Put your name on the Quiz; you may write on the Quiz.
If you finish early, you may take out non-WH II Honors work while you are waiting.
Current Events:
People all over the world celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th. But why is the Nativity marked by gift giving, and was He really born on that day? And just where did the Christmas tree come from? Take an enchanting tour through the history of this beloved holiday and trace the origins of its enduring traditions. Journey back to the earliest celebrations when the infant religion embraced pagan solstice festivals like the Roman Saturnalia and turned them into a commemoration of Jesus' birth. Learn how Prince Albert introduced the Christmas tree to the English-speaking world in 1841, and discover how British settlers in the New World transformed the patron saint of children into jolly old St. Nick.
This documentary explores the origin of Christmas and how it came to be the way we know it today. The documentary also incites the thought as to how Christmas is on one hand a result of social, cultural, and political influences (hence somewhat obscuring the apparent purpose of the festival: Christ's Mass), and on the other hand a influence over people's lives (particularly consumerism).
Part 1
Christmas unWrapped- The History of Christmas [2/5]
Christmas unWrapped- The History of Christmas [3/5]
Christmas unWrapped- The History of Christmas [4/5]
Christmas unWrapped- The History of Christmas [5/5]
The divisions between Americans eventually led to fighting in the Civil War.
You can learn more about music from the period by listening to: "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." In this exercise you can 1) view the exhibit; 2) read the lyrics; 3) learn more; and, 4) rewrite the song.
The Emergence of a Canadian Nation
Reading Check
Describing
How did the British North American Act change the government of Canada?
Resources
Books, web sites, and other resources
Boot delves into the technological impact that inventions, machines, and the two Industrial Revolutions have had on war.
Ch. 12 Sec. 4 Culture: Romanticism and Realism Main Ideas
At the end of the eighteenth century, romanticism emerged as a reaction to the ideas of the Enlightenment.
The Industrial Revolution created a new interest in science and helped produce the realist movement.
Key Terms
romanticism
secularization
organic evolution
natural selection
realism
Objectives, at the end of the section the student should:
*Understand what themes shaped romantic art, literature, and music.
*Explain how realists responded to the industrialized, urban world.
*Describe how the visual arts changed.
People to Identify
Ludwig van Beethoven
Louis Pasteur
Charles Darwin
Charles Dickens
Additional Terms, People, and Places
William Wordsworth
William Blake
Lord Byron
Victor Hugo
Gustave Courbet
Louis Daguerre
impressionism
Claude Monet
Vincent van Gogh
Note Taking
Reading Skill: Identify Supporting Details Fill in a table like the one below with details about the artistic movements in the 1800s.
Romanticism
Albert Bierstadt, Hetch Hetchy Canyon, 1875
Witness History
Sunset: Audio
In the 1800s, many writers turned away from the harsh realities of industrial life to celebrate nature. The English poet William Wordsworth described the peace and beauty of sunset:
“It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquillity.”
—William Wordsworth, Complete Poetical Works
Audio
Romanticism does not refer to romance in the sense of an affectionate relationship, but rather to an artistic style emphasizing imagination, freedom, and emotion. Romanticism was a reaction to the neoclassical writers of the Enlightenment, who had turned to classical Greek and Roman literature and ideals that stressed order, harmony, reason, and emotional restraint. In contrast to Enlightenment literature, the works of romantic writers included simple, direct language, intense feelings, and a glorification of nature. Artists, composers, and architects were also followers of the movement.
The Romantic Hero
Romantic writers created a new kind of hero—a mysterious, melancholy figure who felt out of step with society. “My joys, my grief, my passions, and my powers, / Made me a stranger,” wrote Britain’s George Gordon, Lord Byron. He himself was a larger-than-life figure equal to those he created. After a rebellious, wandering life, he joined Greek forces battling for freedom. When he died of a fever there, his legend bloomed. In fact, public interest in his poetry and adventures was so great that moody, isolated romantic heroes came to be described as “Byronic.”
The romantic hero often hid a guilty secret and faced a grim destiny. German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (gur tuh) wrote the dramatic poem Faust. The aging scholar Faust makes a pact with the devil, exchanging his soul for youth. After much agony, Faust wins salvation by accepting his duty to help others. In Jane Eyre, British novelist Charlotte Brontë weaves a tale about a quiet governess and her brooding, Byronic employer, whose large mansion conceals a terrifying secret.
Inspired by the Past
Romantic writers combined history, legend, and folklore. Sir Walter Scott’s novels and ballads evoked the turbulent history of Scottish clans or medieval knights. Alexandre Dumas (doo mah) and Victor Hugo re-created France’s past in novels like The Three Musketeers and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Architects, too, were inspired by old styles and forms. Churches and other buildings, including the British Parliament, were modeled on medieval Gothic styles. To people living in the 1800s, medieval towers and lacy stonework conjured up images of a glorious past.
Music Stirs Emotions
Romantic composers also tried to stir deep emotions. Audiences were moved to laughter or tears at Hungarian Franz Liszt’s piano playing. The passionate music of German composer Ludwig van Beethoven combined classical forms with a stirring range of sound. He was the first composer to take full advantage of the broad range of instruments in the modern orchestra. In all, Beethoven produced nine symphonies, five piano concertos, a violin concerto, an opera, two masses, and dozens of shorter pieces. To many, he is considered the greatest composer of his day.
Biography: Audio
Ludwig van Beethoven
An accomplished musician by age 12, composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) agonized over every note of every composition. The result was stunning music that expresses intense emotion. The famous opening of his Fifth Symphony conveys the sense of fate knocking at the door. His Sixth Symphony captures a joyful day in the countryside, interrupted by a violent thunderstorm.
Beethoven’s career was haunted by perhaps the greatest tragedy a musician can face. In 1798, he began to lose his hearing. Still, he continued to compose music he could hear only in his mind. How did Beethoven’s music reflect romanticism?
Other romantic composers wove traditional folk melodies into their works to glorify their nations’ pasts. In his piano works, Frederic Chopin (shoh pan) used Polish peasant dances to convey the sorrows and joys of people living under foreign occupation.
Romanticism in Art
Painters, too, broke free from the discipline and strict rules of the Enlightenment. Landscape painters like J.M.W. Turner sought to capture the beauty and power of nature. Using bold brush strokes and colors, Turner often showed tiny human figures struggling against sea and storm.
