Nixon vs. McGovern Campaign Ads

A couple of commercials from the 1972 Nixon vs. McGovern campaign.  Please take a look at both.  Which do you think is more effective? Why?

• McGovern Watergate ad
• Nixon ad on McGovern Military policy

Nixon vs. Humphrey vs. Wallace

Thanks to the miracle of the internet, young people today can watch the awful television commercials of the 50's, 60's, and 70's--including the campaign commercials. Lucky you! Please take a look at a one or two of the 1968 presidential campaign commercials I link here:

• Humphrey commercial
• George Wallace commercial
• Robert Kennedy commercial
• Nixon commercial

What was the main theme of the commercial/commercials you watched? What issues were the candidates using to try to sway voters? Did the commercial/commercials seem to you at all likely to be effective?

Watts Riots

The advent of television had a major affect on the way Americans viewed their nation and the political issues confronting America. Please watch this video clip of the 1965 Watts riots. What would your own reaction have been after seeing clips like this on the evening news? Remember that the riots broke out just days after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a supplement to the earlier Civil Rights Act of 1964. Do you think this is just a coincidence, or do you see a possible connection?

Atomic Cafe

The Atomic Cafe documentary is a great source for understanding certain aspects of the Cold War period.  It focuses more on that early Cold War stuff we did before the midterm, but, if you'd like a few extra credit points, you can view portions of the film and add your comments here.  What did you learn about the Cold War period from the footage here that would be less easy to learn from a lecture or a textbook?

The Eugenics Movement

If you want to improve a country, perhaps one way would be to improve the people who live in that country. Some among the "progressives" hit on a novel way to bring about such improvement: breed better people. The attempt to improve the genetic heritage of America (and to hasten the evolution of the species) led to what's called the eugenics movement. Please read through the Wikipedia summary of the eugenics movement. What do you see here that suggests that there is a dark side to the progressive movement?

Philippine-American War (1899-1902)

While the 1900 contest between Bryan vs. McKinley was taking place, America was bogged down attempting to end an insurrection in the Philippines. Glance through this Philippine-American War site and choose one incident from this war that seems to you worth addressing in a presidential campaign either on the pro-war or anti-war side.

Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth

People who make themselves wealthy sometimes make others better off as well, and it's possible to view the Morgan, Rockefeller, and Stanford types much more positively than I suggested in lecture.  With Andrew Carnegie especially, it's easy to view him more positively than I do.  Please read through Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth. How does reading this affect your general impression of Carnegie?  Does it make you more sympathetic or not?

Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents

One of the quickest and best ways to get a feel for the overall course of American political history is to read through the inaugural addresses of the presidents on the Bartleby "Great Books Online" site. Please select *one* of the inaugural addresses from the period we have been studying. Read through the address and cite here a line that seems to you particularly important. Try to find a line that might help you and others reading the blog prepare for one of the exam study questions, e.g., the question on the quality of the men elected to the presidency during this period. Garfield's address might be particularly useful since his time as president was so brief and there is little else to evaluate him on.

Ulysses S. Grant: First Inaugural Address, Second Inaugural Address
Rutherford B. Hayes
James A. Garfield
Grover Cleveland: First Inaugural
Benjamin Harrison

Harper's Weekly

Harper's Weekly was the most popular American publication during the Civil War. It's a great source for getting the mood of Americans during the ebb and flow of the war. Please glance through one of the 1865 issues of Harper's Weekly. You might find particularly interesting the January 14 issue that features Sherman's entrance into Savannah, the May 6 issue that focuses on Lincoln and his assassination or the May 13 issue that focuses on the aftermath of the assassination and the new president, Andrew Johnson. Please comment here on what the issue you read shows about America in 1865. Anything here that shows why it might have been difficult to reconcile North and South? Anything here that gives particular hope that the republic would be restored?