American PageantChapter 29 group discussion work: Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad, 1912-1916

Group & Lecture Notes & Responses:

Directions: With your buddies, please discuss the following concepts/queries. Take notes—be ready to present your findings to the class.

American PageantChapter 29 group discussion work: Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad, 1912-1916

Group & Lecture Notes & Responses:

Directions: With your buddies, please discuss the following concepts/queries. Take notes—be ready to present your findings to the class.

Part I: “Triple Wall of Privilege”

How did Wilson deal with the big three? You may need much more space because there is much information in these three bullets.

  1. Tariffs (not only know that Tariff Bill, but KNOW what would be put in place to make up the revenue discrepancy after the modified tariff. So you should be talking about 2 major Acts here.
  1. Banks(crucial to our understanding of US domestic economic policies even today)
  1. Trusts (make sure you look at the chart offered in Pageant, 684

Part II: Wilsonian Progressivism at High Tide—identify, explain and support this title: (which means, identify the progressive legislation put forth during this time and identify how they were progressive and to which group of people this legislation was aimed at helping or not helping)

List and identify

  1. Do you think these laws/acts helped or hindered domestic strength of the US?

Part III: New Directions in Foreign Policy(685)

  1. How was Wilson’s initial foreign different from his predecessors?
  1. “Recoiled” from aggressive foreign policy . . . how so?
  1. Dollar Diplomacy? Where and why not
  1. The Panama Canal?
  1. Philippines?
  1. California & Japan
  1. Haiti—what? —How is this different from the actions described above?
  1. Dominican Republic
  1. Virgin Islands?

Part IV: “Moralistic Diplomacy in Mexico” (687)

  1. “Rifle bullets whining across the southern border served as a constant reminder that all was not quiet in Mexico” (687).
  1. What was this all about? And what does the Pageant say about Mexico being short-changed? READ THE FIRST PARAGRAPH on page 687 & discuss.
  1. List what was going badly in Mexico during this time and highlight theevents, situations that the US and other Western Europeans were involved in.

The following outline/list should be pretty substantial. Go over it with your buddies. Make sure you include the ABCs, General Pershing, Carranza, Pancho Villa, and General Huerta

Big Discussion Questions to present to the class: We will discuss AFTER we discuss the entire chapters. Could be used as quiz questions . . .

1.Were Wilson’s progressive legislative achievements in his first term consistent with his New Freedom campaign? Why or why not?

2.How was Wilson’s progressive presidency similar to Theodore Roosevelt’s, and how was it different? Were the differences ones of personality or policy?

3.Why did Wilson fail in his attempt to develop a more “moral,” less imperialistic policy in Latin America? Were his involvements really an attempt to create a new mutual relationship between the United States and the neighboring republics, or was it just an alternative form of American domination?

4.Was the United States genuinely neutral during the first years of World War I, or was it biased in favor of the Allies and against Germany? Was it possible for the U.S. to remain neutral? Why or why not?

May 13-17 History of the Americas

Monday A Day, May 13 & Tuesday B Day, May 14

Please write this down kiddies:

Homework: Please have Chapter 30, “The War to End War, 1917-1918,” pages 696-717 read by Friday May 17, A day kids and sorry B day, Thursday 16.

We will also have some sort of a Chapter 29 assessment in order to get rid of those other grades. A day, it will be Wednesday May 15. B day—probably have to be Thursday May 16. Except only a couple of questions like before.

  1. Groups present their findings on “How did the WWI start, according to . . . Germany, France, USA, Belgium, etc.?”
  2. Continue lecture from Chapter 29—discuss what you already know. Continue with . . .
  3. Opening questions:
  1. Summarize in one sentence or phrase US involvement in the Americas during Wilson’s first administration:
  2. Discuss what was going on in Mexico (above). Please know at least the U.S. general’s name . . . “Black Jack”?

Let us finish Chapter 29, Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad, 1912-1916

Power Point slides here please

Part V: Thunder Across the Sea—Homework! Know your stuff! This will be assessed activity next time we meet! At the end of the class period, students will be divided into two groups. Each member will choose a card. Each group will have 10 minutes to present a skit that represents the outbreak and early years of WWI. Students will have approximately 20 minutes next class to practice. Homework will be to know your role!

Rubric will be distributed.

  1. Please try to make sense of these players:
  1. Serb patriot (who is G.P.?)
  2. Heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary (Who is A.F.?)
  3. “Outraged Vienna government” (Which is? _
  4. Germany
  5. Neighboring Serbia (Which matters, why?)
  6. Slav neighbor (Who is?)
  7. The Russian tsar (Who is?)
  8. France?
  9. “Unoffending” Belgium
  10. Great Britain and her empire—Scotland, England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, Egypt—anybody missing?
  11. Ireland (Part of UK but had a totally different opinion—for the most part—other than the north, Ulster)
  12. Turkey
  13. Bulgaria
  14. Japan
  15. Italy
  16. The United States (as the book says, “strong, smug & secure—but not for long.”)

Part VI: A Precarious(which means?) Neutrality—688

  1. Wilson wished to stay neutral—why? Why do you think?
  2. What was Britain’s claim or attachment to the United States? Trans-Atlantic wire, culture—“German bestiality.” (See Mr. Burak’s visuals)
  3. Why do Kennedy et al state that most Americans were anti-German? Does this seem valid? What are the reasons the book uses? What reasons contradict this statement? (Just wondering—no right or wrong answer to this . . . as often is the case in the study of history.
  4. Let’s talk geography & demography of the US! You help. I don’t have a smart phone. I have a stupid phone.