Romantics painted many subjects, from simple peasant life to medieval knights to current events. Bright colors conveyed violent energy and emotion. The French painter Eugène Delacroix (deh luh krwah) filled his canvases with dramatic action. In Liberty Leading the People, the Goddess of Liberty carries the revolutionary tricolor as French citizens rally to the cause.
Checkpoint
How did romantic writers, musicians, and artists respond to the Enlightenment?
Learn
Focus Question
What artistic movements emerged in reaction to the Industrial Revolution?
Audio
William Wordsworth, along with William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Percy Bysshe Shelley among others, was part of a cultural movement called romanticism. From about 1750 to 1850, romanticism shaped Western literature and arts.
Reading Check
Examining
How did the popularity of Ivanhoe reflect the interests of the nineteenth century?
A New Age of Science
Reading Check
Describing
How did Darwin's theory of natural selection influence the way in which people viewed the world?
Realism
The Call to Realism: Audio
By the mid-1800s, a new artistic movement, realism, took hold in the West. Realism was an attempt to represent the world as it was, without the sentiment associated with romanticism. Realists often focused their work on the harsh side of life in cities or villages. Many writers and artists were committed to improving the lot of the unfortunates whose lives they depicted.
Novels Depict Grim Reality
The English novelist Charles Dickens vividly portrayed the lives of slum dwellers and factory workers, including children. In Oliver Twist, Dickens tells the story of a nine-year-old orphan raised in a grim poorhouse. In response to a request for more food, Oliver is smacked on the head and sent away to work. Later, he runs away to London. There he is taken in by Fagin, a villain who trains homeless children to become pickpockets. The book shocked many middle-class readers with its picture of poverty, mistreatment of children, and urban crime. Yet Dickens’s humor and colorful characters made him one of the most popular novelists in the world.
French novelists also portrayed the ills of their time. Victor Hugo, who moved from romantic to realistic novels, revealed how hunger drove a good man to crime and how the law hounded him ever after in Les Misérables (lay miz ehr ahb). The novels of Émile Zola painted an even grimmer picture. In Germinal, Zola exposed class warfare in the French mining industry. To Zola’s characters, neither the Enlightenment’s faith in reason nor the romantic movement’s feelings mattered at all.
Realism in Drama
Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen brought realism to the stage. His plays attacked the hypocrisy he observed around him. A Doll’s House show a woman caught in a straitjacket of social rules. In An Enemy of the People, a doctor discovers that the water in a local spa is polluted. Because the town’s economy depends on its spa, the citizens denounce the doctor and suppress the truth. Ibsen’s realistic dramas had a wide influence in Europe and the United States.
Arts Reject Romantic Ideas
Painters also represented the realities of their time. Rejecting the romantic emphasis on imagination, they focused on ordinary subjects, especially working-class men and women. “I cannot paint an angel,” said the French realist Gustave Courbet (koor bay) “because I have never seen one.” Instead, he painted works such as The Stone Breakers, which shows two rough laborers on a country road. Later in the century, The Gross Clinic, by American painter Thomas Eakins, shocked viewers with its realistic depiction of an autopsy conducted in a medical classroom.
Vocabulary Builder
emphasis—(em fuh sis) n. special attention given to something to make it stand out
Checkpoint
How did the realism movement differ from the romantic movement?
Reading Check
Evaluating
What factors helped to produce the movement known as realism?
Put your name on both the Scantron and the Quiz; you may write on the Quiz.
If you finish early, you may take out non-Economics work while you are waiting.
Current Events:
The Farmers Market in a Down Economy, Missoula, MT; in a down economy many people buy local; they buy American. A number of Farmers Markets do acceptably well in a recession.
We will pick up where we left off: Ch. 16, PowerPoint presentation and Handout Ch. 16 questions.
Chapter Overview
Chapter Outline
Inflation, p. 428
Ron Paul questions Ben Bernanke on definition of inflation 07/21/2009
Inflation and Price level (p. 429)
Walker Todd, Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research and former Federal Reserve official, speaks with Richard Morais of Forbes about the risks of severe inflation in the near future and gold as an investment hedge against inflation.
"To my knowledge, this is the first time since World War II, that any industrial economy, except for maybe Hungary, has tried to expand its money that much in a single calendar quarter; but traditional monetary theory teaches that, with a lag, it can be anywhere between six months to eighteen months typically, that money creation WILL catch up to you, observed by the public, in the form of a rising price level", says Todd.
Disinflation, p. 429
The failed bank list on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s web site is long, very long. If 2008 was the year of the financial crash what is 2009 with 123 bank failures, and still counting? Cf. Cf. The Deflation Times.
Inflation or Deflation?
Professor Sidney Winter, Deloitte and Touche Professor of Management , Emeritus at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and currently the Michael Crouch Visiting Professor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Australian School of Business on the dangers of inflation/deflation.
Email HW to gmsmith@shanahan.org.
1. We will have the Ch. 15 Objective Questions Quiz, Short Answer Quiz, and Multiple Question Test when we return after the break. We will also begin the Free Response Test questions after the break. The break will be an opportune time to catch up on HW (for those who fell behind and have work to make up) and to plan ahead for the rest of the class who are on track.
Baucus States He Can't Verify if Senators Self-Certify Competency to Understand Bill
Per the announcement on Twitter and the Calendar, the Ch. 12, Sec. 2 Quiz is on Tuesday, 10 Fill-in answers. The Ch. 12, Sec. 2 page on Shanawiki is of course locked at this point per the announced procedure.
Crankshaw describes the tragedy of Bismarck. It is not that he "subordinated morality to the supposed needs of the state," many politicians do that; it is that "his countrymen surrendered to the principle (pp. 413-414)."
The German people saw it happening and lacked the will to stop it. Bismarck and the people each corrupted the other. To say that Bismarck was a direct precursor of Hitler is evidently untrue; but it is not untrue, I think, to say that those aspects of the German character which made it possible for Bismarck to rule for just on thirty years were those same aspects which made it too easy for a Hitler to take power and keep it (p. 414).
Nationalism and Reform in Europe
Great Britain
France
The Austrian Empire
Russia
Although serfdom had almost disappeared in Western Europe by the 1700s, it survived in Russia. Masters exercised almost total power over their serfs. A noble turned revolutionary described the treatment of the serfs:
“I heard . . . stories of men and women torn from their families and their villages, and sold, or lost in gambling, or exchanged for a couple of hunting dogs, and then transported to some remote part of Russia to create a [master’s] new estate; of children taken from their parents and sold to cruel . . . masters.”
