Nixon vs. McGovern campaign ads

A couple of commercials from the 1972 Nixon vs. McGovern campaign.  Please take a look at both.  Which do you think is more effective? Why?

• McGovern Watergate ad
• Nixon ad on McGovern Military policy

Nixon vs. Humphrey vs. Wallace

Thanks to the miracle of the internet, young people today can watch the awful television commercials of the 50's, 60's, and 70's--including the campaign commercials. Lucky you! Please take a look at a one or two of the 1968 presidential campaign commercials I link here:

• Humphrey commercial
• George Wallace commercial
• Robert Kennedy commercial
• Nixon commercial

What was the main theme of the commercial/commercials you watched? What issues were the candidates using to try to sway voters? Did the commercial/commercials seem to you at all likely to be effective?

Watts Riots

The advent of television had a major affect on the way Americans viewed their nation and the political issues confronting America. Please watch this video clip of the 1965 Watts riots. What would your own reaction have been after seeing clips like this on the evening news? Remember that the riots broke out just days after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a supplement to the earlier Civil Rights Act of 1964. Do you think this is just a coincidence, or do you see a possible connection?

Atomic Cafe

The Atomic Cafe documentary is a great source for understanding certain aspects of the Cold War period.  Please view portions of the film and add your comments here.  What did you learn about the Cold War period from the footage here that would be less easy to learn from a lecture or a textbook?

Why We Fight

One of the best ways to get a "feel" for the different periods of recent U.S. history is to look at the films produced during these periods.  Frank Capra's Why We Fight series is a particularly good source for understanding both America's pre-war isolation and the transformation of the United States into the mightiest military machine in all history.

Please watch portions of the Capra series.  Comment here on your impressions: what did you get from watching the film that you might not have understood from just reading or listening to a lecture?

The Scopes Trial

While Inherit the Wind is a fine play, it does take many liberties in the way it depicts the events of the Scopes trial.  Reading through portions of the actual Scopes trial transcript give a bit better picture of what actually took place at the trial, particularly giving a more accurate picture of the role played by William Jennings Bryan.  Choose any portion of the transcript that looks interesting to you and comment on the proceedings.  Note how and why different people might interpret this trial very differently.  You might find the debate over prayer or Bryan's (undelivered) closing remarks particularly interesting.

Philippine-American War (1899-1902)

While the 1900 contest between Bryan vs. McKinley was taking place, America was bogged down attempting to end an insurrection in the Philippines. Glance through this Philippine-American War site and choose one incident from this war that seems to you worth addressing in a presidential campaign either on the pro-war or anti-war side.

The Eugenics Movement

If you want to improve a country, perhaps one way would be to improve the people who live in that country. Some among the "progressives" hit on a novel way to bring about such improvement: breed better people. The attempt to improve the genetic heritage of America (and to hasten the evolution of the species) led to what's called the eugenics movement. Please read through the Wikipedia summary of the eugenics movement. What do you see here that suggests that there is a dark side to the progressive movement?

Carnegie: The Gospel of Wealth

People who make themselves wealthy sometimes make others better off as well, and it's possible to view the Morgan, Rockefeller, and Stanford types much more positively than I suggested in lecture.  With Andrew Carnegie especially, it's easy to view him more positively than I do.  Please read through Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth. How does reading this affect your general impression of Carnegie?  Does it make you more sympathetic or not?

Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents

One of the quickest and best ways to get a feel for the overall course of American political history is to read through the inaugural addresses of the presidents on the Bartleby "Great Books Online" site. Please select *one* of the inaugural addresses from the period we have been studying. Read through the address and cite here a line that seems to you particularly important. Try to find a line that might help you and others reading the blog prepare for one of the exam study questions, e.g., the question on the quality of the men elected to the presidency during this period. Garfield's address might be particularly useful since his time as president was so brief and there is little else to evaluate him on.

Ulysses S. Grant: First Inaugural Address, Second Inaugural Address
Rutherford B. Hayes
James A. Garfield
Grover Cleveland: First Inaugural
Benjamin Harrison

Harper's Weekly

Harper's Weekly was the most popular American publication during the Civil War. It's a great source for getting the mood of Americans during the ebb and flow of the war. Please glance through one of the 1865 issues of Harper's Weekly. You might find particularly interesting the January 14 issue that features Sherman's entrance into Savannah, the May 6 issue that focuses on Lincoln and his assassination or the May 13 issue that focuses on the aftermath of the assassination and the new president, Andrew Johnson. Please comment here on what the issue you read shows about America in 1865. Anything here that shows why it might have been difficult to reconcile North and South? Anything here that gives particular hope that the republic would be restored?

Welcome!

In order to really understand any people and time period, it's important to look, not just at secondary sources, but at primary sources as well. Rather than having you purchase an expensive supplemental reader for this class, I will post here links to some important primary sources online. For most class sessions, I will ask you to comment here on a selection particularly relevant to what we will be discussing in class.

To get started, here's a test of the History 152 blog system. If you don't already have one, please create for yourself a "Blogger" account by following the instructions at http://www.blogger.com/. Be sure to create a blogger profile which includes your e-mail address. Otherwise, I can't reply directly to your post.

To make sure your e-mail address is accessible to me, please log on to your blogger account. Click "edit profile" (toward the top on the right). Then click the box that says to make your e-mail address accessible.

When you have created your blogger account and your profile, click the "comments" link below, and answer one (1) of the following questions:

1. What figure from American history do you find the most interesting? Why?
2. What is the most important thing you learned in your high school American history classes?
3. What historical time period most interests you? Why?