George Washington Constitutional Convention Analysis

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HISTORY USA IN BRIEF George Washington addressing the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, 1787. INTRODUCTION The history of the United States has been an experiment in democracy for more than 200 years. Issues that were addressed in the early years continue to be addressed and resolved today: big government versus small government, individual rights versus group rights, unfettered capitalism versus regulated commerce and labor, engagement with the world versus isolationism. The expectations for American democracy have always been high, and the reality has sometimes been disappointing. Yet the nation has grown and prospered, through a continual process of adaptation and compromise. 1 Early America At the height of the…show more content…
Farmers were struggling because of the abrupt end of wartime demand. Bolshevik violence fueled a “Red Scare” that led to decades of militant hostility toward the revolutionary Communist movement. Despite these problems, for a few years in the 1920s the United States enjoyed a period of real and broadly distributed prosperity. Families purchased their rst automobile, radio, and refrigerator, and they began going to the movies regularly. And su ragists, after decades of political activism, succeeded in getting approval of a constitutional amendment in 1920 that gave women the right to vote. The good times did not last. The value of many stocks, which had become arti cially in ated, fell dramatically in October 1929. Over the next three years, the business recession in America became part of a worldwide economic depression. Businesses and factories shut down, banks failed, farm income dropped. By November 1932, 20 percent of Americans were unemployed. The presidential campaign that year was chie y a debate over the causes of the Great Depression and ways to reverse it. Incumbent Herbert Hoover had started the process of rebuilding the economy, but his e orts had little impact, and he lost the election to Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt was infectiously optimistic and was ready to use federal authority to achieve bold remedies. Under his leadership, the United States would enter another era of economic and political
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