Most Significant Groups in US History

[sweetlou]

tim, while you bring up a valid point, it is still up to interpertation, you say tamato i say tahmato, we have seperate opinions on the point and personal attacks and attitude is not needed, but thanks for clearing it up pal.

[Tali Cayemitte]

To Alex G.

In response to your question, feminists were not any more important than say the suffragists or the aboltionists but they were just as important which people tend to often overlook. Also, the suffrage and abolition movement were just two reforms that occured during the 19th century, two of many and while abolitionists and suffragists focused mostly on their own respective movements, feminists were involved in mostly all of the reforms that occured during this time period.

[Alex G.]

sheshearingvoices said:

agold21 said:

Info post 2
Throughout American history, there have been many prominent athletes, who have had great influence on American people. Some of these athletes include:

Mohammad Ali- Born Cassius Clay, however changed his name when he became a Muslim. He was crowned the sportsman of the century by Sports illustrated in 1999. He was the heavyweight champion of the world, as well as won an Olympic gold medal. Ali, since retiring, has become a great humanitarian, and was in 2005 given the presidential medal of freedom. According to the Mohammad Ali center website, "Since he retired from boxing, Ali has devoted himself to humanitarian endeavors around the globe. He is a devout Sunni Muslim, and travels the world over, lending his name and presence to hunger and poverty relief, supporting education efforts of all kinds, promoting adoption and encouraging people to respect and better understand one another. It is estimated that he has helped to provide more than 22 million meals to feed the hungry. Ali travels, on average, more than 200 days per year."

Babe Ruth- George Herman Ruth was born in 1895, and made his major league debut in 1914. In 1998, the sporting News called him the greatest baseball player ever. In 1936, Ruth was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, as part of the first ever class. It could be argued that Ruth popularized, or even romanticized baseball, and really is attributable for making baseball as it is today.

Jesse Owens- Born in 1913, Owens was an American track and field athlete, who's claim to fame was winning gold during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. His win is seen as a way of Blacks, as well as Americans "sticking it" to Adolf Hitler, obviously a great racist. In 1976, he too was awarded the presidential medal of freedom, and though he died 10 years earlier of cancer, he was given the congressional gold medal in 1990 by George H.W. Bush.

Jim Thorpe- Born in 1888, Thorpe was a multi-sport athlete, who won Olympic medals as well as played football and baseball professionally. Thorpe, a Native American, was originally from Oklahoma, but moved to Pennsylvania, where he excelled at many sports. In the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, he won two gold medals. Legend has it that when the king gave him his own prize, the king (Gustav V) said, "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world," to which Thorpe replied, "Thanks, King."

Babe Zaharias- A gold medal winner in the Olympics, Zaharias also excelled in many other sports. She was an All-American in Basketball, and though her real name was Mildred, acquired the name Babe after hitting five homers in a single game. In spite of this, Babe was best known as a golfer, as competed on the PGA tour, something that would not happen again for years to come.

Very influential people, all, but explain to me how they are MORE influential than Congress or Mountain Men or, say Bankers? What makes them the MOST influential group rather than just another very influential group?

Well Becca, I think that you are asking the wrong question. The question was most significant, not influential. I personally define the two very differently. These people were not so much influential as important. By important, I mean that these people did things that changed American culture, and how it was looked upon by others. For example: Babe Ruth changed the game that is known as "America's Pastime". He singlehandedly made kids around the country want to play baseball. Then we have Jesse Owens. He made Hitler see that Black people were not quite as inferior as he may have though before. Babe Zaharias showed that woman could do anything, especially play sports just as well as men. And though he's not in the above post, Jackie Robinson broke the color line, even bore integration in the south. Often times, especially in the case of the last two that I just wrote about, Athletes are on the forefront of cultural reforms.

[timjon]

Summative Post: I'd like to begin by saying I really enjoyed this simulation and its just a bit unfortunate that we couldn't have done this earlier because i believe it really helped us internalize the information presented to us better than say our in-class presentations.

I haven't chosen my top ten yet but I have my criteria
1) The group has to have had a lasting effect on our country, whether it were for better or for worse.
2) Must have done more in the long run than they set out to do, or the main point of their group.
3) Decide whether or not society today would be greatly effected had the group not existed.
4) The accomplishments should have affected both society and government.
5) The group must've had at least one extremely prominent member whose actions paved the way for the group's overall influence.
6) Their influence will be judged by both how they affected society and the country at the time and how their influence is viewed now.

Alright that's it. I'm out!

[Nicole V.]

Michelle- Has socialism left any lasting impact on our society today? Or was there a certain point in time where they "died out" in this country?

[Nicole V.]

Michael G.- What are some major trade cities throughout the US, what did they trade, and how did the goods they traded shape the City/Community that it became?

[Alex G.]

manigirl18 said:

agold21 said:

Well I guess I owe a few informational posts, so away we go:

Throughout history, athletes have been looked upon as a vanity, a way of forgetting life's little problems. If you go back far enough, one can observe that in Ancient Rome, athletes brought the rich and the poor together at the coliseum. The poor, who lived at or near the poverty level would go to see the gladiators compete, sitting way up high above, while their superiors sat well down below. However, the fact that these poor, unfortuante people could find joy while watching these men compete really says something. They were able to put life's problems in their "back pockets" for a while and simply concentrate on the entertainment.

