Causation in Period 9 in two minutes
- Period 9 combined five developments, each with its own causes: the conservative turn, the end of the Cold War, computers and trade, new immigration and migration, and the war on terrorism.
- Political chain: stagflation and distrust of government in the 1970s led to Reagan's election in 1980, tax cuts and deficits, and a 1996 welfare law, while Social Security survived.
- The Cold War's end left one superpower debating its role, and the September 11 attacks led to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the USA PATRIOT Act and the Department of Homeland Security.
- Economic chain: computers, outsourcing and trade deals cut factory jobs and union membership while pay lagged productivity, and the 2008 crisis led to bailouts, Dodd-Frank, the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street.
- Demographic chain: the 1965 immigration law helped raise the foreign-born share from under one in twenty in 1970 to over one in eight by 2015, and Americans moved south and west.
- Relative significance: one argument says immigration and the move south and west changed who Americans were more than any other change, while a rival case points to political polarization.
- On the exam: Period 9 causation questions ask which cause mattered most in the conservative turn, the Cold War's end, deindustrialization, immigration or 9/11, and reward specific evidence and a clear judgment.
Topic 9.7 key terms
- Decennial census
The count of every person, taken every ten years. Article I, Section 2 requires it so seats in the House can be divided by population.
- Multiracial (Census 2000)
For the first time, the census let people report more than one race. The federal government's 1997 standards required the change.
- Self-identification (1960)
From the 1960 census on, people usually marked their own race. Through 1950, a census taker commonly decided it and wrote it down.
- Keynote address
The main speech on a convention's early nights. It sets the party's theme for voters watching at home.
- National identity
Who Americans think they are: one people, or many separate ones. Topic 9.7 asks which changes after 1980 did the most to remake that.
- Bush v. Gore
The Supreme Court case of December 12, 2000. By a 5–4 vote it stopped Florida's recount. George W. Bush's lead of 537 votes stood, and he became president.
- Sourcing
Read a source for its situation, its audience, its purpose, and its point of view before you use it as evidence. The exam calls that HIPP.
- New Right
The coalition of economic conservatives, evangelical Christians and Cold War hawks that elected Reagan in 1980.
- Reaganomics
Tax cuts, deregulation and cuts to domestic spending, on the theory that producers would then invest and the economy would grow. Also called supply-side economics.
- War on terror
The campaign after the September 11, 2001 attacks: the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and new powers to track suspects inside the United States.
- Deindustrialization
The loss of factory jobs, especially in the Northeast and Midwest (the Rust Belt), as work moved to machines, to the South and West, and overseas.
- Globalization
The growing flow of goods, money, jobs and information across borders, sped up by computers and by trade deals such as NAFTA in 1994.
- Sun Belt
The South and Southwest, where population, jobs and House seats grew fastest after 1970.
- Culture wars
Fights over values: abortion, religion in public life, gender roles, family, gay rights, immigration and diversity.
- Corroborate
Support a claim with evidence that agrees with it.
- Qualify
Limit a claim: show when, where or for whom it stops being true.
- Modify
Rewrite a claim so it fits the evidence.
- Relative significance
Which cause or change mattered most, and why it mattered more than the others.
- Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
Ended the national-origin quotas. Most immigrants who arrived after it came from Latin America and Asia.
- Quota laws (1921, 1924)
The 1921 law capped each nationality at 3 percent of the foreign-born from that country in the 1910 census. The 1924 law used 2 percent of the 1890 count, which favored northern and western Europe.
- Majority-minority projection
A forecast of the year no single group is more than half the population. This 2015 report put that year at 2044. Everyone except non-Hispanic people who marked White alone counted on the other side.
- Polarization
The two parties moving apart, so fewer members of either overlap with the other.
- E pluribus unum
Latin for 'out of many, one.' The motto on the Great Seal. Pierre Eugène du Simitière proposed it for the seal in 1776. Congress adopted the seal, motto and all, on June 20, 1782. In 1776 the many were the states.
- Great Seal
The official seal of the United States, adopted by Congress on June 20, 1782. The 1776 committee set six European emblems on the shield and E pluribus unum on the scroll. The eagle came in the final design.
Transcript
Quotes are from the historical record and name their source. Lines marked Dramatized are reconstructions.
