By The People: A History of The United States

AIE903
Chapter 30
Entering a New Time
2001 to the Present
Chao Soi Cheong/AP Images
The September 11, 2001, terror attack

on the World Trade Center in New York
and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.,
was a tragedy that shaped American
politics and the lives of many individual
Americans.
Chapter Objective
Demonstrate an understanding of the most recent history of the United States from
September 11, 2001, to the present.
Learning Objective
KEY CONCEPT AND
SUBTOPIC
The Impact of September 11, 2001
30.1 Analyze the impact of 9/11 on the nation, the presidency of George W. Bush, Key Concept 9.3
and Bush administration policies around the world. The end of the Cold War
and new challenges to U.S.
Difficult Years on the Domestic Front leadership forced the nation
30.2 Explain the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast and the costs to redefine its foreign policy
and consequences of the 2008 financial crisis. and role in the world.
The Obama Years II. Following the attacks
30.3 Analyze the reasons for the successes and failures of the Obama administration of September 11, 2001,
and changes in the American culture while he was president. U.S. foreign policy efforts
focused on fighting
New Liberals, New Conservatives, Election Surprises terrorism around the world
30.4 Analyze the most recent political developments in the United States from the Tea Party (NAT-2.0; NAT-3.0;
movement to the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016. 903 GEO-1.0; WOR-2.0).
M30_FRAS7095_02_AIE_C30.indd 903 12/12/17 12:05 AM

904 AIE 904 Chapter 30
T
uesday morning on September 11, 2001, dawned clear and beautiful on the East
30.1
Significant Dates Coast of the United States. President George W. Bush was in Florida, reading to a
class of second graders as part of his effort to build support for the No Child Left
2001 George W. Bush is
inaugurated as U.S. president Behind legislation, while First Lady Laura Bush was meeting with Democrat champion Sen-
30.2 ator Edward Kennedy to discuss the bill. Most Americans were going about their business
Terrorist attack on World
Trade Center and Pentagon at the beginning of another workweek as memories of summer vacations faded. At 7:59 a.m.,
American Airlines Flight 11 took off from Boston’s Logan International Airport bound for
United States installs new
Los Angeles. In the minutes that followed, United Airlines Flight 93 left Newark for San
30.3 interim government in
Reasoning Skills: Afghanistan Francisco; American Flight 77 left Washington, D.C., for Los Angeles; and United Flight 175
Contextualization 2003 United States invades Iraq, left Boston for Los Angeles. None of those four flights made it to their intended destination.
Ask students how the overthrows Saddam Hussein On each of the four planes, just minutes after takeoff, hijackers took control of the flight
coordinated attacks of 30.4
2004 Abuse of Iraqi prisoners in using box cutters—then legal to carry onto a plane—as weapons. As terrified crew and pas-
9/11 reflected the planning
Abu Ghraib prison comes to sengers used cell phones to call relatives and authorities, the planes turned back toward
and focus devoted to
light the East Coast. At 8:46 a.m., American Flight 11, crashed into the North Tower of the World
the attack. How did that
careful planning create The 9/11 Commission Report Trade Center. Seventeen minutes later, United Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of
the perpetrators’ desired is issued the Trade Center. At 9:37 a.m., American Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. By this time,
devastation? Bush defeats John Kerry to be passengers on United Flight 93 had learned from cell phone calls that they were part of a
reelected massive terrorist plot. As the plane headed for Washington, D.C., heroic passengers over-
Reasoning Skills:
2005 Hurricane Katrina hits New powered the hijackers and the plane crashed in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
Continuity and Change
Orleans and the Gulf Coast And history took a dramatic turn.
over Time
Ask students which of these 2006 After Republican election Many acts of heroism occurred on that September 11 morning. Betty Ong, a flight atten-
dates might be considered a losses, Rumsfeld is replaced dant on American Airlines Flight 11, stayed on her cell phone, reporting minute by minute
turning point. as secretary of defense until the plane crashed into the World Trade Center. In New York City, Nick Gerstle, a tech-
2008 In a sign of growing financial nician for Verizon, joined some New York firefighters who found two trapped New York
trouble, Bear Stearns is
City police officers. He heard the officers say, “Please! Don’t let us die!” And they didn’t.
absorbed by JP Morgan
A Deeper Look Julia Martinez and Margaret Espinoza were paraprofessionals—teacher aides—at the High
For more acts of heroism Financial crisis including School for Leadership and Public Service, which was only a block away from the World Trade
on 9/11, read this article Lehman Brothers bankruptcy
Center. They began moving two wheelchair-bound students out of the chaos, found their way
from business insider: Barack Obama defeats John blocked by debris, and, with the aid of two strangers, simply picked up the girls and carried
http://www.businessinsider McCain for president
.com/7-incredible-stories-
them to safety. This chapter focuses on the two decades after that tragic day during which
2010 Republican Scott Brown wins many public and personal events were shadowed by what came to be called simply 9/11.
of-heroism-on-911-2015-9 Ted Kennedy’s seat in the
Why do tragic events often U.S. Senate
lead to heroic acts? To what
Republicans win majority of
extent was 9/11 an example
of this phenomenon?
House of Representatives The Impact of September 11, 2001
Why might people have 2012 Obama reelected for a second
term 30.1 Analyze the impact of 9/11 on the nation, the presidency of George W. Bush,
felt compelled to help
others in the face of this 2013 U.S. Supreme Court rules and Bush administration policies around the world.
unimaginable tragedy? part of Defense of Marriage In the first hours after the horrific crashes, no one knew what to make of the attack. On first
Act unconstitutional in United
hearing the news on radio or TV, most people had the same reaction as Florence Engoran,
States v. Windsor
who worked in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. When she arrived at her office
2014 Michael Brown killed in
Ferguson, Missouri; Black on the fifty-fifth floor, someone said, “A small plane hit the other building.” She remem-
Lives Matter becomes a bered, “I wasn’t especially upset by the news,” and tended to agree with her coworker who
movement said, “Oh, just sit down, let’s keep working. We have to get out some focus reports.” Within
2015 Same-sex marriage becomes minutes, however, as she saw flames and heard another crash, Engoran realized that some-
legal in all of United States thing much more serious was happening. Although she was five months pregnant, Engoran
as Supreme Court rules in headed for the stairs and walked down the fifty-five flights. Before she made it to the bot-
Obergefell v. Hodges tom, the lights were off and the stairwell was filled with dust, but she made it. Most of those
2016 Donald J. Trump elected as working in the buildings made it out. But many did not. Handicapped people who could
president of the United States not walk down the stairs were stuck. People on the higher floors could not get past the
fires. Some seventy-eight police officers and four hundred firefighters who had responded
to the emergencies remained in the buildings trying to evacuate people when the structures
collapsed. It all happened very fast. At 9:58 a.m., just one hour after the crash, the South
Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed floor by floor, showering a wide area with rub-
ble. Thirty minutes later, the North Tower also collapsed. What had been two of the tallest
buildings in the world that morning were now simply a giant hole in the ground.

Entering a New Time 2001 to the Present 905 AIE905
The worst violence on U.S. soil since the Civil War had just taken place. Nearly 3,000 Reasoning Skills:
people died—246 passengers on the planes; 2,600 at the World Trade Center, a few of which Contextualization
30.1 Ask students how the
were unlucky passersby; and 125 people at the Pentagon. The fear, loss, anger, and fortitude
collapse of the towers was not
generated from that day would shape a new reality for the nation. only deadly and destructive
At 9:30 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights within the but also a reminder of the
30.2
United States. For the week that followed, the skies would be clear of everything but high- attacks because of their
flying military planes. Airports would be eerily quiet. At a little after 1:00 p.m., President absence in the New York City
Bush, just nine months into his first term, addressed the nation from an air force base in skyline. To what extent did the
Louisiana, telling people that massive security measures were in effect and that the United 30.3 towers’ presence in New York
make them an ideal target for
States would “hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts,” though at terrorists?
that point no one was quite sure who they were. At 8:30 p.m., President Bush spoke to the
nation for a second time, this time from the Oval Office, asking for prayers for the families 30.4 A Deeper Look
and friends of the victims and again promising retaliatory action. Ground Zero was still a For more information on
mass of burning rubble and would be for weeks. The Pentagon fire was contained, but not Bush’s response to 9/11,
read his address to the
under control. The nation tried to make sense of what had happened.
nation that evening: http://
edition.cnn.com/2001/
Finding the Terrorists—al-Qaeda, US/09/11/bush.speech.text/
the Taliban, Afghanistan How did Bush use this speech

to comfort and reassure
In the initial confusion of the morning of September 11, no one was quite sure who was Americans? Why was it
behind the attack. By early afternoon, George Tenet, the director of the CIA, informed Presi- necessary for him to balance
dent Bush that while the agency was still investigating, all the evidence pointed to an attack sympathy and strength in the
wake of the attacks?
by al-Qaeda, ordered by its leader, Osama bin Laden. By late that evening, when the presi-
dent met with what he then called his “war council,” they all agreed that plans needed to be
developed to punish those behind the attack.
On September 20, President Bush spoke to a joint session of Congress. He said of the
government of Afghanistan, “They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share their fate.”
And he told the rest of the world, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
There would be no neutrals in the coming war on terror. The president insisted, “The enemy
of America is not our many Muslim friends. It is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a
radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them.” Nevertheless, the
militant tone of the speech, while reassuring some, worried many. In the immediate after-
math of the attacks, international support and sympathy for the United States was high.
Even nations long hostile to the United States such as Syria were expressing support. But
with Bush’s response, some of the support began to fade.
By the time Bush spoke, CIA and U.S. Army forces had been dispatched to Pakistan Reasoning Skills:
and Uzbekistan to prepare for an attack on Afghanistan, whose Taliban government was Comparison
protecting bin Laden and al-Qaeda. In early October, the United States attacked sites within Ask students how the
Afghanistan while building on-the-ground alliances with Afghan warlords who were hos- initial pace of victory in
Afghanistan might have
tile to the Taliban regime. On November 9, the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif fell to the
boosted Americans’ morale.
U.S.-led coalition forces, and a few days later, the Taliban government fled the capital of To what extent might this
Kabul. By early December, the United States and its local allies were in control of the coun- initial victory have reminded
try, and on December 22, Hamid Karzai, a leader of one of the anti-Taliban factions, was Americans of the Persian
installed as the new leader of Afghanistan. For the most part, however, the Taliban and Gulf War a decade earlier?
al-Qaeda leaders had escaped. How should the Soviet
Union’s experience in
Many Afghans celebrated the defeat of the austere and tyrannical Taliban even as
Afghanistan have served
they kept a wary eye on the Americans and on each other. Late in 2001, U.S.-backed forces
as a warning to the United
attacked the remaining al-Qaeda strongholds in a region of mountainous caves known as States?
Tora Bora. Perhaps a quarter of all al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives were killed or captured,
but the rest, including bin Laden and his chief lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, escaped into Disciplinary Practices:
the lightly governed provinces on the Pakistani side of the border from which they contin- Argument Development
ued to operate with considerable freedom. The United States did not track bin Laden down Ask students how the 9/11
until May 2011, almost ten years later. 9/11 attack Commission’s report shed
In the aftermath of the attack, President Bush, under considerable pressure from families The attack of September 11, 2001, on new light on the attack. Ask
of victims, appointed a special commission to study the 9/11 attack and make recommenda- students whether it might
the World Trade Center and the Penta-
have been possible to stop
tions regarding future policy. The chair of the commission, former Republican governor of gon organized by al-Qaeda.
the attacks had earlier
warnings been heeded.

