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https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/102943/overview	Relaying and Responding PDF Relaying & Responding: A Guide to College Reading & Writing Overview This book has been developed to support English Composition courses at rural Arizona community colleges. The book adopts the metaphor of conversation to discuss the reading and writing moves students are expected to make in academic settings. The text has been organized around the general moves of reading/research (preparing to join the conversation), summarizing/quoting/paraphrasing and responding (joining the conversation) and applying rhetorical concepts for persuasion (influencing the conversation). Title Page ABOUT THIS BOOK This book, which can be accessed by downloading the attached MS Word document or PDF, has been developed to support English Composition courses at rural Arizona community colleges. The book adopts the metaphor of conversation to discuss the reading and writing moves students are expected to make in academic settings. The text has been organized around the general moves of reading/research (preparing to join the conversation), summarizing/quoting/paraphrasing and responding (joining the conversation) and applying rhetorical concepts for persuasion (influencing the conversation). AUTHORS This book has been assembled by Erik Wilbur, John Hansen, and Beau Rogers at Mohave Community College. Most of the content in this book has been sourced from creative commons licensed materials. Attributions for this borrowed and/or adapted and remixed content can be found at the end of each chapter. Any text, graphic, or video without an attribution should be attributed to Mohave Community College by using the license below. LICENSE Relaying & Responding: A Guide to College Reading & Writing by Mohave Community College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License except where otherwise noted.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.654199	04/15/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/102943/overview", "title": "Relaying & Responding: A Guide to College Reading & Writing", "author": "Erik Wilbur" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/110088/overview	https://lifecaremag.com/how-to-keep-a-green-environment/ https://rryshke.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/ecocide-earth1.jpg https://www.un.org/en/actnow/ten-actions Climate Change Mitigation: Poster Overview This poster is about Climate Change: A Call to Action. This material can be used in mitigating Climate Change around the world.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.673131	Vanessa Pamisaran	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/110088/overview", "title": "Climate Change Mitigation: Poster", "author": "Reading" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/97552/overview	AHP 100 Course Syllabus: Open for Antiracism (OFAR) Overview Course Syllabus for Medical Terminology Course AHP 100 Course Syllabus Carmen Bravo Instructor	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.690740	09/27/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/97552/overview", "title": "AHP 100 Course Syllabus: Open for Antiracism (OFAR)", "author": "Open for Antiracism Program (OFAR)" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104806/overview	UVA, IHE Accessibility in OER Implementation Guide Overview Preliminary goals to improve accessibility in OER at the University of Virginia, developed by a team of faculty and support staff during the IHE Accessibility in OER Academy. May 11 - Section One: Landscape Analysis for Accessibility in OER in Local Context (Work on during May 11th implementation) Part One: Initial Thoughts and Initial Goals - navigating options – this feels more complicated than a 1-person job - How to take all this work and manage it, make actionable - How to approach OER and accessibility knowing it’s not going to be ‘done’ at any time - Understanding the needs of our faculty - Going practical and concrete: captions, other concrete and doable steps - Would be nice to have some easy references like “I’m using an Instagram post, how do I make this accessible?” - Compiling and signposting the resources we have, and connecting them to a person who could provide additional support – getting this info out to all - Taking a broad approach – considering UDL applications to a unit/book, not trying to make every piece of content “UDL-perfect” - What small steps could we each be doing in our own particular projects, in the next 6mo for ex? - Accessibility and images, or video - Applying a particular principle across a wider curriculum Part Five: Faculty learning and engagement - Drop-in time, similar to open hours, to answer (and/or collect?) questions, to offer work time and support & guidance - In person, face to face accountability, real time - Accessibility meter in Canvas (Ally) raising awareness, culture shifts Part Six: Final Probing questions What is our current goal for Accessibility in OER and why is that our goal? Who have we not yet included while thinking about this work? - SDAC, students, other fields, other accessibility colleagues on grounds, administrators What barriers remain when considering this work? Time, labor, materials that require more work to make accessible What would genuine change look like for our organization for this work? Student accessibility board, faculty support around accessibility and student experience of accessibility; students as end users Sharing data and experience Section Two: Team Focus (Finish before May 25th to share during Implementation Session Two) Identifying and Describing a Problem of Practice - Implementation Goal: - How can we bring awareness of accessibility to our colleagues? --> offer opportunities to experience inaccessibility - Checklist/steps - Sharing of SLIDE with other OER users/creators/adopters - In our OER projects: descriptive links - Evaluation of accessibility using tools like Andi - Contributing an accessible remix of an existing OER - Possible timeline: Fall 2023 - Possible support groups: LDT, Library, Academic Accessibility Coordinator, SDAC - Voices that are not yet included: students, administrators, other colleagues - Feedback Question: What has worked well for you in getting this out to a wider audience? Section Three: Team Work Time and Next Steps (Complete by the end of Implementation Session Three) Sharing and Next Steps What was your redefined goal for this series? What does your team want to celebrate? Tools and new information! Celebrate the group itself—discussion and upcoming changes with hope for “rippling effect.” Hearing from faculty to better understand challenges related to creating/retroactively addressing accessibility in materials design. Information was presented in an accessible way. Ability to approach changes one thing at a time. The time was well-spent and the series well-structured. What did your team accomplish? If you have links to resources, please include them here. Realization of UDL as a pathway to learning for everyone. Creation of a supportive community of faculty and IDs interested and invested in accessible content & learning environments. What are your team’s next steps? Continue these conversations. Set aside work time/time to share progress.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.724673	06/07/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104806/overview", "title": "UVA, IHE Accessibility in OER Implementation Guide", "author": "Emily Scida" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107932/overview	Exponents and Radicals - Supplemental Learning Module Overview The Exponents and Radicals module is separated into two parts -- exponents and radicals. Each part has two subtopics. Each subtopic has a video lecture page and a practice assignment. The video lecture page includes guided notes in pdf form and videos that follow the guided notes. There are also Word document versions of the notes in the "files" section of this course for instructor convenience. Each video lecture page also includes supplemental YouTube videos which are optional for students and may be used if further instruction is needed. The practice assignment is a set of exercises in Derivita that correspond to the skills covered in the video lecture. There are also two review assignments in this module -- one for exponents and one for radicals. These assignments cover everything from that part of the module, rather than being broken up into parts like the practice assignments. So there are a total of six assignments in the module and instructors can choose which assignments are most appropriate for their students' needs. This work, by Madilyn Marshall, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. CC-BY Exponents and Radicals - Learning Module The Exponents and Radicals module is separated into two parts -- exponents and radicals. Each part has two subtopics. Each subtopic has a video lecture page and a practice assignment. The video lecture page includes guided notes in pdf form and videos that follow the guided notes. There are also Word document versions of the notes in the "files" section of this course for instructor convenience. Each video lecture page also includes supplemental YouTube videos which are optional for students and may be used if further instruction is needed. The practice assignment is a set of exercises in Derivita that correspond to the skills covered in the video lecture. There are also two review assignments in this module -- one for exponents and one for radicals. These assignments cover everything from that part of the module, rather than being broken up into parts like the practice assignments. So there are a total of six assignments in the module and instructors can choose which assignments are most appropriate for their students' needs. This work, by Madilyn Marshall, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. CC-BY Material Attachment It is preferred if you include the material in multiple formats, such as a public link and an attachment. Exponents and Radicals Learning Module (common cartridge) Exponents and Radicals Common Cartridge to import into your learning management system. Instructions for Module Import 1. Go to the Canvas Course where you want to import the module into ... 2. Click Home. 3. Click Import Existing Content. 4. Content Type: Select – Common Cartridge 1.x Package. 5. Click Choose File. ... 6. Content: Click – Select Content. … 7. Click the check box next to everything EXCEPT course settings 7. Click Import. 8. Wait for Canvas to complete processing the file.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.747341	Trigonometry	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107932/overview", "title": "Exponents and Radicals - Supplemental Learning Module", "author": "Mathematics" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107929/overview	Quadratic Equations - Supplemental Learning Module Overview The Quadratics module is divided into 4 parts, including (1) solving by factoringm, (2) solving using the square root property and completing the square, (3) solving using the quadratic formula, and (4) solving by graphing. The goal is for students to recognize the strategies for solving quadratics, and even higher degree functions that can employ the same strategies. For each strategy there is a video page and then a practice homework page. The video pages include printable word documents that are the notes. Each video page is followed by a practice homework page in Derivita. This work, by Cheryl Meilbeck, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Links to an external site. CC-BY Quadratic Equations - Learning Module The Quadratics module is divided into 4 parts, including (1) solving by factoringm, (2) solving using the square root property and completing the square, (3) solving using the quadratic formula, and (4) solving by graphing. The goal is for students to recognize the strategies for solving quadratics, and even higher degree functions that can employ the same strategies. For each strategy there is a video page and then a practice homework page. The video pages include printable word documents that are the notes. Each video page is followed by a practice homework page in Derivita. This work, by Cheryl Meilbeck, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. CC-BY Material Attachment It is preferred if you include the material in multiple formats, such as a public link and an attachment. Quadratic Equations Learning Module (common cartridge) Quadratic Equations Common Cartridge to import into your learning management system. Instructions for Module Import 1. Go to the Canvas Course where you want to import the module into ... 2. Click Home. 3. Click Import Existing Content. 4. Content Type: Select – Common Cartridge 1.x Package. 5. Click Choose File. ... 6. Content: Click – Select Content. … 7. Click the check box next to everything EXCEPT course settings 7. Click Import. 8. Wait for Canvas to complete processing the file.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.768856	Trigonometry	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/107929/overview", "title": "Quadratic Equations - Supplemental Learning Module", "author": "Mathematics" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15350/overview	Introduction Three months before William Jefferson Blythe III was born, his father died in a car accident. He was raised by his mother, Virginia Dell, and grandparents, in Hope, Arkansas. When he turned 4, his mother married Roger Clinton, Jr., an alcoholic who was physically abusive to William’s mother. Six years later, Virginia gave birth to another son, Roger. William, who later took the last name Clinton from his stepfather, became the 42nd president of the United States. While Bill Clinton was making his political ascendance, his half-brother, Roger Clinton, was arrested numerous times for drug charges, including possession, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and driving under the influence, serving time in jail. Two brothers, raised by the same people, took radically different paths in their lives. Why did they make the choices they did? What internal forces shaped their decisions? 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Principles of Rorschach interpretation. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Whyte, C. (1980). An integrated counseling and learning center. In K. V. Lauridsen (Ed.), Examining the scope of learning centers (pp. 33–43). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Whyte, C. (1978). Effective counseling methods for high-risk college freshmen. Measurement and Evaluation in Guidance, 6(4), 198–200. Whyte, C. B. (1977). High-risk college freshman and locus of control. The Humanist Educator, 16(1), 2–5. Williams, R. L. (1972). Themes Concerning Blacks: Manual. St. Louis, MO: Williams. Wundt, W. (1874/1886). Elements du psychologie, physiologique (2ieme tome). [Elements of physiological psychology, Vol. 2]. (E. Rouvier, Trans.). Paris: Ancienne Librairie Germer Bailliere et Cie. Yang, K. S. (2006). Indigenous personality research: The Chinese case. In U. Kim, K.-S. Yang, & K.-K. Hwang (Eds.), Indigenous and cultural psychology: Understanding people in context (pp. 285–314). New York: Springer. Young-Eisendrath, P. (1995). Myth and body: Pandora’s legacy in a post-modern world. Retrieved from http://www2.cnr.edu/home/araia/Myth_%20Body.pdf	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.798920	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15350/overview", "title": "Psychology, Personality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15351/overview	What Is Personality? Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Define personality - Describe early theories about personality development Personality refers to the long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways. Our personality is what makes us unique individuals. Each person has an idiosyncratic pattern of enduring, long-term characteristics and a manner in which he or she interacts with other individuals and the world around them. Our personalities are thought to be long term, stable, and not easily changed. The word personality comes from the Latin word persona. In the ancient world, a persona was a mask worn by an actor. While we tend to think of a mask as being worn to conceal one’s identity, the theatrical mask was originally used to either represent or project a specific personality trait of a character (Figure). HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES The concept of personality has been studied for at least 2,000 years, beginning with Hippocrates in 370 BCE (Fazeli, 2012). Hippocrates theorized that personality traits and human behaviors are based on four separate temperaments associated with four fluids (“humors”) of the body: choleric temperament (yellow bile from the liver), melancholic temperament (black bile from the kidneys), sanguine temperament (red blood from the heart), and phlegmatic temperament (white phlegm from the lungs) (Clark & Watson, 2008; Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985; Lecci & Magnavita, 2013; Noga, 2007). Centuries later, the influential Greek physician and philosopher Galen built on Hippocrates’s theory, suggesting that both diseases and personality differences could be explained by imbalances in the humors and that each person exhibits one of the four temperaments. For example, the choleric person is passionate, ambitious, and bold; the melancholic person is reserved, anxious, and unhappy; the sanguine person is joyful, eager, and optimistic; and the phlegmatic person is calm, reliable, and thoughtful (Clark & Watson, 2008; Stelmack & Stalikas, 1991). Galen’s theory was prevalent for over 1,000 years and continued to be popular through the Middle Ages. In 1780, Franz Gall, a German physician, proposed that the distances between bumps on the skull reveal a person’s personality traits, character, and mental abilities (Figure). According to Gall, measuring these distances revealed the sizes of the brain areas underneath, providing information that could be used to determine whether a person was friendly, prideful, murderous, kind, good with languages, and so on. Initially, phrenology was very popular; however, it was soon discredited for lack of empirical support and has long been relegated to the status of pseudoscience (Fancher, 1979). In the centuries after Galen, other researchers contributed to the development of his four primary temperament types, most prominently Immanuel Kant (in the 18th century) and psychologist Wilhelm Wundt (in the 19th century) (Eysenck, 2009; Stelmack & Stalikas, 1991; Wundt, 1874/1886) (Figure). Kant agreed with Galen that everyone could be sorted into one of the four temperaments and that there was no overlap between the four categories (Eysenck, 2009). He developed a list of traits that could be used to describe the personality of a person from each of the four temperaments. However, Wundt suggested that a better description of personality could be achieved using two major axes: emotional/nonemotional and changeable/unchangeable. The first axis separated strong from weak emotions (the melancholic and choleric temperaments from the phlegmatic and sanguine). The second axis divided the changeable temperaments (choleric and sanguine) from the unchangeable ones (melancholic and phlegmatic) (Eysenck, 2009). Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic perspective of personality was the first comprehensive theory of personality, explaining a wide variety of both normal and abnormal behaviors. According to Freud, unconscious drives influenced by sex and aggression, along with childhood sexuality, are the forces that influence our personality. Freud attracted many followers who modified his ideas to create new theories about personality. These theorists, referred to as neo-Freudians, generally agreed with Freud that childhood experiences matter, but they reduced the emphasis on sex and focused more on the social environment and effects of culture on personality. The perspective of personality proposed by Freud and his followers was the dominant theory of personality for the first half of the 20th century. Other major theories then emerged, including the learning, humanistic, biological, evolutionary, trait, and cultural perspectives. In this chapter, we will explore these various perspectives on personality in depth. View this video for a brief overview of some of the psychological perspectives on personality. Summary Personality has been studied for over 2,000 years, beginning with Hippocrates. More recent theories of personality have been proposed, including Freud’s psychodynamic perspective, which holds that personality is formed through early childhood experiences. Other perspectives then emerged in reaction to the psychodynamic perspective, including the learning, humanistic, biological, trait, and cultural perspectives. Review Questions Personality is thought to be ________. - short term and easily changed - a pattern of short-term characteristics - unstable and short term - long term, stable and not easily changed Hint: D The long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways are known as ________. - psychodynamic - temperament - humors - personality Hint: D ________ is credited with the first comprehensive theory of personality. - Hippocrates - Gall - Wundt - Freud Hint: D An early science that tried to correlate personality with measurements of parts of a person’s skull is known as ________. - phrenology - psychology - physiology - personality psychology Hint: A Critical Thinking Questions What makes a personal quality part of someone’s personality? Hint: The particular quality or trait must be part of an enduring behavior pattern, so that it is a consistent or predictable quality. Personal Application Questions How would you describe your own personality? Do you think that friends and family would describe you in much the same way? Why or why not? How would you describe your personality in an online dating profile? What are some of your positive and negative personality qualities? How do you think these qualities will affect your choice of career?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.825850	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15351/overview", "title": "Psychology, Personality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15352/overview	Freud and the Psychodynamic Perspective Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the assumptions of the psychodynamic perspective on personality development - Define and describe the nature and function of the id, ego, and superego - Define and describe the defense mechanisms - Define and describe the psychosexual stages of personality development Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) is probably the most controversial and misunderstood psychological theorist. When reading Freud’s theories, it is important to remember that he was a medical doctor, not a psychologist. There was no such thing as a degree in psychology at the time that he received his education, which can help us understand some of the controversy over his theories today. However, Freud was the first to systematically study and theorize the workings of the unconscious mind in the manner that we associate with modern psychology. In the early years of his career, Freud worked with Josef Breuer, a Viennese physician. During this time, Freud became intrigued by the story of one of Breuer’s patients, Bertha Pappenheim, who was referred to by the pseudonym Anna O. (Launer, 2005). Anna O. had been caring for her dying father when she began to experience symptoms such as partial paralysis, headaches, blurred vision, amnesia, and hallucinations (Launer, 2005). In Freud’s day, these symptoms were commonly referred to as hysteria. Anna O. turned to Breuer for help. He spent 2 years (1880–1882) treating Anna O. and discovered that allowing her to talk about her experiences seemed to bring some relief of her symptoms. Anna O. called his treatment the “talking cure” (Launer, 2005). Despite the fact the Freud never met Anna O., her story served as the basis for the 1895 book, Studies on Hysteria, which he co-authored with Breuer. Based on Breuer’s description of Anna O.’s treatment, Freud concluded that hysteria was the result of sexual abuse in childhood and that these traumatic experiences had been hidden from consciousness. Breuer disagreed with Freud, which soon ended their work together. However, Freud continued to work to refine talk therapy and build his theory on personality. LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS To explain the concept of conscious versus unconscious experience, Freud compared the mind to an iceberg (Figure). He said that only about one-tenth of our mind is conscious, and the rest of our mind is unconscious. Our unconscious refers to that mental activity of which we are unaware and are unable to access (Freud, 1923). According to Freud, unacceptable urges and desires are kept in our unconscious through a process called repression. For example, we sometimes say things that we don’t intend to say by unintentionally substituting another word for the one we meant. You’ve probably heard of a Freudian slip, the term used to describe this. Freud suggested that slips of the tongue are actually sexual or aggressive urges, accidentally slipping out of our unconscious. Speech errors such as this are quite common. Seeing them as a reflection of unconscious desires, linguists today have found that slips of the tongue tend to occur when we are tired, nervous, or not at our optimal level of cognitive functioning (Motley, 2002). According to Freud, our personality develops from a conflict between two forces: our biological aggressive and pleasure-seeking drives versus our internal (socialized) control over these drives. Our personality is the result of our efforts to balance these two competing forces. Freud suggested that we can understand this by imagining three interacting systems within our minds. He called them the id, ego, and superego (Figure). The unconscious id contains our most primitive drives or urges, and is present from birth. It directs impulses for hunger, thirst, and sex. Freud believed that the id operates on what he called the “pleasure principle,” in which the id seeks immediate gratification. Through social interactions with parents and others in a child’s environment, the ego and superego develop to help control the id. The superego develops as a child interacts with others, learning the social rules for right and wrong. The superego acts as our conscience; it is our moral compass that tells us how we should behave. It strives for perfection and judges our behavior, leading to feelings of pride or—when we fall short of the ideal—feelings of guilt. In contrast to the instinctual id and the rule-based superego, the ego is the rational part of our personality. It’s what Freud considered to be the self, and it is the part of our personality that is seen by others. Its job is to balance the demands of the id and superego in the context of reality; thus, it operates on what Freud called the “reality principle.” The ego helps the id satisfy its desires in a realistic way. The id and superego are in constant conflict, because the id wants instant gratification regardless of the consequences, but the superego tells us that we must behave in socially acceptable ways. Thus, the ego’s job is to find the middle ground. It helps satisfy the id’s desires in a rational way that will not lead us to feelings of guilt. According to Freud, a person who has a strong ego, which can balance the demands of the id and the superego, has a healthy personality. Freud maintained that imbalances in the system can lead to neurosis (a tendency to experience negative emotions), anxiety disorders, or unhealthy behaviors. For example, a person who is dominated by their id might be narcissistic and impulsive. A person with a dominant superego might be controlled by feelings of guilt and deny themselves even socially acceptable pleasures; conversely, if the superego is weak or absent, a person might become a psychopath. An overly dominant superego might be seen in an over-controlled individual whose rational grasp on reality is so strong that they are unaware of their emotional needs, or, in a neurotic who is overly defensive (overusing ego defense mechanisms). DEFENSE MECHANISMS Freud believed that feelings of anxiety result from the ego’s inability to mediate the conflict between the id and superego. When this happens, Freud believed that the ego seeks to restore balance through various protective measures known as defense mechanisms (Figure). When certain events, feelings, or yearnings cause an individual anxiety, the individual wishes to reduce that anxiety. To do that, the individual’s unconscious mind uses ego defense mechanisms, unconscious protective behaviors that aim to reduce anxiety. The ego, usually conscious, resorts to unconscious strivings to protect the ego from being overwhelmed by anxiety. When we use defense mechanisms, we are unaware that we are using them. Further, they operate in various ways that distort reality. According to Freud, we all use ego defense mechanisms. While everyone uses defense mechanisms, Freud believed that overuse of them may be problematic. For example, let’s say Joe Smith is a high school football player. Deep down, Joe feels sexually attracted to males. His conscious belief is that being gay is immoral and that if he were gay, his family would disown him and he would be ostracized by his peers. Therefore, there is a conflict between his conscious beliefs (being gay is wrong and will result in being ostracized) and his unconscious urges (attraction to males). The idea that he might be gay causes Joe to have feelings of anxiety. How can he decrease his anxiety? Joe may find himself acting very “macho,” making gay jokes, and picking on a school peer who is gay. This way, Joe’s unconscious impulses are further submerged. There are several different types of defense mechanisms. For instance, in repression, anxiety-causing memories from consciousness are blocked. As an analogy, let’s say your car is making a strange noise, but because you do not have the money to get it fixed, you just turn up the radio so that you no longer hear the strange noise. Eventually you forget about it. Similarly, in the human psyche, if a memory is too overwhelming to deal with, it might be repressed and thus removed from conscious awareness (Freud, 1920). This repressed memory might cause symptoms in other areas. Another defense mechanism is reaction formation, in which someone expresses feelings, thoughts, and behaviors opposite to their inclinations. In the above example, Joe made fun of a homosexual peer while himself being attracted to males. In regression, an individual acts much younger than their age. For example, a four-year-old child who resents the arrival of a newborn sibling may act like a baby and revert to drinking out of a bottle. In projection, a person refuses to acknowledge her own unconscious feelings and instead sees those feelings in someone else. Other defense mechanisms include rationalization, displacement, and sublimation. At this site you can test your knowledge of Freud’s defense mechanisms by playing a matching game. STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT Freud believed that personality develops during early childhood: Childhood experiences shape our personalities as well as our behavior as adults. He asserted that we develop via a series of stages during childhood. Each of us must pass through these childhood stages, and if we do not have the proper nurturing and parenting during a stage, we will be stuck, or fixated, in that stage, even as adults. In each psychosexual stage of development, the child’s pleasure-seeking urges, coming from the id, are focused on a different area of the body, called an erogenous zone. The stages are oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital (Table). Freud’s psychosexual development theory is quite controversial. To understand the origins of the theory, it is helpful to be familiar with the political, social, and cultural influences of Freud’s day in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century. During this era, a climate of sexual repression, combined with limited understanding and education surrounding human sexuality, heavily influenced Freud’s perspective. Given that sex was a taboo topic, Freud assumed that negative emotional states (neuroses) stemmed from suppression of unconscious sexual and aggressive urges. For Freud, his own recollections and interpretations of patients’ experiences and dreams were sufficient proof that psychosexual stages were universal events in early childhood. \| Stage \| Age (years) \| Erogenous Zone \| Major Conflict \| Adult Fixation Example \| \|---\|---\|---\|---\|---\| \| Oral \| 0–1 \| Mouth \| Weaning off breast or bottle \| Smoking, overeating \| \| Anal \| 1–3 \| Anus \| Toilet training \| Neatness, messiness \| \| Phallic \| 3–6 \| Genitals \| Oedipus/Electra complex \| Vanity, overambition \| \| Latency \| 6–12 \| None \| None \| None \| \| Genital \| 12+ \| Genitals \| None \| None \| Oral Stage In the oral stage (birth to 1 year), pleasure is focused on the mouth. Eating and the pleasure derived from sucking (nipples, pacifiers, and thumbs) play a large part in a baby’s first year of life. At around 1 year of age, babies are weaned from the bottle or breast, and this process can create conflict if not handled properly by caregivers. According to Freud, an adult who smokes, drinks, overeats, or bites her nails is fixated in the oral stage of her psychosexual development; she may have been weaned too early or too late, resulting in these fixation tendencies, all of which seek to ease anxiety. Anal Stage After passing through the oral stage, children enter what Freud termed the anal stage (1–3 years). In this stage, children experience pleasure in their bowel and bladder movements, so it makes sense that the conflict in this stage is over toilet training. Freud suggested that success at the anal stage depended on how parents handled toilet training. Parents who offer praise and rewards encourage positive results and can help children feel competent. Parents who are harsh in toilet training can cause a child to become fixated at the anal stage, leading to the development of an anal-retentive personality. The anal-retentive personality is stingy and stubborn, has a compulsive need for order and neatness, and might be considered a perfectionist. If parents are too lenient in toilet training, the child might also become fixated and display an anal-expulsive personality. The anal-expulsive personality is messy, careless, disorganized, and prone to emotional outbursts. Phallic Stage Freud’s third stage of psychosexual development is the phallic stage (3–6 years), corresponding to the age when children become aware of their bodies and recognize the differences between boys and girls. The erogenous zone in this stage is the genitals. Conflict arises when the child feels a desire for the opposite-sex parent, and jealousy and hatred toward the same-sex parent. For boys, this is called the Oedipus complex, involving a boy's desire for his mother and his urge to replace his father who is seen as a rival for the mother’s attention. At the same time, the boy is afraid his father will punish him for his feelings, so he experiences castration anxiety. The Oedipus complex is successfully resolved when the boy begins to identify with his father as an indirect way to have the mother. Failure to resolve the Oedipus complex may result in fixation and development of a personality that might be described as vain and overly ambitious. Girls experience a comparable conflict in the phallic stage—the Electra complex. The Electra complex, while often attributed to Freud, was actually proposed by Freud’s protégé, Carl Jung (Jung & Kerenyi, 1963). A girl desires the attention of her father and wishes to take her mother’s place. Jung also said that girls are angry with the mother for not providing them with a penis—hence the term penis envy. While Freud initially embraced the Electra complex as a parallel to the Oedipus complex, he later rejected it, yet it remains as a cornerstone of Freudian theory, thanks in part to academics in the field (Freud, 1931/1968; Scott, 2005). Latency Period Following the phallic stage of psychosexual development is a period known as the latency period (6 years to puberty). This period is not considered a stage, because sexual feelings are dormant as children focus on other pursuits, such as school, friendships, hobbies, and sports. Children generally engage in activities with peers of the same sex, which serves to consolidate a child’s gender-role identity. Genital Stage The final stage is the genital stage (from puberty on). In this stage, there is a sexual reawakening as the incestuous urges resurface. The young person redirects these urges to other, more socially acceptable partners (who often resemble the other-sex parent). People in this stage have mature sexual interests, which for Freud meant a strong desire for the opposite sex. Individuals who successfully completed the previous stages, reaching the genital stage with no fixations, are said to be well-balanced, healthy adults. While most of Freud’s ideas have not found support in modern research, we cannot discount the contributions that Freud has made to the field of psychology. It was Freud who pointed out that a large part of our mental life is influenced by the experiences of early childhood and takes place outside of our conscious awareness; his theories paved the way for others. Summary Sigmund Freud presented the first comprehensive theory of personality. He was also the first to recognize that much of our mental life takes place outside of our conscious awareness. Freud also proposed three components to our personality: the id, ego, and superego. The job of the ego is to balance the sexual and aggressive drives of the id with the moral ideal of the superego. Freud also said that personality develops through a series of psychosexual stages. In each stage, pleasure focuses on a specific erogenous zone. Failure to resolve a stage can lead one to become fixated in that stage, leading to unhealthy personality traits. Successful resolution of the stages leads to a healthy adult. Review Questions The id operates on the ________ principle. - reality - pleasure - instant gratification - guilt Hint: B The ego defense mechanism in which a person who is confronted with anxiety returns to a more immature behavioral stage is called ________. - repression - regression - reaction formation - rationalization Hint: B The Oedipus complex occurs in the ________ stage of psychosexual development. - oral - anal - phallic - latency Hint: C Critical Thinking Questions How might the common expression “daddy’s girl” be rooted in the idea of the Electra complex? Hint: Since the idea behind the Electra complex is that the daughter competes with her same-sex parent for the attention of her opposite-sex parent, the term “daddy’s girl” might suggest that the daughter has an overly close relationship with her father and a more distant—or even antagonistic—relationship with her mother. Describe the personality of someone who is fixated at the anal stage. Hint: If parents are too harsh during potty training, a person could become fixated at this stage and would be called anal retentive. The anal-retentive personality is stingy, stubborn, has a compulsive need for order and neatness, and might be considered a perfectionist. On the other hand, some parents may be too soft when it comes to potty training. In this case, Freud said that children could also become fixated and display an anal-expulsive personality. As an adult, an anal-expulsive personality is messy, careless, disorganized, and prone to emotional outbursts. Personal Application Questions What are some examples of defense mechanisms that you have used yourself or have witnessed others using?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.859730	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15352/overview", "title": "Psychology, Personality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15353/overview	Neo-Freudians: Adler, Erikson, Jung, and Horney Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss the concept of the inferiority complex - Discuss the core differences between Erikson’s and Freud’s views on personality - Discuss Jung’s ideas of the collective unconscious and archetypes - Discuss the work of Karen Horney, including her revision of Freud’s “penis envy” Freud attracted many followers who modified his ideas to create new theories about personality. These theorists, referred to as neo-Freudians, generally agreed with Freud that childhood experiences matter, but deemphasized sex, focusing more on the social environment and effects of culture on personality. Four notable neo-Freudians include Alfred Adler, Erik Erikson, Carl Jung (pronounced “Yoong”), and Karen Horney (pronounced “HORN-eye”). ALFRED ADLER Alfred Adler, a colleague of Freud’s and the first president of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society (Freud’s inner circle of colleagues), was the first major theorist to break away from Freud (Figure). He subsequently founded a school of psychology called individual psychology, which focuses on our drive to compensate for feelings of inferiority. Adler (1937, 1956) proposed the concept of the inferiority complex. An inferiority complex refers to a person’s feelings that they lack worth and don’t measure up to the standards of others or of society. Adler’s ideas about inferiority represent a major difference between his thinking and Freud’s. Freud believed that we are motivated by sexual and aggressive urges, but Adler (1930, 1961) believed that feelings of inferiority in childhood are what drive people to attempt to gain superiority and that this striving is the force behind all of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Adler also believed in the importance of social connections, seeing childhood development emerging through social development rather than the sexual stages Freud outlined. Adler noted the inter-relatedness of humanity and the need to work together for the betterment of all. He said, “The happiness of mankind lies in working together, in living as if each individual had set himself the task of contributing to the common welfare” (Adler, 1964, p. 255) with the main goal of psychology being “to recognize the equal rights and equality of others” (Adler, 1961, p. 691). With these ideas, Adler identified three fundamental social tasks that all of us must experience: occupational tasks (careers), societal tasks (friendship), and love tasks (finding an intimate partner for a long-term relationship). Rather than focus on sexual or aggressive motives for behavior as Freud did, Adler focused on social motives. He also emphasized conscious rather than unconscious motivation, since he believed that the three fundamental social tasks are explicitly known and pursued. That is not to say that Adler did not also believe in unconscious processes—he did—but he felt that conscious processes were more important. One of Adler’s major contributions to personality psychology was the idea that our birth order shapes our personality. He proposed that older siblings, who start out as the focus of their parents’ attention but must share that attention once a new child joins the family, compensate by becoming overachievers. The youngest children, according to Adler, may be spoiled, leaving the middle child with the opportunity to minimize the negative dynamics of the youngest and oldest children. Despite popular attention, research has not conclusively confirmed Adler’s hypotheses about birth order. One of Adler’s major contributions to personality psychology was the idea that our birth order shapes our personality. Follow this link to view a summary of birth order theory. ERIK ERIKSON As an art school dropout with an uncertain future, young Erik Erikson met Freud’s daughter, Anna Freud, while he was tutoring the children of an American couple undergoing psychoanalysis in Vienna. It was Anna Freud who encouraged Erikson to study psychoanalysis. Erikson received his diploma from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute in 1933, and as Nazism spread across Europe, he fled the country and immigrated to the United States that same year. As you learned when you studied lifespan development, Erikson later proposed a psychosocial theory of development, suggesting that an individual’s personality develops throughout the lifespan—a departure from Freud’s view that personality is fixed in early life. In his theory, Erikson emphasized the social relationships that are important at each stage of personality development, in contrast to Freud’s emphasis on sex. Erikson identified eight stages, each of which represents a conflict or developmental task (Table). The development of a healthy personality and a sense of competence depend on the successful completion of each task. \| Stage \| Age (years) \| Developmental Task \| Description \| \|---\|---\|---\|---\| \| 1 \| 0–1 \| Trust vs. mistrust \| Trust (or mistrust) that basic needs, such as nourishment and affection, will be met \| \| 2 \| 1–3 \| Autonomy vs. shame/doubt \| Sense of independence in many tasks develops \| \| 3 \| 3–6 \| Initiative vs. guilt \| Take initiative on some activities, may develop guilt when success not met or boundaries overstepped \| \| 4 \| 7–11 \| Industry vs. inferiority \| Develop self-confidence in abilities when competent or sense of inferiority when not \| \| 5 \| 12–18 \| Identity vs. confusion \| Experiment with and develop identity and roles \| \| 6 \| 19–29 \| Intimacy vs. isolation \| Establish intimacy and relationships with others \| \| 7 \| 30–64 \| Generativity vs. stagnation \| Contribute to society and be part of a family \| \| 8 \| 65– \| Integrity vs. despair \| Assess and make sense of life and meaning of contributions \| CARL JUNG Carl Jung (Figure) was a Swiss psychiatrist and protégé of Freud, who later split off from Freud and developed his own theory, which he called analytical psychology. The focus of analytical psychology is on working to balance opposing forces of conscious and unconscious thought, and experience within one’s personality. According to Jung, this work is a continuous learning process—mainly occurring in the second half of life—of becoming aware of unconscious elements and integrating them into consciousness. Jung’s split from Freud was based on two major disagreements. First, Jung, like Adler and Erikson, did not accept that sexual drive was the primary motivator in a person’s mental life. Second, although Jung agreed with Freud’s concept of a personal unconscious, he thought it to be incomplete. In addition to the personal unconscious, Jung focused on the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is a universal version of the personal unconscious, holding mental patterns, or memory traces, which are common to all of us (Jung, 1928). These ancestral memories, which Jung called archetypes, are represented by universal themes in various cultures, as expressed through literature, art, and dreams (Jung). Jung said that these themes reflect common experiences of people the world over, such as facing death, becoming independent, and striving for mastery. Jung (1964) believed that through biology, each person is handed down the same themes and that the same types of symbols—such as the hero, the maiden, the sage, and the trickster—are present in the folklore and fairy tales of every culture. In Jung’s view, the task of integrating these unconscious archetypal aspects of the self is part of the self-realization process in the second half of life. With this orientation toward self-realization, Jung parted ways with Freud’s belief that personality is determined solely by past events and anticipated the humanistic movement with its emphasis on self-actualization and orientation toward the future. Jung also proposed two attitudes or approaches toward life: extroversion and introversion (Jung, 1923) (Table). These ideas are considered Jung’s most important contributions to the field of personality psychology, as almost all models of personality now include these concepts. If you are an extrovert, then you are a person who is energized by being outgoing and socially oriented: You derive your energy from being around others. If you are an introvert, then you are a person who may be quiet and reserved, or you may be social, but your energy is derived from your inner psychic activity. Jung believed a balance between extroversion and introversion best served the goal of self-realization. \| Introvert \| Extrovert \| \|---\|---\| \| Energized by being alone \| Energized by being with others \| \| Avoids attention \| Seeks attention \| \| Speaks slowly and softly \| Speaks quickly and loudly \| \| Thinks before speaking \| Thinks out loud \| \| Stays on one topic \| Jumps from topic to topic \| \| Prefers written communication \| Prefers verbal communication \| \| Pays attention easily \| Distractible \| \| Cautious \| Acts first, thinks later \| Another concept proposed by Jung was the persona, which he referred to as a mask that we adopt. According to Jung, we consciously create this persona; however, it is derived from both our conscious experiences and our collective unconscious. What is the purpose of the persona? Jung believed that it is a compromise between who we really are (our true self) and what society expects us to be. We hide those parts of ourselves that are not aligned with society’s expectations. Jung’s view of extroverted and introverted types serves as a basis of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This questionnaire describes a person’s degree of introversion versus extroversion, thinking versus feeling, intuition versus sensation, and judging versus perceiving. This site provides a modified questionnaire based on the MBTI. Are Archetypes Genetically Based? Jung proposed that human responses to archetypes are similar to instinctual responses in animals. One criticism of Jung is that there is no evidence that archetypes are biologically based or similar to animal instincts (Roesler, 2012). Jung formulated his ideas about 100 years ago, and great advances have been made in the field of genetics since that time. We’ve found that human babies are born with certain capacities, including the ability to acquire language. However, we’ve also found that symbolic information (such as archetypes) is not encoded on the genome and that babies cannot decode symbolism, refuting the idea of a biological basis to archetypes. Rather than being seen as purely biological, more recent research suggests that archetypes emerge directly from our experiences and are reflections of linguistic or cultural characteristics (Young-Eisendrath, 1995). Today, most Jungian scholars believe that the collective unconscious and archetypes are based on both innate and environmental influences, with the differences being in the role and degree of each (Sotirova-Kohli et al., 2013). KAREN HORNEY Karen Horney was one of the first women trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst. During the Great Depression, Horney moved from Germany to the United States, and subsequently moved away from Freud’s teachings. Like Jung, Horney believed that each individual has the potential for self-realization and that the goal of psychoanalysis should be moving toward a healthy self rather than exploring early childhood patterns of dysfunction. Horney also disagreed with the Freudian idea that girls have penis envy and are jealous of male biological features. According to Horney, any jealousy is most likely culturally based, due to the greater privileges that males often have, meaning that the differences between men’s and women’s personalities are culturally based, not biologically based. She further suggested that men have womb envy, because they cannot give birth. Horney’s theories focused on the role of unconscious anxiety. She suggested that normal growth can be blocked by basic anxiety stemming from needs not being met, such as childhood experiences of loneliness and/or isolation. How do children learn to handle this anxiety? Horney suggested three styles of coping (Table). The first coping style, moving toward people, relies on affiliation and dependence. These children become dependent on their parents and other caregivers in an effort to receive attention and affection, which provides relief from anxiety (Burger, 2008). When these children grow up, they tend to use this same coping strategy to deal with relationships, expressing an intense need for love and acceptance (Burger, 2008). The second coping style, moving against people, relies on aggression and assertiveness. Children with this coping style find that fighting is the best way to deal with an unhappy home situation, and they deal with their feelings of insecurity by bullying other children (Burger, 2008). As adults, people with this coping style tend to lash out with hurtful comments and exploit others (Burger, 2008). The third coping style, moving away from people, centers on detachment and isolation. These children handle their anxiety by withdrawing from the world. They need privacy and tend to be self-sufficient. When these children are adults, they continue to avoid such things as love and friendship, and they also tend to gravitate toward careers that require little interaction with others (Burger, 2008). \| Coping Style \| Description \| Example \| \|---\|---\|---\| \| Moving toward people \| Affiliation and dependence \| Child seeking positive attention and affection from parent; adult needing love \| \| Moving against people \| Aggression and manipulation \| Child fighting or bullying other children; adult who is abrasive and verbally hurtful, or who exploits others \| \| Moving away from people \| Detachment and isolation \| Child withdrawn from the world and isolated; adult loner \| Horney believed these three styles are ways in which people typically cope with day-to-day problems; however, the three coping styles can become neurotic strategies if they are used rigidly and compulsively, leading a person to become alienated from others. Summary The neo-Freudians were psychologists whose work followed from Freud’s. They generally agreed with Freud that childhood experiences matter, but they decreased the emphasis on sex and focused more on the social environment and effects of culture on personality. Some of the notable neo-Freudians are Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Erik Erikson, and Karen Horney. The neo-Freudian approaches have been criticized, because they tend to be philosophical rather than based on sound scientific research. For example, Jung’s conclusions about the existence of the collective unconscious are based on myths, legends, dreams, and art. In addition, as with Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the neo-Freudians based much of their theories of personality on information from their patients. Review Questions The universal bank of ideas, images, and concepts that have been passed down through the generations from our ancestors refers to ________. - archetypes - intuition - collective unconscious - personality types Hint: C Critical Thinking Questions Describe the difference between extroverts and introverts in terms of what is energizing to each. Hint: Extroverts are energized by social engagement. Introverts are recharged by solitary time. Discuss Horney’s perspective on Freud’s concept of penis envy. Hint: Horney disagreed with the Freudian idea that women had penis envy and were jealous of a man’s biological features. Horney discussed that the jealousy was more likely culturally based, due to the greater privileges that males often have, and that differences between men and women’s personalities were cultural, not biologically based. Horney also suggested that men may have womb envy, because men cannot give birth. Personal Application Questions What is your birth order? Do you agree or disagree with Adler’s description of your personality based on his birth order theory, as described in the Link to Learning? Provide examples for support. Would you describe yourself as an extrovert or an introvert? Does this vary based on the situation? Provide examples to support your points. Select an epic story that is popular in contemporary society (such as Harry Potter or Star Wars) and explain it terms of Jung’s concept of archetypes.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.894386	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15353/overview", "title": "Psychology, Personality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15354/overview	Learning Approaches Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the behaviorist perspective on personality - Describe the cognitive perspective on personality - Describe the social cognitive perspective on personality In contrast to the psychodynamic approaches of Freud and the neo-Freudians, which relate personality to inner (and hidden) processes, the learning approaches focus only on observable behavior. This illustrates one significant advantage of the learning approaches over psychodynamics: Because learning approaches involve observable, measurable phenomena, they can be scientifically tested. THE BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE Behaviorists do not believe in biological determinism: They do not see personality traits as inborn. Instead, they view personality as significantly shaped by the reinforcements and consequences outside of the organism. In other words, people behave in a consistent manner based on prior learning. B. F. Skinner, a strict behaviorist, believed that environment was solely responsible for all behavior, including the enduring, consistent behavior patterns studied by personality theorists. As you may recall from your study on the psychology of learning, Skinner proposed that we demonstrate consistent behavior patterns because we have developed certain response tendencies (Skinner, 1953). In other words, we learn to behave in particular ways. We increase the behaviors that lead to positive consequences, and we decrease the behaviors that lead to negative consequences. Skinner disagreed with Freud’s idea that personality is fixed in childhood. He argued that personality develops over our entire life, not only in the first few years. Our responses can change as we come across new situations; therefore, we can expect more variability over time in personality than Freud would anticipate. For example, consider a young woman, Greta, a risk taker. She drives fast and participates in dangerous sports such as hang gliding and kiteboarding. But after she gets married and has children, the system of reinforcements and punishments in her environment changes. Speeding and extreme sports are no longer reinforced, so she no longer engages in those behaviors. In fact, Greta now describes herself as a cautious person. THE SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE Albert Bandura agreed with Skinner that personality develops through learning. He disagreed, however, with Skinner’s strict behaviorist approach to personality development, because he felt that thinking and reasoning are important components of learning. He presented a social-cognitive theory of personality that emphasizes both learning and cognition as sources of individual differences in personality. In social-cognitive theory, the concepts of reciprocal determinism, observational learning, and self-efficacy all play a part in personality development. Reciprocal Determinism In contrast to Skinner’s idea that the environment alone determines behavior, Bandura (1990) proposed the concept of reciprocal determinism, in which cognitive processes, behavior, and context all interact, each factor influencing and being influenced by the others simultaneously (Figure). Cognitive processes refer to all characteristics previously learned, including beliefs, expectations, and personality characteristics. Behavior refers to anything that we do that may be rewarded or punished. Finally, the context in which the behavior occurs refers to the environment or situation, which includes rewarding/punishing stimuli. Consider, for example, that you’re at a festival and one of the attractions is bungee jumping from a bridge. Do you do it? In this example, the behavior is bungee jumping. Cognitive factors that might influence this behavior include your beliefs and values, and your past experiences with similar behaviors. Finally, context refers to the reward structure for the behavior. According to reciprocal determinism, all of these factors are in play. Observational Learning Bandura’s key contribution to learning theory was the idea that much learning is vicarious. We learn by observing someone else’s behavior and its consequences, which Bandura called observational learning. He felt that this type of learning also plays a part in the development of our personality. Just as we learn individual behaviors, we learn new behavior patterns when we see them performed by other people or models. Drawing on the behaviorists’ ideas about reinforcement, Bandura suggested that whether we choose to imitate a model’s behavior depends on whether we see the model reinforced or punished. Through observational learning, we come to learn what behaviors are acceptable and rewarded in our culture, and we also learn to inhibit deviant or socially unacceptable behaviors by seeing what behaviors are punished. We can see the principles of reciprocal determinism at work in observational learning. For example, personal factors determine which behaviors in the environment a person chooses to imitate, and those environmental events in turn are processed cognitively according to other personal factors. Self-Efficacy Bandura (1977, 1995) has studied a number of cognitive and personal factors that affect learning and personality development, and most recently has focused on the concept of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is our level of confidence in our own abilities, developed through our social experiences. Self-efficacy affects how we approach challenges and reach goals. In observational learning, self-efficacy is a cognitive factor that affects which behaviors we choose to imitate as well as our success in performing those behaviors. People who have high self-efficacy believe that their goals are within reach, have a positive view of challenges seeing them as tasks to be mastered, develop a deep interest in and strong commitment to the activities in which they are involved, and quickly recover from setbacks. Conversely, people with low self-efficacy avoid challenging tasks because they doubt their ability to be successful, tend to focus on failure and negative outcomes, and lose confidence in their abilities if they experience setbacks. Feelings of self-efficacy can be specific to certain situations. For instance, a student might feel confident in her ability in English class but much less so in math class. JULIAN ROTTER AND LOCUS OF CONTROL Julian Rotter (1966) proposed the concept of locus of control, another cognitive factor that affects learning and personality development. Distinct from self-efficacy, which involves our belief in our own abilities, locus of control refers to our beliefs about the power we have over our lives. In Rotter’s view, people possess either an internal or an external locus of control (Figure). Those of us with an internal locus of control (“internals”) tend to believe that most of our outcomes are the direct result of our efforts. Those of us with an external locus of control (“externals”) tend to believe that our outcomes are outside of our control. Externals see their lives as being controlled by other people, luck, or chance. For example, say you didn’t spend much time studying for your psychology test and went out to dinner with friends instead. When you receive your test score, you see that you earned a D. If you possess an internal locus of control, you would most likely admit that you failed because you didn’t spend enough time studying and decide to study more for the next test. On the other hand, if you possess an external locus of control, you might conclude that the test was too hard and not bother studying for the next test, because you figure you will fail it anyway. Researchers have found that people with an internal locus of control perform better academically, achieve more in their careers, are more independent, are healthier, are better able to cope, and are less depressed than people who have an external locus of control (Benassi, Sweeney, & Durfour, 1988; Lefcourt, 1982; Maltby, Day, & Macaskill, 2007; Whyte, 1977, 1978, 1980). Take the Locus of Control questionnaire. Scores range from 0 to 13. A low score on this questionnaire indicates an internal locus of control, and a high score indicates an external locus of control. WALTER MISCHEL AND THE PERSON-SITUATION DEBATE Walter Mischel was a student of Julian Rotter and taught for years at Stanford, where he was a colleague of Albert Bandura. Mischel surveyed several decades of empirical psychological literature regarding trait prediction of behavior, and his conclusion shook the foundations of personality psychology. Mischel found that the data did not support the central principle of the field—that a person’s personality traits are consistent across situations. His report triggered a decades-long period of self-examination, known as the person-situation debate, among personality psychologists. Mischel suggested that perhaps we were looking for consistency in the wrong places. He found that although behavior was inconsistent across different situations, it was much more consistent within situations—so that a person’s behavior in one situation would likely be repeated in a similar one. And as you will see next regarding his famous “marshmallow test,” Mischel also found that behavior is consistent in equivalent situations across time. One of Mischel’s most notable contributions to personality psychology was his ideas on self-regulation. According to Lecci & Magnavita (2013), “Self-regulation is the process of identifying a goal or set of goals and, in pursuing these goals, using both internal (e.g., thoughts and affect) and external (e.g., responses of anything or anyone in the environment) feedback to maximize goal attainment” (p. 6.3). Self-regulation is also known as will power. When we talk about will power, we tend to think of it as the ability to delay gratification. For example, Bettina’s teenage daughter made strawberry cupcakes, and they looked delicious. However, Bettina forfeited the pleasure of eating one, because she is training for a 5K race and wants to be fit and do well in the race. Would you be able to resist getting a small reward now in order to get a larger reward later? This is the question Mischel investigated in his now-classic marshmallow test. Mischel designed a study to assess self-regulation in young children. In the marshmallow study, Mischel and his colleagues placed a preschool child in a room with one marshmallow on the table. The child was told that he could either eat the marshmallow now, or wait until the researcher returned to the room and then he could have two marshmallows (Mischel, Ebbesen & Raskoff, 1972). This was repeated with hundreds of preschoolers. What Mischel and his team found was that young children differ in their degree of self-control. Mischel and his colleagues continued to follow this group of preschoolers through high school, and what do you think they discovered? The children who had more self-control in preschool (the ones who waited for the bigger reward) were more successful in high school. They had higher SAT scores, had positive peer relationships, and were less likely to have substance abuse issues; as adults, they also had more stable marriages (Mischel, Shoda, & Rodriguez, 1989; Mischel et al., 2010). On the other hand, those children who had poor self-control in preschool (the ones who grabbed the one marshmallow) were not as successful in high school, and they were found to have academic and behavioral problems. To learn more about the marshmallow test and view the test given to children in Columbia, follow the link below to Joachim de Posada’s TEDTalks video. Today, the debate is mostly resolved, and most psychologists consider both the situation and personal factors in understanding behavior. For Mischel (1993), people are situation processors. The children in the marshmallow test each processed, or interpreted, the rewards structure of that situation in their own way. Mischel’s approach to personality stresses the importance of both the situation and the way the person perceives the situation. Instead of behavior being determined by the situation, people use cognitive processes to interpret the situation and then behave in accordance with that interpretation. Summary Behavioral theorists view personality as significantly shaped and impacted by the reinforcements and consequences outside of the organism. People behave in a consistent manner based on prior learning. B. F. Skinner, a prominent behaviorist, said that we demonstrate consistent behavior patterns, because we have developed certain response tendencies. Mischel focused on how personal goals play a role in the self-regulation process. Albert Bandura said that one’s environment can determine behavior, but at the same time, people can influence the environment with both their thoughts and behaviors, which is known as reciprocal determinism. Bandura also emphasized how we learn from watching others. He felt that this type of learning also plays a part in the development of our personality. Bandura discussed the concept of self-efficacy, which is our level of confidence in our own abilities. Finally, Rotter proposed the concept of locus of control, which refers to our beliefs about the power we have over our lives. He said that people fall along a continuum between a purely internal and a purely external locus of control. Review Questions Self-regulation is also known as ________. - self-efficacy - will power - internal locus of control - external locus of control Hint: B Your level of confidence in your own abilities is known as ________. - self-efficacy - self-concept - self-control - self-esteem Hint: A Jane believes that she got a bad grade on her psychology paper because her professor doesn’t like her. Jane most likely has an _______ locus of control. - internal - external - intrinsic - extrinsic Hint: B Critical Thinking Questions Compare the personalities of someone who has high self-efficacy to someone who has low self-efficacy. Hint: People who have high self-efficacy believe that their efforts matter. They perceive their goals as being within reach; have a positive view of challenges, seeing them as tasks to be mastered; develop a deep interest in and strong commitment to the activities in which they are involved; and quickly recover from setbacks. Conversely, people with low self-efficacy believe their efforts have little or no effect, and that outcomes are beyond their control. They avoid challenging tasks because they doubt their abilities to be successful; tend to focus on failure and negative outcomes; and lose confidence in their abilities if they experience setbacks. Compare and contrast Skinner’s perspective on personality development to Freud’s. Hint: Skinner disagreed with Freud’s idea that childhood plays an important role in shaping our personality. He argued that personality develops over our entire life, rather than in the first few years of life as Freud suggested. Skinner said that our responses can change as we come across new situations; therefore, we can see more variability over time in personality. Personal Application Questions Do you have an internal or an external locus of control? Provide examples to support your answer.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.925417	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15354/overview", "title": "Psychology, Personality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15355/overview	Humanistic Approaches Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss the contributions of Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers to personality development As the “third force” in psychology, humanism is touted as a reaction both to the pessimistic determinism of psychoanalysis, with its emphasis on psychological disturbance, and to the behaviorists’ view of humans passively reacting to the environment, which has been criticized as making people out to be personality-less robots. It does not suggest that psychoanalytic, behaviorist, and other points of view are incorrect but argues that these perspectives do not recognize the depth and meaning of human experience, and fail to recognize the innate capacity for self-directed change and transforming personal experiences. This perspective focuses on how healthy people develop. One pioneering humanist, Abraham Maslow, studied people who he considered to be healthy, creative, and productive, including Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and others. Maslow (1950, 1970) found that such people share similar characteristics, such as being open, creative, loving, spontaneous, compassionate, concerned for others, and accepting of themselves. When you studied motivation, you learned about one of the best-known humanistic theories, Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, in which Maslow proposes that human beings have certain needs in common and that these needs must be met in a certain order. The highest need is the need for self-actualization, which is the achievement of our fullest potential. Another humanistic theorist was Carl Rogers. One of Rogers’s main ideas about personality regards self-concept, our thoughts and feelings about ourselves. How would you respond to the question, “Who am I?” Your answer can show how you see yourself. If your response is primarily positive, then you tend to feel good about who you are, and you see the world as a safe and positive place. If your response is mainly negative, then you may feel unhappy with who you are. Rogers further divided the self into two categories: the ideal self and the real self. The ideal self is the person that you would like to be; the real self is the person you actually are. Rogers focused on the idea that we need to achieve consistency between these two selves. We experience congruence when our thoughts about our real self and ideal self are very similar—in other words, when our self-concept is accurate. High congruence leads to a greater sense of self-worth and a healthy, productive life. Parents can help their children achieve this by giving them unconditional positive regard, or unconditional love. According to Rogers (1980), “As persons are accepted and prized, they tend to develop a more caring attitude towards themselves” (p. 116). Conversely, when there is a great discrepancy between our ideal and actual selves, we experience a state Rogers called incongruence, which can lead to maladjustment. Both Rogers’s and Maslow’s theories focus on individual choices and do not believe that biology is deterministic. Summary Humanistic psychologists Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers focused on the growth potential of healthy individuals. They believed that people strive to become self-actualized. Both Rogers’s and Maslow’s theories greatly contributed to our understanding of the self. They emphasized free will and self-determination, with each individual desiring to become the best person they can become. Review Questions Self-concept refers to ________. - our level of confidence in our own abilities - all of our thoughts and feelings about ourselves - the belief that we control our own outcomes - the belief that our outcomes are outside of our control Hint: B The idea that people’s ideas about themselves should match their actions is called ________. - confluence - conscious - conscientiousness - congruence Hint: D Personal Application Questions Respond to the question, “Who am I?” Based on your response, do you have a negative or a positive self-concept? What are some experiences that led you to develop this particular self-concept?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.945178	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15355/overview", "title": "Psychology, Personality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15356/overview	Biological Approaches Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss the findings of the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart as they relate to personality and genetics - Discuss temperament and describe the three infant temperaments identified by Thomas and Chess - Discuss the evolutionary perspective on personality development How much of our personality is in-born and biological, and how much is influenced by the environment and culture we are raised in? Psychologists who favor the biological approach believe that inherited predispositions as well as physiological processes can be used to explain differences in our personalities (Burger, 2008). In the field of behavioral genetics, the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart—a well-known study of the genetic basis for personality—conducted research with twins from 1979 to 1999. In studying 350 pairs of twins, including pairs of identical and fraternal twins reared together and apart, researchers found that identical twins, whether raised together or apart, have very similar personalities (Bouchard, 1994; Bouchard, Lykken, McGue, Segal, & Tellegen, 1990; Segal, 2012). These findings suggest the heritability of some personality traits. Heritability refers to the proportion of difference among people that is attributed to genetics. Some of the traits that the study reported as having more than a 0.50 heritability ratio include leadership, obedience to authority, a sense of well-being, alienation, resistance to stress, and fearfulness. The implication is that some aspects of our personalities are largely controlled by genetics; however, it’s important to point out that traits are not determined by a single gene, but by a combination of many genes, as well as by epigenetic factors that control whether the genes are expressed. To what extent is our personality dictated by our genetic makeup? View this video to learn more. TEMPERAMENT Most contemporary psychologists believe temperament has a biological basis due to its appearance very early in our lives (Rothbart, 2011). As you learned when you studied lifespan development, Thomas and Chess (1977) found that babies could be categorized into one of three temperaments: easy, difficult, or slow to warm up. However, environmental factors (family interactions, for example) and maturation can affect the ways in which children’s personalities are expressed (Carter et al., 2008). Research suggests that there are two dimensions of our temperament that are important parts of our adult personality—reactivity and self-regulation (Rothbart, Ahadi, & Evans, 2000). Reactivity refers to how we respond to new or challenging environmental stimuli; self-regulation refers to our ability to control that response (Rothbart & Derryberry, 1981; Rothbart, Sheese, Rueda, & Posner, 2011). For example, one person may immediately respond to new stimuli with a high level of anxiety, while another barely notices it. Body Type and Temperament Is there an association between your body type and your temperament? The constitutional perspective, which examines the relationship between the structure of the human body and behavior, seeks to answer this question (Genovese, 2008). The first comprehensive system of constitutional psychology was proposed by American psychologist William H. Sheldon (1940, 1942). He believed that your body type can be linked to your personality. Sheldon’s life’s work was spent observing human bodies and temperaments. Based on his observations and interviews of hundreds of people, he proposed three body/personality types, which he called somatotypes. The three somatotypes are ectomorphs, endomorphs, and mesomorphs (Figure). Ectomorphs are thin with a small bone structure and very little fat on their bodies. According to Sheldon, the ectomorph personality is anxious, self-conscious, artistic, thoughtful, quiet, and private. They enjoy intellectual stimulation and feel uncomfortable in social situations. Actors Adrien Brody and Nicole Kidman would be characterized as ectomorphs. Endomorphs are the opposite of ectomorphs. Endomorphs have narrow shoulders and wide hips, and carry extra fat on their round bodies. Sheldon described endomorphs as being relaxed, comfortable, good-humored, even-tempered, sociable, and tolerant. Endomorphs enjoy affection and detest disapproval. Queen Latifah and Jack Black would be considered endomorphs. The third somatotype is the mesomorph. This body type falls between the ectomorph and the endomorph. Mesomorphs have large bone structure, well-defined muscles, broad shoulders, narrow waists, and attractive, strong bodies. According to Sheldon, mesomorphs are adventurous, assertive, competitive, and fearless. They are curious and enjoy trying new things, but can also be obnoxious and aggressive. Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johannson would likely be mesomorphs. Sheldon (1949) also conducted further research into somatotypes and criminality. He measured the physical proportions of hundreds of juvenile delinquent boys in comparison to male college students, and found that problem youth were primarily mesomorphs. Why might this be? Perhaps it’s because they are quick to anger and don’t have the restraint demonstrated by ectomorphs. Maybe it’s because a person with a mesomorphic body type reflects high levels of testosterone, which may lead to more aggressive behavior. Can you think of other explanations for Sheldon’s findings? Sheldon’s method of somatotyping is not without criticism, as it has been considered largely subjective (Carter & Heath, 1990; Cortés & Gatti, 1972; Parnell, 1958). More systematic and controlled research methods did not support his findings (Eysenck, 1970). Consequently, it’s not uncommon to see his theory labeled as pseudoscience, much like Gall’s theory of phrenology (Rafter, 2007; Rosenbaum, 1995). However, studies involving correlations between somatotype, temperament, and children’s school performance (Sanford et al., 1943; Parnell); somatotype and performance of pilots during wartime (Damon, 1955); and somatotype and temperament (Peterson, Liivamagi, & Koskel, 2006) did support his theory. Summary Some aspects of our personalities are largely controlled by genetics; however, environmental factors (such as family interactions) and maturation can affect the ways in which children’s personalities are expressed. Review Questions The way a person reacts to the world, starting when they are very young, including the person’s activity level is known as ________. - traits - temperament - heritability - personality Hint: B Brianna is 18 months old. She cries frequently, is hard to soothe, and wakes frequently during the night. According to Thomas and Chess, she would be considered ________. - an easy baby - a difficult baby - a slow to warm up baby - a colicky baby Hint: B According to the findings of the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, identical twins, whether raised together or apart have ________ personalities. - slightly different - very different - slightly similar - very similar Hint: D Temperament refers to ________. - inborn, genetically based personality differences - characteristic ways of behaving - conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extroversion - degree of introversion-extroversion Hint: A Critical Thinking Questions How might a temperament mix between parent and child affect family life? Hint: An easygoing parent may be irritated by a difficult child. If both parent and child have difficult temperaments, then conflicts in the parent-child relationship might result quite often. Personal Application Questions Research suggests that many of our personality characteristics have a genetic component. What traits do you think you inherited from your parents? Provide examples. How might modeling (environment) influenced your characteristics as well?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.969570	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15356/overview", "title": "Psychology, Personality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15357/overview	Trait Theorists Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss early trait theories of Cattell and Eysenck - Discuss the Big Five factors and describe someone who is high and low on each of the five traits Trait theorists believe personality can be understood via the approach that all people have certain traits, or characteristic ways of behaving. Do you tend to be sociable or shy? Passive or aggressive? Optimistic or pessimistic? Moody or even-tempered? Early trait theorists tried to describe all human personality traits. For example, one trait theorist, Gordon Allport (Allport & Odbert, 1936), found 4,500 words in the English language that could describe people. He organized these personality traits into three categories: cardinal traits, central traits, and secondary traits. A cardinal trait is one that dominates your entire personality, and hence your life—such as Ebenezer Scrooge’s greed and Mother Theresa’s altruism. Cardinal traits are not very common: Few people have personalities dominated by a single trait. Instead, our personalities typically are composed of multiple traits. Central traits are those that make up our personalities (such as loyal, kind, agreeable, friendly, sneaky, wild, and grouchy). Secondary traits are those that are not quite as obvious or as consistent as central traits. They are present under specific circumstances and include preferences and attitudes. For example, one person gets angry when people try to tickle him; another can only sleep on the left side of the bed; and yet another always orders her salad dressing on the side. And you—although not normally an anxious person—feel nervous before making a speech in front of your English class. In an effort to make the list of traits more manageable, Raymond Cattell (1946, 1957) narrowed down the list to about 171 traits. However, saying that a trait is either present or absent does not accurately reflect a person’s uniqueness, because all of our personalities are actually made up of the same traits; we differ only in the degree to which each trait is expressed. Cattell (1957) identified 16 factors or dimensions of personality: warmth, reasoning, emotional stability, dominance, liveliness, rule-consciousness, social boldness, sensitivity, vigilance, abstractedness, privateness, apprehension, openness to change, self-reliance, perfectionism, and tension (Table). He developed a personality assessment based on these 16 factors, called the 16PF. Instead of a trait being present or absent, each dimension is scored over a continuum, from high to low. For example, your level of warmth describes how warm, caring, and nice to others you are. If you score low on this index, you tend to be more distant and cold. A high score on this index signifies you are supportive and comforting. \| Factor \| Low Score \| High Score \| \|---\|---\|---\| \| Warmth \| Reserved, detached \| Outgoing, supportive \| \| Intellect \| Concrete thinker \| Analytical \| \| Emotional stability \| Moody, irritable \| Stable, calm \| \| Aggressiveness \| Docile, submissive \| Controlling, dominant \| \| Liveliness \| Somber, prudent \| Adventurous, spontaneous \| \| Dutifulness \| Unreliable \| Conscientious \| \| Social assertiveness \| Shy, restrained \| Uninhibited, bold \| \| Sensitivity \| Tough-minded \| Sensitive, caring \| \| Paranoia \| Trusting \| Suspicious \| \| Abstractness \| Conventional \| Imaginative \| \| Introversion \| Open, straightforward \| Private, shrewd \| \| Anxiety \| Confident \| Apprehensive \| \| Openmindedness \| Closeminded, traditional \| Curious, experimental \| \| Independence \| Outgoing, social \| Self-sufficient \| \| Perfectionism \| Disorganized, casual \| Organized, precise \| \| Tension \| Relaxed \| Stressed \| Follow this link to an assessment based on Cattell’s 16PF questionnaire to see which personality traits dominate your personality. Psychologists Hans and Sybil Eysenck were personality theorists (Figure) who focused on temperament, the inborn, genetically based personality differences that you studied earlier in the chapter. They believed personality is largely governed by biology. The Eysencks (Eysenck, 1990, 1992; Eysenck & Eysenck, 1963) viewed people as having two specific personality dimensions: extroversion/introversion and neuroticism/stability. According to their theory, people high on the trait of extroversion are sociable and outgoing, and readily connect with others, whereas people high on the trait of introversion have a higher need to be alone, engage in solitary behaviors, and limit their interactions with others. In the neuroticism/stability dimension, people high on neuroticism tend to be anxious; they tend to have an overactive sympathetic nervous system and, even with low stress, their bodies and emotional state tend to go into a flight-or-fight reaction. In contrast, people high on stability tend to need more stimulation to activate their flight-or-fight reaction and are considered more emotionally stable. Based on these two dimensions, the Eysencks’ theory divides people into four quadrants. These quadrants are sometimes compared with the four temperaments described by the Greeks: melancholic, choleric, phlegmatic, and sanguine (Figure). Later, the Eysencks added a third dimension: psychoticism versus superego control (Eysenck, Eysenck & Barrett, 1985). In this dimension, people who are high on psychoticism tend to be independent thinkers, cold, nonconformists, impulsive, antisocial, and hostile, whereas people who are high on superego control tend to have high impulse control—they are more altruistic, empathetic, cooperative, and conventional (Eysenck, Eysenck & Barrett, 1985). While Cattell’s 16 factors may be too broad, the Eysenck’s two-factor system has been criticized for being too narrow. Another personality theory, called the Five Factor Model, effectively hits a middle ground, with its five factors referred to as the Big Five personality traits. It is the most popular theory in personality psychology today and the most accurate approximation of the basic trait dimensions (Funder, 2001). The five traits are openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Figure). A helpful way to remember the traits is by using the mnemonic OCEAN. In the Five Factor Model, each person has each trait, but they occur along a spectrum. Openness to experience is characterized by imagination, feelings, actions, and ideas. People who score high on this trait tend to be curious and have a wide range of interests. Conscientiousness is characterized by competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, and achievement-striving (goal-directed behavior). People who score high on this trait are hardworking and dependable. Numerous studies have found a positive correlation between conscientiousness and academic success (Akomolafe, 2013; Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2008; Conrad & Patry, 2012; Noftle & Robins, 2007; Wagerman & Funder, 2007). Extroversion is characterized by sociability, assertiveness, excitement-seeking, and emotional expression. People who score high on this trait are usually described as outgoing and warm. Not surprisingly, people who score high on both extroversion and openness are more likely to participate in adventure and risky sports due to their curious and excitement-seeking nature (Tok, 2011). The fourth trait is agreeableness, which is the tendency to be pleasant, cooperative, trustworthy, and good-natured. People who score low on agreeableness tend to be described as rude and uncooperative, yet one recent study reported that men who scored low on this trait actually earned more money than men who were considered more agreeable (Judge, Livingston, & Hurst, 2012). The last of the Big Five traits is neuroticism, which is the tendency to experience negative emotions. People high on neuroticism tend to experience emotional instability and are characterized as angry, impulsive, and hostile. Watson and Clark (1984) found that people reporting high levels of neuroticism also tend to report feeling anxious and unhappy. In contrast, people who score low in neuroticism tend to be calm and even-tempered. The Big Five personality factors each represent a range between two extremes. In reality, most of us tend to lie somewhere midway along the continuum of each factor, rather than at polar ends. It’s important to note that the Big Five traits are relatively stable over our lifespan, with some tendency for the traits to increase or decrease slightly. Researchers have found that conscientiousness increases through young adulthood into middle age, as we become better able to manage our personal relationships and careers (Donnellan & Lucas, 2008). Agreeableness also increases with age, peaking between 50 to 70 years (Terracciano, McCrae, Brant, & Costa, 2005). Neuroticism and extroversion tend to decline slightly with age (Donnellan & Lucas; Terracciano et al.). Additionally, The Big Five traits have been shown to exist across ethnicities, cultures, and ages, and may have substantial biological and genetic components (Jang, Livesley, & Vernon, 1996; Jang et al., 2006; McCrae & Costa, 1997; Schmitt et al., 2007). To find out about your personality and where you fall on the Big Five traits, follow this link to take the Big Five personality test. Summary Trait theorists attempt to explain our personality by identifying our stable characteristics and ways of behaving. They have identified important dimensions of personality. The Five Factor Model is the most widely accepted trait theory today. The five factors are openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. These traits occur along a continuum. Review Questions According to the Eysencks’ theory, people who score high on neuroticism tend to be ________. - calm - stable - outgoing - anxious Hint: D Critical Thinking Questions How stable are the Big Five traits over one’s lifespan? Hint: The Big Five traits are relatively stable over our lifespan with a tendency for the traits to increase or decrease slightly. Researchers have found that conscientiousness increases through young adulthood into middle age, as we become better able to manage our personal relationships and careers. Agreeableness also increases with age, peaking between 50 to 70 years. However, neuroticism and extroversion tend to decline slightly with age. Compare the personality of someone who scores high on agreeableness to someone who scores low on agreeableness. Hint: A person with a high score on agreeableness is typically pleasant, cooperative, trustworthy and good-natured. People who score low on agreeableness tend to be described as rude and uncooperative. They may be difficult with which to work. Personal Application Questions Review the Big Five personality traits shown in Figure. On which areas would you expect you’d score high? In which areas does the low score more accurately describe you?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:04.995814	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15357/overview", "title": "Psychology, Personality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15358/overview	Cultural Understandings of Personality Overview By the end of this section you should be able to: - Discuss personality differences of people from collectivist and individualist cultures - Discuss the three approaches to studying personality in a cultural context As you have learned in this chapter, personality is shaped by both genetic and environmental factors. The culture in which you live is one of the most important environmental factors that shapes your personality (Triandis & Suh, 2002). The term culture refers to all of the beliefs, customs, art, and traditions of a particular society. Culture is transmitted to people through language as well as through the modeling of culturally acceptable and nonacceptable behaviors that are either rewarded or punished (Triandis & Suh, 2002). With these ideas in mind, personality psychologists have become interested in the role of culture in understanding personality. They ask whether personality traits are the same across cultures or if there are variations. It appears that there are both universal and culture-specific aspects that account for variation in people’s personalities. Why might it be important to consider cultural influences on personality? Western ideas about personality may not be applicable to other cultures (Benet-Martinez & Oishi, 2008). In fact, there is evidence that the strength of personality traits varies across cultures. Let’s take a look at some of the Big Five factors (conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness, and extroversion) across cultures. As you will learn when you study social psychology, Asian cultures are more collectivist, and people in these cultures tend to be less extroverted. People in Central and South American cultures tend to score higher on openness to experience, whereas Europeans score higher on neuroticism (Benet-Martinez & Karakitapoglu-Aygun, 2003). According to this study, there also seem to be regional personality differences within the United States (Figure). Researchers analyzed responses from over 1.5 million individuals in the United States and found that there are three distinct regional personality clusters: Cluster 1, which is in the Upper Midwest and Deep South, is dominated by people who fall into the “friendly and conventional” personality; Cluster 2, which includes the West, is dominated by people who are more relaxed, emotionally stable, calm, and creative; and Cluster 3, which includes the Northeast, has more people who are stressed, irritable, and depressed. People who live in Clusters 2 and 3 are also generally more open (Rentfrow et al., 2013). One explanation for the regional differences is selective migration (Rentfrow et al., 2013). Selective migration is the concept that people choose to move to places that are compatible with their personalities and needs. For example, a person high on the agreeable scale would likely want to live near family and friends, and would choose to settle or remain in such an area. In contrast, someone high on openness would prefer to settle in a place that is recognized as diverse and innovative (such as California). PERSONALITY IN INDIVIDUALIST AND COLLECTIVIST CULTURES Individualist cultures and collectivist cultures place emphasis on different basic values. People who live in individualist cultures tend to believe that independence, competition, and personal achievement are important. Individuals in Western nations such as the United States, England, and Australia score high on individualism (Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmier, 2002). People who live in collectivist cultures value social harmony, respectfulness, and group needs over individual needs. Individuals who live in countries in Asia, Africa, and South America score high on collectivism (Hofstede, 2001; Triandis, 1995). These values influence personality. For example, Yang (2006) found that people in individualist cultures displayed more personally oriented personality traits, whereas people in collectivist cultures displayed more socially oriented personality traits. APPROACHES TO STUDYING PERSONALITY IN A CULTURAL CONTEXT There are three approaches that can be used to study personality in a cultural context, the cultural-comparative approach; the indigenous approach; and the combined approach, which incorporates elements of both views. Since ideas about personality have a Western basis, the cultural-comparative approach seeks to test Western ideas about personality in other cultures to determine whether they can be generalized and if they have cultural validity (Cheung van de Vijver, & Leong, 2011). For example, recall from the previous section on the trait perspective that researchers used the cultural-comparative approach to test the universality of McCrae and Costa’s Five Factor Model. They found applicability in numerous cultures around the world, with the Big Five traits being stable in many cultures (McCrae & Costa, 1997; McCrae et al., 2005). The indigenous approach came about in reaction to the dominance of Western approaches to the study of personality in non-Western settings (Cheung et al., 2011). Because Western-based personality assessments cannot fully capture the personality constructs of other cultures, the indigenous model has led to the development of personality assessment instruments that are based on constructs relevant to the culture being studied (Cheung et al., 2011). The third approach to cross-cultural studies of personality is the combined approach, which serves as a bridge between Western and indigenous psychology as a way of understanding both universal and cultural variations in personality (Cheung et al., 2011). Summary The culture in which you live is one of the most important environmental factors that shapes your personality. Western ideas about personality may not be applicable to other cultures. In fact, there is evidence that the strength of personality traits varies across cultures. Individualist cultures and collectivist cultures place emphasis on different basic values. People who live in individualist cultures tend to believe that independence, competition, and personal achievement are important. People who live in collectivist cultures value social harmony, respectfulness, and group needs over individual needs. There are three approaches that can be used to study personality in a cultural context: the cultural-comparative approach, the indigenous approach, and the combined approach, which incorporates both elements of both views. Review Questions The United States is considered a ________ culture. - collectivistic - individualist - traditional - nontraditional Hint: B The concept that people choose to move to places that are compatible with their personalities and needs is known as ________. - selective migration - personal oriented personality - socially oriented personality - individualism Hint: A Critical Thinking Questions Why might it be important to consider cultural influences on personality? Hint: Since culture influences one’s personality, then Western ideas about personality may not be applicable to people of other cultures. In addition, Western-based measures of personality assessment may not be valid when used to collect data on people from other cultures. Personal Application Questions According to the work of Rentfrow and colleagues, personalities are not randomly distributed. Instead they fit into distinct geographic clusters. Based on where you live, do you agree or disagree with the traits associated with yourself and the residents of your area of the country? Why or why not?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.019090	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15358/overview", "title": "Psychology, Personality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15359/overview	Personality Assessment Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - Recognize and describe common projective tests used in personality assessment Roberto, Mikhail, and Nat are college friends and all want to be police officers. Roberto is quiet and shy, lacks self-confidence, and usually follows others. He is a kind person, but lacks motivation. Mikhail is loud and boisterous, a leader. He works hard, but is impulsive and drinks too much on the weekends. Nat is thoughtful and well liked. He is trustworthy, but sometimes he has difficulty making quick decisions. Of these three men, who would make the best police officer? What qualities and personality factors make someone a good police officer? What makes someone a bad or dangerous police officer? A police officer’s job is very high in stress, and law enforcement agencies want to make sure they hire the right people. Personality testing is often used for this purpose—to screen applicants for employment and job training. Personality tests are also used in criminal cases and custody battles, and to assess psychological disorders. This section explores the best known among the many different types of personality tests. SELF-REPORT INVENTORIES Self-report inventories are a kind of objective test used to assess personality. They typically use multiple-choice items or numbered scales, which represent a range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). They often are called Likert scales after their developer, Rensis Likert (1932) (Figure). One of the most widely used personality inventories is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), first published in 1943, with 504 true/false questions, and updated to the MMPI-2 in 1989, with 567 questions. The original MMPI was based on a small, limited sample, composed mostly of Minnesota farmers and psychiatric patients; the revised inventory was based on a more representative, national sample to allow for better standardization. The MMPI-2 takes 1–2 hours to complete. Responses are scored to produce a clinical profile composed of 10 scales: hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviance (social deviance), masculinity versus femininity, paranoia, psychasthenia (obsessive/compulsive qualities), schizophrenia, hypomania, and social introversion. There is also a scale to ascertain risk factors for alcohol abuse. In 2008, the test was again revised, using more advanced methods, to the MMPI-2-RF. This version takes about one-half the time to complete and has only 338 questions (Figure). Despite the new test’s advantages, the MMPI-2 is more established and is still more widely used. Typically, the tests are administered by computer. Although the MMPI was originally developed to assist in the clinical diagnosis of psychological disorders, it is now also used for occupational screening, such as in law enforcement, and in college, career, and marital counseling (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008). In addition to clinical scales, the tests also have validity and reliability scales. (Recall the concepts of reliability and validity from your study of psychological research.) One of the validity scales, the Lie Scale (or “L” Scale), consists of 15 items and is used to ascertain whether the respondent is “faking good” (underreporting psychological problems to appear healthier). For example, if someone responds “yes” to a number of unrealistically positive items such as “I have never told a lie,” they may be trying to “fake good” or appear better than they actually are. Reliability scales test an instrument’s consistency over time, assuring that if you take the MMPI-2-RF today and then again 5 years later, your two scores will be similar. Beutler, Nussbaum, and Meredith (1988) gave the MMPI to newly recruited police officers and then to the same police officers 2 years later. After 2 years on the job, police officers’ responses indicated an increased vulnerability to alcoholism, somatic symptoms (vague, unexplained physical complaints), and anxiety. When the test was given an additional 2 years later (4 years after starting on the job), the results suggested high risk for alcohol-related difficulties. PROJECTIVE TESTS Another method for assessment of personality is projective testing. This kind of test relies on one of the defense mechanisms proposed by Freud—projection—as a way to assess unconscious processes. During this type of testing, a series of ambiguous cards is shown to the person being tested, who then is encouraged to project his feelings, impulses, and desires onto the cards—by telling a story, interpreting an image, or completing a sentence. Many projective tests have undergone standardization procedures (for example, Exner, 2002) and can be used to access whether someone has unusual thoughts or a high level of anxiety, or is likely to become volatile. Some examples of projective tests are the Rorschach Inkblot Test, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), the Contemporized-Themes Concerning Blacks test, the TEMAS (Tell-Me-A-Story), and the Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB). The Rorschach Inkblot Test was developed in 1921 by a Swiss psychologist named Hermann Rorschach (pronounced “ROAR-shock”). It is a series of symmetrical inkblot cards that are presented to a client by a psychologist. Upon presentation of each card, the psychologist asks the client, “What might this be?” What the test-taker sees reveals unconscious feelings and struggles (Piotrowski, 1987; Weiner, 2003). The Rorschach has been standardized using the Exner system and is effective in measuring depression, psychosis, and anxiety. A second projective test is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), created in the 1930s by Henry Murray, an American psychologist, and a psychoanalyst named Christiana Morgan. A person taking the TAT is shown 8–12 ambiguous pictures and is asked to tell a story about each picture. The stories give insight into their social world, revealing hopes, fears, interests, and goals. The storytelling format helps to lower a person’s resistance divulging unconscious personal details (Cramer, 2004). The TAT has been used in clinical settings to evaluate psychological disorders; more recently, it has been used in counseling settings to help clients gain a better understanding of themselves and achieve personal growth. Standardization of test administration is virtually nonexistent among clinicians, and the test tends to be modest to low on validity and reliability (Aronow, Weiss, & Rezinkoff, 2001; Lilienfeld, Wood, & Garb, 2000). Despite these shortcomings, the TAT has been one of the most widely used projective tests. A third projective test is the Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB) developed by Julian Rotter in 1950 (recall his theory of locus of control, covered earlier in this chapter). There are three forms of this test for use with different age groups: the school form, the college form, and the adult form. The tests include 40 incomplete sentences that people are asked to complete as quickly as possible (Figure). The average time for completing the test is approximately 20 minutes, as responses are only 1–2 words in length. This test is similar to a word association test, and like other types of projective tests, it is presumed that responses will reveal desires, fears, and struggles. The RISB is used in screening college students for adjustment problems and in career counseling (Holaday, Smith, & Sherry, 2010; Rotter & Rafferty 1950). For many decades, these traditional projective tests have been used in cross-cultural personality assessments. However, it was found that test bias limited their usefulness (Hoy-Watkins & Jenkins-Moore, 2008). It is difficult to assess the personalities and lifestyles of members of widely divergent ethnic/cultural groups using personality instruments based on data from a single culture or race (Hoy-Watkins & Jenkins-Moore, 2008). For example, when the TAT was used with African-American test takers, the result was often shorter story length and low levels of cultural identification (Duzant, 2005). Therefore, it was vital to develop other personality assessments that explored factors such as race, language, and level of acculturation (Hoy-Watkins & Jenkins-Moore, 2008). To address this need, Robert Williams developed the first culturally specific projective test designed to reflect the everyday life experiences of African Americans (Hoy-Watkins & Jenkins-Moore, 2008). The updated version of the instrument is the Contemporized-Themes Concerning Blacks Test (C-TCB) (Williams, 1972). The C-TCB contains 20 color images that show scenes of African-American lifestyles. When the C-TCB was compared with the TAT for African Americans, it was found that use of the C-TCB led to increased story length, higher degrees of positive feelings, and stronger identification with the C-TCB (Hoy, 1997; Hoy-Watkins & Jenkins-Moore, 2008). The TEMAS Multicultural Thematic Apperception Test is another tool designed to be culturally relevant to minority groups, especially Hispanic youths. TEMAS—standing for “Tell Me a Story” but also a play on the Spanish word temas (themes)—uses images and storytelling cues that relate to minority culture (Constantino, 1982). Summary Personality tests are techniques designed to measure one’s personality. They are used to diagnose psychological problems as well as to screen candidates for college and employment. There are two types of personality tests: self-report inventories and projective tests. The MMPI is one of the most common self-report inventories. It asks a series of true/false questions that are designed to provide a clinical profile of an individual. Projective tests use ambiguous images or other ambiguous stimuli to assess an individual’s unconscious fears, desires, and challenges. The Rorschach Inkblot Test, the TAT, the RISB, and the C-TCB are all forms of projective tests. Review Questions Which of the following is NOT a projective test? - Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) - Rorschach Inkblot Test - Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) - Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB) Hint: A A personality assessment in which a person responds to ambiguous stimuli, revealing unconscious feelings, impulses, and desires ________. - self-report inventory - projective test - Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) - Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Hint: B Which personality assessment employs a series of true/false questions? - Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) - Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) - Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB) - Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Hint: A Critical Thinking Questions Why might a prospective employer screen applicants using personality assessments? Hint: They can help an employer predict a candidate’s reactions and attitudes to various situations they might encounter on the job, thus helping choose the right person for the job. This is particularly important in hiring for a high-risk job such as law enforcement. Personality tests can also reveal a potential employee’s desirable qualities such as honesty, motivation, and conscientiousness. Why would a clinician give someone a projective test? Hint: A projective test could give the clinician clues about dreams, fears, and personal struggles of which the client may be unaware, since these tests are designed to reveal unconscious motivations and attitudes. They can also help clinicians diagnose psychological disorders. Personal Application Questions How objective do you think you can be about yourself in answering questions on self-report personality assessment measures? What implications might this have for the validity of the personality test?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.053209	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15359/overview", "title": "Psychology, Personality", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15562/overview	Introduction Overview - The War on Terror - The Domestic Mission - New Century, Old Disputes - Hope and Change On the morning of September 11, 2001, hopes that the new century would leave behind the conflicts of the previous one were dashed when two hijacked airliners crashed into the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center. When the first plane struck the north tower, many assumed that the crash was a horrific accident. But then a second plane hit the south tower less than thirty minutes later. People on the street watched in horror, as some of those trapped in the burning buildings jumped to their deaths and the enormous towers collapsed into dust. In the photo above, the Statue of Liberty appears to look on helplessly, as thick plumes of smoke obscure the Lower Manhattan skyline (Figure). The events set in motion by the September 11 attacks would raise fundamental questions about the United States’ role in the world, the extent to which privacy should be protected at the cost of security, the definition of exactly who is an American, and the cost of liberty.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.068373	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15562/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15563/overview	The War on Terror Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss how the United States responded to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 - Explain why the United States went to war against Afghanistan and Iraq - Describe the treatment of suspected terrorists by U.S. law enforcement agencies and the U.S. military As a result of the narrow decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, Republican George W. Bush was the declared the winner of the 2000 presidential election with a majority in the Electoral College of 271 votes to 266, although he received approximately 540,000 fewer popular votes nationally than his Democratic opponent, Bill Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore. Bush had campaigned with a promise of “compassionate conservatism” at home and nonintervention abroad. These platform planks were designed to appeal to those who felt that the Clinton administration’s initiatives in the Balkans and Africa had unnecessarily entangled the United States in the conflicts of foreign nations. Bush’s 2001 education reform act, dubbed No Child Left Behind, had strong bipartisan support and reflected his domestic interests. But before the president could sign the bill into law, the world changed when terrorists hijacked four American airliners to use them in the deadliest attack on the United States since the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Bush’s domestic agenda quickly took a backseat, as the president swiftly changed course from nonintervention in foreign affairs to a “war on terror.” 9/11 Shortly after takeoff on the morning of September 11, 2001, teams of hijackers from the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda seized control of four American airliners. Two of the airplanes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Morning news programs that were filming the moments after the first impact, then assumed to be an accident, captured and aired live footage of the second plane, as it barreled into the other tower in a flash of fire and smoke. Less than two hours later, the heat from the crash and the explosion of jet fuel caused the upper floors of both buildings to collapse onto the lower floors, reducing both towers to smoldering rubble. The passengers and crew on both planes, as well as 2,606 people in the two buildings, all died, including 343 New York City firefighters who rushed in to save victims shortly before the towers collapsed. The third hijacked plane was flown into the Pentagon building in northern Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, killing everyone on board and 125 people on the ground. The fourth plane, also heading towards Washington, crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, when passengers, aware of the other attacks, attempted to storm the cockpit and disarm the hijackers. Everyone on board was killed (Figure). That evening, President Bush promised the nation that those responsible for the attacks would be brought to justice. Three days later, Congress issued a joint resolution authorizing the president to use all means necessary against the individuals, organizations, or nations involved in the attacks. On September 20, in an address to a joint session of Congress, Bush declared war on terrorism, blamed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for the attacks, and demanded that the radical Islamic fundamentalists who ruled Afghanistan, the Taliban, turn bin Laden over or face attack by the United States. This speech encapsulated what became known as the Bush Doctrine, the belief that the United States has the right to protect itself from terrorist acts by engaging in pre-emptive wars or ousting hostile governments in favor of friendly, preferably democratic, regimes. Read the text of President Bush’s address to Congress declaring a “war on terror.” World leaders and millions of their citizens expressed support for the United States and condemned the deadly attacks. Russian president Vladimir Putin characterized them as a bold challenge to humanity itself. German chancellor Gerhard Schroder said the events of that day were “not only attacks on the people in the United States, our friends in America, but also against the entire civilized world, against our own freedom, against our own values, values which we share with the American people.” Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and a veteran of several bloody struggles against Israel, was dumbfounded by the news and announced to reporters in Gaza, “We completely condemn this very dangerous attack, and I convey my condolences to the American people, to the American president and to the American administration.” In May 2014, a Museum dedicated to the memory of the victims was completed. Watch this video and learn more about the victims and how the country seeks to remember them. GOING TO WAR IN AFGHANISTAN When it became clear that the mastermind behind the attack was Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi Arabian national who ran his terror network from Afghanistan, the full attention of the United States turned towards Central Asia and the Taliban. Bin Laden had deep roots in Afghanistan. Like many others from around the Islamic world, he had come to the country to oust the Soviet army, which invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Ironically, both bin Laden and the Taliban received material support from the United States at that time. By the late 1980s, the Soviets and the Americans had both left, although bin Laden, by that time the leader of his own terrorist organization, al-Qaeda, remained. The Taliban refused to turn bin Laden over, and the United States began a bombing campaign in October, allying with the Afghan Northern Alliance, a coalition of tribal leaders opposed to the Taliban. U.S. air support was soon augmented by ground troops (Figure). By November 2001, the Taliban had been ousted from power in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul, but bin Laden and his followers had already escaped across the Afghan border to mountain sanctuaries in northern Pakistan. IRAQ At the same time that the U.S. military was taking control of Afghanistan, the Bush administration was looking to a new and larger war with the country of Iraq. Relations between the United States and Iraq had been strained ever since the Gulf War a decade earlier. Economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations, and American attempts to foster internal revolts against President Saddam Hussein’s government, had further tainted the relationship. A faction within the Bush administration, sometimes labeled neoconservatives, believed Iraq’s recalcitrance in the face of overwhelming U.S. military superiority represented a dangerous symbol to terrorist groups around the world, recently emboldened by the dramatic success of the al-Qaeda attacks in the United States. Powerful members of this faction, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, believed the time to strike Iraq and solve this festering problem was right then, in the wake of 9/11. Others, like Secretary of State Colin Powell, a highly respected veteran of the Vietnam War and former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were more cautious about initiating combat. The more militant side won, and the argument for war was gradually laid out for the American people. The immediate impetus to the invasion, it argued, was the fear that Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction (WMDs): nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons capable of wreaking great havoc. Hussein had in fact used WMDs against Iranian forces during his war with Iran in the 1980s, and against the Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988—a time when the United States actively supported the Iraqi dictator. Following the Gulf War, inspectors from the United Nations Special Commission and International Atomic Energy Agency had in fact located and destroyed stockpiles of Iraqi weapons. Those arguing for a new Iraqi invasion insisted, however, that weapons still existed. President Bush himself told the nation in October 2002 that the United States was “facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof—the smoking gun—that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.” The head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, Hanx Blix, dismissed these claims. Blix argued that while Saddam Hussein was not being entirely forthright, he did not appear to be in possession of WMDs. Despite Blix’s findings and his own earlier misgivings, Powell argued in 2003 before the United Nations General Assembly that Hussein had violated UN resolutions. Much of his evidence relied on secret information provided by an informant that was later proven to be false. On March 17, 2003, the United States cut off all relations with Iraq. Two days later, in a coalition with Great Britain, Australia, and Poland, the United States began “Operation Iraqi Freedom” with an invasion of Iraq. Other arguments supporting the invasion noted the ease with which the operation could be accomplished. In February 2002, some in the Department of Defense were suggesting the war would be “a cakewalk.” In November, referencing the short and successful Gulf War of 1990–1991, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld told the American people it was absurd, as some were claiming, that the conflict would degenerate into a long, drawn-out quagmire. “Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn’t going to last any longer than that,” he insisted. “It won’t be a World War III.” And, just days before the start of combat operations in 2003, Vice President Cheney announced that U.S. forces would likely “be greeted as liberators,” and the war would be over in “weeks rather than months.” Early in the conflict, these predictions seemed to be coming true. The march into Bagdad went fairly smoothly. Soon Americans back home were watching on television as U.S. soldiers and the Iraqi people worked together to topple statues of the deposed leader Hussein around the capital. The reality, however, was far more complex. While American deaths had been few, thousands of Iraqis had died, and the seeds of internal strife and resentment against the United States had been sown. The United States was not prepared for a long period of occupation; it was also not prepared for the inevitable problems of law and order, or for the violent sectarian conflicts that emerged. Thus, even though Bush proclaimed a U.S. victory in May 2003, on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln with the banner “Mission Accomplished” prominently displayed behind him, the celebration proved premature by more than seven years (Figure). Lt. General James Conway on the Invasion of Baghdad Lt. General James Conway, who commanded the First Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, answers a reporter’s questions about civilian casualties during the 2003 invasion of Baghdad. “As a civilian in those early days, one definitely had the sense that the high command had expected something to happen which didn’t. Was that a correct perception?” —We were told by our intelligence folks that the enemy is carrying civilian clothes in their packs because, as soon as the shooting starts, they’re going put on their civilian clothes and they’re going go home. Well, they put on their civilian clothes, but not to go home. They put on civilian clothes to blend with the civilians and shoot back at us. . . . “There’s been some criticism of the behavior of the Marines at the Diyala bridge [across the Tigris River into Baghdad] in terms of civilian casualties.” —Well, after the Third Battalion, Fourth Marines crossed, the resistance was not all gone. . . . They had just fought to take a bridge. They were being counterattacked by enemy forces. Some of the civilian vehicles that wound up with the bullet holes in them contained enemy fighters in uniform with weapons, some of them did not. Again, we’re terribly sorry about the loss of any civilian life where civilians are killed in a battlefield setting. I will guarantee you, it was not the intent of those Marines to kill civilians. [The civilian casualties happened because the Marines] felt threatened, [and] they were having a tough time distinguishing from an enemy that [is violating] the laws of land warfare by going to civilian clothes, putting his own people at risk. All of those things, I think, [had an] impact [on the behavior of the Marines], and in the end it’s very unfortunate that civilians died. Who in your opinion bears primary responsibility for the deaths of Iraqi civilians? DOMESTIC SECURITY The attacks of September 11 awakened many to the reality that the end of the Cold War did not mean an end to foreign violent threats. Some Americans grew wary of alleged possible enemies in their midst and hate crimes against Muslim Americans—and those thought to be Muslims—surged in the aftermath. Fearing that terrorists might strike within the nation’s borders again, and aware of the chronic lack of cooperation among different federal law enforcement agencies, Bush created the Office of Homeland Security in October 2001. The next year, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act, creating the Department of Homeland Security, which centralized control over a number of different government functions in order to better control threats at home (Figure). The Bush administration also pushed the USA Patriot Act through Congress, which enabled law enforcement agencies to monitor citizens’ e-mails and phone conversations without a warrant. The Bush administration was fiercely committed to rooting out threats to the United States wherever they originated, and in the weeks after September 11, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) scoured the globe, sweeping up thousands of young Muslim men. Because U.S. law prohibits the use of torture, the CIA transferred some of these prisoners to other nations—a practice known as rendition or extraordinary rendition—where the local authorities can use methods of interrogation not allowed in the United States. While the CIA operates overseas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the chief federal law enforcement agency within U.S. national borders. Its activities are limited by, among other things, the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures. Beginning in 2002, however, the Bush administration implemented a wide-ranging program of warrantless domestic wiretapping, known as the Terrorist Surveillance Program, by the National Security Agency (NSA). The shaky constitutional basis for this program was ultimately revealed in August 2006, when a federal judge in Detroit ordered the program ended immediately. The use of unconstitutional wire taps to prosecute the war on terrorism was only one way the new threat challenged authorities in the United States. Another problem was deciding what to do with foreign terrorists captured on the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq. In traditional conflicts, where both sides are uniformed combatants, the rules of engagement and the treatment of prisoners of war are clear. But in the new war on terror, extracting intelligence about upcoming attacks became a top priority that superseded human rights and constitutional concerns. For that purpose, the United States began transporting men suspected of being members of al-Qaeda to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for questioning. The Bush administration labeled the detainees “unlawful combatants,” in an effort to avoid affording them the rights guaranteed to prisoners of war, such as protection from torture, by international treaties such as the Geneva Conventions. Furthermore, the Justice Department argued that the prisoners were unable to sue for their rights in U.S. courts on the grounds that the constitution did not apply to U.S. territories. It was only in 2006 that the Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that the military tribunals that tried Guantanamo prisoners violated both U.S. federal law and the Geneva Conventions. Section Summary George W. Bush’s first term in office began with al-Qaeda’s deadly attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Shortly thereafter, the United States found itself at war with Afghanistan, which was accused of harboring the 9/11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden, and his followers. Claiming that Iraq’s president Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction, perhaps with the intent of attacking the United States, the president sent U.S. troops to Iraq as well in 2003. Thousands were killed, and many of the men captured by the United States were imprisoned and sometimes tortured for information. The ease with which Hussein was deposed led the president to declare that the mission in Iraq had been accomplished only a few months after it began. He was, however, mistaken. Meanwhile, the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security and the passage of the Homeland Security Act and USA Patriot Act created new means and levels of surveillance to identify potential threats. Review Questions The prison operated by the U.S. military for the detention and interrogation of terrorist suspects and “enemy combatants” is located at ________. - Kuwait City, Kuwait - Riker’s Island, New York - Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - Lahore, Pakistan Hint: C Unwarranted wiretapping in the United States was conducted by ________. - the FBI - the CIA - the New York Times - the NSA Hint: D In what ways did the U.S. government attempt to deny the rights of prisoners taken in Afghanistan and Iraq? Hint: The United States denied the rights of prisoners captured in Afghanistan and Iraq by imprisoning and interrogating them outside of the United States, where they were not protected by U.S. law. The U.S. also classified these prisoners as “unlawful combatants,” so that they would not be entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.096637	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15563/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15564/overview	The Domestic Mission Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss the Bush administration’s economic theories and tax policies, and their effects on the American economy - Explain how the federal government attempted to improve the American public education system - Describe the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina - Identify the causes of the Great Recession of 2008 and its effect on the average citizen By the time George W. Bush became president, the concept of supply-side economics had become an article of faith within the Republican Party. The oft-repeated argument was that tax cuts for the wealthy would allow them to invest more and create jobs for everyone else. This belief in the self-regulatory powers of competition also served as the foundation of Bush’s education reform. But by the end of 2008, however, Americans’ faith in the dynamics of the free market had been badly shaken. The failure of the homeland security apparatus during Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing challenge of the Iraq War compounded the effects of the bleak economic situation. OPENING AND CLOSING THE GAP The Republican Party platform for the 2000 election offered the American people an opportunity to once again test the rosy expectations of supply-side economics. In 2001, Bush and the Republicans pushed through a $1.35 trillion tax cut by lowering tax rates across the board but reserving the largest cuts for those in the highest tax brackets. This was in the face of calls by Republicans for a balanced budget, which Bush insisted would happen when the so-called job creators expanded the economy by using their increased income to invest in business. The cuts were controversial; the rich were getting richer while the middle and lower classes bore a proportionally larger share of the nation’s tax burden. Between 1966 and 2001, one-half of the nation’s income gained from increased productivity went to the top 0.01 percent of earners. By 2005, dramatic examples of income inequity were increasing; the chief executive of Wal-Mart earned $15 million that year, roughly 950 times what the company’s average associate made. The head of the construction company K. B. Homes made $150 million, or four thousand times what the average construction worker earned that same year. Even as productivity climbed, workers’ incomes stagnated; with a larger share of the wealth, the very rich further solidified their influence on public policy. Left with a smaller share of the economic pie, average workers had fewer resources to improve their lives or contribute to the nation’s prosperity by, for example, educating themselves and their children. Another gap that had been widening for years was the education gap. Some education researchers had argued that American students were being left behind. In 1983, a commission established by Ronald Reagan had published a sobering assessment of the American educational system entitled A Nation at Risk. The report argued that American students were more poorly educated than their peers in other countries, especially in areas such as math and science, and were thus unprepared to compete in the global marketplace. Furthermore, test scores revealed serious educational achievement gaps between white students and students of color. Touting himself as the “education president,” Bush sought to introduce reforms that would close these gaps. His administration offered two potential solutions to these problems. First, it sought to hold schools accountable for raising standards and enabling students to meet them. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in January 2002, erected a system of testing to measure and ultimately improve student performance in reading and math at all schools that received federal funds (Figure). Schools whose students performed poorly on the tests would be labeled “in need of improvement.” If poor performance continued, schools could face changes in curricula and teachers, or even the prospect of closure. The second proposed solution was to give students the opportunity to attend schools with better performance records. Some of these might be charter schools, institutions funded by local tax monies in much the same way as public schools, but able to accept private donations and exempt from some of the rules public schools must follow. During the administration of George H. W. Bush, the development of charter schools had gathered momentum, and the American Federation of Teachers welcomed them as places to employ innovative teaching methods or offer specialized instruction in particular subjects. President George W. Bush now encouraged states to grant educational funding vouchers to parents, who could use them to pay for a private education for their children if they chose. These vouchers were funded by tax revenue that would otherwise have gone to public schools. THE 2004 ELECTION AND BUSH’S SECOND TERM In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Americans had rallied around their president in a gesture of patriotic loyalty, giving Bush approval ratings of 90 percent. Even following the first few months of the Iraq war, his approval rating remained historically high at approximately 70 percent. But as the 2004 election approached, opposition to the war in Iraq began to grow. While Bush could boast of a number of achievements at home and abroad during his first term, the narrow victory he achieved in 2000 augured poorly for his chances for reelection in 2004 and a successful second term. Reelection As the 2004 campaign ramped up, the president was persistently dogged by rising criticism of the violence of the Iraq war and the fact that his administration’s claims of WMDs had been greatly overstated. In the end, no such weapons were ever found. These criticisms were amplified by growing international concern over the treatment of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and widespread disgust over the torture conducted by U.S. troops at the prison in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, which surfaced only months before the election (Figure). In March 2004, an ambush by Iraqi insurgents of a convoy of private military contractors from Blackwater USA in the town of Fallujah west of Baghdad, and the subsequent torture and mutilation of the four captured mercenaries, shocked the American public. But the event also highlighted the growing insurgency against U.S. occupation, the escalating sectarian conflict between the newly empowered Shia Muslims and the minority of the formerly ruling Sunni, and the escalating costs of a war involving a large number of private contractors that, by conservative estimates, approached $1.7 trillion by 2013. Just as importantly, the American campaign in Iraq had diverted resources from the war against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, where U.S troops were no closer to capturing Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. With two hot wars overseas, one of which appeared to be spiraling out of control, the Democrats nominated a decorated Vietnam War veteran, Massachusetts senator John Kerry (Figure), to challenge Bush for the presidency. As someone with combat experience, three Purple Hearts, and a foreign policy background, Kerry seemed like the right challenger in a time of war. But his record of support for the invasion of Iraq made his criticism of the incumbent less compelling and earned him the byname “Waffler” from Republicans. The Bush campaign also sought to characterize Kerry as an elitist out of touch with regular Americans—Kerry had studied overseas, spoke fluent French, and married a wealthy foreign-born heiress. Republican supporters also unleashed an attack on Kerry’s Vietnam War record, falsely claiming he had lied about his experience and fraudulently received his medals. Kerry’s reluctance to embrace his past leadership of Vietnam Veterans Against the War weakened the enthusiasm of antiwar Americans while opening him up to criticisms from veterans groups. This combination compromised the impact of his challenge to the incumbent in a time of war. Urged by the Republican Party to “stay the course” with Bush, voters listened. Bush won another narrow victory, and the Republican Party did well overall, picking up four seats in the Senate and increasing its majority there to fifty-five. In the House, the Republican Party gained three seats, adding to its majority there as well. Across the nation, most governorships also went to Republicans, and Republicans dominated many state legislatures. Despite a narrow win, the president made a bold declaration in his first news conference following the election. “I earned capital in this campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.” The policies on which he chose to spend this political capital included the partial privatization of Social Security and new limits on court-awarded damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. In foreign affairs, Bush promised that the United States would work towards “ending tyranny in the world.” But at home and abroad, the president achieved few of his second-term goals. Instead, his second term in office became associated with the persistent challenge of pacifying Iraq, the failure of the homeland security apparatus during Hurricane Katrina, and the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression. A Failed Domestic Agenda The Bush administration had planned a series of free-market reforms, but corruption, scandals, and Democrats in Congress made these goals hard to accomplish. Plans to convert Social Security into a private-market mechanism relied on the claim that demographic trends would eventually make the system unaffordable for the shrinking number of young workers, but critics countered that this was easily fixed. Privatization, on the other hand, threatened to derail the mission of the New Deal welfare agency and turn it into a fee generator for stock brokers and Wall Street financiers. Similarly unpopular was the attempt to abolish the estate tax. Labeled the “death tax” by its critics, its abolishment would have benefitted only the wealthiest 1 percent. As a result of the 2003 tax cuts, the growing federal deficit did not help make the case for Republicans. The nation faced another policy crisis when the Republican-dominated House of Representatives approved a bill making the undocumented status of millions of immigrants a felony and criminalizing the act of employing or knowingly aiding illegal immigrants. In response, millions of illegal and legal immigrants, along with other critics of the bill, took to the streets in protest. What they saw as the civil rights challenge of their generation, conservatives read as a dangerous challenge to law and national security. Congress eventually agreed on a massive build-up of the U.S. Border Patrol and the construction of a seven-hundred-mile-long fence along the border with Mexico, but the deep divisions over immigration and the status of up to twelve million undocumented immigrants remained unresolved. Hurricane Katrina One event highlighted the nation’s economic inequality and racial divisions, as well as the Bush administration’s difficulty in addressing them effectively. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina came ashore and devastated coastal stretches of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The city of New Orleans, no stranger to hurricanes and floods, suffered heavy damage when the levees, embankments designed to protect against flooding, failed during the storm surge, as the Army Corps of Engineers had warned they might. The flooding killed some fifteen hundred people and so overwhelmed parts of the city that tens of thousands more were trapped and unable to evacuate (Figure). Thousands who were elderly, ill, or too poor to own a car followed the mayor’s directions and sought refuge at the Superdome, which lacked adequate food, water, and sanitation. Public services collapsed under the weight of the crisis. See pictures of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and read and view accounts of survivors of the disaster. Although the U.S. Coast Guard managed to rescue more than thirty-five thousand people from the stricken city, the response by other federal bodies was less effective. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency charged with assisting state and local governments in times of natural disaster, proved inept at coordinating different agencies and utilizing the rescue infrastructure at its disposal. Critics argued that FEMA was to blame and that its director, Michael D. Brown, a Bush friend and appointee with no background in emergency management, was an example of cronyism at its worst. The failures of FEMA were particularly harmful for an administration that had made “homeland security” its top priority. Supporters of the president, however, argued that the scale of the disaster was such that no amount of preparedness or competence could have allowed federal agencies to cope. While there was plenty of blame to go around—at the city, state, and national levels—FEMA and the Bush administration got the lion’s share. Even when the president attempted to demonstrate his concern with a personal appearance, the tactic largely backfired. Photographs of him looking down on a flooded New Orleans from the comfort of Air Force One only reinforced the impression of a president detached from the problems of everyday people. Despite his attempts to give an uplifting speech from Jackson Square, he was unable to shake this characterization, and it underscored the disappointments of his second term. On the eve of the 2006 midterm elections, President Bush’s popularity had reached a new low, as a result of the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina, and a growing number of Americans feared that his party’s economic policy benefitted the wealthy first and foremost. Young voters, non-white Americans, and women favored the Democratic ticket by large margins. The elections handed Democrats control of the Senate and House for the first time since 1994, and, in January 2007, California representative Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the House in the nation’s history. THE GREAT RECESSION For most Americans, the millennium had started with economic woes. In March 2001, the U.S. stock market had taken a sharp drop, and the ensuing recession triggered the loss of millions of jobs over the next two years. In response, the Federal Reserve Board cut interest rates to historic lows to encourage consumer spending. By 2002, the economy seemed to be stabilizing somewhat, but few of the manufacturing jobs lost were restored to the national economy. Instead, the “outsourcing” of jobs to China and India became an increasing concern, along with a surge in corporate scandals. After years of reaping tremendous profits in the deregulated energy markets, Houston-based Enron imploded in 2003 over allegations of massive accounting fraud. Its top executives, Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, received long prison sentences, but their activities were illustrative of a larger trend in the nation’s corporate culture that embroiled reputable companies like JP Morgan Chase and the accounting firm Arthur Anderson. In 2003, Bernard Ebbers, the CEO of communications giant WorldCom, was discovered to have inflated his company’s assets by as much as $11 billion, making it the largest accounting scandal in the nation’s history. Only five years later, however, Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme would reveal even deeper cracks in the nation’s financial economy. Banks Gone Wild Notwithstanding economic growth in the 1990s and steadily increasing productivity, wages had remained largely flat relative to inflation since the end of the 1970s; despite the mild recovery, they remained so. To compensate, many consumers were buying on credit, and with interest rates low, financial institutions were eager to oblige them. By 2008, credit card debt had risen to over $1 trillion. More importantly, banks were making high-risk, high-interest mortgage loans called subprime mortgages to consumers who often misunderstood their complex terms and lacked the ability to make the required payments. These subprime loans had a devastating impact on the larger economy. In the past, a prospective home buyer went to a local bank for a mortgage loan. Because the bank expected to make a profit in the form of interest charged on the loan, it carefully vetted buyers for their ability to repay. Changes in finance and banking laws in the 1990s and early 2000s, however, allowed lending institutions to securitize their mortgage loans and sell them as bonds, thus separating the financial interests of the lender from the ability of the borrower to repay, and making highly risky loans more attractive to lenders. In other words, banks could afford to make bad loans, because they could sell them and not suffer the financial consequences when borrowers failed to repay. Once they had purchased the loans, larger investment banks bundled them into huge packages known as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and sold them to investors around the world. Even though CDOs consisted of subprime mortgages, credit card debt, and other risky investments, credit ratings agencies had a financial incentive to rate them as very safe. Making matters worse, financial institutions created instruments called credit default swaps, which were essentially a form of insurance on investments. If the investment lost money, the investors would be compensated. This system, sometimes referred to as the securitization food chain, greatly swelled the housing loan market, especially the market for subprime mortgages, because these loans carried higher interest rates. The result was a housing bubble, in which the value of homes rose year after year based on the ease with which people now could buy them. Banks Gone Broke When the real estate market stalled after reaching a peak in 2007, the house of cards built by the country’s largest financial institutions came tumbling down. People began to default on their loans, and more than one hundred mortgage lenders went out of business. American International Group (AIG), a multinational insurance company that had insured many of the investments, faced collapse. Other large financial institutions, which had once been prevented by federal regulations from engaging in risky investment practices, found themselves in danger, as they either were besieged by demands for payment or found their demands on their own insurers unmet. The prestigious investment firm Lehman Brothers was completely wiped out in September 2008. Some endangered companies, like Wall Street giant Merrill Lynch, sold themselves to other financial institutions to survive. A financial panic ensued that revealed other fraudulent schemes built on CDOs. The biggest among them was a pyramid scheme organized by the New York financier Bernard Madoff, who had defrauded his investors by at least $18 billion. Realizing that the failure of major financial institutions could result in the collapse of the entire U.S. economy, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, authorized a bailout of the Wall Street firm Bear Stearns, although months later, the financial services firm Lehman Brothers was allowed to file for the largest bankruptcy in the nation’s history. Members of Congress met with Bernanke and Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson in September 2008, to find a way to head off the crisis. They agreed to use $700 billion in federal funds to bail out the troubled institutions, and Congress subsequently passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, creating the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). One important element of this program was aid to the auto industry: The Bush administration responded to their appeal with an emergency loan of $17.4 billion—to be executed by his successor after the November election—to stave off the industry’s collapse. The actions of the Federal Reserve, Congress, and the president prevented the complete disintegration of the nation’s financial sector and warded off a scenario like that of the Great Depression. However, the bailouts could not prevent a severe recession in the U.S. and world economy. As people lost faith in the economy, stock prices fell by 45 percent. Unable to receive credit from now-wary banks, smaller businesses found that they could not pay suppliers or employees. With houses at record prices and growing economic uncertainty, people stopped buying new homes. As the value of homes decreased, owners were unable to borrow against them to pay off other obligations, such as credit card debt or car loans. More importantly, millions of homeowners who had expected to sell their houses at a profit and pay off their adjustable-rate mortgages were now stuck in houses with values shrinking below their purchasing price and forced to make mortgage payments they could no longer afford. Without access to credit, consumer spending declined. Some European nations had suffered similar speculation bubbles in housing, but all had bought into the mortgage securities market and suffered the losses of assets, jobs, and demand as a result. International trade slowed, hurting many American businesses. As the Great Recession of 2008 deepened, the situation of ordinary citizens became worse. During the last four months of 2008, one million American workers lost their jobs, and during 2009, another three million found themselves out of work. Under such circumstances, many resented the expensive federal bailout of banks and investment firms. It seemed as if the wealthiest were being rescued by the taxpayer from the consequences of their imprudent and even corrupt practices. Section Summary When George W. Bush took office in January 2001, he was committed to a Republican agenda. He cut tax rates for the rich and tried to limit the role of government in people’s lives, in part by providing students with vouchers to attend charter and private schools, and encouraging religious organizations to provide social services instead of the government. While his tax cuts pushed the United States into a chronically large federal deficit, many of his supply-side economic reforms stalled during his second term. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina underscored the limited capacities of the federal government under Bush to assure homeland security. In combination with increasing discontent over the Iraq War, these events handed Democrats a majority in both houses in 2006. Largely as a result of a deregulated bond market and dubious innovations in home mortgages, the nation reached the pinnacle of a real estate boom in 2007. The threatened collapse of the nations’ banks and investment houses required the administration to extend aid to the financial sector. Many resented this bailout of the rich, as ordinary citizens lost jobs and homes in the Great Recession of 2008. Review Questions What investment banking firm went bankrupt in 2008, signaling the beginning of a major economic crisis? - CitiBank - Wells Fargo - Lehman Brothers - Price Waterhouse Hint: C A subprime mortgage is ________. - a high-risk, high-interest loan - a federal bailout for major banks - a form of insurance on investments - a form of political capital Hint: A What are the pros and cons of school vouchers? Hint: Giving vouchers to public school students enables them to pay to attend better-performing charter or private schools. However, school vouchers take money and good students away from public schools, making it more difficult for those schools to improve.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.127347	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15564/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15565/overview	New Century, Old Disputes Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the efforts to reduce the influence of immigrants on American culture - Describe the evolution of twenty-first-century American attitudes towards same-sex marriage - Explain the clash over climate change As the United States entered the twenty-first century, old disputes continued to rear their heads. Some revolved around what it meant to be American and the rights to full citizenship. Others arose from religious conservatism and the influence of the Religious Right on American culture and society. Debates over gay and lesbian rights continued, and arguments over abortion became more complex and contentious, as science and technology advanced. The clash between faith and science also influenced attitudes about how the government should respond to climate change, with religious conservatives finding allies among political conservatives who favored business over potentially expensive measures to reduce harmful emissions. WHO IS AN AMERICAN? There is nothing new about anxiety over immigration in the United States. For its entire history, citizens have worried about who is entering the country and the changes that might result. Such concerns began to flare once again beginning in the 1980s, as Americans of European ancestry started to recognize the significant demographic changes on the horizon. The number of Americans of color and multiethnic Americans was growing, as was the percentage of people with other than European ancestry. It was clear the white majority would soon be a demographic minority (Figure). The nation’s increasing diversity prompted some social conservatives to identify American culture as one of European heritage, including the drive to legally designate English the official language of the United States. This movement was particularly strong in areas of the country with large Spanish-speaking populations such as Arizona, where, in 2006, three-quarters of voters approved a proposition to make English the official language in the state. Proponents in Arizona and elsewhere argued that these laws were necessary, because recent immigrants, especially Hispanic newcomers, were not being sufficiently acculturated to white, middle-class culture. Opponents countered that English was already the de facto official language, and codifying it into law would only amount to unnecessary discrimination. Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies In 2010, Arizona passed a law barring the teaching of any class that promoted “resentment” of students of other races or encouraged “ethnic solidarity.” The ban, to take effect on December 31 of that year, included a popular Mexican American studies program taught at elementary, middle, and high schools in the city of Tucson. The program, which focused on teaching students about Mexican American history and literature, was begun in 1998, to convert high absentee rates and low academic performance among Latino students, and proved highly successful. Public school superintendent Tom Horne objected to the course, however, claiming it encouraged resentment of whites and of the U.S. government, and improperly encouraged students to think of themselves as members of a race instead of as individuals. Tucson was ordered to end its Mexican American studies program or lose 10 percent of the school system’s funding, approximately $3 million each month. In 2012, the Tucson school board voted to end the program. A former student and his mother filed a suit in federal court, claiming that the law, which did not prohibit programs teaching Indian students about their culture, was discriminatory and violated the First Amendment rights of Tucson’s students. In March 2013, the court found in favor of the state, ruling that the law was not discriminatory, because it targeted classes, and not students or teachers, and that preventing the teaching of Mexican studies classes did not intrude on students’ constitutional rights. The court did, however, declare the part of the law prohibiting classes designed for members of particular ethnic groups to be unconstitutional. What advantages or disadvantages can you see in an ethnic studies program? How could an ethnic studies course add to our understanding of U.S. history? Explain. The fear that English-speaking Americans were being outnumbered by a Hispanic population that was not forced to assimilate was sharpened by the concern that far too many were illegally emigrating from Latin America to the United States. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act proposed by Congress in 2006 sought to simultaneously strengthen security along the U.S.-Mexico border (a task for the Department of Homeland Security), increase the number of temporary “guest workers” allowed in the United States, and provide a pathway for long-term U.S. residents who had entered the country illegally to gain legal status. It also sought to establish English as a “common and unifying language” for the nation. The bill and a similar amended version both failed to become law. With unemployment rates soaring during the Great Recession, anxiety over illegal immigration rose, even while the incoming flow slowed. State legislatures in Alabama and Arizona passed strict new laws that required police and other officials to verify the immigration status of those they thought had entered the country illegally. In Alabama, the new law made it a crime to rent housing to undocumented immigrants, thus making it difficult for these immigrants to live within the state. Both laws have been challenged in court, and portions have been deemed unconstitutional or otherwise blocked. Beginning in October 2013, states along the U.S.-Mexico border faced an increase in the immigration of children from a handful of Central American countries. Approximately fifty-two thousand children, some unaccompanied, were taken into custody as they reached the United States. A study by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that 58 percent of those migrants, largely from El Salvador and Honduras, were propelled towards the United States by poverty, violence, and the potential for exploitation in their home countries. Because of a 2008 law originally intended to protect victims of human trafficking, these Central American children are guaranteed a court hearing. Predictably, the crisis has served to underline the need for comprehensive immigration reform. But, as of late 2014, a 2013 Senate immigration reform bill that combines border security with a guest worker program and a path to citizenship has yet to be enacted as law. WHAT IS A MARRIAGE? In the 1990s, the idea of legal, same-sex marriage seemed particularly unlikely; neither of the two main political parties expressed support for it. Things began to change, however, following Vermont’s decision to allow same-sex couples to form state-recognized civil unions in which they could enjoy all the legal rights and privileges of marriage. Although it was the intention of the state to create a type of legal relationship equivalent to marriage, it did not use the word “marriage” to describe it. Following Vermont’s lead, several other states legalized same-sex marriages or civil unions among gay and lesbian couples. In 2004, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that barring gays and lesbians from marrying violated the state constitution. The court held that offering same-sex couples the right to form civil unions but not marriage was an act of discrimination, and Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry. Not all states followed suit, however, and there was a backlash in several states. Between 1998 and 2012, thirty states banned same-sex marriage either by statute or by amending their constitutions. Other states attempted, unsuccessfully, to do the same. In 2007, the Massachusetts State Legislature rejected a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution that would have prohibited such marriages. Watch this detailed documentary on the attitudes that prevailed in Colorado in 1992, when the voters of that state approved Amendment 2 to the state’s constitution and consequently denied gay and lesbian Coloradans the right to claim relief from local levels of discrimination in public accommodations, housing, or jobs. While those in support of broadening civil rights to include same-sex marriage were optimistic, those opposed employed new tactics. In 2008, opponents of same-sex marriage in California tried a ballot initiative to define marriage strictly as a union between a man and a woman. Despite strong support for broadening marriage rights, the proposition was successful. This change was just one of dozens that states had been putting in place since the late 1990s to make same-sex marriage unconstitutional at the state level. Like the California proposition, however, many new state constitutional amendments have faced challenges in court (Figure). As of 2014, leaders in both political parties are more receptive than ever before to the idea of same-sex marriage. Visit the Pew Research site to read more about the current status of same-sex marriage in the United States and the rest of the world. WHY FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE? Even as mainstream members of both political parties moved closer together on same-sex marriage, political divisions on scientific debates continued. One increasingly polarizing debate that baffles much of the rest of the world is about global climate change. Despite near unanimity in the scientific community that climate change is real and will have devastating consequences, large segments of the American population, predominantly on the right, continue to insist that it is little more than a complex hoax and a leftist conspiracy. Much of the Republican Party’s base denies that global warming is the result of human activity; some deny that the earth is getting hotter at all. This popular denial has had huge global consequences. In 1998, the United States, which produces roughly 36 percent of the greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide that prevent the earth’s heat from escaping into space, signed the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement among the world’s nations to reduce their emissions of these gases. President Bush objected to the requirement that major industrialized nations limit their emissions to a greater extent than other parts of the world and argued that doing so might hurt the American economy. He announced that the United States would not be bound by the agreement, and it was never ratified by Congress. Instead, the Bush administration appeared to suppress scientific reporting on climate change. In 2006, the progressive-leaning Union of Concerned Scientists surveyed sixteen hundred climate scientists, asking them about the state of federal climate research. Of those who responded, nearly three-fourths believed that their research had been subjected to new administrative requirements, third-party editing to change their conclusions, or pressure not to use terms such as “global warming.” Republican politicians, citing the altered reports, argued that there was no unified opinion among members of the scientific community that humans were damaging the climate. Countering this rejection of science were the activities of many environmentalists, including Al Gore, Clinton’s vice president and Bush’s opponent in the disputed 2000 election. As a new member of Congress in 1976, Gore had developed what proved a steady commitment to environmental issues. In 2004, he established Generation Investment Management, which sought to promote an environmentally responsible system of equity analysis and investment. In 2006, a documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, represented his attempts to educate people about the realities and dangers of global warming, and won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Though some of what Gore said was in error, the film’s main thrust is in keeping with the weight of scientific evidence. In 2007, as a result of these efforts to “disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change,” Gore shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Section Summary The nation’s increasing diversity—and with it, the fact that white Caucasians will soon be a demographic minority—prompted a conservative backlash that continues to manifest itself in debates about immigration. Questions of who is an American and what constitutes a marriage continue to be debated, although the answers are beginning to change. As some states broadened civil rights to include gays and lesbians, groups opposed to these developments sought to impose state constitutional restrictions. From this flurry of activity, however, a new political consensus for expanding marriage rights has begun to emerge. On the issue of climate change, however, polarization has increased. A strong distrust of science among Americans has divided the political parties and hampered scientific research. Review Questions A popular Mexican American studies program was banned by the state of ________, which accused it of causing resentment of white people. - New Mexico - California - Arizona - Texas Hint: C The first state to allow same-sex marriage was ________. - Massachusetts - New York - California - Pennsylvania Hint: A What was the result of the Bush administration’s unwillingness to recognize that climate change is being accelerated by human activity? Hint: The administration refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and, as a result, the United States has not been required to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, climate scientists have experienced interference with their work. For critics of climate change, this hampering of scientific research and consensus has provided further evidence of the lack of agreed-upon conclusions about climate change.