—Peter Kropotkin, Memoirs of a Revolutionist
Learn
Focus Question
Why did industrialization and reform come more slowly to Russia than to Western Europe?
Reading Check
Examining
How was Great Britain able to avoid a revolution in 1848?
Nationalism in the United States
Graphic Notes: "Downfall of Mother Bank," depicting President Andrew Jackson holding up an "Order of the Removal of the Public Money" during the fight over the Bank of the United States, 1833. E.W. Clay lithograph.
Citation: American Antiquarian Society, 185 Salisbury St, Worcester, MA 01609-1634 and the Library of Congress.
Nicholas Biddle was the president of the Bank of the United States during the Bank War of 1832. Biddle held a great deal of unwarranted power over the nation’s finances, which President Jackson resented. When Jackson vetoed a bill to renew the Bank’s charter, Biddle agreed with Senator Henry Clay that this would hurt him in the upcoming presidential election of 1832, but both of them were proven wrong. When Jackson tried to end the bank by withdrawing deposits, Biddle caused a financial panic to try and prevent Jackson from attaining the presidency which failed when Jackson was re-elected.
The Bank War began with Senators Noah Webster and Clay with their Recharter Bill: Clay and Webster presented Congress with a Recharter Bill for the Bank of the United States in 1832. Although four years before the charter would expire, Clay hoped to make the Bank an issue in the upcoming presidential election, which he hoped to win. Clay hoped to quickly pass the Bill in Congress, then send it to the White House to be signed by Jackson. Clay knew Jackson would most likely veto the bill, alienating the elite in the upcoming election, therefore favoring Clay. Jackson did veto the bill, but contrary to Clay’s expectation, gained popular public support for his statement.
The “Pet” banks where surplus federal funds were placed after the closing of the Bank of the United States. The banks were chosen for their support of president Jackson and soon flooded the country with paper money as there was no longer a central, federal finance institution. As a result of the massive amounts of paper money, inflation skyrocketed, and Jackson was forced to try to slow inflation with his Specie Circular.
The Specie Circular (1836) was decreed by Jackson which stated that all public lands had to be purchased with “hard” money, gold or silver. Jackson took this measure to slow the runaway inflation caused by his closure of the Bank of the United States.
Reading Check
Explaining
How did the election of Andrew Jackson influence American politics?
The divisions between Americans eventually led to fighting in the Civil War.
You can learn more about music from the period by listening to: "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." In this exercise you can 1) view the exhibit; 2) read the lyrics; 3) learn more; and, 4) rewrite the song.
The Emergence of a Canadian Nation
Reading Check
Describing
How did the British North American Act change the government of Canada?
Books, web sites, and other resources
Boot delves into the technological impact that inventions, machines, and the two Industrial Revolutions have had on war.
Ch. 12 Sec. 4 Culture: Romanticism and Realism Main Ideas
At the end of the eighteenth century, romanticism emerged as a reaction to the ideas of the Enlightenment.
The Industrial Revolution created a new interest in science and helped produce the realist movement.
Key Terms
romanticism
secularization
organic evolution
natural selection
realism
Objectives, at the end of the section the student should:
*Understand what themes shaped romantic art, literature, and music.
*Explain how realists responded to the industrialized, urban world.
*Describe how the visual arts changed.
People to Identify
Ludwig van Beethoven
Louis Pasteur
Charles Darwin
Charles Dickens
Additional Terms, People, and Places
William Wordsworth
William Blake
Lord Byron
Victor Hugo
Gustave Courbet
Louis Daguerre
impressionism
Claude Monet
Vincent van Gogh
Note Taking
Reading Skill: Identify Supporting Details Fill in a table like the one below with details about the artistic movements in the 1800s.
Romanticism
Albert Bierstadt, Hetch Hetchy Canyon, 1875
Witness History
Sunset: Audio
In the 1800s, many writers turned away from the harsh realities of industrial life to celebrate nature. The English poet William Wordsworth described the peace and beauty of sunset:
“It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquillity.”
—William Wordsworth, Complete Poetical Works
Audio
Romanticism does not refer to romance in the sense of an affectionate relationship, but rather to an artistic style emphasizing imagination, freedom, and emotion. Romanticism was a reaction to the neoclassical writers of the Enlightenment, who had turned to classical Greek and Roman literature and ideals that stressed order, harmony, reason, and emotional restraint. In contrast to Enlightenment literature, the works of romantic writers included simple, direct language, intense feelings, and a glorification of nature. Artists, composers, and architects were also followers of the movement.
The Romantic Hero
Romantic writers created a new kind of hero—a mysterious, melancholy figure who felt out of step with society. “My joys, my grief, my passions, and my powers, / Made me a stranger,” wrote Britain’s George Gordon, Lord Byron. He himself was a larger-than-life figure equal to those he created. After a rebellious, wandering life, he joined Greek forces battling for freedom. When he died of a fever there, his legend bloomed. In fact, public interest in his poetry and adventures was so great that moody, isolated romantic heroes came to be described as “Byronic.”
The romantic hero often hid a guilty secret and faced a grim destiny. German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (gur tuh) wrote the dramatic poem Faust. The aging scholar Faust makes a pact with the devil, exchanging his soul for youth. After much agony, Faust wins salvation by accepting his duty to help others. In Jane Eyre, British novelist Charlotte Brontë weaves a tale about a quiet governess and her brooding, Byronic employer, whose large mansion conceals a terrifying secret.
Inspired by the Past
Romantic writers combined history, legend, and folklore. Sir Walter Scott’s novels and ballads evoked the turbulent history of Scottish clans or medieval knights. Alexandre Dumas (doo mah) and Victor Hugo re-created France’s past in novels like The Three Musketeers and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Architects, too, were inspired by old styles and forms. Churches and other buildings, including the British Parliament, were modeled on medieval Gothic styles. To people living in the 1800s, medieval towers and lacy stonework conjured up images of a glorious past.
Music Stirs Emotions
Romantic composers also tried to stir deep emotions. Audiences were moved to laughter or tears at Hungarian Franz Liszt’s piano playing. The passionate music of German composer Ludwig van Beethoven combined classical forms with a stirring range of sound. He was the first composer to take full advantage of the broad range of instruments in the modern orchestra. In all, Beethoven produced nine symphonies, five piano concertos, a violin concerto, an opera, two masses, and dozens of shorter pieces. To many, he is considered the greatest composer of his day.
