History Homework Help

Part I: Primary Document Analysis, 30%

In an essay of at least 300 words, analyze one of the following two primary document excerpts, using quotations from the document as evidence. What argument is the author making? What’s the broader historical context of the document, and why is the piece significant? Cite the document by author last name parenthetically.

Excerpt 1:

“The Truman Doctrine”President Harry S. Truman’s Address Before a Joint Session of Congress March 12, 1947

“I am fully aware of the broad implications involved if the United States extends assistance to Greece and Turkey, and I shall discuss these implications with you at this time. One of the primary objectives of the foreign policy of the United States is the creation of conditions in which we and other nations will be able to work out a way of life free from coercion. This was a fundamental issue in the war with Germany and Japan. Our victory was won over countries which sought to impose their will, and their way of life, upon other nations.

To ensure the peaceful development of nations, free from coercion, the United States has taken a leading part in establishing the United Nations, The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members. We shall not realize our objectives, however, unless we are willing to help free peoples to maintain their free institutions and their national integrity against aggressive movements that seek to impose upon them totalitarian regimes. This is no more than a frank recognition that totalitarian regimes imposed on free peoples, by direct or indirect aggression, undermine the foundations of international peace and hence the security of the United States.

At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.

I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.”

Part II:Answer the following question in essay format and in at least 700 words:1. During and after Reconstruction, the United States experienced a period of rapid change. Describe the second industrial revolution of the late nineteenth century. What consequences emerged from this transition, in the North, South, and in the West? What types of reformers pushed back against these consequences? Using at least two specific groups, discuss examples of responses to industrialization in the Gilded Age.