Category: 20th Century

Imagine having to leave one country for another with different people but more opportunity. What would that be like for a person? This is what crossed early immigrants’ minds on their journey to America, along with what they were aspiring to do within our country. That could’ve included better employment options, escaping economic and political unrest, buying more land, and a more stable life. Many immigrants, however, probably didn’t think about the impact they would have on American cities, as their moving to our country resulted in a boom in population, an increase in urbanization and industrialization, and a mixing bowl of cultures that remains today. They made up the basis of the growth of the American city during the early 20th century.

The reasons that immigrants fled their home countries are very important in that they might not have come to the United States without them, whether these reasons were upsetting or inspiring. Some immigrants came for jobs and a new beginning, as labor recruiters were sent to other countries to draw in potential workers. America began its industrial revolution in the 1790s when an immigrant from the United Kingdom, Samuel Slater, came to America and opened the first industrial mill. After that, immigrants continued to make the United States an industrial icon internationally as they worked in factories and mills and built railroads and canals. These railroads and canals allowed for more people to travel into these cities, which increased the population, and tourists, and added to the overall size of cities. In addition, the help in factories resulted in the making and distributing of new inventions. The United States then became the world’s largest industrial center, as it went from rural living to mostly urban. Other immigrants came for other reasons, for example, some immigrated to America for a more steady source of income and food, while others came to escape economic depression and political discontent in their home countries. America was one of the only places these people could go, as other countries wouldn’t even allow such people to come into their lands. The rise of immigrants flooding into the country didn’t have many options in the cities concerning housing, and tenant apartments were built for them. These apartments caused growth in cities, and they were often crowded because of the flow of people immigrating to America; these apartments also became the work area for several immigrants. In 1897, the first American subway was constructed in Boston with the help of immigrants, and in 1904 the largest subway system in the world was opened in New York City; both of these additions contributed to the size of these large cities.

The population, places, and cultures involved with the immigration of millions of people played a key role in how early cities grew because the effects are still seen today. “Between 1870 and 1920, over 25 million immigrants arrived in the United States. The population began to increase: by 1890, immigrants and their children made up approximately 60 percent of the population in northern cities, and by the beginning of the 20th century, this number had risen to 80 or 90 percent. By the start of WWI in 1914, over 13 million immigrants had traveled to America, and they made up almost 15 percent of the total US population of the time, which was close to 40 million. In addition, the 1920 US Census stated that, for the first time, a majority of Americans lived in urban areas. Several major cities of the present lead the way. New York City, NY had a combined population of 4 million people by 1920, mostly because of immigration, and now has the highest population of any present US city with “8, 601, 186 people” (White, 2019). The city of Chicago, IL experienced the Chicago Fire in 1871, but immigration played a part in building it back up into the second-largest city in the United States; its current population sits at more than 2,500,000 people. New factories built in Trenton, NJ allowed the city to get bigger as immigrants from Europe came to work in the factories, and its population is now about 100,000 people. There are several differences between these cities, but there are two similarities: they are all closer to the Atlantic coast, and they all have places for immigrants to work. Other cities that were significantly impacted were Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and St. Louis. Finally, the heritage of the immigrants who arrived in the United States in the early 20th century resulted in the cultural growth of American cities. The ideas and traditions of immigrants from Ireland, Germany, France, Scandinavia, China, and other areas are all integrated into America’s cultural center of today in art, music, innovation, religion, language, education, cooking, and the rights of citizens. Their immigration also resulted in our present-day mixing bowl of cultures and unique people in our society.

The immigration of individuals from places all over the world brought about a growth in American cities during the early 20th century that is still impacting us today. This development is seen in our current size of cities, population sizes, industrial success, our increase in urbanization over time, and the variety of cultures that affect our country every day. Without their reasons for immigration, whether positive or negative, these people might not have traveled to this side of the globe. I feel that it would be a different and dull America if we lacked the diversity we have today within our people and traditions, and I think our major cities of the present might not have become major cities at all. These immigrants might have had their thoughts on employment, escaping unrest, or maybe how different their new life in the United States would be, but I bet they never realized that they would influence that very same country 100 years in the future.

Gaddis started off with stating that before the 20th century, the relationship between Russian-soviet and US were mutiny acknowledged tradition of non-interference. So, after the development of transportation and communication it was hard for both countries to put up which each other, as well as the US questioning whether it was normal to associate with a government that was so cruel its own people. Gaddis began with how the ideologies came about in WW2 as there were fundamental challenges to the international state system itself. For instance, Gaddis argued that the Leninism ideology that developed was inherently contrasting with the other nation as the goal was to spread the world of revolution. Therefore, through determination both nations thought history would side with their ideology and that ideology was inevitable. Instead, Gaddis argued that both countries shed away their ideological goals. Lenin transformed his government into tranny, which was not a Marx goal. Also, Stalin’s murder purge of up to 22 millions 23 of his own people before WW2. In terms of US of staying clear of present danger they withdrew themselves from world politics thus made them leave Germany to rebuild and rearm for themselves after the Nazis regime. Ultimately, Gaddis argued that they both entered the geopolitical arena because Hitler declared war on both countries.

Further to this, Gaddis pointed out underlying events that brought the soviet view of the unilateral security which caused conflict with the US multilateral security to produce a sphere of influence.24 One being of coercion and the other consent. For instance, the allies of the Atlantic charter (1941): Roosevelt and Churchill proclaimed post-war objectives to deliver international security through the multilateral approach, self-determination, open-market, and collective security.25. Whilst Stalin was to declare close lined state security with personal security which should be accomplished through depriving others of it plus gaining territory. Evidently shown in the Nazi-soviet of 1339 just before Hitler invaded Germany, he and Stalin agreed to a secret non-aggression pact and agreed to divide the Eastern Europe but subsequently Hitler disregarded the treaty as he declared war on Russia two years later. As well as the demand of the Baltic States even though they attacked war on them illegitimately, American still accepted a soviet sphere of influence from the Baltic to the Adriatic. Whereas the US believed more in collective good, thus Gaddis argued that it led to inevitable conflict. However, the argument was plausible that the ideologies were a reason for the origins of the cold war but was insufficient. Instead, he argued that their magnitude and power wielded during the cold war was quite different which was seen by other historians of the cold war, he saw them as two incomparable empires.26. Thus, Gaddis swayed to the orthodox perspective holding Russia- soviet to blame, Stalin.

