Destruction Of Anti-Intellectualism In The United States

Degler Carl N. Out of Our Past: the Forces that Shaped Modern America. New York: Harpers, 1970 Chapter 4. Does land make a people? 13-22.

Although “historians no longer use the word “discovery” to describe the European exploration, conquest and colonization of a hemisphere already home to millions of people”, it was one of the greatest and most important discoveries ever in our history that changed the lives of millions of people. (Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008), pg 1.) For some the “discovery”of America would mean an opportunity for a better life, for others the “discovery” brought misery and death.

Until the late nineteenth century, the United States was still an agrarian community. As factories sprouted to process the products obtained from agriculture and to manufacture farm equipment, there rose

America had a huge industrial revolution in the late 1800”s. Many changes happened to our great nation, which factored into this. The evidence clearly shows that advancements in new technology, a large wave of immigrants into our country and new views of our government, helped to promote America’s huge industrial growth from the period of 1860-1900.

In America’s pastime, there were many conflicts that continued to help shape America. Citizens were becoming more aware and concerned about how America was managed, as conflict was becoming a regular misfortune for the country. Events such as progressivism, the roaring twenties, and the stock market crash may have seemed like a negative time in the United States at face value, but the overall impacts and effects helped establish innovations that still positively influence the lives of citizens today.

Education, a most powerful tool of use in today's world and one that we probably take for granted, could possible be at risk as far as how knowledgeable we are becoming on the material at hand. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and because of agonism in academics, students now might not be getting the full potential out of their mind simply because of the way they/we are being taught. Deborah Tannen, a professor at Georgetown University, in the article “Agonism in the Academy: Surviving the Argument Culture” (2000) argues that discussion rather than debate is a more proficient way of teaching our students, likewise, collaborating ideas instead of tearing down material can

The half century between 1810 and 1860 may seem like a brief period of time, but these fifty years were packed full of changes and innovations. Some of these drastic modifications include but are not limited to; professions becoming an expanding market (chapter 8 notes), the focus on becoming self-sustaining, as evidenced by the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 and the American System, developed by Henry Clay (chapter 9 notes). The clashing of politics and morality also came into the news (chapter 10 notes), as well as the desire for westward expansion (chapter 11 notes). With individuals spreading out across the continental United States, a Second Great Awakening occurred in order to revitalize the church (chapter 12 notes), as new territories were

In 1893, at the 400th anniversary of the appearance of Columbus in the Americas celebrated in Chicago , Frederick Jackson Turner presented an academic paper entitled, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” In this essay, Turner proposes that, “The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development.” The group dynamic that Turner champions is the farmer. More directly it is white, male farmers. While the expansion of the west by white male farmers was a factor in the development of America, it is not the only explanation for this progression. Turner fails to incorporate all of the demographics present during this expansion which were essential to the evolution of America.

Many intelligent kids are being overlooked because of the stigma of being a “nerd,” as well as the fact that anti-intellectualism is becoming more popular. A man, author Grant Penrod, wrote “Anti-Intellectualism: Why We

This was not a single view, but a reflection of how the entire nativist nation felt.

It is on these premises that the current American education model fails. Americans aim to inform students, but fail to educate them. The system fills students with inert ideas, ideas that are neither utilized nor tested. These ideas clutter the mind and do not allow for optimal performance of the mind in processing input and creating new hypotheses based on past scenarios, the most common and useful purpose of the human mind. Quite blatantly, “A

Society has created labels to where being intellectually well-formed is an inadequate trait. Through examples and flaws in society, Fridman establishes his argument for “America Needs Its Nerds.” He states that at a school as esteemed as Harvard, “anti-intellectualism is rampant” (9). When the name Harvard is heard, one tends to think of adjectives such as, respected, intelligent, and prestigious. Thus, the impulse to think that people at Harvard are embarrassed to admit how much they study is slim. Even so, Fridman expresses that if people at Harvard are ashamed to admit their intelligence then there is definitely something wrong with society’s perspective. He shares this opinion when he states that “a society that has only derogatory terms”

This essay will examine the rise of “modern America”, there were economic, religious, and aspect of life changes took place and it was greatly changed the Americans society’s perceptions, specifically, the north and the south. The rise of “modern America” was greatly motivated immigrants to come to the United States for economic opportunity, industrialization in the North after the civil war created new businesses and job regulations, and the demand for social changes; all of these factors shaped America socially, politically, and economically.

The definition of what America is, and furthermore what an American is, has been eternally elusive. However, it can be reasonably said that the vision of America rests upon freedom of expression, the right to property, and self-determination. These ideas are explored in one European’s examination of American agricultural society in the late 18th century. Letters from an American Farmer by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur illustrates the gilded nature of the early vision of America; one that appears to be simplistic and based in freedom, but lies on a foundation of oppression and greed.

There is no question that the Industrial Revolution had an enormous impact on American society between 1870 and 1940, but the question is what kind of an impact did it have during this period. The overall effect of the Industrial Revolution turned out to be a positive push towards modernization in America. As Stephen Gardiner, a British architect and writer during the 20th century, said, “The Industrial Revolution was another one of those extraordinary jumps forward in the story of civilization.” While Gardiner hit the nail on the head with his quote, the part of the story that most people tend to forget is just how quickly we Americans, made that extraordinary jump forward. There were Americans, who, at one point in their life were