The Crossing

The Crossing is a dramatization of George Washington's brilliant victory at Trenton the day after Christmas in 1776. Had the desperate Continental Army not attempted to surprise the Hessians at Trenton or had the Hessians won the battle, the American Revolution would probably have failed. This engagement, between a little more than 3,000 men, was a turning point in history.

In order to present more history, the screenwriter has changed a number of the details and subsidiary events. However, the The Crossing gets the broad scenario right. It presents the desperate situation of the Continental Army and of the Revolution. It shows Washington's resolve to make a last ditch effort to show that American soldiers could defeat the British Empire's best troops. The movie brings to life the frigid crossing of the river, the miserable march to Trenton, the battle, and the victory. Washington, often seen as distant and aloof, is presented as a human being contending with vastly superior British forces, a crumbling army, and resistance to his leadership from some of his fellow generals.

Watch the film here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTzKaUgdfKs

Be sure to be familiar with the major characters:

George Washington

Alexander Hamilton

John Glover

Hugh Mercer

Henry Knox

Johann Rall

Make some notes regarding these major characters and the events of the story. Do a little research online and through your textbook to see how close the details of the film match the general consensus regarding the history. We will discuss this in class.

As well, read the links below and consider the portrayal of Rall in the film in contrast to the reading. Be prepared to discuss this contrast in the context of the writing of history.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2015/01/11/patriots-celebrate-the-real-story-of-washingtons-decisive-christmas-attack-at-trenton/

https://allthingsliberty.com/2018/04/the-hessians-who-escaped-washingtons-trap-at-trenton/

Colonial Assignment

The History of the Thirteen Colonies

You will be creating a PowerPoint presentation that should be between eight to ten minutes. It will cover one of the Thirteen Colonies, possibly an Ivy League school and a colonial personality or two. Each individual has been assigned three items.

See the list below. You will find your initials beside the items you are responsible for:

Colonies:

Virginia - TStef
Massachusetts - DL
New Hampshire - RW
Maryland - MO
Connecticut - JC
Rhode Island - EW
Delaware - LP
North Carolina - JB
South Carolina - BS
New Jersey - AC
New York - KS
Pennsylvania - TS 
Georgia - SK

Ivy League Schools:

• Brown - JC
• Columbia - RW
• Cornell - SC
• Dartmouth - SK
• Harvard - AC
• Penn - TS
• Princeton - LP
• Yale - TStef


Colonial Personality:

•Roger Williams - SK
•John Winthrop - TS
•Thomas Hooker - RW
•William Penn - SC
•John Harvard - KS
•James Pierpont - 
•Eleazar Wheelock - EW
•William Pitt - JB
•Anne Hutchinson - KS
•John Smith - DL
•Crispus Attucks - JB
•James Madison - LP
•Thomas Jefferson - TStef
•George Washington - AC
•Benjamin Franklin - BS
•John Jay - MO
•John Hancock - DL

•Alexander Hamilton - SC
•John Glover - JC
•Hugh Mercer - MO
•Horatio Gates - BS

•Patrick Henry - EW

When working on a colony, identify the following:

• Year founded
• Who founded it?
• Describe the culture of the colony (i.e. What kind of work did people do there? Where were the largest groups of settlers come from? Was there a special purpose in forming the colony? What was the colony known for?)
• Population data from inception to 1776

When working on an Ivy League school, identify the following:

•Year founded
•Who founded it?
•What was the mission of the institution? Does it remain the same today?
•Student population from inception to today
•What are some unique features of the institution?
•Why do students go there?

