Charles L. Cohen and Ronald L. Numbers (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199931903
- eISBN:
- 9780199345779
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931903.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries most Americans acted as though they lived in a Christian nation. Most Americans knew little about the religions of the world except that there ...
More
Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries most Americans acted as though they lived in a Christian nation. Most Americans knew little about the religions of the world except that there were Jews, Muslims, “heathens” (such as Native Americans, Buddhists, and Hindus), and a handful of freethinkers who embraced no religion. Even the notion of a Judeo-Christian culture did not win widespread acceptance until after World War II. The religious landscape of the United States changed dramatically in the wake of federal legislation in 1965 that abolished the restrictive (and Euro-centric) quotas of the Immigration Act of 1924. Under the new law millions of immigrants from all regions of the world, not just Europe, began flooding the country. The bulk of the immigrants who entered between 1966 and 2000 were family members of recent immigrants, with 85 percent of them coming from the so-called Third World. Naturally, these new immigrants brought their religions—Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and many, many more—with them. By the new millennium scholars were suggesting that the phrase “Judeo-Christian” be discarded in favor of the “Judeo-Christian-Muslim tradition” or, more simply, the “Abrahamic faiths.” One observer mockingly predicted that Americans seeking religious inclusivity would soon be referring to the “Judeo-Christian-Buddhist-Hindu-Islamic-Agnostic-Atheist society.” This book brings together leading scholars from a variety of disciplines to explain the historical roots of these phenomena and assess their impact on modern American society.Less
Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries most Americans acted as though they lived in a Christian nation. Most Americans knew little about the religions of the world except that there were Jews, Muslims, “heathens” (such as Native Americans, Buddhists, and Hindus), and a handful of freethinkers who embraced no religion. Even the notion of a Judeo-Christian culture did not win widespread acceptance until after World War II. The religious landscape of the United States changed dramatically in the wake of federal legislation in 1965 that abolished the restrictive (and Euro-centric) quotas of the Immigration Act of 1924. Under the new law millions of immigrants from all regions of the world, not just Europe, began flooding the country. The bulk of the immigrants who entered between 1966 and 2000 were family members of recent immigrants, with 85 percent of them coming from the so-called Third World. Naturally, these new immigrants brought their religions—Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and many, many more—with them. By the new millennium scholars were suggesting that the phrase “Judeo-Christian” be discarded in favor of the “Judeo-Christian-Muslim tradition” or, more simply, the “Abrahamic faiths.” One observer mockingly predicted that Americans seeking religious inclusivity would soon be referring to the “Judeo-Christian-Buddhist-Hindu-Islamic-Agnostic-Atheist society.” This book brings together leading scholars from a variety of disciplines to explain the historical roots of these phenomena and assess their impact on modern American society.
Charles L. Cohen and Ronald L. Numbers
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199931903
- eISBN:
- 9780199345779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931903.003.0016
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This introduction sets the historical context for examining religious pluralism in America. The “first diversity” consisted primarily of various Protestants gathered in regional denominational ...
More
This introduction sets the historical context for examining religious pluralism in America. The “first diversity” consisted primarily of various Protestants gathered in regional denominational configurations, with a few localities essaying radical experiments allowing different degrees of religious freedom. The American Revolutionary Settlement of Religion set up a constitutional framework that affirmed the value of religious liberty, facilitating the multiplication of different churches, but this development coincided with the flourishing of a Protestant nationalism that cast the United States as a “Christian” state whose liberties depended on minimizing the presence of non-Protestant faiths. The twentieth century's dramatic rise in the proportion of Americans adhering to non-Christian faiths (or none at all) played out amid this ongoing tension between the value placed on freedom of worship, which encouraged religious diversity, and ideologically driven concerns about maintaining the nation's historic Protestant identity.Less
This introduction sets the historical context for examining religious pluralism in America. The “first diversity” consisted primarily of various Protestants gathered in regional denominational configurations, with a few localities essaying radical experiments allowing different degrees of religious freedom. The American Revolutionary Settlement of Religion set up a constitutional framework that affirmed the value of religious liberty, facilitating the multiplication of different churches, but this development coincided with the flourishing of a Protestant nationalism that cast the United States as a “Christian” state whose liberties depended on minimizing the presence of non-Protestant faiths. The twentieth century's dramatic rise in the proportion of Americans adhering to non-Christian faiths (or none at all) played out amid this ongoing tension between the value placed on freedom of worship, which encouraged religious diversity, and ideologically driven concerns about maintaining the nation's historic Protestant identity.
