American History Homework Seven Answers - Student Four

KaraH

1. The Gilded Age was a period in the 1880s. It was named for it's golden appearance, but underneath the outer layers it was utterly gritty. The name "Gilded Age" came from a Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) novel, a story about corrupt officials running Washington D.C.

Correct!

2. I really like Edison's work ethic, how he thinks inventing is only 1% inspiration and all the rest perspiration. That's different from what it seems the rest of the world believes at times. As for homeschooling being the reason he was so successful, it's entirely possible. When one is homeschooled, one can work at one's own pace. In school the pace tends to follow the "weakest link," so Edison was in no way held behind what he was capable of, and when he was stuck on something he had the ability to stop and work on it. This would be conducive to his inventive abilities, but to say that if he had been public schooled he wouldn't have been a brilliant is over the line, in my opinion.

Well done.

3. All the land that had not yet been transformed into states was just sitting there, occupied by Native Americans, and the people of America knew it. The Americans probably began to feel that it was their land and the Native Americans had no right to it, even though they had possession of it long before people began to colonize the Eastern Coast, even before it was discovered by Columbus and Amerigo. Even so, Americans became more and more greedy and power-hungry.

OK, but pretty harsh on the settlers!

4. One of the reasons America could be so prosperous in the inventive industry could be the diversity of the people groups. Name a country, and odds are you'll find at least one representative of that country somewhere in these States. With all those different ethnicities, believes, and upbringings, they form minds that will come up with different ideas whereas in countries where there isn't as much diversity, there may not be as many different mindsets.

Interesting angle!

5. Political cartoons can mold a mind to think any number of things. Just as with the news, if the cartoonist is biased it can make average citizens without realizing it. For example, many people are worried about McCain's age, and how that will affect America if he is elected. It might not be that big of a deal had the news articles and cartoons made his age very obvious.

Right. Superb point, will use in the model answers.

6. Even though her part may have been small, I choose Elizabeth Cady Stanton as the most inspirational person beside Edison. She founded the National Woman Suffrage Association in '69 which was the beginnings of the suffrage movement in the 1900s, which led to more rights for woman today, so she was the start of something much larger then just an association, but something that frees women to have their fair say in national matters.

Insightful choice! May use as a model answer.

7. This cartoon shows Uncle Sam riding through a vat of quicksand (representing gold) and sinking rapidly. From the direction he's pointed, I would say that it represents America trying to get to the horizon of prosperity, and in order to do that they needed to get gold. But gold was a major downfall instead of windfall. The cartoonist was probably affected negatively when the gold price rose enormously and receded as rapidly on "Black Friday."

Good analysis, but you could add how the "sinking" represents deflation under the gold standard. (Minus 1).

H1) Cleveland definitely had his conservative traits. He was rather frugal and didn't want the government to spend more then was needed, and when there was a slight recession or "panic" in the late 1800s, he didn't bail out the banks, unlike Bush today. Even though George W. Bush is a Republican and Cleveland is a Democrat, it's possible that the latter is more conservative then the Republican. Something that's more then slightly unusual.

Superb again! May use as a model answer.

H2) Blaine's Amendment was rather bigoted, but it might have been the right thing to do. Most religious schools are private schools, which require a lofty fee simply to attend, so they shouldn't need government funding on top of the tuition, but I think that money should instead be spent on those schools that don't have as much so even those who don't have as much money can have the ability to have as good an education as those who are born into richer families. It might have been bigoted in some ways that it seems to be targeting on schools who are associated with some religion, but in my opinion I think it was right.

OK, but the idea is not to pay private schools on top of their tuition, but to enable parents to take their own tax dollars and spent it towards their private school rather than the public schools.

H4) I actually support unions to a point. If something is unfair then I won't simply sit on my hands, although I admit unions at times can seem rather selfish since each person is only working for themselves or a certain group of people. There are certain jobs where people can and should earn more money then they are and something should be done, but there are others where people ask for a ridiculous price for doing an easy task. However, if a union is formed simply to protest horrible working conditions, poor hours, and poor pay, then they should have every right to attempt to change things for the better.

When the Chinese began to immigrate to America, work for less pay and for longer hours, Americans protested by forming unions. This wasn't entirely right since the Chinese were all too willing, why should Americans protest against hardworkers? Instead I think a union should have been formed in the Chinese defense, maybe give them more pay so they didn't have to work that long or hard to simply support their families, families they probably didn't see that much of since they were working so long.

Superb analysis.

Superb answers. Score: 99/100. Congratulations!--Aschlafly 22:25, 30 October 2008 (EDT)