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.154781	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15565/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15566/overview	Hope and Change Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe how Barack Obama’s domestic policies differed from those of George W. Bush - Discuss the important events of the war on terror during Obama’s two administrations - Discuss some of the specific challenges facing the United States as Obama’s second term draws to a close In 2008, American voters, tired of war and dispirited by the economic downturn, elected a relative newcomer to the political scene who inspired them and made them believe that the United States could rise above political partisanship. Barack Obamas story resembled that of many Americans: a multicultural background; a largely absent father; a single working mother; and care provided by maternal grandparents. As president, Obama would face significant challenges, including managing the economic recovery in the wake of the Great Recession, fighting the war on terror inherited from the previous administration, and implementing the healthcare reform upon which he had campaigned. OBAMA TAKES OFFICE Born in Hawaii in 1961 to a Kenyan father and an American woman from Kansas, Obama excelled at school, going on to attend Occidental College in Los Angeles, Columbia University, and finally Harvard Law School, where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. As part of his education, he also spent time in Chicago working as a community organizer to help those displaced by the decline of heavy industry in the early 1980s. Obama first came to national attention when he delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention while running for his first term in the U.S. Senate. Just a couple of years later, he was running for president himself, the first African American nominee for the office from either major political party. Obamas opponent in 2008 was John McCain, a Vietnam veteran and Republican senator with the reputation of a maverick who had occasionally broken ranks with his party to support bipartisan initiatives. The senator from Arizona faced a number of challenges. As the Republican nominee, he remained closely associated with the two disastrous foreign wars initiated under the Bush administration. His late recognition of the economic catastrophe on the eve of the election did not help matters and further damaged the Republican brand at the polls. At seventy-one, he also had to fight accusations that he was too old for the job, an impression made even more striking by his energetic young challenger. To minimize this weakness, McCain chose a young but inexperienced running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. This tactic backfired, however, when a number of poor performances in television interviews convinced many voters that Palin was not prepared for higher office (Figure). Senator Obama, too, was criticized for his lack of experience with foreign policy, a deficit he remedied by choosing experienced politician Joseph Biden as his running mate. Unlike his Republican opponent, however, Obama offered promises of hope and change. By sending out voter reminders on Twitter and connecting with supporters on Facebook, he was able to harness social media and take advantage of grassroots enthusiasm for his candidacy. His youthful vigor drew independents and first-time voters, and he won 95 percent of the African American vote and 44 percent of the white vote (Figure). Politicking in a New Century Barack Obamas campaign seemed to come out of nowhere to overcome the widely supported frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries. Having won the nomination, Obama shot to the top with an exuberant base of youthful supporters who were encouraged and inspired by his appeal to hope and change. Behind the scenes, the Obama campaign was employing technological innovations and advances in social media to both inform and organize its base. The Obama campaign realized early that the key to political success in the twenty-first century was to energize young voters by reaching them where they were: online. The organizing potential of platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter had never before been tappedand they were free. The results were groundbreaking. Using these social media platforms, the Obama campaign became an organizing and fundraising machine of epic proportions. During his almost two-year-long campaign, Obama accepted 6.5 million donations, totaling $500 million. The vast majority of online donations were less than $100. This accomplishment stunned the political establishment, and they have been quick to adapt. Since 2008, nearly every political campaign has followed in Obamas footsteps, effecting a revolution in campaigning in the United States. ECONOMIC AND HEALTHCARE REFORMS Barack Obama had been elected on a platform of healthcare reform and a wave of frustration over the sinking economy. As he entered office in 2009, he set out to deal with both. Taking charge of the TARP program instituted under George W. Bush to stabilize the countrys financial institutions, Obama oversaw the distribution of some $7.77 trillion designed to help shore up the nations banking system. Recognizing that the economic downturn also threatened major auto manufacturers in the United States, he sought and received congressional authorization for $80 billion to help Chrysler and General Motors. The action was controversial, and some characterized it as a government takeover of industry. The money did, however, help the automakers earn a profit by 2011, reversing the trend of consistent losses that had hurt the industry since 2004. It also helped prevent layoffs and wage cuts. By 2013, the automakers had repaid over $50 billion of bailout funds. Finally, through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the Obama administration pumped almost $800 billion into the economy to stimulate economic growth and job creation. More important for Obama supporters than his attempts to restore the economy was that he fulfill his promise to enact comprehensive healthcare reform. Many assumed such reforms would move quickly through Congress, since Democrats had comfortable majorities in both houses, and both Obama and McCain had campaigned on healthcare reform. However, as had occurred years before during President Clintons first term, opposition groups saw attempts at reform as an opportunity to put the political brakes on the Obama presidency. After months of political wrangling and condemnations of the healthcare reform plan as socialism, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Figure) was passed and signed into law. The act, which created the program known as Obamacare, represented the first significant overhaul of the American healthcare system since the passage of Medicaid in 1965. Its goals were to provide all Americans with access to affordable health insurance, to require that everyone in the United States acquire some form of health insurance, and to lower the costs of healthcare. The plan, which made use of government funding, created private insurance company exchanges to market various insurance packages to enrollees. Although the plan implemented the market-based reforms that they had supported for years, Republicans refused to vote for it. Following its passage, they called numerous times for its repeal, and more than twenty-four states sued the federal government to stop its implementation. Discontent over the Affordable Care Act helped the Republicans capture the majority in the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections. It also helped spawn the Tea Party, a conservative movement focused primarily on limiting government spending and the size of the federal government. THE ELECTION OF 2012 By the 2012 presidential election, the Republicans, convinced Obama was vulnerable because of opposition to his healthcare program and a weak economy, nominated Mitt Romney, a well-known business executive-turned politician who had earlier signed healthcare reform into state law as governor of Massachusetts (Figure). Romney had unsuccessfully challenged McCain for the Republican nomination in 2008, but by 2012, he had remade himself politically by moving towards the partys right wing and its newly created Tea Party faction, which was pulling the traditional conservative base further to the right with its strong opposition to abortion, gun control, and immigration. Romney appealed to a new attitude within the Republican Party. While the percentage of Democrats who agreed that the government should help people unable to provide for themselves had remained relatively stable from 1987 to 2012, at roughly 75 to 79 percent, the percentage of Republicans who felt the same way had decreased from 62 to 40 percent over the same period, with the greatest decline coming after 2007. Indeed, Romney himself revealed his disdain for people on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder when, at a fundraising event attended by affluent Republicans, he remarked that he did not care to reach the 47 percent of Americans who would always vote for Obama because of their dependence on government assistance. In his eyes, this low-income portion of the population preferred to rely on government social programs instead of trying to improve their own lives. Read the transcript of On the 47 percent, the secretly recorded speech given by Mitt Romney at a Republican fundraiser. Starting out behind Obama in the polls, Romney significantly closed the gap in the first of three presidential debates, when he moved towards more centrist positions on many issues. Obama regained momentum in the remaining two debates and used his bailout of the auto industry to appeal to voters in the key states of Michigan and Ohio. Romneys remarks about the 47 percent hurt his position among both poor Americans and those who sympathized with them. A long-time critic of FEMA who claimed that it should be eliminated, Romney also likely lost votes in the Northeast when, a week before the election, Hurricane Sandy devastated the New England, New York, and New Jersey coasts. Obama and the federal government had largely rebuilt FEMA since its disastrous showing in New Orleans in 2005, and the agency quickly swung into action to assist the 8.5 million people affected by the disaster. Obama won the election, but the Republicans retained their hold on the House of Representatives and the Democratic majority in the Senate grew razor-thin. Political bickering and intractable Republican resistance, including a 70 percent increase in filibusters over the 1980s, a refusal to allow a vote on some legislation, such as the 2012 jobs bill, and the glacial pace at which the Senate confirmed the Presidents judicial nominations, created political gridlock in Washington, interfering with Obamas ability to secure any important legislative victories. ONGOING CHALLENGES As Obama entered his second term in office, the economy remained stagnant in many areas. On average, American students continued to fall behind their peers in the rest of the world, and the cost of a college education became increasingly unaffordable for many. Problems continued overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, and another act of terrorism took place on American soil when bombs exploded at the 2013 Boston Marathon. At the same time, the cause of same-sex marriage made significant advances, and Obama was able to secure greater protection for the environment. He raised fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and required coal-burning power plants to capture their carbon emissions. Learning and Earning The quality of American education remains a challenge. The global economy is dominated by those nations with the greatest number of knowledge workers: people with specialized knowledge and skills like engineers, scientists, doctors, teachers, financial analysts, and computer programmers. Furthermore, American students reading, math, and critical thinking skills are less developed than those of their peers in other industrialized nations, including small countries like Estonia. The Obama administration sought to make higher education more accessible by increasing the amount that students could receive under the federally funded Pell Grant Program, which, by the 201213 academic year, helped 9.5 million students pay for their college education. Obama also worked out a compromise with Congress in 2013, which lowered the interest rates charged on student loans. However, college tuition is still growing at a rate of 2 to 3 percent per year, and the debt burden has surpassed the $1 trillion mark and is likely to increase. With debt upon graduation averaging about $29,000, students may find their economic options limited. Instead of buying cars or paying for housing, they may have to join the boomerang generation and return to their parents homes in order to make their loan payments. Clearly, high levels of debt will affect their career choices and life decisions for the foreseeable future. Many other Americans continue to be challenged by the state of the economy. Most economists calculate that the Great Recession reached its lowest point in 2009, and the economy has gradually improved since then. The stock market ended 2013 at historic highs, having experienced its biggest percentage gain since 1997. However, despite these gains, the nation struggled to maintain a modest annual growth rate of 2.5 percent after the Great Recession, and the percentage of the population living in poverty continues to hover around 15 percent. Income has decreased (Figure), and, as late as 2011, the unemployment rate was still high in some areas. Eight million full-time workers have been forced into part-time work, whereas 26 million seem to have given up and left the job market. LGBT Rights During Barack Obamas second term in office, courts began to counter efforts by conservatives to outlaw same-sex marriage. A series of decisions declared nine states prohibitions against same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court rejected an attempt to overturn a federal court ruling to that effect in California in June 2013. Shortly thereafter, the Supreme Court also ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 was unconstitutional, because it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. These decisions seem to allow legal challenges in all the states that persist in trying to block same-sex unions. The struggle against discrimination based on gender identity has also won some significant victories. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education ruled that schools receiving federal funds may not discriminate against transgender students, and a board within the Department of Health and Human Services decided that Medicare should cover sexual reassignment surgery. Although very few people eligible for Medicare are transgender, the decision is still important, because private insurance companies often base their coverage on what Medicare considers appropriate and necessary forms of treatment for various conditions. Undoubtedly, the fight for greater rights for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual) individuals will continue. Violence Another running debate questions the easy accessibility of firearms. Between the spring of 1999, when two teens killed twelve of their classmates, a teacher, and themselves at their high school in Columbine, Colorado, and the early summer of 2014, fifty-two additional shootings or attempted shootings had occurred at schools (Figure). Nearly always, the violence was perpetrated by young people with severe mental health problems, as at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. After killing his mother at home, twenty-year-old Adam Lanza went to the school and fatally shot twenty six- and seven-year-old students, along with six adult staff members, before killing himself. Advocates of stricter gun control noted a clear relationship between access to guns and mass shootings. Gun rights advocates, however, disagreed. They argued that access to guns is merely incidental. Another shocking act of violence was the attack on the Boston Marathon. On April 15, 2013, shortly before 3:00 p.m., two bombs made from pressure cookers exploded near the finish line (Figure). Three people were killed, and more than 250 were injured. Three days later, two suspects were identified, and a manhunt began. Later that night, the two young men, brothers who had immigrated to the United States from Chechnya, killed a campus security officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, stole a car, and fled. The older, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed in a fight with the police, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured the next day. In his statements to the police, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev reported that he and his brother, who he claimed had planned the attacks, had been influenced by the actions of fellow radical Islamists in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he denied they had been affiliated with any larger terrorist group. America and the World In May 2014, President Obama announced that, for the most part, U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan were over. Although a residual force of ninety-eight hundred soldiers will remain to continue training the Afghan army, by 2016, all U.S. troops will have left the country, except for a small number to defend U.S. diplomatic posts. The years of warfare have brought the United States few rewards. In Iraq, 4,475 American soldiers died and 32,220 were wounded. In Afghanistan, the toll through February 2013 was 2,165 dead and 18,230 wounded. By some estimates, the total monetary cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could easily reach $4 trillion, and the Congressional Budget Office believes that the cost of providing medical care for the veterans might climb to $8 billion by 2020. In Iraq, the coalition led by then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was able to win 92 of the 328 seats in parliament in May 2014, and he seemed poised to begin another term as the countrys ruler. The elections, however, did not stem the tide of violence in the country. In June 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a radical Islamist militant group consisting of mostly Sunni Muslims and once affiliated with al-Qaeda, seized control of Sunni-dominated areas of Iraq and Syria. On June 29, 2014, it proclaimed the formation of the Islamic State with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as caliph, the states political and religious leader. Section Summary Despite Republican resistance and political gridlock in Washington during his first term in office, President Barack Obama oversaw the distribution of the TARP programs $7.77 trillion to help shore up the nations banking system, and Congress authorized $80 billion to help Chrysler and General Motors. The goals of Obamas Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) were to provide all Americans with access to affordable health insurance, to require that everyone in the United States had some form of health insurance, and to lower the costs of healthcare. During his second term, the nation struggled to grow modestly, the percentage of the population living in poverty remained around 15 percent, and unemployment was still high in some areas. Acceptance of same-sex marriage grew, and the United States sharply reduced its military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Review Questions The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional in ________. - 2007 - 2009 - 2013 - 2014 Hint: C Which of the following is not a goal of Obamacare (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act)? - to provide all Americans with access to affordable health insurance - to require that everyone in the United States acquire some form of health insurance - to lower the costs of healthcare - to increase employment in the healthcare industry Hint: D What has Barack Obama done to make college education more accessible? Hint: The Obama administration has sought to make higher education more accessible by increasing the amount of money that students can receive under the federally funded Pell Grant Program, which helps millions pay for college. Obama also worked out a compromise with Congress in 2013 that lowered the interest rates charged on student loans. Critical Thinking Questions What factors led to the Great Recession? How have conservatives fared in their efforts to defend American culture against an influx of immigrants in the twenty-first century? In what ways are Barack Obamas ideas regarding the economy, education, and the environment similar to those of Bush, his Republican predecessor? In what ways are they different? How successful has the United States been in achieving its goals in Iraq and Afghanistan? In what ways has the United States become a more heterogeneous and inclusive place in the twenty-first century? In what ways has it become more homogenous and exclusive?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.188189	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15566/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15520/overview	Introduction Overview - Prosperity and the Production of Popular Entertainment - Transformation and Backlash - A New Generation - Republican Ascendancy: Politics in the 1920s Following the hardships of the immediate postwar era, the United States embarked upon one of the most prosperous decades in history. Mass production, especially of the automobile, increased mobility and fostered new industries. Unemployment plummeted as businesses grew to meet this increased demand. Cities continued to grow and, according to the 1920 census, a majority of the population lived in urban areas of twenty-five hundred or more residents. Jazz music, movies, speakeasies, and new dances dominated the urban evening scene. Recent immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, many of them Catholic, now participated in the political system. This challenged rural Protestant fundamentalism, even as quota laws sought to limit new immigration patterns. The Ku Klux Klan rose to greater power, as they protested not only the changing role of African Americans but also the growing population of immigrant, Catholic, and Jewish Americans. This mixture of social, political, economic, and cultural change and conflict gave the decade the nickname the “Roaring Twenties” or the “Jazz Age.” The above illustration (Figure), which graced the cover of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age, embodies the popular view of the 1920s as a nonstop party, replete with dancing, music, flappers, and illegal drinking.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.204461	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15520/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation, 1919-1929", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15521/overview	Prosperity and the Production of Popular Entertainment Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss the role of movies in the evolution of American culture - Explain the rise of sports as a dominant social force - Analyze the ways in which the automobile, especially the Model T, transformed American life In the 1920s, prosperity manifested itself in many forms, most notably in advancements in entertainment and technology that led to new patterns of leisure and consumption. Movies and sports became increasingly popular and buying on credit or “carrying” the debt allowed for the sale of more consumer goods and put automobiles within reach of average Americans. Advertising became a central institution in this new consumer economy, and commercial radio and magazines turned athletes and actors into national icons. MOVIES The increased prosperity of the 1920s gave many Americans more disposable income to spend on entertainment. As the popularity of “moving pictures” grew in the early part of the decade, “movie palaces,” capable of seating thousands, sprang up in major cities. A ticket for a double feature and a live show cost twenty-five cents; for a quarter, Americans could escape from their problems and lose themselves in another era or world. People of all ages attended the movies with far more regularity than today, often going more than once per week. By the end of the decade, weekly movie attendance swelled to ninety million people. The silent movies of the early 1920s gave rise to the first generation of movie stars. Rudolph Valentino, the lothario with the bedroom eyes, and Clara Bow, the “It Girl” with sex appeal, filled the imagination of millions of American moviegoers. However, no star captured the attention of the American viewing public more than Charlie Chaplin. This sad-eyed tramp with a moustache, baggy pants, and a cane was the top box office attraction of his time (Figure). In 1927, the world of the silent movie began to wane with the New York release of the first “talkie”: The Jazz Singer. The plot of this film, which starred Al Jolson, told a distinctively American story of the 1920s. It follows the life of a Jewish man from his boyhood days of being groomed to be the cantor at the local synagogue to his life as a famous and “Americanized” jazz singer. Both the story and the new sound technology used to present it were popular with audiences around the country. It quickly became a huge hit for Warner Brothers, one of the “big five” motion picture studios in Hollywood along with Twentieth Century Fox, RKO Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Southern California in the 1920s, however, had only recently become the center of the American film industry. Film production was originally based in and around New York, where Thomas Edison first debuted the kinetoscope in 1893. But in the 1910s, as major filmmakers like D. W. Griffith looked to escape the cost of Edison’s patents on camera equipment, this began to change. When Griffith filmed In Old California (1910), the first movie ever shot in Hollywood, California, the small town north of Los Angeles was little more than a village. As moviemakers flocked to southern California, not least because of its favorable climate and predictable sunshine, Hollywood swelled with moviemaking activity. By the 1920s, the once-sleepy village was home to a majorly profitable innovative industry in the United States. AUTOMOBILES AND AIRPLANES: AMERICANS ON THE MOVE Cinema was not the only major industry to make great technological strides in this decade. The 1920s opened up new possibilities of mobility for a large percentage of the U.S. population, as automobile manufacturers began to mass produce what had once been a luxury item, and daring aviators both demonstrated and drove advancements in aircraft technology. The most significant innovation of this era was Henry Ford’s Model T Ford, which made car ownership available to the average American. Ford did not invent the automobile—the Duryea brothers in Massachusetts as well as Gottlieb W. Daimler and Karl Friedrich Benz in Germany were early pioneers. By the early twentieth century, hundreds of car manufacturers existed. However, they all made products that were too expensive for most Americans. Ford’s innovation lay in his focus on using mass production to manufacture automobiles; he revolutionized industrial work by perfecting the assembly line, which enabled him to lower the Model T’s price from $850 in 1908 to $300 in 1924, making car ownership a real possibility for a large share of the population (Figure). As prices dropped, more and more people could afford to own a car. Soon, people could buy used Model Ts for as little as five dollars, allowing students and others with low incomes to enjoy the freedom and mobility of car ownership. By 1929, there were over twenty-three million automobiles on American roads. The assembly line helped Ford reduce labor costs within the production process by moving the product from one team of workers to the next, each of them completing a step so simple they had to be, in Ford’s words, “no smarter than an ox” (Figure). Ford’s reliance on the moving assembly line, scientific management, and time-motion studies added to his emphasis on efficiency over craftsmanship. Ford’s emphasis on cheap mass production brought both benefits and disadvantages to its workers. Ford would not allow his workers to unionize, and the boring, repetitive nature of the assembly line work generated a high turnover rate. However, he doubled workers’ pay to five dollars a day and standardized the workday to eight hours (a reduction from the norm). Ford’s assembly line also offered greater equality than most opportunities of the time, as he paid white and black workers equally. Seeking these wages, many African Americans from the South moved to Detroit and other large northern cities to work in factories. Ford even bought a plot of land in the Amazonian jungle twice the size of Delaware to build a factory town he called Fordlandia. Workers there rejected his midwestern Puritanism even more than his factory discipline, and the project ended in an epic failure. In the United States, however, Ford shaped the nation’s mode of industrialism—one that relied on paying decent wages so that workers could afford to be the consumers of their own products. The automobile changed the face of America, both economically and socially. Industries like glass, steel, and rubber processing expanded to keep up with auto production. The oil industry in California, Oklahoma, and Texas expanded, as Americans’ reliance on oil increased and the nation transitioned from a coal-based economy to one driven by petroleum. The need for public roadways required local and state governments to fund a dramatic expansion of infrastructure, which permitted motels and restaurants to spring up and offer new services to millions of newly mobile Americans with cash to spend. With this new infrastructure, new shopping and living patterns emerged, and streetcar suburbs gave way to automobile suburbs as private automobile traffic on public roads began to replace mass transit on trains and trolleys. The 1920s not only witnessed a transformation in ground transportation but also major changes in air travel. By the mid-1920s, men—as well as some pioneering women like the African American stunt pilot Bessie Coleman (Figure)—had been flying for two decades. But there remained doubts about the suitability of airplanes for long-distance travel. Orville Wright, one of the pioneers of airplane technology in the United States, once famously declared, “No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris [because] no known motor can run at the requisite speed for four days without stopping.” However, in 1927, this skepticism was finally put to rest when Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, flying from New York to Paris in thirty-three hours (Figure). Lindbergh’s flight made him an international hero: the best-known American in the world. On his return, Americans greeted him with a ticker-tape parade—a celebration in which shredded paper thrown from surrounding buildings creates a festive, flurry effect. His flight, which he completed in the monoplane Spirit of St. Louis, seemed like a triumph of individualism in modern mass society and exemplified Americans’ ability to conquer the air with new technology. Following his success, the small airline industry began to blossom, fully coming into its own in the 1930s, as companies like Boeing and Ford developed airplanes designed specifically for passenger air transport. As technologies in engine and passenger compartment design improved, air travel became more popular. In 1934, the number of U.S. domestic air passengers was just over 450,000 annually. By the end of the decade, that number had increased to nearly two million. Technological innovation influenced more than just transportation. As access to electricity became more common and the electric motor was made more efficient, inventors began to churn out new and more complex household appliances. Newly developed innovations like radios, phonographs, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and refrigerators emerged on the market during this period. While expensive, new consumer-purchasing innovations like store credit and installment plans made them available to a larger segment of the population. Many of these devices promised to give women—who continued to have primary responsibility for housework—more opportunities to step out of the home and expand their horizons. Ironically, however, these labor-saving devices tended to increase the workload for women by raising the standards of domestic work. With the aid of these tools, women ended up cleaning more frequently, washing more often, and cooking more elaborate meals rather than gaining spare time. Despite the fact that the promise of more leisure time went largely unfulfilled, the lure of technology as the gateway to a more relaxed lifestyle endured. This enduring dream was a testament to the influence of another growing industry: advertising. The mass consumption of cars, household appliances, ready-to-wear clothing, and processed foods depended heavily on the work of advertisers. Magazines like Ladies’ Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post became vehicles to connect advertisers with middle-class consumers. Colorful and occasionally provocative print advertisements decorated the pages of these publications and became a staple in American popular culture (Figure). The form of the advertisements, however, was not new. These colorful print ads were merely the modern incarnations of an advertising strategy that went back to the nineteenth century. The new medium for advertisers in the 1920s, the one that would reach out to consumers in radically new and innovative ways, was radio. THE POWER OF RADIO AND THE WORLD OF SPORTS After being introduced during World War I, radios became a common feature in American homes of the 1920s. Hundreds of radio stations popped up over the decade. These stations developed and broadcasted news, serial stories, and political speeches. Much like print media, advertising space was interspersed with entertainment. Yet, unlike magazines and newspapers, advertisers did not have to depend on the active participation of consumers: Advertisers could reach out to anyone within listening distance of the radio. On the other hand, their broader audience meant that they had to be more conservative and careful not to offend anyone. Listen to a recording of a broadcast of the “WLS Showboat: “The Floating Palace of Wonder,” a variety show from WLS Chicago, a radio station run by Sears Roebuck and Co. What does the clip tell you about the entertainment of the 1920s? The power of radio further sped up the processes of nationalization and homogenization that were previously begun with the wide distribution of newspapers made possible by railroads and telegraphs. Far more effectively than these print media, however, radio created and pumped out American culture onto the airwaves and into the homes of families around the country. Syndicated radio programs like Amos ‘n’ Andy, which began in the late 1920s, entertained listeners around the country—in the case of the popular Amos ‘n’ Andy, it did so with racial stereotypes about African Americans familiar from minstrel shows of the previous century. No longer were small corners of the country separated by their access to information. With the radio, Americans from coast to coast could listen to exactly the same programming. This had the effect of smoothing out regional differences in dialect, language, music, and even consumer taste. Radio also transformed how Americans enjoyed sports. The introduction of play-by-play descriptions of sporting events broadcast over the radio brought sports entertainment right into the homes of millions. Radio also helped to popularize sports figures and their accomplishments. Jim Thorpe, who grew up in the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma, was known as one of the best athletes in the world: He medaled in the 1912 Olympic Games, played Major League Baseball, and was one of the founding members of the National Football League. Other sports superstars were soon household names. In 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel. Helen Wills dominated women’s tennis, winning Wimbledon eight times in the late 1920s (Figure), whereas “Big Bill” Tilden won the national singles title every year from 1920 to 1925. In football, Harold “Red” Grange played for the University of Illinois, averaging over ten yards per carry during his college career. The biggest star of all was the “Sultan of Swat,” Babe Ruth, who became America’s first baseball hero (Figure). He changed the game of baseball from a low-scoring one dominated by pitchers to one where his hitting became famous. By 1923, most pitchers intentionally walked him. In 1924, he hit sixty homeruns. section-summary For many middle-class Americans, the 1920s was a decade of unprecedented prosperity. Rising earnings generated more disposable income for the consumption of entertainment, leisure, and consumer goods. This new wealth coincided with and fueled technological innovations, resulting in the booming popularity of entertainments like movies, sports, and radio programs. Henry Ford’s advances in assembly-line efficiency created a truly affordable automobile, making car ownership a possibility for many Americans. Advertising became as big an industry as the manufactured goods that advertisers represented, and many families relied on new forms of credit to increase their consumption levels and strive for a new American standard of living. Review Questions Which of the following films released in 1927 was the first successful talking motion picture? - The Clansman - The Great Gatsby - The Jazz Singer - The Birth of a Nation Hint: C The popularization of ________ expanded the communications and sports industries. - radios - talkies - the Model T - airplanes Hint: A Who was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean? - Orville Wright - Jim Thorpe - Charlie Chaplin - Charles Lindbergh Hint: D How did Henry Ford transform the automobile industry? Hint: Henry Ford revolutionized the automobile industry by making the car affordable to the average person. In order to accomplish this, he refused to allow workers to unionize, instituted an eight-hour workday, raised workers’ wages, promoted equal pay for black and white workers and for women; and used assembly lines to facilitate production. The automobile thus became a symbol of middle-class life, rather than a luxury good available only to the wealthy.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.233306	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15521/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation, 1919-1929", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15522/overview	Transformation and Backlash Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Define nativism and analyze the ways in which it affected the politics and society of the 1920s - Describe the conflict between urban Americans and rural fundamentalists - Explain the issues in question in the Scopes trial While prosperous, middle-class Americans found much to celebrate about the new era of leisure and consumption, many Americans—often those in rural areas—disagreed on the meaning of a “good life” and how to achieve it. They reacted to the rapid social changes of modern urban society with a vigorous defense of religious values and a fearful rejection of cultural diversity and equality. NATIVISM Beginning at the end of the nineteenth century, immigration into the United States rocketed to never-before-seen heights. Many of these new immigrants were coming from eastern and southern Europe and, for many English-speaking, native-born Americans of northern European descent, the growing diversity of new languages, customs, and religions triggered anxiety and racial animosity. In reaction, some embraced nativism, prizing white Americans with older family trees over more recent immigrants, and rejecting outside influences in favor of their own local customs. Nativists also stoked a sense of fear over the perceived foreign threat, pointing to the anarchist assassinations of the Spanish prime minister in 1897, the Italian king in 1900, and even President William McKinley in 1901 as proof. Following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in November 1917, the sense of an inevitable foreign or communist threat only grew among those already predisposed to distrust immigrants. The sense of fear and anxiety over the rising tide of immigration came to a head with the trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (Figure). Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian immigrants who were accused of being part of a robbery and murder in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1920. There was no direct evidence linking them to the crime, but (in addition to being immigrants) both men were anarchists who favored the destruction of the American market-based, capitalistic society through violence. At their trial, the district attorney emphasized Sacco and Vanzetti’s radical views, and the jury found them guilty on July 14, 1921. Despite subsequent motions and appeals based on ballistics testing, recanted testimony, and an ex-convict’s confession, both men were executed on August 23, 1927. Opinions on the trial and judgment tended to divide along nativist-immigrant lines, with immigrants supporting the innocence of the condemned pair. The verdict sparked protests from Italian and other immigrant groups, as well as from noted intellectuals such as writer John Dos Passos, satirist Dorothy Parker, and famed physicist Albert Einstein. Muckraker Upton Sinclair based his indictment of the American justice system, the “documentary novel” Boston, on Sacco and Vanzetti’s trial, which he considered a gross miscarriage of justice. As the execution neared, the radical labor union Industrial Workers of the World called for a three-day nationwide walkout, leading to the Great Colorado Coal Strike of 1927. Protests occurred worldwide from Tokyo to Buenos Aires to London (Figure). One of the most articulate critics of the trial was then-Harvard Law School professor Felix Frankfurter, who would go on to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939. In 1927, six years after the trial, he wrote in The Atlantic, “By systematic exploitation of the defendants’ alien blood, their imperfect knowledge of English, their unpopular social views, and their opposition to the war, the District Attorney invoked against them a riot of political passion and patriotic sentiment; and the trial judge connived at—one had almost written, cooperated in—the process.” To “preserve the ideal of American homogeneity,” the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 introduced numerical limits on European immigration for the first time in U.S. history. These limits were based on a quota system that restricted annual immigration from any given country to 3 percent of the residents from that same country as counted in the 1910 census. The National Origins Act of 1924 went even further, lowering the level to 2 percent of the 1890 census, significantly reducing the share of eligible southern and eastern Europeans, since they had only begun to arrive in the United States in large numbers in the 1890s. Although New York congressmen Fiorello LaGuardia and Emanuel Celler spoke out against the act, there was minimal opposition in Congress, and both labor unions and the Ku Klux Klan supported the bill. When President Coolidge signed it into law, he declared, “America must be kept American.” The Library of Congress’s immigration collection contains information on different immigrant groups, the timelines of their immigration, maps of their settlement routes, and the reasons they came. Click the images on the left navigation bar to learn about each group. THE KU KLUX KLAN The concern that a white, Protestant, Anglo-Saxon United States was under siege by throngs of undesirables was not exclusively directed at foreigners. The sense that the country was also facing a threat from within its borders and its own citizenry was also prevalent. This sense was clearly reflected in the popularity of the 1915 motion picture, D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (Figure). Based on The Clansman, a 1915 novel by Thomas Dixon, the film offers a racist, white-centric view of the Reconstruction Era. The film depicts noble white southerners made helpless by northern carpetbaggers who empower freed slaves to abuse white men and violate women. The heroes of the film were the Ku Klux Klan, who saved the whites, the South, and the nation. While the film was reviled by many African Americans and the NAACP for its historical inaccuracies and its maligning of freed slaves, it was celebrated by many whites who accepted the historical revisionism as an accurate portrayal of Reconstruction Era oppression. After viewing the film, President Wilson reportedly remarked, “It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.” Artistic License and the Censor In a letter dated April 17, 1915, Mary Childs Nerney, a secretary of the NAACP, wrote to a local censor to request that certain scenes be cut from The Birth of a Nation. My dear Mr. Packard: I am utterly disgusted with the situation in regard to “The Birth of a Nation.” As you will read in the next number of the Crisis, we have fought it at every possible point. In spite of the promise of the Mayor [of Chicago] to cut out the two objectionable scenes in the second part, which show a white girl committing suicide to escape from a Negro pursuer, and a mulatto politician trying to force marriage upon the daughter of his white benefactor, these two scenes still form the motif of the really unimportant incidents, of which I enclose a list. I have seen the thing four times and am positive that nothing more will be done about it. Jane Addams saw it when it was in its worst form in New York. I know of no one else from Chicago who saw it. I enclose Miss Addam’s opinion. When we took the thing before the Police Magistrate he told us that he could do nothing about it unless it [led] to a breach of the peace. Some kind of demonstration began in the Liberty Theatre Wednesday night but the colored people took absolutely no part in it, and the only man arrested was a white man. This, of course, is exactly what Littleton, counsel for the producer, Griffith, held in the Magistrates’ Court when we have our hearing and claimed that it might lead to a breach of the peace. Frankly, I do not think you can do one single thing. It has been to me a most liberal education and I purposely am through. The harm it is doing the colored people cannot be estimated. I hear echoes of it wherever I go and have no doubt that this was in the mind of the people who are producing it. Their profits here are something like $14,000 a day and their expenses about $400. I have ceased to worry about it, and if I seem disinterested, kindly remember that we have put six weeks of constant effort of this thing and have gotten nowhere. Sincerely yours, —Mary Childs Nerney, Secretary, NAACP On what grounds does Nerney request censorship? What efforts to get the movie shut down did she describe? The Ku Klux Klan, which had been dormant since the end of Reconstruction in 1877, experienced a resurgence of attention following the popularity of the film. Just months after the film’s release, a second incarnation of the Klan was established at Stone Mountain, Georgia, under the leadership of William Simmons. This new Klan now publicly eschewed violence and received mainstream support. Its embrace of Protestantism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism, and its appeals for stricter immigration policies, gained the group a level of acceptance by nativists with similar prejudices. The group was not merely a male organization: The ranks of the Klan also included many women, with chapters of its women’s auxiliary in locations across the country. These women’s groups were active in a number of reform-minded activities, such as advocating for prohibition and the distribution of Bibles at public schools. But they also participated in more expressly Klan activities like burning crosses and the public denunciation of Catholics and Jews (Figure). By 1924, this Second Ku Klux Klan had six million members in the South, West, and, particularly, the Midwest—more Americans than there were in the nation’s labor unions at the time. While the organization publicly abstained from violence, its member continued to employ intimidation, violence, and terrorism against its victims, particularly in the South. The Klan’s newfound popularity proved to be fairly short-lived. Several states effectively combatted the power and influence of the Klan through anti-masking legislation, that is, laws that barred the wearing of masks publicly. As the organization faced a series of public scandals, such as when the Grand Dragon of Indiana was convicted of murdering a white schoolteacher, prominent citizens became less likely to openly express their support for the group without a shield of anonymity. More importantly, influential people and citizen groups explicitly condemned the Klan. Reinhold Niebuhr, a popular Protestant minister and conservative intellectual in Detroit, admonished the group for its ostensibly Protestant zealotry and anti-Catholicism. Jewish organizations, especially the Anti-Defamation League, which had been founded just a couple of years before the reemergence of the Klan, amplified Jewish discontent at being the focus of Klan attention. And the NAACP, which had actively sought to ban the film The Birth of a Nation, worked to lobby congress and educate the public on lynchings. Ultimately, however, it was the Great Depression that put an end to the Klan. As dues-paying members dwindled, the Klan lost its organizational power and sunk into irrelevance until the 1950s. FAITH, FUNDAMENTALISM, AND SCIENCE The sense of degeneration that the Klan and anxiety over mass immigration prompted in the minds of many Americans was in part a response to the process of postwar urbanization. Cities were swiftly becoming centers of opportunity, but the growth of cities, especially the growth of immigrant populations in those cities, sharpened rural discontent over the perception of rapid cultural change. As more of the population flocked to cities for jobs and quality of life, many left behind in rural areas felt that their way of life was being threatened. To rural Americans, the ways of the city seemed sinful and profligate. Urbanites, for their part, viewed rural Americans as hayseeds who were hopelessly behind the times. In this urban/rural conflict, Tennessee lawmakers drew a battle line over the issue of evolution and its contradiction of the accepted, biblical explanation of history. Charles Darwin had first published his theory of natural selection in 1859, and by the 1920s, many standard textbooks contained information about Darwin’s theory of evolution. Fundamentalist Protestants targeted evolution as representative of all that was wrong with urban society. Tennessee’s Butler Act made it illegal “to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) hoped to challenge the Butler Act as an infringement of the freedom of speech. As a defendant, the ACLU enlisted teacher and coach John Scopes, who suggested that he may have taught evolution while substituting for an ill biology teacher. Town leaders in Dayton, Tennessee, for their part, sensed an opportunity to promote their town, which had lost more than one-third of its population, and welcomed the ACLU to stage a test case against the Butler Act. The ACLU and the town got their wish as the Scopes Monkey Trial, as the newspapers publicized it, quickly turned into a carnival that captured the attention of the country and epitomized the nation’s urban/rural divide (Figure). Fundamentalist champion William Jennings Bryan argued the case for the prosecution. Bryan was a three-time presidential candidate and Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State until 1915, at which point he began preaching across the country about the spread of secularism and the declining role of religion in education. He was known for offering $100 to anyone who would admit to being descended from an ape. Clarence Darrow, a prominent lawyer and outspoken agnostic, led the defense team. His statement that, “Scopes isn’t on trial, civilization is on trial. No man’s belief will be safe if they win,” struck a chord in society. The outcome of the trial, in which Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, was never really in question, as Scopes himself had confessed to violating the law. Nevertheless, the trial itself proved to be high drama. The drama only escalated when Darrow made the unusual choice of calling Bryan as an expert witness on the Bible. Knowing of Bryan’s convictions of a literal interpretation of the Bible, Darrow peppered him with a series of questions designed to ridicule such a belief. The result was that those who approved of the teaching of evolution saw Bryan as foolish, whereas many rural Americans considered the cross-examination an attack on the Bible and their faith. H. L. Mencken on the Scopes Trial H. L. Mencken covered the trial for Baltimore’s The Evening Sun. One of most popular writers of social satire of his age, Mencken was very critical of the South, the trial, and especially Bryan. He coined the terms “monkey trial “and “Bible belt.” In the excerpt below, Mencken reflects on the trial’s outcome and its overall importance for the United States. The Scopes trial, from the start, has been carried on in a manner exactly fitted to the anti- evolution law and the simian imbecility under it. There hasn’t been the slightest pretense to decorum. The rustic judge, a candidate for re-election, has postured the yokels like a clown in a ten-cent side show, and almost every word he has uttered has been an undisguised appeal to their prejudices and superstitions. The chief prosecuting attorney, beginning like a competent lawyer and a man of self-respect, ended like a convert at a Billy Sunday revival. It fell to him, finally, to make a clear and astounding statement of theory of justice prevailing under fundamentalism. What he said, in brief, was that a man accused of infidelity had no rights whatever under Tennessee law. . . . Darrow has lost this case. It was lost long before he came to Dayton. But it seems to me that he has nevertheless performed a great public service by fighting it to a finish and in a perfectly serious way. Let no one mistake it for comedy, farcical though it may be in all its details. It serves notice on the country that Neanderthal man is organizing in these forlorn backwaters of the land, led by a fanatic, rid of sense and devoid of conscience. Tennessee, challenging him too timorously and too late, now sees its courts converted into camp meetings and its Bill of Rights made a mock of by its sworn officers of the law. There are other States that had better look to their arsenals before the Hun is at their gates. —H. L. Mencken, The Evening Sun, July 18, 1925 How does Mencken characterize Judge Raulston? About what threat is Mencken warning America? Indicative of the revival of Protestant fundamentalism and the rejection of evolution among rural and white Americans was the rise of Billy Sunday. As a young man, Sunday had gained fame as a baseball player with exceptional skill and speed. Later, he found even more celebrity as the nation’s most revered evangelist, drawing huge crowds at camp meetings around the country. He was one of the most influential evangelists of the time and had access to some of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the country (Figure). Sunday rallied many Americans around “old-time” fundamentalist religion and garnered support for prohibition. Recognizing Sunday’s popular appeal, Bryan attempted to bring him to Dayton for the Scopes trial, although Sunday politely refused. Even more spectacular than the rise of Billy Sunday was the popularity of Aimee Semple McPherson, a Canadian Pentecostal preacher whose Foursquare Church in Los Angeles catered to the large community of midwestern transplants and newcomers to California (Figure). Although her message promoted the fundamental truths of the Bible, her style was anything but old fashioned. Dressed in tight-fitting clothes and wearing makeup, she held radio-broadcast services in large venues that resembled concert halls and staged spectacular faith-healing performances. Blending Hollywood style and modern technology with a message of fundamentalist Christianity, McPherson exemplified the contradictions of the decade well before public revelations about her scandalous love affair cost her much of her status and following. Section Summary The old and the new came into sharp conflict in the 1920s. In many cases, this divide was geographic as well as philosophical; city dwellers tended to embrace the cultural changes of the era, whereas those who lived in rural towns clung to traditional norms. The Sacco and Vanzetti trial in Massachusetts, as well as the Scopes trial in Tennessee, revealed many Americans’ fears and suspicions about immigrants, radical politics, and the ways in which new scientific theories might challenge traditional Christian beliefs. Some reacted more zealously than others, leading to the inception of nativist and fundamentalist philosophies, and the rise of terror groups such as the Second Ku Klux Klan. Review Questions The Scopes Monkey Trial revolved around a law that banned teaching about ________ in public schools. - the Bible - Darwinism - primates - Protestantism Hint: B Which man was both a professional baseball player and an influential evangelist during the 1920s? - Babe Ruth - H. L. Mencken - Jim Thorpe - Billy Sunday Hint: D What was the platform of the Second Ku Klux Klan, and in what activities did they engage to promote it? Hint: The reincarnated Ku Klux Klan championed an anti-black, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, and anti-Jewish philosophy, and promoted the spread of Protestant beliefs. The Klan publicly denounced the groups they despised and continued to engage in activities such as cross-burning, violence, and intimidation, despite their public commitment to nonviolent tactics. Women’s groups within the Klan also participated in various types of reform, such as advocating the prohibition of alcohol and distributing Bibles in public schools.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.263350	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15522/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation, 1919-1929", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15523/overview	A New Generation Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain the factors that shaped the new morality and the changing role of women in the United States during the 1920s - Describe the “new Negro” and the influence of the Harlem Renaissance - Analyze the effects of prohibition on American society and culture - Describe the character and main authors of the Lost Generation The 1920s was a time of dramatic change in the United States. Many young people, especially those living in big cities, embraced a new morality that was much more permissive than that of previous generations. They listened to jazz music, especially in the nightclubs of Harlem. Although prohibition outlawed alcohol, criminal bootlegging and importing businesses thrived. The decade was not a pleasure cruise for everyone, however; in the wake of the Great War, many were left awaiting the promise of a new generation. A NEW MORALITY Many Americans were disillusioned in the post-World War I era, and their reactions took many forms. Rebellious American youth, in particular, adjusted to the changes by embracing a new morality that was far more permissive than the social mores of their parents. Many young women of the era shed their mother’s morality and adopted the dress and mannerisms of a flapper, the Jazz Age female stereotype, seeking the endless party. Flappers wore shorter skirts, shorter hair, and more makeup, and they drank and smoked with the boys (Figure). Flappers’ dresses emphasized straight lines from the shoulders to the knees, minimizing breasts and curves while highlighting legs and ankles. The male equivalent of a flapper was a “sheik,” although that term has not remained as strong in the American vernacular. At the time, however, many of these fads became a type of conformity, especially among college-aged youths, with the signature bob haircut of the flapper becoming almost universal—in both the United States and overseas. As men and women pushed social and cultural boundaries in the Jazz Age, sexual mores changed and social customs grew more permissive. “Petting parties” or “necking parties” became the rage on college campuses. Psychologist Sigmund Freud and British “sexologist” Havelock Ellis emphasized that sex was a natural and pleasurable part of the human experience. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, launched an information campaign on birth control to give women a choice in the realm in which suffrage had changed little—the family. The popularization of contraception and the private space that the automobile offered to teenagers and unwed couples also contributed to changes in sexual behavior. Flappers and sheiks also took their cues from the high-flying romances they saw on movie screens and confessions in movie magazines of immorality on movie sets. Movie posters promised: “Brilliant men, beautiful jazz babies, champagne baths, midnight revels, petting parties in the purple dawn, all ending in one terrific smashing climax that makes you gasp.” And “neckers, petters, white kisses, red kisses, pleasure-mad daughters, sensation-craving mothers . . . the truth: bold, naked, sensational.” Could you go “on a toot” with flappers and sheiks? Improve your chances with this collection of Jazz Age slang. New dances and new music—especially jazz—also characterized the Jazz Age. Born out of the African American community, jazz was a uniquely American music. The innovative sound emerged from a number of different communities and from a number of different musical traditions such as blues and ragtime. By the 1920s, jazz had spread from African American clubs in New Orleans and Chicago to reach greater popularity in New York and abroad. One New York jazz establishment, the Cotton Club, became particularly famous and attracted large audiences of hip, young, and white flappers and sheiks to see black entertainers play jazz (Figure). THE “NEW WOMAN” The Jazz Age and the proliferation of the flapper lifestyle of the 1920s should not be seen merely as the product of postwar disillusionment and newfound prosperity. Rather, the search for new styles of dress and new forms of entertainment like jazz was part of a larger women’s rights movement. The early 1920s, especially with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteeing full voting rights to women, was a period that witnessed the expansion of women’s political power. The public flaunting of social and sexual norms by flappers represented an attempt to match gains in political equality with gains in the social sphere. Women were increasingly leaving the Victorian era norms of the previous generation behind, as they broadened the concept of women’s liberation to include new forms of social expression such as dance, fashion, women’s clubs, and forays into college and the professions. Nor did the struggle for women’s rights through the promotion and passage of legislation cease in the 1920s. In 1921, Congress passed the Promotion of the Welfare and Hygiene of Maternity and Infancy Act, also known as the Sheppard-Towner Act, which earmarked $1.25 million for well-baby clinics and educational programs, as well as nursing. This funding dramatically reduced the rate of infant mortality. Two years later, in 1923, Alice Paul drafted and promoted an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that promised to end all sex discrimination by guaranteeing that “Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.” Yet, ironically, at precisely the time when the Progressive movement was achieving its long-sought-after goals, the movement itself was losing steam and the Progressive Era was coming to a close. As the heat of Progressive politics grew less intense, voter participation from both sexes declined over the course of the 1920s. After the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, many women believed that they had accomplished their goals and dropped out of the movement. As a result, the proposed ERA stalled (the ERA eventually passed Congress almost fifty years later in 1972, but then failed to win ratification by a sufficient number of states), and, by the end of the 1920s, Congress even allowed funding for the Sheppard-Towner Act to lapse. The growing lethargy toward women’s rights was happening at a time when an increasing number of women were working for wages in the U.S. economy—not only in domestic service, but in retail, healthcare and education, offices, and manufacturing. Beginning in the 1920s, women’s participation in the labor force increased steadily. However, most were paid less than men for the same type of work based on the rationale that they did not have to support a family. While the employment of single and unmarried women had largely won social acceptance, married women often suffered the stigma that they were working for pin money—frivolous additional discretionary income. THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE AND THE NEW NEGRO It wasn’t only women who found new forms of expression in the 1920s. African Americans were also expanding their horizons and embracing the concept of the “new Negro.” The decade witnessed the continued Great Migration of African Americans to the North, with over half a million fleeing the strict Jim Crow laws of the South. Life in the northern states, as many African Americans discovered, was hardly free of discrimination and segregation. Even without Jim Crow, businesses, property owners, employers, and private citizens typically practiced de facto segregation, which could be quite stifling and oppressive. Nonetheless, many southern blacks continued to move north into segregated neighborhoods that were already bursting at the seams, because the North, at the very least, offered two tickets toward black progress: schools and the vote. The black population of New York City doubled during the decade. As a result, Harlem, a neighborhood at the northern end of Manhattan, became a center for Afro-centric art, music, poetry, and politics. Political expression in the Harlem of the 1920s ran the gamut, as some leaders advocated a return to Africa, while others fought for inclusion and integration. Revived by the wartime migration and fired up by the white violence of the postwar riots, urban blacks developed a strong cultural expression in the 1920s that came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance. In this rediscovery of black culture, African American artists and writers formulated an independent black culture and encouraged racial pride, rejecting any emulation of white American culture. Claude McKay’s poem “If We Must Die” called on African Americans to start fighting back in the wake of the Red Summer riots of 1919 (discussed in a previous chapter, Figure). Langston Hughes, often nicknamed the “poet laureate” of the movement, invoked sacrifice and the just cause of civil rights in “The Colored Soldier,” while another author of the movement, Zora Neale Hurston, celebrated the life and dialect of rural blacks in a fictional, all-black town in Florida. Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God was only published posthumously in 1937. The new Negro found political expression in a political ideology that celebrated African Americans distinct national identity. This Negro nationalism, as some referred to it, proposed that African Americans had a distinct and separate national heritage that should inspire pride and a sense of community. An early proponent of such nationalism was W. E. B. Du Bois. One of the founders of the NAACP, a brilliant writer and scholar, and the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard, Du Bois openly rejected assumptions of white supremacy. His conception of Negro nationalism encouraged Africans to work together in support of their own interests, promoted the elevation of black literature and cultural expression, and, most famously, embraced the African continent as the true homeland of all ethnic Africans—a concept known as Pan-Africanism. Taking Negro nationalism to a new level was Marcus Garvey. Like many black Americans, the Jamaican immigrant had become utterly disillusioned with the prospect of overcoming white racism in the United States in the wake of the postwar riots and promoted a “Back to Africa” movement. To return African Americans to a presumably more welcoming home in Africa, Garvey founded the Black Star Steamship Line. He also started the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which attracted thousands of primarily lower-income working people. UNIA members wore colorful uniforms and promoted the doctrine of a “negritude” that reversed the color hierarchy of white supremacy, prizing blackness and identifying light skin as a mark of inferiority. Intellectual leaders like Du Bois, whose lighter skin put him low on Garvey’s social order, considered the UNIA leader a charlatan. Garvey was eventually imprisoned for mail fraud and then deported, but his legacy set the stage for Malcolm X and the Black Power movement of the 1960s. PROHIBITION At precisely the same time that African Americans and women were experimenting with new forms of social expression, the country as a whole was undergoing a process of austere and dramatic social reform in the form of alcohol prohibition. After decades of organizing to reduce or end the consumption of alcohol in the United States, temperance groups and the Anti-Saloon League finally succeeded in pushing through the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors (Figure). The law proved difficult to enforce, as illegal alcohol soon poured in from Canada and the Caribbean, and rural Americans resorted to home-brewed “moonshine.” The result was an eroding of respect for law and order, as many people continued to drink illegal liquor. Rather than bringing about an age of sobriety, as Progressive reformers had hoped, it gave rise to a new subculture that included illegal importers, interstate smuggling (or bootlegging), clandestine saloons referred to as “speakeasies,” hipflasks, cocktail parties, and the organized crime of trafficking liquor. Prohibition also revealed deep political divisions in the nation. The Democratic Party found itself deeply divided between urban, northern “wets” who hated the idea of abstinence, and rural, southern “dries” who favored the amendment. This divided the party and opened the door for the Republican Party to gain ascendancy in the 1920s. All politicians, including Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Robert La Follette, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, equivocated in their support for the law. Publicly, they catered to the Anti-Saloon League; however, they failed to provide funding for enforcement. Prohibition sparked a rise in organized crime. “Scarface” Al Capone (Figure) ran an extensive bootlegging and criminal operation known as the Chicago Outfit or Chicago mafia. By 1927, Capone’s organization included a number of illegal activities including bootlegging, prostitution, gambling, loan sharking, and even murder. His operation was earning him more than $100 million annually, and many local police were on his payroll. Although he did not have a monopoly on crime, his organizational structure was better than many other criminals of his era. His liquor trafficking business and his Chicago soup kitchens during the Great Depression led some Americans to liken Capone to a modern-day Robin Hood. Still, Capone was eventually imprisoned for eleven years for tax evasion, including a stint in California’s notorious Alcatraz prison. THE LOST GENERATION As the country struggled with the effects and side-effects of prohibition, many young intellectuals endeavored to come to grips with a lingering sense of disillusionment. World War I, fundamentalism, and the Red Scare—a pervasive American fear of Communist infiltrators prompted by the success of the Bolshevik Revolution—all left their mark on these intellectuals. Known as the Lost Generation, writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, Edith Wharton, and John Dos Passos expressed their hopelessness and despair by skewering the middle class in their work. They felt alienated from society, so they tried to escape (some literally) to criticize it. Many lived an expatriate life in Paris for the decade, although others went to Rome or Berlin. The Lost Generation writer that best exemplifies the mood of the 1920s was F. Scott Fitzgerald, now considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. His debut novel, This Side of Paradise, describes a generation of youth “grown up to find all gods dead, all wars fought, all faith in man shaken.” The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, exposed the doom that always follows the fun, fast-lived life. Fitzgerald depicted the modern millionaire Jay Gatsby living a profligate life: unscrupulous, coarse, and in love with another man’s wife. Both Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda lived this life as well, squandering the money he made from his writing. F. Scott Fitzgerald on the 1920s In the 1920s, Fitzgerald was one of the most celebrated authors of his day, publishing This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, and The Great Gatsby in quick succession. However, his profligate lifestyle with his wife Zelda sapped their funds, and Fitzgerald had to struggle to maintain their lavish lifestyle. Below is an excerpt from “The Crack-Up,” a personal essay by Fitzgerald originally published in Esquire in which he describes his “good life” during the 1920s. It seemed a romantic business to be a successful literary man—you were not ever going to be as famous as a movie star but what note you had was probably longer-lived; you were never going to have the power of a man of strong political or religious convictions but you were certainly more independent. Of course within the practice of your trade you were forever unsatisfied—but I, for one, would not have chosen any other. As the Twenties passed, with my own twenties marching a little ahead of them, my two juvenile regrets—at not being big enough (or good enough) to play football in college, and at not getting overseas during the war—resolved themselves into childish waking dreams of imaginary heroism that were good enough to go to sleep on in restless nights. The big problems of life seemed to solve themselves, and if the business of fixing them was difficult, it made one too tired to think of more general problems. —F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Crack-Up,” 1936 How does Fitzgerald describe his life in the 1920s? How did his interpretation reflect the reality of the decade? Equally idiosyncratic and disillusioned was writer Ernest Hemingway (Figure). He lived a peripatetic and adventurous lifestyle in Europe, Cuba, and Africa, working as an ambulance driver in Italy during World War I and traveling to Spain in the 1930s to cover the civil war there. His experiences of war and tragedy stuck with him, emerging in colorful scenes in his novels The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). In 1952, his novella, The Old Man and the Sea, won the Pulitzer Prize. Two years later, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for this book and his overall influence on contemporary style. Listen to an audio of Hemingway’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Not all Lost Generation writers were like Fitzgerald or Hemingway. The writing of Sinclair Lewis, rather than expressing a defined disillusionment, was more influenced by the Progressivism of the previous generation. In Babbitt (1922), he examined the “sheep following the herd” mentality that conformity promoted. He satirized American middle-class life as pleasure seeking and mindless. Similarly, writer Edith Wharton celebrated life in old New York, a vanished society, in The Age of Innocence, in 1920. Wharton came from a very wealthy, socialite family in New York, where she was educated by tutors and never attended college. She lived for many years in Europe; during the Great War, she worked in Paris helping women establish businesses. Section Summary Different groups reacted to the upheavals of the 1920s in different ways. Some people, especially young urbanites, embraced the new amusements and social venues of the decade. Women found new opportunities for professional and political advancement, as well as new models of sexual liberation; however, the women’s rights movement began to wane with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. For black artists of the Harlem Renaissance, the decade was marked less by leisure and consumption than by creativity and purpose. African American leaders like Marcus Garvey and W. E. B. Du Bois responded to the retrenched racism of the time with different campaigns for civil rights and black empowerment. Others, like the writers of the Lost Generation, reveled in exposing the hypocrisies and shallowness of mainstream middle-class culture. Meanwhile, the passage of prohibition served to increase the illegal production of alcohol and led to a rise in organized crime. Review Questions The popularization of which psychologist’s ideas encouraged the new morality of the 1920s? - Sigmund Freud - Alice Paul - W. E. B. Du Bois - Margaret Sanger Hint: A Which amendment did Alice Paul promote to end gender discrimination? - Prohibition Amendment - Equal Rights Amendment - Sheppard-Towner Amendment - Free Exercise Amendment Hint: B Which novel of the era satirized the conformity of the American middle class? - This Side of Paradise - The Sun Also Rises - A Farewell to Arms - Babbitt Hint: D Why did the prohibition amendment fail after its adoption in 1919? Hint: The prohibition amendment failed due to its infeasibility. It lacked both public support and funds for its enforcement. It also lessened Americans’ respect for law and order, and sparked a rise in unlawful activities, such as illegal alcohol production and organized crime. What was the Harlem Renaissance, and who were some of the most famous participants? Hint: The Harlem Renaissance was a rediscovery and celebration of black culture and race pride. Within this context, black literature and art flourished. Writers such as Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston created fiction and poetry that spoke directly to the experiences of black Americans. Meanwhile, black scholars and political leaders, such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, created new social and political ideologies and defined a distinct national identity for African Americans.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.297649	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15523/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation, 1919-1929", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15524/overview	Republican Ascendancy: Politics in the 1920s Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss Warren G. Harding’s strengths and weaknesses as president - Explain how Calvin Coolidge was able to defeat the Democratic Party - Explain what Calvin Coolidge meant by “the business of America is business” The election of 1920 saw the weakening of the Democratic Party. The death of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson’s ill health meant the passing of a generation of Progressive leaders. The waning of the Red Scare took with it the last vestiges of Progressive zeal, and Wilson’s support of the League of Nations turned Irish and German immigrants against the Democrats. Americans were tired of reform, tired of witch hunts, and were more than ready for a return to “normalcy.” Above all, the 1920s signaled a return to a pro-business government—almost a return to the laissez-faire politics of the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century. Calvin Coolidge’s statement that “the chief business of the American people is business,” often rendered as “the business of America is business” became the dominant attitude. WARREN HARDING AND THE RETURN TO NORMALCY In the election of 1920, professional Republicans were eager to nominate a man whom they could manage and control. Warren G. Harding, a senator from Ohio, represented just such a man (Figure). Before his nomination, Harding stated, “America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.” Harding was genial and affable, but not everyone appreciated his speeches; Democratic presidential-hopeful William Gibbs McAdoo described Harding’s speeches as “an army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea.” H. L. Mencken, the great social critic of the 1920s, wrote of Harding’s speaking, “It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up to the top-most pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.” Harding was known for enjoying golf, alcohol, and poker (not necessarily in that order). Although his critics depicted him as weak, lazy, or incompetent, he was actually quite shrewd and politically astute. Together with his running mate, Calvin Coolidge, the governor of Massachusetts, they attracted the votes of many Americans who sought Harding’s promised return to normalcy. In the election, Harding defeated Governor James Cox of Ohio by the greatest majority in the history of two-party politics: 61 percent of the popular vote. Harding’s cabinet reflected his pro-business agenda. Herbert Hoover, a millionaire mechanical engineer and miner, became his Secretary of Commerce. Hoover had served as head of the relief effort for Belgium during World War I and helped to feed those in Russia and Germany after the war ended. He was a very effective administrator, seeking to limit inefficiency in the government and promoting partnerships between government and businesses. Harding’s Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, was also a pro-business multimillionaire with a fortune built in banking and aluminum. Even more so than Hoover, Mellon entered public service with a strong sense that government should run as efficiently as any business, famously writing that “the Government is just a business, and can and should be run on business principles.” Consistent with his principles of running government with business-like efficiency, Harding proposed and signed into law tax rate cuts as well as the country’s first formal budgeting process, which created a presidential budget director and required that the president submit an annual budget to Congress. These policies helped to reduce the debt that the United States had incurred during World War I. However, as Europe began to recover, U.S. exports to the continent dwindled. In an effort to protect U.S. agriculture and other businesses threatened by lower-priced imports, Harding pushed through the Emergency Tariff of 1921. This defensive tariff had the effect of increasing American purchasing power, although it also inflated the prices of many goods. In the area of foreign policy, Harding worked to preserve the peace through international cooperation and the reduction of armaments around the world. Despite the refusal of the U.S. Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, Harding was able to work with Germany and Austria to secure a formal peace. He convened a conference in Washington that brought world leaders together to agree on reducing the threat of future wars by reducing armaments. Out of these negotiations came a number of treaties designed to foster cooperation in the Far East, reduce the size of navies around the world, and establish guidelines for submarine usage. These agreements ultimately fell apart in the 1930s, as the world descended into war again. But, at the time, they were seen as a promising path to maintaining the peace. Despite these developments, the Harding administration has gone down in history as one that was especially ridden with scandal. While Harding was personally honest, he surrounded himself with politicians who weren’t. Harding made the mistake of often turning to unscrupulous advisors or even his “Ohio Gang” of drinking and poker buddies for advice and guidance. And, as he himself recognized, this group tended to cause him grief. “I have no trouble with my enemies,” he once commented. “I can take care of my enemies in a fight. But my friends, my goddamned friends, they’re the ones who keep me walking the floor at nights!” The scandals mounted quickly. From 1920 to 1923, Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall was involved in a scam that became known as the Teapot Dome scandal. Fall had leased navy reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and two other sites in California to private oil companies without opening the bidding to other companies. In exchange, the companies gave him $300,000 in cash and bonds, as well as a herd of cattle for his ranch. Fall was convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies; he was fined $100,000 and sentenced to a year in prison. It was the first time that a cabinet official had received such a sentence. In 1923, Harding also learned that the head of the Veterans’ Bureau, Colonel Charles Forbes, had absconded with most of the $250 million set aside for extravagant bureau functions. Harding allowed Forbes to resign and leave the country; however, after the president died, Forbes returned and was tried, convicted, and sentenced to two years in Leavenworth prison. Although the Harding presidency had a number of large successes and variety of dark scandals, it ended before the first term was up. In July 1923, while traveling in Seattle, the president suffered a heart attack. On August 2, in his weakened condition, he suffered a stroke and died in San Francisco, leaving the presidency to his vice president, Calvin Coolidge. As for Harding, few presidents were so deeply mourned by the populace. His kindly nature and ability to poke fun at himself endeared him to the public. Listen to some of Harding’s speeches at The University of Virginia’s Miller Center’s website. A MAN OF FEW WORDS Coolidge ended the scandals, but did little beyond that. Walter Lippman wrote in 1926 that “Mr. Coolidge’s genius for inactivity is developed to a very high point. It is a grim, determined, alert inactivity, which keeps Mr. Coolidge occupied constantly.” Coolidge had a strong belief in the Puritan work ethic: Work hard, save your money, keep your mouth shut and listen, and good things will happen to you. Known as “Silent Cal,” his clean image seemed capable of cleaning up scandals left by Harding. Republicans—and the nation—now had a president who combined a preference for normalcy with the respectability and honesty that was absent from the Harding administration. Coolidge’s first term was devoted to eliminating the taint of scandal that Harding had brought to the White House. Domestically, Coolidge adhered to the creed: “The business of America is business.” He stood in awe of Andrew Mellon and followed his fiscal policies, which made him the only president to turn a legitimate profit in the White House. Coolidge believed the rich were worthy of their property and that poverty was the wage of sin. Most importantly, Coolidge believed that since only the rich best understood their own interests, the government should let businessmen handle their own affairs with as little federal intervention as possible. Coolidge was quoted as saying, “The man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man who works there worships there.” Thus, silence and inactivity became the dominant characteristics of the Coolidge presidency. Coolidge’s legendary reserve was famous in Washington society. Contemporaries told a possibly apocryphal story of how, at a dinner party at the White House, a woman bet her friends that she could get Coolidge to say more than three words. He looked at her and said, “you lose.” The 1924 election saw Coolidge win easily over the divided Democrats, who fought over their nomination. Southerners wanted to nominate pro-prohibition, pro-Klan, anti-immigrant candidate William G. McAdoo. The eastern establishment wanted Alfred E. Smith, a Catholic, urban, and anti-prohibition candidate. After many battles, they compromised on corporation lawyer John W. Davis. Midwesterner Robert M. La Follette, promoted by farmers, socialists, and labor unions, attempted to resurrect the Progressive Party. Coolidge easily beat both candidates. THE ELECTION OF 1928 This cultural battle between the forces of reaction and rebellion appeared to culminate with the election of 1928, the height of Republican ascendancy. On August 2, 1927, Coolidge announced that he would not be participating in the 1928 election; “I choose not to run,” was his comment (Figure). Republicans promoted the heir apparent, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. The Democrats nominated Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York. Smith represented everything that small-town, rural America hated: He was Irish, Catholic, anti-prohibition, and a big-city politician. He was very flamboyant and outspoken, which also did not go over well with many Americans. Republican prosperity carried the day once again, and Hoover won easily with twenty-one million votes over Al Smith’s fifteen million. The stock market continued to rise, and prosperity was the watchword of the day. Many Americans who had not done so before invested in the market, believing that the prosperous times would continue. As Hoover came into office, Americans had every reason to believe that prosperity would continue forever. In less than a year, however, the bubble would burst, and a harsh reality would take its place. Section Summary After World War I, Americans were ready for “a return to normalcy,” and Republican Warren Harding offered them just that. Under the guidance of his big-business backers, Harding’s policies supported businesses at home and isolation from foreign affairs. His administration was wracked by scandals, and after he died in 1923, Calvin Coolidge continued his policy legacy in much the same vein. Herbert Hoover, elected as Coolidge’s heir apparent, planned for more of the same until the stock market crash ended a decade of Republican ascendancy. Review Questions Who was the Republican presidential nominee for the 1920 election? - Calvin Coolidge - Woodrow Wilson - Warren Harding - James Cox Hint: C In 1929, Albert Fall was convicted of bribery while holding the position of ________. - Secretary of the Interior - head of the Veterans’ Bureau - Secretary of the Treasury - Secretary of Commerce Hint: A Coolidge’s presidency was characterized by ________. - scandal and dishonesty - silence and inactivity - flamboyancy and extravagance - ambition and greed Hint: B What was the economic outlook of the average American when Herbert Hoover took office in 1929? Hint: Most Americans believed that their prosperity would continue. The stock market continued to flourish, prompting many Americans—including those who had never done so before—to invest their savings and hope for the best. Critical Thinking Questions Explain how the 1920s was a decade of contradictions. What does the relationship between mass immigration and the rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan tell us about American attitudes? How might we reconcile the decade as the period of both the flapper and prohibition? What new opportunities did the 1920s provide for women and African Americans? What new limitations did this era impose? Discuss what the concept of “modernity” meant in the 1920s. How did art and innovation in the decade reflect the new mood of the postwar era? Explain how technology took American culture in new and different directions. What role did motion pictures and radio play in shaping cultural attitudes in the United States? Discuss how politics of the 1920s reflected the new postwar mood of the country. What did the Harding administration’s policies attempt to achieve, and how?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.328336	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15524/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation, 1919-1929", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15477/overview	Introduction Overview - Restoring the Union - Congress and the Remaking of the South, 1865–1866 - Radical Reconstruction, 1867–1872 - The Collapse of Reconstruction Few times in U.S. history have been as turbulent and transformative as the Civil War and the twelve years that followed. Between 1865 and 1877, one president was murdered and another impeached. The Constitution underwent major revision with the addition of three amendments. The effort to impose Union control and create equality in the defeated South ignited a fierce backlash as various terrorist and vigilante organizations, most notably the Ku Klux Klan, battled to maintain a pre–Civil War society in which whites held complete power. These groups unleashed a wave of violence, including lynching and arson, aimed at freed blacks and their white supporters. Historians refer to this era as Reconstruction, when an effort to remake the South faltered and ultimately failed. The above political cartoon (Figure) expresses the anguish many Americans felt in the decade after the Civil War. The South, which had experienced catastrophic losses during the conflict, was reduced to political dependence and economic destitution. This humiliating condition led many southern whites to vigorously contest Union efforts to transform the South’s racial, economic, and social landscape. Supporters of equality grew increasingly dismayed at Reconstruction’s failure to undo the old system, which further compounded the staggering regional and racial inequalities in the United States.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.343850	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15477/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15478/overview	Restoring the Union Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe Lincoln’s plan to restore the Union at the end of the Civil War - Discuss the tenets of Radical Republicanism - Analyze the success or failure of the Thirteenth Amendment The end of the Civil War saw the beginning of the Reconstruction era, when former rebel Southern states were integrated back into the Union. President Lincoln moved quickly to achieve the war’s ultimate goal: reunification of the country. He proposed a generous and non-punitive plan to return the former Confederate states speedily to the United States, but some Republicans in Congress protested, considering the president’s plan too lenient to the rebel states that had torn the country apart. The greatest flaw of Lincoln’s plan, according to this view, was that it appeared to forgive traitors instead of guaranteeing civil rights to former slaves. President Lincoln oversaw the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, but he did not live to see its ratification. THE PRESIDENT’S PLAN From the outset of the rebellion in 1861, Lincoln’s overriding goal had been to bring the Southern states quickly back into the fold in order to restore the Union (Figure). In early December 1863, the president began the process of reunification by unveiling a three-part proposal known as the ten percent plan that outlined how the states would return. The ten percent plan gave a general pardon to all Southerners except high-ranking Confederate government and military leaders; required 10 percent of the 1860 voting population in the former rebel states to take a binding oath of future allegiance to the United States and the emancipation of slaves; and declared that once those voters took those oaths, the restored Confederate states would draft new state constitutions. Lincoln hoped that the leniency of the plan—90 percent of the 1860 voters did not have to swear allegiance to the Union or to emancipation—would bring about a quick and long-anticipated resolution and make emancipation more acceptable everywhere. This approach appealed to some in the moderate wing of the Republican Party, which wanted to put the nation on a speedy course toward reconciliation. However, the proposal instantly drew fire from a larger faction of Republicans in Congress who did not want to deal moderately with the South. These members of Congress, known as Radical Republicans, wanted to remake the South and punish the rebels. Radical Republicans insisted on harsh terms for the defeated Confederacy and protection for former slaves, going far beyond what the president proposed. In February 1864, two of the Radical Republicans, Ohio senator Benjamin Wade and Maryland representative Henry Winter Davis, answered Lincoln with a proposal of their own. Among other stipulations, the Wade-Davis Bill called for a majority of voters and government officials in Confederate states to take an oath, called the Ironclad Oath, swearing that they had never supported the Confederacy or made war against the United States. Those who could not or would not take the oath would be unable to take part in the future political life of the South. Congress assented to the Wade-Davis Bill, and it went to Lincoln for his signature. The president refused to sign, using the pocket veto (that is, taking no action) to kill the bill. Lincoln understood that no Southern state would have met the criteria of the Wade-Davis Bill, and its passage would simply have delayed the reconstruction of the South. THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT Despite the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, the legal status of slaves and the institution of slavery remained unresolved. To deal with the remaining uncertainties, the Republican Party made the abolition of slavery a top priority by including the issue in its 1864 party platform. The platform read: “That as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the strength of this Rebellion, and as it must be, always and everywhere, hostile to the principles of Republican Government, justice and the National safety demand its utter and complete extirpation from the soil of the Republic; and that, while we uphold and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the Government, in its own defense, has aimed a deathblow at this gigantic evil, we are in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution, to be made by the people in conformity with its provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of Slavery within the limits of the jurisdiction of the United States.” The platform left no doubt about the intention to abolish slavery. The president, along with the Radical Republicans, made good on this campaign promise in 1864 and 1865. A proposed constitutional amendment passed the Senate in April 1864, and the House of Representatives concurred in January 1865. The amendment then made its way to the states, where it swiftly gained the necessary support, including in the South. In December 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified and added to the Constitution. The first amendment added to the Constitution since 1804, it overturned a centuries-old practice by permanently abolishing slavery. Explore a comprehensive collection of documents, images, and ephemera related to Abraham Lincoln on the Library of Congress website. President Lincoln never saw the final ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. On April 14, 1865, the Confederate supporter and well-known actor John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln while he was attending a play, Our American Cousin, at Ford’s Theater in Washington. The president died the next day (Figure). Booth had steadfastly defended the Confederacy and white supremacy, and his act was part of a larger conspiracy to eliminate the heads of the Union government and keep the Confederate fight going. One of Booth’s associates stabbed and wounded Secretary of State William Seward the night of the assassination. Another associate abandoned the planned assassination of Vice President Andrew Johnson at the last moment. Although Booth initially escaped capture, Union troops shot and killed him on April 26, 1865, in a Maryland barn. Eight other conspirators were convicted by a military tribunal for participating in the conspiracy, and four were hanged. Lincoln’s death earned him immediate martyrdom, and hysteria spread throughout the North. To many Northerners, the assassination suggested an even greater conspiracy than what was revealed, masterminded by the unrepentant leaders of the defeated Confederacy. Militant Republicans would use and exploit this fear relentlessly in the ensuing months. ANDREW JOHNSON AND THE BATTLE OVER RECONSTRUCTION Lincoln’s assassination elevated Vice President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, to the presidency. Johnson had come from very humble origins. Born into extreme poverty in North Carolina and having never attended school, Johnson was the picture of a self-made man. His wife had taught him how to read and he had worked as a tailor, a trade he had been apprenticed to as a child. In Tennessee, where he had moved as a young man, he gradually rose up the political ladder, earning a reputation for being a skillful stump speaker and a staunch defender of poor southerners. He was elected to serve in the House of Representatives in the 1840s, became governor of Tennessee the following decade, and then was elected a U.S. senator just a few years before the country descended into war. When Tennessee seceded, Johnson remained loyal to the Union and stayed in the Senate. As Union troops marched on his home state of North Carolina, Lincoln appointed him governor of the then-occupied state of Tennessee, where he served until being nominated by the Republicans to run for vice president on a Lincoln ticket. The nomination of Johnson, a Democrat and a slaveholding southerner, was a pragmatic decision made by concerned Republicans. It was important for them to show that the party supported all loyal men, regardless of their origin or political persuasion. Johnson appeared an ideal choice, because his nomination would bring with it the support of both pro-Southern elements and the War Democrats who rejected the conciliatory stance of the Copperheads, the northern Democrats who opposed the Civil War. Unexpectedly elevated to the presidency in 1865, this formerly impoverished tailor’s apprentice and unwavering antagonist of the wealthy southern planter class now found himself tasked with administering the restoration of a destroyed South. Lincoln’s position as president had been that the secession of the Southern states was never legal; that is, they had not succeeded in leaving the Union, therefore they still had certain rights to self-government as states. In keeping with Lincoln’s plan, Johnson desired to quickly reincorporate the South back into the Union on lenient terms and heal the wounds of the nation. This position angered many in his own party. The northern Radical Republican plan for Reconstruction looked to overturn southern society and specifically aimed at ending the plantation system. President Johnson quickly disappointed Radical Republicans when he rejected their idea that the federal government could provide voting rights for freed slaves. The initial disagreements between the president and the Radical Republicans over how best to deal with the defeated South set the stage for further conflict. In fact, President Johnson’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in May 1865 provided sweeping “amnesty and pardon” to rebellious Southerners. It returned to them their property, with the notable exception of their former slaves, and it asked only that they affirm their support for the Constitution of the United States. Those Southerners excepted from this amnesty included the Confederate political leadership, high-ranking military officers, and persons with taxable property worth more than $20,000. The inclusion of this last category was specifically designed to make it clear to the southern planter class that they had a unique responsibility for the outbreak of hostilities. But it also satisfied Johnson’s desire to exact vengeance on a class of people he had fought politically for much of his life. For this class of wealthy Southerners to regain their rights, they would have to swallow their pride and request a personal pardon from Johnson himself. For the Southern states, the requirements for readmission to the Union were also fairly straightforward. States were required to hold individual state conventions where they would repeal the ordinances of secession and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment. By the end of 1865, a number of former Confederate leaders were in the Union capital looking to claim their seats in Congress. Among them was Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the Confederacy, who had spent several months in a Boston jail after the war. Despite the outcries of Republicans in Congress, by early 1866 Johnson announced that all former Confederate states had satisfied the necessary requirements. According to him, nothing more needed to be done; the Union had been restored. Understandably, Radical Republicans in Congress did not agree with Johnson’s position. They, and their northern constituents, greatly resented his lenient treatment of the former Confederate states, and especially the return of former Confederate leaders like Alexander Stephens to Congress. They refused to acknowledge the southern state governments he allowed. As a result, they would not permit senators and representatives from the former Confederate states to take their places in Congress. Instead, the Radical Republicans created a joint committee of representatives and senators to oversee Reconstruction. In the 1866 congressional elections, they gained control of the House, and in the ensuing years they pushed for the dismantling of the old southern order and the complete reconstruction of the South. This effort put them squarely at odds with President Johnson, who remained unwilling to compromise with Congress, setting the stage for a series of clashes. Section Summary President Lincoln worked to reach his goal of reunifying the nation quickly and proposed a lenient plan to reintegrate the Confederate states. After his murder in 1865, Lincoln’s vice president, Andrew Johnson, sought to reconstitute the Union quickly, pardoning Southerners en masse and providing Southern states with a clear path back to readmission. By 1866, Johnson announced the end of Reconstruction. Radical Republicans in Congress disagreed, however, and in the years ahead would put forth their own plan of Reconstruction. Review Questions What was Lincoln’s primary goal immediately following the Civil War? - punishing the rebel states - improving the lives of former slaves - reunifying the country - paying off the debts of the war Hint: C In 1864 and 1865, Radical Republicans were most concerned with ________. - securing civil rights for freed slaves - barring ex-Confederates from political office - seeking restitution from Confederate states - preventing Andrew Johnson’s ascent to the presidency Hint: B What was the purpose of the Thirteenth Amendment? How was it different from the Emancipation Proclamation? Hint: The Thirteenth Amendment officially and permanently banned the institution of slavery in the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation had freed only those slaves in rebellious states, leaving many slaves—most notably, those in the border states—in bondage; furthermore, it did not alter or prohibit the institution of slavery in general.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.369100	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15478/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15479/overview	Congress and the Remaking of the South, 1865–1866 Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the efforts made by Congress in 1865 and 1866 to bring to life its vision of Reconstruction - Explain how the Fourteenth Amendment transformed the Constitution President Johnson and Congress’s views on Reconstruction grew even further apart as Johnson’s presidency progressed. Congress repeatedly pushed for greater rights for freed people and a far more thorough reconstruction of the South, while Johnson pushed for leniency and a swifter reintegration. President Johnson lacked Lincoln’s political skills and instead exhibited a stubbornness and confrontational approach that aggravated an already difficult situation. THE FREEDMEN’S BUREAU Freed people everywhere celebrated the end of slavery and immediately began to take steps to improve their own condition by seeking what had long been denied to them: land, financial security, education, and the ability to participate in the political process. They wanted to be reunited with family members, grasp the opportunity to make their own independent living, and exercise their right to have a say in their own government. However, they faced the wrath of defeated but un-reconciled southerners who were determined to keep blacks an impoverished and despised underclass. Recognizing the widespread devastation in the South and the dire situation of freed people, Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands in March 1865, popularly known as the Freedmen’s Bureau. Lincoln had approved of the bureau, giving it a charter for one year. The Freedmen’s Bureau engaged in many initiatives to ease the transition from slavery to freedom. It delivered food to blacks and whites alike in the South. It helped freed people gain labor contracts, a significant step in the creation of wage labor in place of slavery. It helped reunite families of freedmen, and it also devoted much energy to education, establishing scores of public schools where freed people and poor whites could receive both elementary and higher education. Respected institutions such as Fisk University, Hampton University, and Dillard University are part of the legacy of the Freedmen’s Bureau. In this endeavor, the Freedmen’s Bureau received support from Christian organizations that had long advocated for abolition, such as the American Missionary Association (AMA). The AMA used the knowledge and skill it had acquired while working in missions in Africa and with American Indian groups to establish and run schools for freed slaves in the postwar South. While men and women, white and black, taught in these schools, the opportunity was crucially important for participating women (Figure). At the time, many opportunities, including admission to most institutes of higher learning, remained closed to women. Participating in these schools afforded these women the opportunities they otherwise may have been denied. Additionally, the fact they often risked life and limb to work in these schools in the South demonstrated to the nation that women could play a vital role in American civic life. The schools that the Freedmen’s Bureau and the AMA established inspired great dismay and resentment among the white populations in the South and were sometimes targets of violence. Indeed, the Freedmen’s Bureau’s programs and its very existence were sources of controversy. Racists and others who resisted this type of federal government activism denounced it as both a waste of federal money and a foolish effort that encouraged laziness among blacks. Congress renewed the bureau’s charter in 1866, but President Johnson, who steadfastly believed that the work of restoring the Union had been completed, vetoed the re-chartering. Radical Republicans continued to support the bureau, igniting a contest between Congress and the president that intensified during the next several years. Part of this dispute involved conflicting visions of the proper role of the federal government. Radical Republicans believed in the constructive power of the federal government to ensure a better day for freed people. Others, including Johnson, denied that the government had any such role to play. The Freedmen’s Bureau The image below (Figure) shows a campaign poster for Hiester Clymer, who ran for governor of Pennsylvania in 1866 on a platform of white supremacy. The image in the foreground shows an indolent black man wondering, “Whar is de use for me to work as long as dey make dese appropriations.” White men toil in the background, chopping wood and plowing a field. The text above them reads, “In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread. . . . The white man must work to keep his children and pay his taxes.” In the middle background, the Freedmen’s Bureau looks like the Capitol, and the pillars are inscribed with racist assumptions of things blacks value, like “rum,” “idleness,” and “white women.” On the right are estimates of the costs of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the bounties (fees for enlistment) given to both white and black Union soldiers. What does this poster indicate about the political climate of the Reconstruction era? How might different people have received this image? BLACK CODES In 1865 and 1866, as Johnson announced the end of Reconstruction, southern states began to pass a series of discriminatory state laws collectively known as black codes. While the laws varied in both content and severity from state to state, the goal of the laws remained largely consistent. In effect, these codes were designed to maintain the social and economic structure of racial slavery in the absence of slavery itself. The laws codified white supremacy by restricting the civic participation of freed slaves—depriving them of the right to vote, the right to serve on juries, the right to own or carry weapons, and, in some cases, even the right to rent or lease land. A chief component of the black codes was designed to fulfill an important economic need in the postwar South. Slavery had been a pillar of economic stability in the region before the war. To maintain agricultural production, the South had relied on slaves to work the land. Now the region was faced with the daunting prospect of making the transition from a slave economy to one where labor was purchased on the open market. Not surprisingly, planters in the southern states were reluctant to make such a transition. Instead, they drafted black laws that would re-create the antebellum economic structure with the façade of a free-labor system. Black codes used a variety of tactics to tie freed slaves to the land. To work, the freed slaves were forced to sign contracts with their employer. These contracts prevented blacks from working for more than one employer. This meant that, unlike in a free labor market, blacks could not positively influence wages and conditions by choosing to work for the employer who gave them the best terms. The predictable outcome was that freed slaves were forced to work for very low wages. With such low wages, and no ability to supplement income with additional work, workers were reduced to relying on loans from their employers. The debt that these workers incurred ensured that they could never escape from their condition. Those former slaves who attempt to violate these contracts could be fined or beaten. Those who refused to sign contracts at all could be arrested for vagrancy and then made to work for no wages, essentially being reduced to the very definition of a slave. The black codes left no doubt that the former breakaway Confederate states intended to maintain white supremacy at all costs. These draconian state laws helped spur the congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction into action. Its members felt that ending slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment did not go far enough. Congress extended the life of the Freedmen’s Bureau to combat the black codes and in April 1866 passed the first Civil Rights Act, which established the citizenship of African Americans. This was a significant step that contradicted the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision, which declared that blacks could never be citizens. The law also gave the federal government the right to intervene in state affairs to protect the rights of citizens, and thus, of African Americans. President Johnson, who continued to insist that restoration of the United States had already been accomplished, vetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Act. However, Congress mustered the necessary votes to override his veto. Despite the Civil Rights Act, the black codes endured, forming the foundation of the racially discriminatory Jim Crow segregation policies that impoverished generations of African Americans. THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT Questions swirled about the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The Supreme Court, in its 1857 decision forbidding black citizenship, had interpreted the Constitution in a certain way; many argued that the 1866 statute, alone, could not alter that interpretation. Seeking to overcome all legal questions, Radical Republicans drafted another constitutional amendment with provisions that followed those of the 1866 Civil Rights Act. In July 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment went to state legislatures for ratification. The Fourteenth Amendment stated, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” It gave citizens equal protection under both the state and federal law, overturning the Dred Scott decision. It eliminated the three-fifths compromise of the 1787 Constitution, whereby slaves had been counted as three-fifths of a free white person, and it reduced the number of House representatives and Electoral College electors for any state that denied suffrage to any adult male inhabitant, black or white. As Radical Republicans had proposed in the Wade-Davis bill, individuals who had “engaged in insurrection or rebellion [against] . . . or given aid or comfort to the enemies [of]” the United States were barred from holding political (state or federal) or military office unless pardoned by two-thirds of Congress. The amendment also answered the question of debts arising from the Civil War by specifying that all debts incurred by fighting to defeat the Confederacy would be honored. Confederate debts, however, would not: “[N]either the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.” Thus, claims by former slaveholders requesting compensation for slave property had no standing. Any state that ratified the Fourteenth Amendment would automatically be readmitted. Yet, all former Confederate states refused to ratify the amendment in 1866. President Johnson called openly for the rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment, a move that drove a further wedge between him and congressional Republicans. In late summer of 1866, he gave a series of speeches, known as the “swing around the circle,” designed to gather support for his mild version of Reconstruction. Johnson felt that ending slavery went far enough; extending the rights and protections of citizenship to freed people, he believed, went much too far. He continued to believe that blacks were inferior to whites. The president’s “swing around the circle” speeches to gain support for his program and derail the Radical Republicans proved to be a disaster, as hecklers provoked Johnson to make damaging statements. Radical Republicans charged that Johnson had been drunk when he made his speeches. As a result, Johnson’s reputation plummeted. Read the text of the Fourteenth Amendment and then view the original document at Our Documents. Section Summary The conflict between President Johnson and the Republican-controlled Congress over the proper steps to be taken with the defeated Confederacy grew in intensity in the years immediately following the Civil War. While the president concluded that all that needed to be done in the South had been done by early 1866, Congress forged ahead to stabilize the defeated Confederacy and extend to freed people citizenship and equality before the law. Congress prevailed over Johnson’s vetoes as the friction between the president and the Republicans increased. Review Questions Which of the following was not one of the functions of the Freedmen’s Bureau? - collecting taxes - reuniting families - establishing schools - helping workers secure labor contracts Hint: A Which person or group was most responsible for the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment? - President Johnson - northern voters - southern voters - Radical Republicans in Congress Hint: D What was the goal of the black codes? Hint: The black codes in southern states had the goal of keeping blacks impoverished and in debt. Black codes outlawed vagrancy and required all black men to have an annual labor contract, which gave southern states an excuse to arrest those who failed to meet these requirements and put them to hard labor.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.396495	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15479/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15480/overview	Radical Reconstruction, 1867–1872 Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain the purpose of the second phase of Reconstruction and some of the key legislation put forward by Congress - Describe the impeachment of President Johnson - Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the Fifteenth Amendment During the Congressional election in the fall of 1866, Republicans gained even greater victories. This was due in large measure to the northern voter opposition that had developed toward President Johnson because of the inflexible and overbearing attitude he had exhibited in the White House, as well as his missteps during his 1866 speaking tour. Leading Radical Republicans in Congress included Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner (the same senator whom proslavery South Carolina representative Preston Brooks had thrashed with his cane in 1856 during the Bleeding Kansas crisis) and Pennsylvania representative Thaddeus Stevens. These men and their supporters envisioned a much more expansive change in the South. Sumner advocated integrating schools and giving black men the right to vote while disenfranchising many southern voters. For his part, Stevens considered that the southern states had forfeited their rights as states when they seceded, and were no more than conquered territory that the federal government could organize as it wished. He envisioned the redistribution of plantation lands and U.S. military control over the former Confederacy. Their goals included the transformation of the South from an area built on slave labor to a free-labor society. They also wanted to ensure that freed people were protected and given the opportunity for a better life. Violent race riots in Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1866 gave greater urgency to the second phase of Reconstruction, begun in 1867. THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS The 1867 Military Reconstruction Act, which encompassed the vision of Radical Republicans, set a new direction for Reconstruction in the South. Republicans saw this law, and three supplementary laws passed by Congress that year, called the Reconstruction Acts, as a way to deal with the disorder in the South. The 1867 act divided the ten southern states that had yet to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment into five military districts (Tennessee had already been readmitted to the Union by this time and so was excluded from these acts). Martial law was imposed, and a Union general commanded each district. These generals and twenty thousand federal troops stationed in the districts were charged with protecting freed people. When a supplementary act extended the right to vote to all freed men of voting age (21 years old), the military in each district oversaw the elections and the registration of voters. Only after new state constitutions had been written and states had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment could these states rejoin the Union. Predictably, President Johnson vetoed the Reconstruction Acts, viewing them as both unnecessary and unconstitutional. Once again, Congress overrode Johnson’s vetoes, and by the end of 1870, all the southern states under military rule had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment and been restored to the Union (Figure). THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON President Johnson’s relentless vetoing of congressional measures created a deep rift in Washington, DC, and neither he nor Congress would back down. Johnson’s prickly personality proved to be a liability, and many people found him grating. Moreover, he firmly believed in white supremacy, declaring in his 1868 State of the Union address, “The attempt to place the white population under the domination of persons of color in the South has impaired, if not destroyed, the kindly relations that had previously existed between them; and mutual distrust has engendered a feeling of animosity which leading in some instances to collision and bloodshed, has prevented that cooperation between the two races so essential to the success of industrial enterprise in the southern states.” The president’s racism put him even further at odds with those in Congress who wanted to create full equality between blacks and whites. The Republican majority in Congress by now despised the president, and they wanted to prevent him from interfering in congressional Reconstruction. To that end, Radical Republicans passed two laws of dubious constitutionality. The Command of the Army Act prohibited the president from issuing military orders except through the commanding general of the army, who could not be relieved or reassigned without the consent of the Senate. The Tenure of Office Act, which Congress passed in 1867, required the president to gain the approval of the Senate whenever he appointed or removed officials. Congress had passed this act to ensure that Republicans who favored Radical Reconstruction would not be barred or stripped of their jobs. In August 1867, President Johnson removed Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who had aligned himself with the Radical Republicans, without gaining Senate approval. He replaced Stanton with Ulysses S. Grant, but Grant resigned and sided with the Republicans against the president. Many Radical Republicans welcomed this blunder by the president as it allowed them to take action to remove Johnson from office, arguing that Johnson had openly violated the Tenure of Office Act. The House of Representatives quickly drafted a resolution to impeach him, a first in American history. In impeachment proceedings, the House of Representatives serves as the prosecution and the Senate acts as judge, deciding whether the president should be removed from office (Figure). The House brought eleven counts against Johnson, all alleging his encroachment on the powers of Congress. In the Senate, Johnson barely survived. Seven Republicans joined the Democrats and independents to support acquittal; the final vote was 35 to 19, one vote short of the required two-thirds majority. The Radicals then dropped the impeachment effort, but the events had effectively silenced President Johnson, and Radical Republicans continued with their plan to reconstruct the South. THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT In November 1868, Ulysses S. Grant, the Union’s war hero, easily won the presidency in a landslide victory. The Democratic nominee was Horatio Seymour, but the Democrats carried the stigma of disunion. The Republicans, in their campaign, blamed the devastating Civil War and the violence of its aftermath on the rival party, a strategy that southerners called “waving the bloody shirt.” Though Grant did not side with the Radical Republicans, his victory allowed the continuance of the Radical Reconstruction program. In the winter of 1869, Republicans introduced another constitutional amendment, the third of the Reconstruction era. When Republicans had passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which addressed citizenship rights and equal protections, they were unable to explicitly ban states from withholding the franchise based on race. With the Fifteenth Amendment, they sought to correct this major weakness by finally extending to black men the right to vote. The amendment directed that “[t]he right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Unfortunately, the new amendment had weaknesses of its own. As part of a compromise to ensure the passage of the amendment with the broadest possible support, drafters of the amendment specifically excluded language that addressed literacy tests and poll taxes, the most common ways blacks were traditionally disenfranchised in both the North and the South. Indeed, Radical Republican leader Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, himself an ardent supporter of legal equality without exception to race, refused to vote for the amendment precisely because it did not address these obvious loopholes. Despite these weaknesses, the language of the amendment did provide for universal manhood suffrage—the right of all men to vote—and crucially identified black men, including those who had been slaves, as deserving the right to vote. This, the third and final of the Reconstruction amendments, was ratified in 1870 (Figure). With the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, many believed that the process of restoring the Union was safely coming to a close and that the rights of freed slaves were finally secure. African American communities expressed great hope as they celebrated what they understood to be a national confirmation of their unqualified citizenship. Visit the Library of Congress to take a closer look at The Fifteenth Amendment by Thomas Kelly. Examine each individual vignette and the accompanying text. Why do you think Kelly chose these to highlight? WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE While the Fifteenth Amendment may have been greeted with applause in many corners, leading women’s rights activists, who had been campaigning for decades for the right to vote, saw it as a major disappointment. More dispiriting still was the fact that many women’s rights activists, such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, had played a large part in the abolitionist movement leading up to the Civil War. Following the war, women and men, white and black, formed the American Equal Rights Association (AERA) for the expressed purpose of securing “equal Rights to all American citizens, especially the right of suffrage, irrespective of race, color or sex.” Two years later, with the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, section 2 of which specifically qualified the liberties it extended to “male citizens,” it seemed as though the progress made in support of civil rights was not only passing women by but was purposely codifying their exclusion. As Congress debated the language of the Fifteenth Amendment, some held out hope that it would finally extend the franchise to women. Those hopes were dashed when Congress adopted the final language. The consequence of these frustrated hopes was the effective split of a civil rights movement that had once been united in support of African Americans and women. Seeing this split occur, Frederick Douglass, a great admirer of Stanton, struggled to argue for a piecemeal approach that should prioritize the franchise for black men if that was the only option. He insisted that his support for women’s right to vote was sincere, but that getting black men the right to vote was “of the most urgent necessity.” “The government of this country loves women,” he argued. “They are the sisters, mothers, wives and daughters of our rulers; but the negro is loathed. . . . The negro needs suffrage to protect his life and property, and to ensure him respect and education.” These appeals were largely accepted by women’s rights leaders and AERA members like Lucy Stone and Henry Browne Blackwell, who believed that more time was needed to bring about female suffrage. Others demanded immediate action. Among those who pressed forward despite the setback were Stanton and Anthony. They felt greatly aggrieved at the fact that other abolitionists, with whom they had worked closely for years, did not demand that women be included in the language of the amendments. Stanton argued that the women’s vote would be necessary to counter the influence of uneducated freedmen in the South and the waves of poor European immigrants arriving in the East. In 1869, Stanton and Anthony helped organize the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), an organization dedicated to ensuring that women gained the right to vote immediately, not at some future, undetermined date. Some women, including Virginia Minor, a member of the NWSA, took action by trying to register to vote; Minor attempted this in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1872. When election officials turned her away, Minor brought the issue to the Missouri state courts, arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment ensured that she was a citizen with the right to vote. This legal effort to bring about women’s suffrage eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, which declared in 1874 that “the constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon any one,” effectively dismissing Minor’s claim. Constitution of the National Woman Suffrage Association Despite the Fifteenth Amendment’s failure to guarantee female suffrage, women did gain the right to vote in western territories, with the Wyoming Territory leading the way in 1869. One reason for this was a belief that giving women the right to vote would provide a moral compass to the otherwise lawless western frontier. Extending the right to vote in western territories also provided an incentive for white women to emigrate to the West, where they were scarce. However, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others believed that immediate action on the national front was required, leading to the organization of the NWSA and its resulting constitution. ARTICLE 1.—This organization shall be called the National Woman Suffrage Association. ARTICLE 2.—The object of this Association shall be to secure STATE and NATIONAL protection for women citizens in the exercise of their right to vote. ARTICLE 3.—All citizens of the United States subscribing to this Constitution, and contributing not less than one dollar annually, shall be considered members of the Association, with the right to participate in its deliberations. ARTICLE 4.—The officers of this Association shall be a President, Vice-Presidents from each of the States and Territories, Corresponding and Recording Secretaries, a Treasurer, an Executive Committee of not less than five, and an Advisory Committee consisting of one or more persons from each State and Territory. ARTICLE 5.—All Woman Suffrage Societies throughout the country shall be welcomed as auxiliaries; and their accredited officers or duly appointed representatives shall be recognized as members of the National Association. OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. PRESIDENT. SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Rochester, N. Y. How was the NWSA organized? How would the fact that it operated at the national level, rather than at the state or local level, help it to achieve its goals? BLACK POLITICAL ACHIEVEMENTS Black voter registration in the late 1860s and the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment finally brought what Lincoln had characterized as “a new birth of freedom.” Union Leagues, fraternal groups founded in the North that promoted loyalty to the Union and the Republican Party during the Civil War, expanded into the South after the war and were transformed into political clubs that served both political and civic functions. As centers of the black communities in the South, the leagues became vehicles for the dissemination of information, acted as mediators between members of the black community and the white establishment, and served other practical functions like helping to build schools and churches for the community they served. As extensions of the Republican Party, these leagues worked to enroll newly enfranchised black voters, campaign for candidates, and generally help the party win elections (Figure). The political activities of the leagues launched a great many African Americans and former slaves into politics throughout the South. For the first time, blacks began to hold political office, and several were elected to the U.S. Congress. In the 1870s, fifteen members of the House of Representatives and two senators were black. The two senators, Blanche K. Bruce and Hiram Revels, were both from Mississippi, the home state of former U.S. senator and later Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Hiram Revels (Figure), was a freeborn man from North Carolina who rose to prominence as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and then as a Mississippi state senator in 1869. The following year he was elected by the state legislature to fill one of Mississippi’s two U.S. Senate seats, which had been vacant since the war. His arrival in Washington, DC, drew intense interest: as the New York Times noted, when “the colored Senator from Mississippi, was sworn in and admitted to his seat this afternoon . . . there was not an inch of standing or sitting room in the galleries, so densely were they packed. . . . When the Vice-President uttered the words, ‘The Senator elect will now advance and take the oath,’ a pin might have been heard drop.” Senator Revels on Segregated Schools in Washington, DC Hiram R. Revels became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate in 1870. In 1871, he gave the following speech about Washington’s segregated schools before Congress. Will establishing such [desegregated] schools as I am now advocating in this District harm our white friends? . . . By some it is contended that if we establish mixed schools here a great insult will be given to the white citizens, and that the white schools will be seriously damaged. . . . When I was on a lecturing tour in the state of Ohio . . . [o]ne of the leading gentlemen connected with the schools in that town came to see me. . . . He asked me, “Have you been to New England, where they have mixed schools?” I replied, “I have sir.” “Well,” said he, “please tell me this: does not social equality result from mixed schools?” “No, sir; very far from it,” I responded. “Why,” said he, “how can it be otherwise?” I replied, “I will tell you how it can be otherwise, and how it is otherwise. Go to the schools and you see there white children and colored children seated side by side, studying their lessons, standing side by side and reciting their lessons, and perhaps in walking to school they may walk together; but that is the last of it. The white children go to their homes; the colored children go to theirs; and on the Lord’s day you will see those colored children in colored churches, and the white family, you will see the white children there, and the colored children at entertainments given by persons of their color.” I aver, sir, that mixed schools are very far from bringing about social equality.” According to Senator Revels’s speech, what is “social equality” and why is it important to the issue of desegregated schools? Does Revels favor social equality or social segregation? Did social equality exist in the United States in 1871? Though the fact of their presence was dramatic and important, as the New York Times description above demonstrates, the few African American representatives and senators who served in Congress during Reconstruction represented only a tiny fraction of the many hundreds, possibly thousands, of blacks who served in a great number of capacities at the local and state levels. The South during the early 1870s brimmed with freed slaves and freeborn blacks serving as school board commissioners, county commissioners, clerks of court, board of education and city council members, justices of the peace, constables, coroners, magistrates, sheriffs, auditors, and registrars. This wave of local African American political activity contributed to and was accompanied by a new concern for the poor and disadvantaged in the South. The southern Republican leadership did away with the hated black codes, undid the work of white supremacists, and worked to reduce obstacles confronting freed people. Reconstruction governments invested in infrastructure, paying special attention to the rehabilitation of the southern railroads. They set up public education systems that enrolled both white and black students. They established or increased funding for hospitals, orphanages, and asylums for the insane. In some states, the state and local governments provided the poor with basic necessities like firewood and even bread. And to pay for these new services and subsidies, the governments levied taxes on land and property, an action that struck at the heart of the foundation of southern economic inequality. Indeed, the land tax compounded the existing problems of white landowners, who were often cash-poor, and contributed to resentment of what southerners viewed as another northern attack on their way of life. White southerners reacted with outrage at the changes imposed upon them. The sight of once-enslaved blacks serving in positions of authority as sheriffs, congressmen, and city council members stimulated great resentment at the process of Reconstruction and its undermining of the traditional social and economic foundations of the South. Indignant southerners referred to this period of reform as a time of “negro misrule.” They complained of profligate corruption on the part of vengeful freed slaves and greedy northerners looking to fill their pockets with the South’s riches. Unfortunately for the great many honest reformers, southerners did have a handful of real examples of corruption they could point to, such as legislators using state revenues to buy hams and perfumes or giving themselves inflated salaries. Such examples, however, were relatively few and largely comparable to nineteenth-century corruption across the country. Yet these powerful stories, combined with deep-seated racial animosity toward blacks in the South, led to Democratic campaigns to “redeem” state governments. Democrats across the South leveraged planters’ economic power and wielded white vigilante violence to ultimately take back state political power from the Republicans. By the time President Grant’s attentions were being directed away from the South and toward the Indian Wars in the West in 1876, power in the South had largely been returned to whites and Reconstruction was effectively abandoned. By the end of 1876, only South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida still had Republican governments. The sense that the South had been unfairly sacrificed to northern vice and black vengeance, despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary, persisted for many decades. So powerful and pervasive was this narrative that by the time D. W. Griffith released his 1915 motion picture, The Birth of a Nation, whites around the country were primed to accept the fallacy that white southerners were the frequent victims of violence and violation at the hands of unrestrained blacks. The reality is that the opposite was true. White southerners orchestrated a sometimes violent and generally successful counterrevolution against Reconstruction policies in the South beginning in the 1860s. Those who worked to change and modernize the South typically did so under the stern gaze of exasperated whites and threats of violence. Black Republican officials in the South were frequently terrorized, assaulted, and even murdered with impunity by organizations like the Ku Klux Klan. When not ignoring the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments altogether, white leaders often used trickery and fraud at the polls to get the results they wanted. As Reconstruction came to a close, these methods came to define southern life for African Americans for nearly a century afterward. Section Summary Though President Johnson declared Reconstruction complete less than a year after the Confederate surrender, members of Congress disagreed. Republicans in Congress began to implement their own plan of bringing law and order to the South through the use of military force and martial law. Radical Republicans who advocated for a more equal society pushed their program forward as well, leading to the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, which finally gave blacks the right to vote. The new amendment empowered black voters, who made good use of the vote to elect black politicians. It disappointed female suffragists, however, who had labored for years to gain women’s right to vote. By the end of 1870, all the southern states under Union military control had satisfied the requirements of Congress and been readmitted to the Union. Review Questions Under Radical Reconstruction, which of the following did former Confederate states not need to do in order to rejoin the Union? - pass the Fourteenth Amendment - pass the Fifteenth Amendment - revise their state constitution - allow all freed men over the age of 21 to vote Hint: B The House of Representatives impeached Andrew Johnson over ________. - the Civil Rights Act - the Fourteenth Amendment - the Military Reconstruction Act - the Tenure of Office Act Hint: D What were the benefits and drawbacks of the Fifteenth Amendment? Hint: The Fifteenth Amendment granted the vote to all black men, giving freed slaves and free blacks greater political power than they had ever had in the United States. Blacks in former Confederate states elected a handful of black U.S. congressmen and a great many black local and state leaders who instituted ambitious reform and modernization projects in the South. However, the Fifteenth Amendment continued to exclude women from voting. Women continued to fight for suffrage through the NWSA and AWSA.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.428684	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15480/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15481/overview	The Collapse of Reconstruction Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain the reasons for the collapse of Reconstruction - Describe the efforts of white southern “redeemers” to roll back the gains of Reconstruction The effort to remake the South generated a brutal reaction among southern whites, who were committed to keeping blacks in a subservient position. To prevent blacks from gaining economic ground and to maintain cheap labor for the agricultural economy, an exploitative system of sharecropping spread throughout the South. Domestic terror organizations, most notably the Ku Klux Klan, employed various methods (arson, whipping, murder) to keep freed people from voting and achieving political, social, or economic equality with whites. BUILDING BLACK COMMUNITIES The degraded status of black men and women had placed them outside the limits of what antebellum southern whites considered appropriate gender roles and familial hierarchies. Slave marriages did not enjoy legal recognition. Enslaved men were humiliated and deprived of authority and of the ability to protect enslaved women, who were frequently exposed to the brutality and sexual domination of white masters and vigilantes alike. Slave parents could not protect their children, who could be bought, sold, put to work, brutally disciplined, and abused without their consent; parents, too, could be sold away from their children (Figure). Moreover, the division of labor idealized in white southern society, in which men worked the land and women performed the role of domestic caretaker, was null and void where slaves were concerned. Both slave men and women were made to perform hard labor in the fields. In the Reconstruction era, African Americans embraced the right to enjoy the family bonds and the expression of gender norms they had been systematically denied. Many thousands of freed black men who had been separated from their families as slaves took to the road to find their long-lost spouses and children and renew their bonds. In one instance, a journalist reported having interviewed a freed slave who traveled over six hundred miles on foot in search of the family that was taken from him while in bondage. Couples that had been spared separation quickly set out to legalize their marriages, often by way of the Freedmen’s Bureau, now that this option was available. Those who had no families would sometimes relocate to southern towns and cities, so as to be part of the larger black community where churches and other mutual aid societies offered help and camaraderie. SHARECROPPING Most freed people stayed in the South on the lands where their families and loved ones had worked for generations as slaves. They hungered to own and farm their own lands instead of the lands of white plantation owners. In one case, former slaves on the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina initially had hopes of owning the land they had worked for many decades after General Sherman directed that freed people be granted title to plots of forty acres. The Freedmen’s Bureau provided additional cause for such hopes by directing that leases and titles to lands in the South be made available to former slaves. However, these efforts ran afoul of President Johnson. In 1865, he ordered the return of land to white landowners, a setback for those freed people, such as those on the South Carolina Sea Islands, who had begun to cultivate the land as their own. Ultimately, there was no redistribution of land in the South. The end of slavery meant the transition to wage labor. However, this conversion did not entail a new era of economic independence for former slaves. While they no longer faced relentless toil under the lash, freed people emerged from slavery without any money and needed farm implements, food, and other basic necessities to start their new lives. Under the crop-lien system, store owners extended credit to farmers under the agreement that the debtors would pay with a portion of their future harvest. However, the creditors charged high interest rates, making it even harder for freed people to gain economic independence. Throughout the South, sharecropping took root, a crop-lien system that worked to the advantage of landowners. Under the system, freed people rented the land they worked, often on the same plantations where they had been slaves. Some landless whites also became sharecroppers. Sharecroppers paid their landlords with the crops they grew, often as much as half their harvest. Sharecropping favored the landlords and ensured that freed people could not attain independent livelihoods. The year-to-year leases meant no incentive existed to substantially improve the land, and high interest payments siphoned additional money away from the farmers. Sharecroppers often became trapped in a never-ending cycle of debt, unable to buy their own land and unable to stop working for their creditor because of what they owed. The consequences of sharecropping affected the entire South for many generations, severely limiting economic development and ensuring that the South remained an agricultural backwater. THE “INVISIBLE EMPIRE OF THE SOUTH” Paramilitary white-supremacist terror organizations in the South helped bring about the collapse of Reconstruction, using violence as their primary weapon. The “Invisible Empire of the South,” or Ku Klux Klan, stands as the most notorious. The Klan was founded in 1866 as an oath-bound fraternal order of Confederate veterans in Tennessee, with former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest as its first leader. The organization—its name likely derived from kuklos, a Greek word meaning circle—devised elaborate rituals and grandiose names for its ranking members: Grand Wizard, Grand Dragon, Grand Titan, and Grand Cyclops. Soon, however, this fraternal organization evolved into a vigilante terrorist group that vented southern whites’ collective frustration over the loss of the war and the course of Radical Reconstruction through acts of intimidation and violence. The Klan terrorized newly freed blacks to deter them from exercising their citizenship rights and freedoms. Other anti-black vigilante groups around the South began to adopt the Klan name and perpetrate acts of unspeakable violence against anyone they considered a tool of Reconstruction. Indeed, as historians have noted, Klan units around the South operated autonomously and with a variety of motives. Some may have sincerely believed they were righting wrongs, others merely satisfying their lurid desires for violence. Nor was the Klan the only racist vigilante organization. Other groups, like the Red Shirts from Mississippi and the Knights of the White Camelia and the White League, both from Louisiana, also sprang up at this time. The Klan and similar organizations also worked as an extension of the Democratic Party to win elections. Despite the great variety in Klan membership, on the whole, the group tended to direct its attention toward persecuting freed people and people they considered carpetbaggers, a term of abuse applied to northerners accused of having come to the South to acquire wealth through political power at the expense of southerners. The colorful term captured the disdain of southerners for these people, reflecting the common assumption that these men, sensing great opportunity, packed up all their worldly possessions in carpetbags, a then-popular type of luggage, and made their way to the South. Implied in this definition is the notion that these men came from little and were thus shiftless wanderers motivated only by the desire for quick money. In reality, these northerners tended to be young, idealistic, often well-educated men who responded to northern campaigns urging them to lead the modernization of the South. But the image of them as swindlers taking advantage of the South at its time of need resonated with a white southern population aggrieved by loss and economic decline. Southern whites who supported Reconstruction, known as scalawags, also generated great hostility as traitors to the South. They, too, became targets of the Klan and similar groups. The Klan seized on the pervasive but largely fictional narrative of the northern carpetbagger as a powerful tool for restoring white supremacy and overturning Republican state governments in the South (Figure). To preserve a white-dominated society, Klan members punished blacks for attempting to improve their station in life or acting “uppity.” To prevent freed people from attaining an education, the Klan burned public schools. In an effort to stop blacks from voting, the Klan murdered, whipped, and otherwise intimidated freed people and their white supporters. It wasn’t uncommon for Klan members to intimidate Union League members and Freedmen’s Bureau workers. The Klan even perpetrated acts of political assassination, killing a sitting U.S. congressman from Arkansas and three state congressmen from South Carolina. Klan tactics included riding out to victims’ houses, masked and armed, and firing into the homes or burning them down (Figure). Other tactics relied more on the threat of violence, such as happened in Mississippi when fifty masked Klansmen rode out to a local schoolteacher’s house to express their displeasure with the school tax and to suggest that she consider leaving. Still other tactics intimidated through imaginative trickery. One such method was to dress up as ghosts of slain Confederate soldiers and stage stunts designed to convince their victims of their supernatural abilities. Regardless of the method, the general goal of reinstating white supremacy as a foundational principle and returning the South to a situation that largely resembled antebellum conditions remained a constant. The Klan used its power to eliminate black economic independence, decimate blacks’ political rights, reclaim white dominance over black women’s bodies and black men’s masculinity, tear apart black communities, and return blacks to earlier patterns of economic and political subservience and social deference. In this, they were largely successful. Visit Freedmen’s Bureau Online to view digitized records of attacks on freed people that were reported in Albany, Georgia, between January 1 and October 31, 1868. The president and Congress, however, were not indifferent to the violence, and they worked to bring it to an end. In 1870, at the insistence of the governor of North Carolina, President Grant told Congress to investigate the Klan. In response, Congress in 1871 created the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States. The committee took testimony from freed people in the South, and in 1872, it published a thirteen-volume report on the tactics the Klan used to derail democracy in the South through the use of violence. Abram Colby on the Methods of the Ku Klux Klan The following statements are from the October 27, 1871, testimony of fifty-two-year-old former slave Abram Colby, which the joint select committee investigating the Klan took in Atlanta, Georgia. Colby had been elected to the lower house of the Georgia State legislature in 1868. On the 29th of October, they came to my house and broke my door open, took me out of my bed and took me to the woods and whipped me three hours or more and left me in the woods for dead. They said to me, “Do you think you will ever vote another damned Radical ticket?” I said, “I will not tell you a lie.” They said, “No; don’t tell a lie.” . . . I said, “If there was an election to-morrow, I would vote the Radical ticket.” They set in and whipped me a thousand licks more, I suppose. . . . They said I had influence with the negroes of other counties, and had carried the negroes against them. About two days before they whipped me they offered me $5,000 to turn and go with them, and said they would pay me $2,500 cash if I would turn and let another man go to the legislature in my place. . . . I would have come before the court here last week, but I knew it was no use for me to try to get Ku-Klux condemned by Ku-Klux, and I did not come. Mr. Saunders, a member of the grand jury here last week, is the father of one of the very men I knew whipped me. . . . They broke something inside of me, and the doctor has been attending to me for more than a year. Sometimes I cannot get up and down off my bed, and my left hand is not of much use to me. —Abram Colby testimony, Joint Select Committee Report, 1872 Why did the Klan target Colby? What methods did they use? Congress also passed a series of three laws designed to stamp out the Klan. Passed in 1870 and 1871, the Enforcement Acts or “Force Acts” were designed to outlaw intimidation at the polls and to give the federal government the power to prosecute crimes against freed people in federal rather than state courts. Congress believed that this last step, a provision in the third Enforcement Act, also called the Ku Klux Klan Act, was necessary in order to ensure that trials would not be decided by white juries in southern states friendly to the Klan. The act also allowed the president to impose martial law in areas controlled by the Klan and gave President Grant the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, a continuation of the wartime power granted to President Lincoln. The suspension meant individuals suspected of engaging in Klan activity could be jailed indefinitely. President Grant made frequent use of the powers granted to him by Congress, especially in South Carolina, where federal troops imposed martial law in nine counties in an effort to derail Klan activities. However, the federal government faced entrenched local organizations and a white population firmly opposed to Radical Reconstruction. Changes came slowly or not at all, and disillusionment set in. After 1872, federal government efforts to put down paramilitary terror in the South waned. “REDEEMERS” AND THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION While the president and Congress may have seen the Klan and other clandestine white supremacist, terrorist organizations as a threat to stability and progress in the South, many southern whites saw them as an instrument of order in a world turned upside down. Many white southerners felt humiliated by the process of Radical Reconstruction and the way Republicans had upended southern society, placing blacks in positions of authority while taxing large landowners to pay for the education of former slaves. Those committed to rolling back the tide of Radical Reconstruction in the South called themselves redeemers, a label that expressed their desire to redeem their states from northern control and to restore the antebellum social order whereby blacks were kept safely under the boot heel of whites. They represented the Democratic Party in the South and worked tirelessly to end what they saw as an era of “negro misrule.” By 1877, they had succeeded in bringing about the “redemption” of the South, effectively destroying the dream of Radical Reconstruction. Although Ulysses S. Grant won a second term in the presidential election of 1872, the Republican grip on national political power began to slip in the early 1870s. Three major events undermined Republican control. First, in 1873, the United States experienced the start of a long economic downturn, the result of economic instability in Europe that spread to the United States. In the fall of 1873, the bank of Jay Cooke & Company failed to meet its financial obligations and went bankrupt, setting off a panic in American financial markets. An economic depression ensued, which Democrats blamed on Republicans and which lasted much of the decade. Second, the Republican Party experienced internal squabbles and divided into two factions. Some Republicans began to question the expansive role of the federal government, arguing for limiting the size and scope of federal initiatives. These advocates, known as Liberal Republicans because they followed classical liberalism in championing small government, formed their own breakaway party. Their ideas changed the nature of the debate over Reconstruction by challenging reliance on federal government help to bring about change in the South. Now some Republicans argued for downsizing Reconstruction efforts. Third, the Grant administration became mired in scandals, further tarnishing the Republicans while giving Democrats the upper hand. One scandal arose over the siphoning off of money from excise taxes on whiskey. The “Whiskey Ring,” as it was called, involved people at the highest levels of the Grant administration, including the president’s personal secretary, Orville Babcock. Another scandal entangled Crédit Mobilier of America, a construction company and part of the important French Crédit Mobilier banking company. The Union Pacific Railroad company, created by the federal government during the Civil War to construct a transcontinental railroad, paid Crédit Mobilier to build the railroad. However, Crédit Mobilier used the funds it received to buy Union Pacific Railroad bonds and resell them at a huge profit. Some members of Congress, as well as Vice President Schuyler Colfax, had accepted funds from Crédit Mobilier in return for forestalling an inquiry. When the scam became known in 1872, Democratic opponents of Reconstruction pointed to Crédit Mobilier as an example of corruption in the Republican-dominated federal government and evidence that smaller government was better. The Democratic Party in the South made significant advances in the 1870s in its efforts to wrest political control from the Republican-dominated state governments. The Ku Klux Klan, as well as other paramilitary groups in the South, often operated as military wings of the Democratic Party in former Confederate states. In one notorious episode following a contested 1872 gubernatorial election in Louisiana, as many as 150 freedmen loyal to the Republican Party were killed at the Colfax courthouse by armed members of the Democratic Party, even as many of them tried to surrender (Figure). In other areas of the South, the Democratic Party gained control over state politics. Texas came under Democratic control by 1873, and in the following year Alabama and Arkansas followed suit. In national politics, too, the Democrats gained ground—especially during the 1874 elections, when they recaptured control of the House of Representatives for the first time since before the Civil War. Every other southern state, with the exception of Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana—the states where federal troops remained a force—also fell to the Democratic Party and the restoration of white supremacy. Southerners everywhere celebrated their “redemption” from Radical Republican rule. THE CONTESTED ELECTION OF 1876 By the time of the 1876 presidential election, Reconstruction had come to an end in most southern states. In Congress, the political power of the Radical Republicans had waned, although some continued their efforts to realize the dream of equality between blacks and whites. One of the last attempts to do so was the passage of the 1875 Civil Rights Act, which required equality in public places and on juries. This law was challenged in court, and in 1883 the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional, arguing that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments did not prohibit discrimination by private individuals. By the 1870s, the Supreme Court had also undercut the letter and the spirit of the Fourteenth Amendment by interpreting it as affording freed people only limited federal protection from the Klan and other terror groups. The country remained bitterly divided, and this was reflected in the contested election of 1876. While Grant wanted to run for a third term, scandals and Democratic successes in the South dashed those hopes. Republicans instead selected Rutherford B. Hayes, the three-time governor of Ohio. Democrats nominated Samuel Tilden, the reform governor of New York, who was instrumental in ending the Tweed Ring and Tammany Hall corruption in New York City. The November election produced an apparent Democratic victory, as Tilden carried the South and large northern states with a 300,000-vote advantage in the popular vote. However, disputed returns from Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, and Oregon, whose electoral votes totaled twenty, threw the election into doubt. Hayes could still win if he gained those twenty electoral votes. As the Constitution did not provide a method to determine the validity of disputed votes, the decision fell to Congress, where Republicans controlled the Senate and Democrats controlled the House of Representatives. In late January 1877, Congress tried to break the deadlock by creating a special electoral commission composed of five senators, five representatives, and five justices of the Supreme Court. The congressional delegation represented both parties equally, with five Democrats and five Republicans. The court delegation had two Democrats, two Republicans, and one independent—David Davis, who resigned from the Supreme Court (and from the commission) when the Illinois legislature elected him to the Senate. After Davis’s resignation, President Grant selected a Republican to take his place, tipping the scales in favor of Hayes. The commission then awarded the disputed electoral votes and the presidency to Hayes, voting on party lines, 8 to 7 (Figure). The Democrats called foul, threatening to hold up the commission’s decision in the courts. In what became known as the Compromise of 1877, Republican Senate leaders worked with the Democratic leadership so they would support Hayes and the commission’s decision. The two sides agreed that one Southern Democrat would be appointed to Hayes’s cabinet, Democrats would control federal patronage (the awarding of government jobs) in their areas in the South, and there would be a commitment to generous internal improvements, including federal aid for the Texas and Pacific Railway. Perhaps most important, all remaining federal troops would be withdrawn from the South, a move that effectively ended Reconstruction. Hayes believed that southern leaders would obey and enforce the Reconstruction-era constitutional amendments that protected the rights of freed people. His trust was soon proved to be misguided, much to his dismay, and he devoted a large part of his life to securing rights for freedmen. For their part, the Democrats took over the remaining southern states, creating what became known as the “Solid South”—a region that consistently voted in a bloc for the Democratic Party. Section Summary The efforts launched by Radical Republicans in the late 1860s generated a massive backlash in the South in the 1870s as whites fought against what they considered “negro misrule.” Paramilitary terrorist cells emerged, committing countless atrocities in their effort to “redeem” the South from black Republican rule. In many cases, these organizations operated as an extension of the Democratic Party. Scandals hobbled the Republican Party, as did a severe economic depression. By 1875, Reconstruction had largely come to an end. The contested presidential election the following year, which was decided in favor of the Republican candidate, and the removal of federal troops from the South only confirmed the obvious: Reconstruction had failed to achieve its primary objective of creating an interracial democracy that provided equal rights to all citizens. Review Questions Which of the following is not one of the methods the Ku Klux Klan and other terrorist groups used to intimidate blacks and white sympathizers? - burning public schools - petitioning Congress - murdering freedmen who tried to vote - threatening, beating, and killing those who disagreed with them Hint: B Which of the following was the term southerners used for a white southerner who tried to overturn the changes of Reconstruction? - scalawag - carpetbagger - redeemer - white knight Hint: C Why was it difficult for southern free blacks to gain economic independence after the Civil War? Hint: Southern blacks emerged from slavery with no money to begin their new lives, so they had to rely on the crop-lien and sharecropping systems. These systems enabled freed people to get tools and rent land to farm, but the high interest rate (paid in harvested crops) made it difficult for them to rise out of poverty. Critical Thinking Questions How do you think would history have been different if Lincoln had not been assassinated? How might his leadership after the war have differed from that of Andrew Johnson? Was the Thirteenth Amendment a success or a failure? Discuss the reasons for your answer. Consider the differences between the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. What does the Fourteenth Amendment do that the Thirteenth does not? Consider social, political, and economic equality. In what ways did Radical Reconstruction address and secure these forms of equality? Where did it fall short? Consider the problem of terrorism during Radical Reconstruction. If you had been an adviser to President Grant, how would you propose to deal with the problem?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.465723	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15481/overview", "title": "U.S. History, The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15434/overview	Introduction Overview - Competing Visions: Federalists and Democratic-Republicans - The New American Republic - Partisan Politics - The United States Goes Back to War The partisan political cartoon above (Figure) lampoons Thomas Jefferson’s 1807 Embargo Act, a move that had a devastating effect on American commerce. American farmers and merchants complain to President Jefferson, while the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte whispers to him, “You shall be King hereafter.” This image illustrates one of many political struggles in the years after the fight for ratification of the Constitution. In the nation’s first few years, no organized political parties existed. This began to change as U.S. citizens argued bitterly about the proper size and scope of the new national government. As a result, the 1790s witnessed the rise of opposing political parties: the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. Federalists saw unchecked democracy as a dire threat to the republic, and they pointed to the excesses of the French Revolution as proof of what awaited. Democratic-Republicans opposed the Federalists’ notion that only the wellborn and well educated were able to oversee the republic; they saw it as a pathway to oppression by an aristocracy.