Erin M. Kempker
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252041976
- eISBN:
- 9780252050701
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041976.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This book maps the interplay of conservative and feminist women in Indiana during the second half of the twentieth century and proposes an alternative framework for understanding the second wave ...
More
This book maps the interplay of conservative and feminist women in Indiana during the second half of the twentieth century and proposes an alternative framework for understanding the second wave feminist movement. The central theme is that rightwing women’s understanding of one-worldism--a conspiracy theory refined by grassroots anticommunists during the height of the Cold War--shaped conservative women’s response to the second wave feminist movement and circumscribed feminist activism. Over the course of the postwar era, anticommunist organizations like the Minute Women of the U.S.A., Pro America, and the John Birch Society provided a forum for rightwing women to develop their understanding of related forces pushing for a “one-world,” totalitarian supra-government, forces they described as treasonous. While communists often were lumped under the “one-worlder” category, the two were not synonymous. In literature rightwing women described a spectrum of subversion that included a fifth column but also those advocating domestic cooperation through federal regionalism, gender equality as opposed to gender difference, and internationalists advocating stronger authority for the United Nations. The book documents the work of Hoosier feminists to accomplish their goals, especially the Equal Rights Amendment, in a hostile political environment and the work of rightwing women to counter the threat of internationalism or one-worldism, culminating in a showdown at the 1977 International Women’s Year celebration.Less
This book maps the interplay of conservative and feminist women in Indiana during the second half of the twentieth century and proposes an alternative framework for understanding the second wave feminist movement. The central theme is that rightwing women’s understanding of one-worldism--a conspiracy theory refined by grassroots anticommunists during the height of the Cold War--shaped conservative women’s response to the second wave feminist movement and circumscribed feminist activism. Over the course of the postwar era, anticommunist organizations like the Minute Women of the U.S.A., Pro America, and the John Birch Society provided a forum for rightwing women to develop their understanding of related forces pushing for a “one-world,” totalitarian supra-government, forces they described as treasonous. While communists often were lumped under the “one-worlder” category, the two were not synonymous. In literature rightwing women described a spectrum of subversion that included a fifth column but also those advocating domestic cooperation through federal regionalism, gender equality as opposed to gender difference, and internationalists advocating stronger authority for the United Nations. The book documents the work of Hoosier feminists to accomplish their goals, especially the Equal Rights Amendment, in a hostile political environment and the work of rightwing women to counter the threat of internationalism or one-worldism, culminating in a showdown at the 1977 International Women’s Year celebration.
John H. Evans
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199931903
- eISBN:
- 9780199345779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931903.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In reference to religion, the term “pluralism” intends something more than “diversity,” which refers to the simple fact that differences exist. Pluralism, rather, involves understanding the diverse ...
