Reading 1: “The elementary schools throughout the state are irresponsible institutions, established by individuals, from mere motives of private speculation or gain, who are sometimes destitute of character, and frequently, of the requisite attainments and abilities. From the circumstance of the schools being the absolute property of individuals, no supervision or effectual control can be exercised over them; hence, ignorance, inattention, and even immorality prevail to a lamentable extent among their teachers.” “Report of the Joint Committees of the City and County of Philadelphia, appointed…

Reading 1 Soviet power...bears within itself the seeds of its own decay, and the sprouting of these seeds is well advanced...[If] anything were ever to disrupt the unity and efficacy of the Party as a political instrument, Soviet Russia might be changed overnight from one of the strongest to one of the weakest and most pitiable of national societies....This would...warrant the United States entering with reasonable confidence upon a policy of firm containment, designed to confront the Russians with unalterable counter-force at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon the interests…

Introduction The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, who are representatives typically chosen by the candidate’s political party, though some state laws differ. Each state’s number of electors is based on its congressional delegation (one for each member in the House of Representatives and one for each member in the Senate). Currently, a total of 270 electoral votes is required to win the presidency. Before the 1804 election the first runner-up became vice president, as spelled out in the US Constitution. As a result of the Election of 1800, the method of electing the vice president…

Reading 1 I want to tell you about an experience we had in Philadelphia when our private funds were exhausted and before public funds become available. . . . One woman said she borrowed 50 cents from a friend and bought stale bread for 3 and a half cents per loaf, and that is all they had for eleven days except for one or two meals. . . . One woman went along the docks and picked up vegetables that fell from the wagons. Sometimes the fish vendors gave her fish at the end of the day. On two different occasions this family was without food for a day and a half. . . . Another family did not have…

The Changing Family Age of First Marriage Average Household Size Male Female 1790 -- -- 5.79 1890 26.1 22.0 4.93 1900 25.9 21.9 4.76 1910 25.1 21.6 4.54 1920 24.6 21.2 4.34 1930 24.3 21.3 4.11 1940 24.3 21.5 3.77 1950 22.8 20.3 3.52 Age of Mothers at Various Stages of the Family Life Cycle 1880 1920 1950 Age of first marriage 22 21 20 Birth of first child 23 23 23 Birth of last child 34 31 30 Marriage of last child 55 54 51 Death of one spouse 56 65 66 Questions for Discussion Describe the basic changes that have taken place in the timing of key events of women's lives. How have these changes…

New Deal Legislation 1932 Reconstruction Finance Corporation Granted emergency loans to banks, life insurance companies, and railroads 1933 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Employed youth in reforestation, road construction, and flood control projects Agricultural Adjustment Act Direct payments to farmers to reduce production Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Creates independent public corporation to construct dams and power projects National Industrial Recovery Act Establishes fair-competition codes; section 7a guarantees labor’s right to organize Public Works Administration Public works 1934…

On May 1, 1919—May Day—postal officials discovered twenty bombs in the mail sent to prominent capitalists, including John D. Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan Jr., as well as government officials like Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. A month later, bombs exploded in eight American cities. On September 16, 1920, a bomb left in a parked horse-drawn wagon exploded near Wall Street in Manhattan’s financial district, killing thirty people and injuring hundreds. The suspicion was that the bomb was the work of radicals who had immigrated from Europe. Authorities came up with a list of suspects…

In 1915, fifty years after the end of the Civil War, D.W. Griffith released his epic film Birth of a Nation. The greatest blockbuster of the silent era, Birth of a Nation was seen by an estimated 200 million Americans by 1946. Based on a novel by a Baptist preacher named Thomas Dixon, the film painted Reconstruction, the period following the Civil War, as a time when vengeful former enslaved people, opportunistic White scalawags, and corrupt Yankee carpetbaggers plundered and oppressed the former Confederacy until respectable White southerners rose up and restored order. A “scalawag” was a…

Resources Invested in Education Spending on Education Spending Per Child 15-19 Percentage of GNP 1860 $60 $5.33 1.4 1900 $503 $20.53 2.9 Improvements in Education % Illiteracy 10 or older High School Graduates College Enrollment Total White Black 1870 20% 11 80 2.0 1.7 1900 11% 6 45 6.4 4.0 Proportion of Young Attending School Average Days Attended By Pupils Proportion of 17 Year Olds Graduating High School 1870 57 78 2 1890 69 86 3.5 1910 74 113 8.8 1930 81 143 29 1950 82 158 59 Percent of 18-21 Year Olds Attending College Percent of Adult Population Illiterate 1870 1.7% 20% 1890 3.0% 13%…