Most Significant Groups in US History

[Jason Y]

Jamie-

Just a quick comment/question about one of your examples. Can you really count the Union army when you can look at the Confederate army and say the exact opposite? it seems to me that the time of the Civil War, the army had neither a positive or negative impact. It was equally bad. I don't think that you can use the civil war as an example, but no one can really use it against your case either. Just a thought.

[Jason Y]

Tolstoi-

I'm confused. Is that supposed to make us think that your group is the most important? it makes them seem like the worst people imaginable. They may have been influential, but it doesn't seem like they'd be missed if they never existed...or did I read that wrong?

[Jason Y]

OK ITS TIME FOR THE THIRD INFO POST!!! :-)

NOW YOU SHALL WITNESS THE TRUE POWER OF RECONSTRUCTIONISTS!!!!

The second group that drove the reconstruction period was the carpet baggers. This group bore the biggest responsibility of all of the groups; reconstruction of the practical problems in the South. The carpet baggers were split by two main issues that had to be dealt with; transition of freedom for slaves and the political and economic cooperation between the North and South. Their attempts at these goals usually occurred at the state level at which they secured the passage of several important civil rights legislations. One example is Adelbert Ames, who was a Reconstruction governor and U.S. senator for Mississippi. He fought for freed slaves and improved the society and economic relations of his state. One of the biggest accomplishments of the carpet baggers as well as any influential group in history was education. Carpet baggers set up a public education system in every state. Prior to the civil war the only southern state that had a public education system was North Carolina; a huge step towards helping the South “catch up” with the North. It is because of this that the African American literacy rate by 1900 was up to 50%; a huge improvement considering how they had to live under slavery. If it wasn’t for the carpet baggers, it is quite possible that the South would be less developed and part of this country economically and maybe even politically had it not been for the education brought to them by this group. While the Freedmen’s Bureau focused on freedmen in general, it was the carpet baggers that focused their battles on the freedmen of the south, making it more possible to live in the section that chained them down for all those years.

[ziv_kennan]

Well it seems that it's impossible to have such a thing as two consecutive posts on this thing. Darned be it. Here's a list of some major isolationists, and what they did:

Thomas Paine (questionable): Writer, Common Sense, some isolationist ideas.
George Washington: President, Farewell address: minimal outside contact (1796)
Thomas Jefferson: President, Inaugural: no entangling alliances (1801)
James Monroe: President, Monroe Doctrine, "we stay out of European wars"
Woodrow Wilson (for a short while): President, "He kept us out of war"
Robert M. La Follete: Senator, anti-war, socialist
Victor L. Berger: Socialist, anti-war
Eugene V. Debs: Labor leader, anti-war
Charles Lindbergh: Aviation Guy, anti-war
Gerald P. Nye: Some dude. Actually, he was a senator and activist.

Some modern people:

Ralph Nader: Umm... crazy political activist, lawyer, ran for president.
Patrick Buchanan: Politician, Author, interesting.
Ronald E. Paul: Congressman, non-interventionist.

So, as you can see, there are some isolationists nowadays, and they've been around for a really long time, since before "America", actually.

The most important period for isolationists was definitely during and after World War One. In that period, the group included just about everyone. Think about that... EVERYONE. Time to walk the dog. The third post wil elaborate more and tell you why isolationists happen to be really important.

[Alex T.]

Think of the Know-Nothing Party as the forerunners of the Ku Klux Klan, even they would tip their hat to the violent acts committed by Know-Nothingers. Even though they were only around for a decade, the Party left a lasting impression. Members would stop at nothing to kill immigrants. They burned Catholic Churches, immigrant boarding homes, immigrant’s houses, even places that employed immigrants, they are most infamous for burning the Ursuline Convent in Boston. They had riots in Boston and Philadelphia that left 30 dead and hundreds injured. There are even accounts of Know-Nothingers shooting immigrants in the street for no reason other then them being immigrants. It would be unfair of me to only talk about the violent racists acts the Know-Nothing Party and its members committed without talking about the racists acts they purposed in congress. Some of the bills put forward by party members include; not allowing Catholics or foreign-born people to hold public offices, limitations on the sale of alcohol, and to only let Protestants learn how to read. The Party’s main goal was to push the required time for citizenship from five years to 21 years. I hope now you can see why the party was so popular in America.

[Alex T.]

Jason, in reply to your reply, since when are the most important people in American History, the the good guy everyone hopes is going to win. I'm sorry but it never plays out that way. most of the time the most important people are the bad people because they changes the most, Richard Nixon for example, not nice, but very important.

[Zoe B.]

dtyea said:

If your parents are between the ages of 43 and 62, then you are directly affected by a baby boomer. It's hard to believe that our parents were part of many significant cultural changes in the past sixty years, but it's true. Here are some examples:
-Rock N' Roll
-Civl Rights movement
-Women's rights
-Gay rights
-"Hippies"
-"Yuppies"
The baby boom generation created all of these cultural reforms, and have also supplied this country with our last two presidents. The baby boomers have influenced this country since they were born in monumental numbers, and will continue to affect this country as long as they survive. Without a doubt they are the most significant group in American History. Everyone should agree with me, and if you don't then it is a direct insult to your parents. Yea, that's right. Okay I'm going to bed now, goodnight.