Gaddis places a significant blame on Stalin. Although the US and Soviet Union had fundamentally different versions of the post-war world, Stalin’s version was far from different as he sought to advance Russian interest by setting up a ring of subservient undemocratic states around his country. Thus, gaddis argued that it was inevitable that the rivalries would believe that he causes fissures and perhaps war amongst the capitalist nations. As Gaddis observes, Stalin was convinced of the capitalist fratricide.27 would eventually allow the Soviets to dominate Europe. Thus, he went on to argue that Stalin’s narcissistic pre-despotism’.28 was an obsession with security at all costs but crucially the reason why the predictable tension in the US-Soviet relationship had been rooted since the Russian Revolution. To conclude, Gaddis emphasised that although their wide range of factors pushing the superpowers into conflict, Stalin’s paranoia was still to blame.

The Depression that swept through America in the 1930s greatly affected everyone’s life. One-quarter of the citizens lost their jobs and were looking for work. The fight to find food and a place to live created an increase in tensions among all citizens. Often women became the breadwinners of the family, since their employers could pay them less than men. This scarcity of jobs meant that the men had an even harder time finding them. Many Puerto Ricans and Mexicans felt the increase in racial tension while looking for work and were encouraged to return to their homeland. In some cases, the law enforcement agencies force illegal people back to their country. However, the impact of the racial tension was felt the most by African-American men who lived in the South. This tension led to a tragic event for a group of African American teenage boys riding a train looking for work during this trying time.

The Scottsboro Trial in Alabama is known as one of the greatest legal battles regarding racism in the 1930’s and the national civil rights movement. In this case, nine males of African-American descent between the ages of thirteen to twenty-one were riding a train looking for work. The male African-American people happen to be on the same train with a few white boys and a fight between the two groups of boys broke out. As a result of the fight, the train was forced to stop near Scottsboro, Alabama. The African American males initially were only accused of a minor crime. However, when more questions were asked about what happened on the train, two white girls, claimed that the nine African American teenagers had raped them. These nine teenagers were then moved to a local facility to await trial. Soon after being arrested for the crime the trial took place, all nine boys were found guilty of rape by a jury of only white people. The eight boys were to receive the death penalty and one boy, because he was very young, only thirteen was to spend his life in an Alabama prison. Since the case took place in the notoriously racist state of Alabama, several of the African American teenagers rights were violated.

The case is significant to history for several reasons. The “Scottsboro Boys” were denied the rights provided by the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments. The 5th and 6th Amendments, allow the defendant to have a reasonable time to prepare to defend yourself against the crime and the right to a lawyer and an impartial jury. “The accused boys were not given lawyers until the morning of the trial and these attorneys made almost no effort to defend their clients. On the same day that the case began, the defendants were convicted and received death sentences.” (History.com). Sadly, the teenager’s fate was decided again by a white jury made up of all males. The Scottsboro teenage boys were also denied the rights provided by the 14th amendment, which “granted equal protection of the laws.” (History.com). Since the boys were provided with a lawyer on the morning they were going to court to defend themselves against the charges their lawyer did not prepare himself to adequately defend each person accused of rape.

As a result, the Scottsboro teenage boys were denied several of the constitutional rights and the unfairness in this case because of racism, the Communist party stepped in and the International Labor Defense (ILD) offered to represent the teenagers. The Communist party held speeches, rallies, parades, and demonstrations to protest the guilty charge for the boys. The Communist party believed by supporting the boys and believing they were innocent, they would receive the support of the African-American people in their political campaign. Initially, the NAACP and the ACLU did not rush to defend the boys since “rape was a politically explosive charge in the South (famous-trial.com). The NAACP was very concerned that there might be negative impacts if any of the boys were found guilty. However, as the case went on more evidence came out that proved the Scottsboro Boys were not given a fair trial. At this point, the Communist Party International Labor Defense was joined by the NAACP and the ACLU and agreed to form the Scottsboro Defense Committee.

Since the Scottsboro teenage boys were not provided with a fair trial, the ILD decided to appeal the case with the Supreme Court, stating they did not receive adequate legal counsel and were denied their 14th Amendment. The “U.S. Supreme Court reversals of the convictions became landmarks in constitutional law and civil rights and had a great effect of improving the standard of racial justice throughout the United States.” (Britannica.com). This case became known as the “Powell vs Alabama” and entitled the Scottsboro Boys to a retrial, however, it was to take place in Alabama once again. Many believe that the Supreme Court ruling in “Powell vs Alabama” helped reinforce the need to abide by the Constitutional Amendments that our forefathers created.

In conclusion, the Scottsboro Boys were given the right to have another trial, however, once again they were found guilty by the jury in Alabama. Over the next few years, there were many more trials of the Scottsboro Boys, and every time the jury found them guilty, it was appealed. In the end, the Scottsboro Boys were finally set free. However, the process ended up taking so long, that the boys spent approximately ten years in prison trying to defend their innocence. However, as a result of this case, many African American, people were encouraged to challenge the racial prejudice that took place in America during the 1950’s and 1960’s. This trial was a stepping stone, leading to the rise of famous activists, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Sources:

1. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Scottsboro.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 Oct. 2013, www.britannica.com/place/Scottsboro#ref752647.
2. Blakemore, Erin. “Why the Communist Party Defended the Scottsboro Boys.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 1 May 2018, www.history.com/news/scottsboro-boys-naacp-communist-party.
3. “Verdict Is Announced in Scottsboro Case.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/verdict-is-announced-in-scottsboro-case.
4. User, Super. “The Trials of ‘The Scottsboro Boys’: An Account.” Famous Trials, famous-trials.com/scottsboroboys/1531-home. 

War’s, human right’s movements, Women’s right movements. What causes misery for millions, freedom for some? What shapes history? Are millions of lives lost because of one individual? Are people released from suffering and anguish because of the social conditions? Or perhaps, is it fate that shapes history? Many historians would argue that historical events are the result of a certain individual- take for example Martin Luther King and the Civil rights movement. Whilst others would argue it was the social conditions, like those in South Africa that led to the Anti-Apartheid revolution. However, it is evident that the ultimate shaper of history is in fact Fate. Every historical event has been a result of fate. According to ‘Your Dictionary’ the noun fate is defined as forces outside of your control that make things happen. If a Particular event didn’t take place, then history would be completely different. If Hitler had been shot in World War one, would there have been a World War Two, the Holocaust and Nazi Germany? Everything happens sooner or later and it is neither a result of the individual or the social conditions rather a result of fate. The most discernible example where fate has shaped history is the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The series of events that resulted in the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand were incidental and successive. If different decisions and choices were made throughout the day then it is highly probable that the Archduke could have avoided assassination and, history as we know it would be very different. Archduke Franz Fernand’s assassination in June 1914 was a result of fate, the implications from his assassination resulted in the outbreak of World War One, verifying that fate does in fact shape history.