Reasoning Skills:
Contextualization
Ask students why Bush
30.1 American Voices
might have believed that
a strong statement on the September 11, 2001, Artie Van Why
United States’ position was 30.2
necessary after 9/11. Why Everyone who lived through September 11, 2001—near or far from [After the collapsing of the twin towers, Van Why began walking
might a speech dividing
the different events—had their own experience, one they will not to his apartment in Midtown.]
the world into pro-America
forget. Artie Van Why came from Montgomery County, Maryland. There was an obvious stillness in the air as the hordes of us
or terrorist have been 30.3
disconcerting to many in the After ten years pursuing a stage career in New York City, he went walked, dazed and shocked, uptown. Thousands of us. Strangers.
international community? to work for a New York law firm. In June 2001, the firm moved to a A mass of silent humanity walking together.
building directly across the street from the World Trade Center. He I remember seeing a woman’s high-heel shoe, lying in the street,
30.4 was at work in the firm’s word processing center on the morning and wondering if she was still walking with just one shoe on. …
of 9/11. His reflections began as notes to friends, became a well- How arbitrary it all had been as to who had died, who had
received play, and finally a book from which the following firsthand lived. There were the incredible stories of people walking from
account is taken. the rubble, the stories of people who should have been there that
I don’t remember which came first, the shudder of the building morning but weren’t, the stories of the people who shouldn’t have
or the loud sound. They probably came at the same time. … been down there, but were.
In whatever the order, there was a loud boom; our building You know, I don’t believe I had witnessed the wrath of
shook, and then there was quiet. My coworkers and I looked at one anyone’s God that morning. What I had been a witness to when I
another. looked up at those burning towers was the ultimate evil that man is
Disciplinary Practices: I remember saying, “What was that?” Someone else asked, capable of. The evidence of just how deep hatred could run, how
Analyzing Historical “Was that thunder?” … Had something possibly exploded? … One far it could go.
Evidence—Primary of our phones rang, and it was our supervisor, calling from home. But I had also been a witness to something else that day—down
Sources She screamed to the person who answered something about on the ground. I witnessed the ultimate goodness of man, the evidence
Ask students how Van Why
seeing it on TV and for us to, “Get out of the building!” … of how strong courage could be, to what lengths it would go.
describes the events of
As I passed through the revolving door and out onto the street, I believe God was in the hands of everyone who reached out
9/11. Why might the events
of that day have united New it was like stepping into a snowstorm. Everything was white. The to help someone else. He was in the arms of people on the streets
Yorkers? To what extent are sidewalks and the streets—as far as I could see—were covered as they embraced one another. He was in the tears of strangers
individuals’ recollections with what looked like a surreal blanket of fresh fallen snow. Paper who cried together. He was in all the lives that were given in the line
of that day important to of all sorts and sizes was scattered everywhere, coming down from of duty, in the acts of heroism. He was in the hearts of the people
the national narrative the sky all around me, like bizarre flakes. There were whole sheets across the country who, as they watched the horror from afar, felt
surrounding 9/11? of paper and scraps of paper and bits of paper floating down from compassion.
as far up as I could see. I had never seen so much paper. Source: Artie Van Why, That Day in September: A Personal Remembrance of 9/11
I took the few steps that brought me to Church Street. I stood (Morrisville, NC: Lulu.com, 2006).
in front of the World Trade Center, between the Millennium Hotel

and the Century 21 store. I noticed other objects and forms and
substances on the ground—clumps of insulation, chunks of what
Thinking Critically
looked like plasterboard. My attention left the ground though, as 1. Analyzing Primary Sources
with those few steps toward Church Street, my head tilted upward, How does the point of view of someone who experienced
finally letting the north tower become my focus. Oh my God! What the terror and courage of 9/11 illuminate your understanding
was supposed to have been just a small hole made by a little plane of history? How might it compare with the memory of others
was a huge canyon blasted into the side of the tower. Smoke, who were farther away?
the thickest and blackest I’ve ever seen, billowed from the gaping 2. Comparison
wound. Flames of the brightest oranges and reds shot out from the How does Van Why’s account of 9/11 compare with other
blackness. … stories you have heard or read of the events on that day?
New Jersey Thomas Kean, and vice chair Lee H. Hamilton, former Democratic representa-
tive from Indiana, were careful to say, “We write with the benefit and handicap of hind-
sight.” Nevertheless, they noted significant mistakes. They reported that while presidents
and CIA directors are inundated with information, a lot of information had pointed to a
possible large-scale al-Qaeda attack. As early as December 1998, the CIA’s Presidential Daily
Brief for Bill Clinton noted that there was evidence that “suggests bin Laden and his allies
are preparing for attacks on the U.S., including an aircraft hijacking.” A report to George
W. Bush on August 6, 2001, included a detailed note headlined, “bin Laden Determined
to Strike in U.S.” “The most important failure,” they concluded, “was one of imagination.
We do not believe leaders understood the gravity of the threat.” The terrorist danger from

Disciplinary Practices:
Analyzing Historical
30.1 Evidence—Primary
Sources
Ask students to describe the
30.2 photo. How did this photo
illustrate one of the positive
outcomes of the war in
Afghanistan? To what extent
30.3 did U.S. intervention in
Afghanistan lead to progress
in the short term?
30.4
Rahmat Gul/AP Images

While the defeat of the Taliban brought new opportunities to many Afghans, especially women, who could
again study in school and take jobs, it did not bring stability to the country.
bin Laden and al-Qaeda had barely come up during the 2000 presidential campaign. Before
2001 was over, the response to terror dominated all other news.
The War on Terror at Home

The Report of the 9/11 Commission made recommendations to tighten security within the
United States and abroad. However, they noted, “Many of our recommendations call for the
government to increase its presence in our lives. … Therefore, while protecting our home-
land, Americans should be mindful of threats to vital personal and civil liberties.” Whether
the Bush administration, or the Obama administration that followed, kept the right balance
has been a subject of continuing debate.
Even before the Commission finished its work, Congress, at Bush’s request, passed Reasoning Skills:
the USA PATRIOT Act, which the president signed on October 26, 2001. The act expanded USA PATRIOT Act Contextualization
the authority of the Department of Justice to search telephone, e-mail, medical, financial, Legislation that sought to protect Ask students why many
and library records without a court order and to increase monitoring of the U.S. borders Americans supported
Americans by authorizing significant
the PATRIOT Act after the
and of noncitizens within the country. It also gave the Department of the Treasury the new data gathering by the federal
events of 9/11. Why might
right to monitor financial records and bank transactions. In the midst of the fears gener- government. the extent of this act have
ated by 9/11, the PATRIOT Act passed by large majorities in both houses of Congress. Most made it controversial? Why
defended the law’s provisions as necessary at a time of national emergency. Nevertheless, might some Americans have
some were deeply troubled by the bill. Richard Armey, a conservative Republican member argued in favor of maintaining
of the House, insisted that the act expire in five years. Wisconsin liberal Democratic senator existing civil liberties, even in
times of crisis?
Russell Feingold, the only member of the Senate to vote against the law, said, “Some have
said rather cavalierly that in these difficult times, we must accept some reduction in our
civil liberties in order to be secure. Of course, there is no doubt that if we lived in a police Reasoning Skills:
state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. … But that probably would not be a country in Contextualization
which we would want to live.” Ask students why past and
The debate about the PATRIOT Act continued long after it passed. In January 2003, the present officials might have
advised prudence on Iraq.
American Library Association, worried about increasing searches of library records, con-
Why might officials in the
demned the PATRIOT Act as “a present danger to the constitutional rights and privacy United States and England
rights of library users.” Others disagreed. John Yoo, a U.S. Department of Justice attorney, have had serious concerns
and Eric Posner, a law professor, wrote a piece for the American Enterprise Institute in about an attack?

December 2003 in which they said, “If the act marginally reduces peacetime liberties, this
30.1 is a reasonable price to pay for a valuable weapon against al-Qaeda.” While the debate con-
tinued, President Bush signed a renewed version of the PATRIOT Act in March 2006, and
President Barack Obama signed two further extensions of the law in 2010 and 2011 and a
modified version in 2015 that extended most provisions through 2019.
30.2
The Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

30.3 From the moment the first plane hit the World Trade Center, some in the administration
A Deeper Look were convinced that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was somehow behind the attack or at least
For more information on allied with al-Qaeda. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz insisted that Iraq had to
Bush’s views on Iraq and
30.4 be dealt with if terrorism was to be defeated. Vice President Cheney supported a U.S. attack
terrorism, read his 2002
State of the Union address,
on Iraq. Others urged caution. The CIA and others in the National Security Council initially
also known as the “axis found no “compelling case” against Iraq. Indeed, evidence showed considerable antipa-
of evil” speech: http:// thy between the very religious al-Qaeda and a secular leader like Saddam Hussein. In the
edition.cnn.com/2002/ immediate aftermath of 9/11, the focus stayed on the al-Qaeda strongholds in Afghanistan
ALLPOLITICS/01/29/bush (see Map 30-1). However, the issue of Iraq never went away.
.speech.txt/ British prime minister Tony Blair supported plans for an attack on Iraq, but Jack Straw,
According to Bush, what Blair’s foreign minister, insisted, “Saddam was not threatening his neighbors, and his WMD
factors make this group of [weapons of mass destruction] capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran.”
nations the “axis of evil”?
How did this speech, and
the time and context in
which it was delivered, help Map 30-1 Afghanistan and Iraq.
to convince Americans that After a 2001 attack on the Taliban government of Afghanistan, the United States turned its attention to Iraq,
Iraq posed a danger to the which it attacked in 2003.
country?
R O MA N I A R U S S I A K A Z A K H S TA N
CA
UCA
Aral
Evidence—Secondary SUS Sea
MO
Sources BULGARIA UN K A Z A K H S TA N
Black Sea TA
Referring to the map, how GEORGIA IN
S
did U.S. presence in the U Z B E K I S T A N
Middle East increase after Istanbul A Z E R B A I JA N
9/11? Why might the United A R ME N I A
Ankara T U R K M E N I S T A N
A e ge a n Lake
States have believed that Van Caspian
Se a T U R K E Y
both of these countries GREECE TA
U Lake Sea
R S Urmia
posed a threat to its national US AI
N
MOUNT Mosul
security? KURDISH Tehran
Crete REGION Kirkuk
Cyprus S Y R I A Kabul
Tigr
M e d i t e r r a n e a nLEBANON Islamabad
Euph A F G H A N I S T A N
is R s .
Beirut Damascus r Baghdad

Z
Sea I R A N Peshawar
A
I R A Q
.
at
G
e
West Bank SUNNI R Fallujah

R
O
ISRAEL Amman REGION Kandahar

S
GazaJerusalem
M
SHI’ITE Basra
O
Suez Strip JO R D A N REGION

U
N
A
Cairo Canal KUWAIT IN
T
SINAI S
P A K I S T A N
Pe
PENINSULA
rs
ia
L I B Y A E G Y P T S A U D I
n
A R A B I A
Gu
lf
Riyadh
UNITED
ARAB
E M I R AT E S
S U D A N O M A N
Mecca

