History - America

• Ronald Reagan's policies, known as Reaganomics, included slashing income tax by $33 billion, cutting welfare programs by $20 billion a year for three years, and cutting taxes while government expenditure increased, leading to a growing national debt
• Reagan aimed to encourage spending and job creation by slashing income tax and welfare programs, returning to the ideal of 'rugged individualism'
• Reagan's economic reforms aimed to address severe economic problems like high inflation and unemployment, with the hope that tax cuts would stimulate spending and job creation
• Reagan's policies led to the USA edging into recession, with the worst stock market crash since 1929 occurring in 1987
• George Bush Snr continued Reagan's domestic policies but faced severe economic problems, including a tripling budget deficit between 1980 and 1990, leading to increased taxes and new taxes on the wealthy
• Bill Clinton, unlike Reagan and Bush Snr, increased federal government spending, taxes, and reduced the national debt, resulting in sustained economic growth
• Clinton's domestic policies included welfare reforms, introducing a minimum hourly wage and a Health Security Bill for universal health insurance, although the latter was rejected by Congress
• The Civil Rights Movement in the USA between 1941 and 1970 involved various factors, including the importance of education alongside other elements
• Schaffer and Emerson's 1964 study on attachment aimed to identify stages of attachment and find a pattern in the development of an attachment between infants and parents
• Attachment is a strong reciprocal emotional bond between an infant and a primary caregiver
• Freud's superego is the moral component of the psyche, representing internalized societal values and standards
• In glacial environments, the 2 main forms of erosion are abrasion and plucking
• Abrasion in glaciers is a sandpapering effect caused by small rocks embedded within the glacier rubbing on bedrock, leaving a smooth surface with scratches called striations
• Plucking in glaciers occurs when meltwater from glaciers freeze around broken or cracked parts of rock, breaking it off from the bedrock or sides as the ice moves down the slope
• The Black Power movement emerged out of the anger and frustration expressed by young black Americans over high unemployment and poverty, with Stokely Carmichael as its leading spokesperson
• Stokely Carmichael, who later joined the Black Panthers, aimed to instill pride in black heritage and adopted the slogan 'Black is beautiful'
• The Black Panthers, formed in 1966, were prepared to use force to achieve their aim of a socialist society, gaining international attention during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics
• Martin Luther King's protest strategies included non-violent civil disobedience methods like sit-ins, boycotts, freedom rides, and marches to protest against racial discrimination
• The Freedom Rides, which began in 1961, were protests against segregation on buses and led to the end of segregation in all bus and rail stations and airports by the Interstate Commerce Committee
• The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, a key figure in the civil rights movement, promoted non-violent civil disobedience and played a significant role in events like the Montgomery bus boycott and the Selma to Birmingham marches
• Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech in the 1963 March on Washington pressured President Kennedy to draft legislation, leading to the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964
• Malcolm X, who rejected King's peaceful methods, believed in the use of violence to secure a separate black nation, and his ideas laid the foundation for radical movements like Black Power and the Black Panthers
• The Civil Rights Movement involved various organizations like NAACP, CORE, SCLC, and SNCC, each playing a crucial role in advocating for equal rights for black Americans
• In 1960, 25% of Americans lived in suburbia, where status symbols like television sets, record players, swimming pools, and cars became must-have items
• Poor Americans found it hard to afford rising healthcare costs as there was no national health service
• Post-World War II, America became an affluent society due to factors like consumerism, suburbanization, and better working practices that made consumer goods more affordable
• Reasons for the growth of suburbia in the 1950s included increasing car ownership, allowing families to live further from their workplaces
• The USA benefited economically from World War II as millions of citizens who purchased war bonds cashed them in, leading to increased spending on consumer goods and a surge in house building
• US industry boomed post-WWII due to factors like increased demand for consumer goods, automobile industry sales, and house building stimulated by low-interest loans for returning servicemen
• The Fair Deal, introduced by President Truman and continued by President Eisenhower, led to the prosperity of the 1950s in the USA
• The New Deal helped restore confidence in the government, stimulated the economy, and avoided the swing to communism and fascism in the USA
• The New Deal improved the lives of 7 million people
• The income of farmers doubled between 1932 and 1939 as a result of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
• The New Deal stabilised the US banking system and restored confidence to the markets
• Workers were protected by codes of practice and trade unions were allowed
• The New Deal created a semi-welfare state, providing pensions for the elderly and widows and state help for the sick, disabled, and unemployed
• Criticisms of the New Deal include:

  • Some believed it did not go far enough
  • New Deal agencies discriminated against black people, offering either no work or lower wages than white workers
  • Huey Long criticized Roosevelt for not sharing out the nation's wealth fairly and proposed his own 'Share Our Wealth' campaign
  • Father Charles Coughlin criticized the New Deal for not doing enough to help the needy
  • Dr. Frances Townsend argued that Roosevelt had not done enough to help old people and proposed a pension of $200 a month for everyone over 60
• President Roosevelt introduced the New Deal based on the 'three R's' - Relief, Recovery, and Reform
• In the First New Deal, Roosevelt introduced various policies and agencies, including:

  • Emergency Banking Act (EBA)
  • Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
  • Public Works Administration (PWA)
  • Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
  • National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
  • Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
• The New Deal aimed to address problems like unemployment, rural poverty, low crop prices, and poor economic conditions in the USA