Why Studying History Matters: Understanding Our Past and Present

Today we are going to be discussing three major events that have happened in American history within why is history important essay. The progressive era was from 1901-1917. It was the political and social reform that brought tremendous changes to the United States. The goal of the Progressive Era was to strengthen the national government and talk about the community's economic, political, and social order. Progresses saw factors of the Americans that they hoped to remake like ending concentration of wealth within the biggest political and economic power of the massive businesses. The population of the United states doubled. Growing immigration and urbanization it helped shift small scale manufacturing and commerce to a large factory production and big companies. The leaders worked on lots of issues that defined the time like labor rights, women’s suffrage, economic reform, environmental protections, and the welfare of the poor including immigrants. Labor unions continue to work to better the economic and working conditions. The biggest issues at the time that is needed to be mention in why do we study history essay were the demand of an eight-hour workday, constriction on child labor, higher wages, and safety conditions. Expanded urbanization meant big jumps in population density. Urban places had lot of neighborhoods that were overcrowded, dangerous, and unsanitary. Economic reformers wanted to put aside the excesses inequalities of the Gilded age. Public opinion was against monopiles and legislators worked to regulate the big businesses that apply political and economic power. In reply to monopiles in the railroad in steel industries the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed to help break up and prevent monopiles and trust. During the progressive era the women's suffrage became a big deal for many people. They marched and organized to put together a constitutional amendment that would give women the right to vote. Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Cady Staton helped lead this movement. In 1920 congress passed the nineteenth amendment giving women the right to vote who are U.S citizens. The presidential election of 1912 Robert M. La Follette didn’t win the Republicans nomination. But he had formed the National Republican Progressive League. That then became the Progressive Party. When America entered World War I the Progressive movement broke. The organizations founded during this time continue to play roles in society today.

The next thing we are going to be talking about within history essay is America in the 1920’s. The 1920s was famous for jazz, flapper's prosperity, and consumerism. Nonetheless not everybody benefited from the economic boom happening at the time. About more then 60 percent of America was living below the poverty line. Hoovers slogan for his campaign was “A chicken in every pot, and a car in every backyard”. His promise added confidence to many Americans thrived from U.S. prosperity. The boom was inflamed by a period of mass production and consumption. It was made possible with growth in technology. Like when Henery Ford came up with the bright idea of the assembly line for a large amount of car production. It also led to other exciting things like the mass production of radios, fridges, and phones. The consumer boom led buyers to buy things on credit. Which meant that people who couldn’t afford to buy high end items could buy them if they kept up with the payments. Hoover made a statement that America had mostly gotten rid of its poverty. Even though there was a big difference in wealth in America. Africain American farmers went through great danger during this time. Technically slavery had been banned by this time they were still treated unfairly and still being racially attacked by the KKK. Many of them tried escaping this by moving north. This was not any better they still didn’t have good jobs and lived-in poor conditions.

The third and final thing we will be talking about in why do we need to study history essay is World War II. It began in August of 1939 when Hitler and Joseph Stalin signed the German-Soviet nonaggression pact. Hitler had been planning on taking over Poland where Great Britian and France assured that they would help fight if Germany attacked them. He then attacked Poland and soon after France and Britian declared war on Germany and that is when it all began. Fast forward to December 7th, 1941 a Japanese aircraft bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii taking America by surprise taking the lives of 2,300 troops. The attack helped bring together the decision of entering the war. After having many victories for the Japanese, the U.S. won the battle of midway. Which was the turning point of the war

Now, after reading why should i study history of life essay, you may be asking why is history important? It is important for people to understand the past so they can be prepared for the future. History has never been my favorite subject and maybe that is because I never had a teacher that made it interesting. But I would have to say that my favorite thing that we learned in this class was about the 1920’s. That might only be because if I were to go back in time to live in a different decade it would be the 20’s. I think it was just an interesting time in history and I learned a lot more about it the I even did in high school. My least favorite thing we learned about was war with Spain. It was not because you taught it wrong or in a bad way. It was just kind of boring and it really didn't draw my attention. All in all, it was such a weird experience for my first semester of college but thank you for making it a normal as you possible could.