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.483044	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15434/overview", "title": "U.S. History, Growing Pains: The New Republic, 1790–1820", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15435/overview	Competing Visions: Federalists and Democratic-Republicans Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the competing visions of the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans - Identify the protections granted to citizens under the Bill of Rights - Explain Alexander Hamilton’s financial programs as secretary of the treasury In June 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the federal Constitution, and the new plan for a strong central government went into effect. Elections for the first U.S. Congress were held in 1788 and 1789, and members took their seats in March 1789. In a reflection of the trust placed in him as the personification of republican virtue, George Washington became the first president in April 1789. John Adams served as his vice president; the pairing of a representative from Virginia (Washington) with one from Massachusetts (Adams) symbolized national unity. Nonetheless, political divisions quickly became apparent. Washington and Adams represented the Federalist Party, which generated a backlash among those who resisted the new government’s assertions of federal power. FEDERALISTS IN POWER Though the Revolution had overthrown British rule in the United States, supporters of the 1787 federal constitution, known as Federalists, adhered to a decidedly British notion of social hierarchy. The Federalists did not, at first, compose a political party. Instead, Federalists held certain shared assumptions. For them, political participation continued to be linked to property rights, which barred many citizens from voting or holding office. Federalists did not believe the Revolution had changed the traditional social roles between women and men, or between whites and other races. They did believe in clear distinctions in rank and intelligence. To these supporters of the Constitution, the idea that all were equal appeared ludicrous. Women, blacks, and native peoples, they argued, had to know their place as secondary to white male citizens. Attempts to impose equality, they feared, would destroy the republic. The United States was not created to be a democracy. The architects of the Constitution committed themselves to leading the new republic, and they held a majority among the members of the new national government. Indeed, as expected, many assumed the new executive posts the first Congress created. Washington appointed Alexander Hamilton, a leading Federalist, as secretary of the treasury. For secretary of state, he chose Thomas Jefferson. For secretary of war, he appointed Henry Knox, who had served with him during the Revolutionary War. Edmond Randolph, a Virginia delegate to the Constitutional Convention, was named attorney general. In July 1789, Congress also passed the Judiciary Act, creating a Supreme Court of six justices headed by those who were committed to the new national government. Congress passed its first major piece of legislation by placing a duty on imports under the 1789 Tariff Act. Intended to raise revenue to address the country’s economic problems, the act was a victory for nationalists, who favored a robust, powerful federal government and had worked unsuccessfully for similar measures during the Confederation Congress in the 1780s. Congress also placed a fifty-cent-per-ton duty (based on materials transported, not the weight of a ship) on foreign ships coming into American ports, a move designed to give the commercial advantage to American ships and goods. THE BILL OF RIGHTS Many Americans opposed the 1787 Constitution because it seemed a dangerous concentration of centralized power that threatened the rights and liberties of ordinary U.S. citizens. These opponents, known collectively as Anti-Federalists, did not constitute a political party, but they united in demanding protection for individual rights, and several states made the passing of a bill of rights a condition of their acceptance of the Constitution. Rhode Island and North Carolina rejected the Constitution because it did not already have this specific bill of rights. Federalists followed through on their promise to add such a bill in 1789, when Virginia Representative James Madison introduced and Congress approved the Bill of Rights (Table). Adopted in 1791, the bill consisted of the first ten amendments to the Constitution and outlined many of the personal rights state constitutions already guaranteed. \| Amendment 1 \| Right to freedoms of religion and speech; right to assemble and to petition the government for redress of grievances \| \| Amendment 2 \| Right to keep and bear arms to maintain a well-regulated militia \| \| Amendment 3 \| Right not to house soldiers during time of war \| \| Amendment 4 \| Right to be secure from unreasonable search and seizure \| \| Amendment 5 \| Rights in criminal cases, including to due process and indictment by grand jury for capital crimes, as well as the right not to testify against oneself \| \| Amendment 6 \| Right to a speedy trial by an impartial jury \| \| Amendment 7 \| Right to a jury trial in civil cases \| \| Amendment 8 \| Right not to face excessive bail or fines, or cruel and unusual punishment \| \| Amendment 9 \| Rights retained by the people, even if they are not specifically enumerated by the Constitution \| \| Amendment 10 \| States’ rights to powers not specifically delegated to the federal government \| The adoption of the Bill of Rights softened the Anti-Federalists’ opposition to the Constitution and gave the new federal government greater legitimacy among those who otherwise distrusted the new centralized power created by men of property during the secret 1787 Philadelphia Constitutional Convention. Visit the National Archives to consider the first ten amendments to the Constitution as an expression of the fears many citizens harbored about the powers of the new federal government. What were these fears? How did the Bill of Rights calm them? ALEXANDER HAMILTON’S PROGRAM Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s secretary of the treasury, was an ardent nationalist who believed a strong federal government could solve many of the new country’s financial ills. Born in the West Indies, Hamilton had worked on a St. Croix plantation as a teenager and was in charge of the accounts at a young age. He knew the Atlantic trade very well and used that knowledge in setting policy for the United States. In the early 1790s, he created the foundation for the U.S. financial system. He understood that a robust federal government would provide a solid financial foundation for the country. The United States began mired in debt. In 1789, when Hamilton took up his post, the federal debt was over $53 million. The states had a combined debt of around $25 million, and the United States had been unable to pay its debts in the 1780s and was therefore considered a credit risk by European countries. Hamilton wrote three reports offering solutions to the economic crisis brought on by these problems. The first addressed public credit, the second addressed banking, and the third addressed raising revenue. The Report on Public Credit For the national government to be effective, Hamilton deemed it essential to have the support of those to whom it owed money: the wealthy, domestic creditor class as well as foreign creditors. In January 1790, he delivered his “Report on Public Credit“ (Figure), addressing the pressing need of the new republic to become creditworthy. He recommended that the new federal government honor all its debts, including all paper money issued by the Confederation and the states during the war, at face value. Hamilton especially wanted wealthy American creditors who held large amounts of paper money to be invested, literally, in the future and welfare of the new national government. He also understood the importance of making the new United States financially stable for creditors abroad. To pay these debts, Hamilton proposed that the federal government sell bonds—federal interest-bearing notes—to the public. These bonds would have the backing of the government and yield interest payments. Creditors could exchange their old notes for the new government bonds. Hamilton wanted to give the paper money that states had issued during the war the same status as government bonds; these federal notes would begin to yield interest payments in 1792. Hamilton designed his “Report on Public Credit” (later called “First Report on Public Credit”) to ensure the survival of the new and shaky American republic. He knew the importance of making the United States financially reliable, secure, and strong, and his plan provided a blueprint to achieve that goal. He argued that his plan would satisfy creditors, citing the goal of “doing justice to the creditors of the nation.” At the same time, the plan would work “to promote the increasing respectability of the American name; to answer the calls for justice; to restore landed property to its due value; to furnish new resources both to agriculture and commerce; to cement more closely the union of the states; to add to their security against foreign attack; to establish public order on the basis of upright and liberal policy.” Hamilton’s program ignited a heated debate in Congress. A great many of both Confederation and state notes had found their way into the hands of speculators, who had bought them from hard-pressed veterans in the 1780s and paid a fraction of their face value in anticipation of redeeming them at full value at a later date. Because these speculators held so many notes, many in Congress objected that Hamilton’s plan would benefit them at the expense of the original note-holders. One of those who opposed Hamilton’s 1790 report was James Madison, who questioned the fairness of a plan that seemed to cheat poor soldiers. Not surprisingly, states with a large debt, like South Carolina, supported Hamilton’s plan, while states with less debt, like North Carolina, did not. To gain acceptance of his plan, Hamilton worked out a compromise with Virginians Madison and Jefferson, whereby in return for their support he would give up New York City as the nation’s capital and agree on a more southern location, which they preferred. In July 1790, a site along the Potomac River was selected as the new “federal city,” which became the District of Columbia. Hamilton’s plan to convert notes to bonds worked extremely well to restore European confidence in the U.S. economy. It also proved a windfall for creditors, especially those who had bought up state and Confederation notes at far less than face value. But it immediately generated controversy about the size and scope of the government. Some saw the plan as an unjust use of federal power, while Hamilton argued that Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution granted the government “implied powers” that gave the green light to his program. The Report on a National Bank As secretary of the treasury, Hamilton hoped to stabilize the American economy further by establishing a national bank. The United States operated with a flurry of different notes from multiple state banks and no coherent regulation. By proposing that the new national bank buy up large volumes of state bank notes and demanding their conversion into gold, Hamilton especially wanted to discipline those state banks that issued paper money irresponsibly. To that end, he delivered his “Report on a National Bank” in December 1790, proposing a Bank of the United States, an institution modeled on the Bank of England. The bank would issue loans to American merchants and bills of credit (federal bank notes that would circulate as money) while serving as a repository of government revenue from the sale of land. Stockholders would own the bank, along with the federal government. Like the recommendations in his “Report on Public Credit,” Hamilton’s bank proposal generated opposition. Jefferson, in particular, argued that the Constitution did not permit the creation of a national bank. In response, Hamilton again invoked the Constitution’s implied powers. President Washington backed Hamilton’s position and signed legislation creating the bank in 1791. The Report on Manufactures The third report Hamilton delivered to Congress, known as the “Report on Manufactures,” addressed the need to raise revenue to pay the interest on the national debt. Using the power to tax as provided under the Constitution, Hamilton put forth a proposal to tax American-made whiskey. He also knew the importance of promoting domestic manufacturing so the new United States would no longer have to rely on imported manufactured goods. To break from the old colonial system, Hamilton therefore advocated tariffs on all foreign imports to stimulate the production of American-made goods. To promote domestic industry further, he proposed federal subsidies to American industries. Like all of Hamilton’s programs, the idea of government involvement in the development of American industries was new. With the support of Washington, the entire Hamiltonian economic program received the necessary support in Congress to be implemented. In the long run, Hamilton’s financial program helped to rescue the United States from its state of near-bankruptcy in the late 1780s. His initiatives marked the beginning of an American capitalism, making the republic creditworthy, promoting commerce, and setting for the nation a solid financial foundation. His policies also facilitated the growth of the stock market, as U.S. citizens bought and sold the federal government’s interest-bearing certificates. THE DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY AND THE FIRST PARTY SYSTEM James Madison and Thomas Jefferson felt the federal government had overstepped its authority by adopting the treasury secretary’s plan. Madison found Hamilton’s scheme immoral and offensive. He argued that it turned the reins of government over to the class of speculators who profited at the expense of hardworking citizens. Jefferson, who had returned to the United States in 1790 after serving as a diplomat in France, tried unsuccessfully to convince Washington to block the creation of a national bank. He also took issue with what he perceived as favoritism given to commercial classes in the principal American cities. He thought urban life widened the gap between the wealthy few and an underclass of landless poor workers who, because of their oppressed condition, could never be good republican property owners. Rural areas, in contrast, offered far more opportunities for property ownership and virtue. In 1783 Jefferson wrote, “Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people.” Jefferson believed that self-sufficient, property-owning republican citizens or yeoman farmers held the key to the success and longevity of the American republic. (As a creature of his times, he did not envision a similar role for either women or nonwhite men.) To him, Hamilton’s program seemed to encourage economic inequalities and work against the ordinary American yeoman. Opposition to Hamilton, who had significant power in the new federal government, including the ear of President Washington, began in earnest in the early 1790s. Jefferson turned to his friend Philip Freneau to help organize the effort through the publication of the National Gazette as a counter to the Federalist press, especially the Gazette of the United States (Figure). From 1791 until 1793, when it ceased publication, Freneau’s partisan paper attacked Hamilton’s program and Washington’s administration. “Rules for Changing a Republic into a Monarchy,” written by Freneau, is an example of the type of attack aimed at the national government, and especially at the elitism of the Federalist Party. Newspapers in the 1790s became enormously important in American culture as partisans like Freneau attempted to sway public opinion. These newspapers did not aim to be objective; instead, they served to broadcast the views of a particular party. Visit Lexrex.com to read Philip Freneau’s essay and others from the National Gazette. Can you identify three instances of persuasive writing against the Federalist Party or the government? Opposition to the Federalists led to the formation of Democratic-Republican societies, composed of men who felt the domestic policies of the Washington administration were designed to enrich the few while ignoring everyone else. Democratic-Republicans championed limited government. Their fear of centralized power originated in the experience of the 1760s and 1770s when the distant, overbearing, and seemingly corrupt British Parliament attempted to impose its will on the colonies. The 1787 federal constitution, written in secret by fifty-five wealthy men of property and standing, ignited fears of a similar menacing plot. To opponents, the Federalists promoted aristocracy and a monarchical government—a betrayal of what many believed to be the goal of the American Revolution. While wealthy merchants and planters formed the core of the Federalist leadership, members of the Democratic-Republican societies in cities like Philadelphia and New York came from the ranks of artisans. These citizens saw themselves as acting in the spirit of 1776, this time not against the haughty British but by what they believed to have replaced them—a commercial class with no interest in the public good. Their political efforts against the Federalists were a battle to preserve republicanism, to promote the public good against private self-interest. They published their views, held meetings to voice their opposition, and sponsored festivals and parades. In their strident newspapers attacks, they also worked to undermine the traditional forms of deference and subordination to aristocrats, in this case the Federalist elites. Some members of northern Democratic-Republican clubs denounced slavery as well. DEFINING CITIZENSHIP While questions regarding the proper size and scope of the new national government created a divide among Americans and gave rise to political parties, a consensus existed among men on the issue of who qualified and who did not qualify as a citizen. The 1790 Naturalization Act defined citizenship in stark racial terms. To be a citizen of the American republic, an immigrant had to be a “free white person” of “good character.” By excluding slaves, free blacks, Indians, and Asians from citizenship, the act laid the foundation for the United States as a republic of white men. Full citizenship that included the right to vote was restricted as well. Many state constitutions directed that only male property owners or taxpayers could vote. For women, the right to vote remained out of reach except in the state of New Jersey. In 1776, the fervor of the Revolution led New Jersey revolutionaries to write a constitution extending the right to vote to unmarried women who owned property worth £50. Federalists and Democratic-Republicans competed for the votes of New Jersey women who met the requirements to cast ballots. This radical innovation continued until 1807, when New Jersey restricted voting to free white males. Section Summary While they did not yet constitute distinct political parties, Federalists and Anti-Federalists, shortly after the Revolution, found themselves at odds over the Constitution and the power that it concentrated in the federal government. While many of the Anti-Federalists’ fears were assuaged by the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the early 1790s nevertheless witnessed the rise of two political parties: the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. These rival political factions began by defining themselves in relationship to Hamilton’s financial program, a debate that exposed contrasting views of the proper role of the federal government. By championing Hamilton’s bold financial program, Federalists, including President Washington, made clear their intent to use the federal government to stabilize the national economy and overcome the financial problems that had plagued it since the 1780s. Members of the Democratic-Republican opposition, however, deplored the expanded role of the new national government. They argued that the Constitution did not permit the treasury secretary’s expansive program and worried that the new national government had assumed powers it did not rightfully possess. Only on the question of citizenship was there broad agreement: only free, white males who met taxpayer or property qualifications could cast ballots as full citizens of the republic. Review Questions Which of the following is not one of the rights the Bill of Rights guarantees? - the right to freedom of speech - the right to an education - the right to bear arms - the right to a trial by jury Hint: B Which of Alexander Hamilton’s financial policies and programs seemed to benefit speculators at the expense of poor soldiers? - the creation of a national bank - the public credit plan - the tax on whiskey - the “Report on Manufactures” Hint: B What were the fundamental differences between the Federalist and Democratic-Republican visions? Hint: Federalists believed in a strong federal republican government led by learned, public-spirited men of property. They believed that too much democracy would threaten the republic. The Democratic-Republicans, alternatively, feared too much federal government power and focused more on the rural areas of the country, which they thought were underrepresented and underserved. Democratic-Republicans felt that the spirit of true republicanism, which meant virtuous living for the common good, depended on farmers and agricultural areas.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.514975	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15435/overview", "title": "U.S. History, Growing Pains: The New Republic, 1790–1820", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15436/overview	The New American Republic Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Identify the major foreign and domestic uprisings of the early 1790s - Explain the effect of these uprisings on the political system of the United States The colonies’ alliance with France, secured after the victory at Saratoga in 1777, proved crucial in their victory against the British, and during the 1780s France and the new United States enjoyed a special relationship. Together they had defeated their common enemy, Great Britain. But despite this shared experience, American opinions regarding France diverged sharply in the 1790s when France underwent its own revolution. Democratic-Republicans seized on the French revolutionaries’ struggle against monarchy as the welcome harbinger of a larger republican movement around the world. To the Federalists, however, the French Revolution represented pure anarchy, especially after the execution of the French king in 1793. Along with other foreign and domestic uprisings, the French Revolution helped harden the political divide in the United States in the early 1790s. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION The French Revolution, which began in 1789, further split American thinkers into different ideological camps, deepening the political divide between Federalists and their Democratic-Republican foes. At first, in 1789 and 1790, the revolution in France appeared to most in the United States as part of a new chapter in the rejection of corrupt monarchy, a trend inspired by the American Revolution. A constitutional monarchy replaced the absolute monarchy of Louis XVI in 1791, and in 1792, France was declared a republic. Republican liberty, the creed of the United States, seemed to be ushering in a new era in France. Indeed, the American Revolution served as an inspiration for French revolutionaries. The events of 1793 and 1794 challenged the simple interpretation of the French Revolution as a happy chapter in the unfolding triumph of republican government over monarchy. The French king was executed in January 1793 (Figure), and the next two years became known as the Terror, a period of extreme violence against perceived enemies of the revolutionary government. Revolutionaries advocated direct representative democracy, dismantled Catholicism, replaced that religion with a new philosophy known as the Cult of the Supreme Being, renamed the months of the year, and relentlessly employed the guillotine against their enemies. Federalists viewed these excesses with growing alarm, fearing that the radicalism of the French Revolution might infect the minds of citizens at home. Democratic-Republicans interpreted the same events with greater optimism, seeing them as a necessary evil of eliminating the monarchy and aristocratic culture that supported the privileges of a hereditary class of rulers. The controversy in the United States intensified when France declared war on Great Britain and Holland in February 1793. France requested that the United States make a large repayment of the money it had borrowed from France to fund the Revolutionary War. However, Great Britain would judge any aid given to France as a hostile act. Washington declared the United States neutral in 1793, but Democratic-Republican groups denounced neutrality and declared their support of the French republicans. The Federalists used the violence of the French revolutionaries as a reason to attack Democratic-Republicanism in the United States, arguing that Jefferson and Madison would lead the country down a similarly disastrous path. Visit Liberty, Equality, Fraternity for images, texts, and songs relating to the French Revolution. This momentous event’s impact extended far beyond Europe, influencing politics in the United States and elsewhere in the Atlantic World. THE CITIZEN GENÊT AFFAIR AND JAY’S TREATY In 1793, the revolutionary French government sent Edmond-Charles Genêt to the United States to negotiate an alliance with the U.S. government. France empowered Genêt to issue letters of marque—documents authorizing ships and their crews to engage in piracy—to allow him to arm captured British ships in American ports with U.S. soldiers. Genêt arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, amid great Democratic-Republican fanfare. He immediately began commissioning American privateer ships and organizing volunteer American militias to attack Spanish holdings in the Americas, then traveled to Philadelphia, gathering support for the French cause along the way. President Washington and Hamilton denounced Genêt, knowing his actions threatened to pull the United States into a war with Great Britain. The Citizen Genêt affair, as it became known, spurred Great Britain to instruct its naval commanders in the West Indies to seize all ships trading with the French. The British captured hundreds of American ships and their cargoes, increasing the possibility of war between the two countries. In this tense situation, Great Britain worked to prevent a wider conflict by ending its seizure of American ships and offered to pay for captured cargoes. Hamilton saw an opportunity and recommended to Washington that the United States negotiate. Supreme Court Justice John Jay was sent to Britain, instructed by Hamilton to secure compensation for captured American ships; ensure the British leave the Northwest outposts they still occupied despite the 1783 Treaty of Paris; and gain an agreement for American trade in the West Indies. Even though Jay personally disliked slavery, his mission also required him to seek compensation from the British for slaves who left with the British at the end of the Revolutionary War. The resulting 1794 agreement, known as Jay’s Treaty, fulfilled most of his original goals. The British would turn over the frontier posts in the Northwest, American ships would be allowed to trade freely in the West Indies, and the United States agreed to assemble a commission charged with settling colonial debts U.S. citizens owed British merchants. The treaty did not address the important issue of impressment, however—the British navy’s practice of forcing or “impressing” American sailors to work and fight on British warships. Jay’s Treaty led the Spanish, who worried that it signaled an alliance between the United States and Great Britain, to negotiate a treaty of their own—Pinckney’s Treaty—that allowed American commerce to flow through the Spanish port of New Orleans. Pinckney’s Treaty allowed American farmers, who were moving in greater numbers to the Ohio River Valley, to ship their products down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, where they could be transported to East Coast markets. Jay’s Treaty confirmed the fears of Democratic-Republicans, who saw it as a betrayal of republican France, cementing the idea that the Federalists favored aristocracy and monarchy. Partisan American newspapers tried to sway public opinion, while the skillful writing of Hamilton, who published a number of essays on the subject, explained the benefits of commerce with Great Britain. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION’S CARIBBEAN LEGACY Unlike the American Revolution, which ultimately strengthened the institution of slavery and the powers of American slaveholders, the French Revolution inspired slave rebellions in the Caribbean, including a 1791 slave uprising in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti). Thousands of slaves joined together to overthrow the brutal system of slavery. They took control of a large section of the island, burning sugar plantations and killing the white planters who had forced them to labor under the lash. In 1794, French revolutionaries abolished slavery in the French empire, and both Spain and England attacked Saint-Domingue, hoping to add the colony to their own empires. Toussaint L’Ouverture, a former domestic slave, emerged as the leader in the fight against Spain and England to secure a Haiti free of slavery and further European colonialism. Because revolutionary France had abolished slavery, Toussaint aligned himself with France, hoping to keep Spain and England at bay (Figure). Events in Haiti further complicated the partisan wrangling in the United States. White refugee planters from Haiti and other French West Indian islands, along with slaves and free people of color, left the Caribbean for the United States and for Louisiana, which at the time was held by Spain. The presence of these French migrants raised fears, especially among Federalists, that they would bring the contagion of French radicalism to the United States. In addition, the idea that the French Revolution could inspire a successful slave uprising just off the American coastline filled southern whites and slaveholders with horror. THE WHISKEY REBELLION While the wars in France and the Caribbean divided American citizens, a major domestic test of the new national government came in 1794 over the issue of a tax on whiskey, an important part of Hamilton’s financial program. In 1791, Congress had authorized a tax of 7.5 cents per gallon of whiskey and rum. Although most citizens paid without incident, trouble erupted in four western Pennsylvania counties in an uprising known as the Whiskey Rebellion. Farmers in the western counties of Pennsylvania produced whiskey from their grain for economic reasons. Without adequate roads or other means to transport a bulky grain harvest, these farmers distilled their grains into gin and whiskey, which were more cost-effective to transport. Since these farmers depended on the sale of whiskey, some citizens in western Pennsylvania (and elsewhere) viewed the new tax as further proof that the new national government favored the commercial classes on the eastern seaboard at the expense of farmers in the West. On the other hand, supporters of the tax argued that it helped stabilize the economy and its cost could easily be passed on to the consumer, not the farmer-distiller. However, in the spring and summer months of 1794, angry citizens rebelled against the federal officials in charge of enforcing the federal excise law. Like the Sons of Liberty before the American Revolution, the whiskey rebels used violence and intimidation to protest policies they saw as unfair. They tarred and feathered federal officials, intercepted the federal mail, and intimidated wealthy citizens. The extent of their discontent found expression in their plan to form an independent western commonwealth, and they even began negotiations with British and Spanish representatives, hoping to secure their support for independence from the United States. The rebels also contacted their backcountry neighbors in Kentucky and South Carolina, circulating the idea of secession. With their emphasis on personal freedoms, the whiskey rebels aligned themselves with the Democratic-Republican Party. They saw the tax as part of a larger Federalist plot to destroy their republican liberty and, in its most extreme interpretation, turn the United States into a monarchy. The federal government lowered the tax, but when federal officials tried to subpoena those distillers who remained intractable, trouble escalated. Washington responded by creating a thirteen-thousand-man militia, drawn from several states, to put down the rebellion (Figure). This force made it known, both domestically and to the European powers that looked on in anticipation of the new republic’s collapse, that the national government would do everything in its power to ensure the survival of the United States. Alexander Hamilton: “Shall the majority govern or be governed?” Alexander Hamilton frequently wrote persuasive essays under pseudonyms, like “Tully,” as he does here. In this 1794 essay, Hamilton denounces the whiskey rebels and majority rule. It has been observed that the means most likely to be employed to turn the insurrection in the western country to the detriment of the government, would be artfully calculated among other things ‘to divert your attention from the true question to be decided.’ Let us see then what is this question. It is plainly this—shall the majority govern or be governed? shall the nation rule, or be ruled? shall the general will prevail, or the will of a faction? shall there be government, or no government? . . . The Constitution you have ordained for yourselves and your posterity contains this express clause, ‘The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and Excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States.’ You have then, by a solemn and deliberate act, the most important and sacred that a nation can perform, pronounced and decreed, that your Representatives in Congress shall have power to lay Excises. You have done nothing since to reverse or impair that decree. . . . But the four western counties of Pennsylvania, undertake to rejudge and reverse your decrees, you have said, ‘The Congress shall have power to lay Excises.’ They say, ‘The Congress shall not have this power.’ . . . There is no road to despotism more sure or more to be dreaded than that which begins at anarchy.” —Alexander Hamilton’s “Tully No. II” for the American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, August 26, 1794 What are the major arguments put forward by Hamilton in this document? Who do you think his audience is? WASHINGTON’S INDIAN POLICY Relationships with Indians were a significant problem for Washington’s administration, but one on which white citizens agreed: Indians stood in the way of white settlement and, as the 1790 Naturalization Act made clear, were not citizens. After the War of Independence, white settlers poured into lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. As a result, from 1785 to 1795, a state of war existed on the frontier between these settlers and the Indians who lived in the Ohio territory. In both 1790 and 1791, the Shawnee and Miami had defended their lands against the whites who arrived in greater and greater numbers from the East. In response, Washington appointed General Anthony Wayne to bring the Western Confederacy—a loose alliance of tribes—to heel. In 1794, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, Wayne was victorious. With the 1795 Treaty of Greenville (Figure), the Western Confederacy gave up their claims to Ohio. Section Summary Federalists and Democratic-Republicans interpreted the execution of the French monarch and the violent establishment of a French republic in very different ways. Revolutionaries’ excesses in France and the slaves’ revolt in the French colony of Haiti raised fears among Federalists of similar radicalism and slave uprisings on American shores. They looked to better relationships with Great Britain through Jay’s Treaty. Pinckney’s Treaty, which came about as a result of Jay’s Treaty, improved U.S. relations with the Spanish and opened the Spanish port of New Orleans to American commerce. Democratic-Republicans took a more positive view of the French Revolution and grew suspicious of the Federalists when they brokered Jay’s Treaty. Domestically, the partisan divide came to a dramatic head in western Pennsylvania when distillers of whiskey, many aligned with the Democratic-Republicans, took action against the federal tax on their product. Washington led a massive force to put down the uprising, demonstrating Federalist intolerance of mob action. Though divided on many issues, the majority of white citizens agreed on the necessity of eradicating the Indian presence on the frontier. Review Questions Which of the following was not true of Jay’s Treaty of 1794? - It gave the United States land rights in the West Indies. - It gave American ships the right to trade in the West Indies. - It hardened differences between the political parties of the United States. - It stipulated that U.S. citizens would repay their debts from the Revolutionary War. Hint: A What was the primary complaint of the rebels in the Whiskey Rebellion? - the ban on alcohol - the lack of political representation for farmers - the need to fight Indians for more land - the tax on whiskey and rum Hint: D How did the French Revolution in the early 1790s influence the evolution of the American political system? Hint: In the United States, the French Revolution hardened differences between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. The Federalists feared the anarchy of the French Revolution and worried that Democratic-Republicanism would bring that kind of disorder to the United States. The Democratic-Republicans supported the goals of the French Revolution, even if they didn’t support the means, and believed that siding with Great Britain instead of France meant a return to a system of monarchy.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.545303	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15436/overview", "title": "U.S. History, Growing Pains: The New Republic, 1790–1820", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15437/overview	Partisan Politics Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Identify key examples of partisan wrangling between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans - Describe how foreign relations affected American politics - Assess the importance of the Louisiana Purchase George Washington, who had been reelected in 1792 by an overwhelming majority, refused to run for a third term, thus setting a precedent for future presidents. In the presidential election of 1796, the two parties—Federalist and Democratic-Republican—competed for the first time. Partisan rancor over the French Revolution and the Whiskey Rebellion fueled the divide between them, and Federalist John Adams defeated his Democratic-Republican rival Thomas Jefferson by a narrow margin of only three electoral votes. In 1800, another close election swung the other way, and Jefferson began a long period of Democratic-Republican government. THE PRESIDENCY OF JOHN ADAMS The war between Great Britain and France in the 1790s shaped U.S. foreign policy. As a new and, in comparison to the European powers, extremely weak nation, the American republic had no control over European events, and no real leverage to obtain its goals of trading freely in the Atlantic. To Federalist president John Adams, relations with France posed the biggest problem. After the Terror, the French Directory ruled France from 1795 to 1799. During this time, Napoleon rose to power. The Art of Ralph Earl Ralph Earl was an eighteenth-century American artist, born in Massachusetts, who remained loyal to the British during the Revolutionary War. He fled to England in 1778, but he returned to New England in the mid-1780s and began painting portraits of leading Federalists. His portrait of Connecticut Federalist Oliver Ellsworth and his wife Abigail conveys the world as Federalists liked to view it: an orderly landscape administered by men of property and learning. His portrait of dry goods merchant Elijah Boardman shows Boardman as well-to-do and highly cultivated; his books include the works of Shakespeare and Milton (Figure). What similarities do you see in the two portraits by Ralph Earl? What do the details of each portrait reveal about the sitters? About the artist and the 1790s? Because France and Great Britain were at war, the French Directory issued decrees stating that any ship carrying British goods could be seized on the high seas. In practice, this meant the French would target American ships, especially those in the West Indies, where the United States conducted a brisk trade with the British. France declared its 1778 treaty with the United States null and void, and as a result, France and the United States waged an undeclared war—or what historians refer to as the Quasi-War—from 1796 to 1800. Between 1797 and 1799, the French seized 834 American ships, and Adams urged the buildup of the U.S. Navy, which consisted of only a single vessel at the time of his election in 1796 (Figure). In 1797, Adams sought a diplomatic solution to the conflict with France and dispatched envoys to negotiate terms. The French foreign minister, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, sent emissaries who told the American envoys that the United States must repay all outstanding debts owed to France, lend France 32 million guilders (Dutch currency), and pay a £50,000 bribe before any negotiations could take place. News of the attempt to extract a bribe, known as the XYZ affair because the French emissaries were referred to as X, Y, and Z in letters that President Adams released to Congress, outraged the American public and turned public opinion decidedly against France (Figure). In the court of public opinion, Federalists appeared to have been correct in their interpretation of France, while the pro-French Democratic-Republicans had been misled. Read the “transcript” of the above cartoon in the America in Caricature, 1765–1865 collection at Indiana University’s Lilly Library. The complicated situation in Haiti, which remained a French colony in the late 1790s, also came to the attention of President Adams. The president, with the support of Congress, had created a U.S. Navy that now included scores of vessels. Most of the American ships cruised the Caribbean, giving the United States the edge over France in the region. In Haiti, the rebellion leader Toussaint, who had to contend with various domestic rivals seeking to displace him, looked to end an U.S. embargo on France and its colonies, put in place in 1798, so that his forces would receive help to deal with the civil unrest. In early 1799, in order to capitalize upon trade in the lucrative West Indies and undermine France’s hold on the island, Congress ended the ban on trade with Haiti—a move that acknowledged Toussaint’s leadership, to the horror of American slaveholders. Toussaint was able to secure an independent black republic in Haiti by 1804. THE ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS The surge of animosity against France during the Quasi-War led Congress to pass several measures that in time undermined Federalist power. These 1798 war measures, known as the Alien and Sedition Acts, aimed to increase national security against what most had come to regard as the French menace. The Alien Act and the Alien Enemies Act took particular aim at French immigrants fleeing the West Indies by giving the president the power to deport new arrivals who appeared to be a threat to national security. The act expired in 1800 with no immigrants having been deported. The Sedition Act imposed harsh penalties—up to five years’ imprisonment and a massive fine of $5,000 in 1790 dollars—on those convicted of speaking or writing “in a scandalous or malicious” manner against the government of the United States. Twenty-five men, all Democratic-Republicans, were indicted under the act, and ten were convicted. One of these was Congressman Matthew Lyon (Figure), representative from Vermont, who had launched his own newspaper, The Scourge Of Aristocracy and Repository of Important Political Truth. The Alien and Sedition Acts raised constitutional questions about the freedom of the press provided under the First Amendment. Democratic-Republicans argued that the acts were evidence of the Federalists’ intent to squash individual liberties and, by enlarging the powers of the national government, crush states’ rights. Jefferson and Madison mobilized the response to the acts in the form of statements known as the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, which argued that the acts were illegal and unconstitutional. The resolutions introduced the idea of nullification, the right of states to nullify acts of Congress, and advanced the argument of states’ rights. The resolutions failed to rally support in other states, however. Indeed, most other states rejected them, citing the necessity of a strong national government. The Quasi-War with France came to an end in 1800, when President Adams was able to secure the Treaty of Mortefontaine. His willingness to open talks with France divided the Federalist Party, but the treaty reopened trade between the two countries and ended the French practice of taking American ships on the high seas. THE REVOLUTION OF 1800 AND THE PRESIDENCY OF THOMAS JEFFERSON The Revolution of 1800 refers to the first transfer of power from one party to another in American history, when the presidency passed to Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson (Figure) in the 1800 election. The peaceful transition calmed contemporary fears about possible violent reactions to a new party’s taking the reins of government. The passing of political power from one political party to another without bloodshed also set an important precedent. The election did prove even more divisive than the 1796 election, however, as both the Federalist and Democratic-Republican Parties waged a mudslinging campaign unlike any seen before. Because the Federalists were badly divided, the Democratic-Republicans gained political ground. Alexander Hamilton, who disagreed with President Adams’s approach to France, wrote a lengthy letter, meant for people within his party, attacking his fellow Federalist’s character and judgment and ridiculing his handling of foreign affairs. Democratic-Republicans got hold of and happily reprinted the letter. Jefferson viewed participatory democracy as a positive force for the republic, a direct departure from Federalist views. His version of participatory democracy only extended, however, to the white yeoman farmers in whom Jefferson placed great trust. While Federalist statesmen, like the architects of the 1787 federal constitution, feared a pure democracy, Jefferson was far more optimistic that the common American farmer could be trusted to make good decisions. He believed in majority rule, that is, that the majority of yeoman should have the power to make decisions binding upon the whole. Jefferson had cheered the French Revolution, even when the French republic instituted the Terror to ensure the monarchy would not return. By 1799, however, he had rejected the cause of France because of his opposition to Napoleon’s seizure of power and creation of a dictatorship. Over the course of his two terms as president—he was reelected in 1804—Jefferson reversed the policies of the Federalist Party by turning away from urban commercial development. Instead, he promoted agriculture through the sale of western public lands in small and affordable lots. Perhaps Jefferson’s most lasting legacy is his vision of an “empire of liberty.” He distrusted cities and instead envisioned a rural republic of land-owning white men, or yeoman republican farmers. He wanted the United States to be the breadbasket of the world, exporting its agricultural commodities without suffering the ills of urbanization and industrialization. Since American yeomen would own their own land, they could stand up against those who might try to buy their votes with promises of property. Jefferson championed the rights of states and insisted on limited federal government as well as limited taxes. This stood in stark contrast to the Federalists’ insistence on a strong, active federal government. Jefferson also believed in fiscal austerity. He pushed for—and Congress approved—the end of all internal taxes, such as those on whiskey and rum. The most significant trimming of the federal budget came at the expense of the military; Jefferson did not believe in maintaining a costly military, and he slashed the size of the navy Adams had worked to build up. Nonetheless, Jefferson responded to the capture of American ships and sailors by pirates off the coast of North Africa by leading the United States into war against the Muslim Barbary States in 1801, the first conflict fought by Americans overseas. The slow decline of the Federalists, which began under Jefferson, led to a period of one-party rule in national politics. Historians call the years between 1815 and 1828 the “Era of Good Feelings” and highlight the “Virginia dynasty” of the time, since the two presidents who followed Jefferson—James Madison and James Monroe—both hailed from his home state. Like him, they owned slaves and represented the Democratic-Republican Party. Though Federalists continued to enjoy popularity, especially in the Northeast, their days of prominence in setting foreign and domestic policy had ended. PARTISAN ACRIMONY The earliest years of the nineteenth century were hardly free of problems between the two political parties. Early in Jefferson’s term, controversy swirled over President Adams’s judicial appointments of many Federalists during his final days in office. When Jefferson took the oath of office, he refused to have the commissions for these Federalist justices delivered to the appointed officials. One of Adams’s appointees, William Marbury, had been selected to be a justice of the peace in the District of Columbia, and when his commission did not arrive, he petitioned the Supreme Court for an explanation from Jefferson’s secretary of state, James Madison. In deciding the case, Marbury v. Madison, in 1803, Chief Justice John Marshall agreed that Marbury had the right to a legal remedy, establishing that individuals had rights even the president of the United States could not abridge. However, Marshall also found that Congress’s Judicial Act of 1789, which would have given the Supreme Court the power to grant Marbury remedy, was unconstitutional because the Constitution did not allow for cases like Marbury’s to come directly before the Supreme Court. Thus, Marshall established the principle of judicial review, which strengthened the court by asserting its power to review (and possibly nullify) the actions of Congress and the president. Jefferson was not pleased, but neither did Marbury get his commission. The animosity between the political parties exploded into open violence in 1804, when Aaron Burr, Jefferson’s first vice president, and Alexander Hamilton engaged in a duel. When Democratic-Republican Burr lost his bid for the office of governor of New York, he was quick to blame Hamilton, who had long hated him and had done everything in his power to discredit him. On July 11, the two antagonists met in Weehawken, New Jersey, to exchange bullets in a duel in which Burr shot and mortally wounded Hamilton. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE Jefferson, who wanted to expand the United States to bring about his “empire of liberty,” realized his greatest triumph in 1803 when the United States bought the Louisiana territory from France. For $15 million—a bargain price, considering the amount of land involved—the United States doubled in size. Perhaps the greatest real estate deal in American history, the Louisiana Purchase greatly enhanced the Jeffersonian vision of the United States as an agrarian republic in which yeomen farmers worked the land. Jefferson also wanted to bolster trade in the West, seeing the port of New Orleans and the Mississippi River (then the western boundary of the United States) as crucial to American agricultural commerce. In his mind, farmers would send their produce down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, where it would be sold to European traders. The purchase of Louisiana came about largely because of circumstances beyond Jefferson’s control, though he certainly recognized the implications of the transaction. Until 1801, Spain had controlled New Orleans and had given the United States the right to traffic goods in the port without paying customs duties. That year, however, the Spanish had ceded Louisiana (and New Orleans) to France. In 1802, the United States lost its right to deposit goods free in the port, causing outrage among many, some of whom called for war with France. Jefferson instructed Robert Livingston, the American envoy to France, to secure access to New Orleans, sending James Monroe to France to add additional pressure. The timing proved advantageous. Because black slaves in the French colony of Haiti had successfully overthrown the brutal plantation regime, Napoleon could no longer hope to restore the empire lost with France’s defeat in the French and Indian War (1754–1763). His vision of Louisiana and the Mississippi Valley as the source for food for Haiti, the most profitable sugar island in the world, had failed. The emperor therefore agreed to the sale in early 1803. Explore the collected maps and documents relating to the Louisiana Purchase and its history at the Library of Congress site. The true extent of the United States’ new territory remained unknown (Figure). Would it provide the long-sought quick access to Asian markets? Geographical knowledge was limited; indeed, no one knew precisely what lay to the west or how long it took to travel from the Mississippi to the Pacific. Jefferson selected two fellow Virginians, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to lead an expedition to the new western lands. Their purpose was to discover the commercial possibilities of the new land and, most importantly, potential trade routes. From 1804 to 1806, Lewis and Clark traversed the West. The Louisiana Purchase helped Jefferson win reelection in 1804 by a landslide. Of 176 electoral votes cast, all but 14 were in his favor. The great expansion of the United States did have its critics, however, especially northerners who feared the addition of more slave states and a corresponding lack of representation of their interests in the North. And under a strict interpretation of the Constitution, it remained unclear whether the president had the power to add territory in this fashion. But the vast majority of citizens cheered the increase in the size of the republic. For slaveholders, new western lands would be a boon; for slaves, the Louisiana Purchase threatened to entrench their suffering further. Section Summary Partisan politics dominated the American political scene at the close of the eighteenth century. The Federalists’ and Democratic-Republicans’ views of the role of government were in direct opposition to each other, and the close elections of 1796 and 1801 show how the nation grappled with these opposing visions. The high tide of the Federalist Party came after the election of 1796, when the United States engaged in the Quasi-War with France. The issues arising from the Quasi-War gave Adams and the Federalists license to expand the powers of the federal government. However, the tide turned with the close election of 1800, when Jefferson began an administration based on Democratic-Republican ideals. A major success of Jefferson’s administration was the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, which helped to fulfill his vision of the United States as an agrarian republic. Review Questions What was the primary issue of Adams’s presidency? - war with Spain - relations with the native population - infighting within the Federalist Party - relations with France Hint: D Which of the following events is not an example of partisan acrimony? - the jailing of Matthew Lyon - the XYZ affair - the Marbury v. Madison case - the Hamilton-Burr duel Hint: B What was the importance of the Louisiana Purchase? - It gave the United States control of the port of New Orleans for trade. - It opened up the possibility of quick trade routes to Asia. - It gave the United States political leverage against the Spanish. - It provided Napoleon with an impetus to restore France’s empire. Hint: A How did U.S. relations with France influence events at the end of the eighteenth century? Hint: Relations with France were strongly tied to political events in the United States. Whereas the Federalists had roundly condemned the French revolutionaries for their excesses, the Democratic-Republicans applauded the rallying cries of liberty and equality. Relations with the French also led the Federalists to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts during the Adams administration, which many saw as a violation of the First Amendment. Why do historians refer to the election of Thomas Jefferson as the Revolution of 1800? Hint: The election was considered a revolution because, for the first time in American history, political power passed from one party to another. Jefferson’s presidency was a departure from the Federalist administrations of Washington and Adams, who had favored the commercial class and urban centers of the country. The Democratic-Republican vision increased states’ rights and limited the power of the federal government, lowering taxes and slashing the military, which Adams had built up.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.579081	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15437/overview", "title": "U.S. History, Growing Pains: The New Republic, 1790–1820", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15438/overview	The United States Goes Back to War Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the causes and consequences of the War of 1812 - Identify the important events of the War of 1812 and explain their significance The origins of the War of 1812, often called the Second War of American Independence, are found in the unresolved issues between the United States and Great Britain. One major cause was the British practice of impressment, whereby American sailors were taken at sea and forced to fight on British warships; this issue was left unresolved by Jay’s Treaty in 1794. In addition, the British in Canada supported Indians in their fight against further U.S. expansion in the Great Lakes region. Though Jefferson wanted to avoid what he called “entangling alliances,” staying neutral proved impossible. THE EMBARGO OF 1807 France and England, engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, which raged between 1803 and 1815, both declared open season on American ships, which they seized on the high seas. England was the major offender, since the Royal Navy, following a time-honored practice, “impressed” American sailors by forcing them into its service. The issue came to a head in 1807 when the HMS Leopard, a British warship, fired on a U.S. naval ship, the Chesapeake, off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia. The British then boarded the ship and took four sailors. Jefferson chose what he thought was the best of his limited options and responded to the crisis through the economic means of a sweeping ban on trade, the Embargo Act of 1807. This law prohibited American ships from leaving their ports until Britain and France stopped seizing them on the high seas. As a result of the embargo, American commerce came to a near-total halt. The logic behind the embargo was that cutting off all trade would so severely hurt Britain and France that the seizures at sea would end. However, while the embargo did have some effect on the British economy, it was American commerce that actually felt the brunt of the impact (Figure). The embargo hurt American farmers, who could no longer sell their goods overseas, and seaport cities experienced a huge increase in unemployment and an uptick in bankruptcies. All told, American business activity declined by 75 percent from 1808 to 1809. Enforcement of the embargo proved very difficult, especially in the states bordering British Canada. Smuggling was widespread; Smugglers’ Notch in Vermont, for example, earned its name from illegal trade with British Canada. Jefferson attributed the problems with the embargo to lax enforcement. At the very end of his second term, Jefferson signed the Non-Intercourse Act of 1808, lifting the unpopular embargoes on trade except with Britain and France. In the election of 1808, American voters elected another Democratic-Republican, James Madison. Madison inherited Jefferson’s foreign policy issues involving Britain and France. Most people in the United States, especially those in the West, saw Great Britain as the major problem. TECUMSEH AND THE WESTERN CONFEDERACY Another underlying cause of the War of 1812 was British support for native resistance to U.S. western expansion. For many years, white settlers in the American western territories had besieged the Indians living there. Under Jefferson, two Indian policies existed: forcing Indians to adopt American ways of agricultural life, or aggressively driving Indians into debt in order to force them to sell their lands. In 1809, Tecumseh, a Shawnee war chief, rejuvenated the Western Confederacy. His brother, Tenskwatawa, was a prophet among the Shawnee who urged a revival of native ways and rejection of Anglo-American culture, including alcohol. In 1811, William Henry Harrison, the governor of the Indiana Territory, attempted to eliminate the native presence by attacking Prophetstown, a Shawnee settlement named in honor of Tenskwatawa. In the ensuing Battle of Tippecanoe, U.S. forces led by Harrison destroyed the settlement (Figure). They also found ample evidence that the British had supplied the Western Confederacy with weapons, despite the stipulations of earlier treaties. THE WAR OF 1812 The seizure of American ships and sailors, combined with the British support of Indian resistance, led to strident calls for war against Great Britain. The loudest came from the “war hawks,” led by Henry Clay from Kentucky and John C. Calhoun from South Carolina, who would not tolerate British insults to American honor. Opposition to the war came from Federalists, especially those in the Northeast, who knew war would disrupt the maritime trade on which they depended. In a narrow vote, Congress authorized the president to declare war against Britain in June 1812. The war went very badly for the United States at first. In August 1812, the United States lost Detroit to the British and their Indian allies, including a force of one thousand men led by Tecumseh. By the end of the year, the British controlled half the Northwest. The following year, however, U.S. forces scored several victories. Captain Oliver Hazard Perry and his naval force defeated the British on Lake Erie. At the Battle of the Thames in Ontario, the United States defeated the British and their native allies, and Tecumseh was counted among the dead. Indian resistance began to ebb, opening the Indiana and Michigan territories for white settlement. These victories could not turn the tide of the war, however. With the British gaining the upper hand during the Napoleonic Wars and Napoleon’s French army on the run, Great Britain now could divert skilled combat troops from Europe to fight in the United States. In July 1814, forty-five hundred hardened British soldiers sailed up the Chesapeake Bay and burned Washington, DC, to the ground, forcing President Madison and his wife to run for their lives (Figure). According to one report, they left behind a dinner the British officers ate. That summer, the British shelled Baltimore, hoping for another victory. However, they failed to dislodge the U.S. forces, whose survival of the bombardment inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Francis Scott Key’s “In Defense of Fort McHenry” After the British bombed Baltimore’s Fort McHenry in 1814 but failed to overcome the U.S. forces there, Francis Scott Key was inspired by the sight of the American flag, which remained hanging proudly in the aftermath. He wrote the poem “In Defense of Fort McHenry,” which was later set to the tune of a British song called “The Anacreontic Song” and eventually became the U.S. national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam, In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream: Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave! And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion A home and a country should leave us no more? Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave: And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave. O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand, Between their loved home and the war’s desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: “In God is our trust” And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave! —Francis Scott Key, “In Defense of Fort McHenry,” 1814 What images does Key use to describe the American spirit? Most people are familiar with only the first verse of the song; what do you think the last three verses add? Visit the Smithsonian Institute to explore an interactive feature on the flag that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner,” where clickable “hot spots” on the flag reveal elements of its history. With the end of the war in Europe, Britain was eager to end the conflict in the Americas as well. In 1814, British and U.S. diplomats met in Flanders, in northern Belgium, to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, signed in December. The boundaries between the United States and British Canada remained as they were before the war, an outcome welcome to those in the United States who feared a rupture in the country’s otherwise steady expansion into the West. The War of 1812 was very unpopular in New England because it inflicted further economic harm on a region dependent on maritime commerce. This unpopularity caused a resurgence of the Federalist Party in New England. Many Federalists deeply resented the power of the slaveholding Virginians (Jefferson and then Madison), who appeared indifferent to their region. The depth of the Federalists’ discontent is illustrated by the proceedings of the December 1814 Hartford Convention, a meeting of twenty-six Federalists in Connecticut, where some attendees issued calls for New England to secede from the United States. These arguments for disunion during wartime, combined with the convention’s condemnation of the government, made Federalists appear unpatriotic. The convention forever discredited the Federalist Party and led to its downfall. EPILOGUE: THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS Due to slow communication, the last battle in the War of 1812 happened after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed ending the war. Andrew Jackson had distinguished himself in the war by defeating the Creek Indians in March 1814 before invading Florida in May of that year. After taking Pensacola, he moved his force of Tennessee fighters to New Orleans to defend the strategic port against British attack. On January 8, 1815 (despite the official end of the war), a force of battle-tested British veterans of the Napoleonic Wars attempted to take the port. Jackson’s forces devastated the British, killing over two thousand. New Orleans and the vast Mississippi River Valley had been successfully defended, ensuring the future of American settlement and commerce. The Battle of New Orleans immediately catapulted Jackson to national prominence as a war hero, and in the 1820s, he emerged as the head of the new Democratic Party. Section Summary The United States was drawn into its “Second War of Independence” against Great Britain when the British, engaged in the Napoleonic Wars against France, took liberties with the fledgling nation by impressing (capturing) its sailors on the high seas and arming its Indian enemies. The War of 1812 ended with the boundaries of the United Stated remaining as they were before the war. The Indians in the Western Confederacy suffered a significant defeat, losing both their leader Tecumseh and their fight for contested land in the Northwest. The War of 1812 proved to be of great importance because it generated a surge of national pride, with expressions of American identity such as the poem by Francis Scott Key. The United States was unequivocally separate from Britain and could now turn as never before to expansion in the West. Review Questions What prompted the Embargo of 1807? - British soldiers burned the U.S. capitol. - The British supplied arms to Indian insurgents. - The British navy captured American ships on the high seas and impressed their sailors into service for the British. - The British hadn’t abandoned their posts in the Northwest Territory as required by Jay’s Treaty. Hint: C What event inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner”? - Betsy Ross sewing the first American flag raised during a time of war - the British bombardment of Baltimore - the British burning of Washington, DC - the naval battle between the Leopard and the Chesapeake Hint: B Critical Thinking Questions Describe Alexander Hamilton’s plans to address the nation’s financial woes. Which aspects proved most controversial, and why? What elements of the foundation Hamilton laid can still be found in the system today? Describe the growth of the first party system in the United States. How did these parties come to develop? How did they define themselves, both independently and in opposition to one another? Where did they find themselves in agreement? What led to the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts? What made them so controversial? What was the most significant impact of the War of 1812? In what ways did the events of this era pose challenges to the U.S. Constitution? What constitutional issues were raised, and how were they addressed?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.610473	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15438/overview", "title": "U.S. History, Growing Pains: The New Republic, 1790–1820", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15557/overview	Introduction Overview - The Reagan Revolution - Political and Cultural Fusions - A New World Order - Bill Clinton and the New Economy “Act up!” might be called the unofficial slogan of the 1980s. Numerous groups were concerned by what they considered disturbing social, cultural, and political trends in the United States and lobbied for their vision of what the nation should be. Conservative politicians cut taxes for the wealthy and shrank programs for the poor, while conservative Christians blamed the legalization of abortion and the increased visibility of gays and lesbians for weakening the American family. When the U.S. Centers for Disease Control first recognized the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in 1981, the Religious Right regarded it as a plague sent by God to punish homosexual men for their “unnatural” behavior. Politicians, many of whom relied on religious conservatives for their votes, largely ignored the AIDS epidemic. In response, gay men and women formed organizations such as ACT UP to draw attention to their cause (Figure). Toward the end of the decade in 1989, protesters from both East and West Berlin began “acting up” and tearing down large chunks of the Berlin Wall, essentially dismantling the Iron Curtain. This symbolic act was the culmination of earlier demonstrations that had swept across Eastern Europe, resulting in the collapse of Communist governments in both Central and Eastern Europe, and marking the beginning of the end of the Cold War.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.626293	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15557/overview", "title": "U.S. History, From Cold War to Culture Wars, 1980-2000", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15558/overview	The Reagan Revolution Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain Ronald Reagan’s attitude towards government - Discuss the Reagan administration’s economic policies and their effects on the nation Ronald Reagan entered the White House in 1981 with strongly conservative values but experience in moderate politics. He appealed to moderates and conservatives anxious about social change and the seeming loss of American power and influence on the world stage. Leading the so-called Reagan Revolution, he appealed to voters with the promise that the principles of conservatism could halt and revert the social and economic changes of the last generation. Reagan won the White House by citing big government and attempts at social reform as the problem, not the solution. He was able to capture the political capital of an unsettled national mood and, in the process, helped set an agenda and policies that would affect his successors and the political landscape of the nation. REAGAN’S EARLY CAREER Although many of his movie roles and the persona he created for himself seemed to represent traditional values, Reagan’s rise to the presidency was an unusual transition from pop cultural significance to political success. Born and raised in the Midwest, he moved to California in 1937 to become a Hollywood actor. He also became a reserve officer in the U.S. Army that same year, but when the country entered World War II, he was excluded from active duty overseas because of poor eyesight and spent the war in the army’s First Motion Picture Unit. After the war, he resumed his film career; rose to leadership in the Screen Actors Guild, a Hollywood union; and became a spokesman for General Electric and the host of a television series that the company sponsored. As a young man, he identified politically as a liberal Democrat, but his distaste for communism, along with the influence of the social conservative values of his second wife, actress Nancy Davis, edged him closer to conservative Republicanism (Figure). By 1962, he had formally switched political parties, and in 1964, he actively campaigned for the Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater. Reagan launched his own political career in 1966 when he successfully ran for governor of California. His opponent was the incumbent Pat Brown, a liberal Democrat who had already served two terms. Reagan, quite undeservedly, blamed Brown for race riots in California and student protests at the University of California at Berkeley. He criticized the Democratic incumbent’s increases in taxes and state government, and denounced “big government” and the inequities of taxation in favor of free enterprise. As governor, however, he quickly learned that federal and state laws prohibited the elimination of certain programs and that many programs benefited his constituents. He ended up approving the largest budget in the state’s history and approved tax increases on a number of occasions. The contrast between Reagan’s rhetoric and practice made up his political skill: capturing the public mood and catering to it, but compromising when necessary. REPUBLICANS BACK IN THE WHITE HOUSE After two unsuccessful Republican primary bids in 1968 and 1976, Reagan won the presidency in 1980. His victory was the result of a combination of dissatisfaction with the presidential leadership of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter in the 1970s and the growth of the New Right. This group of conservative Americans included many very wealthy financial supporters and emerged in the wake of the social reforms and cultural changes of the 1960s and 1970s. Many were evangelical Christians, like those who joined Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, and opposed the legalization of abortion, the feminist movement, and sex education in public schools. Reagan also attracted people, often dubbed neoconservatives, who would not previously have voted for the same candidate as conservative Protestants did. Many were middle- and working-class people who resented the growth of federal and state governments, especially benefit programs, and the subsequent increase in taxes during the late 1960s and 1970s. They favored the tax revolts that swept the nation in the late 1970s under the leadership of predominantly older, white, middle-class Americans, which had succeeded in imposing radical reductions in local property and state income taxes. Voter turnout reflected this new conservative swing, which not only swept Reagan into the White House but created a Republican majority in the Senate. Only 52 percent of eligible voters went to the polls in 1980, the lowest turnout for a presidential election since 1948. Those who did cast a ballot were older, whiter, and wealthier than those who did not vote (Figure). Strong support among white voters, those over forty-five years of age, and those with incomes over $50,000 proved crucial for Reagan’s victory. REAGANOMICS Reagan’s primary goal upon taking office was to stimulate the sagging economy while simultaneously cutting both government programs and taxes. His economic policies, called Reaganomics by the press, were based on a theory called supply-side economics, about which many economists were skeptical. Influenced by economist Arthur Laffer of the University of Southern California, Reagan cut income taxes for those at the top of the economic ladder, which was supposed to motivate the rich to invest in businesses, factories, and the stock market in anticipation of high returns. According to Laffer’s argument, this would eventually translate into more jobs further down the socioeconomic ladder. Economic growth would also increase the total tax revenue—even at a lower tax rate. In other words, proponents of “trickle-down economics” promised to cut taxes and balance the budget at the same time. Reaganomics also included the deregulation of industry and higher interest rates to control inflation, but these initiatives preceded Reagan and were conceived in the Carter administration. Many politicians, including Republicans, were wary of Reagan’s economic program; even his eventual vice president, George H. W. Bush, had referred to it as “voodoo economics” when competing with him for the Republican presidential nomination. When Reagan proposed a 30 percent cut in taxes to be phased in over his first term in office, Congress balked. Opponents argued that the tax cuts would benefit the rich and not the poor, who needed help the most. In response, Reagan presented his plan directly to the people (Figure). Reagan was an articulate spokesman for his political perspectives and was able to garner support for his policies. Often called “The Great Communicator,” he was noted for his ability, honed through years as an actor and spokesperson, to convey a mixture of folksy wisdom, empathy, and concern while taking humorous digs at his opponents. Indeed, listening to Reagan speak often felt like hearing a favorite uncle recall stories about the “good old days” before big government, expensive social programs, and greedy politicians destroyed the country (Figure). Americans found this rhetorical style extremely compelling. Public support for the plan, combined with a surge in the president’s popularity after he survived an assassination attempt in March 1981, swayed Congress, including many Democrats. On July 29, 1981, Congress passed the Economic Recovery Tax Act, which phased in a 25 percent overall reduction in taxes over a period of three years. Richard V. Allen on the Assassination Attempt on Ronald Reagan On March 30, 1981, just months into the Reagan presidency, John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate the president as he left a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Hinckley wounded Reagan and three others in the attempt. Here, National Security Adviser Richard V. Allen recalls what happened the day President Reagan was shot: By 2:52 PM I arrived at the White House and went to [Chief of Staff James] Baker’s office . . . and we placed a call to Vice President George H. W. Bush. . . . [W]e sent a message with the few facts we knew: the bullets had been fired and press secretary Jim Brady had been hit, as had a Secret Service agent and a DC policeman. At first, the President was thought to be unscathed. Jerry Parr, the Secret Service Detail Chief, shoved the President into the limousine, codenamed “Stagecoach,” and slammed the doors shut. The driver sped off. Headed back to the safety of the White House, Parr noticed that the red blood at the President’s mouth was frothy, indicating an internal injury, and suddenly switched the route to the hospital. . . . Parr saved the President’s life. He had lost a serious quantity of blood internally and reached [the emergency room] just in time. . . . Though the President never lost his sense of humor throughout, and had actually walked into the hospital under his own power before his knees buckled, his condition became grave. Why do you think Allen mentions the president’s sense of humor and his ability to walk into the hospital on his own? Why might the assassination attempt have helped Reagan achieve some of his political goals, such as getting his tax cuts through Congress? The largest of the presidential libraries, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library contains Reagan’s most important speeches and pictures of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Reagan was successful at cutting taxes, but he failed to reduce government spending. Although he had long warned about the dangers of big government, he created a new cabinet-level agency, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the number of federal employees increased during his time in office. He allocated a smaller share of the federal budget to antipoverty programs like Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), food stamps, rent subsidies, job training programs, and Medicaid, but Social Security and Medicare entitlements, from which his supporters benefited, were left largely untouched except for an increase in payroll taxes to pay for them. Indeed, in 1983, Reagan agreed to a compromise with the Democrats in Congress on a $165 billion injection of funds to save Social Security, which included this payroll tax increase. But Reagan seemed less flexible when it came to deregulating industry and weakening the power of labor unions. Banks and savings and loan associations were deregulated. Pollution control was enforced less strictly by the Environmental Protection Agency, and restrictions on logging and drilling for oil on public lands were relaxed. Believing the free market was self-regulating, the Reagan administration had little use for labor unions, and in 1981, the president fired twelve thousand federal air traffic controllers who had gone on strike to secure better working conditions (which would also have improved the public’s safety). His action effectively destroyed the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) and ushered in a new era of labor relations in which, following his example, employers simply replaced striking workers. The weakening of unions contributed to the leveling off of real wages for the average American family during the 1980s. Reagan’s economic policymakers succeeded in breaking the cycle of stagflation that had been plaguing the nation, but at significant cost. In its effort to curb high inflation with dramatically increased interest rates, the Federal Reserve also triggered a deep recession. Inflation did drop, but borrowing became expensive and consumers spent less. In Reagan’s first years in office, bankruptcies increased and unemployment reached about 10 percent, its highest level since the Great Depression. Homelessness became a significant problem in cities, a fact the president made light of by suggesting that the press exaggerated the problem and that many homeless people chose to live on the streets. Economic growth resumed in 1983 and gross domestic product grew at an average of 4.5 percent during the rest of his presidency. By the end of Reagan’s second term in office, unemployment had dropped to about 5.3 percent, but the nation was nearly $3 trillion in debt. An increase in defense spending coupled with $3.6 billion in tax relief for the 162,000 American families with incomes of $200,000 or more made a balanced budget, one of the president’s campaign promises in 1980, impossible to achieve. The Reagan years were a complicated era of social, economic, and political change, with many trends operating simultaneously and sometimes at cross-purposes. While many suffered, others prospered. The 1970s had been the era of the hippie, and Newsweek magazine declared 1984 to be the “year of the Yuppie.” Yuppies, whose name derived from “(y)oung, (u)rban (p)rofessionals,” were akin to hippies in being young people whose interests, values, and lifestyle influenced American culture, economy, and politics, just as the hippies’ credo had done in the late 1960s and 1970s. Unlike hippies, however, yuppies were materialistic and obsessed with image, comfort, and economic prosperity. Although liberal on some social issues, economically they were conservative. Ironically, some yuppies were former hippies or yippies, like Jerry Rubin, who gave up his crusade against “the establishment” to become a businessman. Read more about yuppie culture and then use the table of contents to access other information about the culture of the 1980s. Section Summary After decades of liberalism and social reform, Ronald Reagan changed the face of American politics by riding a groundswell of conservatism into the White House. Reagan’s superior rhetorical skills enabled him to gain widespread support for his plans for the nation. Implementing a series of economic policies dubbed “Reaganomics,” the president sought to stimulate the economy while shrinking the size of the federal government and providing relief for the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers. During his two terms in office, he cut spending on social programs, while increasing spending on defense. While Reagan was able to break the cycle of stagflation, his policies also triggered a recession, plunged the nation into a brief period of significant unemployment, and made a balanced budget impossible. In the end, Reagan’s policies diminished many Americans’ quality of life while enabling more affluent Americans—the “Yuppies” of the 1980s—to prosper. Review Questions Before becoming a conservative Republican, Ronald Reagan was ________. - a liberal Democrat - a Socialist - politically apathetic - a Herbert Hoover Republican Hint: A The belief that cutting taxes for the rich will eventually result in economic benefits for the poor is commonly referred to as ________. - socialism - pork barrel politics - Keynesian economics - trickle-down economics Hint: D What were the elements of Ronald Reagan’s plan for economic reform? Hint: Reagan planned to cut taxes for the wealthy in the hope that these taxpayers would then invest their surplus money in business; this, Reagan believed, would reduce unemployment. Reagan also sought to raise interest rates to curb inflation, cut federal spending on social programs, and deregulate industry. Finally, Reagan hoped—but ultimately failed—to balance the federal budget.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.653041	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15558/overview", "title": "U.S. History, From Cold War to Culture Wars, 1980-2000", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15559/overview	Political and Cultural Fusions Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Discuss the culture wars and political conflicts of the Reagan era - Describe the Religious Right’s response to the issues of the Reagan era Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980 suggested to conservatives that the days of liberalism were over and the liberal establishment might be dismantled. Many looked forward to the discontinuation of policies like affirmative action. Conservative Christians sought to outlaw abortion and stop the movement for gay and lesbian rights. Republicans, and some moderate Democrats, demanded a return to “traditional” family values, a rhetorical ploy to suggest that male authority over women and children constituted a natural order that women’s rights and the New Left had subverted since the 1960s. As the conservative message regarding the evils of government permeated society, distrust of the federal government grew, inspiring some to form organizations and communities that sought complete freedom from government control. CREATING CONSERVATIVE POLICY Ronald Reagan’s popularity and effectiveness as a leader drew from his reputation as a man who fought for what he believed in. He was a very articulate spokesperson for a variety of political ideas based on conservative principles and perspectives. Much of the intellectual meat of the Reagan Revolution came from conservative think tanks (policy or advocacy groups) that specifically sought to shape American political and social dialogues. The Heritage Foundation, one such group, soon became the intellectual arm of the conservative movement. Launched in 1973 with a $250,000 contribution from Joseph Coors (of Coors Brewing Company) and support from a variety of corporations and conservative foundations, the Heritage Foundation sought to counteract what conservatives believed to be Richard Nixon’s acceptance of a liberal consensus on too many issues. In producing its policy position papers and political recommendations to conservative candidates and politicians, it helped contribute to a sanitization of U.S. history and a nostalgic glorification of what it deemed to be traditional values, seemingly threatened by the expansion of political and personal freedoms. The foundation had lent considerable support and encouragement to the conservative dialogues that helped carry Ronald Reagan into office in 1980. Just a year later, it produced a document entitled Mandate for Leadership that catalogued some two thousand specific recommendations on how to shrink the size and reach of the federal government and implement a more consistent conservative agenda. The newly elected Reagan administration looked favorably on the recommendations and recruited several of the paper’s authors to serve in the White House. CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS AND FAMILY VALUES Among the strongest supporters of Ronald Reagan’s campaign for president were members of the Religious Right, including Christian groups like the Moral Majority, 61 percent of whom voted for him. By 1980, evangelical Christians had become an important political and social force in the United States (Figure). Some thirteen hundred radio stations in the country were owned and operated by evangelicals. Christian television programs, such as Pat Robertson’s The 700 Club and Jim Bakker’s The PTL (Praise the Lord) Club, proved enormously popular and raised millions of dollars from viewer contributions. For some, evangelism was a business, but most conservative Christians were true believers who were convinced that premarital and extramarital sex, abortion, drug use, homosexuality, and “irreligious” forms of popular and high culture were responsible for a perceived decline in traditional family values that threatened American society. Despite the support he received from Christian conservative and family values voters, Reagan was hardly an ideologue when it came to policy. Indeed, he was often quite careful in using hot button, family-value issues to his greatest political advantage. For example, as governor of California, one of the states that ratified the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in its first year, he positioned himself as a supporter of the amendment. When he launched his bid for the Republican nomination in 1976, however, he withdrew his support to gain the backing of more conservative members of his party. This move demonstrated both political savvy and foresight. At the time he withdrew his support, the Republican National Convention was still officially backing the amendment. However, in 1980, the party began to qualify its stance, which dovetailed with Reagan’s candidacy for the White House. Reagan believed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was sufficient protection for women against discrimination. Once in office, he took a mostly neutral position, neither supporting nor working against the ERA. Nor did this middle position appear to hurt him at the polls; he attracted a significant number of votes from women in 1980, and in 1984, he polled 56 percent of the women’s vote compared to 44 percent for the Democratic ticket of Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, the first female candidate for vice president from a major party. Phyllis Schlafly and the STOP ERA Movement In 1972, after a large number of states jumped to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, most observers believed its ultimate ratification by all the necessary states was all but certain. But, a decade later, the amendment died without ever getting the necessary votes. There are many reasons it went down in defeat, but a major one was Phyllis Schlafly. On the surface, Schlafly’s life might suggest that she would naturally support the ERA. After all, she was a well-educated, professional woman who sought advancement in her field and even aspired to high political office. Yet she is a fascinating historical character, precisely because her life and goals don’t conform to expected norms. Schlafly’s attack on the ERA was ingenious in its method and effectiveness. Rather than attacking the amendment directly as a gateway to unrestrained and immoral behavior as some had, she couched her opposition in language that was sensitive to both privilege and class. Her instrument was the STOP ERA movement, with the acronym STOP, standing for “Stop Taking our Privileges.” Schlafly argued that women enjoyed special privileges such as gender-specific restrooms and exemption from the military draft. These, she claimed, would be lost should the ERA be ratified. But she also claimed to stand up for the dignity of being a homemaker and lambasted the feminist movement as elitist. In this, she was keenly aware of the power of class interests. Her organization suggested that privileged women could afford to support the ERA. Working women and poor housewives, however, would ultimately bear the brunt of the loss of protection it would bring. In the end, her tactics were successful in achieving exactly what the movement’s name suggested; she stopped the ERA. Reagan’s political calculations notwithstanding, his belief that traditional values were threatened by a modern wave of immoral popular culture was genuine. He recognized that nostalgia was a powerful force in politics, and he drew a picture for his audiences of the traditional good old days under attack by immorality and decline. “Those of us who are over thirty-five or so years of age grew up in a different America,” he explained in his farewell address. “We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. . . . The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special.” But this America, he insisted, was being washed away. “I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.” Concern over a decline in the country’s moral values welled up on both sides of the political aisle. In 1985, anxiety over the messages of the music industry led to the founding of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), a bipartisan group formed by the wives of prominent Washington politicians including Susan Baker, the wife of Reagan’s treasury secretary, James Baker, and Tipper Gore, the wife of then-senator Al Gore, who later became vice president under Bill Clinton. The goal of the PMRC was to limit the ability of children to listen to music with sexual or violent content. Its strategy was to get the recording industry to adopt a voluntary rating system for music and recordings, similar to the Motion Picture Association of America’s system for movies. The organization also produced a list of particularly offensive recordings known as the “filthy fifteen.” By August 1985, nearly twenty record companies had agreed to put labels on their recordings indicating “explicit lyrics,” but the Senate began hearings on the issue in September (Figure). While many parents and a number of witnesses advocated the labels, many in the music industry rejected them as censorship. Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider and folk musician John Denver both advised Congress against the restrictions. In the end, the recording industry suggested a voluntary generic label. Its effect on children’s exposure to raw language is uncertain, but musicians roundly mocked the effort. Listen to the testimony of Dee Snider and John Denver to learn more about the contours of this debate. THE AIDS CRISIS In the early 1980s, doctors noticed a disturbing trend: Young gay men in large cities, especially San Francisco and New York, were being diagnosed with, and eventually dying from, a rare cancer called Kaposi’s sarcoma. Because the disease was seen almost exclusively in male homosexuals, it was quickly dubbed “gay cancer.” Doctors soon realized it often coincided with other symptoms, including a rare form of pneumonia, and they renamed it “Gay Related Immune Deficiency” (GRID), although people other than gay men, primarily intravenous drug users, were dying from the disease as well. The connection between gay men and GRID—later renamed human immunodeficiency virus/autoimmune deficiency syndrome, or HIV/AIDS—led heterosexuals largely to ignore the growing health crisis in the gay community, wrongly assuming they were safe from its effects. The federal government also overlooked the disease, and calls for more money to research and find the cure were ignored. Even after it became apparent that heterosexuals could contract the disease through blood transfusions and heterosexual intercourse, HIV/AIDS continued to be associated primarily with the gay community, especially by political and religious conservatives. Indeed, the Religious Right regarded it as a form of divine retribution meant to punish gay men for their “immoral” lifestyle. President Reagan, always politically careful, was reluctant to speak openly about the developing crisis even as thousands faced certain death from the disease. With little help coming from the government, the gay community quickly began to organize its own response. In 1982, New York City men formed the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), a volunteer organization that operated an information hotline, provided counseling and legal assistance, and raised money for people with HIV/AIDS. Larry Kramer, one of the original members, left in 1983 and formed his own organization, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), in 1987. ACT UP took a more militant approach, holding demonstrations on Wall Street, outside the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and inside the New York Stock Exchange to call attention and shame the government into action. One of the images adopted by the group, a pink triangle paired with the phrase “Silence = Death,” captured media attention and quickly became the symbol of the AIDS crisis (Figure). THE WAR ON DRUGS AND THE ROAD TO MASS INCARCERATION As Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, violent crime in the United States was reaching an all-time high. While there were different reasons for the spike, the most important one was demographics: The primary category of offenders, males between the ages of sixteen and thirty-six, reached an all-time peak as the baby-boomer generation came of age. But the phenomenon that most politicians honed in on as a cause for violent crime was the abuse of a new, cheap drug dealt illegally on city streets. Crack cocaine, a smokable type of cocaine popular with poorer addicts, was hitting the streets in the 1980s, frightening middle-class Americans. Reagan and other conservatives led a campaign to “get tough on crime” and promised the nation a “war on drugs.” Initiatives like the “Just Say No” campaign led by First Lady Nancy Reagan implied that drug addiction and drug-related crime reflected personal morality. Nixon had first used the term in 1971, but in the 1980s the “war on drugs” took on an ominous dimension, as politicians scrambled over each other to enact harsher sentences for drug offenses so they could market themselves as tough on crime. State after state switched from variable to mandatory minimum sentences that were exceedingly long and particularly harsh for street drug crimes. The federal government supported the trend with federal sentencing guidelines and additional funds for local law enforcement agencies. This law-and-order movement peaked in the 1990s, when California introduced a “three strikes” law that mandated life imprisonment without parole for any third felony conviction—even nonviolent ones. As a result, prisons became crowded, and states went deep into debt to build more. By the end of the century, the war began to die down as the public lost interest in the problem, the costs of the punishment binge became politically burdensome, and scholars and politicians began to advocate the decriminalization of drug use. By this time, however, hundreds of thousands of people had been incarcerated for drug offenses and the total number of prisoners in the nation had grown four-fold in the last quarter of the century. Particularly glaring were the racial inequities of the new age of mass incarceration, with African Americans being seven times more likely to be in prison (Figure). Section Summary The political conservatism of the 1980s and 1990s was matched by the social conservatism of the period. Conservative politicians wished to limit the size and curb the power of the federal government. Conservative think tanks flourished, the Christian Right defeated the ERA, and bipartisan efforts to add warning labels to explicit music lyrics were the subject of Congressional hearings. HIV/AIDS, which became chiefly and inaccurately associated with the gay community, grew to crisis proportions, as heterosexuals and the federal government failed to act. In response, gay men organized advocacy groups to fight for research on HIV/AIDS. Meanwhile, the so-called war on drugs began a get-tough trend in law enforcement that mandated lengthy sentences for drug-related offenses and hugely increased the American prison population. Review Questions Which statement best describes Reagan’s political style? - folksy and likeable - conservative and inflexible - liberal and pragmatic - intelligent and elitist Hint: A What rationale did Phyllis Schlafly and her STOP ERA movement cite when opposing the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment? - the ERA would ultimately lead to the legalization of abortion - the ERA provided insufficient civil rights protections for women - mothers could not be feminists - the ERA would end gender-specific privileges women enjoyed Hint: D What were some of the primary values of the Moral Majority? Hint: Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority believed the country was drifting ever further toward immorality. The evidence they cited included the legalization of abortion, the feminist movement, and sex education in public schools.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.681549	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15559/overview", "title": "U.S. History, From Cold War to Culture Wars, 1980-2000", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15560/overview	A New World Order Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the successes and failures of Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy - Compare the policies of Ronald Reagan with those of George H. W. Bush - Explain the causes and results of the Persian Gulf War - Discuss the events that constituted the end of the Cold War In addition to reviving the economy and reducing the size of the federal government, Ronald Reagan also wished to restore American stature in the world. He entered the White House a “cold warrior” and referred to the Soviet Union in a 1983 speech as an “evil empire.” Dedicated to upholding even authoritarian governments in foreign countries to keep them safe from Soviet influence, he was also desperate to put to rest Vietnam Syndrome, the reluctance to use military force in foreign countries for fear of embarrassing defeat, which had influenced U.S. foreign policy since the mid-1970s. THE MIDDLE EAST AND CENTRAL AMERICA Reagan’s desire to demonstrate U.S. readiness to use military force abroad sometimes had tragic consequences. In 1983, he sent soldiers to Lebanon as part of a multinational force trying to restore order following an Israeli invasion the year before. On October 23, more than two hundred troops were killed in a barracks bombing in Beirut carried out by Iranian-trained militants known as Hezbollah (Figure). In February 1984, Reagan announced that, given intensified fighting, U.S. troops were being withdrawn. Two days after the bombing in Beirut, Reagan and Secretary of State George P. Shultz authorized the invasion of Grenada, a small Caribbean island nation, in an attempt to oust a Communist military junta that had overthrown a moderate regime. Communist Cuba already had troops and technical aid workers stationed on the island and were willing to defend the new regime, but the United States swiftly took command of the situation, and the Cuban soldiers surrendered after two days. Reagan’s intervention in Grenada was intended to send a message to Marxists in Central America. Meanwhile, however, decades of political repression and economic corruption by certain Latin American governments, sometimes generously supported by U.S. foreign aid, had sown deep seeds of revolutionary discontent. In El Salvador, a 1979 civil-military coup had put a military junta in power that was engaged in a civil war against left-leaning guerillas when Reagan took office. His administration supported the right-wing government, which used death squads to silence dissent. Neighboring Nicaragua was also governed by a largely Marxist-inspired group, the Sandinistas. This organization, led by Daniel Ortega, had overthrown the brutal, right-wing dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Reagan, however, overlooked the legitimate complaints of the Sandinistas and believed that their rule opened the region to Cuban and Soviet influence. A year into his presidency, convinced it was folly to allow the expansion of Soviet and Communist influence in Latin America, he authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to equip and train a group of anti-Sandinista Nicaraguans known as the Contras (contrarevolucionários or “counter-revolutionaries”) to oust Ortega. Reagan’s desire to aid the Contras even after Congress ended its support led him, surprisingly, to Iran. In September 1980, Iraq had invaded neighboring Iran and, by 1982, had begun to gain the upper hand. The Iraqis needed weapons, and the Reagan administration, wishing to assist the enemy of its enemy, had agreed to provide Iraqi president Saddam Hussein with money, arms, and military intelligence. In 1983, however, the capture of Americans by Hezbollah forces in Lebanon changed the president’s plans. In 1985, he authorized the sale of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Iran in exchange for help retrieving three of the American hostages. A year later, Reagan’s National Security Council aide, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, found a way to sell weapons to Iran and secretly use the proceeds to support the Nicaraguan Contras—in direct violation of a congressional ban on military aid to the anti-Communist guerillas in that Central American nation. Eventually the Senate became aware, and North and others were indicted on various charges, which were all dismissed, overturned on appeal, or granted presidential pardon. Reagan, known for delegating much authority to subordinates and unable to “remember” crucial facts and meetings, escaped the scandal with nothing more than criticism for his lax oversight. The nation was divided over the extent to which the president could go to “protect national interests,” and the limits of Congress’s constitutional authority to oversee the activities of the executive branch have yet to be resolved. Visit the Brown University site to learn more about the Iran-Contra congressional hearings. Read transcripts of the testimony and watch the video of President Reagan’s address to the nation regarding the operation. THE COLD WAR WAXES AND WANES While trying to shrink the federal budget and the size of government sphere at home, Reagan led an unprecedented military buildup in which money flowed to the Pentagon to pay for expensive new forms of weaponry. The press drew attention to the inefficiency of the nation’s military industrial complex, offering as examples expense bills that included $640 toilet seats and $7,400 coffee machines. One of the most controversial aspects of Reagan’s plan was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which he proposed in 1983. SDI, or “Star Wars,” called for the development of a defensive shield to protect the United States from a Soviet missile strike. Scientists argued that much of the needed technology had not yet been developed and might never be. Others contended that the plan would violate existing treaties with the Soviet Union and worried about the Soviet response. The system was never built, and the plan, estimated to have cost some $7.5 billion, was finally abandoned. Anticipating his reelection campaign in 1984, Reagan began to moderate his position toward the Soviet Union, largely at the initiative of his new counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev. The new and comparatively young Soviet premier did not want to commit additional funds for another arms race, especially since the war in Afghanistan against mujahedeen—Islamic guerilla fighters—had depleted the Soviet Union’s resources severely since its invasion of the central Asian nation in 1979. Gorbachev recognized that economic despair at home could easily result in larger political upheavals like those in neighboring Poland, where the Solidarity movement had taken hold. He withdrew troops from Afghanistan, introduced political reforms and new civil liberties at home—known as perestroika and glasnost—and proposed arms reduction talks with the United States. In 1985, Gorbachev and Reagan met in Geneva to reduce armaments and shrink their respective military budgets. The following year, meeting in Reykjavík, Iceland, they surprised the world by announcing that they would try to eliminate nuclear weapons by 1996. In 1987, they agreed to eliminate a whole category of nuclear weapons when they signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at the White House (Figure). This laid the foundation for future agreements limiting nuclear weapons. You can view President Reagan delivering one of his most memorable addresses in 1987. Standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, he called on General Secretary Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” “NO NEW TAXES” Confident they could win back the White House, Democrats mounted a campaign focused on more effective and competent government under the leadership of Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. When George H. W. Bush, Reagan’s vice president and Republican nominee, found himself down in the polls, political advisor Lee Atwater launched an aggressively negative media campaign, accusing Dukakis of being soft on crime and connecting his liberal policies to a brutal murder in Massachusetts. More importantly, Bush adopted a largely Reaganesque style on matters of economic policy, promising to shrink government and keep taxes low. These tactics were successful, and the Republican Party retained the White House. Although he promised to carry on Reagan’s economic legacy, the problems Bush inherited made it difficult to do so. Reagan’s policies of cutting taxes and increasing defense spending had exploded the federal budget deficit, making it three times larger in 1989 than when Reagan took office in 1980. Bush was further constrained by the emphatic pledge he had made at the 1988 Republican Convention—“read my lips: no new taxes”—and found himself in the difficult position of trying to balance the budget and reduce the deficit without breaking his promise. However, he also faced a Congress controlled by the Democrats, who wanted to raise taxes on the rich, while Republicans thought the government should drastically cut domestic spending. In October, after a brief government shutdown when Bush vetoed the budget Congress delivered, he and Congress reached a compromise with the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. The budget included measures to reduce the deficit by both cutting government expenditures and raising taxes, effectively reneging on the “no new taxes” pledge. These economic constraints are one reason why Bush supported a limited domestic agenda of education reform and antidrug efforts, relying on private volunteers and community organizations, which he referred to as “a thousand points of light,” to address most social problems. When it came to foreign affairs, Bush’s attitude towards the Soviet Union differed little from Reagan’s. Bush sought to ease tensions with America’s rival superpower and stressed the need for peace and cooperation. The desire to avoid angering the Soviets led him to adopt a hands-off approach when, at the beginning of his term, a series of pro-democracy demonstrations broke out across the Communist Eastern Bloc. In November 1989, the world—including foreign policy experts and espionage agencies from both sides of the Iron Curtain—watched in surprise as peaceful protesters in East Germany marched through checkpoints at the Berlin Wall. Within hours, people from both East and West Berlin flooded the checkpoints and began tearing down large chunks of the wall. Months of earlier demonstrations in East Germany had called on the government to allow citizens to leave the country. These demonstrations were one manifestation of a larger movement sweeping across East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania, which swiftly led to revolutions, most of them peaceful, resulting in the collapse of Communist governments in Central and Eastern Europe. In Budapest in 1956 and in Prague in 1968, the Soviet Union had restored order through a large show of force. That this didn’t happen in 1989 was an indication to all that the Soviet Union was itself collapsing. Bush’s refusal to gloat or declare victory helped him maintain the relationship with Gorbachev that Reagan had established. In July 1991, Gorbachev and Bush signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which committed their countries to reducing their nuclear arsenals by 25 percent. A month later, attempting to stop the changes begun by Gorbachev’s reforms, Communist Party hardliners tried to remove him from power. Protests arose throughout the Soviet Union, and by December 1991, the nation had collapsed. In January 1992, twelve former Soviet republics formed the Commonwealth of Independent States to coordinate trade and security measures. The Cold War was over. AMERICAN GLOBAL POWER IN THE WAKE OF THE COLD WAR The dust had barely settled on the crumbling Berlin Wall when the Bush administration announced a bold military intervention in Panama in December 1989. Claiming to act on behalf of human rights, U.S. troops deposed the unpopular dictator and drug smuggler Manuel Noriega swiftly, but former CIA connections between President Bush and Noriega, as well as U.S. interests in maintaining control of the Canal Zone, prompted the United Nations and world public opinion to denounce the invasion as a power grab. As the Soviet Union was ceasing to be a threat, the Middle East became a source of increased concern. In the wake of its eight-year war with Iran from 1980 to 1988, Iraq had accumulated a significant amount of foreign debt. At the same time, other Arab states had increased their oil production, forcing oil prices down and further hurting Iraq’s economy. Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, approached these oil-producing states for assistance, particularly Saudi Arabia and neighboring Kuwait, which Iraq felt directly benefited from its war with Iran. When talks with these countries broke down, and Iraq found itself politically and economically isolated, Hussein ordered the invasion of oil-rich Kuwait in August 1990. Bush faced his first full-scale international crisis. In response to the invasion, Bush and his foreign policy team forged an unprecedented international coalition of thirty-four countries, including many members of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the Middle Eastern countries of Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Egypt, to oppose Iraqi aggression. Bush hoped that this coalition would herald the beginning of a “new world order” in which the nations of the world would work together to deter belligerence. A deadline was set for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, or face serious consequences. Wary of not having sufficient domestic support for combat, Bush first deployed troops to the area to build up forces in the region and defend Saudi Arabia via Operation Desert Shield (Figure). On January 14, Bush succeeded in getting resolutions from Congress authorizing the use of military force against Iraq, and the U.S. then orchestrated an effective air campaign, followed by Operation Desert Storm, a one-hundred-hour land war involving over 500,000 U.S. troops and another 200,000 from twenty-seven other countries, which expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait by the end of February. Visit the Frontline site to read first-person accounts of U.S. soldiers’ experiences in Operation Desert Storm and view weapons used in battle. Some controversy arose among Bush’s advisors regarding whether to end the war without removing Saddam Hussein from power, but General Colin Powell, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, argued that to continue to attack a defeated army would be “un-American.” Bush agreed and troops began moving out of the area in March 1991. Although Hussein was not removed from power, the war nevertheless suggested that the United States no longer suffered from “Vietnam Syndrome” and would deploy massive military resources if and when it thought necessary. In April 1991, United Nations (UN) Resolution 687 set the terms of the peace, with long-term implications. Its concluding paragraph authorizing the UN to take such steps as necessary to maintain the peace was later taken as the legal justification for the further use of force, as in 1996 and 1998, when Iraq was again bombed. It was also referenced in the lead-up to the second invasion of Iraq in 2003, when it appeared that Iraq was refusing to comply with other UN resolutions. A CHANGING DOMESTIC LANDSCAPE By nearly every measure, Operation Desert Storm was a resounding success. Through deft diplomatic efforts on the international stage, Bush had ensured that many around the world saw the action as legitimate. By making the goals of the military action both clear and limited, he also reassured an American public still skeptical of foreign entanglements. With the Soviet Union vanishing from the world stage, and the United States demonstrating the extent of its diplomatic influence and military potency with President Bush at the helm, his reelection seemed all but inevitable. Indeed, in March 1991, the president had an approval rating of 89 percent. Despite Bush’s successes internationally, the domestic situation at home was far more complicated. Unlike Reagan, Bush was not a natural culture warrior. Rather, he was a moderate, Connecticut-born Episcopalian, a pragmatic politician, and a life-long civil servant. He was not adept at catering to post-Reagan conservatives as his predecessor had been. By the same token, he appeared incapable of capitalizing on his history of moderation and pragmatism regarding women’s rights and access to abortion. Together with a Democratic Senate, Bush broke new ground in civil rights with his support of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a far-reaching law that prohibited discrimination based on disability in public accommodations and by employers. President Bush’s weaknesses as a culture warrior were on full display during the controversy that erupted following his nomination of a new Supreme Court judge. In 1991, Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American ever to sit on the Supreme Court, opted to retire, thus opening a position on the court. Thinking he was doing the prudent thing by appealing to multiple interests, Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, another African American but also a strong social conservative. The decision to nominate Thomas, however, proved to be anything but prudent. During Thomas’ confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Anita Hill, a lawyer who had worked for Thomas when he was chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), came forward with allegations that he had sexually harassed her when he was her supervisor. Thomas denied the accusations and referred to the televised hearings as a “high tech lynching.” He survived the controversy and was appointed to the Supreme Court by a narrow Senate vote of fifty-two to forty-eight. Hill, also African American, noted later in frustration: “I had a gender, he had a race.” In the aftermath, however, sexual harassment of women in the workplace gained public attention, and harassment complaints made to the EEOC increased 50 percent by the fall of 1992. The controversy also reflected poorly on President Bush and may have hurt him with female voters in 1992. Section Summary While Ronald Reagan worked to restrict the influence of the federal government in people’s lives, he simultaneously pursued interventionist policies abroad as part of a global Cold War strategy. Eager to cure the United States of “Vietnam Syndrome,” he increased the American stockpile of weapons and aided anti-Communist groups in the Caribbean and Central America. The Reagan administration’s secret sales of arms to Iran proved disastrous, however, and resulted in indictments for administration officials. With the end of the Cold War, attention shifted to escalating tensions in the Middle East, where an international coalition assembled by George H. W. Bush drove invading Iraqi forces from Kuwait. As Bush discovered in the last years of his presidency, even this almost-flawless exercise in international diplomatic and military power was not enough to calm a changing cultural and political climate at home. Review Questions The group the Reagan administration encouraged and supported in its fight against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua was known as the ________. - anti-Somozas - Shining Path - Contras - Red Faction Hint: C The country that Iraq invaded to trigger the crisis that resulted in the Persian Gulf War was ________. - Jordan - Kuwait - Saudi Arabia - Iran Hint: B What was the Iran-Contra affair about? Hint: After Congress ended support for the Nicaraguan Contras, President Reagan sought other sources of funding for them. Lt. Col. Oliver North then oversaw a plan by which arms would be sold to Iran and the money received from the sales would be sent to fund the Contras.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.711960	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15560/overview", "title": "U.S. History, From Cold War to Culture Wars, 1980-2000", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15561/overview	Bill Clinton and the New Economy Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain political partisanship, antigovernment movements, and economic developments during the Clinton administration - Discuss President Clinton’s foreign policy - Explain how George W. Bush won the election of 2000 By 1992, many had come to doubt that President George H. W. Bush could solve America’s problems. He had alienated conservative Republicans by breaking his pledge not to raise taxes, and some faulted him for failing to remove Saddam Hussein from power during Operation Desert Storm. Furthermore, despite living much of his adult life in Texas, he could not overcome the stereotypes associated with his privileged New England and Ivy League background, which hurt him among working-class Reagan Democrats. THE ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE The contrast between George H. W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton could not have been greater. Bill Clinton was a baby boomer born in 1946 in Hope, Arkansas. His biological father died in a car wreck three months before he was born. When he was a boy, his mother married Roger Clinton, an alcoholic who abused his family. However, despite a troubled home life, Clinton was an excellent student. He took an interest in politics from an early age. On a high school trip to Washington, DC, he met his political idol, President John F. Kennedy. As a student at Georgetown University, he supported both the civil rights and antiwar movements and ran for student council president (Figure). In 1968, Clinton received a prestigious Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University. From Oxford he moved on to Yale, where he earned his law degree in 1973. He returned to Arkansas and became a professor at the University of Arkansas’s law school. The following year, he tried his hand at state politics, running for Congress, and was narrowly defeated. In 1977, he became attorney general of Arkansas and was elected governor in 1978. Losing the office to his Republican opponent in 1980, he retook the governor’s mansion in 1982 and remained governor of Arkansas until 1992, when he announced his candidacy for president. During his campaign, Bill Clinton described himself as a New Democrat, a member of a faction of the Democratic Party that, like the Republicans, favored free trade and deregulation. He tried to appeal to the middle class by promising higher taxes on the rich and reform of the welfare system. Although Clinton garnered only 43 percent of the popular vote, he easily won in the Electoral College with 370 votes to President Bush’s 188. Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot won 19 percent of the popular vote, the best showing by any third-party candidate since 1912. The Democrats took control of both houses of Congress. “IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID” Clinton took office towards the end of a recession. His administration’s plans for fixing the economy included limiting spending and cutting the budget to reduce the nation’s $60 billion deficit, keeping interest rates low to encourage private investment, and eliminating protectionist tariffs. Clinton also hoped to improve employment opportunities by allocating more money for education. In his first term, he expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, which lowered the tax obligations of working families who were just above the poverty line. Addressing the budget deficit, the Democrats in Congress passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 without a single Republican vote. The act raised taxes for the top 1.2 percent of the American people, lowered them for fifteen million low-income families, and offered tax breaks to 90 percent of small businesses. Clinton also strongly supported ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a treaty that eliminated tariffs and trade restrictions among the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The treaty had been negotiated by the Bush administration, and the leaders of all three nations had signed it in December 1992. However, because of strong opposition from American labor unions and some in Congress who feared the loss of jobs to Mexico, the treaty had not been ratified by the time Clinton took office. To allay the concerns of unions, he added an agreement to protect workers and also one to protect the environment. Congress ratified NAFTA late in 1993. The result was the creation of the world’s largest common market in terms of population, including some 425 million people. During Clinton’s administration, the nation began to experience the longest period of economic expansion in its history, almost ten consecutive years. Year after year, job growth increased and the deficit shrank. Increased tax revenue and budget cuts turned the annual national budget deficit from close to $290 billion in 1992 to a record budget surplus of over $230 billion in 2000. Reduced government borrowing freed up capital for private-sector use, and lower interest rates in turn fueled more growth. During the Clinton years, more people owned homes than ever before in the country’s history (67.7 percent). Inflation dipped to 2.3 percent and the unemployment rate declined, reaching a thirty-year low of 3.9 percent in 2000. Much of the prosperity of the 1990s was related to technological change and the advent of new information systems. In 1994, the Clinton administration became the first to launch an official White House website and join the revolution of the electronically mediated world. By the 1990s, a new world of instantaneous global exposure was at the fingertips of billions worldwide. Hope and Anxiety in the Information Age While the roots of innovations like personal computers and the Internet go back to the 1960s and massive Department of Defense spending, it was in the 1980s and 90s that these technologies became part of everyday life. Like most technology-driven periods of transformation, the information age was greeted with a mixture of hope and anxiety upon its arrival. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, computer manufacturers like Apple, Commodore, and Tandy began offering fully assembled personal computers. (Previously, personal computing had been accessible only to those adventurous enough to buy expensive kits that had to be assembled and programmed.) In short order, computers became a fairly common sight in businesses and upper-middle-class homes (Figure). Soon, computer owners, even young kids, were launching their own electronic bulletin board systems, small-scale networks that used modems and phone lines, and sharing information in ways not dreamed of just decades before. Computers, it seemed, held out the promise of a bright, new future for those who knew how to use them. Casting shadows over the bright dreams of a better tomorrow were fears that the development of computer technology would create a dystopian future in which technology became the instrument of society’s undoing. Film audiences watched a teenaged Matthew Broderick hacking into a government computer and starting a nuclear war in War Games, Angelina Jolie being chased by a computer genius bent on world domination in Hackers, and Sandra Bullock watching helplessly as her life is turned inside out by conspirators who manipulate her virtual identity in The Net. Clearly, the idea of digital network connections as the root of our demise resonated in this period of rapid technological change. DOMESTIC ISSUES In addition to shifting the Democratic Party to the moderate center on economic issues, Clinton tried to break new ground on a number of domestic issues and make good on traditional Democratic commitments to the disadvantaged, minority groups, and women. At the same time, he faced the challenge of domestic terrorism when a federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds more. Healthcare Reform An important and popular part of Clinton’s domestic agenda was healthcare reform that would make universal healthcare a reality. When the plan was announced in September of the president’s first year in office, pollsters and commentators both assumed it would sail through. Many were unhappy with the way the system worked in the United States, where the cost of health insurance seemed increasingly unaffordable for the middle class. Clinton appointed his wife, Hillary Clinton, a Yale Law School graduate and accomplished attorney, to head his Task Force on National Health Care Reform in 1993. The 1,342-page Health Security Act presented to Congress that year sought to offer universal coverage (Figure). All Americans were to be covered by a healthcare plan that could not reject them based on pre-existing medical conditions. Employers would be required to provide healthcare for their employees. Limits would be placed on the amount that people would have to pay for services; the poor would not have to pay at all. The outlook for the plan looked good in 1993; it had the support of a number of institutions like the American Medical Association and the Health Insurance Association of America. But in relatively short order, the political winds changed. As budget battles distracted the administration and the midterm elections of 1994 approached, Republicans began to recognize the strategic benefits of opposing reform. Soon they were mounting fierce opposition to the bill. Moderate conservatives dubbed the reform proposals “Hillarycare” and argued that the bill was an unwarranted expansion of the powers of the federal government that would interfere with people’s ability to choose the healthcare provider they wanted. Those further to the right argued that healthcare reform was part of a larger and nefarious plot to control the public. To rally Republican opposition to Clinton and the Democrats, Newt Gingrich and Richard “Dick” Armey, two of the leaders of the Republican minority in the House of Representatives, prepared a document entitled Contract with America, signed by all but two of the Republican representatives. It listed eight specific legislative reforms or initiatives the Republicans would enact if they gained a majority in Congress in the 1994 midterm elections. View the Contract with America that the Republican Party drafted to continue the conservative shift begun by Ronald Reagan, which promised to cut waste and spend taxpayer money responsibly. Lacking support on both sides, the healthcare bill was never passed and died in Congress. The reform effort finally ended in September 1994. Dislike of the proposed healthcare plan on the part of conservatives and the bold strategy laid out in the Contract with America enabled the Republican Party to win seven Senate seats and fifty-two House seats in the November elections. The Republicans then used their power to push for conservative reforms. One such piece of legislation was the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, signed into law in August 1996. The act set time limits on welfare benefits and required most recipients to begin working within two years of receiving assistance. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Although Clinton had campaigned as an economically conservative New Democrat, he was thought to be socially liberal and, just days after his victory in the 1992 election, he promised to end the fifty-year ban on gays and lesbians serving in the military. However, in January 1993, after taking the oath of office, Clinton amended his promise in order to appease conservatives. Instead of lifting the longstanding ban, the armed forces would adopt a policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Those on active duty would not be asked their sexual orientation and, if they were gay, they were not to discuss their sexuality openly or they would be dismissed from military service. This compromise satisfied neither conservatives seeking the exclusion of gays nor the gay community, which argued that homosexuals, like heterosexuals, should be able to live without fear of retribution because of their sexuality. Clinton again proved himself willing to appease political conservatives when he signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in September 1996, after both houses of Congress had passed it with such wide margins that a presidential veto could easily be overridden. DOMA defined marriage as a heterosexual union and denied federal benefits to same-sex couples. It also allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted by other states. When Clinton signed the bill, he was personally opposed to same-sex marriage. Nevertheless, he disliked DOMA and later called for its repeal. He also later changed his position on same-sex marriage. On other social issues, however, Clinton was more liberal. He appointed openly gay and lesbian men and women to important positions in government and denounced discrimination against people with AIDS. He supported the idea of the ERA and believed that women should receive pay equal to that of men doing the same work. He opposed the use of racial quotas in employment, but he declared affirmative action programs to be necessary. As a result of his economic successes and his moderate social policies, Clinton defeated Senator Robert Dole in the 1996 presidential election. With 49 percent of the popular vote and 379 electoral votes, he became the first Democrat to win reelection to the presidency since Franklin Roosevelt. Clinton’s victory was partly due to a significant gender gap between the parties, with women tending to favor Democratic candidates. In 1992, Clinton won 45 percent of women’s votes compared to Bush’s 38 percent, and in 1996, he received 54 percent of women’s votes while Dole won 38 percent. Domestic Terrorism The fears of those who saw government as little more than a necessary evil appeared to be confirmed in the spring of 1993, when federal and state law enforcement authorities laid siege to the compound of a religious sect called the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas. The group, which believed the end of world was approaching, was suspected of weapons violations and resisted search-and-arrest warrants with deadly force. A standoff developed that lasted nearly two months and was captured on television each day. A final assault on the compound was made on April 19, and seventy-six men, women, and children died in a fire probably set by members of the sect. Many others committed suicide or were killed by fellow sect members. During the siege, many antigovernment and militia types came to satisfy their curiosity or show support for those inside. One was Timothy McVeigh, a former U.S. Army infantry soldier. McVeigh had served in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, earning a bronze star, but he became disillusioned with the military and the government when he was deemed psychologically unfit for the Army Special Forces. He was convinced that the Branch Davidians were victims of government terrorism, and he and his coconspirator, Terry Nichols, determined to avenge them. Two years later, on the anniversary of the day that the Waco compound burned to the ground, McVeigh parked a rented truck full of explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and blew it up (Figure). More than 600 people were injured in the attack and 168 died, including nineteen children at the daycare center inside. McVeigh hoped that his actions would spark a revolution against government control. He and Nichols were both arrested and tried, and McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001, for the worst act of terrorism committed on American soil. Just a few months later, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 broke that dark record. CLINTON AND AMERICAN HEGEMONY For decades, the contours of the Cold War had largely determined U.S. action abroad. Strategists saw each coup, revolution, and civil war as part of the larger struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. But with the Soviet Union vanquished, the United States was suddenly free of this paradigm, and President Clinton could see international crises in the Middle East, the Balkans, and Africa on their own terms and deal with them accordingly. He envisioned a post-Cold War role in which the United States used its overwhelming military superiority and influence as global policing tools to preserve the peace. This foreign policy strategy had both success and failure. One notable success was a level of peace in the Middle East. In September 1993, at the White House, Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, and Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, signed the Oslo Accords, granting some self-rule to Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (Figure). A year later, the Clinton administration helped facilitate the second settlement and normalization of relations between Israel and Jordan. As a small measure of stability was brought to the Middle East, violence erupted in the Balkans. The Communist country of Yugoslavia consisted of six provinces: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, and Macedonia. Each was occupied by a number of ethnic groups, some of which shared a history of hostile relations. In May 1980, the leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, died. Without him to hold the country together, ethnic tensions increased, and this, along with the breakdown of Communism elsewhere in Europe, led to the breakup of Yugoslavia. In 1991, Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia declared their independence. In 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina did as well. Only Serbia and Montenegro remained united as the Serbian-dominated Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Almost immediately, ethnic tensions within Bosnia and Herzegovina escalated into war when Yugoslavian Serbs aided Bosnian Serbs who did not wish to live in an independent Bosnia and Herzegovina. These Bosnian Serbs proclaimed the existence of autonomous Serbian regions within the country and attacked Bosnian Muslims and Croats. During the conflict, the Serbs engaged in genocide, described by some as “ethnic cleansing.” The brutal conflict also gave rise to the systematic rape of “enemy” women—generally Muslim women exploited by Serbian military or paramilitary forces. The International Criminal Tribunal of Yugoslavia estimated that between twelve thousand and fifty thousand women were raped during the war. NATO eventually intervened in 1995, and Clinton agreed to U.S. participation in airstrikes against Bosnian Serbs. That year, the Dayton Accords peace settlement was signed in Dayton, Ohio. Four years later, the United States, acting with other NATO members, launched an air campaign against Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia to stop it from attacking ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Although these attacks were not sanctioned by the UN and were criticized by Russia and China, Yugoslavia withdrew its forces from Kosovo in June 1999. The use of force did not always bring positive results. For example, back in December 1992, George H. W. Bush had sent a contingent of U.S. soldiers to Somalia, initially to protect and distribute relief supplies to civilians as part of a UN mission. Without an effective Somali government, however, the warlords who controlled different regions often stole food, and their forces endangered the lives of UN workers. In 1993, the Clinton administration sent soldiers to capture one of the warlords, Mohammed Farah Aidid, in the city of Mogadishu. The resulting battle proved disastrous. A Black Hawk helicopter was shot down, and U.S. Army Rangers and members of Delta Force spent hours battling their way through the streets; eighty-four soldiers were wounded and nineteen died. The United States withdrew, leaving Somalia to struggle with its own anarchy. The sting of the Somalia failure probably contributed to Clinton’s reluctance to send U.S. forces to end the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. In the days of brutal colonial rule, Belgian administrators had given control to Tutsi tribal chiefs, although Hutus constituted a majority of the population. Resentment over ethnic privileges, and the discrimination that began then and continued after independence in 1962, erupted into civil war in 1980. The Hutu majority began to slaughter the Tutsi minority and their Hutu supporters. In 1998, while visiting Rwanda, Clinton apologized for having done nothing to save the lives of the 800,000 massacred in one hundred days of genocidal slaughter. IMPEACHMENT Public attention was diverted from Clinton’s foreign policing actions by a series of scandals that marked the last few years of his presidency. From the moment he entered national politics, his opponents had attempted to tie Clinton and his First Lady to a number of loosely defined improprieties, even accusing him of murdering his childhood friend and Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster. One accusation the Clintons could not shake was of possible improper involvement in a failed real estate venture associated with the Whitewater Development Corporation in Arkansas in the 1970s and 1980s. Kenneth Starr, a former federal appeals court judge, was appointed to investigate the matter in August 1994. While Starr was never able to prove any wrongdoing, he soon turned up other allegations and his investigative authority was expanded. In May 1994, Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill Clinton. Starr’s office began to investigate this case as well. When a federal court dismissed Jones’s suit in 1998, her lawyers promptly appealed the decision and submitted a list of other alleged victims of Clinton’s harassment. That list included the name of Monica Lewinsky, a young White House intern. Both Lewinsky and Clinton denied under oath that they had had a sexual relationship. The evidence, however, indicated otherwise, and Starr began to investigate the possibility that Clinton had committed perjury. Again, Clinton denied any relationship and even went on national television to assure the American people that he had never had sexual relations with Lewinsky. However, after receiving a promise of immunity, Lewinsky turned over to Starr evidence of her affair with Clinton, and the president admitted he had indeed had inappropriate relations with her. He nevertheless denied that he had lied under oath. In September, Starr reported to the House of Representatives that he believed Clinton had committed perjury. Voting along partisan lines, the Republican-dominated House of Representatives sent articles of impeachment to the Senate, charging Clinton with lying under oath and obstructing justice. In February 1998, the Senate voted forty-five to fifty-five on the perjury charge and fifty-fifty on obstruction of justice (Figure). Although acquitted, Clinton did become the first president to be found in contempt of court. Nevertheless, although he lost his law license, he remained a popular president and left office at the end of his second term with an approval rating of 66 percent, the highest of any U.S. president. THE ELECTION OF 2000 Despite Clinton’s high approval rating, his vice president and the 2000 Democratic nominee for president, Al Gore, was eager to distance himself from scandal. Unfortunately, he also alienated Clinton loyalists and lost some of the benefit of Clinton’s genuine popularity. Gore’s desire to emphasize his concern for morality led him to select Connecticut senator Joseph I. Lieberman as his running mate. Lieberman had been quick to denounce Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader ran as the candidate of the Green Party, a party devoted to environmental issues and grassroots activism, and Democrats feared that he would attract votes that Gore might otherwise win. On the Republican side, where strategists promised to “restore honor and dignity” to the White House, voters were divided between George W. Bush, governor of Texas and eldest son of former president Bush, and John McCain, an Arizona senator and Vietnam War veteran. Bush had the robust support of both the Christian Right and the Republican leadership. His campaign amassed large donations that it used to defeat McCain, himself an outspoken critic of the influence of money in politics. The nomination secured, Bush selected Dick Cheney, part of the Nixon and Ford administrations and secretary of defense under George H. W. Bush, as his running mate. One hundred million votes were cast in the 2000 election, and Gore topped Bush in the popular vote by 540,000 ballots, or 0.5 percent. The race was so close that news reports declared each candidate the winner at various times during the evening. It all came down to Florida, where early returns called the election in Bush’s favor by a mere 527 of 5,825,000 votes. Whoever won Florida would get the state’s twenty-five electoral votes and secure the presidency (Figure). Because there seemed to be irregularities in four counties traditionally dominated by Democrats, especially in largely African American precincts, Gore called for a recount of the ballots by hand. Florida’s secretary of state, Katherine Harris, set a deadline for the new vote tallies to be submitted, a deadline the counties could not meet. When the Democrats requested an extension, the Florida Supreme Court granted it, but Harris refused to accept the new tallies unless the counties could explain why they had not met the original deadline. When the explanations were submitted, they were rejected. Gore then asked the Florida Supreme Court for an injunction that would prevent Harris from declaring a winner until the recount was finished. On November 26, Harris declared Bush the winner in Florida. Gore protested that not all votes had been recounted by hand. When the Florida Supreme Court ordered the recount to continue, the Republicans appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided 5–4 to stop the recount. Bush received Florida’s electoral votes and, with a total of 271 votes in the Electoral College to Gore’s 266, became the forty-third president of the United States. Section Summary Bill Clinton’s presidency and efforts at remaking the Democratic Party reflect the long-term effects of the Reagan Revolution that preceded him. Reagan benefited from a resurgent conservatism that moved the American political spectrum several degrees to the right. Clinton managed to remake the Democratic Party in ways that effectively institutionalized some of the major tenets of the so-called Reagan Revolution. A “New Democrat,” he moved the party significantly to the moderate center and supported the Republican call for law and order, and welfare reform—all while maintaining traditional Democratic commitments to minorities, women, and the disadvantaged, and using the government to stimulate economic growth. Nevertheless, Clinton’s legacy was undermined by the shift in the control of Congress to the Republican Party and the loss by his vice president Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. Review Questions Bill Clinton helped create a large free market among Canada, the United States, and Mexico with ratification of the ________ treaty. - NAFTA - NATO - Organization of American States - Alliance for Progress Hint: A The key state in the 2000 election where the U.S. Supreme Court stopped a recount of votes was ________. - Florida - Texas - Georgia - Virginia Hint: A What were some of the foreign policy successes of the Clinton administration? Hint: Clinton helped to arrange peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and between Israel and Jordan. During his administration, the United States participated in airstrikes that helped to end Serbian aggression in the region of Kosovo and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Critical Thinking Questions What were some of the long-term effects of the Reagan Revolution and the rise of conservatives? What events led to the end of the Cold War? What impact did the end of the Cold War have on American politics and foreign policy concerns? Which issues divided Americans most significantly during the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s? In what ways was Bill Clinton a traditional Democrat in the style of Kennedy and Johnson? In what ways was he a conservative, like Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush? Describe American involvement in global affairs during this period. How did American foreign policy change and evolve between 1980 and 2000, in both its focus and its approach?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.750494	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15561/overview", "title": "U.S. History, From Cold War to Culture Wars, 1980-2000", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15424/overview	Introduction Overview - Britain’s Law-and-Order Strategy and Its Consequences - The Early Years of the Revolution - War in the South - Identity during the American Revolution By the 1770s, Great Britain ruled a vast empire, with its American colonies producing useful raw materials and profitably consuming British goods. From Britain’s perspective, it was inconceivable that the colonies would wage a successful war for independence; in 1776, they appeared weak and disorganized, no match for the Empire. Yet, although the Revolutionary War did indeed drag on for eight years, in 1783, the thirteen colonies, now the United States, ultimately prevailed against the British. The Revolution succeeded because colonists from diverse economic and social backgrounds united in their opposition to Great Britain. Although thousands of colonists remained loyal to the crown and many others preferred to remain neutral, a sense of community against a common enemy prevailed among Patriots. The signing of the Declaration of Independence (Figure) exemplifies the spirit of that common cause. Representatives asserted: “That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, . . . And for the support of this Declaration, . . . we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.767264	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15424/overview", "title": "U.S. History, America's War for Independence, 1775-1783", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15425/overview	Britain’s Law-and-Order Strategy and Its Consequences Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain how Great Britain’s response to the destruction of a British shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in 1773 set the stage for the Revolution - Describe the beginnings of the American Revolution Great Britain pursued a policy of law and order when dealing with the crises in the colonies in the late 1760s and 1770s. Relations between the British and many American Patriots worsened over the decade, culminating in an unruly mob destroying a fortune in tea by dumping it into Boston Harbor in December 1773 as a protest against British tax laws. The harsh British response to this act in 1774, which included sending British troops to Boston and closing Boston Harbor, caused tensions and resentments to escalate further. The British tried to disarm the insurgents in Massachusetts by confiscating their weapons and ammunition and arresting the leaders of the patriotic movement. However, this effort faltered on April 19, when Massachusetts militias and British troops fired on each other as British troops marched to Lexington and Concord, an event immortalized by poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as the “shot heard round the world.” The American Revolution had begun. ON THE EVE OF REVOLUTION The decade from 1763 to 1774 was a difficult one for the British Empire. Although Great Britain had defeated the French in the French and Indian War, the debt from that conflict remained a stubborn and seemingly unsolvable problem for both Great Britain and the colonies. Great Britain tried various methods of raising revenue on both sides of the Atlantic to manage the enormous debt, including instituting a tax on tea and other goods sold to the colonies by British companies, but many subjects resisted these taxes. In the colonies, Patriot groups like the Sons of Liberty led boycotts of British goods and took violent measures that stymied British officials. Boston proved to be the epicenter of protest. In December 1773, a group of Patriots protested the Tea Act passed that year—which, among other provisions, gave the East India Company a monopoly on tea—by boarding British tea ships docked in Boston Harbor and dumping tea worth over $1 million (in current prices) into the water. The destruction of the tea radically escalated the crisis between Great Britain and the American colonies. When the Massachusetts Assembly refused to pay for the tea, Parliament enacted a series of laws called the Coercive Acts, which some colonists called the Intolerable Acts. Parliament designed these laws, which closed the port of Boston, limited the meetings of the colonial assembly, and disbanded all town meetings, to punish Massachusetts and bring the colony into line. However, many British Americans in other colonies were troubled and angered by Parliament’s response to Massachusetts. In September and October 1774, all the colonies except Georgia participated in the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The Congress advocated a boycott of all British goods and established the Continental Association to enforce local adherence to the boycott. The Association supplanted royal control and shaped resistance to Great Britain. Joining the Boycott Many British colonists in Virginia, as in the other colonies, disapproved of the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor. However, after the passage of the Coercive Acts, the Virginia House of Burgesses declared its solidarity with Massachusetts by encouraging Virginians to observe a day of fasting and prayer on May 24 in sympathy with the people of Boston. Almost immediately thereafter, Virginia’s colonial governor dissolved the House of Burgesses, but many of its members met again in secret on May 30 and adopted a resolution stating that “the Colony of Virginia will concur with the other Colonies in such Measures as shall be judged most effectual for the preservation of the Common Rights and Liberty of British America.” After the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Virginia’s Committee of Safety ensured that all merchants signed the non-importation agreements that the Congress had proposed. This British cartoon (Figure) shows a Virginian signing the Continental Association boycott agreement. Note the tar and feathers hanging from the gallows in the background of this image and the demeanor of the people surrounding the signer. What is the message of this engraving? Where are the sympathies of the artist? What is the meaning of the title “The Alternative of Williams-Burg?” In an effort to restore law and order in Boston, the British dispatched General Thomas Gage to the New England seaport. He arrived in Boston in May 1774 as the new royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts, accompanied by several regiments of British troops. As in 1768, the British again occupied the town. Massachusetts delegates met in a Provincial Congress and published the Suffolk Resolves, which officially rejected the Coercive Acts and called for the raising of colonial militias to take military action if needed. The Suffolk Resolves signaled the overthrow of the royal government in Massachusetts. Both the British and the rebels in New England began to prepare for conflict by turning their attention to supplies of weapons and gunpowder. General Gage stationed thirty-five hundred troops in Boston, and from there he ordered periodic raids on towns where guns and gunpowder were stockpiled, hoping to impose law and order by seizing them. As Boston became the headquarters of British military operations, many residents fled the city. Gage’s actions led to the formation of local rebel militias that were able to mobilize in a minute’s time. These minutemen, many of whom were veterans of the French and Indian War, played an important role in the war for independence. In one instance, General Gage seized munitions in Cambridge and Charlestown, but when he arrived to do the same in Salem, his troops were met by a large crowd of minutemen and had to leave empty-handed. In New Hampshire, minutemen took over Fort William and Mary and confiscated weapons and cannons there. New England readied for war. THE OUTBREAK OF FIGHTING Throughout late 1774 and into 1775, tensions in New England continued to mount. General Gage knew that a powder magazine was stored in Concord, Massachusetts, and on April 19, 1775, he ordered troops to seize these munitions. Instructions from London called for the arrest of rebel leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Hoping for secrecy, his troops left Boston under cover of darkness, but riders from Boston let the militias know of the British plans. (Paul Revere was one of these riders, but the British captured him and he never finished his ride. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow memorialized Revere in his 1860 poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” incorrectly implying that he made it all the way to Concord.) Minutemen met the British troops and skirmished with them, first at Lexington and then at Concord (Figure). The British retreated to Boston, enduring ambushes from several other militias along the way. Over four thousand militiamen took part in these skirmishes with British soldiers. Seventy-three British soldiers and forty-nine Patriots died during the British retreat to Boston. The famous confrontation is the basis for Emerson’s “Concord Hymn” (1836), which begins with the description of the “shot heard round the world.” Although propagandists on both sides pointed fingers, it remains unclear who fired that shot. After the battles of Lexington and Concord, New England fully mobilized for war. Thousands of militias from towns throughout New England marched to Boston, and soon the city was besieged by a sea of rebel forces (Figure). In May 1775, Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold led a group of rebels against Fort Ticonderoga in New York. They succeeded in capturing the fort, and cannons from Ticonderoga were brought to Massachusetts and used to bolster the Siege of Boston. In June, General Gage resolved to take Breed’s Hill and Bunker Hill, the high ground across the Charles River from Boston, a strategic site that gave the rebel militias an advantage since they could train their cannons on the British. In the Battle of Bunker Hill (Figure), on June 17, the British launched three assaults on the hills, gaining control only after the rebels ran out of ammunition. British losses were very high—over two hundred were killed and eight hundred wounded—and, despite his victory, General Gage was unable to break the colonial forces’ siege of the city. In August, King George III declared the colonies to be in a state of rebellion. Parliament and many in Great Britain agreed with their king. Meanwhile, the British forces in Boston found themselves in a terrible predicament, isolated in the city and with no control over the countryside. In the end, General George Washington, commander in chief of the Continental Army since June 15, 1775, used the Fort Ticonderoga cannons to force the evacuation of the British from Boston. Washington had positioned these cannons on the hills overlooking both the fortified positions of the British and Boston Harbor, where the British supply ships were anchored. The British could not return fire on the colonial positions because they could not elevate their cannons. They soon realized that they were in an untenable position and had to withdraw from Boston. On March 17, 1776, the British evacuated their troops to Halifax, Nova Scotia, ending the nearly year-long siege. By the time the British withdrew from Boston, fighting had broken out in other colonies as well. In May 1775, Mecklenburg County in North Carolina issued the Mecklenburg Resolves, stating that a rebellion against Great Britain had begun, that colonists did not owe any further allegiance to Great Britain, and that governing authority had now passed to the Continental Congress. The resolves also called upon the formation of militias to be under the control of the Continental Congress. Loyalists and Patriots clashed in North Carolina in February 1776 at the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge. In Virginia, the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, raised Loyalist forces to combat the rebel colonists and also tried to use the large slave population to put down the rebellion. In November 1775, he issued a decree, known as Dunmore’s Proclamation, promising freedom to slaves and indentured servants of rebels who remained loyal to the king and who pledged to fight with the Loyalists against the insurgents. Dunmore’s Proclamation exposed serious problems for both the Patriot cause and for the British. In order for the British to put down the rebellion, they needed the support of Virginia’s landowners, many of whom owned slaves. (While Patriot slaveholders in Virginia and elsewhere proclaimed they acted in defense of liberty, they kept thousands in bondage, a fact the British decided to exploit.) Although a number of slaves did join Dunmore’s side, the proclamation had the unintended effect of galvanizing Patriot resistance to Britain. From the rebels’ point of view, the British looked to deprive them of their slave property and incite a race war. Slaveholders feared a slave uprising and increased their commitment to the cause against Great Britain, calling for independence. Dunmore fled Virginia in 1776. COMMON SENSE With the events of 1775 fresh in their minds, many colonists reached the conclusion in 1776 that the time had come to secede from the Empire and declare independence. Over the past ten years, these colonists had argued that they deserved the same rights as Englishmen enjoyed in Great Britain, only to find themselves relegated to an intolerable subservient status in the Empire. The groundswell of support for their cause of independence in 1776 also owed much to the appearance of an anonymous pamphlet, first published in January 1776, entitled Common Sense. Thomas Paine, who had emigrated from England to Philadelphia in 1774, was the author. Arguably the most radical pamphlet of the revolutionary era, Common Sense made a powerful argument for independence. Paine’s pamphlet rejected the monarchy, calling King George III a “royal brute” and questioning the right of an island (England) to rule over America. In this way, Paine helped to channel colonial discontent toward the king himself and not, as had been the case, toward the British Parliament—a bold move that signaled the desire to create a new political order disavowing monarchy entirely. He argued for the creation of an American republic, a state without a king, and extolled the blessings of republicanism, a political philosophy that held that elected representatives, not a hereditary monarch, should govern states. The vision of an American republic put forward by Paine included the idea of popular sovereignty: citizens in the republic would determine who would represent them, and decide other issues, on the basis of majority rule. Republicanism also served as a social philosophy guiding the conduct of the Patriots in their struggle against the British Empire. It demanded adherence to a code of virtue, placing the public good and community above narrow self-interest. Paine wrote Common Sense (Figure) in simple, direct language aimed at ordinary people, not just the learned elite. The pamphlet proved immensely popular and was soon available in all thirteen colonies, where it helped convince many to reject monarchy and the British Empire in favor of independence and a republican form of government. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE In the summer of 1776, the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and agreed to sever ties with Great Britain. Virginian Thomas Jefferson and John Adams of Massachusetts, with the support of the Congress, articulated the justification for liberty in the Declaration of Independence (Figure). The Declaration, written primarily by Jefferson, included a long list of grievances against King George III and laid out the foundation of American government as a republic in which the consent of the governed would be of paramount importance. The preamble to the Declaration began with a statement of Enlightenment principles about universal human rights and values: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it.” In addition to this statement of principles, the document served another purpose: Patriot leaders sent copies to France and Spain in hopes of winning their support and aid in the contest against Great Britain. They understood how important foreign recognition and aid would be to the creation of a new and independent nation. The Declaration of Independence has since had a global impact, serving as the basis for many subsequent movements to gain independence from other colonial powers. It is part of America’s civil religion, and thousands of people each year make pilgrimages to see the original document in Washington, DC. The Declaration also reveals a fundamental contradiction of the American Revolution: the conflict between the existence of slavery and the idea that “all men are created equal.” One-fifth of the population in 1776 was enslaved, and at the time he drafted the Declaration, Jefferson himself owned more than one hundred slaves. Further, the Declaration framed equality as existing only among white men; women and nonwhites were entirely left out of a document that referred to native peoples as “merciless Indian savages” who indiscriminately killed men, women, and children. Nonetheless, the promise of equality for all planted the seeds for future struggles waged by slaves, women, and many others to bring about its full realization. Much of American history is the story of the slow realization of the promise of equality expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Visit Digital History to view “The Female Combatants.” In this 1776 engraving by an anonymous artist, Great Britain is depicted on the left as a staid, stern matron, while America, on the right, is shown as a half-dressed American Indian. Why do you think the artist depicted the two opposing sides this way? Section Summary Until Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774, most colonists still thought of themselves as proud subjects of the strong British Empire. However, the Coercive (or Intolerable) Acts, which Parliament enacted to punish Massachusetts for failing to pay for the destruction of the tea, convinced many colonists that Great Britain was indeed threatening to stifle their liberty. In Massachusetts and other New England colonies, militias like the minutemen prepared for war by stockpiling weapons and ammunition. After the first loss of life at the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, skirmishes continued throughout the colonies. When Congress met in Philadelphia in July 1776, its members signed the Declaration of Independence, officially breaking ties with Great Britain and declaring their intention to be self-governing. Review Questions How did British General Thomas Gage attempt to deal with the uprising in Massachusetts in 1774? - He offered the rebels land on the Maine frontier in return for loyalty to England. - He allowed for town meetings in an attempt to appease the rebels. - He attempted to seize arms and munitions from the colonial insurgents. - He ordered his troops to burn Boston to the ground to show the determination of Britain. Hint: C Which of the following was not a result of Dunmore’s Proclamation? - Slaves joined Dunmore to fight for the British. - A majority of slaves in the colonies won their freedom. - Patriot forces increased their commitment to independence. - Both slaveholding and non-slaveholding whites feared a slave rebellion. Hint: B Which of the following is not true of a republic? - A republic has no hereditary ruling class. - A republic relies on the principle of popular sovereignty. - Representatives chosen by the people lead the republic. - A republic is governed by a monarch and the royal officials he or she appoints. Hint: D What are the main arguments that Thomas Paine makes in his pamphlet Common Sense? Why was this pamphlet so popular? Hint: In Common Sense, Paine rejects the monarchy, calling into question both the right of any king to rule any people and Great Britain’s right to rule America. He argues for the creation of an American republic and the adoption of a philosophy of republicanism, which would extend to both the structure of the government—composed of representatives, rather than a monarch—and the conduct of the Patriots, who must place the public good and community above their own self-interest. Paine wrote his pamphlet simply, appealing to the “common sense” of ordinary citizens, which helped to increase its popularity.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.798096	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15425/overview", "title": "U.S. History, America's War for Independence, 1775-1783", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15426/overview	The Early Years of the Revolution Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain the British and American strategies of 1776 through 1778 - Identify the key battles of the early years of the Revolution After the British quit Boston, they slowly adopted a strategy to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies and force the insurgents in that region into submission, believing that doing so would end the conflict. At first, British forces focused on taking the principal colonial centers. They began by easily capturing New York City in 1776. The following year, they took over the American capital of Philadelphia. The larger British effort to isolate New England was implemented in 1777. That effort ultimately failed when the British surrendered a force of over five thousand to the Americans in the fall of 1777 at the Battle of Saratoga. The major campaigns over the next several years took place in the middle colonies of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, whose populations were sharply divided between Loyalists and Patriots. Revolutionaries faced many hardships as British superiority on the battlefield became evident and the difficulty of funding the war caused strains. THE BRITISH STRATEGY IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES After evacuating Boston in March 1776, British forces sailed to Nova Scotia to regroup. They devised a strategy, successfully implemented in 1776, to take New York City. The following year, they planned to end the rebellion by cutting New England off from the rest of the colonies and starving it into submission. Three British armies were to move simultaneously from New York City, Montreal, and Fort Oswego to converge along the Hudson River; British control of that natural boundary would isolate New England. General William Howe (Figure), commander in chief of the British forces in America, amassed thirty-two thousand troops on Staten Island in June and July 1776. His brother, Admiral Richard Howe, controlled New York Harbor. Command of New York City and the Hudson River was their goal. In August 1776, General Howe landed his forces on Long Island and easily routed the American Continental Army there in the Battle of Long Island (August 27). The Americans were outnumbered and lacked both military experience and discipline. Sensing victory, General and Admiral Howe arranged a peace conference in September 1776, where Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and South Carolinian John Rutledge represented the Continental Congress. Despite the Howes’ hopes, however, the Americans demanded recognition of their independence, which the Howes were not authorized to grant, and the conference disbanded. On September 16, 1776, George Washington’s forces held up against the British at the Battle of Harlem Heights. This important American military achievement, a key reversal after the disaster on Long Island, occurred as most of Washington’s forces retreated to New Jersey. A few weeks later, on October 28, General Howe’s forces defeated Washington’s at the Battle of White Plains and New York City fell to the British. For the next seven years, the British made the city the headquarters for their military efforts to defeat the rebellion, which included raids on surrounding areas. In 1777, the British burned Danbury, Connecticut, and in July 1779, they set fire to homes in Fairfield and Norwalk. They held American prisoners aboard ships in the waters around New York City; the death toll was shocking, with thousands perishing in the holds. Meanwhile, New York City served as a haven for Loyalists who disagreed with the effort to break away from the Empire and establish an American republic. GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE CONTINENTAL ARMY When the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in May 1775, members approved the creation of a professional Continental Army with Washington as commander in chief (Figure). Although sixteen thousand volunteers enlisted, it took several years for the Continental Army to become a truly professional force. In 1775 and 1776, militias still composed the bulk of the Patriots’ armed forces, and these soldiers returned home after the summer fighting season, drastically reducing the army’s strength. That changed in late 1776 and early 1777, when Washington broke with conventional eighteenth-century military tactics that called for fighting in the summer months only. Intent on raising revolutionary morale after the British captured New York City, he launched surprise strikes against British forces in their winter quarters. In Trenton, New Jersey, he led his soldiers across the Delaware River and surprised an encampment of Hessians, German mercenaries hired by Great Britain to put down the American rebellion. Beginning the night of December 25, 1776, and continuing into the early hours of December 26, Washington moved on Trenton where the Hessians were encamped. Maintaining the element of surprise by attacking at Christmastime, he defeated them, taking over nine hundred captive. On January 3, 1777, Washington achieved another much-needed victory at the Battle of Princeton. He again broke with eighteenth-century military protocol by attacking unexpectedly after the fighting season had ended. Thomas Paine on “The American Crisis” During the American Revolution, following the publication of Common Sense in January 1776, Thomas Paine began a series of sixteen pamphlets known collectively as The American Crisis (Figure). He wrote the first volume in 1776, describing the dire situation facing the revolutionaries at the end of that hard year. These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. . . . Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to tax) but “to bind us in all cases whatsoever,” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God. . . . I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous remarks on the state of our affairs; and shall begin with asking the following question, Why is it that the enemy have left the New England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war? The answer is easy: New England is not infested with Tories, and we are. I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless arguments to show them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness. The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. . . . By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils—a ravaged country—a depopulated city—habitations without safety, and slavery without hope—our homes turned into barracks and bawdy-houses for Hessians, and a future race to provide for, whose fathers we shall doubt of. Look on this picture and weep over it! and if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented. —Thomas Paine, “The American Crisis,” December 23, 1776 What topics does Paine address in this pamphlet? What was his purpose in writing? What does he write about Tories (Loyalists), and why does he consider them a problem? Visit Wikisource to read the rest of Thomas Paine’s first American Crisis pamphlet, as well as the other fifteen in the series. PHILADELPHIA AND SARATOGA: BRITISH AND AMERICAN VICTORIES In August 1777, General Howe brought fifteen thousand British troops to Chesapeake Bay as part of his plan to take Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress met. That fall, the British defeated Washington’s soldiers in the Battle of Brandywine Creek and took control of Philadelphia, forcing the Continental Congress to flee. During the winter of 1777–1778, the British occupied the city, and Washington’s army camped at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Washington’s winter at Valley Forge was a low point for the American forces. A lack of supplies weakened the men, and disease took a heavy toll. Amid the cold, hunger, and sickness, soldiers deserted in droves. On February 16, Washington wrote to George Clinton, governor of New York: “For some days past, there has been little less than a famine in camp. A part of the army has been a week without any kind of flesh & the rest three or four days. Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not been ere [before] this excited by their sufferings to a general mutiny and dispersion.” Of eleven thousand soldiers encamped at Valley Forge, twenty-five hundred died of starvation, malnutrition, and disease. As Washington feared, nearly one hundred soldiers deserted every week. (Desertions continued, and by 1780, Washington was executing recaptured deserters every Saturday.) The low morale extended all the way to Congress, where some wanted to replace Washington with a more seasoned leader. Assistance came to Washington and his soldiers in February 1778 in the form of the Prussian soldier Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (Figure). Baron von Steuben was an experienced military man, and he implemented a thorough training course for Washington’s ragtag troops. By drilling a small corps of soldiers and then having them train others, he finally transformed the Continental Army into a force capable of standing up to the professional British and Hessian soldiers. His drill manual—Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States—informed military practices in the United States for the next several decades. Explore Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben’s Revolutionary War Drill Manual to understand how von Steuben was able to transform the Continental Army into a professional fighting force. Note the tremendous amount of precision and detail in von Steuben’s descriptions. Meanwhile, the campaign to sever New England from the rest of the colonies had taken an unexpected turn during the fall of 1777. The British had attempted to implement the plan, drawn up by Lord George Germain and Prime Minister Lord North, to isolate New England with the combined forces of three armies. One army, led by General John Burgoyne, would march south from Montreal. A second force, led by Colonel Barry St. Leger and made up of British troops and Iroquois, would march east from Fort Oswego on the banks of Lake Ontario. A third force, led by General Sir Henry Clinton, would march north from New York City. The armies would converge at Albany and effectively cut the rebellion in two by isolating New England. This northern campaign fell victim to competing strategies, however, as General Howe had meanwhile decided to take Philadelphia. His decision to capture that city siphoned off troops that would have been vital to the overall success of the campaign in 1777. The British plan to isolate New England ended in disaster. St. Leger’s efforts to bring his force of British regulars, Loyalist fighters, and Iroquois allies east to link up with General Burgoyne failed, and he retreated to Quebec. Burgoyne’s forces encountered ever-stiffer resistance as he made his way south from Montreal, down Lake Champlain and the upper Hudson River corridor. Although they did capture Fort Ticonderoga when American forces retreated, Burgoyne’s army found themselves surrounded by a sea of colonial militias in Saratoga, New York. In the meantime, the small British force under Clinton that left New York City to aid Burgoyne advanced slowly up the Hudson River, failing to provide the much-needed support for the troops at Saratoga. On October 17, 1777, Burgoyne surrendered his five thousand soldiers to the Continental Army (Figure). The American victory at the Battle of Saratoga was the major turning point in the war. This victory convinced the French to recognize American independence and form a military alliance with the new nation, which changed the course of the war by opening the door to badly needed military support from France. Still smarting from their defeat by Britain in the Seven Years’ War, the French supplied the United States with gunpowder and money, as well as soldiers and naval forces that proved decisive in the defeat of Great Britain. The French also contributed military leaders, including the Marquis de Lafayette, who arrived in America in 1777 as a volunteer and served as Washington’s aide-de-camp. The war quickly became more difficult for the British, who had to fight the rebels in North America as well as the French in the Caribbean. Following France’s lead, Spain joined the war against Great Britain in 1779, though it did not recognize American independence until 1783. The Dutch Republic also began to support the American revolutionaries and signed a treaty of commerce with the United States in 1782. Great Britain’s effort to isolate New England in 1777 failed. In June 1778, the occupying British force in Philadelphia evacuated and returned to New York City in order to better defend that city, and the British then turned their attention to the southern colonies. Section Summary The British successfully implemented the first part of their strategy to isolate New England when they took New York City in the fall of 1776. For the next seven years, they used New York as a base of operations, expanding their control to Philadelphia in the winter of 1777. After suffering through a terrible winter in 1777–1778 in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, American forces were revived with help from Baron von Steuben, a Prussian military officer who helped transform the Continental Army into a professional fighting force. The effort to cut off New England from the rest of the colonies failed with the General Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga in October 1777. After Saratoga, the struggle for independence gained a powerful ally when France agreed to recognize the United States as a new nation and began to send much-needed military support. The entrance of France—Britain’s archrival in the contest of global empire—into the American fight helped to turn the tide of the war in favor of the revolutionaries. Review Questions Which city served as the base for British operations for most of the war? - Boston - New York - Philadelphia - Saratoga Hint: B What battle turned the tide of war in favor of the Americans? - the Battle of Saratoga - the Battle of Brandywine Creek - the Battle of White Plains - the Battle of Valley Forge Hint: A Which term describes German soldiers hired by Great Britain to put down the American rebellion? - Patriots - Royalists - Hessians - Loyalists Hint: C Describe the British strategy in the early years of the war and explain whether or not it succeeded. Hint: The British strategy in the period from 1776 to 1778 was to isolate the New England colonies, where the rebellion was concentrated. They succeeded in the beginning by taking first New York and then Philadelphia. However, they stalled there, and after the British defeat at Saratoga, they were not able to complete their plan to isolate New England. How did George Washington’s military tactics help him to achieve success? Hint: In the eighteenth century, militaries typically fought only in the summer months. On December 25 and 26, 1776, Washington triumphed over the Hessians encamped at Trenton by surprising them as they celebrated Christmas. Shortly thereafter, he used this same tactic to achieve victory at the Battle of Princeton.