US History 1940-Now: The Great Society Programs
I need this paper by Wednesday morning please, thank you.
Please complete parts B and Parts C. The instructions for "Part A" are irrelevant. Please choose which prompt you'd like to do based off the quality that can be written. Thank you!
ALL STUDENTS MUST ANSWER PART A. 20% THEN SELECT ONE QUESTION FROM PART B. AND ONE QUESTION FROM PART C. PLEASE RE-STATE THE ENTIRE QUESTION AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH ANSWER. (2 POINTS DEDUCTED FOR FAILURE TO RESTATE QUESTION.) ALL ESSAYS MUST HAVE THESIS STATEMENTS, PREFERABLY ONE SENTENCE, HIGHLIGHTED OR WRITTEN IN BOLD. (2 POINTS DEDUCTED FOR FAILURE TO HAVE BOLD PRINT THESIS STATEMENT.)
THE ANSWER PART A SHOULD BY APPROX. 2 PAGES. ANSWERS TO B AND C SHOULD BE 3-4 PAGES PER ESSAY. (DOUBLE-SPACED.) PLEASE USE PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS. IF YOU USE OUTSIDE SOURCES YOU WILL NEED A BIBLIOGRAPHY.
PART B (40%)
1. Write an essay in which you discuss the consequences of the failure of the Great Society Programs of the late 60s. Follow the thread of that failure as it plays out in the 70s. 80s and the 90s. Be sure to include Pruitt-Igoe, Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop and finally the War on Drugs and the growth of the Prison-Industrial Complex.
2. Stokely Carmichael once made the claim that what was good for Black people was good for American democracy. Discuss this claim and build a case for or against it for the period from 1954 to the present, drawing on course readings, lectures and films.
3.Cornel West has argued that America’s will toward racial justice is weak. Discuss this claim, using evidence gleaned from the lectures. films and your reading.
4. The central philosophical underpinning of all of the significant social movements of the 60s and the 70s was the concept of participatory democracy. We now live in an age in which the gathering and the dissemination of information has been greatly democratized by a whole range of social media. Write an essay in which you 1) trace the influence of participatory democracy on one of the following social movements, paying particular attention to the ways in which the broad participation of adherents shaped the movement as a whole: Women's liberation, environmental, Black Power, Gay & Lesbian rights movement, Chicano Movement. 2.) In a brief conclusion you might want to imagine the impact on that movement of 21st century social media.
5. Alice Echols writes: “In a sense the individual became the site of political activity in the 60s.” Discuss. (not only in terms of the women’s movement.)
6. Write an essay in which you describe and discuss the waves of movements concerned with social justice that took place in the 60s and 70s. You need to begin with a brief comment on the Classical phase of the civil rights movement and then discuss at least three significant social movements of the period: Free Speech Movement, the anti-war movement, the Black Power movement, the women’s movement and the gay and lesbian movement. You may also choose to discuss the Chicano power movement or environmentalism.
PART C (40%)
1. I have stated that an apt title for this course could be: American Television. Write a well-organized essay describing the impact of television on U.S. history since its popularization in the late Forties.
2. A historian has referred to the 1970s as a decade in which "it seemed like nothing happened," suggesting a more complacent and conservative decade after the social activism and upheavals of the 60s. Discuss.
3. One historian has argued that Watergate was the crucial event that brought down the "imperial presidency" which emphasized a powerful activist president. Evaluate this view, examining presidential power and challenges to this power between the 1960s and the Reagan Administration
4. How have both male and female gender identities been redefined since the 1950s? What were the larger effects of this redefinition on American society and politics? Be sure to refer to your readings whenever possible.
6. Using the consensus-schism-fragmentation paradigm as your controlling thesis, write an essay, which tells the story of U.S. history from 1945 until the 80s. Be sure to include examples from lecture and the readings. Where would you place America in 2O11 on this spectrum? (YOU MAY WRITE A SINGLE 8 PAGE ESSAY ON THIS QUESTION)
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US History 1940-Now
Part B: The Great Society Programs
Introduction
Great Society Programs of the late 60s was meant to decrease the poverty levels, eliminate discrimination and provide basis services for the American people. When Lyndon Johnson became the president of the U.S in 1963, he embarked on a mission to eliminate poverty and racial discrimination permanently, naming his mission as the great society program. However, the impacts of this program were felt by few Americans who were living below the poverty line because the poverty levels dropped from 22.2% to 12.6%.
