Compare And Contrast The Civil War And The Second American Revolution

The Civil War marked a moment in American history with the metamorphosis of the meaning of the concept of liberty into one of freedom of opportunity. By examining the war between the Union and the Confederacy, James McPherson, in his book, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, he illustrates the issues present in antebellum and postwar America. The author defends the belief that the Civil War was a second revolution through a detailed look at key issues during the time period treating employment, land ownership, and education, among others. The extension of power of the national government that resulted from the war and Abraham Lincoln’s persuasive efforts to end the divide between the North and the South, led to an expansion

In an effort to mitigate the effect of the recession, President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced The New Deal, a number of federal programs deemed to help end the depression. The introduction of domestic programs influenced the expansion of democracy, by assuming the federal government holds responsibility over the state of the economy. Additionally, Roosevelt managed to use the government as a means to provide both financial and national security through the creation of programs such as the Social Security Act and the creation of new military machinery. The actions taken by Roosevelt played a primordial role in the progress of democracy, considering it granted the federal government the power to “stimulate economic activity,” and later, as the U.S. entered World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor, helped pave the way for the end of the

established itself as a world superpower, following the end of World War II, it wished to spread domestic democratic ideals abroad. While it prided on the concept of freedom and equality, events taking place at home showed the hypocritical nature American democracy represented. Scarred by the terrors in the infringement of human rights during WWII, the U.S. promoted American democracy in an effort to contain the spread of communism overseas. The growing fear of the spread of communist rule led to a period of McCarthyism, led by Joseph McCarthy, in which a “red scare” drove the nation into a frenzy that resulted in a regression of American democratic ideals. The seeming “balance of order” nation Professor Jeremi Suri, in his book, Power and Protest, denotes America to be details the hypocrisy in the disparities of the lack of action at home and abroad. Ultimately, as Suri highlights the failure to act upon the same claims of equality preached overseas, the author uncovered the underlying weaknesses of American