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.829247	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15426/overview", "title": "U.S. History, America's War for Independence, 1775-1783", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15427/overview	War in the South Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Outline the British southern strategy and its results - Describe key American victories and the end of the war - Identify the main terms of the Treaty of Paris (1783) By 1778, the war had turned into a stalemate. Although some in Britain, including Prime Minister Lord North, wanted peace, King George III demanded that the colonies be brought to obedience. To break the deadlock, the British revised their strategy and turned their attention to the southern colonies, where they could expect more support from Loyalists. The southern colonies soon became the center of the fighting. The southern strategy brought the British success at first, but thanks to the leadership of George Washington and General Nathanael Greene and the crucial assistance of French forces, the Continental Army defeated the British at Yorktown, effectively ending further large-scale operations during the war. GEORGIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA The British architect of the war strategy, Lord George Germain, believed Britain would gain the upper hand with the support of Loyalists, slaves, and Indian allies in the South, and indeed, this southern strategy initially achieved great success. The British began their southern campaign by capturing Savannah, the capital of Georgia, in December 1778. In Georgia, they found support from thousands of slaves who ran to the British side to escape their bondage. As the British regained political control in Georgia, they forced the inhabitants to swear allegiance to the king and formed twenty Loyalist regiments. The Continental Congress had suggested that slaves be given freedom if they joined the Patriot army against the British, but revolutionaries in Georgia and South Carolina refused to consider this proposal. Once again, the Revolution served to further divisions over race and slavery. After taking Georgia, the British turned their attention to South Carolina. Before the Revolution, South Carolina had been starkly divided between the backcountry, which harbored revolutionary partisans, and the coastal regions, where Loyalists remained a powerful force. Waves of violence rocked the backcountry from the late 1770s into the early 1780s. The Revolution provided an opportunity for residents to fight over their local resentments and antagonisms with murderous consequences. Revenge killings and the destruction of property became mainstays in the savage civil war that gripped the South. In April 1780, a British force of eight thousand soldiers besieged American forces in Charleston (Figure). After six weeks of the Siege of Charleston, the British triumphed. General Benjamin Lincoln, who led the effort for the revolutionaries, had to surrender his entire force, the largest American loss during the entire war. Many of the defeated Americans were placed in jails or in British prison ships anchored in Charleston Harbor. The British established a military government in Charleston under the command of General Sir Henry Clinton. From this base, Clinton ordered General Charles Cornwallis to subdue the rest of South Carolina. The disaster at Charleston led the Continental Congress to change leadership by placing General Horatio Gates in charge of American forces in the South. However, General Gates fared no better than General Lincoln; at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina, in August 1780, Cornwallis forced General Gates to retreat into North Carolina. Camden was one of the worst disasters suffered by American armies during the entire Revolutionary War. Congress again changed military leadership, this time by placing General Nathanael Greene (Figure) in command in December 1780. As the British had hoped, large numbers of Loyalists helped ensure the success of the southern strategy, and thousands of slaves seeking freedom arrived to aid Cornwallis’s army. However, the war turned in the Americans’ favor in 1781. General Greene realized that to defeat Cornwallis, he did not have to win a single battle. So long as he remained in the field, he could continue to destroy isolated British forces. Greene therefore made a strategic decision to divide his own troops to wage war—and the strategy worked. American forces under General Daniel Morgan decisively beat the British at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina. General Cornwallis now abandoned his strategy of defeating the backcountry rebels in South Carolina. Determined to destroy Greene’s army, he gave chase as Greene strategically retreated north into North Carolina. At the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781, the British prevailed on the battlefield but suffered extensive losses, an outcome that paralleled the Battle of Bunker Hill nearly six years earlier in June 1775. YORKTOWN In the summer of 1781, Cornwallis moved his army to Yorktown, Virginia. He expected the Royal Navy to transport his army to New York, where he thought he would join General Sir Henry Clinton. Yorktown was a tobacco port on a peninsula, and Cornwallis believed the British navy would be able to keep the coast clear of rebel ships. Sensing an opportunity, a combined French and American force of sixteen thousand men swarmed the peninsula in September 1781. Washington raced south with his forces, now a disciplined army, as did the Marquis de Lafayette and the Comte de Rochambeau with their French troops. The French Admiral de Grasse sailed his naval force into Chesapeake Bay, preventing Lord Cornwallis from taking a seaward escape route. In October 1781, the American forces began the battle for Yorktown, and after a siege that lasted eight days, Lord Cornwallis capitulated on October 19 (Figure). Tradition says that during the surrender of his troops, the British band played “The World Turned Upside Down,” a song that befitted the Empire’s unexpected reversal of fortune. “The World Turned Upside Down” “The World Turned Upside Down,” reputedly played during the surrender of the British at Yorktown, was a traditional English ballad from the seventeenth century. It was also the theme of a popular British print that circulated in the 1790s (Figure). Why do you think these images were popular in Great Britain in the decade following the Revolutionary War? What would these images imply to Americans? Visit the Public Domain Review to explore the images in an eighteenth-century British chapbook (a pamphlet for tracts or ballads) titled “The World Turned Upside Down.” The chapbook is illustrated with woodcuts similar to those in the popular print mentioned above. THE TREATY OF PARIS The British defeat at Yorktown made the outcome of the war all but certain. In light of the American victory, the Parliament of Great Britain voted to end further military operations against the rebels and to begin peace negotiations. Support for the war effort had come to an end, and British military forces began to evacuate the former American colonies in 1782. When hostilities had ended, Washington resigned as commander in chief and returned to his Virginia home. In April 1782, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay had begun informal peace negotiations in Paris. Officials from Great Britain and the United States finalized the treaty in 1783, signing the Treaty of Paris (Figure) in September of that year. The treaty recognized the independence of the United States; placed the western, eastern, northern, and southern boundaries of the nation at the Mississippi River, the Atlantic Ocean, Canada, and Florida, respectively; and gave New Englanders fishing rights in the waters off Newfoundland. Under the terms of the treaty, individual states were encouraged to refrain from persecuting Loyalists and to return their confiscated property. Section Summary The British gained momentum in the war when they turned their military efforts against the southern colonies. They scored repeated victories in the coastal towns, where they found legions of supporters, including slaves escaping bondage. As in other colonies, however, control of major seaports did not mean the British could control the interior. Fighting in the southern colonies devolved into a merciless civil war as the Revolution opened the floodgates of pent-up anger and resentment between frontier residents and those along the coastal regions. The southern campaign came to an end at Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered to American forces. Review Questions Which American general is responsible for improving the American military position in the South? - John Burgoyne - Nathanael Greene - Wilhelm Frederick von Steuben - Charles Cornwallis Hint: B Describe the British southern strategy and its results. Hint: The British southern strategy was to move the military theater to the southern colonies where there were more Loyalist colonists. Slaves and Indian allies, the British hoped, would also swell their ranks. This strategy worked at first, allowing the British to take Charleston. However, British fortunes changed after Nathanael Greene took command of the southern Continental Army and scored decisive victories at the battles of Cowpens and Guilford. This set the stage for the final American victory at Yorktown, Virginia. The southern strategy had failed.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.853749	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15427/overview", "title": "U.S. History, America's War for Independence, 1775-1783", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15428/overview	Identity during the American Revolution Overview By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain Loyalist and Patriot sentiments - Identify different groups that participated in the Revolutionary War The American Revolution in effect created multiple civil wars. Many of the resentments and antagonisms that fed these conflicts predated the Revolution, and the outbreak of war acted as the catalyst they needed to burst forth. In particular, the middle colonies of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania had deeply divided populations. Loyalty to Great Britain came in many forms, from wealthy elites who enjoyed the prewar status quo to runaway slaves who desired the freedom that the British offered. LOYALISTS Historians disagree on what percentage of colonists were Loyalists; estimates range from 20 percent to over 30 percent. In general, however, of British America’s population of 2.5 million, roughly one-third remained loyal to Great Britain, while another third committed themselves to the cause of independence. The remaining third remained apathetic, content to continue with their daily lives as best they could and preferring not to engage in the struggle. Many Loyalists were royal officials and merchants with extensive business ties to Great Britain, who viewed themselves as the rightful and just defenders of the British constitution. Others simply resented local business and political rivals who supported the Revolution, viewing the rebels as hypocrites and schemers who selfishly used the break with the Empire to increase their fortunes. In New York’s Hudson Valley, animosity among the tenants of estates owned by Revolutionary leaders turned them to the cause of King and Empire. During the war, all the states passed confiscation acts, which gave the new revolutionary governments in the former colonies the right to seize Loyalist land and property. To ferret out Loyalists, revolutionary governments also passed laws requiring the male population to take oaths of allegiance to the new states. Those who refused lost their property and were often imprisoned or made to work for the new local revolutionary order. William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s only surviving son, remained loyal to Crown and Empire and served as royal governor of New Jersey, a post he secured with his father’s help. During the war, revolutionaries imprisoned William in Connecticut; however, he remained steadfast in his allegiance to Great Britain and moved to England after the Revolution. He and his father never reconciled. As many as nineteen thousand colonists served the British in the effort to put down the rebellion, and after the Revolution, as many as 100,000 colonists left, moving to England or north to Canada rather than staying in the new United States (Figure). Eight thousand whites and five thousand free blacks went to Britain. Over thirty thousand went to Canada, transforming that nation from predominately French to predominantly British. Another sizable group of Loyalists went to the British West Indies, taking their slaves with them. Hannah Ingraham on Removing to Nova Scotia Hannah Ingraham was eleven years old in 1783, when her Loyalist family removed from New York to Ste. Anne’s Point in the colony of Nova Scotia. Later in life, she compiled her memories of that time. [Father] said we were to go to Nova Scotia, that a ship was ready to take us there, so we made all haste to get ready. . . . Then on Tuesday, suddenly the house was surrounded by rebels and father was taken prisoner and carried away. . . . When morning came, they said he was free to go. We had five wagon loads carried down the Hudson in a sloop and then we went on board the transport that was to bring us to Saint John. I was just eleven years old when we left our farm to come here. It was the last transport of the season and had on board all those who could not come sooner. The first transports had come in May so the people had all the summer before them to get settled. . . . We lived in a tent at St. Anne’s until father got a house ready. . . . There was no floor laid, no windows, no chimney, no door, but we had a roof at least. A good fire was blazing and mother had a big loaf of bread and she boiled a kettle of water and put a good piece of butter in a pewter bowl. We toasted the bread and all sat around the bowl and ate our breakfast that morning and mother said: “Thank God we are no longer in dread of having shots fired through our house. This is the sweetest meal I ever tasted for many a day.” What do these excerpts tell you about life as a Loyalist in New York or as a transplant to Canada? SLAVES AND INDIANS While some slaves who fought for the Patriot cause received their freedom, revolutionary leaders—unlike the British—did not grant such slaves their freedom as a matter of course. Washington, the owner of more than two hundred slaves during the Revolution, refused to let slaves serve in the army, although he did allow free blacks. (In his will, Washington did free his slaves.) In the new United States, the Revolution largely reinforced a racial identity based on skin color. Whiteness, now a national identity, denoted freedom and stood as the key to power. Blackness, more than ever before, denoted servile status. Indeed, despite their class and ethnic differences, white revolutionaries stood mostly united in their hostility to both blacks and Indians. Boyrereau Brinch and Boston King on the Revolutionary War In the Revolutionary War, some blacks, both free and enslaved, chose to fight for the Americans (Figure). Others chose to fight for the British, who offered them freedom for joining their cause. Read the excerpts below for the perspective of a black veteran from each side of the conflict. Boyrereau Brinch was captured in Africa at age sixteen and brought to America as a slave. He joined the Patriot forces and was honorably discharged and emancipated after the war. He told his story to Benjamin Prentiss, who published it as The Blind African Slave in 1810. Finally, I was in the battles at Cambridge, White Plains, Monmouth, Princeton, Newark, Frog’s Point, Horseneck where I had a ball pass through my knapsack. All which battels [sic] the reader can obtain a more perfect account of in history, than I can give. At last we returned to West Point and were discharged [1783], as the war was over. Thus was I, a slave for five years fighting for liberty. After we were disbanded, I returned to my old master at Woodbury [Connecticut], with whom I lived one year, my services in the American war, having emancipated me from further slavery, and from being bartered or sold. . . . Here I enjoyed the pleasures of a freeman; my food was sweet, my labor pleasure: and one bright gleam of life seemed to shine upon me. Boston King was a Charleston-born slave who escaped his master and joined the Loyalists. He made his way to Nova Scotia and later Sierra Leone, where he published his memoirs in 1792. The excerpt below describes his experience in New York after the war. When I arrived at New-York, my friends rejoiced to see me once more restored to liberty, and joined me in praising the Lord for his mercy and goodness. . . . [In 1783] the horrors and devastation of war happily terminated, and peace was restored between America and Great Britain, which diffused universal joy among all parties, except us, who had escaped from slavery and taken refuge in the English army; for a report prevailed at New-York, that all the slaves, in number 2000, were to be delivered up to their masters, altho’ some of them had been three or four years among the English. This dreadful rumour filled us all with inexpressible anguish and terror, especially when we saw our old masters coming from Virginia, North-Carolina, and other parts, and seizing upon their slaves in the streets of New-York, or even dragging them out of their beds. Many of the slaves had very cruel masters, so that the thoughts of returning home with them embittered life to us. For some days we lost our appetite for food, and sleep departed from our eyes. The English had compassion upon us in the day of distress, and issued out a Proclamation, importing, That all slaves should be free, who had taken refuge in the British lines, and claimed the sanction and privileges of the Proclamations respecting the security and protection of Negroes. In consequence of this, each of us received a certificate from the commanding officer at New-York, which dispelled all our fears, and filled us with joy and gratitude. What do these two narratives have in common, and how are they different? How do the two men describe freedom? For slaves willing to run away and join the British, the American Revolution offered a unique occasion to escape bondage. Of the half a million slaves in the American colonies during the Revolution, twenty thousand joined the British cause. At Yorktown, for instance, thousands of black troops fought with Lord Cornwallis. Slaves belonging to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and other revolutionaries seized the opportunity for freedom and fled to the British side. Between ten and twenty thousand slaves gained their freedom because of the Revolution; arguably, the Revolution created the largest slave uprising and the greatest emancipation until the Civil War. After the Revolution, some of these African Loyalists emigrated to Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa. Others removed to Canada and England. It is also true that people of color made heroic contributions to the cause of American independence. However, while the British offered slaves freedom, most American revolutionaries clung to notions of black inferiority. Powerful Indian peoples who had allied themselves with the British, including the Mohawk and the Creek, also remained loyal to the Empire. A Mohawk named Joseph Brant, whose given name was Thayendanegea (Figure), rose to prominence while fighting for the British during the Revolution. He joined forces with Colonel Barry St. Leger during the 1777 campaign, which ended with the surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga. After the war, Brant moved to the Six Nations reserve in Canada. From his home on the shores of Lake Ontario, he remained active in efforts to restrict white encroachment onto Indian lands. After their defeat, the British did not keep promises they’d made to help their Indian allies keep their territory; in fact, the Treaty of Paris granted the United States huge amounts of supposedly British-owned regions that were actually Indian lands. PATRIOTS The American revolutionaries (also called Patriots or Whigs) came from many different backgrounds and included merchants, shoemakers, farmers, and sailors. What is extraordinary is the way in which the struggle for independence brought a vast cross-section of society together, animated by a common cause. During the war, the revolutionaries faced great difficulties, including massive supply problems; clothing, ammunition, tents, and equipment were all hard to come by. After an initial burst of enthusiasm in 1775 and 1776, the shortage of supplies became acute in 1777 through 1779, as Washington’s difficult winter at Valley Forge demonstrates. Funding the war effort also proved very difficult. Whereas the British could pay in gold and silver, the American forces relied on paper money, backed by loans obtained in Europe. This first American money was called Continental currency; unfortunately, it quickly fell in value. “Not worth a Continental” soon became a shorthand term for something of no value. The new revolutionary government printed a great amount of this paper money, resulting in runaway inflation. By 1781, inflation was such that 146 Continental dollars were worth only one dollar in gold. The problem grew worse as each former colony, now a revolutionary state, printed its own currency. WOMEN In colonial America, women shouldered enormous domestic and child-rearing responsibilities. The war for independence only increased their workload and, in some ways, solidified their roles. Rebel leaders required women to produce articles for war—everything from clothing to foodstuffs—while also keeping their homesteads going. This was not an easy task when their husbands and sons were away fighting. Women were also expected to provide food and lodging for armies and to nurse wounded soldiers. The Revolution opened some new doors for women, however, as they took on public roles usually reserved for men. The Daughters of Liberty, an informal organization formed in the mid-1760s to oppose British revenue-raising measures, worked tirelessly to support the war effort. Esther DeBerdt Reed of Philadelphia, wife of Governor Joseph Reed, formed the Ladies Association of Philadelphia and led a fundraising drive to provide sorely needed supplies to the Continental Army. In “The Sentiments of an American Woman” (1780), she wrote to other women, “The time is arrived to display the same sentiments which animated us at the beginning of the Revolution, when we renounced the use of teas, however agreeable to our taste, rather than receive them from our persecutors; when we made it appear to them that we placed former necessaries in the rank of superfluities, when our liberty was interested; when our republican and laborious hands spun the flax, prepared the linen intended for the use of our soldiers; when exiles and fugitives we supported with courage all the evils which are the concomitants of war.” Reed and other elite women in Philadelphia raised almost $300,000 in Continental money for the war. Read the entire text of Esther Reed’s “The Sentiments of an American Woman” on a page hosted by the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Women who did not share Reed’s elite status nevertheless played key economic roles by producing homespun cloth and food. During shortages, some women formed mobs and wrested supplies from those who hoarded them. Crowds of women beset merchants and demanded fair prices for goods; if a merchant refused, a riot would ensue. Still other women accompanied the army as “camp followers,” serving as cooks, washerwomen, and nurses. A few also took part in combat and proved their equality with men through violence against the hated British. Section Summary The American Revolution divided the colonists as much as it united them, with Loyalists (or Tories) joining the British forces against the Patriots (or revolutionaries). Both sides included a broad cross-section of the population. However, Great Britain was able to convince many slaves to join its forces by promising them freedom, something the southern revolutionaries would not agree to do. The war provided new opportunities, as well as new challenges, for slaves, free blacks, women, and Indians. After the war, many Loyalists fled the American colonies, heading across the Atlantic to England, north to Canada, or south to the West Indies. Review Questions Which of the following statements best represents the division between Patriots and Loyalists? - Most American colonists were Patriots, with only a few traditionalists remaining loyal to the King and Empire. - Most American colonists were Loyalists, with only a few firebrand revolutionaries leading the charge for independence. - American colonists were divided among those who wanted independence, those who wanted to remain part of the British Empire, and those who were neutral. - The vast majority of American colonists were neutral and didn’t take a side between Loyalists and Patriots. Hint: C Which of the following is not one of the tasks women performed during the Revolution? - holding government offices - maintaining their homesteads - feeding, quartering, and nursing soldiers - raising funds for the war effort Hint: A Critical Thinking Questions How did the colonists manage to triumph in their battle for independence despite Great Britain’s military might? If any of these factors had been different, how might it have affected the outcome of the war? How did the condition of certain groups, such as women, blacks, and Indians, reveal a contradiction in the Declaration of Independence? What was the effect and importance of Great Britain’s promise of freedom to slaves who joined the British side? How did the Revolutionary War provide both new opportunities and new challenges for slaves and free blacks in America? Describe the ideology of republicanism. As a political philosophy, how did republicanism compare to the system that prevailed in Great Britain? Describe the backgrounds and philosophies of Patriots and Loyalists. Why did colonists with such diverse individual interests unite in support of their respective causes? What might different groups of Patriots and Loyalists, depending upon their circumstances, have hoped to achieve by winning the war?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.885322	null	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15428/overview", "title": "U.S. History, America's War for Independence, 1775-1783", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/79536/overview	French Level 2, Activity 13: Passé composé et l’imparfait / Discussing the Past (Online) Overview In this activity, students will be practicing l’imparfait and passé composé by playing a game of two truths and a lie. Activity Information Did you know that you can access the complete collection of Pathways Project French activities in our new Let’s Chat! French pressbook? View the book here: https://boisestate.pressbooks.pub/pathwaysfrench Please Note: Many of our activities were created by upper-division students at Boise State University and serve as a foundation that our community of practice can build upon and refine. While they are polished, we welcome and encourage collaboration from language instructors to help modify grammar, syntax, and content where needed. Kindly contact pathwaysproject@boisestate.edu with any suggestions and we will update the content in a timely manner. Discussing the Past / Passé composé et l'imparfait Description In this activity, students will be practicing l’imparfait and passé composé by playing a game of two truths and a lie. Semantic Topics Past, weekend, years, time, childhood, history, le week-end, le passé, le temps, enfance, histoire, année, l'imparfait, imperfect tense, le passé composé, past tense Products Childhood pastimes Practices Playing Perspectives As in many western cultures, children enjoy lots of free time, and play games with one another! NCSFFL-ACTFL World-Readiness Standards - Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations or correspondence in French to provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions. - Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret spoken and written French on a variety of topics. Idaho State Content Standards - COMM 1.1: Interact and negotiate meaning (spoken, signed, written conversation) to share information, reactions, feelings, and opinions. - COMM 2.1: Understand, interpret, and analyze what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics. - CLTR 1.1: Analyze the cultural practices/patterns of behavior accepted as the societal norm in the target culture. - CLTR 1.2: Explain the relationship between cultural practices/behaviors and the perspectives that represent the target culture’s view of the world. NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements - I can talk about things I did when I was younger. - I can exchange information about myself with someone. - I can express differences between one-time and ongoing activities. Materials Needed Warm Up Warm-Up 1. Begin by introducing the Can-Dos for today's activity. 2. Ask the group these questions. Make sure they are using the correct form of imperfect or passé composé. - Quand tu étais jeune…qu'est-ce que tu faisais… (When you were young...what did you do...) - après l’école ? (after school? - le week-end (la fin de semaine) ? (on the weekend?) - pendant les grandes vacances (les vacances d’été) ? (over summer break?) - avec tes ami(e)s ? (with your friend(s)?) Main Activity Main Activity 1. Tell your students, "We will be playing two truths and a lie using the imparfait et passé composé." "Nous allons jouer “deux vérités et un mensonge” en utilisant l’imparfait et le passé composé." 2. "The first time, we are going to play using the imperfect. Think of three things you can share--two truths and one lie. For example, I played baseball for 5 years...I lived in Japan when I was 10...and in high school, I was first in my class." "Le premier tour, nous allons jouer avec l’imparfait. Pensez à trois choses que vous pouvez partager-- deux vérités et un mensonge. Par exemple, je jouais au baseball lorsque j’étais enfant...j’habitais au Japon quand j’avais 10 ans...et au lycée, j'étais première de ma classe." 3. "After, we are going to share our statements with the group and guess which ones are the truth and which is the lie." "Après, nous allons partager nos phrases avec le groupe et deviner lesquelles sont vraies et lesquelles sont fausses." 4. "Then, we will do the same thing with passe compose." "Ensuite, nous ferons la même chose avec le passé composé." Wrap Up Wrap-Up Ask the following question(s) to finish the activity: - Qui a le meilleur mensonge ? (Who had the best lie?) - Étiez-vous choqué des vérités et/ou mensonges ? Lesquels ? (Were you shocked by the truths and/or lies? Which ones?) Cultural Resources Traditional French Children's Games Most Popular Books for French Kids End of Activity - Can-Do statement check-in... “Where are we?” - Read can-do statements and have students evaluate their confidence. - Encourage students to be honest in their self-evaluation - Pay attention, and try to use feedback for future activities! NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statement - I can talk about things I did when I was younger. - I can exchange information about myself with someone. - I can express differences between one-time and ongoing activities.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.953385	Camille Daw	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/79536/overview", "title": "French Level 2, Activity 13: Passé composé et l’imparfait / Discussing the Past (Online)", "author": "Mimi Fahnstrom" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/116973/overview	FAD Teaching Resource: Letter from Birmingham Jail Overview Teaching resource shared by a UNC System faculty member. Sample Teaching Resource Foundations of American Democracy Document Set Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter From Birmingham Jail” (1963) Context King's letter is a response to an open letter ("A Call for Unity") written in April 1963 by eight white clergymen from Alabama. It was similar to and a follow-up to a January letter entitled "An Appeal for Law and Order and Common Sense." In the letter, they discouraged civil rights demonstrations taking place as “unwise and untimely” and characterized King as an outside agitator. They argued that civil rights activists should follow the law and trust the courts to resolve injustices. In his response, King responded by a letter written from his jail cell in Birmingham after being arrested for marching in nonviolent protest against racism and racial segregation in violation of a court injunction against public demonstrations. In his response, he argued that it was not only a right but a responsibility for people, whether neighbors or not, to break laws and engage in civil disobedience in the face of injustice. Document 16 April 1963 My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms…. I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here. But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid. Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative. In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation… We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience…. I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured. Discussion Questions - What is the meaning of and what are the implications of the idea that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”? - How does King appeal to history in assessing his purpose and methods in bringing his campaign to Birmingham? How and why have African Americans waited “340 years for our constitutional and God given rights”? - How does King defend and justify civil disobedience, including breaking laws? How would you characterize or explain the significance of King’s work and the larger Civil Rights Movement in the history of American democracy? Additional resources - Digitized copy of the original letter from the University of Alabama Special Collections - Walker v. City of Birmingham, 388 U.S. 307 (1967) - The March That Led to MLK's Arrest and Famous Letter from the Smithsonian Channel	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:05.997420	06/18/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/116973/overview", "title": "FAD Teaching Resource: Letter from Birmingham Jail", "author": "UNC System" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/116974/overview	FAD Teaching Resource: Recommended Readings Overview Teaching resources shared by UNC System faculty members. Sample Teaching Resource Book recommendations: - The Dignity of Legislation by Jeremy Waldron is an interesting book that offers a challenging read of John Locke that is much more democratically oriented than more standard readings and therefore offers a challenging theoretical stance to most contemporary versions of Locke-based theories of the US Constitution. - The Living Thoughts of Thomas Jefferson presented by John Dewey offers a version of Jefferson's thought that is challenging to some contemporary views of Jefferson and more congenial to movements like the New Deal. - "A Constitution of Democratic Experimentalism" by Michael Dorf and Charles Sabel provides a picture of how citizenship and law could become more "civic." - "Towards a Pluralistic Constitutional Universe: Interpretation and Faction" by Brian Butler provides a version of Madisonian constitutional interpretation rooted in the Federalist Papers (69 Drake L. Rev. 723). It argues that it is important to cultivate a pluralistic view of constitutional interpretation wherein any attempt at a single "correct" view such as, for example, originalism should be seen as the attempt of a faction to tyrannize. Article Recommendations: - Payne, S. B. (1996). The Iroquois League, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. The William and Mary Quarterly, 53(3), 605–620. https://doi.org/10.2307/2947207 - Grinde, D. A. (1995). The Iroquois and the Development of American Government. Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques, 21(2), 301–318. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41299029	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.013386	06/18/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/116974/overview", "title": "FAD Teaching Resource: Recommended Readings", "author": "UNC System" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11761/overview	Ethical Concerns Overview - Understand why ethical standards exist - Demonstrate awareness of the American Sociological Association’s Code of Ethics - Define value neutrality Sociologists conduct studies to shed light on human behaviors. Knowledge is a powerful tool that can be used toward positive change. And while a sociologist’s goal is often simply to uncover knowledge rather than to spur action, many people use sociological studies to help improve people’s lives. In that sense, conducting a sociological study comes with a tremendous amount of responsibility. Like any researchers, sociologists must consider their ethical obligation to avoid harming subjects or groups while conducting their research. The American Sociological Association, or ASA, is the major professional organization of sociologists in North America. The ASA is a great resource for students of sociology as well. The ASA maintains a code of ethics—formal guidelines for conducting sociological research—consisting of principles and ethical standards to be used in the discipline. It also describes procedures for filing, investigating, and resolving complaints of unethical conduct. Practicing sociologists and sociology students have a lot to consider. Some of the guidelines state that researchers must try to be skillful and fair-minded in their work, especially as it relates to their human subjects. Researchers must obtain participants’ informed consent and inform subjects of the responsibilities and risks of research before they agree to partake. During a study, sociologists must ensure the safety of participants and immediately stop work if a subject becomes potentially endangered on any level. Researchers are required to protect the privacy of research participants whenever possible. Even if pressured by authorities, such as police or courts, researchers are not ethically allowed to release confidential information. Researchers must make results available to other sociologists, must make public all sources of financial support, and must not accept funding from any organization that might cause a conflict of interest or seek to influence the research results for its own purposes. The ASA’s ethical considerations shape not only the study but also the publication of results. Pioneer German sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) identified another crucial ethical concern. Weber understood that personal values could distort the framework for disclosing study results. While he accepted that some aspects of research design might be influenced by personal values, he declared it was entirely inappropriate to allow personal values to shape the interpretation of the responses. Sociologists, he stated, must establish value neutrality, a practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgment, during the course of a study and in publishing results (1949). Sociologists are obligated to disclose research findings without omitting or distorting significant data. Is value neutrality possible? Many sociologists believe it is impossible to set aside personal values and retain complete objectivity. They caution readers, rather, to understand that sociological studies may, by necessity, contain a certain amount of value bias. It does not discredit the results but allows readers to view them as one form of truth rather than a singular fact. Some sociologists attempt to remain uncritical and as objective as possible when studying cultural institutions. Value neutrality does not mean having no opinions. It means striving to overcome personal biases, particularly subconscious biases, when analyzing data. It means avoiding skewing data in order to match a predetermined outcome that aligns with a particular agenda, such as a political or moral point of view. Investigators are ethically obligated to report results, even when they contradict personal views, predicted outcomes, or widely accepted beliefs. Summary Sociologists and sociology students must take ethical responsibility for any study they conduct. They must first and foremost guarantee the safety of their participants. Whenever possible, they must ensure that participants have been fully informed before consenting to be part of a study. The ASA maintains ethical guidelines that sociologists must take into account as they conduct research. The guidelines address conducting studies, properly using existing sources, accepting funding, and publishing results. Sociologists must try to maintain value neutrality. They must gather and analyze data objectively and set aside their personal preferences, beliefs, and opinions. They must report findings accurately, even if they contradict personal convictions. Section Quiz Which statement illustrates value neutrality? - Obesity in children is obviously a result of parental neglect and, therefore, schools should take a greater role to prevent it - In 2003, states like Arkansas adopted laws requiring elementary schools to remove soft drink vending machines from schools - Merely restricting children’s access to junk food at school is not enough to prevent obesity - Physical activity and healthy eating are a fundamental part of a child’s education Hint: B Which person or organization defined the concept of value neutrality? - Institutional Review Board (IRB) - Peter Rossi - American Sociological Association (ASA) - Max Weber Hint: D To study the effects of fast food on lifestyle, health, and culture, from which group would a researcher ethically be unable to accept funding? - A fast-food restaurant - A nonprofit health organization - A private hospital - A governmental agency like Health and Social Services Hint: A Short Answer Why do you think the ASA crafted such a detailed set of ethical principles? What type of study could put human participants at risk? Think of some examples of studies that might be harmful. Do you think that, in the name of sociology, some researchers might be tempted to cross boundaries that threaten human rights? Why? Would you willingly participate in a sociological study that could potentially put your health and safety at risk, but had the potential to help thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people? For example, would you participate in a study of a new drug that could cure diabetes or cancer, even if it meant great inconvenience and physical discomfort for you or possible permanent damage? Further Research Founded in 1905, the ASA is a nonprofit organization located in Washington, DC, with a membership of 14,000 researchers, faculty members, students, and practitioners of sociology. Its mission is “to articulate policy and implement programs likely to have the broadest possible impact for sociology now and in the future.” Learn more about this organization at http://openstaxcollege.org/l/ASA. References Code of Ethics. 1999. American Sociological Association. Retrieved July 1, 2011 (http://www.asanet.org/about/ethics.cfm). Rossi, Peter H. 1987. “No Good Applied Social Research Goes Unpunished.” Society 25(1):73–79. Weber, Max. 1949. Methodology of the Social Sciences. Translated by H. Shils and E. Finch. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.036740	Module	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11761/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Sociological Research, Ethical Concerns", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11763/overview	What Is Culture? Overview - Differentiate between culture and society - Explain material versus nonmaterial culture - Discuss the concept of cultural universalism as it relates to society - Compare and contrast ethnocentrism and xenocentrism Humans are social creatures. Since the dawn of Homo sapiens nearly 250,000 years ago, people have grouped together into communities in order to survive. Living together, people form common habits and behaviors—from specific methods of childrearing to preferred techniques for obtaining food. In modern-day Paris, many people shop daily at outdoor markets to pick up what they need for their evening meal, buying cheese, meat, and vegetables from different specialty stalls. In the United States, the majority of people shop once a week at supermarkets, filling large carts to the brim. How would a Parisian perceive U.S. shopping behaviors that Americans take for granted? Almost every human behavior, from shopping to marriage to expressions of feelings, is learned. In the United States, people tend to view marriage as a choice between two people, based on mutual feelings of love. In other nations and in other times, marriages have been arranged through an intricate process of interviews and negotiations between entire families, or in other cases, through a direct system, such as a “mail order bride.” To someone raised in New York City, the marriage customs of a family from Nigeria may seem strange or even wrong. Conversely, someone from a traditional Kolkata family might be perplexed with the idea of romantic love as the foundation for marriage and lifelong commitment. In other words, the way in which people view marriage depends largely on what they have been taught. Behavior based on learned customs is not a bad thing. Being familiar with unwritten rules helps people feel secure and “normal.” Most people want to live their daily lives confident that their behaviors will not be challenged or disrupted. But even an action as seemingly simple as commuting to work evidences a great deal of cultural propriety. Take the case of going to work on public transportation. Whether people are commuting in Dublin, Cairo, Mumbai, or San Francisco, many behaviors will be the same, but significant differences also arise between cultures. Typically, a passenger will find a marked bus stop or station, wait for his bus or train, pay an agent before or after boarding, and quietly take a seat if one is available. But when boarding a bus in Cairo, passengers might have to run, because buses there often do not come to a full stop to take on patrons. Dublin bus riders would be expected to extend an arm to indicate that they want the bus to stop for them. And when boarding a commuter train in Mumbai, passengers must squeeze into overstuffed cars amid a lot of pushing and shoving on the crowded platforms. That kind of behavior would be considered the height of rudeness in the United States, but in Mumbai it reflects the daily challenges of getting around on a train system that is taxed to capacity. In this example of commuting, culture consists of thoughts (expectations about personal space, for example) and tangible things (bus stops, trains, and seating capacity). Material culture refers to the objects or belongings of a group of people. Metro passes and bus tokens are part of material culture, as are automobiles, stores, and the physical structures where people worship.Nonmaterial culture, in contrast, consists of the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society. Material and nonmaterial aspects of culture are linked, and physical objects often symbolize cultural ideas. A metro pass is a material object, but it represents a form of nonmaterial culture, namely, capitalism, and the acceptance of paying for transportation. Clothing, hairstyles, and jewelry are part of material culture, but the appropriateness of wearing certain clothing for specific events reflects nonmaterial culture. A school building belongs to material culture, but the teaching methods and educational standards are part of education’s nonmaterial culture. These material and nonmaterial aspects of culture can vary subtly from region to region. As people travel farther afield, moving from different regions to entirely different parts of the world, certain material and nonmaterial aspects of culture become dramatically unfamiliar. What happens when we encounter different cultures? As we interact with cultures other than our own, we become more aware of the differences and commonalities between others’ worlds and our own. Cultural Universals Often, a comparison of one culture to another will reveal obvious differences. But all cultures also share common elements. Cultural universals are patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies. One example of a cultural universal is the family unit: every human society recognizes a family structure that regulates sexual reproduction and the care of children. Even so, how that family unit is defined and how it functions vary. In many Asian cultures, for example, family members from all generations commonly live together in one household. In these cultures, young adults continue to live in the extended household family structure until they marry and join their spouse’s household, or they may remain and raise their nuclear family within the extended family’s homestead. In the United States, by contrast, individuals are expected to leave home and live independently for a period before forming a family unit that consists of parents and their offspring. Other cultural universals include customs like funeral rites, weddings, and celebrations of births. However, each culture may view the ceremonies quite differently. Anthropologist George Murdock first recognized the existence of cultural universals while studying systems of kinship around the world. Murdock found that cultural universals often revolve around basic human survival, such as finding food, clothing, and shelter, or around shared human experiences, such as birth and death or illness and healing. Through his research, Murdock identified other universals including language, the concept of personal names, and, interestingly, jokes. Humor seems to be a universal way to release tensions and create a sense of unity among people (Murdock 1949). Sociologists consider humor necessary to human interaction because it helps individuals navigate otherwise tense situations. Is Music a Cultural Universal? Imagine that you are sitting in a theater, watching a film. The movie opens with the heroine sitting on a park bench with a grim expression on her face. Cue the music. The first slow and mournful notes play in a minor key. As the melody continues, the heroine turns her head and sees a man walking toward her. The music slowly gets louder, and the dissonance of the chords sends a prickle of fear running down your spine. You sense that the heroine is in danger. Now imagine that you are watching the same movie, but with a different soundtrack. As the scene opens, the music is soft and soothing, with a hint of sadness. You see the heroine sitting on the park bench and sense her loneliness. Suddenly, the music swells. The woman looks up and sees a man walking toward her. The music grows fuller, and the pace picks up. You feel your heart rise in your chest. This is a happy moment. Music has the ability to evoke emotional responses. In television shows, movies, even commercials, music elicits laughter, sadness, or fear. Are these types of musical cues cultural universals? In 2009, a team of psychologists, led by Thomas Fritz of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, studied people’s reactions to music that they’d never heard (Fritz et al. 2009). The research team traveled to Cameroon, Africa, and asked Mafa tribal members to listen to Western music. The tribe, isolated from Western culture, had never been exposed to Western culture and had no context or experience within which to interpret its music. Even so, as the tribal members listened to a Western piano piece, they were able to recognize three basic emotions: happiness, sadness, and fear. Music, it turns out, is a sort of universal language. Researchers also found that music can foster a sense of wholeness within a group. In fact, scientists who study the evolution of language have concluded that originally language (an established component of group identity) and music were one (Darwin 1871). Additionally, since music is largely nonverbal, the sounds of music can cross societal boundaries more easily than words. Music allows people to make connections, where language might be a more difficult barricade. As Fritz and his team found, music and the emotions it conveys can be cultural universals. Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism Despite how much humans have in common, cultural differences are far more prevalent than cultural universals. For example, while all cultures have language, analysis of particular language structures and conversational etiquette reveal tremendous differences. In some Middle Eastern cultures, it is common to stand close to others in conversation. North Americans keep more distance and maintain a large “personal space.” Even something as simple as eating and drinking varies greatly from culture to culture. If your professor comes into an early morning class holding a mug of liquid, what do you assume she is drinking? In the United States, it’s most likely filled with coffee, not Earl Grey tea, a favorite in England, or Yak Butter tea, a staple in Tibet. The way cuisines vary across cultures fascinates many people. Some travelers pride themselves on their willingness to try unfamiliar foods, like celebrated food writer Anthony Bourdain, while others return home expressing gratitude for their native culture’s fare. Often, people in the United States express disgust at other cultures’ cuisine and think that it’s gross to eat meat from a dog or guinea pig, for example, while they don’t question their own habit of eating cows or pigs. Such attitudes are an example of ethnocentrism, or evaluating and judging another culture based on how it compares to one’s own cultural norms. Ethnocentrism, as sociologist William Graham Sumner (1906) described the term, involves a belief or attitude that one’s own culture is better than all others. Almost everyone is a little bit ethnocentric. For example, Americans tend to say that people from England drive on the “wrong” side of the road, rather than on the “other” side. Someone from a country where dog meat is standard fare might find it off-putting to see a dog in a French restaurant—not on the menu, but as a pet and patron’s companion. A good example of ethnocentrism is referring to parts of Asia as the "Far East." One might question, "Far east of where?" A high level of appreciation for one’s own culture can be healthy; a shared sense of community pride, for example, connects people in a society. But ethnocentrism can lead to disdain or dislike for other cultures and could cause misunderstanding and conflict. People with the best intentions sometimes travel to a society to “help” its people, because they see them as uneducated or backward—essentially inferior. In reality, these travelers are guilty of cultural imperialism, the deliberate imposition of one’s own cultural values on another culture. Europe’s colonial expansion, begun in the sixteenth century, was often accompanied by a severe cultural imperialism. European colonizers often viewed the people in the lands they colonized as uncultured savages who were in need of European governance, dress, religion, and other cultural practices. A more modern example of cultural imperialism may include the work of international aid agencies who introduce agricultural methods and plant species from developed countries while overlooking indigenous varieties and agricultural approaches that are better suited to the particular region. Ethnocentrism can be so strong that when confronted with all of the differences of a new culture, one may experience disorientation and frustration. In sociology, we call this culture shock. A traveler from Chicago might find the nightly silence of rural Montana unsettling, not peaceful. An exchange student from China might be annoyed by the constant interruptions in class as other students ask questions—a practice that is considered rude in China. Perhaps the Chicago traveler was initially captivated with Montana’s quiet beauty and the Chinese student was originally excited to see a U.S.-style classroom firsthand. But as they experience unanticipated differences from their own culture, their excitement gives way to discomfort and doubts about how to behave appropriately in the new situation. Eventually, as people learn more about a culture, they recover from culture shock. Culture shock may appear because people aren’t always expecting cultural differences. Anthropologist Ken Barger (1971) discovered this when he conducted a participatory observation in an Inuit community in the Canadian Arctic. Originally from Indiana, Barger hesitated when invited to join a local snowshoe race. He knew he’d never hold his own against these experts. Sure enough, he finished last, to his mortification. But the tribal members congratulated him, saying, “You really tried!” In Barger’s own culture, he had learned to value victory. To the Inuit people, winning was enjoyable, but their culture valued survival skills essential to their environment: how hard someone tried could mean the difference between life and death. Over the course of his stay, Barger participated in caribou hunts, learned how to take shelter in winter storms, and sometimes went days with little or no food to share among tribal members. Trying hard and working together, two nonmaterial values, were indeed much more important than winning. During his time with the Inuit tribe, Barger learned to engage in cultural relativism. Cultural relativism is the practice of assessing a culture by its own standards rather than viewing it through the lens of one’s own culture. Practicing cultural relativism requires an open mind and a willingness to consider, and even adapt to, new values and norms. However, indiscriminately embracing everything about a new culture is not always possible. Even the most culturally relativist people from egalitarian societies—ones in which women have political rights and control over their own bodies—would question whether the widespread practice of female genital mutilation in countries such as Ethiopia and Sudan should be accepted as a part of cultural tradition. Sociologists attempting to engage in cultural relativism, then, may struggle to reconcile aspects of their own culture with aspects of a culture that they are studying. Sometimes when people attempt to rectify feelings of ethnocentrism and develop cultural relativism, they swing too far to the other end of the spectrum. Xenocentrism is the opposite of ethnocentrism, and refers to the belief that another culture is superior to one’s own. (The Greek root wordxeno, pronounced “ZEE-no,” means “stranger” or “foreign guest.”) An exchange student who goes home after a semester abroad or a sociologist who returns from the field may find it difficult to associate with the values of their own culture after having experienced what they deem a more upright or nobler way of living. Perhaps the greatest challenge for sociologists studying different cultures is the matter of keeping a perspective. It is impossible for anyone to keep all cultural biases at bay; the best we can do is strive to be aware of them. Pride in one’s own culture doesn’t have to lead to imposing its values on others. And an appreciation for another culture shouldn’t preclude individuals from studying it with a critical eye. Overcoming Culture Shock During her summer vacation, Caitlin flew from Chicago to Madrid to visit Maria, the exchange student she’d befriended the previous semester. In the airport, she heard rapid, musical Spanish being spoken all around her. Exciting as it was, she felt isolated and disconnected. Maria’s mother kissed Caitlin on both cheeks when she greeted her. Her imposing father kept his distance. Caitlin was half asleep by the time supper was served—at 10 p.m.! Maria’s family sat at the table for hours, speaking loudly, gesturing, and arguing about politics, a taboo dinner subject in Caitlin’s house. They served wine and toasted their honored guest. Caitlin had trouble interpreting her hosts’ facial expressions, and didn’t realize she should make the next toast. That night, Caitlin crawled into a strange bed, wishing she hadn’t come. She missed her home and felt overwhelmed by the new customs, language, and surroundings. She’d studied Spanish in school for years—why hadn’t it prepared her for this? What Caitlin hadn’t realized was that people depend not only on spoken words but also on subtle cues like gestures and facial expressions, to communicate. Cultural norms accompany even the smallest nonverbal signals (DuBois 1951). They help people know when to shake hands, where to sit, how to converse, and even when to laugh. We relate to others through a shared set of cultural norms, and ordinarily, we take them for granted. For this reason, culture shock is often associated with traveling abroad, although it can happen in one’s own country, state, or even hometown. Anthropologist Kalervo Oberg (1960) is credited with first coining the term “culture shock.” In his studies, Oberg found that most people found encountering a new culture to be exciting at first. But bit by bit, they became stressed by interacting with people from a different culture who spoke another language and used different regional expressions. There was new food to digest, new daily schedules to follow, and new rules of etiquette to learn. Living with this constant stress can make people feel incompetent and insecure. People react to frustration in a new culture, Oberg found, by initially rejecting it and glorifying one’s own culture. An American visiting Italy might long for a “real” pizza or complain about the unsafe driving habits of Italians compared to people in the United States. It helps to remember that culture is learned. Everyone is ethnocentric to an extent, and identifying with one’s own country is natural. Caitlin’s shock was minor compared to that of her friends Dayar and Mahlika, a Turkish couple living in married student housing on campus. And it was nothing like that of her classmate Sanai. Sanai had been forced to flee war-torn Bosnia with her family when she was fifteen. After two weeks in Spain, Caitlin had developed a bit more compassion and understanding for what those people had gone through. She understood that adjusting to a new culture takes time. It can take weeks or months to recover from culture shock, and it can take years to fully adjust to living in a new culture. By the end of Caitlin’s trip, she’d made new lifelong friends. She’d stepped out of her comfort zone. She’d learned a lot about Spain, but she’d also discovered a lot about herself and her own culture. Summary Though “society” and “culture” are often used interchangeably, they have different meanings. A society is a group of people sharing a community and culture. Culture generally describes the shared behaviors and beliefs of these people, and includes material and nonmaterial elements.. Our experience of cultural difference is influenced by our ethnocentrism and xenocentrism. Sociologists try to practice cultural relativism. Section Quiz The terms _________________ and ______________ are often used interchangeably, but have nuances that differentiate them. - imperialism and relativism - culture and society - society and ethnocentrism - ethnocentrism and xenocentrism Hint: B The American flag is a material object that denotes the United States of America; however, there are certain connotations that many associate with the flag, like bravery and freedom. In this example, what are bravery and freedom? - Symbols - Language - Material culture - Nonmaterial culture Hint: D The belief that one’s culture is inferior to another culture is called: - ethnocentrism - nationalism - xenocentrism - imperialism Hint: C Rodney and Elise are U.S. students studying abroad in Italy. When they are introduced to their host families, the families kiss them on both cheeks. When Rodney’s host brother introduces himself and kisses Rodney on both cheeks, Rodney pulls back in surprise. Where he is from, unless they are romantically involved, men do not kiss one another. This is an example of: - culture shock - imperialism - ethnocentrism - xenocentrism Hint: A Most cultures have been found to identify laughter as a sign of humor, joy, or pleasure. Likewise, most cultures recognize music in some form. Music and laughter are examples of: - relativism - ethnocentrism - xenocentrism - universalism Hint: D Short Answer Examine the difference between material and nonmaterial culture in your world. Identify ten objects that are part of your regular cultural experience. For each, then identify what aspects of nonmaterial culture (values and beliefs) that these objects represent. What has this exercise revealed to you about your culture? Do you feel that feelings of ethnocentricity or xenocentricity are more prevalent in U.S. culture? Why do you believe this? What issues or events might inform this? Further Research In January 2011, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America presented evidence indicating that the hormone oxytocin could regulate and manage instances of ethnocentrism. Read the full article here: http://openstaxcollege.org/l/oxytocin References Barger, Ken. 2008. “Ethnocentrism.” Indiana University, July 1. Retrieved May 2, 2011 (http://www.iupui.edu/~anthkb/ethnocen.htm). Darwin, Charles R. 1871. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: John Murray. DuBois, Cora. 1951. “Culture Shock.” Presentation to Panel Discussion at the First Midwest Regional Meeting of the Institute of International Education.” November 28. Also presented to the Women’s Club of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 3, 1954. Fritz, Thomas, Sebastian Jentschke, Nathalie Gosselin, et al. 2009. “Universal Recognition of Three Basic Emotions in Music.” Current Biology 19(7). Murdock, George P. 1949. Social Structure. New York: Macmillan. Oberg, Kalervo. 1960. “Cultural Shock: Adjustment to New Cultural Environments.” Practical Anthropology 7:177–182. Sumner, William G. 1906. Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals. New York: Ginn and Co. Swoyer, Chris. 2003. “The Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by E. N. Zalta, Winter. Retrieved May 5, 2011 (http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2003/entries/davidson/).	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.071980	Module	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11763/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Culture, What Is Culture?", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11760/overview	Research Methods Overview - Differentiate between four kinds of research methods: surveys, field research, experiments, and secondary data analysis - Understand why different topics are better suited to different research approaches Sociologists examine the world, see a problem or interesting pattern, and set out to study it. They use research methods to design a study—perhaps a detailed, systematic, scientific method for conducting research and obtaining data, or perhaps an ethnographic study utilizing an interpretive framework. Planning the research design is a key step in any sociological study. When entering a particular social environment, a researcher must be careful. There are times to remain anonymous and times to be overt. There are times to conduct interviews and times to simply observe. Some participants need to be thoroughly informed; others should not know they are being observed. A researcher wouldn’t stroll into a crime-ridden neighborhood at midnight, calling out, “Any gang members around?” And if a researcher walked into a coffee shop and told the employees they would be observed as part of a study on work efficiency, the self-conscious, intimidated baristas might not behave naturally. This is called the Hawthorne effect—where people change their behavior because they know they are being watched as part of a study. The Hawthorne effect is unavoidable in some research. In many cases, sociologists have to make the purpose of the study known. Subjects must be aware that they are being observed, and a certain amount of artificiality may result (Sonnenfeld 1985). Making sociologists’ presence invisible is not always realistic for other reasons. That option is not available to a researcher studying prison behaviors, early education, or the Ku Klux Klan. Researchers can’t just stroll into prisons, kindergarten classrooms, or Klan meetings and unobtrusively observe behaviors. In situations like these, other methods are needed. All studies shape the research design, while research design simultaneously shapes the study. Researchers choose methods that best suit their study topics and that fit with their overall approaches to research. In planning studies' designs, sociologists generally choose from four widely used methods of social investigation: survey, field research, experiment, and secondary data analysis, or use of existing sources. Every research method comes with plusses and minuses, and the topic of study strongly influences which method or methods are put to use. Surveys As a research method, a survey collects data from subjects who respond to a series of questions about behaviors and opinions, often in the form of a questionnaire. The survey is one of the most widely used scientific research methods. The standard survey format allows individuals a level of anonymity in which they can express personal ideas. At some point, most people in the United States respond to some type of survey. The U.S. Census is an excellent example of a large-scale survey intended to gather sociological data. Not all surveys are considered sociological research, however, and many surveys people commonly encounter focus on identifying marketing needs and strategies rather than testing a hypothesis or contributing to social science knowledge. Questions such as, "How many hot dogs do you eat in a month?" or "Were the staff helpful?" are not usually designed as scientific research. Often, polls on television do not reflect a general population, but are merely answers from a specific show’s audience. Polls conducted by programs such as American Idol orSo You Think You Can Dance represent the opinions of fans but are not particularly scientific. A good contrast to these are the Nielsen Ratings, which determine the popularity of television programming through scientific market research. Sociologists conduct surveys under controlled conditions for specific purposes. Surveys gather different types of information from people. While surveys are not great at capturing the ways people really behave in social situations, they are a great method for discovering how people feel and think—or at least how they say they feel and think. Surveys can track preferences for presidential candidates or reported individual behaviors (such as sleeping, driving, or texting habits) or factual information such as employment status, income, and education levels. A survey targets a specific population, people who are the focus of a study, such as college athletes, international students, or teenagers living with type 1 (juvenile-onset) diabetes. Most researchers choose to survey a small sector of the population, or asample: that is, a manageable number of subjects whorepresent a larger population. The success of a study depends on how well a population is represented by the sample. In arandom sample, every person in a population has the same chance of being chosen for the study. According to the laws of probability, random samples represent the population as a whole. For instance, a Gallup Poll, if conducted as a nationwide random sampling, should be able to provide an accurate estimate of public opinion whether it contacts 2,000 or 10,000 people. After selecting subjects, the researcher develops a specific plan to ask questions and record responses. It is important to inform subjects of the nature and purpose of the study up front. If they agree to participate, researchers thank subjects and offer them a chance to see the results of the study if they are interested. The researcher presents the subjects with an instrument, which is a means of gathering the information. A common instrument is a questionnaire, in which subjects answer a series of questions. For some topics, the researcher might ask yes-or-no or multiple-choice questions, allowing subjects to choose possible responses to each question. This kind of quantitative data—research collected in numerical form that can be counted—are easy to tabulate. Just count up the number of “yes” and “no” responses or correct answers, and chart them into percentages. Questionnaires can also ask more complex questions with more complex answers—beyond “yes,” “no,” or the option next to a checkbox. In those cases, the answers are subjective and vary from person to person. How do plan to use your college education? Why do you follow Jimmy Buffett around the country and attend every concert? Those types of questions require short essay responses, and participants willing to take the time to write those answers will convey personal information about religious beliefs, political views, and morals. Some topics that reflect internal thought are impossible to observe directly and are difficult to discuss honestly in a public forum. People are more likely to share honest answers if they can respond to questions anonymously. This type of information isqualitative data—results that are subjective and often based on what is seen in a natural setting. Qualitative information is harder to organize and tabulate. The researcher will end up with a wide range of responses, some of which may be surprising. The benefit of written opinions, though, is the wealth of material that they provide. An interview is a one-on-one conversation between the researcher and the subject, and it is a way of conducting surveys on a topic. Interviews are similar to the short-answer questions on surveys in that the researcher asks subjects a series of questions. However, participants are free to respond as they wish, without being limited by predetermined choices. In the back-and-forth conversation of an interview, a researcher can ask for clarification, spend more time on a subtopic, or ask additional questions. In an interview, a subject will ideally feel free to open up and answer questions that are often complex. There are no right or wrong answers. The subject might not even know how to answer the questions honestly. Questions such as, “How did society's view of alcohol consumption influence your decision whether or not to take your first sip of alcohol?” or “Did you feel that the divorce of your parents would put a social stigma on your family?” involve so many factors that the answers are difficult to categorize. A researcher needs to avoid steering or prompting the subject to respond in a specific way; otherwise, the results will prove to be unreliable. And, obviously, a sociological interview is not an interrogation. The researcher will benefit from gaining a subject’s trust, from empathizing or commiserating with a subject, and from listening without judgment. Field Research The work of sociology rarely happens in limited, confined spaces. Sociologists seldom study subjects in their own offices or laboratories. Rather, sociologists go out into the world. They meet subjects where they live, work, and play. Field research refers to gatheringprimary data from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or a survey. It is a research method suited to an interpretive framework rather than to the scientific method. To conduct field research, the sociologist must be willing to step into new environments and observe, participate, or experience those worlds. In field work, the sociologists, rather than the subjects, are the ones out of their element. The researcher interacts with or observes a person or people and gathers data along the way. The key point in field research is that it takes place in the subject’s natural environment, whether it’s a coffee shop or tribal village, a homeless shelter or the DMV, a hospital, airport, mall, or beach resort. While field research often begins in a specific setting, the study’s purpose is to observe specificbehaviors in that setting. Field work is optimal for observinghow people behave. It is less useful, however, for understandingwhy they behave that way. You can't really narrow down cause and effect when there are so many variables floating around in a natural environment. Much of the data gathered in field research are based not on cause and effect but on correlation. And while field research looks for correlation, its small sample size does not allow for establishing a causal relationship between two variables. Parrotheads as Sociological Subjects Some sociologists study small groups of people who share an identity in one aspect of their lives. Almost everyone belongs to a group of like-minded people who share an interest or hobby. Scientologists, folk dancers, or members of Mensa (an organization for people with exceptionally high IQs) express a specific part of their identity through their affiliation with a group. Those groups are often of great interest to sociologists. Jimmy Buffett, an American musician who built a career from his single top-10 song “Margaritaville,” has a following of devoted groupies called Parrotheads. Some of them have taken fandom to the extreme, making Parrothead culture a lifestyle. In 2005, Parrotheads and their subculture caught the attention of researchers John Mihelich and John Papineau. The two saw the way Jimmy Buffett fans collectively created an artificial reality. They wanted to know how fan groups shape culture. What Mihelich and Papineau found was that Parrotheads, for the most part, do not seek to challenge or even change society, as many sub-groups do. In fact, most Parrotheads live successfully within society, holding upper-level jobs in the corporate world. What they seek is escape from the stress of daily life. At Jimmy Buffett concerts, Parrotheads engage in a form of role play. They paint their faces and dress for the tropics in grass skirts, Hawaiian leis, and Parrot hats. These fans don’t generally play the part of Parrotheads outside of these concerts; you are not likely to see a lone Parrothead in a bank or library. In that sense, Parrothead culture is less about individualism and more about conformity. Being a Parrothead means sharing a specific identity. Parrotheads feel connected to each other: it’s a group identity, not an individual one. In their study, Mihelich and Papineau quote from a recent book by sociologist Richard Butsch, who writes, “un-self-conscious acts, if done by many people together, can produce change, even though the change may be unintended” (2000). Many Parrothead fan groups have performed good works in the name of Jimmy Buffett culture, donating to charities and volunteering their services. However, the authors suggest that what really drives Parrothead culture is commercialism. Jimmy Buffett’s popularity was dying out in the 1980s until being reinvigorated after he signed a sponsorship deal with a beer company. These days, his concert tours alone generate nearly $30 million a year. Buffett made a lucrative career for himself by partnering with product companies and marketing Margaritaville in the form of T-shirts, restaurants, casinos, and an expansive line of products. Some fans accuse Buffett of selling out, while others admire his financial success. Buffett makes no secret of his commercial exploitations; from the stage, he’s been known to tell his fans, “Just remember, I am spending your money foolishly.” Mihelich and Papineau gathered much of their information online. Referring to their study as a “Web ethnography,” they collected extensive narrative material from fans who joined Parrothead clubs and posted their experiences on websites. “We do not claim to have conducted a complete ethnography of Parrothead fans, or even of the Parrothead Web activity,” state the authors, “but we focused on particular aspects of Parrothead practice as revealed through Web research” (2005). Fan narratives gave them insight into how individuals identify with Buffett’s world and how fans used popular music to cultivate personal and collective meaning. In conducting studies about pockets of culture, most sociologists seek to discover a universal appeal. Mihelich and Papineau stated, “Although Parrotheads are a relative minority of the contemporary US population, an in-depth look at their practice and conditions illuminate [sic] cultural practices and conditions many of us experience and participate in” (2005). Here, we will look at three types of field research: participant observation, ethnography, and the case study. Participant Observation In 2000, a comic writer named Rodney Rothman wanted an insider’s view of white-collar work. He slipped into the sterile, high-rise offices of a New York “dot com” agency. Every day for two weeks, he pretended to work there. His main purpose was simply to see whether anyone would notice him or challenge his presence. No one did. The receptionist greeted him. The employees smiled and said good morning. Rothman was accepted as part of the team. He even went so far as to claim a desk, inform the receptionist of his whereabouts, and attend a meeting. He published an article about his experience in The New Yorker called “My Fake Job” (2000). Later, he was discredited for allegedly fabricating some details of the story andThe New Yorker issued an apology. However, Rothman’s entertaining article still offered fascinating descriptions of the inside workings of a “dot com” company and exemplified the lengths to which a sociologist will go to uncover material. Rothman had conducted a form of study called participant observation, in which researchers join people and participate in a group’s routine activities for the purpose of observing them within that context. This method lets researchers experience a specific aspect of social life. A researcher might go to great lengths to get a firsthand look into a trend, institution, or behavior. Researchers temporarily put themselves into roles and record their observations. A researcher might work as a waitress in a diner, live as a homeless person for several weeks, or ride along with police officers as they patrol their regular beat. Often, these researchers try to blend in seamlessly with the population they study, and they may not disclose their true identity or purpose if they feel it would compromise the results of their research. At the beginning of a field study, researchers might have a question: “What really goes on in the kitchen of the most popular diner on campus?” or “What is it like to be homeless?” Participant observation is a useful method if the researcher wants to explore a certain environment from the inside. Field researchers simply want to observe and learn. In such a setting, the researcher will be alert and open minded to whatever happens, recording all observations accurately. Soon, as patterns emerge, questions will become more specific, observations will lead to hypotheses, and hypotheses will guide the researcher in shaping data into results. In a study of small towns in the United States conducted by sociological researchers John S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd, the team altered their purpose as they gathered data. They initially planned to focus their study on the role of religion in U.S. towns. As they gathered observations, they realized that the effect of industrialization and urbanization was the more relevant topic of this social group. The Lynds did not change their methods, but they revised their purpose. This shaped the structure of Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture, their published results (Lynd and Lynd 1959). The Lynds were upfront about their mission. The townspeople of Muncie, Indiana, knew why the researchers were in their midst. But some sociologists prefer not to alert people to their presence. The main advantage of covert participant observation is that it allows the researcher access to authentic, natural behaviors of a group’s members. The challenge, however, is gaining access to a setting without disrupting the pattern of others’ behavior. Becoming an inside member of a group, organization, or subculture takes time and effort. Researchers must pretend to be something they are not. The process could involve role playing, making contacts, networking, or applying for a job. Once inside a group, some researchers spend months or even years pretending to be one of the people they are observing. However, as observers, they cannot get too involved. They must keep their purpose in mind and apply the sociological perspective. That way, they illuminate social patterns that are often unrecognized. Because information gathered during participant observation is mostly qualitative, rather than quantitative, the end results are often descriptive or interpretive. The researcher might present findings in an article or book and describe what he or she witnessed and experienced. This type of research is what journalist Barbara Ehrenreich conducted for her book Nickel and Dimed. One day over lunch with her editor, as the story goes, Ehrenreich mentioned an idea.How can people exist on minimum-wage work? How do low-income workers get by? she wondered.Someone should do a study. To her surprise, her editor responded,Why don’t you do it? That’s how Ehrenreich found herself joining the ranks of the working class. For several months, she left her comfortable home and lived and worked among people who lacked, for the most part, higher education and marketable job skills. Undercover, she applied for and worked minimum wage jobs as a waitress, a cleaning woman, a nursing home aide, and a retail chain employee. During her participant observation, she used only her income from those jobs to pay for food, clothing, transportation, and shelter. She discovered the obvious, that it’s almost impossible to get by on minimum wage work. She also experienced and observed attitudes many middle and upper-class people never think about. She witnessed firsthand the treatment of working class employees. She saw the extreme measures people take to make ends meet and to survive. She described fellow employees who held two or three jobs, worked seven days a week, lived in cars, could not pay to treat chronic health conditions, got randomly fired, submitted to drug tests, and moved in and out of homeless shelters. She brought aspects of that life to light, describing difficult working conditions and the poor treatment that low-wage workers suffer. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, the book she wrote upon her return to her real life as a well-paid writer, has been widely read and used in many college classrooms. Ethnography Ethnography is the extended observation of the social perspective and cultural values of an entire social setting. Ethnographies involve objective observation of an entire community. The heart of an ethnographic study focuses on how subjects view their own social standing and how they understand themselves in relation to a community. An ethnographic study might observe, for example, a small U.S. fishing town, an Inuit community, a village in Thailand, a Buddhist monastery, a private boarding school, or an amusement park. These places all have borders. People live, work, study, or vacation within those borders. People are there for a certain reason and therefore behave in certain ways and respect certain cultural norms. An ethnographer would commit to spending a determined amount of time studying every aspect of the chosen place, taking in as much as possible. A sociologist studying a tribe in the Amazon might watch the way villagers go about their daily lives and then write a paper about it. To observe a spiritual retreat center, an ethnographer might sign up for a retreat and attend as a guest for an extended stay, observe and record data, and collate the material into results. Institutional Ethnography Institutional ethnography is an extension of basic ethnographic research principles that focuses intentionally on everyday concrete social relationships. Developed by Canadian sociologist Dorothy E. Smith, institutional ethnography is often considered a feminist-inspired approach to social analysis and primarily considers women’s experiences within male-dominated societies and power structures. Smith’s work is seen to challenge sociology’s exclusion of women, both academically and in the study of women’s lives (Fenstermaker, n.d.). Historically, social science research tended to objectify women and ignore their experiences except as viewed from the male perspective. Modern feminists note that describing women, and other marginalized groups, as subordinates helps those in authority maintain their own dominant positions (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, n.d.). Smith’s three major works explored what she called “the conceptual practices of power” (1990; cited in Fensternmaker, n.d.) and are still considered seminal works in feminist theory and ethnography. The Making of Middletown: A Study in Modern U.S. Culture In 1924, a young married couple named Robert and Helen Lynd undertook an unprecedented ethnography: to apply sociological methods to the study of one U.S. city in order to discover what “ordinary” people in the United States did and believed. Choosing Muncie, Indiana (population about 30,000), as their subject, they moved to the small town and lived there for eighteen months. Ethnographers had been examining other cultures for decades—groups considered minority or outsider—like gangs, immigrants, and the poor. But no one had studied the so-called average American. Recording interviews and using surveys to gather data, the Lynds did not sugarcoat or idealize U.S. life (PBS). They objectively stated what they observed. Researching existing sources, they compared Muncie in 1890 to the Muncie they observed in 1924. Most Muncie adults, they found, had grown up on farms but now lived in homes inside the city. From that discovery, the Lynds focused their study on the impact of industrialization and urbanization. They observed that Muncie was divided into business class and working class groups. They defined business class as dealing with abstract concepts and symbols, whileworking class people used tools to create concrete objects. The two classes led different lives with different goals and hopes. However, the Lynds observed, mass production offered both classes the same amenities. Like wealthy families, the working class was now able to own radios, cars, washing machines, telephones, vacuum cleaners, and refrigerators. This was an emerging material new reality of the 1920s. As the Lynds worked, they divided their manuscript into six sections: Getting a Living, Making a Home, Training the Young, Using Leisure, Engaging in Religious Practices, and Engaging in Community Activities. Each chapter included subsections such as “The Long Arm of the Job” and “Why Do They Work So Hard?” in the “Getting a Living” chapter. When the study was completed, the Lynds encountered a big problem. The Rockefeller Foundation, which had commissioned the book, claimed it was useless and refused to publish it. The Lynds asked if they could seek a publisher themselves. Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture was not only published in 1929 but also became an instant bestseller, a status unheard of for a sociological study. The book sold out six printings in its first year of publication, and has never gone out of print (PBS). Nothing like it had ever been done before. Middletown was reviewed on the front page of theNew York Times. Readers in the 1920s and 1930s identified with the citizens of Muncie, Indiana, but they were equally fascinated by the sociological methods and the use of scientific data to define ordinary people in the United States. The book was proof that social data was important—and interesting—to the U.S. public. Case Study Sometimes a researcher wants to study one specific person or event. A case study is an in-depth analysis of a single event, situation, or individual. To conduct a case study, a researcher examines existing sources like documents and archival records, conducts interviews, engages in direct observation and even participant observation, if possible. Researchers might use this method to study a single case of, for example, a foster child, drug lord, cancer patient, criminal, or rape victim. However, a major criticism of the case study as a method is that a developed study of a single case, while offering depth on a topic, does not provide enough evidence to form a generalized conclusion. In other words, it is difficult to make universal claims based on just one person, since one person does not verify a pattern. This is why most sociologists do not use case studies as a primary research method. However, case studies are useful when the single case is unique. In these instances, a single case study can add tremendous knowledge to a certain discipline. For example, a feral child, also called “wild child,” is one who grows up isolated from human beings. Feral children grow up without social contact and language, which are elements crucial to a “civilized” child’s development. These children mimic the behaviors and movements of animals, and often invent their own language. There are only about one hundred cases of “feral children” in the world. As you may imagine, a feral child is a subject of great interest to researchers. Feral children provide unique information about child development because they have grown up outside of the parameters of “normal” child development. And since there are very few feral children, the case study is the most appropriate method for researchers to use in studying the subject. At age three, a Ukranian girl named Oxana Malaya suffered severe parental neglect. She lived in a shed with dogs, and she ate raw meat and scraps. Five years later, a neighbor called authorities and reported seeing a girl who ran on all fours, barking. Officials brought Oxana into society, where she was cared for and taught some human behaviors, but she never became fully socialized. She has been designated as unable to support herself and now lives in a mental institution (Grice 2011). Case studies like this offer a way for sociologists to collect data that may not be collectable by any other method. Experiments You’ve probably tested personal social theories. “If I study at night and review in the morning, I’ll improve my retention skills.” Or, “If I stop drinking soda, I’ll feel better.” Cause and effect. If this, then that. When you test the theory, your results either prove or disprove your hypothesis. One way researchers test social theories is by conducting an experiment, meaning they investigate relationships to test a hypothesis—a scientific approach. There are two main types of experiments: lab-based experiments and natural or field experiments. In a lab setting, the research can be controlled so that perhaps more data can be recorded in a certain amount of time. In a natural or field-based experiment, the generation of data cannot be controlled but the information might be considered more accurate since it was collected without interference or intervention by the researcher. As a research method, either type of sociological experiment is useful for testing if-then statements:if a particular thing happens,then another particular thing will result. To set up a lab-based experiment, sociologists create artificial situations that allow them to manipulate variables. Classically, the sociologist selects a set of people with similar characteristics, such as age, class, race, or education. Those people are divided into two groups. One is the experimental group and the other is the control group. The experimental group is exposed to the independent variable(s) and the control group is not. To test the benefits of tutoring, for example, the sociologist might expose the experimental group of students to tutoring but not the control group. Then both groups would be tested for differences in performance to see if tutoring had an effect on the experimental group of students. As you can imagine, in a case like this, the researcher would not want to jeopardize the accomplishments of either group of students, so the setting would be somewhat artificial. The test would not be for a grade reflected on their permanent record, for example. An Experiment in Action A real-life example will help illustrate the experiment process. In 1971, Frances Heussenstamm, a sociology professor at California State University at Los Angeles, had a theory about police prejudice. To test her theory she conducted an experiment. She chose fifteen students from three ethnic backgrounds: black, white, and Hispanic. She chose students who routinely drove to and from campus along Los Angeles freeway routes, and who’d had perfect driving records for longer than a year. Those were her independent variables—students, good driving records, same commute route. Next, she placed a Black Panther bumper sticker on each car. That sticker, a representation of a social value, was the independent variable. In the 1970s, the Black Panthers were a revolutionary group actively fighting racism. Heussenstamm asked the students to follow their normal driving patterns. She wanted to see whether seeming support of the Black Panthers would change how these good drivers were treated by the police patrolling the highways. The dependent variable would be the number of traffic stops/citations. The first arrest, for an incorrect lane change, was made two hours after the experiment began. One participant was pulled over three times in three days. He quit the study. After seventeen days, the fifteen drivers had collected a total of thirty-three traffic citations. The experiment was halted. The funding to pay traffic fines had run out, and so had the enthusiasm of the participants (Heussenstamm 1971). Secondary Data Analysis While sociologists often engage in original research studies, they also contribute knowledge to the discipline throughsecondary data analysis. Secondary data don’t result from firsthand research collected from primary sources, but are the already completed work of other researchers. Sociologists might study works written by historians, economists, teachers, or early sociologists. They might search through periodicals, newspapers, or magazines from any period in history. Using available information not only saves time and money but can also add depth to a study. Sociologists often interpret findings in a new way, a way that was not part of an author’s original purpose or intention. To study how women were encouraged to act and behave in the 1960s, for example, a researcher might watch movies, televisions shows, and situation comedies from that period. Or to research changes in behavior and attitudes due to the emergence of television in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a sociologist would rely on new interpretations of secondary data. Decades from now, researchers will most likely conduct similar studies on the advent of mobile phones, the Internet, or Facebook. Social scientists also learn by analyzing the research of a variety of agencies. Governmental departments and global groups, like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics or the World Health Organization, publish studies with findings that are useful to sociologists. A public statistic like the foreclosure rate might be useful for studying the effects of the 2008 recession; a racial demographic profile might be compared with data on education funding to examine the resources accessible by different groups. One of the advantages of secondary data is that it is nonreactive research (or unobtrusive research), meaning that it does not include direct contact with subjects and will not alter or influence people’s behaviors. Unlike studies requiring direct contact with people, using previously published data doesn’t require entering a population and the investment and risks inherent in that research process. Using available data does have its challenges. Public records are not always easy to access. A researcher will need to do some legwork to track them down and gain access to records. To guide the search through a vast library of materials and avoid wasting time reading unrelated sources, sociologists employ content analysis, applying a systematic approach to record and value information gleaned from secondary data as they relate to the study at hand. But, in some cases, there is no way to verify the accuracy of existing data. It is easy to count how many drunk drivers, for example, are pulled over by the police. But how many are not? While it’s possible to discover the percentage of teenage students who drop out of high school, it might be more challenging to determine the number who return to school or get their GED later. Another problem arises when data are unavailable in the exact form needed or do not include the precise angle the researcher seeks. For example, the average salaries paid to professors at a public school is public record. But the separate figures don’t necessarily reveal how long it took each professor to reach the salary range, what their educational backgrounds are, or how long they’ve been teaching. When conducting content analysis, it is important to consider the date of publication of an existing source and to take into account attitudes and common cultural ideals that may have influenced the research. For example, Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd gathered research for their book Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture in the 1920s. Attitudes and cultural norms were vastly different then than they are now. Beliefs about gender roles, race, education, and work have changed significantly since then. At the time, the study’s purpose was to reveal the truth about small U.S. communities. Today, it is an illustration of 1920s' attitudes and values. Summary Sociological research is a fairly complex process. As you can see, a lot goes into even a simple research design. There are many steps and much to consider when collecting data on human behavior, as well as in interpreting and analyzing data in order to form conclusive results. Sociologists use scientific methods for good reason. The scientific method provides a system of organization that helps researchers plan and conduct the study while ensuring that data and results are reliable, valid, and objective. The many methods available to researchers—including experiments, surveys, field studies, and secondary data analysis—all come with advantages and disadvantages. The strength of a study can depend on the choice and implementation of the appropriate method of gathering research. Depending on the topic, a study might use a single method or a combination of methods. It is important to plan a research design before undertaking a study. The information gathered may in itself be surprising, and the study design should provide a solid framework in which to analyze predicted and unpredicted data. \| Method \| Implementation \| Advantages \| Challenges \| \|---\|---\|---\|---\| \| Survey \| \| \| \| \| Field Work \| \| \| \| \| Experiment \| \| \| \| \| Secondary Data Analysis \| \| \| \| Section Quiz Which materials are considered secondary data? - Photos and letters given to you by another person - Books and articles written by other authors about their studies - Information that you have gathered and now have included in your results - Responses from participants whom you both surveyed and interviewed Hint: B What method did researchers John Mihelich and John Papineau use to study Parrotheads? - Survey - Experiment - Web Ethnography - Case study Hint: C Why is choosing a random sample an effective way to select participants? - Participants do not know they are part of a study - The researcher has no control over who is in the study - It is larger than an ordinary sample - Everyone has the same chance of being part of the study Hint: D What research method did John S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd mainly use in their Middletown study? - Secondary data - Survey - Participant observation - Experiment Hint: C Which research approach is best suited to the scientific method? - Questionnaire - Case study - Ethnography - Secondary data analysis Hint: A The main difference between ethnography and other types of participant observation is: - ethnography isn’t based on hypothesis testing - ethnography subjects are unaware they’re being studied - ethnographic studies always involve minority ethnic groups - ethnography focuses on how subjects view themselves in relationship to the community Hint: A Which best describes the results of a case study? - It produces more reliable results than other methods because of its depth - Its results are not generally applicable - It relies solely on secondary data analysis - All of the above Hint: B Using secondary data is considered an unobtrusive or ________ research method. - nonreactive - nonparticipatory - nonrestrictive - nonconfrontive Hint: A Short Answer What type of data do surveys gather? For what topics would surveys be the best research method? What drawbacks might you expect to encounter when using a survey? To explore further, ask a research question and write a hypothesis. Then create a survey of about six questions relevant to the topic. Provide a rationale for each question. Now define your population and create a plan for recruiting a random sample and administering the survey. Imagine you are about to do field research in a specific place for a set time. Instead of thinking about the topic of study itself, consider how you, as the researcher, will have to prepare for the study. What personal, social, and physical sacrifices will you have to make? How will you manage your personal effects? What organizational equipment and systems will you need to collect the data? Create a brief research design about a topic in which you are passionately interested. Now write a letter to a philanthropic or grant organization requesting funding for your study. How can you describe the project in a convincing yet realistic and objective way? Explain how the results of your study will be a relevant contribution to the body of sociological work already in existence. Further Research For information on current real-world sociology experiments, visit: http://openstaxcollege.org/l/Sociology-Experiments References Butsch, Richard. 2000. The Making of American Audiences: From Stage to Television, 1750–1990. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. Caplow, Theodore, Louis Hicks, and Ben Wattenberg. 2000. “The First Measured Century: Middletown.” The First Measured Century. PBS. Retrieved February 23, 2012 (http://www.pbs.org/fmc/index.htm). Durkheim, Émile. 1966 [1897]. Suicide. New York: Free Press. Fenstermaker, Sarah. n.d. “Dorothy E. Smith Award Statement” American Sociological Association. Retrieved October 19, 2014 (http://www.asanet.org/about/awards/duboiscareer/smith.cfm). Franke, Richard, and James Kaul. 1978. “The Hawthorne Experiments: First Statistical Interpretation.” American Sociological Review 43(5):632–643. Grice, Elizabeth. “Cry of an Enfant Sauvage.” The Telegraph. Retrieved July 20, 2011 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/3653890/Cry-of-an-enfant-sauvage.html). Heussenstamm, Frances K. 1971. “Bumper Stickers and Cops” Trans-action: Social Science and Modern Society 4:32–33. Igo, Sarah E. 2008. The Averaged American: Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Lynd, Robert S., and Helen Merrell Lynd. 1959. Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Javanovich. Lynd, Staughton. 2005. “Making Middleton.” Indiana Magazine of History 101(3):226–238. Mihelich, John, and John Papineau. Aug 2005. “Parrotheads in Margaritaville: Fan Practice, Oppositional Culture, and Embedded Cultural Resistance in Buffett Fandom.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 17(2):175–202. Pew Research Center. 2014. "Ebola Worries Rise, But Most Are 'Fairly' Confident in Government, Hospitals to Deal with Disease: Broad Support for U.S. Efforts to Deal with Ebola in West Africa." Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, October 21. Retrieved October 25, 2014 (http://www.people-press.org/2014/10/21/ebola-worries-rise-but-most-are-fairly-confident-in-government-hospitals-to-deal-with-disease/). Rothman, Rodney. 2000. “My Fake Job.” Pp. 120 in The New Yorker, November 27. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. n.d. "Institutional Ethnography." Retrieved October 19, 2014 (http://web.uvic.ca/~mariecam/kgSite/institutionalEthnography.html). Sonnenfeld, Jeffery A. 1985. “Shedding Light on the Hawthorne Studies.” Journal of Occupational Behavior 6:125.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.127074	Module	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/11760/overview", "title": "Introduction to Sociology 2e, Sociological Research, Research Methods", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15193/overview	Introduction Since its founding, the United States has relied on citizen participation to govern at the local, state, and national levels. This civic engagement ensures that representative democracy will continue to flourish and that people will continue to influence government. The right of citizens to participate in government is an important feature of democracy, and over the centuries many have fought to acquire and defend this right. During the American Revolution (1775–1783), British colonists fought for the right to govern themselves. In the early nineteenth century, agitated citizens called for the removal of property requirements for voting so poor white men could participate in government just as wealthy men could. Throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, women, African Americans, Native Americans, and many other groups fought for the right to vote and hold office. The poster shown above (Figure), created during World War II, depicts voting as an important part of the fight to keep the United States free. The purpose of voting and other forms of political engagement is to ensure that government serves the people, and not the other way around. But what does government do to serve the people? What different forms of government exist? How do they differ? How can citizens best engage with and participate in the crucial process of governing the nation? This chapter seeks to answer these questions.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.144879	07/10/2017	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/15193/overview", "title": "American Government, Students and the System, American Government and Civic Engagement, Introduction", "author": null }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87887/overview	French Colonies in the Americas and the Caribbean Sea Overview Initial French Expeditions across the Atlantic Ocean Learning Objectives - Analyze the differences in how Europeans established different colonial models in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds. - Compare and contrast the Spanish, French, Dutch, English, and Portuguese colonial systems. Key Terms / Key Concepts Christopher Columbus - Genoese explorer credited with the discovery of the Americas New France: first French colony in North America, established along the St. Lawrence River Mercantilism: economic ideology embraced by European imperial powers, based on the concept that colonies were founded to benefit the countries that founded them During the Age of Exploration/Discovery, the French—along with the Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Dutch—established settlements and colonies in the Americas and the Caribbean Sea. These settlements and colonies were part of the unification of humanity across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, along with the mercantilist economic development of these European powers. This mercantilist development went hand-in-hand with the imperial competition and struggle among these powers. While the British, the Portuguese, and the Spanish colonial empires eclipsed the French colonial empire in the Americas and the Caribbean, the French colonial presence still left a mark on and legacies for the Americas and the Caribbean islands that are still evidence in present times. French mariners, among other European mariners, did not initially come to the Americas to establish colonial settlements. They sought a northwest passage across the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans to Asia. Finding lands, natural resources, and rivers, among other geographic features, was serendipity. During the first half of the sixteenth century the French government sponsored expeditions led by two explorers across the Atlantic Ocean. Florentine mariner Giovanni da Verrazano, sailed across the Atlantic in 1524. Verrazano was one of a number of explorers during this period, including Christopher Columbus, who worked for other countries other than their own. French King Francis I asked Verrazano to make the trip in search of new trade routes. Verrazano traveled up the Atlantic coast from present-day South Carolina to the coast of Nova Scotia, without finding a passage to Asia. The second French-sponsored explorer, Jacques Cartier led three expeditions across the Atlantic between 1534 and 1542. During the first two he explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River. His third expedition, in 1541 – 42, was an unsuccessful effort to establish a French settlement on the St. Lawrence River. Cartier’s expeditions laid the foundation for New France. During the second half of the sixteenth century France suffered through religious discord and warfare growing out of the Reformation; this discord distracted French efforts in exploring and/or settling along the Atlantic coast until the early seventeenth century. French North America Learning Objectives - Analyze the differences in how Europeans established different colonial models in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds. - Compare and contrast the Spanish, French, Dutch, English, and Portuguese colonial systems. Key Terms / Key Concepts New France: first French colony in North America, established along the St. Lawrence River Louisiana: second French colony in North America, established along the Mississippi River Huguenots - members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries; inspired by the writings of John Calvin Mercantilism: economic ideology embraced by European imperial powers, based on the concept that colonies were founded to benefit the countries that founded them 1763 Treaty of Paris: treaty that ended the 1754-61 “Great War for Empire, providing for French loss of its North American colonies and paving the way for disputes that led to the American Revolution In North America the French established two huge colonies, each along a major North American river. The first of the two was New France founded along the St. Lawrence River. The second was Louisiana with the Mississippi River as its axis. The French, like the English, established their first lasting settlements in the early seventeenth century. In contrast the Spanish had established their first settlements in North America during the sixteenth century. Division over the Reformation in the sixteenth century hindered both English and French efforts to explore and settle North America. During the last third of the sixteenth century religious divisions between Catholics and Huguenots, embodied in a succession of religious wars, nearly tore apart France; this prevented the government from committing resources to the construction of a colonial empire in the Americas. With the conclusion of religious hostilities in France in 1598, the French government under Henry IV could devote more resources to the establishment of a permanent, if small, French presence in present-day eastern Canada. During that period, the latter half of the sixteenth century, fishermen dominated the French presence in the St Lawrence River valley and coast of eastern Canada. The growth of French fishing in the northwestern Atlantic led to the establishment of winter settlements, the development of a fur trade, and more contacts with indigenous peoples, all activities not requiring an extensive colonial presence. New France The single most important individual in the early development of New France was Samuel de Champlain, a partially enigmatic figure who dedicated his energies to seeing that New France thrived as a colony and not just a collection of outposts. Founded in 1608, Quebec was the first settlement of New France, and it has lasted to the present day. Over the next forty years French colonists founded Trois Rivieres in 1634 and Montreal in 1642. Those two settlements, along with Quebec, would become the three small urban centers of a slowly growing New France. The original focus of New France and Louisiana was the fur trade. The French government also made modest efforts to encourage migrants to settle for the purpose of farming, in order to establish self-sufficiency. The original political, religious, and social structures of New France were taken from those of early modern and medieval France, partly rooted in that nation’s feudal institutions, practices, and structures. The original seigneural system for land distribution was taken from the feudal system of land tenure in France. As part of this system seigneurs held title to landed estates. The lands of these estates were distributed to settlers, known as habitants, for the purpose of farming. Remnants of this system survived into the nineteenth century. The fur trade required the French colonists to interact with indigenous peoples of the region, both through diplomacy and warfare. The fur traders, settlers, missionaries, and government officials of New France developed a complex set of relationships with these people that were shaped by assorted and antagonistic interests. Their first interactions were with the Huron and the Iroquois. By the mid-seventeenth century the withdrawal of the Huron and Iroquois from the St. Lawrence River valley opened new opportunities for French immigrants in the fur trade and farming. Regardless, the colonial population continued to grow slowly because of the distance of the colony from France, the climate, and the perception of limited economic opportunities. During the 1660s New France experienced a significant improvement in fortunes when Louis XIV made this colony a priority in his pursuit of an expanding French global empire. Louis XIV and his chief, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, saw French colonies in terms of how they could benefit France, as part of the ideology of mercantilism. Louis and Colbert made the organization of an effective colonial government in New France a priority. New France now received more of the attention and resources it needed to grow and develop, including its placement under the authority of the Department of the Marine. However, even with this new attention to its development, New France continued to grow slowly during the rest of the seventeenth century and into the first half of the eighteenth century. Maturation of New France During the first half of the eighteenth century, specifically between the Wars of the Spanish and the Austrian Succession, 1713 – 1744, New France matured as a colonial society. A number of Canadian historians have characterized it as a golden age. During this period the economy of New France expanded unevenly, largely as a result of the relative peace between the British and French North American colonies, as well as between Britain and France around the world. French economic expansion and relative prosperity during the first half of the eighteenth century was grounded in mercantilism. The French government valued New France, among the other French colonies, for its natural resources and as markets for manufactured goods, above and largely to the exclusion of all else. In the mercantilist economies of the eighteenth-century European empires, raw materials and markets were all that mattered, notwithstanding any lip service paid to the Christian missionary impulse. During this period the culture of New France did not so much mature as blossom, fed by population growth and the new wealth generated, which led to economic growth and prosperity. This maturation of New France, from the early eighteenth century, was marked by the continuity of economic, political, religious, and social institutions and practices from early modern and medieval France; the militarization of New France as a necessary response to the threat of English conquest and Iroquois hostility; and the economic opportunities afforded by the resources of New France. Louisiana The French government established the second French North American colony, Louisiana, in 1682. The axis of this colony was the Mississippi River, explored extensively by Robert de La Salle as part of the events leading to the establishment. In a number of ways, Louisiana was an extension of New France to the north. As with New France the fur trade was the initial economic engine of Louisiana. Coureurs des bois—French traders—drove the development of this trade. Louisiana grew even more slowly than New France, being more difficult to reach for potential French colonists and possessing fewer visible economic incentives. Fewer than ten thousand European immigrants settled in French Louisiana during the eighteenth century. Most of these lived in New Orleans, the colony’s most populous city, or other settlements along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. French colonial society in French Louisiana did not mature beyond these scattered and mostly small settlements that punctuated these river valleys. Consequently, this French Louisiana colonial society was mostly what the French settlers had brought with them from France. This French colonial culture did not have much time to interact and merge with indigenous and African cultural elements before French Louisiana was divided by the Spanish and the British as part of the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the 1754-61 war between them, also known as the French and Indian War. The End of New France and Louisiana One of the key factors in France’s loss of its North American colonies was the small population of each colony, most of whom lived along the Mississippi and St. Lawrence Rivers, and their tributaries. While the French government claimed hundreds of thousands of square kilometers on both sides of each river, the population of both, at the time that France lost them in the 1763 Treaty of Paris, was less than 100,000; on the other hand, the population of the British colonies along the Atlantic coast was over a million. French settlers in these two colonies were spread out in a number of small settlements, punctuated by a few larger settlements—such as Montreal, New Orleans, and Quebec—which would evolve into large cities beginning in the nineteenth century. Regardless of a colonial population of nearly 100,000 French subjects, the French government ultimately saw New France and Louisiana as little more than defensive and offensive bastions in the military struggle for North America and pawns or chips in the peacemaking process that concluded each war. By the late seventeenth century, the British, the French, and the Spanish vied for control of various parts of present-day Canada and the United States, outside of Alaska. The colonial struggle between Britain and France, also known as the Second Hundred Years War, was punctuated by four wars, concluding with the French and Indian War. With the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the French and Indian War, New France and Louisiana became part of the British and Spanish North American empires. By which ever name, the residents of this area have struggled to find their place ever since the British annexation. With respect to the fate of French Louisiana the 1763 treaty divided this colony along the Mississippi River between the Spanish west of the river and the British east of the river. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries this dividing line along the Mississippi River continued to be significant in international diplomacy with the 1783 Treaty of Paris that established the Mississippi as the western border of the new United States, as well as the 1803 Louisiana Purchase by which the U.S. acquired much of what France had claimed as Louisiana. As the French colonial presence along the Mississippi River was sparse in 1763, descendants of these French subjects adapted to and/or embraced the dominant U.S. culture with the advance of U.S. settlement during the nineteenth century. French Colonies in the Caribbean Sea and South America Along with colonies in North America, the French also established a number of colonies among the Winward Islands along the eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea and one on the northern edge of South America. The French colonies in the Caribbean Sea were smaller geographically than other colonies, but proportionately more profitable because of staple crops, such as sugar and tobacco grown on these islands. Accordingly, these Caribbean and South American colonies also garnered more attention and resources from the French government. The French began settling the Caribbean during the early seventeenth century. They were part of the same European imperial competition then occurring in the Americas. The French established settlements on a crescent-shaped chain of islands in the eastern Caribbean, running from the northern crown of South America to Puerto Rico. The French also settled the western half of the island of Hispaniola. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a small elite group of slaveholding plantation owners came to control these French possessions, emerging as major players in France’s developing global colonial empire. France’s single colony in South America, Guyane, located on the northern crown of that continent, was also dominated by a sugar plantation economy, but it enjoyed only modest development and prosperity as measured by the mercantilist standards of the time. Learning Objectives - Analyze the differences in how Europeans established different colonial models in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds. - Compare and contrast the Spanish, French, Dutch, English, and Portuguese colonial systems. Key Terms / Key Concepts New France: first French colony in North America, established along the St. Lawrence River Louisiana: second French colony in North America, established along the Mississippi River Middle Passage - the voyage across the Atlantic from Africa to the Americas, comprised the middle leg of the trans- Atlantic slave trade Slavery in the French America and Caribbean Colonies Geography, climate, and staple crops dictated where European colonists embraced slavery in the Americas and the Caribbean Sea. While it existed only marginally in New France and Louisiana, slavery thrived in the French Caribbean, and, to a lesser extent, in Guyane. French slavery in the western hemisphere was part of the slaveholding system of the Atlantic World. The majority of the slave labor was to make sugar. This is very intensive work, and the French began to important more and more slaves to meet this demand. As part of this system Europeans purchased slaves along the west coast of Africa, likely over twelve million between 1400 and 1800. These slaves then endured the horrific Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean islands, South America, and, to a lesser extent, North America. It is here that African and European cultures began to mix together as can be seen by language, religion, and food cultures. For example, the vudu is a combination of indigenous African religions and Catholicism This blending of African and European cultures is one that was very different than their original cultures. Slaves who ended up in the French Caribbean and Guyane helped to shape the cultures of the western hemisphere, a role largely unrecognized by European and European-American historians until the twentieth century. These slaves brought their own cultures with them, which combined with European and indigenous cultural influences and formed the new cultures of the western hemisphere. While European settlers and European-Americans controlled the underlying processes by which these cultures evolved and matured, they could not exclude the African and African-American cultural presence of the peoples they had enslaved. These African cultural influences are still present in the Caribbean islands settled French colonists. Legacies of the French Colonial Presence in the Americas and the Caribbean While the French had lost their North American colonies by the late eighteenth century, and their possessions in South America and the Caribbean had become imperially insignificant by the end of the nineteenth century, the French colonial presence left its mark on the western hemisphere. Most visible is the French-Canadian province of Quebec, an evolved culture of the original New France culture, influenced as it has been with the surrounding Anglo-Canadian culture. French linguistic culture is also present in the various Caribbean islands on which the French founded colonial settlements. This French presence in the western hemisphere, while overshadowed by the English and Spanish cultural presence, has added to the diversity in the Americas and the Caribbean. Attributions Licenses and Attributions CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Curation and Revision. Provided by: Boundless.com. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION - Title Image - 1699 Quebec print. Attribution: Charles Bécart de Fonville (1675-1703), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Provided by: Wikipedia. Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vue_de_Qu%C3%A9bec_en_1699_avec_l%C3%A9gende_sur_les_quartiers.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - Age of Discovery. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - Mercantilism. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - French colonization of the Americas. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - New France. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - French colonial empire. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - Sovereign Council of New France. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - Carib Expulsion. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - 1024px-Nouvelle-France_map-en.svg.png. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - Cartier.png. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.174008	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87887/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Making of Early Modern World 1450-1700 CE, Chapter 6: Exploration, French Colonies in the Americas and the Caribbean Sea", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87868/overview	English Civil War Overview Background to the English Civil War England in the early modern period was a region of intense political, religious, cultural, and social divisions. One of the most significant difficulties for the country was the newly established Protestantism of Henry VIII that created many internal divisions. These divisions coupled with a newly growing group with political power, brought intensity to the conflicts throughout the period. With the rise of the Stuart Dynasty, a new king from Scotland brought new divisions. These deep fissures would eventually crack, causing the English Civil War. In many ways, the English Civil War can be seen as an extension of the Thirty Years War that ravaged Europe during the 17th century. The result was a complete change in England’s political and cultural landscape. Learning Objectives - Analyze how the Tudor and the Stuart Dynasties affected the political and economic worlds of England. - Evaluate the impact of the English Civil War on English culture and society. - Evaluate how the English Civil War related to the other Protestant Reformation problems of the period. Key Terms / Key Concepts Gunpowder Plot: a failed assassination attempt in 1605 against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby; a plan to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of England’s Parliament on November 5, 1605 King James I: Stuart King of England after Queen Elizabeth I, and King of Scotland, during the early seventeenth century England Following the Tudor Dynasty When Queen Elizabeth I died without an heir, James VI, her cousin, and King of Scots, succeeded her to the throne of England as King James I in 1603. This united Scotland and England under one monarch. He was the first of the Stuart dynasty to rule Scotland and England. He, and his son and successor, Charles I of England, reigned England during a period in which there were escalating conflicts with the English Parliament. One of the key problems that the new king James faced, was the growth of a middle class in England that was powerful enough to have political power. The middle class growth that arose from trade and mercantilism, had enough capital that they could be seated in Parliament. This meant that James’ political fortunes were linked to his success in getting the middle class Protestants to follow his ideas. To make matters more difficult for James, he was a Protestant yet he was not a member of the Church of England. This would lead to deeper divisions between James and the Anglican middle class in Parliament. James I and the English Parliament James developed his philosophy about the relationship between monarch and parliament in Scotland, and never reconciled himself to the independent stance of the English Parliament and its unwillingness to bow readily to his policies. It was essential that both the King and Parliament understood their relationship in the same manner. Yet, this goal fell short under the new king. James I believed that he owed his superior authority to God-given right, while Parliament believed the king ruled by contract (an unwritten one, yet fully binding) and that its own rights were equal to those of the king. This set King James I and Parliament on a collision course. One of the central divisions was the position of political power in England. On the eve of the state opening of the parliamentary session on November 5, 1605, a soldier called Guy Fawkes was discovered in the cellars of the parliament buildings guarding about twenty barrels of gunpowder with which he intended to blow up Parliament House the following day. A Catholic conspiracy led by Robert Catesby, the Gunpowder Plot, as it quickly became known, had in fact been discovered in advance of Fawkes’s arrest and deliberately allowed to mature in order to catch the culprits red-handed and the plotters unawares. By the 1620s, events on the continent had escalated anti-Catholic sentiment in England. A conflict had broken out between the Catholic Holy Roman Empire and the Protestant Bohemians, who had deposed the emperor and elected James’s son-in-law, Frederick V, triggering the Thirty Years’ War. James reluctantly summoned Parliament to raise the funds necessary to assist his daughter Elizabeth and Frederick, who had been ousted from Prague by Emperor Ferdinand II in 1620. Parliament's House of Commons granted subsidies inadequate to finance serious military operations in aid of Frederick, but called for a war directly against Spain. In response to these measures, James flatly told them not to interfere in matters of royal prerogative and dissolved Parliament. The failed attempt to marry Prince Charles with the Catholic Spanish princess Maria, which both the Parliament and the public strongly opposed, was followed by even stronger anti-Catholic sentiment in the Commons that was finally echoed in court. The outcome of the Parliament of 1624 was ambiguous; James still refused to declare war, but Charles believed the Commons had committed themselves to finance a war against Spain, a position that contributed to his problems with Parliament. Charles I & Parliament King James I's reign proved fraught with tension, despite its successes in establishing English colonies in the New World. Time and again, the new king had butted heads with Parliament. But under James' successor and heir, King Charles I, England would plunge into chaos and discontent that culminated in civil war, and the new monarch's head on a chopping block. Key Terms / Key Concepts Charles I: Stuart king of England during the first half of the seventeenth century Thirty Years’ War: a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648 Long Parliament: an English Parliament that lasted from 1640 until 1660 habeas corpus: a legal action whereby a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment before a court, usually through a prison official Tonnage and Poundage: certain duties and taxes on every tun (cask) of imported wine, and on every pound weight of merchandise exported or imported Petition of Right: a major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties and rights of the subjects that the king is prohibited from infringing eleven years’ tyranny: the period from 1629 to 1640, when King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland ruled without accountability to Parliament Charles I and the English Parliament In 1625, Charles married French princess Henrietta Maria. Many members of the lower house of Parliament were opposed to the king’s marriage to a Roman Catholic. Although Charles told Parliament that he would not relax religious restrictions, he promised King Louis XIII of France, that he would do exactly that when Charles married his Catholic daughter, Henrietta Maria. The treaty placed an English naval force under French control with the purpose of suppressing the Protestant Huguenots at La Rochelle. Charles was crowned in 1626 at Westminster Abbey without his Catholic wife at his side because she refused to participate in a Protestant religious ceremony. In January 1629, Charles opened the second session of the English Parliament. Members of the House of Commons began to voice opposition to Charles’s policies. Many members of Parliament viewed the imposition of taxes as a breach of the Petition of Right. When Charles ordered a parliamentary adjournment on March 2, members held the Speaker down in his chair so that the ending of the session could be delayed long enough for various resolutions, including Anti-Catholic and tax-regulating laws. The provocation was too much for Charles, who dissolved Parliament. Shortly after the prorogation, without the means in the foreseeable future to raise funds from Parliament for a European war, Charles made peace with France and Spain. The following eleven years, during which Charles ruled England without a Parliament, are referred to as the “personal rule” or the eleven years' tyranny. The Long Parliament, which assembled in the aftermath of the personal rule, started in 1640 and quickly began proceedings to impeach the king’s leading counselors for high treason. To prevent the king from dissolving it at will, Parliament passed the Triennial Act, which required Parliament to be summoned at least once every three years, and permitted the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and twelve peers to summon Parliament if the king failed to do so. The tensions between Parliament and Charles began to escalate and would eventually erupt in war. Charles I and the Power to Tax Charles I’s attempt to impose taxes not authorized by Parliament contributed to the ongoing conflict between the king and Parliament and eventually resulted in the passing of the 1628 Petition of Right. Charles I of England and the English Parliament Charles demanded over £700,000 to assist in helping fight the European war. The House of Commons refused and instead passed two bills granting him only £112,000. In addition, rather than renewing the customs due from Tonnage and Poundage for the entire life of the monarch, which was traditional, the Commons only voted them in for one year. Because of this, the House of Lords rejected the bill, leaving Charles without any money to provide to the war effort. After the Commons continued to refuse to provide money, Charles dissolved Parliament. By 1627, with England still at war, Charles decided to raise “forced loans,” or taxes not authorized by Parliament. Anyone who refused to pay would be imprisoned without trial, and if they resisted, would be sent before the Privy Council. Although the judiciary initially refused to endorse these loans, they succumbed to pressure. While Charles continued to demand the loans, more and more wealthy landowners refused to pay, reducing the income from the loans and necessitating a new Parliament being called in 1627. Martial Law To cope with the ongoing war situation, Charles had introduced martial law to large swathes of the country, and in 1627 to the entire nation. Crucially, martial law as then understood was not a form of substantive law, but instead a suspension of the rule of law. It was the replacement of normal statutes with a law based on the whims of the local military commander. However, Charles decided that the only way to prosecute the war was to again ask Parliament for money, and Parliament assembled in 1628. As a result, a series of Parliamentary declarations known as the Resolutions were prepared after tense debates. They held that imprisonment was illegal, except under law; habeas corpus should be granted to anyone, whether they are imprisoned by the king or the Privy Council; defendants could not be remanded in custody until the crime they were charged with was shown; and non-parliamentary taxation such as the forced loans was illegal. The Resolutions were unanimously accepted by the Commons in April, but they met a mixed reception at the House of Lords, and Charles refused to accept them. Tensions between Parliament and Charles increased throughout the 1628 period. Parliament debated on Resolutions, but these ultimately failed because of the tensions between the executive and legislative branches over who had more political power. Leading ultimately to the Petition of Rights. This measure was the basis of the constitutional monarchy, where the king’s power is checked by Parliament. Charles was not happy about the passing of this bill. With increasing zeal, he attacked the bill, unaware that his unpopularity escalated dangerously. Having dissolved Parliament in 1627 after it did not meet the king’s requirements and threatened his political allies, but unable to raise money without it, Charles assembled a new one in 1628. The new Parliament drew up the Petition of Right, and Charles accepted it as a concession in order to obtain his subsidy. The Petition did not grant him the right of tonnage and poundage, which Charles had been collecting without parliamentary authorization since 1625. Charles I avoided calling a Parliament for the next decade, a period known as the “personal rule” or the “eleven years’ tyranny.” During this period, Charles’s lack of money determined policies. First and foremost, to avoid Parliament, the king needed to avoid war. Charles made peace with France and Spain, effectively ending England’s involvement in the Thirty Years' War. Charles finally bowed to pressure and summoned another English Parliament in November 1640. Known as the Long Parliament, it proved even more hostile to Charles than its predecessor and passed a law that stated that a new Parliament should convene at least once every three years—without the king’s summons, if necessary. Other laws passed by the Parliament made it illegal for the king to impose taxes without parliamentary consent and later gave Parliament control over the king’s ministers. Finally, the Parliament passed a law forbidding the king to dissolve it without its consent, even if the three years were up. Charles and his supporters continued to resent Parliament’s demands, while Parliamentarians continued to suspect Charles of wanting to impose Episcopalianism and unchallenged royal authority by military force. Within months, the Irish Catholics, fearing a resurgence of Protestant power, struck first, and all of Ireland soon descended into chaos. In early January 1642, accompanied by 400 soldiers, Charles attempted to arrest five members of the House of Commons on a charge of treason but failed to do so. A few days after this failure, fearing for the safety of his family and retinue, Charles left the London area for the north of the country. Further negotiations by frequent correspondence between the king and the Long Parliament proved fruitless. As the summer progressed, cities and towns declared their sympathies for one faction or the other. The English Civil War and Aftermath Although the English Civil War began in 1642, it was the second war within the English Civil War that proved the critical turning point in English History. In 1648, the Parliamentarians (Roundheads) claimed victory against the Royalist Cavaliers. Parliament became controlled largely by the Rump Parliament comprised primarily of extremists who supported Parliament over the king. Among the most important, if also unlikely, figures to arise from the chaos was Oliver Cromwell--an extremist himself renowned for his position as second-in-command of the New Model Army. With the Cavaliers' defeat, and Parliament in the hands of extremists, King Charles I's fate was sealed by the end of 1648. In January 1649, England executed its king as a traitor and established a commonwealth. Key Terms / Key Concepts English Civil War: a series of three major military and political wars from 1642-51 between the Royalist "Cavaliers" and the Parliamentary forces, the "Roundheads" Roundheads: the name given to the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War Cavaliers: a name first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier male Royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration The Trial of Charles I: in January 1649, a poorly-constructed trial l with little legal foundation used to justify King Charles' execution Oliver Cromwell: military commander in the New Model Army and extreme supporter of the Parliamentarians who helped establish the Commonwealth of England after the execution of Charles I New Model Army: an army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War and disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration Rump Parliament: members of English Parliament in late 1648-1649 who strongly supported the execution of King Charles I on charges of treason; among them was Oliver Cromwell Commonwealth of England: period in English history (1649-1660) in which England, Scotland, and Ireland were ruled by Oliver Cromwell and his successor The English Civil War Overview The English Civil War erupted over Charles' policies in 1642. Very quickly, it developed into a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers). The first war, (1642–1646) and second (1648–1649) wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649–1651) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II (Charles I’s son) and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The war ended with the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on September 3, 1651. The overall outcome of the war was threefold: the trial of Charles I, the exile of Charles II, and the replacement of English monarchy with, at first, the Commonwealth of England (1649–1653), and then the Protectorate (1653–1659) under Oliver Cromwell’s personal rule. The monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England ended with the victors consolidating the established Protestantism in Ireland. Constitutionally, the wars established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without Parliament’s consent. The Trial and Execution of Charles I Charles I was not entirely ignorant of the growing threats the Parliamentarian forces posed to him and his family. Several times, he attempted to escape and moved from city to city for safety. In 1645, he sent his son, Charles II, to France where his mother was waiting for him. For King Charles I, though, escape from England proved far more challenging and his attempts to flee the country were thwarted. The second major war within the English Civil War ended in a victory for the Parliamentarians, and Oliver Cromwell's rising star, in 1648. That victory, and the fact that members of the Rump Parliament were now largely in charge of executive and legislative decisions, led to the decision for the trial of Charles I. On January 1, 1649 the Rump Parliament charged King Charles I of committing acts of tyrannical violence against his own subjects. Therefore, they accused him a tyrant and also guilty of treason. The declaration polarized politicians. A special court, the High Court of Justice, was established for the purpose of trying the king. As the proceedings began, though, many of the members of the court found the proceedings too extreme and controversial and resigned. Those who remained were members loyal to the Parliamentarians. The trial began on January 20, 1649 and lasted six days. On the sixth day, the members of the court found Charles Stuart guilty of being a "tyrant, traitor, murderer and enemy of the Commonwealth of England." The next day, Charles was led from court to await his execution. On Tuesday, January 30, Charles prayed with Bishop Juxon until 10:00 in the morning. He was then dressed in an extra shirt to save him from shivering from the frigid weather. After three hours of waiting in his chambers, Charles and the bishop walked to Whitehall, where a low-lying chopping block was assembled. Charles reportedly prayed, and said, "I go from a corruptible crown to an incorruptible crown; where no disturbance can be; no disturbance in the world." A few minutes later, the execution severed Charles' head with a single ax blow before an assembled crowd. After the death of Charles, Oliver Cromwell established the Commonwealth of England and later became its Lord Protector. Oliver Cromwell’s Rise Oliver Cromwell was relatively obscure for the first forty years of his life. He was an intensely religious man (an Independent Puritan) who entered the English Civil War on the side of the “Roundheads,” or Parliamentarians. Nicknamed “Old Ironsides,” he was quickly promoted from leading a single cavalry troop to being one of the principal commanders of the New Model Army, playing an important role in the defeat of the royalist forces. Cromwell was one of the signatories of King Charles I’s death warrant in 1649, and he dominated the short-lived Commonwealth of England as a member of the Rump Parliament (1649–1653). He was selected to take command of the English campaign in Ireland in 1649–1650. His forces defeated the Confederate and Royalist coalition in Ireland and occupied the country, bringing an end to the Irish Confederate Wars. During this period, a series of laws were passed against Roman Catholics (a significant minority in England and Scotland but the vast majority in Ireland), and a substantial amount of their land was confiscated. Cromwell also led a campaign against the Scottish army between 1650 and 1651. In April 1653, he dismissed the Rump Parliament by force, setting up a short-lived nominated assembly known as Barebone’s Parliament, before being invited by his fellow leaders to rule as Lord Protector of England (which included Wales at the time), Scotland, and Ireland from December 1653. As a ruler, he executed an aggressive and effective foreign policy. He died from natural causes in 1658 and the Royalists returned to power in 1660, and they had his corpse dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded. Cromwell is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the British Isles, considered a regicidal dictator, a military dictator, and a hero of liberty. However, his measures against Catholics in Scotland and Ireland have been characterized as genocidal or near-genocidal, and in Ireland, his record is harshly criticized. The English Protectorate Despite the revolutionary nature of the government during the Protectorate, Cromwell’s regime was marked by an aggressive foreign policy, no drastic reforms at home, and difficult relations with Parliament, which in the end made it increasingly similar to monarchy. The Commonwealth of England The Commonwealth of England was the period when England, later along with Ireland and Scotland, was ruled as a republic following the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execution of Charles I (1649). The republic’s existence was declared by the Rump Parliament on May 19, 1649. Power in the early Commonwealth was vested primarily in the Parliament and a Council of State. During this period, fighting continued, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, between the parliamentary forces and those opposed to them, as part of what is now referred to as the Third English Civil War. In 1653, after the forcible dissolution of the Rump Parliament, Oliver Cromwell was declared Lord Protector of a united Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland under the terms of the period now usually known as the Protectorate. The term “Commonwealth” is sometimes used for the whole of 1649 to 1660, although for other historians, the use of the term is limited to the years prior to Cromwell’s formal assumption of power in 1653. The Protectorate The Protectorate was the period during the Commonwealth when England (which at that time included Wales), Ireland, and Scotland were governed by a Lord Protector. The Protectorate began in 1653 when, following the dissolution of the Rump Parliament and then Barebone’s Parliament, Oliver Cromwell was appointed Lord Protector of the Commonwealth under the terms of the Instrument of Government. Cromwell had two key objectives as Lord Protector. The first was “healing and settling” the nation after the chaos of the civil wars and the regicide. The social priorities did not, despite the revolutionary nature of the government, include any meaningful attempt to reform the social order. He was also careful in the way he approached overseas colonies. England’s American colonies in this period consisted of the New England Confederation, the Providence Plantation, the Virginia Colony, and the Maryland Colony. Cromwell soon secured the submission of these, but largely left them to their own affairs. His second objective was spiritual and moral reform. As a very religious man (Independent Puritan), he aimed to restore liberty of conscience and promote both outward and inward godliness throughout England. The latter translated into rigid religious laws (e.g., compulsory church attendance). The first Protectorate parliament met in September 1654, and after some initial gestures approving appointments previously made by Cromwell, began to work on a moderate program of constitutional reform. Rather than opposing Parliament’s bill, Cromwell dissolved them in January 1655. After a royalist uprising led by Sir John Penruddock, Cromwell divided England into military districts ruled by Army Major-Generals who answered only to him. The fifteen major generals and deputy major generals—called “godly governors”—were central not only to national security, but also to Cromwell’s moral crusade. However, the major-generals lasted less than a year. Cromwell’s failure to support his men, by sacrificing them to his opponents, caused their demise. Their activities between November 1655 and September 1656 had, nonetheless, reopened the wounds of the 1640s and deepened antipathies to the regime. During this period Cromwell also faced challenges in foreign policy. The First Anglo-Dutch War, which had broken out in 1652, against the Dutch Republic, was eventually won in 1654. Having negotiated peace with the Dutch, Cromwell proceeded to engage the Spanish in warfare. This involved secret preparations for an attack on the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and resulted in the invasion of Jamaica, which then became an English colony. The Lord Protector also became aware of the contribution the Jewish community made to the economic success of Holland, then England’s leading commercial rival. This led to his encouraging Jews to return to England, 350 years after their banishment by Edward I, in the hope that they would help speed up the recovery of the country after the disruption of the English Civil War. In 1657, Oliver Cromwell rejected the offer of the Crown presented to him by Parliament and was ceremonially re-installed as Lord Protector, this time with greater powers than had previously been granted him under this title. Most notably, however, the office of Lord Protector was still not to become hereditary, though Cromwell was now able to nominate his own successor. Cromwell’s new rights and powers were laid out in the Humble Petition and Advice, a legislative instrument that replaced the Instrument of Government. Despite failing to restore the Crown, this new constitution did set up many of the vestiges of the ancient constitution, including a house of life peers (in place of the House of Lords). In the Humble Petition, it was called the “Other House,” as the Commons could not agree on a suitable name. Furthermore, Oliver Cromwell increasingly took on more of the trappings of monarchy. Cromwell's Death and Legacy Cromwell died of natural causes in 1658, and his son Richard succeeded as Lord Protector. Richard sought to expand the basis for the Protectorate beyond the army to civilians. He summoned a Parliament in 1659. However, the republicans assessed his father’s rule as “a period of tyranny and economic depression” and attacked the increasingly monarchy-like character of the Protectorate. Richard was unable to manage the Parliament and control the army. In May, a Committee of Safety was formed on the authority of the Rump Parliament, removing the Protector’s Council of State, and was in turn replaced by a new Council of State. A year later monarchy was restored. In 1661, Oliver Cromwell's body was exhumed. Royalists hung the body in chains in Tyburn, London, before throwing it into a pit and then severing the head. Cromwell's head was then stuck atop a spike outside Westminster Hall until 1685, and later sold to various owners until the mid-twentieth century. Cromwell is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the British Isles, considered a regicidal dictator or a military dictator by some and a hero of liberty by others. His measures against Catholics in Scotland and Ireland have been characterized as genocidal or near-genocidal, and in Ireland his record is harshly criticized. Following the Irish Rebellion of 1641, most of Ireland came under the control of the Irish Catholic Confederation. In early 1649, the Confederates allied with the English Royalists, who had been defeated by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War. By May 1652, Cromwell’s Parliamentarian army had defeated the Confederate and Royalist coalition in Ireland and occupied the country—bringing an end to the Irish Confederate Wars (or Eleven Years’ War). However, guerrilla warfare continued for another year. Cromwell passed a series of Penal Laws against Roman Catholics (the vast majority of the population) and confiscated large amounts of their land. The extent to which Cromwell, who was in direct command for the first year of the campaign, was responsible for brutal atrocities in Ireland is debated to this day. Restoration of the Stuarts Over a decade after Charles I’s 1649 execution and Charles II’s 1651 escape to mainland Europe, the Stuarts were restored to the English throne by Royalists in the aftermath of the slow fall of the Protectorate. For those who had remained loyal to King Charles I, they would find a new champion in his son, King Charles II. Attributions Images from Wikimedia Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/The_Execution_of_Charles_I_of_England.jpg Text modified from Boundless: https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-worldhistory/protestantism/ Historic Royal Places. "The Execution of Charles I." https://www.hrp.org.uk/banqueting-house/history-and-stories/the-execution-of-charles-i/ British Civil Wars, Commonwealth, and Protectorate Project: 1638-1660. "The Trial of King Charles I." http://bcw-project.org/church-and-state/the-commonwealth/trial-of-king-charles-i	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.218400	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87868/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Making of Early Modern World 1450-1700 CE, Chapter 5: Europe, English Civil War", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87867/overview	French Wars of Religion Overview French Wars of Religion In France, the Protestant Reformation resulted in a civil war between Protestants and Roman Catholics, known as the French Wars of Religion. These wars occurred within the context of the political and religious conflicts that were part of the Protestant Reformation. These wars generated political instability in France and advances and well as reverses in the acquisition of limited religious liberties by French Protestants known as Huguenots. Learning Objectives - Discuss the topic of religious conflict as a result of the Reformation: the wars of religion in France from 1562–98. Key Terms / Key Concepts Edict of Nantes: a grant of limited religious liberty to Huguenots in predominantly Catholic France by Henry IV of France on April 13, 1598, within the context of the Protestant Reformation Huguenots: members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries; inspired by the writings of John Calvin Real Presence: a term used in various Christian traditions to express belief that in the Eucharist Jesus Christ is really present in what was previously just bread and wine, and not merely present in symbol St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre - a series of assassinations targeting Huguenots, along with Catholic mob violence against Huguenots in August 1572, occuring in the context of the French Wars of Religion War of the Three Henrys (1587-1589) - war over which of three candidates would ascend to the French throne, instigated by Spain within the context of the political and religious conflicts of the Protestant Reformation French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion (1562 – 1598) is the name of a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily between French Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). The conflict involved factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and the House of Guise, and both sides received assistance from foreign sources. The exact number of wars and their respective dates are the subject of continued debate by historians. Some assert that the Edict of Nantes in 1598 concluded the wars; however, a resurgence of rebellious activity following this edict, which leads some to believe the Peace of Alais in 1629 is the actual conclusion. However, the Massacre of Vassy in 1562 is agreed to have begun the Wars of Religion; up to a hundred Huguenots were killed in this massacre. During the wars, complex diplomatic negotiations and agreements of peace were followed by renewed conflict and power struggles. Between 2,000,000 and 4,000,000 people were killed as a result of war, famine, and disease. And at the conclusion of the conflict in 1598, Huguenots were granted substantial rights and freedoms by the Edict of Nantes, though it did not end hostility towards them. The wars weakened the authority of the monarchy, already fragile under the rule of Francis II and then Charles IX, though the monarchy later reaffirmed its role under Henry IV. Introduction of Protestantism Protestant ideas were first introduced to France during the reign of Francis I (1515 – 1547) in the form of Lutheranism—the teachings of Martin Luther—and circulated unimpeded for more than a year around Paris. Although Francis firmly opposed heresy, the difficulty was initially in recognizing what constituted it because Catholic doctrine and definition of orthodox belief was unclear. Francis I tried to steer a middle course as an alternative to the developing religious schism in France. Calvinism, a form of Protestant religion, was introduced by John Calvin, who was born in Noyon, Picardy, in 1509, and fled France in 1536 after the Affair of the Placards. Calvinism in particular appears to have developed with large support from the nobility. It is believed to have started with Louis Bourbon, Prince of Condé, who, while returning home to France from a military campaign, passed through Geneva, Switzerland, and heard a sermon by a Calvinist preacher. Later, Louis Bourbon would become a major figure among the Huguenots of France. In 1560, Jeanne d’Albret, Queen regnant of Navarre, converted to Calvinism possibly due to the influence of Theodore de Beze. She later married Antoine de Bourbon, and their son Henry of Navarre would be a leader among the Huguenots. Affair of the Placards Francis I continued his policy of seeking a middle course in the religious rift in France until an incident called the Affair of the Placards. The Affair of the Placards began in 1534 when Protestants started putting up anti-Catholic posters. The posters were extreme in their anti-Catholic content—specifically, the absolute rejection of the Catholic doctrine of “Real Presence.” Protestantism became identified as “a religion of rebels,” helping the Catholic Church to more easily define Protestantism as heresy. In the wake of the posters, the French monarchy took a harder stand against the protesters. Francis I had been severely criticized for his initial tolerance towards Protestants, and after the Affair was encouraged to repress them. Tensions Mount King Francis I died on March 31, 1547. He was succeeded to the throne by his son Henry II. Henry II continued the harsh religious policy that his father had followed during the last years of his reign. In 1551, Henry issued the Edict of Châteaubriant, which sharply curtailed Protestant rights to worship, assemble, or even discuss religion at work, in the fields, or over a meal. During the 1550s, an organized influx of Calvinist preachers from Geneva and elsewhere succeeded in setting up hundreds of underground Calvinist congregations in France. This underground Calvinist preaching (which was also seen in the Netherlands and Scotland) allowed for the formation of covert alliances with members of the nobility and quickly led to more direct action to gain political and religious control. As the Huguenots gained influence and displayed their faith more openly, Roman Catholic hostility grew toward them, even though the French crown offered increasingly liberal political concessions and edicts of toleration. However, these measures disguised the growing tensions between Protestants and Catholics. The Eight Wars of Religion These tensions spurred eight civil wars, interrupted by periods of relative calm, between 1562 and 1598. With each break in peace, the Huguenots’ trust in the Catholic throne diminished; the violence became more severe; and Protestant demands became grander. A lasting cessation of open hostility did not occur until 1598. The wars gradually took on a dynastic character, developing into an extended feud between the Houses of Bourbon and Guise, both of which—in addition to holding rival religious views—staked a claim to the French throne. The crown, occupied by the House of Valois, generally supported the Catholic side, but on occasion switched over to the Protestant cause whenever it was politically expedient. St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre One of the most infamous events of the Wars of Religion was the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, when Catholics killed thousands of Huguenots in Paris. The massacre began on the night of August 23, 1572 (the eve of the feast of Bartholomew the Apostle) and two days after the attempted assassination of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny—the military and political leader of the Huguenots. The king ordered the killing of a group of Huguenots leaders, including Coligny, and the slaughter spread throughout Paris and beyond. The exact number of fatalities throughout the country is not known, but estimates are that between about 2,000 and 3,000 Protestants were killed in Paris, and between 3,000 and 7,000 more in the French provinces. Similar massacres took place in other towns in the weeks following. By September 17, almost 25,000 Protestants had been massacred in Paris alone. Outside of Paris, the killings continued until October 3. An amnesty granted in 1573 pardoned the perpetrators. The massacre also marked a turning point in the French Wars of Religion. The Huguenots political movement was crippled by the loss of many of its prominent aristocratic leaders, as well as many re-conversions by the rank and file, and those who remained were increasingly radicalized. War of the Three Henrys The War of the Three Henrys (1587 – 1589) was the eighth and final conflict in the series of civil wars in France known as the Wars of Religion. It was a three-way war fought between: - King Henry III of France, a son of Henry II who had no children of his own, supported by the royalists and the politiques; - King Henry of Navarre, leader of the Huguenots, Henry III’s cousin, and heir-presumptive to the French throne, supported by Elizabeth I of England and the Protestant princes of Germany. - and Henry of Lorraine, Duke of Guise, leader of the Catholic League, funded and supported by Philip II of Spain. The war began when the Catholic League convinced King Henry III to issue an edict outlawing Protestantism and annulling Henry of Navarre’s right to the throne. For the first part of the war, the royalists and the Catholic League were uneasy allies against their common enemy, the Huguenots. Henry of Navarre sought foreign aid from the German princes and Elizabeth I of England. Henry III successfully prevented a union of the German and Swiss armies. The Swiss were his allies and had come to invade France to free him from subjection, but Henry III insisted that their invasion was not in his favor, but against him, forcing them to return home. In Paris, the glory of repelling the German and Swiss Protestants all fell to Henry, Duke of Guise. The king’s actions were viewed with contempt. People thought that the king had invited the Swiss to invade, paid them for coming, and sent them back again. The king, who had really performed the decisive part in the campaign, and expected to be honored for it, was astounded that public voice should thus declare against him. Open war erupted between the royalists and the Catholic League. Charles, Duke of Mayenne—Guise’s younger brother—then took over the leadership of the league, after Henry III assassinated Henry of Guise. Afterwards, it seemed that Henry III could not possibly resist his enemies. His power was effectively limited to Blois, Tours, and the surrounding districts. In these dark times the King of France finally reached out to his cousin and heir, the King of Navarre. Henry III declared that he would no longer allow Protestants to be called heretics, while the Protestants revived the strict principles of royalty and divine right. With their Roman Catholic enemies, ultra-Catholic and anti-royalist doctrines were closely associated, so on the side of the two kings the principles of tolerance and royalism were united. In July 1589, in the royal camp at Saint-Cloud, a Dominican monk named Jacques Clément gained an audience with Henry III and drove a long knife into his spleen. Clément was killed on the spot, taking with him the information of who, if anyone, had hired him. On his deathbed, Henry III called for Henry of Navarre, and begged him, in the name of statecraft, to become a Catholic, citing the brutal warfare that would ensue if he refused. He named Henry Navarre as his heir, and Navarre became Henry IV. Edict of Nantes Fighting continued between Henry IV and the Catholic League for almost a decade. The warfare was finally quelled in 1598 after Henry IV had recanted Protestantism in favor of Roman Catholicism, issued as the Edict of Nantes. The edict established Catholicism as the state religion of France but granted the Protestants equality with Catholics under the throne and a degree of religious and political freedom within their domains. The edict simultaneously protected Catholic interests by discouraging the founding of new Protestant churches in Catholic-controlled regions. With the proclamation of the Edict of Nantes, and the subsequent protection of Huguenot rights, pressure on the Protestants to leave France abated. In offering general freedom of conscience to individuals, the edict gave many specific concessions to the Protestants, such as amnesty and the reinstatement of their civil rights, including the right to work in any field or for the state and to bring grievances directly to the king. This marked the end of the religious wars that had afflicted France during the second half of the 16th century. Attributions Title Image The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre circa 1572. Attribution: Frans Hogenberg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Attribution: Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frans_Hogenberg,_The_St._Bartholomew%27s_Day_massacre,_circa_1572.jpg. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike. Licenses and Attributions Adapted from: - https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/protestantism/ - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Curation and Revision. Provided by: Boundless.com. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION History of Protestantism. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Protestant Reformation. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike John Calvin. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Council of Trent. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Indulgence. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Council of Trent Pasquale Cati. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright Ninety-five Theses. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike John_Calvin_by_Holbein.png. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinism#/media/File:John_Calvin_by_Holbein.png. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Huguenot. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike French Wars of Religion. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Massacre of Vassy. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Edict of Nantes. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Reformation and Division, 1530u20131558. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright. License terms: Standard YouTube license Francois Dubois 001. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright Witches. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright Matteson Examination of a Witch. Provided by: Wikipedia. