Historians

Question 1

Dawn of the American Century

Answer 1

• Neil Irvin Painter = Major ideological conflict between the forces of stability and democratic change. A conflict that was implemented in the capitalist, hierarchical, social and political order. Painter’s themes are power and resistance, perseveration of class rule and attempt to achieve human, by showing disparities in income, terrible conditions of work, and pain/humiliation of racial degradation. From the viewpoint of private and public authority, any dissent from established order meant they were experiencing exclusive privilege and so they had to be punished. She connects antiradicalism, xenophobia and racism as a symptom of hostility to internal democratization and that war intensifies the pressures toward ideological orthodoxy and social conformity -> Spanish American war with labour repression by fostering spirit of militarism -> white domination
• Robert H. Zieger = Problematic relationship between African Americans and organised labour. While emancipation brought clashes over political, legal and constitutional issues, the labour question lay at the heart of Reconstruction. The convict lease system reinforces black control and modernising the south? Big racial labour problem, with rare cases of interracialism, but blacks would pursue various strategies to advance their interests such as strike-breakers (those who work through the strikes or have been called in to replace strike workers). Zeiger saw Industrial unions as way of keeping white conservatism. Black workers avoided unions due to racist behaviour and not being accepted into some -> 1869 Formation of National Coloured Labour Union. 1968 Memphis sanitation strike (black workers confronted white power) vs 1977 Atlanta sanitation worker’s strike (black workers strike over wages and working conditions and were confronted by AA mayor Jackson who fired them with white support) racism got better for middle-class blacks but not so much for working-class.

Question 2

American Empire

Answer 2

• Frank Ninkovich = American imperialism existed but was not a simple copy of the European model. Imperialism was not something America was forced into, it required motive and opportunity. Imperialism was a identity crisis and with immigration, their national character was at risk but Spanish-American war did help with this a little bit. But gave Americans a taste of imperialism and Beveridge (pro-imperialist) encouraged that.
• Earnest R. May = US was once a second-rate state in the 1800s but in 1900s became recognized as a great power. There was a major shift in national policy and change in European opinion accepting US as a world power this would have been after WWI where the UK was having to pay back money to America due to taking loans for etc to win the war, but also after the Spanish-American war. May seems to suggest that European governments made a serious mistake in failing to check the rise of US world power status. May believed McKinley got forced into the Cuban war that he did not want

Question 3

Modern Times: The 1920s

Answer 3

• Nancy Maclean = The KKK had many focuses, one being the protection of female virtue, which was unique in the south, hence beating up bad husbands. This was of course only for white middle-class women, and yes women did use this to their advantage but there were other women organisations and the women’s suffrage movement that gave them the vote. Argues that vehement racism, intimidation, terrorism, and murder really were aimed at African Americans to preserve the old social order, male dominance, and white supremacy in a rapidly changing world. The KKK formally excluded women but even then women still supported it, hence the WKKK was formed 1923 and called on the common concepts of a higher female morality and a maternal mission in society to claim a distinctive role for themselves in promoting the politics they shared with male Klansmen.
• William Leuchtenburg = Perils and prosperity intertwined in the 20s
• Kathlee M. Blee = Membership in a militant racist organisation became a norm and was a socially acceptable activity for prominent and ordinary native-born protestants. The women’s view of the Klan was subtle in different ways from men’s as that the time they were affected by the feminist movement and women’s attainment of voting rights. The WKKK was viewed as a club and downplayed hate, bigotry and violence. WKKK and KKK worked together both fighting for equality for their genders separately but worked together when defeating Klan opponent groups and were more deadly than ever.
• Kelly Baker = White Americans felt religion was at threat with the migration in the 20s, and it was compulsory to go to church as a KKK member. Protestantism was tied to Americanism

Question 4

Great Depression & New Deal

Answer 4

• Ira Katznelson = The New Deal’s successes justified liberal democracy and eradicated fascist and Nazi power. “The ND bestowed on America a malfunctioning interest-group state, democratic only in procedure, liable to take over by its most powerful interests. In the realm of security and foreign affairs, it created a powerful crusader state little subject to democratic control and devoted to futile ventures abroad in the name of saving and spreading liberal democracy. At home, the procedural state has given us domination by irresponsible, unchecked business power and, in government, policy deadlock. “ The ND promised to eradicate fear and racism, with fear that liberal democracy would fall into the hands of the Depression & atomic war w/ Soviet Union -> fear led to pressures that caused unwise compromises such as South’s power in Congress. Katznelson emphasises how the ND fell into the southern cage with their regions racial policies ensuring the ND did not interfere with South repressive racial system. Fear created an American response to Soviet threats were exaggerated and resulted in Cold war and building a national security state.
• Anthony J. Badger = The early works on ND focused on FDR and his principal lieutenants and opponents. Badger exposes its discrimination against blacks, catastrophe of NRA, lack of substantial low-cost housing programme and painful process of halfway recovery. Badger does emphasise how there were little alternatives with many gathering around the ND honeypot, it was bound to fall at some point -> drift from the land, rise of Big Labour, welfare chaos and a mass departure of people to the suburbs -> WWII did not help