30.1
30.2
30.3 Analyzing Historical
Evidence—Primary
Sources
Ask students to describe
30.4 the photo. Why might some
Americans have been wary
J. Scott Applewhite/AP Images

of this announcement
and its presentation? Why
might this announcement
have become a landmark
moment in recent American
history?
Under a sign proclaiming “Mission Accomplished,” President Bush announced the end of combat
operations in Iraq on May 1, 2004. The worst of America’s difficulties in Iraq, however, were just beginning.
As talk of a possible U.S. attack on Iraq circulated, an article appeared in the Wall Street
Journal on August 15, 2002, by Brent Scowcroft, who had been the national security advisor
in the administration of the first President Bush. Scowcroft wrote, “Don’t attack Saddam.”
He urged instead that the United States should “be pressing the United Nations Security
Council to insist on an effective no-notice inspection regime for Iraq.” Some speculated that
Scowcroft’s article was, in fact, a warning from Bush’s father (the first President Bush)—a
close friend of Scowcroft—but if it was, it came too late.
In January 2002, just four months after the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.,
Bush gave his State of the Union message in which he singled out Iraq, along with Iran and
North Korea, as an “axis of evil.” Bush said, “Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward
America and to support terror. … This is a regime that has something to hide from the
civilized world.”
After considerable debate, Congress voted to authorize the use of military force if
diplomacy with Iraq failed. The resolution passed the Senate by a vote of 77 to 23 and the
House by 296 to 133. While almost everyone supported the invasion of Afghanistan and
the attack on al-Qaeda, divisions ran deep about Iraq. A young Barack Obama had not yet
been elected to the Senate, but he told a rally, “This is a dumb war.”
After the congressional vote, Colin Powell took the arguments to the United Nations
Security Council. Powell put his personal prestige on the line to convince the Security
Council of the need to topple Saddam Hussein’s government. The vote was 15 to 0 in favor. Reasoning Skills:
France, Russia, and China, all of which had grave reservations about a war in Iraq, hoped Contextualization
that the authorization would force Iraq to agree to tougher inspections to avoid an invasion. Ask students to what extent
With authorization from Congress and the UN, the United States, allied with a coalition of the invasion of Iraq was
other countries, most of whom sent only token forces, went to war and toppled Saddam successful in the short
term. Why might the U.S.-
Hussein with lightning speed.
dominated UN forces have
On March 19, 2003, U.S. forces began the war using bombers—over 1,500 flights a day— been able to overpower Iraq
plus launching navy cruise missiles. The U.S. military called it “shock and awe.” After the so easily?
air attack, ground forces moved across the country. By the first week in April, the airport at
Baghdad fell to U.S.-led troops and U.S. tanks roared into the capital city. The Iraqi minister
of information was captured, most of the rest of the leadership fled, and Saddam Hus-
sein was a fugitive in the country he had long dominated. U.S. and British casualties were
very low. The war, it seemed, had been won skillfully. On May 1, President Bush flew to an

Reasoning Skills: aircraft carrier and announced, “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle
Causation of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” He later wished he had made a less
Ask students how the war
30.1
dramatic announcement.
in Iraq led to that nation’s
descent into chaos. To what Securing a country as large and as tightly regulated as Iraq was no easy task. Many
extent did U.S. leaders’ Iraqis who were delighted to see Hussein gone were uneasy about the role of foreign troops
30.2
erroneous expectations in their country. An Iraqi professor told American reporter Anne Garrels, “You understand,
for the situation contribute you will now have to be in complete control, and we will resent you every step of the way.”
to the lack of order in the In fact, the United States never sent enough forces to manage the country once the old
aftermath of the war? 30.3 government had been removed. Very little planning had gone into preparation for the post-
invasion world of Iraq. Condoleezza Rice, then the national security advisor, said, “The
concept was that we would defeat the army, but the institutions would hold, everything
30.4 from ministries to police forces.” It did not happen.
As soon as the old authority was gone, looters stole computers, televisions, and metal
from government buildings to be sold for scrap. At the Central Bank, looters drilled into
the vaults and ran out with the money, much of it in U.S. dollars or euros that could not
be traced. They broke into the National Museum and carried off fifteen thousand ancient
objects of extraordinary value.
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld responded, “Stuff happens.” Most Iraqis and people
around the world were less understanding. One military advisor said, “We’re incompetent
as far as they’re concerned.”
Reasoning Skills: In May 2003, Secretary Rumsfeld appointed a U.S. diplomat, L. Paul “Jerry” Bremer, as
Contextualization Coalition Provisional head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to bring order to Iraq. Bremer was an
Ask students how Bremer’s Authority (CPA) experienced diplomat, but he was not familiar with the Middle East. He set up his head-
miscalculations made the
The temporary governing authority quarters in the fortified “Green Zone,” a former Hussein palace, and issued two orders
situation in Iraq worse. Why
might a program effective in for Iraq set up after the U.S. invasion that in retrospect seemed a serious mistake. Modeling the first order on the de-Nazification
Germany after World War II in March and April 2003. of Germany after World War II, Bremer ordered the de-Baathification of Iraq. The Baath
have had the opposite Party had been Hussein’s political party, the only one allowed in the country. Government
outcome in Iraq in 2003? officials—senior officials, police officers, and teachers—were required to be members. The
order that no member of the Baath Party could work in the new administration immediately
threw some thirty thousand to fifty thousand out of work. The idea that ministries or the
police could quickly be up and running was gone.
A week later, Bremer dissolved the Iraqi army. The initial U.S. plans for a postwar gov-
ernment had focused on removing a few generals and then reestablishing the army since it
was solid and had discipline as well as credibility inside Iraq. With his order, Bremer dis-
solved this source of structure and order. He also infuriated some 400,000 Iraqi soldiers who
thought they had been promised that, if they would not resist the Americans, they could
A Deeper Look
keep their jobs after the war. Now they were out of their jobs and had lost their pensions,
For more information on
conditions in Iraq, read the
but still had access to arms.
following article from the As it became clear that the United States could not maintain order, Iraqis not only
New York Times: http://www became angry at the Americans but also became angry at one another. Hussein’s dicta-
.nytimes.com/2003/10/10/ torship had maintained tight control. Now within weeks, members of the Sunni Muslim
world/the-struggle-for-iraq- minority, of which Hussein was a part and which had been the nation’s elite, were attacked
iraq-car-bomb-kills-8-at- by members of the Shiite Muslim majority. The Sunnis fought back. On August 29, two
police-station-in-baghdad-
car bombs killed moderate Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim and 124 of
slum.html
his followers and destroyed the mosque where they were worshipping. While Sunnis and
To what extent did
Shiites fought in the center and south of the country, Iraqi Kurds in the north, who had
Americans find themselves
in increasingly dangerous been protected for twelve years by the “no fly zone,” now fought to maintain their auton-
situations in Iraq after the omy. Reprisal followed reprisal and the Americans were caught in the middle of it. More
official end of the war? To American soldiers were killed between May and October of 2003 in “postwar” fighting than
what extent were these from March to May of that year in the actual invasion.
attacks symptomatic of the Between 2003 and 2004, U.S. forces searched the country, trying to find weapons of
lack of order and police mass destruction and the escaped dictator Saddam Hussein. In spite of the fact that those
presence in Iraq? Why might
weapons had been one of the prime reasons for going to war, none were ever found. Hus-
reports of this unrest have
reduced support for the war sein apparently had wanted to keep up the pretense that they existed to frighten the United
and U.S. presence in Iraq States and his old enemies like Iran. In fact, the weapons were not there. Bush wrote in his
among Americans? Memoirs, “In retrospect, of course, we all should have pushed harder on the intelligence and

revisited our assumptions.” However, Hussein himself was found not far from his home-
town of Tikrit in December 2003. After an extended trial, Hussein was executed by the U.S.- 30.1
backed provisional government of Iraq in December 2006.
As Iraq spiraled into civil war, U.S. soldiers complained that they had no training for
serving as an occupying force. Electricity worked in Baghdad for perhaps eight hours a day,
30.2
even in the summer when air-conditioning was desperately needed. Oil was being pumped
only at very low levels.
By late summer 2003, Hussein’s prisoners had been freed from the Abu Ghraib Abu Ghraib prison Reasoning Skills:
prison, and the U.S. military was using the prison to hold some four thousand prison- An Iraqi prison taken over by U.S. forces 30.3 Contextualization
ers of their own. They had orders from the Pentagon to “get information” from the new after the invasion. Ask students how
revelations of torture at Abu
prisoners. In the search for information, they humiliated prisoners by keeping some
Ghraib might have further
naked in front of female guards, by piling them on top of each other, and by making 30.4
diminished U.S. credibility
them crawl and bark. U.S. troops took pictures of what they were doing. In April 2004, in Iraq and support for
the whole sordid mess at Abu Ghraib came to light. CBS News, the New Yorker maga- the war. Why might this
zine, and news organizations around the world, including Arab news sources like Al discovery have received
Jazeera , showed the pictures and reported what was happening at Abu Ghraib. Hear- such widespread media
ing the reports, U.S. General James Mattis responded, “When you lose the moral high coverage?
ground, you lose it all.” A Deeper Look
A year after the invasion, the U.S. commanding officer, General Ricardo Sanchez, For additional information
described the situation as a “civil war” and added, “What’s more, we had created these con- on the election of 2004,
ditions ourselves.” Paul Bremer said, “We’ve become the worst of all things—an ineffective read this analysis from
occupier.” CBS: http://www.cbsnews
.com/news/why-bush-
At home in the United States, opposition to the war and the occupation was growing.
won-02-11-2004/
There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no order in Iraq. There was no end
According to this analysis,
in sight.
what factors were most
The war in Iraq dominated U.S. elections. In the 2004 presidential contest, the Democrats
important to Bush winning
nominated a Vietnam-era war hero, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, after a spirited con- a second term in 2004?
test with Howard Dean, the governor of Vermont. Although the Dean campaign’s success Why might Americans have
at raising funds and recruiting volunteers through the Internet did not lead to his nomina- been reluctant to elect a
tion, it transformed future political campaigns. Once Kerry secured the Democratic nomina- new leader in the middle of
tion, the party united behind him. Kerry had voted for the war, but he had become a major a war?
critic. He called the war and the subsequent U.S. occupation of Iraq a “colossal blunder,” and
A Deeper Look
said that the president was “deliberately misleading the American people.” Bush responded
For more information on the
that the “world is better off without Saddam Hussein.” Outside political groups supporting
potential dangers of war in
Bush sought to tarnish Kerry’s military record. Iraq, read this article from
Although Kerry had struck a chord with his the Washington Post: http://
criticism, he was not a strong campaigner. In www.washingtonpost
the end, the president won by a very small mar- .com/wp-dyn/content/
gin of 62 million to 59 million or 50.7 percent article/2007/05/25/
AR2007052501380.html
of the popular vote to Kerry’s 48.3 percent. The
electoral vote was also close: 286 to 251. None- To what extent did analysts
predict the situation in Iraq
theless, Bush won a second term. Republicans
before and in the early stages
also maintained control of Congress. of the war? To what extent
By 2006, the war’s cost in lives and dollars did predictions of instability in
Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty Pool/AP Images
was a top issue in the midterm election. Dem- the region prove true?
ocrats won a majority in both houses of Con-
gress and Democrat Nancy Pelosi replaced
Republican Dennis Hastert as Speaker of the Analyzing Historical
House of Representatives, the first woman in Evidence—Primary
history to serve as Speaker. Two new women Sources
were added to the Senate, bringing the total of Ask students to describe
women to sixteen—a then all-time high. Many the photo. Why might
the photographer have
thought the Republicans were going to be in
believed it was important to
trouble in the 2008 presidential election. Presi- Iraqi detainees wait to be released at Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad in Iraq, June 2006. photograph prisoners at Abu
dent Bush would face an unfriendly Congress Pictures taken in Abu Ghraib prison of tortured prisoners circulated around the world, Ghraib?
during his last two years in office. including the Muslim Middle East, inflaming anti-American sentiment.

