Most Significant Groups in US History

[Gabe S.]

Summative post:

First of all, I suggest everyone to take a look back onto page 30 where all my info is.
Or, simply understand that modernism was more of a overlying feeling that inspired a century's worth of people to progress in all different areas such as, science, art, music, technology, etc. This movement was a driving force in influencing the US in all respects in the past century, and has in turn, brought this nation to the forefront in becoming the leading superpower. As Lily said in her response of the modernists, "their intention was to do nothing but influence." And I believe that is exactly what this simulation is about.

And as for how I will judge my top 10 groups, it will have to be on influence and thereby significance. The main thing I will try to determine is how would the US have been different if this or that group had not existed or had not been the same. By then considering the differences between the new outcomes for this nation, I will hopefully be able to determine which group had the most lasting and profound effect.

[brianw]

Why Economists Were (and are) the Best

Info
Through this simulation I have definitely been helped out by the nebulousness of my group. To be honest, economists have been involved for so long that it would be impossible for them to not be one of the top ten most important groups in American history, even if their influence had not been as great as they were. Political parties have changed, activist groups have dissolved, and forms of thinking have been outdated. However the importance of economists has always stayed the same. Future colonists in England created the idea of a joint stock company, and thus laid the seeds of the United States. Although it may not be very romantic, the U.S. was created to make money, and that is one of the few beliefs that we have held true for our entire history.
Economists have guided America through it’s whole existence. They existed before congressmen, and will still remain for the rest of our history. I can’t emphasize enough that behind every American decision their has been an economic purpose, and on every economic decision, there are economists working behind the scenes. The language of laws principals and morals change on a daily basis, but the importance of economics, and those who understand it will always remain. As dismal as it may be, economists are the most important group in American history.

[Robbie U.]

joannagross said:

The groups that I plan to use in my top 10 will be...Civil Rights Leaders...

You are quite wise

[Kathryn S]

Maureen, some really important industries affected by unions are the construction industry and the trucking industry. like “the teamsters”. Although they may seem quite obscure…labor unions are very strong here… and when you think about it, not much can get done without them.

[Robbie U.]

andrea said:

...*Communist dribble*...

No! Communism is an evil thing that if it had not breached the American shore would result in a much better America. Communism is a wicked plague the spreads across the land, strangling the life and freedom out of those willingly and unwillingly subject to its totalitarian government. Darkness spreads with communism, bringing secret police, death, intimidation, tyranny, and more with it. Communism is an infection which threatens all those who are fool enough to fall to the virus. It destroys economies, societies, standards of living, and nations on a whole. The only three things which can fight communism are Afghani Mujahideen, Reagan, and freedom.

[Jason Y]

Caitlin-

You asked earlier how Upton Sinclair influenced California. Without mentioning too many specifics, he ran the EPIC movement which was his attempt to get California out of their depression, out of poverty and suffering. In doing so they got the most votes in the preliminaries that the state has ever gotten (best turn out at the polls). I believe he also ran and won the race for governor; I'm almost positive he held office at the state level.

[Jordan K.]

Summative
Top Ten: Federalists, Scientists, Inventors, EDucators, Abolitionists, Con federeates, European Explorers, Settlers, Slaves, Revolutionaries
On the basis that their contributions affected the most people in the most profound ways.

[Nicole V.]

OK I realize these are very late but i sort of forgot about them so....
Info Post #2

These are some key people, legislature, and events having to do with the Nativists:

People
Samuel F. B. Morse- Was one of the first politicians to run on the Nativist campaign for mayor of New York in 1836. He was not successful, but it led the way for more Nativist parties to run for election.
Charles B. Allen- Formed a group called the Order of the Star Spangled Banner. This would eventually become the “Know –Nothing” party, because they were so secretive, literally no one knew anything about them. The Nativists best known organization were the “Know-Nothing” party, and the American party. The American Party was formed in 1854.
Millard Fillmore- Former US president, ran as the America Party's first presidential candidate in the 1856 election.

Legislature
Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798- This legislature postponed citizenship and voting rights for new immigrants. This was very unsuccessful.
Chinese Exclusion Act- Prevented Chinese immigration to the U.S.
Gentlemen's Agreement- This was never a true legislation, but rather an agreement between the US and Japanese governments. The Japanese would not issue any passports to the US, and the Japanese already in the US were allowed to stay and wives, and children would be allowed to immigrate. Legal racial segregation would also be avoided.

Events
Philadelphia Race Riots of 1844- Riots against the Catholics in the 1840s. These riots between Nativists and Irish Catholics were started on a rumor that they wanted to take the Bible out of schools. People started fighting in the streets. Buildings were destroyed, and some even lost their lives.

All of these impacted America during their time periods and even caused a lot of controversy. Nativists as individuals may have tried to lie low, but their intentions and actions rang loud throughout the country at many points in time.

[Robbie U.]

jordankesner said:

Summative
Top Ten: Federalists, Scientists, Inventors, EDucators, Abolitionists, Con federeates, European Explorers, Settlers, Slaves, Revolutionaries
On the basis that their contributions affected the most people in the most profound ways.

You forget Civil Rights leaders

[beckyg]

summative post:

criteria for what makes a group significant:
- the group has made lasting contributions that are still felt today
- the group impacted many different types of people
- the group has prominent leaders that are well known
- if in the group's absense, would our country be dramatically different?
- has the group's actions changed the United States economically, politically, or socially?
- are supporters of the group still around today?

[Michelle M.]

lickitylax210 said:

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,

Although the popularity of socialism significantly dropped leading up to WWII, there are still socialist political parties in existence today.