When working on a personality, identify the following:

•birth, death, age
•place of birth
•family background growing up
•marriage and children
•contribution/significance to American history
•personal character
•other items of interest

***PLEASE NOTE: On your final slide, provide your sources in APA format. See the link below for help with this.

http://stpauls-mb.libguides.com/citations/APA

Here is a quick reference table for the colonies, their founders and their dates of origin

http://americanhistory.about.com/library/charts/blcolonial13.htm

PRESENTATIONS BEGIN ON Monday, December 16, 2019

See the scoring guide below. Each category is out of 10 for a total presentation grade out of 40.:

Presentation Rubric
Points	Required Elements	Organization	Slideshow	Delivery
9-10	Met all elements/ Comprehensive coverage of elements	Ideas well organized and fit together seamlessly united by an expressly identified purpose	Easy to read, clear text, relevant visuals, one idea per slide	Well paced, strong voice, clear articulation, eye contact with audience/ speaking without reading notes
7-8	Did not meet one or two elements/Strong coverage of elements	Ideas organized and fit together well. Purpose clear but may be implied instead of overtly stated.	One of text or visuals need improvement, one idea per slide	One of pace, voice, articulation, eye contact need improvement/ speaking without reading notes
5-6	Missing many elements/General coverage of elements	Ideas organized and somewhat related. Purpose implied.	One of text or visuals need improvement, two or more ideas per slide	Two of pace, voice, articulation, eye contact need improvement/ may be reading slides
3-4	Majority of elements missing/ Superficial coverage of elements	Ideas clear but do not seem to fit together. Purpose lacking.	Both text and visuals need improvement, too many ideas per slide	Three of pace, voice, articulation, eye contact need improvement/ may be reading slides
1-2	Most elements missing/Scant coverage of elements	Haphazard organization	Text need improvement, lacking relevant visuals, too many   ideas per slide	Pace, voice, and articulation, eye contact need improvement/may be reading slides

How Englishmen Became Americans - Essay Assignment

Assignment: 

Read Chapter 2 and 3 of the Textbook.

Supplement your reading with the following summary of an article by Current, Williams, and Friedel (1972) entitled, "Englishmen Become Americans and Gain Their Independence." Much like the readings for Chapter 2 and 3 of the textbook, these notes provide a context for the underlying causes of the independence movement. 

Essay Question:

What was the most significant cause of the War of Independence?

Due Date: Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Englishmen Become Americans and Gain Their Independence

• The colonies were largely made up of "transplanted" Englishmen who identified with England largely except for a few specific matters
• As such, these individuals saw themselves as creating a "better" England with "greater opportunities for personal happiness"

As time went on, America developed more of its own character distinct from England. The three reasons for this "divergence between the culture of the colonies and that of the homeland," was:

• Colonists were generally more "discontented" and/or more "adventurous" people than their English counterparts back home. They saw negative aspects of their native home and were prepared to do something about it to change their own lives.
• They were frontiersmen. The new environment they chose to live in brought new "challenges and opportunities" that were not necessarily best met by the old ways of England.
• Although the English dominated, there was enough diversity in the colonies to cause the development of a new culture.

There was also diversity on another level -- Americans became and largely remain provincial people. The colonies developed their own distinctive characters and regions. There were the New England colonies, the middle colonies of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, and the Southern colonies (which themselves could be divided between the tobacco colonies and the others).
These unique circumstances created "Americans" -- a people who thought of their "country" as being their colony first, their region second, and their place as British subjects third. This mindset put the colonists directly at odds with Britain after New France fell, as the Empire attempted to govern more directly over all of British North America. Their opposition to England gave them a strong common bond that led to political allegiance and finally morphed into a full blown revolution designed to secure their liberty from the greatest political and military force the world had ever known.
While the battles, weaponry, and casualties were small when compared to warfare today, the consequences of the Revolutionary War were significant and far reaching. It was the first backlash to colonialism. It gave birth to a new nation bound together not by a sense of tribalism but instead rooted in faith, freedom, and the "pursuit of happiness". Most importantly, this great experiment in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people served as a beacon to the world.

Lucky Thirteen? Maybe Not...But Oh So Free and Happy

Read the material below and complete the textbook readings for Friday, December 6, 2019. Be prepared for a possible pop quiz based on the readings and this blog entry.

This blog entry is a supplemental to part of a previous class discussion regarding the colonial world from which America sprung. What follows attempts to explain the context in which the colonies grew. To get an idea of the colonial world in which the settlers found themselves, we must consider the way the world looked in 1620 when the Mayflower sailed.