Born in December 1863, Franz Ferdinand was the eldest son, born to Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, whom was the younger brother of Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Josef. Franz Ferdinand began his military career at 12 years, rapidly working up the ranks, as well as, being a distinguished and respected member of the house of Hapsburg, rulers of the Holy Roman empire, the Austro- Hungarian empire and the Spanish empire. The suicide of the emperor’s son, crown price Rudolf in 1889 and the death of Ferdinand’s father just 7 years later from Typhoid fever, resulted in Franz Ferdinand being groomed to Inherit the Throne. In 1984, Franz Ferdinand met Countess Sophia Chotek. At this time marriage to a Hapsburg required that ‘one be a member of a reigning or, formally reigning dynasty of Europe’. Sophia Chotek failed to meet these requirements. Ferdinand Refused to marry another woman and they kept the relationship clandestine. The Family and Emperor Franz Joseph later found out about the relationship and the Emperor refused to give his permission to marry. After the continual arguing of influential European leaders, the emperor finally agreed to their marriage, under the condition that no decedents of the couple would succeed to the throne. The couple married July 1st, 1900. Archduke Franz Ferdinand allegedly had cold, short tempered, public persona, and was reportedly rumoured to be insane due to the inbreeding of the Hapsburg family. The empire was disintegrating, the Austria – Hungary polyglot empire was filled with different ethnic groups disagreeing over religion and politics uniting under a flag that wasn’t theirs. Franz Ferdinand was aware of the disintegrating empire and so he proposed changing the Austro- Hungarian rule to a triple Monarchy of the Slavonians, Germans and Magyars all of which would be equal, along with considering forming a federal government of 16 states, calling it the ‘United states of Greater Austria’. Both Ideas were unpopular and in direct conflict with the Serbian nationalist who had plans to join with Bosnia and Herzegovina to form an independent state and no longer be under the rule of Austria- Hungary. In the Summer of 1914, Archduke Ferdinand accepted the invitation and announced that he was going to continue his trip to Sarajevo, the capitol of Bosnia, despite the persistent warnings of terrorist activities by the terrorist group the “black hand”. If the Royal couple had listened to the warnings and decided to cancel the trip, their fate would have been completely different. Perhaps, the couple would have survived and avoided what was to come next from the “Black Hand.”

“The Black Hand” were a 20th Century secret Serbian society started in 1911under the lead of colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević also known as Apis. The Britannica Encycloppædia state that its members consisted mostly of army officers and some government officials, corroborating with the information on the article published on an Australian education website written by Micheal Shackelford. The society conducted propaganda campaigns, which established networks throughout Belgade. “The Black Hand” dominated the Serbia army and, wielded influence over the government by terrorising government officials, the society eventually gained so much power it’s authority challenged the government. The main aim of the Society was to promote the liberation of the Serbs outside of Serbia from Habsburg or Ottoman rule and they executed there plans through acts of terrorism. Shackelford states that in 1914, Apis had planned to kill the Archduke without approval by the full executive committee. Those involved realised their plot would initiate war between Austria and Serbia, members of the government and Executive council were not confident in Russia’s alliance and therefore Apis was told to not proceed with the plan. Apis is alleged to have made a half- hearted attempt to intercept the young assassins at the border, but it was too late. The young Assassins idled around Sarajevo for a month, feed and housed by a network of contacts associated with ‘the black hand’. No further steps were taken to intercept the plan and no information of the intention to stop the assassination reached the men. Showing that ‘The Black Hand’ and Serbian Government lacked initiative to cancel the plan and thus questioning their commitment and desire for the scheme to be annulled. If the Assassins had been informed about the plans to cancel the assassination, it is predicted that the Royal couple would have had a worry-free trip to Sarajevo, and it is possible WW1 may have not even existed. The miscommunication between the “The black Hand” was the first part of fate to take place in the assassination of Franz Ferdinand which ultimately resulted in the outbreak of World War One.

It was the morning of June 28th, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and, his wife arrived in Sarajevo via train despite the frequent warnings to cancel the trip. It is quoted that Sophie had said to the Governor, after the success of the previous day and morning- “Things do not always turn out the way you think they will…Wherever we have been, everyone, down to the last serb, has greeted up with such great friendliness, politeness and true warmth, that we are very happy with our visit”. This Shows that Sophie was confident in their safety and wished to continue the trip. A six-car motorcade escorted the couple to city hall for an official reception. The cars were said to be armed with military personnel however, numbers were low as result of poor organisational skills of Bosnia. The Ducksters education website state that the Archduke and his wife were in the third motorcar whereas, the Biography.com website states that the archduke was in the second motorcar. Although both websites are viable, the conflicting data creates confusion as to where the Royal couple were. It is assumed the information on the biography website is more reliable than that of the Ducksters website purely because it provides more specific information. The car in which they were travelling had the top rolled back to give the crowds the best view. According to the bibliography.com website at 10.10am the motorcade passed the central police station where a Black Hand agent, Nedjelko Cabrinovicn launched a hand Grenade at Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s car. It is said that the driver accelerated when he saw the flying object. The bomb ricochet off the car and bounced to below the car underneath the wheel of the next car and exploded. The explosion injured two of the vehicles occupants along with some spectators. Bibliography.com detailed that Franz Ferdinand is reputed to have shouted in anger at local officials saying ‘So, you welcome your guests with bombs?!’ He also reportedly stated, ‘What is the good of your speeches? I come to Sarajevo on a visit, and I get bombs thrown at me. It is outrageous”. This quote supports that perhaps the Archduke didn’t take the threats seriously, but after his experiences realise the extremity of the threats. Fate protected them from the first attempt at Assassination, but it was the events following that fate really dominated. The impending decisions and events that followed the first attempt demonstrate how detrimental a role fate plays in the shaping of history.

After the first attempt the couple continued to town hall where they listened to their normal speeches. After the formalities at Town hall, Archduke Franz Ferdinand impulsively decided to change his plans and visit the wounded men in hospital. His decision to change the route crated a lot of confusion between the drivers in regard to the route. The lack of communication saw the Archdukes driver turning off from Apple key down a side road, the General sharing the car with the Archduke quickly realised and told the driver to back up and continue along Apple key. Only, fate had other idea’s. The reverse gear failed to work, and the car happened to be pulled up beside a café where a deflated Gravillo Princip was sitting. Noticing the Royal couple, he raised his pistol and fired twice from a short distance. Sophie died immediately as Archduke Franz Ferdinand mumbled his final words “Sophie, Sophie, don’t die. Stay alive for our children” he proceeded to die shortly after. These final series of events were a direct representation of how fate can shape history. If the driver hadn’t made the wrong turn, if Principi wasn’t at the café, if the reverse gear had of worked what would have happened to the royal couple? Would they have survived and gone on to rule? These answers will never be known, however, it is evident that fate led to the assassination which furthermore lead to the political tension that saw the outbreak of World War One.