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.268036	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87867/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Making of Early Modern World 1450-1700 CE, Chapter 5: Europe, French Wars of Religion", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87860/overview	Maya Overview Maya The Maya were among the first big empires of the ancient Meso-American peoples. They provided the foundation of different indigenous groups of the Meso-American populations. The Aztecs then built on to what the Mayans created. Learning Objectives Evaluate the differences between the Pre-Classical Period of the Mayan and the Mayan Classical Evaluate the impact of the environment on the Mayan peoples. Key Terms / Key Concepts stelae: Carved stones depicting rulers with heirogliphic texts describing their accomplishments. Copán: An important city that boasted some of the most complex architecture from the Classic period of Maya history Tzolkin: This 365-day solar calendar utilized the movement of Earth around the Sun to calculate the year. Mayapan: The cultural capital of the Maya culture during the Postclassic period. It was at its height between 1220 and 1440 CE. Yucatán: A geographic area in the south of modern day Mexico near Belize. The Pre-classic Period of the Maya The Preclassic period is the first of three periods in Mayan history, coming before the Classic and Postclassic periods. It extended from the emergence of the first settlements sometime between 2000 and 1500 BCE until 250 CE. The Preclassic period saw the rise of large-scale ceremonial architecture, writing, cities, and states. Many of the distinctive elements of Mesoamerican civilization can be traced back to this period, including the dominance of corn, the building of pyramids, human sacrifice, jaguar worship, the complex calendar, and many of the gods. Mayan language speakers most likely originated in the Chiapas-Guatamalan Highlands and dispersed from there. By around 2500–2000 BCE researchers can begin to trace the arc of Mayan-language settlements and culture in what is now southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. The peoples of the Central Mexican region had many groups of peoples that all influenced the Mayan populations. The trade and artwork demonstrate how many resources flowed throughout the region. The implementation of maize was important as the pre-Mayan population grew significantly throughout this period because this food was so important. Many of the villages were local food producers and this transition from hunter gatherer was a significant one for the pre-Mayan peoples. The Olmec were the important group that had important influence on the pre-Mayan groups, including art and religion. By the 1st millennium BCE, the formation of the pre-Mayan culture started to form the first Mayan city-state. The city-state developed a massive government and numerous monuments. Some of the biggest innovations in this first millennium BCE period was the development of a glyph-based writing system and the concept of the number zero. The development of writing and zero helped to create strong records and architectural wonders. The end of the pre-Mayan populations remains mostly a mystery today. The period of 100-250 CE saw significant climate shift towards a warmer period. This would have impacted the rains and irrigation of the Yucatàn Penninsula, directly creating problems for the populations and agricultural basis. The Classic Period of the Maya The Classic period lasted from 250 to 900 CE and was the peak of the Maya civilization. The Classic period lasted from 250 to 900 CE. It saw a peak in large-scale construction and urbanism, the recording of monumental inscriptions, and significant intellectual and artistic development, particularly in the southern lowland regions. During this period the Maya population numbered in the millions, with many cities containing 50,000 to 120,000 people. The Maya developed an agriculturally intensive, city-centered civilization consisting of numerous independent city-states of varying power and influence. They created a multitude of kingdoms and small empires, built monumental palaces and temples, engaged in highly developed ceremonies, and developed an elaborate hieroglyphic writing system. The Mayan cities of the Classic Maya world system were located in the central lowlands, while the corresponding peripheral Maya units were found along the margins of the southern highland and northern lowland areas. The semi-peripheral units generally took the form of trade and commercial centers. But as in all world systems, the Maya core centers shifted through time, starting out during Preclassic times in the southern highlands, moving to the central lowlands during the Classic period, and finally shifting to the northern peninsula during the Postclassic period. Monuments The most notable monuments are the stepped pyramids the Maya built in their religious centers and the accompanying palaces of their rulers. The palace at Cancuén is the largest in the Maya area, but the site has no pyramids. Copàn came to its full power between the 6th and 8th centuries, and included massive temples and carvings that illustrate the full power of its ruling, and often merciless, emperors. Cities in the southeastern region were also cultural and religious centers, and included large temples, ball courts, and even a uniquely vaulted ceiling in the hallway of the Palenque Palace. Other important archaeological remains include the carved stone slabs usually called stelae (the Maya called them tetun, or “tree-stones”), which depict rulers along with hieroglyphic texts describing their genealogy, military victories, and other accomplishments. Trade The political relationship between Classic Maya city-states has been likened to the relationships between city-states in Classical Greece and Renaissance Italy. Some cities were linked to each other by straight limestone causeways, known as sacbeob. Whether the exact function of these roads was commercial, political, or religious has not been determined. The Maya civilization participated in long distance trade with many other Mesoamerican cultures, including Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, and other groups in central and gulf-coast Mexico. In addition, they traded with more distant, non-Mesoamerican groups, such as the Taínos of the Caribbean islands. Archeologists have also found gold from Panama in the Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza. Important trade goods included: - Cacao - Salt - Seashells - Jade - Obsidian Calendars and Religion The Maya utilized complex mathematical and astronomical calculations to build their monuments and conceptualize the cosmography of their religion. Each of the four directions represented specific deities, colors, and elements. The underworld, the cosmos, and the great tree of life at the center of the world all played their part in how buildings were built and when feasts or sacrifices were practiced. Ancestors and deities helped weave the various levels of existence together through ritual, sacrifice, and measured solar years. The Maya developed a mathematical system that is strikingly similar to the Olmec traditions. The Maya also linked this complex system to the deity Itzamna. This deity was believed to have brought much of Maya culture to Earth. A 260-day calendar ( Tzolkin ) was combined with the 365-day solar calendar (Haab’) to create a calendar round. This calendar round would take fifty-two solar years to return to the original first date. The Tzolkin calendar was used to calculate exact religious festival days. It utilized twenty named days that repeated thirteen times in that calendar year. The solar calendar (Haab’) is very similar to the modern solar calendar year that uses Earth’s orbit around the Sun to measure time. The Maya believed there were five chaotic days at the end of the solar year that allowed the portals between worlds to open up, known as Wayeb’. These calendars were recorded utilizing specific symbols for each day in the two central cycles. Calendrical stones were employed to carefully follow the movement of the solar and religious years. Although less commonly used, the Maya also employed a long count calendar that calculated dates hundreds of years in the future. They also inscribed a lengthier 819-day calendar on many religious temples throughout the region that most likely coincided with important religious days. Decline The Classic Maya Collapse refers to the decline of the Maya Classic Period and abandonment of the Classic Period Maya cities of the southern Maya lowlands of Mesoamerica between the 8th and 9th centuries. This should not be confused with the collapse of the Preclassic Maya in the 2nd century CE. The Classic Period of Mesoamerican chronology is generally defined as the period from 300 to 900 CE, the last 100 years of which, from 800 to 900 CE, are frequently referred to as the Terminal Classic. It has been hypothesized that the decline of the Maya is related to the collapse of their intricate trade systems, especially those connected to the central Mexican city of Teotihuacán. Before there was a greater knowledge of the chronology of Mesoamerica, Teotihuacan was believed to have fallen during 700–750 CE, forcing the “restructuring of economic relations throughout highland Mesoamerica and the Gulf Coast.” This remaking of relationships between civilizations would have then given the collapse of the Classic Maya a slightly later date. However, it is now believed that the strongest Teotihuacan influence was during the 4th and 5th centuries. In addition, the civilization of Teotihuacan started to lose its power, and maybe even abandoned the city, during 600–650 CE. The Maya civilizations are now thought to have lived on, and also prospered, perhaps for another century after the fall of Teotihuacano influence. The Classic Maya Collapse is one of the biggest mysteries in archaeology. The classic Maya urban centers of the southern lowlands, went into decline during the 8th and 9th centuries and were abandoned shortly thereafter. Some 88 different theories, or variations of theories, attempting to explain the Classic Maya Collapse have been identified. From climate change, to deforestation, to lack of action by Maya kings, there is no universally accepted collapse theory, although drought is gaining momentum as the leading explanation. The Decline of the Maya The period after the second collapse of the Maya Empire (900 CE–1600 CE) is called the Postclassic period. The period called the Postclassic period. The center of power shifted from the central lowlands to the northern peninsula as populations most likely searched for reliable water resources, along with greater social stability. The Maya cities of the northern lowlands in Yucatàn continued to flourish. A typical Classic Maya polity was a small hierarchical state (called an ajawil, ajawlel, or ajawlil) headed by a hereditary ruler known as an ajaw (later k’uhul ajaw). However, the Postclassic period generally saw the widespread abandonment of once-thriving sites as populations gathered closer to water sources. Warfare most likely caused populations in long-inhabited religious cities, like Kuminaljuyu, to be abandoned in favor of smaller, hilltop settlements that had a better advantage against warring factions. Painted mural at San Bartolo from around 100 BCE: This colorful mural depicts a king practicing bloodletting, probably for an inauguration or other sacrificial purpose. Postclassic Cities Maya cities during this era were dispersed settlements, often centered around the temples or palaces of a ruling dynasty or elite in that particular area. Cities remained the locales of administrative duties and royal religious practices, and the sites where luxury items were created and consumed. City centers also provided the sacred space for privileged nobles to approach the holy ruler and the places where aesthetic values of the high culture were formulated and disseminated and where aesthetic items were consumed. These more established cities were the self-proclaimed centers of social, moral, and cosmic order. If a royal court fell out of favor with the people, as in the well-documented cases of Piedras Negras or Copàn, this fall from power would cause the inevitable “death” and abandonment of the associated settlement. After the decline of the ruling dynasties of Chichén Itzá, Mayapan became the most important cultural site until about 1450 CE. This city’s name may be the source of the word “Maya,” which had a more geographically restricted meaning in Yucatec and colonial Spanish. The name only grew to its current meaning in the 19th and 20th centuries. The area degenerated into competing city-states until the Spanish arrived in the Yucatàn and shifted the power dynamics. Artistry, Architecture, and Religion The Postclassic period is often viewed as a period of cultural decline. However, it was a time of technological advancement in areas of architecture, engineering, and weaponry. Metallurgy came into use for jewelry and the development of some tools utilizing new metal alloys and metalworking techniques that developed within a few centuries. And although some of the classic cities had been abandoned after 900 CE, architecture continued to develop and thrive in newly flourishing city-states, such as Mayapan. Religious and royal architecture retained themes of death, rebirth, natural resources, and the afterlife in their motifs and designs. Ballcourts, walkways, waterways, pyramids, and temples from the Classic period continued to play essential roles in the hierarchical world of Maya city-states. Maya religion continued to be centered around the worship of male ancestors. These patrilineal intermediaries could vouch for mortals in the physical world from their position in the afterlife. Archeological evidence shows that deceased relatives were buried under the floor of family homes. Royal dynasties built pyramids in order to bury their ancestors. This patrilineal form of worship was used by some royal dynasties in order to justify their right to rule. The afterlife was complex, and included thirteen levels in heaven and nine levels in the underworld, which had to be navigated by an initiated priesthood, ancestors, and powerful deities. Precise food preparation, offerings, and astronomical predictions were all required for religious practices. Powerful deities that often represented natural elements, such as jaguars, rain, and hummingbirds, needed to be placated with offerings and prayers regularly. Many of the motifs on large pyramids and temples of the royal dynasties reflect the worship of both deities and patrilineal ancestors and provide a window into the daily practices of this culture before the arrival of Spanish forces. Primary Source: The Popul Vuh The Popul Vuh Lewis Spence (July, 1908) PREFACE THE "Popol Vuh" is the New World's richest mythological mine. No translation of it has as yet appeared in English, and no adequate translation in any European language. It has been neglected to a certain extent because of the unthinking strictures passed upon its authenticity. That other manuscripts exist in Guatemala than the one discovered by Ximenes and transcribed by Scherzer and Brasseur de Bourbourg is probable. So thought Brinton, and the present writer shares his belief. And ere it is too late it would be well that these--the only records of the faith of the builders of the mystic ruined and deserted cities of Central America--should be recovered. This is not a matter that should be left to the enterprise of individuals, but one which should engage the consideration of interested governments; for what is myth to-day is often history to-morrow. THE POPOL VUH [The numbers in the text refer to notes at the end of the study] THERE is no document of greater importance to the study of the pre-Columbian mythology of America than the "Popol Vuh." It is the chief source of our knowledge of the mythology of the Kiché people of Central America, and it is further of considerable comparative value when studied in conjunction with the mythology of the Nahuatlacâ, or Mexican peoples. This interesting text, the recovery of which forms one of the most romantic episodes in the history of American bibliography, was written by a Christianised native of Guatemala some time in the seventeenth century, and was copied in the Kiché language, in which it was originally written, by a monk of the Order of Predicadores, one Francisco Ximenes, who also added a Spanish translation and scholia. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, a profound student of American archæology and languages (whose euhemeristic interpretations of the Mexican myths are as worthless as the priceless materials he unearthed are valuable) deplored, in a letter to the Duc de Valmy1, the supposed loss of the "Popol Vuh," which be was aware had been made use of early in the nineteenth century by a certain Don Felix Cabrera. Dr. C. Scherzer, an Austrian scholar, thus made aware of its value, paid a visit to the Republic of Guatemala in 1854 or 1855, and was successful in tracing the missing manuscript in the library of the University of San Carlos in the city of Guatemala. It was afterwards ascertained that its scholiast, Ximenes, had deposited it in the library of his convent at Chichicastenango whence it passed to the San Carlos library in 1830. Scherzer at once made a copy of the Spanish translation of the manuscript, which he published at Vienna in 1856 under the title of "Las Historias del origen de los Indios de Guatemala, par el R. P. F. Francisco Ximenes." The Abbé Brasseur also took a copy of the original, which be published at Paris in 1861, with the title "Vuh Popol: Le Livre Sacré de Quichés, et les Mythes de l'Antiquité Américaine." In this work the Kiché original and the Abbé's French translation are set forth side by side. Unfortunately both the Spanish and the French translations leave much to be desired so far as their accuracy is concerned, and they are rendered of little use by reason of the misleading notes which accompany them. The name "Popol Vuh" signifies "Record of the Community," and its literal translation is "Book of the Mat," from the Kiché words "pop" or "popol," a mat or rug of woven rushes or bark on which the entire family sat, and "vuh" or "uuh," paper or book, from "uoch" to write. The "Popol Vuh" is an example of a world-wide genre--a type of annals of which the first portion is pure mythology, which gradually shades off into pure history, evolving from the hero-myths of saga to the recital of the deeds of authentic personages. It may, in fact, be classed with the Heimskringla of Snorre, the Danish History of Saxo-Grammaticus, the Chinese History in the Five Books, the Japanese "Nihongi," and, so far as its fourth book is concerned, it somewhat resembles the Pictish Chronicle. The language in which the "Popol Vuh" was written was, as has been said, the Kiché, a dialect of the great Maya-Kiché tongue spoken at the time of the Conquest from the borders of Mexico on the north to those of the present State of Nicaragua on the south; but whereas the Mayan was spoken in Yucatan proper, and the State of Chiapas, the Kiché was the tongue of the peoples of that part of Central America now occupied by the States of Guatemala, Honduras and San Salvador, where it is still used by the natives. It is totally different to the Nahuatl, the language of the peoples of Anahuac or Mexico, both as regards its origin and structure, and its affinities with other American tongues are even less distinct than those between the Slavonic and Teutonic groups. Of this tongue the "Popol Vuh" is practically the only monument; at all events the only work by a native of the district in which it was used. A cognate dialect, the Cakchiquel, produced the "Annals " of that people, otherwise known as "The Book of Chilan Balam," a work purely of genealogical interest, which may be consulted in the admirable translation of the late Daniel G. Brinton. The Kiché people at the time of their discovery, which was immediately subsequent to the fall of Mexico, had in part lost that culture which was characteristic of the Mayan race, the remnants of which have excited universal wonder in the ruins of the vast desert cities of Central America. At a period not far distant from the Conquest the once centralised Government of the Mayan peoples had been broken up into petty States and Confederacies, which in their character recall the city-states of mediæval Italy. In all probability the civilisation possessed by these peoples had been brought them by a race from Mexico called the Toltecs, who taught them the arts of building in stone and writing in hieroglyphics, and who probably influenced their mythology most profoundly. The Toltecs were not, however, in any way cognate with the Mayans, and were in all likelihood rapidly absorbed by them. The Mayans were notably an agricultural people, and it is not impossible that in their country the maize-plant was first cultivated with the object of obtaining a regular cereal supply. Such, then, were the people whose mythology produced the body of tradition and mythi-history known as the "Popol Vuh"; and ere we pass to a consideration of their beliefs, their gods, and their religious affinities, it will be well to summarise the three books of it which treat of these things, as fully as space will permit, using for that purpose both the French translation of Brasseur and the Spanish one of Ximenes. THE FIRST BOOK Over a universe wrapped in the gloom of a dense and primeval night passed the god Hurakan, the mighty wind. He called out "earth," and the solid land appeared. The chief gods took counsel; they were Hurakan, Gucumatz, the serpent covered with green feathers, and Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, the mother and father gods. As the result of their deliberations animals were created. But as yet man was not. To supply the deficiency the divine beings resolved to create mannikins carved out of wood. But these soon incurred the displeasure of the gods, who, irritated by their lack of reverence, resolved to destroy them. Then by the will of Hurakan, the Heart of Heaven, the waters were swollen, and a great flood came upon the mannikins of wood. They were drowned and a thick resin fell from heaven. The bird Xecotcovach tore out their eyes; the bird Camulatz cut off their heads; the bird Cotzbalam devoured their flesh; the bird Tecumbalam broke their bones and sinews and ground them into powder. Because they had not thought on Hurakan, therefore the face of the earth grew dark, and a pouring rain commenced, raining by day and by night. Then all sorts of beings, great and small, gathered together to abuse the men to their faces. The very household utensils and animals jeered at them, their mill-stones2, their plates, their cups, their dogs, their hens. Said the dogs and hens, "Very badly have you treated us, and you have bitten us. Now we bite you in turn." Said the mill-stones (metates), " Very much were we tormented by you, and daily, daily, night and day, it was squeak, screech, screech,3 for your sake. Now you shall feel our strength, and we will grind your flesh and make meal of your bodies." And the dogs upbraided the mannikins because they had not been fed, and tore the unhappy images with their teeth. And the cups and dishes said, "Pain and misery you gave us, smoking our tops and sides, cooking us over the fire burning and hurting us as if we had no feeling. Now it is your turn, and you shall burn." Then ran the mannikins hither and thither in despair. They climbed to the roofs of the houses, but the houses crumbled under their feet; they tried to mount to the tops of the trees, but the trees hurled them from them; they sought refuge in the caverns, but the caverns closed before them. Thus was accomplished the ruin of this race, destined to be overthrown. And it is said that their posterity are the little monkeys who live in the woods. THE MYTH OF VUKUB-CAKIX After this catastrophe, ere yet the earth was quite recovered from the wrath of the gods, there existed a man "full of pride," whose name was Vukub-Cakix. The name signifies "Seven-times-the-colour-of-fire," or "Very brilliant," and was justified by the fact that its owner's eyes were of silver, his teeth of emerald, and other parts of his anatomy of precious metals. In his own opinion Vukub-Cakix's existence rendered unnecessary that of the sun and the moon, and this egoism so disgusted the gods that they resolved upon his overthrow. His two sons, Zipacna and Cabrakan (earth-heaper4 (?) and earthquake), were daily employed, the one in heaping up mountains, and the other in demolishing thorn, and these also incurred the wrath of the immortals. Shortly after the decision of the deities the twin hero-gods Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque came to earth with the intention of chastising the arrogance of Vukub-Cakix and his progeny. Now Vukub-Cakix had a great tree of the variety known in Central America as "nanze" or "tapal," bearing a fruit round, yellow, and aromatic, and upon this fruit he depended for his daily sustenance. One day on going to partake of it for his morning meal he mounted to its summit in order to espy the choicest fruits, when to his great indignation he discovered that Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque had been before him, and had almost denuded the tree of its produce. The hero-gods, who lay concealed within the foliage, now added injury to theft by hurling at Vukub-Cakix a dart from a blow-pipe, which bad the effect of precipitating him from the summit of the tree to the earth. He arose in great wrath, bleeding profusely from a severe wound in the jaw. Hun-Ahpu then threw himself upon Vukub-Cakix, who in terrible anger seized the god by the arm and wrenched it from the body. He then proceeded to his dwelling, where he was met and anxiously interrogated by his spouse Chimalmat. Tortured by the pain in his teeth and jaw be, in an access of spite, hung Hun-Ahpu's arm over a blazing fire, and then threw himself down to bemoan his injuries, consoling himself, however, with the idea that he had adequately avenged himself upon the interlopers who had dared to disturb his peace. But Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque were in no mind that he should escape so easily, and the recovery of Hun-Ahpu's arm must be made at all hazards. With this end in view they consulted two venerable beings in whom we readily recognise the father-mother divinities, Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, disguised for the nonce as sorcerers. These personages accompanied Hun-Ahpu and Xbalanque to the abode of Vukub-Cakix, whom they found in a state of intense agony. The ancients persuaded him to be operated upon in order to relieve his sufferings, and for his glittering teeth they substituted grains of maize. Next they removed his eyes of emerald, upon which his death speedily followed, as did that of his wife Chimalmat. Hun-Ahpu's arm was recovered, re-affixed to his shoulder, and all ended satisfactorily for the hero-gods. But their mission was not yet complete. The sons of Vukub-Cakix, Zipacna and Cabrakan, remained to be accounted for. Zipacna consented, at the entreaty of four hundred youths, incited by the hero-gods, to assist them in transporting a huge tree which was destined for the roof-tree of a house they were building. Whilst assisting them he was beguiled by them into entering a great ditch which they had dug for the purpose of destroying him, and when once he descended was overwhelmed by tree-trunks by his treacherous acquaintances, who imagined him to be slain. But he took refuge in a side-tunnel of the excavation, cut off his hair and nails for the ants to carry up to his enemies as a sign of his death, waited until the youths had become intoxicated with pulque because of joy at his supposed demise, and then, emerging from the pit, shook the house that the youths had built over his body about their heads, so that all were destroyed in its ruins. But Run-Ahpu and Xbalanque were grieved that the four hundred had perished, and laid a more efficacious trap for Zipacna. The mountain-bearer, carrying the mountains by night, sought his sustenance by day by the shore of the river, where he lived upon fish and crabs. The hero-gods constructed an artificial crab which they placed in a cavern at the bottom of a deep ravine. The hungry titan descended to the cave, which he entered on all-fours. But a neighbouring mountain had been undermined by the divine brothers, and its bulk was cast upon him. Thus at the foot of Mount Meavan perished the proud "Mountain Maker," whose corpse was turned into stone by the catastrophe. Of the family of boasters only Cabrakan remained. Discovered by the hero-gods at his favourite pastime of overturning the hills, they enticed him in an easterly direction, challenging him to overthrow a particularly high mountain. On the way they shot a bird with their blow-pipes, and poisoned it with earth. This they gave to Cabrakan to eat. After partaking of the poisoned fare his strength deserted him, and failing to move the mountain be was bound and buried by the victorious hero-gods. - Mexico, Oct. 15,1850. - Large hollowed stones used by the women for bruising maize. - The Kiché words are onomatopoetic--"holi, holi, huqi, huqi." - Zipac signifies "Cockspur," and I take the name to signify also "Thrower-up of earth." The connection is obvious. Attributions Attributions Title Image: Fachada de Placeres en el Museo Nacional de Antropología; Carlos yo, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Boundless World History https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-worldhistory/the-inca/ The Popul Vuh https://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/pvuheng.htm	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.329484	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/87860/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Making of Early Modern World 1450-1700 CE, Chapter 4: Latin America, Maya", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/91147/overview	Why it Matters Overview Teacher resources for Unit 1 can be found on the next page. Why explain what marketing is and how it’s used? Resources for Unit 1: What is Marketing? Slide Deck - PrinciplesofMarketing_01_WhatisMarketing_WbSR6Er.pptx SDC Principles of Marketing Crosswalk with TN State Standards Discussion Assignments and Alignment: Self-Introduction Marketing Plan Resources Marketing Plan Placement in Course Pacing The Principles of Marketing textbook contains sixteen units—roughly one unit per week for a 16-week semester. If you need to modify the pace and cover the material more quickly, the following units work well together: - Unit 1: What Is Marketing? and Unit 2: Marketing Function. Both are lighter, introductory units. - Unit 15: Global Marketing and Unit 16: Marketing Plan. Unit 16 has more course review and synthesis information than new material per se. - Unit 5: Ethics can be combined with any unit. You can also move it around without losing anything. - Unit 8: Positioning and Unit 9: Branding. Companion modules that can be covered in a single week. - Unit 6: Marketing Information & Research and Unit 7: Consumer Behavior. Companion units that can be covered in a single week. We recommend NOT doubling up the following units, because they are long and especially challenging. Students will need more time for mastery and completion of assignments. - Unit 4: Marketing Strategy - Unit 10: Product Marketing - Unit 13: Promotion: Integrated Marketing Communication Did you have an idea for improving this content? We’d love your input. Learning Outcomes - Define marketing - Identify evidence of marketing in everyday life - Demonstrate a clear understanding of the marketing concept - Describe the role of marketing in building and managing customer relationships - Describe how different types of organizations, such as non-profits, consumer product (B2C) firms and business-to-business (B2B) organizations, use marketing - Explain how marketing creates value for the consumer, the company, and society When you hear the term “marketing,” what comes to mind? Based on what you know about marketing right now, what one word would you use to describe it? Take a moment to write it down. We’ll come back to it shortly. Marketing is a tool used by companies, organizations, and people to shape our perceptions and persuade us to change our behavior. The most effective marketing uses a well-designed strategy and a variety of techniques to alter how people think about and interact with the product or service in question. Less-effective marketing causes people to turn off, tune out, or not even notice. Why should you care about marketing? Marketing is an ever-present force in modern society, and it can work amazingly well to influence what we do and why we do it. Consider these points: Marketing sells products. Marketing changes how you think about things. You can view the text alternative for “Best Commercial EVER!!!” (opens in new window). Marketing creates memorable experiences. You can view the transcript for “IKEA BIG Sleepover” (opens in new window). Marketing alters history. You can view the transcript for “Reagan 1984 Election Ad (Bear in the woods)” (opens in new window) or the text alternative for “Reagan 1984 Election Ad (Bear in the woods)” (opens in new window). Marketing can use a variety of elements to shape perceptions and behavior: words, images, design, experiences, emotions, stories, relationships, humor, sex appeal, etc. And it can use a wide variety of tactics, from advertising and events to social media and search-engine optimization. Often the purpose is to sell products, but as you can see from the examples above, the goal of any specific marketing effort may have little to do with money and much more to do with what you think and do. By the time you finish this course, you will have a broader understanding of marketing beyond TV commercials and billboards and those annoying pop-up ads on the websites you visit. You’ll learn how to see marketing for what it is. You’ll learn how to be a smart consumer and a smart user of marketing techniques when the need for them arises in your life. Go back to that word you jotted down to describe marketing at the top of the page. Now that you’ve had a little more exposure to the concept, what word comes to mind to describe “marketing”? Is it the same word you chose earlier, or are you starting to think differently? Stay tuned for more! LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Why It Matters: What Is Marketing? . Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution CC LICENSED CONTENT, SPECIFIC ATTRIBUTION - People Start Pollution. Provided by: Ad Council. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:People_Start_Pollution_-_1971_Ad.jpg#/media/File:People_Start_Pollution_-_1971_Ad.jpg. License: Other. License Terms: Fair use under United States copyright law ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - IKEA Big Sleepover. Provided by: IKEA UK. Located at: https://youtu.be/YMJD53fxihU. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube license - Commercial - Reagan 1984 Election Ad (Bear in the woods). Authored by: jpspin2122. Located at: https://youtu.be/KQNBNiXGMiA. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube license - Best Commercial EVER!. Authored by: loveallaroundyou. Located at: https://youtu.be/OAlyHUWjNjE. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube license - Screen shot of Amazon unicorn recommendations. Provided by: Amazon. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Fair Use	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.366395	03/22/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/91147/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit Principles of Marketing, What is Marketing?, Why it Matters", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/91151/overview	Marketing and Customer Relationships Overview Marketing and Customer Relationships Outcome: Marketing and Customer Relationships What you’ll learn to do: describe the role of marketing in building and managing customer relationships The marketing concept provides exactly the right mindset for what we ultimately want to achieve: building strong relationships with customers. Next we’ll explore how marketing plays a central role in each stage of building and managing customer relationships. The specific things you’ll learn in this section include: - Define the concept of customer lifetime value - Explain why customer relationship building is a central purpose of marketing - Explain engagement marketing and how it alters a customer’s relationship with a brand. Learning Activities The learning activities for this section include the following: - Reading: Marketing and Customer Relationships LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Outcome: Marketing and Customer Relationships. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution Reading: Marketing and Customer Relationships Customer Relationship Management: A Strategic Imperative We have stated that the central purpose of marketing is to help organizations identify, satisfy, and retain their customers. These three activities lay the groundwork for what has become a strategic imperative in modern marketing: customer relationship management. To a student of marketing in the digital age, the idea of relationship building between customers and companies may seem obvious and commonplace. It certainly is a natural outgrowth of the marketing concept, which orients entire organizations around understanding and addressing customer needs. But only in recent decades has technology made it possible for companies to capture and utilize information about their customers to such a great extent and in such meaningful ways. The Internet and digital social media have created new platforms for customers and product providers to find and communicate with one another. As a result, there are more tools now than ever before to help companies create, maintain, and manage customer relationships. Maximizing Customer Lifetime Value Central to these developments is the concept of customer lifetime value. Customer lifetime value predicts how much profit is associated with a customer during the course of their lifetime relationship with a company.1 One-time customers usually have a relatively low customer lifetime value, while frequent, loyal, repeat-customers typically have a high customer lifetime value. How do companies develop strong, ongoing relationships with customers who are likely to have a high customer lifetime value? Through marketing, of course. Marketing applies a customer-oriented mindset and, through particular marketing activities, tries to make initial contact with customers and move them through various stages of the relationship—all with the goal of increasing lifetime customer value. These activities are summarized below. TYPICAL MARKETING ACTIVITIES DURING EACH STAGE OF THE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP Stage 1: Meeting and Getting Acquainted Find desirable target customers, including those likely to deliver a high customer lifetime value Understand what these customers want Build awareness and demand for what you offer Capture new business Stage 2: Providing a Satisfying Experience Measure and improve customer satisfaction Track how customers’ needs and wants evolve Develop customer confidence, trust, and goodwill Demonstrate and communicate competitive advantage Monitor and counter competitive forces Stage 3: Sustain a Committed Relationship Convert contacts into loyal repeat customers, rather than one-time customers Anticipate and respond to evolving needs Deepen relationships, expand reach of and reliance on what you offer Another benefit of effective customer relationship management is that it reduces the cost of business and increases profitability. As a rule, winning a new customer’s business takes significantly more time, effort, and marketing resources than it does to renew or expand business with an existing customer. Customer Relationship As Competitive Advantage As the global marketplace provides more and more choices for consumers, relationships can become a primary driver of why a customer chooses one company over others (or chooses none at all). When customers feel satisfaction with and affinity for a specific company or product, it simplifies their buying choices. For example, why might a woman shopping for a cocktail dress choose to go to Nordstrom rather than Macy’s or Dillard’s, or pick from an army of online stores? Possibly because she prefers the selection of dresses at Nordstrom and the store’s atmosphere. It’s much more likely, though, that thanks to Nordstrom’s practices, this shopper has a relationship with an attentive sales associate who has helped her find great outfits and accessories in the past. She also knows about the store’s customer-friendly return policy, which might come in handy if she needs to return something. A company like Nordstrom delivers such satisfactory experiences that its customers return again and again. A consistently positive customer experience matures into a relationship in which the customer becomes increasingly receptive to the company and its products. Over time, the customer relationship gives Nordstrom a competitive advantage over other traditional department stores and online retailers. When Customers Become Your Best Marketing Tool Customer testimonials and recommendations have always been powerful marketing tools. They often work to persuade new customers to give something a try. In today’s digital media landscape there is unprecedented opportunity for companies to engage customers as credible advocates. When organizations invest in building strong customer relationships, these activities become particularly fruitful. For example, service providers like restauranteurs, physical therapists, and dentists frequently ask regular patrons and patients to write reviews about their real-life experiences on popular recommendation sites like Yelp and Google+. Product providers do the same on sites like Amazon and CNET.com. Although companies risk getting a bad review, they usually gain more by harnessing the credible voices and authentic experiences of customers they have served. In this process they also gain invaluable feedback about what’s working or not working for their customers. Using this input, they can retool their products or approach to better match what customers want and improve business over time. Additionally, smart marketers know that when people take a public stance on a product or issue, they tend to become more committed to that position. Thus, customer relationship management can become a virtuous cycle. As customers have more exposure and positive interaction with a company and its products, they want to become more deeply engaged, and they are more likely to become vocal evangelists who share their opinions publicly. Customers become an active part of a marketing engine that generates new business and retains loyal customers for repeat business and increased customer lifetime value. Engagement Marketing: Making Customers Part of the Brand A further step beyond customer evangelism is engagement marketing, the practice of reaching out to customers and encouraging them to become full participants in marketing activity and the growth of a brand. Sometimes called “live marketing,” this approach is becoming more common as media and technology provide more interactive, visible, and sharable ways for consumers to connect with brands and companies. A mind shift is under way, away from one-way, company-to-consumer communication toward marketing activities that invite consumers to shape and become part of the value a brand provides. In an increasingly crowded marketplace, many organizations find that they can distinguish themselves and their products by creating “tribes” of fans who not only advocate for the brand, but also actively make it part of their daily activities and lifestyle. Customers might even become involved in developing marketing programs, producing content that can be used for marketing purposes, and cultivating one-on-one relationships with a company or brand. Creative marketers have invented many ways to foster engagement marketing. The self-promotional mindset and proliferating tools of social media are a natural fit for making customers part of a brand. People “check in” at their favorite restaurants and post photos to communicate with friends when they are having fun. Bloggers routinely name-check favorite products, review them, and carry on conversations about them in their posts. The phenomenon of engagement marketing helps explain the meteoric rise in popularity of GoPro cameras. When company leaders realized that their customers had an unquenchable appetite for sharing videos of amazing outdoor adventures (shot with GoPro cameras, of course), they built the company brand and marketing strategy around engaging customers in viral sharing. The following video, produced by YouTube, explains this engagement marketing success story. You can view the transcript for “GoPro YouTube Case Study \| YouTube Advertisers” here (opens in new window). - "Customer Lifetime Value." Cambridge Dictionary. Accessed September 10, 2019. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/customer-lifetime-value ↵ LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Marketing and Customer Relationships. Authored by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Lady on a Staircase. Authored by: torbakhopper. Located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gazeronly/10147130996/. License: CC BY-ND: Attribution-NoDerivatives ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - Screen Shot of Yelp Review. Authored by: Yelp.com. Located at: https://www.yelp.com/biz/por-que-no-taqueria-portland. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Fair Use - GoPro YouTube Case Study. Provided by: YouTube Advertisers. Located at: https://youtu.be/oCUjAmW5yCA. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube license	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.396402	03/22/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/91151/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit Principles of Marketing, What is Marketing?, Marketing and Customer Relationships", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93365/overview	Road to Allied Victory Overview The Tehran and Yalta Conferences The Tehran Conference was a strategy meeting between Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill that lasted from November 28 until December 1, 1943, in Tehran, Iran. It resulted in the Western Allies’ commitment to open a second front against Nazi Germany. Learning Objectives - Evaluate the significance and goals of the 1943 Tehran Conference. - Evaluate the significance and goals of the 1945 Yalta Conference. Key Terms / Key Concepts Big Three: the leaders of the main three Allied countries: the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union, namely led by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin Declaration of Liberated Europe: a declaration created by Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin during the Yalta Conference that gave the people of Europe the choice to “create democratic institutions of their own choice” Tehran Conference: meeting of the Allied leaders of the U.S., U.K, and U.S.S.R. to discuss opening up a second front in Europe The Yalta Conference: the meeting of the Big Three in February 1945 at Livadia, Crimea to discuss the restructuring of Europe when the war ended The Tehran Conference The Tehran Conference was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from November 28 to December 1, 1943. It was held in the Soviet Union’s embassy in Tehran, Iran and was the first World War II conference of the “Big Three” Allied leaders. Although the three leaders arrived with differing objectives, the main outcome of the Tehran Conference was the Western Allies’ commitment to open a second front against Nazi Germany. The conference also addressed the Allies’ relations with Turkey and Iran, operations in Yugoslavia and against Japan, and the envisaged post-war settlement. A separate protocol signed at the conference pledged the Big Three to recognize Iran’s independence. Proceedings The conference was to convene at 4 p.m. on November 28, 1943. Stalin arrived early, followed by Roosevelt, who was brought in his wheelchair. It was here that Roosevelt, who had traveled 7,000 miles (11,000 km) to attend and whose health was already deteriorating, met Stalin for the first time. Churchill, walking with his General Staff from their accommodations nearby, arrived half an hour later. The U.S. and Great Britain wanted to secure the cooperation of the Soviet Union in defeating Germany. Stalin agreed, but at a price: the U.S. and Britain would accept Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, support the Yugoslav Partisans, and agree to a westward shift of the border between Poland and the Soviet Union. The leaders then turned to the conditions under which the Western Allies would open a new front by invading northern France, just as Stalin had pressed them to do since 1941. It was agreed that Operation Overlord—the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France—would occur by May 1944; Stalin agreed to support it by launching a concurrent major offensive on Germany’s eastern front to divert German forces from northern France. The subjects of Iran and Turkey were also discussed in detail. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin all agreed to support Iran’s government. In addition, the Soviet Union was required to pledge support to Turkey if that country entered the war. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agreed that it would also be most desirable if Turkey entered on the Allies’ side before the year was out. Despite accepting the previously mentioned arrangements, Stalin dominated the conference, using the prestige of the Soviet victory at the Battle of Kursk on the Eastern Front to get his way. Roosevelt attempted to cope with Stalin’s onslaught of demands but was able to do little except appease him. Churchill argued for the invasion of Italy in 1943, then Overlord in 1944, on the basis that Overlord was physically impossible in 1943 and it would be unthinkable to do anything major until it could be launched in a realistic fashion. Results The Yugoslav Partisans were given full Allied support. The Communist Partisans under Tito took power in Yugoslavia as the Germans retreated from the Balkans. Turkey’s president conferred with Roosevelt and Churchill at the Cairo Conference in November 1943 and promised to enter the war when it was fully armed. By August 1944 Turkey broke off relations with Germany. In February 1945, Turkey declared war on Germany and Japan, which may have been a symbolic move that allowed Turkey to join the future United Nations. The invasion of France on June 6, 1944 took place about as planned, and the supporting invasion of southern France also occurred. The Soviets launched a major offensive against the Germans on June 22, 1944. The Yalta Conference The Yalta Conference, held February 4 – 11, 1945, was the meeting of Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin to discuss Europe’s post-war reorganization. The Big Three met at Tsar Nicholas’ former palace in Livadia, Crimea. The Yalta conference was a crucial turning point in the Cold War. The Conference All three leaders attempted to establish an agenda for governing post-war Europe and keeping peace between post-war countries. However, by August 1944, Soviet forces were inside Poland and Romania as part of their drive west. And by the time of the Conference, Red Army Marshal Georgy Zhukov’s forces were 40 miles from Berlin; consequently, Stalin felt his position at the conference was so strong that he could dictate terms. And this led to a more diplomatic approach from Roosevelt and Churchill. According to U.S. delegation member and future Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, “It was not a question of what we would let the Russians do, but what we could get the Russians to do.” But each leader certainly had their own agendas for the Yalta Conference. Roosevelt wanted Soviet support in the U.S. Pacific War against Japan, specifically for the planned invasion of Japan, and Soviet participation in the United Nations. Churchill pressed for free elections and democratic governments in Eastern and Central Europe (specifically Poland). And Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in Eastern and Central Europe, an essential aspect of the USSR’s national security strategy. Poland was the first item on the Soviet agenda. Stalin stated that “For the Soviet government, the question of Poland was one of honor,” but he also viewed it as a matter of security because Poland had served as a historical corridor for forces attempting to invade Russia. In addition, Stalin stated that “because the Russians had greatly sinned against Poland,” “the Soviet government was trying to atone for those sins.” Stalin concluded that “Poland must be strong” and that “the Soviet Union is interested in the creation of a mighty, free and independent Poland.” Accordingly, Stalin stipulated that Polish government-in-exile demands were not negotiable: the Soviet Union would keep the territory of eastern Poland they had already annexed in 1939, and Poland was to be compensated by extending its western borders at the expense of Germany. Stalin promised free elections in Poland despite the Soviet-sponsored provisional government recently installed in Polish territories occupied by the Red Army. The Declaration of Liberated Europe was a promise that allowed the people of Europe “to create democratic institutions of their own choice.” The declaration pledged, “the earliest possible establishment through free elections governments responsive to the will of the people.” This is similar to the statements of the Atlantic Charter, which says, “the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live.” Stalin broke the pledge by encouraging Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and many more countries to construct a Communist government instead of letting the people construct their own. These countries later became known as Stalin’s Satellite Nations. Long-term Impact The meeting of the Big Three at Tehran established the precedent of, “The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend.” Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin despised one another. Franklin Roosevelt, who had been Churchill’s close associate for years, was able to work with both men. If he did not win the friendship of Stalin, he did win his respect—something that his successors would never be able to achieve during the Cold War. Still, the three men worked together in order to come up with a viable plan to defeat Nazi Germany. It was the first of several critical meetings between the leaders of the chief nations of the Allies. The Yalta Conference was intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. Within a few years, with the Cold War dividing the continent, Yalta had become a subject of intense controversy. To a degree, it has remained controversial. Poland Fights Back: The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 Over the course of World War II, Poland and its people suffered enormously. In 1944, the Poles decided they had had enough of occupation and oppression by Nazi Germany. Despite being severely outgunned, the Poles undertook the largest resistance operation against Nazi oppression--the Warsaw Uprising. Learning Objectives - Evaluate the role of resistance in World War II. - Analyze the significance and outcome of the Warsaw Uprising. Key Terms / Key Concepts Polish Government in-exile: legitimate government of independent Poland that was evacuated to London at the start of the war Polish Home Army: primary Polish resistance force during World War II, stationed underground throughout Poland Warsaw Uprising: August – October 1944 attempt by the Polish Home Army to overthrow Nazi rule in Warsaw and reclaim Polish independence Wola and Ochota: districts of Warsaw that suffered horrific actions by the Nazis and their allies during the Warsaw Uprising Background Following the 1939 invasion of Poland, the Polish government fled the country. They were rescued and brought to London, where they attempted to govern the Polish people from afar. For the duration of the war, the London-based government was named the Polish government-in-exile. In the wake of the government’s departure, and Poland’s occupation by the Germans and Soviets, the Polish Home Army was formed. Over the course of the war, it became the largest resistance force in Europe. It attracted people from all works of life who worked for the larger, Polish underground state. Members of the partisans worked as both intelligence gatherers and resistance fighters. Often, they hid in underground, covert locations and launched periodic attacks on the Germans during the occupation. In other instances, Home Army soldiers were Polish troops who had escaped to England early in the war, who were later redeployed; this included the group of Polish special ops forces called the Cichociemni—elite troops remembered still by their unit nickname: “The Silent Unseen.” By the summer of 1944, it was comprised of between 200,000 – 600,000 men and women. Increasingly, the Home Army was pro-Polish independence, which meant a deteriorating relationship with the Soviets. In 1943, the Polish government-in-exile proposed that the Home Army should stage several small revolts throughout Poland as the Red Army advanced; and German defenses seemed strained. By the summer of 1944, the Red Army was closing in on Warsaw. The Allies had successfully opened up a second theater of war in Western Europe, which forced Germany to divide its forces, leaving its eastern armies weaker. News circulated among the Poles that a Polish-led uprising would soon take place. With the Red Army in sight, the Polish-government-in-exile negotiated with the Polish Home Army. A date was agreed upon, news circulated to the members of the Polish underground resistance, and preparations were made. Although poorly equipped in comparison to the Germans, Warsaw would fight back. The hope was that the Soviets would weaken the German armies, then support the Polish uprising when it occurred. That hope would be ill-founded. The Uprising Begins The Warsaw Uprising began at 5:00 PM on August 1. Across the city, soldiers took to the streets and launched coordinated attacks on German positions throughout Warsaw. Much of the city covertly helped the effort, either by transferring information or producing materials for the uprising. But from the outset of the uprising, the Poles stood little chance of defeating the Germans on their own. They had roughly three thousand personal guns at the start of the uprising, a handful of machine guns, and essentially no heavy military equipment. Although a few German tanks were seized, the reality remained that the Poles were drastically outgunned and their troops were unaccustomed to fighting prolonged battles throughout the day. It is likely that the Poles understood they could not defeat the Germans on their own. They instead, believed that the rapidly advancing Soviet Red Army would come to their aid. Although the Poles and Russians had experienced deteriorating relationships since the war began, the Poles believed that their common enemy—the Nazis—would unite their cause. Instead, the Soviets remained just to the east of Warsaw and never offered ground or air support, despite having a nearby air base. The reasons for Soviet inactivity during the Warsaw Uprising is still questioned and debated by historians. Regardless, their inaction would be the undoing for the Warsaw Uprising. For six weeks, the Poles would fight almost entirely alone against the Germans. The Poles initially secured positions throughout Warsaw in the early days of the uprising. Tragically, their early successes prompted some of the most severe retaliation by the Germans of the war. As the western front lines moved into the neighborhoods of Wola and Ochota on August 4, the Poles would witness horrors that they could scarcely have imagined. The Wola and Ochota Massacres The Poles living in Warsaw during the uprising endured deprivation and extreme violence. In response to Polish attacks, Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the German SS, ordered his troops to make an example of Warsaw and raze it to the ground. As historian Timothy Snyder discusses in his renowned work, Bloodlands, Special SS Commando Oskar Paul Dirlewanger was sent with other ruthless SS commanders to suppress the Poles. Mass looting, mass rapes, and mass murder of civilians devastated the Polish districts of Wola and Ochota. The SS went from house to house, shooting civilians regardless of age or gender. Mass killings occurred wherever the Germans and their allies discovered sheltering Poles. Even the hospital workers were not spared. Nurses were raped, stripped of their clothing, and hung. Homes, factories, businesses, and bodies burned throughout Warsaw. At the end of the massacres, estimates of civilian casualties reached as high as 100,000. As Snyder discusses, the German force deployed against Polish civilians is indescribable. “If military casualties on both sides of the [Warsaw Uprising] are counted, the ratio of [Polish] civilian casualties to military dead is 1000:1.” The Uprising Ends Within weeks, the Polish civilians began to suffer not only from the violence of the uprising, but also from lack of food and clean water. The Polish Home Army realized that they were severely outgunned, and that Soviet troops would not be reinforcing them. Moreover, the Soviets had balked at the idea of Western Allies supplying aid to the Warsaw Uprising. British and American pilots did drop supplies to Warsaw, but their aid proved too little, too late. The Germans secured Warsaw. The city’s sixty-three-day battle for independence failed. On October 2, 1944, the Poles surrendered to the Germans and were promised humane treatment. However, more than a thousand Home Army soldiers were sent to German labor camps. Others slipped silent and unseen into the population, ready to fight when the call again rang. But, in response to the uprising, Hitler had ordered that Warsaw be “razed to the ground.” Consequently, the remainder of Poles in Warsaw were forced from the city. Thousands were sent to labor camps, thousands of others were killed at Auschwitz and other camps, but several thousand were sent to various parts of the German Reich to work. By the end of 1944, Hitler’s goal to erase Warsaw off the global map was virtually complete. Roughly 85% of the city had been destroyed through combat, the Uprising, and German bombings. In January 1945 when the Red Army entered Warsaw, they were met with smoldering ruins and little more. Significance in the War The Warsaw Uprising was one of the most significant moments of resistance to Nazi Germany occupation in all of World War II. And yet, the consequences for the civilian population would have, almost assuredly, been significantly less had the uprising never occurred. Tens of thousands of Polish civilians became the targets of extreme violence by the Nazis and their allies in August 1944. Despite the loss, the Poles remained committed to the battle for their independence until they accepted that the Red Army would not help their cause, and they could not win alone. The legacy of the Uprising remains mixed. On the one hand, it resulted in the near destruction of the city and brutal murders of tens of thousands of its civilians. On the other hand, it marked a moment in history where an occupied people stood up together against the odds to fight against oppression. Most tragically, inaction on the part of the Allies, particularly the Soviets, resulted in the complete failure of the Warsaw Uprising. And for the Poles, the story of occupation did not end with the Nazis. Instead, they would face their historic occupier—the Russians—in 1945. Although far less brutal than the Nazis, the Russians quickly demonstrated that they could also impose harsh measures on any Pole who did not solidly support communist rule. The Battle of the Bulge and Westward Push to Berlin The war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet and Polish troops and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945. Learning Objectives - Identify the key events and circumstances that led to Germany’s unconditional surrender and the end of World War II in Europe. Key Terms / Key Concepts Battle of Berlin: final major offensive of the European theatre of World War II when the Soviet Red Army invaded Berlin, Germany Battle of the Bulge: last major German offensive battle on the Western Front in the winter of 1944 – 45 V-E Day: Victory in Europe Day; May 8, 1945 The Battle of the Bulge The “Battle of the Bulge” earned its name from the initial success on side of the German army. In the early stage of the battle, the Germans cut a deep line of division between the Allies. On a map, the success of the German army’s advance appeared to “bulge” westward toward Belgium. On December 16, 1944, Germany launched a last offensive campaign on the Western Front. The Germans advanced into the Ardennes Forest to in order to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops, and capture their primary supply port at Antwerp. The goal was to achieve a more leveraged peace settlement. The Germans initial phase of the battle caught the Allies totally by surprise and forced their retreat. For the Americans, the Battle of the Bulge was the deadliest of the war. Fought during an unusually cold and snowy winter, Americans sustained over 100,000 casualties in just six weeks. Ultimately, the German advance halted due to a fuel shortages and Allied reinforcements. It was the last German offensive of World War II. For the next three and a half months, the Germans would retreat eastward toward the German border in preparation for an Allied assault on their homeland. The Western Allied Invasion of Germany The Western Allied invasion of Germany was coordinated by the Western Allies during the final months of hostilities in the European theater of World War II. The Allied invasion of Germany started with the Western Allies crossing the River Rhine in March 1945 before overrunning all of western Germany—from the Baltic in the north to Austria in the south—before the Germans surrendered on May 8, 1945. This is known as the “Central Europe Campaign” in United States military histories and is often considered the end of the second World War in Europe. By the beginning of the Central Europe Campaign, Allied victory in Europe was inevitable. Having gambled his future ability to defend Germany on the Ardennes offensive and lost, Hitler had no strength left to stop the powerful Allied armies. The Western Allies still had to fight, often bitterly, for victory. Even when the hopelessness of the German situation became obvious to his most loyal subordinates, Hitler refused to admit defeat. Only when Soviet artillery was falling around his Berlin headquarters bunker did he begin to perceive the inevitable final outcome. The crossing of the Rhine, the encirclement and reduction of the Ruhr, and the sweep to the Elbe-Mulde line and the Alps all established the final campaign on the Western Front as a showcase for Allied superiority in maneuver warfare. These mobile forces made great thrusts to isolate pockets of German troops, which were mopped up by additional infantry following close behind. The Allies rapidly eroded any remaining ability to resist. The Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin was the final major offensive of the European theater of World War II. The first defensive preparations at the outskirts of Berlin were made on March 20 under the newly appointed German commander, General Gotthard Heinrici. Before the main battle in Berlin commenced, the Red Army encircled the city. On April 16, 1945, two Soviet Red Army groups attacked Berlin from the east and south, while a third overran German forces positioned north of Berlin. On April 20, 1945, the Red Army began shelling Berlin’s city center, while a unit of Ukrainian troops pushed from the south. Defenses in Berlin consisted of several depleted and disorganized Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS divisions, along with poorly trained Hitler Youth members. Within the next few days, the Red Army reached the city center, where close-quarter combat raged. The city’s garrison surrendered to Soviet forces on May 2, but fighting continued to the northwest, west, and southwest of the city until the end of the war in Europe on May 8. In the final days of the war, German units fought westward so that they could surrender to the Western Allies rather than to the Soviets. They widely believed that the British and American soldiers would be more likely to treat them with respect than the Soviets. In contrast, the Germans feared brutal reprisals would be carried out against them if they surrendered to the Soviets. V-E Day On May 8 1945, the world celebrated V-E Day—or Victory in Europe Day. After almost six years of warfare and genocidal actions in Europe, Nazi Germany and its allies were defeated. And yet, just as the war in Europe ended, it intensified in the Pacific Theater of War. American and British troops, war-weary and ready for peace, anticipated that they would soon be transferred to an even more brutal theater of war than the one they had just won. April 1945: The Deaths of FDR, Mussolini, and Hitler In April 1945, three heads of state died: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler. All three had governed their countries for more than a decade. Each had a strong effect on their country. And two of them, Mussolini and Hitler, suffered unnatural deaths. Roosevelt, the oldest of the three, died of a stroke in his country home in Warm Springs, Georgia. In the final days of World War II, new leaders would attempt to hold their countries together. Learning Objectives - Evaluate the impact of the deaths of Hitler, Mussolini, and Roosevelt on their respective countries. Key Terms / Key Concepts Claretta Petacci: Mussolini’s mistress who was arrested and executed with him Eva Braun: Hitler’s long-time mistress who he married one day before their double suicide Führerbunker: bunker in Berlin where Hitler committed suicide Harry Truman: FDR’s vice president who succeeded him after Roosevelt’s death Karl Dönitz: Grand Admiral of the German fleet who succeeded Hitler as head-of-state after Hitler’s suicide Little White House: FDR’s home in Warm Springs, GA where he died of a massive stroke Piazalle Loreto: city square in Milan where Mussolini and Petacci’s bodies were displayed Walter Audisio: Communist partisan who is believed to have executed Mussolini The Death of a President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an ill man from the beginning of his presidency. Despite his warm and cordial exterior, he was a lonely person who, despite appearances, was still largely paralyzed from contracting Polio at the age of 39. He also suffered from high blood pressure, stress, and exhaustion. In the spring of 1945, Roosevelt traveled to his private home in Warm Springs, Georgia, which was dubbed the “Little White House” because he spent a good amount of time there. The home was small and quaint for a man of Roosevelt’s pedigree. He had found comfort in the rural Georgia mountains, though. During his initial recovery from Polio, his home in Warm Springs had offered solace and tranquility. Less than a month before Germany’s surrender, Roosevelt traveled to his home in Warm Springs to rest. On the afternoon of April 12, Roosevelt sat for a portrait before Elizabeth Shoumatoff, an acclaimed artist. Around noon, he announced, “I have a terrific headache.” The president then collapsed. Doctors arrived and found Roosevelt unconscious. Three hours later, the 32nd president of the United States was dead. Roosevelt’s physician diagnosed the president as having had a massive stroke. The portrait of Roosevelt, titled the Unfinished Portrait, still hangs in the Little White House. Beside it is a second, completed portrait based on Shoumatoff’s memories of the president. The public mourning for Roosevelt was unprecedented. For many Americans, it was hard to recall a president before FDR, who had served for over twelve years. For others, Roosevelt had represented the leader who had guided the United States through two of its greatest crises: the Great Depression and World War II. He personified the American spirit in a way his predecessors had not. Despite his privileged background, he had touched the lives of many of America’s poor, forgotten, and ignored. Tens of thousands of mourners watched his funeral train as it slowly carried Roosevelt’s casket from Georgia to his family home in Hyde Park, New York. As requested, Roosevelt was buried in his family’s rose garden. Upon Roosevelt’s passing, Vice President Harry Truman was appointed president of the United States. Truman, however, was well-aware of the public’s mood. Far from celebrating his new position, Truman encouraged the country to mourn for their president for thirty days and kept the flags at half-mast. Truman, despite his capable qualities, would find it impossible to live up to his predecessor’s popularity. The Death of Mussolini If Franklin Roosevelt’s death was sedate and honorable, Benito Mussolini’s death sixteen days later was far from it. In 1943, Italy was losing the war. The Allies were quickly gaining ground in Sicily and would push up through the southern part of Italy. Moreover, Italian civilians were suffering from lack of food and fuel. Support for the war was crumbling, and Mussolini discovered his country no longer supported his dictatorship. In July 1943, Mussolini was voted out of power and into exile on an Italian island. In September, the Italians signed an armistice with the Allies. When the armistice was signed, the Germans rushed into northern Italy to occupy it. The Germans also quickly rescued Mussolini and instilled him as a puppet-dictator in the Northern Italian state called the Italian Social Republic. Although Mussolini tried to remain strong, it was evident that he was controlled by his German liberators. Among other deeds, he aided in the round-up and execution of Italian Jews. In the spring of 1945, the Allies pressed into northern Italy. With the Germans in retreat, Mussolini faced a decision: to be handed over to the Allies to face war crimes or try to escape. Fatefully, he chose the latter. Mussolini's Failed Escape and Death With the Allies quickly advancing into northern Italy, the Germans were in rapid retreat. And Mussolini tried to escape before the Allies could capture him. On April 25, he and his mistress, Carletta Petacci, climbed into a truck. It was part of a convoy carrying fascists out of the city of Milan. Bad luck awaited Mussolini two days later. On April 27, a group of Italian communist partisans stopped the convoy. They hunted the trucks and found Mussolini and his mistress crouched against the door. In captivity, Benito Mussolini spent what must have proved a restless night. While he and his mistress awaited their fate, his captors discussed the same issue. At last, it was decided that Mussolini should be shot. Accounts differ about the nature of Mussolini’s execution in several points. However, they agree that on the morning of April 28, he and his mistress were led outside and stood against a wall. There, they were both shot multiple times, likely by a communist partisan named Walter Audisio. The following morning, the corpses of Mussolini and his mistress were driven to Piazalle Loreto, a central city square in Milan. There, they were strung up on meat hooks beside other fascists outside of a gas station for the Italian public to see. Crowds formed and soon, the corpses became targets for stone-throwers. The corpses were badly mangled before being taken down and buried in unmarked graves. It wasn’t until the 1950s that Mussolini’s corpse was buried in his family crypt. Adolf Hitler's Final Days On April 22, Hitler learned news that sent him into a fury of rage—the Russian Red Army had entered Berlin. There would be no counter-offensive, no attack that could repel the Russian invasion. Hitler resolved, according to witnesses to commit suicide rather than face the end before the Allies. Around midnight of April 29, Hitler married his long-time mistress, Eva Braun. Later that day, Hitler heard of Mussolini’s violent death by his own people. The death of Mussolini deeply affected Hitler. Mussolini had been an early teacher, an ally, and a fellow fascist. And his own people had slaughtered him during his attempt to escape. Hitler decided not to risk the same fate. Deep in his Führerbunker in Berlin, Hitler prepared to commit suicide. Sometime on April 30, Hitler shot himself in the head. His wife took cyanide. Their bodies were found, taken outside, and burned before the Soviets could recover them. For the next week, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz was the German head-of-state. However, Berlin quickly fell to the Soviets, and the German people lost the will to fight. On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allies. The following day, people around the world celebrated Victory Day in Europe. At the time of their respective deaths, it is likely that each of the three leaders knew how World War II would end in Europe. Roosevelt’s intimate conversations with Churchill and Stalin, as well as his military intelligence, suggested that he knew an Allied victory was close at hand. Mussolini had seen the Germans retreat from northern Italy, and the separate peace signed between Italy and the Allies. And Hitler knew that at the time of his death, the Red Army was upon him, fighting throughout the German capital. Although all three men had led their countries through World War II, none would live to see its conclusion in early May 1945. In all three cases, their passing signaled the end of an era in their respective countries and the start of a new one. Primary Source: The Yalta Conference February, 1945 Washington, March 24 - The text of the agreements reached at the Crimea (Yalta) Conference between President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Generalissimo Stalin, as released by the State Department today, follows: PROTOCOL OF PROCEEDINGS OF CRIMEA CONFERENCE The Crimea Conference of the heads of the Governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which took place from Feb. 4 to 11, came to the following conclusions: I. WORLD ORGANIZATION It was decided: 1. That a United Nations conference on the proposed world organization should be summoned for Wednesday, 25 April, 1945, and should be held in the United States of America. 2. The nations to be invited to this conference should be: (a) the United Nations as they existed on 8 Feb., 1945; and (b) Such of the Associated Nations as have declared war on the common enemy by 1 March, 1945. (For this purpose, by the term "Associated Nations" was meant the eight Associated Nations and Turkey.) When the conference on world organization is held, the delegates of the United Kingdom and United State of America will support a proposal to admit to original membership two Soviet Socialist Republics, i.e., the Ukraine and White Russia. 3. That the United States Government, on behalf of the three powers, should consult the Government of China and the French Provisional Government in regard to decisions taken at the present conference concerning the proposed world organization. 4. That the text of the invitation to be issued to all the nations which would take part in the United Nations conference should be as follows: "The Government of the United States of America, on behalf of itself and of the Governments of the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics and the Republic of China and of the Provisional Government of the French Republic invite the Government of -------- to send representatives to a conference to be held on 25 April, 1945, or soon thereafter , at San Francisco, in the United States of America, to prepare a charter for a general international organization for the maintenance of international peace and security. "The above-named Governments suggest that the conference consider as affording a basis for such a Charter the proposals for the establishment of a general international organization which were made public last October as a result of the Dumbarton Oaks conference and which have now been supplemented by the following provisions for Section C of Chapter VI: C. Voting "1. Each member of the Security Council should have one vote. "2. Decisions of the Security Council on procedural matters should be made by an affirmative vote of seven members. "3. Decisions of the Security Council on all matters should be made by an affirmative vote of seven members, including the concurring votes of the permanent members; provided that, in decisions under Chapter VIII, Section A and under the second sentence of Paragraph 1 of Chapter VIII, Section C, a party to a dispute should abstain from voting.' "Further information as to arrangements will be transmitted subsequently. "In the event that the Government of -------- desires in advance of the conference to present views or comments concerning the proposals, the Government of the United States of America will be pleased to transmit such views and comments to the other participating Governments." Territorial trusteeship: It was agreed that the five nations which will have permanent seats on the Security Council should consult each other prior to the United Nations conference on the question of territorial trusteeship. The acceptance of this recommendation is subject to its being made clear that territorial trusteeship will only apply to - (a) existing mandates of the League of Nations; - (b) territories detached from the enemy as a result of the present war; - (c) any other territory which might voluntarily be placed under trusteeship; and - (d) no discussion of actual territories is contemplated at the forthcoming United Nations conference or in the preliminary consultations, and it will be a matter for subsequent agreement which territories within the above categories will be place under trusteeship. [Begin first section published Feb., 13, 1945.] II. DECLARATION OF LIBERATED EUROPE The following declaration has been approved: The Premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the President of the United States of America have consulted with each other in the common interests of the people of their countries and those of liberated Europe. They jointly declare their mutual agreement to concert during the temporary period of instability in liberated Europe the policies of their three Governments in assisting the peoples liberated from the domination of Nazi Germany and the peoples of the former Axis satellite states of Europe to solve by democratic means their pressing political and economic problems. The establishment of order in Europe and the rebuilding of national economic life must be achieved by processes which will enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of nazism and fascism and to create democratic institutions of their own choice. This is a principle of the Atlantic Charter - the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live - the restoration of sovereign rights and self-government to those peoples who have been forcibly deprived to them by the aggressor nations. To foster the conditions in which the liberated people may exercise these rights, the three governments will jointly assist the people in any European liberated state or former Axis state in Europe where, in their judgment conditions require, - (a) to establish conditions of internal peace; - (b) to carry out emergency relief measures for the relief of distressed peoples; - (c) to form interim governmental authorities broadly representative of all democratic elements in the population and pledged to the earliest possible establishment through free elections of Governments responsive to the will of the people; and - (d) to facilitate where necessary the holding of such elections. The three Governments will consult the other United Nations and provisional authorities or other Governments in Europe when matters of direct interest to them are under consideration. When, in the opinion of the three Governments, conditions in any European liberated state or former Axis satellite in Europe make such action necessary, they will immediately consult together on the measure necessary to discharge the joint responsibilities set forth in this declaration. By this declaration we reaffirm our faith in the principles of the Atlantic Charter, our pledge in the Declaration by the United Nations and our determination to build in cooperation with other peace-loving nations world order, under law, dedicated to peace, security, freedom and general well-being of all mankind. In issuing this declaration, the three powers express the hope that the Provisional Government of the French Republic may be associated with them in the procedure suggested. [End first section published Feb., 13, 1945.] III. DISMEMBERMENT OF GERMANY It was agreed that Article 12 (a) of the Surrender terms for Germany should be amended to read as follows: "The United Kingdom, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics shall possess supreme authority with respect to Germany. In the exercise of such authority they will take such steps, including the complete dismemberment of Germany as they deem requisite for future peace and security." The study of the procedure of the dismemberment of Germany was referred to a committee consisting of Mr. Anthony Eden, Mr. John Winant, and Mr. Fedor T. Gusev. This body would consider the desirability of associating with it a French representative. IV. ZONE OF OCCUPATION FOR THE FRENCH AND CONTROL COUNCIL FOR GERMANY. It was agreed that a zone in Germany, to be occupied by the French forces, should be allocated France. This zone would be formed out of the British and American zones and its extent would be settled by the British and Americans in consultation with the French Provisional Government. It was also agreed that the French Provisional Government should be invited to become a member of the Allied Control Council for Germany. V. REPARATION The following protocol has been approved: Protocol On the Talks Between the Heads of Three Governments at the Crimean Conference on the Question of the German Reparations in Kind 1. Germany must pay in kind for the losses caused by her to the Allied nations in the course of the war. Reparations are to be received in the first instance by those countries which have borne the main burden of the war, have suffered the heaviest losses and have organized victory over the enemy. 2. Reparation in kind is to be exacted from Germany in three following forms: - (a) Removals within two years from the surrender of Germany or the cessation of organized resistance from the national wealth of Germany located on the territory of Germany herself as well as outside her territory (equipment, machine tools, ships, rolling stock, German investments abroad, shares of industrial, transport and other enterprises in Germany, etc.), these removals to be carried out chiefly for the purpose of destroying the war potential of Germany. - (b) Annual deliveries of goods from current production for a period to be fixed. - (c) Use of German labor. 3. For the working out on the above principles of a detailed plan for exaction of reparation from Germany an Allied reparation commission will be set up in Moscow. It will consist of three representatives - one from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, one from the United Kingdom and one from the United States of America. 4. With regard to the fixing of the total sum of the reparation as well as the distribution of it among the countries which suffered from the German aggression, the Soviet and American delegations agreed as follows: "The Moscow reparation commission should take in its initial studies as a basis for discussion the suggestion of the Soviet Government that the total sum of the reparation in accordance with the points (a) and (b) of the Paragraph 2 should be 22 billion dollars and that 50 per cent should go to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." The British delegation was of the opinion that, pending consideration of the reparation question by the Moscow reparation commission, no figures of reparation should be mentioned. The above Soviet-American proposal has been passed to the Moscow reparation commission as one of the proposals to be considered by the commission. VI. MAJOR WAR CRIMINALS The conference agreed that the question of the major war criminals should be the subject of inquiry by the three Foreign Secretaries for report in due course after the close of the conference. [Begin second section published Feb. 13, 1945.] VII. POLAND The following declaration on Poland was agreed by the conference: "A new situation has been created in Poland as a result of her complete liberation by the Red Army. This calls for the establishment of a Polish Provisional Government which can be more broadly based than was possible before the recent liberation of the western part of Poland. The Provisional Government which is now functioning in Poland should therefore be reorganized on a broader democratic basis with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland itself and from Poles abroad. This new Government should then be called the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity. "M. Molotov, Mr. Harriman and Sir A. Clark Kerr are authorized as a commission to consult in the first instance in Moscow with members of the present Provisional Government and with other Polish democratic leaders from within Poland and from abroad, with a view to the reorganization of the present Government along the above lines. This Polish Provisional Government of National Unity shall be pledged to the holding of free and unfettered elections as soon as possible on the basis of universal suffrage and secret ballot. In these elections all democratic and anti-Nazi parties shall have the right to take part and to put forward candidates. "When a Polish Provisional of Government National Unity has been properly formed in conformity with the above, the Government of the U.S.S.R., which now maintains diplomatic relations with the present Provisional Government of Poland, and the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the United States of America will establish diplomatic relations with the new Polish Provisional Government National Unity, and will exchange Ambassadors by whose reports the respective Governments will be kept informed about the situation in Poland. "The three heads of Government consider that the eastern frontier of Poland should follow the Curzon Line with digressions from it in some regions of five to eight kilometers in favor of Poland. They recognize that Poland must receive substantial accessions in territory in the north and west. They feel that the opinion of the new Polish Provisional Government of National Unity should be sought in due course of the extent of these accessions and that the final delimitation of the western frontier of Poland should thereafter await the peace conference." VIII. YUGOSLAVIA It was agreed to recommend to Marshal Tito and to Dr. Ivan Subasitch: - (a) That the Tito-Subasitch agreement should immediately be put into effect and a new government formed on the basis of the agreement. - (b) That as soon as the new Government has been formed it should declare: - (I) That the Anti-Fascist Assembly of the National Liberation (AVNOJ) will be extended to include members of the last Yugoslav Skupstina who have not compromised themselves by collaboration with the enemy, thus forming a body to be known as a temporary Parliament and - (II) That legislative acts passed by the Anti-Fascist Assembly of the National Liberation (AVNOJ) will be subject to subsequent ratification by a Constituent Assembly; and that this statement should be published in the communiquÃ© of the conference. IX. ITALO-YOGOSLAV FRONTIER - ITALO-AUSTRIAN FRONTIER Notes on these subjects were put in by the British delegation and the American and Soviet delegations agreed to consider them and give their views later. X. YUGOSLAV-BULGARIAN RELATIONS There was an exchange of views between the Foreign Secretaries on the question of the desirability of a Yugoslav-Bulgarian pact of alliance. The question at issue was whether a state still under an armistice regime could be allowed to enter into a treaty with another state. Mr. Eden suggested that the Bulgarian and Yugoslav Governments should be informed that this could not be approved. Mr. Stettinius suggested that the British and American Ambassadors should discuss the matter further with Mr. Molotov in Moscow. Mr. Molotov agreed with the proposal of Mr. Stettinius. XI. SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE The British delegation put in notes for the consideration of their colleagues on the following subjects: - (a) The Control Commission in Bulgaria. - (b) Greek claims upon Bulgaria, more particularly with reference to reparations. - (c) Oil equipment in Rumania. XII. IRAN Mr. Eden, Mr. Stettinius and Mr. Molotov exchanged views on the situation in Iran. It was agreed that this matter should be pursued through the diplomatic channel. [Begin third section published Feb. 13, 1945.] XIII. MEETINGS OF THE THREE FOREIGN SECRETARIES The conference agreed that permanent machinery should be set up for consultation between the three Foreign Secretaries; they should meet as often as necessary, probably about every three or four months. These meetings will be held in rotation in the three capitals, the first meeting being held in London. [End third section published Feb. 13, 1945.] XIV. THE MONTREAUX CONVENTION AND THE STRAITS It was agreed that at the next meeting of the three Foreign Secretaries to be held in London, they should consider proposals which it was understood the Soviet Government would put forward in relation to the Montreaux Convention, and report to their Governments. The Turkish Government should be informed at the appropriate moment. The forgoing protocol was approved and signed by the three Foreign Secretaries at the Crimean Conference Feb. 11, 1945. E. R. Stettinius Jr. M. Molotov Anthony Eden AGREEMENT REGARDING JAPAN The leaders of the three great powers - the Soviet Union, the United States of America and Great Britain - have agreed that in two or three months after Germany has surrendered and the war in Europe is terminated, the Soviet Union shall enter into war against Japan on the side of the Allies on condition that: - 1. The status quo in Outer Mongolia (the Mongolian People's Republic) shall be preserved. - 2. The former rights of Russia violated by the treacherous attack of Japan in 1904 shall be restored, viz.: - (a) The southern part of Sakhalin as well as the islands adjacent to it shall be returned to the Soviet Union; - (b) The commercial port of Dairen shall be internationalized, the pre-eminent interests of the Soviet Union in this port being safeguarded, and the lease of Port Arthur as a naval base of the U.S.S.R. restored; - (c) The Chinese-Eastern Railroad and the South Manchurian Railroad, which provide an outlet to Dairen, shall be jointly operated by the establishment of a joint Soviet-Chinese company, it being understood that the pre-eminent interests of the Soviet Union shall be safeguarded and that China shall retain sovereignty in Manchuria; - 3. The Kurile Islands shall be handed over to the Soviet Union. It is understood that the agreement concerning Outer Mongolia and the ports and railroads referred to above will require concurrence of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. The President will take measures in order to maintain this concurrence on advice from Marshal Stalin. The heads of the three great powers have agreed that these claims of the Soviet Union shall be unquestionably fulfilled after Japan has been defeated. For its part, the Soviet Union expresses it readiness to conclude with the National Government of China a pact of friendship and alliance between the U.S.S.R. and China in order to render assistance to China with its armed forces for the purpose of liberating China from the Japanese yoke. Joseph Stalin Franklin D. Roosevelt Winston S. Churchill February 11, 1945. Attributions All Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Snyder, Timothy. Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. Basic Books, New York: 2010. 298-305. History of Western Civilization, II. “The Tehran Conference” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/the-tehran-conference/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ “The Yalta Conference” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/the-yalta-conference/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ “The Allied Push to Berlin” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/the-allied-push-to-berlin/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ "The Yalta Conference." February 1945. Hosted by: Yale Law School/Lillian Goldman Law Library. The Avalon Project : Yalta (Crimea) Conference (yale.edu)	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.478921	Alison Vick	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93365/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Catastrophe of the Modern Era: 1919-Present CE, Chapter 14: The World Afire: World War II, Road to Allied Victory", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88060/overview	Turning the Tide in Europe Overview Operation Torch From 1939 – 1942, an Axis victory in Europe seemed a very real possibility. Nazi Germany, bolstered by its ally Italy, as well as occupied nations in Europe, seemed destined to win the war. And yet, the Germans also seemed overextended. In fall 1942, the Germans were knocked out of their positions in North Africa during Operation Torch—led by the United States. The following summer, the Allies would claim Sicily and make their way into Europe through Italy. By winter of 1943, the Soviet Red Army forced the German army to retreat, slowly but surely, toward Berlin. And then in the summer of 1944, the Allies would make good on a promise to Stalin to open up a second front in Europe. When the invasion of Normandy occurred in June 1944, the German army was stretched as it fought a multifront war to the west, east, and south. By the summer of 1944, the war had turned in favor of the Allies, as Germany crumbled from within and without. Despite the advances made by the Allies, the last years of the war would prove hard fought for them as the fighting devolved into total war across the European continent. Learning Objectives - Examine why the Allies chose to invade North Africa and Sicily. Key Terms / Key Concepts Operation Husky: the Allied invasion of the island of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea in the summer of 1943 Operation Torch: Allied invasion of North Africa in the fall of 1942 Tunisia: country in North Africa occupied by the Germans during World War II; location of much of the combat in North Africa Operation Torch Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African Campaign of the Second World War. The Soviet Union had pressed the United States and United Kingdom to start operations in Europe and open a second front to reduce the pressure of German forces on the Soviet troops. The goal was to eliminate the Axis Powers in North Africa, improve naval control of the Mediterranean Sea, and prepare for an invasion of Southern Europe in 1943. U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt suspected the African operation would rule out an invasion of Europe in 1943; however, he agreed to support British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Operation Torch launched on November 8, 1942 and was completed on November 11. To reduce German and Italian forces, Allied forces landed in North Africa, under the assumption that there would be little to no resistance. In fact, Vichy French forces, collaborators with the Germans, put up a strong and bloody resistance to the Allies. Soon though, the Allies had overwhelmed the Vichy French forces. The Allied landings prompted the Nazi occupation of Vichy France. Sensing that an Allied victory was imminent, the Vichy army in North Africa switched sides and joined the Allies in fighting against the Germans and Italians. Tunisian Campaign Following the Operation Torch landings, the Germans and Italians initiated a buildup of troops in Tunisia to fill the vacuum left by Vichy troops who had withdrawn. During this period of weakness, the Allies decided against a rapid advance into Tunisia while they wrestled with the Vichy authorities. By the beginning of March, the British army reached the Tunisian border. The Germans discovered they were outflanked, outmanned, and outgunned. The British Eighth Army bypassed the Axis defense in late March. The British First Army in central Tunisia launched their main offensive in mid-April to squeeze the Axis forces until their resistance in Africa collapsed. The Axis forces surrendered on May 13, 1943, yielding over 275,000 prisoners of war. The last Axis force to surrender in North Africa was the 1st Italian Army. This huge loss of experienced troops greatly reduced the military capacity of the Axis powers, although the largest percentage of Axis troops escaped Tunisia. They would fight the Allies in Sicily and Italy the next year. This defeat in Africa led to all Italian colonies in Africa being captured. Operation Husky The Allied invasion of Sicily, code named Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II, during which the Allies took the island of Sicily from the Axis powers (Italy and Nazi Germany). It was a large amphibious and airborne operation followed by a six-week land operation and began the Italian Campaign. Background After the defeat of the Axis Powers in North Africa in May 1943, there was disagreement between the Allies as to what the next step should be. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted to invade Italy, which in November 1942 he called “the soft underbelly of the Axis.” Popular support in Italy for the war was declining, and Churchill believed an invasion would remove Italy as an opponent, as well as the influence of Axis forces in the Mediterranean Sea, which would open the area to Allied traffic. This would reduce the shipping capacity needed to supply Allied forces in the Middle East and Far East at a time when the disposal of Allied shipping capacity was in crisis, as well as increase British and American supplies to the Soviet Union. In addition, it would tie down German forces. Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader, had been pressing Churchill and Roosevelt to open a “second front” in Europe, which would lessen the German Army’s focus on the Eastern Front, where the bulk of Soviet forces were fighting in the largest armed conflict in history. Operation Husky - An Allied Victory A combined British-Canadian-Indian-American invasion of Sicily began on July 10, 1943, with both amphibious and airborne landings at the Gulf of Gela, under the command of American General Patton, as well as north of Syracuse under British General Montgomery. The original plan contemplated a strong advance by the British northwards along the east coast to Messina, with the Americans in a supporting role along Britain’s left flank. However, when the British Eighth Army was held up by stubborn defenses in the rugged hills south of Mount Etna, Patton amplified the American role by a wide advance northwest. This was followed by an eastward advance north of Etna towards Messina, supported by a series of amphibious landings on the north coast, which propelled Patton’s troops into Messina shortly before the first elements of Eighth Army. The defending German and Italian forces were unable to prevent the Allied capture of the island, but they had succeeded in evacuating most of their troops to the mainland by August 17, 1943. Through this offensive, Allied forces gained experience in opposed amphibious operations, coalition warfare, and mass airborne drops. Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of Stalingrad in Southern Russia, located on the eastern boundary of Europe. It has been described as the biggest defeat in the history of the German Army and a decisive turning point in the downfall of Hitler in World War II. It was fought from August 1942 until February 1943. Learning Objectives Evaluate why the Battle of Stalingrad was a major turning point of World War II in favor of the Allies. Key Terms / Key Concepts The Battle of Stalingrad: a battle between the Russian Red Army and the Germans, as well as their allies, that occurred in the industrial city of Stalingrad, Ukraine from August 1942 until February 1943 Overview For the first three years of World War II, Nazi Germany dominated Europe. An Axis victory seemed likely. By tooth and claw, the British and Soviets had held on, bolstered significantly by supplies delivered by the United States. Weather had slowed the German advance into the Soviet Union. Their men were unprepared for the severe cold of the Russian winters, as well as the horrible mud and biting pests that would occur when the snow melted and the Russian spring came. The pressure put on German supply lines was crippling. To continue their advance, the Germans knew they needed oil and gas resources. Moreover, they needed a crippling victory over the Soviets. With these thoughts in mind, the German army drove toward the industrial center of Stalingrad—“Stalin’s city,” which is present-day Volgograd, Russia. From its outset, the Battle of Stalingrad was marked by constant close-quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by air raids. The Red Army mounted a far fiercer defense of the city than the Germans and their Hungarian and Romanian allies accounted for. The attack was supported by intensive Luftwaffe bombing that reduced much of the city to rubble. The fighting degenerated into house-to-house fighting, as both sides poured reinforcements into the city. By mid-November 1942, the Germans pushed the Soviet defenders back at great cost into narrow zones along the west bank of the Volga River. The Battle of Stalingrad is often regarded as one of the single largest and bloodiest battles in the history of warfare; nearly 2.2 million troops fought in the battle and 1.7 – 2 million were wounded, killed, or captured. The heavy losses inflicted on the German Wehrmacht make it arguably the most strategically decisive battle of the whole war and a turning point in the European theater of World War II. For this battle, German forces had withdrawn a vast military force from the West to replace their losses in the East, weakening their position on the Western Front, while never regaining the initiative on the Eastern Front. Significance The German public was not officially told of the impending disaster until the end of January 1943; positive media reports had ended in the weeks before the announcement of failure. And Stalingrad marked the first time that the Nazi government publicly acknowledged a failure in its war effort. The battle proved not only the first major setback for the German military but also a crushing, unprecedented defeat where German losses were almost equal to those of the Soviets. Prior losses of the Soviet Union were generally three times as high as the German ones. On January 31, regular programming on German state radio was replaced by a broadcast of the somber Adagio movement from Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, followed by the announcement of the defeat at Stalingrad. But this did not lead the Germans to believe that they could not win the war, as on 18 February, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels gave the famous Sportpalast speech in Berlin, encouraging the Germans to accept a total war that would claim all resources and efforts from the entire population. Stalingrad has been described as not only the biggest defeat in the history of the German Army but also as the turning point on the Eastern Front, in the war against Germany overall, and the entire Second World War. Before Stalingrad, the German forces went from victory to victory on the Eastern Front, with only a limited setback in the winter of 1941 – 42. After Stalingrad, they won no decisive battles, even in summer. The Red Army had the initiative and the Wehrmacht was in retreat. A year of German gains had been wiped out. Germany’s Sixth Army had ceased to exist, and the forces of Germany’s European allies, except Finland, had been shattered. In a speech on November 9, 1944, Hitler himself blamed Stalingrad for Germany’s impending doom. Impact Today there are some historians who downplay the significance of the Battle of Stalingrad, those who claim either the Battle of Moscow or the Battle of Kursk was more strategically decisive. But there is no denying that the destruction of an entire army—1 million Axis soldiers—and the frustration of Germany’s grand strategy made Stalingrad a watershed moment, especially for German demoralization, and Allied hope. Germany’s defeat shattered its reputation for invincibility and dealt a devastating blow to morale. On January 30, 1943, his 10th anniversary of coming to power, Hitler chose not to speak. Joseph Goebbels read the text of his speech for him on the radio. The speech contained an oblique reference to the battle which suggested that Germany was now in a defensive war. The public mood was sullen, depressed, fearful, and war-weary. Germany was looking in the face of defeat. However, on the Soviet side there was an overwhelming surge in confidence and belief in victory. A common saying was: “You cannot stop an army which has done Stalingrad.” Stalin was feted as the hero of the hour and made a Marshal of the Soviet Union. D-Day The Allies, primarily the British and Americans, launched the largest amphibious invasion in history when they assaulted the German forces at Normandy the northern coast of France—on June 6, 1944. They were able to establish a beachhead after a successful “D-Day,” which is what they called the first day of the invasion. The human cost for obtaining this critical part of the French coast was exorbitantly high. More than 200,000 British, American, French, and Canadian troops were casualties of the invasion. Over 300,000 Germans became casualties. Despite the brutality of the invasion, the success of the Allies led to the liberation of France and, ultimately, allowed the Allies to attack the Germans on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. Learning Objectives - Evaluate the immediate success of the Normandy invasions. - Analyze how the Normandy invasion helped turn the tide of war in favor of the Allies. Key Terms / Key Concepts D-Day: June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy invasion Liberation of France: defeat of German occupiers in France by the Allies in 1944 Normandy: coastal area of Northern France Omaha Beach: one of the five beaches Allied troops landed on that was infamous for the high casualties of American soldiers Operation Overlord: the codename for the invasion of Normandy Operation Bodyguard: codename for the Allies’ ruse to trick the Germans before the Allied invasion of Normandy D-Day: The Normandy Landings Planning for Operation Overlord began in 1943. From the onset of planning, the Allies realized there was a significant challenge—concealing the fact that they were planning the largest invasion in history from the Germans. Afterall, the Germans still occupied France, including the coast. The Germans had excellent intelligence, and they expected an invasion. Only the English Channel separated England, where Allied forces were massing, from Nazi-occupied France. The challenge for the Allies was to successfully conceal their massive invasion. As luck would have it, the Germans remained over-extended on all fronts and the Allies had a plan. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, code named Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. They leaked enormous amounts of false information to the Germans of the impending invasion. The Allies then took the deception one step further. They created a fake invasion force north of their actual location. Dummy aircraft and landing craft, as well as inflatable tanks were put on display so that the Allied ruse would be believed. As luck would have it, the Germans did fall for the Allied ploy. They sent the bulk of their defensive forces to the area around Calais. Nevertheless, the entire French coast was still heavily defended. Rows of steel hedgehogs lined the edge of the beach, half-concealed by the tide. Behind this defensive measure were rows of barbed wire and mines, and, above the beach, there were rows of machine gunners and flamethrowers. The amphibious landings at Normandy were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault with the landing of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. The amphibious invasion of D-Day was to begin on June 6, 1944. The night before, Franklin Roosevelt bolstered the support of troops by declaring, “The Eyes of the World are upon you.” For Roosevelt, as well as the rest of the military commanders, knew that the invasion would be brutal and the human cost almost unfathomable. On the morning of June 6, the young men (mostly under the age of 25) were given a hearty, full breakfast at five in the morning. Although well-intentioned, the troops did not understand that their breakfast would soon work against them. They shipped out not long after and discovered the English Channel was excessively choppy. Soon, the men who had enjoyed breakfast were seasick. Shouldering as much as eighty pounds of gear on their backs, the Allied troops were to charge the descent from their landing craft, charge through the water, and attack the German positions on five beaches: Utah, Gold, Sword, Juno, and Omaha. Allied infantry and armored divisions landed on the coast of France at 6:30 am. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their intended positions. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha Beach, with its high cliffs. At Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled using specialized tanks. The Allies failed to achieve any of their goals on the first day. Only two of the beaches (Juno and Gold) were linked on the first day, and all five beachheads were not connected until June 12; however, the operation gained a foothold that the Allies gradually expanded over the coming months. The Normandy invasion was extremely hard-fought but ultimately successful. Strategically, the campaign led to the loss of the German position in most of France and the secure establishment of a new major front. In the larger context, the Normandy invasion helped the Soviets on the Eastern Front, who were facing the bulk of the German forces, and to a certain extent contributed to the shortening of the conflict there. Despite initial heavy losses in the assault phase, Allied morale remained high. Casualty rates among all the armies were tremendous. However, the success of the invasion led to several key events: Allied territory in continental France that allowed for easier shipment of troops and goods; the liberation of France, and later Belgium, Holland, and other countries; and the weakening of the German army. All of these developments would contribute to an Allied victory in World War II. Battle of the Atlantic The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. It focused on naval blockades and counter-blockades to prevent wartime supplies from reaching Britain or Germany. Learning Objectives - Evaluate how the Battle of the Atlantic affected the overall course of World War II. Key Terms / Key Concepts Battle of the Atlantic: the Allied naval blockade of Germany, and Germany’s subsequent counter-blockade Overview The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany’s subsequent counter-blockade. As an island nation, the United Kingdom was dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week to be able to survive and fight. From 1942 on, the Germans sought to prevent the build-up of Allied supplies and equipment in the British Isles in preparation for the invasion of occupied Europe. Therefore, the defeat of the U-boat threat was a prerequisite for pushing back the Germans. Winston Churchill later remarked on the event, The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war. Never for one moment could we forget that everything happening elsewhere, on land, at sea or in the air depended ultimately on its outcome. The name “Battle of the Atlantic” was coined by Winston Churchill in February 1941. It has been called the “longest, largest, and most complex” naval battle in history. It involved thousands of ships in more than 100 convoy battles and perhaps 1,000 single-ship encounters, in a theater covering thousands of square miles of ocean. The situation changed constantly, with one side or the other gaining advantage as participating countries surrendered, joined, and even changed sides, and as new weapons, tactics, countermeasures, and equipment were developed by both sides. The Allies gradually gained the upper hand, overcoming German surface raiders by the end of 1942 and defeating the U-boats by mid-1943, though losses due to U-boats continued until war’s end. U-Boat Strategy Early in the war, the Germans believed they could bring Britain to her knees because of her dependence on overseas commerce. They began practicing a naval technique known as the Rudeltaktik (the so-called “wolf pack”), in which U-boats would spread out in a long line across the projected course of a convoy. Upon sighting a target, they would come together to attack en masse and overwhelm any escorting warships. While escorts chased individual submarines, the rest of the “pack” would be able to attack the merchant ships. Significance in the War The Germans failed to stop the flow of strategic supplies to Britain, resulting in the build-up of troops and supplies needed for the D-Day landings. Victory at sea was achieved at a huge cost: between 1939 and 1945, 3,500 Allied merchant ships (totaling 14.5 million gross tons) and 175 Allied warships were sunk; additionally, some 72,200 Allied naval and merchant seamen lost their lives. The Germans lost 783 U-boats and approximately 30,000 sailors, which was three-quarters of Germany’s 40,000-man U-boat fleet. With the German fleet effectively weakened, the Allies could transfer goods and troops to France, across the Atlantic and the North Sea. Attributions All Images Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons History of Western Civilization, II “The North African Front” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/the-north-african-front/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ “The Sicilian Campaign” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/the-sicilian-campaign/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 “Conflict in the Atlantic” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/conflict-in-the-atlantic/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ “The Allies Gain Ground” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/the-allies-gain-ground/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ “The End of the War” https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/the-end-of-the-war/	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.534578	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88060/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, The Catastrophe of the Modern Era: 1919-Present CE, Chapter 14: The World Afire: World War II, Turning the Tide in Europe", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/91159/overview	Communicating the Value Proposition Overview Communicating the Value Proposition Outcome: Communicating the Value Proposition What you’ll be able to do: define and communicate an organization’s value proposition in a competitive marketplace Once you know your target market, you must have a compelling way to communicate your value proposition. This requires the marketer to answer a number of questions: - What is value? Each customer will weigh the benefits and the costs of an offering differently and determine whether it is providing value. It is important to understand how customers perceive value. - What is the value this offering provides to the target customer? You hope that you have selected target customers that view the value that you provide favorably, but the marketer has to test and refine the assumption that the offering is actually providing value to the target customer. - How is the value provided different from the value that competitors provide? Each time a competitor shifts its offering(s), that change will have an impact on the perceived value of your offering. In a competitive marketplace, it becomes important to understand and react to changes, but also to identify the value that you provide that is most difficult for others to copy. - How are you communicating the promise of value to target customers? With so many marketing channels and messages all around, customers have a very short attention span. The marketer has to grab that attention and communicate value to customers in only a few seconds. Learning Activities The learning activities for this section include the following: - Reading: Value for the Customer - Reading: Communicating the Value Proposition LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Outcome: Communicating the Value Proposition. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution Reading: Value for the Customer What Is Value? Earlier in this module we discussed that marketing exists to help organizations understand, reach, and deliver value to their customers. In it’s simplest form, value is the measure of the benefit gained from a product or service relative to the full cost of the item. Value = benefit – cost In the process of the marketing exchange, value must be created. Let’s look at the simplest example: If you and I decide to give each other a $5 bill at the same moment, is value created? I hand my $5 bill to you, and you hand yours to me. It is hard to say that either of us receives a benefit greater than the $5 bill we just received. There is no value in the exchange. Now, imagine that you are passing by a machine that dispenses bus tickets. The machine is malfunctioning and will only accept $1 bills. The bus is about to arrive and a man in front of the machine asks if you would be willing to give him four $1 bills in exchange for a $5 bill. You could, of course, decide to make change for him (and give him five $1 bills), but let’s say you agree to his proposal. In that moment a $1 bill is worth $1.25 to him. How does that make sense in the value equation? From his perspective, the ability to use the bus ticket dispenser in that moment adds value in the transaction. This is where value becomes tricky for marketers. Value is not simply a question of the financial costs and financial benefits. It includes perceptions of benefit that are different for every person. The marketer has to understand what is of greatest value to the target customer, and then use that information to develop a total offering that creates value. Value Is More Than Price You will notice that we did not express value as value = benefit – price. Price plays an important role in defining value, but it’s not the only consideration. Let’s look at a few typical examples: - Example One: Two products have exactly the same ingredients, but a customer selects the higher-priced product because of the name brand. For the marketer, this means that the brand is adding value in the transaction. - Example Two: A customer shopping online selects a product but abandons the order before paying because there are too many steps in the purchase process. The inconvenience of filling in many forms, or concerns about providing personal information, can add cost (which will subtract from the value the customer perceives). - Example Three: An individual who is interested in a political cause commits to attending a meeting, but cancels when he realizes that he doesn’t know anyone attending and that the meeting is on the other side of town. For this person, the benefit of attending and participating is lower because of costs related to personal connection and convenience. As you can begin to imagine, the process of determining the value of an offering and then aligning it with the wants and needs of a target customer is challenging, indeed. Throughout this course, though, you will gain a deeper understanding of the tools and processes that marketers use to do it effectively. Value in a Competitive Marketplace As if understanding individual perceptions of value weren’t difficult enough, the presence of competitors further complicates perceptions of value. Customers instinctively make choices between competitive offerings based on perceived value. Imagine that you are traveling to Seattle, Washington, with a group of six friends for a school event. You have the option to stay at a Marriott Courtyard Hotel that is located next to the event venue for $95 per night. If you pay the “additional person fee,” you could share the room with one friend for a cost of $50 per night. However, one of your friends finds an AirBnB listing for an entire apartment that sleeps six people. Cost: $280 per night. That takes the price down to $40 per night, but the apartment is five miles away from the venue and, since there are seven of you, you would likely be sleeping on a couch or fighting for a bed. It has a more personal feel and a kitchen, but you will really be staying in someone else’s place with your friends. It’s an interesting dilemma. Regardless of which option you would really choose, consider the differences in the value of each and how the presence of both options generates unavoidable comparisons: the introduction of the AirBnb alternative has the effect of highlighting new shortcomings and benefits of the Marriott Courtyard hotel room. Alternatives generally fall into two categories: competitors and substitutes. A competitor is providing the same offering but is accentuating different features and benefits. If, say, you are evaluating a Marriott Courtyard hotel room vs. a Hilton Hampton Inn hotel room, then you are looking at competitive offerings. Both offerings are hotel rooms provided by different companies. The service includes different features, and the price and location vary, the sum of which creates different perceptions of value for customers. AirBnb is a service that allows individuals to rent out their homes, apartments, or a single room. AirBnb does not offer hotel rooms; it offers an alternative to, or substitute for, a hotel room. Substitute offerings are viewed by the user as alternatives. The substitution is not a perfect replication of the offering, which means that it will provide different value to customers. Competitors and substitutes force the marketer to identify the aspects of the offering that provide unique value vis-à-vis the alternatives. We refer to this as differentiation. Differentiation is simply the process of identifying and optimizing the elements of an offering that provide unique value to customers. Sometimes organizations refer to this process as competitive differentiation, since it is very focused on optimizing value in the context of the competitive landscape. Finally, organizations seek to create an advantage in the marketplace whereby an organization’s offerings provide greater value because of a unique strategy, asset, or approach that the firm uses that other cannot easily copy. This is a competitive advantage. The American Marketing Association defines competitive advantage as “a total offer, vis-à-vis relevant competition, that is more attractive to customers. It exists when the competencies of a firm permit the firm to outperform its competitors.” When a company can create greater value for customers than its competitors, it has a competitive advantage. LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Value for the Customer. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Seattle Skyline. Authored by: Terrell Woods. Located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/terrellcwoods/6174240463/. License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Reading: Communicating the Value Proposition What Is a Value Proposition? We have discussed the complexity of understanding customer perceptions of value. As the company seeks to understand and optimize the value of its offering, it also must communicate the core elements of value to potential customers. Marketers do this through a value proposition, defined as follows: A business or marketing statement that summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service. This statement should convince a potential consumer that one particular product or service will add more value or better solve a problem than other similar offerings.1 It is difficult to create an effective value proposition because it requires the marketer to distill many different elements of value and differentiation into one simple statement that can be easily read and understood. Despite the challenge, it is very important to create an effective value proposition. The value proposition focuses marketing efforts on the unique benefit to customers. This helps focus the offering on the customer and, more specifically, on the unique value to the customer. A value proposition needs to very simply answer the question: Why should someone buy what you are offering? If you look closely at this question it contains three components: - Who? The value proposition does not name the target buyer, but it must show clear value to the target buyer. - What? The offering needs to be defined in the context of that buyer. - Why? It must show that the offering is uniquely valuable to the buyer. How Do You Create an Effective Value Proposition? When creating or evaluating a value proposition, it is helpful to step away from the long lists of features and benefits and deep competitive analysis. Stick to the simple, and strive for focus and clarity. A value proposition should be clear, compelling, and differentiating: - Clear: short and direct; immediately identifies both the offering and the value or benefit - Compelling: conveys the benefit in a way that motivates the buyer to act - Differentiating: sets the offering apart or differentiates it from other offerings Also, the value proposition is a message, and the audience is the target customer. You want your value proposition to communicate, very succinctly, the promise of unique value in your offering. LEARN MORE Click on the link below to read a nice description of the value proposition from a marketing consultant’s perspective: - “How to Write a Great Value Proposition” on Quick Sprout. Notes - Twin, Alexandra. "Value Proposition." Investopedia. Accessed September 10, 2019. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/valueproposition.asp ↵ LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Communicating the Value Proposition. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Apples--Stand Out. Authored by: Flazingo Photos. Located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/124247024@N07/14086869112/. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.568746	03/22/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/91159/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit Principles of Marketing, Marketing Function, Communicating the Value Proposition", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93446/overview	Postscript Overview History is being Made... Our goal in writing this book was twofold. Firstly, to provide teachers and students a broad view of world history from the late 1300s-2010s in a way that was engaging and accessible. Secondly, we want to convey a sense of “how did we end up here?” Or, in simple terms, we wanted to connect the past six-hundred years of history to the present, and to show why it is significant. It is out hope that in this textbook, we have done both. And perhaps also, explained the “human story” by identifying ways in which human beings have been interconnected. Tremendous human achievements have occurred since the 1300s. Women have obtained significant protections and rights. Indigenous peoples, likewise, have received more protections and recognition. In the 1300s, it would have been impossible for most people to travel great distances, meet people from around the world, or even know much of the world beyond their immediate homes and villages. Seven hundred years later, the world is as globalized and interconnected as it has ever been. Technological advancements in communication and transportation allow people to connect with peoples around the world with relative ease. Business and economics have drawn the world together to create an interdependent, global community. And yet, in the 2000s, the world remains immensely polarized between the “haves” and “have nots.” Access to basic resources such as clean water and food remains a challenge for many people around the world. Likewise, there is strong disparity between the poor countries of the world, and the wealthy ones. The world’s economic inequalities have produced numerous social and political challenges in the twenty-first century. How human beings will combat these challenges remains to be seen. While there is truth in the phrase, “history is being made,” our team of historians felt we needed to conclude our book in the 2012-2014 range. Many of the events beyond those years are still being assessed and carried out and fall into the category of “current events” more than “history.” As the years progress, this book will undoubtedly be updated to reflect events and their outcomes.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.590809	Neil Greenwood	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93446/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit World History, Postscript and Glossary, Postscript", "author": "Anna McCollum" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100028/overview	2.3.2 Functions of Management 2.3.3 Firm Vision or Mission 2.3.4 Management Decision-making Process 2.3.5 Porter's 5 Forces 2.3.6 Resources and Capabilities of a Firm 2.3.7 Competition and Strategy of a Firm 2.3.8 SWOT Analysis Management and Strategic Decision Making Overview Qualities of a Successful Business Manager Learning Objective 6a Discuss qualities of a successful agribusiness manager. Being a Manager Managers are in constant action. Virtually every study of managers in action has found that they “switch frequently from task to task, changing their focus of attention to respond to issues as they arise, and engaging in a large volume of tasks of short duration.” Managers, in fact, spend very little time by themselves. Contrary to the image offered by management textbooks, they are rarely alone drawing up plans or worrying about important decisions. Instead, they spend most of their time interacting with others—both inside and outside the organization. If casual interactions in hallways, phone conversations, one-on-one meetings, and larger group meetings are included, managers spend about two-thirds of their time with other people. Henry Mintzberg observed CEOs on the job to get some idea of what they do and how they spend their time. He found, for instance, that they averaged 36 written and 16 verbal contacts per day, almost every one of them dealing with a distinct or different issue. Most of these activities were brief, lasting less than nine minutes. In the same vein, Lee Sproull’s study revealed that, during the course of a day, managers engaged in 58 different activities with an average duration of just nine minutes. John Kotter’s study found that the average manager spent just 25% of his time working alone, and that time was spent largely at home, on airplanes, or commuting. Kotter’s study reveals that successful general managers spend most of their time with others, including subordinates, their bosses, and numerous people from outside the organization. Few of them spent less than 70% of their time with others, and some spent up to 90% of their working time this way. Kotter also found that the breadth of topics in manager’s discussions with others was extremely wide, with unimportant or irrelevant issues taking time alongside important business matters. His study revealed that managers rarely make “big decisions” during these conversations and rarely give orders in a traditional sense. They often react to others’ initiatives and spend substantial amounts of time on unplanned activities that aren’t pre-scheduled. He found that managers will spend most of their time with others in short, disjointed conversations: “It is not at all unusual for a general manager to cover ten unrelated topics in a five-minute conversation.” Interruptions also appear to be a natural part of the job. Rosemary Stewart found that the managers she studied were working uninterrupted for half an hour only nine times during the four weeks she studied them. As Mintzberg has pointed out, “Unlike other workers, the manager does not leave the telephone or the meeting to get back to work. Rather, these contacts are his work.” The interactive nature of management means that most management work is conversational. Managers spend about two-thirds to three-quarters of their time in verbal activity. These verbal conversations, according to Robert Eccles and Nitin Nohria, are the means by which managers gather information, stay on top of things, identify problems, negotiate shared meanings, develop plans, put things in motion, give orders, assert authority, develop relationships, and spread gossip. In short, they are what the manager’s daily practice is all about. When managers are in action, they are talking and listening. The 3 Core Management Roles In Mintzberg’s seminal study of managers and their jobs, he found there are three core management roles: interpersonal, informational, and decisional. Interpersonal Roles Managers are required to interact with a substantial number of people in the course of a workweek. They host receptions; take clients and customers to dinner; meet with business prospects and partners; conduct hiring and performance interviews; and form alliances, friendships, and personal relationships with many others. Numerous studies have shown that such relationships are the richest source of information for managers because of their immediate and personal nature. The interpersonal role of managers arises directly from formal authority and involves basic interpersonal relationships. Managers fill the figurehead role. Managers are responsible for the work of the people in their unit, and their actions in this regard are directly related to their role as a leader. The influence of managers is most clearly seen, according to Mintzberg, in the leader role. Formal authority vests them with great potential power. Leadership determines, in large part, how much power they will realize. Additionally, as the head of an organizational unit, every manager must perform some ceremonial duties. In Mintzberg’s study, chief executives spent 12% of their contact time on ceremonial duties and 17% of their incoming mail dealt with acknowledgments and requests related to their status. For instance, a company president who deals with charity or philanthropic requests is engaging in the ceremonial duties that come with being a figurehead. The impact of a leadership role of managers can be seen in some famous examples of managers who had huge impacts on business success. When Lee Iacocca took over Chrysler Corporation (now DaimlerChrysler) in the 1980s, the once-great auto manufacturer was in bankruptcy, teetering on the verge of extinction. Iacocca formed new relationships with the United Auto Workers, reorganized the senior management of the company, and—perhaps most importantly—convinced the U.S. federal government to guarantee a series of bank loans that would make the company solvent again. The loan guarantees, the union response, and the reaction of the marketplace were due in large measure to Iacocca’s leadership style and personal charisma. More recent examples include the return of Starbucks founder Howard Schultz to re-energize and steer his company, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s ability to innovate during a downturn in the economy. Managers also fill the liaison role, which falls under the larger interpersonal umbrella. Popular management literature has had little to say about the liaison role until recently. This role, in which managers establish and maintain contacts outside the vertical chain of command, becomes especially important in view of the finding of virtually every study of managerial work that managers spend as much time with peers and other people outside of their units as they do with their own subordinates. Surprisingly, they spend little time with their own superiors. In Rosemary Stewart’s study, 160 British middle and top managers spent 47% of their time with peers, 41% of their time with people inside their unit, and only 12% of their time with superiors. Informational Roles Managers are required to gather, collate, analyze, store, and disseminate many kinds of information. As monitors, managers are constantly scanning the environment for information, talking with liaison contacts and subordinates, and receiving unsolicited information, much of it as a result of their network of personal contacts. A good portion of this information arrives in verbal form, often as gossip, hearsay, and speculation. In doing so, they become information resource centers, often storing huge amounts of information in their own heads, moving quickly from the role of gatherer to the role of disseminator in minutes. Although many business organizations install large, expensive management information systems to perform many of those functions, nothing can match the speed and intuitive power of a well-trained manager’s brain for information processing. Not surprisingly, most managers prefer it that way. In the disseminator role, managers pass privileged information directly to subordinates, who might otherwise have no access to it. Managers must not only decide who should receive such information, but how much of it, how often, and in what form. Increasingly, managers are being asked to decide whether subordinates, peers, customers, business partners, and others should have direct access to information 24 hours a day without having to contact the manager directly. In the spokesperson role, managers send information to people outside of their organizations. An example of fulfilling a spokesperson role is when an executive makes a speech to lobby for an organizational cause, or a supervisor suggests a product modification to a supplier. Increasingly, managers are also being asked to deal with representatives of the news media, providing both factual and opinion-based responses that will be printed or broadcast to vast unseen audiences, often directly or with little editing. The risks in such circumstances are enormous, but so too are the potential rewards in terms of brand recognition, public image, and organizational visibility. Decisional Roles Ultimately, managers are charged with the responsibility of making decisions on behalf of both the organization and the stakeholders with an interest in it. Such decisions are often made under circumstances of high ambiguity and with inadequate information. Often, the other two managerial roles—interpersonal and informational—will assist a manager in making difficult decisions in which outcomes are not clear and interests are often conflicting. In the role of entrepreneur, managers seek to improve their businesses: adapt to changing market conditions and react to opportunities as they present themselves. Managers who take a longer-term view of their responsibilities are among the first to realize that they will need to reinvent themselves, their product and service lines, their marketing strategies, and their ways of doing business as older methods become obsolete and competitors gain advantage. While the entrepreneur role describes managers who initiate change, the disturbance or crisis handler role depicts managers who must involuntarily react to conditions. Crises can arise because bad managers let circumstances deteriorate or spin out of control, but just as often good managers find themselves in the midst of a crisis that they could not have anticipated but must react to just the same. The decisional role of resource allocator involves managers making decisions about who gets what, how much, when, and why. Resources, including funding, equipment, human labor, office or production space, and even the boss’s time are all limited, and demand inevitably outstrips supply. Managers must make sensible decisions about such matters while still retaining, motivating, and developing the best of their employees. Managers spend considerable amounts of time in the role of negotiator. Negotiations happen over budget allocations, labor and collective bargaining agreements, and other formal dispute resolutions. In the course of a week, managers will often make dozens of decisions that are the result of brief but important negotiations between and among employees, customers and clients, suppliers, and others with whom managers must deal. Increased Emphasis on Leader and Entrepreneurial Roles The entrepreneur role is gaining importance. Managers must increasingly be aware of threats and opportunities in their environment. Threats include technological breakthroughs on the part of competitors, obsolescence in a manager’s organization, and dramatically shortened product cycles. Opportunities might include product or service niches that are underserved, out-of-cycle hiring opportunities, mergers, purchases, or upgrades in equipment, space, or other assets. Managers who are carefully attuned to the marketplace and competitive environment will look for opportunities to gain an advantage. The leader role is also more prominent these days. Managers must be more sophisticated as strategists and mentors. A manager’s job involves much more than simple caretaking in a division of a large organization. Unless organizations are able to attract, train, motivate, retain, and promote good people, they cannot possibly hope to gain advantage over the competition. Thus, as leaders, managers must constantly act as mentors to those in the organization with promise and potential. When organizations lose a highly capable worker, all else in their world will come to a halt until they can replace that worker. Even if they find someone ideally suited and superbly qualified for a vacant position, they must still train, motivate, and inspire that new recruit, and live with the knowledge that productivity levels will be lower for a while than they were with their previous employee. Role Recap A visual recap of all the roles discussed in this section is illustrated in Figure 2.3.1c. Attributions Title Image: " Farmland seen from the air" by Mrwrite at English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons is in the Public Domain Description: Public Domain Farmland seen from an airliner. The circles you can see are irrigated crops being grown, they are called pivots. Center-pivot irrigation (sometimes called central pivot irrigation), also called circle irrigation, is a method of crop irrigation in which equipment rotates around a pivot. A circular area centered on the pivot is irrigated, often creating a circular pattern in crops when viewed from above. "Principles of Management" by David S. Bright, Anastasia H. Cortes, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-management/pages/1-1-what-do-managers-do Functions of Management Learning Objectives 6b Discuss the four functions of management. Efficiency and Management A manager’s time is fragmented. Managers have acknowledged from antiquity that they never seem to have enough time to get all those things done that need to be done. In the latter years of the twentieth century, however, a new phenomenon arose: demand for time from those in leadership roles increased, while the number of hours in a day remained constant. And their work is not always easily delegated to others. This results in small allotments of time for each task they must complete and each role they must fill. Values compete and the various roles are in tension. Managers clearly cannot satisfy everyone. Employees want more time to do their jobs; customers want products and services delivered quickly and at high-quality levels. Supervisors want more money to spend on equipment, training, and product development; shareholders want returns on investment maximized. A manager caught in the middle cannot deliver to each of these people what each most wants; decisions are often based on the urgency of the need and the proximity of the problem. Managers take on heavy loads. In recent years, many North American and global businesses were reorganized to make them more efficient, nimble, and competitive. For the most part, this reorganization meant decentralizing many processes along with the wholesale elimination of middle management layers. Many managers who survived such downsizing found that their number of direct reports had doubled. Classical management theory suggests that seven is the maximum number of direct reports a manager can reasonably handle. Today, high-speed information technology and remarkably efficient telecommunication systems mean that many managers have as many as 20 or 30 people reporting to them directly. Efficiency is essential. With less time than they need, with time fragmented into increasingly smaller units during the workday, with the workplace following many managers out the door and even on vacation, and with many more responsibilities loaded onto managers in downsized, flatter organizations, efficiency has become the core management skill of the twenty-first century. 4 Functions of Managers:Plan, Organize, Direct, and Control What responsibilities do managers have in organizations? According to our definition, managers are involved in planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. Managers have described their responsibilities that can be aggregated into nine major types of activity. These include: - Long-range planning. Managers occupying executive positions are frequently involved in strategic planning and development. - Controlling. Managers evaluate and take corrective action concerning the allocation and use of human, financial, and material resources. - Environmental scanning. Managers must continually watch for changes in the business environment and monitor business indicators, such as returns on equity or investment, economic indicators, business cycles, and so forth. - Supervision. Managers continually oversee the work of their subordinates. - Coordinating. Managers often must coordinate the work of others both inside the work unit and outside. - Customer relations and marketing. Certain managers are involved in direct contact with customers and potential customers. - Community relations. Contact must be maintained and nurtured with representatives from various constituencies outside the company, including state and federal agencies, local civic groups, and suppliers. - Internal consulting. Some managers make use of their technical expertise to solve internal problems, acting as inside consultants for organizational change and development. - Monitoring products and services. Managers get involved in planning, scheduling, and monitoring the design, development, production, and delivery of the organization’s products and services. Not every manager engages in all of these activities. Rather, different managers serve different roles and carry different responsibilities, depending upon where they are in the organizational hierarchy. Variations in Mangerial Work Although each manager may have a diverse set of responsibilities, including those mentioned above, the amount of time spent on each activity and the importance of that activity will vary considerably. The two most salient perceptions of a manager are (1) the manager’s level in the organizational hierarchy and (2) the type of department or function for which he/she/they is responsible. Let us briefly consider each of these. Management by Level We can distinguish three general levels of management: executive management, middle management, and first-line management: - Executive managers are at the top of the hierarchy and are responsible for the entire organization, especially its strategic direction. - Middle managers, who are at the middle of the hierarchy, are responsible for major departments and may supervise other lower-level managers. - First-line managers supervise rank-and-file employees and carry out day-to-day activities within departments. Figure 2.3.2a shows the differences in managerial activities by hierarchical level. Senior executives will devote more of their time to conceptual issues, while front-line managers will concentrate their efforts on technical issues. For example, top managers rate high on such activities as long-range planning, monitoring business indicators, coordinating, and internal consulting. Lower-level managers, by contrast, rate high on supervising because their responsibility is to accomplish tasks through rank-and-file employees. Middle managers rate near the middle for all activities. Managerial Skills We can distinguish three types of managerial skills: technical, human relations, conceptual. - Technical skills. Managers must have the ability to use the tools, procedures, and techniques of their special areas. An accountant must have expertise in accounting principles; whereas, a production manager must know operations management. These skills are the mechanics of the job. - Human relations skills. Human relations skills involve the ability to work with people and understand employee motivation and group processes. These skills allow the manager to become involved with and lead his group. - Conceptual skills. These skills represent a manager’s ability to organize and analyze information in order to improve organizational performance. They include the ability to see the organization as a whole and to understand how various parts fit together to work as an integrated unit. These skills are required to coordinate the departments and divisions successfully so that the entire organization can pull together. As shown in Figure 2.3.2b, different levels of these skills are required at different stages of the managerial hierarchy. That is, success in executive positions requires far more conceptual skill and less use of technical skills in most (but not all) situations; whereas, first-line managers generally require more technical skills and fewer conceptual skills. Note, however, that human relations skills, or people skills, remain important for success at all three levels in the hierarchy. Management by Department or Function In addition to level in the hierarchy, managerial responsibilities also differ with respect to the type of department or function. There are differences found for quality assurance, manufacturing, marketing, accounting and finance, and human resource management departments. For instance, manufacturing department managers will concentrate their efforts on products and services, controlling, and supervising. Marketing managers, in comparison, focus less on planning, coordinating, and consulting and more on customer relations and external contact. Managers in both accounting and human resource management departments rate high on long-range planning, but they will spend less time on the organization’s products and service offerings. Managers in accounting and finance are also concerned with controlling and monitoring performance indicators, while human resource managers provide consulting expertise, coordination, and external contacts. The emphasis on and intensity of managerial activities varies considerably by the department the manager is assigned to. At a personal level, knowing that the mix of conceptual, human, and technical skills changes over time and that different functional areas require different levels of specific management activities can serve at least two important functions. First, if you choose to become a manager, knowing that the mix of skills changes over time can help you avoid a common complaint that often young employees want to think and act like a CEO before they have mastered being a first-line supervisor. Second, knowing the different mix of management activities by functional area can facilitate your selection of an area or areas that best match your skills and interests. In many firms, managers are rotated through departments as they move up in the hierarchy. In this way they obtain a well-rounded perspective on the responsibilities of the various departments. In their day-to-day tasks they must emphasize the right activities for their departments and their managerial levels. Knowing what types of activity to emphasize is at the core of the manager’s job. Attributions "Principles of Management" by David S. Bright, Anastasia H. Cortes, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at: https://openstax.org/books/principles-management/pages/1-3-major-characteristics-of-the-managers-job Firm Vision or Mission? Learning Objectives 6e Define and distinguish firm vision and mission. Conveying the Purpose of a Business The first step in the process of developing a successful strategic position should be part of the founding of the firm itself. When entrepreneurs decide to start a business, they usually have a reason for starting it, a reason that answers the question “What is the point of this business?” Even if an entrepreneur initially thinks of starting a business in order to be their own boss, they must also have an idea about what their business will do. And that idea about what a business will do should be conveyed through a vision and a mission, but these two things do slightly differ. Vision Statement A vision statement is an expression of what a business’s founders want that business to accomplish. The vision statement is usually very broad, and it does not even have to mention a product or service. The vision statement does not describe the strategy a firm will use to follow its vision—it is simply a sentence or two that states why the business exists. Mission Statement While a firm’s vision statement is a general statement about its values, a firm’s mission statement is more specific. The mission statement takes the why of a vision statement and gives a broad description of how the firm will try to make its vision a reality. A mission statement is still not exactly a strategy, but it focuses on describing the products a firm plans to offer or the target markets it plans to serve. Clearing Up Confusion An interesting thing to note about vision and mission statements is that many companies confuse them, calling a very broad statement their mission. For example, Microsoft says that its mission is “to help people around the world realize their full potential.” By the description above, this would be a good vision statement. However, Microsoft’s official vision statement is to “empower people through great software anytime, anyplace, and on any device.” Although the second statement is also quite broad, it does say how Microsoft wants to achieve the first statement, which makes it a better mission statement than their vision statement. Figure 2.3.3a gives examples of vision and mission statements for the Walt Disney Company and for Ikea. Notice that in both cases, the vision statement is very broad and is not something a business could use as a strategy because there’s simply not enough information to explain what kind of business each might be. The mission statements, on the other hand, describe the products and services each company plans to offer and the customers each company plans to serve in order to fulfill their vision. Why are vision and mission statements important to a firm’s strategy for developing a competitive advantage? To put it simply, you can’t make a plan or strategy unless you know what you want to accomplish. Vision and mission statements together are the first building blocks in defining why a firm exists and in developing a plan to accomplish what the firm wants to accomplish. Attributions "Principles of Management" by David S. Bright, Anastasia H. Cortes, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 https://openstax.org/books/principles-management/pages/9-2-firm-vision-and-mission Management Decision-making Process Learning Objectives 6c Discuss the decision-making process (management process). Decision-making Techniques Managers can use a variety of techniques to improve their decision-making by making better-quality decisions or making decisions more quickly. Table 2.3.4a summarizes some of these tactics. Summary of Techniques That May Improve Individual Decision-Making \| \|\| Type of Decision \| Technique \| Benefit \| Programmed decisions \| Heuristics (mental shortcuts) \| Saves time \| Satisficing (choosing first acceptable solution) \| Saves time \| \| Nonprogrammed decisions \| Systematically go through the six steps of the decision-making process. \| Improves quality \| Talk to other people. \| Improves quality: generates more options, reduces bias \| \| Be creative. \| Improves quality: generates more options \| \| Conduct research; engage in evidence-based decision-making. \| Improves quality \| \| Engage in critical thinking. \| Improves quality \| \| Think about the long-term implications. \| Improves quality \| \| Consider the ethical implications. \| Improves quality \| The Importance of Experience An often overlooked factor in effective decision-making is experience. Managers with more experience have generally learned more and developed greater expertise that they can draw on when making decisions. Experience helps managers develop methods and heuristics to quickly deal with programmed decisions and helps them know what additional information to seek out before making a nonprogrammed decision. Techniques for Making Better Programmed Decisions In addition, experience enables managers to recognize when to minimize the time spent making decisions on issues that are not particularly important but must still be addressed. As discussed previously, heuristics are mental shortcuts that managers take when making programmed (routine, low-involvement) decisions. Another technique that managers use with these types of decisions is satisficing. When satisficing, a decision maker selects the first acceptable solution without engaging in additional effort to identify the best solution. We all engage in satisficing every day. For example, suppose you are shopping for groceries and you don’t want to overspend. If you have plenty of time, you might compare prices and figure out the price by weight (or volume) to ensure that every item you select is the cheapest option. But if you are in a hurry, you might just select generic products, knowing that you are most likely getting the best deal. This allows you to finish the task quickly at a reasonably low cost. Techniques for Making Better Nonprogrammed Decisions For situations in which the quality of the decision is more critical than the time spent on the decision, decision makers can use several tactics. The following are steps that can be and are usually taken when quality is the top-priority in the decision-making process: - Recognize that a decision needs to be made. - Generate multiple alternatives. - Analyze the alternatives. - Select an alternative. - Implement the selected alternative. - Evaluate its effectiveness. Step 1: Recognizing That a Decision Needs to Be Made Ineffective managers will sometimes ignore problems because they aren’t sure how to address them. However, this tends to lead to more and bigger problems over time. Effective managers will be attentive to problems and to opportunities and will not shy away from making decisions that could make their team, department, or organization more effective and more successful. Step 2: Generating Multiple Alternatives Often a manager only spends enough time on Step 2 to generate two alternatives and then quickly moves to Step 3 in order to make a quick decision. A better solution may have been available, but, in this case, it wasn’t even considered. It’s important to remember that for nonprogrammed decisions, you don’t want to rush the process. Generating many possible options will increase the likelihood of reaching a good decision. Some tactics to help with generating more options include talking to other people (to get their ideas) and thinking creatively about the problem. Talk to Other People Managers can often improve the quality of their decision-making by involving others in the process, especially when generating alternatives. Other people tend to view problems from different perspectives because they have had different life experiences. This can help generate alternatives that you might not otherwise have considered. Talking through big decisions with a mentor can also be beneficial, especially for new managers who are still learning and developing their expertise; someone with more experience will often be able to suggest more options. Be Creative We don’t always associate management with creativity, but creativity can be quite beneficial in some situations. In decision-making, creativity can be particularly helpful when generating alternatives. Creativity is the generation of new or original ideas; it requires the use of imagination and the ability to step back from traditional ways of doing things and seeing the world. While some people seem to be naturally creative, it is a skill that you can develop. Being creative requires letting your mind wander and combining existing knowledge from past experiences in novel ways. Creative inspiration may come when we least expect it (while doing the dishes, for example) because we aren’t intensely focused on the problem—we’ve allowed our minds to wander. Managers who strive to be creative will take the time to view a problem from multiple perspectives, try to combine information in news ways, search for overarching patterns, and use their imaginations to generate new solutions to existing problems. Step 3: Analyzing Alternatives When implementing Step 3, it is important to take many factors into consideration. Some alternatives might be more expensive than others, for example, and that information is often essential when analyzing options. Effective managers will ensure that they have collected sufficient information to assess the quality of the various options. They will also utilize the tactics described below: engaging in evidence-based decision-making, thinking critically, talking to other people, and considering long-term and ethical implications. Data and Evidence Evidence-based decision-making is an approach to decision-making that states that managers should systematically collect the best evidence available to help them make effective decisions. The evidence that is collected might include the decision maker’s own expertise, but it is also likely to include external evidence—such as a consideration of other stakeholders, contextual factors relevant to the organization, potential costs and benefits, and other relevant information. With evidence-based decision-making, managers are encouraged to rely on data and information rather than their intuition. This can be particularly beneficial for new managers or for experienced managers who are starting something new. (Consider all the research that Rubio and Korey conducted while starting Away). Talk to Other People As mentioned previously, it can be worthwhile to get help from others when generating options. Another good time to talk to other people is while analyzing those options; other individuals in the organization may help you assess the quality of your choices. Seeking out the opinions and preferences of others is also a great way to maintain perspective, so getting others involved can help you to be less biased in your decision-making (provided you talk to people whose biases are different from your own). Think Critically Our skill at assessing alternatives can also be improved by a focus on critical thinking. Critical thinking is a disciplined process of evaluating the quality of information, especially data collected from other sources and arguments made by other people, to determine whether the source should be trusted or whether the argument is valid. An important factor in critical thinking is the recognition that a person’s analysis of the available information may be flawed by a number of logical fallacies that they may use when they are arguing their point or defending their perspective. Learning what those fallacies are and being able to recognize them when they occur can help improve decision-making quality. See Table 2.3.4b for several examples of common logical fallacies. Common Logical Fallacies \| \|\|\| Name \| Description \| Examples \| Ways to Combat This Logical Fallacy \| Non sequitur (does not follow) \| The conclusion that is presented isn’t a logical conclusion or isn’t the only logical conclusion based on the argument(s). \| Our biggest competitor is spending more on marketing than we are. They have a larger share of the market. Therefore, we should spend more on marketing. The unspoken assumption: They have a larger share of the market BECAUSE they spend more on marketing. \| In this example, you should ask: Are there any other reasons, besides their spending on marketing, why our competitor has a larger share of the market? \| False cause \| Assuming that because two things are related, one caused the other \| “Our employees get sick more when we close for holidays. So we should stop closing for holidays.” \| This is similar to non sequitur; it makes an assumption in the argument sequence. In this case, most holidays for which businesses close are in the late fall and winter (Thanksgiving, Christmas), and there are more illnesses at this time of year because of the weather, not because of the business being closed. \| Ad hominem (attack the man) \| Redirects from the argument itself to attack the person making the argument \| “You aren’t really going to take John seriously, are you? I heard his biggest client just dropped him for another vendor because he’s all talk and no substance.” The goal: if you stop trusting the person, you’ll discount their argument. \| \| Genetic fallacy \| You can’t trust something because of its origins. \| “This was made in China, so it must be low quality.” “He is a lawyer, so you can’t trust anything he says.” \| This fallacy is based on stereotypes. Stereotypes are generalizations; some are grossly inaccurate, and even those that are accurate in SOME cases are never accurate in ALL cases. Recognize this for what it is—an attempt to prey on existing biases. \| Appeal to tradition \| If we have always done it one particular way, that must be the right or best way. \| “We’ve always done it this way.” “We shouldn’t change this; it works fine the way it is.” \| \| Bandwagon approach \| If the majority of people are doing it, it must be good. \| “Everybody does it.” “Our customers don’t want to be served by people like that.” \| \| Appeal to emotion \| Redirects the argument from logic to emotion \| “We should do it for [recently deceased] Steve; it’s what they would have wanted.” \| \| Long-term Implications A focus on immediate, short-term outcomes—with little consideration for the future—can cause problems. For example, imagine that a manager must decide whether to issue dividends to investors or put that money into research and development to maintain a pipeline of innovative products. It’s tempting to just focus on the short-term: providing dividends to investors tends to be good for stock prices. But failing to invest in research and development might mean that in five years the company is unable to compete effectively in the marketplace, and as a result the business closes. Paying attention to the possible long-term outcomes is a crucial part of analyzing alternatives. Ethical/Moral Implications It’s important to think about whether the various alternatives available to you are better or worse from an ethical perspective, as well. Sometimes managers make unethical choices because they haven’t considered the ethical implications of their actions. In the 1970s, Ford manufactured the Pinto, which had an unfortunate flaw: the car would easily burst into flames when rear-ended. The company did not initially recall the vehicle because they viewed the problem from a financial perspective, without considering the ethical implications. People died as a result of the company’s inaction. Unfortunately, these unethical decisions continue to occur—and cause harm—on a regular basis in our society. Effective managers strive to avoid these situations by thinking through the possible ethical implications of their decisions. The decision tree in Figure 2.3.4a is a great example of a way to make managerial decisions while also taking ethical issues into account. Thinking through the steps of ethical decision-making may also be helpful as you strive to make good decisions. James Rest’s ethical decision-making model identifies four components to ethical decision-making. Note that a failure at any point in the chain can lead to unethical actions. Taking the time to identify possible ethical implications will help you develop moral sensitivity, which is a critical first step to ensuring that you are making ethical decisions. - Moral sensitivity—recognizing that the issue has a moral component - Moral judgment—determining which actions are right vs. wrong - Moral motivation/intention—deciding to do the right thing - Moral character/action—actually doing what is right Once you have determined that a decision has ethical implications (moral sensitivity), you must consider whether your various alternatives are right or wrong—whether or not they will cause harm, and if so, how much and to whom (moral judgment). If you aren’t sure about whether something is right or wrong, think about how you would feel if that decision ended up on the front page of a major newspaper. If you would feel guilty or ashamed, don’t do it! Pay attention to those emotional cues—they are providing important information about the option that you are contemplating. The third step in the ethical decision-making model involves making a decision to do what is right (moral motivation/intention), and the fourth step involves following through on that decision (moral character/action). This model may sound straightforward, but consider a situation in which your boss tells you to do something that you know to be wrong. When you push back, your boss makes it clear that you will lose your job if you don’t do what you’ve been told to do. Now, consider that you have family at home who rely on your income. Making the decision to do what you know is right could come at a substantial cost to you personally. In these situations, your best course of action is to find a way to persuade your boss that the unethical action will cause greater harm to the organization in the long-term. Step 4: Selecting an Alternative Once alternative options have been generated and analyzed, the decision maker must select one of the options. Sometimes this is easy—one option is clearly superior to the others. Often, however, this is a challenge because there is not a clear “winner” in terms of the best alternative. There may be multiple good options, and which one will be best is unclear even after gathering all available evidence. There may not be a single option that doesn’t upset some stakeholder group, so you will make someone unhappy no matter what you choose. A weak decision maker may become paralyzed in this situation, unable to select among the various alternatives for lack of a clearly “best” option. They may decide to keep gathering additional information in hopes of making their decision easier. As a manager, it’s important to think about whether the benefit of gathering additional information will outweigh the cost of waiting. If there are time pressures, waiting may not be possible. Talk to Other People This is another point in the process at which talking to others can be helpful. Selecting one of the alternatives will ultimately be your responsibility, but when faced with a difficult decision, talking through your choice with someone else may help you clarify that you are indeed making the best possible decision from among the available options. Sharing information verbally also causes our brains to process that information differently, which can provide new insights and bring greater clarity to our decision-making. Step 5: Implementing the Selected Alternative After selecting an alternative, you must implement it. This may seem too obvious to even mention, but implementation can sometimes be a challenge, particularly if the decision is going to create conflict or dissatisfaction among some stakeholders. Sometimes we know what we need to do but still try to avoid actually doing it because we know others in the organization will be upset—even if it’s the best solution. Follow-through is a necessity, however, to be effective as a manager. If you are not willing to implement a decision, it’s a good idea to engage in some self-reflection to understand why. If you know that the decision is going to create conflict, try to think about how you’ll address that conflict in a productive way. It’s also possible that we feel that there is no good alternative, or we are feeling pressured to make a decision that we know deep down is not right from an ethical perspective. These can be among the most difficult of decisions. You should always strive to make decisions that you feel good about—which means doing the right thing, even in the face of pressures to do wrong. Step 6: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Your Decision Managers sometimes skip the last step in the decision-making process because evaluating the effectiveness of a decision takes time, and managers, who are generally busy, may have already moved on to other projects. Yet, evaluating effectiveness is important. When we fail to evaluate our own performance and the outcomes of our decisions, we cannot learn from the experience in a way that enables us to improve the quality of our future decisions. Recognize that Perfection is Unattainable Attending fully to each step in the decision-making process improves the quality of decision-making and, as we’ve seen, managers can engage in a number of tactics to help them make good decisions. However, mistakes will still be made. Effective managers recognize that they will not always make optimal (best possible) decisions because they may not have complete information and/or don’t have the time or resources to gather and process all the possible information. They accept that their decision-making will not be perfect and strive to make good decisions overall. Recognizing that perfection is impossible will also help managers to adjust and change if they realize later on that the selected alternative was not the best option. Attributions "Principles of Management" by David S. Bright, Anastasia H. Cortes, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 https://openstax.org/books/principles-management/pages/2-5-improving-the-quality-of-decision-making Porter's 5 Forces Learning Objectives 4m Understand the relationship between price competition and competitive business organization. Industry Microenvironment A firm’s microenvironment includes customers, competitors, suppliers, employees, shareholders, and media. Firms must understand their own microenvironment in order to successfully compete in an industry. All firms are part of an industry—a group of firms all making similar products or offering similar services, for example automobile manufacturers or airlines. Firms in an industry may or may not compete directly against one another, but they all face similar situations in terms of customer interests, supplier relations, and industry growth or decline. Harvard strategy professor Michael Porter developed an analysis tool to evaluate a firm’s microenvironment. Porter’s Five Forces is a tool used to examine different micro-environmental groups in order to understand the impact each group has on a firm in an industry (see Figure 2.3.5a). Each of the forces represents an aspect of competition that affects a firm’s potential to be successful in its industry. It is important to note that this tool is different than Porter’s generic strategy typology that we will discuss later. Industry Rivalry Industry rivalry, the first of Porter’s forces, is in the center of the diagram. Note that the arrows in the diagram show two-way relationships between rivalry and all of the other forces. This is because each force can affect how hard firms in an industry must compete against each other to gain customers, establish favorable supplier relationships, and defend themselves against new firms entering the industry. When using Porter’s model, an analyst will determine if each force has a strong or weak impact on industry firms. In the case of rivalry, the question of strength focuses on how hard firms must fight against industry rivals (competitors) to gain customers and market share. Strong rivalry in an industry reduces the profit potential for all firms because consumers have many firms from which to purchase products or services and can make at least part of their purchasing decisions based on prices. An industry with weak rivalry will have few firms, meaning that there are enough customers for everyone, or will have firms that have each staked out a unique position in the industry, meaning that customers will be more loyal to the firm that best meets their particular needs. Threat of New Entrants In an industry, there are incumbent (existing) firms that compete against each other as rivals. If an industry has a growing market or is very profitable, however, it may attract new entrants—either firms that start up in the industry as new companies or firms from another industry that expand their capabilities or target markets to compete in an industry that is new to them. