American Pie Primary Sources

This picture is significant because it shows Mick Jagger in which Don McLean said that he was wrecking the innocence of the Americans and the youth. He was on the rolling stones cover because he was becoming increasingly popular throughout the states. He is also saying that with the rolling stones, America is becoming just that, something that can’t be contained with the goodness anymore.

This is significant because in the song the chorus always mentions driving a Chevy to the levee, and he was talking about the TV commercial. He wanted the people to have something to relate to and he knew that almost everyone across the country knew the commercial.

The song, “The Book of Love” is important because he says, “Did you write the book of love” and he was referring to this song. He also knew that people could relate to this song because it was well known, and he used it to compare it to how American society was changing and how it was challenging their faith.

American Pie is a song about the lives of the American people and how it changed over the years. This picture shows that Don McLean believes that despite the changes that many say are bad, he still believes in America and that things will be ok.

Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper, were on there way to “The Winter Dance Party” before the plane crashed. They were three of the best rock music stars. Music died because the world lost very valued music legends. Bobby Holly was like a role model to Don McLean and Don thought that the good type of music died with him as did the “old America.”

Why “American Pie” Was Historically Signifigant

The song “American Pie”, written by Don McLean, was historically significant because it compared the changes of everyday life to the changes America was facing. The previous American utopia was shattered by the changing cultural and moral values. The whole song compares life to the way it was, in the 1960’s; to the way it was in the future.

One of the biggest changes that people in America and throughout the world was the fact that there was no more of the “old fashioned,” America. In the song it says, “Bye bye Miss American Pie,” Don McLean is referring to “Miss American Pie” as the old America. Don McLean was angry and saddened by this fact, since he saw the end of pure America as the “day music died”. The old America, which was the good era, was when people were not fighting against another country or the people in their own country. Instead, people did not trust each other or their government. American’s innocence of the youth was slipping away into the drugs, and protesting. What this song did was show the people who listened to it what was going on in America and how they did not even see it. The song opened people’s eyes into seeing the innocence of America was gone.

When in the song it says, “And the moss grows fat on the rolling stone. But that’s not how it used to be.” It is talking about how the US had lost its way. Before, America was referred to the rolling stone because everything was going great for America and nothing could really stop the US from moving forward. Then when everything changed, such as wars, protesting against the wars and the government, and influences of drugs and alcohol, America stopped moving forward from a better direction to worse. When the song made the point of saying that America had stopped moving forward, it meant that the “moss” was the only reason why it was keeping the US from moving forward. It again made Americans see what was happening to their country and how it made the US stop being what people knew it to be: powerful. This made it significant because now people could look back and see what was happening and that they would have to change to get back the old America. The song made some want to change and others want it to stay the same.

“American Pie,” by Don McLean changed the way people understood what was happening to America. The song opened Americans eyes and made them look at the how America hade changed its own values and culture.

Blog Post #6

The US adpoted the isolationst policy was because the US wanted to fix it’s own rpoblems before they tried to help fix anybody else’s problems. It did seem to make sense to do this because since the US had not come out entirely of the Great Depression, we did need to fix our problems. Since we did adopt to an isolationst policy it affected our entrance to WWII because we didn’t want to get in the mix of things. Eventhough, I think that most people wanted to do something to help, we were only thinking of us, not anybody else. I also think that if we weren’t in our isolationst policy, we wouldn’t have had as many countries willing to fight on the other side. Another reason why it affected out entrance into the war was becasue we were not sure if the other countries were going to actually pay us back this time or say what they said last time and then get us back to where the Great Depression had began. That was probably the biggest fear going into the war was wondering when it was over, if the US was going to go back into another Depression.

I believe that the US became aware that the Americans were losing jobs to the immigrants, and that’s why they started controlling who was coming in and shipping immigrants out. Before the 1920’s the US left it open and simple for immigrants to come to America to at least attempt to have the American dream, but back then there was segregation.  Back then barely any immigrants got the good paying jobs, or at least decent ones. The native born Americans were usually the ones that got the job. Most store owners weren’t ones to hire immigrants or African Americans. In the 1920’s there still was segregation, but not as much as before. Now during this time most immigrants with the skills needed were getting the jobs and getting paid and the Americans were upset by that so they took action, or wanted the government to take action.