Biography: Audio
Ludwig van Beethoven
An accomplished musician by age 12, composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) agonized over every note of every composition. The result was stunning music that expresses intense emotion. The famous opening of his Fifth Symphony conveys the sense of fate knocking at the door. His Sixth Symphony captures a joyful day in the countryside, interrupted by a violent thunderstorm.
Beethoven’s career was haunted by perhaps the greatest tragedy a musician can face. In 1798, he began to lose his hearing. Still, he continued to compose music he could hear only in his mind. How did Beethoven’s music reflect romanticism?
Other romantic composers wove traditional folk melodies into their works to glorify their nations’ pasts. In his piano works, Frederic Chopin (shoh pan) used Polish peasant dances to convey the sorrows and joys of people living under foreign occupation.
Romanticism in Art
Painters, too, broke free from the discipline and strict rules of the Enlightenment. Landscape painters like J.M.W. Turner sought to capture the beauty and power of nature. Using bold brush strokes and colors, Turner often showed tiny human figures struggling against sea and storm.
Romantics painted many subjects, from simple peasant life to medieval knights to current events. Bright colors conveyed violent energy and emotion. The French painter Eugène Delacroix (deh luh krwah) filled his canvases with dramatic action. In Liberty Leading the People, the Goddess of Liberty carries the revolutionary tricolor as French citizens rally to the cause.
Checkpoint
How did romantic writers, musicians, and artists respond to the Enlightenment?
Learn
Focus Question
What artistic movements emerged in reaction to the Industrial Revolution?
Audio
William Wordsworth, along with William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Percy Bysshe Shelley among others, was part of a cultural movement called romanticism. From about 1750 to 1850, romanticism shaped Western literature and arts.
Reading Check
Examining
How did the popularity of Ivanhoe reflect the interests of the nineteenth century?
A New Age of Science
Reading Check
Describing
How did Darwin's theory of natural selection influence the way in which people viewed the world?
Realism
The Call to Realism: Audio
By the mid-1800s, a new artistic movement, realism, took hold in the West. Realism was an attempt to represent the world as it was, without the sentiment associated with romanticism. Realists often focused their work on the harsh side of life in cities or villages. Many writers and artists were committed to improving the lot of the unfortunates whose lives they depicted.
Novels Depict Grim Reality
The English novelist Charles Dickens vividly portrayed the lives of slum dwellers and factory workers, including children. In Oliver Twist, Dickens tells the story of a nine-year-old orphan raised in a grim poorhouse. In response to a request for more food, Oliver is smacked on the head and sent away to work. Later, he runs away to London. There he is taken in by Fagin, a villain who trains homeless children to become pickpockets. The book shocked many middle-class readers with its picture of poverty, mistreatment of children, and urban crime. Yet Dickens’s humor and colorful characters made him one of the most popular novelists in the world.
French novelists also portrayed the ills of their time. Victor Hugo, who moved from romantic to realistic novels, revealed how hunger drove a good man to crime and how the law hounded him ever after in Les Misérables (lay miz ehr ahb). The novels of Émile Zola painted an even grimmer picture. In Germinal, Zola exposed class warfare in the French mining industry. To Zola’s characters, neither the Enlightenment’s faith in reason nor the romantic movement’s feelings mattered at all.
Realism in Drama
Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen brought realism to the stage. His plays attacked the hypocrisy he observed around him. A Doll’s House show a woman caught in a straitjacket of social rules. In An Enemy of the People, a doctor discovers that the water in a local spa is polluted. Because the town’s economy depends on its spa, the citizens denounce the doctor and suppress the truth. Ibsen’s realistic dramas had a wide influence in Europe and the United States.
Arts Reject Romantic Ideas
Painters also represented the realities of their time. Rejecting the romantic emphasis on imagination, they focused on ordinary subjects, especially working-class men and women. “I cannot paint an angel,” said the French realist Gustave Courbet (koor bay) “because I have never seen one.” Instead, he painted works such as The Stone Breakers, which shows two rough laborers on a country road. Later in the century, The Gross Clinic, by American painter Thomas Eakins, shocked viewers with its realistic depiction of an autopsy conducted in a medical classroom.
Vocabulary Builder
emphasis—(em fuh sis) n. special attention given to something to make it stand out
Checkpoint
How did the realism movement differ from the romantic movement?
Reading Check
Evaluating
What factors helped to produce the movement known as realism?
We will pick up where we left off: Ch. 16, PowerPoint presentation and Handout Ch. 16 questions.
Chapter Overview
Chapter Outline
Inflation, p. 428
Ron Paul questions Ben Bernanke on definition of inflation 07/21/2009
Inflation and Price level (p. 429)
Walker Todd, Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research and former Federal Reserve official, speaks with Richard Morais of Forbes about the risks of severe inflation in the near future and gold as an investment hedge against inflation.
"To my knowledge, this is the first time since World War II, that any industrial economy, except for maybe Hungary, has tried to expand its money that much in a single calendar quarter; but traditional monetary theory teaches that, with a lag, it can be anywhere between six months to eighteen months typically, that money creation WILL catch up to you, observed by the public, in the form of a rising price level", says Todd.
Disinflation, p. 429
The failed bank list on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s web site is long, very long. If 2008 was the year of the financial crash what is 2009 with 123 bank failures, and still counting? Cf. Cf. The Deflation Times.
Inflation or Deflation?
Professor Sidney Winter, Deloitte and Touche Professor of Management , Emeritus at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and currently the Michael Crouch Visiting Professor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Australian School of Business on the dangers of inflation/deflation.
Email HW to gmsmith@shanahan.org.
1. Study for Quiz, Tuesday, Ch. 15, T/F, 20 questions.
2. We will have the Ch. 15 Objective Questions Quiz, Short Answer Quiz, and Multiple Question Test when we return after the break. We will also begin the Free Response Test questions after the break. The break will be an opportune time to catch up on HW (for those who fell behind and have work to make up) and to plan ahead for the rest of the class who are on track.
The missile is named “Sajjil” which means “baked clay,” a reference to a story in the Quran, Islam’s holy book, in which birds sent by God drive off an enemy army attacking the holy city of Mecca by pelting them with stones of baked clay.
Per the announcement on Twitter and the Calendar, the Ch. 12, Sec. 2 Quiz is on Tuesday, 10 Fill-in answers. The Ch. 12, Sec. 2 page on Shanawiki is of course locked at this point per the announced procedure.
