When
Your
Prof
Disappears?

Don't Look
in the
French
Quarter.

And the Lord said unto Satan,
Whence comest thou?
Then Satan answered the Lord and said,
From going to and fro in the earth,
and from walking up and down in it.
Job 1:7

The 1:00 pm MWF class of American Nation II knows that I was gone on Friday, September 24, because a graduate taught the class for me. A lot of students really like to get walks from class (which you did not get on this occasion) when their professors have to attend a meeting. Most students probably aren't too interested in why the professors are gone, they're just glad to have a day off. But some of you, like the Lord, might be asking, "Whence comest thou?" And I will give you an answer.

In my case, I went to and fro Louisiana, but I was not walking up and down in the French Quarter. Instead I participated in Hammond at a teacher workshop organized by the Renaissance Living History Center. My role was as a featured speaker. I gave a talk on Politics and Culture in the Early Seventeenth Century. My talk focused on the succession of James I to the throne of England, his personality, and some of the politics of his court.

An audience of about sixty greeted me, which was a very good attendance for events like these. These teachers are definitely dedicated as they gave up their Saturday to attend the conference and even paid money to register. They were also a quite attentive audience, although one lady in the back did fall asleep. I know it is hard for my students to imagine such a thing! But the rest were not only attentive — they laughed at my jokes, a response some of you guys need to work on a bit more. Of course, it may have been that many of them were around the same age as me, but we don't want to talk about that.

Anyway, the lecture went well and for the rest of the day there were talks and presentations about period clothing and dress, crime and punishment, dialects, pirates and piracy, and renaissance era dance. That evening, my hosts had a dinner party attended by people associated with the Renaissance Living History Center. It was a fun evening with good food and conversation with people who like history. The next day we headed to the airport and I came home.

In case you are wondering, I did this as a professional service. The Renaissance Living History Center paid for my plane ticket. Old friends provided a guest room and several delicious meals. Otherwise there was no pay. But as far as the experience of spending time with people who love their history and renew friendships with old friends.... Well, that is priceless.

Welcome
to
the Website
for
American Nation II
(HIST 2302)

Dear Students,

The Planet Clio website is intended to help you with your studies in my course. The class syllabus and course assignments have been posted on the website. You can refer them at any time if you have misplaced the paper handouts from class.

Class announcements will also be posted on this website, if and when the need arises.

There will also be a section that will provide you study material for the three major exams.

My study guide will list terms that you need to know the definition and significance. I will also ask questions. When you look at the questions, you need to determine if you know the answers in a reasonably complete and accurate manner. The questions are based on the lectures.

To link to the textbook publisher's website, just click this sentence! This site has an online study guide for your textbook. It would be a good idea if you worked through the questions and self-tested yourself. The study guide will provide you with tips to increase the efficiency of your reading. As you will see, it is keyed to the individual chapters in your textbook.

2302 students, please take note, the textbook website is set up for the whole textbook. You will need to scroll down to get to the chapters relevant for you.

Obviously none of the study guide material is a required part of this class. That said, working on the study guides is a tried and true method for learning the material in this class and learning the material is a tried and true way to earn a better grade.

To
Confound
Pessimism.

What Value
Is History
to the Nation?

Dr. Ronald Fritze
September 6, 2004

The Republican form of Government
is the highest form of government;
but because of this
it requires the highest type of human nature —
a type nowhere at present existing.

Herbert Spencer, The Americans.

The English Social Darwinist Herbert Spencer made the above observation about 1900 while writing about the United States. As the quote shows, Spencer thought Republican government was the best form of government, but he was also of the opinion that no people in his day possessed the type of character needed to keep a republic functioning successfully. It was a pessimistic assessment from a Social Darwinist who believed in the possibility — in fact, the inevitability — of human evolution and social progress. It also shows that the "good old days" did not seem all that good to the people living through them.

American Nation II covers the history of the United States from 1877 to the present. During these years a number of important changes occurred in American society. Although the United States had started out as a rural nation, during these years it definitely became an overwhelmingly urban nation.

All of this time the American population was undergoing significant growth. The growth of cities was accompanied by the rise of big business and industrialization. Farming declined in relative importance in the American economy while industry became predominant. This shift made the United States a much more wealthy country and ultimately made it the wealthiest country in the world.