More
In reference to religion, the term “pluralism” intends something more than “diversity,” which refers to the simple fact that differences exist. Pluralism, rather, involves understanding the diverse religious groups in society for what they are, appreciating them and respecting them; it is a strategy for managing diversity. Over the course of centuries, religious diversity in America has increased, as has interaction between different religious groups—first among different kinds of Protestants, then with Catholics and ultimately members of non-Christian traditions as well. Concurrently, a rising number of religious groups, even non-Christian ones, have come to be tolerated and accepted as belonging to the religious mainstream. Increasing pluralism may, however, be creating less certitude among believers about the distinctiveness of their own traditions, a condition that, if true, may paradoxically be reducing the diversity for which pluralism purports to be the solution.Less
In reference to religion, the term “pluralism” intends something more than “diversity,” which refers to the simple fact that differences exist. Pluralism, rather, involves understanding the diverse religious groups in society for what they are, appreciating them and respecting them; it is a strategy for managing diversity. Over the course of centuries, religious diversity in America has increased, as has interaction between different religious groups—first among different kinds of Protestants, then with Catholics and ultimately members of non-Christian traditions as well. Concurrently, a rising number of religious groups, even non-Christian ones, have come to be tolerated and accepted as belonging to the religious mainstream. Increasing pluralism may, however, be creating less certitude among believers about the distinctiveness of their own traditions, a condition that, if true, may paradoxically be reducing the diversity for which pluralism purports to be the solution.
Erin M. Kempker
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252041976
- eISBN:
- 9780252050701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041976.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The introduction sets up the differing perspectives and world views of feminist and conservative women in the last half of the twentieth century and situates their politics in the American Midwestern ...
More
The introduction sets up the differing perspectives and world views of feminist and conservative women in the last half of the twentieth century and situates their politics in the American Midwestern state of Indiana. Key terms and definitions for feminist, conservative, and conspiracy are provided, along with a general understanding of conspiracism and the history of conspiracy in the United States.Less
The introduction sets up the differing perspectives and world views of feminist and conservative women in the last half of the twentieth century and situates their politics in the American Midwestern state of Indiana. Key terms and definitions for feminist, conservative, and conspiracy are provided, along with a general understanding of conspiracism and the history of conspiracy in the United States.
Mark J. P. Wolf
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262527163
- eISBN:
- 9780262328487
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262527163.003.0038
- Subject:
- Computer Science, Game Studies
This essay is a history of video games in the United States of America, and it contains a description of the American video game industry and how it has grown. The focus is mainly on how American ...
More
This essay is a history of video games in the United States of America, and it contains a description of the American video game industry and how it has grown. The focus is mainly on how American history and culture shaped the video game as it was invented and as the industry grew, and what the character of American video games might be.Less
This essay is a history of video games in the United States of America, and it contains a description of the American video game industry and how it has grown. The focus is mainly on how American history and culture shaped the video game as it was invented and as the industry grew, and what the character of American video games might be.
Jennifer Brier, Jim Downs, and Jennifer L. Morgan (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040399
- eISBN:
- 9780252098819
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040399.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This book investigates the ways in which race and sex intersect, overlap, and inform each other in United States history. The book includes thought-provoking articles that explore how to view the ...
More
This book investigates the ways in which race and sex intersect, overlap, and inform each other in United States history. The book includes thought-provoking articles that explore how to view the American past through the lens of race and sexuality studies. Chapters range from the prerevolutionary era to today to grapple with an array of captivating issues: how descriptions of bodies shaped colonial Americans' understandings of race and sex; same-sex sexual desire and violence within slavery; whiteness in gay and lesbian history; college women's agitation against heterosexual norms in the 1940s and 1950s; the ways society used sexualized bodies to sculpt ideas of race and racial beauty; how Mexican silent film icon Ramon Navarro masked his homosexuality with his racial identity; and sexual representation in mid-twentieth-century black print pop culture. The result is both an enlightening foray into ignored areas and an elucidation of new perspectives that challenge us to reevaluate what we “know” of our own history. The book looks at how racial subjugation feeds sexual normativity as well as how sexual and racial subjects enact liberating claims that can fall short of liberation even as they bring into being imaginative ideas about social, political, and cultural change.Less
This book investigates the ways in which race and sex intersect, overlap, and inform each other in United States history. The book includes thought-provoking articles that explore how to view the American past through the lens of race and sexuality studies. Chapters range from the prerevolutionary era to today to grapple with an array of captivating issues: how descriptions of bodies shaped colonial Americans' understandings of race and sex; same-sex sexual desire and violence within slavery; whiteness in gay and lesbian history; college women's agitation against heterosexual norms in the 1940s and 1950s; the ways society used sexualized bodies to sculpt ideas of race and racial beauty; how Mexican silent film icon Ramon Navarro masked his homosexuality with his racial identity; and sexual representation in mid-twentieth-century black print pop culture. The result is both an enlightening foray into ignored areas and an elucidation of new perspectives that challenge us to reevaluate what we “know” of our own history. The book looks at how racial subjugation feeds sexual normativity as well as how sexual and racial subjects enact liberating claims that can fall short of liberation even as they bring into being imaginative ideas about social, political, and cultural change.