Class Activity: Shared Looking at the situation in Iraq in 2006, one American official said, “We’ve taken
Inquiry Samarra four times, and we’ve lost it four times. … We need a new strategy.” In November
Teachers will share this
30.1
2006, after the midterm elections, President Bush fired Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and
book review of Is Iraq
Another Vietnam? by replaced him with Robert Gates, a less ideological administrator. A new U.S. ambassador to
Robert K. Brigham: http:// Iraq, Ryan Crocker, who spoke Arabic and who knew the Middle East well, was appointed.
30.2
www.washingtonpost General David Petraeus was made the overall commander of military forces in the region.
.com/wp-dyn/content/ the surge He developed a very different strategy in Iraq. First there was “the surge,” an infusion of
article/2006/11/16/ an additional thirty thousand U.S. troops to provide strength in numbers. Petraeus placed
In January 2007, a new American
AR2006111601135.html 30.3 units in population centers with orders to get to know and protect the Iraqi people to find
commander in Iraq, General David
Students will read the review Petraeus, led an additional thirty out what their complaints were and try to respond. If troops took control of an area, they
and meet in groups of
thousand troops to take control of the stayed and tried to build a new infrastructure. Troops felt vulnerable, and losses were high.
three to four to discuss the
30.4 countryside and create a level of sta- Slowly, however, the troops and the Iraqi government began to take control of the coun-
similarities and differences
bility and public trust in the United try. By fall, one journalist reported from Baghdad, “Some shops stay open until late in the
between the wars, including
and beyond those in the States, not seen since the invasion of evening. Children play in parks, young women stay out after dark, restaurants are filled
article. The entire class will 2003. with families, and old men sit at sidewalk cafes playing backgammon and smoking shisha
then discuss the following pipes.” It was a peace of sorts, though Iraq was still a very violent place.
questions: Why might many
Americans have drawn
comparisons between
the wars in Vietnam and
Iraq? To what extent 30.1 Quick Review
were those comparisons
warranted? Critics of this In what ways did the war on terror dominate domestic and international issues during George
theory asserted that this W. Bush’s presidency?
comparison was damaging
to the troops and war effort.
Do you agree with that
contention? Why or why
not? To what extent might
this comparison derive from
Difficult Years on the Domestic Front
Americans’ wariness of war 30.2 Explain the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast and the costs
with uncertain purposes? and consequences of the 2008 financial crisis.
While the war in Iraq dominated much of the political discussion in the United States, it
was far from the only event of the later years of the Bush administration. Debates continued
about Bush’s education and tax policies. Perhaps most of all, the weather and the bursting
of the bubble of real estate speculation dominated George W. Bush’s second term.
Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath

Hurricane Katrina Early Monday morning August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, one of the most powerful and
A massive storm that hit New Orleans deadly hurricanes in American history, hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Louisiana,
and the Gulf Coast in August 2005, Mississippi, and Alabama. Hurricanes have naturally pounded Florida and the Gulf Coast
leading to widespread death and since long before the first Europeans or Africans arrived, but Katrina was a natural disaster
destruction. compounded by human failure. The result was hours and days of anguish for many, over
1,800 deaths, and more than $75 billion in damage.
It started raining in Biloxi, Mississippi, around 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 28, 2005.
By 9:00 p.m., it was raining in New Orleans and the wind was starting to pick up. Weather
forecasters had realized that Hurricane Katrina might be the “big one,” the hurricane that
people in the area long feared, and they told people to prepare with increasing urgency.
Nevertheless, neither the mayor of New Orleans nor the governors of Louisiana or Missis-
sippi issued mandatory evacuation orders.
Reasoning Skills: When Katrina hit, the hurricane’s winds splintered buildings, toppled power lines, col-
Contextualization lapsed highway bridges, tore off part of the roof of the New Orleans Superdome where
Ask students how Hurricane many had sought refuge, and stirred up waves on Lake Pontchartrain that weakened the
Katrina devastated New
levees. The wind also drove a huge surge of water onto the shore and up the Mississippi
Orleans. To what extent
did the city’s lack of proper
River. Winds blew steadily at 150 miles per hour. Sometime between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m.,
preparation make the the levees on the 17th Street Canal gave way. New Orleans lost electric power at 5:15 a.m.
devastation worse? and telephone service at 7:11 a.m. As the weakened levees failed, a wall of water poured

Sources
30.2 photo. How does this photo
express the devastation and
destruction New Orleans
residents faced during and
30.3 after Hurricane Katrina?
30.4
Marko Georgiev/Getty Images

Lower Ninth Ward residents stranded on the roof of their homes await rescue. The death and destruction
that came with Hurricane Katrina was unimaginable to most Americans.
into neighborhoods where it rose rapidly, destroyed buildings, and trapped people in upper
floors and attics.
The Lower Ninth Ward had been a working-class African American community for gen-
erations. Churches thrived, as did neighborhood bars offering jazz, blues, and iconic New
Orleans–style music. The area was seven feet below sea level, but the levees were designed
to keep the water out. People in the Lower Ninth Ward had few options other than trying to
ride out the storm. When the levees broke, most of the Lower Ninth Ward was under water.
Few failed to notice that the worst scenes of suffering and death that resulted from
Katrina were in African American communities. The New Orleans Police Department was
part of the problem. Many of the officers simply deserted their posts. Some of those who
remained offered heroic help, but others were eventually convicted of criminal activity.
In addition, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) failed to live up to its
responsibilities. FEMA had been created during the Carter administration to coordinate
the diverse federal agencies that might be needed in the case of a natural disaster.
However, for too long during Katrina and its aftermath, FEMA did nothing. FEMA staff Disciplinary Practices:
were asking, “Why aren’t we getting the orders? Why isn’t this being treated like a real Argument Development
emergency?” FEMA’s director in 2005, Michael Brown, was a political appointee with Ask students whether
no experience in managing any disasters. When Brown assured Mississippi governor the failure of leaders and
organizations was to blame
Haley Barbour that “FEMA had lots of hurricane practice in Florida,” Barbour responded,
for the disaster in New
“I don’t think you’ve seen anything like this.” It was one of the kinder statements Brown Orleans. How might this
heard that week as people waited for federal help that did not come. situation have been different
By Wednesday, August 31, two days after the storm, two hospitals in New Orleans, if the necessary support
Charity and University, lost their generators. It was over one hundred degrees in the hos- and institutions had been
pitals. With no electricity, staff and volunteers used hand pumps to keep oxygen flowing available to the people of
New Orleans?

to desperately ill people. With virtually no water or supplies, only the most rudimentary
30.1 medical aid was possible. Those in the Superdome were trying to survive in horrifying,
primitive conditions with no sanitation and dead bodies lying exposed in hallways. Not
until Thursday were thousands of people finally evacuated to Houston, Texas, where shel-
ter was offered. New Orleans never returned to its pre-Katrina population, and years after
30.2
the storm, whole neighborhoods were virtually abandoned even as others, like the Ninth
Ward, slowly rebuilt and came back to life.
30.3
The Financial Crisis of 2008
Reasoning Skills: The headline in the Wall Street Journal for Monday, September 15, 2008, was double the nor-
Comparison 30.4
mal size and ran across all six columns of the paper. It said:
Ask students how this
headline resembles CRISIS ON WALL STREET AS LEHMAN TOTTERS, MERRILL IS SOLD
headlines from 1929. How AND AIG SEEKS TO RAISE CASH
were the circumstances
By the time most people read the paper, Lehman had declared bankruptcy. Bank of America
leading up to the financial
crises of 1929 and 2008 bought Merrill Lynch, and bankers and federal authorities were trying to save the American
similar? How were they International Group (AIG). Before the day was over, the stock market fell by 504.48 points.
different? It would fall much further.
Answers may vary, but In one extraordinary weekend, Saturday and Sunday September 13 and 14, 2008,
might include: in both most of the nation’s leading bankers and senior government officials, led by Secretary of
situations, the crisis was the Treasury Henry “Hank” Paulson, tried to salvage the American economy. Although
precipitated by a significant the government and the bankers failed to save Lehman Brothers, they avoided a far worse
drop in the stock market; fate of massive bankruptcies and the coming of a second Great Depression. Nevertheless,
both crises involved bank
they did not succeed in saving the thriving economy of the last two decades.
failures that adversely
affected the stock market financial crisis of 2008 The extent of the financial crisis of 2008 came as a surprise, even to Treasury Secretary
and the national economy A significant economic downturn that Paulson, who had warned that a crisis was coming since becoming the top federal finan-
as well as people’s faith began with the housing mortgage cial official in July 2006 and to Timothy Geithner, who would be treasury secretary in the
in them; in 2008, there market and ultimately led to high un- Obama administration but was then the head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The
were efforts to mitigate the employment. size and complexity of the crisis that hit the country in 2008 was much more severe than
impact of the crisis and
they would have predicted.
bank failures, but in 1929,
The economy had been growing rapidly since the early 1990s. Interest rates had
government and bankers
were less prepared. remained low in part because of policies at the Federal Reserve Bank; in part because
of the Clinton-era efforts to cut the size of the federal deficit; and in part because bank-
ers and governments in Asia, especially China, were willing to make low-interest loans to
Americans and European borrowers, particularly to finance their purchases of Asian goods.
Reasoning Skills: During the 1990s and early 2000s, because of policies fostered by the Clinton and Bush
Contextualization
administrations, bankers got much more freedom from federal regulations than had been
Ask students how Glass-
Steagall protected banks the case in any period since the Depression—freedom that some thought led directly to the
and the money people crisis of 2008. In 1999, with bipartisan support, Congress passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley
kept in them. Why might Act, which repealed a section of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act. Glass-Steagall, which was
this protection have kept passed at the height of the Great Depression, created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corpo-
the banks, and the overall ration (FDIC) to provide federal insurance for bank accounts but also required that insured
economy, safe in case of
banks not use their money to speculate, that is, to make risky investments. For decades,
an economic downturn?
How might removing those
insured banks provided mortgages to families that wanted to buy a home, usually up to 80
protections put banks, and percent of the price of a house, so people could pay off their homes over a twenty- to thirty-
the money in them, at risk? year time span. Banks were cautious in making loans, insisting on detailed documentation
Answers may vary, but of a family’s ability to pay back the loan. Most of the time, a bank that issued a mortgage
might include: restricting continued to hold it until the loan was paid off.
banks’ investments meant Investment banks, such as Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs, were free to speculate
that their holdings, and the on the stock market or in other less secure but possibly more profitable investments, but
money entrusted to them, they were not federally insured; investors were risking their own money, not that of the tax-
was protected in the case
payers. What had been a hard-and-fast divide between investment and commercial banks
of a crash; prohibitions
against risky investments in 1933 had been slowly eroding and, after 1999, had become a very porous wall.
maintained banks’ stability; Two further developments changed the way banks operated and mortgages were issued
removing those restrictions in the United States. President George W. Bush talked of an “ownership society” in which
put banks at risk if their
investments failed.