Be prepared . . . I will call on YOU to assist in the class discussion. YOU have had almost 2 weeks to complete and discuss this reading. Thank you for your help.

Part VII: America Earns Blood Money—689

  1. What is “blood money”?
  2. Why did Europe “burst into flames in 1914?”
  3. What was going on in the US to make this burst good timing?
  4. What part did our buddy J. P. Morgan have in keeping this war going?
  5. Power point slide please—“The Fatherland” & “Here’s money for your Americans—I may drown some more”
  6. Even though the US was neutral, why weren’t they trading with Germany? Geography here please.
  7. What were the British doing that kind of but not really got the US mad?
  8. Talk about the German submarine and the “submarine war area around the British Isles.”
  9. Berlin: “Mistakes would probably occur.” What was that all about?
  10. Assess Wilson’s “policy of calculated risk,” as the book says. What was he risking? For what gain?

Answers: He risked having US ships being blown up by subs WHICH would force the US to enter the war—in order to help gain continuing profits for his merchants and industries supplying the Allies.

Part II of Part VII Blood Money (continued)

  1. German U boats sunk about 90 ships in the war zone
  2. Issue got ugly—Lusitaniaof the coast of Ireland in 1915—killed almost 2,00 civilians, including 128 Americans (ask me about Mr. Hall’s Grandma Frost).
  3. However, the Lusitania was carrying small-arms ammunition.
  4. Americans cried “War!” Some did not—women’s groups, socialists, Secretary of War William Jennings Bryan, and of course presidentialcandidateEugene V. Debs—but just shut him up by throwing him in jail . . . and women? Heck, who cares? They can’t even vote! Why are they out of the house anyway?
  5. Book say Wilson remembered the problems of the War of 1812 with James Madison. What were those problems? Please please tell me you remember the ______who made a huge difference in the young US going to war . . . Hmmmm. John C. Calhoun, William Henry Harrison, Henry Clay anybody? Jackson?
  6. Which “rough rider” was all roiled up to fight?
  7. The Arabic sunk in August 1915—what were the results? “Without warning . . .”
  8. March 1916—The Sussex French passenger ship is sunk—what now Brown Cow? (Read penultimate paragraph 691 & you tell me)
  9. Wilson demands—Germany “knuckles” under but with many strings attached to the Sussex Pledge.
  10. Wilson knew he could not get the allies to modify their blockade (illegal in Germany’s eyes)
  11. But—Wilson accepted nonetheless, knowing that the Germans could back out whenever they chose of this agreement because Wilson did not do his part—this put the US on an edge of a cliff.

Part VIII: Wilson Wins Reelection in 1916—691

  1. Teddy gets nominated quickly for the Progressives, the Bull Moose Party, yet declined the nomination. Why? What happened to his beloved party after this?
  2. Republican Old Guard detested renegade Teddy, so nominated Charles Evan Hughes—a Supreme Court justice—liberal record, governor of New York—admired guy. But he straddled the fence—changing his attitude as he campaigned. Who doesn’t?
  3. Teddy still out there speaking away, skinning Hughes alive, calling him a whiskered Wilson. Why?
  4. Election night—Hughes proclaimed winner by papers—had swept the East. But time travel slowly to Montana, North Dakota and Iowa. Farmers favored Wilson’s approach. In the morning . . . Wilson won, but took a few weeks to figure it out.

AFTER reading “Varying Viewpoints,” Who Were the Progressives? (696)

Please discuss the following with your group AFTER reading.

  • Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform (1955).

A view of progressives as backward-looking individualists:

“Progressivism, at its heart, was an effort to realize familiar and traditional ideals under novel circumstances…at the core of their conception of politics was a figure quite as old-fashioned as the figure of the little competitive entrepreneur who represented the most commonly accepted economic ideal. This old-fashioned character was the Man of Good Will, the same innocent, bewildered, bespectacled, and mustached figure we see in the cartoons today labeled John Q. Public—a white collar or small business voter-taxpayer with perhaps a modest home in the suburbs.”

  • Gabriel Kolko, The Triumph of Conservatism (1963).

A view of progressivism as a victory for business conservatism:

“The New Freedom, in its concrete legislative aspects, was little more than the major demands of politically oriented big businessmen. They had defined the issues, and it was they who managed to provide the direction for change. In its larger outlines it was they who gave progressivism its essential character. By the end of 1914 they had triumphed, and to the extent that the new laws were vague and subject to administrative definitions by boards and commissions, they were to totally dominate the extensive reign of political capitalism that had been created in the United States by 1915.”

  • Robert Wiebe, The Search for Order, 1877–1920 (1967).

A view of progressives as forward-looking bureaucrats:

“Experts in administration supported by a variety of professionals sought solutions to the city’s problems through proper procedures and continuous enforcement…A blend of many ideas, the new political theory borrowed its most revolutionary qualities from bureaucratic thought. Trained, professional servants would staff a government broadly and continuously involved in society’s operations…this revolutionary approach to government, incomplete as it was, eventually dominated the politics of the early twentieth century.”

questions about the “varying viewpoints”

1.According to each of these historians, who were the progressives, and what were their central values?

2.How would each of these historians relate the progressive constituency to the basic progressive approach to government?

3.How would each interpret the progressive attack on political bosses and the establishment of independent regulatory commissions to monitor businesses like the railroads, meatpacking, and banking?