I believe that the US was neutral at the beginning of World War 1, it was not based on our allies and it was not based on the fact that we weren’t with German. Wilson was trying that to keep, to what I believe, people in America alive and focus on what we needed to fix.  Wilson didn’t want to get into the mix of the fight that’s why even when Germany sunk the first ship from the US, he didn’t go right to war, he gave them a threat that we were going to go to war, if the Germans didn’t give the merchant and trading ships warnings. Again it proves the point that we were trying to be neutral when German sunk another merchant ship killing 128 Americans and Wilson again didn’t just say that the US was going to war. He gave Germany a second threat, or warning, saying that if they did it again without giving our ships a warning then we would go to war. I think we didn’t really have choice in the matter of staying neutral. We couldn’t have stayed out of the fight because as each one of the ships were getting sunk with innocent lives being lost the Americans were getting angrier and angrier and I think that we would have come into the war eventually. We couldn’t really sit on the sidelines anymore because not only were the other people getting killed but now Americans were being killed and feeling threatened by everything around them. I believe that maybe we could have postponed the US from coming into World War 1, but we couldn’t have stayed out of it completely.        

Progressive Era: Primary Documents

This remarkable woman is named Margaret Sanger. She was born September 14th, 1879. She was a birth control advocate, sex educator, and a nurse. She is well known for a book she wrote named, “What Every Woman Should Know.” This book advocates birth control. This particular article is her defending birth control. She is explaining how birth control is something that is necessary especially for those who don’t want and can’t afford to have as many children as they do. She calls children slaves, which they essentially they are because all children helped their parents work. During this time period, birth control was still illegal but she worked through technicalities in the law to complete abortions. She later went on to find the American Birth Control League which we now know as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She was a medicinal reformist and her works helped the science breakthrough of the Progressive Era.

This is the Colorado Insane Asylum. This asylum is located in Pueblo, Colorado. It was later established in 1879 and in 1917 renamed the Colorado State Hospital. This was the first public mental hospital which stated out with only 11 patients. This hospital helped advocate the medicinal reform. Opening a public asylum meant that people were being treated for whatever insane habits or sickness that they had. This was another scientific breakthrough in the Progressive Era. One small step for the crazies, one giant step for science!

The assembly line, invented by Henry Ford in 1908, allowed workers to produce in mass production. By having each part of the job separated for one individual to complete the task, finishing the product was much more effective. It took less time because one person only had to focus on one task instead of assembling the whole product on their own. The repetitiveness of it all allowed the workers to be faster and efficient. This process, thus, granted companies to produce more products for export, therefore, gaining a huge sum of money in return. The system also introduced many job openings as many workers were needed to perform a particular part of the job. Most jobs were so simple, that no further instruction from the basics was needed. The simplicity of the tasks allowed immigrants to work and ease in to the new life. The assembly line was the root to mass production as it increased accuracy and efficiency and created many jobs for Americans as well.

This is Wilbur and Orville Wright Brothers Diary and Journal Entries. These brothers created the first airplane. In the entries, they are discussing the plane’s progress. Throughout the entries they began discussing the random testing of the engine and other parts of the plane. In one of the entries they tell of a trip around a building the plane made.

In 1976 Graham Bell came up with a design for something that was not thought of. He sketched his design and plans for the telephone that has changed in America. This changed the way of communication in the progressive era. Instead of having to use the telegram that took days to transfer a message it only would take a couple of minutes.

Progressive Era : Essay

Progressivism began in the 1890′s as a movement that attacked the political, social, and economic inequalities. This was also the time when inventors in the science field made breakthroughs. During this period, there were many scientific debates,​ scientific reforms, inventions, and new foundations. Scientific discoveries of the progressive era were motivational and are the basis for today’s modern day science.

There were many scientific debates occurring in this time period. One of the biggest was over evolution. Many scientists had debates with each other and had debates with religious leaders. The debating was mostly over whether evolution was real or not and should they teach it in school. Evolution was a new theory that was a very popular subject. Religious people, however, did not believe in the theory because the Bible discussed the creation and held no evidence of evolution. These debates caused major heat between the two groups.

Many scientific reforms were occurring as well. One of the major reforms was medicinal. Birth control was not legal during that period. People were having too many children and the unwanted children would only become slaves to their parents. It wasn’t until the early 1900′s that birth control was actively used thanks to the major advocate Margaret Sanger. Margaret Sanger along with many others conducted abortions illegally. Eventually, she opened her own birth control clinic but was arrested. She is also the founder of what we know as Planned Parenthood.

Lastly, there were also some amazing inventions during that time period. For example, the zipper was invented by Whitcomb L. Judson in 1891. Medical gloves were invented in 1894 by William Stewart Halsted. Wing warping was invented by the Wright Brothers in 1904 and flew the first sustained flight in 1903. The first car and the assembly line was created by Henry Ford in 1901. Wilhelm Rontgen created the x-ray in 1895. There are so many more inventions that are still here today.

Science was extremeley important in the Progressive Era. Everything that was made in this time period is what we see and experience today, only it is updated. For science, the Progressive Era was like it’s Five-Hour Energy that kept it going and made it do absolutely amazing things with no crash.

Progressive Era: Video