Britain, France, and Spain were the preeminent European powers of the world. With their navies and exploratory forays, they were able to map the world in a high stakes, competitive race. This race was based on political and economic expansion. Each country would seek out new lands and claim them for their own. They would populate the new lands with their own people who would often brave unfamiliar conditions and tenuous relationships with the indigenous population of the area.

Ultimately, they used the raw materials they could find and harvested them for sale around the world or for their own use. Later, they made value added products by using the raw material to make something for sale (like the popular fur hats the beaver was trapped for in New France). We refer to this process and the battle between these nations as colonialism or imperialism .

The link below provides you with a very general overview of the history of European colonialism, which can be traced back to the 1400's. Over the years, the Spanish, British, French, and even the Dutch planted colonies in North America.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraid=2

Also read pages 10-15 in the textbook to supplement this material.

Here is a diagram that explains one aspect of how colonialism and the movement of goods worked.

http://www.landofthebrave.info/images/triangular-trade-route-map.jpg

By 1664, James II (at the time the Duke of York and Albany) had taken New Netherland by force and renamed it New York. By 1825, Spain had lost all of its colonies in North America as a result of independence movements. There was even a Swedish colony (New Sweden existed from 1638-1655 in parts of what today is Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania), but it was quickly conquered by the Dutch.


Along the eastern coastline of North America, it was the British colonies - the Thirteen Colonies that made up what would become the United States.


These colonies were unique in that they were fiercely independent of each other and had their own laws and even different ways of governing themselves. But they shared a belief in democracy and individual freedom. This ultimately put them at odds with Britain and led to the American Revolution in 1776. It also helps to explain New Hampshire's state motto which appears to this day on their automobile tags - "Live Free or Die."

The colonies were founded between 1607 (Jamestown -- Virginia) and 1732 (Georgia). They are generally divided into three groups:


The New England Colonies:


•Rhode Island
•Massachusetts
•Connecticut
•New Hampshire


The Middle Colonies:


•New Jersey
•Pennsylvania
•Delaware
•New York

The Southern Colonies



•North Carolina
•South Carolina
•Georgia
•Virginia
•Maryland

Also read pages 16-31 in the textbook to supplement this material.

The Essay

Over the last number of days, we have reviewed the essay writing process. Below is a set of notes that you may refer to in order to help you become more familiar with this concept and assist you as we move forward with essay assignments.

REMINDER - Your task for Friday, November 22 is to complete the remainder of the MLK essay and submit it in either hard copy or digital format.

General Comments (Things to Avoid)

• Do not use first person (I think, you will read, etc.)


• Be aware of heterographs (too, two, to... their, there and they're)


• Do not narrate your essay (In this essay...)

• Do not use rhetorical questions (What caused the War of Independence?)


• Review for run on and fragment sentences

The Building Blocks of Essay Construction

One Sentence = One Complete Thought (the atom of the essay)

One Paragraph = One Main Idea (the molecule of the essay)

One Essay= One Position Justified (an organelle)

Analysing the Task

The essay assignment typically comes in two forms -- a question or a directive.

for example:

What was the most significant cause of the War of Independence? (question)




Discuss the most significant cause of the War of Independence.(directive)

The most important thing to remember when writing the essay is to make sure you understand the question and answer the question directly.



Below you will find the objectives we discussed for the introductory paragraph (in order of importance - NOT appearance):



1. Answer the question (thesis statement)

2. List of supporting ideas (evidence which will serve to prove your thesis)

3. Introductory statement (this is the first sentence in your essay)



Next, you will find the objectives for the body paragraphs (in order of appearance):



1. Topic sentence (from your list of supporting ideas and relates to thesis)

2. Supporting details (logically prove why the thesis is true... between 5-7 sentences)

3. Transition sentence (make the connection from the present supporting idea/topic to the next supporting idea/topic)


Finally, the objectives for the conclusion are as follows:

1. Restate the thesis

2. Expand on the thesis (original thought)

It's the Economy, Stupid!

The following blog entry provides a summary of the material discussed in class over the last few days. It is designed to provide a point of departure for the consideration of current issues facing the United States today.