Robert Dallek
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199946938
- eISBN:
- 9780190254599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199946938.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter focuses on William Dodd's reaction to Woodrow Wilson's victory in the presidential election held on November 5, 1912. It first considers Dodd's bid to become a spokesman for Virginia's ...
More
This chapter focuses on William Dodd's reaction to Woodrow Wilson's victory in the presidential election held on November 5, 1912. It first considers Dodd's bid to become a spokesman for Virginia's liberals and his disappointment over his exclusion from the Wilson circle. It then looks at Dodd's paper on “Profitable Fields of Investigation in American History, 1815–1865,” in which he urged a course of study that would first “treat of actual forces, social, economic, and political,” and second “devote more space and more intelligent and more sympathetic attention to the needs and conditions of...the West and the South.” It also discusses Dodd's return to Chicago, his decision to concentrate on writing and editing a New American history survey, and the completion of a first draft of his book Riverside History of the United States. The chapter concludes by assessing Dodd's continuing concern with a “militarist” or “reactionary” threat to democracy in the United States.Less
This chapter focuses on William Dodd's reaction to Woodrow Wilson's victory in the presidential election held on November 5, 1912. It first considers Dodd's bid to become a spokesman for Virginia's liberals and his disappointment over his exclusion from the Wilson circle. It then looks at Dodd's paper on “Profitable Fields of Investigation in American History, 1815–1865,” in which he urged a course of study that would first “treat of actual forces, social, economic, and political,” and second “devote more space and more intelligent and more sympathetic attention to the needs and conditions of...the West and the South.” It also discusses Dodd's return to Chicago, his decision to concentrate on writing and editing a New American history survey, and the completion of a first draft of his book Riverside History of the United States. The chapter concludes by assessing Dodd's continuing concern with a “militarist” or “reactionary” threat to democracy in the United States.
Caroline E. Janney (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469640761
- eISBN:
- 9781469640785
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469640761.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Military History
The last days of fighting in the Civil War's eastern theater have been wrapped in mythology since the moment of Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House. War veterans and generations of ...
More
The last days of fighting in the Civil War's eastern theater have been wrapped in mythology since the moment of Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House. War veterans and generations of historians alike have focused on the seemingly inevitable defeat of the Confederacy after Lee's flight from Petersburg and recalled the generous surrender terms set forth by Grant, thought to facilitate peace and to establish the groundwork for sectional reconciliation. But this volume of essays by leading scholars of the Civil War era offers a fresh and nuanced view of the eastern war's closing chapter. Assessing events from the siege of Petersburg to the immediate aftermath of Lee’s surrender, Petersburg to Appomattox blends military, social, cultural, and political history to reassess the ways in which the war ended and examines anew the meanings attached to one of the Civil War's most significant sites, Appomattox. Contributors are Peter S. Carmichael, William W. Bergen, Susannah J. Ural, Wayne Wei-Siang Hsieh, William C. Davis, Keith Bohannon, Caroline E. Janney, Stephen Cushman, and Elizabeth R. Varon.Less
The last days of fighting in the Civil War's eastern theater have been wrapped in mythology since the moment of Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House. War veterans and generations of historians alike have focused on the seemingly inevitable defeat of the Confederacy after Lee's flight from Petersburg and recalled the generous surrender terms set forth by Grant, thought to facilitate peace and to establish the groundwork for sectional reconciliation. But this volume of essays by leading scholars of the Civil War era offers a fresh and nuanced view of the eastern war's closing chapter. Assessing events from the siege of Petersburg to the immediate aftermath of Lee’s surrender, Petersburg to Appomattox blends military, social, cultural, and political history to reassess the ways in which the war ended and examines anew the meanings attached to one of the Civil War's most significant sites, Appomattox. Contributors are Peter S. Carmichael, William W. Bergen, Susannah J. Ural, Wayne Wei-Siang Hsieh, William C. Davis, Keith Bohannon, Caroline E. Janney, Stephen Cushman, and Elizabeth R. Varon.