Democratic Socialists of America has about 5,000 to 6,000 members and the Social Democrats USA is an organization of intellectuals and trade unionists that supports "interventionist foreign policy", such as the 2003 war with Iraq.

[solomon]

okay, here goes for my second informational post.....sorry for the delay, but i know everyone has been waiting. Everyone wanted to know about some people that can be tied to the barnburners and the main person would have to be Martin Van Buren of the Free Soil Party. Van Buren was able to steal many votes away from the opposing parties due to some of his popularity as a president. Many of you will not recognize the following names but ill give them to you all anyway....In 1860, there were two political groups that medaled with the election results. John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party took 18.1percent of the popular vote and John Breckinridge of the Southern Democrats took 12.5 percent of the popular vote. 1892. In the election of 1892, James Weaver, of the Popular party, took 22 electoral votes, and 8.5 percent of the popular vote. Had Weaver never been part of the election, Rutherford Hayes could have beaten Grover Cleveland. In 1916, Allan Benson of the Socialist party took three percent of the popular vote and in 1948, Strom Thurmond of the Dixiecrats won only 5 percent of the popular vote, but he also won four states and 39 electoral votes. In 1968, Richard Nixon won the popular vote 43.3 percent to 42.7 percent. George Wallace of the American Independents had 13 percent of the popular vote and received 46 electoral votes

[Michelle M.]

mjf11721 said:

Michelle- Why do you think socialism never really caught the interest of the majority of American people?

Matt,

well, this is mere speculation, but i think it is becuase in the beginning unions probably feared that they would lose their job if they joined such socialist organizations and chose to continue their life as it was instead of chancing unemployment. However, after WWII, i think it was socialism strong ties to communism and the Soviet Union that drove people away.

[Caitlin W.]

Hannah-
The Environmental lobby is large and loud...tons of legislation has been passed concerning the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the big one, and they oversee all environmental regulations, hazards etc. (I think they are in charge of Laura Dodd's superfund sites, but I'm not positive) Companies (particularly those in manufacturing) have to submit project proposals to the EPA that assess potential environmental hazards (meaning hazards to wildlife and hazards to HUMAN employees). Other legislature includes the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammals Act, which specifically protects wildlife. Then there's the national parks etc

[mishab]

summative post:

The criteria for my paper is going to be:

1: would American history be different without this group of people?
2: did the group have a long term impact in history and not just for a short period of time?
3: does the group have a lasting impact on American history?
4: how has the group changed U.S. history socially, politically, and/or economically?

[Caitlin W.]

yeah tali!!

and thanks jason

[Michelle M.]

meghanav said:

mrosem44 said:

Second Info Post (some important names):

Eugene V Debs – Socialist politician and was one of the founders of the IWW. He ran for president five times, receiving 6% of the vote in 1912. He gave an anti-war speech in 1918 which landed him in jail, where he would run for office in 1920! He was pretty much the Socialist movement…

Helen Keller – the deaf and blind girl we all know and love was a socialist and supported Debs in his many presidential campaigns.

Upton Sinclair – Member of the Socialist Party of America, muckraker who wrote the pro-socialist novel, The Jungle, that criticized the meat packing industry in Chicago and suggested Socialism as the solution to the problems the workers faced.

I know that The Jungle brought about changes in the meat packing industry, but did it help the Socialist party? I mean did more people want to join the Socialist party? When Roosevelt read the book he agreed that changes had to be made, but he disagreed with how Sinclair preached socialism.

good question meg,

Although Sinclair had anticipated his book would spark a wave of socialism, America focused on his revolting details of the innerworkings of the meat factories. Therefore, the implications of his publication mainly were that of food reforms, not a increased membership of the Socialist Party of America.

[Danny T.]

ok i dont know how many informative posts ive done because i was asked a lot of questions when i first posted and i dont know if my informative responses count as informative posts. But heres one just in case.

As soon as the baby boomers reached an age when they could influence society, they did. They took part in the Civil Rights movement, gaining long-awaited rights for African Americans in the 60s. They fought for equal treatment of women at the work place and in schools. They were the first generation to fight for the rights of gays and lesbians. Baby boomers cant be replaced by future generations because the baby boom generation is so much larger than any other generation of its time. Population is growing at an exponential rate. The baby boomers made a hump in this rate, and that is why they are different from any other generation.

[Kathryn S]

The Bulletin board experience:
Interesting idea… kind of messy execution. We definitely could have used more organization, or perhaps breaking this down into smaller sub threads. I thought that it was fun to have people be able to directly and sometimes immediately respond to each other’s posts.
I learned that although it may be extremely tedious (reading though the 1000+ posts), learning from all of the groups gave me a better understanding, on the whole, as to what makes for a strong, lasting, and significant group. In reading about so many, we are able to see which reoccurring themes pop up in the most successful groups : ex: unity….Also this made me remember how “significance” and “influence” do not necessarily have to be related to positives in our history.

Out Paper:
Sooo, having said all this, here is some of my criteria for judging the most significant groups of all time…

-Did the event have more of a long lasting influence or was it just a “direct hit” of the times?
-Was their influence/leadership important exclusively to their field or the world?
-Did this group stand out and present new ideas or did just the changing of the times in a cultural trend become epitomized in this one group.
-How/did this group have an effect on a cultural trend?
-Is it probable their impact continue into the future?
-Has this group changed the way Americans view ourselves/others? And others view Americans…

[Michelle M.]

Alex S.

I understand your argument that vice presidents provide "stability" to the country because without them, we would experience chaos if the president were to die. However, i disagree that they are the most significant group since they do not posess any other power of significance.