Some Background and Context

James Carville, Democratic political strategist for Bill Clinton came up with this slogan to help keep Clinton campaign insiders "on message" as their candidate stumped against President George H.W. Bush. Republicans have employed it somewhat this Fall against Democrats. Whether or not this strategy tracks with voters remains to be seen. However, the real story here is that overspending has been going on for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

The History of Spending

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyneHFa07tQ&NR=1&feature=endscreen

Let's begin by looking at the way US government spending breaks down. It doesn't take much to see the problem. Just look at three snapshots of spending (2012, 2015, 2017) and you'll see a dangerously quick moving trend...

You'll note entitlements (i.e. government benefits paid out to citizens - namely Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security) are growing steadily. This reflects the population distribution, where the older outnumber the younger considerably. In three years, these entitlements went from accounting for 41% of federal spending to 49%. That represents a $119 billion increase. Over time, this will make these entitlements unsustainable.

See the following video for a quick summary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfZyffw7U6E

Simply put, the nature of the changing population and resulting commitments in entitlement spending will soon put the US government in a position where the amount of money spent in these areas ALONE will exceed ALL the money the federal government takes in.

At the same time, the federal government continues to borrow more and more money daily in order to sustain its spending which results in higher and higher budget deficits and more and more debt.

The Problem of Debt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zPyZZIvwCc&feature=related

The Debt Limit: Made Simple

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yJRci2pARk&feature=related

These two forces - the growth of entitlements and the growth of deficits and debt will eventually make it impossible for the government to meet either its entitlement obligations or any other public needs like infrastructure. 

As John F. Kennedy noted in "Profiles in Courage," ultimately the public gets the government it deserves. Political leaders are unprepared to commit themselves to real solutions because they fear that those affected by any cutbacks will take it out on those who presented the solutions. And no one wants to tell a segment of the public that they can't have what others have had up until now. The pressure to be liked and the pressure to be re-elected prevails over the pressure to face reality.  

Another reality is that as we have become wealthier in the western world, we have become more materialistic and convinced that individual "needs" are higher and require greater expense. One outcome of this is a declining birth rate -- people are simply having less children. 

While there are many factors that can have an impact on the birth rate (see the article link below), there is no question that some make the decision to have children later or perhaps to have less children because they feel that to do otherwise would not allow them to satisfactorily meet either their children's or their own needs. 

https://www.moms.com/cdc-says-not-having-enough-kids/

https://www.insider.com/us-fertility-rate-hit-new-low-in-2017-2019-1

The overall financial impact of a reduced birth rate is that there will be less public support to pay for entitlements -- something that the architects of these programs might not have foreseen. 

See the following link for a more detailed analysis of the history of entitlement spending. 

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/entitlement_spending

Another uncontrolled factor is the fact that people are simply living longer, committing the government to more payouts than previously. When Social Security was implemented in the 1930's, life expectancy was 58 for men and 62 for women. With eligibility being set at 65, many people were no longer alive to collect this entitlement. 

See the link below for a review of how life expectancy is changing and the relative impact on Social Security.

http://www.ssa.gov/history/lifeexpect.html


See the link below for an overview of the Social Security debate in the United States. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_debate_in_the_United_States

Often, particularly over the last number of years, military spending is seen as the overriding cause of government deficits and debt. However, while a significant amount of money has been spent for security of the homeland and fighting terrorism abroad, more has been spent on entitlements and entitlement spending will continue to grow in  a way that military spending never has.

Another way to look at the numbers is to consider government spending as a percentage of gross domestic product -- that is all of the wealth created from all national economic activity in a given year.

More Recently

Clearly, there are choices that will need to be made over the next number of years in order to avoid a financial meltdown unlike anything that has ever been seen in world history. It is important to remember that the  American government is a partnership between the Congress (made up of the House and Senate) and the President. For example, under Republican Ronald Reagan, debt climbed, however Democrats generally controlled Congress. The Democrats in Congress increased social spending. Reagan increased military spending due to the Cold War. Together, they increased the annual deficit and consequently, the national debt, although Reagan wanted to reduce the size of government and spending in general. In the end, Reagan's economic policies which led to the longest peacetime period of growth in American history created enough revenue that tough political choices could be avoided -- for the time being.