Daniel S. Lucks
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813145075
- eISBN:
- 9780813145310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813145075.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Martin Luther King's tortuous odyssey from civil rights activist to antiwar spokesman is explored in detail in chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5 describes how LBJ's powerful and eloquent speech on the ...
More
Martin Luther King's tortuous odyssey from civil rights activist to antiwar spokesman is explored in detail in chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5 describes how LBJ's powerful and eloquent speech on the Voting Rights Act moved King and set the stage for his anguished response to the war. The narrative traces King's long-standing commitment to peace and his belief that the civil rights struggle was a global fight against colonialism and imperialism. The intent is to debunk the idea of King as a convenient hero. King was always a radical. A few weeks after the Watts riots, King spoke against the carnage in Vietnam and called for a cease-fire and China's acceptance into the United Nations. This provoked a fusillade of criticism from the liberal establishment. Reeling from these attacks, King confessed to his aides that he didn't have the stamina to be both a civil rights leader and an antiwar activist. Meanwhile, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI was wiretapping King's conversations, which only fed LBJ's paranoia that King was indeed a communist. For the next few years, King muted his opposition but continued to anguish over the war.Less
Martin Luther King's tortuous odyssey from civil rights activist to antiwar spokesman is explored in detail in chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5 describes how LBJ's powerful and eloquent speech on the Voting Rights Act moved King and set the stage for his anguished response to the war. The narrative traces King's long-standing commitment to peace and his belief that the civil rights struggle was a global fight against colonialism and imperialism. The intent is to debunk the idea of King as a convenient hero. King was always a radical. A few weeks after the Watts riots, King spoke against the carnage in Vietnam and called for a cease-fire and China's acceptance into the United Nations. This provoked a fusillade of criticism from the liberal establishment. Reeling from these attacks, King confessed to his aides that he didn't have the stamina to be both a civil rights leader and an antiwar activist. Meanwhile, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI was wiretapping King's conversations, which only fed LBJ's paranoia that King was indeed a communist. For the next few years, King muted his opposition but continued to anguish over the war.
R. Scott Appleby
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199931903
- eISBN:
- 9780199345779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931903.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The religious diversity surrounding Catholics in twentieth-century America prompted them to justify their place in that society by retrieving examples of tolerance and accommodation from a previously ...