Franco-Prussian War (1870)
Bismarck furthered the crisis by rewriting and then releasing to the press a telegram that reported on a meeting between King William I and the French ambassador. Bismarck’s editing of the “Ems dispatch” made it seem that William I had insulted the Frenchman. Furious, Napoleon III declared war on Prussia, as Bismarck had hoped.
Vocabulary Builder
edit—(ed it) v. to make additions, deletions, or other changes to a piece of writing
A superior Prussian force, supported by troops from other German states, smashed the badly organized and poorly supplied French soldiers. Napoleon III, old and ill, surrendered within a few weeks. France had to accept a humiliating peace.
France had a good professional army, which was indeed able to face the Prussians. But a decisive strategic surprise came when all German states took side with Prussia: The French were overwhelmed, outmaneuvered and, in spite of ferocious combats, finally beaten. After Sept. 4th, the new Republic refused to sign an armistice, managed to hastily improvise "armies" out of civilian volunteers, but these were no match for the well-trained Prussians. The war ended when Parisians, besieged, bombarded and starved, surrendered.
The Prussian Army held a brief victory parade in Paris on 17 February, 1871, and Bismarck honoured the armistice by sending trainloads of food into Paris and moving Prussian forces to the east of the city. Prussian armies would occupy parts of France until the French completed the payment of a five-billion francs war indemnity. Then, they would withdraw to Alsace and Lorraine. An exodus occurred from Paris as some 200,000 people, predominantly middle-class, left the city for the countryside. Paris was quickly re-supplied with free food and fuel by the United Kingdom and several accounts recall life in the city settling back to normal.
The war ended up with a complete triumph for Prussia, whose king was proclaimed emperor of Germany in the palace of Versailles — a supreme humiliation of the French and a Prussian revenge on Napoleon's victorious march in Berlin.
The Treaty of Frankfurt gave Germany Alsace and the northern portion of Lorraine (Moselle), where Germanic dialects were spoken by parts of the population. Most importantly, Germany now possessed Metz, a key fortified stronghold between the two countries. Part of the Alsacians refused to live under German rule and emigrated to "inner France".
The loss of this territory was a source of resentment in France for years to come, and revanchism even inspired an attempted coup in Paris in the 1880s. Yet, by 1900, new generations tended to consider it old history, while Alsacians adapted more or less reluctantly to German rule [see Barrès "Au service de l'Allemagne"]. No French political party put forward a reconquest of Alsace-Lorraine in its program. Compensations were found in colonization abroad. When World War I broke out, the French mobilized with the idea to defend their territory as it was, not to take back Alsace-Lorraine, as soldiers' diaries and letters indicate.
Had Germany not taken the option of war in 1914, its successful path paved by the 1870 triumph would have led it to become peacefully the uncontested leader in Europe.
Checkpoint
What techniques did Bismarck use to unify the German states?
Delighted by the victory over France, princes from the southern German states and the North German Confederation persuaded William I of Prussia to take the title kaiser (ky zur), or emperor. In January 1871, German nationalists celebrated the birth of the Second Reich, or empire. They called it that because they considered it heir to the Holy Roman Empire.
A constitution drafted by Bismarck set up a two-house legislature. The Bundesrat (boon dus raht), or upper house, was appointed by the rulers of the German states. The Reichstag (ryks tahg), or lower house, was elected by universal male suffrage. Because the Bundesrat could veto any decisions of the Reichstag, real power remained in the hands of the emperor and his chancellor.
Checkpoint
How was the new German government, drafted by Bismarck, structured?
The New German Empire
Audio
In 1870, German historian Heinrich von Treitschke (vawn trych kuh) wrote a newspaper article demanding the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine from France. A year later, annexation became a condition of the peace settlement in the Franco-Prussian War:
“The sense of justice to Germany demands the lessening of France. . . . These territories are ours by the right of the sword, and . . . [by] virtue of a higher right—the right of the German nation, which will not permit its lost children to remain strangers to the German Empire.”
Learn
Focus Question
How did Germany increase its power after unifying in 1871?
In January 1871, German princes gathered in the glittering Hall of Mirrors at the French palace of Versailles. They had just defeated Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War. Once home to French kings, the palace seemed the perfect place to proclaim the new German empire. To the winners as well as to the losers, the symbolism was clear: French domination of Europe had ended. Germany was now the dominant power in Europe.
Reading Check
Summarizing
What events led to German unification?
A Political Game of Chess
This political cartoon shows Otto von Bismarck and Pope Pius IX trying to checkmate each other in a game of chess.
1. How does this cartoon reflect the relationship between Bismarck and the Catholic Church?
2. How did the conflict between church and state affect German politics in the 1870s?
On the domestic front, Bismarck applied the same ruthless methods he had used to achieve unification. The Iron Chancellor, as he was called, sought to erase local loyalties and crush all opposition to the imperial state. He targeted two groups—the Catholic Church and the Socialists. In his view, both posed a threat to the new German state.
Nationalism and Reform in Europe
Great Britain
France
The Austrian Empire
Russia
Although serfdom had almost disappeared in Western Europe by the 1700s, it survived in Russia. Masters exercised almost total power over their serfs. A noble turned revolutionary described the treatment of the serfs:
“I heard . . . stories of men and women torn from their families and their villages, and sold, or lost in gambling, or exchanged for a couple of hunting dogs, and then transported to some remote part of Russia to create a [master’s] new estate; of children taken from their parents and sold to cruel . . . masters.”
—Peter Kropotkin, Memoirs of a Revolutionist
Learn
Focus Question
Why did industrialization and reform come more slowly to Russia than to Western Europe?
Reading Check
Examining
How was Great Britain able to avoid a revolution in 1848?
Nationalism in the United States
Graphic Notes: "Downfall of Mother Bank," depicting President Andrew Jackson holding up an "Order of the Removal of the Public Money" during the fight over the Bank of the United States, 1833. E.W. Clay lithograph.
Citation: American Antiquarian Society, 185 Salisbury St, Worcester, MA 01609-1634 and the Library of Congress.
Nicholas Biddle was the president of the Bank of the United States during the Bank War of 1832. Biddle held a great deal of unwarranted power over the nation’s finances, which President Jackson resented. When Jackson vetoed a bill to renew the Bank’s charter, Biddle agreed with Senator Henry Clay that this would hurt him in the upcoming presidential election of 1832, but both of them were proven wrong. When Jackson tried to end the bank by withdrawing deposits, Biddle caused a financial panic to try and prevent Jackson from attaining the presidency which failed when Jackson was re-elected.
