Since the creation of the United States, the meaning of freedom has changed to meet changing attitudes. Throughout our nation’s history, there have been significant periods of racial, economic and civil rights inequalities. There are different meanings for freedoms that have been established throughout the historical period of the United States. During this modern era, the US had certain periods of time that lived up to the ideals of freedom such as the Gilded Age. In opposition, the US has also had periods of time where our ideals of freedom failed to meet the requirements of our nation, a prime example being the late 1940s when the US entered the Cold War and led to the anti-communism period of McCarthyism which ultimately restricted freedoms. Historical moments like these have made monumental changes to our nation’s history and have changed our fundamental ideals of freedom.
In the late 1870s, the nation experienced a crucial time period known as the Gilded Age. It was a time that brought many economic freedoms to a variety of industries and was seen as the second industrial revolution which catapulted the US into the global arena of mass productions of goods. During this time period, many business empires and ideals were created. Ranging from Carnegie, Rockefeller, J.P Morgan, and Vanderbilt. These famous entrepreneurs became titans of their industries and controlled vast areas of railroads, oil, banking, and steel. The meaning of freedom during this time period was more of industrial freedom and freedom for these business owners to create and expand. This time period transformed the United States from a rural society to an urban society (Lecture 9/4/2013). The companies created opportunities for poor income workers and thei...
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... this nation. During these eras, the ideals of freedom have shaped certain time periods while also oppressing these same freedoms during times when the nation felt it was crucial for national security. As Foner states “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” (Foner, xxv). During this ‘vigilance’ the nation can still prosper but only at the expense of realistic and attainable freedoms. Without the nations long struggle to attain equal freedom for all, our country wouldn’t be as prosperous and successful as it is today.
Works Cited
Foner, Eric. Give Me liberty!: An American History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print.
Heller, Darryl “The Gilded Age” History of Modern America. University of Illinois at Chicago. 4 October. 2013. Lecture.
Heller, Darryl “The Cold War” History of Modern America. University of Illinois at Chicago. 4 November. 2013. Lecture.
Accurately established by many historians, the capitalists who shaped post-Civil War industrial America were regarded as corrupt “robber barons”. In a society in which there was a severe imbalance in the dynamics of the economy, these selfish individuals viewed this as an opportunity to advance in their financial status. Thus, they acquired fortunes for themselves while purposely overseeing the struggles of the people around them. Presented in Document A, “as liveried carriage appear; so do barefooted children”, proved to be a true description of life during the 19th century. In hopes of rebuilding America, the capitalists’ hunger for wealth only widened the gap between the rich and poor.
Crockatt, Richard. The fifty years war : the United States and the Soviet Union in world politics, 1941-1991. London; New York; Routledge, 1995.
Evans, M. Stanton. “Mccarthyism: Waging The Cold War In America.” Human Events 53.21 (1997): S1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
In Eric Foner’s book, The Story of American Freedom, he writes a historical monograph about how liberty came to be. In the book, his argument does not focus on one fixed definition of freedom like others are tempted to do. Unlike others, Foner describes liberty as an ever changing entity; its definition is fluid and does not change in a linear progress. While others portray liberty as a pre-determined concept and gradually getting better, Foner argues the very history of liberty is constantly reshaping the definition of liberty, itself. Essentially, the multiple and conflicting views on liberty has always been a “terrain of conflict” and has changed in time (Foner xv).
Gaddis, John Lewis. We Now Know: Rethinking the Cold War: Dividing the World. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997. Publishing.
5. Perry, Elisabeth Israels, and Karen Manners Smith. The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: a student companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.
Gaddis, John Lewis. “We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History.” Taking Sides: Clashing Views On Controversial Issues in United States History. Ed. Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle. 14th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 302-308.
Expansive growth was the moniker which expressly defined the Gilded Age. Industry in all sectors, witnessed massive growth leading to the creation of an American economy. Due to the rapidly changing nature of industrialization important men of both the public and private sectors attempted to institute their own controls over it. However this transforming landscape integrated both economic and political changes, but also cultural and social interactions. In turn, those who controlled the flow of business would also steadily impact the American social scene by extension. Alan Trachtenberg, professor of American studies at Yale and author of The Incorporation of America, argues that the system of incorporation unhinged the idea of national identity that all American’s had previously shared. As a result incorporation became the catalyst for the great debate about what it meant to actually be American, and who was capable of labeling themselves as such. Throughout his work Trachtenberg consistently tackles the ideas of cultural identity and how those ideas struggled against one another to be the supreme definition of Americanism. This work not only brings to life the issue of identity but it attempts to synthesize various scholarly works into a cohesive work on the Gilded Age and demonstrates that concepts developed during the incorporation of the time period have formed the basis for the American cultural, economic, and political superstructure. The Incorporation of America sets a high standard for itself one in which it doesn’t necessarily meet; however the work is still expansive and masterful at describing the arguments of the Gilded Age.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Gregory, Ross. A. Cold War America: 1946 to 1990. New York, NY: Facts on File, 2003. McQuaid, Kim.
Hammond, Thomas, Editor. Witnesses to the Origins of the Cold War. University of Washington Press. Seattle, 1982.
“Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, three common goals immigrants came to America seeking with hopes of the promise to prosper and gain success. However, during the Gilded Age it seemed as though these were attainable only for the select few, while others left the land they knew to spend their lives toiling away in pursuit of the American dream, many never understanding how unattainable it really was. While the Gilded Age was a time of an industrial boom and a growing economy, those working by the sweat of their brow to make the success of this time possible, were not actually ever grasping this wealth, but rather putting right back into the pockets of the wealthy. The Gilded Age compromised the American Dream by limiting the chances of the immigrant working class, and thus creating a cycle of missed opportunities keeping the immigrants from progressing much further then when they came to America to begin with.
In the years after the Civil War, a period of reformation began in the United States known as the Reconstruction Era. In this transformative period, the meaning of freedom – especially freedom for African-Americans – was a major topic of discussion. More specifically, after the Civil War, the dilemma over how to extend true freedom to African-American individuals in the South then came about. However, creating a social system to fairly grant this freedom to African-Americans in the South was no easy feat because there were opposing interpretations of freedom at the time. To explain, there was a debate over the meaning behind freedom, and whether it meant simply not being enslaved, having equal rights, being able to vote, or owning property.
The “Gilded Age” is a term used to describe the period in America from 1850 to 1890 as something of a false golden age. During this time period, America was making enormous leaps in the field of industry. Big businesses such as the railroads, oil refining, financing, steel, and meatpacking were driving America’s economy. A major problem with this; however, is that all the money big businesses generated was not dispersed very well. During the “Gilded Age,” income inequality was a large problem for Americans. Everyday people often had less income and less chance for advancement than specialists and professionals; these everyday people would come to be classified as the middle class. The middle class struggled during
...E. The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
In 1940 Ralph Bunche wrote, “Every man in the street, white, black, red or yellow knows that this is the ‘land of the free’…and the ‘the cradle of liberty.” While the Civil war was coming to an end, the nation was forced to have to acknowledge the abolition of slavery and begin to form a definition of the meaning of freedom. President Abraham Lincoln said that the Civil War brought America, “a new birth of freedom.” Freedom is the most fundamental concept to the American individual and country as a whole. The love that Americans have for freedom can be illustrated through statues all the way to the demonstration of the right to vote. The expansions and contractions of freedom in the United States can be seen through passing constitution amendments;