More
The religious diversity surrounding Catholics in twentieth-century America prompted them to justify their place in that society by retrieving examples of tolerance and accommodation from a previously suppressed past. As Catholics increasingly interacted with members of other faiths, long-held attitudes that valorized a sense of Catholicism's absolute superiority to other religions and legitimated Catholics holding themselves aloof corroded. These developments were amplified by the pronouncements of Vatican II, which provided Catholic theological foundations for religious freedom and the endorsement of religious pluralism. On the level of official practice and rhetoric, the post-conciliar American Church adopted a wide range of internal reforms manifesting an ecumenical spirit, and established a series of unprecedented programs of collaboration with non-Catholics. Nevertheless, the experience of internal pluralism—theological diversity within the American Church—has inspired conflict, notably accusations that pluralism fosters “indifferentism,” the notion that no religion is better than another.Less
The religious diversity surrounding Catholics in twentieth-century America prompted them to justify their place in that society by retrieving examples of tolerance and accommodation from a previously suppressed past. As Catholics increasingly interacted with members of other faiths, long-held attitudes that valorized a sense of Catholicism's absolute superiority to other religions and legitimated Catholics holding themselves aloof corroded. These developments were amplified by the pronouncements of Vatican II, which provided Catholic theological foundations for religious freedom and the endorsement of religious pluralism. On the level of official practice and rhetoric, the post-conciliar American Church adopted a wide range of internal reforms manifesting an ecumenical spirit, and established a series of unprecedented programs of collaboration with non-Catholics. Nevertheless, the experience of internal pluralism—theological diversity within the American Church—has inspired conflict, notably accusations that pluralism fosters “indifferentism,” the notion that no religion is better than another.
Daniel S. Lucks
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813145075
- eISBN:
- 9780813145310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813145075.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Chapter 3 focuses on the simultaneity of the Johnson administration's escalation of the war in Vietnam and passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act, marking the end of de jure segregation. While the ...
More
Chapter 3 focuses on the simultaneity of the Johnson administration's escalation of the war in Vietnam and passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act, marking the end of de jure segregation. While the African American public and the mainstream civil rights movement were delighted with the end of segregation, the war in Vietnam gripped SNCC and other militants from the beginning. They were struck by the administration's hypocrisy: it was willing to send troops to faraway Vietnam but reluctant to send federal marshals to protect civil rights workers in the Deep South. For a brief moment in early 1965, the civil rights and antiwar movements overlapped at the SDS march on Washington. By the end of the year, the passions unleashed by the Vietnam War were displacing civil rights as the nation's most pressing problem. As Johnson militarized the war, the riots in Watts erupted, antiwar dissent grew, and SNCC debated whether to formally take a stand against the war. The war in Vietnam diverted attention from the civil rights movement, and dissent and debate over the war aggravated preexisting generational and ideological schisms in the movement. It was a harbinger of future strife.Less
Chapter 3 focuses on the simultaneity of the Johnson administration's escalation of the war in Vietnam and passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act, marking the end of de jure segregation. While the African American public and the mainstream civil rights movement were delighted with the end of segregation, the war in Vietnam gripped SNCC and other militants from the beginning. They were struck by the administration's hypocrisy: it was willing to send troops to faraway Vietnam but reluctant to send federal marshals to protect civil rights workers in the Deep South. For a brief moment in early 1965, the civil rights and antiwar movements overlapped at the SDS march on Washington. By the end of the year, the passions unleashed by the Vietnam War were displacing civil rights as the nation's most pressing problem. As Johnson militarized the war, the riots in Watts erupted, antiwar dissent grew, and SNCC debated whether to formally take a stand against the war. The war in Vietnam diverted attention from the civil rights movement, and dissent and debate over the war aggravated preexisting generational and ideological schisms in the movement. It was a harbinger of future strife.
Brian Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226451503
- eISBN:
- 9780226451787
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226451787.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
As the United States transitioned from a rural nation to an urbanized, industrial giant between the War of 1812 and the early twentieth century, ordinary people struggled over the question of what it ...