At the end of the Clinton era, a Democratic president (Bill Clinton) and a Republican congress (Newt Gingrich and Dennis Hastert served as Speakers of the House while Bob Dole and Trent Lott served as Senate Majority Leaders for the majority of the Clinton presidency) had their challenges, but in the end actually created surpluses in excess of 200 billion dollars a year. However, these surpluses were achieved by dipping into the Social Security trust fund, which was money already committed for that purpose.

The George W. Bush Era 

The 2000 election between Texas Governor George W. Bush and Clinton's Vice President, Al Gore came down to a choice between how the surpluses would be spent. Gore promised to spend more government money on environmental causes and other social spending. Bush promised to cut taxes and return the surplus to those who had earned it -- the American taxpayer. Otherwise, the world seemed relatively peaceful to Americans, so foreign policy was not a major consideration for voters.

September 11 would change all that. President Bush, who was almost entirely focused on domestic issues such as education and growing the economy through tax cuts and reducing regulatory burdens, now found himself as a wartime president. After 9/11, President Bush worked together with the firm support of Democrats who controlled Congress to make America safer and strike out aggressively against Islamofascism.

These initiatives included, but were not limited to:

• Invasion of Afghanistan (House vote: 420-1 in favor; Senate vote: 98-0) Cost: $171.7 billion between 2001-2008
• Invasion of Iraq ( House vote: 297-133 in favor; Senate vote 77-23
  39% of House Democrats, or 82 members joined with Republicans on the vote and 42% of Senate Democrats, or 21 senators supported the authorization) Cost: $13 billion initial outlay - plus $9 billion a month or roughly $589.3 billion between 2001-2008

• Creation of the Department of Homeland Security (House vote: 295-132 in favor; Senate vote: 90-9) Cost: $385 billion between 2001-2007
• Passage of the Patriot Act (House vote: 357-66 in favor; Senate vote: 98-1) Cost: $340 million between 2001-2008

Other major expenditures in the Bush era included:

• Prescription drug coverage for seniors - Medicare Modernization Act of 2003(House vote:220-215; Senate vote: 54-44) Cost: Roughly $740 billion between 2001-2007
• Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 Cost: $773 billion

So what happened to cause that economic crisis at the end of the Bush presidency anyways?

The Mortgage Crisis 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPI8XFfBxHk

Even here, the analysts disagree. Liberals want to blame it on "capitalism run amok" -- essentially too much "deregulation" and conservatives want to blame the Democratic Party controlled Congress for ignoring requests from the Bush administration to look into the lending practices of government sponsored Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association - FNMA) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation - FHLMC), who were making loans to high risk clients.

The Obama Era 


For the first two years of the Obama presidency, Congress was firmly in Democratic hands. The President was able to win favor for his agenda, which included a massive health care package and a stimulus plan that, by the President's own admission, had not produced "shovel ready" employment.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Cost: $787 Billion (House vote:246-183); Senate vote: 60-38 - only three Republicans in the Senate supported the bill and none in the House)

There is no real idea of what the cost of health care legislation will be. Democrats claim that it will eventually reduce the debt, Republicans claim it is a major tax grab that will increase the debt and destroy the quality of the health care system.

The Congressional Budget Office, which is seen as a non-partisan agency of the government had initially projected that the ACA (Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare) would reduce the deficit because it included major cuts to Medicare and new tax increases. However, recently the CBO has stated that because the interpretation of the law and its original provisions have been changed so many times since its original acceptance that there is not way to reliably predict the effect of the ACA on the deficit.

Here is an example of how the same information can be viewed differently, depending on your point of view:

CBO Quietly Drops Forecast That Obamacare Will Cut the Deficit

Obamacare Is (Still) Fiscally Responsible

So what is the ACA projected to cost anyways? According to a CBO report in March of 2015, it was expected that the federal government would spend significantly less on Obamacare than had been projected. Instead of $1.35 trillion in costs from 2016 through 2025, Affordable Care Act-related expenditures were expected to be $1.207 trillion, the CBO said.