The Bank War began with Senators Noah Webster and Clay with their Recharter Bill: Clay and Webster presented Congress with a Recharter Bill for the Bank of the United States in 1832. Although four years before the charter would expire, Clay hoped to make the Bank an issue in the upcoming presidential election, which he hoped to win. Clay hoped to quickly pass the Bill in Congress, then send it to the White House to be signed by Jackson. Clay knew Jackson would most likely veto the bill, alienating the elite in the upcoming election, therefore favoring Clay. Jackson did veto the bill, but contrary to Clay’s expectation, gained popular public support for his statement.
The “Pet” banks where surplus federal funds were placed after the closing of the Bank of the United States. The banks were chosen for their support of president Jackson and soon flooded the country with paper money as there was no longer a central, federal finance institution. As a result of the massive amounts of paper money, inflation skyrocketed, and Jackson was forced to try to slow inflation with his Specie Circular.
The Specie Circular (1836) was decreed by Jackson which stated that all public lands had to be purchased with “hard” money, gold or silver. Jackson took this measure to slow the runaway inflation caused by his closure of the Bank of the United States.
Reading Check
Explaining
How did the election of Andrew Jackson influence American politics?
The divisions between Americans eventually led to fighting in the Civil War.
You can learn more about music from the period by listening to: "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." In this exercise you can 1) view the exhibit; 2) read the lyrics; 3) learn more; and, 4) rewrite the song.
The Emergence of a Canadian Nation
Reading Check
Describing
How did the British North American Act change the government of Canada?
Books, web sites, and other resources
Boot delves into the technological impact that inventions, machines, and the two Industrial Revolutions have had on war.
The PNC Christmas Price Index increased by a modest 1.8 percent compared to last year in the whimsical economic analysis by PNC Wealth Management based on the prices of gifts in the holiday classic, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
Make-Up Ch. 5 Multiple Choice Test.
We will pick up where we left off: Ch. 15, Introduction to Macroeconomics, PowerPoint presentation and Handout Ch. 15 questions.
Chapter Overview
As an introduction to macroeconomics, this chapter begins with an overview of macroeconomics, discussing its origins and presenting material on the business cycle. The National Income and Product Accounts are then covered, as well as the two approaches to measuring GDP and the connection between GDP and the standard of living. The chapter concludes with a section on the work of Joseph Schumpeter and creative destruction.
Chapter Outline
Personal Income and Disposable Personal Income
GDP and Our Standard of Living
Checkpoint: National Income Accounting
Technology and Schumpeter’s Creative Destruction
We can review:
Chapter Checkpoints
The Scope of Macroeconomics
Question: Do you think the business cycle has a bigger impact on automobile and
capital goods manufacturers or grocery stores? Why or why not?
National Income Accounting
Question: People have individual senses of how the macroeconomy is doing. Is it a
mistake to extrapolate from one’s own experience what may be happening in the
aggregate? How might individual experiences lead one astray in thinking about the
macroeconomy? How might it help?
Extended Examples in the Chapter
Technology and Schumpeter’s Creative Destruction
Were computer technology and the Internet a Schumpeter innovation wave or not?
Schumpeter focused on the power of major innovations to form waves of growth
throughout the macroeconomy. So the real question is whether or not the change in
technology affected most parts of the economy in a very significant way (some definitions of creative destruction use the term “transformation” in its description). The background information provided by Wikipedia also relates creative destruction to layoffs (Cf. Creative destruction).
Also, this was the HW assignment for Wednesday:
Examples Used in the End-of-Chapter Questions
Questions 3 and 6 reference the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA).
Visit the Web site at BEA National Economic Accounts to view the latest press release on GDP. Links to other data are also available.
For Further Analysis
How Can You Tell if It’s a Recession?
The example in the student handout will be used as a small group exercise. It is designed to complement the text’s material on the business cycle and also to provide a lead-in to the measurements of inflation and employment that will be covered in the next chapter. It requires students to find and begin to assess actual data on the economy.
Web-Based Exercise
This example below can be used as an individual or small group research project. It requires students to evaluate “well-being” in terms of GDP and other criteria.
Can GDP Buy You Happiness?
About 35 years ago, the king of Bhutan decided that the well-being of his country
was not best measured by its GDP, but rather by something he called its “Gross
National Happiness.”
1) Learn more about GHI and compare it to GDP.
2) Assess both as measures of “well-being.” To do so, define your own criteria
for well-being. You may agree or disagree with what is included in these
measures and add your own indicators if you wish. In all cases provide a
rationale for your choices.
A very useful source is the article by Andrew C. Revkin in The New York
Times (October 4, 2005) titled “A New Measure of Well-Being from a Happy
Little Kingdom,” available on the Web at: "A New Measure of Well-Being From a Happy Little Kingdom. Cf. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/
04/science/04happ.html?ei=5088&en=a4c0250cf8730dca&ex=
1286078400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
This is the HW for Thursday:
How Can You Tell if It’s a Recession?
Visit the Web site of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) (Cf. http://www.nber.org/) to
answer the following:
1) Does the NBER define a recession as two successive quarters in which there is negative growth in GDP? Why or why not?
2) What problem does the NBER face in using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce?
3) Besides GDP, what other important economic data does the NBER review for its reports?
Just for historical background, consider the history of business cycles.
Outlining briefly the people and discoveries relating to economic cycles. Beginning with Sir William Herschel who around 1800 found a connection between the Sunspot cycle and wheat prices, mention is made of Clement Juglar 1860s, William Stanley Jevons 1870s, The Rothschild family 1890s and Rockerfeller family, W D Gann 1900s, Joseph Kitchin 1920, Kondratief (who I accidentally left out of this video) and his 54 year cycle in the 1920s, Alexander Chizhevsky and Raymond Wheeler around the 1930s being interisciplinary cycles researchers, R N Elliott, Joseph Schumpeter and Simon Kuznets (later to receive a Nobel Prize) and the formation of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles by Edward R Dewey and others in 1942. The age of computers arrived in cycles research with J M Hurst about 1970.
For more information about cycles research:
http://www.cyclesresearchinstitute.org/
http://foundationforthestudyofcycles....
http://ray.tomes.biz/
There is an interdisciplinary cycles discussion forum open to all people to search and read, and people can join to participate, at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cy...
For more on the history of economic cycles:
http://www.datacomm.ch/dbesomi/Links/...
http://www.timesizing.com/1kondrat.htm
We will begin Ch. 16 (which you will not have on the Quiz on Tuesday).