More
As the United States transitioned from a rural nation to an urbanized, industrial giant between the War of 1812 and the early twentieth century, ordinary people struggled over the question of what it meant to be American. Blackface Nation argues that this struggle is especially evident in popular culture and the interplay between two specific strains of music: the songs of middle-class reform and blackface minstrelsy. The songs of middle-class reformers, such as the popular Hutchinson Family Singers, expressed an American identity rooted in communal values, with lyrics focusing on abolition, women’s rights, and socialism. Blackface minstrelsy, which emerged out of an audience-based coalition of Northern business elites, Southern slaveholders, and young, white, working-class men, expressed an identity rooted in authentic masculinity, anti-intellectualism, and white superiority. Blackface performers embodied a form of “love crime” racism, in which vast swaths of the white public adored African Americans who fit blackface stereotypes even as they used those stereotypes to rationalize white supremacy. By the early twentieth century, blackface reigned supreme in American popular culture. The Hutchinsons became increasingly seen as old-fashioned, their songs forgotten. This book elucidates a central irony in American history: much of the music interpreted as black, authentic, and expressive was invented, performed, and enjoyed by people who believed in white superiority. At the same time, music often depicted as white, repressed, and boringly bourgeois was often socially and racially inclusive, committed to reform, and devoted to challenging the immoralities at the heart of America’s capitalist order.Less
As the United States transitioned from a rural nation to an urbanized, industrial giant between the War of 1812 and the early twentieth century, ordinary people struggled over the question of what it meant to be American. Blackface Nation argues that this struggle is especially evident in popular culture and the interplay between two specific strains of music: the songs of middle-class reform and blackface minstrelsy. The songs of middle-class reformers, such as the popular Hutchinson Family Singers, expressed an American identity rooted in communal values, with lyrics focusing on abolition, women’s rights, and socialism. Blackface minstrelsy, which emerged out of an audience-based coalition of Northern business elites, Southern slaveholders, and young, white, working-class men, expressed an identity rooted in authentic masculinity, anti-intellectualism, and white superiority. Blackface performers embodied a form of “love crime” racism, in which vast swaths of the white public adored African Americans who fit blackface stereotypes even as they used those stereotypes to rationalize white supremacy. By the early twentieth century, blackface reigned supreme in American popular culture. The Hutchinsons became increasingly seen as old-fashioned, their songs forgotten. This book elucidates a central irony in American history: much of the music interpreted as black, authentic, and expressive was invented, performed, and enjoyed by people who believed in white superiority. At the same time, music often depicted as white, repressed, and boringly bourgeois was often socially and racially inclusive, committed to reform, and devoted to challenging the immoralities at the heart of America’s capitalist order.
Edward L. Glaeser and Claudia Goldin (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226299570
- eISBN:
- 9780226299594
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226299594.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
Despite recent corporate scandals, the United States is among the world's least corrupt nations. But in the nineteenth century, the degree of fraud and corruption in America approached that of ...
More
Despite recent corporate scandals, the United States is among the world's least corrupt nations. But in the nineteenth century, the degree of fraud and corruption in America approached that of today's most corrupt developing nations, as municipal governments and robber barons alike found new ways to steal from taxpayers and swindle investors. This book explores this shadowy period of United States history in search of better methods to fight corruption worldwide today. The chapters address the measurement and consequences of fraud and corruption and the forces that ultimately led to their decline within the United States. The chapters show that various approaches to reducing corruption have met with success, such as deregulation, particularly “free banking,” in the 1830s. In the 1930s, corruption was kept in check when new federal bureaucracies replaced local administrations in doling out relief. Another deterrent to corruption was the independent press, which kept a watchful eye over government and business.Less
Despite recent corporate scandals, the United States is among the world's least corrupt nations. But in the nineteenth century, the degree of fraud and corruption in America approached that of today's most corrupt developing nations, as municipal governments and robber barons alike found new ways to steal from taxpayers and swindle investors. This book explores this shadowy period of United States history in search of better methods to fight corruption worldwide today. The chapters address the measurement and consequences of fraud and corruption and the forces that ultimately led to their decline within the United States. The chapters show that various approaches to reducing corruption have met with success, such as deregulation, particularly “free banking,” in the 1830s. In the 1930s, corruption was kept in check when new federal bureaucracies replaced local administrations in doling out relief. Another deterrent to corruption was the independent press, which kept a watchful eye over government and business.