Americans would be invested in their communities because they owned their own homes. Reasoning Skills:
Liberal Democrats like Massachusetts representative Barney Frank insisted that mortgages Contextualization
30.1 Ask students why “subprime
be available to allow poorer people to own their own homes.
mortgages” were risky
At the same time, banks found new ways to handle—and increase the profits from— investments. How did
home mortgages. Rather than issue a mortgage and then hold it, banks divided mortgages the political and financial
30.2
into small shares—”sliced and diced” them, as some said—and then sold the mortgage climate of the late 1990s
shares, at a profit, to many different banks and investors. As a result, banks could invest and early 2000s contribute
in pieces of many different mortgages in ways that seemed to lower the risk of individual to a growing number of
mortgage defaulting since investors held portions of many mortgages rather than the whole 30.3 unstable mortgages?
amount of a few. With political pressure at high levels to help more people become home Answers may vary, but
might include: as home
owners, interest rates at a low level, and mortgages easier than ever to sell to other banks,
ownership became a goal
mortgage lenders began issuing mortgages to people who never before would have been 30.4
for people and for the
eligible. They issued mortgages with no down payment and no required documentation government, banks took
of income or ability to pay in what became known as the “subprime mortgage market.” risks loaning money to
With such easy funding available, sellers found they could ask higher prices for homes, and people who might not be
housing prices climbed at an extraordinary rate. able to repay those loans;
Between 2001 and 2006, housing prices kept rising, interest rates stayed low, and bank- banks believed that sharing
these mortgages with other
ers made a lot of money. The investment bank Goldman Sachs generated an average income
banks meant that they
of $661,000 per employee in 2007. Goldman’s chief, Lloyd Blankfein, earned $54 million incurred less risk if they
that year. Mortgages were no longer merely for primary residences but were also for invest- were unable to recoup their
ment. People bought houses, then quickly sold them for higher amounts, a process known money, leading to more and
as “flipping.” Everyone seemed to be making money, and many argued that only fools were more risky loans; the ever-
left out of the process. The situation was a classic bubble very much like every other bubble, expanding housing market
including the stock market bubble of 1929 and the dot-com bubble of the 1990s. meant a financial boon for
banks in the short term.
In 2006, housing prices stopped rising. People who had bought houses they could not
afford with the plan to “flip” them could not sell them. People who had bought homes
Reasoning Skills:
with flexible interest rates, thinking that they would refinance for a lower rate later, could Comparison
not find a new mortgage. Many started defaulting on loans. As defaults grew, banks who Ask students how the
held the mortgages started to get into trouble. Even in situations where mortgages had been housing crisis in the 2000s
“sliced and diced,” banks that owned slices of many unpaid mortgages found themselves in was similar to the banking
trouble. Initially, most people thought the crisis would be limited to a few mortgage lenders crisis leading to the Great
who had taken too many risks. They were wrong. Depression. To what extent
did people’s and banks’
Before long, it became clear that large and supposedly stable investment banks like
risky investments contribute
Lehman and Goldman Sachs, which held portions of many sliced loans, were in a lot of to financial instability?
trouble. Bankers who had taken risks throughout their careers, confident that there was
always a way out, could not find a way out of the crisis. While Treasury Secretary Paulson
was trying to maintain confidence in the fall of 2008, he privately asked his wife, “What if
the system collapses?”
In the end, the nation’s financial system did not collapse.
But it did not resume the financial health or confidence that had Evidence—Primary
characterized most of the 1990s and early 2000s. At the end of Sources
September, Secretary Paulson and congressional leaders put Ask students to describe
together Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) legislation to the photo. To what extent
stop the continuing financial collapse. When TARP was put to a did the mortgage crisis lead
Jeff Grace/LA OPINION/Newscom

many to put their homes
vote in the House of Representatives, in spite of the support of
up for sale? How might
leaders of both parties, the bailout was rejected by a 228 to 205 their actions have made the
vote. Many in both parties did not think it was the government’s housing crisis worse?
business to use taxpayer money to bail out investors who had
taken too many risks. Immediately after the vote, the Dow Jones A Deeper Look
Industrial Average lost another 777 points, the biggest one-day Teachers may choose to
drop ever. Another report indicated that 159,000 jobs had been use this lesson from the
lost in September. The crisis was spreading far beyond the banks. New York Times Learning
Network to help students
As credit and confidence dried up, people saw jobs, savings, and Inflated housing prices and problems with home mortgages helped cause
understand the causes of
pensions disappear. The American economy seemed to be tee- the financial crisis of 2008. As a result, many people were evicted or forced the 2008 financial crisis
tering badly. Finally, on Friday October 3, under pressure from to sell homes they could no longer afford, which produced a glut in the and its similarities to the
President Bush and from both major presidential candidates, housing market and a significant drop in home prices and values. events of 1929: https://
learning.blogs.nytimes
.com/2008/10/06/a-tale-of-
two-economies/

Reasoning Skills: Congress passed the TARP legislation. The law created a $700 billion fund to buy troubled
Contextualization assets from the banks and stabilize the system. “We have shown the world that the United
Ask students why stabilizing
30.1
States will stabilize our financial markets and maintain a leading role in the global econ-
the banks might have been
a necessary first step in omy,” Bush said.
dealing with the financial In May 2009, Congress created a Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to hold hear-
30.2
crisis. Why might many ings and study the crisis. At one hearing, in June 2010, the financier Warren Buffett was
Americans have been asked who was to blame. “[I]t’s a little bit like Cinderella at the ball,” Buffett said. “People
opposed to this legislation? may have some feeling that at midnight it’s going to turn to pumpkin and mice, but it’s
Answers may vary, but 30.3 so darn much fun. … There’s no villain.” Others thought there was some specific blame
might include: banks to be assigned. People blamed Lehman Brothers and other banks. They blamed the audit-
are the foundation of the
ing companies that should have looked more closely at the account books of the banks.
American economy so
30.4 They blamed the repeal of Glass-Steagall since the old law would have prevented banks
if they are unstable the
economy will be, too; from speculation. And many saw the crisis as one more in the sad long line of investment
American investment banks bubbles that, when they burst, hurt not only those caught up in the speculation but also the
hold investments from economy of the whole nation and, indeed, of the world. Certainly, the crisis could have been
individuals and nations worse, and the work of the treasury secretary and the TARP legislation may have kept the
around the world, so country from another Great Depression. However, as Congressman Barney Frank said of
their impact goes beyond
Paulson’s efforts, “You don’t get any credit for disaster averted.”
the United States; many
Americans were opposed After 2008, unemployment rates stayed stubbornly high. In 2009 and 2010, the United
to government assistance States had an official unemployment rate of 10 percent, and if one counted discouraged and
for banks that made bad part-time workers, it was closer to 16 percent. Those who lost their jobs were out of work for
investments in the name of increasingly longer periods of time. High unemployment creates its own negative cycle. For
greater profits, especially the unemployed, it is devastating. When unemployed people do not buy cars, computers,
when those investing were and refrigerators, the whole economy slows down.
already among the nation’s
The crisis of 2008 also brought other economic problems to light. Three months after
wealthiest.
the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a New York financier, Bernard Madoff, was arrested and
charged with securities fraud. Madoff’s Investment Securities Company was, in reality, a
Argument Development
Ask students how giant Ponzi scheme (see Chapter 21). Madoff delivered grand returns on investments made
unemployment was both a with his company, but it turned out that Madoff simply used newly invested funds to pay
cause and an effect of the out high returns on older funds. He did not invest, or even save them. As long as more
economic crisis. Why might money kept coming in, Madoff was able to keep up the illusion of amazing success, and
this phenomenon make it an investors were happy. When the nation’s finances seized up in the fall of 2008, Madoff was
especially difficult problem
not able to keep the investments coming in, and without them, the payments could not keep
to solve?
going out, and the whole house of cards collapsed. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in
Class Activity: Group Work
prison; investors lost between $10 and $17 billion.
Students will work in groups
In May 2011, another highly regarded investor, Raj Rajaratnam, head of the Galleon
of four. They will imagine
that they are advisors to the Group, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund, or speculative investment group, was convicted of
president and have been fourteen counts of securities fraud for bribing corporate employees to provide inside infor-
asked by President Bush mation that allowed Galleon to “guess” future stock values and make a fortune. By 2011,
to come up with a plan to business leaders, and especially investors, were not highly regarded by a large segment of
help the nation during the the American public.
2008 financial crisis. The
Business leaders were not the only ones held in low esteem, however. Why, people asked,
president is concerned
about the impact of the did the government officials bail out banks and the auto industry but not individuals who had
crisis—in the last year of lost jobs or were about to lose homes? Why was so much taxpayer money needed to stabilize
his term—on his legacy, investment banks when bankers were still getting huge bonuses but unemployment stayed
and wants his advisors to stubbornly high? Were the high officials in the Treasury Department really on the side of the
create a plan that will help average American? Some wondered when the real recovery would begin. Some wondered
all of the people affected by whether the United States was at the beginning of a permanent decline while other nations,
this crisis. Thus, “advisors”
especially perhaps China, might replace it as the world’s leading financial powerhouse.
need to address the banking
crisis, unemployment, the
housing crisis, and overall
faith in the U.S. economy.
Groups can choose to 30.2 Quick Review
include all, part, or none
How did the response to Hurricane Katrina and the financial crisis of 2008 lead to a new level
of TARP in the plans they
of distrust of government?
create, but they must also
make sure to cover all
four of these criteria. Each
section of the plan must
include information on
how the “advisors” plan to
address the problem, why
the problem occurred in the
(continued)

The Obama Years 30.1

first place, why this is the
best solution, and how it
will stabilize the economy.
30.3 Analyze the reasons for the successes and failures of the Obama administration Students should use
and changes in the American culture while he was president. information from the text (in
30.2 this and other chapters) and
Barack Obama was elected as a U.S. Senator from Illinois, just as George W. Bush won a second
their knowledge of history.
term in 2004. Many noticed Obama’s upset win in a seven-way Illinois Democratic primary, his Teachers also can choose
“politics of hope” keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, his telegenic appearance, to include supplemental
and his ability to rally people. He was born a biracial child to an African father and a white 30.3 information. Each group will
mother from the American heartland, was a community organizer in Chicago, graduated from present its plan to the class
Harvard Law School, and was a Illinois state senator before his election to the U.S. Senate. at the completion of the
activity.
Nevertheless, Obama was a Senate freshman when Majority Leader Harry Reid called 30.4
him in for a meeting. Heading to the meeting, Obama told his scheduler Robert Gibbs, “I
wonder what we screwed up.” But afterwards, a stunned Obama told Gibbs, “Harry wants
me to run for president.. . . He really wants me to run for president.”
Reid had noticed Obama’s ability to connect with voters. Reid also worried that the
frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in 2008, Hillary Clinton, was deeply unpopular
with many voters despite her obvious competence and experience. Party leaders, desperate
for another candidate, thought they had found one in Obama.
The Election of 2008

