Assignment

Realizing one's "liberties" following the Reconstruction era was no easier for many Americans than it was prior to the Civil War. Industrialization and immigration in the late nineteenth century only served to draw deeper and clearer distinctions on who and what an "American" was or could be. As the United States became an empire through the Spanish-American War domestic relationships of inequality transcended across the globe through our foreign policies. Domestic issues of race, class, and gender found expression throughout America's foreign policies in the twentieth century, culminating in the near simultaneous onset of the Cold War and rise of the modern Civil Rights Movement. As minority groups found domestic and global audiences for their grievances, America's moral authority to lead the world came under intense scrutiny. In many respects, America's past continues to profoundly shape America's view of the world and their view of us to this very day. (document)

1. Based upon your reading of these documents, to what extent do you believe America's past continues to influence American society and modern debates about inequality?

2. Does our past and efforts to confront and resolve issues of inequality empower us with a moral authority to dictate world affairs today?

3. Why or why not?