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Suave began making and marketing hand sanitizer, which had been a market cornered by only a few firms, such as Purell. Different industries may be easier or harder to enter depending on barriers to entry—factors that prevent new firms from successfully competing in the industry. Common barriers to entry include cost, brand loyalty, and industry growth. For example, the firms in the airline industry rarely face threats from new entrants because it is very expensive to obtain the equipment, airport landing rights, and expertise to start up a new airline. Brand loyalty can also keep new firms from entering an industry, because customers who are familiar with a strong brand name may be unwilling to try a new, unknown brand. Industry growth can increase or decrease the chances a new entrant will succeed. In an industry with low growth, new customers are scarce, and a firm can only gain market share by attracting customers from other firms. Think of all the ads you see and hear from competing cell phone providers. Cell phone companies are facing lower industry growth and must offer consumers incentives to switch from another provider. On the other hand, high-growth industries have an increasing number of customers, and new firms can successfully appeal to new customers by offering them something existing firms do not offer. It is important to note that barriers to entry are not always external, firms often lobby politicians for regulations that can be a barrier to entry. Threat of Substitutes In the context of Porter’s model, a substitute is any other product or service that can satisfy the same need for a customer as an industry’s offerings. Be careful not to confuse substitutes with rivals. Rivals offer similar products or services and directly compete with one another. Substitutes are completely different products or services that consumers would be willing to use instead of the product they currently use. For example, the fast-food industry offers quickly prepared, convenient, low-cost meals. Customers can go to McDonald’s, Wendy’s, or Burger King to get a burger and fries—all of these firms compete against each other for business. However, their customers are really just hungry people. What else could you do if you were hungry? You could go to the grocery store and buy food to prepare at home. McDonald’s does not directly compete against Kroger for customers, because they are in different industries, but McDonald’s does face a threat from grocery stores because they both sell food. How does McDonald’s defend itself from the threat of Kroger as a substitute? By making sure their food is already prepared and convenient to purchase—your burger and fries are ready to eat and available without even getting out of your car. Supplier Power Virtually all firms have suppliers who sell parts, materials, labor, or products. Supplier power refers to the balance of power in the relationship between firms and their suppliers in an industry. Suppliers can have the upper hand in a relationship if they offer specialized products or control rare resources. For example, when Sony develops a new PlayStation model, it often works with a single supplier to develop the most advanced processor chip it can for their game console. That means its supplier will be able to command a fairly high price for the processors, an indication that the supplier has power. On the other hand, a firm that needs commodity resources such as oil, wheat, or aluminum in its operations will have many suppliers to choose from and can easily switch suppliers if price or quality is better than a new partner. Commodity suppliers usually have low power. Buyer Power The last of Porter’s forces is buyer power, which refers to the balance of power in the relationship between a firm and its customers. If a firm provides a unique good or service, it will have the power to charge its customers premium prices, because those customers have no choice but to buy from the firm if they need that product. In contrast, when customers have many potential sources for a product, firms will need to attract customers by offering better prices or better value for the money if they want to sell their products. One protection firms have against buyer power is switching costs, the penalty consumers face when they choose to use a particular product made by a different company. Switching costs can be financial (the extra price paid to choose a different product) or practical (the time or hassle required to switch to a different product). For example, think about your smartphone. If you have an iPhone now, what would be the penalty for you to switch to a non-Apple smartphone? Would it just be the cost of the new phone? Smartphones are not inexpensive, but even when cell phone service providers offer free phones to new customers, many people still don’t switch. The loss of compatibility with other Apple products, the need to transfer apps and phone settings to another system, and the loss of favorite iPhone features, such as iMessage, are enough to keep many people loyal to their iPhones. Attributions "Principles of Management" by David S. Bright, Anastasia H. Cortes, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Resources and Capabilities of a Firm Learning Objectives 4m Understand the relationship between price competition and competitive business organization. The Internal Environment The internal environment consists of members of the firm itself, investors in the firm, and the assets a firm has. Employees and managers are good examples; they are firm members who have skills and knowledge that are valuable assets to their firms. Resources and Capabilities A firm’s resources and capacities are the unique skills and assets it possesses. Resources are things a firm has to work with, such as equipment, facilities, raw materials, employees, and cash. Capabilities are things a firm can do, such as deliver good customer service or develop innovative products to create value. Both are the building blocks of a firm’s plans and activities, and both are required if a firm is going to compete successfully against its rivals. Firms use their resources and leverage their capabilities to create products and services that have some advantage over competitors’ products. For example, a firm might offer its customers a product with higher quality, better features, or lower prices. Not all resources and capabilities are equally helpful in creating success, though. Internal analysis identifies exactly which assets bring the most value to the firm. Firms that can amass critical resources and develop superior capabilities will succeed in competition over rivals in their industry. The Value Chain Before evaluating the role of resources and capabilities in firm success, let’s take a look at the importance of how a firm uses those factors in its operations. A firm’s value chain is the progression of activities it undertakes to create a product or service that consumers will pay for. A firm should be adding value at each of the chain of steps it follows to create its product. The goal is for the firm to add enough value so that its customers will believe that the product is worth buying for a price that is higher than the costs the firm incurs in making it. Figure 2.3.6a illustrates a hypothetical value chain for some of Walmart’s activities. Note that primary activities, the ones across the bottom half of the diagram, are the actions a firm takes to directly provide a product or service to customers. And support activities, the ones across the top of the diagram, are actions required to sustain the firm that are not directly part of product or service creation. In Figure 2.3.6a, note that value increases from left to right as Walmart performs more activities. If it adds enough value through its efforts, it will profit when it finally sells its services to customers. By working with product suppliers (procurement), getting those products to store locations efficiently (inbound logistics), and automatically keeping track of sales and inventory (information technology), Walmart is able to offer its customers a wide variety of products in one store at low prices, which is a service customers value. Using VRIO Successful firms have a wide range of resources and capabilities that they can use to maintain their success and grow into new ventures. And strategists evaluate these resources and capabilities to determine if they are sufficiently special to help the firm succeed in a competitive industry. Evaluating a firm’s internal environment is not just a matter of counting heads. A thorough analysis of a firm’s internal situation provides a manager with an understanding of the resources available to pursue new initiatives, innovate, and plan for future success. The analytical tool used to assess resources and capabilities is called VRIO. This is an acronym developed to remind managers of the questions to ask when evaluating their firms’ resources and capabilities. VRIO stands for value, rarity, imitation, and organization. And each term comes with a question. If each question can be answered with a “yes,” the resource or capability being evaluated can be the source of a competitive advantage for the firm (see Figure 2.3.6b). VRIO with Starbucks Imagine that you are a top manager for Starbucks and you want to understand why you are able to be successful against rivals in the coffee industry. You make a list of some of Starbucks’ resources and capabilities and use VRIO to determine which ones are key to your success. See your Starbucks example list of Resources and Capabilities in Table 2.3.6a. Starbucks’ Resources and Capabilities \| \| Resources \| Capabilities \| Brand name \| Making quality coffee drinks \| Thousands of locations worldwide \| Delivering excellent customer service \| Cash \| Training excellent staff \| Loyal customers \| Paying above-average wages \| Well-trained employees \| Retaining quality employees \| Next, you decide to evaluate a few of your resources and capabilities with VRIO (see Table 2.3.6b): Evaluating Starbucks’ VRIO \| \|\|\|\|\| Resource/Capability \| Is it valuable? \| Is it rare? \| Is it difficult to imitate? \| Is Starbucks organized to capture its value? \| Can it be a basis for competitive advantage? \| Brand name \| Yes \| Yes \| Yes \| Yes \| Yes \| Delivering excellent customer service \| Yes \| Yes \| Yes \| Yes \| Yes \| Thousands of locations worldwide \| Yes \| No \| No \| Yes \| No \| According to the example evaluation above, Starbucks’ brand and level of customer service help it compete and succeed against rivals. However, simply having a lot of locations globally isn’t enough to beat rivals—McDonald’s and Subway also have thousands of worldwide locations and both can easily serve coffee. Starbucks, however, can succeed against these rivals because of their brand and customer service. Attributions "Principles of Management" by David S. Bright, Anastasia H. Cortes, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at: https://openstax.org/books/principles-management/pages/8-5-the-internal-environment Competition and Strategy of a Firm Learning Objectives 4m Understand the relationship between price competition and competitive business organization. Strategic Planning Process Businesses exist to make profits by offering goods and services in the marketplace at prices that are higher than the costs they incurred while creating those goods and services. Businesses rarely exist alone in an industry; competition is a usually a key part of any marketplace. This means that businesses must find ways to attract customers to their products and away from competitors’ products. Strategy is the process of planning and implementing actions that will lead to success in competition. The analytical tools we discuss here are part of the strategic planning process. Managers cannot successfully plan to compete in an industry if they don’t understand its competitive landscape. It is also unlikely that a firm will be successful if they are planning to launch a new product they are not equipped to make. Competitive Advantage A firm is described as having a competitive advantage when it successfully attracts more customers, earns more profit, or returns more value to its shareholders than rival firms do. A firm achieves a competitive advantage by adding value to its products and services or reducing its own costs more effectively than its rivals in the industry. In any industry, multiple firms compete against each other for customers by offering better or cheaper products than their rivals. Porter’s Five Forces model (discussed in section 2.3.5) is centered around rivalry, which is a synonym for competition. Firms use tools and research methods to understand what consumers are interested in and use VRIO (see section 2.3.6) to evaluate their own resources and capabilities so that they can figure out how to offer products and services that match those consumer interests, as well as how to offer better quality and price than their competitors. Business-level Competition Strategies Business-level strategy is the general way that a business organizes its activities to compete against rivals in its product’s industry. Michael Porter (the same Harvard professor who developed the Five Forces Model) defined three generic business-level strategies that outline the basic methods of organizing to compete in a product market. He called the strategies “generic” because these ways of organizing can be used by any firm in any industry. They include cost leadership, differentiation strategy, and focus. Porter’s typology assumes that firms can succeed through either cost leadership or differentiation. Trying to combine these two, Porter suggests, can lead to a firm being stuck in the middle. And Porter’s focus is where the intended market is carefully considered. Cost Leadership When pursuing a cost-leadership strategy, a firm offers customers its product or service at a lower price than its rivals can. To achieve a competitive advantage over rivals in the industry, the successful cost leader tightly controls costs throughout its value chain activities. Supplier relationships are managed to guarantee the lowest prices for parts, manufacturing is conducted in the least expensive labor markets, and operations may be automated for maximum efficiency. A cost leader must spend as little as possible producing a product or providing a service so that it will still be profitable when selling that product or service at the lowest price. Walmart is the master of cost leadership, offering a wide variety of products at lower prices than competitors because it does not spend money on fancy stores, it extracts low prices from its suppliers, and it pays its employees relatively low wages. Differentiation Not all products or services in the marketplace are offered at low prices, of course. A differentiation strategy is exactly the opposite of a cost-leadership strategy. While firms do not look to spend as much as possible to produce their output, firms that differentiate try to add value to their products and services so they can attract customers who are willing to pay a higher price. At each step in the value chain, the differentiator increases the quality, features, and overall attractiveness of its products or services. Research and development efforts focus on innovation, customer service is excellent, and marketing bolsters the value of the firm brand. These efforts guarantee that the successful differentiator can still profit even though its production costs are higher than a cost leader’s. Starbucks is a good example of a differentiator: it makes coffee, but its customers are willing to pay premium prices for a cup of Starbucks coffee because they value the restaurant atmosphere, customer service, product quality, and brand. Focus Porter’s third generic competitive strategy, focus, is a little different from the other two. A firm that focuses still must choose one of the other strategies to organize its activities. It will still strive to lower costs or add value. The difference here is that a firm choosing to implement a focused strategy will concentrate its marketing and selling efforts on a smaller market rather than a broader one. A firm following a focus-differentiation strategy, for example, will add value to its product or service that a few customers will value highly, either because the product is specifically suited to a particular use or because it is a luxury product that few can afford. For example, Flux is a company that offers custom-made bindings for your snowboard. Flux is a focus differentiator because it makes a specialized product that is valued by a small market of customers who are willing to pay premium prices for high-quality, customized snowboarding equipment. Strategic Groups When managers analyze their competitive environment and examine rivalry within their industry, they are not confronted by an infinite variety of competitors. Although there are millions of businesses of all sizes around the globe, a single business usually competes mainly against other businesses offering similar products or services and following the same generic competitive strategy. Groups of businesses that follow similar strategies in the same industry are called strategic groups, and it is important that a manager know the other firms in their strategic group. Rivalry is fiercest within a strategic group, and the actions of one firm in a group will elicit responses from other group members, who don’t want to lose market share in the industry. The examples given in Figure 2.3.7b are all in the retail industry; however, they don’t all compete directly against one another. Figure 2.3.7b Strategic Groups in the Retail Industry (Credit: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC-BY 4.0 license) Although some cross competition can occur (for example, you could buy a Kate Spade wallet at Nordstrom), firms in different strategic groups tend to compete more with each other than against firms outside their group. Although Walmart and Neiman Marcus both offer a wide variety of products, the two firms do not cater to the same customers, and their managers do not lose sleep at night wondering what each might do next. On the other hand, a Walmart manager would be concerned with the products or prices offered at Target; if laundry detergent is on sale at Target, the Walmart manager might lose sales from customers who buy it at Target instead, and so the Walmart manager might respond to Target’s sale price by discounting the same detergent at Walmart. Strategic Positioning A firm’s decisions on how to serve customers and compete against rivals is called strategic positioning. In order to develop its position, a firm combines its analysis of the competitive environment, including the firm’s own resources and capabilities, its industry situation, and facts about the macro environment. A strategic position includes a choice of generic competitive strategy, which a firm selects based on its own capabilities and in response to the positions already staked out by its industry rivals. The firm also determines which customers to serve and what those customers are willing to pay for. A strategic position also includes decisions about what geographic markets to participate in. Competitive advantage is achieved when a firm attracts more customers or makes more profit than rivals. This cannot happen unless the firm organizes its activities to provide customers with better value than rivals. This means a firm’s strategic position should try to be unique in some way that competitors cannot imitate quickly or easily. Attributions "Principles of Management" by David S. Bright, Anastasia H. Cortes, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at: https://openstax.org/books/principles-management/pages/8-6-competition-strategy-and-competitive-advantage SWOT Analysis Learning Objectives 6f Employ a SWOT analysis to evaluate business strategies. SWOT Analysis SWOT is one of the very common tool firms use to analyze their strategic and competitive situations. SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Firms use SWOT analysis to get a general understanding of what they are good or bad at, as well as which factors outside their doors might present chances for success or difficulty. Let’s take a look at SWOT analysis piece by piece (see Figure 2.3.8a). Strengths A firm’s strengths are, to put it simply, what it is good at. Nike is good at marketing sports products; McDonald’s is good at making food quickly and inexpensively; and Ferrari is good at making beautiful fast cars. When a firm analyzes its strengths, it compiles a list of its capabilities and assets. Does the firm have a lot of cash available? That is a strength. Does the firm have highly skilled employees? Another strength. Knowing exactly what it is good at allows a firm to make plans that exploit those strengths. Nike can plan to expand its business by making products for an athlete it doesn’t currently serve. This is why the company developed the sport hijab for Muslim women; someone analyzed the market for athletes who were underserved and realized Nike’s strengths allowed them to fulfill the needs of female athletes who adhere to Islam. Its sports marketing expertise helped Nike to successfully launch that new product line. Weaknesses A firm’s weaknesses are what it is not good at—things that it does not have the capabilities to perform well. Weaknesses are not necessarily faults—remember that not all firms can be great at all things. When a firm understands its weaknesses, it will avoid trying to do things it does not have the skills or assets to succeed in, or it will find ways to improve its weaknesses before undertaking something new. A firm’s weaknesses are simply gaps in capabilities, and those gaps do not always have to be filled within the firm. SWOT analysis alerts firms to the gaps in their capabilities so they can work around them, find help in those areas, or develop capabilities to fill the gaps. For example, Paychex is a firm that handles payroll for over 600,000 firms. Paychex processes hours, pay rates, tax and benefits deductions, and direct deposit for firms that would rather not have to perform those tasks themselves. A large firm would need to have a team of employees dedicated to fulfilling that task and equip that team with software systems to do the job efficiently and accurately. For Paychex, these capabilities are a company strength—that’s what it does. Other companies can hire Paychex to fulfill their payroll and accounting needs is they do not desire for such to be a company strength; that way they can focus on the things they do desire to be strong at. Opportunities While strengths and weaknesses are internal to an organization, opportunities and threats are always external. An opportunity is a potential situation that a firm is equipped to take advantage of. Think of opportunities in terms of things that happen in the market. Opportunities offer positive potential; however, sometimes a firm is not equipped to take advantage of an opportunity, which makes an entire SWOT analysis essential—and not just a partial one. For example, Daimler—the manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz and Smart cars—recently started a car-sharing service in Europe, North America, and China called Car2Go. Daimler recognized that as cities are becoming more populated parking is becoming scarcer. Younger consumers who live in cities are starting to question whether it makes sense to own a car at all, when public transportation is available and parking is not. Sometimes, however, a person might need a car to travel outside the city or transport a special purchase. Cars2Go offers a temporary car service to this new market of part-time drivers. By establishing Car2Go, Daimler has found a way to sell the use of its products to people who would not buy them outright. However, it would not make sense for Walmart to start such a business, as this particular opportunity would require them to develop new strengths that may be too costly for their established business venture. Threats When a manager assesses the external competitive environment, they label anything that would make it harder for their firm to be successful as a threat. A wide variety of situations and scenarios can threaten a firm’s chances of success—from a downturn in the economy to a competitor launching a better version of a product the firm also offers. A good threat assessment looks thoroughly at the external environment and identifies threats to the firm’s business so it can be prepared to meet them. Opportunities and threats can also be a matter of perspective or interpretation: the Car2Go service that Daimler developed to serve young urban customers who don’t own cars could also be cast as a defensive response to the trend away from car ownership in this customer group. Daimler could have identified decreasing sales among young urban professionals as a threat, which is what led to Car2Go as an alternative way to gain revenue from these otherwise lost customers. The Limitations of SWOT Analysis Although a SWOT analysis can identify important factors and situations that affect a firm, it only works as well as the person doing the analysis. SWOT can generate a good evaluation of the firm’s internal and external environments, but it is more likely to overlook key issues because it is difficult to identify or imagine everything that could, for example, be a threat to the firm. That’s why the remainder of this chapter will present tools for developing a strategic analysis that is more thorough and systematic in examining both the internal and external environments that firms operate in. Attributions "Principles of Management" by David S. Bright, Anastasia H. Cortes, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 https://openstax.org/books/principles-management/pages/8-2-using-swot-for-strategic-analysis	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.808746	Anna McCollum	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100028/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit Introduction to Agriculture Business Collection, Agribusiness Ownership and Management, Management and Strategic Decision Making", "author": "Textbook" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100026/overview	2.1.2 Sole Proprietorships 2.1.3 Partnerships 2.1.4 Corporations 2.1.5 Specialized Business Organizations Forms of Business Ownership Overview Business Matters Learning Objectives 3a Recognize the need to choose a form of business ownership. What is the Purpose of a Business? A business is an organization that strives for a profit by providing goods and services desired by its customers. Businesses meet the needs of consumers by providing medical care, autos, and countless other goods and services. Goods are tangible items manufactured by businesses, such as laptops. Services are intangible offerings of businesses that can’t be held, touched, or stored. Physicians, lawyers, hairstylists, car washes, and airlines all provide services. Businesses also serve other organizations, such as hospitals, retailers, and governments, by providing machinery, goods for resale, computers, and thousands of other items. Selecting a Form of Business Ownership The Ice Cream Men Two ex-hippies with strong interests in social activism would end up starting one of the best-known ice cream companies in the country: Ben & Jerry’s. Ben Cohen (the “Ben” of Ben & Jerry’s) always had a fascination with ice cream. As a child, he made his own ice cream mixtures by smashing his favorite cookies and candies into his ice cream. But it wasn’t until his senior year in high school that he became an official “ice cream man,” happily driving his truck through neighborhoods filled with kids eager to buy his ice cream pops. After high school, Ben tried college. He attended Colgate University for a year and a half before he dropped out to return to his real love: being an ice cream man. He tried college again—this time at Skidmore, where he studied pottery and jewelry making—but, in spite of his selection of courses, he still didn’t prefer college to making and selling ice cream. In the meantime, Jerry Greenfield (the “Jerry” of Ben & Jerry’s) was following a similar path. He majored in pre-med at Oberlin College and hoped to become a doctor. But he had to give up on this goal when he was not accepted into medical school. On a positive note, though, his college education steered him into a more lucrative field: the world of ice cream making. He got his first peek at the ice cream industry when he worked as a scooper in the student cafeteria at Oberlin. So, fourteen years after they met, Ben and Jerry reunited and decided to go into ice-cream making big time. They moved to Burlington, Vermont—a college town in need of an ice cream parlor—and completed a $5 correspondence course from Penn State on making ice cream (they were practically broke at the time so they split the course). After getting an A in the course—with tests that were open book, they took the plunge: with their life savings of $8,000 (plus $4,000 of borrowed funds) they set up an ice cream scoop shop in a made-over gas station on a busy street corner in Burlington. The next big decision was which form of business ownership was best for them. On the company’s webpage they share some information (but not all) about business decisions made by the owners: Click on this link to read Ben and Jerry’s “How We Do Business” webpage. Factors to Consider when Starting a Business If you’re starting a new business, you have to decide which legal form of ownership is best for you and your business. Do you want to own the business yourself and operate as a sole proprietorship? Or, do you want to share ownership, operating as a partnership or a corporation? Before we discuss the pros and cons of these three types of ownership—sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation—let’s address some of the questions that you’d probably ask yourself in choosing the appropriate legal form for your business. - Do you want to minimize the costs of getting started? - Do you hope to avoid complex government regulations and reporting requirements? - How much control would you like? - Do you want to own the company yourself, or do you want to share ownership with other people? - Are you willing to share responsibility, decisions, and profits with others? - Do you want to avoid special taxes? - Do you possess the talent and skills to run the business yourself, or would the business benefit from a diverse group of owners? - Is it important to you that the business survive you? - Do you want to make it easy for ownership to change hands? - How do you plan to finance your company? Will you need some investment from other people? - How much personal liability exposure are you willing to accept? No single form of ownership will give you everything you desire. You’ll have to make some trade-offs. Because each option has both advantages and disadvantages, your job is to decide which one offers the features that are most important to you. In the following sections we’ll compare the three ownership options (sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation) based on the following eight dimensions: setup costs, government regulations control, profit sharing, income taxes, skills, continuity and transferability, ability to obtain financing, and liability exposure. Table 2.1.1a summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of each type of business model. Advantages and Disadvantages of Major Types of Business Organization \| \|\| Sole Proprietorship \| Partnership \| Corporation \| Advantages \| \|\| Owner receives all profits. \| More expertise and managerial skill available. \| Limited liability protects owners from losing more than they invest. \| Low organizational costs. \| Relatively low organizational costs. \| Can achieve large size due to marketability of stock (ownership). \| Income taxed as personal income of proprietor. \| Income taxed as personal income of partners. \| Receives certain tax advantages. \| Independence. \| Fundraising ability is enhanced by more owners. \| Greater access to financial resources allows growth. \| Secrecy. \| Can attract employees with specialized skills. \| \| Ease of dissolution. \| Ownership is readily transferable. \| \| Long life of firm (not affected by death of owners). \| \|\| Disadvantages \| \|\| Owner receives all losses. \| Owners have unlimited liability; may have to cover debts of other, less financially sound partners. \| Double taxation because both corporate profits and dividends paid to owners are taxed, although the dividends are taxed at a reduced rate. \| Owner has unlimited liability; total wealth can be taken to satisfy business debts. \| Dissolves or must reorganize when partner dies. \| More expensive and complex to form. \| Limited fundraising ability can inhibit growth. \| Difficult to liquidate or terminate. \| Subject to more government regulation. \| Proprietor may have limited skills and management expertise. \| Potential for conflicts between partners. \| Financial reporting requirements make operations public. \| Few long-range opportunities and benefits for employees. \| Difficult to achieve large-scale operations. \| \| Lacks continuity when owner dies. \| Attributions Title Image: "Transaction at a Farmers' Market" by TriviaKing at English Wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 Description: Transaction at a Farmer's Market in 2009. "Introduction to Business" by Lawrence J. Gitman, Carl McDaniel, Amit Shah, Monique Reece, Linda Koffel, Bethann Talsma, James C. Hyatt, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-business/pages/1-1-the-nature-of-business "An Introduction to Business v.2.0" by Anonymous , 2012 Book Archive is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Sole Proprietorships Learning Objectives 3b Summarize the implications of choosing one of the various forms of business ownership. 3c Identify and contrast the various forms of business ownership. 3d Assess the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of business ownership relative to specific business opportunities. Sole Proprietorship A sole proprietorship—or sole trader—is an unincorporated business that has just one owner who pays personal income tax on profits earned from the business. A sole proprietorship is the easiest type of business to establish or take apart, due to a lack of government regulation. Most small businesses start as sole proprietorships. Comparison of Forms of Business Organization \| \|\|\| Form \| Number \| Sales \| Profits \| Sole Proprietorships \| 72 percent \| 4 percent \| 15 percent \| Partnerships \| 10 percent \| 15 percent \| 27 percent \| Corporations \| 18 percent \| 81 percent \| 58 percent \| Proprietorship Pearl Jeremy Shepherd was working full-time for an airline when, at the age of 22, he wandered into an exotic pearl market in China, searching for a gift for his girlfriend. The strand of pearls he handpicked by instinct was later valued by a jeweler back in the States at 20 times what he paid for it. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish and immersed in Asian culture, Jeremy cashed his next paycheck and hurried back to Asia, buying every pearl he could afford. Shepherd believed the internet was the way to market his pearls. In 1996, he founded Pearl Paradise, and, in 2000, he took the company online. Shepherd chose the sole proprietorship form of business organization—a business that is established, owned, operated, and often financed by one person—because it was the easiest to set up. He did not want partners, and low liability exposure made incorporating unnecessary. Offering a wide range of pearl jewelry through 14 websites worldwide, his company sells as many as 1,000 items per day. The recent addition of an exclusive Los Angeles showroom allows celebrity customers to shop by appointment. With $20 million in sales annually, PearlParadise.com is the industry leader in terms of sales and volume. Advantages of Sole Proprietorships Sole proprietorships have several advantages that make them popular: - Easy and inexpensive to form. As Jeremy Shepherd discovered, sole proprietorships have few legal requirements (such as local licenses and permits) and are not expensive to form, making them the business organization of choice for many small companies and start-ups. - Profits all go to the owner. The owner of a sole proprietorship obtains the start-up funds and gets all the profits earned by the business. The more efficiently the firm operates, the higher the company’s profitability. - Direct control of the business. All business decisions are made by the sole proprietorship owner without having to consult anyone else. - Freedom from government regulation. Sole proprietorships have more freedom than other forms of business with respect to government controls. - No special taxation. Sole proprietorships do not pay special franchise or corporate taxes. Profits are taxed as personal income as reported on the owner’s individual tax return. - Ease of dissolution. With no co-owners or partners, the sole proprietor can sell the business or close the doors at any time, making this form of business organization an ideal way to test a new business idea. Disadvantages of Sole Proprietorships Along with the freedom to operate the business as they wish, sole proprietors face several disadvantages: - Unlimited liability. From a legal standpoint, the sole proprietor and the company are one and the same; this makes the business owner personally responsible for all debts the company incurs, even if they exceed the company’s value. The owner may need to sell other personal property—their car, home, or other investments—to satisfy claims against the business. - Difficulty raising capital. Business assets are unprotected against claims of personal creditors, so business lenders view sole proprietorships as high risk due to the owner’s unlimited liability. Owners must often use personal funds—borrowing on credit cards, second-mortgaging their homes, or selling investments—to finance their business. Expansion plans can also be affected by an inability to raise additional funding. - Limited managerial expertise. The success of a sole proprietorship rests solely on the skills and talents of the owner, who must wear many different hats and make all decisions. Owners are often not equally skilled in all areas of running a business. A graphic designer may be a wonderful artist but not know bookkeeping, how to manage production, or how to market their work. - Trouble finding qualified employees. Sole proprietors often cannot offer the same pay, fringe benefits, and advancement as larger companies, making them less attractive to employees seeking the most favorable employment opportunities. - Personal time commitment. Running a sole proprietorship business requires personal sacrifices and a huge time commitment, often dominating the owner’s life with 12-hour workdays and 7-day workweeks. - Unstable business life. The life span of a sole proprietorship can be uncertain. The owner may lose interest, experience ill health, retire, or die. The business will cease to exist unless the owner makes provisions for it to continue operating or puts it up for sale. - Losses are the owner’s responsibility. The sole proprietor is responsible for all losses, although tax laws allow these to be deducted from other personal income. A Temporary Choice? The sole proprietorship may be a suitable choice for a one-person start-up operation with no employees and little risk of liability exposure. For many sole proprietors, however, this is a temporary choice. As the business grows, the owner may be unable to operate with limited financial and managerial resources. At this point, the owner may decide to take on one or more partners to ensure that the business continues to flourish, which then leads to Partnership or Corporation. Attributions "Introduction to Business" by Lawrence J. Gitman, Carl McDaniel, Amit Shah, Monique Reece, Linda Koffel, Bethann Talsma, James C. Hyatt, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free https://openstax.org/books/introduction-business/pages/4-1-going-it-alone-sole-proprietorships Partnerships Learning Objectives 3b Summarize the implications of choosing one of the various forms of business ownership. 3c Identify and contrast the various forms of business ownership. 3d Assess the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of business ownership relative to specific business opportunities . Business Partnerships For those individuals who do not like to “go it alone,” a partnership is relatively simple to set up. A partnership is an association of two or more individuals who agree to operate a business together for profit. This shared form of business ownership is a popular choice for professional-service firms, such as lawyers, accountants, architects, stockbrokers, and real estate companies. In a partnership, the parties agree—either orally or in writing—to share in the profits and losses of a joint enterprise. A written partnership agreement—a printed or electronic text spelling out the terms and conditions of the partnership—is highly recommended to prevent later conflicts between the partners. Such agreements typically include the name of the partnership, its purpose, and the contributions of each partner (financial, asset, skill/talent). It also outlines the responsibilities and duties of each partner and their compensation structure (salary, profit sharing, etc.). And it should contain provisions for the addition of new partners, the sale of partnership interests, and procedures for resolving conflicts, dissolving the business, and distributing the assets. Partnerships can only be sustained if all partners have and maintain the same vision for the business. Two Types of Partnerships There are two basic types of partnerships: general and limited. In a general partnership, all partners share in the management and profits. They co-own the assets, and each can act on behalf of the firm. Each partner also has unlimited liability for all the business obligations of the firm. A limited partnership has two types of partners: one or more general partners, who have unlimited liability, and one or more limited partners, whose liability is limited to the amount of their investment. In return for limited liability, limited partners agree not to take part in the day-to-day management of the firm. They help to finance the business, but the general partners maintain operational control. There are also limited liability partnerships (LLP), which are similar to a general partnership except that partners are not held responsible for the business debt and liabilities. Another type is a limited liability limited partnership (LLLP), which is basically a limited partnership with addition of limited liability, hence protecting the general partner from the debt and liabilities of the partnership. Advantages of Partnerships There are several advantages to partnerships: - Ease of formation. Like sole proprietorships, partnerships are easy to form. The partners agree to do business together and draw up a partnership agreement. For most partnerships, applicable state laws are not complex. - Availability of capital. Because two or more people contribute financial resources, partnerships can raise funds more easily for operating expenses and business expansion. The partners’ combined financial strength also increases the firm’s ability to raise funds from outside sources. - Diversity of skills and expertise. Partners share the responsibilities of managing and operating the business. Combining partner skills to set goals, manage the overall direction of the firm, and solve problems increases the chances for the partnership’s success. - Flexibility. General partners are actively involved in managing their firm and can respond quickly to changes in the business environment. - No special taxes. Partnerships pay no income taxes. A partnership must file a partnership return with the Internal Revenue Service, reporting how profits or losses were divided among the partners. Each partner’s profit or loss is then reported on the partner’s personal income tax return, with any profits taxed at personal income tax rates. - Relative freedom from government control. Except for state rules for licensing and permits, the government has little control over partnership activities. Disadvantages of Partnerships Business owners must consider the following disadvantages of setting up their company as a partnership: - Unlimited liability. All general partners have unlimited liability for the debts of the business. In fact, any one partner can be held personally liable for all partnership debts and legal judgments (such as malpractice)—regardless of who caused them. As with sole proprietorships, business failure can lead to a loss of the general partners’ personal assets. To overcome this problem, many states now allow the formation of limited liability partnerships (LLPs), which protect each individual partner from responsibility for the acts of other partners and limit their liability to harm resulting from their own actions. - Potential for conflicts between partners. Partners may have different ideas about how to run their business, which employees to hire, how to allocate responsibilities, and when to expand. Differences in personalities and work styles can cause clashes or breakdowns in communication, sometimes requiring outside intervention to save the business. - Complexity of profit sharing. Dividing the profits is relatively easy if all partners contribute equal amounts of time, expertise, and capital. But if one partner puts in more money and others more time, it might be more difficult to arrive at a fair profit-sharing formula. - Difficulty exiting or dissolving a partnership. As a rule, partnerships are easier to form than to leave. When one partner wants to leave, the value of their share must be calculated. If a partner who owns more than 50 percent of the entity withdraws, dies, or becomes disabled, the partnership must reorganize or end. To avoid these problems, most partnership agreements include specific guidelines for transferring partnership interests and buy–sell agreements that make provision for surviving partners to buy a deceased partner’s interest. Partners can also purchase special life insurance policies designed to fund such a purchase. The Biggest Partnership Concern Business partnerships are often compared to marriages. As with a marriage, choosing the right partner is crucial. To find the right partner, you must examine your own strengths and weaknesses and know what you need from a partner. Ideal partnerships bring together people with complementary backgrounds rather than those with similar experience, skills, and talents. So, those considering forming a partnership should allow plenty of time to evaluate each potential partner’s goals, personality, expertise, and working style before joining forces. Attributions "Introduction to Business" by Lawrence J. Gitman, Carl McDaniel, Amit Shah, Monique Reece, Linda Koffel, Bethann Talsma, James C. Hyatt, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-business/pages/4-2-partnerships-sharing-the-load Corporations Learning Objectives 3b Summarize the implications of choosing one of the various forms of business ownership. 3c Identify and contrast the various forms of business ownership. 3d Assess the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of business ownership relative to specific business opportunities. What is a Corporation? When launching her company, Executive Property Management Services, Inc., 32-year-old Linda Ravden realized she needed the liability protection of the corporate form of business organization. Her company specialized in providing customized property management services to mid- and upper-level corporate executives on extended work assignments abroad, often for three to five years or longer. Taking care of substantial properties in the million-dollar range and above was no small responsibility for Ravden’s company. Therefore, the protection of a corporate business structure, along with carefully detailed contracts outlining the company’s obligations, were crucial in providing Ravden with the liability protection she needed, as well as the peace of mind to focus on running her business without constant worry. A corporation is a legal entity subject to the laws of the state in which it is formed, where the right to operate as a business is issued by state charter. A corporation can own property, enter into contracts, sue and be sued, and engage in business operations under the terms of its charter. Unlike sole proprietorships and partnerships, corporations are taxable entities with a life separate from their owners, who are not personally liable for their debts. An LLC does not provide unlimited protection; there are still regulations for such things as mingling personal and business funds. When people think of corporations, they typically think of major, well-known companies, such as Apple, Google (whose parent company is Alphabet), Netflix, IBM, Microsoft, Boeing, and General Electric. But corporations range in size from large multinationals—with thousands of employees and billions of dollars in sales—to midsize or even smaller firms with few employees and revenues under $25,000. Corporations play an important role in the U.S. economy. Corporations account for only 18 percent of all businesses but generate 81 percent of all revenues and 58 percent of all profits. Company type and size vary; however, when you look at the top companies by revenue in the United States or globally, they include many familiar names that affect our daily lives. Corporation success is evaluated differently by different entities. According to Fortune magazine, the top three United States corporations in the 2017 were (1) Walmart Stores (revenue: $485.9 B), (2) Berkshire Hathaway (revenue: $223.6 B), and (3) Apple (revenue: $215.6 B). That same year, Forbes magazine found that the top three corporations were (1) Berkshire Hathaway (revenue: $222.9B), (2) Apple (revenue: $217.5B), and (3) JPMorgan Chase (revenue: $102.5B). By comparison, the top three companies in 2017 according to the World Economic Forum were (1) Apple, (2) Alphabet (who owns Google), and (3) Microsoft. These corporations rise and fall on the various lists based on their revenue in a given year and how the organizations measure revenue and the time frames that they use. Types of Corporations Three types of corporate business organization provide limited liability. The C corporation is the conventional or basic form of corporate organization. An S corporation is a hybrid entity, allowing smaller corporations to avoid double taxation of corporate profits, as long as they meet certain size and ownership requirements. An S corporation is taxed like a partnership and is organized like a corporation with stockholders, directors, and officers. Income and losses flow through to the stockholders and are taxed as personal income. S corporations are allowed a maximum of 100 qualifying shareholders and one class of stock. The owners of an S corporation are not personally liable for the debts of the corporation. A newer type of business entity, the limited liability company (LLC), is also a hybrid organization. Like S corporations, they appeal to small businesses because they are easy to set up and not subject to many restrictions. LLCs offer the same liability protection as corporations, as well as the option of being taxed as a partnership or a corporation. First authorized in Wyoming in 1977, LLCs became popular after a 1988 tax ruling that treats them like partnerships for tax purposes. Today all states allow the formation of LLCs. The Corporate Structure As Figure 2.1.4a shows, corporations have their own organizational structure with three important components: stockholders, directors, and officers. Stockholders (or shareholders) are the owners of a corporation, holding shares of stock that provide them with certain rights. They may receive a portion of the corporation’s profits in the form of dividends, and they can sell or transfer their ownership in the corporation (represented by their shares of stock) at any time. Stockholders can attend annual meetings, elect the board of directors, and vote on matters that affect the corporation in accordance with its charter and bylaws. Each share of stock generally carries one vote. The stockholders elect a board of directors to govern and handle the overall management of the corporation. The directors set major corporate goals and policies, hire corporate officers, and oversee the firm’s operations and finances. Small firms may have as few as 3 directors, whereas large corporations usually have 10 to 15. The boards of large corporations typically include both corporate executives and outside directors (not employed by the organization) chosen for their professional and personal expertise. Outside directors often bring a fresh view to the corporation’s activities because they are independent of the firm. Hired by the board, the officers of a corporation are its top management and include the president and chief executive officer (CEO), vice presidents, treasurer, and secretary, who are responsible for achieving corporate goals and policies. Officers may also be board members and stockholders. Advantages of Corporations The corporate structure allows companies to merge financial and human resources into enterprises with great potential for growth and profits: - Limited liability. A key advantage of corporations is that they are separate legal entities that exist apart from their owners. Owners’ (stockholders’) liability for the obligations of the firm is limited to the amount of the stock they own. If the corporation goes bankrupt, creditors can look only to the assets of the corporation for payment. - Ease of transferring ownership. Stockholders of public corporations can sell their shares at any time without affecting the status of the corporation. - Unlimited life. The life of a corporation is unlimited. Although corporate charters specify a life term, they also include rules for renewal. Because the corporation is an entity separate from its owners, the death or withdrawal of an owner does not affect its existence, unlike a sole proprietorship or partnership. - Tax deductions. Corporations are allowed certain tax deductions, such as operating expenses, which reduces their taxable income. - Ability to attract financing. Corporations can raise money by selling new shares of stock. Dividing ownership into smaller units makes it affordable to more investors, who can purchase one or several thousand shares. The large size and stability of corporations also helps them get bank financing. All these financial resources allow corporations to invest in facilities and human resources and expand beyond the scope of sole proprietorships or partnerships. Disadvantages of Corporations Although corporations offer companies many benefits, they have some disadvantages: - Double taxation of profits. Corporations must pay federal and state income taxes on their profits. In addition, any profits (dividends) paid to stockholders are taxed as personal income, although at a somewhat reduced rate. - Cost and complexity of formation. As outlined earlier, forming a corporation involves several steps, and costs can run into thousands of dollars; these costs include state filing, registration, and license fees, as well as the cost of attorneys and accountants. - More government restrictions. Unlike sole proprietorships and partnerships, corporations are subject to many regulations and reporting requirements. For example, corporations must register in each state where they do business and must also register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before selling stock to the public. Unless it is closely held (owned by a small group of stockholders), a firm must publish financial reports on a regular basis and file other special reports with the SEC and state and federal agencies. These reporting requirements can impose substantial costs, and published information on corporate operations may also give competitors an advantage. Attributions "Introduction to Business" by Lawrence J. Gitman, Carl McDaniel, Amit Shah, Monique Reece, Linda Koffel, Bethann Talsma, James C. Hyatt, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free https://openstax.org/books/introduction-business/pages/4-3-corporations-limiting-your-liability Specialized Business Organizations Instructor Ideas: Instructor could reach out to area business owners to come in for a short talk with the class about their business type choice when forming their business. Instructor could create an assignment that requires students to research well-known or popular businesses to find out what business type they are and how they are governed. Instructor could use the lesson information to facilitate a class discussion comparing and contrasting the types of business ownership. The students could also be ask to decide which business type they would prefer and why. Learning Objectives 3b Summarize the implications of choosing one of the various forms of business ownership. 3c Identify and contrast the various forms of business ownership. 3d Assess the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of business ownership relative to specific business opportunities. Cooperatives When you eat a Sunkist orange or spread Land O’Lakes butter on your toast, you are consuming foods produced by cooperatives. A cooperative is a legal entity with several corporate features, such as limited liability, an unlimited life span, an elected board of directors, and an administrative staff. Member-owners pay annual fees to the cooperative and share in the profits, which are distributed to members in proportion to their contributions. Because they do not retain any profits, cooperatives are not subject to taxes. In addition to Sunkist and Land O’Lakes, other familiar cooperatives are Calavo (avocados), Ocean Spray (cranberries and juices), and Blue Diamond (nuts). CHS Inc., the largest cooperative in the United States, sells energy, supply, food, and grain. Cooperatives operate in every industry, including agriculture, childcare, energy, financial services, food retailing and distribution, health care, insurance, housing, purchasing and shared services, and telecommunications, among others. There are currently 2.6 million cooperatives with one billion members employing more than 12.5 million employees in more than 145 countries worldwide. They range in size from large enterprises, such as Fortune 500 companies, to small local storefronts. And they generally fall into four distinct categories: consumer, producer, worker, and purchasing/shared services. Cooperatives are autonomous businesses owned and democratically controlled by their members—the people who buy their goods or use their services—not by investors. Unlike investor-owned businesses, cooperatives are organized solely to meet the needs of the member-owners, not to accumulate capital for investors. As democratically controlled businesses, many cooperatives practice the principle of “one member, one vote,” providing members with equal control over the cooperative. Cooperatives empower people to improve their quality of life and enhance their economic opportunities through self-help. Throughout the world, cooperatives are providing members with credit and financial services, energy, consumer goods, affordable housing, telecommunications, and other services that would not otherwise be available to them. There are two types of cooperatives: Buyer Cooperatives and Seller Cooperatives. Buyer cooperatives combine members’ purchasing power. Pooling buying power and buying in volume increases purchasing power and efficiency, resulting in lower prices. At the end of the year, members get shares of the profits based on how much they bought. Founded in 1924, Ace Hardware is one of the nation’s largest cooperatives and is wholly owned by its independent hardware retailer members in stores spanning all 50 states and 70 countries. In August 2017, Ace opened its 5,000th store. In 2017, the company reported its revenues in the second quarter were $1.5 billion, which was an increase of 4.6 percent from 2016’s second quarter. The net income for the second quarter of 2017 was $51.1 million. Obtaining discounts to lower costs gives the corner Ace Hardware store the chance to survive against retail giants such as Home Depot Inc. and Lowe’s. Seller cooperatives are popular in agriculture, wherein individual producers join to compete more effectively with large producers. Member dues support market development, national advertising, and other business activities. There are several principles that cooperatives must follow, according to San Luis Valley REC—from the International Co-operative Alliance, and Daman Prakash—author of The Principles of Cooperation: - open membership, which means that cooperatives are open to all people to use its services; - democratic member control, which means that organizations are controlled by their members; - members’ economic participation, which means that members contribute equally to the capital of the cooperative; - autonomy, which means cooperatives are self-help organizations controlled by their members; - and education and training, which means that cooperatives provide education and training for their members while also electing representatives, managers, and employees. Joint Ventures In a joint venture, two or more companies form an alliance to pursue a specific project, usually for a specified period of time. There are many reasons for joint ventures. The project may be too large for one company to handle on its own, and joint ventures also afford companies access to new markets, products, or technology. Both large and small companies can benefit from joint ventures. In 2005, South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Company announced it signed a $1.24 billion deal to form a joint venture with China’s Guangzhou Automobile Group. The arrangement gave the South Korean automaker access to the commercial vehicle market in China, where its passenger cars are already the top selling foreign brand. Each side will hold equal stakes in the new entity: Guangzhou Hyundai Motor Company. The new plant began production in 2007 with an annual capacity of 200,000 units, producing trucks, buses, and commercial vehicles. According to Reuters, Hyundai made plans to build a fifth factory in China. With five factories in operation, Hyundai’s annual Chinese production capacity will be 1.65 million vehicles. Attributions "Introduction to Business" by Lawrence J. Gitman, Carl McDaniel, Amit Shah, Monique Reece, Linda Koffel, Bethann Talsma, James C. Hyatt, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free https://openstax.org/books/introduction-business/pages/4-4-specialized-forms-of-business-organization	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:06.952126	Anna McCollum	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100026/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit Introduction to Agriculture Business Collection, Agribusiness Ownership and Management, Forms of Business Ownership", "author": "Textbook" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100023/overview	1.3.1 Principles of Demand 1.3.2 Principles of Supply 1.3.3 Equilibrium, Surplus, and Shortage 1.3.3 Equilibrium, Surplus, and Shortage 1.3.4 Consumers, Producers, and Shifting Demand Curves 1.3.5 Consumers, Producers, and Shifting Supply Curves 1.3.6 Elasticity 1.3.7 Perfect Elasticity and Perfect Inelasticity 1.3.8 Demand and Consumers 1.3.9 Production Function, Inputs, and Marginal Product Basic Economic Principles in Agribusiness Overview Principles of Demand Learning Objectives 5a Understand basic concepts of economics and explain their significance. 5h Understand market price determination, demand, demand schedules, demand curves, supply, supply and demand relationships and shifters, and equilibrium. Why Can We Not Get Enough of Organic? Organic food is increasingly popular, not just in the United States, but worldwide. At one time, consumers had to go to specialty stores or farmers' markets to find organic produce. Now it is available in most grocery stores. In short, organic is part of the mainstream. Organic food costs more than conventional food. Think about this: An organic Fuji apple could cost $1.99 a pound, while its conventional counterpart costs $1.49 a pound. The same price relationship is true for just about every organic product on the market. If many organic foods are locally grown, should they not take less time to get to market and therefore be cheaper because of the lowered transportation and storage costs? Turns out the forces that keep organic prices from being less than (or the same as) conventional food process has less to do with incurred costs and more to do with this section’s topic: demand. This section introduces the economic model of demand and supply—one of the most powerful models in all of economics. The discussion here begins by examining how demand and supply determine the price and the quantity sold in markets for goods and services, and how changes in demand and supply lead to changes in prices and quantities. But our main focus here will be on demand. An auction bidder pays thousands of dollars for a dress Whitney Houston wore. A collector spends a small fortune for a few drawings by John Lennon. People usually react to purchases like these in two ways: their jaw drops because they think these are high prices to pay for such goods OR they think these are rare, desirable items and the amount paid seems right. The amount paid for these items was determined by supply and demand, but more so by demand. In 1998, comic book artist Todd McFarlane paid $3,000,000 for Mark McGwire’s 70th Home Run Ball. No-one had ever paid so much for such an artifact. In fact, the next highest price paid for a baseball was, at that time, $805,000 for Babe Ruth’s 1933 All-Star Game Home Run Ball. But McFarlane’s demand determined what he was willing to pay—in addition to his net worth at the time. When economists talk about prices, they are less interested in making judgments than in gaining a practical understanding of what determines prices and why prices change. Consider a price most of us contend with weekly: that of a gallon of gas. Why was the average price of gasoline in the United States $3.71 per gallon in June 2014? Why did the price for gasoline fall sharply to $1.96 per gallon by January 2016? To explain these price movements, economists focus on the determinants of what gasoline buyers are willing to pay and what gasoline sellers are willing to accept. As it turns out, the price of gasoline in June of any given year is nearly always higher than the price in January of that same year. Over recent decades, gasoline prices in midsummer have averaged about 10 cents per gallon more than their midwinter low. The likely reason is that people drive more in the summer, and are also willing to pay more for gas, but that does not explain how steeply gas prices fell between 2014 and 2016. Other factors were at work during those 18 months, such as increases in supply and decreases in the demand for crude oil. Demand for Goods and Services Economists use the term demand to refer to the amount of some good or service consumers are willing and able to purchase at each price. Demand is fundamentally based on needs and wants—if you have no need or want for something, you won't buy it. While a consumer may be able to differentiate between a need and a want, from an economist’s perspective they are the same thing. Demand is also based on ability to pay. If you cannot pay for it, you have no effective demand. By this definition, a baseball enthusiast has no effective demand for historical baseball artifacts unless their net worth allows for major cash expenditures that will not affect their ability to pay their usual bills. What a buyer pays for a unit of the specific good or service is called price. The total number of units that consumers would purchase at that price is called the quantity demanded. A rise in price of a good or service almost always decreases the quantity demanded of that good or service. Conversely, a fall in price will increase the quantity demanded. When the price of a gallon of gasoline increases, for example, people look for ways to reduce their consumption by combining several errands, commuting by carpool or mass transit, or taking weekend or vacation trips closer to home. Economists call this inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded the law of demand. The law of demand assumes that all other variables that affect demand (which we explain in the next module) are held constant. We can show an example from the market for gasoline in a table or a graph. Economists call a table that shows the quantity demanded at each price a demand schedule. The demand schedule shows that as price rises, quantity demanded decreases, and vice versa. We graph these points, and the line connecting them is the demand curve (D). The downward slope of the demand curve again illustrates the law of demand—the inverse relationship between prices and quantity demanded. In Table 1.3.1a, we measure price in dollars per gallon of gasoline. We measure the quantity demanded in millions of gallons over some time period (for example, per day or per year) and over some geographic area (like a state or a country). Price (per gallon) \| Quantity Demanded (millions of gallons) \| $1.00 \| 800 \| $1.20 \| 700 \| $1.40 \| 600 \| $1.60 \| 550 \| $1.80 \| 500 \| $2.00 \| 460 \| $2.20 \| 420 \| A demand curve shows the relationship between price and quantity demanded on a graph. Demand curves will appear somewhat different for each product. They may appear relatively steep or flat, or they may be straight or curved. Nearly all demand curves share the fundamental similarity that they slope down from left to right. Demand curves embody the law of demand: As the price increases, the quantity demanded decreases; and, conversely, as the price decreases, the quantity demanded increases. Figure 1.3.1a is a demand curve with quantity on the horizontal axis and the price per gallon on the vertical axis. (Note that this is an exception to the normal rule in mathematics that the independent variable (x) goes on the horizontal axis and the dependent variable (y) goes on the vertical. Economics is not math.) Table 1.3.1a shows the demand schedule and the graph in Figure 1.3.1a shows the demand curve. Demand schedule and demand curve are two ways to describe the same relationship between price and quantity demanded. Attributions Title Image: "Historical GDP growth of the United States" by GiovanniMartin16, Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Description: Historical GDP growth of the U.S. Between 1961 and 2015. "Principles of Microeconomics for AP® Courses 2e" by Steven A. Greenlaw, David Shapiro, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-microeconomics-ap-courses-2e/pages/3-1-demand-supply-and-equilibrium-in-markets-for-goods-and-services Principles of Supply Instructor Ideas: There is a lot of information in this ‘lesson’ of the textbook. Instructors could break up the lesson by having the class play the candy supply and demand game. There are many resources available about how to implement this active learning game in your classroom. Learning Objectives 5a Understand basic concepts of economics and explain their significance. 5h Understand market price determination, demand, demand schedules, demand curves, supply, supply and demand relationships and shifters, and equilibrium. Supply of Goods and Services When economists talk about supply, they mean the amount of some good or service a producer is willing to supply at each price. Price is what the producer receives for selling one unit of a good or service. A rise in price almost always leads to an increase in the quantity supplied of that good or service, while a fall in price will decrease the quantity supplied. When the price of gasoline rises, for example, it encourages profit-seeking firms to take several actions: expand exploration for oil reserves; drill for more oil; invest in more pipelines and oil tankers to bring the oil to plants for refining into gasoline; build new oil refineries; purchase additional pipelines and trucks to ship the gasoline to gas stations; and open more gas stations or keep existing gas stations open longer hours. Economists call this positive relationship between price and quantity supplied the law of supply—a higher price leads to a higher quantity supplied and a lower price leads to a lower quantity supplied. The law of supply assumes that all other variables that affect supply are held constant. Like demand, we can illustrate supply using a table or a graph. The supply schedule and the supply curve are just two different ways of showing the same information. A supply curve is a graphic illustration of the relationship between price—shown on the vertical axis, and quantity—shown on the horizontal axis. The supply curve (S) is created by graphing the points from the supply schedule and then connecting them. The upward slope of the supply curve illustrates the law of supply—that a higher price leads to a higher quantity supplied, and vice versa. Figure 1.3.2a illustrates the law of supply, again using the market for gasoline as an example. Notice that the horizontal and vertical axes on the graph for the supply curve are the same as for the demand curve. The shape of supply curves will vary somewhat according to the product: steeper, flatter, straighter, or curved. Nearly all supply curves, however, share a basic similarity: they slope up from left to right and illustrate the law of supply. In Figure 1.3.2a, as the price rises, say, from $1.00 per gallon to $2.20 per gallon, the quantity supplied increases from 500 gallons to 720 gallons. Conversely, as the price falls, the quantity supplied decreases. A supply schedule is a table that shows the quantity supplied at a range of different prices. As price rises, quantity supplied also increases, and vice versa. In Table 1.3.2a, we again measure price in dollars per gallon of gasoline, and we measure quantity supplied in millions of gallons. Price (per gallon) \| Quantity Supplied (millions of gallons) \| $1.00 \| 500 \| $1.20 \| 550 \| $1.40 \| 600 \| $1.60 \| 640 \| $1.80 \| 680 \| $2.00 \| 700 \| $2.20 \| 720 \| Attributions "Principles of Microeconomics for AP® Courses 2e" by Steven A. Greenlaw, David Shapiro, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-microeconomics-ap-courses-2e/pages/3-1-demand-supply-and-equilibrium-in-markets-for-goods-and-services Equilibrium, Surplus, and Shortage Learning Objectives 5a Understand basic concepts of economics and explain their significance. 5h Understand market price determination, demand, demand schedules, demand curves, supply, supply and demand relationships and shifters, and equilibrium. 5t Understand the role of agricultural economics and how they predict market movement. Equilibrium—Where Demand and Supply Intersect Because the graphs for demand and supply curves both have price on the vertical axis and quantity on the horizontal axis, the demand curve and supply curve for a particular good or service can appear on the same graph. Together, demand and supply determine the price and the quantity that will be bought and sold in a market. Figure 1.3.3a illustrates the interaction of demand and supply in the market for gasoline. The demand curve (D) is identical to Figure 1.3.1a (see Principles of Demand section). The supply curve (S) is identical to Figure 1.3.2a (see Principles of Supply section). The demand curve (D) and the supply curve (S) intersect at the equilibrium point E, with a price of $1.40 and a quantity of 600. The equilibrium is the only price where quantity demanded is equal to quantity supplied. At a price above equilibrium like $1.80, quantity supplied exceeds the quantity demanded, so there is excess supply. At a price below equilibrium such as $1.20, quantity demanded exceeds quantity supplied, so there is excess demand. Remember this: When two lines on a diagram cross, this intersection usually means something. The point where the supply curve (S) and the demand curve (D) cross, designated by point E in Figure 1.3.3a , is called the equilibrium. The word equilibrium means “balance.” If a market is at its equilibrium price and quantity, then it has no reason to move away from that point. However, if a market is not at equilibrium, then economic pressures arise to move the market toward the equilibrium price and the equilibrium quantity. The equilibrium price is the only price where the plans of consumers and the plans of producers agree—that is, where the amount of the product consumers want to buy (quantity demanded) is equal to the amount producers want to sell (quantity supplied). Economists call this common quantity the equilibrium quantity. At any other price, the quantity demanded does not equal the quantity supplied, so the market is not in equilibrium at that price. In Figure 1.3.3a, the equilibrium price is $1.40 per gallon of gasoline and the equilibrium quantity is 600 million gallons. If you had only the demand and supply schedules, and not the graph, you could find the equilibrium by looking for the price level on the table where the quantity demanded and the quantity supplied are equal. Table 1.3.3a contains the same information as found in the Demand and Supply Curve (Figure 1.3.3a), but it is presented in tabular form. Price (per gallon) \| Quantity demanded (millions of gallons) \| Quantity supplied (millions of gallons) \| $1.00 \| 800 \| 500 \| $1.20 \| 700 \| 550 \| $1.40 \| 600 \| 600 \| $1.60 \| 550 \| 640 \| $1.80 \| 500 \| 680 \| $2.00 \| 460 \| 700 \| $2.20 \| 420 \| 720 \| But let’s continue our discussion with the Supply and Demand Curve (Figure 1.3.3a). Imagine, for example, that the price of a gallon of gasoline was above the equilibrium price—that is, instead of $1.40 per gallon, the price is $1.80 per gallon. The dashed horizontal line at the price of $1.80 in Figure 1.3.3a illustrates this above equilibrium price. At this higher price, the quantity demanded drops from 600 to 500. This decline in quantity reflects how consumers react to the higher price by finding ways to use less gasoline. Moreover, at this higher price of $1.80, the quantity of gasoline supplied rises from 600 to 680, as the higher price makes it more profitable for gasoline producers to expand their output. Now, consider how quantity demanded and quantity supplied are related at this above-equilibrium price. Quantity demanded has fallen to 500 gallons, while quantity supplied has risen to 680 gallons. In fact, at any above-equilibrium price, the quantity supplied exceeds the quantity demanded. We call this an excess supply or a surplus. With a surplus, gasoline accumulates at gas stations, in tanker trucks, in pipelines, and at oil refineries. This accumulation puts pressure on gasoline sellers. If a surplus remains unsold, those firms involved in making and selling gasoline are not receiving enough cash to pay their workers and to cover their expenses. In this situation, some producers and sellers will want to cut prices, because it is better to sell at a lower price than not to sell at all. Once some sellers start cutting prices, others will follow to avoid losing sales. These price reductions in turn will stimulate a higher quantity demanded. Therefore, if the price is above the equilibrium level, incentives built into the structure of demand and supply will create pressures for the price to fall toward the equilibrium. Now suppose that the price is below its equilibrium level at $1.20 per gallon, as the dashed horizontal line at this price in Figure 1.3.3a shows. At this lower price, the quantity demanded increases from 600 to 700 as drivers take longer trips, spend more minutes warming up the car in the driveway in wintertime, stop sharing rides to work, and buy larger cars that get fewer miles to the gallon. However, the below-equilibrium price reduces gasoline producers’ incentives to produce and sell gasoline, and the quantity supplied falls from 600 to 550. When the price is below equilibrium, there is excess demand—or a shortage. In other words, at the given price the quantity demanded—which has been stimulated by the lower price, now exceeds the quantity supplied—which had been depressed by the lower price. In this situation, eager gasoline buyers mob the gas stations, only to find many stations running short of fuel. Oil companies and gas stations recognize that they have an opportunity to make higher profits by selling what gasoline they have at a higher price. As a result, the price rises toward the equilibrium level. Attributions "Principles of Microeconomics for AP® Courses 2e" by Steven A. Greenlaw, David Shapiro, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-microeconomics-ap-courses-2e/pages/3-1-demand-supply-and-equilibrium-in-markets-for-goods-and-services Consumers, Producers, and Shifting Demand Curves Learning Objectives 5h Understand market price determination, demand, demand schedules, demand curves, supply, supply and demand relationships and shifters, and equilibrium. 5g Explain scarcity, types of resources, and desires of producers and consumers. Review of Factors Affecting Demand We defined demand as the amount of some product a consumer is willing and able to purchase at each price. This statement suggests at least two factors that affect demand: willingness to purchase and ability to purchase. - Willingness to purchase suggests a desire, based on what economists call tastes and preferences. If you neither need nor want something, you will not buy it. If you really like something, you will buy more of it than someone who does not share your strong preference for it. - Ability to purchase suggests that income is important. CEOs are usually able to afford better housing and transportation than college students, because they have more income. But there are other important factors that affect demand: price of related goods and size of population making demands on the market. - Prices of related goods can affect demand. Think of this way, if you need a new car, the price of a Subaru may affect your demand for a Ford. - The size or composition of the population can affect demand. The more children a family has, the greater their demand for clothing. The more driving-age children a family has, the greater their demand for car insurance, and the less for diapers and baby formula. These factors matter for both individual and market demand as a whole. In this section, we will take a closer look at each of these factors so to better understand how demand is affected with each. How Does Income Affect Demand? Let’s use income as an example of how factors other than price affect demand. Figure 1.3.4a shows the initial demand for automobiles as D0. At point Q, for example, if the price is $20,000 per car, the quantity of cars demanded is 18 million. D0 also shows how the quantity of cars demanded would change as a result of a higher or lower price. For example, if the price of a car rose to $22,000, the quantity demanded would decrease to 17 million, at point R. The original demand curve D0, like every demand curve, is based on the ceteris paribus assumption that no other economically relevant factors change. Now imagine that the economy expands in a way that raises the incomes of many people, making cars more affordable. How will this affect demand? How can we show this graphically? Return to Figure 1.3.4a. The price of cars is still $20,000, but with higher incomes, the quantity demanded has now increased to 20 million cars, shown at point S. As a result of the higher income levels, the demand curve shifts to the right to the new demand curve D1, indicating an increase in demand. Table 1.3.4a shows clearly that this increased demand would occur at every price, not just the original one. Price \| Decrease to D2 \| Original Quantity Demanded D0 \| Increase to D1 \| $16,000 \| 17.6 million \| 22.0 million \| 24.0 million \| $18,000 \| 16.0 million \| 20.0 million \| 22.0 million \| $20,000 \| 14.4 million \| 18.0 million \| 20.0 million \| $22,000 \| 13.6 million \| 17.0 million \| 19.0 million \| $24,000 \| 13.2 million \| 16.5 million \| 18.5 million \| $26,000 \| 12.8 million \| 16.0 million \| 18.0 million \| Now, imagine that the economy slows down so that many people lose their jobs or work fewer hours, reducing their incomes. In this case, the decrease in income would lead to a lower quantity of cars demanded at every given price, and the original demand curve D0 would shift left to D2. The shift from D0 to D2 represents such a decrease in demand: At any given price level, the quantity demanded is now lower. In this example, a price of $20,000 means 18 million cars sold along the original demand curve, but only 14.4 million sold after demand fell. When a demand curve shifts, it does not mean that the quantity demanded by every individual buyer changes by the same amount. In this example, not everyone would have higher or lower income and not everyone would buy or not buy an additional car. Instead, a shift in a demand curve captures a pattern for the market as a whole. In the previous section, we argued that higher income causes greater demand at every price. This is true for most goods and services. For some—luxury cars, vacations in Europe, and fine jewelry—the effect of a rise in income can be especially pronounced. A product whose demand rises when income rises, and vice versa, is called a normal good. A few exceptions to this pattern do exist. As incomes rise, many people will buy fewer generic brand groceries and more name brand groceries. They are less likely to buy used cars and more likely to buy new cars. They will be less likely to rent an apartment and more likely to own a home. A product whose demand falls when income rises, and vice versa, is called an inferior good. In other words, when income increases, the demand curve shifts to the left. Other Factors That Shift Demand Curves Income is not the only factor that causes a shift in demand. Other factors that change demand include tastes and preferences, the composition or size of the population, the prices of related goods, and even expectations. A change in any one of the underlying factors that determine what quantity people are willing to buy at a given price will cause a shift in demand. Graphically, the new demand curve lies either to the right (an increase) or to the left (a decrease) of the original demand curve. Let’s look at these factors. Changing Tastes or Preferences From 1980 to 2021, the per-person consumption of chicken by Americans rose from 47 pounds per year to 97 pounds per year, and consumption of beef fell from 76 pounds per year to 59 pounds per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Changes like these are largely due to movements in taste, which change the quantity of a good demanded at every price: that is, they shift the demand curve for that good, rightward for chicken and leftward for beef. Changes in the Composition of the Population The proportion of elderly citizens in the United States population is rising. It rose from 9.8% in 1970 to 12.6% in 2000, and it will be a projected 20% of the population by 2030 (per the U.S. Census Bureau). A society with relatively more children, like the United States in the 1960s, will have greater demand for goods and services like tricycles and day care facilities. A society with relatively more elderly persons, as the United States is projected to have by 2030, has a higher demand for nursing homes and hearing aids. Similarly, changes in the size of the population can affect the demand for housing and many other goods. Each of these changes in demand will be shown as a shift in the demand curve. Changes in the Prices of Related Goods Changes in the prices of related goods such as substitutes or complements also can affect the demand for a product. A substitute is a good or service that we can use in place of another good or service. As electronic books, like this one, become more available, you would expect to see a decrease in demand for traditional printed books. A lower price for a substitute decreases demand for the other product. For example, in recent years as the price of tablet computers has fallen, the quantity demanded has increased (because of the law of demand). Since people are purchasing tablets, there has been a decrease in demand for laptops, which we can show graphically as a leftward shift in the demand curve for laptops. A higher price for a substitute good has the reverse effect. Other goods are complements for each other, meaning we often use the goods together, because consumption of one good tends to enhance consumption of the other. Examples include breakfast cereal and milk; notebooks and pens or pencils, golf balls and golf clubs; gasoline and sport utility vehicles; and the five-way combination of bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and bread. If the price of golf clubs rises, the quantity demanded of golf clubs falls (because of the law of demand), but the demand for a complement good like golf balls decreases, too. Similarly, a higher price for skis would shift the demand curve for a complement good like ski resort trips to the left, while a lower price for a complement has the reverse effect. Changes in Expectations about Future Prices or Other Factors that Affect Demand While it is clear that the price of a good affects the quantity demanded, it is also true that expectations about the future price (or expectations about tastes and preferences, income, and so on) can affect demand. For example, if people hear that a hurricane is coming, they may rush to the store to buy flashlight batteries and bottled water. If people learn that the price of a good like coffee is likely to rise in the future, they may head for the store to stock up on coffee now. We show these changes in demand as shifts in the curve. Therefore, a shift in demand happens when a change in some economic factor (other than price) causes a different quantity to be demanded at every price. A shift in demand means that at any price (and at every price), the quantity demanded will be different than it was before. Graphing Shift in Demand We can use the demand curve to identify how much consumers would buy at any given price. Following is an example of a shift in pizza demand due to an income increase. This example is presented with steps taken to compose the graph so that you may learn how to create a demand curve. Step 1. Draw the graph of a demand curve for a normal good like pizza. Pick a price (like P0). Identify the corresponding Q0. See an example in Figure 1.3.4b. Step 2. Suppose income increases. As a result of the change, are consumers going to buy more or less pizza? The answer is more. Consumers will purchase larger quantities, pushing demand to the right, and causing the demand curve to shift right. Draw a dotted horizontal line from the chosen price, through the original quantity demanded, to the new point with the new Q1. Draw a dotted vertical line down to the horizontal axis and label the new Q1. Figure 1.3.4c provides an example. Step 3. Now, shift the curve through the new point. You will see that an increase in income causes an upward (or rightward) shift in the demand curve, so that at any price the quantities demanded will be higher, as Figure 1.3.4d illustrates. Summing Up Factors That Change Demand Figure 1.3.4e summarizes six factors that can shift demand curves. The direction of the arrows indicates whether the demand curve shifts represent an increase in demand or a decrease in demand. Notice that a change in the price of the good or service itself is not listed among the factors that can shift a demand curve. A change in the price of a good or service causes a movement along a specific demand curve, and it typically leads to some change in the quantity demanded, but it does not shift the demand curve. When a demand curve shifts, it will then intersect with a given supply curve at a different equilibrium price and quantity. In the next section, we will discuss shifts in supply curves. Attributions "Principles of Microeconomics for AP® Courses 2e" by Steven A. Greenlaw, David Shapiro, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-microeconomics-ap-courses-2e/pages/3-2-shifts-in-demand-and-supply-for-goods-and-services Consumers, Producers, and Shifting Supply Curves Instructor Ideas: Assign a news article about supply and demand. Topics could be supply and demand of candy at Halloween, the Cabbage Patch Kid Riots of 1983, supply and demand of corn due to ethanol, the cream cheese shortage, or allow the students to do their own research. Instructor could use this as a springboard for class discussion about the different scenarios that would affect supply and demand. During instructor lead discussion using real world examples, students are hearing and using the vocabulary words and this offers more opportunity for students to understand and incorporate the vocabulary. Learning Objectives 5h Understand market price determination, demand, demand schedules, demand curves, supply, supply and demand relationships and shifters, and equilibrium. 5g Explain scarcity, types of resources, and desires of producers and consumers. How Production Costs Affect Supply A supply curve shows how quantity supplied will change as the price rises and falls, assuming ceteris paribus—so that no other economically relevant factors are changing. If other factors relevant to supply do change, then the entire supply curve will shift. Just as a shift in demand will create a change in the quantity demanded at every price, a shift in supply means a change in the quantity supplied at every price. In thinking about the factors that affect supply, remember what motivates firms: profits—the difference between revenues and costs. A firm produces goods and services using combinations of labor, materials, and machinery, or what we call inputs or factors of production. A firm’s profits go up if it faces lower costs of production while the price for the good or service produced remains unchanged. When a firm’s profits increase, it is more motivated to produce output, since the more it produces the more profit it will earn. Take, for example, a messenger company that delivers packages around a city. The company may find that buying gasoline is one of its main costs. If the price of gasoline falls, then the company will find it can deliver messages more cheaply than before. Since lower costs correspond to higher profits, the messenger company may now supply more of its services at any given price. For example, given the lower gasoline prices, the company can now serve a greater area, and increase its supply. When costs of production fall, a firm will tend to supply a larger quantity at any given price for its output. This is when the supply curve shifts to the right. Conversely, if a firm faces higher costs of production, then it will earn lower profits at any given selling price for its products. As a result, a higher cost of production typically causes a firm to supply a smaller quantity at any given price. In this case, the supply curve shifts to the left. Consider the supply for cars, shown by curve S0 in Figure 1.3.5a. Point J indicates that if the price is $20,000, the quantity supplied will be 18 million cars. If the price rises to $22,000 per car, ceteris paribus, the quantity supplied will rise to 20 million cars, as point K on the S0 curve shows. Decreased supply means that at every given price, the quantity supplied is lower, so that the supply curve shifts to the left, from S0 to S1. Increased supply means that at every given price, the quantity supplied is higher, so that the supply curve shifts to the right, from S0 to S2. We can show the same information from the supply curve in Figure 1.3.5a in table form, as in Table 1.3.5a. Price \| Decrease to S1 \| Original Quantity Supplied S0 \| Increase to S2 \| $16,000 \| 10.5 million \| 12.0 million \| 13.2 million \| $18,000 \| 13.5 million \| 15.0 million \| 16.5 million \| $20,000 \| 16.5 million \| 18.0 million \| 19.8 million \| $22,000 \| 18.5 million \| 20.0 million \| 22.0 million \| $24,000 \| 19.5 million \| 21.0 million \| 23.1 million \| $26,000 \| 20.5 million \| 22.0 million \| 24.2 million \| Now, imagine that the price of steel, an important ingredient in manufacturing cars, rises; this would cause production of a car to become more expensive. At any given price for selling cars, car manufacturers will react by supplying a lower quantity. We can show this graphically as a leftward shift of supply (refer back to Figure 1.3.5a), from S0 to S1, which indicates that at any given price, the quantity supplied decreases. In this example, at a price of $20,000, the quantity supplied decreases from 18 million on the original supply curve (S0) to 16.5 million on the supply curve S1, which is labeled as point L. Conversely, if the price of steel decreases, producing a car becomes less expensive. At any given price for selling cars, car manufacturers can now expect to earn higher profits, so they will supply a higher quantity. The shift of supply to the right, from S0 to S2, means that at all prices, the quantity supplied has increased. In this example (refer back to Figure 1.3.5a), at a price of $20,000, the quantity supplied increases from 18 million on the original supply curve (S0) to 19.8 million on the supply curve S2, which is labeled M. Other Factors That Affect Supply In the example above, we saw that changes in the prices of inputs in the production process will affect the cost of production and thus the supply. Several other things affect the cost of production, too, such as changes in weather or other natural conditions, new technologies for production, and some government policies. Changes in Weather Changes in weather and climate will affect the cost of production for many agricultural products. For example, in 2014 the Manchurian Plain in Northeastern China, which produces most of the country's wheat, corn, and soybeans, experienced its most severe drought in 50 years. A drought decreases the supply of agricultural products, which means that at any given price, a lower quantity will be supplied. Conversely, especially good weather would shift the supply curve to the right. New Technologies The supply curve will shift to the right when a firm discovers a new technology that allows the firm to produce at a lower cost. For instance, in the 1960s a major scientific effort nicknamed the Green Revolution focused on breeding improved seeds for basic crops like wheat and rice. By the early 1990s, more than two-thirds of the wheat and rice in low-income countries around the world used these Green Revolution seeds—and the harvest was twice as high per acre. A technological improvement that reduces costs of production will shift supply to the right, so that a greater quantity will be produced at any given price. Government Policies Government policies can affect the cost of production and the supply curve through taxes, regulations, and subsidies. For example, the U.S. government imposes a tax on alcoholic beverages that collects about $8 billion per year from producers. Businesses treat taxes as costs. Higher costs decrease supply for the reasons we discussed above. Other examples of policy that can affect cost are the wide array of government regulations that require firms to spend money to provide a cleaner environment or a safer workplace. Complying with regulations increases costs. From the firm’s perspective, taxes or regulations are an additional cost of production that shifts supply to the left, leading the firm to produce a lower quantity at every given price. A government subsidy, on the other hand, is the opposite of a tax. A subsidy occurs when the government directly pays a firm or reduces the firm’s taxes if the firm carries out certain actions. Government subsidies reduce the cost of production and increase supply at every given price, shifting supply to the right. Shift in Supply We know that a supply curve shows the minimum price a firm will accept to produce a given quantity of output. What happens to the supply curve when the cost of production goes up? The following example that uses supply of pizza is presented with steps taken to compose the graph so that you may learn how to create a demand curve. Step 1. Draw a graph of a supply curve for pizza. Pick a quantity (like Q0). If you draw a vertical line up from Q0 to the supply curve, you will see the price the firm chooses. Figure 1.3.5b provides an example. Step 2. Why did the firm choose that price and not some other? One way to think about this is that the price is composed of two parts. The first part is the cost of producing pizzas at the margin: the cost of producing the pizza, including cost of ingredients (e.g., dough, sauce, cheese, and pepperoni), the cost of the pizza oven, the shop rent, and the workers' wages. The second part is the firm’s desired profit, which is determined, among other factors, by the profit margins in that particular business. If you add these two parts together, you get the price the firm wishes to charge. The quantity Q0 and associated price P0 give you one point on the firm’s supply curve, as Figure 1.3.5c illustrates. Step 3. Now, suppose that the cost of production increases. Because the cost of production and the desired profit equal the price a firm will set for a product, if the cost of production increases, the price for the product will also need to increase. Perhaps cheese has become more expensive by $0.75 per pizza. If that is true, the firm will want to raise its price by the amount of the increase in cost ($0.75). Draw this point on the supply curve directly above the initial point on the curve, but $0.75 higher, as Figure 1.3.5d shows. Step 4. Shift the supply curve through this point. When the cost of production increases, the supply curve shifts upwardly to a new price level. You will see that an increase in cost causes an upward (or a leftward) shift of the supply curve, so that at any price the quantities supplied will be smaller, as Figure 1.3.5e illustrates. Summing Up Factors That Change Supply Changes in the cost of inputs, natural disasters, new technologies, and the impact of government decisions all affect the cost of production. In turn, these factors affect how much firms are willing to supply at any given price. Figure 1.3.5f summarizes factors that change the supply of goods and services. Notice that a change in the price of the product itself is not among the factors that shift the supply curve. Although a change in price of a good or service typically causes a change in quantity supplied or a movement along the supply curve for that specific good or service, it does not cause the supply curve itself to shift. Because demand and supply curves appear on a two-dimensional diagram with only price and quantity on the axes, an unwary visitor to the land of economics might be fooled into believing that economics is about only four topics: demand, supply, price, and quantity. However, demand and supply are really “umbrella” concepts: demand covers all the factors that affect demand, and supply covers all the factors that affect supply. We include factors other than price that affect demand and supply by using shifts in the demand or the supply curve. In this way, the two-dimensional demand and supply model becomes a powerful tool for analyzing a wide range of economic circumstances. Attributions "Principles of Microeconomics for AP® Courses 2e" by Steven A. Greenlaw, David Shapiro, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-microeconomics-ap-courses-2e/pages/3-2-shifts-in-demand-and-supply-for-goods-and-services Elasticity Learning Objectives 5m Comprehend and apply elasticity; be able to calculate and interpret elasticity coefficients for price, cross-price, income, elastic ties of demand, and price elasticity of supply. Price Elasticity Both the demand and supply curve show the relationship between price and the number of units demanded or supplied. Price elasticity is the ratio between the percentage change in the quantity demanded (Qd) or supplied (Qs) and the corresponding percent change in price. The price elasticity of demand is the percentage change in the quantity demanded of a good or service divided by the percentage change in the price. The price elasticity of supply is the percentage change in quantity supplied divided by the percentage change in price. We can usefully divide elasticities into three broad categories: elastic, inelastic, and unitary (see Table 1.3.6a). An elastic demand or elastic supply is one in which the elasticity is greater than one, indicating a high responsiveness to changes in price. Elasticities that are less than one indicate low responsiveness to price changes and correspond to inelastic demand or inelastic supply. Unitary elasticities indicate proportional responsiveness of either demand or supply. Because price and quantity demanded move in opposite directions, price elasticity of demand is always a negative number. Therefore, price elasticity of demand is usually reported as its absolute value, without a negative sign. The summary in Table 1.3.6a is assuming absolute values for price elasticity of demand. \| If... \| Then... \| And It Is Called... \| \|---\|---\|---\| \| % change in quantity > % change in price \| Elastic \| \| \| % change in quantity = % change in price \| Unitary \| \| \| % change in quantity < % change in price \| Inelastic \| To calculate elasticity along a demand or supply curve economists use the average percent change in both quantity and price. This is called the Midpoint Method for Elasticity, and is represented in the following equations: The advantage of the Midpoint Method is that one obtains the same elasticity between two price points whether there is a price increase or decrease. This is because the formula uses the same base (average quantity and average price) for both cases. Calculating Price Elasticity of Demand We calculate the price elasticity of demand as the percentage change in quantity divided by the percentage change in price. Let’s calculate the elasticity between points A and B and between points G and H, as Figure 1.3.6a shows. First, apply the formula to calculate the elasticity as price decreases from $70 at point B to $60 at point A: Therefore, the elasticity of demand between these two points is which is 0.45, an amount smaller than one, showing that the demand is inelastic in this interval. Price elasticities of demand are always negative since price and quantity demanded always move in opposite directions (on the demand curve). By convention, we always talk about elasticities as positive numbers. Mathematically, we take the absolute value of the result. Remember to interpret elasticities as positive numbers. This means that, along the demand curve between point B and A, if the price changes by 1%, the quantity demanded will change by 0.45%. A change in the price will result in a smaller percentage change in the quantity demanded. For example, a 10% increase in the price will result in only a 4.5% decrease in quantity demanded. A 10% decrease in the price will result in only a 4.5% increase in the quantity demanded. Price elasticities of demand are negative numbers indicating that the demand curve is downward sloping, but we read them as absolute values. Finding the Price Elasticity of Demand Calculate the price elasticity of demand using the data in Figure 1.3.6a for an increase in price from G to H. Has the elasticity increased or decreased? Step 1. We know that: Step 2. From the Midpoint Formula we know that: Step 3. So we can use the values provided in the figure in each equation: Step 4. Then, we can use those values to determine the price elasticity of demand: Therefore, the elasticity of demand from G to is H 1.47. The magnitude of the elasticity has increased (in absolute value) as we moved up along the demand curve from points A to B. Recall that the elasticity between these two points was 0.45. Demand was inelastic between points A and B and elastic between points G and H. This shows us that price elasticity of demand changes at different points along a straight-line demand curve. Calculating the Price Elasticity of Supply Assume that an apartment rents for $650 per month and at that price the landlord rents 10,000 units are rented as Figure 1.3.6b shows. When the price increases to $700 per month, the landlord supplies 13,000 units into the market. By what percentage does apartment supply increase? What is the price sensitivity? We calculate the price elasticity of supply as the percentage change in quantity divided by the percentage change in price. Using the Midpoint Method, Again, as with the elasticity of demand, the elasticity of supply is not followed by any units. Elasticity is a ratio of one percentage change to another percentage change—nothing more—and we read it as an absolute value. In this case, a 1% rise in price causes an increase in quantity supplied of 3.5%. The greater than one elasticity of supply means that the percentage change in quantity supplied will be greater than a one percent price change. Is the elasticity the slope? It is a common mistake to confuse the slope of either the supply or demand curve with its elasticity. The slope is the rate of change in units along the curve, or the rise/run (change in y over the change in x). For example, in Figure 1.3.6a, at each point shown on the demand curve, price drops by $10 and the number of units demanded increases by 200 compared to the point to its left. The slope is –10/200 along the entire demand curve and does not change. The price elasticity, however, changes along the curve. Elasticity between points A and B was 0.45 and increased to 1.47 between points G and H. Elasticity is the percentage change, which is a different calculation from the slope and has a different meaning. When we are at the upper end of a demand curve, where price is high and the quantity demanded is low, a small change in the quantity demanded, even in, say, one unit, is pretty big in percentage terms. A change in price of, say, a dollar, is going to be much less important in percentage terms than it would have been at the bottom of the demand curve. Likewise, at the bottom of the demand curve, that one unit change when the quantity demanded is high will be small as a percentage. Thus, at one end of the demand curve, where we have a large percentage change in quantity demanded over a small percentage change in price, the elasticity value would be high, or demand would be relatively elastic. Even with the same change in the price and the same change in the quantity demanded, at the other end of the demand curve the quantity is much higher, and the price is much lower, so the percentage change in quantity demanded is smaller and the percentage change in price is much higher. That means at the bottom of the curve we'd have a small numerator over a large denominator, so the elasticity measure would be much lower, or inelastic. As we move along the demand curve, the values for quantity and price go up or down, depending on which way we are moving, so the percentages for, say, a $1 difference in price or a one-unit difference in quantity, will change as well, which means the ratios of those percentages and hence the elasticity will change. Attributions "Principles of Microeconomics for AP® Courses 2e" by Steven A. Greenlaw, David Shapiro, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-microeconomics-ap-courses-2e/pages/5-1-price-elasticity-of-demand-and-price-elasticity-of-supply Perfect Elasticity and Perfect Inelasticity Learning Objectives 5m Comprehend and apply elasticity; be able to calculate and interpret elasticity coefficients for price, cross-price, income, elastic ties of demand, and price elasticity of supply. Elasticity Extremes There are three extreme cases of elasticity. The more usual extreme cases happen when elasticity equals zero or when it is infinite. A third case is that of constant unitary elasticity. Infinite elasticity or perfect elasticity refers to the extreme case where either the quantity demanded (Qd) or supplied (Qs) changes by an infinite amount in response to any change in price at all. In both cases, the supply and the demand curve are horizontal as Figure 1.3.7a shows. While perfectly elastic supply curves are for the most part unrealistic, goods with readily available inputs and whose production can easily expand will feature highly elastic supply curves. Examples include pizza, bread, books, and pencils. Similarly, perfectly elastic demand is an extreme example. However, luxury goods, items that take a large share of individuals’ income, and goods with many substitutes are likely to have highly elastic demand curves. Examples of such goods are Caribbean cruises and sports vehicles. Zero elasticity or perfect inelasticity, as Figure 1.3.7b depicts, refers to the extreme case in which a percentage change in price, no matter how large, results in zero change in quantity. While a perfectly inelastic supply is an extreme example, goods with limited supply of inputs are likely to feature highly inelastic supply curves; examples include diamond rings or housing in prime locations such as apartments facing Central Park in New York City. Similarly, while perfectly inelastic demand is an extreme case, necessities with no close substitutes are likely to have highly inelastic demand curves; this is the case of life-saving drugs and gasoline. Constant unitary elasticity, in either a supply or demand curve, occurs when a price change of one percent results in a quantity change of one percent. Figure 1.3.7bc shows a demand curve with constant unit elasticity. Using the midpoint method, you can calculate that between points A and B on the demand curve, the price changes by 66.7% and quantity demanded also changes by 66.7%. Hence, the elasticity equals 1. Between points B and C, price again changes by 66.7% as does quantity, while between points C and D the corresponding percentage changes are again 66.7% for both price and quantity. In each case, then, the percentage change in price equals the percentage change in quantity, and consequently elasticity equals 1. Notice that in absolute value, the declines in price, as you step down the demand curve, are not identical. Instead, the price falls by $8.00 from A to B, by a smaller amount of $4.00 from B to C, and by a still smaller amount of $2.00 from C to D. As a result, a demand curve with constant unitary elasticity moves from a steeper slope on the left and a flatter slope on the right—and a curved shape overall. Unlike the demand curve with unitary elasticity, the supply curve with unitary elasticity is represented by a straight line, and that line goes through the origin. In each pair of points on the supply curve there is an equal difference in quantity of 30. However, in percentage value, using the midpoint method, the steps are decreasing as one moves from left to right, from 28.6% to 22.2% to 18.2%, because the quantity points in each percentage calculation are getting increasingly larger, which expands the denominator in the elasticity calculation of the percentage change in quantity. Consider the price changes moving up the supply curve in Figure 1.3.7d. From points D to E to F and to G on the supply curve, each step of $1.50 is the same in absolute value. However, if we measure the price changes in percentage change terms, using the midpoint method, they are also decreasing, from 28.6% to 22.2% to 18.2%, because the original price points in each percentage calculation are getting increasingly larger in value, increasing the denominator in the calculation of the percentage change in price. Along the constant unitary elasticity supply curve, the percentage quantity increases on the horizontal axis exactly match the percentage price increases on the vertical axis—so this supply curve has a constant unitary elasticity at all points. Attributions "Principles of Microeconomics for AP® Courses 2e" by Steven A. Greenlaw, David Shapiro, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-microeconomics-ap-courses-2e/pages/5-2-polar-cases-of-elasticity-and-constant-elasticity Demand and Consumers Learning Objectives 5g Explain scarcity, types of resources, and desires of producers and consumers. 5k Discuss the role of the consumers and demand. 5l Comprehend and apply concepts of utility, satisfaction, and indifference curves. 5n Understand and be able to explain the law demand, law of diminishing returns, and supply and demand principles. Consumer Choices Information on the consumption choices of Americans is available from the Consumer Expenditure Survey carried out by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Table 1.3.8a shows spending patterns for the average U.S. household in 2015. The first row shows income; after taxes and personal savings are subtracted, it shows that the average U.S. household spent $48,109 on consumption. The table then breaks down consumption into various categories. The average U.S. household spent roughly one-third of its consumption on shelter and other housing expenses, another one-third on food and vehicle expenses, and the rest on a variety of items, as shown. These patterns will vary for specific households by differing levels of family income, by geography, and by preferences. Average Household Income before Taxes \| $62,481 \| Average Annual Expenditures \| $48.109 \| Food at home \| $3,264 \| Food away from home \| $2,505 \| Housing \| $16,557 \| Apparel and services \| $1,700 \| Transportation \| $7,677 \| Healthcare \| $3,157 \| Entertainment \| $2,504 \| Education \| $1,074 \| Personal insurance and pensions \| $5,357 \| All else: alcohol, tobacco, reading, personal care, cash contributions, miscellaneous \| $3,356 \| Total Utility and Diminishing Marginal Utility To understand how a household will make its choices, economists look at what consumers can afford, as shown in a budget constraint (or budget line), and the total utility (or satisfaction) derived from those choices. In a budget constraint line, the quantity of one good is on the horizontal axis and the quantity of the other good on the vertical axis. The budget constraint line shows the various combinations of two goods that are affordable given consumer income. Consider José's situation, shown in Figure 1.3.8a. José wishes to choose the combination that will provide him with the greatest utility, which is the term economists use to describe a person’s level of satisfaction or happiness with individual choices. In Figure 1.3.8a we show the quantity of T-shirts on the horizontal axis while we show the quantity of movies on the vertical axis. If José had unlimited income or goods were free, then he could consume without limit. However, José, like all of us, faces a budget constraint. José has a total of $56 to spend. The price of T-shirts is $14 and the price of movies is $7. Notice that the vertical intercept of the budget constraint line is at eight movies and zero T-shirts ($56/$7=8). The horizontal intercept of the budget constraint is four, where José spends of all of his money on T-shirts and no movies ($56/14=4). The slope of the budget constraint line is rise/run or –8/4=–2. The specific choices along the budget constraint line show the combinations of affordable T-shirts and movies. Let’s begin with an assumption that José can measure his own utility with something called utils. It is important to note that you cannot make comparisons between the utils of individuals. If one person gets 20 utils from a cup of coffee and another gets 10 utils, this does not mean that the first person gets more enjoyment from the coffee than the other or that they enjoy the coffee twice as much. The reason why is that utils are subjective to an individual. The way one person measures utils is not the same as the way someone else does. Table 1.3.8b shows how José’s utility is connected with his T-shirt or movie consumption. The first column of the table shows the quantity of T-shirts consumed. The second column shows the total utility, or total amount of satisfaction, that José receives from consuming that number of T-shirts. The most common pattern of total utility, in this example, is that consuming additional goods leads to greater total utility, but at a decreasing rate. The third column shows marginal utility, which is the additional utility provided by one additional unit of consumption. The equation for marginal utility is: Notice that marginal utility diminishes as additional units are consumed, which means that each subsequent unit of a good consumed provides less additional utility. For example, the first T-shirt José picks is his favorite and it gives him an addition of 22 utils. The fourth T-shirt is just something to wear when all his other clothes are in the wash and yields only 18 additional utils. This is an example of the law of diminishing marginal utility, which holds that the additional utility decreases with each unit added. Diminishing marginal utility is another example of the more general law of diminishing returns we learned earlier in the section on scarcity. T-Shirts (Quantity) \| Total Utility \| Marginal Utility \| Movies (Quantity) \| Total Utility \| Marginal Utility \| 1 \| 22 \| 22 \| 1 \| 16 \| 16 \| 2 \| 43 \| 21 \| 2 \| 31 \| 15 \| 3 \| 63 \| 20 \| 3 \| 45 \| 14 \| 4 \| 81 \| 18 \| 4 \| 58 \| 13 \| 5 \| 97 \| 16 \| 5 \| 70 \| 12 \| 6 \| 111 \| 14 \| 6 \| 81 \| 11 \| 7 \| 123 \| 12 \| 7 \| 91 \| 10 \| 8 \| 133 \| 10 \| 8 \| 100 \| 9 \| The rest of Table 1.3.8b shows the quantity of movies that José attends, and his total and marginal utility from seeing each movie. Total utility follows the expected pattern: it increases as the number of movies that José watches rises. Marginal utility also follows the expected pattern: each additional movie brings a smaller gain in utility than the previous one. The first movie José attends is the one he wanted to see the most, and thus provides him with the highest level of utility or satisfaction. The fifth movie he attends is just to kill time. Notice that total utility is also the sum of the marginal utilities. Table 1.3.8c looks at each point on the budget constraint in Figure 1.3.8a, and it reveals José’s total utility for five possible combinations of T-shirts and movies. Point \| T-Shirts \| Movies \| Total Utility \| P \| 4 \| 0 \| 81 + 0 = 81 \| Q \| 3 \| 2 \| 63 + 31 = 94 \| R \| 2 \| 4 \| 43 + 58 = 101 \| S \| 1 \| 6 \| 22 + 81 = 103 \| T \| 0 \| 8 \| 0 + 100 = 100 \| Calculating Total Utility To aid your understanding of how these totals were derived, the following section was laid out in steps that can be taken when calculating utils. Let’s look at how José makes his decision in more detail. Step 1. Observe that, at point Q (for example), José consumes three T-shirts and two movies. Step 2. Look at Table 1.3.8b. You can see from the fourth row/second column that three T-shirts are worth 63 utils. Similarly, the second row/fifth column shows that two movies are worth 31 utils. Step 3. From this information, you can calculate that point Q has a total utility of 94 (63 + 31). Step 4. You can repeat the same calculations for each point on Table 1.3.8c, in which the total utility numbers are shown in the last column. Notice that, for José, the highest total utility for all possible combinations of goods occurs at point S, with a total utility of 103 from consuming one T-shirt and six movies. (And remember that this may not be true for another individual.) Choosing with Marginal Utility Most people approach their utility-maximizing combination of choices in a step-by-step way. This approach is based on looking at the tradeoffs, measured in terms of marginal utility, of consuming less of one good and more of another. For example, say that José starts off thinking about spending all his money on T-shirts and choosing point P, which corresponds to four T-shirts and no movies, as Figure 1.3.8a illustrates. José chooses this starting point randomly as he has to start somewhere. Then he considers giving up the last T-shirt, the one that provides him the least marginal utility, and using the money he saves to buy two movies instead. Table 1.3.8d tracks the step-by-step series of decisions José needs to make in order to find his utility-maximizing combination of choices (Key: T-shirts are $14, movies are $7, and income is $56). Try \| Which Has \| Total Utility \| Marginal Gain and Loss of Utility, Compared with Previous Choice \| Conclusion \| Choice 1: P \| 4 T-shirts + 0 movies \| 81 from 4 T-shirts + 0 from 0 movies = 81 \| – \| – \| Choice 2: Q \| 3 T-shirts + 2 movies \| 63 from 3 T-shirts + 31 from 0 movies = 94 \| Loss of 18 from 1 less T-shirt, but gain of 31 from 2 more movies, for a net utility gain of 13 \| Q is preferred over P \| Choice 3: R \| 2 T-shirts + 4 movies \| 43 from 2 T-shirts + 58 from 4 movies = 101 \| Loss of 20 from 1 less T-shirt, but gain of 27 from two more movies for a net utility gain of 7 \| R is preferred over Q \| Choice 4: S \| 1 T-shirt + 6 movies \| 22 from 1 T-shirt + 81 from 6 movies = 103 \| Loss of 21 from 1 less T-shirt, but gain of 23 from two more movies, for a net utility gain of 2 \| S is preferred over R \| Choice 5: T \| 0 T-shirts + 8 movies \| 0 from 0 T-shirts + 100 from 8 movies = 100 \| Loss of 22 from 1 less T-shirt, but gain of 19 from two more movies, for a net utility loss of 3 \| S is preferred over T \| Decision Making by Comparing Marginal Utility In order to give you a clear picture of how marginal utility is compared, the following provides steps for calculation. Think of it this way, José could use the following thought process (if he thought in utils) to make his decision regarding how many T-shirts and movies to purchase: Step 1. From Table 1.3.8b, José can see that the marginal utility of the fourth T-shirt is 18. If José gives up the fourth T-shirt, then he loses 18 utils. Step 2. He figures that foregoing the fourth T-shirt frees up $14 (the price of a T-shirt) for the purchase of the first two movies (at $7 each). Step 3. José knows that the marginal utility of the first movie is 16 and the marginal utility of the second movie is 15. Thus, if José moves from point P to point Q, he gives up 18 utils from T-shirt purchase, but gains 31 utils from the movie purchase. Step 4. Gaining 31 utils and losing 18 utils is a net gain of 13. This is just another way of saying that the total utility at Q (94 according to Choice Q in Table 1.3.8d) is 13 more than the total utility at P (81). Step 5. Thus, for José, it makes sense to give up the fourth T-shirt in order to buy two movies. José clearly prefers point Q to point P. Now repeat this step-by-step process of decision making with marginal utilities. José thinks about giving up the third T-shirt and surrendering a marginal utility of 20, in exchange for purchasing two more movies that promise a combined marginal utility of 27. José prefers point R to point Q. What if José thinks about going beyond R to point S? Giving up the second T-shirt means a marginal utility loss of 21, and the marginal utility gain from the fifth and sixth movies would combine to make a marginal utility gain of 23, so José prefers point S to R. However, if José seeks to go beyond point S to point T, he finds that the loss of marginal utility from giving up the first T-shirt is 22, while the marginal utility gain from the last two movies is only a total of 19. If José were to choose point T, his utility would fall to 100. Through these stages of thinking about marginal tradeoffs, José again concludes that S, with one T-shirt and six movies, is the choice that will provide him with the highest level of total utility. This step-by-step approach will reach the same conclusion regardless of José’s starting point. A more systematic way of using this approach is accomplished by focusing on satisfaction per dollar. If an item costing $5 yields 10 utils, then it’s worth 2 utils per dollar spent. Marginal utility per dollar is the amount of additional utility José receives divided by the product's price. If José wants to maximize the utility he gets from his limited budget, he will always purchase the item with the greatest marginal utility per dollar of expenditure (assuming he can afford it with his remaining budget). Table 1.3.8e shows the marginal utility per dollar for José's T shirts and movies. Quantity of T-Shirts \| Total Utility \| Marginal Utility \| Marginal Utility per Dollar \| Quantity of Movies \| Total Utility \| Marginal Utility \| Marginal Utility per Dollar \| 1 \| 22 \| 22 \| 22/$14=1.6 \| 1 \| 16 \| 16 \| 16/$7=2.3 \| 2 \| 43 \| 21 \| 21/$14=1.5 \| 2 \| 31 \| 15 \| 15/$7=2.14 \| 3 \| 63 \| 20 \| 20/$14=1.4 \| 3 \| 45 \| 14 \| 14/$7=2 \| 4 \| 81 \| 18 \| 18/$14=1.3 \| 4 \| 58 \| 13 \| 13/$7=1.9 \| 5 \| 97 \| 16 \| 16/$14=1.1 \| 5 \| 70 \| 12 \| 12/$7=1.7 \| 6 \| 111 \| 14 \| 14/$14=1 \| 6 \| 81 \| 11 \| 11/$7=1.6 \| 7 \| 123 \| 12 \| 12/$14=1.2 \| 7 \| 91 \| 10 \| 10/$7=1.4 \| From Table 1.3.8e, we notice that José starts with no purchases. If he purchases a T-shirt, the marginal utility per dollar spent will be 1.6. If he purchases a movie, the marginal utility per dollar spent will be 2.3. Therefore, José’s first purchase will be the movie. Why? Because it gives him the highest marginal utility per dollar and is affordable. Next, José will purchase another movie. Why? Because the marginal utility of the next movie (2.14) is greater than the marginal utility of the next T-shirt (1.6). Note that when José has no T- shirts, the next one is the first one. José will continue to purchase the next good with the highest marginal utility per dollar until he exhausts his budget. He will continue purchasing movies because they give him a greater “bang for the buck” until the sixth movie which gives the same marginal utility per dollar as the first T-shirt purchase. José has just enough budget to purchase both. This results in José purchasing six movies and one T-shirt. A Rule for Maximizing Utility This process of decision making suggests a rule to follow when maximizing utility. Since the price of T-shirts is twice as high as the price of movies, to maximize utility the last T-shirt that José chose needs to provide exactly twice the marginal utility (MU) of the last movie. If the last T-shirt provides less than twice the marginal utility of the last movie, then the T-shirt is providing less “bang for the buck” (i.e., marginal utility per dollar spent) than José would receive from spending the same money on movies. If this is so, José should trade the T-shirt for more movies to increase his total utility. If the last T-shirt provides more than twice the marginal utility of the last movie, then the T-shirt is providing more “bang for the buck” or marginal utility per dollar, than if the money were spent on movies. As a result, José should buy more T-shirts. Notice that at José’s optimal choice of point S, the marginal utility from the first T-shirt, of 22 is exactly twice the marginal utility of the sixth movie, which is 11. At this choice, the marginal utility per dollar is the same for both goods. This is a tell-tale signal that José has found the point with highest total utility. We can write this argument as a general rule: If you always choose the item with the greatest marginal utility per dollar spent, when your budget is exhausted, the utility maximizing choice should occur where the marginal utility per dollar spent is the same for both goods. A sensible economizer will pay twice as much for something only if, in the marginal comparison, the item confers twice as much utility. Notice that the formula for the table above is: Maximizing Utility The general rule, , means that the last dollar spent on each good provides exactly the same marginal utility. In short, the general rule shows us the utility-maximizing choice, which is called the consumer equilibrium. If José traded a dollar more of movies for a dollar more of T-shirts, the marginal utility gained from T-shirts would exactly offset the marginal utility lost from fewer movies. In other words, the net gain would be zero. Products, however, usually cost more than a dollar, so José cannot trade a dollar’s worth of movies. The best he can do is trade two movies for another T-shirt, since in this example T-shirts cost twice what a movie does. If he trades two movies for one T-shirt, he would end up at point R (two T-shirts and four movies). Choice 4 in Table 1.3.8e shows that if he moves to point R, he would gain 21 utils from one more T-shirt, but lose 23 utils from two fewer movies, so he would end up with less total utility at point R. There is another equivalent way to think about this. We can also express the general rule as the ratio of the prices of the two goods should be equal to the ratio of the marginal utilities. When we divide the price of good 1 by the price of good 2, at the utility-maximizing point this will equal the marginal utility of good 1 divided by the marginal utility of good 2. Along the budget constraint, the total price of the two goods remains the same, so the ratio of the prices does not change. However, the marginal utility of the two goods changes with the quantities consumed. At the optimal choice of one T-shirt and six movies, point S, the ratio of marginal utility to price for T-shirts (22:14) matches the ratio of marginal utility to price for movies (of 11:7). Measuring Utility with Numbers This discussion of utility began with an assumption that it is possible to place numerical values on utility, an assumption that may seem questionable. You can buy a thermometer for measuring temperature at the hardware store, but what store sells a “utilimometer” for measuring utility? While measuring utility with numbers is a convenient assumption to clarify the explanation, the key assumption is not that an outside party can measure utility but only that individuals can decide which of two alternatives they prefer. To understand this point, think back to the step-by-step process of finding the choice with highest total utility by comparing the marginal utility you gain and lose from different choices along the budget constraint. As José compares each choice along his budget constraint to the previous choice, what matters is not the specific numbers that he places on his utility—or whether he uses any numbers at all—but only that he personally can identify which choices he prefers. In this way, the step-by-step process of choosing the highest level of utility resembles rather closely how many people make consumption decisions. We think about what will make us the happiest. We think about what things cost. We think about buying a little more of one item and giving up a little of something else. We choose what provides us with the greatest level of satisfaction. The vocabulary of comparing the points along a budget constraint and total and marginal utility is just a set of tools for discussing this everyday process in a clear and specific manner. It is welcome news that specific utility numbers are not central to the argument, since a good utilimometer is hard to find. Do not worry—while we cannot easily measure utils, by the end of the next module, we will have transformed our analysis into something we can easily measure: demand. Attributions "Principles of Microeconomics for AP® Courses 2e" by Steven A. Greenlaw, David Shapiro, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-microeconomics-ap-courses-2e/pages/6-1-consumption-choices Production Function, Inputs, and Marginal Product Learning Objectives 5f Discuss Different Types of Resources and Inputs. 5i Explain the production function relationship and give a working example of the production function. 5n Understand and be able to explain the law demand, law of diminishing returns, and supply and demand principles. Quantity and Cost of Product for Production We are going to explore the relationship between the quantity of output a firm produces, and the cost of producing that output. We previously discussed that the cost of the product depends on how many inputs are required to produce the product and what those inputs cost. Production is the process (or processes) a firm uses to transform inputs (i.e., labor, capital, raw materials) into outputs (i.e. the goods or services) the firm wishes to sell. Consider pizza making. The pizzaiolo (pizza maker) takes flour, water, and yeast to make dough. Similarly, the pizzaiolo may take tomatoes, spices, and water to make pizza sauce. The chef rolls out the dough, brushes on the pizza sauce, and adds cheese and other toppings. The pizzaiolo uses a peel—the shovel-like wooden tool—to put the pizza into the oven to cook. Once baked, the pizza goes into a box (if it’s for takeout) and the customer pays for the good. What are the inputs (or factors of production) in the production process for this pizza? We can answer this question by looking at the firm’s production function. Economists divide factors of production into several categories: Natural Resources (Land and Raw Materials): The ingredients for the pizza were once raw materials. These include flour, yeast, and water for the dough; the tomatoes, herbs, and water for the sauce; the cheese; and the toppings. Other natural resources involved in pizza-making are wood or gas for the oven heating process; materials to make the containers that ingredients were transported in; even the electricity that the establishment uses while making the pizza. Also, it should not be forgotten that resources were employed to grow the agricultural products used, such as wheat and tomatoes; this means even the land utilized to produce the agricultural products would be included here. Labor: When we talk about production, labor means human effort, both physical and mental. The pizzaiolo was the primary example of labor here. He, she, or they needs to be strong enough to roll out the dough and to insert and retrieve the pizza from the oven; they also need to know how to make the pizza, how long it cooks in the oven and a myriad of other aspects of pizza-making. The business may also have one or more people to work the counter, take orders, and receive payment. Capital: When economists uses the term capital, they do not mean financial capital (money); rather, they mean physical capital, such as the machines, equipment, and buildings that one uses to produce a good. In the case of pizza, the capital includes the peel, the oven, the building, and any other necessary equipment (for example, tables and chairs). Technology: Technology refers to the process or processes for producing the good. This does not include just any computers employed by the business. Think about how technology and technical knowledge is necessary for a pizza business. Someone has to possess the technical knowledge necessary for proper pizza making. Entrepreneurship: Production involves many decisions and much knowledge, even for something as simple as pizza. Who makes those decisions? Ultimately, it is the entrepreneur, the person who creates the business, whose idea it is to combine the inputs to produce the outputs. The cost of producing pizza (or any output) depends on the amount of labor capital, raw materials, and other inputs required and the price of each input to the entrepreneur. To better understand this information, let’s take a look at a production function. Production Function A production function is a mathematical expression or equation that explains the engineering relationship between inputs and outputs. The production function gives the answer to the question, how much output can the firm produce given different amounts of inputs? Production functions are specific to the product. Different products have different production functions. The amount of labor a farmer uses to produce a bushel of wheat is likely different than that required to produce an automobile. Firms in the same industry may have somewhat different production functions, since each firm may produce a little differently. One pizza restaurant may make its own dough and sauce, while another may buy those items pre-made. A sit-down pizza restaurant probably uses more labor (to handle table service) than a purely take-out restaurant. Inputs are fixed or variable. Fixed inputs are those that can’t easily be increased or decreased in a short period of time. In the pizza example, the building is a fixed input. Once the entrepreneur signs the lease, the building should be used until the lease expires. Fixed inputs define the firm’s maximum output capacity. This is analogous to the potential real GDP shown by society’s production possibilities curve, i.e. the maximum quantities of outputs a society can produce at a given time with its available resources. Variable inputs are those that can easily be increased or decreased in a short period of time. The pizzaiolo can order more ingredients with a phone call, so ingredients would be variable inputs. The owner could hire a new person to work the counter pretty quickly as well; therefore, human capital is considered a variable input. Economists often use a short-hand form for the production function, where L represents all the variable inputs, and K represents all the fixed inputs: Short Run and Long Run Production The long run is the period of time during which all factors are variable. Once the lease expires for the pizza restaurant, the shop owner can move to a larger or smaller place. The short run is the period of time during which at least some factors of production are fixed. During the period of the pizza restaurant lease, the pizza restaurant is operating in the short run, because it is limited to using the current building, which means the owner can’t choose a larger or smaller building. To better understand short run production, let’s consider the example of lumber production: cutting with a two-person crosscut saw to create the product of lumber. Since by definition capital is fixed in the short run, the following production function can be used: OR This equation simply indicates that since capital is fixed, the amount of output (e.g. trees cut down per day) depends mainly on the amount of labor employed (e.g. number of lumberjacks working). We can express this production function numerically as Table 1.3.9a below shows. Note that TP in Table 1.3.9a is referring to Total Product—the amount of output produced with a given amount of labor and a fixed amount of capital; and MP refers to Marginal Product—the additional output of one more worker. # Lumberjacks \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 \| # Trees (TP) \| 4 \| 10 \| 12 \| 13 \| 13 \| MP \| 4 \| 6 \| 2 \| 1 \| 0 \| In this example, one lumberjack using a two-person saw can cut down four trees in an hour. Two lumberjacks using a two-person saw can cut down ten trees in an hour. Marginal Product and Production Mathematically, Marginal Product is the change in total product divided by the change in labor: In Table 1.3.9a, since 0 workers produce 0 trees, the marginal product of the first worker is four trees per day, but the marginal product of the second worker is six trees per day. This happens because of the nature of the capital the workers are using. A two-person saw works much better with two people than with one. Suppose we add a third lumberjack to the story. What will that person’s marginal product be? What will that person contribute to the team? Think about it this way: if another person is added to the team the productivity of the two-person team could be more efficient because someone else could oil the tools, supply water, relieve someone for a break. It may be that as we add workers, the marginal product increases at first, but sooner or later additional workers will result in decreasing marginal product. In fact, there may eventually be no effect or a negative effect on output. This is called the Law of Diminishing Marginal Product and it’s a characteristic of production in the short run. Consider the difference between Total Product and Marginal Product when more lumberjacks are added, as shown in Figure 1.3.9c. Diminishing marginal productivity is very similar to the concept of diminishing marginal utility that we previously discussed. Both concepts are examples of the more general concept of diminishing marginal returns. Attributions "Principles of Microeconomics for AP® Courses 2e" by Steven A. Greenlaw, David Shapiro, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-microeconomics-ap-courses-2e/pages/7-2-production-in-the-short-run Price vs Cost Instructor Ideas: The vocabulary in this lesson of the textbook is very important for continued student success in this class. Instructor could facilitate a vocabulary game to help students review the terms. Students could compete individually or in teams. Learning Objectives 5j Accurately calculate price vs cost, total price, total cost, marginal price, and marginal cost. Total Cost We’ve explained that a firm’s total costs depend on the quantities of inputs the firm uses to produce its output and the cost of those inputs to the firm. The firm’s production function tells us how much output the firm will produce with the given amounts of inputs. However, if we think about that backwards, it tells us how many inputs the firm needs to produce a given quantity of output, which is the first thing we need to determine total cost. For every factor of production (or input), there is an associated factor payment. Factor payments are what the firm pays for the use of the factors of production. From the firm’s perspective, factor payments are costs. From the owner of each factor’s perspective, factor payments are income. Factor payments include: - raw materials prices for raw materials, - rent for land or buildings, - wages and salaries for labor, - interest and dividends for the use of financial capital (loans and equity investments), - and profit for entrepreneurship. (Profit is the residual, what’s left over from revenues after the firm pays all the other costs. While it may seem odd to treat profit as a “cost,” it is what entrepreneurs earn for taking the risk of starting a business.) A cost function is a mathematical expression or equation that shows the cost of producing different levels of output. What we observe in Table 1.3.10a is that the cost increases as the firm produces higher quantities of output. This is pretty intuitive, since producing more output requires greater quantities of inputs, which cost more dollars to acquire. Q \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| Cost \| $32.50 \| $44 \| $52 \| $90 \| The origin of these cost figures comes from the production function and the factor payments. In Table 1.3.10b we find that the number of Widgets produced increases when the number of workers increases. Workers (L) \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 3.25 \| 4.4 \| 5.2 \| 6 \| 7 \| 8 \| 9 \| Widgets (Q) \| 0.2 \| 0.4 \| 0.8 \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 3.5 \| 3.8 \| 3.95 \| 4 \| We can use the information from the production function to determine production costs. What we need to know is how many workers are required to produce any quantity of output. If we flip the order of the rows, we “invert” the production function so it shows . Widgets (Q) \| 0.2 \| 0.4 \| 0.8 \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 3.5 \| 3.8 \| 3.95 \| 4 \| Workers (L) \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 3.25 \| 4.4 \| 5.2 \| 6 \| 7 \| 8 \| 9 \| Obviously, the owner does not wish to produce a fraction of a Widget and must have the figures for whole Widget production. In Table 1.3.10d the numbers have been altered to determine whole Widget production. Widgets (Q) \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| Workers (L) \| 3.25 \| 4.4 \| 5.2 \| 9 \| Suppose widget workers receive $10 per hour. Multiplying the Workers row by $10 (and eliminating the blanks) gives us the cost of producing different levels of output. Table 1.3.10e reveals the extra step taken to calculate the totals used in Table 1.3.10a. Widgets (Q) \| 1.00 \| 2.00 \| 3.00 \| 4.00 \| Workers (L) \| 3.25 \| 4.4 \| 5.2 \| 9 \| × Wage Rate per hour \| $10 \| $10 \| $10 \| $10 \| = Cost \| $32.50 \| $44.00 \| $52.00 \| $90.00 \| Of course, wage per hour is not the only input necessary to create Widgets. Therefore, we must consider other factors that go into the cost of production. Average and Marginal Costs The cost of producing a firm’s output depends on how much labor and physical capital the firm uses. A list of the costs involved in producing cars will look very different from the costs involved in producing computer software or haircuts or fast-food meals. We can measure costs in a variety of ways. Each way provides its own insight into costs. Sometimes firms need to look at their cost per unit of output, not just their total cost. There are two ways to measure per unit costs. The most intuitive way is average cost—the cost on average of producing a given quantity. Average cost is the total cost divided by the quantity of output produced: . If producing two widgets costs a total of $44, the average cost per widget is per widget. The other way of measuring cost per unit is marginal cost. Marginal cost is the cost of each individual unit produced OR the cost of producing one more unit of output. Mathematically, marginal cost is the change in total cost divided by the change in output: . If the cost of the first widget is $32.50 and the cost of two widgets is $44, the marginal cost of the second widget is $44 - $32.50 = $11.50. In Table 1.3.10f we find the labor cost of producing each widget with average and marginal costs displayed. Note that the marginal cost of the first unit of output is always the same as the total cost. Q \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| Total Cost \| $32.50 \| $44.00 \| $52.00 \| $90.00 \| Average Cost \| $32.50 \| $22.00 \| $17.33 \| $22.50 \| Marginal Cost \| $32.50 \| $11.50 \| $8.00 \| $38.00 \| Fixed and Variable Costs We can break down costs into fixed and variable costs. Total costs are the sum of fixed plus variable costs. Fixed costs are the costs of the fixed inputs (e.g. capital). Because fixed inputs do not change in the short run, fixed costs are expenditures that do not change regardless of the level of production. Whether you produce a great deal or a little, the fixed costs are the same. One example is the rent on a factory or a retail space. Once you sign the lease, the rent is the same regardless of how much you produce, at least until the lease expires. Fixed costs can take many other forms: for example, the cost of machinery or equipment to produce the product, research and development costs to develop new products, even an expense like advertising to popularize a brand name. The amount of fixed costs varies according to the specific line of business: for instance, manufacturing computer chips requires an expensive factory, but a local moving and hauling business can get by with almost no fixed costs at all if it rents trucks by the day when needed. Variable costs are the costs of the variable inputs (e.g., labor). The only way to increase or decrease output is by increasing or decreasing the variable inputs. Therefore, variable costs increase or decrease with output. We treat labor as a variable cost, since producing a greater quantity of a good or service typically requires more workers or more work hours. Variable costs would also include raw materials. Let's consider a barber shop example, as shown in Table 1.3.10g. The fixed costs of operating the barber shop, including the space and equipment, are $160 per day. The variable costs are the costs of hiring barbers, which in our example is $80 per barber each day. The first two columns of the table show the quantity of haircuts the barbershop can produce as it hires additional barbers. The third column shows the fixed costs, which do not change regardless of the level of production. The fourth column shows the variable costs at each level of output. We calculate these by taking the amount of labor hired and multiplying by the wage. For example, two barbers cost 2 x $80 = $160. Adding together the fixed costs in the third column and the variable costs in the fourth column produces the total costs in the fifth column. For example, with two barbers the total cost is $160 + $160 = $320. Labor \| Quantity \| Fixed Cost \| Variable Cost \| Total Cost \| 1 \| 16 \| $160 \| $80 \| $240 \| 2 \| 40 \| $160 \| $160 \| $320 \| 3 \| 60 \| $160 \| $240 \| $400 \| 4 \| 72 \| $160 \| $320 \| $480 \| 5 \| 80 \| $160 \| $400 \| $560 \| 6 \| 84 \| $160 \| $480 \| $640 \| 7 \| 82 \| $160 \| $560 \| $720 \| At zero production, the fixed costs of $160 are still present. As production increases, we add variable costs to fixed costs, and the total cost is the sum of the two. Figure 1.3.10a graphically shows the relationship between the quantity of output produced and the cost of producing that output. We always show the fixed costs as the vertical intercept of the total cost curve; that is, they are the costs incurred when output is zero so there are no variable costs. You can see from the graph that once production starts, total costs and variable costs rise. While variable costs may initially increase at a decreasing rate, at some point they begin increasing at an increasing rate. This is caused by diminishing marginal productivity, which we discussed earlier as “Production in the Short Run.” As the number of barbers increases from zero to one in the table, output increases from 0 to 16 for a marginal gain (or marginal product) of 16. As the number rises from one to two barbers, output increases from 16 to 40, a marginal gain of 24. From that point on, though, the marginal product diminishes as we add each additional barber. For example, as the number of barbers rises from two to three, the marginal product is only 20; and as the number rises from three to four, the marginal product is only 12. To understand the reason behind this pattern, consider that a one-man barber shop is a very busy operation. The single barber needs to do everything: say hello to people entering, answer the phone, cut hair, sweep, and run the cash register. A second barber reduces the level of disruption from jumping back and forth between these tasks, and allows a greater division of labor and specialization. The result can be increasing marginal productivity. However, as the shop adds other barbers, the advantage of each additional barber is less, since the specialization of labor can only go so far. The addition of a sixth or seventh or eighth barber just to greet people at the door will have less impact than the second one did. This is the pattern of diminishing marginal productivity. As a result, the total costs of production will begin to rise more rapidly as output increases. At some point, you may even see negative returns as the additional barbers begin bumping elbows and getting in each other’s way. In this case, the addition of still more barbers would actually cause output to decrease, as the last row of Table 1.3.10g shows. This pattern of diminishing marginal productivity is common in production. As another example, consider the problem of irrigating a crop on a farmer’s field. The plot of land is the fixed factor of production, while the water that the farmer can add to the land is the key variable cost. As the farmer adds water to the land, output increases. However, adding increasingly more water brings smaller increases in output, until at some point the water floods the field and actually reduces output. Diminishing marginal productivity occurs because, with fixed inputs (land in this example), each additional unit of input (e.g. water) contributes less to overall production. Average Total Cost, Average Variable Cost, Marginal Cost The breakdown of total costs into fixed and variable costs can provide a basis for other insights as well. The first five columns of Table 1.3.10h duplicate the previous table, but the last three columns show average total costs, average variable costs, and marginal costs. Labor \| Quantity \| Fixed Cost \| Variable Cost \| Total Cost \| Marginal Cost \| Average Total Cost \| Average Variable Cost \| 1 \| 16 \| $160 \| $80 \| $240 \| $15.00 \| $15.00 \| $5.00 \| 2 \| 40 \| $160 \| $160 \| $320 \| $3.33 \| $8.00 \| $4.00 \| 3 \| 60 \| $160 \| $240 \| $400 \| $4.00 \| $6.67 \| $4.00 \| 4 \| 72 \| $160 \| $320 \| $480 \| $6.67 \| $6.67 \| $4.44 \| 5 \| 80 \| $160 \| $400 \| $560 \| $10.00 \| $7.00 \| $5.00 \| 6 \| 84 \| $160 \| $480 \| $640 \| $20.00 \| $7.62 \| $5.71 \| These new measures—average total costs, average variable costs, and marginal costs—help us to analyze costs on a per-unit (rather than a total) basis and are reflected in the curves in Figure 1.3.10b. We can also present the information on total costs, fixed cost, and variable cost on a per-unit basis. We calculate average total cost (ATC) by dividing total cost by the total quantity produced. The average total cost curve is typically U-shaped. We calculate average variable cost (AVC) by dividing variable cost by the quantity produced. The average variable cost curve lies below the average total cost curve and is also typically U-shaped. We calculate marginal cost (MC) by taking the change in total cost between two levels of output and dividing by the change in output. The marginal cost curve is upward-sloping. Average total cost (sometimes referred to simply as average cost) is total cost divided by the quantity of output. Since the total cost of producing 40 haircuts is $320, the average total cost for producing each of 40 haircuts is $320/40 = $8 per haircut. Average total cost starts off relatively high, because at low levels of output total costs are dominated by the fixed cost. Mathematically, the denominator is so small that average total cost is large. Average total cost then declines, as the fixed costs are spread over an increasing quantity of output. In the average cost calculation, the rise in the numerator of total costs is relatively small compared to the rise in the denominator of quantity produced. However, as output expands still further, the average cost begins to rise. Average cost curves are typically U-shaped, as Figure 1.3.10b shows. At the right side of the average cost curve, total costs begin rising more rapidly as diminishing returns come into effect. We obtain average variable cost when we divide variable cost by quantity of output. For example, the variable cost of producing 80 haircuts is $400, so the average variable cost is $400/80 = $5 per haircut. Note that at any level of output, the average variable cost curve will always lie below the curve for average total cost, as Figure 1.3.10b shows. The reason is that average total cost includes average variable cost and average fixed cost. Thus, for Q = 80 haircuts, the average total cost is $8 per haircut, while the average variable cost is $5 per haircut. However, as output grows, fixed costs become relatively less important (since they do not rise with output), so average variable cost sneaks closer to average cost. Average total and variable costs measure the average costs of producing some quantity of output. Marginal cost is somewhat different. Marginal cost is the additional cost of producing one more unit of output. It is not the cost per unit of all units produced, but only the next one (or next few). We calculate marginal cost by taking the change in total cost and dividing it by the change in quantity. For example, as quantity produced increases from 40 to 60 haircuts, total costs rise by 400 - 320 = 80. Thus, the marginal cost for each of those marginal 20 units will be 80/20 = $4 per haircut. The marginal cost curve is generally upward-sloping, because diminishing marginal returns implies that additional units are more costly to produce. In Figure 1.3.10b, we can see small range of increasing marginal returns in the figure as a dip in the marginal cost curve before it starts rising. Where do marginal and average costs meet? The marginal cost line intersects the average cost line exactly at the bottom of the average cost curve—which occurs at a quantity of 72 and cost of $6.60 in Figure 1.3.10b. The reason why the intersection occurs at this point is built into the economic meaning of marginal and average costs. If the marginal cost of production is below the average cost for producing previous units, as it is for the points to the left of where MC crosses ATC, then producing one more additional unit will reduce average costs overall—and the ATC curve will be downward-sloping in this zone. Conversely, if the marginal cost of production for producing an additional unit is above the average cost for producing the earlier units, as it is for points to the right of where MC crosses ATC, then producing a marginal unit will increase average costs overall—and the ATC curve must be upward-sloping in this zone. The point of transition, between where MC is pulling ATC down and where it is pulling it up, must occur at the minimum point of the ATC curve. This idea of the marginal cost “pulling down” the average cost or “pulling up” the average cost may sound abstract, but think about it in terms of your own grades. If the score on the most recent quiz you take is lower than your average score on previous quizzes, then the marginal quiz pulls down your average. If your score on the most recent quiz is higher than the average on previous quizzes, the marginal quiz pulls up your average. In this same way, low marginal costs of production first pull down average costs and then higher marginal costs pull them up. The numerical calculations behind average cost, average variable cost, and marginal cost will change from firm to firm. However, the general patterns of these curves, and the relationships and economic intuition behind them, will not change. Lessons from Alternative Measures of Costs Breaking down total costs into fixed cost, marginal cost, average total cost, and average variable cost is useful because each statistic offers its own insights for the firm. Whatever the firm’s quantity of production, total revenue must exceed total costs if it is to earn a profit. As we previously discussed, fixed costs are often sunk costs that a firm cannot recoup. In thinking about what to do next, typically you should ignore sunk costs, since you have already spent this money and cannot make any changes. However, you can change variable costs, so they convey information about the firm’s ability to cut costs in the present and the extent to which costs will increase if production rises. Why are total cost and average cost not on the same graph? Total cost, fixed cost, and variable cost each reflect different aspects of the cost of production over the entire quantity of output produced. We measure these costs in dollars. In contrast, marginal cost, average cost, and average variable cost are costs per unit. In the Barbershop example, we measured them as dollars per haircut. Thus, it would not make sense to put all of these numbers on the same graph, since we measure them in different units ($ versus $ per unit of output). It would be as if the vertical axis measured two different things. In addition, as a practical matter, if they were on the same graph, the lines for marginal cost, average cost, and average variable cost would appear almost flat against the horizontal axis, compared to the values for total cost, fixed cost, and variable cost. Using the figures from the previous example, the total cost of producing 40 haircuts is $320. However, the average cost is $320/40, or $8. If you graphed both total and average cost on the same axes, the average cost would hardly show. Average Profit Average cost tells a firm whether it can earn profits given the current price in the market. If we divide profit by the quantity of output produced, we get average profit—the firm’s profit margin. Expanding the equation for profit gives: However, note that: Thus: This is the firm’s profit margin. This definition implies that if the market price is above average cost, average profit and total profit will be positive. If the market price is below average cost, profits will be negative. We can compare this marginal cost of producing an additional unit with the marginal revenue gained by selling that additional unit to reveal whether the additional unit is adding to total profit—or not. Thus, marginal cost helps producers understand how increasing or decreasing production affects profits. A Variety of Cost Patterns The pattern of costs varies among industries and even among firms in the same industry. Some businesses have high fixed costs, but low marginal costs. Consider, for example, an internet company that provides medical advice to customers. Consumers might pay such a company directly, or perhaps hospitals or healthcare practices might subscribe on behalf of their patients. Setting up the website, collecting the information, writing the content, and buying or leasing the computer space to handle the web traffic are all fixed costs that the company must undertake before the site can work. However, when the website is up and running, it can provide a high quantity of service with relatively low variable costs, like the cost of monitoring the system and updating the information. In this case, the total cost curve might start at a high level, because of the high fixed costs, but then might appear close to flat, up to a large quantity of output, reflecting the low variable costs of operation. If the website is popular, however, a large rise in the number of visitors will overwhelm the website, and increasing output further could require a purchase of additional computer technology and/or the patrol for additional computer scientists. For other firms, fixed costs may be relatively low. For example, consider firms that rake leaves in the fall or shovel snow off sidewalks and driveways in the winter. For fixed costs, such firms may need little more than a car to transport workers to homes of customers and some rakes and shovels. Still other firms may find that diminishing marginal returns set in quite sharply. If a manufacturing plant tried to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, little time remains for routine equipment maintenance, and marginal costs can increase dramatically as the firm struggles to repair and replace overworked equipment. Every firm can gain insight into its task of earning profits by dividing its total costs into fixed and variable costs, and then using these calculations as a basis for average total cost, average variable cost, and marginal cost. However, making a final decision about the profit-maximizing quantity to produce and the price to charge will require combining these perspectives on cost with an analysis of sales and revenue, which in turn requires looking at the market structure in which the firm finds itself. Attributions "Principles of Microeconomics for AP® Courses 2e" by Steven A. Greenlaw, David Shapiro, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 https://openstax.org/books/principles-microeconomics-ap-courses-2e/pages/7-3-costs-in-the-short-run	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.433885	Anna McCollum	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100023/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit Introduction to Agriculture Business Collection, Agribusiness and Economic Concepts, Basic Economic Principles in Agribusiness", "author": "Textbook" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100030/overview	3.1.2 Raising Financial Capital in Business 3.1.3 Business Cycle 3.1.4 What is Trade 3.1.5 Measuring Trade between Nations 3.1.6 Barriers to Trade Financial Markets and Trade Overview Functions of Money Learning Objectives 10a Understand the functions of money. What is Money? Finance is about money. So, our first question is: What is money? If you happen to have one on you, take a look at a $5 bill. What you’ll see is a piece of paper with a picture of Abraham Lincoln on one side and the Lincoln Memorial on the other. Though this piece of paper—indeed, money itself—has no intrinsic value, it’s certainly in demand. Why? Because money serves three basic functions. Money is a: - medium of exchange; - measure of value; - and store of value. To get a better idea of the role of money in a modern economy, let’s imagine a system in which there is no money. In this system, goods and services are bartered—traded directly for one another. Now, if you’re living and trading under such a system, for each barter exchange that you make, you’ll have to have something that another trader wants. For example, say you’re a farmer who needs help clearing his fields. Because you have plenty of food, you might enter into a barter transaction with a laborer who has time to clear fields but not enough food: he’ll clear your fields in return for three square meals a day. This system will work as long as two people have exchangeable assets. However, the barter system can be inefficient. For instance, the person providing the labor for the field-clearing should ethically be paid more than what amounts to maybe $20 a day through the cost of meals. In fact, such labor—under currently emerging minimum wage guidelines—should ethically be no less than $120 per day. Money improves the exchange for all the parties involved in an offering exchange. Medium of Exchange Money serves as a medium of exchange because people will accept it in exchange for goods and services. Because people can use money to buy the goods and services that they want, everyone’s willing to trade something for money. The laborer will take money for clearing your fields because he can use it to buy food. You’ll take money as payment for his food because you can use it not only to pay him, but also to buy something else you need (perhaps seeds for planting crops). For money to be used as a medium of exchange, it must possess a few crucial properties: - It must be divisible—easily divided into usable quantities or fractions. (A $5 bill, for example, is equal to five $1 bills.) - It must be portable—easy to carry; it can’t be too heavy or bulky. - It must be durable—strong enough to resist tearing and the print can’t wash off if it winds up in the washing machine. - It must be difficult to counterfeit. (It won’t have much value if people can make their own.) Measure of Value Money simplifies exchanges because it serves as a measure of value. We state the price of a good or service in monetary units so that potential exchange partners know exactly how much value we want in return for it. This practice is a lot better than bartering because it’s much more precise than an ad hoc agreement that a day’s work in the field has the same value as three meals. Store of Value Money serves as a store of value. Because people are confident that money keeps its value over time, they’re willing to save it for future exchanges. Under a bartering arrangement, the laborer earned three meals a day in exchange for his work. But what if, on a given day, he skipped a meal? Could he “save” that meal for another day? Maybe, but if he were paid in money, he could decide whether to spend it on food each day or save some of it for the future. If he wanted to collect on his “unpaid” meal two or three days later, the farmer might not be able to “pay” it; unlike money, food could go bad. The Money Supply Now that we know what money does, let’s tackle another question: How much money is there? How would you go about “counting” all the money held by individuals, businesses, and government agencies in this country? You could start by counting the money that’s held to pay for things on a daily basis. This category includes cash (paper bills and coins) and funds held in demand deposits—checking accounts, which pay given sums to “payees” when they demand them. Then, you might count the money that’s being “saved” for future use. This category includes interest-bearing accounts, time deposits (such as certificates of deposit, which pay interest after a designated period of time), and money market mutual funds, which pay interest to investors who pool funds to make short-term loans to businesses and the government. M-1 and M-2 Counting all this money would be a daunting task (in fact, it would be impossible). Fortunately, there’s an easier way—namely, by examining two measures that the government compiles for the purpose of tracking the money supply: M-1 and M-2. The narrowest measure, M-1, includes the most liquid forms of money—the forms, such as cash and checking-accounts funds, that are spent immediately. M-2 includes everything in M-1 plus near-cash items invested for the short term—savings accounts, time deposits below $100,000, and money market mutual funds. So, what’s the bottom line? How much money is out there? To find the answer, you can go to the Federal Reserve Board Web site. The Federal Reserve reports that in December 2008, M-1 was about $1.6 trillion dollars and M-2 was $8.2 trillion. If you’re thinking that the numbers in Figure 3.1.1a are too big to make much sense, you’re not alone. One way to bring them into perspective is to figure out how much money you’d get if all the money in the United States were redistributed equally. According to the U.S. Census Population Clock, there are 305,726,680 people in the United States. Your share of M-1, therefore, would be about $5,200 and your share of M-2 would be about $27,000. What is “Plastic Money”? Are credit cards a form of money? If not, why do we call them plastic money? Actually, when you buy something with a credit card, you’re not spending money. The principle of the credit card is buy-now-pay-later. In other words, when you use plastic, you’re taking out a loan that you intend to pay off when you get your bill. And the loan itself is not money. Why not? Basically, because the credit card company can’t use the asset to buy anything. The loan is merely a promise of repayment. The asset doesn’t become money until the bill is paid (with interest). That’s why credit cards aren’t included in the calculation of M-1 and M-2. Attributions Title Image: Image of Farmer's Market (Credit: PhotoMix-Company, https://pixabay.com/photos/the-market-fresh-grocery-store-food-3147758/, CC0 Content) Description: Image of rows of fruits and vegetables on display at a farmer's market. "An Introduction to Business v.1.0" by Anonymous , 2012 Book Archive is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Raising Financial Capital in Business Learning Objectives 10b Develop basic understanding of financial markets: stocks, commodities, securities. Raising Financial Capital Firms often make decisions that involve spending money in the present and expecting to earn profits in the future. Examples include when a firm buys a machine that will last 10 years, or builds a new plant that will last for 30 years, or starts a research and development project. Firms can raise the financial capital they need to pay for such projects in four main ways: (1) from early-stage investors; (2) by reinvesting profits; (3) by borrowing through banks or bonds; and (4) by selling stock. When business owners choose financial capital sources, they also choose how to pay for them. Early-Stage Financial Capital Firms that are just beginning often have an idea or a prototype for a product or service to sell, but, at the beginning stage they have few customers—or even no customers at all—and thus are not earning profits. Such firms face a difficult problem when it comes to raising financial capital. Think of it this way: How can a firm that has not yet demonstrated any ability to earn profits pay a rate of return to financial investors? For many small businesses, the original source of money is the business owner. Someone who decides to start a restaurant or a gas