Word of the assassination spread quickly throughout Europe. Princip was imprisoned along with thousands of other serbs, he narrowly avoided the death penalty being 27 days too young. The pre-existing political tension was released as Austria- Hungary blamed the Serbian Government for the attack. The powerful Russia allied with Serbia, and Germany allied with Austria. On July 28th, Austria- Hungary declared war on Serbia, seeing the fragile peace that existed between Europe’s great powers collapse. The formed alliance’s saw the inclusion of other countries eventually causing the First World War. After four years of extreme bloodshed and loss the great war ended on November 11, 1918, after Germany surrendered to the Allies. The series of decisions and events that led to the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, caused the outbreak of World War One. It is evident that the assassination was the final straw in the very thin political tension.

Over the years, current Western society has witnessed a dramatic shift in the expressions of prejudice. In the 20th century, prejudice was expressed in overt ways that easily portrayed negative attitudes toward the out-group. The overt nature of prejudicial expression was a respected societal norm. Instead of expressing prejudice in overt ways, current society expresses prejudicial attitudes more subtly and covertly which is not explicitly negative. The reason for this detrimental shift in prejudicial expression is the growing pressure to adhere to societal norms that respect and support equal rights among minority groups. This modern form of prejudicial expression is known as aversive prejudice. Aversive prejudice is the mismatch between one’s implicit and explicit attitudes. People demonstrating aversive prejudice have high implicit prejudice and low explicit prejudice (Pearson, Dovidio, & Gaertner, 2009). Therefore, people who are high in aversive prejudice have internalized the societal norm of adhering to equal rights causing their expression of prejudice to be subtle and not explicitly negative to ensure they do not directly violate the social norm. Aversive prejudice is a complex process that requires individuals to be aware of social contexts and norms. It is for this reason that it has been previously thought that only adults have the social and cognitive skills that make them capable of expressing aversive prejudice. Young children are regularly thought to be unbiased and exempt from developing negative stereotypical attitudes towards out-group members. However, children begin to show preferences for their in-group by the age of five (Patterson & Bigler, 2006). Children prefer people who are similar to them in gender and race (Patterson & Bigler, 2006). Children use these in-group preferences to choose friends and orient themselves to a certain social group. Since children as young as five already display in-group preferences, is it possible for children to develop and display aversive prejudice?

There is an active debate in developmental and social psychology about the origins of aversive prejudice and the course of its development. Past research has argued that young children can exhibit negative intergroup attitudes (de França & Monteiro, 2013). However, negative intergroup attitudes are a part of the process that children use to determine their social group. Once children determine what social group they belong to, researchers argue that those negative implicit and explicit attitudes towards outgroup members begin to decrease (de França & Monteiro, 2013). Therefore, one side of the debate is that young children are not capable of expressing aversive prejudice because negative implicit and explicit attitudes decline in childhood.

The opposite argument in the debate regarding the development of aversive prejudice is that children can continue to have negative intergroup attitudes after the age of seven, but as children become older they learn to express their prejudice in subtle and indirect methods (de França & Monteiro, 2013). Similar to adults, children have the potential to display both overt and covert forms of prejudice. This implies that children are not exempt from developing negative intergroup attitudes. Even young children have social and cognitive skills that make them capable of expressing aversive prejudice.

Although children are not believed to obtain the social and cognitive skills required to form prejudiced attitudes, children can use categorization. Children use categorization daily in the non-social and social world. Children use categorization to make sense of their environment. Consider children’s preferences for flowers over insects. For children to prefer flowers, they must be able to separate the two entities into different categories. The categorization of the non-social world is observed very clearly by the age of six (Baron & Banaji, 2006).

Garcia Marquez heavily critiques the idea of “progress” in Latin America during the 20th Century in One Hundred Years of Solitude by showing the misfortune and pain that this so called “progress” brings, throughout the novel there was a cycle of taking one step forward and two steps back. He illustrates this through the story of Macondo, a utopia-like village founded by a family doomed to a solitary destruction brought on by the increased interference from the outside world, resembling the chaos in Latin America. Garcia Marquez also uses the forgetfulness of Macondo to portray the dangers of forgetting their culture and way of life of their ancestors.

The Buendia family, like Latin America had a peaceful self-governing and isolated society, free from the problems of the outside world. Once the town and the economy began to grow and new wealth came to Macondo, more problems came with as well, such as prostitution and new government. The prostitutes took the child-like innocence that the little town had, for example, “According to the girl’s calculations, she still had ten years of seventy men per night,” Aureliano saw first-hand how the corrupt the world was (52). Along with the influx of people, there came new authority, Magistrate Don Apolinar Moscote, sent by the government. Garcia Marquez used the Magistrate to show how tyrannical South American government had gotten and as they progressed they changed their old ways of governing by, “His first order was for all the houses to be painted blue in celebration of the anniversary for national independence (55).”

Jose Arcadio Buendia the patriarch of the Buendia family also confronted Moscote about the order of how their government worked, he said,” In this town we do not give orders with pieces of paper… And so that you know it once and for all, we don’t need judges here because there is nothing to judge (56).” The author uses Jose Arcadio Buendia to criticize the new form of authoritarian government because of the corrupt politicians and oppressive laws.

New ideologies and the continuation of unjust laws passed by the government leads to growing restlessness among the people in South America. Marquez used the war in One Hundred Years of Solitude, to criticize the motives behind the rebellion and to show how blurred the lines between good and evil are. When Colonel Aureliano Buendia says,” As far as I’m concerned, I’ve come to realize only just now that I’m fighting because of pride (135).” The author shows that the beginning of the revolution was rooted in good intentions but as the war continued the ones in power over the rebels continued fighting purely out of pride. Not only was war ensuing out of pride, but it had become a quest for power, the Colonel even says, “All we’re fighting for is power (168).” Colonel Aureliano Buendia says this when he was executing a once loyal general who lost faith in the war. The war didn’t just become a mad grab for power it also blurred the line between good and evil. Garcia Marquez depicts this by showing how much of a toll the war took on Colonel Aureliano Buendia and how the Liberal party was turning into the very same Conservative regime they set out to overthrow. Once back in Macondo he ordered the execution of his long-time friend and current magistrate of Macondo, Jose Raquel Moncada, who told the Colonel, “At this rate, you’ll only be the most despotic and bloody dictator in our history, but you’ll shoot my dear friend Ursula in an attempt to pacify your conscience.” Even though Moncada was a fair and just leader according to Ursula, the matriarch of the Buendia family, who said, “His government was the best we had ever had in Macondo,” and many more from the town come to defend him, who said, “One by one the old women who had been founders of the town, several of whom had taken part in the daring crossing of the mountains, praised the virtues of General Moncada (157-158).” Colonel Aureliano Buendia comes to his senses and works toward an armistice with his enemies, which causes uproar and threats on his life from his once loyal subjects.

