http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/videos#the-new-deal-how-does-it-affect-us-today

Ap theme: Reform-I choose this video because it portrays the New Deal programs that FDR put in place to help the economy and to fix it.

What is the Gilded Age

What is the Gilded  Age

                 The Gilded Age was a era of income disparity, which means that there was a hung gap between the rich and the poor.  Gilded Age  also refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post-Civil.  During those years, America's economy did grow at an extraordinary rate, generating unprecedented levels of wealth. Railroads, and soon telephone lines, stretched across the country, creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs and cheaper goods for consumers.  Some Americans celebrated the new wealth, others not so much it. During these years, American politics were dynamic and exciting. Voter participation rates were extraordinarily high. But corruption also plagued American politics. Succeeding presidential administrations were less corrupt—but the influence of America's rapidly expanding wealth did leave its mark on public life, as many politicians embraced a governing philosophy rooted in the premise that this economic elite should be allowed to pursue its endeavors with minimal government interference. While economic and political elites capitalized on America's rapidly expanding wealth, industrial workers struggled to survive the bleak conditions often hidden behind the nation's glittering façade. Industrial wages were low and hours were long in factories that were typically dangerous and unhealthy. But perhaps worse, the restructuring of work—the subdivision of labor into its unskilled parts—left many workers with few marketable skills and little hope for occupational or social mobility. One consequence of all this was a budding labor movement, as workers banded together to try to force their collective will upon the industrial giants that had dominated them as individuals. Workers' efforts to organize frequently led to long and violent strikes, rocking the economic landscape and even raising the frightening specter of outright class warfare.

 

What started the Revolution?

One thing that led to the American Revolution is taxation, and the idea of less government. Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Pain, and Ben Franklin were all enlightenment figures. They believed in separation of  powers, social contract, and limiting government. Thomas Pain wrote the book Common Sense which talked about limiting government, and that free market will led to prosperity. These were the early ideas of Republicanism the start of political ideology. Taxation led to many  conflicts like the Sugar Act 1764, 1764 Currency Act, 1765 stamp Act, 1765 Townshend Acts, 1773 Tea Act. The Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre, and the Intolerable Act which placed restrictions on the colonists including no Town Hall meetings ect.. Great Britain tried to limit  freedom from the New England Colonies mainly because Britain wanted to keep their power. Lexington and Concord was the first and major battle between British and English Settlers in which the British lost, and gave English Settler confidents to win the war.          

Ap Us History

Ap Us History