station, for instance, might cover the startup costs by dipping into their own bank account, or by borrowing money (perhaps using a home as collateral). Alternatively, many cities have a network of well-to-do individuals, known as “angel investors,” who will put their own money into small new companies at an early development stage, in exchange for owning some portion of the firm. Venture capital firms make financial investments in new companies that are still relatively small in size, but those new companies have to show the potential to grow substantially. These firms gather money from a variety of individual or institutional investors, including banks, institutions like college endowments, insurance companies that hold financial reserves, and corporate pension funds. Venture capital firms do more than just supply money to small startups. They also provide advice on potential products, customers, and key employees. Typically, a venture capital fund invests in a number of firms, and then investors in that fund receive returns, according to how the fund as a whole performs. The amount of money invested in venture capital fluctuates substantially from year to year: as one example, venture capital firms invested more than $48.3 billion in 2014, according to the National Venture Capital Association. All early-stage investors realize that the majority of small startup businesses will never hit it big; many of them will go out of business within a few months or years. They also know that getting in on the ground floor of a few huge successes like a Netflix or an Amazon can make up for multiple failures. Therefore, early-stage investors are willing to take large risks in order to position themselves to gain substantial returns on their investment. Profits as a Source of Financial Capital If firms are earning profits (their revenues are greater than costs), they can choose to reinvest some of these profits in equipment, structures, and research and development. For many established companies, reinvesting their own profits is one primary source of financial capital. Companies and firms just getting started may have numerous attractive investment opportunities, but few current profits to invest. Even large firms can experience a year or two of earning low profits or even suffering losses, but unless the firm can find a steady and reliable financial capital source—so that it can continue making real investments in tough times, the firm may not survive until better times arrive. Firms often need to find financial capital sources other than profits. Borrowing: Banks and Bonds When a firm has a record of at least earning significant revenues—and better still of earning profits, the firm can make a credible promise to pay interest; in this way, it becomes possible for the firm to borrow money. Firms have two main borrowing methods: bank loans and bonds. A bank loan for a firm works in much the same way as a loan for an individual who is buying a car or a house. The firm borrows an amount of money and then promises to repay it, including some rate of interest, over a predetermined period of time. If the firm fails to make its loan payments, the bank (or banks) can often take the firm to court and require it to sell its buildings or equipment to make the loan payments. A bond is a financial contract: a borrower agrees to repay the amount that it borrowed and also an interest rate over a period of time in the future. A bond specifies an amount that one will borrow, the interest rate that one will pay, and the time until repayment. A corporate bond is issued by firms. But bonds are also issued by various levels of government; for example, a municipal bond is issued by cities, a state bond by U.S. states, and a Treasury bond by the federal government through the U.S. Department of the Treasury. A large company, for example, might issue bonds for $10 million. The firm promises to make interest payments at an annual rate of 8%, or $800,000 per year; after 10 years, the company will repay the $10 million it originally borrowed. When a firm issues bonds, it may choose to issue many bonds in smaller amounts that together reach the total amount it wishes to raise. A firm that seeks to borrow $50 million by issuing bonds, might actually issue 10,000 bonds of $5,000 each. In this way, an individual investor could, in effect, loan the firm $5,000, or any multiple of that amount. Anyone who owns a bond and receives the interest payments is called a bondholder. If a firm issues bonds and fails to make the promised interest payments, the bondholders can take the firm to court and require it to pay, even if the firm needs to raise the money by selling buildings or equipment. However, there is no guarantee the firm will have sufficient assets to pay off the bonds. The bondholders may recoup only a portion of what they loaned the firm. Bank borrowing is more customized than issuing bonds, so it often works better for relatively small firms. The bank can get to know the firm extremely well—often because the bank can monitor sales and expenses quite accurately by looking at deposits and withdrawals. Relatively large and well-known firms often issue bonds instead. They use bonds to raise new financial capital that pays for investments, or to raise capital to pay off old bonds, or to buy other firms. However, the idea that firms or individuals use banks for relatively smaller loans and bonds for larger loans is not an ironclad rule: sometimes groups of banks make large loans, and sometimes relatively small and lesser-known firms issue bonds Corporate Stock and Public Firms A corporation is a business that “incorporates”—that is owned by shareholders that have limited liability for the company's debt but share in its profits (and losses). Corporations may be private or public, and they may or may not have publicly traded stock. They may raise funds to finance their operations or new investments by raising capital through selling stock or issuing bonds. Those who buy the stock become the firm's owners, or shareholders. Stock represents firm ownership. A person who owns 100% of a company’s stock, by definition, owns the entire company. The company's stock is divided into shares. Corporate giants like IBM, AT&T, Ford, General Electric, and Exxon all have millions of stock shares. In most large and well-known firms, no individual owns a majority of the stock shares. Instead, large numbers of shareholders—even those who hold thousands of shares—each have only a small slice of the firm's overall ownership. When a large number of shareholders own a company, there are three questions to ask: How and when does the company obtain money from its sale of stock? A firm receives money from the stock sale only when the company sells its own stock to the public (the public includes individuals, mutual funds, insurance companies, and pension funds). We call a firm’s first stock sale to the public an initial public offering (IPO). The IPO is important for two reasons. For one, the IPO, and any stock issued thereafter, such as stock held as treasury stock (shares that a company keeps in their own treasury) or new stock issued later as a secondary offering, provides the funds to repay the early-stage investors, like the angel investors and the venture capital firms. A venture capital firm may have a 40% ownership in the firm. When the firm sells stock, the venture capital firm sells its part ownership of the firm to the public. A second reason for the importance of the IPO is that it provides the established company with financial capital for substantially expanding its operations. However, most of the time when one buys and sells corporate stock the firm receives no financial return at all. If you buy General Motors stock, you almost certainly buy it from the current share owner, and General Motors does not receive any of your money. This pattern should not seem particularly odd. After all, if you buy a house, the current owner receives your money, not the original house builder. Similarly, when you buy stock shares, you are buying a small slice of the firm's ownership from the existing owner—and the firm that originally issued the stock is not a part of this transaction. What rate of return does the company promise to pay when it sells stock? When a firm decides to issue stock, it must recognize that investors will expect to receive a rate of return. That rate of return can come in two forms. A firm can make a direct payment to its shareholders, called a dividend. Alternatively, a financial investor might buy a share of stock in Wal-Mart for $45 and then later sell it to someone else for $60, for $15 gain. We call the increase in the stock value (or of any asset) between when one buys and sells it a capital gain. Who makes decisions in a company owned by a large number of shareholders? Who makes the decisions about when a firm will issue stock, or pay dividends, or re-invest profits? To understand the answers to these questions, it is useful to separate firms into two groups: private and public. A private company is frequently owned by the people who generally run it on a day-to-day basis. Individuals can run a private company. We call this a sole proprietorship. If a group runs it, we call it a partnership. A private company can also be a corporation, but with no publicly issued stock. A small law firm run by one person, even if it employs some other lawyers, would be a sole proprietorship. Partners may jointly own a larger law firm. Most private companies are relatively small, but there are some large private corporations, with tens of billions of dollars in annual sales, that do not have publicly issued stock, such as farm products dealer Cargill, the Mars candy company, and the Bechtel engineering and construction firm. When a firm decides to sell stock, which financial investors can buy and sell, we call it a public company. Shareholders own a public company. Since the shareholders are a very broad group, often consisting of thousands or even millions of investors, the shareholders vote for a board of directors, who in turn hire top executives to run the firm on a day-to-day basis. The more stock a shareholder owns, the more votes that shareholder is entitled to cast for the company’s board of directors. In theory, the board of directors helps to ensure that the firm runs in the interests of the true owners—the shareholders. However, the top executives who run the firm have a strong voice in choosing the candidates who will serve on their board of directors. After all, few shareholders are knowledgeable enough or have enough personal incentive to spend energy and money nominating alternative board members. How Firms Choose between Financial Capital Sources There are clear patterns in how businesses raise financial capital. We can explain these patterns in terms of imperfect information, which is a situation where buyers and sellers in a market do not both have full and equal information. Those who are actually running a firm will almost always have more information about whether the firm is likely to earn profits in the future than outside investors who provide financial capital. Any young startup firm is a risk. Some startup firms are only a little more than an idea on paper. The firm’s founders inevitably have better information than anyone else about how hard they are willing to work, and whether the firm is likely to succeed. When the founders invested their own money into the firm, they demonstrate a belief in its prospects. At this early stage, angel investors and venture capitalists try to overcome the imperfect information, at least in part, by knowing the managers and their business plan personally and by giving them advice. Accurate information is sometimes not available because corporate governance, the name economists give to the institutions that are supposed to watch over top executives, fails, as the Lehman Brothers example shows. In 2008, Lehman Brothers was the fourth largest U.S. investment bank, with 25,000 employees. The firm had been in business for 164 years. On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. There are many causes of the Lehman Brothers failure. One area of apparent failure was the lack of oversight by the Board of Directors to keep managers from undertaking excessive risk. We can attribute part of the oversight failure, according to Tim Geithner’s April 10, 2010, testimony to Congress, to the Executive Compensation Committee’s emphasis on short-term gains without enough consideration of the risks. In addition, according to the court examiner’s report, the Lehman Brother’s Board of Directors paid too little attention to the details of the operations of Lehman Brothers and also had limited financial service experience. The board of directors, elected by the shareholders, is supposed to be the first line of corporate governance and oversight for top executives. A second institution of corporate governance is the auditing firm the company hires to review the company's financial records and certify that everything looks reasonable. A third institution of corporate governance is outside investors, especially large shareholders like those who invest large mutual funds or pension funds. In the case of Lehman Brothers, corporate governance failed to provide investors with accurate financial information about the firm’s operations. Borrowing Money for Financial Capital As a firm becomes at least somewhat established and its strategy appears likely to lead to profits in the near future, knowing the individual managers and their business plans on a personal basis becomes less important, because information has become more widely available regarding the company’s products, revenues, costs, and profits. As a result, other outside investors who do not know the managers personally, like bondholders and shareholders, are more willing to provide financial capital to the firm. At this point, a firm must often choose how to access financial capital. It may choose to borrow from a bank, issue bonds, or issue stock. The great disadvantage of borrowing money from a bank or issuing bonds is that the firm commits to scheduled interest payments, whether or not it has sufficient income. The great advantage of borrowing money is that the firm maintains control of its operations and is not subject to shareholders. Issuing stock involves selling off company ownership to the public and becoming responsible to a board of directors and the shareholders. The benefit of issuing stock is that a small and growing firm increases its visibility in the financial markets and can access large amounts of financial capital for expansion, without worrying about repaying this money. If the firm is successful and profitable, the board of directors will need to decide upon a dividend payout or how to reinvest profits to further grow the company. Issuing and placing stock is expensive, requires the expertise of investment bankers and attorneys, and entails compliance with reporting requirements to shareholders and government agencies, such as the federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Attributions "Principles of Microeconomics 3e" by David Shapiro, Daniel MacDonald, Steven A. Greenlaw, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Business Cycle More recent information can be researched through the following organizations and their websites: US Bureau of Economic Analysis and National Bureau of Economic Research. Learning Objectives 10c Discuss the business cycle. Business Cycle Although the US economy has grown significantly over time, the growth has not occurred at a constant, consistent pace. At times, the economy has experienced faster-than-average growth, and occasionally the economy has experienced negative growth. For any quarter in which real GDP is growing, the percentage change will be positive. When the growth rate of real GDP is negative, the economy is shrinking. The percentage change in real GDP for each quarter is shown in Figure 3.1.3a—which is an illustration of the growth of GDP over time. There has been a definitive long-term upward trend in GDP, but it has not been in a straight line. Instead, the economy has expanded much like the curve: periods of quick growth are followed by slower or even negative growth. These alternating growth periods are known as the business cycle. Stages of the Business Cycle The business cycle consists of a period of economic expansion followed by a period of economic contraction. During the period of economic expansion, the GDP rises. And employment expands as businesses produce more, while unemployment falls. Other measures of economic growth may include increased new business starts and new home construction. The economy is said to be “heating up.” Unfortunately, as the expansion continues, inflation often becomes a concern. Fast-paced economic expansion is not sustainable. Eventually, growth slows and unemployment rises. The economy has moved from expansion to contraction when this occurs. Often, the contraction is referred to as a recession. The point at which the business cycle turns from expansion to contraction is known as the peak. The point at which the contraction ends and the economy begins to expand again is known as the trough. The length of one business cycle is measured by the time from one trough to the trough of the next cycle, as shown in Figure 3.1.3c. A private think tank, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), tracks the business cycle in the United States. The NBER is the entity that officially declares recessions in the United States. The National Bureau of Economic Research was founded in 1920 to create measures of economic activity that could be used in public policy discussions. It is a private, nonpartisan organization that conducts research that is followed by businesses and the public sector. Historically, a recession was defined as two consecutive quarters of declining GDP. Today, the NBER defines a recession in a broader, less precise manner; it will declare a recession when there is a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts for at least a few months. Measures of real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale and retail sales are considered in addition to real GDP. Historical Trends The NBER has identified business cycle peaks and troughs in data going back to the mid-19th century. Figure 3.1.3d lists each of these cycles, denoting the months of peaks and troughs. In Figure 3.1.3d. we see a repetition of the economic behavior—an expansion, a peak, a recession, and a trough, followed by yet another expansion, peak, recession, and trough. The cycles are events that repeatedly occur in the same order. However, the cycles are not identical; the lengths of the cycles vary greatly. On average, the contractions have lasted about 17 months and expansions have lasted about 41 months. The typical business cycle has been about 4.5 years long. When this section was initially drafted (2021), the United States was in an economic recession. The previous trough was in June 2009. From the summer of 2009 through February 2020, the US economy was in the expansionary phase of the business cycle. This 128-month expansion is the longest expansion in US history. This expansion peaked in February 2020, when the economy fell into a contractionary period associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Only two other expansions have lasted for over 100 months: the 120-month expansion that ran through the 1990s and the 106-month expansion that ran during the 1960s. The longest recessionary period on record is the 65-month recession that occurred during the 1870s. The recession that began in 1929 was the second-longest recession in US history. At 43 months long, this recession that ended in 1933 was so severe that it has been called the Great Depression. Attributions "Principles of Finance" by Julie Dahlquist, Rainford Knight, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at: https://openstax.org/books/principles-finance/pages/3-3-business-cycles-and-economic-activity What is Trade? Learning Objectives 10d Know about the balance of trade. Globalization The globalization of business is bound to affect you. Not only will you buy products manufactured overseas, but it’s highly likely that you’ll meet and work with individuals from various countries and cultures as customers, suppliers, colleagues, employees, or employers. The bottom line is that the globalization of world commerce has an impact on all of us. Therefore, it makes sense to learn more about how globalization works. Never before has business spanned the globe the way it does today. And this leads to some important questions we should tackle in this section: - Why is international business important? - Why do companies and nations engage in international trade? What strategies do they employ in the global marketplace? - What challenges do companies face when they do business overseas? - How do governments and international agencies promote and regulate international trade? - Is the globalization of business a good thing? - What career opportunities are there for you in global business? How should you prepare yourself to take advantage of them? Why Do Nations Trade? No national economy produces all the goods and services that its people need. That is why the United States imports automobiles, steel, digital phones, and apparel from other countries. That is also why other countries buy wheat, chemicals, machinery, and consulting services from us. Importers buy goods and services from other countries; exporters sell products to other nations. The monetary value of international trade is enormous. In 2010, the total value of worldwide trade in merchandise and commercial services was $18.5 trillion, according to the World Trade Organization press release entitled “Trade growth to ease in 2011 but despite 2010 record surge, crisis hangover persists.” Absolute and Comparative Advantage To understand why certain countries import or export certain products, you need to realize that every country (or region) can’t produce the same products. The cost of labor, the availability of natural resources, and the level of know-how vary greatly around the world. Most economists use the concepts of absolute advantage and comparative advantage to explain why countries import some products and export others. Absolute Advantage A nation has an absolute advantage if (1) it’s the only source of a particular product or (2) it can make more of a product using the same amount of or fewer resources than other countries. Because of climate and soil conditions, for example, France had an absolute advantage in wine making until its dominance of worldwide wine production was challenged by the growing wine industries in Italy, Spain, and the United States. Unless an absolute advantage is based on some limited natural resource, it seldom lasts. That’s why there are few, if any, examples of absolute advantage in the world today. Comparative Advantage Comparative advantage exists when a country can produce a product at a lower opportunity cost compared to another nation. Now we are referring back to a term you learned in the first chapter of this book: opportunity cost. Opportunity costs, in this scenario, are the products that a country must decline to make in order to produce something else. When a country decides to specialize in a particular product, it must sacrifice the production of another product. Let’s simplify things by imagining a world with only two countries—the Republic of High Tech and the Kingdom of Low Tech. We’ll pretend that each country knows how to make two and only two products: wooden boats and telescopes. Each country spends half its resources (labor and capital) on each good. Figure 3.1.4a "Comparative Advantage in the Techs" shows the daily output for both countries: High Tech makes three boats and nine telescopes while Low Tech makes two boats and one telescope. First, note that High Tech has an absolute advantage (relative to Low Tech) in both boats and telescopes: it can make more boats (three versus two) and more telescopes (nine versus one) than Low Tech can with the same resources. So, why doesn’t High Tech make all the boats and all the telescopes needed for both countries? Because it lacks sufficient resources to make all the boats and all the telescopes, High Tech must, therefore, decide how much of its resources to devote to each of the two goods. Let’s assume that each country could devote 100 percent of its resources on either of the two goods. We’ll pick boats as a start. If both countries spend all their resources on boats (and make no telescopes), here’s what happens: - When we assumed that High Tech spent half of its time on boats and half of its time on telescopes, it was able to make nine telescopes. If it gives up the opportunity to make the nine telescopes, it can use the time gained by not making the telescopes to make three more boats (the number of boats it can make with half of its time). Because High Tech could make three more boats by giving up the opportunity to make the nine telescopes, the opportunity cost of making each boat is three telescopes (9 telescopes ÷ 3 boats = 3 telescopes). - When we assumed that Low Tech spent half of its time on boats and half of its time on telescopes, it was able to make only one telescope. If it gives up the opportunity to make the telescope, it can use the time gained by not making the telescope to make two more boats. Because Low Tech could make two more boats by giving up the opportunity to make one telescope, the opportunity cost of making each boat is half a telescope (1 telescope ÷ 2 boats = 1/2 of a telescope). - Low Tech, therefore, enjoys a lower opportunity cost: Because it must give up less to make the extra boats (1/2 telescope vs. 3 telescopes), it has a comparative advantage for boats. And because it’s better—that is, more efficient—at making boats than at making telescopes, it should specialize in boat making. Now to telescopes. Here’s what happens if each country spends all its time making telescopes and makes no boats: - When we assumed that High Tech spent half of its time on boats and half of its time on telescopes, it was able to make three boats. If it gives up the opportunity to make the three boats, it can use the time gained by not making the boats to make nine more telescopes. Because High Tech could make nine more telescopes by giving up the opportunity to make three boats, the opportunity cost of making each telescope is one-third of a boat (3 boats ÷ 9 telescopes = 1/3 of a boat). - When Low Tech spent half of its time on boats and half of its time on telescopes, it was able to make two boats. If it gives up the opportunity to make the two boats, it can use the time to make one more telescope. Thus, if High Tech wants to make only telescopes, it could make one more telescope by giving up the opportunity to make two boats. Thus, the opportunity cost of making each telescope is two boats (2 boats ÷ 1 telescope = 2 boats). - In this case, High Tech has the lower opportunity cost: Because it had to give up less to make the extra telescopes (1/3 of a boat vs. 2 boats), it enjoys a comparative advantage for telescopes. And because it’s better—more efficient—at making telescopes than at making boats, it should specialize in telescope making. Each country will specialize in making the good for which it has a comparative advantage—that is, the good that it can make most efficiently, relative to the other country. High Tech will devote its resources to telescopes (which it is good at making), and Low Tech will put its resources into boat making (which it does well). High Tech will export its excess telescopes to Low Tech, which will pay for the telescopes with the money it earns by selling its excess boats to High Tech. Both countries will be better off. Things are a lot more complex in the real world; however, generally speaking, nations trade to exploit their advantages. They benefit from specialization, focusing on what they do best, and trading the output to other countries for what they do best. The United States, for instance, is increasingly an exporter of knowledge-based products, such as software, movies, music, and professional services (management consulting, financial services, and so forth). America’s colleges and universities, therefore, are a source of comparative advantage, and students from all over the world come to the United States for the world’s best higher-education system. France and Italy are centers for fashion and luxury goods and are leading exporters of wine, perfume, and designer clothing. Japan’s engineering expertise has given it an edge in such fields as automobiles and consumer electronics. And with large numbers of highly skilled graduates in technology, India has become the world’s leader in low-cost, computer-software engineering. Attributions "An Introduction to Business v.2.0" by Anonymous , 2012 Book Archive is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Measuring Trade between Nations Information in this section was largely secured from the following source: “U.S. Trade in Goods and Services—Balance of Payments (BOP) Basis, 1960 thru 2010,” June 9, 2011, http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/historical/gands.txt (accessed August 21, 2011). To encourage research on up to date statistics you might have students go to the same site and find current data. Learning Objectives 10d Know about the balance of trade. Measuring Trade between Nations To evaluate the nature and consequences of its international trade, a nation looks at two key indicators. We determine a country’s balance of trade by subtracting the value of its imports from the value of its exports. If a country sells more products than it buys, it has a favorable balance, called a trade surplus. If it buys more than it sells, it has an unfavorable balance, or a trade deficit. For many years, the United States has had a trade deficit: we buy far more goods from the rest of the world than we sell overseas. This fact shouldn’t be surprising. With high income levels, we not only consume a sizable portion of our own domestically produced goods but also enthusiastically buy imported goods. Trade deficits are not necessarily a bad thing. They can be positive if a country’s economy is strong enough both to keep growing and to generate the jobs and incomes that permit its citizens to buy the best the world has to offer. That was certainly the case in the United States in the 1990s. Other countries, such as China and Taiwan, which manufacture primarily for export, have large trade surpluses because they sell far more goods overseas than they buy, which certainly seems like a positive thing that would lead to more cash flow. The Negatives of Trade Deficits and Trade Surpluses The rapidly accelerating trade deficit of the United States causes concerns for experts. Investment guru Warren Buffet, for example, cautioned in 2006 that no country can continuously sustain large and burgeoning trade deficits, because creditor nations will eventually stop taking IOUs from debtor nations. And, of course, the debts do have to paid at some point. Some observers are worried about the U.S. dollar, which has undergone an accelerating pattern of unfavorable balances of payments since the 1970s. For one thing, carrying negative balances has forced the United States to cover its debt by borrowing from other countries. By the same token, trade surpluses aren’t necessarily good for a nation’s consumers. Japan’s export-fueled economy produced high economic growth in the 1970s and 1980s. But most domestically made consumer goods were priced at artificially high levels inside Japan itself—so high, in fact, that many Japanese traveled overseas to buy the electronics and other high-quality goods on which Japanese trade was dependent. CD players and televisions were significantly cheaper in Honolulu or Los Angeles than in Tokyo. How did this situation come about? Though Japan manufactures a variety of goods, many of them are made for export. To secure shares in international markets, Japan prices its exported goods competitively. Inside Japan, because competition is limited, producers can put artificially high prices on Japanese-made goods. Due to a number of factors (high demand for a limited supply of imported goods, high shipping and distribution costs, and other costs incurred by importers in a nation that tends to protect its own industries), imported goods are also expensive. Balance of Payments A key measure of the effectiveness of international trade is balance of payments: the difference, over a period of time, between the total flow of money coming into a country and the total flow of money going out. As in its balance of trade, the biggest factor in a country’s balance of payments is the money that comes in and goes out as a result of imports and exports. But balance of payments includes other cash inflows and outflows, such as cash received from or paid for foreign investment, loans, tourism, military expenditures, and foreign aid. For example, if a U.S. company buys some real estate in a foreign country, that investment counts in the U.S. balance of payments, but not in its balance of trade, which measures only import and export transactions. In the long run, having an unfavorable balance of payments can negatively affect the stability of a country’s currency. Attributions "An Introduction to Business v.2.0" by Anonymous , 2012 Book Archive is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Barriers to Trade Students might research the effects of the 2017 - 2018 steel and aluminum tarrifs. Learning Objectives 10d Know about the balance of trade. 10e Understand common barriers to trade and how they affect producers and consumers. Obstacles to Trade International trade is carried out by both businesses and governments—as long as no one puts up trade barriers. In general, trade barriers keep firms from selling to one another in foreign markets. The major obstacles to international trade are natural barriers, tariff barriers, and nontariff barriers. Natural Barriers Natural barriers to trade can be either physical or cultural. Distance is one of the natural barriers to international trade. For instance, even though raising beef in the relative warmth of Argentina may cost less than raising beef in the bitter cold of Siberia, the cost of shipping the beef from South America to Siberia might drive the price too high. Language is another natural trade barrier. People who can’t communicate effectively may not be able to negotiate trade agreements or may ship the wrong goods. Tariff Barriers A tariff is a tax imposed by a nation on imported goods. It may be a charge per unit, such as per barrel of oil or per new car; it may be a percentage of the value of the goods, such as 5 percent of a $500,000 shipment of shoes; or it may be a combination. No matter how it is assessed, any tariff makes imported goods more costly, so they are less able to compete with domestic products. Protective tariffs make imported products less attractive to buyers than domestic products. The United States, for instance, has protective tariffs on imported poultry, textiles, sugar, and some types of steel and clothing. In March of 2018 the Trump administration added tariffs on steel and aluminum from most countries. On the other side of the world, Japan imposes a tariff on U.S. cigarettes that makes them cost 60 percent more than Japanese brands. U.S. tobacco firms believe they could get as much as a third of the Japanese market if there were no tariffs on cigarettes. With tariffs, they have under 2 percent of the market. Arguments For and Against Tariffs Congress has debated the issue of tariffs since 1789. The main arguments for tariffs include the following: - Tariffs protect infant industries. A tariff can give a struggling new domestic industry time to become an effective global competitor. - Tariffs protect U.S. jobs. Unions and others say tariffs keep foreign labor from taking away U.S. jobs. - Tariffs aid in military preparedness. Tariffs should protect industries and technology during peacetime that are vital to the military in the event of war. The main arguments against tariffs include the following: - Tariffs discourage free trade, and free trade lets the principle of competitive advantage work most efficiently. - Tariffs raise prices, thereby decreasing consumers’ purchasing power. In 2017, the United States imposed tariffs of 63.86 percent to 190.71 percent on a wide variety of Chinese steel products. The idea was to give U.S. steel manufacturers a fair market after the Department of Commerce concluded their antidumping and anti-subsidy probes. It is still too early to determine what the effects of these tariffs will be, but higher steel prices are likely. Heavy users of steel, such as construction and automobile industries, will see big increases in their production costs. It is also likely that China may impose tariffs on certain U.S. products and services and that any negotiations on intellectual property and piracy will bog down. Nontariff Barriers Governments also use other tools besides tariffs to restrict trade. One type of nontariff barrier is the import quota—limits on the quantity of a certain good that can be imported. The goal of setting quotas is to limit imports to the specific amount of a given product. The United States protects its shrinking textile industry with quotas. A complete list of the commodities and products subject to import quotas is available online at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency website. A complete ban against importing or exporting a product is an embargo. Often embargoes are set up for defense purposes. For instance, the United States does not allow various high-tech products—such as supercomputers and lasers—to be exported to countries that are not allies. Although this embargo costs U.S. firms billions of dollars each year in lost sales, it keeps enemies from using the latest technology in their military hardware. Government rules that give special privileges to domestic manufacturers and retailers are called buy-national regulations. One such regulation in the United States bans the use of foreign steel in constructing U.S. highways. Many state governments have buy-national rules for supplies and services. In a more subtle move, a country may make it hard for foreign products to enter its markets by establishing customs regulations that are different from generally accepted international standards, such as requiring bottles to be quart size rather than liter size. Exchange controls are laws that require a company earning foreign exchange (foreign currency) from its exports to sell the foreign exchange to a control agency, usually a central bank. For example, assume that Rolex—a Swiss company—sells 300 watches to Zales Jewelers—a U.S. chain—for US$600,000. If Switzerland had exchange controls, Rolex would have to sell its U.S. dollars to the Swiss central bank and would receive Swiss francs. If Rolex wants to buy goods (supplies to make watches) from abroad, it must go to the central bank and buy foreign exchange (currency). By controlling the amount of foreign exchange sold to companies, the government controls the number of products that can be imported. Limiting imports and encouraging exports helps a government to create a favorable balance of trade. The Legal and Regulatory Environment One of the more difficult aspects of doing business globally is dealing with vast differences in legal and regulatory environments. The United States, for example, has an established set of laws and regulations that provide direction to businesses operating within its borders. But because there is no global legal system, key areas of business law—for example, contract provisions and copyright protection—can be treated in different ways in different countries. Companies doing international business often face many inconsistent laws and regulations. To navigate this sea of confusion, American businesspeople must know and follow both U.S. laws and regulations and those of nations in which they operate. Business history is filled with stories about American companies that have stumbled in trying to comply with foreign laws and regulations. Coca-Cola, for example, ran afoul of Italian law when it printed its ingredients list on the bottle cap rather than on the bottle itself. Italian courts ruled that the labeling was inadequate because most people throw the cap away. In another case, 3M applied to the Japanese government to create a joint venture with the Sumitomo Industrial Group to make and distribute magnetic tape products in Japan. 3M spent four years trying to satisfy Japan’s complex regulations, but by the time it got approval, domestic competitors, including Sony, had captured the market. By delaying 3M, Japanese regulators managed, in effect, to stifle foreign competition. One approach to dealing with local laws and regulations is hiring lawyers from the host country who can provide advice on legal issues. Another is working with local businesspeople who have experience in complying with regulations and overcoming bureaucratic obstacles. Attributions "Introduction to Business" by Lawrence J. Gitman, Carl McDaniel, Amit Shah, Monique Reece, Linda Koffel, Bethann Talsma, James C. Hyatt, OpenStax is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Access for free at: https://openstax.org/books/introduction-business/pages/3-3-barriers-to-trade "An Introduction to Business v.2.0" by Anonymous , 2012 Book Archive is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.578929	Anna McCollum	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100030/overview", "title": "Statewide Dual Credit Introduction to Agriculture Business Collection, Agriculture, Trade, and the Global Economy, Financial Markets and Trade", "author": "Textbook" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93860/overview	Theme Analysis in Poetry Overview In this lesson students will learn about Louise Erdrich and then read her poem “Advice to Myself #2: Resistance.” As students read they will analyze how the writer uses words, phrases, and details to communicate a theme. Students will discuss the message of the poem in both small and large groups and discuss how the author’s literary choices help communicate this message. Students will then write about a message in the poem and explain what lines most strongly communicate that message as evidence to support their thinking. LESSON DESCRIPTION Poetry Analysis with “Advice to Myself #2: Resistance” by Louise Erdrich Author of the Lesson: Deanna Delgado Lesson Summary/Overview: In this lesson students will learn about Louise Erdrich and then read her poem “Advice to Myself #2: Resistance.” As students read they will analyze how the writer uses words, phrases, and details to communicate a theme. Students will be able to discuss the message of the poem in both small and large groups and discuss how the author’s literary choices help communicate this message. Students will then write about a message in the poem and explain what lines most strongly communicate that message as evidence to support their thinking. Extension: Students will create their own poem based on the model or students can create a visual based on the lines in the poem. LESSON GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Alignment and Objectives Content Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. Craft and Structure: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.) ELP Standards: 9.12.1 An ELL can construct meaning from oral presentations and literary and informational text through grade-appropriate listening, reading, and viewing 9.12.3 An ELL can speak and write about grade-appropriate complex literary and informational topics 9.12.8 An ELL can determine the meaning of words and phrases in oral presentations and literary and informational text Content Objectives: Students will… - I can identify the theme of a text and use evidence from the text to support my thinking Language (ELP) Objectives: - I can use topic sentences and sentence frames in speaking and writing to explain how details from a text support my interpretation of a poem Supporting Academic Language Language Functions: Analyze, infer, break down, select Language Modalities: Receptive (listening, reading), Productive (speaking, writing), Interactive Vocabulary: Tier 1, Tier 2 (see vocabulary list) Syntax or Sentence Structure(s): n/a Discourse: Sentence Frames for small group and whole group discussion LESSON PREPARATION Considerations Prerequisite Knowledge and Skills: Students should have some basic awareness of the structure and format of a poem. Students should ideally also be familiar with literary terms that are used to describe a poem. Terms include: stanza, line, symbol, imagery, metaphor, connotation/denotation, theme, tone. vocabulary from poem: resist, savior, sentimental monikers, sorrow, logos, consumed, dismantle, excess, accolade, torment, irrationality, despairs, miraculous, desolate, radiant, weary Instructional Materials Resources, Materials, and Technology required or recommended for the lesson: - Computer and Projector - Doc Cam - Slides - Handouts of poem - Video of poem - Sentence Starters - Frayer Model - Concept Map or Thinking Map graphic organizer - Optional (if doing group activity on paper): Chart Paper/Markers/Highlighters - Optional (if doing group activity digitally): student laptops or access to devices - Feedback form to use with students at end of lesson (view only, will need to create your own form) Learning Supports Socio-emotional supports: Personal writing, opportunities to share in partners, ability to reflect on their learning Cultural & Linguistic Responsiveness: Pre-teaching vocabulary, cognates Accessibility: graphic organizers, sentence starters, word bank, use of rewordify to simplify or paraphrase text if needed, color coding and highlighters Sentence starters \| One thing I notice is.... One line that stood out to me is.... One thing I related to was....because... The tone of the poem is...I believe this because.... One thing I think the speaker is trying to say is…becauseI connect to the poem because... One topic that the poem discusses is _________One line that confused me was _______ because_____ \| Instructional Supports Differentiation: students will work with different sections of the text, heterogeneous grouping, drawing or writing opportunities L1 Supports: sentence frames, vocabulary, use of rewordify as needed, video/audio of text, ability to use class created theme statements L2 Development (by level): small group roles for writing and speaking LESSON PROCEDURES Anticipatory Set/Motivation/Hook Time: 10 minutes Teacher Does/Students Do: Teacher will project the following prompt: If you could give your past self any advice, what would you say? Or, what’s the best advice you’ve ever received? Teacher can also provide a definition of advice (an opinion that someone offers you about what you should do or how you should act in a particular situation). Teacher can offer some sentence starters and model for students by sharing their own thinking or writing on the question before having students write: - One thing I would tell myself is… - One thing I know now that I wish I knew when I was younger is… - One thing I’ve learned about life is… - The best advice I’ve ever received is…because… Students will have 5 minutes to journal and think about the question (students have the option to write in their home language where needed in order to better articulate their thoughts). After 5 minutes, students will engage in a Think-Pair-Share activity to read their answers. Students will be organized as Partner A and Partner B. Each student will get 1 minute to share their answers as the teacher walks around and listens to students. After both partners have shared, the teacher can then ask for volunteers to share out with the whole class. Additionally, the journaling could also take place in a Padlet or Jamboard, and then after students share, the teacher could project all the posts and read 1 or 2. Focused Instruction (Teacher-as-Model) Time: 10 minutes Teacher Does/Students Do: Teacher will review the term “theme” with students and do a quick pre-assessment on their knowledge of the term. You may consider having students read the statements with you, especially the highlighted sections in the slides (Theme is a meaningful main idea that is central to a story. Themes are important expressions of an author’s viewpoint and are portrayed through characters and other key literary devices. Themes are usually expressed indirectly, meaning they are not stated in the text. A theme starts by identifying a topic and then determining what the author is trying to say about the topic) Teacher will present some sample theme statements for popular stories or cartoons that students may be familiar with. If teaching this for the first time, students will create a Frayer model of the term. Teacher will also review key questions to ask ourselves when trying to identify a theme in a text. - What is the topic of this poem? What is the author trying to say about the topic? - Are there any words, phrases, or actions that are repeated? - What does the text teach the reader? - Why has the author chosen this particular subject? - What are the large issues or universal concepts the poet is talking about in this text? Teacher will then introduce the poem title as well as the vocabulary term resist to students. Teacher will display various images of resistance and will describe the images briefly. As a before reading activity, students will look at various images and come up with a definition of the word based on the images or what they know or heard described. Teacher will also display the word in Spanish or other relevant languages to recognize cognates (resistir). Guided Instruction (Teacher-to-Student Joint Responsibility) Time: 15 minutes Teacher Does/Students Do: Teacher will read a brief biography of the poet Louise Erdrich. Teacher will then present the video “Advice to Myself 2: Resistance”. Teacher will provide definitions of vocabulary terms from the poem. Words will be bolded in the text. Teacher can ask students to look at the bolded words and review the definitions. If there’s time, teacher might also read each word aloud and have students repeat the word or phrase. savior, sentimental monikers, sorrow, logos, consumed, dismantle, excess, accolade, torment, irrationality, despairs, miraculous, desolate, radiant, weary Next, the teacher will play a video of the poem, explaining to students that the task will be to determine what we think the speaker is trying to communicate to the audience based on the words and phrases that stand out to them. For the first viewing, students will watch and listen. Students will then listen a second time, noting/coding or highlighting. Students can choose to focus on 1 or all 3, depending on their readiness level: - lines that stand out to them or that they find interesting or powerful (!!) - lines that confuse them (??) - at least 3 things the speaker says to resist (______) *this could also be jigsawed, with students picking 1 to focus on and then sharing out in small groups Students will conduct a Think-Pair-Share-Square to discuss what they selected and why. Students will have 1 minutes to share out using the following frames: - One thing I notice is ______ because_____ - One line that stood out to be is____ because____ - One thing I related to was____because___ - One topic that the poem discusses is _________ - One line that confused me was _______ because_____ Teacher will then call on students to share with the class using the sentence frames. As they share, the teacher can mark them on the text using a document camera and make annotations to represent what the student said about the text. Next, teacher will model breaking down a section of the text in more detail. Teacher will re-read the section to the students, labeling topics that are mentioned in the section, paraphrasing the section, and then writing what the speaker is trying to say and what details help the writer communicate the message. Teacher will write key ideas in the concept map organizer or can use the organizer on slides 12-13 (or a similar organizer) while students follow along or fill in the blanks or an organizer using some of the sentence stems. Excerpt of poem for the purpose of modeling: Resist the thought that you may need a savior, or another special being to walk beside you. Resist the thought that you are alone. Teacher think aloud: I notice the author repeats the word “resist” in this section. She is saying to resist thoughts that we may need a savior, so I understand that as her saying we shouldn’t feel we have to rely on others or be helpless and expect someone else or a higher power to come solve our problems or make our lives better. This sounds affirming, because it’s reminding me that I am strong and I can take care of myself and that I have the power to create the world and the life I want. And while that sounds a little lonely, she then tells us to resist the thought that we are alone, so she is saying that even though we can be independent and strong and in control of our own destinies, it doesn’t mean we are isolated or on our own. Group Application (Student-to-Student Joint Responsibility) Time: 25 minutes Teacher Does/Students Do: After viewing the teacher model, teacher and students can work to fill out the concept map or use the organizer on slide 13 for the whole class example. Students will then work in small groups (these can be arranged heterogeneously to encourage students to support one another as give less proficient students the opportunity to work with more proficient students) with a small section of the poem to close read (this can be as few as 1 stanza, or an entire page, depending on the amount of time you have). As they read, they will work to complete more entries in the concept map, noting - Key topics that are mentioned in their section - Words and phrases the list things the speaker says to resist - An explanation/analysis of the meaning of any powerful words, phrases, details (this sounds… this makes me think… this means…) Students will work in their groups to discuss the meaning of their section, using rewordify to break down any confusing words or phrases. Students will work together to complete the organizer on a poster, slide, or a graphic organizer. The teacher can conduct formative assessments with students during this time and see their progress and understanding of the text, offering feedback as necessary. Students will then share what they wrote on their concept maps with the class and post their work on a poster paper or share their slides. As students present, students will add ideas to a concept map or other organizer. Then, students will engage in a brief gallery walk to complete the remainder of their concept maps based on new understandings from the other groups. Individual Learning (Independent Practice and Application) Time: 15 minutes Teacher Does/Students Do: Students will use their annotations and the student posters to discuss which lines they find most effective at communicating the theme. Teacher can model this process by going back to the original annotation and discussing a possible theme statement they could make based on the topics and the words/phrases. Teacher can model using the sentence frames here as well. One powerful theme about resistance I see is … I think this because the poem says… and this means/makes me think…I think this is important because… Students will write a brief paragraph using their annotations to answer the following question: After today’s activity and discussion, what is one powerful theme about resistance that you see in this poem? Use 2 details from the text (one can be your own, and one can be from another student or group) to support your thinking and explain what these details mean and how they communicate the theme. Students will come up with a theme statement (students can use the sentence frame) that expresses what they think a message of the poem is. One powerful theme about resistance I see is … I think this because the poem says… and this means/makes me think… Students can end by reading their theme statements at their tables, or the teacher might collect student writing and share a couple of examples with the class. Closure Time: 10 minutes Teacher Does/Students Do: Students will reflect on their learning and understanding of the poem. Students can rate how well they feel they met the learning targets. Students can also list one line/section from the poem they found confusing or thought was challenging. ASSESSMENTS Formative Assessment Content: Small group posters and concept map organizers, small group and whole group discussion Language: Use of sentence starters when discussing. Use of academic vocabulary on posters and in speaking or writing. Plans for Summative Assessments Content: Students will complete a brief piece of writing that states a theme in the poem in the form of a One Pager. Students will write the theme, list examples from the text (or illustrate key examples). Students will explain how the words and phrases they choose/draw communicate the meaning. EXTENSIONS Students can write their own poem with advice they would like to give themselves. Students can create a series of illustrations, visuals, or examples of the things the writer has said to resist.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.623971	Lesson Plan	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/93860/overview", "title": "Theme Analysis in Poetry", "author": "Speaking and Listening" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114092/overview	Environmental Literacy Lesson plan Overview This lesson plan will help students explore and talk about individual and community solutions to climate change with interesting visual to present to the class and the teacher. Environmental Literacy Lesson plan This lesson plan will help students explore individual and community solutions to climate by creating a presentation with interesting and engaging visual to share with the class.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.642981	03/11/2024	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114092/overview", "title": "Environmental Literacy Lesson plan", "author": "Priyanca Idikay" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88734/overview	Leveraging Classrooms with OER in Vietnam Overview During past 20 years, OCW/OER movement has had global impact since the educational resources are shared for free on the Internet. Logically, developing countries like Vietnam should get the best from OCW/OER as they are free to use the high quality and up-to-date materials from well-known universities and research institutions in the developed countries. However, the differences in learning and teaching methodologies as well as the language barrier make it difficult to adopt open resources. Therefore, it is necessary for each OCW/OER adopter to develop a suitable model to fit with specific situations. Author Minh Do Information Technology Institute, Vietnam National University Website: http://iti.vnu.edu.vn Email: Minhdn@vnu.edu.vn BACKGROUND During past 20 years, OCW/OER movement has had global impact since the educational resources are shared for free on the Internet. Logically, developing countries like Vietnam should get the best from OCW/OER as they are free to use the high quality and up-to-date materials from well-known universities and research institutions in the developed countries. However, the differences in learning and teaching methodologies as well as the language barrier make it difficult to adopt open resources. Therefore, it is necessary for each OCW/OER adopter to develop a suitable model to fit with specific situations. In Vietnam, we have been developing a community driven national scale OER program, Vietnam Open Educational Resources (VOER). We are cooperating with Vietnamese government entities like Ministry of Education and Training as well as with international partners like Rice University, U.S.A. to make VOER as an integral part of the education reform process in Vietnam. To archive that goal, we divide the development of VOER into multiple phrases: content and infrastructure development, community development and classroom integration, and expansion. Last years, we successfully accomplished our first phase. We built our content repository based on Rice Connexions Rhaptos platform. More importantly, we developed approximately 20,000 content modules and make them readily available in our repository for open access. In the next couple of years, we aim to bring VOER content into classroom usage at Vietnamese universities and research institutions. This paper presents our idea and action plan to reach our goals. CHALLENGES Content The first challenge we may face is to develop suitable content for Vietnam’s context. As we mentioned before, there are couple of differences in teaching and learning ways together with the language barrier that prevent us from using available OER directly. In fact, there were some attempts to host a mirror site of MIT OpenCourseWare project in Vietnam for Vietnamese users but they did not succeed. As a result, the content for VOER is not only high quality and up-to-date but also suitable and usable in Vietnam’s context. People Another challenge we are encounter is to change habits of utilizing OER of our users who are researchers, teachers, students, and self-learners. Currently, VOER serves as a reference repository for Vietnamese users. However, to really make a breakthrough in education reforming in Vietnam, VOER needs to be integrated in classroom’s activities where teachers and students are the main players. Therefore, it is extremely important to change their habits of making use of OER and technologies. This a big challenge as many teachers, even teachers in the U.S. still prefer the traditional way of using textbooks for their class. The advent of ebooks helps reduce the textbook expenses; however the usage tradition remains the same while OER and accompanied technologies provide teachers and students with much more convenience. In addition, sometimes the bureaucratic management systems slow down or even prevent the adoption of new learning and teaching methodologies. Technology and Support Technologies play a critical role in the development of OCW/OER around the world as we have witnessed over last 10 years. To have a wide coverage for VOER, we had to build our infrastructure based on the technologies that not only provide much functionality but also are easy to use, especially in Vietnam where Internet has just become popular in recent years. Some university professors recognize the potential impact of OER on the education system and they are willing to contribute their content to the repository. However, there are still some difficulties in term of technology to make their content readily available on VOER website, for example, some old content was created using the old character set standards which are not compatible with the current Unicode ones. Another example is that, for older generations of teachers, it is rare to register an account and write their courses online by combining available content instead of making the new one even though the system fully supports those activities. OUR APPROACH Given above goals and challenges, in this section, we briefly describe our approach as well as the small scale experiments to overcome the difficulties. Content Our approach to build VOER content repository is to use social-based model where everyone in the community can contribute, use, adapt and reuse content. By using this model we hope that once we get the involvement of the community, the content repository will be filled quickly with wide coverage of multiple disciplines. We aim to make VOER as high quality, up-to-date, easy to use and reuse, free of charge educational resources. To foster the usage of VOER, we initially develop the seed content as the good examples for other to use, adapt and reuse. We invite the renowned university professors and educators to participate in the development of seed content. For example, Professor Nguyen Van Hieu, Professor Nguyen Lan Dung, and Professors Dinh Dung who are the leading scientists in physics, biology and mathematics provide us with their textbooks used many classrooms to make them available online on VOER. Or Professor Minh Do created his entirely DSP course in VOER when he taught for a DSP summer school in Vietnam. Also, we sent our volunteer to record and take notes during lectures for advanced program class in Computer Science at Hanoi University of Technology by Professor James Cremer. People Providing necessary resources to help VOER users specifically teachers and students is our top priority in the next phase of VOER development as we identify that they are the ones to make our program success. At macro level, we are working with Vietnamese government agencies like Ministry of Education and Training to create the government policies to encourage the adoption of OER in learning and teaching activities. We are also cooperating with the management of universities to create the local policies on OER. At micro level, we are working directly with professors, instructors to provide hand on training on how to use VOER tools and content to design syllabus and develop textbooks for their courses. In addition, we provide training to students how to utilize the functionality of VOER for their studying. To encourage users to use VOER in their daily work, we also provide financial support. For example, we sponsored for summer school of DSP Academy where oversea Vietnamese professors came to Vietnam to teach DSP courses. All the materials for the school are posted in VOER repository. In addition, we are going to sponsor for the nationwide contest in VOER application in classrooms to award the brightest ideas for content development or content and tool usage. Technology and Support In VOER, technologies play a very important role in content development and delivery. We are working with Rice Connexions team as well as with our local partners to continually improve our technology platform. Specifically, we are developing a piece of software named Federate Rhaptos which allows our users to pull content from other OER repositories around the world to create their textbooks. For example, Professor Minh Do used over 10 modules from both Rice Connexions and VOER to develop his DSP course. In addition, we are expanding our datacenter with more robust hardware to server more people at faster speed. Last but not least, with the advent of table devices like iPad and Android based devices as well as the surprisingly low cost 3G services makes it easier than ever to deliver OER content to wide range of users. We are developing VOER software for those tablet and mobile devices so users can access to VOER content conveniently anywhere and anytime. In addition, we are providing technology support for universities, publishers, libraries and individuals to convert their content in large volume into VOER modules. Our Print-on-demand service is helping people to print out the electronic version to the printed textbook with a color cover, high quality printing and very low cost (2 USD /a textbook 50 pages) INITIAL RESULTS Content Development and Content Usage Figure 1: Content Development \| \| \| a) Visitors per month \| \| b) Monthly pages accessed \| \| \|\| c) Number of hits per month \| \| d) Monthly bandwidth usage \| Figure 2: VOER usage Community Development Figure 3: Community Development Technology Development Figure 4: VOER infrastructure	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.672766	12/14/2021	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88734/overview", "title": "Leveraging Classrooms with OER in Vietnam", "author": "Minh Do" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/84526/overview	Tangential and Normal Components of Acceleration: Calculus 3 project by Caroline Ting Overview This Project has been completed as part of a standard 10 weeks Calculus 3 asynchronous online course with optional WebEx sessions during Summer 2021 Semester at MassBay Community College, Wellesley Hills, MA. Tangential and Normal Components of Acceleration Introduction We can find an acceleration vector when given a position vector. Similar to velocty, it can be represented in two dimensions, the unit tangent vector T(t), and the unit normal vector N(t), and have coefficients called the tangential component of acceleration and the normal component of acceleration repectively. The tangential component is denoted by $\alpha_T$ and the normal component by $\alpha_N$ . Formulas The coefficients of T(t) and N(t) are $\alpha_T$ and $\alpha_N$, but there are also a few seperate formulas for these two components: $\displaystyle\alpha_{{T}}={\mathbf{{a}}}\cdot{\mathbf{{T}}}={\frac{{\vec{{v}}\cdot\vec{{a}}}}{{{\left\|{\left\|{v}\right\|}\right\|}}}}$ $\displaystyle\alpha_{{N}}={\mathbf{{a}}}\cdot{\mathbf{{N}}}=\frac{{\left\|{\left\|\vec{{v}}\times\vec{{a}}\right\|}\right\|}}{{{\left\|{\left\|{v}\right\|}\right\|}}}=\sqrt{{{\left\|{\left\|\alpha\right\|}\right\|}^{2}-{\alpha_{{T}}^{{2}}}}}$ We also arrive at the formula: $\displaystyle{\mathbf{{{a}}}}{\left({t}\right)}=\alpha_{{T}}{\mathbf{{T}}}{\left({t}\right)}+\alpha_{{N}}{\mathbf{{N}}}{\left({t}\right)}$ This is also a great video to show what the components represent: Tangential and Normal components of Acceleration \| Multi-variable Calculus Duration: 10:48 Visual representation Example 1 A particle moves in a path defined by the vector-valued function $\displaystyle{\mathbf{{r}}}{\left({t}\right)}={t}^{2}{\mathbf{{i}}}+{\left({2}{t}-{3}\right)}{\mathbf{{j}}}+{\left({3}{t}^{2}-{3}{t}\right)}{\mathbf{{k}}}$ where t measures time in seconds and distance is measured in feet. Find $\alpha_T$ and $\alpha_N$ at time t=2. In order to find the $\alpha_N$ and $\alpha_T$, we will first need to calcuate v(t) and a(t). We can then use these findings to continue with the formulas. $\mathbf{v}(t)=\mathbf{r'}(t)=2t~\mathbf{i}+2~\mathbf{j}+(6t-3)~\mathbf{k} \\ \mathbf{a}(t)=\mathbf{v'}(t)=2~\mathbf{i}+6~\mathbf{k}\\ \alpha_T=\dfrac{\mathbf{v}\cdot \mathbf{a}}{\|\|\mathbf{v}\|\|}\\ =\dfrac{(2t~\mathbf{i}+2~\mathbf{j}+(6t-3)\mathbf{k})\cdot(2~\mathbf{i}+6~\mathbf{k})}{\|\|2t~\mathbf{i}+2~\mathbf{j}+(6t-3)\mathbf{k}\|\|}\\ =\dfrac{4t+6(6t-3)}{\sqrt{(2t)^2+2^2+(6t-3)^2}} \\ =\dfrac{40t -18}{\sqrt{40t^2-36t+13}} \\ \alpha_T(2)=\dfrac{40(2) -18}{\sqrt{40(2)^2-36(2)+13}} \\ =\dfrac{80-18}{\sqrt{160-72+13}}\\ =\dfrac{62}{\sqrt{101}}$ $\alpha_N=\sqrt{\|\|\mathbf{a}\|\|^2-\alpha_T^2} \\ =\sqrt{\|\|2~\mathbf{i}+6~\mathbf{k}\|\|^2-\Big(\dfrac{40t-18}{\sqrt{40t^2-36t+13}}\Big)^2}\\ =\sqrt{4+36-\dfrac{(40t-18)^2}{40t^2-36t+13}}\\ =\sqrt{\dfrac{196}{40t^2-36t+13}}\\ =\dfrac{14}{\sqrt{40t^2-36t+13}}\\ \alpha_N(2)=\dfrac{14}{\sqrt{40(2)^2-36(2)+13}}\\ =\dfrac{14}{\sqrt{160-72+13}}\\ =\dfrac{14}{\sqrt{101}}$ Example 2 For the curve defined by $\displaystyle{\mathbf{{r}}}{\left({t}\right)}=<{e}^{{-{t}}} \cos{{\left({t}\right)}},{e}^{t} \sin{{\left({t}\right)}}>$ . Find the unit tangent vector, unit normal vector, normal acceleration, and tangential acceleration at $t=\dfrac{\pi}{2}$ $\mathbf{T}(t)=\dfrac{\mathbf{r'}(t)}{\|\|\mathbf{r'}(t)\|\|} =\dfrac{<-\cos(t)e^{-t}-\sin(t)e^{-t}, \sin(t)e^{-t}+\cos(t)e^{-t}>}{\sqrt{(-\cos(t)e^{-t}-\sin(t)e^{-t})^2+(\sin(t)e^{-t}+\cos(t)e^{-t})^2}}\\ \mathbf{T}\Big(\dfrac{\pi}{2}\Big) =\dfrac{<-\cos(\pi/2)e^{-\pi/2}-\sin(\pi/2)e^{-\pi/2}, \sin(\pi/2)e^{-\pi/2}+\cos(\pi/2)e^{-\pi/2}>}{\sqrt{(-\cos(\pi/2)e^{-\pi/2}-\sin(\pi/2)e^{-\pi/2})^2+(\sin(\pi/2)e^{-\pi/2}+\cos(\pi/2)e^{-\pi/2})^2}}\\ =<-0.043173624930332,0.99906758435572>$ Because this vector is in a plane, $\text{if}~~ \mathbf{T}(t)=<x(t),y(t)>~~\text{then} \\ \mathbf{N}(t)=<y(t),-x(t)>\\ \text{So}~~\mathbf{N}(t)=<0.99906758435572,0.043173624930332>$ $\mathbf{v}(t)= <-\cos(t)e^{-t}-\sin(t)e^{-t}, \sin(t)e^{-t}+\cos(t)e^{-t}> \\ \mathbf{a}(t)= <2\sin(t)e^{-t},2\cos(t)e^{-t}>$ $\alpha_T=\mathbf{a}\cdot \mathbf{T}\\ =<2\sin(\pi/2)e^{-\pi/2}, 2\cos(\pi/2)e^{-\pi/2}>\cdot <-0.043173624930332,0.99906758435572>\\ =-0.017949829720122 \\ \alpha_N=\mathbf{a}\cdot \mathbf{N}\\ =<2\sin(\pi/2)e^{-\pi/2}, 2\cos(\pi/2)e^{-\pi/2}>\cdot <0.99906758435572,0.043173624930332>\\ =0.41537149236329$ Example 3 This is also a great video walking through how to calculate the Tangential and Normal Components of Acceleration. Conclusion The tangential and normal compoents of acceleration are essential to visualize and describe the direction of acceleration. They can be helpful to calculate the components of acceleration at one point in time, even if the path of the particle is not uniform. Convertiting to a tangent-normal coordinate system is useful when faced with motion questions. To further understand how we arrived at the formulas, this wiki on curvature would help. References Benjamin Woodruff, K. R. B. S. Multivariable Calculus. Tangential And Normal Components. https://faculty.valpo.edu/calculus3ibl/section-29.html Accessed 15 July 2021 bullcleo1. (2011, January 23). Determining the Tangential and Normal Components of Acceleration. YouTube. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuHvWYgAY3c Accessed 15 July 2021 Libretexts. (2020, December 21). 2.6: Tangential and Normal Components of Acceleration. Mathematics LibreTexts. Libretexts. https://math.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Calculus/Supplemental_Modules_(Calculus)/Vector_Calculus/2%3A_Vector-Valued_Functions_and_Motion_in_Space/2.6%3A_Tangential_and_Normal_Components_of_Acceleration Accessed 15 July 2021 Libretexts. (2020, November 10). 12.5: Tangential and Normal Components of Acceleration. Mathematics LibreTexts. Libretexts. https://math.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Calculus/Map%3A_University_Calculus_(Hass_et_al)/12%3A_Vector-Valued_Functions_and_Motion_in_Space/12.5%3A_Tangential_and_Normal_Components_of_Acceleration Accessed 15 July 2021 Tangential and Normal components of Acceleration \| Multi-variable Calculus. (2020, May 17) YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQNC7klG0F8 Accessed 15 July 2021	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.692709	Homework/Assignment	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/84526/overview", "title": "Tangential and Normal Components of Acceleration: Calculus 3 project by Caroline Ting", "author": "Activity/Lab" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/92593/overview	The Other Fifty Weeks: An Open Education Podcast [Episode 4] Overview The fourth episode of "The Other Fifty Weeks: An Open Education Podcast", discussing recent recent in New Zeland concerning textbook access and affordability. The Other Fifty Weeks: An Open Education Podcast [Episode 4] Episode 4 - Textbook Access and Affordability Originally published on March 27th, 2017 In this episode I am joined by Simon Hart (Policy, Planning, and Evaluation Librarian), Sarah Stein (Director, Distance Learning), and Richard White (Manager, Copyright & Open Access) from the University of Otago (New Zealand). We discuss a recent study of textbook access and affordability, how it could be scaled up, and the role of open resources in the student experience. You can follow the links below to learn more about the research, and the other resources mentioned in this episode: - Selecting the right course resource - Open Minds - Text Hack can be found here and here. - The research instrument, and outcomes can be found on the FigShare site. Hosts: Adrian Stagg, Sarah Stein, Richard White, and Simon Hart	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.717327	05/09/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/92593/overview", "title": "The Other Fifty Weeks: An Open Education Podcast [Episode 4]", "author": "Adrian Stagg" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/94312/overview	Music 11 African American Music (Syllabus) Overview This is a sample syllabus of the course I offered for Merritt College in Spring 2022. MUSIC 11 African-American Music https://www.oercommons.org/editor/documents/12882	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.744944	06/22/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/94312/overview", "title": "Music 11 African American Music (Syllabus)", "author": "Monica Ambalal" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114236/overview	HIST 0700: World History - Dr. Mostern 2021 Overview In this introductory course, students will study history from a distance. It will cover tens of thousands of years of time and touch upon all the locations that humans have ever inhabited. The class will be about looking for patterns and comparisons rather than memorizing facts about names and places. By the end of the course, students should be able to identify and understand long-term and large-scale dynamics of complex change in the past. In particular, this course thinks about what happens when formerly disconnected peoples come into contact with one another. This is a class about connections (some violent and exploitative, others creative and productive), not about places in isolation. It explores the movements of people, goods, ideas, and non-human species—from microbes to mammoths—and the results of the encounters among them. This is also a course about the craft of history. In addition to learning about big structures of change in the human past, students will be practicing the skills and habits of the history major. Attachments The attachment for this resource is a sample syllabus for a college-level world history survey course. About This Resource This resource was contributed by Dr. Ruth Mostern, Associate Professor, Department of History, and Director of the World History Center, University of Pittsburgh.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.763018	Alliance for Learning in World History	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/114236/overview", "title": "HIST 0700: World History - Dr. Mostern 2021", "author": "Syllabus" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/78821/overview	Capilano University OER Adoptions Overview Open textbooks and OER adoptions for Capilano University from 2013-2021. Open Textbooks and OER Adoptions Open textbooks and OER adoptions for Capilano University from 2013-2021 (spreadsheet).	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.779182	03/31/2021	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/78821/overview", "title": "Capilano University OER Adoptions", "author": "Darcye Lovsin" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/73212/overview	Plicker's Tutorial Overview Need help getting started with PLICKERS? Here is a step by step tutorial to help you register, create packs for different courses and create quiz sets. There is also a section to show you how PLICKERS can be used for in-person students, e-learning students or a hybrid teaching model. This is a wonderful resource to increase student engagement! Great for all grade levels and content areas. Educational Technology App Need help getting started with PLICKERS? Here is a step by step tutorial to help you register, create packs for different courses and create quiz sets. There is also a section to show you how PLICKERS can be used for in-person students, e-learning students or a hybrid teaching model. This is a great app for all grade levels and content areas to increase student engagement!	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.795983	Interactive	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/73212/overview", "title": "Plicker's Tutorial", "author": "Assessment" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96152/overview	OER Repositories Guide, Remixed for World Languages Overview This guide was remixed using ISKME's OER Faculty Starter Guide found here: https://www.oercommons.org/courses/oer-online-learning-faculty-quick-start-guide/view Use Permissions This guide was remixed using ISKME's OER Faculty Starter Guide found here: OER Faculty Quick Start Guide Unless otherwise noted, this guide is licensed by the Pathways Project under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. We encourage users to remix, adapt, and select portions or the entirety of this document to meet their individual needs. Click the image below for materials in these repositories specific to world languages. Provides access to thousands of discipline-specific learning materials contributed by the member community. \| Allows search for OER from hundreds of sources. Developed by SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library. \| OER Commons - A public library of OER with tools for content authoring & remixing. Also provides collaborative workspaces for creating, curating, and discussing OER. \| Open Media Collections Click the image below for materials in these repositories. You can use the search function to find an image relevant to your unit/theme, etc. Looking for an image to use in a presentation or an activity? There are over 600 million open images you can search for here. \| The link takes you to the image page where you can use the search filters on the left to find something in a region of the world (great for language teachers!) \| Millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts—all in the public domain for use and reuse by all. \| Free online access to art from around the world. There are also virtual tours of museums and landmarks. \| *There are many open design sites that come in handy, too. We’ll be showcasing these later. Open Repositories For World Language Teaching (that we love) Click the image below for materials in these repositories. Storyweaver \| Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning \| OLRC \| A digital repository of multilingual stories for children from Pratham Books. The image above provides a link where you can use the filter to find a story in the language you teach and according to reading level (a tremendous feature for language teachers!) You can also create a story of your own and with their helpful tools online. They are a committed open access, high quality digital repository. Read more about their open philosophy here. Click on the image above to check them out. If you scroll down to the bottom of any of their pages, you can stay updated via social media. You can also change the language of the entire site. Did you know? If you use Nearpod or Pear deck, you can download a story as a pdf and then upload it to Nearpod or Peardeck and add interactive features to aid with comprehension. \| COERLL is one of 16 National Foreign Language Resource Centers (LRC's) funded by the U.S. Department of Education. COERLL seeks to promote a culture of collaboration that lies at the heart of the Open Education movement. In addition, COERLL aims to reframe foreign language education in terms of bilingualism and/or multilingualism. As such, all COERLL resources strive to represent more accurately language development and performance along dialectal and proficiency. Stay updated by getting on their mailing list. \| OLRC is also one of 16 LRC’s. The OLRC focuses on the creation of Open Educational Resources for language learners at the secondary and post-secondary level. Discover the wide range of resources being created by the OLRC, including complete curricula for French, German, KiSwahili, Spanish, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, and supplemental materials for many more languages. Stay updated by getting on their mailing list. \|	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.854212	Amber Hoye	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96152/overview", "title": "OER Repositories Guide, Remixed for World Languages", "author": "Kelly Arispe" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/117545/overview	What does a Just Transition look like Climate and Environmental Justice Through a Just Transition Overview It has been proven that climate change affects us all, but not equally. Despite increasing investments of millions of dollars to address climate change, the year 2023 was the hottest year on average for the planet. If international governments are investing more in trying to address climate change, why does it seem like those efforts are not working? The fact is that we are not addressing the root causes of climate change: Inequalities perpetuated by a capitalist society. The following lesson plan includes a series of activities that can be done in a classroom setting or a community space in a more intergenerational manner. Depending on how the activities are facilitated (individually or as part of a larger event such as a workshop), the time could range between 30 minutes to 3 hours. The key is to promote a dialogue and let participants share their experiences and ideas, rather than just sharing information. The main goal is to exercise critical awareness and collective action. Overview It has been proven that climate change affects us all, but not equally. Despite increasing investments of millions of dollars to lower fossil fuel emissions, create greener technologies, and protect carbon sinks, that is, forested and other natural areas that absorb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, the year 2023 was the hottest year on average for the planet. If international governments are investing more in trying to address climate change, why does it seem like those efforts are not working? The fact is that we are not addressing the root causes of climate change: Inequalities perpetuated by a capitalist society where profit is more important than the lives of people and other living organisms. Therefore, it is important to consider topics of power and privilege in an intersectional and intergenerational manner, to promote a just transition, one that is not only energetic, but that addresses the enclosure of wealth and power in a few, to foster the creation of a bigger and more inclusive “We” through life-affirming, community-owned, sustainable, and cooperative approaches rooted in deep democracy, where community members have control over the decisions to shape their daily lives. The following lesson plan includes a series of activities that can be done in a classroom setting or a community space in a more intergenerational manner. Depending on how the activities are facilitated (individually or as part of a larger event such as a workshop), the time could range between 30 minutes to 3 hours. The key is to promote a dialogue and let participants share their experiences and ideas, rather than just sharing information. The main goal is to exercise critical awareness and collective action. Background information Frontline communities, those impacted first and worst by climate change, are disproportionately affected by the climate emergency as a result of historic and persistent institutional racism and systemic inequities. In 20 years these inequities will deepen even more. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) by the 2050s, temperatures will rise +5.8°F in the Pacific Northwest. This could mean drier summers, extreme storms, melting glaciers, and more extreme wildfires. The effects of climate change vary per location on the planet but can be more negative due to compounding structural and historical factors that impact how communities face these events. Environmental justice issues and other environmental health disparities can be exacerbated by climate hazards. For centuries, Indigenous communities around the world have fought against settler colonialism as a way to defend their rights to sovereignty and to conserve traditional practices to connect with nature. In this sense, they have been the leaders of what nowadays (and since the 1970s) we call Environmental Justice (EJ). EJ is a movement to fight against the disproportionate exposure to different sources of pollution (air, water, soil) that affect Indigenous people, communities of color, and low-income populations. It also considers equal access to the benefits, such as access to nature. For example, access to healthy and fresh food, green spaces, and more biodiverse spaces have a direct influence on the quality of our air, water, and soil. On the other hand, Climate Justice (CJ) is a movement to address the 1) unequal effects of the climate crisis, often reflected in extreme weather events, and 2) the transition away from the use of fossil fuels due to an extractive economy, and in consequence, from emitting greenhouse gases that accelerate climate change. It takes into account how structural and global inequities result in an unequal distribution of power and resources that affect how communities and countries can mitigate (reduce carbon emissions and other polluting activities to reduce their advance) and adapt to the effects of climate change (improve the level of preparedness to more extreme weather events and other climate hazards that can result in faster recovery times) equitably and inclusively. Both, EJ and CJ look to address historical and structural inequities rooted in practices of extraction, dispossession, oppression, discrimination, and segregation. This is why both are forms of social justice fights. They both try to address inequities that impact the relations between people, as well as between humans and nature. While EJ encompasses more local and regional issues, CJ has to do with the global phenomenon of climate change. A Just Transition, as proposed by Front and Centered, Climate Justice Alliance, Movement Generation, and many other grassroots organizations starts by recognizing that the current climate crisis is a consequence of an extractive economy, justified by a racist, hetero-patriarchal, colonial mindset intrinsic in and perpetuated by capitalism and neoliberal policies. Our world functions on a system where colonial legacies of exclusion, domination, and exploitation are still prevalent. In this system, humans and nature are commodified (commercialized or treated as something that can be bought and sold), due to the enclosure of wealth and power. Understanding where we come from, where we stand, and where we want to go is crucial to envisioning a strategic plan to achieve a just transition that promotes deep democracy and socio-environmental wellness. Some Just Transition ideas and strategies were explored in the 1970s through the labor movement. The fight has expanded and taken different forms in different communities. Still, the vision is the same: Stop the bad and build the new through a deep democracy that allows communities to have more control over the decisions that affect their daily lives. In this same line, it is important to fight against the so-called “false solutions”, those apparent ideas that do not address the root causes of the current climate crisis: Those actions that continue with extractive practices and the concentration of wealth+power (including technological and market-based schemes promoted by corporations and their political allies to give the appearance of meaningful climate action), that continue to poison, displace, or imprison communities, without addressing environmental health disparities and climate injustices. Objectives Understand the connections between environmental, climate, and environmental justice Collectively explore what a place-based and community-driven just transition could look like Foster exchange of ideas and experiences in the identification of potential collective just solutions Concepts Climate justice: A movement to achieve a fair and equitable distribution of the burdens and benefits of the impacts of climate change Environmental health disparities: The differential exposure to pollution of air, water, or soil leads to health problems that result from discriminatory policies and structural inequities Environmental justice: A movement that fights for the equal distribution of environmental burdens and benefits Frontline communities: Those communities have disproportionately been harmed by pollution, extractivist activities, economic disinvestment, and political disenfranchisement. These legacies of oppression increase their current risk of being impacted by climate hazards Just transition: A set of ideas, processes, and practices to move away from an extractive system to an inclusive and regenerative one that promotes well-being and community resilience, especially those that have been on the frontlines, are a priority. It promotes the equal participation of all communities in decision-making processes to repair historical damage and promote holistic and clean solutions to deal with climate change while addressing social justice issues Overburdened community- Those communities, usually BIPOC, Indigenous, or low-income, that due to their geographic location are disproportionately exposed to different environmental pollutants that harm the health of their members, making them more vulnerable. Materials Computer and projector to share videos Some slides can be prepared in advance (not included in this resource) Large pieces of paper (i.e. butcher paper, easel pad paper, boards, etc)- at least 2 per group Markers- a set per group Handouts: What does a Just Transition Look Like? 1 per group/team Just Transition Principles 1 per group/team + 1 per group/team cutting each principle individually 8 small envelopes (unless you prefer to fold the principles instead) - per group Optional: white poster board for last activity- design a poster Preparation Print copies of the handouts in advance (for the page with icons in circles, make sure to cut them out and prepare sets) - 1 per group Print the just transition principles and cut them out individually and either insert each one in a small envelope or fold them so participants cannot read them in advance. Depending on the number of participants, make sure you have enough material for each group. You can prepare a small presentation to include some ideas, embed videos, and add instructions described in the next section (Activities). Activities A. Connections between environmental and climate justice This activity serves as an introduction to the topic. Estimated time: 35-80 minutes, depending on the length of the discussions. Open the activity by asking the participants: “How do you imagine the world, especially your community, 20 years from now?” This could be done using a pair-and-share model where participants share their ideas in smaller groups for about 5 minutes (depending on the size of the groups) Invite participants to share some ideas they discussed in the smaller groups. Explain that climate change and environmental harm impact us wherever we live, work, study, and play. However, they do not impact everyone equally. Ask participants if they remember the heat dome that impacted the Pacific Northwest in 2021. Invite some of them to share their ideas. Potential responses: Very hot weather, some news, having trouble breathing As a way to remember what exactly happened, play the next video, but explain that the 2021 heat dome in the PNW caused the death of hundreds of people in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, Canada, so create space for those in the room for whom this could have an emotional impact: Heat wave-related news \| King 5 Seattle (2:13 minutes) After watching the video, ask what kind of resources could have helped people stay safe during these life-threatening conditions. Potential responses: Trying to go to a cold place such as a mall, library, etc; swimming; getting an air conditioning machine, etc. Explain that not everyone can afford to buy an AC or take time off to go to a place like this. In fact, for some people like farm, construction, or forestry workers their workplace is outdoors; other people might not have a home, and others might not even have access to drinking water. But we can also think about those who live in industrial areas where there are not that many tree canopies that can offer shadows, or in old houses without appropriate ventilation, or those living in areas with high air pollution who might struggle already with asthma or some other health issues related to disproportionate exposure to pollution due to environmental injustices. Climate hazards such as heat waves, droughts, extreme and more frequent wildfires, sea level rise, as well as extreme storms/weather events, can exacerbate social and environmental health disparities linked to environmental injustices. The effects of climate change vary per location on the planet but can be more negative due to compounding structural and historical factors that impact how communities face these events. Invite people to explore in teams 4 different stories from overburdened communities in Washington that have been also impacted by some climate hazards in the last years: Outdoor workers feeling the heat. Article by Becky Kramer published in 2024 in the Washington State Magazine Cooked salmon: Climate change, dams contribute to lethal habitat. Article written by Dave Nichols in 2020 for The Spokane-Review Redlining's enduring impact shows up in WA pollution disparity. Article written by Hannah Weinberger in 2022 for Crosscut Climate hazards are the Duwamish Valley’s top concern, survey finds. Article written by Hannah Weinberger in 2023 for Crosscut Assign one case per group and invite them to identify environmental, social, economic, and political factors that might be in place. Give them 25 minutes to read the story and identify the factors. Invite each group to present their findings and create a summary of all factors in a common board, dividing factors into categories. As a group, discuss which factors were the most common across the stories. An extension to this activity could include inviting participants to share personal stories or stories they have heard in the news and/or look for other similar stories. B. Climate change is not a simple carbon problem Estimated time: 60-90 minutes, depending on the length of the discussions. Explain that despite the increasing investments of millions of dollars to lower fossil fuel emissions, create greener technologies, and protect carbon sinks (aka, forested, oceans, and other natural areas that absorb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases), the year 2023 was the hottest year on average for the planet and 2024 might be even warmer. Ask: If international governments are investing more to address climate change and there are more scientific and technological advances in the area, why does it seem like those efforts are not working? Answer: Climate change is not a mere carbon problem, it’s a social injustice problem so we need to address these injustices as well, since they are the root causes of the current climate crisis. We all recognize that a transition to a more sustainable society is needed, but that transition might not be accessible to everyone. Invite participants to think about their communities as their homes. What improvements would they make to their communities to make them more sustainable, resilient to climate change, welcoming, affordable, and accessible? They could consider their classroom, neighborhood, town, or city. Give 20 minutes to work in groups using a large piece of paper to draw or write their ideas. As an alternative, you can draw pieces of a house on a board and give this as the material where groups add or draw their ideas. Once the debrief with the group starts, each group can post their piece on a shared wall and in combination they can form the shape of a house. After the time has passed, go around the room and let the groups share some of their ideas with the rest. A way to promote an equitable transition to this more sustainable and fair future is through what many grassroots organizations have defined as a just transition. For this, we need to start with some shared understanding. Ask participants what ECO means (if participants struggle to come up with a definition, ask about words that begin with ECO and discuss the definitions as a group: Ecology- The study of the relationship between living and nonliving things in a specific environment Ecosystem- The connections between living and nonliving things in relation to a specific place) Before defining Economy, explain that ECO comes from the Greek word oikos or oikonomia which means “the management of home”. This is the real definition, but the current system has made us believe that economy refers just to money. Explain that in the next exercise, they will work again in groups using a shared handout. The task is to place an icon/figure from the cut circles they receive in the corresponding spaces. They will have 10 minutes to figure out this (let them start discussing a strategy, if you see them struggling you can suggest first dividing those icons that look positive from those that are not. Some people might not know the definition of governance -related to decision-making processes, not only limited to government institutions). Once the time is over, share that you will play a video that will allow all groups to see if their guesses were correct: Video: We Live in an Extractive Economy, But Can We Make it Better? \| Upworthy (7:45 minutes) Emphasize that a Just Transition (JT) is not a recipe or a single model. It does not look only into an energetic transition. It is a vision-led, community-owned, and place-based set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy rooted in social+ecological resilience and deep democracy, this is, a system where everyone, especially those who have been historically marginalized and are disproportionately impacted by climate change, can have a chance to actively participate in decision-making processes. To close this activity, ask participants to divide into smaller groups and create a draw of their communities as they see them in 10 years from no. For this, they can envision how to make them more resilient towards climate change. This is, how to be better prepared for climate impacts, but also how to recover from climate emergencies in an equitable and fair way. You can give them 20 minutes. Some ideas could include: Better, more affordable, and sustainable public transportation options, more community gardens, and spaces to grow fresh and culturally responsive foods, more community centers with access to air filtration systems or A/C that encompass community murals, community energy projects, rainwater harvesting spaces, etc. Participants can share their vision with the entire group as a way to share different perspectives and ideas. C. Just Transition Principles Estimated time: 50-90 minutes, depending on the length of the discussions. As a way to learn what the just transition principles are, organize a pictionary game. Make sure that everyone in the room knows what pictionary is (a game where a person tries to refer to or define a word or concept with drawings while the rest try to guess). For this game participants will work in groups of 4 people. Each person will receive 2 envelopes with a principle described in each one. The idea is that in their groups they will take turns and each member will read in silence their principle and try to draw something for the rest of the members, who will try to guess what principle it is. Make sure to have a copy of all the principles per table so they can refer to that document. All teams will need to try to define the 8 principles in 15 minutes (or as many as they can). Once the time is over, go around the room and see how many principles each group had a chance to guess. Invite participants to share if there was one that caught their attention and why. Now that everyone knows, let’s go back to the drawings about our communities/homes they created with their smaller group. Invite everyone to reflect on all those people who might not been considered initially in the selection of potential solutions and with this in mind, groups can choose at least one JT principle and imagine how it could be adapted or implemented in the community. Remind participants to try to avoid false solutions, this is, those that reduce environmental and climate issues to a carbon problem and do not emphasize collective and social justice approaches. To recognize a just versus a false solution, invite participants to ask themselves: Who holds the agenda? (a few with power or money, or everyone, with special consideration to those who have been historically marginalized). Who has ownership over the apparent solution? (the government, a tech company, or research institution, or the community) Does it promote self-determination or does it perpetuate a form of colonialism, extractivism, or exploitation? (does it respect the culture and traditions of the community members or does it impose a way of thinking and a lifestyle?; does it create more dependency or promote social liberation?) Once the participants have identified the issue, potential solution, and the JT principle associated, ask them to design a poster that could help other members of the community understand what the issue is and how collectively, they could take action to address it through a just transition. Give them 30 minutes to prepare their poster and get ready to present it to the group (they can use the poster board for this). Celebrate all ideas and invite participants to finish the posters so they can be displayed and shared with other people (if everyone agrees to it). Acknowledgment These activities were inspired by Community Education in Action workshops, a program led by Front and Centered, in collaboration with Africans on the Eastside, Asian Pacific Islander Coalition of Yakima, Kitsap Black Student Union, Community Health Worker Coalition for Migrants and Refugees, Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, Hilltop Urban Gardens, EarthGen, Islandwood, Pacific Education Institute, and Puget Sound Educational Service District.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.902285	Isabel Carrera Zamanillo	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/117545/overview", "title": "Climate and Environmental Justice Through a Just Transition", "author": "Lesson Plan" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/97246/overview	Civil Communication Lesson Plan Overview This lesson plan focuses on helping high school students learn and understand cultural diversity, empathy, and online bias as concepts to develop through civil discourse. It promotes debate and sharing of ideas regarding the three different themes. It is intended for pre-intermediate English language learners (A2-B1 CEFR). Understanding Cultural Diversity, Empathy, and Online Bias Lesson Plan on Civil Discourse Themes Overview & Context This lesson plan focuses on helping high school students learn and understand cultural diversity, empathy, and online bias as concepts to develop through civil discourse. It promotes debate and sharing of ideas regarding the three different themes. It is intended for pre-intermediate English language learners (A2-B1 CEFR). Objectives Students will be able to - Understand cultural differences. - Understand and apply the concept of empathy. - Identify bias in online settings. - Exchange ideas about concepts related to civil communication. Materials - YouTube videos. How are you really feeling today? - Feelings Handout - Memes from Google images. - Board, projector, speaker, markers Lesson Outline Warm Up. Community Builder (10 minutes) I have never… 1. Put students into groups of about five or six. 2. Students should hold their hands out with all their fingers up. 3. One student in each group begins by creating a truthful statement beginning with “I’ve never…,” e.g., I’ve never eaten sushi; or I’ve never climbed a mountain. 4. Each group member who has done the activity in the statement must put a finger down. The next group member says his/her I’ve never statement. 5. The game continues until there is only one member with one or more fingers still up. 6. Remind the participants that the goal is to say things you think others have done. Activities/Instructions Theme 1: Cultural Diversity (60 min) Step 1. Have students watch the video Greetings around the world. Ask them to pay close attention and take notes of the countries and the greetings mentioned in the video. (5 min) Step 2. Ask student what the countries and greetings mentioned in the video are. Have pupils share the ideas with the whole class. Write their ideas on the board. Then, introduce the topic of the class “Cultural differences”. (5 min) Step 3. Put students in pairs. Then, write on the board two questions: What greeting did you find the most interesting and why? What ways of greeting were similar to Costa Rican culture and which were different? Students share ideas with their partner. (15 min) Step 4. Ask some students to share the ideas they discussed in their groups. After that, have students choose the greeting they liked the most. Then, they will come to the front of the class and play charades. While one student performs, his/her peers guess the country and greeting s/he is representing. (20 min) Step 5. Debrief. Write on the board: What do the different ways of greeting tell you about cultural diversity? Why is it important to understand others' cultural differences? Students take two minutes to think about response to question number 1. Then, they share with the whole class. They repeat the same steps for question 2. (15 min) Theme 2: Empathy (60 min) Step 1. Recognizing emotions. How do they feel? Students will work in groups. Provide a copy of the feelings handout with pictures of people showing different emotions. In their groups, students will discuss how the people feel and will try to define why. Then, they will brainstorm ways in which they can give support to the people. They will write ideas on a piece of paper. Elicit some answers for students. (15 min) Step 2. Group work. Have students watch the video: How are you really feeling today? Then, ask them about the responses the people give to the questions how do you feel today? and how do you really feel today?. After that, tell students they have to create a short video similar to the one they watched. Lastly, the video will be presented to the rest of the class. (25 min) Step 3. Discussion. Call attention to the importance of recognizing how one feels on a daily basis. Ask students what difference it makes for them to understand their own and others’ feelings. Elicit answers from pupils. (15 min) Step 4. Debrief. Write on the board the quote “Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle.” by Charles Glassman. Emphasize that the focus of the class was learning about empathy. (5 min) Theme 3: Online Bias (60 min) Step 1. Memes. Look for memes that are familiar to your context and have students look at them on the board. Ask them to read the info aloud. Then ask, “how do you think memes influence our interaction with others?” and elicit answers from students. (10 min) Step 2. Let’s Find out. Students will respond: What kind of messages do memes spread? Students will look for memes online or in their social media accounts. They will work in groups and will determine the types of messages portrayed in memes. Once they have come up with ideas, they will share them with the class. (20 min) Step 3. Discussion. Students work in pairs. Project/write on the board the following questions: Are memes beneficial or harmful? Can you give examples? Do you think memes influence the way one perceives things? How? Students will take 3 minutes to think and write down their answers for each question. Then, have them share with the class. (15 min) Step 4. Debrief. Tell students about the use of memes online (see resources section). Have students use guiding questions to evaluate information on the memes they found online. They work in groups and then share ideas with others in a mingle exercise. (15 min) Guiding Questions What is the purpose of the meme? Does what I am reading make sense? Who is the creator or author of this meme? Is the information reliable? Does this meme help me consider different sides to the issue or only one? Debrief (10 min) Draw on the board three columns with the titles Cultural Diversity, Empathy, and Bias. Distribute sticky notes for students to write their idea of what each of the concept means. Have pupils paste their notes on the board. Read of them aloud. Resources - YouTube videos. How are you really feeling today? - Feelings Handout available at ISL Collective - Memes	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.943623	Activity/Lab	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/97246/overview", "title": "Civil Communication Lesson Plan", "author": "Languages" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/84487/overview	Informative Speech Assignment Overview Informative speech assignment instructions for use COM 231: Public Speaking Assignment Instructions Topic For the first speech, you will draw upon your own cultural knowledge to inform an audience of your peers about some aspect of who you are. You belong to many different cultures based on your race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, language, ability, and group memberships. You also have personal interests and talents relating to sports, music, literature, media, occupation, family status, and more. You may choose to speak about something at the surface level of culture, such as food, flags, festivals, clothes, holidays, music, games, literature, language, or art. Or, you may choose to speak about something at a deeper level of culture, such as ways of handling emotion, child rearing principles, thoughts on wellness and diseases, spirituality, and so on. In describing an aspect of your cultural identity, you must balance the need to generalize for the sake of time and understandability, without falling into the trap of stereotyping. Explaining your personal connection to your topic should help you to do this. Specs - Time: Between 5-7 minutes. Speeches shorter than 5 minutes or longer than 7 minutes will have 1 letter grade deducted. - Delivery: Extemporaneous (researched and prepared in advance, but not necessarily memorized and not read from a script). - Note cards: Up to 2 note cards are allowed. - Research: Minimum of 3 verbal citations of credible sources. - Visual aid: Required (see below for more info). - Organization: Clear intro, body, and conclusion; body of speech uses an organizational pattern from the textbook or class lecture. Visual Aid You may use an analog visual aid (like a poster or handout), or a digital visual aid (like a PowerPoint presentation or video clip). Guidelines: - Everything on a poster must be large enough to be seen from across the room. If the audience can’t see it, it’s not a visual aid! - Handouts should be given at the end of a speech, or else should be incorporated as an interactive component of the speech. If you pass out flyers, expect the audience to want to look at them right away. - Slideshow presentations should have no more than 5 slides, and should include primarily images (convey visual information, not just verbal information). - Video or audio clips should total no more than 1 minute of your speech time. Example Informative Speech Topics I strongly encourage you to come up with your own speech topic; nothing is off-limits or taboo as long as it meets the assignment requirements. If you are really stumped, you may use the list below as inspiration. - Traditional Chinese festivals - Tibetan prayer flags - Classical Indian dance - U.S. Army uniform patches - The Stonewall riots - NCAA rules for student-athletes - Lumbee Indian music - Historical markers in your town - Aztec pottery - Native American Code Talkers - Subaru's gay-and-lesbian–focused marketing campaign - The Bhagavad Gita - Japanese anime culture - Danish concept of hygge - Using ASL in deaf culture - East Coast / West Coast hip-hop rivalry - Protective styling for textured hair - Indigenous tattoos - Equestrian dressage - Famous individual from your culture - Difference between gender identity and gender expression - Zulu tribal baskets - Firefighter artifacts	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.971080	Eileen Hammond	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/84487/overview", "title": "Informative Speech Assignment", "author": "Homework/Assignment" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60027/overview	The Development of the Daguerreotype Overview This historical survey course covers image capture techniques from the camera obscura through current digital technologies. In this portion of the material you will learn the formula in which the daguerrotype (or tin type) photograph was made. Early photography: making daguerreotypes The daguerreotype is a one-of-a-kind, highly detailed photographic image on a polished copper plate coated with silver. It was introduced in 1839 and became the first popular photographic medium. Created by Getty Museum.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:07.988293	11/24/2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/60027/overview", "title": "The Development of the Daguerreotype", "author": "Tricia Cooper" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/61124/overview	Chapter 11 Checkpoint Quizzes Chapter 2 CheckPoint Quizzes Chapter 3 Checkpoint Quizzes Chapter 4 Checkpoint Quizzes Chapter 5 Checkpoint Quizzes Chapter 6 Checkpoint Quizzes Chapter 7 Checkpoint Concept Quizzes Chapter 8 Checkpoint Quizzes Chapter 9 Checkpoint Quizzes Checkpoint Quiz 1.1 Checkpoint Quiz 1.2 Checkpoint Quiz 1.3 Checkpoint Quiz 1.4 Checkpoint Quiz 1.5 Checkpoint Quiz 1.6 Checkpoint Quiz 1.7 Checkpoint Quiz 1.8 Pre-Calculus Quizzes College Algebra: PreCalculus Quizzes Overview Pre-calculus problem sets and quizzes. CC x BY Lauren Brewer Chapter 1: College Algebra PreCalculus Quizzes Set of Precalculus Concept Quizzes Chapter 2 Set of Precalculus Concept Quizzes Chapter 3 Set of Precalculus Concept Quizzes Chapter 4 Set of Precalculus Concept Quizzes Chapter 5 Set of Precalculus Concept Quizzes Chapter 6 Set of Precalculus Concept Quizzes Chapter 7 Set of Precalculus Concept Quizzes Chapter 8 Set of Precalculus Concept Quizzes Chapter 9 Set of Precalculus Concept Quizzes Chapter 10 Set of Precalculus Concept Quizzes Chapter 11 Set of Precalculus Concept Quizzes	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.026006	01/02/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/61124/overview", "title": "College Algebra: PreCalculus Quizzes", "author": "Lauren Brewer" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/54503/overview	Mini-lecture: enthalpies of formation Mini-lecture: Hess's Law Mini-lecture: manipulating enthalpy and thermochemical expressions Enthalpy and Thermochemical Expressions Overview This module covers four areas of enthalpy: 1- introduction to enthalpy and reaction-energy diagrams; define exothermic and endothermic 2- Thermochemical expressions and manipulating enthalpy 3- Hess's Law 4- Enthalpies of formation to find enthalpy of reaction Introduction to enthalpy: Endothermic versus Exothermic This mini-lecture defines enthalpy in an approachable way and defines exothermic and endothermic. Included is use of reaction-energy diagrams to identify exothermic or endothermic reactions. Thermochemical Expressions The video doesn't specify that dividing by a value will also result in the enthalpy being divided by that number. This mini-lecture introduces thermochemical expressions and the concepts of 1- heat transfer is directional and 2- heat transfer is addittive. This is a great primer for Hess's Law. Hess's Law Hess's Law is the evidence that the heat from chemical reactions is additive. If we had two reactions together to get a new reaction, we can get the enthalpy of the new reaction by adding the two reaction enthalpies. This video is one of the longer ones since this concept is typically challenging for students. Enthalpies of Formation Students often need to recall standard states for individual elements when working on enthalpies of formation problems. Another way to determine the overall enthalpy difference for a chemical reaction is using the enthalpies of formation for the reactants and products in your reaction. In this mini-lecture, we define Hf as the enthalpy of formation, which means making one mole of a substance from its elements in their natural state. Then, we work an example using those values and a balanced reaction to find the enthalpy of the given balanced reaction.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.048564	05/20/2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/54503/overview", "title": "Enthalpy and Thermochemical Expressions", "author": "Amy Petros" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/54257/overview	Kinetic and Potential Energy Overview This module is a brief introduction to making a distinction between kinetic and potential energy. The laws of potential energy inform many of our definitions later in chemistry and are especially useful when related specifically to charges. Kinetic and Potential Energy Focus on how charges interact: high potential energy = two like charges together OR two opposite charges far apart low potential energy = two like charge far apart OR two opposite charges close together Also, "low" means a negative value (typically) and "high" means a positive value (typically) A great questions that students ask is "why?" Why do chemical processes occur at all, what is the driving force? In a word, energy. We favor LOWER energy. In this video, we loosely define kinetic energy as the energy of motion and potential energy as the energy of position. High potential energy = undesirable position Low potential energy = desirable position	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.066780	05/13/2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/54257/overview", "title": "Kinetic and Potential Energy", "author": "Amy Petros" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/21420/overview	Module IV Module V Module VI WORKPLACE MANAGEMENT AND CHILD WELFARE POLICY, PLANNING, AND ADMINISTRATION Workplace Management and Child Welfare Policy, Planning, and Administration Overview This curriculum is a standardized workplace management curriculum for training entry-level social workers in child welfare agencies in the State of California. The curriculum is composed of nine modules that may be used as separate classes or together in a single course. The modules are constructed to be suitable for three distinct groups of users: BSW students, MSW students, and child welfare agency supervisors and program managers (first and second line supervisors)--and those interested in such positions. Students can study from these sections during their matriculation, while agency employees might be exposed to them via departmental training opportunities, a local child welfare training academy, university extension or concurrent enrollment programs, or continuing education providers. (151 pages) Gilson, S., Cornet, B., & Ralph, C. (2009). Section 1 This curriculum is a standardized workplace management curriculum for training entry-level social workers in child welfare agencies in the State of California. The curriculum is composed of nine modules that may be used as separate classes or together in a single course. The modules are constructed to be suitable for three distinct groups of users: BSW students, MSW students, and child welfare agency supervisors and program managers (first and second line supervisors)--and those interested in such positions. Students can study from these sections during their matriculation, while agency employees might be exposed to them via departmental training opportunities, a local child welfare training academy, university extension or concurrent enrollment programs, or continuing education providers. (151 pages) Gilson, S., Cornet, B., & Ralph, C. (2009).	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.086531	03/01/2018	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/21420/overview", "title": "Workplace Management and Child Welfare Policy, Planning, and Administration", "author": "CalSWEC" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/71385/overview	Gabriel Arnell's Calculus 1 Project: 3 Dimensional Box Optimization Overview This Project has been completed as part of a standard Calculus 1 asynchronous online course at MassBay Community College, Wellesley Hills, MA. Summary Author: Gabriel Arnell Instructor: Igor V Baryakhtar Subject: Calculus 1 Course number: MA200-700 Course type: Asynchronous Online Semester: Summer 2020, 10 weeks College: MassBay Comminity College, MA Tags: Calculus, Project, Active Learning Language: English Media Format: PDF Date Added: 08/18/20 License: CC-BY 4.0 All project content created by Gabriel Arnell Content added to OER Commons by Igor V Baryakhtar	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.104045	08/18/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/71385/overview", "title": "Gabriel Arnell's Calculus 1 Project: 3 Dimensional Box Optimization", "author": "Igor Baryakhtar" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/91345/overview	ACR - 121 Course Syllabus Overview Syllabus ACR - 121 Course Syllabus Compton College Syllabus: Spring 2022 \| Important Course Information: \| \| \| Course Title: \| ACR - 121 \| \| Instructor: \| Todd Kler \| \| Instructor Email: \| Tkler@compton.edu \| \| CRN Number: \| 30807 \| \| Section Meeting Days: \| Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday \| \| Lecture Meeting Time: \| 7:30am - 10:40am (M & Tu) via TechConnect ZOOM \| \| In-person Lab Meeting Times: \| 7:30am – 10:40am (Wed) on campus VT-197 \| \| Online Lab Meeting Times/Weekly Review: \| 7:30am – 10:40am (Th) Via TechConnect ZOOM \| \| Meeting Room: \| Lecture Via ZOOM meeting and on Campus (VT197) for Labs \| \| Instructor Office: \| VT202a Via ZOOM meeting upon request \| \| Instructor Office Hours: \| 2:00pm to 3:00pm M – Th. Or by appointment \| \| Office Phone: \| (310) 900-1600 ext. 2631 \| Textbooks: Required Text (this is your main textbook): - Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, 21st ed. Althouse, ISBN: 9781645645528 Recommended Text (NOT REQUIERED): - Electricity for Refrigeration, Heating, and Air Conditioning, 9th edition, Russell E. Smith, ISBN: 13-978-1-2851-7998-6 - Commercial Refrigeration for Air Conditioning Technicians, 3rd ed., Wirz, ISBN: 987-1-305-50643-5 - HVAC Control Systems, 4th ed., Auvil, ISBN: 987-0-8269-0779-0 Required Supplies: - Safety Glasses - Gloves - Notebook - Pencils Supplemental Materials (to be provided): - Handouts - Videos - PowerPoint Lectures Note: Due to COVID-19/Novel Coronavirus concerns, Compton College has implemented remote/alternative learning for lecture courses for the Spring 2022 Semester. Arrangements for courses with lab will vary depending on the subject matter (Consult with your instructor). ACR 121 - CRN 30387 is will not be meeting face-to-face for lecture; instead, lectures will be provided by remote learning via Canvas and Zoom. Please check your compton.edu emails every day for updates from me or the campus. Please note that our course content may change to accommodate alternative class instruction i.e., on campus Labs, so it is important to review your syllabus regularly for changes. You will be required to maintain regular COVID-19 testing as required by Compton College to attend on campus Labs. If you have questions or concerns regarding these changes, please contact me at TKler@compton.edu General compliance with on campus visits for Laboratory: - For a full and complete up to date Protocols visit the Entry to Campus Protocol - Face coverings are required at all times, no exceptions. - Everyone must have his/her temperature screened when arriving on campus. - Students must complete an online Daily Wellness Survey via MyCompton within 12 hours of the scheduled arrival time. Example: For a 7:30 a.m. Monday lab – complete the survey between 7:30 p.m. Sunday and 7:29 a.m. Monday. - COVID testing requirement(s) can be fulfilled by setting an appointment with: - Los Angeles County residents: https://covid19.lacounty.gov/testing/ - Orange County residents: https://occovid19.ochealthinfo.com/covid-19-testing#wherecanIgettested - Curative: https://book.curative.com/search#11/33.872/-118.1663 - Everyone must practice spatial distancing, in addition to the following: - Wash hands frequently with soap and water or hand sanitizer. - Ensure your mask covers your nose and mouth. Yes, your mask must cover both your nose and mouth – No exceptions. Compton College Mission Statement: Compton College is a welcoming environment where the diversity of our students is supported to pursue and attain academic and professional excellence. Compton College promotes solutions to challenges, utilizes the latest techniques for preparing the workforce and provides clear pathways for transfer, completion, and lifelong learning. Course Description: This course is designed to introduce students to air conditioning and refrigeration theory and provide an overview of the skills needed for employment in the industry. Soldering and brazing copper to copper and copper to steel with air-acetylene and oxygen-acetylene methods, use of hand tools, electric meters, and test equipment are included. Course Prerequisites: None Course Objectives: This course is designed to introduce students to air conditioning and refrigeration theory and provide an overview of the skills needed for employment in the industry. Topics introduced include safety, air conditioning system operation and components, brazing, electrical applications, service tools, and equipment. Student Learning Outcomes: Upon completion of the course, students should demonstrate the following skills: - After reading the textbook and participating in class discussions, students will apply their knowledge of appropriate lab practices, concepts, and theories by placing refrigeration manifold gauges on a window air conditioning unit and check for the correct charge based on the type of refrigerant used in the system. - After completion of this course students will acquire the skills necessary to successfully braze refrigeration components to meet basic industry standards. - After completion of this course students will have the knowledge necessary to perform basic HVACR service in a safe manner. Assessment Activities: Assessment activities takes the form of a practical, written, essay and/or presentation format. Practical is assessment of applied skills. Written testing includes multiple choice or fill-in the blank. Presentation activities require team participation. Essays are directed as question requiring a written response. Essays may include discussion topic(s). Evaluation Criteria: - Lab Assignments & LMS (HVACRedu.net) – 20% - Participation/Discussion(s) & Attendance – 20% - Quizzes – 20% - Mid-Term – 20% - Final Exam – 20% Grading Scale: - Students will be assessed using written, oral, or practical testing. Grading will be based on the following: - Practical: Pass= Satisfactory demonstration, Fail= Unsatisfactory demonstration - Written, essay, or oral assessments. - Grading scale: A=100-90 B=89.9-80 C=79.9-70 D= 69.9- 59 F= Below 59 Student Requirements: - Student is required to furnish his/her textbook, Safety Glasses, Gloves, Notebook, and Pencils. - Student must provide his/her personal protective equipment. - Students are required to follow all policies outlined in the Compton College Handbook. Attendance Requirements: - Students whose absences from a class exceed 10% of the scheduled class meeting time may be dropped from the class. A student who registers for a class and never attends is still responsible for dropping the class. It is the responsibility of the student to officially drop a class by the deadline date. Two tardies equal one absence. Important Dates to Remember: \| Subject \| Crse_# \| CRN \| First_Class_Mtg \| Last_Day_Drop \| Last_Day_Drop_W \| \| ACR \| 121 \| 30807 \| 2/14/2022 \| 2/22/2022 \| 3/24/2022 \| - No show Drops (2/14/2022): You will be dropped from the course if you fail to show on the first day of class is scheduled to meet. - Drop Data without a “W” (2/22/2022) - Drop Date with a “W” (3/24/2022) - If you fail to drop prior to 3/24/2022 you will receive the grade you earned, and this grade will appear on your transcript. Statement of Student Conduct: (Include College Policy) - Compton College is dedicated to maintaining an optimal learning environment that thrives upon academic honesty. To uphold the academic integrity of the institution, all members of our academic community, faculty, staff, and students alike, must assume responsibility for providing an educational environment of the highest standards characterized by a spirit of academic honesty. It is the responsibility of all members of the Compton College academic community to behave in a manner which encourages learning, promotes honesty, and acts with fairness toward others. For more information, please refer to your College Catalog or Compton Community College District Board Policy 5500. - Students must follow rules of the class. Safety is the priority number one! - Instructor’s expectation of student’s conduct: Conduct at Compton College must conform to the laws of the State of California, District policies, and campus rules and regulations. The College faculty, staff, and administration are dedicated to maintaining a positive learning environment. - Policy regarding audio taping of lectures: NOT Allowed, except when prior “special accommodations” are made. - Cheating, plagiarism (including plagiarism in a student publication), or engaging in other academic dishonesty shall constitute worthy cause for discipline, including but not limited to the removal, suspension, or expulsion of a student. Student Resources Available at Compton College: - Your success is our number one priority at Compton College. College resources to help you succeed include computer labs, tutoring centers, the library, health services, and services for designated groups, such as veterans, formerly incarcerated persons, parent-scholars, homeless persons, former foster youth, and students with disabilities. For a comprehensive list of Academic Resources and Support Programs, please visit http://www.compton.edu/studentservices/supportservices/index.aspx Food and Housing/Basic Needs: - Any student who faces challenges securing their food or housing and believes this may affect their performance at Compton College is urged to contact The Tartar Support Network at tartarsupport@compton.edu or (310) 900-1600 ext. 2538 help. - https://www.compton.edu/studentservices/student-equity-program/student-resources.aspx#collapse_d7e167 Special Accommodations: - Any student who has a disability and/or special needs should alert the instructor by the second week of the semester so that special accommodations can be made. By notifying the instructor you can work together to develop a plan to meet unique accommodations needed for success in the course. Additional resources can be located on the Compton College Website. Use this link and you can locate additional resources on the Compton College Website or by contacting the Student Resource Center: Special Resource Center (SRC) First floor of the VT Building (VT 109) Adjacent to the CalWORKs Office Phone: (310) 900-1600, Ext. 2402 The Special Resource Center (SRC) is the California Community College Systems Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSPS) Program at Compton College. The SRC is all about equity and making sure any student can reach his or her full potential. The SRC assists students with disabilities, so they have equal access to all educational programs and activities on campus. The SRC provides support services to students with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, psychological disabilities, developmental delay, brain injury, visual impairments, health problems and hearing impairments. Recording in the Classroom: - The use of any recording device during class without the prior consent of the instructor is prohibited, except as necessary to provide reasonable auxiliary aids and academic adjustments to students with disabilities who present official documentation from the Special Resource Center to the instructor prior to recording. This is to protect privacy and to create a safe classroom environment where all participants can discuss potentially controversial or sensitive subjects freely. If you want to take a photograph or make an audio or video recording, you must get the prior written permission of the instructor. The instructor also may require the verbal and/or written permission of everyone present. Even if a student gets permission to record, the recordings are only for personal use and may not be distributed, posted, published, or shared in any manner. A student who records without instructor permission or distributes any recordings is subject to disciplinary action in accordance with Compton Community College District Administrative Procedure 5520: Standards Discipline Procedures. Undocumented Students: - Compton College is committed to supporting the success of all students. If you identify as undocumented, AB540, and/or a DACA student, we have many support services and staff on hand to help. Please visit http://www.compton.edu/studentservices/financialaid/ab540/ for more information Financial Aid, Scholarships, & Pell Grants: - Struggling to pay for tuition, books, or other costs associated with going to college? If so, Compton College has financial aid, scholarships, and other financial assistance solutions to help pay the bills so you can focus on class. For more information about how to maximize your financial aid and scholarship opportunities, please make an appointment with a financial aid counselor at 310-900-1600, ext. 2935, or visit Financial Aid online at http://www.compton.edu/studentservices/financialaid/. Mandatory Reporting: Child Abuse, Gender-Based, or Sexual Misconduct: - Your safety is important to me. Please know that that if you reveal child abuse, child neglect, or gender-based or sexual misconduct (including harassment, sexual assault, stalking or intimate partner violence) to me or any instructor, we are required by law to report the problem to the Compton College Police Department. However, psychologists are not required to report your incident. To speak confidentially with a psychologist, please contact St. John’s Health Center for a free appointment: (213) 226-7480. You can also visit http://www.compton.edu/studentservices/healthcenter/ for scheduling information. Disclaimer Statement: - Students will be notified ahead of time when and if any changes are made to course requirements or policies. Instructor reserves the right to offer or not offer make-up assignments on case-by-case scenario. DO NOT expect or anticipate instructor to provide make-up assignments for assignments that were not completed prior to the due date. Semester schedule of topics and assignments: ASSIGNMENTS SUBJECT TO CHANGE - Assignments may include, but not limited to the following: - Safety Test - Discussions and/or participation - Textbook readings (quizzes and exams may follow textbook reading assignments) - Lab: Work with and understand course topic generally from lectures or other assignments - LMS – HVACRedu.net - Midterm (from lectures & labs, and any assigned chapter readings up to midterm date) - Final (from lectures & labs, and any assigned chapter readings inclusively) AC Tool Kit (This is not required) - Slip-Joint Pliers - Crescent Wrench - Flaring Tools and Block - Digital Multimeter with Clamp on Ammeter (DMM) - Small Tubing Cutter - Large Tubing Cutter - 6 in 1 Screwdriver - ¼” Nut Driver - 5/16” Nut Driver - 8” Adjustable Pliers (Channel-locks) - Wire Stripper (2) - Pocket Digital Thermometer - Refrigeration Service Wrench - Bottle of Gas Leak Detector (soap bubbles) - Schrader core remover - Lineman’s Pliers - Wire Crimpers/Cutters - Open End and Box Wrench Set - Socket Set - Refrigeration Manifold Gauge Set with Hoses - Allen Wrench Set	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.147060	03/25/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/91345/overview", "title": "ACR - 121 Course Syllabus", "author": "Todd Kler" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/76867/overview	Indian Removal Quiz (Ch. 7 Indigenous Peoples' History) Overview This is a five-question quiz for chapter 7 of Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. HIST-101 Most of Chapter 7 focused on the Indian Removal program of which US president? What is the significance of the chapter title "As Long as Grass Grows or Water Runs"? What did Cherokee society start to do in hopes of gaining the favor of the US? Did it work? Why or why not?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.160455	02/01/2021	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/76867/overview", "title": "Indian Removal Quiz (Ch. 7 Indigenous Peoples' History)", "author": "Jill Connors" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104859/overview	Effective Quote Integration Workshop Overview The Effective Quote Integration Workshop aims to enhance students' skills in incorporating quotes into their academic writing. The workshop focuses on several learning outcomes; they include understanding the purpose and significance of quote integration, learning effective techniques for integration, developing critical thinking skills through quote analysis, and evaluating the effectiveness of quotes in supporting arguments. Effective Quote Integration Workshop Outline - Prewriting - Reviewing Sample Work - Peer Review Workshop - Post-Workshop Reflection Effective Quote Integration Workshop The Effective Quote Integration Workshop aims to enhance students' skills in incorporating quotes into their academic writing. The workshop focuses on several learning outcomes; they include understanding the purpose and significance of quote integration, learning effective techniques for integration, developing critical thinking skills through quote analysis, and evaluating the effectiveness of quotes in supporting arguments.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.178136	06/08/2023	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/104859/overview", "title": "Effective Quote Integration Workshop", "author": "Soyoung Park" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96286/overview	OFAR Module Overview Textbooks & Other Resource Links Finnegan, Lisa. 2020. Medical Terminology in a Flash: A Multiple Learning Styles Approach (4 th Edition). Publisher FA Davis 2020 ISBN 9780803689534 OFAR Module Module 1- Learning Styles Visual-Auditory-Verbal-Kinesthetic Learning style theory suggests that individuals learn information in different ways according to their unique abilities and traits. Therefore, although all humans are similar, the ways in which you best perceive, understand, and remember information may be somewhat different from the ways other people learn. In truth, all people possess a combination of styles. You may be especially strong in one style and less so in others. You may be strong in two or three areas or may be equally strong in all areas. As you learn about the styles described in this chapter, you may begin to recognize your preferences and will then be able to modify your study activities accordingly. Try using multiple learning styles as you study rather than choosing one in particular. This will help you make the most of your valuable time, enhance your learning, and support you in doing your very best in future classes. Sensory Learning Styles Experts have identified numerous learning styles and have given them various names. Some are described in an abstract and complex manner, whereas others are relatively simple and easy to grasp. For ease of understanding, this book uses the learning styles associated with your senses. You use your senses to see and hear information. You use touch and manipulation or your sense of taste or smell. You may find it useful to think aloud as you discuss new information with someone else. Because the senses are so often involved in the acquisition of new information, many learning styles are named accordingly: visual, auditory, verbal, and kinesthetic (hands-on or tactile). In this chapter you will learn about the different learning styles and will also be able to determine what learning style or combination of styles are you. Mrs. Bravo Action Plan The OFAR Action Plan consists of the following interventions. - Review different nursing OER Resources for Medical Terminology - Evaluate the content of OER Resources is appropriated and aligns to curriculum, SLO’s and Course Objectives. - Present to Faculty for better feedback. - Propose OER resources to curriculum committee and nursing faculty - Integrate an antiracism classroom Module 1 section providing a survey to students to help identify high risk students and to better serve student population. - Ensure class content delivers in different learning styles. - Integrate action plan to syllabus and curriculum. - Review all material and OER resources for appropriateness - Test the course environment with other faculty and possibly student volunteers for feedback and constructive critique. - Implement Action Plan and Anti-Racism Classroom into canvas. Course Description Course of study is designed to develop competency in the accurate use of medical vocabulary to include anatomy, physiology, diseases, and descriptive terms to prepare students for entry-level positions as medical transcribers, clinical editors, health insurance processors, patient administration specialists OFAR Module 1. Identify Anti-racism in the classroom 2. Complete The VARK Questionnaire The assessment consists of 16 questions related to your learning strengths and weaknesses. The following is the direct link to go to the VARK ASSESSMENT (Links to an external site.) Objectives After completing the questionnaire you will be able to identify your learning styles and preferences. The results will provide you with tools and suggestions to facilitate your learning. Assignment Submit a your results to the assignment tab.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.253435	08/09/2022	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96286/overview", "title": "OFAR Module", "author": "Carmen Bravo" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/58571/overview	Identifying Primary Sources Identifying Primary Sources Primary sources are key in historical research. Primary sources allow the reader to delve into the actual time period (day, year, decade, century, era, etc.) and catch a glimpse into how the people of the specified time and place wrote, understood, and categorized events, people, and places. What did they emphasize? How much importance did they place on a person? What about that person's religion, social status, economics, race? What did THEY (the author) say happened? Were they correct? Primary sources are tools. Tools that are used to begin and legtimisze research into the history of subjects. When you can identify primary sources, you can begin to read what people of the time period you happen to be studying might have read and immerse yourself in the mind of the author (Maybe Julius Ceasar, Thomas Jefferson, the editor of the New York Times in 1932.) To help identify primary sources we have to categorize them: Primary sources are sources that were written/authored at the time/place being studied. For example: If you are studying the American continents during the 15th and 16th century, Christopher Columbus's journal would be a primary source. Why? Becuase it was written during the time period you are studying, the subject is primarily what Columbus discovered in the "New World" (American continents), and becuase the author was present at the location and time. Compared to secondary sources. Secondary sources are sources written after the time period you are studying. If you are researching Thomas Jefferson and come across a biography of Jefferson written in 1981, then that would be considered a secondary source. Why? It was written after the time period, by a person who was not present during the time period nor had ever met Mr. Jefferson. Identifying Primary Sources Activity Assessment For this section: There will be a topic of study (The British North American Colonies, for example) given, as well as four example sources. Your task will be to identify the primary sources. You should record your answers on a word document, and submit them in GeorgiaView in the appropiate assignment folder. Topic of Study: The American Revolution Choices: 1) Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776) 2)Constitution of the United States of America (1787) 3)EVEREST, ALLAN S. "The American Revolution 1776–1778." In Moses Hazen and the Canadian Refugees in the American Revolution, 46-65. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1976. 4)Winship, A. E. "WASHINGTON THE PRESIDENT.—(I)." The Journal of Education 53, no. 6 (1901): 83-84.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.268297	10/05/2019	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/58571/overview", "title": "Identifying Primary Sources", "author": "Nicholas Allen" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/101306/overview	Fundamental Pharmacology for Undergraduate Nurses Overview Fundamental nursing pharmacology course focusing on pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, medication errors, drugs across the lifespan, Cultural considerations, complimentary and alternative therapies, and drugs affecting the autonomic nervous system. Fundamental Pharmacology for Undergraduate Nurses Material Description Fundamental nursing pharmacology course focusing on pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, medication errors, drugs across the lifespan, complimentary and alternative therapies, and drugs affecting the autonomic nervous system. Context for sharing: Complete OER nursing resources and courses are rare and difficult to find; this course is meant to be a useful offering to nursing educators in Arizona and beyond. Course link Common Cartridge This file can be downloaded and used in most LMS platforms.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.288041	BAMBI PISH-DERR	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/101306/overview", "title": "Fundamental Pharmacology for Undergraduate Nurses", "author": "Lecture" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96079/overview	Concepts of Biology, OpenStax Fast Facts About the Microbiome https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/1543/the-plant-microbiome-and-its-importance-for-plant-and-human-health https://www.ibiology.org/microbiology/human-microbiome/ https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/microcosm https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5954204/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6107516/ https://www.sefaria.org/Avot_D'Rabbi_Natan.31.3?lang=bi&with=Kisse%20Rahamim&lang2=en https://www.sefaria.org/Duties_of_the_Heart%2C_Second_Treatise_on_Examination.4?lang=bi https://www.sefaria.org/Guide_for_the_Perplexed%2C_Part_1.72?lang=bi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzPD009qTN4 Lecture by Dr. Matrin Blaser describing his book Missing Microbes Link to abstract of paper on Womens Health and the Microbiome Link to MIT online course The Microbiome and Drug Delivery: Cross-species Communication in Health and Disease Maturation of the Infant Microbiome Community Structure and Function Across Multiple Body Sites and in Relation to Mode of Delivery Micriobiome and Asthma Microbiome interplay and control NIH Human Microbiome Project OpenStax Microbiology The Hologenome Concept of Evolution: Medical Implications The Human Microbiome: Its Impact on Our Lives & Health. Slide presentation by Robert Rountree, MD The Human Microbiome Project Overview This resource is a collection of articles, book chapters, and videos about the Human Microbiome. The Microbiome is loosely defined as microorganisms, such as bacteria, that are found throughout the human body. It plays an important role in our understanding of our interactions with microorganisms and can help better understand which microorganisms are associated with clinical conditions and can help to improve the overall state of human health. The Human Microbiome provides some background information on microorganisms in general. There is a lot of Microbiome information provided. Some in the form of informative video content, some in the form of an online course at MIT and links to papers and online books and other important websites that inform a lot about the microbiome. Finally, since this is intended to be a resource for Lander College for Women, a Womens Jewish College, there is also information about the impact of the human microbiome on women's health, as well as information regarding a parallel concept in Jewish Philosophy, that a human being is a microcosm of a world. -Neil Normand, Touro University, 2021 About The Microbiome is loosely defined as microorganisms, such as bacteria, that are found throughout the human body. It plays an important role in our understanding of our interactions with microorganisms and can help better understand which microorganisms are associated with clinical conditions and can help to improve the overall state of human health. The Human Microbiome provides some background information on microorganisms in general. There is a lot of Microbiome information provided. Some in the form of informative video content, some in the form of an online course at MIT and links to papers and online books and other important websites that inform a lot about the microbiome. Finally, since this is intended to be a resource for Touro University's Lander College for Women, a Womens Jewish College, there is also information about the impact of the human microbiome on women's health, as well as information regarding a parallel concept in Jewish Philosophy, that a human being is a microcosm of a world. -Neil Normand, Touro University, 2021 License: Creative Commons Attribution Photo by julien Tromeur on Unsplash Microbiology. Chapter 4 for introduction. What is a microorganism? Microbiology, OpenStax https://openstax.org/books/microbiology/pages/4-introduction Ecosystem- Look at Chapters 19 and 20 for a detailed discussion The Microbiome is a concept that the Human Being is its own ecosystem with many microorganisms that dwell in it. Therefore the concept of ecosystem is relevant and helpful in understanding the microbiome. Please look at the chapters on ecology (19 and 20) to help get familiarized with the more traditional definition of ecosystem. Concepts of Biology, OpenStax: https://www.oercommons.org/courses/concepts-of-biology-2/view Prokaryotic Diversity Nagpal R, Wang S, Ahmadi S, Hayes J, Gagliano J, Subashchandrabose S, Kitzman DW, Becton T, Read R, Yadav H. Human-origin probiotic cocktail increases short-chain fatty acid production via modulation of mice and human gut microbiome. Sci Rep. 2018 Aug 23;8(1):12649. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-30114-4. PMID: 30139941; PMCID: PMC6107516. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6107516/ McDonald D, Hyde E, Debelius JW, Morton JT, Gonzalez A, Ackermann G, Aksenov AA, Behsaz B, Brennan C, Chen Y, DeRight Goldasich L, Dorrestein PC, Dunn RR, Fahimipour AK, Gaffney J, Gilbert JA, Gogul G, Green JL, Hugenholtz P, Humphrey G, Huttenhower C, Jackson MA, Janssen S, Jeste DV, Jiang L, Kelley ST, Knights D, Kosciolek T, Ladau J, Leach J, Marotz C, Meleshko D, Melnik AV, Metcalf JL, Mohimani H, Montassier E, Navas-Molina J, Nguyen TT, Peddada S, Pevzner P, Pollard KS, Rahnavard G, Robbins-Pianka A, Sangwan N, Shorenstein J, Smarr L, Song SJ, Spector T, Swafford AD, Thackray VG, Thompson LR, Tripathi A, Vázquez-Baeza Y, Vrbanac A, Wischmeyer P, Wolfe E, Zhu Q; American Gut Consortium, Knight R. American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research. mSystems. 2018 May 15;3(3):e00031-18. doi: 10.1128/mSystems.00031-18. PMID: 29795809; PMCID: PMC5954204. MIT online course The Microbiome and Drug Delivery: Cross-species Communication in Health and Disease Link to MIT online course The Microbiome and Drug Delivery: Cross-species Communication in Health and Disease Three videos that discuss the Microbiome NIH Human Microbiome Project NIH Human Microbiome Project: The plant microbiome and its importance for plant and human health The plant microbiome and its importance for plant and human health. Link to Ebook: Frontiers in Microbiology- Microbiome interplay and control Frontiers in Microbiology- Microbiome interplay and control https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/3616/microbiome-interplay-and-control Link to slide presentation- The Human Microbiome: Its Impact on Our Lives & Health by Robert Rountree, MD Hologenome- link to paper The Hologenome is a concept that is closely associated with the Microbiome. Developed by Professor Eugene Rosenberg, it posits that organisms should be seen as a holoboint, the host organism at its associatesd microorganisms. The Hologenome Concept of Evolution: Medical Implications Rosenberg E, Zilber-Rosenberg I. The Hologenome Concept of Evolution: Medical Implications. Rambam Maimonides Med J. 2019 Jan 28;10(1):e0005. doi: 10.5041/RMMJ.10359. PMID: 30720424; PMCID: PMC6363370. Parallel Concept in Judaism - Olam Katan The Concept that Man is a Olam Katan, or a miniature world onto his or her own has a parallel to the microbiome in that just as a human being is composed of various interactions between the host organisms and the microorganisms that inhabit it, so too Man is a Olam Katan a world onto his or her own, with interactions between the host and the many other aspects that inhabit it. Here is a list of Jewish sources that discuss this concept. (Rambam) Maimonides Moreh Nevuchim. Book 1 Chapter 72. Below is a link to a hebrew and English translation of the guide to the perplexed. https://www.sefaria.org/Guide_for_the_Perplexed%2C_Part_1.72?lang=bi It is also mentioned by R. Bechaya Ibn Pekuda in Chovot Halevavot. Shaar Habechina https://www.sefaria.org/Duties_of_the_Heart%2C_Second_Treatise_on_Examination.4?lang=bi This is an additional source from Avot D'Rabbi Natan https://www.sefaria.org/Avot_D'Rabbi_Natan.31.3?lang=bi&with=Kisse%20Rahamim&lang2=en Here is a third source that has additional resources Micriobiome and Women's Health Link to abstract of paper on Womens Health and the Microbiome Maturation of the Infant Microbiome Community Structure and Function Across Multiple Body Sites and in Relation to Mode of Delivery - The suggestion is that there is an association with a higher prevelance of allergic conditions such as asthma found among individuals born by Cesarian Section as opposed to natural delivery. Perhaps the reason for this is when a baby is born natrually as he or she travels through the birth canal the baby is inuculated with the Micriobiome from the mother and then those microorganisms begin to grow in the baby. However for babies born through cesarain they do not get this benefit and their microbiome does not grow as quickly and perhaps they are more suceptible to these allergic conditions. Video about the book Missing Microbes by Dr. Martin Blaser Lecture by Dr. Matrin Blaser describing his book Missing Microbes. Dr. Blaser makes the argument that losing bacteria can have a negative effect and we should be trying to repopulate the microbiome. Fast Facts about the Microbiome Below is a link from the University of Washington. https://depts.washington.edu/ceeh/downloads/FF_Microbiome.pdf	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.338892	Kirk Snyder	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/96079/overview", "title": "The Human Microbiome Project", "author": "Module" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88562/overview	Sustainability Goals 6, 13, 14, 15 Overview This resource explains sustainiblilty goals to help allievate the climate crisis. It shows the destruction and consequences of urbanization along the hope that there is capability of change. Why is urbanization a major reason for the extinction of living organisms? New York City has always been a bright star in the night sky, it’s a place where people come for refuge or to start a new life. Just like the lyrics in the song “New York, New York” state... "If I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere," success in this city can translate anywhere. New York inspires hope among its residents. For several decades New York was the world’s largest city, now among the world’s “big ten”. Manhattan is flourishing in finance, commerce and culture; New York started as a main port for ships and trade and only boomed from there, attracting urbanization and industrialization with it. However, living in such an urbanized area requires a responsibility to make sure that the home is sustainable. Clean water and sanitation, climate action, life that lives in water and land are all important necessities. It’s our job to take care of our home because it’s home to millions of others. My team focused on the environmental aspects of the sustainability goals. I went to different places in Central Park and Fulton Pier in Brooklyn. In my Central Park strolls there is a stark contrast between the park and the atmosphere of the city. Central Park is quiet and peaceful and yet at the same time it isn’t. The trails are more muted as the forest is more dense allowing wildlife to spring up. The birds sang their songs and the rats and squirrels scurried along the forest floor. In the woody forest was where I spotted bird feeders high in the trees. I thought it was a very lovely touch promoting a healthy mutual relationship between humans and the birds. Of course, there was always someone sitting on a bench feeding the pigeons. In the more concentrated areas of human activity, the park was less muted as the air filled with chatter and laughter and the occasional fight over the phone. It did not make the park any less serene, but I did notice in some spots there was a lack of animals and in others spots it seemed that most of the wildlife concentrated there. For instance, when there were a lot of people, pigeons and squirrels enjoyed being fed by people and displayed no fear towards humans. The residents of New York City take very good care of Central Park with park services that help pick up any trash ensuring that the park stays clean. I remember when I was sitting on one of the boulders there was a family having a nice picnic and one of their trash bags blew away in a gust of wind. The woman stood up and chased after it, she could have just let it go but she didn’t. These are little instances in the big picture of the climate and pollution, but it brings hope that things can get better because these examples prove that people care and they care about how they take care of their home and environment they live in. The Fulton Ferry Pier was also spotless, besides the occasional ice cream spill, but food is biodegradable. On the pier, people enjoyed their afternoon in the presence of company, lots of dates, meeting friends, and quality family time. I expected the pier to have a lot more litter than it did. There are recycling and trash bins encouraging others to throw away their trash so as to not allow it to blow away into the East River. The pier did lack wildlife, there was only the occasional seagull landing on the railing. The river also lacked any fish or other marine life. However, this is probably because the pier is too close to the city with the cars honking, music being emitted by a cyclist from a speaker, and the ferry disrupting the water with pollution. In the heart of Manhattan, I did notice quite a bit of trash along the sidewalk more so on Tuesdays or Thursdays, assuming that those days are trash pick-up days. I also saw a lot of trash bins on street corners with stickers and motivating words about keeping New York clean. I asked myself a lot of questions about how we can continue promoting positive growth? Even though there are a lot of people living in the city, New York is quite green compared to other states. Stores and local businesses coax people to use reusable grocery bags by charging for bags if you did not bring one. How can we continue to promote this growth throughout the U.S? One of our team members took a trip to Puerto Rico and during the flight they observed a large amount of discolored liquids that looked like oil in the ocean. A question they asked myself after seeing this was how does this affect life in the water? They also passed by the highway and saw a sign on a billboard that said "Ban cars. Redorest the roads!" One question they had at the time was how could this goal be achieved? Another of the team members went to five different places in Queens, NY. Asking themselves questions as what was the point of having urbanization take over nature and its land? Why did we let urbanization take over a good percentage of trees and animals that were once there? Any data shows the temperature rising, hurricane seasons lengthening, and the sea level rising. Urbanization is not only increasing in New York City but across the globe. I saw this photo when the hurricane hit New York late August, the streets looked like roaring rapids and subway stations underwater as the water cascades down the stairs like a waterfall. The rainwater deposits trash and debris onto sidewalks and parks. I have taken pictures of empty parks where there are no animals, not even birds up in the trees. Some of the images are similar to each other as one of them shows the urbanization in Long Island City, Queens; it exemplifies how wildlife is nowhere to be seen- no birds in sight. The main factor for climate change is industrialization. The industrialization and urbanization have affected the animals living within the city. They simply don’t have anywhere else to go, they only have Central Park and other little parks scattered across the city. Even then Central Park is only eight-hundred-forty acres which is about two and a half miles long. The noise pollution scares off any animal or makes them feel disoriented. Another picture shows roads and neighborhoods cutting through where there once used to be wildlife and trees. These are relevant to our project goals because the more urbanization and roads takes over, the more trees and life on land are going to be removed. The smog of factories affects how we all breathe. It is such an important responsibility to take care of the parks and the life in the parks and the lakes and the organisms within those lakes and ponds. Though it may not seem like it from an outside perspective, I’d say the people of New York take very good care of their parks. There are park services to keep the parks clean, there are plenty of trash and recycling bins that are dispersed throughout the city and parks. My photos and first-hand accounts provide a very positive outlook on climate action and providing sustainability in the city but we do have to create a more efficient ecosystem. Some data means there is hope restored for humanity. We are capable of change - we just have to be willing to do it. Other data shows that over time the temperature is increasing more and more. The main factor for climate change is industrialization.. We cannot wait around forever for change because there is a colossal climate crisis and we are inching towards the tipping point of no return. Yes, we can make small changes in our day such as using reusable grocery bags or not using the AC for a few hours. Those small changes are important because if everyone starts doing it, then that small little action that you started is now a lot bigger. But what needs to happen is people in power need to change their mindsets. They are greedy and selfish; only thinking about the present day, unconcerned about what their actions are doing for the generations after them. These industries have the means to change their ways. They have the power to not dump waste into rivers where that is a water supply or change to clean energy versus fossil fuels. These companies need to get money out of their head because it will not matter how much money they have if there is no world left. We are able to change, we just have to be brave enough to do it. The only limitation was the lack of time that I had to research. It was a good chunk of time, I just wished I had a little more. My assumptions were definitely challenged only because I thought that people just did not care. Climate action and protecting wildlife on land and water just seemed like a view the younger generation had. So, I was surprised to see that older adults did care and I’m glad that my assumptions were wrong. I also had the assumption that New York was just dirty and it is as with any city, but the number of resources to keep the city clean amazed me. Why is urbanization a major reason for the extinction of living organisms? This question is an important question because humans are affecting innocent homes of organisms and other humans that had nothing to do with the mass pollution and the apathetic attitude towards the environment. We’re living at a time where urbanization is increasing rapidly across the planet, we have to figure out how we can prevent one of the major reasons for the extinctions of living organisms.What our research suggests for the public understanding of the subject is that industrialization plays a large part in climate change. Other data suggests reforesting in certain places and to block any roads or highways where deers are known to cross; to prevent deers to getting hit from any vehicles. Some research suggests that even though we are in a deep crisis there is still a desire to make a change. All ages of people, young and old want to make a change. They want to help because it is their future and their next generations' futures. What can be improved is who cares. It does not matter if every child in the world right now cares about the environment, it does not matter if everyone turns off the light or turns down the air conditioning, or uses less water. Yes, it can help but it would hardly make a dent. About seventy percent of the global emissions are from corporations. A new question that was raised for further research is how does human behavior and actions impact the environment and animals? What needs to change is who cares? The question that raises for me is how do we make corporations accountable for the damage that they are doing? And how can we change how they run so it is not ruining homes, polluting water and hurting people and animals?	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.354367	12/08/2021	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/88562/overview", "title": "Sustainability Goals 6, 13, 14, 15", "author": "Luna Ray" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/124288/overview	ELC 128 Full Course ELC 128 Mid-Term Exam ELC 128 Quiz Questions and Answers ELC-128 Intro to PLC Overview This course introduces the programmable logic controller (PLC) and its associated applications. Topics include ladder logic diagrams, input/output modules, power supplies, surge protection, selection/installation of controllers, and interfacing of controllers with equipment. Upon completion, students should be able to understand basic PLC systems and create simple programs. ELC-128 Intro to PLC This course introduces the programmable logic controller (PLC) and its associated applications. Topics include ladder logic diagrams, input/output modules, power supplies, surge protection, selection/installation of controllers, and interfacing of controllers with equipment. Upon completion, students should be able to understand basic PLC systems and create simple programs. This course includes a full outline, instructional materials, and assessments and exams. DOL: Disclaimer: This product was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. The product was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.375086	01/30/2025	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/124288/overview", "title": "ELC-128 Intro to PLC", "author": "Bo Bunn" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/124287/overview	ELC 117 Full Course ELC 117 Mid-Term Exam ELC 117 Quiz Questions and Answers ELC-117 Motors and Controls Overview This course introduces the fundamental concepts of motors and motor controls. Topics include ladder diagrams, pilot devices, contactors, motor starters, motors, and other control devices. Upon completion, students should be able to properly select, connect, and troubleshoot motors and control circuits. ELC-117 Motors and Controls This course introduces the fundamental concepts of motors and motor controls. Topics include ladder diagrams, pilot devices, contactors, motor starters, motors, and other control devices. Upon completion, students should be able to properly select, connect, and troubleshoot motors and control circuits. This course includes a full outline, links to instructional materials, and assessments and exams. DOL: Disclaimer: This product was funded by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. The product was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.394965	01/30/2025	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/124287/overview", "title": "ELC-117 Motors and Controls", "author": "Bo Bunn" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/64666/overview	Using FRED Data to Understand Business Cycles Overview An in class exercise using economic data to better understand business cycles. This exercise helps students understand business cycles through use of the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED). It is recommended for in class use, in order to engage in discussion and conversation. First, direct students to the FRED website: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/ In the search bar, type: Real GDP per capita. Select the option for Real GDP per capita quarterly, 2012 dollars. Students should now see a graph of GDP data. You can have them edit it in a variety of ways. Try something simple to start: use the date range boxes at the top right to change the start date to 1995 and end date to 2019 in order to focus on the two recessions in 2001 and 2007. Another interesting option is to have them click on "Edit Graph," then change the Units to "Percent Change from Year Ago." Now you can guide them through a discussion and analysis of what business cycles, especially recessions, look like. Using the data can also help with an understanding of the ways in which recessions are identified. Suggested topics of discussion: What are the highest and lowest growth rates on the graph? Why is growth important? What is a peak and a trough, a recession and an expansion? During the recession of 2007-09, how could you tell that a recession had started? What stands out about that recession compared to the one before? Graph in header taken from the FRED website: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Real gross domestic product per capita [A939RX0Q048SBEA], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A939RX0Q048SBEA, March 29, 2020.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.409867	Homework/Assignment	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/64666/overview", "title": "Using FRED Data to Understand Business Cycles", "author": "Assessment" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100418/overview	Rock Your LinkedIn Profile Overview Explore how to create a LinkedIn profile that brings your personal career story to life, whether you’re just starting out, seeking to advance, or making a career change. This course offers tips on tailoring each section, starting with the key insight that a LinkedIn profile is unique and shouldn’t be approached exactly like a resume. The class covers ways to add media to a profile, methods for showcasing your career accomplishments and aspirations, and specific examples of profile phrases and language that can help inspire your personal story. Rock your LinkedIn Profile Program: TCAT Success Class Class Number: LinkedIn 101 Class Name: Rock Your LinkedIn Profile Length: 216 Class Description: Explore how to create a LinkedIn profile that brings your personal career story to life, whether you’re just starting out, seeking to advance, or making a career change. This course offers tips on tailoring each section, starting with the key insight that a LinkedIn profile is unique and shouldn’t be approached exactly like a resume. The class covers ways to add media to a profile, methods for showcasing your career accomplishments and aspirations, and specific examples of profile phrases and language that can help inspire your personal story. Prerequisites: Creation of a LinkedIn Learning Account Email Account Entry Level Skill-Sets/Standards: Students should have proficiency with basic personal computer skills including using a mouse/keyboard, Use a web-browser to open and navigate web pages, Basic operating system functions to support saving and printing files. Textbook (s), Supplementary and Related Instructional Materials: Required Textbooks: None Supplementary Materials: Supplemental textbook materials will be provided when assigned. Online references and training materials will be used extensively for this course. Instructional Materials: Delivery of the LinkedIn lessons will be presented primarily through the LinkedIn Learning. Students will create a username/password to access the class content. - Class Outline: Unit \| Topics \| Assignment Reference \| Resource \| 1 \| Your Profile, Your Story \| LinkedIn Learning (online) \| \| See your profile as your story \| \|\|\| Profile Quick Tips \| \|\|\| Chapter Quiz \| \|\|\| 2 \| Profile Photo, Headline and Industry \| \|\| Use your profile to build your brand \| \|\|\| Create a photo that represents you \| \|\|\| Set up name pronunciation \| \|\|\| Craft a standout headline \| \|\|\| Keep your industry and location current \| \|\|\| Show you’re open to work \| \|\|\| Introduce yourself with profile video \| \|\|\| Add your pronouns \| \|\|\| Activate creator mode \| \|\|\| Chapter Quiz \| \|\|\| 3 \| Profile Summary \| \|\| Who are you? Creating your profile summary \| \|\|\| Take action: Create a summary that introduces you \| \|\|\| Showcase work you’re proud of; Adding featured content \| \|\|\| Chapter Quiz \| \|\|\| 4 \| Experience \| \|\| Showcase your accomplishments with work experience \| \|\|\| Take Action: Craft your work experience \| \|\|\| Add a career break \| \|\|\| Bring your story to life with rich media \| \|\|\| Chapter Quiz \| \|\|\| 5 \| Skills, Endorsements, and Recommendations \| \|\| Got Skills? Adding skills and getting endorsed \| \|\|\| Use recommendations to build credibility \| \|\|\| Don’t underestimate volunteer experience \| \|\|\| Chapter Quiz \| 6 \| Final Project – Completed profile and connection to TCAT Knoxville \| \| - Class Goals: This class will: - Develop/Enhance/Expand a student’s knowledge of the impact of social media for your career - Develop/Enhance/Expand a student’s knowledge of creating your brand identity - Develop a professional profile on LinkedIn for each student and make a connection online to TCAT Knoxville - Expected Learning Outcomes: - Profile photo best practices - Creating a custom LinkedIn headline - Updating your industry - Introducing yourself in the summary section - Adding work experience - Adding skills - Getting endorsements - Requesting recommendations - Academic Assessment and Evaluation: - Quizzes 50% of Grade Unit 1 Your Profile, Your Story Quiz Unit 2 Profile Photo, Headline, and Industry Quiz Unit 3 Profile Summary Quiz Unit 4 Experience Quiz Unit 5 Skills, Endorsements, and Recommendations Quiz B. Classroom Attendance 25% of Grade C. LinkedIn Profile and Connection to TCAT Knoxville 25% of Grade E. Academic Grading Scale 94 – 100(+) A Mastery of Learning Objectives and Skills 87 – 93% B Competent Knowledge and Skills 80 – 86% C Passable Knowledge with Minimal Skills 73 – 79% D Unsatisfactory Knowledge and Skill Abilities 0 – 72% F Failure to Reach Acceptable Knowledge or Skill Abilities Students are required to archive their completed unit assignments and the various unit exercises and projects for the duration of their enrollment in the TCAT Success Class. A. Unit Level Exam(s) (Units 1-6) – 100% 100% of each unit grade (Units 1-6) is based on a unit Level quizzes (Levels 1-5). Quizzes are delivered through an online computer-based delivery system (LinkedIn Learning) and given in a varied format. The minimum competency score for each Level exam is 80% as demonstration of passing the Level objectives. Unit objectives can be reviewed and exams will be re-taken as a requirement to meet the minimum competency score for all unit objectives. B. Penalties Any incomplete portions of a required assignment, or turning in an assignment after the assigned due-date will be subject to points being deducted on the basis of a maximum of points for each incomplete required objective, and a maximum of (-5) points deducted for each day overdue. C. Academic Grading Scale 94 – 100(+) A Mastery of Learning Objectives and Skills 87 – 93% B Competent Knowledge and Skills 80 – 86% C Passable Knowledge with Minimal Skills 73 – 79% D Unsatisfactory Knowledge and Skill Abilities 0 – 72% F Failure to Reach Acceptable Knowledge or Skill Abilities Students are required to archive their completed unit assignments and the various unit exercises and projects for the duration of their enrollment in the Rock Your LinkedIn Learning Course. - Policies: Details specific to all Technology Center policies as well as each policy listed can be found in the current revision to the TCAT Knoxville Institutional Catalog and Student Handbook online at https://tcatknoxville.edu/current-students/student-handbookcatalog - Attendance: The nature of the programs at the Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology is such that it is necessary for every student to attend regularly. Excessive interruptions due to absences will have an adverse effect on student progress. The attendance policy is intended to promote dependability and positive worker characteristics essential to success in the workforce. Students are expected to be punctual and attend class each day. The purpose of the attendance policy is to provide those students with mitigating circumstances or emergencies beyond their control an exception to perfect attendance. Discretionary hours or personal time away from school is not considered appropriate absences. Further, students are required to call in absences to their instructor. All students must attend at least 90.3% of their scheduled hours in order to maintain satisfactory attendance. Any student who terminates for any cause and is in probationary status will continue the same probationary status if that student re-enters within one year of the termination date. When a student is terminated a second time because of failing grades and/or violation of policies, the administration must give approval before re-application can be made. Any student terminated due to attendance violations must wait a full trimester before being permitted to re-enroll. - Disciplinary Policies: Additional Information can be found on the Tennessee Board of Regents website at http://www.tbr.edu/policies/default.aspx?id=8033 0240-3-21-.01 Institution Policy Statement 0240-3-21-.02 Disciplinary Offenses 0240-3-21-.03 Academic and Classroom Misconduct 0240-3-21-.04 Disciplinary Sanctions 0240-3-21-.05 Disciplinary Procedures 0240-3-21-.06 Traffic and Parking Regulations - Student Progress: The Progress Policy provides the minimum criteria for evaluating student achievement relating to identified occupational competencies and defines retention standards of the institution. Evaluations are recorded for each student at the end of the 72 days of instruction that comprise a trimester. The trimester grade report will reflect each student’s progress in the following areas: • Skill Proficiency • Related Information (Academic Scores) • Worker Characteristics A student must maintain a “C” or better average for the 72 day period of instruction. Failure to do so will result in termination at the end of the trimester. NOTE: Additional retention standards for specific programs may be maintained by the school pursuant to accreditation or licensing requirements. Students receiving financial aid should refer to that section of the catalog for additional requirements for eligibility. - Computer Operation, Internet/Network Access: Each computer user must review the policy and guidelines of the institution before operating any computer system. Compliance with this policy is necessary to insure maximum utilization and performance of each computer system, as well as provide a sense of security and respectful cooperation among the school community. Strict adherence to this policy will prevent costly damage or repair, down-time, and/or loss of computer privileges. (1) No computer system may be used without prior approval of the supervising instructor or other school official. (2) Because software is protected under copyright laws, no software can be copied without written authorization. (3) No outside software can be loaded on school computers without written approval. (4) Changes to a system’s configuration or the inappropriate deleting or changing of computer settings is forbidden. (5) Technical manuals must not be removed from the training area. (6) Computers must not be moved or repositioned on tables. (7) To prevent damage to any system, computer users should not eat, drink or smoke around computer equipment. (8) Specific instructions for access to the Internet or network: (a) The system may not be used for personal or private matters. (b) Creating, distributing, or accessing hate mail, pornographic or obscene material, discriminatory or harassing materials or communications is strictly forbidden. (c) Anti-social behaviors (including spamming) are forbidden. (d) Accessing pornographic images or language is forbidden. (e) Creating, distributing, or accessing confidential material, including, but not limited to, test files or student/personnel records is forbidden. Any person who violates this policy will be subject to appropriate disciplinary sanctions, including dismissal and/or possible prosecution. - Services for Students with Disabilities: According to Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a student with a disability is someone who has a physical or mental impairment; has a history of impairment; or is believed to have a disability that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities, such as learning, speaking, working, hearing, breathing, caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, or walking. TCAT provides services and academic accommodations for students with disabilities who self-identify as having a disability and provide appropriate documentation of the disability to Student Services. Student Services coordinates the services and academic accommodations for all students with disabilities. These services include, but are not limited to, assistance with registration; new student advising; volunteer note-takers; notification to faculty of accommodation requests; extended/alternative testing; readers, scribes, and interpreters; tutor referrals; designated liaisons to faculty, staff, and the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation; use of campus adaptive equipment; and assistance in identifying/locating adaptive equipment. Services of a personal nature are not provided. Students who need support services or accommodations for testing are encouraged to contact this office prior to enrollment. Persons who need assistance or information on services that are available to students with disabilities should contact the Student Services Department. Syllabus Changes: The instructor reserves the right to make changes as necessary to this syllabus. If changes are necessitated during the term of the course, the instructor will immediately notify students of such changes both by individual communication and posting both notification and nature of change(s) on the course Learning Management System. Technical Support: For additional support on specific course content, objectives and requirements, please contact your course Instructor.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.475386	Lesson	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/100418/overview", "title": "Rock Your LinkedIn Profile", "author": "Activity/Lab" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/68339/overview	Simulated Work-Based Learning Overview Work-based learning (WBL) has long been used in career and technical education (CTE) to allow students to practice the knowledge and skills they acquire in the classroom within a “real-world” business or industry setting. High-quality work placements reinforce school-based instruction by providing students with a context for applying academic theory with technical skills, and an authentic backdrop for learning the career-readiness (also described as employability) skills valued by employers. Simulated WBL aims to replicate workplace experiences by allowing students to immerse themselves in a realistic worksite activity without leaving campus (Lateef 2010). Simulations may be adopted for various reasons, including but not limited to the difficulty educators face in placing students with employers; logistical issues, such as the geographical isolation of rural providers or scheduling challenges that limit students’ ability to travel; safety or insurance issues that restrict students’ access or engagement; and labor laws, which may prohibit underage students from working. Simulated Work-Based Learning - Instructional Approaches and Noteworthy Practices Work-based learning (WBL) has long been used in career and technical education (CTE) to allow students to practice the knowledge and skills they acquire in the classroom within a “real-world” business or industry setting. High-quality work placements reinforce school-based instruction by providing students with a context for applying academic theory with technical skills, and an authentic backdrop for learning the career-readiness (also described as employability) skills valued by employers. Simulated WBL aims to replicate workplace experiences by allowing students to immerse themselves in a realistic worksite activity without leaving campus (Lateef 2010). Simulations may be adopted for various reasons, including but not limited to the difficulty educators face in placing students with employers; logistical issues, such as the geographical isolation of rural providers or scheduling challenges that limit students’ ability to travel; safety or insurance issues that restrict students’ access or engagement; and labor laws, which may prohibit underage students from working.	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:08.493883	06/10/2020	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/68339/overview", "title": "Simulated Work-Based Learning", "author": "Art Witkowski" }