Garcia Marquez uses many symbols to critique the increasing industrialization of Latin America, one being the railroad that was built through the once little village. The railroad came by once a week and soon there was one passing through every day, and on it came more diverse people and more technological advances including the light bulb, movies, phonographs and a telephone in the train station, as the newcomers said, “We came because everyone was coming (228).” Once the train arrived in Macondo, it was the beginning of the end of Macondo, the growth of the city had become uncontrollable, which brought chaos to the once peaceful place as the author said, “A town that had become dangerous overnight (237)”. However, The Most despicable thing that came aboard the train were the American capitalists.

The American capitalists brought their families and built their own society across the river guarded by a high fence with electrified chicken wire. The Americans also brought the banana company, led by Mr. Brown, and established dictatorial foreigners in the places of judges and political roles in the town. They also replaced the old police force with their own hired assassins armed with machetes. The corruptness of the new police force angered the aged Colonel Aureliano Buendia so much that he tried to respark the revolution as Garcia Marques said, “He was tormented by the definite certainty that it had been a mistake not to have continued the war to its final conclusion (237).”

The workers in the banana company grew tired of the bad working conditions, nonexistent medical services, lack of sanitary facilities in the living quarters, and the implication of company stores which led to a strike led by Jose Arcadio Segundo (300). The army was brought in to keep peace during this chaos, which resulted in a massacre of 3000 men, women and children. The massacre was forgotten by the people living in Macondo, the woman who Jose Arcadio Buendia had come to after escaping death in the massacre said, “There haven’t been any dead here. Since the time of your uncle, the colonel, nothing has happened in Macondo (308).” Garcia Marquez shows the dangers of the increasing involvement of foreigners in South America which was seen as progress. He does so by showing how corrupt the banana company was in Macondo. The fruit companies mistreated South Americans and forcefully kept them subdued. The author also showed the corruption within the foreign companies, by putting their own people in power and bringing tier own police force to do anything at their discretion. Not only does Garcia Marquez point out the obvious corruption in the fruit companies but he also shows corruption in the government by having the national army commit a massacre for the banana company but also for them to erase it from the memory of the town.

Garcia Marquez uses the forgetfulness of the people of Macondo to represent the natives of South America losing their culture of their ancestors after beginning to adopt the culture of the foreigners, for example, the author says, “Arcadio forgot the language of the Indians and learned Spanish (246).” Towards the end of Macondo none of the people had any remembrance of the Buendia Family, who were the founders of the town and once the wealthiest and most powerful family in Macondo. This forgetfulness had brought the end of the once peaceful little town. Through the book One Hundred Years of Solitude Garcia Marquez critiques the progress of Latin America by portraying the village of Macondo stuck in a circle of consequences whenever innovation comes. He instills the fear of what happens to a society that forgets their origins and their history. The progress that Garcia Marquez is against brought South America into the 20th century but at what cost?

Modern is the historical period starting from the Renaissance period and ending with the birth of Postmodernism in the second half of the 20th century. Modernity is an adjective derived from the Modern period. Modernity actually started during the Renaissance and ended in 1950 with the birth of Postmodernism. Modernity is associated with the word “modern”, that also has been used since the Renaissance and is not synonymous with Modernism.

Modernism began in 1910 and ended with Modernity. As a result, while Modernism was a part of Modernity, it also rejected some aspects of Modernity from new perspectives. Realism, which is an important concept of the modern period, has been re-questioned in modernism which is late modernity. The reality concept that had come up to that time was changed by Virginia Woolf. According to Woolf, realism is “myriad impressions”, that is, the stream of thought in our minds, not objects that can be seen. With this reinterpretation of realism, a technique called “stream of consciousness” emerged and important figures such as James Joyce produced works using this technique. This technique, which has been poured into literary practice from the work of William James from the field of psychology, has emerged with the reinterpretation of realism, a tradition of the modern period, by incorporating the impressionist perspective, in other words, expression of feelings and thoughts. Therefore, it shows that modernity is both self-reflection and self-criticism of modernism.

Modernist is a term expressing modernism’s understanding of literature, ideas,t heories and art. The modernist understanding of literature has developed within the framework of dogma concepts such as truth and system. In modernist thought, the reality is a concept that can be defined by language. The concept of knowledge is approached from the epistemological position. It seems that the logocentric mindset is rooted in the modernist idea. According to modernist thinkers, everything has an essence and a foundation. And it is possible to find them. In this context, literature has been influenced by these modernist ideas.Peter V. Zima in his book Modern Postmodern, page 182, describes modernist literature as follows:

“Like the sociological theories of Durkheim, Simmel, Max Weber and Alfred Weber, modernist literature can be read as a reflection and a critique of modernity since the Enlightenment period . Both sociological and literary modernism can be considered as a late modern self-criticism of modernity which begins to doubt some of its key concepts: truth, reason and the subject.”

The traditions of early modernity begin to be questioned in late modernity. The works of Virginia Woolf, T.S Eliot, and James Joyce are great intances of this. Thus, late modernity, as the last part of the modern period, was a period where literary traditions were tightly adhered to, and at the same time rejected and innovated.

The postmodern period is a transition period of humanity to consumer capitalism and dehumanization. Postmodernism comes after its predecessor “Modernism” in the second half of the 20th century. Modernism can be regarded as the continuation of modernism in terms of re-questioning the concepts and theories that have already been questioned, and the end in terms of rejecting or reconstructing these concepts and theories. There are many different opinions about when the period ends or whether it ends. The book by Jean-François Lyotard, who named the period, is The Postmodern Condition.

Postmodernism is an artistic practice and an aesthetic phenomenon that reflects mentality in fields such as culture, art, and literature that emerges as a reaction to late modernity. The mentioned literary practices are formed from fields such as philosophy and theory. Postmodernism is also a period of applying, self-consciousness, self-contradictory, self-undermining of the statement, and dual existence. Postmodernism is a comprehensive period in which many theories have been put forward and studies have been carried out in many fields. Due to this diversity, they have different definitions. Linda Hutcheon’s definition of the period in A Poetics of Postmodernism is as follows:

“I offer instead, then, a specific, if polemical, start from which to operate: as a cultural activity that can be discerned in most art forms and many currents of thought today, what I want to call postmodernism is fundamentally contradictory, resolutely historical, and inescapably political.”(p.4)

Also, postmodernism can be defined as “a radicalized modernism and a renewed attack on modernity” as Peter V. Zima’s book Modern Postmodern, in page 131, appears. This definition of Zima considers how postmodernism can be regarded as a continuation of modernism. In addition, in Zima’s book, as he states on the page 132 :

“(…) postmodern literature revolts against the metaphysical residues of modernity in modernism.”