William W. Bergen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469640761
- eISBN:
- 9781469640785
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469640761.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Military History
William Bergen argues that such a turn-around occurred only once Grant was able to institute his own aggressive brand of warfare with the armies of the James and Potomac – once he finally, and ...
More
William Bergen argues that such a turn-around occurred only once Grant was able to institute his own aggressive brand of warfare with the armies of the James and Potomac – once he finally, and completely, took command. But such was not an easy task. Unlike Lee who had command of a single army – and had led that army for two years by the time of the Overland Campaign – as general in chief, Grant commanded all the Union forces while accompanying an unfamiliar army in an unfamiliar region. He would first need to get to know his various armies and commanders, and equally important, break the culture of caution that had developed in the Union’s largest and most visible army, the Army of the Potomac. Finally freed from political constraints after the presidential election in November 1864, Grant appointed army and corps commanders who matched his style and temperament thus enabling him to shape the Union forces that would succeed in one final campaign.Less
William Bergen argues that such a turn-around occurred only once Grant was able to institute his own aggressive brand of warfare with the armies of the James and Potomac – once he finally, and completely, took command. But such was not an easy task. Unlike Lee who had command of a single army – and had led that army for two years by the time of the Overland Campaign – as general in chief, Grant commanded all the Union forces while accompanying an unfamiliar army in an unfamiliar region. He would first need to get to know his various armies and commanders, and equally important, break the culture of caution that had developed in the Union’s largest and most visible army, the Army of the Potomac. Finally freed from political constraints after the presidential election in November 1864, Grant appointed army and corps commanders who matched his style and temperament thus enabling him to shape the Union forces that would succeed in one final campaign.
Wayne Wei-Siang Hsieh
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469640761
- eISBN:
- 9781469640785
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469640761.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Military History
This essay explores how Philip Sheridan's operations during the Appomattox campaign represented the culmination of an evolutionary process of the Union cavalry arm in the East from 1861 though the ...
More
This essay explores how Philip Sheridan's operations during the Appomattox campaign represented the culmination of an evolutionary process of the Union cavalry arm in the East from 1861 though the spring of 1865. Sheridan's aggressive style of command and gradual maturation proved central to its success. There were other senior cavalry officers in the Army of the Potomac who might have commanded the Cavalry Corps in 1864 including Alfred Pleasonton or David McMurtie Gregg. But Sheridan’s ascendancy and his leadership style ultimately restored a measure of fluidity to military operations in Virginia that had evaporated in the Overland Campaign. With an independent command in the Shenandoah Valley during the fall of 1864, Sheridan had deployed infantry in conjunction with the cavalry units, many of which carried Spencer repeating carbines – a tactic that would prove key as Federal forces pursued Lee’s army the following spring.Less
This essay explores how Philip Sheridan's operations during the Appomattox campaign represented the culmination of an evolutionary process of the Union cavalry arm in the East from 1861 though the spring of 1865. Sheridan's aggressive style of command and gradual maturation proved central to its success. There were other senior cavalry officers in the Army of the Potomac who might have commanded the Cavalry Corps in 1864 including Alfred Pleasonton or David McMurtie Gregg. But Sheridan’s ascendancy and his leadership style ultimately restored a measure of fluidity to military operations in Virginia that had evaporated in the Overland Campaign. With an independent command in the Shenandoah Valley during the fall of 1864, Sheridan had deployed infantry in conjunction with the cavalry units, many of which carried Spencer repeating carbines – a tactic that would prove key as Federal forces pursued Lee’s army the following spring.
Caroline E. Janney
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469640761
- eISBN:
- 9781469640785
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469640761.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Military History
This chapter offers an overview of the end of the Petersburg siege and the subsequent Appomattox Campaign in the winter and spring of 1865.
This chapter offers an overview of the end of the Petersburg siege and the subsequent Appomattox Campaign in the winter and spring of 1865.