https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/76439/overview	Career Planning and Personal Exploration Overview This course introduces students to the career-decision making process and job search strategies that will increase their job readiness, employability, and success in their career. The following four major areas will be covered: (1) Self-Understanding; (2) Creating an attitude of success; (3) Researching jobs and careers; (4) and Job search skills. Table of Contents Introduction Career Planning and Personal Exploration is designed to cover theories and concepts of values, interests, skills and personality as applied to the career life planning process and its application to labor market trends. Short and long term career plans will be developed. This course will take you through the exploration process in three themes: Theme 1: Identifying Your Career Profile – this first phase will guide you through self-assessments of your values, interests, personality, skills and lifestyle to examine your fit within different career options. (Chapters 1-4) Theme 2: Exploring Career Options – this second phase will show you how to research career information and labor market trends. (Chapter 5) Theme 3: Creating Your Game Plan – this final phase will help you make decisions and plan for action steps toward your future career. (Chapter 6-10) Course Objectives: These are topics we will explore, discuss, and review throughout the course of the semester. 1. Career Development: Analyze theory and concepts of career and life planning 2. Personal Exploration: Acquire the concept of interest, personality, skills, and values, as they relate to human growth and life stage development. 3. Career Exploration: Develop a personal profile and relate it to labor market trends and resources. 4. Career Information: Analyze and clarify intrinsic and extrinsic goals as they relate to personal career evaluations. Select a career option or options. Develop a life plan to achieve individual goals. 5. Career Action: Employ a decision making process to implement or review a career plan, including an educational plan. Student Learning Outcomes: Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: 1. Articulate their interests, values, and feelings related to their career and educational goals. 2. Assess goals and objectives by analyzing skills and values. 3. Research career paths using interest and personality inventories and online resources. 4. Create an educational plan to achieve an Associate Degree and/or transfer goal. 5. Employ a decision-making process in creating life direction including the ability to develop short and long-term goals. 6. Design a comprehensive career project involving personal reflection and career research. To lead into Theme I, watch the following video as an introduction to your self-reflection and finding career happiness. Watch Ashley Stahl talk about the following three questions in her TEDx Talk: - What am I good at? - What do people tell me I’m good at? - What’s holding me back? Licenses and Attributions CC licensed content, Original - Introduction . Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Santa Ana College. Project: Counseling 116. License: CC BY: Attribution All rights reserved content - Image: Career Get Started Now. Created by Gerd Altmann. Provided by Pixabay. Located at: https://pixabay.com/photos/road-sign-town-sign-success-career-798176/ . License: Pixabay license - Three Questions to unlock your authentic career. Authored by: Ashley Stahl at TEDxBerkeley . Located at: https://youtu.be/vMiSf7LpFQE. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License Chapter 1: Career Development Process Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Desire! That’s the one secret of every man’s career. —Johnny Carson, entertainer Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe the stages of career development, and identify the stage you are currently in - Identify career development resources in your school, community, and beyond Career Development Think of a time in your childhood when you noticed somebody doing professional work. Maybe a nurse or doctor, dressed in a lab coat, was listening to your heartbeat. Maybe a worker at a construction site, decked in a hard hat, was operating noisy machinery. Maybe a cashier at the checkout line in a grocery store was busily scanning bar codes. Each day in your young life you could have seen a hundred people doing various jobs. Surely, some of the experiences drew your interest and appealed to your imagination. If you can recall any such times, those are moments from the beginning stage of your career development. What exactly is career development? It is a lifelong process in which we become aware of, interested in, knowledgeable about, and skilled in a career. It is a key part of human development as our identity forms and our life unfolds. Stages of Career Development There are five main stages of career development which are easily identified with life stages. Each stage correlates with attitudes, behaviors, and relationships we all tend to have at that point and age. As we progress through each stage and reach the milestones identified, we prepare to move on to the next one. Table 1.1 CAREER DEVELOPMENT STAGES # \| STAGE \| DESCRIPTION \| 1 \| GROWING \| This is a time in early years (4–13 years old) when you begin to have a sense about the future. You begin to realize that your participation in the world is related to being able to do certain tasks and accomplish certain goals. \| 2 \| EXPLORING \| This period begins when you are a teenager, and it can extend into your mid-twenties. In this stage you find that you have specific interests and aptitudes. You are aware of your inclinations to perform and learn about some subjects more than others. You may try out jobs in your community or at your school. You may begin to explore a specific career. At this stage, you have some detailed “data points” about careers, which will guide you in certain directions. \| 3 \| ESTABLISHING \| This period covers your mid-twenties through mid-forties. By now you are selecting or entering a field you consider suitable, and you are exploring job opportunities that will be stable. You are also looking for upward growth, so you may be thinking about advancing your education. \| 4 \| MAINTAINING \| This stage is typical for people in their mid-forties to mid-sixties. You may be in an upward pattern of learning new skills and staying engaged. But you might also be merely “coasting and cruising” or even feeling stagnant. You may be taking stock of what you’ve accomplished and where you still want to go. \| 5 \| REINVENTING \| In your mid-sixties (or much older since our life expectancy has increased and many individuals find that they are able to actively work for longer), you are likely transitioning into retirement. But retirement in our technologically advanced world can be just the beginning of a new career or pursuit—a time when you can reinvent yourself. There are many new interests to pursue, including teaching others what you’ve learned, volunteering, starting online businesses, consulting, etc. \| Keep in mind that your career development path is personal to you, and you may not fit neatly into the categories described above. Perhaps your socioeconomic background changes how you fit into the schema. Perhaps your physical and mental abilities affect how you define the idea of a “career.” And for everyone, too, there are factors of chance that can’t be predicted or anticipated. You are unique, and your career path can only be developed by you. During our working life, it is commonly expected that we will revise or create new careers in which we recycle through the exploring, establishing, and maintaining stages. This could be by choice as a result of new experiences or new information about ourselves or could be due to external circumstances such as a loss of employment or change in personal needs. Activity 1.1: IDENTIFYING Your career development STAGE Objective: - To identify current career development stage(s), current obstacles, and next stage of development Instructions: - Review the 5 Stages of Career Development listed in the table above and answer the questions below. 1. Which stage of career development do you feel you are in currently? 2. Provide the 2 descriptions you identify with the most from your career development stage. 3. What challenges are you facing now in your career development? 4. Where are you headed next in your career development path? Career Journey Another way to think about career development, especially in college, is like a road trip. Your journey to career success will have different routes to choose, on-ramps, speedbumps, detours and signposts. And, like most successful road trips, a road map or navigation system with clear markers will help you reach your destination. You will learn more about the following steps throughout this course: - Know yourself by identifying your interests, skills, values and personality preferences - Explore careers - Choose a career goal after narrowing your options - Plan your studies and develop the skills needed through experiences - Prepare to connect with employers through the job search process Plan, Do, Check, Act Figure 1. PDCA PDCA (plan–do–check–act), shown in Figure 1, above, is a four-step strategy for carrying out change. You can use it to evaluate where you are in the career-development process and to identify your next steps. The strategy is typically used in the business arena as a framework for improving processes and services. But you can think of your career as a personal product you are offering or selling. - PLAN: What are your goals and objectives? What process will you use to get to your targets? You might want to plan smaller to begin with and test out possible effects. For instance, if you are thinking of getting into a certain career, you might plan to try it out first as an intern or volunteer or on a part-time basis. When you start on a small scale, you can test possible outcomes. - DO: Implement your plan. Sell your product—which is YOU and your skills, talents, energy, and enthusiasm. Collect data as you go along; you will need it for charting and analyzing in the Check and Act steps ahead. - CHECK: Look at your results so far. Are you happy with your job or wherever you are in the career-development process? How is your actual accomplishment measuring up next to your intentions and wishes? Look for where you may have deviated in your intended steps. For example, did you take a job in another city when your initial plans were for working closer to friends and family? What are the pros and cons? If you like, create a chart that shows you all the factors. With a chart, it will be easier to see trends over several PDCA cycles. - ACT: How should you act going forward? What changes in planning, doing, and checking do you want to take? The PDCA framework is an ongoing process. Keep planning, doing, checking, and acting. The goal is continuous improvement. Career Development Resources in Your College, Community, and Beyond Career experts say that people will change careers (not to mention jobs) five to seven times in a lifetime. So your career will likely not be a straight and narrow path. Be sure to set goals and assess your interests, skills and values often. Seek opportunities for career growth and enrichment. And take advantage of the rich set of resources available to you. Below are just a few. Career Development Resources on Campus Whether you are a student, a graduate, or even an employer, you can obtain invaluable career development assistance at your college. Campus career centers can support, guide, and empower you in every step of the career development process, from initial planning to achieving lifelong career satisfaction. Career Services at Austin Community College District (ACC) is where you can go for help creating and achieving your career goals. You can access information online and meet individually for one on one assistance: www.austincc.edu/career - Resources for career information - Guidance in defining academic and career goals - Support in creating a career plan - Information about employment and internship opportunities - Job search assistance (resume, interview prep, etc.) - Employer connections and events - Labor market information - Career assessments - Career counseling Career Development Resources in our Community Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) is the state agency that oversees workforce development services to employers and job seekers in Texas. There are twenty-eight workforce development boards that focus on the employment needs of their local area by providing job training, childcare support, unemployment insurance and job search assistance. A map can be found on the TWC website: https://www.twc.texas.gov/partners/workforce-development-boards-websites The workforce development boards that serve the ACC community are: Workforce Solutions Capital Area: http://www.wfscapitalarea.com/ and Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area: https://workforcesolutionsrca.com/ Another career resource in our community is Capital Idea. It is a non-profit organization that provides free tuition, financial support, and professional guidance to qualifying, non-traditional students wanting to move into high growth careers with high earnings potential. https://www.capitalidea.org/ Additional Career Planning Resources Technology also makes career resources available at home. A good place to start exploring is ACC’s Library Services which provides a comprehensive online page with career information and resources: https://researchguides.austincc.edu/careerinfo/general And for even more tools and information, ACC’s Career Services offers a comprehensive Career Essentials Guide, an online resume builder, and an interactive interview preparation program as well as links to other resources: https://www.austincc.edu/students/career-services/career-resources Key Takeaways - The five main stages of career development are unique for everyone and correlate with attitudes, behaviors, and relationships we all experience at certain points and ages in our lives. - Since it is common for individuals to change careers five to seven times in a lifetime, it is important to know that there is a road map for career journeys with clear steps to lead the way. - There are many career development resources available to you on campus, in the community, and online to assist you in identifying strategies and steps to creating a career path that works for you. Licenses and Attributions CC licensed content, Original - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0. CC licensed content, Shared previously - Career Development. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Image of Plan, Do, Check, Act. Authored by: Karn G. Bulsuk. Located at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PDCA_Cycle.svg. License: CC BY: Attribution. License Terms: Diagram by Karn G. Bulsuk (http://www.bulsuk.com) All rights reserved - Image: Success Ahead. Created by Gerd Altmann. Provided by Pixabay. Located at: https://pixabay.com/photos/road-sign-town-sign-success-career-798176/ . License: Pixabay license Chapter 2: Goals and Motivations Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. –Henry David Thoreau LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Explain how time management plays a factor in goal setting, leading to short-term, medium-term, and long-term objectives. - Identify your specific short, medium, and long-term goals. - Identify and apply motivational strategies to support goal achievement. - Explore the social aspects of achieving goals (networking, social media, etc.). - Brainstorm factors that might hinder goal achievement and possible ways to address these issues. Time Management and Goal Setting There is no doubt that doing well in college is a sizable challenge. Every semester you have to adjust to new class schedules, instructors, classmates as well as learning objectives and requirements for each course. Along with that, you may be juggling school with work, family responsibilities, and social events. Do you feel confident that you can attend to all of them in a balanced, committed way? What will be your secret of success? SUCCESS BEGINS WITH GOALS A goal is a desired result that you envision and then plan and commit to achieve. Goals can relate to family, education, career, wellness, spirituality, and many other areas of your life. Generally, goals are associated with finite time expectations, even deadlines. As a college student, many of your goals are defined for you. For example, you must take certain courses, you must comply with certain terms and schedules, and you must turn in assignments at specified times. These goals are mostly set for you by someone else. But there are plenty of goals for you to define yourself. For example, you decide what you would like to major in. You decide how long you are going to be in college or what terms you want to enroll in. You largely plan how you would like your studies to relate to employment and your career. Goals can also be sidetracked. Consider the following scenario in which a student makes a discovery that challenges her to reexamine her goals, priorities, and timetables: Janine had thought she would be an accountant, even though she knew little about what an accounting job might entail. Her math and organizational skills were strong, and she enjoyed taking economics courses as well as other courses in her accounting program. But when one of her courses required her to spend time in an accounting office working with taxes, she decided that accounting was not the right fit for her, due to the higher-stress environment and the late hours. At first she was concerned that she invested time and money in a career path that was not a good fit. She feared that changing her major would add to her graduation time. Nevertheless, she did decide to change her major and her career focus. Janine is now a statistician with a regional healthcare system. She is very happy with her work. Changing her major from accounting to statistics was the right decision for her. This scenario represents some of the many opportunities we have, on an ongoing basis, to assess our relationship to our goals, reevaluate priorities, and adjust. Opportunities exist every day—every moment, really! Below is a set of questions we can ask ourselves at any turn to help focus on personal goals: - What are my top-priority goals? - Which of my skills and interests make my goals realistic for me? - What makes my goals believable and possible? - Are my goals measurable? How long will it take me to reach them? How will I know if I have achieved them? - Are my goals flexible? What will I do if I experience a setback? - Are my goal controllable? Can I achieve them on my own? - Are my goals in sync with my values? As you move through your college career, make a point to ask these questions regularly. Aids to Successful Goal Setting Watch the following overview of SMART goals – a memory aid in setting and evaluating goals to ensure that they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound. After watching the video, complete Activity 2.1. ACTIVITY 2.1: IDENTIFYING YOUR GOALS In order to achieve long-term goals (from college on), you will need to first achieve a series of shorter goals. Medium-term goals (this year and while in college) and short-term goals (today, this week, and this month) may take several days, weeks, months, or even a few years to complete, depending on your ultimate long-term goals. Complete the following Goals Activity to identify short and medium-term goals that will help you achieve your long-term goal. Objectives - Identify 1 long-term academic or career goal. - Identify two related medium-term and two related short-term goals that will help you achieve your long-term goal. - Identify specific, measurable, achievable, relevant activities to achieve your identified goals by a certain timeframe. Instructions - Review the worksheet below, and fill in the blank sections to the best of your ability. Guidelines - Phrase goals as positive statements: Affirm your excitement and enthusiasm about attaining a goal by using positive language and expectations. - Be exact: Set a precise goal that includes dates, times, and amounts, so that you have a basis for measuring your progress. - Prioritize: Select your top goals, and put them in order of importance. This helps you understand the degree to which you value each of them. It will also help you better manage related tasks and not feel overwhelmed. - Take the lead: Identify goals that are linked to your own performance, not dependent on the actions of other people or situations beyond your control. - Be realistic but optimistic and ambitious: The goals you set should be achievable, but sometimes it pays to reach a little higher than what you may think is possible. Certainly don’t set your goals too low. - Be hopeful, excited, and committed: Your enthusiasm and perseverance can open many doors! GOAL PRIORITIES \| MY PRECISE GOALS \| WHAT I AM DOING NOW TO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS \| Example: Long-term goal \| I will graduate with an Associate of Arts degree in Automotive Technology by May 2023. \| I am attending the college of my choice and getting good grades in my major. \| Example: Related medium-term goal \| I will find either an internship or start a part-time job at an auto repair business within the next year. \| I have created an account in ACC Career Link. I visited with Career Services to start working on my resume. When I meet with my automotive tech instructor, I will ask for recommendations for an internship. \| Example: Related short-term goal \| I will earn a 3.0 GPA this semester. \| I attend every class. I reviewed the syllabi and put due dates in my calendar with reminders. This week I have a meeting with one of my instructors to ask about my progress. I have blocked regular study time in my weekly schedule. Last week I started visiting with a Learning Lab tutor. \| Identify your Long-term goal \| \|\| Identify a related medium-term goal #1 \| \|\| Identify a related medium-term goal #2 \| \|\| Identify a related short-term goal #1 \| \|\| Identify a related short-term goal #2 \| Motivational Strategies to Support You Every day we make choices. Some are as simple as what clothes we decide to wear, what to eat for lunch, or how long to study for a test. But what about life-altering choices—the ones that leave us at a crossroads? How much thought do you give to taking Path A versus Path B? Do you like to plan and schedule your choices, by making a list of pros and cons, for instance? Or do you prefer to make decisions spontaneously and just play the cards that life deals you as they come? How do you view challenges? Have you been coming from a growth mindset or a fixed mindset? How can believing that we can learn and improve through effort contribute to our success and our ability to achieve goals? The power of “yet” by Carol Dweck Carol Dweck is a professor at Stanford and the author of Mindset, a classic work on motivation and “growth mindset.” Her work is influential among educators and increasingly among business leaders as well. She researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain’s capacity to learn and to solve problems. In this talk, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it … or have you just not solved it yet? https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve Passion and Perseverance or “Grit” by Angela Duckworth Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn’t the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success. https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance After watching the videos, reflect on how you can improve the ways you currently set goals to allow you the opportunity to apply “grit” and use your “growth mindset” in order to successfully accomplish your goals. Social Aspects of Achieving Your Goals Setting goals can be a challenge, but working toward them, once you’ve set them, can be an even greater challenge—often because it implies that you will be making changes in your life. You might be creating new directions of thought or establishing new patterns of behavior, discarding old habits or starting new ones. Change will always be the essence of achieving your goals. You may find that as you navigate this path of change, one of your best resources is your social network. Your family, friends, roommates, coworkers, and others can help you maintain a steady focus on your goals. They can encourage and cheer you on, offer guidance when needed, share knowledge and wisdom they’ve gained, and possibly partner with you in working toward shared goals and ambitions. Your social network is a gold mine of support. Here are some easy ways you can tap into goal-supporting “people power”: - Make new friends - Study with friends - Actively engage with the college community - Volunteer to help others - Join student organizations - Get an internship - Work for a company related to your curriculum - Stay connected via social media (but use it judiciously)* - Keep a positive attitude - Congratulate yourself on all you’ve done to get where you are A note about social media: More than 98 percent of college-age students use social media, says Experian Simmons. Twenty-seven percent of those students spent more than six hours a week on social media (UCLA, 2014). The University of Missouri, though, indicates in a 2015 study that this level of use may be problematic. It can lead to symptoms of envy, anxiety, and depression. Still, disconnecting from social media may have a negative impact, too, and further affect a student’s anxiety level. Is there a healthy balance? If you feel overly attached to social media, you may find immediate and tangible benefit in cutting back. By tapering your use, your can devote more time to achieving your goals. You can also gain a sense of freedom and more excitement about working toward your goals. Dealing with Setbacks and Obstacles At times, unexpected events and challenges can get in the way of best-laid plans. For example, you might get sick or injured or need to deal with a family issue or a financial crisis. Earlier in this section we considered a scenario in which a student realized she needed to change her major and her career plans. Such upsets, whether minor or major, may trigger a need to take some time off from school—perhaps a term or a year. Your priorities may shift. You may need to reevaluate your goals. Problem-Solving Strategies Below is a simple list of four problem-solving strategies. They can be applied to any aspect of your life. - What is the problem? Define it in detail. How is it affecting me and other people? - How are other people dealing with this problem? Are they adjusting their time management skills? Can they still complete responsibilities, and on time? - What is my range of possible solutions? Are solutions realistic? How might these solutions help me reach my goal/s? - What do I need to do to implement solutions? You may wish to also review the earlier set of questions about focusing with intention on goals. Be confident that you can return to your intended path in time. Acknowledge the ways in which you need to regroup. Read inspiring words from people who have faced adversity and gained. Line up your resources, be resolved, and proceed with certainty toward your goals. KEY TAKEAWAYS Success with goals (any goals—education, family, career, finances, etc.) is essentially a three-part process: - Identify your goals (specifically long-term, medium-term and short-term goals). - Set priorities to accomplish these goals. - Manage your time according to the priorities you have set. By following these three straightforward steps, you can more readily achieve goals because you clearly organize the process and follow through with commitment. Focus your sights on what you want to acquire, attain, or achieve. Prioritize the steps you need to take to get there. And organize your tasks into manageable chunks and blocks of time. These are the roadways to accomplishment and fulfillment. In the following passage from Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom, former political-science student Patricia Munsch—now a college counselor—reflects on how a structured, conscientious approach to decision-making and goal setting in college can lead to fulfillment and achievement. WHAT DO YOU ENJOY STUDYING? There is a tremendous amount of stress placed on college students regarding their choice of major. Everyday, I meet with students regarding their concern about choosing right major; the path that will lead to a fantastic, high-paying position in a growth industry. There is a hope that one decision, your college major, will have a huge impact on the rest of your life. Students shy away from subject areas they enjoy due to fear that such coursework will not lead to a job. I am disappointed in this approach. As a counselor I always ask—what do you enjoy studying? Based on this answer it is generally easy to choose a major or a family of majors. I recognize the incredible pressure to secure employment after graduation, but forcing yourself to choose a major that you may not have any actual interest in because a book or website mentioned the area of growth may not lead to the happiness you predict. Working in a college setting I have the opportunity to work with students through all walks of life, and I do believe based on my experience, that choosing a major because it is listed as a growth area alone is not a good idea. Use your time in college to explore all areas of interest and utilize your campus resources to help you make connections between your joy in a subject matter and the potential career paths. Realize that for most people, in most careers, the undergraduate major does not lead to a linear career path. As an undergraduate student I majored in Political Science, an area that I had an interest in, but I added minors in Sociology and Women’s Studies as my educational pursuits broadened. Today, as a counselor, I look back on my coursework with happy memories of exploring new ideas, critically analyzing my own assumptions, and developing an appreciation of social and behavioral sciences. So to impart my wisdom in regards to a student’s college major, I will always ask, what do you enjoy studying? Once you have determined what you enjoy studying, the real work begins. Students need to seek out academic advisement. Academic advisement means many different things; it can include course selection, course completion for graduation, mapping coursework to graduation, developing opportunities within your major and mentorship. As a student I utilized a faculty member in my department for semester course selection, and I also went to the department chairperson to organize two different internships to explore different career paths. In addition, I sought mentorship from club advisors as I questioned my career path and future goals. In my mind I had a team of people providing me support and guidance, and as a result I had a great college experience and an easy transition from school to work. I recommend to all students that I meet with to create their own team. As a counselor I can certainly be a part of their team, but I should not be the only resource. Connect with faculty in your department or in your favorite subject. Seek out internships as you think about the transition from college to workplace. Find mentors through faculty, club advisors, or college staff. We all want to see you succeed and are happy to be a part of your journey. As a counselor I am always shocked when students do not understand what courses they need to take, what grade point average they need to maintain, and what requirements they must fulfill in order to reach their goal—graduation! Understand that as a college student it is your responsibility to read your college catalog and meet all of the requirements for graduation from your college. I always suggest that students, starting in their first semester, outline or map out all of the courses they need to take in order to graduate. Of course you may change your mind along the way, but by setting out your plan to graduation you are forcing yourself to learn what is required of you. I do this exercise in my classes and it is by far the most frustrating for students. They want to live in the now and they don’t want to worry about next semester or next year. However, for many students that I see, the consequence of this decision is a second semester senior year filled with courses that the student avoided during all the previous semesters. If you purposefully outline each semester and the coursework for each, you can balance your schedule, understand your curriculum and feel confident that you will reach your goal. —Dr. Patricia Munsch, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 - Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset: An Introduction. Authored By: PERT and Rita Kitchen. Provided by: TED-Ed. Located at: https://ed.ted.com/best_of_web/qrZmOV7R. License: CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Carol Dweck: The Power of Believing That You Can Improve. Provided by: TED. Located at: https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve. License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives - Angela Lee Duckworth: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Provided by: TED. Located at: https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance. License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives - Defining Goals. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Foundations of College Success: Words of Wisdom. Authored by: Thomas C. Priester, editor. Provided by: Open SUNY Textbooks. Located at: http://textbooks.opensuny.org/foundations-of-academic-success/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - Image: Children Splash Asia Sunset. Created by: Sasin Tipcha.Provided by: Pixabay. Located at: https://pixabay.com/photos/children-splash-asia-sunset-1822688/ License: Standard Pixabay License - SMART Goals - Quick Overview . Located at: https://youtu.be/1-SvuFIQjK8. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License RETURN TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 3: Values and Decision Making When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier. -- Roy Disney LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: - Define your work values. - Learn steps to a rational decision-making model. - Understand how making decisions based on values can lead to career satisfaction. Values An essential part in your self discovery journey of your career exploration process is identifying what is most important to you–your values–and learn how they influence and motivate your goals. Values drive our actions and they motivate your goals. Your goals help you establish your priorities in life, guide your decision-making, and affect your evaluation of your success and happiness in life. Take time to reflect what being successful means to you. It will be different for you than for other people. Think of your values as you are thinking about becoming successful. Here's a video of a spoken word performance by Rashad Hedgepeth at a TEDx event titled, “Values”. VALUES As defined at CareerOneStop, a source for employment information sponsored by the US Department of Labor: - Values are your beliefs about what is important or desirable. - When your values line up with how you live and work, you tend to feel more satisfied and confident. - Living or working in ways that contradict your values can lead to dissatisfaction, confusion, and discouragement. So there is good reason to clarify your values, and seek to match your work to them. Identify Your Work Values The best career choices are ones that match your values. So do you know what your values are? Complete the following activity to review the work values that are most important to you. ACTIVITY 3.1: IDENTIFY YOUR WORK VALUES Complete the following activities offered by CareerOneStop to review your work values: - Visit the CareerOneStop Work Values Matcher and complete the card sort exercise. - Review your results and read about all six of the universal work values developed by the U.S. Department of Labor’s ONET program. Click on the ones that best describe you to see careers that highlight that value. What do you notice when reading about the careers that express your top values? Making Decisions Based on Values Decision making refers to making choices among alternative courses of action—which may also include inaction. Not all decisions in life have major consequences or even require a lot of thought. For example, before you come to class, you make simple and habitual decisions such as what to wear, what to eat, and which route to take as you go to and from home and school. You probably do not spend much time on these mundane decisions. However, decisions that are unique and important require conscious thinking, information gathering, and careful consideration of alternatives. In this case, making a decision about your future career is an important one that requires a thoughtful review of what you consider most important in life, your values. Increasing effectiveness in decision making is an important part of maximizing your effectiveness at work. How do you normally make important decisions? Toss a coin? Take advice from trusted role-models? Or let fate decide for you? It is important to be self-aware, especially when it comes to making difficult and important life decisions. We will examine here a decision making model which includes a series of steps to help decision makers make the best choice. Decision Making Model Let’s imagine that your old, clunky car has broken down, and you have enough money saved for a substantial down payment on a new car. It will be the first major purchase of your life, and you want to make the right choice. The first step, therefore, has already been completed—the problem is that you need a new vehicle and need to choose one to buy. In Step 2, you will decide which factors you value most in a vehicle. How many passengers do you want to accommodate? How important is fuel economy to you? Is safety a major concern? You only have a certain amount of money saved, and you don’t want to take on too much debt, so price range is probably an important factor as well. Perhaps you have identified the following as being important to you: room for at least five adults, minimum gas mileage of twenty MPG, a strong safety rating, and no more than $20,000 in price. These are the decision criteria which you have identified. Now, for Step 3, you should allocate weight or determine how important each factor is to your decision. If each is equally important, then there is no need to weigh them, but if you know that price and mpg are key factors, you might weigh them more and weigh the other criteria as being less important. In step 4, you will narrow your choices and develop alternatives. Perhaps, after speaking with others and researching vehicles in unbiased journals and online resources, you are trying to decide between a small SUV, a sports car and a fairly new, but used sedan. For step 5 you can now analyze the alternatives. Using the criteria you established in step 2, analyze each vehicle. Usually it is easier to create a spreadsheet or pros and cons list. Start with the factors that you identified as most important to you. Does the SUV cost less than $20,000? How about the sports car? Or the sedan? Continue to evaluate each vehicle based on your remaining criteria. After weighing the evidence for each, for step 6, choose the best alternative. Remember to give greater weight to the factors that you identified as most important. That means that a vehicle that doesn’t meet your MPG and price needs should not be highest on your list, despite how good you look driving it! For step 7, you take action and purchase your car with confidence knowing that you have made an informed decision. Of course, reviewing the outcome of this decision will influence the next decision made. That is where step 8 comes in. For example, if you purchase a car and have nothing but problems with it, you will be less likely to consider the same make and model when purchasing a car the next time. Perhaps a new important factor will be the maintenance expectations. The decision-making process has important lessons for decision makers. - First, when making a decision, you may want to make sure that you establish your decision criteria before you search for alternatives. This would prevent you from liking one option too much and setting your criteria accordingly. For example, let’s say you started browsing cars online before you generated your decision criteria. You may come across a car that you feel reflects your sense of style and you develop an emotional bond with the car. Then, because of your love for the particular car, you may say to yourself that the fuel economy of the car and the innovative braking system are the most important criteria. After purchasing it, you may realize that the car is too small for your friends to ride in the back seat, which was something you should have thought about. Setting criteria before you search for alternatives may prevent you from making such mistakes. Another advantage of the rational model is that it urges decision makers to generate all alternatives instead of only a few. By generating a large number of alternatives that cover a wide range of possibilities, you are unlikely to make a more effective decision that does not require sacrificing one criterion for the sake of another. - Second, despite all its benefits, you may have noticed that this decision-making model involves a number of unrealistic assumptions as well. It assumes that people completely understand the decision to be made, that they know all their available choices, that they have no perceptual biases, and that they want to make optimal decisions. - Additionally, while decision makers can get off track during any of these steps, research shows that searching for alternatives in the fourth step can be the most challenging. Think about how you make important decisions in your life. It is likely that you rarely sit down and complete all eight of the steps in the rational decision-making model. For example, this model proposed that we should search for all possible alternatives before making a decision, but that process is time consuming, and individuals are often under time pressure to make decisions. Moreover, even if we had access to all the information that was available, it could be challenging to compare the pros and cons of each alternative and rank them according to our preferences. Learning from these important lessons, you can use the work values you identified from Acitivity 3.1 as your criteria in your career exploration. This will help you focus on what is most important to you so that you can choose a career that will help you feel fulfilled and satisfied. Once you decide on a career, your decision will help guide the goals you set for yourself from your college education to your future career. For help to stay on track in this journey, you can seek assistance from the information and resources you learn in this class as well as counselors and career staff at the college to guide your search. KEY TAKEAWAYS Having a clear understanding of your life and career values will help make your decisions in school and work easier. - First, identify your values, what you find most important and essential in life. - Second, use your values to guide your decision making in your education and career options. - Finally, practice a decision-making process that provides you the opportunity to discover all of your choices so that you can make the best decisions based on all the options you have. LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 - Values: spoken word performance. Created by: Rashad Hedgepeth. Provided by TEDx. Located at: https://youtu.be/eI1yo-a3QBs License: CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Understanding Decision Making. Located at: https://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmanagement/chapter/11-3-understanding-decision-making/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - Image: Compass Direction. Created by: PDPics Provided by: Pixabay. Located at: https://pixabay.com/photos/compass-direction-magnetic-compass-390907/ . License: Standard Pixabay License - ONET Online. Located at: https://www.onetonline.org/. License: All Rights Reserved PUBLIC DOMAIN CONTENT - Provided by: Career OneStop. Located at: https://www.careeronestop.org/. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright Chapter 4: Personality, Skills, and Interests Image by Andre Mouton for Pixabay Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. – Aristotle Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Understand personality preferences based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI). - Explore the qualities of personality types that you most identify with. - Research job titles that matches your preferred work styles. - List specific skills that will be necessary for your career path - List transferable skills that will be valuable for any career path - Identify your skills and interests according to Dr. John Holland’s Occupational Themes - Determine career paths that align with your occupational code - Explain how to acquire necessary skills, both in and out of class, for your career goals Now that you have reviewed the concepts of goal setting and identified values most important to you, the next part of the career development process will help you to reflect on personal preferences. By doing this, you will understand the work environment that you will naturally find a greater fit in. The career development process is all about you. You are a unique individual with a distinct combination of personality traits, skills, and interests, skills. Self -knowledge can help you in your career decision-making process to discover careers that are the best match for you. Personality Type Taking the time to ensure that your personality is compatible with your career choice is extremely important. If you do not invest the time now to figure out what makes you happy and keeps you motivated every day, you could be very unhappy in the future. Why is personality so important? Learning about your personality allows you to think about your emotions, behaviors, and ways of thinking on a day-to-day basis. For example, do you prefer to work alone or do you prefer to work with others? Would you be content in a career that requires you to be extremely organized and have a set schedule? Or are you the type of person that likes to have an open, flexible schedule that allows you to be spontaneous? This information will assist you in deciding which career(s) match with your personality preferences. To review personality preferences, one of the most common tools used to understand personality preferences is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI). Some organizations (such as law enforcement) use it to find out more about the personalities of their potential employees, some universities use the MBTI to learn more about the personalities of potential graduate students considering psychology, counseling, and social work fields, and it is commonly used in relationship therapy to help individuals understand each other and their behaviors better. Watch the following video to get an introduction to the MBTI. Personality Theory: The 4 Facets - Extroversion-Introversion (EI): how you get your energy and where you prefer to focus your attention - Sensing-Intuition (SN): how you take in information about the world around you - Thinking-Feeling (TF): how you like to make decisions - Judging-Perceiving (JP): how you prefer to organize your life Complete the following activity to identify your personality type based on your own self- reflection. Then compare the results with the personality assessment at the website later in the chapter to see how your results are similar and different. Activity 4.1: What’s Your Type? Read descriptions for the four facets. Pick which is more like you. - E (Extraversion) or I (Introversion)? - S (Sensing) or N (Intuition)? - T (Thinking) or F (Feeling)? - J (Judging) or P (Perceiving)? Could be described as: Then you prefer (E) Extraversion \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (I) Introversion \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (S) Sensing \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (N) Intuition \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (T) Thinking \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (F) Feeling \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (J) Judging \| Could be described as: Then you prefer (P)Perceiving \| What is your 4-letter personality type? __ __ __ __ The following are brief descriptions of the 16 personality types from Humanmetrics. Click on your personality type or a similar type to see which describes you best. The 16 personality types \| \|\|\| Work Styles ONET OnLine provides an online tool that helps you to review your personal characteristics and how they can affect how well one performs a job. This tool is available via the Work Styles search function on ONET OnLine. You can browse ONet data by clicking on the quality that you think best represents you including achievement, innovation, and leadership to explore the different jobs that will require the specific characteristic. Skills In addition to personality, skills are also important to consider in the career development process. If you lived and worked in colonial times in the United States, what skills would you need to be gainfully employed? What kind of person would your employer want you to be? And how different would your skills and aptitudes be then, compared to today? Many industries that developed during the 1600s–1700s, such as health care, publishing, manufacturing, construction, finance, and farming, are still with us today. And the professional abilities, aptitudes, and values required in those industries are many of the same ones employers seek today. For example, in the health care field then, just like today, employers looked for professionals with scientific insight, active listening skills, a service orientation, oral comprehension abilities, and teamwork skills. And in the financial field then, just like today, employers looked for economics and accounting skills, mathematical reasoning skills, clerical and administrative skills, and deductive reasoning. Why is it that with the passage of time and all the changes in the work world, some skills remain unchanged (or little changed)? The answer might lie in the fact there are are two main types of skills that employers look for: hard skills and soft skills. Hard Skills & Soft Skills - Hard skills are concrete or objective abilities that you learn and perhaps have mastered. They are skills you can easily quantify, like using a computer, speaking a foreign language, or operating a machine. You might earn a certificate, a college degree, or other credentials that attest to your hard-skill competencies. Obviously, because of changes in technology, the hard skills required by industries today are vastly different from those required centuries ago. - Soft skills, on the other hand, are subjective skills that have changed very little over time. Such skills might pertain to the way you relate to people, or the way you think, or the ways in which you behave—for example, listening attentively, working well in groups, and speaking clearly. Soft skills are sometimes also called “transferable skills” because you can easily transfer them from job to job or profession to profession without much training. What Employers Want in an Employee Employers want individuals who have the necessary hard and soft skills to do the job well and adapt to changes in the workplace. Soft skills may be especially in demand today because employers are generally equipped to train new employees in a hard skill—by training them to use new computer software, for instance—but it’s much more difficult to teach an employee a soft skill such as developing rapport with coworkers or knowing how to manage conflict. An employer might rather hire an inexperienced worker who can pay close attention to details than an experienced worker who might cause problems on a work team. In this section, you will look at ways of identifying and building particular hard and soft skills that will be necessary for your career path. You will also learn how to use your time and resources wisely to acquire critical skills for your career goals. Transferable Skills for Any Career Path Transferable (soft) skills may be used in multiple professions. They include, but are by no means limited to, skills listed below: - Dependable and punctual (showing up on time, ready to work, not being a liability) - Self-motivated - Enthusiastic - Committed - Willing to learn (lifelong learner) - Able to accept constructive criticism - A good problem solver - Strong in customer service skills - Adaptable (willing to change and take on new challenges) - A team player - Positive attitude - Strong communication skills - Good in essential work skills (following instructions, possessing critical thinking skills, knowing limits) - Ethical - Safety conscious - Honest - Strong in time management Career Readiness The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) defines career readiness as a foundation from which to demonstrate the core competencies that broadly prepare college educated for success in the workplace and lifelong career management. These are the key skills and abilities that employers have identified as being highly valuable across all job functions. Career and Self-Development: Proactively develop oneself and one's career through continual personal and professional learning, awareness of one's strengths and weaknesses, navigation of career opportunities, and networking to build relationships within and without one's organization. Communication: Clearly and efffectively exchange information, ideas, facts, and perspectives with persons inside and outside of an organization. Critical Thinking: Identify and respond to needs based upon an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of relevant information. Equity and Inclusion: Demonstrate the awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills required to equitably engage and include people from different local and global cultures. Engage in anti-racist practices that actively challenge the systems, structures, and policies of racism. Leadership: Recognize and capitalize on personal and team strengths to achieve organizational goals. Professionalism: Knowing work environments differ greatly, understand and demonstrate effective work habits, and act in the interest of the larger community and workplace. Teamwork: Build and maintain collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals, while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities. Technology: Understand and leverage technolgies ethically to enhance efficiencies, complete tasks, and accomplish goals. Do these career readiness skills look familiar? Of course! They are another way to describe the soft and transferable skills which can be more difficult to define than hard skills, but they are often more important to employers. Imagine that you are the hiring authority at your company. What would you look for in a new hire? These skills are transferable because they are positive attributes that are invaluable in practically any kind of work. They also do not require much training from an employer—you have them already and take them with you wherever you go. Soft skills are a big part of your “total me” package. So, identify the soft skills that show you off the best, and identify the ones that prospective employers are looking for. By comparing both sets, you can more directly gear your job search to your strongest professional qualities. ACTIVITY 4.2: IDENTIFYING YOUR SKILLS Objective: - To self identify your Top 5 transferable (soft) skills, skills you are good at, and those skills you wish to learn or develop further. Instructions: - Review the list of transferable skills list and additional checklist of transferable skills above to complete the chart below. Top 5 Skills I Enjoy Using \| Top 5 Skills That Come Naturally \| Top 5 Skills I Want to Learn \| \| 1 \| \|\|\| 2 \| \|\|\| 3 \| \|\|\| 4 \| \|\|\| 5 \| 10 Top Skills You Need to Get a Job When You Graduate The following video summarizes the ten top skills that the Target corporation believes will get you a job when you graduate. You can read a transcript of the video here. Assessing Your Skills and Interests In this section you will continue to assess your skills and your interests in more depth. Most career assessment tests created to measure skills and interests are based on the career theory developed by Dr. John Holland. The following video from Weber University provides you with an introduction to the Holland codes and occupation themes: As mentioned in the video, Holland defined six categories of people based on personality, interests, and skills: - Realistic: These people describe themselves as honest, loyal, and practical. They are doers more than thinkers. They have strong mechanical, motor, and athletic abilities; like the outdoors; and prefer working with machines, tools, plants, and animals. - Investigative: These people love problem solving and analytical skills. They are intellectually stimulated and often mathematically or scientifically inclined; like to observe, learn, and evaluate; prefer working alone; and are reserved. - Artistic: These people are the “free spirits.” They are creative, emotional, intuitive, and idealistic; have a flair for communicating ideas; dislike structure and prefer working independently; and like to sing, write, act, paint, and think creatively. They are similar to the investigative type but are interested in the artistic and aesthetic aspects of things more than the scientific. - Social: These are “people” people. They are friendly and outgoing; love to help others, make a difference, or both; have strong verbal and personal skills and teaching abilities; and are less likely to engage in intellectual or physical activity. - Enterprising: These people are confident, assertive risk takers. They are sociable; enjoy speaking and leadership; like to persuade rather than guide; like to use their influence; have strong interpersonal skills; and are status conscious. - Conventional: These people are dependable, detail oriented, disciplined, precise, persistent, and practical; value order; and are good at clerical and numerical tasks. They work well with people and data, so they are good organizers, schedulers, and project managers. ACTIVITY 4.3: What’s Your Occupational Type? Objective: - To determine your occupational types and code Instructions: - Using the descriptions above, choose the three types that most closely describe you and list them in order in the following table. Most people are combinations of two or sometimes three types. - Then list the specific words or attributes that you feel describe you best. - After determining your primary, secondary, and tertiary occupational types, take the first initial for each type, in order, to establish your occupational code. Occupational Type \| Words and Attributes That Closely Describe Me \| Primary type (the one I identify with most closely) \| \| Secondary type \| \| Tertiary type \| Note: Your occupational code is made up of the initials of the three personality types you selected, in order. My occupational code: ___ ___ ___ (For example: if Social, Enterprising, and Conventional are your top three occupational types, your occupational code would be: S E C) Exploring Careers and Your Occupational Type Now that you have determined your top three occupational types, you can begin to explore the types of careers that may be best suited for you. Holland studied people who were successful and happy in many occupations and matched their occupations to their occupational type, creating a description of the types of occupations that are best suited to each personality type. Just as many individuals are more than one personality type, many jobs show a strong correlation to more than one occupational type. Use the top thee occupation types you defined in Exercise 4.2 “What’s Your Occupational Type?” to help identify careers you may want to consider from the table below. Table 4.1 Occupational Options by Type Ideal Environments \| Sample Occupations \| \| Realistic \| \| \| Investigative \| \| \| Artistic \| \| \| Social \| \| \| Enterprising \| \| \| Conventional \| \| \| ACC’s Career Coach also has an interest assessment. You have a choice between a quick start 6 question version similar to the self-reflection exercise above or a detailed 60 question version based on the ONET Interest Profiler. After answering the questions, you will be given your top three interest themes and suggested career matches with career information and local job market information. You can also check out the Department of Labor’s ONet (http://online.onetcenter.org/find) to get a deeper understanding of your occupation. For each occupation, ONet lists the type of work, the work environment, the skills and education required, and the job outlook for that occupation. This is a truly rich resource that you should get to know. Identify Which Factors Might Affect Your Choice You may now have a list of careers you want to explore. But there are other factors you will need to take into consideration as well. It is important to use your creative thinking skills to come up with alternative “right” answers to factors that may present an obstacle to pursuing the right career. - Timing. How much time must I invest before I actually start making money in this career? Will I need to spend additional time in school? Is there a certification process that requires a specific amount of experience? If so, can I afford to wait? - Finances. Will this career provide me with the kind of income I need in the short term and the security I’ll want in the longer term? What investment will I need to make to be successful in this field (education, tools, franchise fees, etc.)? - Location. Does this career require me to relocate? Is the ideal location for this career somewhere I would like to live? Is it somewhere my family would like to live? - Family/personal. How will this career affect my personal and family life? Do friends and family members who know me well feel strongly (for or against) about this career choice? How important is their input? Your Next Steps It may seem odd to be thinking about life after school, especially if you are just getting started. But you will soon be making decisions about your future, and regardless of the direction you may choose, there is a lot you can do while still in college. You will need to focus your studies by choosing a major. You should find opportunities to explore the careers that interest you. You can ensure that you are building the right kind of experience on which to base a successful career. These steps will make your dreams come to life and make them achievable. Start by developing a relationship with your AoS Advisor for guidance on the academic requirements for your career goals. Will you need to prepare to transfer to a university? If you are in a workforce development program, start building relationships with your instructors as many still work in your field of interest and can give you great tips on how to get started. Another great resource is ACC’s Career Services. They can provide information on internships and strategies to help you connect with employers. And, if you are still undecided, start meeting with a career counselor. It is never too early to start thinking of your plans after college! All too often students engage these counselors only near the end of their college days, when the pressure is just on getting a job—any job—after having completed their certificate or degree. But these counselors can be of great help in matching your interests to a career and in ensuring you are gathering the right kind of experience to put you at the top of the recruiting heap. Keep in mind that deciding on and pursuing a career is an ongoing process. The more you learn about yourself and the career options that best suit you, the more you will need to fine-tune your career plan. Don’t be afraid to consider new ideas, but don’t make changes without careful consideration. Career planning is exciting: learning about yourself and about career opportunities, and considering the factors that can affect your decision, should be a core part of your thoughts while in college. Learn Specific Skills Necessary for Your Career Path The table below lists three resources to help you determine which concrete skills are needed for all kinds of professions. You can even discover where you might gain some of the skills and which courses you might take. Spend some time reviewing each resource. You will find many interesting and exciting options. When you are finished, you may decide that there are so many interesting professions in the world that it’s difficult to choose just one. This is a good problem to have! Table 4.2 Online Skills Identification Resources RESOURCE \| DESCRIPTION \| \| 1 \| Career Aptitude Test (Rasmussen College) \| This test helps you match your skills to a particular career that’s right for you. Use a sliding scale to indicate your level of skill in the following skill areas: artistic, interpersonal, communication, managerial, mathematics, mechanical, and science. Press the Update Results button and receive a customized list customized of career suggestions tailored to you, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can filter by salary, expected growth, and education. \| 2 \| Skills Matcher (Career OneStop from the U.S. Department of Labor) \| Use the Skills Profiler to create a list of your skills, and match your skills to job types that use those skills. Plan to spend about 20 minutes completing your profile. You can start with a job type to find skills you need for a current or future job. Or if you are not sure what kind of job is right for you, start by rating your own skills to find a job type match. When your skills profile is complete, you can print it or save it. \| 3 \| This U.S. government website helps job seekers answer two of their toughest questions: “What jobs can I get with my skills and training?” and “What skills and training do I need to get this job?” Browse groups of similar occupations to explore careers. Choose from industry, field of work, science area, and more. Focus on occupations that use a specific tool or software. Explore occupations that need your skills. Connect to a wealth of ONET data. Enter a code or title from another classification to find the related ONET-SOC occupation. \| Acquiring Necessary Skills (both in and out of class) for Your Career Goals “Lifelong learning” is a buzz phrase in the twentieth-first century because we are inundated with new technology and information all the time, and those who know how to learn, continuously, are in the best position to keep up and take advantage of these changes. Think of all the information resources around you: colleges and universities, libraries, the Internet, videos, games, books, films—the list goes on. With these resources at your disposal, how can you best position yourself for lifelong learning and a strong, viable career? Which hard and soft skills are most important? What are employers really looking for? The following list was inspired by the remarks of Mark Atwood, director of open-source engagement at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. It contains excellent practical advice. - Learn how to write clearly. After you’ve written something, have people edit it. Then rewrite it, taking into account the feedback you received. Write all the time. - Learn how to speak. Speak clearly on the phone and at a table. For public speaking, try Toastmasters. “Meet and speak. Speak and write.” - Be reachable. Publish your email so that people can contact you. Don’t worry about spam. - Learn about computers and computing, even if you aren’t gearing for a career in information technology. Learn something entirely new every six to twelve months. - Build relationships within your community. Use tools like Meetup.com and search for clubs at local schools, libraries, and centers. Then, seek out remote people around the country and world. Learn about them and their projects first by searching the Internet. - Attend conferences and events. This is a great way to network with people and meet them face-to-face. - Find a project and get involved. Start reading questions and answers, then start answering questions. - Collaborate with people all over the world. - Keep your LinkedIn profile and social media profiles up-to-date. Be findable. - Keep learning. Skills will often beat smarts. Be sure to schedule time for learning and having fun! Just Get Involved Even as a new college student, there are actions that you can take now to help you create the experiences and build the skils that employers want. What seems like an unrelated part-time job or fun extracurricular activity can help you develop valuable skills, create a network, and connect you with job openings that may be a good fit for your skills. The video, below, gives tips from students at Monash University in Australia that are relevant to all students: - Get involved in part-time work - Get involved in extracurricular activities - Get involved with the employment and career services offered at your school “Just Get involved. There are so many opportunities and open doors for you.” Key Takeaways - The right career for you depends on your interests, your personality, and your skills. - Learning about your personality helps you to think about your emotions, behaviors, and ways of thinking on a day to day basis. An awareness of these things will help you to find a career that compliments your personality. - Employers look for both hard and soft (transferable) skills in future employees; however transferable skills may be in more demand because they help people adapt to a variety of different jobs and professions without much training. - Defining your occupational type may confirm career choices you have already made and open entirely new options for you. - Connect with a college counselor early in your career development process to help you match your skills, personality and interests with potential jobs and eventually a career that best suits you. - Career planning is an ongoing process involving knowing yourself, knowing about career options, and understanding the context in which your decisions will be made. Licenses and Attributions CC licensed content, Original - Image by Andre Mouton. Provided by: Pixabay. Found at: https://pixabay.com/photos/monkey-mirror-thinking-reflection-4788334/ License: Standard Pixabay License - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 CC licensed content, Shared previously - Professional Skill Building. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Line B: Employability Skills Competency . Provided by: Camosun College. Located at: http://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/?uuid=c9bcd8df-17a3-4cf8-8400-426f395b3a62&contributor=&keyword=&subject=Common+Core. License: CC BY: Attribution - 7 skills to land your open source dream job. Authored by: Jason Hibbets. Located at: https://opensource.com/business/14/4/open-source-job-skills. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - Foundations of College Success: Words of Wisdom. Authored by: Thomas C. Priester, editor. Provided by: Open SUNY Textbooks. Located at: http://textbooks.opensuny.org/foundations-of-academic-success/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike - What's Your Personality Type?. Located at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MyersBriggsTypes.png. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - Career Exploration. Located at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/freshmanexperience/chapter/12-2-career-exploration/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike All rights reserved content - Career Readiness: Competencies for a Career-Ready Workforce. Provided by: NACE, Revised March 2021. Located at: www.naceweb.org/career-readiness-competencies - Myers Briggs (MBTI) Explained - Personality Quiz. Created by: Practical Psychology. Provided by: YouTube. Located at: https://youtu.be/2ZF4OM6mrrI. License: All Rights Reserved - Preworkshop Video - Holland Codes. Authored by: Weber State University Career Services. Provided by: Weber State University. Located at: https://youtu.be/fNGa-_u7nQU. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - 10 top skills that will get you a job when you graduate. Authored by: TARGETjobs. Located at: https://youtu.be/jKtbaUzHLvw. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - How to find a new jobu2014Transferable Job Skills. Authored by: Learn English with Rebecca. Located at: https://youtu.be/7Kt4nz8KT_Y. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Tips to improve your career from Monash Graduates. Authored by: Monash University. Located at: https://youtu.be/7EBDrTdccAY. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Discover Your Personality Type \| Myers Briggs . Provided by: YouTube. Located at: https://youtu.be/WQoOqQiVzwQ. License: All Rights Reserved - Work Styles. Provided by: ONET OnLine. Located at: https://www.onetonline.org/find/descriptor/browse/Work_Styles/. License: All Rights Reserved Chapter 5: College and Exploring Careers Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Stay focused, go after your dreams, and keep moving toward your goals. —L L Cool J, musician Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Identify your motivations for attending college as it relates to your future career goals - Review your individual career profile - Explore activities to gain knowledge and experience about your future career College and Career Knowing what you truly want to gain from your college experience is the first step toward achieving it. But reaching your goals doesn’t necessarily mean you are college and career ready. Ultimately, college and career readiness demands students know more than just content, but demonstrate that they know how to learn and build upon that content to solve problems. They must develop versatile communication skills, work collaboratively and work competitively in a school or work environment. Ensuring that you possess both the academic and technical know-how necessary for a career beyond the classroom is a great step toward succeeding on whatever path you choose. —Washington, DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education What does it mean to be ready for college and a career? In general, you are a college- and career-ready student if you have gained the necessary knowledge, skills, and professional behaviors to achieve at least one of the following: - Earn a certificate or degree in college - Participate in career training - Enter the workplace and succeed For instance, if you are studying for a skilled trade license in college, or perhaps pursuing a bachelor of arts degree, you are college-ready if you have the reading, writing, mathematics, social, and thinking skills to qualify for and succeed in the academic program of your choice. Similarly, you are a career-ready student if you have the necessary knowledge and technical skills needed to be employed in your desired field. For example, if you are a community college student ready to be a nurse, you possess the knowledge and skill needed to secure an entry-level nursing position, and you also possess required licensing. For a long time, my plan had always been to be a kindergarten teacher. But when I began my undergraduate degree I fell into that ever-growing pool of college students who changed their major three times before graduation. I was swayed by family members, my peers, and the economy, but I eventually realized that I was investing my education in the wrong areas for the wrong reasons. It shouldn’t just be about salaries and job security. I needed to find that personal attachment. At eighteen, it’s hard to see your entire life spread out before you. College may feel like a free-for-all at times, but the reality is that it’s one of the most defining times of our lives. It should never be squandered. I started to imagine my life beyond college—what I found important and the type of lifestyle I wanted in the end. I started thinking about the classes that I was actually interested in—the ones that I looked forward to each week and arrived early to just so I could get a seat up front. A turning point for me was when I took the advice of a campus mentor and enrolled in a career exploration course. I learned more about myself in that class than I had in my entire three years at college prior to taking it. It showed me that my passion was something I had always thought about but never thought about as a career. . . . Through this realization and my participation in my career exploration class, I saw a viable future in the Higher Education Administration field. —Jamie Edwards, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom The Marriage of College and Career The oldest institution of higher learning in the United States is widely acknowledged to be Harvard University. It was established in 1636 with the aim of providing instruction in arts and sciences to qualify students for employment. In the 1779 Constitution of Massachusetts submitted by Samuel Adams, John Adams, and James Bowdoin to the full Massachusetts Convention, the following language was used: Art. I.—Whereas our wise and pious ancestors, so early as the year one thousand six hundred and thirty six, laid the foundation of Harvard-College, in which University many persons of great eminence have, by the blessing of GOD, been initiated in those arts and sciences, which qualified them for public employments, both in Church and State . . . Is “public employment” preparation still the goal of higher education institutions today? Indeed, it is certainly one of the many goals! College is also an opportunity for students to grow personally and intellectually. In fact, in a 2018 report titled, “Why Higher Ed?” from a Strada-Gallup Education Consumer Report Survey, students reported their motivations for pursuing a college education: - 58% related to job and career outcomes. - 23 % a general motivation to learn more and gain knowledge without linking it to work or career aspirations. - 12 percent because of family or social expectations. These statistics are understandable in light of the great reach and scope of higher education institutions. Today, there are some 5,300 colleges and universities in the United States, offering every manner of education and training to students. What do employers think about the value of a college education? What skills do employers seek in their workforce? Those that are developed through college coursework across disciplines as well as the personal skills needed to succeed in college. In 2016, a survey by the Society for Human Resource Managers found that these were the most important skills for entry-level positions across industries: - Dependability & Reliability - Integrity - Teamwork - Custom Focus - Initiative - Professionalism - Adaptability - Respect - Critical Thinking - Oral Communication - Planning & Organization - Written Communication In 2018, Hart Research Associates conducted a survey on behalf of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The survey revealed that the majority of employers believe that a college education is valuable and important. The best preparation for long-term career success is broad learning and skills found across all majors. The learning outcomes they rate as most important include oral and written communication, critical thinking, ethical decision-making, teamwork, critical thinking, and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings.[1] Employment Rates and Salaries Consider, too, the following statistics on employment rates and salaries for college graduates. College does make a big difference! - Over the course of a 50-year working life, a male with a bachelor’s degree will earn $900,000 more in median lifetime earnings than high school graduates. (SSA)[2] - In 2019, young adults ages 25 to 34 with a bachelor’s degree or higher had the highest employment rate (87%). (NCES)[3] - In 2019, the employment rate for those some college, including an associate’s degree (80%) was higher than the rate for those who just completed high school (74%) and those who had not finished high school (57%). (NCES)[3] - Employment rates were generally higher for males than females at each level of educational attainment in 2019. (NCES)[3] - There is a wider earnings gap between college-educated and less educated Millennials compared with previous generations. (PEW, 2014)[4] Perhaps most important, an overwhelming majority of college graduates—82% —say that college has been a good investment for them personally (PEW, 2016)[5]. And, on all measurements of career attainment and economic well-being in a 2014 survey, college graduates out performed peers with less education (PEW, 2014)[4]. Differences in Earnings You may wish to use this interactive tool to compare wages within and across demographic groups in the United States, including education level, on the Washington Center for Equitable Growth website. As you can see, education level is just one factor of earning potential. All in all, college imparts a wide and deep range of benefits. The short video Is College Worth It? shows that with a college degree you are more likely to: - Have a higher salary - Have better job prospects - Be healthier - Vote - Be involved in their community Success in College Success in college can be measured in many ways: through your own sense of what is important to you; through your family’s sense of what is important to your collective group; through your institution’s standards of excellence; through the standards established by your state and country; through your employer’s perceptions about what is needed in the workplace; and in many respects through your own unfolding goals, dreams, and ambitions. How are you striving to achieve your goals? And how will you measure your success along the way? Career Journey Continued As you make a commitment to your college career, let’s review your career journey so far. As we learned in Chapter 1, the first stop on the journey requires an inventory of your unique attributes - your goals, values, personality, skills and interests – before you can proceed to the next stop and research specific careers. Activity 5.1: Your Personal Profile Goals - Reflecting on your career exploration and using the SMART format from Chapter 2, identify one long-term career goal. - Then, identify 2-3 short-term goals for this semester to achieve your long-term goal from #1. Values - From Chapter 3 and the CareerOneStop Work Values Matcher, what are your top work values? - Name 2 career titles in which you are most interested and will allow you to express your values. Interests - From Chapter 4 and the Career Coach Interest Assessment or ONet Interest Profiler, what are your top interests (Holland Code)? - Name 2 career titles in which you are most interested and will allow you to express your interests. Personality - From Chapter 4 and the personality test from the Humanmetrics website, what is your 4-letter personality type? - Name 2 career titles in which you are most interested and are often associated with your personality type. Skills - From Chapter 4, what are your top skills? - Name 2 career titles in which you are most interested and will allow you to utilize your skills. Research activity: - Of all the career titles you have explored, which 2 or 3 careers would you be most interested in researching in-depth? Below is the second part of Jamie Edwards’s essay (former student at State University of New York). Her advice is to make connections between the “now” of college experience and future career possibilities. She thinks that the more informed you are about your career options through real-life conversations and experiences, the better prepared you will be for your future—and the more confident you will be in your career decisions. From where I sit now—my former personal and professional struggles in tow—I offer up some pieces of advice that were crucial to getting me where I am today. Whether you’re an undecided major who is looking for guidance or a student with a clearly defined career path, I suggest the following: - Find a mentor—For me, everything began there. Without my mentor, I wouldn’t have done any of the other items I’m about to suggest. Finding the right mentor is crucial. Look for someone who can complement your personality (typically someone who’s the opposite of you). My advice would be to look beyond your direct supervisor for mentorship. It’s important to create an open forum with your mentor, because there may be a conflict of interest as you discuss work issues and other job opportunities. Potential mentors to consider are an instructor on campus, your academic advisor, a professional currently working in your prospective field, someone you admire in your community, or anyone in your network of friends or family that you feel comfortable discussing your future goals with. - Enroll in a Career Exploration/Planning course, or something similar—Even if you do not see the effects of this course immediately (such as dramatically changing your major), you will notice the impact down the road. Making educated career choices and learning job readiness skills will always pay off in the end. Through my career exploration class, I learned how to relate my personality and values to potential career fields. These self-assessments changed my entire thought process, and I see that influence daily. Beyond changing the way you think, the knowledge you gain about effective job search strategies is invaluable. Learning how to write purposeful résumés and cover letters, finding the right approach to the interview process, and recognizing your strengths and weaknesses are just a few of the benefits you can gain from these type of courses. - Complete a Job Shadow and/or Informational Interview—No amount of online research is going to give you the same experience as seeing a job at the front line. In a job shadow or an informational interview, you’re able to explore options with no commitment and see how your in-class experience can carry over to a real world setting. Additionally, you’re expanding your professional network by having that personal involvement. You never know how the connections you make might benefit you in the future. My only regret about job shadowing in college is that I didn’t do it sooner. - Do an Internship—A main source of frustration for recent grads is the inability to secure an entry-level position without experience. “How do I get a job to gain experience when I can’t get a job without experience?” This is how: do an internship or two! Most colleges even have a course where you can obtain credit for doing it! Not only will you earn credits towards graduation, but you’ll gain the necessary experience to put on your résumé and discuss in future interviews. Having completed four internships throughout my college career, I can’t say they were all great. However, I don’t regret a single one. The first one showed me the type of field I didn’t want to work in. The second confirmed that I was heading in the right direction with my career. My third and fourth internships introduced me to completely different areas of higher education which broadened my knowledge and narrowed my search simultaneously. My takeaway is that sometimes you have to learn what you don’t want in order to find out what you do want. The more informed you are about career options through real-life conversations and experiences, the better prepared you will be for your future and the more confident you will be in your career decisions. Always explore your options because even if you learn you hate it, at least you’re one step close to finding what you love. —Jamie Edwards, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom Activity 5.2: Informational Interview As recommended in Part 2, #3 above, reach out to someone working in your area of interest and ask for an opportunity to talk to them for 20 or 30 minutes about their career path and profession. Your friends, family, professors, co-workers, and alumni network are potential connections. Just ask if they know someone with whom you can meet. The goal is not to land a job, but to learn, however, that person can be a part of your network in the future. Be sure to respect their time, be prepared with questions, and present yourself professionally. \| Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Activity 5.3: resources for career research After you have identified career titles you are most interested and have conducted informational interviews, check out the following resources to help research careers more in-depth: - Occupational Outlook Handbook from US Department of Labor - The OOH can help you find career information on duties, education and training, pay, and outlook for hundreds of occupations. Includes career videos. - O*Net Online - Detailed descriptions of careers with many different ways to search. - Career Coach - Learn about the connection between academic programs and careers as well as local labor market information and current job postings. - Texas Career Check - Detailed career information with video - For more help with your search, visit Austin Community College’s Career Services Key Takeaways Labor research indicates that as educational attainment increases in individuals the unemployment rate decreases. A college degree affects other personal factors you may have not considered such as retirement plan, health care insurance, and higher lifetime salary. College is an ideal place to explore careers. Selecting the right career involves thorough research such as, informational interviews, online research, and utilizing the Career Center located in your college. - “Employers Express Confidence in Colleges and Universities; See College as Worth the Investment, New Research Finds.” Hart Research Associates, Web. 29 Aug. 2019 ↵ - “Education and Lifetime Earnings”. Social Security Administration: Research, Statistics & Policy Analysis. Web. Nov. 2015. ↵ - "Fast Facts: Employment Rates of College Graduates." Fast Facts. National Center For Education Statistics. Web. ↵ - "The Rising Cost of Not Going to College." Pew Research Center: Social & Demographic Trends. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. ↵ - “The State of American Jobs: The Value of a College Education.” Pew Research Center: Social & Demographic Trends. Web. 6 Oct. 2016. ↵ Licenses and Attributions CC licensed content, Original - Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Found at: https://pixabay.com/photos/board-school-training-career-3683740/ License: Standard Pixabay License - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 - Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Found at: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/exchange-of-ideas-debate-discussion-222787/ . License: Standard Pixabay License CC licensed content, Shared previously - The Big Picture. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom. Authored by: Thomas C. Priester, editor. Provided by: Open SUNY Textbooks. Located at: http://textbooks.opensuny.org/foundations-of-academic-success/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike - Student Voices: What Does it Mean to be College and Career Ready?. Authored by: Achieve. Located at: https://youtu.be/9pYqsShxqD4. License: CC BY: Attribution - First University in the United States. Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_university_in_the_United_States. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike All rights reserved content - Why Higher Ed?: Strada and Gallup Examine Consumers' Top Motives for Choosing Their Educational Pathways. Authored by: Strada Education Network and Gallup. Located at: https://news.gallup.com/reports/226457/why-higher-ed.aspx. License: All Rights Reserved - Entry-Level Applicant Job Skills Survey. Authored by: Society for Human Resource Management. Located at: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/PublishingImages/Pages/Entry-Level-Applicant-Job-Skills-Survey-/Entry- Level%20Applicant%20Job%20Skills%20Survey.pdf. License: All Rights Reserved - Comparing Wages Within and Across Demographic Groups in the US. Authored by: Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Located at: https://equitablegrowth.org/demographic-group-wages-interactive/ License: All Rights Reserved - Is College Worth It? Authored by: Third Way. Provided by: You Tube. Located at: https://youtu.be/CWms2LMQmhU . License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License Public domain content - What Does College and Career Readiness Mean?. Provided by: Office of the State Superintendent of Education. Located at: http://osse.dc.gov/service/what-does-college-and-career-readiness-mean. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright - Chart of Unemployment Rates and Earnings By Educational Attainment (4 Sept. 2019) Provided by: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Located at: https://www.bls.gov/emp/chart-unemployment-earnings-education.htm. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright Chapter 6: College Majors Chapter 6: College Majors Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go. —Dr. Seuss, children’s author Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to: - List key strategies for selecting a college major - Identify the relationship between college majors and career paths (both why they matter and why they don’t) - Identify sources for learning more about specific majors and related careers Your Major In the United States and Canada, your academic major—simply called “your major”—is the academic discipline you commit to as an undergraduate student. It’s an area you specialize in, such as accounting, chemistry, criminology, archeology, digital arts, or dance. In United States colleges and universities, roughly 2,000 majors are offered. And within each major is a host of core courses and electives. When you successfully complete the required courses in your major, you qualify for a degree. Where did the term major come from? In 1877, it first appeared in a Johns Hopkins University catalogue. That major required only two years of study. Later, in 1910, Abbott Lawrence Lowell introduced the academic major system to Harvard University during his time as president there. This major required students to complete courses in a specialized discipline and also in other subjects. Variations of this system are now the norm in higher education institutions in the U.S. and Canada. Why is your major important? It’s important because it’s a defining and organizing feature of your undergraduate degree. Ultimately, your major should provide you with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and/or behaviors you need to fulfill your college goals and objectives. In this section we look at how to select your major and how your college major may correlate with a career. Does your major matter to your career? What happens if you change your major? Does changing your major mean you must change your career? Read on to find out! How to Select Your College Major Selecting your major is one of the most exciting tasks (and, to some students, perhaps one of the most nerve-wracking tasks) you are asked to perform in college. So many decisions are tied to it. But if you have good guidance, patience, and enthusiasm, the process is easier. The video below presents a lighthearted look undertaking this task with nine tips: - Narrow your choices by deciding what you don’t like. - Explore careers that might interest you. Ask questions. - Use your school’s resources. - Ask your teacher, counselor, and family about your strengths. - 60 percent of students change their majors. - Your major isn’t going to define your life. But choosing one that interests you will make your college experience much more rewarding. - Go on informational interviews with people in careers that interest you. - There’s no pressure to decide now. - Take new classes and discover your interests. Does Your College Major Matter to Your Career? There are few topics about college that create more controversy than “Does your major really matter to your career?” Many people think it does; others think it’s not so important. Who is right? And who gets to weigh in? Also, how do you measure whether something “matters”—by salary, happiness, personal satisfaction? It may be difficult to say for sure whether your major truly matters to your career. One’s college major and ultimate career are not necessarily correlated. Consider the following “factoids”: - 50–70 percent of college students change their major at least once during their time in college. - Most majors lead to a wide variety of opportunities rather than to one specific career, although some majors do indeed lead to specific careers. - Many students say that the skills they gain in college will be useful on the job no matter what they major in. - Only half of graduating seniors accept a job directly related to their major. - Career planning for most undergraduates focuses on developing general, transferable skills like speaking, writing, critical thinking, computer literacy, problem-solving, and team building, because these are skills that employers want. - College graduates often cite the following four factors as being critical to their job and career choices: personal satisfaction, enjoyment, opportunity to use skills and abilities, and personal development. - Within ten years of graduation, most people work in careers that aren’t directly related to their majors. - Many or most jobs that exist today will be very different five years from now. It’s also important to talk about financial considerations in choosing a major. - Any major you choose will likely benefit you because college graduates earn roughly $1 million more than high school graduates, on average, over an entire career. - STEM jobs, though—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—can lead to the thirty highest paying jobs. So if you major in any of these areas, you may be more likely to earn a higher salary. - Even though humanities and social sciences students may earn less money right after college, they may earn more by the time they reach their peak salary than students who had STEM majors. - Students who major in the humanities and social science are also more likely to get advanced degrees, which increases annual salary by nearly $20,000 at peak salary. So where will you stand with regard to these statistics? Is it possible to have a good marriage between your major, your skills, job satisfaction, job security, and earnings? The best guidance on choosing a major and connecting it with a career may be to get good academic and career advice and select a major that reflects your greatest interests. If you don’t like law or medicine but you major in it because of a certain salary expectation, you may later find yourself in an unrelated job that brings you greater satisfaction—even if the salary is lower. If this is the case, will it make more sense, looking back, to spend your time and tuition dollars studying a subject you especially enjoy? Every student who pursues a college degree and a subsequent career may tell a different story about the impact of their major on their professional directions. In the following excerpt from Foundations of College Success: Words of Wisdom, writer and former SUNY student Kristen Mruk reflects on the choices she made and how they turned out. The Student Experience What I Would Like To Do I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I started college, but that changed three times by the time I graduated. Initially I started as an International Business major but ended up receiving a degree in Communication and continued on to graduate school. My greatest advice to you is to embrace feelings of uncertainty (if you have them) with regard to your academic, career, or life goals. Stop into the Career Services office on your campus to identify what it is that you really want to do when you graduate or to confirm your affinity to a career path. Make an appointment to see a counselor if you need to vent or get a new perspective. Do an internship in your field; this can give you a first-hand impression of what your life might look like in that role. When I chose International Business, I did not do so as an informed student. I enjoyed and excelled in my business courses in high school and I had hopes of traveling the world, so International Business seemed to fit the bill. Little did I know, the major required a lot of accounting and economics which, as it turned out, were not my forte. Thinking this is what I wanted, I wasted time pursuing a major I didn’t enjoy and academic courses I struggled through. So I took a different approach. I began speaking to the professionals around me that had jobs that appealed to me: Student Unions/Activities, Leadership, Orientation, Alumni, etc. I found out I could have a similar career, and I would enjoy the required studies along the way. Making that discovery provided direction and purpose in my major and extracurricular activities. I felt like everything was falling into place. What I Actually Do I would like to . . . ask you to consider why you are in college. Why did you choose your institution? Have you declared a major yet? Why or why not? What are your plans post-graduation? By frequently reflecting in this way, you can assess whether or not your behaviors, affiliations, and activities align with your goals. What you actually do with your student experience is completely up to you. You are the only person who can dictate your collegiate fate. Remind yourself of the reasons why you are in college and make sure your time is spent on achieving your goals. There are resources and people on your campus available to help you. You have the control—use it wisely. —Kristen Mruk, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom Resources Success doesn’t come to you . . . you go to it. —Dr. Marva Collins, civil rights activist and educator This quote really sets the stage for the journey you’re on. Your journey may be a straight line that connects the dots between today and your future, or it may resemble a twisted road with curves, bumps, hurdles, and alternate routes. To help you navigate your pathway to career success, take advantage of all the resources available to you. Your college, your community, and the wider body of higher-education institutions and organizations have many tools to help you with career development. Be sure to take advantage of the following resources: - College course catalog: Course catalogs are typically rich with information that can spark ideas and inspiration for your major and your career. - Faculty and academic advisers at your college: Many college professors are also practitioners in their fields, and can share insights with you about related professions. - Fellow students and graduating seniors: Many of your classmates, especially those who share your major, may have had experiences that can inform and enlighten you—for instance, an internship with an employer or a job interview with someone who could be contacted for more information. - Students who have graduated: Most colleges and universities have active alumni programs with networking resources that can help you make important decisions. - Your family and social communities: Contact friends and family members who can weigh in with their thoughts and experience. - A career center: Professionals in career centers have a wealth of information to share with you—they’re also very good at listening and can act as a sounding board for you to try out your ideas. Many organizations have free materials that can provide guidance, such as the ones in the table, below: WEB SITE \| DESCRIPTION \| 1. Career Coach \| Browse areas of study and majors to find the careers that are related. Learn more with the help of data on wages, growth, daily tasks, job postings, skills, and employers. \| 2. ACC Career Services: Explore Careers (Scroll down to “What Can I Do With a Major in….?”) \| Learn about typical career paths and the types of employers that hire graduates with each major, as well as strategies to make you a more marketable candidate. \| 3. ACC Career Services: FOCUS2 \| Log-in to your FOCUS2 account and explore “What Can I Do With a Major in….?” \| See the courses required for individual award plans/program maps and lean about the related careers and occupation titles. \| \| 5. List of College Majors (MyMajors) \| A list of more than 1,800 college majors—major pages include description, courses, careers, salary, related majors and colleges offering major \| 6. Explore Careers (Roadtrip Nation) \| Career exploration and career advice platform – interviews with working professionals, videos, podcasts, etc. \| Key Takeaways Your major is a set of core courses and electives-the academic discipline- that you commit to while you are in college. Upon completion of your major, you typically qualify for a degree. Selecting your major is a process, and it should involve the exploration of your: - Personality - Values - Interests - Skills Your college major and ultimate career are not necessarily correlated. The best academic and career advice is to select a major that reflects your greatest interests. Students have many resources available to them that are on/off campus, which can assist them in the selection of a major: - College catalog - Counselors - Undecided Majors Workshops - Career Center - Friends and Family - Alumni Licenses and Attributions CC licensed content, Original - Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Found at: https://pixabay.com/photos/learn-note-sign-directory-64058/ License: Standard Pixabay License - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 CC licensed content, Shared previously - College Majors. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Image of DNA oragami. Authored by: Duncan Hill. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/7JQMKU. License: CC BY: Attribution - Major (academic). Provided by: Wikipedia. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_%28academic%29. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike - Foundations of College Success: Words of Wisdom. Authored by: Thomas C. Priester, editor. Provided by: Open SUNY Textbooks. Located at: http://textbooks.opensuny.org/foundations-of-academic-success/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike All rights reserved content - How to Pick a Major. Authored by: byuidahoadmissions. Located at: https://youtu.be/8I_Qw2NfSq0. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - How to Select Your College Major - WiseChoice. Authored by: SE Social Media. Located at: https://youtu.be/V4dNoVsmU2o. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License Chapter 7: Networking Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay You should be accumulating really great relationships throughout your career. -- Anne M. Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Define network and identify strategies for networking - Identify sources for developing professional networks In the context of career development, networking is the process by which people build relationships with one another for the purpose of helping one another achieve professional goals. When you “network,” you exchange information. - You may share business cards, résumés, cover letters, job-seeking strategies, leads about open jobs, information about companies and organizations, and information about a specific field. - You might also share information about meet-up groups, conferences, special events, technology tools, and social media. - You might also solicit job “headhunters,” career counselors, career centers, career coaches, an alumni association, family members, friends, acquaintances, and vendors. Networking can occur anywhere and at any time. In fact, your network expands with each new relationship you establish. And the networking strategies you can employ are nearly limitless. With imagination and ingenuity, your networking can be highly successful. Strategies for Networking We live in a social world. Almost everywhere you go and anything you do professionally involves connecting with people. It stands to reason that finding a new job and advancing your career entails building relationships with these people. Truly, the most effective way to find a new job is to network, network, and network some more. Once you acknowledge the value of networking, the challenge is figuring out how to do it. What is your first step? Whom do you contact? What do you say? How long will it take? Where do you concentrate efforts? How do you know if your investments will pay off? For every question you may ask, a range of strategies can be used. Begin exploring your possibilities by viewing the following energizing video, Networking Tips for College Students and Young People, by Hank Blank. He recommends the following modern and no-nonsense strategies: - Hope is not a plan. You need a plan of action to achieve your networking goals. - Keenly focus your activities on getting a job. Use all tools available to you. - You need business cards. No ifs, ands, or buts. - Register your own domain name. Find your favorite geek to build you a landing page. Keep building your site for the rest of your life. - Attend networking events. Most of them offer student rates. - Master Linkedin because that is what human resource departments use. Post updates. - Think of your parents’ friends as databases. Leverage their knowledge and their willingness to help you. - Create the world you want to live in in the future by creating it today through your networking activity. These are the times to live in a world of “this is how I can help.” See the LinkedIn for Students Web site. Finding Work Using Your Networks This video was created for international students, but it has helpful tips for all students. It focuses on the importance of networking when looking for jobs and keeping an open mind. Simply talking to people can help you move from casual work to full-time employment. . . . And More Strategies Strategies at College - Get to know your professors: Communicating with instructors is a valuable way to learn about a career and also get letters of reference if and when needed for a job. Professors can also give you leads on job openings, internships, and research possibilities. Most instructors will readily share information and insights with you. Get to know your instructors. They are a valuable part of your network. - Check with your college’s alumni office: You may find that some alumni are affiliated with your field of interest and can give you the “inside scoop.” - Check with classmates: Classmates may or may not share your major, but any of them may have leads that could help you. You could be just one conversation away from a good lead. Strategies at Work - Join professional organizations: You can meet many influential people at local and national meetings and events of professional and volunteer organizations. Learn about these organizations. See if they have membership discounts for students, or student chapters. Once you are a member, you may have access to membership lists, which can give you prospective access to many new people with whom to network. Check out the Professional Association Finder on CareerOneStop . - Volunteer: Volunteering is an excellent way to meet new people who can help you develop your career, even if the organization you are volunteering with is not in your field. Just by working alongside others and working toward common goals, you build relationships that may later serve you in unforeseen and helpful ways. VolunteerMatch matches you with volunteer opportunities based on the causes and populations in which you want to make a difference. - Get an internship: Many organizations offer internship positions to college students. Some of these positions are paid, but often they are not. Paid or not, you gain experience relevant to your career, and you potentially make many new contacts. Check out Texas Internship Challenge for information on paid or class credit opportunities in Texas while still in school. - Get a part-time job: Working full-time may be your ultimate goal, but you may want to fill in some cracks or crevices by working in a part-time job. Invariably you will meet people who can feasibly help with your networking goals. And you can gain good experience along the way, which can also be noted on your résumé. See what is posted by local employers on ACC Career Link. - Join a job club: Your career interests may be shared by many others who have organized a club, which can be online or in person. If you don’t find an existing club, consider starting one. See if there is a student organization for your major registered with the Office of Student Life that you can join or start one. If you want to meet other community members searching for career opportunities in Austin, consider the networking program available through Launchpad. - Attend networking events: There are innumerable professional networking events taking place around the world and also online. Find them listed in magazines, community calendars, newspapers, journals, and at the Web sites of companies, organizations, and associations. - Conduct informational interviews: You may initiate contact with people in your chosen field who can tell you about their experiences of entering the field and thriving in it. Many Web sites have guidance on how to plan and conduct these interviews. Strategies at Home and Beyond - Participate in online social media: An explosion of career opportunity awaits you with social media, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and many more. Keep your communication ultra-professional at these sites. Peruse magazine articles, and if you find one that’s relevant to your field and it contains names of professionals, you can reach out to them to learn more and get job leads. Find more information about using social and career networking sites at CareerOneStop - Ask family members and friends, coworkers, and acquaintances for referrals: Do they know others who might help you? You can start with the question “Who else should I be talking to?” - Use business cards or networking cards: A printed business card can be an essential tool to help your contacts remember you. Creativity can help in this regard, too. Students often design cards themselves and either hand print them or print them on a home printer. ACTIVITY: NETWORKING FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT Objectives - Examine five strategies for obtaining and engaging with networking contacts - Develop relationships with new contacts to enhance your career Instructions - Find information about five companies or people in your field of interest, and follow them on Twitter or Instagram. - Get an account at four social media sites that you’ve not yet been active with that may enhance your career. - Find names of three people who interest you (peruse magazine articles, online sites, or other resources), and write an email to them explaining your interests and any requests you may have for information. - Sign up for newsletters from two professional organizations in a field you want to know more about. - Find and attend one in-person or online event within a month. - Now write about this experience at one of your social media sites. Sources for Developing Professional Networks The bottom line with developing professional networks is to cull information from as many sources as possible and use that information in creative ways to advance your career opportunities. The strategies listed in the section above provide you with a comprehensive set of suggestions. Below is a summary of sources you can use to network your way to career success: - Meet-up groups - Conferences - Special events - Technology tools - Social media - Career centers - Alumni association - Professional organizations - Volunteer organizations - Internships - Part-time job - Job club - Networking events - Magazine articles - Web sites - Career coaches - Headhunters - Career counselors - Family members - Friends - Coworkers - Vendors - College professors - Advisers - Classmates - Administrators - Coaches - Guest speakers Don’t Wait to Develop Your Network For inspiration, listen to Isaac Serwanga’s Tedx Talk on his 3 Bones of Networking for Student Success: the Wishbone (State what you want!), the Jawbone (Ask with competency and humility!), and the Backbone (Persist, persist, persist!). KEY TAKEAWAYS Networking is the process by which people form professional relationships to create, act upon opportunities, share information and help one another achieve professional goals. - When you “network” with a person, you may: - Share business cards, resumes, cover letters, job-seeking strategies, leads about open jobs, information about companies and organizations, and information about specific fields. - Share information about networking groups, conferences, events, technology tools, and social media - Research career counselors, career centers, career coaches and alumni, relatives, and acquaintances - Networking can occur anywhere and anytime, and expands as you form and nurture new relationships - According to Hank Blank, producer of the video Networking Tops for College Students and Young People, as a college student, you should have specific modern and no-nonsense strategies when developing your network. - If you are an international student you may want to focus on keeping an open mind when it comes to networking - When networking at college: - Get to know your professors - Check with your college alumni office - Check with classmates - Some strategies that you can develop at work include: - Joining professional organizations - Volunteering - Internships - Clubs - Attend networking events - Conduct informational interviews - Some strategies that you can develop at home include: - Be active on social media - Ask family members and friends, coworkers, and relatives for referrals - Utilize business cards for networking LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 - Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. Found at: https://pixabay.com/photos/play-stone-network-networked-1237457/ License: Standard Pixabay License - Isaac Serwanga: The 3 Bones of Networking for Student Success. Provided by: TED. Located at: https://youtu.be/4OTPJZnBP8s License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Networking. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Image of 3D Social Networking. Provided by: ccPixs.com Authored by: Chris Potter. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/d9K1Bc. License: CC BY: Attribution - Networking. Authored by: Ronda Dorsey Neugebauer. Provided by: Chadron State College. Project: Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative. License: CC BY: Attribution ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - Hank Blank - Networking Tips for College Students and Young People. Authored by: Hank Blank. Located at: https://youtu.be/TDVstonPPP8. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - International Student Series: Finding work using your networks. Authored by: The University of Sydney. Located at: https://youtu.be/1yQ5AKqpeiI. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License Chapter 8: Résumés and Cover Letters Image by: Flazingo.com The most important tool you have on a résumé is language. —Jay Samit, digital media innovator LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Define the purpose and contents of a résumé - Identify characteristics of an effective cover letter and résumé A résumé is a “selfie” for business purposes. It is a written picture of who you are—it’s a marketing tool, a selling tool, and a promotion of you as an ideal candidate for any job you may be interested in. The word résumé comes from the French word résumé, which means “a summary.” Leonardo da Vinci is credited with writing one of the first known résumés, although it was more of a letter that outlined his credentials for a potential employer, Ludovico Sforza. The résumé got da Vinci the job, though, and Sforza became a longtime patron of da Vinci and later commissioned him to paint The Last Supper. You can see the letter and read the translation Ladders Career Advice. Résumés and cover letters work together to represent you in the brightest light to prospective employers. With a well-composed résumé and cover letter, you stand out—which may get you an interview and then a good shot at landing a job. In this section we discuss résumés and cover letters as key components of your career development tool kit. We explore some of the many ways you can design and develop them for the greatest impact in your job search. Your Résumé: Purpose and Contents Your résumé is an inventory of your education, work experience, job-related skills, accomplishments, volunteer history, internships, residencies, and/or more. It’s a professional autobiography in outline form to give the person who reads it a quick, general idea of who you are. With a better idea of who your are, prospective employers can see how well you might contribute to their workplace. As a college student or recent graduate, though, you may be unsure about what to put in your résumé, especially if you don’t have much employment history. Still, employers don’t expect recent grads to have significant work experience. And even with little work experience, you may still have a host of worthy accomplishments to include. It’s all in how you present yourself. The following quick video from the Career Development Center at West Chester University describes the purpose of a resume. Elements of Your Successful Résumé Perhaps the hardest part of writing a résumé is figuring out what format to use to organize and present your information in the most effective way. There is no correct format, per se, but most résumés follow one of the four formats below. Which format appeals to you the most? - Reverse chronological résumé: A reverse chronological résumé (sometimes also simply called a chronological résumé) lists your job experiences in reverse chronological order—that is, starting with the most recent job and working backward toward your first job. It includes starting and ending dates. Also included is a brief description of the work duties you performed for each job, and highlights of your formal education. The reverse chronological résumé may be the most common and perhaps the most conservative résumé format. It is most suitable for demonstrating a solid work history, and growth and development in your skills. It may not suit you if you are light on skills in the area you are applying to, or if you’ve changed employers frequently, or if you are looking for your first job. Reverse Chronological Résumé Examples - Functional résumé: A functional résumé is organized around your talents, skills, and abilities (more so than work duties and job titles, as with the reverse chronological résumé). It emphasizes specific professional capabilities, like what you have done or what you can do. Specific dates may be included but are not as important. So if you are a new graduate entering your field with little or no actual work experience, the functional résumé may be a good format for you. It can also be useful when you are seeking work in a field that differs from what you have done in the past. It’s also well suited for people in unconventional careers. Functional Résumé Examples - Hybrid résumé: The hybrid résumé is a format reflecting both the functional and chronological approaches. It’s also called a combination résumé. It highlights relevant skills, but it still provides information about your work experience. With a hybrid résumé, you may list your job skills as most prominent and then follow with a chronological (or reverse chronological) list of employers. This résumé format is most effective when your specific skills and job experience need to be emphasized. Hybrid Résumé Examples - Video, infographic, and Web-site résumé: Other formats you may wish to consider are the video résumé, the infographic résumé, or even a Web-site résumé. These formats may be most suitable for people in multimedia and creative careers. Certainly with the expansive use of technology today, a job seeker might at least try to create a media-enhanced résumé. But the paper-based, traditional résumé is by far the most commonly used—in fact, some human resource departments may not permit submission of any format other than paper based. Video Resume Examples; Infographic Résumé Examples; Web-Site Résumé Examples An important note about formatting is that, initially, employers may spend only a few seconds reviewing each résumé—especially if there is a big stack of them or they seem tedious to read. That’s why it’s important to choose your format carefully so it will stand out and make the first cut. According to the Indeed video below, there are 5 Resume Tips That Will Get You Noticed: - Use key words from the job posting - List your hard skills - List your soft skills - List your achievements and be specific - Edit Résumé Contents and Structure For many people, the process of writing a résumé is daunting. After all, you are taking a lot of information and condensing it into a very concise form that needs to be both eye-catching and easy to read. Don’t be scared off, though! Developing a good résumé can be fun, rewarding, and easier than you think if you follow a few basic guidelines. In the following video, a résumé-writing expert describes some keys to success. Contents and Components To Include - Your contact information: name, address, phone number, professional email address - A summary of your skills: 5–10 skills you have gained in your field; you can list hard skills as well as soft skills (refer to the Professional Skill Building topic in this course) - Work experience: depending on the résumé format you choose, you may list your most recent job first; include the title of the position, employer’s name, location, employment dates (beginning, ending) - Volunteer experience - Education and training: formal and informal experiences matter; include academic degrees, professional development, certificates, internships, etc. - References statement (optional): “References available upon request” is a standard phrase used on résumés, although it is often implied - Other sections: may include a job objective, a brief profile, a branding statement, a summary statement, additional accomplishments, and any other related experiences Caution Résumés resemble snowflakes in as much as no two are alike. Although you can benefit from giving yours a stamp of individuality, you will do well to steer clear of personal details that might elicit a negative response. It is advisable to omit any confidential information or details that could make you vulnerable to discrimination, for instance. Your résumé will likely be viewed by a number of employees in an organization, including human resource personnel, managers, administrative staff, etc. By aiming to please all reviewers, you gain maximum advantage. - Do not mention your age, gender, height or weight. - Do not include your social security number. - Do not mention religious beliefs or political affiliations, unless they are relevant to the position. - Do not include a photograph of yourself or a physical description. - Do not mention health issues. - Do not use first-person references. (I, me). - Do not include wage/salary expectations. - Do not use abbreviations. - Proofread carefully—absolutely no spelling mistakes are acceptable. Top Ten Tips for a Successful Résumé - Aim to make a résumé that’s 1–2 pages long on letter-size paper. - Make it visually appealing. - Use action verbs and phrases. See Action Words and Phrases for Résumé Development. - Proofread carefully to eliminate any spelling, grammar, punctuation, and typographical errors. - Include highlights of your qualifications or skills to attract an employer’s attention. - Craft your letter as a pitch to people in the profession you plan to work in. - Stand out as different, courageous. - Be positive and reflect only the truth. - Be excited and optimistic about your job prospects! - Keep refining and reworking your résumé; it’s an ongoing project. Remember that your résumé is your professional profile. It will hold you in the most professional and positive light, and it’s designed to be a quick and easy way for a prospective employer to evaluate what you might bring to a job. When written and formatted attractively, creatively, and legibly, your résumé is what will get your foot in the door. You can be proud of your accomplishments, even if they don’t seem numerous. Let your résumé reflect your personal pride and professionalism. More Resume Tip Videos from Indeed Don't forget to include the hard and soft (or transferable) skills that you can offer. And here are some examples of words to use and words to avoid when describing your strengths and qualifications. Résumé Writing Resources WEBSITE \| DESCRIPTION \| Everything you need to know about resumes: what they are for, the types, the parts, action words, samples, etc. \| \| Helps you create the foundation of a resume so you can individualize it using suggested tasks and skills from your work experience. \| \| ACC Library Services – Research Guide for Resumes and Cover Letters \| Resources to help with writing a resume and cover letter. \| What to put on your resume when you are a new graduate or just starting your career with little to no relevant work experience. \| \| An example of a terrible resume for a recent college graduate and details of what NOT to do. \| \| \| \| Indeed – How to Write a College Student Resume Indeed – Including Relevant Coursework on a Resume \| Resume formats, tips, and examples for college students. Articles and how-tos \| Your Résumé: It’s Like Online Dating The following essay by Jackie Vetrano is excerpted from Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom. It’s a true-to-life story comparing job hunting to online dating. The writer’s “lessons learned” are meant to enlarge your awareness of your career goals as you attend college. IT’S LIKE ONLINE DATING Searching for a job, especially your first job, is a lot like online dating. It begins as a time commitment, gets nerve-wracking towards the middle, but ends in success and happiness if you follow the right process. Like many single people with access to current technology, I ventured into the world of online dating. I went for coffee with potential mates who were instant no ways, some who left me scratching my head, and a few who I found a connection with. But hang on. We are here to talk about professional development, not my love life. Being on the job hunt is not easy. Many spend hours preparing résumés, looking at open positions, and thinking about what career path to travel. Occasionally, it is overwhelming and intimidating, but when taken one step at a time, it can be a manageable and an exciting process. The first step of online dating is the most important: create your dating profile. Your profile is where you put your best foot forward and show off all of your attractive qualities through visuals and text. Online daters find their most flattering photos and then season the “about me” section of their profile with captivating and descriptive words to better display who they are and why other online daters should give them a shot. Résumés follow this same logic. Your résumé should be clean, polished, and present you in your best light for future employers. Like dating profiles, they are detailed and should paint a picture for other prospective dates (or future employers) supporting why you deserve a chance at their love—an interview. The unspoken rules of online dating profiles are very similar to the rules for writing a résumé. Whether you like it or not, your online dating profile and résumé both serve as a first impression. Profiles and résumés that are short, filled with spelling errors, or vague are usually passed over. Unless you are a supermodel and all you need is an enticing photo, your written description is very important to display who you are. Your résumé should capture who you are, your skill set, education, past experiences, and anything else that is relevant to the job you hope to obtain. Knowing your audience is a key factor in crafting the perfect resume. Logically, if my online dating profile presented studious and quiet personality traits, I would likely start receiving messages from potential mates who are looking for someone who is seeking those traits. By taking a similar approach while writing a résumé, you can easily determine the tone, language, and highlighted skills and experiences you should feature. The tone of your résumé is dictated by the nature of the position you hope to obtain in the future. For example, hospitality jobs or positions that require you to interact with many people on a daily basis should be warm and welcoming while analytical jobs, such as accounting or research positions, should reflect an astute attention to detail. Your choice in language follows similar logic—use appropriate terms for the position you are seeking. Unlike online dating profiles, your résumé should include your important contact information, including email address, telephone number, and mailing address. Some advise refraining from listing a mailing address, as this could create a bias due to some organizations that are looking for a new employee who is already in the area. Unfortunately, this bias cannot be foreseen, which means you should use your best judgment when listing your contact information. If you include this contact information on your dating profile, you may have some very interesting text messages in the morning. —Jackie Ventrano, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom Vetrano’s essay is continued ahead in the “Cover Letters” section of this page. ACTIVITY: CREATE YOUR RÉSUMÉ Objectives: - Compile data reflecting your professional and educational skills and accomplishments. - Assess the main résumé formats and select one that meets your needs. - Create a first draft of your professional résumé. Directions: - Compile all needed information for your résumé, including your contact information, a summary of your skills, your work experience and volunteer experience, education and training (including your intended degree, professional development activities, certificates, internships, etc.). Optionally you may wish to include job objective, a brief profile, a branding statement, additional accomplishments, and any other related experiences. - Select one of the résumé builder tools listed above in the Résumé Writing Resources table. - Create your résumé, following instructions at your selected site. - Save your document as a PDF file. - Follow instructions from your instructor on how to submit your work. Your Cover Letter Image by Andrea Polini from Pixabay Cover letters matter. When you have to go through a pile of them, they are probably more important than the résumé itself. —woodleywonderworks What Is a Cover Letter? A cover letter is a letter of introduction, usually 3–4 paragraphs in length, that you attach to your résumé. It’s a way of introducing yourself to a potential employer and explaining why you are suited for a position. Employers may look for individualized and thoughtfully written cover letters as an initial method of screening out applicants who may who lack necessary basic skills, or who may not be sufficiently interested in the position. Indeed Cover Letter basics https://youtu.be/hrZSfMly_Ck Often an employer will request or require that a cover letter be included in the materials an applicant submits. There are also occasions when you might submit a cover letter uninvited: for example, if you are initiating an inquiry about possible work or asking someone to send you information or provide other assistance. With each résumé you send out, always include a cover letter specifically addressing your purposes. Characteristics of an Effective Cover Letter Cover letters should accomplish the following: - Get the attention of the prospective employer - Set you apart from any possible competition - Identify the position you are interested in - Specify how you learned about the position or company - Present highlights of your skills and accomplishments - Reflect your genuine interest - Please the eye and ear The following video features Aimee Bateman, founder of Careercake.com, who explains how you can create an incredible cover letter. You can download a transcript of the video here. Cover Letter Resources WEBSITE \| DESCRIPTION \| Everything you need to know about resumes: what they are for, the types, the parts, action words, samples, etc. \| \| Helps you create the foundation of a resume so you can individualize it using suggested tasks and skills from your work experience. \| \| How to write a college student cover letter with templates and examples (including email version) \| \| Resources about the reality of cover letters, using a cover letter, the worst use of the cover letter, the testimonial cover letter technique, and a cover letter checklist \| \| Brief video on the basics of writing a strong cover letter. \| Your Cover Letter: It’s Like Online Dating The following is another excerpt from the “It’s Like Online Dating” essay by Jackie Vetrano. Writing a cover letter may feel like a chore, but the payoff will be well worth it if you land the job you want! IT’S LIKE ONLINE DATING Sending a Message—The Cover Letter After searching through dozens of profiles, online daters generally find a handful of people they can picture themselves with. There’s only one way to find out more about the person, and that’s by sending the first message. The challenging part of the first message I send through online dating sites is determining what to say. I’ve never met these people before, but I do have access to their dating profiles filled with their hobbies, hometowns, and more. This is a perfect starting point for my message, especially if we both root for the same football team or if the other person likes to run as much as I do. Your cover letter serves as an introduction to your future employer and should complement your résumé to create a shining first impression. It is incredibly challenging to sit in front of a blank screen trying to find a good starting point, which means you should look at the job posting and organization’s Web site for ideas about what to include. Generally, these job postings provide a set of hard skills (such as proficiency with certain technology) and soft skills (such as public speaking, teamwork, or working in a flexible environment) required and desired for the posted position. This information provides you a list of what should be explained in your cover letter. Demonstrating your hard skills is a simple enough task by using examples or stating certifications, but describing your soft skills may require a little more thought. These soft skills can be exhibited by discussing specific examples of past experiences in previous jobs you’ve held, volunteer work, or work you’ve done in college classes. After you have crafted your cover letter, you should send it to a few people you trust for their opinion and overall proofreading along with the job posting for their reference. It’s obvious that your cover letter should be free of spelling and grammar errors, but these trustworthy individuals will also be able to provide helpful insight about the examples you’ve used to display your soft skills. —Jackie Vetrano, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom KEY TAKEAWAYS The purpose of the resume is to get your foot in the door and be offered an interview. The resume is your one chance to catch your employer’s attention and stand out from the other applicants. A cover letter is a letter of introduction that you submit with your resume and it explains why you are suited for the position. LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 - Image of "Scrabble - Application" by flazingo_photos is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 - Image of typewriter with CV by Andrea Polini Provided by: Pixabay Located at: https://pixabay.com/photos/cv-curriculum-vitae-job-application-5082903/ License: Standard Pixabay License CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Ru00e9sumu00e9s and Cover Letters. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Foundations of College Success: Words of Wisdom. Authored by: Thomas C. Priester, editor. Provided by: Open SUNY Textbooks. Located at: http://textbooks.opensuny.org/foundations-of-academic-success/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - Resume Writing: Purpose of a Resume. By: Career Development Center: West Chester University. Located at: https://youtu.be/cNAoMp_Ni5I. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - 5 Resume Tips That’ll Get You Noticed By: Indeed Located at: https://youtu.be/w82xo-CfwqU. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Top Resume Skills By: Indeed Located at: https://youtu.be/_bZi-34IFxs License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Resume Words to Include and Avoid By: Indeed Located at: https://youtu.be/BxPy_-cl4mY License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Steps to an Incredible Cover Letter. Authored by: Aimee Bateman. Located at: https://youtu.be/mxOli8laZos. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License - Resume Tutorial. Authored by: Cameron Cassidy. Located at: https://youtu.be/O5eVMaPZWmM. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License RETURN TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 9: Interviewing Image by by souvenirsofcanada One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation. —Arthur Ashe, champion tennis player LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this section, you will be able to: - Describe effective strategies to prepare for an interview - Differentiate between different types of interview situations and identify appropriate interview techniques for each - Analyze different question types common in interviews If your résumé and cover letter have served their purposes well, you will be invited to participate in an interview with the company or organization in which you are interested. Congratulations! It’s an exciting time, and your prospects for employment are very strong if you put in the time to be well prepared. In this section we look at how to get ready for an interview, what types of interviews you might need to engage in, and what kinds of questions you might be asked. Preparing Effectively for a Job Interview Review the Job Description When you prepare for an interview, your first step will be to carefully read and reread the job posting or job description. This will help you develop a clearer idea of how you meet the skills and attributes the company seeks. Research the Company or Organization Researching the company will give you a wider view of what the company is looking for and how well you might fit in. Your prospective employer may ask you what you know about the company. Being prepared to answer this question shows that you took time and effort to prepare for the interview and that you have a genuine interest in the organization. It shows good care and good planning—soft skills you will surely need on the job. Practice Answering Common Questions Most interviewees find that practicing the interview in advance with a family member, a friend, or a colleague eases possible nerves during the actual interview. It also creates greater confidence when you walk through the interview door. In the “Interview Questions” section below, you’ll learn more about specific questions you will likely be asked and corresponding strategies for answering them. Plan to Dress Appropriately Interviewees are generally most properly dressed for an interview in business attire, with the goal of looking highly professional in the eyes of the interviewer. The following short video from UC Davis Internship and Career Center describes “How to Dress For Success for Interviews and the Workplace.” And the even shorter video, “What to Wear to an Interview: Business Casual and Business Formal Examples” from Indeed. Come Prepared Plan to bring your résumé, cover letter, and a list of references to the interview. You may also want to bring a portfolio of representative work. Leave behind coffee, chewing gum, and any other items that could be distractions. Be Confident Above all, interviewees should be confident and “courageous.” By doing so you make a strong first impression. As the saying goes, “There is never a second chance to make a first impression.” Job Interview Types and Techniques Every interview you participate in will be unique: The people you meet with, the interview setting, and the questions you’ll be asked will all be different from interview to interview. The various factors that characterize any given interview can contribute to the sense of adventure and excitement you feel. But it’s also can normal to feel a little nervous about what lies ahead. With so many unknowns, how can you plan to “nail the interview” no matter what comes up? A good strategy for planning is to anticipate the type of interview you may find yourself in. There are common formats for job interviews, described in detail, below. By knowing a bit more about each type and being aware of techniques that work for each, you can plan to be on your game no matter what form your interview takes. Screening Interviews Screening interviews might best be characterized as “weeding-out” interviews. They ordinarily take place over the phone or in another low-stakes environment in which the interviewer has maximum control over the amount of time the interview takes. Screening interviews are generally short because they glean only basic information about you. If you are scheduled to participate in a screening interview, you might safely assume that you have some competition for the job and that the company is using this strategy to whittle down the applicant pool. With this kind of interview, your goal is to win a face-to-face interview. For this first shot, though, prepare well and challenge yourself to shine. Try to stand out from the competition and be sure to follow up with a thank-you note. Phone or Web Conference Interviews If you are geographically separated from your prospective employer, you may be invited to participate in a phone interview or online interview, instead of meeting face-to-face. Technology, of course, is a good way to bridge distances. The fact that you’re not there in person doesn’t make it any less important to be fully prepared, though. In fact, you may wish to be all the more “on your toes” to compensate for the distance barrier. Make sure your equipment (phone, computer, Internet connection, etc.) is fully charged and works. If you’re at home for the interview, make sure the environment is quiet and distraction-free. If the meeting is online, make sure your video background is pleasing and neutral, like a wall hanging or even a white wall. One-on-One Interviews The majority of job interviews are conducted in this format—just you and a single interviewer—likely with the manager you would report to and work with. The one-on-one format gives you both a chance to see how well you connect and how well your talents, skills, and personalities mesh. You can expect to be asked questions like “Why would you be good for this job?” and “Tell me about yourself.” Many interviewees prefer the one-on-one format because it allows them to spend in-depth time with the interviewer. Rapport can be built. As always, be very courteous and professional. Have handy a portfolio of your best work. Panel Interviews An efficient format for meeting a candidate is a panel interview, in which perhaps four to five coworkers meet at the same time with a single interviewee. The coworkers comprise the “search committee” or “search panel,” which may consist of different company representatives such as human resources, management, and staff. One advantage of this format for the committee is that meeting together gives them a common experience to reflect on afterward. In a panel interview, listen carefully to questions from each panelist, and try to connect fully with each questioner. Be sure to write down names and titles, so you can send individual thank-you notes after the interview. Serial Interviews Serial interviews are a combination of one-on-one meetings with a group of interviewers, typically conducted as a series of meetings staggered throughout the day. Ordinarily this type of interview is for higher-level jobs, when it’s important to meet at length with major stakeholders. If your interview process is designed this way, you will need to be ultraprepared, as you will be answering many in-depth questions. Stay alert. Lunch Interviews In some higher-level positions, candidates are taken to lunch or dinner, especially if this is a second interview (a “call back” interview). If this is you, count yourself lucky and be on your best behavior, because even if the lunch meeting is unstructured and informal, it’s still an official interview. Do not order an alcoholic beverage, and use your best table manners. You are not expected to pay or even to offer to pay. But, as always, you must send a thank-you note. Group Interviews Group interviews are comprised of several interviewees and perhaps only one or two interviewers who may make a presentation to the assembled group. This format allows an organization to quickly prescreen candidates. It also gives candidates a chance to quickly learn about the company. As with all interview formats, you are being observed. How do you behave with your group? Do you assume a leadership role? Are you quiet but attentive? What kind of personality is the company looking for? A group interview may reveal this. For a summary of the most common interview formats, take a look at the following video from the Career Center at Texas A&M University, Types of Interviews. ACTIVITY: WHAT MAKES YOU A GREAT FIT? Objectives: - Define your ideal job. - Identify the top three reasons why you are a great fit for this ideal job. Directions: - Write a paragraph describing your ideal job. Imagine that you are already in this job. What is your job title and what are you responsible for executing? What is the name of the company or organization? What is its function? - Now identify the top three reasons why you are a great fit for this ideal job. What sets you apart from the competition? List the qualities, skills and values you have that match the job requirements. Provide examples to support your answers. Connect your values to the company’s values. - Summarize your answer. - Submit this assignment according to directions provided by your instructor. Interview Questions For most job candidates, the burning question is “What will I be asked?” There’s no way to anticipate every single question that may arise during an interview. It’s possible that, no matter how well prepared you are, you may get a question you just didn’t expect. But that’s okay. Do as much preparation as you can—which will build your confidence—and trust that the answers will come. To help you reach that point of sureness and confidence, take time to review common interview questions. Think about your answers. Make notes, if that helps. And then conduct a practice interview with a friend, a family member, or a colleague. Speak your answers out loud. Below is a list of resources that contain common interview questions and good explanations/answers you might want to adopt. WEBSITE \| DESCRIPTION \| \| 1 \| 100 top job interview questions—be prepared for the interview (from Monster.com) \| This site provides a comprehensive set of interview questions you might expect to be asked, categorized as basic interview questions, behavioral questions, salary questions, career development questions, and other kinds. Some of the listed questions provide comprehensive answers, too. \| 2 \| Interview Questions and Answers (from BigInterview) \| This site provides text and video answers to the following questions: Tell me about yourself, describe your current position, why are you looking for a new job, what are your strengths, what is your greatest weakness, why do you want to work here, where do you see yourself in five years, why should we hire you, and do you have any questions for me? \| 3 \| Ten Tough Interview Questions and Ten Great Answers (from CollegeGrad) \| This site explores some of the most difficult questions you will face in job interviews. The more open-ended the question, the greater the variation among answers. Once you have become practiced in your interviewing skills, you will find that you can use almost any question as a launching pad for a particular topic or compelling story. \| 4. \| Illegal Interview Questions (from Better Team) \| Illegal questions that should not be asked in an interview. \| Why Should We Hire You From the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business Career Management Office, here is a video featuring representatives from recruiting companies offering advice for answering the question “Why should we hire you?” As you watch, make mental notes about how you would answer the question in an interview for a job you really want. In closing, below is the final excerpt from the essay “It’s Like Online Dating,” by Jackie Vetrano. You’ll recall that the writer compares job hunting—including résumé creation and cover-letter writing—to online dating. In this last section, she concludes with a look at the job interview and compares it to a first date. IT’S LIKE ONLINE DATING The First Date—The Job Interview After what may feel like forever, you hear back from the love of your life. Congratulations! In the online dating world, you may chat about common interests (because you wrote a stunning first message), but in the world of work, you’ll be asked to visit the organization for an interview. I have been on many first dates, and whether it’s in a coffee shop or over dinner, the first face-to-face meeting is tremendously important. If someone I am meeting for the first time looks like they just came from the gym or rolled out of bed, my impression instantly changes. This same theory can be directly applied to your first date with your future employer. You have worked hard on your cover letter and résumé, and you should not taint the sparkling first impression you have created with the wrong choice in dress. What you wear to a job interview may change based on the position you have applied for, but there are a set of basic rules that everyone should follow. Similar to meeting someone on a first date for coffee, you want to be comfortable. Some interviews may take place with multiple people in an organization, meaning you will be walking to different locations, sitting down, and potentially sweating from a broken air conditioning unit. Consider these factors when choosing your outfit for your interview, and if you’re concerned about being underdressed, remember to always dress a bit nicer than how you’d dress for the job itself. There is nothing worse than sitting alone at a coffee shop waiting for a mystery date to show up. It’s uncomfortable and affects my overall first impression of whom I’m about to meet. Avoid making your mystery employer annoyed and waiting for you by leaving at least ten minutes earlier than you need to, just in case you get stuck in traffic. Arrive at least ten minutes early. The interview will start out much better if you are early rather than nervous and running late. Arriving early also gives you the time to have some coffee and review materials you may need for the interview. Coming on time to an interview or a first date shows you respect the time of the person you plan to meet. On a first date, it is all about communication. Sometimes, there may be silences that cannot be filled or the person I have just met discloses their entire life story to me in less than an hour. If we cannot achieve a proper balance, there will not be a second date. Communicating effectively in a job interview is equally as important, especially if you want a job offer! All of the rules of dating apply to how you should behave in a job interview. The interviewer will ask you questions, which means that you should look at them and focus on what is being asked. Your phone should be on silent (not even on vibrate), and hidden, to show that you are fully attentive and engaged in the conversation you are having. Much like having a conversation on a date, the answers to your questions should be clear and concise and stay on topic. The stories I tell on my first dates are more personal than what would be disclosed in a job interview, but the mindset is the same. You are building the impression that the organization has of you, so put your best foot forward through the comments you make. To make that great impression, it is really important to heavily prepare and practice, even before you have an interview scheduled. By brainstorming answers to typical interview questions in a typed document or out loud, later during the interview you will easily remember the examples of your past experiences that demonstrate why you are best for the job. You can continue to update this list as you move through different jobs, finding better examples to each question to accurately describe your hard and soft skills. This interview is as much a date for your future employer as it is for you. Come prepared with questions that you have about the company, the position, and anything else you are curious about. This is an opportunity for you to show off the research you’ve done on the organization and establish a better understanding of company culture, values, and work ethic. Without knowing these basics of the company or organization, what you thought was a match might only end in a tense breakup. After your interview is over, you continue to have an opportunity to build on the positive impression that you’ve worked hard to form. Sending a follow up thank you note to each person you interviewed with will show your respect for the time the organization spent with you. These notes can be written and sent by mail or emailed, but either way should have a personal touch, commenting on a topic that was discussed in the interview. While sending a thank you note after a first date may sound a little strange, you might not get asked to a second interview without one! It’s Official—The Job Offer In the online dating world, it takes a few dates to determine if two people are a match. In the corporate world, you may have a one or two interviews to build a relationship. If your impression was positive and the organization believes you’re a match for the open position, you’ll be offered a job. With a job offer also comes the salary for the position. It is important to know what a reasonable salary is for the position and location, which can be answered with a bit of research. One good place to look is the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site. At this point, it is not uncommon to discuss your salary with your future employer, but be sure to do so in a polite way. Online dating sites provide the means for millions of people to meet future partners, and the number of people who use online dating is so large that there are sure to be disappointments along the way. I have met people who I thought were compatible with me, but they did not feel the same, and vice versa. This happens frequently while searching for a job, which can be discouraging, but should not hinder you from continuing to search! There are a great number of opportunities, and sometimes all it takes is adjusting your filters or revising your résumé and cover letter. The cliché “there’s plenty of fish in the sea” may be true, but there is definitely a way for each person to start their career off. —Jackie Vetrano, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom KEY TAKEAWAYS - Prepare for the interview by carefully reviewing the job description and researching the company in advance. This will help you tailor your interview responses to illustrate how your skills and abilities match the needs of the organization. - Practice common interview questions with a family member or friend to help you respond to questions more naturally, make a good impression, and build confidence in your interviewing skills. - Come prepared for the interview by dressing professionally for the position and bringing copies of your résumé, cover letter, letters of reference, and samples of your work if relevant to the position. - Become familiar with common formats for job interviews, such as screening interviews, one-on-one interviews, phone or web conference interviews, and panel interviews. Each will require different interview techniques from you, and by learning about each type, you will be prepared to demonstrate how you are the best person for the job. - Always send a personalized thank you note to each person who interviewed you immediately following the interview. LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY College Success. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning License: CC BY: Attribution Foundations of College Success: Words of Wisdom. Authored by: Thomas C. Priester, editor. Provided by: Open SUNY Textbooks. Located at: http://textbooks.opensuny.org/foundations-of-academic-success/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT How to Dress for Success for Interviews and the Workplace. Authored by: UC Davis Internship and Career Center Located at https://youtu.be/taDdxF0T5B8 License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License What to Wear to an Interview: Business Causal and Business Formal Examples Authored by: Indeed. Located at: https://youtu.be/muwkauOZjEI License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License Types of Interviews Authored by: Texas A&M University Career Center Located at: https://youtu.be/S49RQc_OtfU License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License Why Should We Hire You? How to Answer this Interview Question. Authored by: Fisher OSU. Located at: https://youtu.be/Ut-fKJNbqmc. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License Chapter 10: What’s Next? Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! - Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet and philosopher Your Success Track You’ve completed an important first step toward college success by completing this. May the new skills and strategies you’ve gained serve you well not only in college but at work and in any other settings in which college skills become life skills. Future Proof Your Career Transitioning from college to your career is just the first step. Watch this short video from Mind Tools for tips on how to plan for continued success with 9 Ways to Future Proof Your Career. Symbols of Success As you move more deeply into student life, consider selecting a symbol of your commitment to success. Consider your own personal definition of “success.” What would a physical representation of that success look like? Many people consider graduation caps or diplomas to be symbols of college success. If those are meaningful to you, consider choosing one. Alternatively, yours can become more personal—an item that speaks to you as a sign of what you’re working toward and how you’ll know you’ve “made it.” Some ideas from previous students include: - a stethoscope, for an aspiring nurse - a set of professional salon scissors, for an aspiring beautician - an office door nameplate, for an aspiring law student Once you find a meaningful symbol—perhaps an object or an image or even an idea—keep it in a place where you can easily access it. In moments when you need a boost, you can remind yourself that college success begins and ends with your commitment to learning well. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL - Career/Life Planning and Personal Exploration. Authored by: Joanna Campos-Robledo, Thu Nguyen. Provided by: Lumen Learning and found at OER Commons. License: CC BY 4.0 - Image by Mohamed Hassan. Provided by: Pixabay Located at: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/graduation-academic-accomplish-air-3649717/ License: Standard Pixabay License - Image of Success Sign Road Sign by Gerd Altmann Provided by: Pixabay Located at: https://pixabay.com/photos/success-road-sign-traffic-sign-479569/ License: Standard Pixabay License CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY - Conclusion. Authored by: Linda Bruce. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution - Screenshot of success symbols. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENT - 9 Ways to Future Proof Your Career. Provided by: Mind Tools. Located at: https://youtu.be/qQGgH9QHybU License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube license	oercommons	2025-03-18T00:37:09.196602	01/19/2021	{ "license": "Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "url": "https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/76439/overview", "title": "Career Planning and Personal Exploration", "author": "Dawn Allison" }

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