While I don't think that the baby boomers make up the most influential group, I do agree with you that they are quite important. (If nothing else, they created us, which puts them very close to the top!) They have defined the economy and legislature of the past 50 or so years and continue to be influential today. Just remember everyone, start investing in retirement houses!

[Jason Y]

Tolstoi

Ok, fine, you made it seem that the only thing the Know Nothing Party was good for was being racist and now being the forerunners of the Klu Klux Klan. How else did the Party affect the U.S. OTHER THAN BEING RACISTS!







Also, good point Zoe, I was going to say the same thing but you beat me to it :-)

[Alex T.]

Although it is hard to say, the Know-Nothing members did have a reason to be mad. They were tired of their jobs getting stolen away by some guy that would work for half the pay. Cities at that time were crazy, New York was bursting at the seems, and all the old immigrants saw was more and more people getting off the boats. The old immigrants blamed all the problems on the new immigrants; fighting, organized crime, them losing their jobs, it was easy for them to blame it on the people getting off the boat. It is no different then what we are doing now with Mexicans crossing the border. So instead of building a wall, they did what every racists group does, make a political party. With a political party they could try to put an end to all their problems. If we look at it as a group of people trying to solve problems through legislation, its not that bad. In no way am I saying the Know-Nothing Party had good ideas, but they did what Americans are supposed to do. No one can argue that they are not a important part of American history.

[Alex T.]

Jason, they were a major political party, they got a quarter of the popular votes when Fillmore ran for president. this is a major deal in American History, especially because they are extremly racist.

[Alex T.]

Michel'le F., after after the revolution did the Quakers have any major politicans?

[Jason Y]

TOLSTOI! TELL ME WHEY THEY ARE SIGNIFICANT. I dont care about how many votes they got. give me reasons that will convince me that the KNP is worth writing about.

[Zoe B.]

jyoung said:

Tolstoi-

I'm confused. Is that supposed to make us think that your group is the most important? it makes them seem like the worst people imaginable. They may have been influential, but it doesn't seem like they'd be missed if they never existed...or did I read that wrong?

Jason- thanks, but I think you're missing the point a bit here. Part of what makes the Know-Nothings so influential is the fact that they were so racist. Influence isn't always a good thing (such as the classic Hitler example). While they might not have been missed if they didn't exist, our history would have certainly been quite different.

[Alex T.]

JASON!!!! IF A KU KLUX KLAN MEMBER RAN FOR PRESIDENT AND GOT A 1/4 OF THE VOTES DOESNT THAT SAY ANYTHING. The fact that 1/4 of the country wanted to elect someone whos main goal was to not let immigrants read says something about Americans in the 1850s, they led a racist movment and were supported by many americans. to me this is important.

[Alex T.]

Thank you Zoe

[ziv_kennan]

Well now you should know who the isolationists were, but you might not know why they were (are!) important, and why you should think of history in terms of isolationism (just as an experiment).

The thing about isolationists is that they provide a very important balance within our nation. Yeah, basically, isolationist sentiment helps to temper those of us who want to go to war every two seconds. It also protects our economy at times, by raising tariffs when they need to be raised. It is certainly true that in the world we live in now, a global economy is very important... this means that being isolated in an economic sense isn't really feasible anymore.... oh well. Despite this, something important to take away from isolationism is non-interventionism.

Take Iraq as an example (this could blow up...) Those in this nation who are non-interventionist oppose that specific war and any similar conflicts. If the government listened to isolationists about such matters all the time, the U.S would have several billion dollars to spend on more important things. Isolationists are important as a balance.

Resources on isolationism:
My in paper is www.davidkennan.com/inppr.html
The wikipedia article is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_non-interventionism

[Alex T.]

manigirl18
there is no question that the Revivalists impacter religion, but im still not getting how america would be diffrent if they never came about.

[Zoe B.]

Alright, here's my second informational post to explain to you all why the pre-colonial European explorers were the most influential people in U.S. history. I already talked about Columbus, so now I'll tell you about another of the prominent explorers, Juan Ponce de León. He traveled with Columbus and helped him to conquer Hispaniola and he also took over Puerto Rico and was named its governor. In 1513, he took his most significant voyage. He landed in and claimed Florida, successfully becoming (as far as we know) the first European to set foot on future United States soil. Ponce de León also discovered the Gulf Stream and made the first European attempt to colonize Florida. As you can see, he was a very influential figure, and this is justly representative of the entire group of European explorers. More to come!

[Zoe B.]

Ziv- could you give some examples of events or situations other than wars (especially WWI) that were influenced by the isolationists?

[ziv_kennan]

@buddy:

So, out of all the American inventors and inventions you researched, which group do you think was the most significant? By group I mean in what area, agriculture, entertainment, etc...