Rating JFK essays

Rating JFK essays In 1960 John F. Kennedy was elected president, his good looks, his familys history, and his charismatic personality won him the election. He was the youngest ever elected to office, and his lack of experience showed when dealing with foreign affairs. Throughout his campaign JFK had to deal with many obstacles, like the bad reputation of his father and him being the ambassador to Great Britain (1937to 1940), his religion (Roman Catholic), his youth, and even him being a Democrat. Democrats were known for being soft on communism, because of Harry Trumans lack of discipline towards the Soviets. Since Truman was a democrat, this was one of the negatives that almost lost the election for JFK. His lack of experience was a major problem for putting faith in JFK and trusting his decisions. The Cuban missile crisis was a huge problem during JFKs time as president that he helped solve. JFK encountered many obstacles while he was trying to free the US from having missiles pointed at them. US found out that the Soviets were placing nuclear missiles in Cuba that were pointing at the US. The missiles were only ninety miles away, aiming for the east coast of America. JFK was split on what to do, the military was pulling him to invade Cuba to take the missiles away and take out Castro, but that would only result in retaliation from the Soviets because it would seem like an attack against them. Military leaders wanted to take extreme action against the Soviets because of what happened in 1960, the Bay of Pigs. The CIA trained hundreds of Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and take out Castro. But nothing went as hoped for, the air strike didnt hurt the Cuban air force and the CIA lied and said that the air strike did do damage. Kennedy felt as if he was responsible for the Bay of Pigs because he gave permission. Although JFK didnt know about the plan only until nine days afte ...

An Overview of Cultural Conservatives

An Overview of Cultural Conservatives There are no solid dates for when cultural conservatism arrived on the American political scene, but it was certainly after 1987, which lead some people to believe the movement was started by writer and philosopher Allan Bloom, who in 1987, wrote Closing of the American Mind, an immediate and unexpected national best seller. While the book is mostly a condemnation of the failure of the liberal American university system, its criticism of social movements in the US has strong cultural conservative overtones. For this reason, most people look to Bloom as the movements founder. Ideology Often confused with social conservatism - which is more concerned with pushing social issues such as abortion and traditional marriage to the front of the debate - modern cultural conservatism has strayed from the simple anti-liberalization of society Bloom espoused. Cultural conservatives of today hold fast to traditional ways of thinking even in the face of monumental change. They believe strongly in traditional values, traditional politics and often have an urgent sense of nationalism. It is in the area of traditional values where cultural conservatives most overlap with social conservatives (and other types of conservatives, for that matter). While cultural conservatives do tend to be religious, it is only because religion plays such a large role in US culture. Cultural conservatives, however, can be affiliated with any American sub-culture, but whether they are of the Christian culture, anglo-saxon Protestant culture or African American culture, they tend to align themselves tightly with their own. Cultural conservatives are often accused of racism, even though their flaws (if they surface) may be more xenophobic than racist. To a much larger degree than traditional values, nationalism and traditional politics are primarily what concern cultural conservatives. The two are often strongly intertwined, and show up in national political debates under the auspices of immigration reform and protecting the family. Cultural conservatives believe in buying American and oppose introducing foreign languages such as Spanish or Chinese on interstate signs or ATM machines. Criticisms A cultural conservative may not always be a conservative in all other matters, and this is where critics most often assault the movement. Because cultural conservatism isnt easily defined in the first place, critics of cultural conservatives tend to point to inconsistencies that dont really exist. For example, cultural conservatives are largely silent (as Bloom was) on the issue of gay rights (their main concern is the movements disruption with American traditions, not the gay lifestyle itself), critics therefore point to this as being contradictory to the conservative movement as a whole which it isnt, since conservatism in general has a such a broad meaning. Political Relevance Cultural conservatism in common American thought has increasingly replaced the term religious right, even though they arent really the same things. In fact, social conservatives have more in common with the religious right than cultural conservatives. Nevertheless, cultural conservatives have enjoyed considerable success at the national level, especially in the 2008 presidential election, where immigration became a focus of the national debate. Cultural conservatives are often grouped politically with other kinds of conservatives, simply because the movement doesnt tightly address wedge issues like abortion, religion, and as noted above, gay rights. Cultural conservatism often serves as a launching pad for newcomers to the conservative movement who want to call themselves conservative while they determine where they stand on the wedge issues. Once they are able to define their beliefs and attitudes, they often move away from cultural conservatism and into another, more tightly focused movement.

Discuss the interpretation of First Industrial Revolution as an Term Paper

Discuss the interpretation of First Industrial Revolution as an Industrious revolution - Term Paper Example Due to the introduction of improved methods, production could be made at a much larger scale than before. Improvements in methods of production and production possibilities in large scale allowed the manufacturers to produce better quality products at lower cost and within a lower period of time than it could produce previously. There are debates regarding the origin of the industrial revolution. According to some authors and historians, the beginning of the revolution was in Britain. The industrial revolution has been often termed as British invention. However, according to some other sources the roots of the revolution is unclear. Several European countries participated in the revolution and made it a global success. Some researchers have claimed that the term was first coined in France. Significant improvements can be found to have taken place during this period in France in economic as well as social spheres. These combined changes were named as ‘revolution industrielleâ₠¬â„¢ in France and it was considered to be an economic counterpart of the political revolution that was taking place in the country during the period. Industrious revolution One thing is apparent from this discussion; it is that the industrial revolution took place as a result of considerable hard work and diligent attitude of the people that took the leading position in this revolution. The industrial revolution is the outcome of an ‘industrious revolution’ that took place in different parts of the world to improve the status of production units in the economies that participated in this activity. It took the form of industrial revolution when many countries from Europe as well as Asia took part in it. The phase of industrious revolution was prior to the industrial revolution between the 17th century and the 19th century. According to some scholars, this revolution was the forerunner of the industrial revolution (Craig and Thomas 248). The phenomenon of industrious rev olution refers to the spending behavior of households during the 17th century. Therefore, it relates to the production as well as consumption of products and services. The simplistic explanation of the cause of revolution is that there was an unprecedented rise in demand for goods and services in the market. The industrious revolution took place before the industrial revolution took shape. Understanding of the industrious revolution would allow readers to understand the context of the industrial revolution better. According to information revealed by various sources, the first industrial revolution took place in the early Modern Period. The period of revolution was characterized by availability of excess of money as well as excess amount of food crops. This was the result of development of new technology and methods of production. However, the force that led to these technological advancements took shape during the pre-industrial revolution period, known as industrious revolution. D uring this period England moved from being an economy with sporadic technological changes to an economy in which persistent technological advancements took place. Well known historians, Joachim Voth and Jan de Vries have