This statement of Zima also explains why postmodernism is the end of modernism. The “metaphysical residues of modernity” mentioned here are the thoughts of truth, form, individual autonomy, artistic freedom, authorship, and authority of the canonical text, which are the cornerstones of modernism. In this context, postmodernist literature has been texts in which concepts are questioned and reconstructed within the works. Due to this skeptic attitude, which has a postmodernist idea, these effects are also seen intensely in the works. With cynicism accompanied by these inquiries, parody gained importance. Textualization techniques such as pastiche and collage have also gained importance and are frequently used in postmodernist literature and art.

The main concerns of postmodernism are language, individual, power, society, culture, desire, reality, knowledge, meaning, truth, essence, foundation, ground, metanarratives, history, binary opposition, fragmentary, parody, irony, pastiche, collage, language play, differance and metafiction. As a concern individual is directly related to the identity concept in postmodernism. According to postmodernity, identity and individual are constructed and subjected by discourses. In the postmodern perspective, meaning is entirely interpretative and varies from person to person. The history is lost, impossible to grasp, and subjective. In addition, there are common binary oppositions in the postmodern period, some of which are self-other, male-female, East-West, and center-marginal.

The modern view “language creates reality” has been opposed. Similarly, concepts such as truth, essence, and foundation which are the products of modern thought, have also been opposed.

There are three anti-thoughts in postmodernism, which are anti-essentialism, anti-foundationalism, and anti-realism. Anti-foundationalism opposes the modernist view of knowledge and the

epistemological position, which is our status of claiming knowledge. Postmodernism defends the perspective of ontological position, which is our status of being in the world. Anti-foundationalism is defined as follows on page 201 of Terry Eagleton’s book Literary Theory An Introduction:

“For ‘anti-foundationalist’ postmodernity, by contrast, our forms of life are relative, ungrounded, self-sustaining, made up of mere cultural convention and tradition, without any identifiable origin or grandiose goal; and ‘theory’, at least for the more conservative brands of the creed, is for the most part just a high-sounding way of rationalizing these inherited habits and institutions.”

Anti-essentialism is against the modern idea that everything has a certain form and attitude which makes it functional. Anti-realism, on the other hand, rejects the idea that reality which is idea of modernity exists and that language defines the truth of reality. Nietzsche, one of the important philosophers of postmodern thought, says the following about essentialism and realism:

“That the world is not the abstract essence of an eternal reasonableness is suffciently proved by the fact that that bit of the world which we know – I mean our human reason – is none too reasonable.”

Realism as the realist art and concept has been rejected. And the concept of reality has been questioned in every field. In the term of Baudrillard, one of the important names of postmodern thought, “simulacrum” has taken the place of reality.

Social movements of the 20th Century played a vital role in the understanding of social minorities and their relations with the dominant groups of society. An aspect under the umbrella of social movements is the existence of racial oppression and discrimination. Two social groups that generated waves in America during the 1960s and 1970s were the Native and African Americans. The Native American youth led the Red Power Movement with a focus on self-determination, self-pride, and return of land ownership. The Black Power Movement dominated by angered youth, called for economic, political, and racial equality. Despite the similarities in critical themes, differences existed concerning the elemental origins of the movements purpose. The approaches adopted by these groups in terms of social justice and economic freedom may differentiate but are applicable to dominant themes such as assimilation and contact theory.

Critical elements the two militant ideological movements shared are racial self-determination, garnering of media attention to expand their goals nationally and the increase of radical methods of combating oppression. The theme of self-determination was essential for the Native Americans to have the power that was stripped from them during colonization returned. Similar to the Black Power Movement, the Red Power Movement sought an assertion of their identity to be recognized in the prevalent society. The Native Americans were fighting for their cultures and lifestyles to be respected and not force the American culture upon them. In 1969, forty Native Americans invaded the island of Alcatraz in a sign of protest. This event is an example of utilizing the media and showcasing a radical method of protest. The Native Americans were donning traditional Indian clothes in a symbolic reclamation of their land. The protest was broadcasted on national television and despite the brief stay on the island, the protesters maximized their efforts to garner the sympathy of the American public. The protest was organized by the American Indian Movement (AIM), which was founded in the year 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The emergence of radical methods began with the establishment of AIM who became known for combating police brutality aggressively and entered into countless of confrontations with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). During a protest in Washington D.C., some of the protesters forcibly entered into the offices of BIA workers, committing trespass, and damaging property.

The Black Power Movement strived for similar key elements as the Red Power Movement. Racial self-determination represents a fundamental driving force in the ideology behind the movement. Principal figures of the Black Power Movement such as, Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, advocated that self-determination is a critical element towards the creation of equality. From this stemmed the instillation of racial pride in African Americans. The minority group popularized the slogan “Black is beautiful” during the time and they worked to increase self-determination by garnering control in various aspects of the American system. Examples of areas African Americans worked to seize power over were the school systems, welfare programs, and policing. Police brutality and protests during the movement contributed to the spark of media usage and radical methods of action. The Native Americans were influenced by the African Americans successful handling of public broadcasting. The role of the radio during the movement provided an expansion of the opportunities for the Black Power message to be amplified and surpass the physical boundaries into the airwaves reaching the ears of marginalized and non-marginalized groups throughout the nation. However, broadcasting is a double-edged sword that depicts the situation in a favorable or negative light. The Black Power Movement in the late 1960s began to represent more than the values they stood for. It began to be represented as a violent group of individuals who were turning towards brutal actions to overthrow the power of the majority.

Comparing the two minority groups and their respective movements reveals various differences. Focusing on the history behind Native Americans and African Americans in the United States, both are colonized minority groups but differ in terms of governing dynamics. Native Americans were in a constant battle with the dominant group over land, while African Americans were placed in a competition for labor. Due to the competition of labor, African Americans were under a system of repression. The Black Power Movement began with demolishing the oppressive system the group had been forced under since the beginning of slavery in America. In contrast, Native Americans were never seen as a source of labor but were viewed as a source of land. The way the dominant group manifested their control over the Native Americans was through colonizing their land and creating the reservation system. The Red Power movement was advocating for elements of self-determination and awareness but were equally concerned with the restoration of ownership in their lands and diminish the attacks on their culture. The dominant-minority relationship that existed individually between the groups differentiates the underlying origins of the Red and Black Power movements.

