PART III – Essay *Please choose ONE of the following ques…
PART III – Essay *Please choose ONE of the following questions and provide a detailed response incorporating several themes and events from lectures, as well as, primary documents and from your readings. You will submit your written response within the following drop down text box. Eric Foner, the author of nearly a dozen acclaimed books on the era often refers to Reconstruction as “America’s unfinished Revolution.” Using what we have learned so far about the influence of this period on America’s continued development, provide your thoughts on how the nation reconciled itself in the decades following the Civil War. Do you think Reconstruction was successful? Why or why not? What ways do you feel it succeeded, or how did it fall short? Who were some of the key individuals and organizations involved in the struggle, and how did they influence change both good and bad? Finally, what other influential movements can trace their origins to this turbulent period of American history? Think about some of the documents and arguments we’ve looked at so far in class. Be sure to support your argument with several key examples from lecture and your readings. During the first section of our class we’ve retraced the influence of industrialization on the United States and the growth of big business in a time of little government regulation or federal oversight. While this unbridled economic growth and the consolidation of power into the hands of an elite few was vitally important for the growth of the American nation, but for those unnamed masses who toiled long shifts in dangerous conditions for little pay and almost no benefits, the gilded age seemed more an era of exploitation and despair then one of optimism and excitement. While it would eventually take several decades to establish strong labor unions and actively enforce government regulation, these early labor movements would grow exponentially during these volatile years until negative press surrounding a series of several violent strikes worked to fractionalized membership and drove popular support away from organized labor until their reemergence during the later years of the Progressive era. Briefly discuss these early labor movements and what basic ideas they fought for during the gilded and progressive eras. Also be sure to highlight some of the key individuals and major strikes / riots that marked their struggle for workers rights in America. Finally, how did big business successfully disrupt this considerable threat to their economic dominance? Be sure to support your argument with several key examples from lecture and your readings. Between the 1890s and 1920s we’ve seen the surprising influence of third party politics on the national arena, both in reshaping the overall regional makeup and basic platform of established icons like the Democratic party, to fractionalizing the long-accepted dominance of the Republicans in 1912 as that party divided itself and opened the door for sweeping changes throughout the nation. Using what we’ve discussed in class and our readings during this first unit, discuss the influence of several major 3rd party’s that would both challenge for state and national office, as well as come to heavily influence and reshape the established political heavyweights of the Democratic and Republican party’s. A complete answer will identify, outline and discuss at least two of the era’s major 3rd party movements, providing background and context, as well as briefly discussing the major ideology of each minority political party. Finally, how did these new party’s come to directly and indirectly influence some of the major elections of the era? Be sure to support your argument with several key examples from lecture and your readings.