Is President Obama the biggest spender in history or just more of the same and not that much different from other recent presidents? Depends on who you ask…

 Read the following articles and see for yourself… We Report, You Decide

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obama-spending-binge-never-happened-2012-05-22

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/the-facts-about-the-growth-of-spending-under-obama/2012/05/24/gJQAIJh6nU_blog.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2012/09/03/yep-obamas-a-big-spender-just-like-his-predecessors/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2012/06/14/president-obama-the-biggest-government-spender-in-world-history/

https://www.thebalance.com/us-debt-by-president-by-dollar-and-percent-3306296

Bottom line, the national debt under Obama climbed from 10 trillion to about 19.7 trillion dollars. The US also had its credit rating diminished and in polls near the end of Obama's presidency more than 65% of the population believed the country was on the wrong track.

http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/unitedstates

http://www.usdebtclock.org

The next elections will be about choices and consequences. Although both parties have a different narrative on the topic, the mathematical realities are not really debatable. The Trump Era is three years along now. It is still too soon to say what will happen to spending and revenue at this point. However, it is easy to see that the option of kicking the can further down the road will no longer be possible. The article below provides one opinion of how things are going in the Trump Era so far. The US national debt is now at 22 trillion dollars.

https://www.thebalance.com/trump-plans-to-reduce-national-debt-4114401

There Is No Such Thing As American History - Only a Frontier

For yesterday's class, you were asked to watch the clip below from the series, "Mad Men," in which Sterling Cooper's creative head, Don Draper speaks suddenly and extemporaneously to his staff which has been pressed into working the weekend to craft an advertising campaign for American Airlines -- desperate to get out a message to counter the bad publicity surrounding a recent crash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-iWbrT-nvI

You were required to provide an analysis of Draper's message by applying basic concepts of American Exceptionalism as studied in class. Remember that we will have more activities such as this to apply and deepen your understanding of American Exceptionalism.  Hopefully, these activities will help deepen your understanding of the concepts we are studying and assist you in completing the assignment on American exceptionalism. Below is complication of some possible responses. 

American Airlines is no more about the past than America is---

In this line, Draper appeals to a sense of patriotism – equating the company with the nation.  At its core, American patriotism is based on freedom.  American Airlines represents freedom (Religiosity - source of utopian aspirations). On an individual level, the airline industry represents freedom to travel which is a means of exerting power over one's own life. In a larger sense, the power of flight broadens interstate commerce and allows America to do for itself and to expand by doing business in foreign lands (Industriousness - self reliance - getting ahead). This idea comes back full circle to patriotism because when Americans do business abroad, they instinctively bring their rugged individualism, their drive, their passion for freedom and their nation with them. As Conrad Hilton said, "It's my purpose in life to bring America to the world whether they like it or not." In this vision, American Airlines is at once America's chariot and ambassador.  

Ask not about Cuba, ask not about the bomb. We are going to the moon.

Here, Draper goes beyond optimism to conviction. In 1962, reaching the moon was yet to be done, but Don Draper is convinced that it WILL come to pass. America does not await a fate - America has a DESTINY as long as people dream and are bent on defeating the impossible. 

Build it and they will come – Field of Dreams 

America is a nation of DOERS -- take action and have dreams – Ted Kennedy, in his eulogy to his brother, Bobby said," As he (Bobby Kennedy) said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream of things that never were and say why not."

Utopian aspirations and getting ahead tied up in one  -- 

There is no such thing as American history – only a frontier – 

Colonization was the frontier in America. This was followed by expansion west through the Louisiana Purchase, the exploits of Lewis and Clark, culminating in Manifest Destiny and extending on to the moon. There would always be another frontier for Americans because they refused to limit their imagination and as a people embraced man's inner need for challenges.

This line is also a bit counterintuitive – isn’t America’s history something to be proud of? Isn’t it the story of who they are as a people? What Draper means is that in the context of the post World War II era – America IS the future.  Why? How can Draper be sure? Because America saved the world from Nazi tyranny. America had rebuilt Europe and fed the hungry. America was the leader of the Free World and protected the world from Soviet hegemony.