First & Second Midterm
What is Danielle Allen's perspective on the Constitution?
Imperfect, but worth preserving as it has many principles and structures that guard rights and protect against tyranny
Amendments 13-15
Free Citizens Vote
What was Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier thesis?
The frontier represents a continual return to a simpler way of life, as the border has to be settled and tamed
“The frontier is the line of most rapid and effec-tive Americanization."
Define Radical Liberty
Bonus 100: Name a reading/figure that espouses this conception of liberty
Freedom is liberation from all traditional restraints.
Jerry Rubin's Yippie Manifesto, also partly Port Huron Statement
What does "Rise up and abandon the creeping meatball" mean?
WHATEVER YOU WANT IT TO--example of hippie movement and radical liberty and individualism
What is a covenant community?
Think of Winthrop and his Model of Christian Charity--social, political, and religious covenants. Puritan effort to have a Christian community bound by love and working towards a city upon a hill.
Describe all 7 articles of the Constitution, beyond simply one word for each.
LEJSASR with more explanation
Explain Teddy Roosevelt's main ideas in his "New Nationalism" Speech
“I stand for the square deal. But when I say that I am for the square deal, I mean not merely that I stand for fair play under the present rules of the games, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a more substantial equality of opportunity and of reward for equally good service.”
But you have to work for it though
We ought to control large corporations, while still striving to preserve capitalism
Graduated Income taxes, estate taxes and such
“No man can be a good citizen unless he has a wage more than sufficient to cover the bare cost of living”
Define Ancient Liberty
Freedom to participate in the community and its political decisions
Explain the Plessy v Ferguson court case--what were the facts, what was the ruling?
Bonus 100, explain the same things for the 1954 case that overturned Plessy
Separate but equal doctrine, overruled by Brown v Board, which said separate is inherently inequal
Explain Federalist 10
Factions, Control the effects, Large Republic better
Amendments 16-21
Progressive amendments
Explain Susan B Anthony's argument in her "Is it a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to Vote?"
Bonus 200: Explain the Minor v Happersett Court Case and Ruling
Bonus 100: What was Orestes Brownson's view of why women shouldn't be given the right to vote?
Voting is part of ‘inalienable rights’ and applies to women
Uses Declaration of Independence–consent is a natural right
The 14th amendment guarantees citizenship to a defined group of persons, and protects their rights and immunities, of which voting ought to be agreed as one such. Are women not ‘persons’?
I don’t call on government to give us the right to vote, I call on women to exercise the right to vote guaranteed to all citizens
“Minor v. Happersett, the Supreme Court ruled that the rights of citizens were not defined in the Fourteenth Amendment and therefore did not explicitly include the right to suffrage. Citizenship, according to Chief Justice Morrison Waite, meant “membership in a nation and nothing more.” According to this odd logic, the right to vote was not a right at all. Rather it was a privilege to be accorded—and rescinded—by the states.”
Orestes Brownson: Women are just different, men and women have the same interests, female suffrage wouldn't change or fix anything, women will corrupt politics, female suffrage will destroy the family by leading to child neglect and such
Define Civil Liberty
Bonus 200: Which person and reading does this defintion come from?
Freedom to live as God wants you to live; submission to God's will, freedom to do only that which is right
John Winthrop, Little Speech on Liberty
List at least three factors leading to the Great Depression
Bonus 100 for explaining each of the following New Deal programs: AAA, WPA, CCC
Dust bowl, 1929 stock market crash, ensuing bank runs, fallout from WW1 (Germany borrowing from American banks to pay debts), federal reserve perhaps exacerbates issues
Explain Federalist 51, and be sure to include the author and his view on what is the primary control on government
James Madison, auxiliary precautions. The people are the primary control.
Full Bill of Rights
(Review hand signs)
Explain the main concepts of MLK's I have a Dream Speech, and compare/contrast with Malcolm X's the Ballot or the Bullet
Declaration and Constitution form a Promissory note for all Americans, a guarantee of freedom and equal protection, and the dream is that that check will be cashed in and the nation will fulfill its creed
MLK stressed nonviolence, Malcolm X said he'd be nonviolent with those who were non-violent with him. If police set a dog on you, kill it. Black Nationalism
Define Negative Liberty
Bonus 100: Name a reading/figure that espouses this conception of liberty
Freedom from government; ability to make choices without coercion or oppression.
Hoover's fifth freedom, Sharon Statement, Bill of rights (particularly first couple amendments), etc.
Define Fiscal and Monetary policy
Fiscal: Government can increase/decrease spending or raise/lower taxes
Monetary: Federal Reserve can raise/lower interest rates or increase/decrease money supply
Explain the dispute over a national bank and why it was significant in early america (How does it relate to the first political parties? What supreme court case dealt with it, and what was the major ruling? What did Andrew Jackson think of it?)
Broad vs strict construction, a difference in the Federalist and Democratic Republican parties, McCulloch v Maryland, Jackson's veto of the bank bill on grounds that it disproportionately helps Northeastern and foreign investors
Amendments 22-27
(Go over tips for memorizing)
Who is the forgotten man? Remember, there are two definitions, one from William Graham Sumner and one from FDR
Sumner: "Reformers say A and B will decide what C will do for D. A and B are social reformers and D is the poor man, but who is C? The ‘Forgotten Man’." It is he who will work and pay, and then have his efforts and earnings taken by politicians and social reformers.
FDR: “These unhappy times call for the building of plans...that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”
Define Positive Liberty
Bonus 100: Name a reading/figure that espouses this conception of liberty
Freedom means creating the conditions necessary to flourish; government action may be necessary.
FDR and his Four Freedoms and Second Bill of Rights, Teddy Roosevelt's New Nationalism, Port Huron Statement, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, Reconstruction amendments, etc.
Explain each of the following market weaknesses and give examples of each:
Externalities, monopolies, imperfect information, recession, economic injustice
Externalities: "An externality occurs whenever a third party not directly involved in an exchange either benefits or suffers costs because of that exchange.” (THESE CAN BE - OR +)
Monopoly: Economic power in the hands of a few or individuals. Monopoly can set prices and restrict production
Imperfect/Inadequate info: "A voluntary exchange makes both parties of the trade better off if those involved are acting on good information. If those taking part in the exchange do not have adequate information about the products involved or the terms of the exchange, it is possible they will miscalculate, and the exchange may not be beneficial."
Recession/Depression: "Whenever the actual level of output in the economy falls significantly below the output that the economy can produce with full employment of resources, the economy is in a recession. A depression is a severe and persistent recession."
Economic Injustice: Economic inequality and corruption that took advantage of immigrants, the poor, laborers, etc. and led to significant wealth gaps other social issues (like, as the progressives would argue, alcoholism)