One or More
1790 · 1990 · 2000
Key terms: Decennial census, Multiracial (Census 2000), Self-identification (1960)
In the spring of 2000, a form from the Census Bureau landed on kitchen tables across the country.
In 1990, the race question said to fill ONE circle. In 2000, it said to mark one or more.
About 6.8 million people marked more than one race. Four in ten of them were children.
In Hawaii, it was one person in five.
The first census, in 1790, had five columns. A marshal's assistant decided which one you went in. The last column was headed 'Slaves.'
Until 1960, census takers usually wrote down your race for you. In 2000, you could answer that you were more than one thing.
The Claim
Boston, July 27, 2004 · Washington, January 11, 1989
Key terms: Keynote address, National identity, Bush v. Gore, Sourcing
Four summers later.
In Boston, an Illinois state senator gave the keynote speech at the Democratic convention.
Most of the country had never heard of him.
There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there is the United States of America.
There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America.
He was answering a map. The 2000 election, decided by 537 votes in Florida, had painted the country red and blue.
Source it. His purpose: to sell a party. His audience: undecided voters at home. His point of view: the son of a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas.
Fifteen years earlier, Ronald Reagan said goodbye with the same kind of hope.
And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.
A Republican in 1989, a Democrat in 2004: open doors, one people. Was that a description, or a hope?
Eight Objects
1980–2016
Key terms: New Right, Reaganomics, War on terror, Deindustrialization, Globalization, Sun Belt, Culture wars, Corroborate, Qualify, Modify
Here's Period 9 as evidence: eight objects in a gallery, ten minutes before closing.
In 1980, a conservative movement won the White House. It cut taxes and regulations, and fought over faith, family and abortion. Voters still wouldn't let it cut Social Security.
The Cold War ended, and the one superpower left argued over what its power was for. After September 11 came two long wars and new powers to track suspects at home. There was a sharper fight over oil and climate.
Computers and the internet made workers more productive. Factory jobs and union cards disappeared, most paychecks stalled, and the top pulled away. Americans fought over free trade and, after the 2008 crash, over how to police Wall Street.
New Americans came from Latin America and Asia. Millions more moved south and west. The country argued about immigration, diversity, gender roles, and what counts as a family.
Historians test a claim three ways. Corroborate it: find evidence that supports it. Qualify it: show where it stops being true. Modify it: rewrite it so it fits the evidence.
The evening guardDramatized
We close at nine. Take your time. I've got one more round.
Which Change?
1850 · 2044
Key terms: Relative significance, Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Quota laws (1921, 1924), Majority-minority projection, Polarization
That's a complex argument.
Now the exam's question: which change after 1980 did the most to remake who Americans are?
One answer: the people themselves. They moved south and west, and more came from abroad. In 1970, fewer than one American in twenty was born abroad. By 2015, more than one in eight.
That's close to 1910's share, when Congress answered with quotas. National-origin quotas lasted until 1965.
In 2015 the Census Bureau projected that by 2044, non-Hispanic whites would be under half the country. Check the fine print. A child marked white and Asian counted on the other side. The 2000 boxes changed the headline.
A classmate could argue politics mattered more. Republicans to the right of the median Democrat: 64 percent, then 92. Democrats went from 70 to 94, the other way. Yet only one American in five was consistently liberal or conservative.
The man who made the claim became evidence. Elected in 2008: the first African American president. By 2014 the parties were further apart than in twenty years.
Immigration and the move south and west changed who Americans were more than anything else after 1980. Much of the period's politics was an argument about that change.
So, description or hope? For American families, more and more a description. For American politics, still a hope.
E Pluribus Unum
1776 · 1989 · dawn
Key terms: E pluribus unum, Great Seal, National identity
The guard starts at the door.
Reagan's farewell gave the reason for rooms like this one.
If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are.
Obama's speech had quoted the motto on the Great Seal. E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.
A painter from Geneva suggested it in 1776. John Adams wrote home about him.
John Adams
This Mr. Du simitiere is a very curious Man. He has begun a Collection of Materials for an History of this Revolution.
The committee's design put six emblems on the shield, England to Holland, for the countries 'from which the States have been peopled.' Nothing for Africa. Nothing for the nations already here.
Every generation since has argued over who else belongs in the many.
In April 1775, about seventy-seven men stood on this grass and claimed their rights as British subjects.
Who counts as "the people" is the country's oldest argument. It is still going.