Email HW to gmsmith@shanahan.org.
1. Quiz, Tuesday, Ch. 15, T/F, 20 questions.
2. Can GDP Buy You Happiness?
About 35 years ago, the king of Bhutan decided that the well-being of his country
was not best measured by its GDP, but rather by something he called its “Gross
National Happiness.”
1) Learn more about GHI and compare it to GDP.
2) Assess both as measures of “well-being.” To do so, define your own criteria
for well-being. You may agree or disagree with what is included in these
measures and add your own indicators if you wish. In all cases provide a
rationale for your choices.
A very useful source is the article by Andrew C. Revkin in The New York
Times (October 4, 2005) titled “A New Measure of Well-Being from a Happy
Little Kingdom,” available on the Web at: "A New Measure of Well-Being From a Happy Little Kingdom. Cf. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/
04/science/04happ.html?ei=5088&en=a4c0250cf8730dca&ex=
1286078400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
Bismarck’s success was due in part to his strong will. He was a master of Realpolitik (ray ahl poh lee teek), or realistic politics based on the needs of the state. In the case of Realpolitik, power was more important than principles.
Although Bismarck was the architect of German unity, he was not really a German nationalist. His primary loyalty was to the Hohenzollerns (hoh un tsawl urnz), the ruling dynasty of Prussia, who represented a powerful, traditional monarchy. Through unification, he hoped to bring more power to the Hohenzollerns.
Royal house medal of the Hohenzollerns
Strengthening the Army
As Prussia’s prime minister, Bismarck first moved to build up the Prussian army. Despite his “blood and iron” speech, the liberal legislature refused to vote for funds for the military. In response, Bismarck strengthened the army with money that had been collected for other purposes. With a powerful, well-equipped military, he was then ready to pursue an aggressive foreign policy. Over the next decade, Bismarck led Prussia into three wars. Each war increased Prussian prestige and power and paved the way for German unity.
Prussia Declares War With Denmark and Austria
Bismarck’s first maneuver was to form an alliance in 1864 with Austria. Prussia and Austria then seized the provinces of Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark. After a brief war, Prussia and Austria “liberated” the two provinces and divided up the spoils. Austria was to administer Holstein and Prussia was to administer Schleswig.
In 1866, Bismarck invented an excuse to attack Austria. The Austro-Prussian War lasted just seven weeks and ended in a decisive Prussian victory. Prussia then annexed, or took control of, several other north German states.
Bismarck dissolved the Austrian-led German Confederation and created a new confederation dominated by Prussia. He allowed Austria and four other southern German states to remain independent. Bismarck’s motives, as always, were strictly practical. “We had to avoid leaving behind any desire for revenge,” he later wrote.
Primary Source
War and Power
In 1866, Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke analyzed the importance of Prussia’s war against Austria. Why, according to von Moltke, did Prussia go to war against Austria?
Primary Source
“The war of 1866 was entered on not because the existence of Prussia was threatened, nor was it caused by public opinion and the voice of the people; it was a struggle, long foreseen and calmly prepared for, recognized as a necessity by the Cabinet, not for territorial expansion, for an extension of our domain, or for material advantage, but for an ideal end—the establishment of power. Not a foot of land was exacted from Austria. . . . Its center of gravity lay out of Germany; Prussia’s lay within it. Prussia felt itself called upon and strong enough to assume the leadership of the German races.”
France Declares War on Prussia
In France, the Prussian victory over Austria angered Napoleon III. A growing rivalry between the two nations led to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
Franco-Prussian War (1870)
The causes of the Franco-Prussian War are rooted in the shifting balance of power in Europe after the Napoleonic wars. France and Prussia had fought against each other, with France beating Prussia in 1806, then losing in 1813-1815. In the following decades, Prussia was generally considered by the French as a modern, enlightened country. Republicans particularly favoured the prospect of seeing the German nation unite under Prussian leadership, displacing the old, catholic Austrian empire. Prussia hold similar views, but cultivated an image of France as the hereditary enemy: Prussia was to replace Austria as the head of Germany, and to replace France as the leader in continental Europe.
Napoleon III became emperor in France thanks to a coup in 1851. He initially supported the German unification policy of Otto von Bismarck, chancellor of Prussia under king Wilhelm I. It was only after the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 that France began to worry about the fast-rising Prussian power. To be able to face the Prussian conscription-based army, military reform was debated in the French parliament, but refused by the Left which considered there was no danger of war.
In July 1870, a diplomatic crisis broke, Bismarck managed to provoke the French into declaring war to Prussia — and French diplomacy fell in the trap.
Germans recalled only too well the invasions of Napoleon I some 60 years earlier. Bismarck played up the image of the French menace to spur German nationalism. For his part, Napoleon III did little to avoid war, hoping to mask problems at home with military glory.
Bismarck furthered the crisis by rewriting and then releasing to the press a telegram that reported on a meeting between King William I and the French ambassador. Bismarck’s editing of the “Ems dispatch” made it seem that William I had insulted the Frenchman. Furious, Napoleon III declared war on Prussia, as Bismarck had hoped.
Vocabulary Builder
edit—(ed it) v. to make additions, deletions, or other changes to a piece of writing
A superior Prussian force, supported by troops from other German states, smashed the badly organized and poorly supplied French soldiers. Napoleon III, old and ill, surrendered within a few weeks. France had to accept a humiliating peace.
France had a good professional army, which was indeed able to face the Prussians. But a decisive strategic surprise came when all German states took side with Prussia: The French were overwhelmed, outmaneuvered and, in spite of ferocious combats, finally beaten. After Sept. 4th, the new Republic refused to sign an armistice, managed to hastily improvise "armies" out of civilian volunteers, but these were no match for the well-trained Prussians. The war ended when Parisians, besieged, bombarded and starved, surrendered.
The Prussian Army held a brief victory parade in Paris on 17 February, 1871, and Bismarck honoured the armistice by sending trainloads of food into Paris and moving Prussian forces to the east of the city. Prussian armies would occupy parts of France until the French completed the payment of a five-billion francs war indemnity. Then, they would withdraw to Alsace and Lorraine. An exodus occurred from Paris as some 200,000 people, predominantly middle-class, left the city for the countryside. Paris was quickly re-supplied with free food and fuel by the United Kingdom and several accounts recall life in the city settling back to normal.
The war ended up with a complete triumph for Prussia, whose king was proclaimed emperor of Germany in the palace of Versailles — a supreme humiliation of the French and a Prussian revenge on Napoleon's victorious march in Berlin.