In modern American politics, being anointed by the party’s leaders is a far cry from being
nominated. Running for high office required Obama and the other candidates to slog
through months of primary elections, including the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire
primary in January and February, until the midsummer nominating convention. All along
the way, voters were more than happy to overrule the party elite.
Senator Obama visited Netscape founder Marc Andreessen (see Chapter 29) and told Reasoning Skills:
him that he wanted to run the most sophisticated digital campaign on record. Andreessen Contextualization
was impressed that “the Senator was personally interested in the rise of social networking, Ask students how the
Facebook, YouTube, and user-generated content.” With the help of the Internet, Obama was use of technology by the
Obama campaign might
able to raise twice the funds of his main rival, Hillary Clinton, and go on to win the nomina-
have appealed to younger
tion in spite of a long and bruising race. voters. Why might this tactic
The battle for the Republican nomination was as hard fought. President Bush could have helped Obama win the
not run for a third term, and his popularity had sunk as a result of the war and financial nomination?
crisis. Arizona senator John McCain was the frontrunner throughout the campaign. McCain
had almost defeated Bush for the nomination in 2000 and was a war hero—having been a
prisoner of war in Vietnam. He also had a hair-trigger temper and had experienced an ugly
divorce before remarrying. Nevertheless, McCain’s reputation as a moderate and an inde-
pendent meant that he would not be tarred with all of Bush’s troubles. In spite of several
primary challengers, McCain won key Republican primaries, and the Republican nomina-
tion. The only remaining question was who he would select to be his running mate.
McCain needed a game-changing move. He selected the forty-four-year-old governor Reasoning Skills:
of Alaska, Sarah Palin. She was popular in Alaska and had conservative Republican creden- Contextualization
tials. Palin became a campaign sensation, but her lack of familiarity with national politics Ask students why choosing
a running mate is a
and her feuding with the McCain campaign staff probably hurt as much as it helped. When
strategic aspect of a political
Obama asked Delaware senator Joseph Biden to be his running mate, the contrast between campaign. How might a
someone with decades of national experience and Alaska’s twenty-month governor could candidate’s choice help or
not have been greater, even considering that Obama himself was still in his first term in the hurt his or her chances at
Senate. election?
The September financial crisis played to Obama’s strengths. McCain always said that
economic issues were not his strong point. In contrast, Obama had a good grasp of economic Reasoning Skills:
issues and spent his time learning from people like Bush’s treasury secretary Paulson and Continuity and Change
over Time
Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke, both of whom came to respect him. At the same time,
Ask students how economic
the economy and the war in Iraq continued to hamper the Republicans. On Election Day, crises have played a role
Obama defeated McCain by 53 percent to 46 percent of the vote, carrying 365 electoral votes in elections throughout
to McCain’s 173 votes. The nation, which had fought a civil war and witnessed a long civil U.S. history. Why might
the economic crisis of
2008 have contributed to a
Democratic victory?

Disciplinary Practices: rights movement over issues of race, had just elected its first African
Analyzing Historical American president. Some argued that the election proved that the
Evidence—Primary
30.1
nation had transcended the long-simmering issue of race. Others
Sources
Ask students to describe were not so sure and saw Obama as a unique individual whose elec-
the photo. Why might tion did not change as much as hoped.
30.2
many Americans have
viewed Obama’s election
as a significant change for
Obama’s Agenda—Stimulus,
the United States? Why 30.3 a Health Plan, and Economic Reform
might the photographer
have chosen to capture President-elect Obama asked his former primary opponent Hillary
this moment, with Obama Clinton to serve as his secretary of state and she did. In addition, he
surrounded by American 30.4 knew that while the TARP bailout of the banks had been a first step,
flags? much more needed to be done.
Obama was famous for his use of a Blackberry and an iPhone
during his Senate career and his presidential campaign. Bemoaning
Tannen Maury/EPA/Newscom
the need to give up his iPhone for security reasons once elected
A Deeper Look president, Obama continued to use a Blackberry as well as his
For more information on the personal Twitter account, his MacBook Pro, and an iPad 2. The world
Recovery and Reinvestment of high technology arrived in the White House in January 2009.
Act, read this article from
Immediately on taking office in January 2009, Obama proposed
PBS: http://www.pbs.org/
newshour/rundown/stimulus- the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as a way to move
bill-turns-5-years-old-still/ beyond the Bush-sponsored TARP legislation, and like TARP, it
In November 2008, Barack Obama, born in 1961 in Hawaii to a passed within weeks. The act pumped money into the economy, pro-
How did Obama’s stimulus
father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, became president of viding funds for road improvements, railroads, and unemployment
plan attempt to strengthen
the United States—a time of celebration for many.
the economy during the benefits, not just for stability as TARP had done. The Recovery and
financial crisis? How was Reinvestment Act was standard economics, an effort to “prime the pump” and get the econ-
the stimulus plan similar to omy moving by spending funds so employment would rise, private spending would pick
and different from the New up, and the government could step back. Unfortunately for Obama, the emergency spend-
Deal? How did Democratic
ing piled further debts on top of those already in place, and many began to worry about the
and Republican opinion on
the stimulus differ? To what cost, especially when not enough people saw the immediate benefit.
extent did these differences of Obama also moved quickly to implement what he hoped would be his signature ini-
opinion align with traditional tiative: health care for all Americans. From Harry Truman on, every Democratic admin-
ideas of each party? health-care reform istration sought to implement health-care reform , but every effort had failed. Obama
Reasoning Skills: The top priority of the Obama admin- wanted to be the Democrat who accomplished it. After a long and bitter fight, he was able
Continuity and Change istration to provide universal health to sign the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010. The law quickly
over Time care for all Americans. became known as Obamacare, first by critics, though the president soon embraced the
Ask students why
term. Unlike the stimulus legislation, however, health care was a long fight, filled with
Democratic presidents
throughout the twentieth
compromises. It dominated the Congress that came to office with Obama. The Republi-
century believed health-care can minority was dedicated to defeating the measure while many Democratic senators
reform was important. demanded special concessions and exemptions to win their support. The result was that
How did Obama’s plan the historic health-care legislation passed with only Democratic votes and only after a
attempt to build on their long political process that discouraged almost everyone. The new law required every
accomplishments and American to have health insurance; prohibited insurance companies from excluding
further democratize the
anyone, including those with preexisting conditions; provided government subsidies for
system? Why might the
Affordable Care Act have those who have trouble buying insurance; and penalized employers not offering health
encountered so much insurance. A number of state attorneys general challenged the legislation in court, but in
opposition before and after the spring of 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court in a split decision upheld the law. Surprising
its passage? its supporters, the law ended up being a political liability for a Democratic president and
Answers may vary but his party in the midterm elections of 2010 and the presidential elections of 2012 and 2016.
might include: Democratic Only after the 2016 election brought the country a Republican president and majority in
presidents since FDR, who Congress did many realize how many people were helped by the legislation and how dif-
believed it should be part ficult it was to replace.
of the Social Security Act,
Early in the implementation of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the administration
advocated for health-care
reform; it was a significant invested significant funds in support of education reform. The Common Core State Stan-
part of Truman’s Fair Deal, dards were originally launched by state governors and superintendents to ensure a com-
although defeated by mon experience of students across the nation, but the standards lost favor as they came to be
Congress; Johnson included
Medicare and Medicaid
in his Great Society; Bill
Clinton attempted, and
failed, to reform the nation’s
health-care system,
(continued)

seen as a federal intrusion, especially after the Obama administration invested so much in although he was able to
the implementation process. secure health insurance for
30.1 all children; people opposed
Only in 2015 did the administration finally achieve a replacement for the unpopular
to health-care reform
Bush-era No Child Left Behind Act. The new law, called the Every Student Succeeds Act, believe that it is overreach
gave states much greater leeway in the implementation of policies even as it maintained the on the government’s part,
30.2
basic goals of the earlier legislation. It was ironic that an administration that had used the some claiming that it is a
tools of No Child Left Behind to try to reshape American education supported legislation form of socialism; moreover,
that shifted so much power out of the federal government and to the individual states. opponents believe that tax
One of Obama’s other major goals was termed the DREAM Act, a law meant to grant 30.3 dollars are better allocated
elsewhere and that forcing
permanent legal status to children who were undocumented immigrants and those who
people to purchase and
had served in the military. When it became clear in 2011 that the logjam in Congress meant maintain health insurance is
that no bill would emerge, the president implemented part of the act through a 2012 admin- 30.4 a denial of their rights and
istrative action, but a court challenge stopped the presidential directive before it could be freedoms.
enforced. In fact, the Obama administration deported more undocumented people than any
previous administration, and some called the president the “deporter in chief.” Immigration
was a major issue in the campaign to succeed Obama and, it seemed, was bound to remain a
contentious issue after Obama left office.
After the passage and implementation of the stimulus bill, which was Obama’s initial Reasoning Skills:
response to the financial crisis of 2008, he wanted to make more systemic changes in the role Contextualization
of government as economic stabilizer. The Dodd-Frank bill, named for its Senate and House Ask students how Dodd-
sponsors, was signed in 2010. It created complex layers of reporting and a number of new Frank attempted to prevent
future crises. Why might
agencies, including the relatively popular Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to oversee
legislation to restrict
credit card and mortgage borrowing and the Financial Stability Oversight Council to ensure investment and increase
there was no repeat of the bubble of 2008. The new law involved detailed reporting proce- accountability have gained
dures for businesses, something that cost Obama support on Wall Street, but critics said it support after the events
did not have the teeth of the kinds of legislation that had been passed in the New Deal. leading to the financial
While Obama had significant legislative victories, especially given the fact that Repub- crisis?
licans were in charge of the House of Representatives for six of his eight years in office, he
was not always viewed as a highly effective president. Obama was one of the most stir-
ring orators in history, but he stayed removed from the day-to-day give-and-take of politics,
which limited his ability to get things done. He left office with very high public approval
but a sense that he might have done more.
The Rise of the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street,

and Divided Government
In part because of anger at the health-care legislation, in part because of fears about the
growing national debt, and in part because of a long-standing bias among Americans
against big government, the huge plurality with which Obama came to office started to
evaporate rapidly.
Less than a year after Obama’s inauguration, the growing voter anger became appar-
ent to the nation, particularly after one of the icons of American liberalism, Massachusetts
senator Edward M. Kennedy, died of a brain tumor in August 2009. Kennedy had served in
the U.S. Senate since 1962, the fourth-longest Senate career in U.S. history. A special election
was called to fill Kennedy’s unexpired term, and almost everyone assumed that whoever Reasoning Skills:
received the Democratic nomination would get the job. But a little known Republican state Contextualization
senator, Scott Brown, campaigned hard, promising to be the crucial vote to sustain a filibus- Ask students why the
ter in the Senate against the health-care legislation. To the surprise of many, Brown won. election of a Republican to
a seat held by Democrats
Although he was not able to stop the passage of the health-care law, Brown’s election was a
for more than forty years
sign that something was shifting in American politics. It was not the first such sign. was perceived as a sign of
Only weeks after Obama’s inauguration, protests were springing up in many different opposition to the Democratic
places. In Seattle, a twenty-nine-year-old woman, Keli Carender, organized a small protest administration.
rally about “the spending,” whether it was Bush’s TARP or Obama’s stimulus. Carender
told a small crowd that “I started thinking, what are we getting ourselves into? It didn’t
make sense to me to be spending all this money when we don’t have it.” Then, a little while
later, on February 19, 2009, a financial news commentator, Rick Santelli, said that Obama’s