During these same years with the United States growing in wealth and population, it also became a world power. Prior to the Spanish American War, the United States had been largely isolated from international affairs and was not considered to be a great power. After the Spanish American War, the other great powers recognized, somewhat reluctantly, that the United States had become a world power. The subsequent events of the twentieth century bore out that judgment.

Urbanization, industrialization, and world-power status brought good and bad effects. The vast increase in the wealth of the United States ultimately benefited most people in the material realm. Initially, however, the benefits were not spread evenly. Many workers remained in wretched conditions of poverty in spite of working long and hard hours. People living in such conditions were rightly resentful and came to demand a bigger share of society's wealth. Unions rose to harness their members' efforts toward a common good. Workers experienced some nasty defeats but also won some extremely important victories.

In spite of the wealth of the United States, poverty remains a problem for American society and shows no signs of being solved.

The new wealth also created a group of super-rich citizens, the plutocrats, signifying an aristocracy of wealth. Their wealth was unique in American history and presented serious problems for American society. The super-rich had the resources to influence elections and to buy politicians. And they did. Furthermore, they did so on a large scale that threatened the foundations of the American democratic republic. The egalitarian principles of American society came under the threat of being undermined by the plutocrats. It was a problem that concerned people such as Ignatius Donnelly (his book, Caesar's Column, is required reading in our studies this summer) and it remains a concern today as the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation demonstrates.

World-power status also presented a major threat to American values and political institutions. Contemporary critics of the United States call America an imperialistic and militaristic society. In fact, compared to the history of most other nations, the United States has not been particularly imperialistic and is definitely not a militaristic society.

Prior to becoming a world power, the United States had no empire, nor did it need a big military. After the Spanish American War, the United States acquired an empire, albeit a very small one by the standards of late nineteenth century imperialism. International trade grew as American industry expanded in size. That trade needed protecting and so the need for a major commitment to a navy arose, but the army remained small. As a result, World War I and World War II found the United States initially unprepared.

With the onset of the Cold War, the United States began to maintain a large, peacetime military establishment and that has remained the case for the last sixty years. The United States and its interests needed to be protected and that was the job of the military.

World power status and overseas commitments proved to be a mixed blessing. International trade helped increase the wealth of the United States, but it also increased its expenses and obligations. The two World Wars eventually drug the United States into the fray. The threat of Communist Russia's expansion prompted the Cold War, which meant decades of preparedness for an atomic war that everyone hoped would never occur.

Even the fall of the Soviet Union did not end the threat as the rise of Islamic militancy poses a new danger that will be equally expensive to combat.

Vast expenditures on the military are a late twentieth century phenomenon in American history. The United States had industrialized successfully without significant military expenditures. The impact of military spending on the economy has been a subject of intense debate since 1945. It is a stimulant or a drag on economic growth? The Cold War military/industrial establishment early on became a source of worry for some Americans including President Dwight Eisenhower. Would these circumstance cause fatal changes in the American traditions of democracy and republican government?

New wealth also created new cultural and societal opportunities. The average American's material welfare definitely increased between 1877 and 2004. People ate better, lived healthier lives, traveled more, and received more education. Particularly from 1920 onward, the basic aspects of modern American society were in place. Whether Americans became happier in their new modern society is a subject for debate. More goods lead to an increase in materialism that many people have come to deplore.

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers from the 1950s reflects American society's concern about internal subversion, but it also reflects, at a different level, fears about conformity in an increasingly materialistic culture. Many social commentators see materialism as a dangerous distraction from the hard work of being an active citizen of a functioning democratic republic. From the era of the Progressives in 1900-1920 through to the present, there have been huge concerns about the survival of democracy in America. Hopefully, the study of history will help us all to live better in the present and work toward a future that preserves the fundamental values of the United States for all of its citizen. If Americans succeed, we will confound Herbert Spencer's pessimistic assessment of human frailty and republican government.

PLANET CLIO is ruled by Dr. Ronald Fritze,
Professor of History at the University of Central Arkansas.
An independent entity in the CornDancer consortium of planets,
Planet Clio is dedicated to the study and exploration of history.

CORNDANCER
is a privately owned, non-commercial developmental website
for the mind and spirit
maintained by webmistress Freddie A. Bowles of the Planet Earth.

Submissions are invited.