Question 5

US in WWII

Answer 5

• William H. Chafe = Described “liberalist” Kennedy as a sham, when the blacks struggled for rights with the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, Kennedy was an opportunist and was reluctant to change; only when the Blacks marched in the streets and tens of thousands went to jail and deeply embarrassed the country who had boasted to the world of its democracy did K act. Johnson’s war on poverty reached its peak in legislation of 1965, bringing help but not touching the structure of poverty with blacks and women not helped at all. (Quick and short-term solutions). Liberal reform was fatally flawed by being joined to costly foreign policy, with Vietnam War, based on anticommunism, and supported by right-wing dictatorships abroad. People lost faith and ½ voting population abstaining from presidential elections in post war era. At the end of WWII, women and black people were expecting equal rights and to abolish segregation after just slaving away to win the war. America had taken a lot of life away from their citizens and allowed American Jews to be taken into the hands of the Nazis. After the war there were more expectations for the future than there had been after the Great Depression.
• Justus D. Doenecke = anti-interventionist, those who criticised Roosevelt’s gradually expanding support for the Allies. These people helped Roosevelt out manoeuvre them. These people saw Germany’s war aims as traditional rather than radical and therefore not a danger to the US and some of Roosevelt’s critics fear that US involvement in war would have serious repercussions such as end of social reform and potential dictatorship. Doenecke was sympathetic to them.

Question 6

Civil Rights Movement

Answer 6

• Michael J. Klarman = Felt brown was indirectly responsible for the transformative civil rights legislative of the mid 60s. Kentucky, Brown desegregated schools from 0%-28.4% from 1954-1957. Wasn’t successful in places like Tennessee and North Carolina where the black attendance rate was below 1% and 0% in Deep South. Klarman doesn’t go as far as saying he caused the civil rights movement but indirectly helped, by pricking the conscious of northern whites by placing moral authority of the Court and Constitution behind black demand for desegregation. BUT he was not an necessary function, as Klarman is not sure the 1954 Supreme Court decision was needed to legitimize civil rights demands for blacks -> democratic ideology of WWII & political and economic advancement that the war had given them had started a civil rights consciousness in most American blacks. Brown played a very small part compared to migration, urbanisation, northern black vote black middle-class etc. Brown was needed for Massive Resistance instead. He elevated race over class and got black supporting whites to get power in state politics and extract racial conformity -> eradicating Jim Crow.
• Stephen G.N.Tuck = Tuck dispelled the misconception that the pinnacle of civil rights struggle was in the 1960s, as every generation of AA fought for their rights, before and after to the extent their social and political systems allowed. Tuck asserts that there has never been a single black protest agenda because there was no such thing as a single black experience. The civil rights battle was fought by an army of diverse groups using multiple strategies to achieve goals that were large and small, local and national. Goals varied, some favoured a “back to Africa” strategy and others demanded their share of the American Dream; some thought economic independency would set them free, while others believed that could only come when political power was attained.

Question 7

Vietnam War

Answer 7

• Dallek = Felt Johnson had no other choice, he would have been sacrificing a pro-western country to communist aggression. And 60& of Americans in 1965-66 saw Vietnam War as the country’s most urgent problem. Strong fear that Vietnam war could end in a nuclear war between America and the Soviet Union. Dallek does question why Johnson did not protect the country from the possibility of failure however. Johnson dominated, it was how he became president so no discussion was essentially made. He was a control freak and though Dallek claims that there was large support for US to escalate the war, Johnson controlled the media and distorted it so the public would have no doubts about his decision, eg planting questions at press conferences, encouraging publishers to print pro-war columns, managing news by invoking national security etc. -> Johnson wrong man at the wrong time in the wrong place.
• Logevall = It was Johnson’s war, he made the decision to escalate when there were other options. Saw Rolling Thunder Campaign and dispatch of troops to compel Hanoi to give up -> inevitability thesis. Logevall doesn’t believe historians that say he was forced into war due to high support from public, many opposed it, and even Soviet Union and Asia didn’t want it as they knew they would come out worse than the Americans. It was obvious of the high opposition with a huge applause when Johnson said he wouldn’t send America to fight on a previous campaign and the media was very obvious with wanting to reduce presence in Vietnam, but Johnson shut them up. Logevall like Dallek noticed his lack of preparation for failure of war, by in 1965 refusing to seek a declaration of war and rejected plea from civilian military advisers to prepare the nation for the struggle ahead, he waged war with cold blood. No national debate, no declaration of state emergency etc. Ever since Johnson was president, he wondered closer to the escalation side than withdrawal side of the war, he said he would not be the president to lose the war. He did discuss with people like George Bell however for negotiating ideas but really, he was wanting new channels and procedures, if he continued to hit the mule hard enough they would say what you want them to say. Johnson had encouragement from some military advisers such as Bundy, Rusk and McNamara saying no military power would lead to a disastrous defeat, so not all his own fault but largely it was and had Vice President Hubert Humphrey who consistently reminded Johnson he had other options with his political freedom and reducing US involvement America would come off better than escalating, but Johnson barred Humphrey from the rest of Vietnam meetings, surrounding himself with yes men.