Evidence—Primary
30.1
Sources
photo. Why might protesters 30.2
have chosen the Tea Party
as the model for their
movement? To what extent
did their position echo that 30.3
of the colonists?
30.4
Rolle Rod/SIPA/Newscom
The Tea Party movement named itself after those who had dumped tea in Boston Harbor in 1773 rather than
pay a tax on it. Many in the modern movement shared the antitax, antigovernment sentiments of the earlier
Tea Party, while some dressed the part.
stimulus efforts were “promoting bad behavior” if they bailed out “the losers” who had
offered or taken out mortgages that they could not afford. Santelli said, “We’re thinking of
Tea Party having a Chicago Tea Party in July.” And the name took hold.
A Deeper Look A protest group whose members In September 2010, between seventy thousand and ninety thousand demonstrators
For more information on the sometimes modeled themselves on converged on Washington, D.C., to protest the health-care legislation and government spend-
derivation and goals of the the Tea Party of the American Revolu- ing, especially the bailouts of banks and, later, auto manufacturers. Some wore tricorn hats to
Tea Party, read this article tion and objected to the rising federal symbolize their link to the original Boston Tea Party. Some, alluding to fears that the health-
from the BBC: http://www
debt, Obamacare, and most govern- care legislation would limit treatments, carried signs that said, “Pull the plug on Obama, not
.bbc.com/news/world-us-
ment regulation. Grandma.” Tea Party candidates challenged Republicans in primary elections all through
canada-11317202
2009 and 2010 and sometimes defeated long-standing Republican moderates. In November
To what extent was the Tea
Party an act of rebellion 2010, with solid Tea Party support, Republicans took control of the House of Representatives
against government and made gains in the Senate. But the Tea Party candidates were of a different sort than the
actions? How did the Tea older Republicans, not only more conservative but also far less willing to compromise.
Party represent a growing The Tea Party was fueled by fear about the debt, uncertainty about the economy, and
trend toward conservatism anger at big institutions, most of all the federal government but also corporations and uni-
in the United States during
versities. Many in the Tea Party were distrustful of nearly all government programs, espe-
Obama’s presidency? Why
might the Tea Party have
cially those designed to help the poor or minority groups. It quickly became clear that the
had a divisive impact on the Tea Party was not going away, even though its membership might be filled with internal
Republican Party? contradictions. Tea Party members disliked government but wanted their Social Security
checks to arrive on time; they hated the new health-care act but loved their Medicare cards.
When the outgoing Congress repealed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on gay and lesbian
personnel serving in the military in late 2010, the Tea Party was divided about its response;
neither the Tea Party nor the Republicans made it a major issue. Still, the Tea Party, with its
focus on economic issues and anger at big government, was a powerful group.
In the summer of 2011, the new Tea Party–fueled Republican majority in the House
of Representatives brought the country to the brink of financial default as they refused
until the last minute to raise the nation’s borrowing capacity. Standard & Poor’s, one of the
nation’s leading auditing agencies, lowered the U.S. credit rating for the first time in history
because of the government’s seeming inability to deal with the federal debt.
As if in response to the Tea Party, a new movement of students and other young people
also emerged to protest conditions in the country. While the Tea Party took a conservative

stance on economic issues, Occupy Wall Street was closer to the left on most issues. In Occupy Wall Street A Deeper Look
September 2011, a group of young people held a rally near Wall Street in Lower Manhattan For more information
A protest group that protested the ris- 30.1 on Occupy Wall Street,
and then moved into nearby Zuccotti Park where they planned to stay. A Canadian pub- ing level of student debt, the lack of
read this article from the
lication, Adbusters, had been calling for just such a move, and by late September it was a job opportunities, and the fact that Washington Post: https://
reality. The rallying cry of Occupy Wall Street was “We are the 99%” to differentiate them- the economy seemed stacked in favor www.washingtonpost.com/
30.2
selves from the richest 1 percent, including the bankers who surrounded them in Lower of the rich. national/on-leadership/
Manhattan. Although those gathering in protest consistently refused to issue a manifesto what-is-occupy-wall-street-
or platform, Occupy was an angry response to the financial crisis and the growing gap the-history-of-leaderless-
30.3 movements/2011/10/10/
gIQAwkFjaL_story
.html?utm_term=
.f9178774da0c
30.4
Thinking Historically To what extent was Occupy
a response to years of
Same-Sex Marriage growing inequality? How did
Occupy’s response to the
financial crisis differ from
On June 26, 2013, in a 5–4 opinion in the case of United States v. the Tea Party’s? Why might
Windsor, the U.S. Supreme Court declared a significant part of the the Occupy movement have
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. Writing for the captured people’s interest?
MARCIO SANCHEZ/POOL/EPA/Newscom
majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said, “DOMA’s principal effect is
to identify a subset of state-sanctioned marriages and make them Disciplinary Practices:
unequal. … This places same-sex couples in an unstable position of Analyzing Historical
being in a second-tier marriage.” Evidence—Primary
The decision was not without debate. Four justices Sources
opposed the majority. Writing for the minority, Justice Antonin Ask students to describe
Scalia said that the Court should never have taken on the case the photo. Why was Lyon
and, further, that the decision would lead inevitably to the Supreme and Martin’s marriage an
Court’s declaring all state laws against gay marriage to be invalid, important milestone in the
gay rights movement? Why
which is exactly what the Court did in June 2015. In the 2015 case,
might it have taken nearly
Obergefell v. Hodges, the Court, also in a 5–4 vote, legalized gay
a decade after their San
marriage in all fifty states. Justice Kennedy again wrote the majority Activists Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin became the first same-sex Francisco ceremony for
opinion, adding that the decision granted same-sex marriages couple to be married in San Francisco on February 12, 2004. In June the federal government to
“equal dignity in the eyes of the law,” fulfilling a basic constitutional 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court said that same-sex couples could not be recognize their rights?
safeguard. denied federal marriage benefits.
In both cases, the majority opinion became the law of the land. A Deeper Look
Same-sex marriages, illegal in every part of the United States
After 2015, same-sex marriage was legal everywhere in the United For more information on
as late as 2002, were recognized everywhere in 2015. The issue
States. reactions to Obergefell v.
had been a major one in earlier elections, especially in 2004, and
When the Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed Hodges, read these letters
Obama was the first president to support it—though only when to the editor: https://www
the Defense of Marriage Act in September 1996, no state recognized
he ran for reelection in 2012—but after 2015, the issue virtually .nytimes.com/2015/06/27/
same-sex marriage. But fearing the potential of same-sex marriage,
disappeared as a major divide. Although many Republicans still opinion/love-has-won-
the Republican Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act and
opposed same-sex marriage, and nearly all Democrats including all reaction-to-the-supreme-
the Democratic president signed it. As a result, federal law said that
the 2016 candidates supported it, even its opponents seldom made court-ruling-on-gay-
no matter what a state did, in the eyes of the federal government marriage.html
a major issue of the topic by 2016. Opinion polls indicated that the
(for federal income tax, for federal pensions, for benefits for spouses
majority of the American people agreed with the new policies. It was Ask students to describe
of government employees and armed forces personnel and many
a rapid and dramatic change in American culture. people’s reactions to the
related matters), a state-sanctioned same-sex marriage was invalid. Supreme Court’s decision.
Nevertheless, as some feared and others hoped, states started
to act on their own. In 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial
Thinking Critically To what extent was this
decision a civil rights
Court declared that state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage were 1. Comparison victory? To what extent
invalid in that state and gay and lesbian couples began getting How would you compare the political mood in the United did the Court follow public
married there. State courts in other states, including California, States when the Defense of Marriage Act was passed in 1996 opinion on this matter?
Connecticut, and Iowa, issued similar rulings. Then in 2009, the and when it was declared unconstitutional in 2015?
Vermont legislature sanctioned same-sex marriage, New York 2. Contextualization Reasoning Skills:
followed in 2011, and in 2012 Washington, Maine, and Maryland What other developments in American culture and political Contextualization
Ask students why same-
passed similar laws. By the time Obergefell v. Hodges came before debate might help explain decisions like those of the
sex marriage might have
the Court, the majority of states allowed same-sex marriage and Massachusetts Supreme Court, the Vermont legislature, or in
become a national issue
only fifteen had outright bans. 2013 and 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court? in the 2000s. What
conclusions can you draw
about changes in the nation
based on the relatively rapid
pace of change on this
issue?

United States v. Windsor between rich and poor in the country. They condemned the huge level of college debt that
30.1 A June 2013 Supreme Court decision many young people were carrying and the difficulties for a new generation in getting jobs.
that declared Americans in same-sex Before long, Occupy movements were springing up all around the country—Occupy
marriages had the same federal rights Los Angeles, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Denver, Occupy Boston, and Occupy Rochester. In
as all other married citizens. November, some three months after the encampment at Zuccotti Park began, New York
30.2
police cleared the park. But the Occupy movement was far from over. Through the winter
Obergefell v. Hodges and the following years, Occupy held rallies, meetings, and planning sessions.
30.3 A Supreme Court case, decided in

2015 in a 5–4 vote, which legalized gay The Election of 2012
marriage in all fifty states.
As President Obama and the Democrats looked to the 2012 election, they did so with con-
30.4 siderable optimism. The worst of the financial crisis seemed to be past, and the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan were at least winding down. U.S. intelligence had finally tracked down
Osama bin Laden and he was killed in a raid in 2011. At the same time, the president and
his party were aware of some significant liabilities. The economy remained far from robust;
the health-care law—which some now called Obamacare—remained unpopular, especially
among people who resented all forms of government intrusion in their lives. Many of those
who had voted for the first time in 2008 to support Obama were disillusioned with the slow
pace of change and might well not bother to vote in 2012. It was going to be a close contest.
The battle for the Republican nomination was a long one. Former Massachusetts governor
Mitt Romney was always one of the frontrunners. But a number of other candidates, includ-
ing former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, businessman
Herman Cain, and Representative Michele Bachmann, gave Romney a strong challenge. In
the end, Romney won the nomination and asked Congressman Paul Ryan, who had earned
his conservative credentials with a series of tax-cutting proposals, to be his running mate.
One of Romney’s great strengths, his years of business experience, came to hurt him as
Democrats exploited the numbers of layoffs that had taken place in Romney-owned compa-
nies. Obama won by a solid 51 percent to 47 percent majority and carried 332 electoral votes
to Romney’s 206 (see Map 30-2). The Congress, however, remained divided, with Demo-
crats having a majority in the Senate and Republicans in the House.
Map 30-2 The Election of 2012.