The Noel and Blauner hypotheses explain the idea of contact situation. Donald Noel, sociologist, identified that the contact situation leads to inequality between groups due to features such as ethnocentrism and competition. Robert Blauner, sociologist, analyzed contact situation and derived two initial groups, the colonized and immigrant minority groups. African Americans were affected by the contact situation with the development of slavery in America. Ethnocentrism, “the tendency to judge other groups by the standards of one’s own group, culture, or society,” led to the negative consequence of African Americans becoming marginalized and imposed the obligation to assimilate to the dominate culture. Therefore, during the Black Power Movement racial self-pride was a focalized point in their agenda towards equality and dissolving cultural oppression. Noel’s characteristic of competition is land versus labor. African Americans were conquest to solve the issue colonials were facing with scarce labor. Economic freedom was included in the Black Power Movement and the group wanted self-determination to gain control of positions of power to be able to have the economic system better favor their group. Noel and Blauner hypothesis can be applied to the Native Americans approach to social justice and economic freedom. Competition existed in this dominant-minority group relationship through means gaining control of land. The Red Power Movement argued the return of this land and in turn would return their economic freedom of being able to produce and sell goods and resources. Socially, Native Americans were controlled by a paternalistic system and forced acculturation. The Red Power Movement emphasized a need for pride in cultural heritage and to end appropriations by the majority group. By wearing their tradition clothing to protests was a sign of cultural pride and bring to an end the stripping of cultures to appease the ethnocentric values of the dominant society.

In a extensive history of the tension-filled relationship between colonized minority groups and the dominating groups raised multiple social movements. The Red Power and Black Power movements both advocated for self-pride and determination, effectively handled the media to expand their message nationally, and groups within these movements developed radical methods of action. Differences existed as well in the purpose of the need of change, both groups stemmed from distinct origins with the competition of land versus labor being the underlying factors. Assimilation and contact situation can be applied to the approaches of social justice and economic freedom between these two groups. African Americans coming from oppression arising from slavery and fighting to break this cycle. Native Americans urging the end of acculturation and regaining their land to no longer be victims to the paternalistic system.

It has always been implied that men have participated more in the economics of labor. However, the engaging role of women in labor has been disregarded due to the ideals of both gender distinctions. The following essay will identify the changing gender norms in economic production in the 20th century. This time of era recognized women as capable to be involved in the workforce. It will offer segments on the economic transformation women impacted, allowing others to oversee them in the working-class category.

The rise of women in the working class made a drastic change due to the norms that were implied by society. If anything, their involvement in the working class rose. The women who worked in the labor advertise consisted of commonly young and single, as restricted to those who were in the family unit in the late 19th to 1920s. Meanwhile, the role of single women entering the workforce was progressively inclining; the role of wedded women was declining. Claudia Goldin implies that even at its minimal, the role of wedded women was extensively higher than typically revealed. The women in labor were practically experienced with no guidance with a slight increase from formal human capital learning. Goldin investigates the detailed different clarifications for these changes, inferring that the impacts of basic determinants include the development of the administrate segment and education, which were delayed by the Great Depression, separation, and institutional constraint. It can be analyzed that in the 1920s women quite often left the workforce at marriage, albeit some in more unfortunate homes and among the more exceptionally taught didn’t. Considerable social disgrace with respect to crafted by spouses outside the home existed due in huge measure to the idea of the work. Occupations were frequently grimy, hazardous, redundant, and long in hours of the day and days of the week. At the beginning of the early 20th century wedded women in the workforce had a present-day work financial aspect. Female workers were important to business analysts due to social arrangement issues that include wage laws. One productive female who specialized in financial aspects, Edith Abbott, reminded her readers that lower-class women had always worked, if not in the market, then at home, and that they faced a life no different. Be that as it may, the ladies’ development, the principal ages of school ladies, and the drive for the establishment held the guarantee of genuine change for Abbott, who saw that white-collar class working ladies were leaving on a social upheaval.

The period of 1930 to 1950 occurred on account of a few reciprocal factors that were, in huge measure, exogenous to the female work supply. The most significant was the incredibly expanded interest for office and other administrative laborers, starting in the mid-1900s with the appearance of new kinds of data advancements, and the tremendous development in secondary school enlistment and graduation from 1910 to 1930. ‘The Historical Evolution of Female Earnings Function and Occupation’ by Goldin puts a portion of how female workers were utilized as clerical workers, but undoubtedly the number rose up. Goldin illustrates that across the nation it became evident that the number of graduations in high school rose. The increased amount of high school rates and clerical workers shows that it meant for women who were married and young to be in jobs that acquire a neat and clean environment that was considered appropriate and respectable. As more women became acknowledged in the workforce, the salary impact declined. Simultaneously, the substitution impact rose generously. Labor markets in the 21st century allow readers to understand how nonagricultural employment was changing in hours of work which identifies the issue of the substitution effect. It only means to show that the involvement of women placed diverse effects to create the scheduled times and hours that exist today. Another historian named Jeremey Greenwood underlined the norm of family units that innovated in expanding the labor of women to become interested in the appropriation rates of essential basics. It only comes to show that the scaled-down cost of these machines served to diminish ladies’ booking pay and increment the versatility of the total female work supply work. However, the information bases that the expansion of female workers began in the 1920s, which confounded the changes in the salaries and substitution effects by the implementation of women’s involvement. The involvement of wedded women entering the workforce showed a noteworthy number. The census of 1940 shows that the female work supply choices in specific situations in the family unit perspective. Paul H. Douglas investigates the different perspectives on labor supply between both genders, which leads to the theory that wedded women gained employment was negatively related to their husbands’ income. Douglas writes a book with Erika H. Schoenberg that also investigates the income effect along with the hourly wages during the 19th century. The following data gives the idea that if women either married or not, their income would have greatly decreased without their participation of them. The following year consisted of the 50s and 70s when the extension of women in labor remained. However, the participation of older women in the 40s increasingly grew. Goldin articulates the 50s as well in the changing responses to wages during that period.

The following decade was an expansion that continued the growth of women’s labor but consisted of colossal walks in present-day work financial aspects. Another piece of literature that is connected to Douglas is written by Clarence Long, which identifies the high number of women participating in the workforce, which can puzzle readers. Long was determined to capture the cross-segment gauges and the time arrangement information was to contend that the female work supply work moved outward and to investigate a portion of the reasons. A few years after, one author named Jacob Mincer recognizes and settled the paradox on the comparison between time and cross-section results that include the salary and substitution impacts. The next remaining years, such as the 80s, reflected on the impact women had made compared to men. Lillian B. Rubin puts together a comparative that shows how women have begun to earn more raises in the 80s after staying on the same level since the 50s.

