American involvement in World War I Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

American involvement in World War I - Essay Example 1880 witnessed a wave of labor organization and at the core was the Knights of labor which was the initial group to manage unskilled together with skilled workers, women and men. The group witnessed a huge number of workers in 1886 in strike, boycotts, political action and educational as well as social activities. In this period, labor reformers put forth a wide array of programs that included eight-hour day, public employment, currency reform, socialism and creation of vague â€Å"cooperative commonwealth† (Foner 667). All the ideas were brought by the conviction at the time that social conditions required drastic change; hence the labor movement launched sustained assault based on the understanding of freedom and liberty of contract. Therefore, the remedy was to incorporate republican principles into the industrial system by assuring a basic set of economic rights to all Americans (Foner 667). After the civil war, the president at the time Lincoln signed the emancipation pro clamation that liberated some of the slaves at the time within the president’s authority. Although, the documented did not apply in loyal border slave states, the proclamation set off euphoria among the free slaves and abolitionists from the north and slaves in the south. Hence, the war that aimed at preserving the union resulted in abolition of slavery under government authorization (Foner 551). After the end of the civil war the United States became a new nation because for the first time the nation was wholly free after the destruction of slavery (Foner 587). Instead of land distribution, reconstruction governments pinned their hopes in southern economic growth... American involvement in World War I The war appeared to develop the new nationalist nation that Roosevelt together with other progressives preferred (Foner 780). Abuse of civil liberties in early 1920 was severe that the events dealt a devastating setback to radical and labor organizations of every kind and initialized intense identification of patriotic Americanism with support of political and economic status quo (Foner 803). The 1920s witnessed profound social tensions between rural and urban Americans participants in the burgeoning consumer culture and individuals who did not share the prevailing prosperity. In this period, conservatism dominated both the political system and consumerism because Americans seemed to dress alike and admire same larger than-life celebrities (Foner 819). The 1932 depression saw the country’s economy hit rock bottom resulting high unemployment, few working hours and drastically low wages an indication that the not only did the industrial economy suffer, but the nation that led th e prosperity in 1920s. The depression changed American life because it reversed the long-standing movement of individuals from farms to cities (Foner 850). Moreover, the long-standing division between the competing conceptions of woman freedom crystallized in the debate regarding Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) because female liberation resurfaced as a lifestyle, stuff of advertising, devoid of connections to political and economic radicalism (Foner 826-827).