in the foundation of the national confidence. United States lacked concrete basis for the national celebrations (Williams, 2004). The Americans relied on the divine providence due to the worrying void that resulted from the lack of national self-realization. The divine providence led to the formation of a patriotic consensus within the nation. Though the consensus was formed, it was not able to reduce partisanship which was increasing within the state. Not all American believed that the divine providence favored the United States and made it a divine favored nation. Divine providence aimed to ensure that all the North American Continent people became one nation and in turn spoke one language. It also aimed at ensuring that all people professed one general system of religion and that they had same political principles. The divine providence sought to have people accustomed to a general way of living so as to ensure that they all had common happiness, peace and prosperity. This could not be possible as the nation had many different races and tribes which could be joined to form one large mass of people who believed in the same political, cultural, social and religious views and perspectives. 7. Q7 Though immigration segregation declined in the first half of the 20th century, it began rising in the past few decades. The immigration into the United States became a major cause of cultural changes and population growth. The immigrant segregation rise caused questioning of the correctness of describing the United States as a melting point. This was because low economic status groups tend to concentrate in areas that were densely populated and had access to public transit. This was very different from the people with higher social economic status as they tended to move to areas that were sub urban. Despite the fact that immigration of the non- European groups caused a net loss in terms of taxes and social services received, it also provided an overall gain on the domestic economy. Immigration shaped the United States nation as it contributed intensively towards the economic, political and social processes that proved to be foundational to the United States. After the enactment of the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965, the immigration numerical limits increased by almost a half. After the 1965 Act, a system of national origin quotas was abolished. The Act equalized the immigration policies and this in turn led to increased legal immigration of the non European nations into the United States. The immigration of the non European nations was beneficial to United States as the immigrants were more willing to do jobs that the Americans did not want. This led to an increase of the American economy. The immigrants boosted the demand and supply of productivity in the United States hence contributing to innovation and lowering of prices in the nation. The legal immigration also helped in setting out net taxation in the country. 8. Q8 Martin Luther King can be described as one of the great Americans who worked and aimed to promote civil rights for people in the United States during the years of 1950s to 1960s. He was also known for advocating for nonviolent social change. Martin Luther was a civil rights leader and activist. He aimed at fighting and promoting the rights of not only the African Americans but also the blacks and whites in the country. He mainly focused on ensuring black people were treated well. This was because during the 1950s black people were ill treated and this led him to the formation of the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King organized mass demonstrations and non violent protests to mainly draw attention and advocate against racial discrimination. Through the demonstrations, he insisted on Civil Rights legislation that protected the rights of African Americans in the United States. The Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King was extremely powerful that made the Congress to enact the Civil Rights Act in 1984. The Civil Rights Act sought for equality, non- injustice and also promoted the right so of the economically disadvantaged. Through the Civil Rights Movement, equality among Americans and Black Americans and other races was promoted. He sought to ensure that there was equal treatment for all the races. He believed that through the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, mankind could be able to live in peace. By enforcing anti discrimination through the Civil Rights Movement, Luther King’s goal was to ensure that racial discrimination in public areas, employment education sectors and during voting was not allowed. 9. Which American President – Liberal Democrat John F. Kennedy or Conservative Republican Ronald Reagan- reflected the majority of the American people best hopes and dreams for this nation’s future? Ronald Reagan was the 4th president of the United States of America. He was widely recognized due to his main aspiration for a conservative movement from the 1970s. He was a movement conservative who achieved in ensuring the nation moved to the right in terms of reducing federal regulation and the lowering of taxes. He upheld the conviction that government was the problem and the solution was private enterprise (Boyer, 2013). Though he tried to reduce on the taxes, the deficit of the federal went up. Reagan advocated for the reduction of the budget and size of the Federal government. This was because he believed that taxes will prevent the savings and investment of the people. John F. Kennedy on the other hand was known for his eloquence and call for duty. He came into position at a time when the American citizens were living in fear of a long drawn out cold war. Kennedy was a liberal and a democrat and he focused like freedom and democracy for the people. Being a liberal democrat, he aimed at ensuring that the enemies of man which included poverty, tyranny, diseases and war were prevented. He also sought to ensure that efforts were put to ensure that poverty was fought at all cost. President John F. Kennedy reflected the majority of the American people’s best dreams and hopes for the United States future. This is because he took the interests of the people more than his own interests. He abolished the death penalty. He also promoted the act that prohibited the racial discrimination and ensured that the foundation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was put across. 10. Q10 The activities of the civilians in a nation at war were covered by the home front. Life on the home front in the World War played a very vital part of the war for all citizens that participated in it. It also had a significant impact on the outcome of the war. It was during the war that life across the country changed drastically. Both the war and the home front were declared challenges in the United States and the citizens were encouraged to remain in action throughout the war. The front was considered an activity that affected everyone in the nation from their daily lives, tasks and also their homes. It affected the economic woes of the country and essentials like food, gas, and clothing. The front led to the high price of mobilization of resources in the United States. The home front came about due the start of the World War Two which was caused by the Japan attack to the United States. Due to the war, great sums of money that was ever spent was spent to build factories, provide transportation, buy materials, pay labor, feed and equip the soldiers and do all the war necessities. It was through the front that unemployment rate was reduced. Discrimination of genders was also reduced and women could get jobs in most factories. Competition between factories escalated and employees were forced to offer exciting motivation to the employees like high wages, reasonable working hours, in job training and medical care. The home front benefitted the country in that it transformed the country. The mobilization of funds during the wartime created opportunities and led to economic growth of the country. Works cited Barnaouw, Erik. Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American Television. 1990. Booth, Mark. American Popular Music: A Reference Guide. Green Wood: Green Wood Press. 1983. Boyer, Peter. Can conservatives stake a claim to JFK’s legacy? New York: Oxford Press Calhoun, Craig. Cold War Influences on American Culture, Politics and Economics. New York: Oxford University Press. 2009. Degraied, Tom. The Great Depression, Fact Timelines and it’s Causes. New York: Harcourt and Brace. 2011. Sage, Henry. The 1960s and the Decades of Turmoil. Philadelphia. 2005. Williams, Mary, Immigration. San Diego: Green Haven Press. 2004. Read More