With this in mind, it may even be argued that in fact, these athletes kept the poor going, allowed them their sanity. The same argument can be made today. In a time where when you get up in the morning to when you fall asleep at night all you hear about is war and terrorism, it is quite amazing that people can come home and put their worries to rest for a while, and watch the game. The fact that people all around the world can unite to watch the world cup is stupendous.

That brings us to The United States. One may ask, how is it possible that a group such as athletes can possibly compete with a group that has altered our everyday life. How can a group of entertainers, who merely compete in what in reality is well, not the real world be compared to a group such as the scientists, or the military. Well, this is an excellent question. The answer is, athletes bring poeple together. Athletes give people a reason to be unified. During the olympics, people from all walks of life: democrats and republicans, Blacks and Whites, the rich and the poor, join together to root as one. I don't know how many other groups can unify so many people as one.

If you know any specifics..who were some of the major athletes in Rome? it was pretty interesting to me so I was wondering..THANX

Some of the major Roman athletes were charioteers Hierocles, and scorpus and gladiators Crixus, Lentulus Batiatus, Oenomaus, Spartacus, priscus, and Verus. Hope that helps.

[Nicole V.]

Beth M.- If you had to choose the most influential Supreme Court Justice or Case what would it be and why? How did he/she/this influence society?

[Alex G.]

joy said:

One last pitch for my group: the Confederates. Just to summarize everything, influence is impact, regardless of if it was good or just plain evil. That said, the Confederates owned slaves and so did people in the North. Slaves were crucial to the economy in the South that was dependent on the crops grown on plantations, rice, cotton, etc. The “freedom” of black slaves is what brought about the Civil War. Without the Confederacy, the Civil War, and the eventual emancipation of slaves would not have occurred.

JOY

Can it really be assumed that emancipation would not have occurred without the civil war? At some point the modernization of the country would have probably lead to the emancipation.

[Tali Cayemitte]

To Thalia

George Whitfield was one of two men who came to exemplify the Great Awakening. The first Great awakening is often described as the response of devout people to the enlightenment, a European intellectual movement that borrowed heavily from ancient philosophy and emphasized rationalism over emotionalism or spirituality which eventually found its way into the colonies.The colonist who came to typify Enlightenment ideals in America was Ben Franklin. My question is therfore, since Ben Franklin and George Whitfield were players on opposite teams, why would they be working together when the ideals that they each represented were contradictory?

[Alex G.]

Summative post

When writing my out paper I will probably take a few things into consideration:

• Which groups I feel have lead to life in America today as we know it.
  
• The groups must not have changed America in one sector only. i. e. economic, social, political
  
• groups must have caused a lasting change, or spurred on something that did
  
• groups need not have a positive affect, but may have a negative one.
  

Thats pretty much my criteria. I bid you all adieu.

[michaelg]

lickitylax210 said:

Michael G.- What are some major trade cities throughout the US, what did they trade, and how did the goods they traded shape the City/Community that it became?

In the colonial era, there were few cities in the southern colonies. The cities that were there were centers of trade. They would collect the cash crops and they would trade them to England in exchange for finished goods.

Today, all large cities are major centers of trade. For example, New York City has over 8 million people. Every one of them needs groceries. They don't grow their own food. They rely on traders to provide it to them. This example applies to any city.

As for foreign trade, New York City is also an example of a center of trade. With its port and strong economy, it imports and exports many goods. Boston also does so.

[michaelg]

Can it really be assumed that emancipation would not have occurred without the civil war? At some point the modernization of the country would have probably lead to the emancipation.
- Alex G.

I believe that emancipation would have happened eventually. There were many abolitionists in the north and as America was becoming more industrialized, the north was getting more power. They would have gotten their way. American slavery was also unpopular among the European powers at the time. The south would have freed the slaves under the pressure of either the north or europe.

[coby]

Tali,
Why were suffragists less important then feminists?

[coby]

Louie,
I agree with tim that Jackson was not an exspansionist.

[coby]

Mike,
Are the first tradeing cities the most wealthy cities today in America?

[coby]

Beth,
I agree supreme court justices were extremely influential, I think John Marshall was more influential then most presidents.

[coby]

Jamestown was founded in 1606 as the first southern town of the colonies. The Virginia Company was founded and gave people a way to invest in companies with out having any connection to a company, they were simply investors and if the company failed they were not at fault for any debt. This practice came to be known as a joint stock company. The joint stock company would become a common practice in future America, the idea of investment without responsibility was very attractive to merchants and it was equally appealing for companies who used the invested money as equity for there company. - This was created by settlers who created the face of southern America.

[coby]

Last info:
The patterns that the settlers created existed many years after their lives ended. America was divided between north and south and waged a civil war over states rights, the south wanted states rights because it felt it pumped more money into the government then it got back and it wanted to keep slavery legal. The north stayed Merchants and it fought the Civil War on behalf of the Union. In current American Society things are still the same as when settlers first arrived, North and South are divided. Today in elections one can notice that the red states vote a certain and the blue states vote another way, the blue states are all located north of the mason Dixon line and the red states are all located south of the mason Dixon line.

[Tali Cayemitte]

To meghanav

I disagree with your arguments semi-proclaiming that the Utopians are the most significant group in American History. Although many of these communitarian clusters had good intentions, their overall goals were not achieved, proving their existence futile and influence on American history void of any true meaning. Because of their extremist beliefs such as the Shakers’ belief that sex was an instrument of evil and therefore practiced celibacy, they often were the tools of their own demise.