The Treaty of Frankfurt gave Germany Alsace and the northern portion of Lorraine (Moselle), where Germanic dialects were spoken by parts of the population. Most importantly, Germany now possessed Metz, a key fortified stronghold between the two countries. Part of the Alsacians refused to live under German rule and emigrated to "inner France".
The loss of this territory was a source of resentment in France for years to come, and revanchism even inspired an attempted coup in Paris in the 1880s. Yet, by 1900, new generations tended to consider it old history, while Alsacians adapted more or less reluctantly to German rule [see Barrès "Au service de l'Allemagne"]. No French political party put forward a reconquest of Alsace-Lorraine in its program. Compensations were found in colonization abroad. When World War I broke out, the French mobilized with the idea to defend their territory as it was, not to take back Alsace-Lorraine, as soldiers' diaries and letters indicate.
Had Germany not taken the option of war in 1914, its successful path paved by the 1870 triumph would have led it to become peacefully the uncontested leader in Europe.
Checkpoint
What techniques did Bismarck use to unify the German states?
Delighted by the victory over France, princes from the southern German states and the North German Confederation persuaded William I of Prussia to take the title kaiser (ky zur), or emperor. In January 1871, German nationalists celebrated the birth of the Second Reich, or empire. They called it that because they considered it heir to the Holy Roman Empire.
A constitution drafted by Bismarck set up a two-house legislature. The Bundesrat (boon dus raht), or upper house, was appointed by the rulers of the German states. The Reichstag (ryks tahg), or lower house, was elected by universal male suffrage. Because the Bundesrat could veto any decisions of the Reichstag, real power remained in the hands of the emperor and his chancellor.
Checkpoint
How was the new German government, drafted by Bismarck, structured?
The New German Empire
Audio
In 1870, German historian Heinrich von Treitschke (vawn trych kuh) wrote a newspaper article demanding the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine from France. A year later, annexation became a condition of the peace settlement in the Franco-Prussian War:
“The sense of justice to Germany demands the lessening of France. . . . These territories are ours by the right of the sword, and . . . [by] virtue of a higher right—the right of the German nation, which will not permit its lost children to remain strangers to the German Empire.”
Learn
Focus Question
How did Germany increase its power after unifying in 1871?
In January 1871, German princes gathered in the glittering Hall of Mirrors at the French palace of Versailles. They had just defeated Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War. Once home to French kings, the palace seemed the perfect place to proclaim the new German empire. To the winners as well as to the losers, the symbolism was clear: French domination of Europe had ended. Germany was now the dominant power in Europe.
Reading Check
Summarizing
What events led to German unification?
A Political Game of Chess
This political cartoon shows Otto von Bismarck and Pope Pius IX trying to checkmate each other in a game of chess.
1. How does this cartoon reflect the relationship between Bismarck and the Catholic Church?
2. How did the conflict between church and state affect German politics in the 1870s?
On the domestic front, Bismarck applied the same ruthless methods he had used to achieve unification. The Iron Chancellor, as he was called, sought to erase local loyalties and crush all opposition to the imperial state. He targeted two groups—the Catholic Church and the Socialists. In his view, both posed a threat to the new German state.
Nationalism and Reform in Europe
Great Britain
France
The Austrian Empire
Russia
Although serfdom had almost disappeared in Western Europe by the 1700s, it survived in Russia. Masters exercised almost total power over their serfs. A noble turned revolutionary described the treatment of the serfs:
“I heard . . . stories of men and women torn from their families and their villages, and sold, or lost in gambling, or exchanged for a couple of hunting dogs, and then transported to some remote part of Russia to create a [master’s] new estate; of children taken from their parents and sold to cruel . . . masters.”
—Peter Kropotkin, Memoirs of a Revolutionist
Learn
Focus Question
Why did industrialization and reform come more slowly to Russia than to Western Europe?
Reading Check
Examining
How was Great Britain able to avoid a revolution in 1848?
Nationalism in the United States
Graphic Notes: "Downfall of Mother Bank," depicting President Andrew Jackson holding up an "Order of the Removal of the Public Money" during the fight over the Bank of the United States, 1833. E.W. Clay lithograph.
Citation: American Antiquarian Society, 185 Salisbury St, Worcester, MA 01609-1634 and the Library of Congress.
Nicholas Biddle was the president of the Bank of the United States during the Bank War of 1832. Biddle held a great deal of unwarranted power over the nation’s finances, which President Jackson resented. When Jackson vetoed a bill to renew the Bank’s charter, Biddle agreed with Senator Henry Clay that this would hurt him in the upcoming presidential election of 1832, but both of them were proven wrong. When Jackson tried to end the bank by withdrawing deposits, Biddle caused a financial panic to try and prevent Jackson from attaining the presidency which failed when Jackson was re-elected.
The Bank War began with Senators Noah Webster and Clay with their Recharter Bill: Clay and Webster presented Congress with a Recharter Bill for the Bank of the United States in 1832. Although four years before the charter would expire, Clay hoped to make the Bank an issue in the upcoming presidential election, which he hoped to win. Clay hoped to quickly pass the Bill in Congress, then send it to the White House to be signed by Jackson. Clay knew Jackson would most likely veto the bill, alienating the elite in the upcoming election, therefore favoring Clay. Jackson did veto the bill, but contrary to Clay’s expectation, gained popular public support for his statement.
The “Pet” banks where surplus federal funds were placed after the closing of the Bank of the United States. The banks were chosen for their support of president Jackson and soon flooded the country with paper money as there was no longer a central, federal finance institution. As a result of the massive amounts of paper money, inflation skyrocketed, and Jackson was forced to try to slow inflation with his Specie Circular.
The Specie Circular (1836) was decreed by Jackson which stated that all public lands had to be purchased with “hard” money, gold or silver. Jackson took this measure to slow the runaway inflation caused by his closure of the Bank of the United States.
Reading Check
Explaining
How did the election of Andrew Jackson influence American politics?
The divisions between Americans eventually led to fighting in the Civil War.
You can learn more about music from the period by listening to: "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." In this exercise you can 1) view the exhibit; 2) read the lyrics; 3) learn more; and, 4) rewrite the song.
The Emergence of a Canadian Nation
Reading Check
Describing
How did the British North American Act change the government of Canada?
Books, web sites, and other resources
Boot delves into the technological impact that inventions, machines, and the two Industrial Revolutions have had on war.
Prayer (alphabetical)