Some of the Legislations Passed Under the Great Society Program
To combat some of the social vices, the great society was a program aimed at tackling poverty, racial injustices, urban decay unemployment, national beautification and education reforms to improve the overall quality of life. To show his commitment towards the program, the president created the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The department’s role was to oversee the implementation of the programs. Poverty was the first issue to be addressed by the great society program. The Economic Opportunity Act was one of the platforms of social improvements on education and health care. In education, several programs were initiated focusing on secondary and primary education through the elementary and secondary education act 1965. A total of $ 1 billion was allocated for education for schools to acquire learning equipments and also encourage special education. The higher education facilities act of 1963 offered universities with financial aid, scholarships and loans of low interest rates to students to complete their higher education.
In health, Medicare and Medicaid were established for those with low income and the elderly with the establishment of the social security act .The Great Society created programs were aimed at also at promoting art. In 1965, the national foundation on art and humanities was passed to encourage arts in America. Furthermore, the great society passed the civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights of 1968 to address the increased society concerns. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned racial discrimination, but it failed to address black Americans fear of voting especially in the southern parts of the country where racial discrimination was at its peak. However, to address this problem, Johnson passed the voting acts in 1965 to ban voting discrimination and also outlawed any polling station from conducting literacy test before one could vote. The immigration act of 1965 also prevented discrimination from immigrants who originated from places like Asia.
Examples of Some Projects That Failed
Pruitt-Igoe housing project
The Pruitt-Igoe was one of the largest housing projects developed by the city of St.Lous to curb the overcrowding housing situation the town was facing. Initially when the project was completed, many residence from the DeSoto-Carr the place where the project was built, agreed that the project was the solution they have been searching for. However, this was not the case as residence came to realize that the apartments were small with nonfunctional elevators or congested elevators that forced residence to use stairs instead. In addition, the small corridors had laundry rooms and other communal amenities like the garbage collection area. As part of cutting cost by the federal government, the installation of the heating systems were done using poor quality materials, making the situation to be unbearable for the occupants. Generally, the project was poorly constructed. The poor workmanship was a result of the federal government cutting down the initial project cost from $ 36 million to $ 24 million. Despite knowing what the project entailed the government went ahead and allowed people to occupy the building on completion.
The Pruitt-Igoe housing project failed to meet the set objective of the great society program as intended, initially. In 1947, population loss was experienced from 821,960 to 816,048 in St. Louis. The government decided to reconstruct houses in Pruit-igoe at the north side of St. Louis. It had a total unit of 2,870. However, the units were small with poor workmanship. After several complains from the occupants one of the complains being the elevators skipping floors. Residences were relocated in by the department of housing and in1971 and after spending $ 5 million the buildings were demolished.
Can’t stop won’t stop
This was a cultural movement inspired through hip-hop music to define the hopes and failure of the black people in America as they were opposed to anything that was not considered as their identity. Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop emerged as a result of cultural and political differences across America despite the establishment of the great society program. It was a revolutionary medium where hip hop music provided voices to young people giving them the opportunity to express themselves and bring about changes that addressed their needs. However, the government did not recognize hip hop as an art to give it much attention under the established act of national foundation on art and humanities.
War on Drugs the growth of the Prison-Industrial Complex
The great society idea of eliminating poverty was soon forgotten as the war on drugs emerged. The war on drugs became the center of the America administration meaning that most people imprisoned was convicted of drug related offenses with longer sentences being imposed on them. The number of prisoners in America escalated as 67% being blacks, not because the black people in American committed more crime, but because the prison industrial complex became one of the systems that racism thrived. Discrimination was still being practiced even after the establishment of the great society programs. The growth of prisons undermined the efforts of achieving the great society as envisioned by Johnson because more and more people were being arrested as a result of crimes related to poverty. Therefore, the program failed in addressing poverty as the main agenda in the act. In general, the great society program failed to eradicate poverty. Instead, poverty was wide spread in urban areas. Furthermore, more ...