Thus, all of this shows how historians in the 20th century acknowledged the impact women had in the workforce, even with so little evidence. It shows how women in the 20th century made an impact on the workforce, even with regard to gender roles.

Bibliography

1. Abbott, Edith. “The History of Industrial Employment of Women in the United States: An Introductory Study”. Journal of Political Economy 14, no.8 (1906).
2. Greenwood, Jeremy, Ananth Seshadri, and Mehmet Yorukoglu. Engines of Liberation. Rochester, NY: University.
3. Goldin, Claudia. “A Pollution Theory of Discrimination: Male and Female Differences in Occupations and Earnings”, 2002.
4. Goldin, Claudia. “Labor Markets in the Twentieth Century”, 1994.
5. Goldin, Claudia. “The Historical Evolution of Female Earnings Functions and Occupations”. Explorations in Economic History 21, no.1 (1984).
6. Goldin, Claudia. “Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women”. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992.
7. Hicks, John. The Theory of Wages. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
8. Long, Clarence Dickinson. The Labor Force under Changing Income and Employment. Ann Arbor Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1982.
9. Rubin, Lillian B. Families on the Fault Line Americas Working Class Speaks about the Family, the Economy, Race, and Ethnicity. New York, NY: HarperPerennial, 1998.
10. Schoenberg, Erika H., and Paul H. Douglas. “Studies in the Supply Curve of Labor: The Relation in 1929 Between Average Earnings in American Cities and the Proportions Seeking Employment”. Journal of Political Economy 45, no.1 (1937).
11. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Current Population Surveys. March. Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1962–2004.
12. Jacob Mincer (1962). “Labor Force Participation of Married Women: A Study of Labor Supply”, NBER Chapters in Aspects of Labor Economics, pages 63-105, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

The 1980s was the most influential decade in the history of the United States because it changed the course of the U.S. through drugs, culture, and terrorism.

To set the scene for the 1980s, the Vietnam War had ended 5 years before 1980, resulting in an American loss. Anti-Communist sentiments were at a high, and the Cold War was at one of its many peaks before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the 80s were probably the most intense period of the Cold War. Problems in the Middle East were heating up once again, this time between Iraq and Iran. Furthermore, the Soviet Union had recently invaded Afghanistan resulting in yet another proxy war between the US and the USSR, simultaneously setting up the US for the War on Terror after we gave Jihadists American weapons to fight the Russians. The 80s was a cluster of new drugs, new diseases, new wars, and new technologies.

Cocaine had been recently “invented” in the jungles of Colombia by crushing coca leaves and mixing them with a myriad of chemicals to achieve the highly addictive white powder known as cocaine or crack. Cocaine is important to the story of America in the 80s because America was the prime destination for the new commodity. When cocaine hit the streets of America it became a #1 best-seller almost immediately; it soon replaced Marijuana, LSD, and other drugs that were formerly wildly popular in the 60s and 70s. As Cocaine became more and more popular in America, it took the form of crack in the inner cities. Crack was much cheaper than Cocaine, which separated the two drugs into different classes; pure Cocaine was for wealthy people with steady jobs, celebrities, millionaires, etc, while Crack was for lower middle-class people, people in inner cities with limited resources. This meant that anyone, rich or poor, could get their hands on Cocaine or Crack easily, thus destroying poor communities to this day. This transformation of the drug market can only be seen as negative because of the amount of destruction it did to countless Americans.

On a more positive note, things were looking up in the economic sector of America because of policies put into place by President Reagan. Before Reagan, the Energy Crisis of 1979 and the 1973 Oil Crisis plunged the US into a recession lasting until 1982. This coincided with Reagan’s steep cuts in domestic spending leading to minor problems within the republican party. After this minor recession, Reagan implemented economic policies dubbed “Reaganomics”. These policies cut regulations on business and encouraged free trade, while also encouraging future economic problems. His reforms were in part to blame for the 2008 Housing Crisis because of de-regulation. Social reforms of the 80s were plentiful, but the most notable was the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This epidemic put everyone on edge because anyone could get it, but people who were infected were stigmatized because of the stereotype that it was a “gay disease”. It took years for people to understand what AIDS was, AIDS can be spread through sexual contact, drug use, and birth, it is a virus that attacks the immune system and is currently un-curable. In 1984 the FDA licensed the first blood test for HIV which helped increase detection of HIV. The epidemic had a noticeable social impact because the disease was very common in the LGBT community, because of this, the FDA enacted regulations banning gay men from donating blood. During the 80s, politics shifted as they do periodically. The shift of the 80s was called “New Conservatism”, it consisted of a shift from a moderate, centrist identity within the republican party to a more extreme right-wing view which Reagan exemplified perfectly, propelling him to two terms in office.

At the turn of the decade, the American economy was in rough shape, the US had recently lost the Vietnam war only 5 years prior, and problems in the Middle East were intensifying yet again causing an Oil Crisis in 1979 that helped to lead the US into a recession that lasted until 1982. This inspired President Reagan to attempt to resolve America’s economic issues through his economic system “Reaganomics” which could be compared to trickle-down economics, where the flow of money starts at the top of society and then as it is spent flows downward towards the lower classes of people meaning that there was a large divide between the wealthy and poor. The economy of Reagan’s presidency affects us today because of the 2008 Housing Market crash which resulted from the loosening of financial regulations under Reagan. The 2008 recession caused many people to lose their homes, savings, and livelihoods. The economy was prevented from growing quickly because Europe was still under the chokehold of the USSR making it hard to export products to many countries.

One of the defining features of the 80s was its pop culture. Many famous movies and songs like “Back To The Future” and “Eye Of The Tiger” were released and became instant classics. MTV was established in 1981 and soon brought new music, music videos, and movies to anyone who had a TV. MTV was a pivotal piece of 80s culture because it shaped the landscape for similar platforms in the future like YouTube or perhaps Netflix which are as popular today as MTV was then. Another part of new pop culture is the place where it exists. Technology in the 80s advanced in tandem with the new culture providing us with the basic things we use every day such as personal computers, cell phones, video games, cable TV, and many more. These advancements allowed for the invention of the internet and the digital age that we currently live in to be possible.

The 1980s impacted what America has developed into today through culture, and technology, as well as social, political, and economic reforms and changes. It was the most important decade because it more significantly shaped our world today than any other decade before or after the aforementioned transformations.