This map captures the extent of Obama’s presidential election triumph and underscores the realignments
of Republican red states and Democratic blue states.
Evidence—Secondary :$6+
Sources 0$,1(
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to what extent was the 25( 0,11 1+

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,2:$ 3$
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2EDPDZRQ 5RPQH\ZRQ

Soon after the inauguration, Obama said he would use executive authority to insti- Reasoning Skills:
tute action on climate change and quickly issued tough new limitations on emissions. Contextualization
30.1 Ask students why the
As he faced a divided Congress through his second term, the president turned more and
strengths of Obama’s first
more to executive authority to get things done on climate, immigration, and a number of term were able to triumph
other issues. Supporters of what the president was doing were thrilled to see a more activ- over its weaknesses in the
30.2
ist White House, while critics worried about growing independent presidential power and election of 2012. To what
what it might mean for the future. extent did his victory give
him the people’s mandate in
30.3 his second term?
30.3 Quick Review

How have domestic issues contributed to divisions in the government and the country during
30.4
Obama’s time in office?
New Liberals, New Conservatives,

Election Surprises
30.4 Analyze the most recent political developments in the United States from the Reasoning Skills:
Tea Party movement to the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016. Contextualization
Ask students why Obama
In the years after 2012, the United States remained a very divided place. Although the might have been more
divide was strong between Republicans and Democrats, each party also had bitter internal willing to use executive
divisions. And the divides seemed to be everywhere. Many Americans said they had lost orders in his second term.
faith in both political parties and in most elected leaders. To what extent did this help
The significant divide of race showed no signs of being healed. With the election, and him accomplish his agenda?
reelection, of the nation’s first African American president, some had hoped that there
could be a new “post-racial” era, but events across the country during Obama’s second
term showed that hope to be illusory. In addition, the economic recovery after 2008 was not
spread at all evenly. While some prospered, quickly returning to or surpassing their pre-2008 Reasoning Skills:
economic status, many other Americans, across racial and ethnic groups, found themselves Continuity and Change
stuck with stagnant or falling wages. A nation that had long seen itself as middle-class was over Time
now divided between a few who were very comfortable or extremely wealthy and a larger Ask students how the
number who felt their economic prospects dimming if not outright disastrous. Especially United States changed
with the growth of the Latino population, Americans of European American background economically, socially, and
demographically in the
were becoming a minority—slowly in some places and very rapidly in others such as
twenty-first century. To what
California. Those who had long thought of the nation as a white and Christian country extent might these changes
sometimes found it difficult to adjust. And all of the tensions fed each other and made it have forced Americans to
even more difficult for healing to take place or national policy to be made. adjust their expectations?
Black Lives Matter

In August 2014, a town most Americans had never heard of, Ferguson, Missouri, became a
flash point for the nation’s ongoing racial crisis. A young black man, Michael Brown, was
Reasoning Skills:
shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer. In the aftermath of the shooting, Brown’s body
Contextualization
was left on the street for over four hours while his parents were kept away at gunpoint. Ask students how the
The black community in Ferguson exploded, and soon, people were coming from across the shooting of Michael Brown
United States to support them. The anger shocked the nation as protesters held vigils but led to increased hostilities
also challenged the police directly, picketed the police headquarters, and blocked traffic on between the African
Interstate 70, which ran through the city. American population and
the police force in Ferguson.
Part of the issue was local. The nearly all-white police force was seen as an occupying
To what extent was the
army in the mostly African American town, and the town used fines, levied disproportion-
community’s reaction to the
ately on the black population, to pay a significant part of the town budget. In the aftermath shooting and the events that
of Brown’s shooting, the police increased the tensions, defacing memorials set up for Brown followed the result of years
and using rubber bullets on demonstrators. of discrimination?

Events in Ferguson dominated the news, as reports of other blacks suffering at the
30.1 hands of white police officers had not. Past tensions between African American communi-
ties and many mostly white police forces had fueled the growth of the Black Panther Party
in the 1970s and convulsed many cities in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. But from the
A Deeper Look summer of 2014 onward, something new was happening—in the attention being paid to the
30.2
For more information on issue, the level of anger and resistance in black communities, the ways new technologies
events in Ferguson, read made information available, and the size of the response. The advent of new smartphones
this article from the New
meant that many citizens could make video images and distribute them. Many more people
York Times: https://www 30.3
.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/
than before were appalled at the police violence that they saw, which began leading to mass
us/ferguson-darren-wilson- protests, especially when, in most cases, the police officers involved were never charged. In
shooting-michael-brown- July 2014, just before the events in Ferguson, Eric Garner, who had been selling cigarettes
grand-jury.html 30.4 on the streets of New York’s Staten Island, was arrested and killed when the arresting offi-
How did the decision not to cer held him in a chokehold. A video of the arrest went viral as Garner pleaded for his life,
indict the officer who shot saying again and again, “I can’t breathe,” before his death. Athletes wore T-shirts saying
Brown lead to increased “I can’t breathe” and New Yorkers joined in protest. In the course of 2014, there were more
violence and protests? Why deaths. Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed while playing with a toy gun in
might the African American
Cleveland, Ohio. Tanisha Anderson was killed when another Cleveland officer slammed
population in Ferguson
have felt they had no other her to the ground and her head hit the concrete. The following year, Freddie Gray was killed
avenue of recourse in light in Baltimore, Maryland. Videos, Twitter communications, Facebook posts, and a general-
of this situation? ized sense of outrage all helped spread the response.
A new decentralized organization, Black Lives Matter, had been created in response
Reasoning Skills: to the killing of an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in 2013, but in the summer of
Contextualization 2014, it became the voice of a new political movement, a voice that was amplified across
Ask students how the the nation through social media. Demanding an end to police brutality everywhere, Black
technology of the 2000s
Lives Matter was highly decentralized but very effective. Sounding much like those who
contributed to a greater
awareness of violence organized the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and lunch-counter sit-ins in the
committed against African 1960s, Johnetta Elzie, a young resident of Ferguson, said, “The youth leading this move-
Americans. To what extent ment is important because it is our time. For so long the elders have told us our generation
might these events, and the doesn’t fight for anything, or that we don’t care about what goes on in the world. We have
way Americans accessed proved them wrong.” Another speaker told a forum in Ferguson, “This ain’t your grand-
them, have refocused the parents’ civil rights movement.” Even as they built on a long line of civil rights efforts, the
national conversation
many diverse leaders of Black Lives Matter were determined to strike out in a new way that
on race?
fit their generation.
Economic Troubles, Economic Stagnation,

and a Divided Nation
Most economists agree that sometime after 1970, a sixty-year trend toward greater eco-
nomic equality came to an end, and inequality—the differences in salaries and in net
worth between the rich and everyone else—began to grow. They also agree that, after the
economic crisis of 2008, inequality became much greater than ever. In August 2016, the
Congressional Budget Office issued a report noting that the top 10 percent of the popula-
tion now holds about three-quarters of total family wealth, on average about $4 million
per family; a middle group owns about a quarter of total family wealth, or $36,000 per
family; and the bottom half of the population is simply in debt, about $13,000 in debt
on average per family. Different reports give different numbers, but few disagree about
the general pattern. While economists differ on exact numbers and on the reasons they
give for the cause of this development, very few, whether conservative or liberal, disagree
about the reality.
At the same time, many Americans do not need an economist to tell them that their eco-
nomic prospects are not good—neither as good as those of their parents’ generation nor as
good as they had hoped. Many young people blame the huge increase in college debt, one
of the issues that fueled Occupy Wall Street. Others blame the growth of free trade and the
end of trade barriers that had protected American workers and American jobs—though this
issue is hotly debated. Others blame the rapid decline in organized labor and the fact that
more and more jobs do not have union salaries or union benefits. Finally, some economists

American Voices 30.1 Evidence—Primary
Sources
Understanding Black Lives Matter Ask students how the
30.2 name Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter is a loose coalition of mostly young activists “#Blacklivesmatter” and “Black Lives Matter” are not encapsulates all that the
movement stands for. To
who are committed to ending police violence in black communities synonyms. The Twitter hashtag was created in July 2013 by
what extent did police
and to building a new civil rights movement in the United States. activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi in the
30.3 violence, and increased
Describing themselves, the Black Lives Matter website says: wake of George Zimmerman’s acquittal for second-degree awareness of its impact
murder of unarmed Black teenager Trayvon Martin. For more on black communities,
When we say Black Lives Matter, we are broadening the
than a year, #Blacklivesmatter was only a hashtag, and not a contribute to this
conversation around state violence to include all of the ways in 30.4
very popular one; it was used in only 48 public tweets in June movement? Why might
which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands
2014 and in 398 tweets in July 2014. But by August 2014 that many Americans believe
of the state. that this movement is
number had skyrocketed to 52,288 partly due to the slogan’s
Many of the Black Lives Matter leaders speak of their frustration with frequent use in the context of the Ferguson [Missouri] protests. necessary in the twenty-first
century?
an older generation of civil rights leaders. The coalition rejects what
***
they see as the old ways of the movement that kept straight black
While the rallying cry “black lives matter” struck a chord among
men in the front, and they insist:
many, others found themselves fearful of the anger and the potential
Black Lives Matter affirms the lives of Black queer and trans for separatism. Some whites insisted, “All lives matter,” but many
folks, disabled folks, Black-undocumented folks, folks with African Americans responded, “Yes, but it is black lives that are
records, women and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. threatened by police violence and that is what we are talking about
It centers those that have been marginalized within Black right now.” In July 2016, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani
liberation movements. lashed out at Black Lives Matter after five Dallas policemen were
*** killed by a lone black shooter. The killings were condemned by Black
Keeanga-Yamahata Taylor, a Princeton University scholar Lives Matter, but Giuliani said the movement had painted a target
sympathetic to the movement, describes the birth of Black Lives on the police and ignored black-on-black crime. On CBS’s Face the
Matter: Nation, the former mayor continued:
Every movement needs a catalyst, an event that captures When you say black lives matter, that’s inherently racist. … Black
people’s experiences and draws them out from their isolation into lives matter. White lives matter. Asian lives matter. Hispanic
a collective force with the power to transform social conditions. lives matter. That’s anti-American, and it’s racist.
Few could have predicted that white police officer Darren Wilson
The divisions over race, dating back to the landing of the first Reasoning Skills:
shooting Mike Brown would ignite a rebellion in a small, largely
enslaved Africans in the early 1500s, did not seem about to end in Contextualization
unknown Missouri suburb called Ferguson. For reasons that Why might there have
the early 2000s.
may never be clear, Brown’s death was a breaking point for been backlash to Black
Sources: www.blacklivesmatter.com/about, downloaded August 26, 2016;
the African Americans of Ferguson but also for hundreds of Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation (Chicago: Lives Matter in the white
thousands of Black people across the United States. Haymarket Books, 2016), p. 153; Deen Freelon, Charlton D. McIlwain, and community? To what extent
Meredith D. Clark, “Beyond the Hashtags: #Ferguson, #Blacklivesmatter, and the did this backlash lead to
*** online struggle for offline justice” (Washington, DC: Center for Media and Social
Impact, 2016); Megan Twohey, “Rudolph Giuliani Lashes Out at Black Lives further deterioration of the
Studying the Black Lives Matter movement, Deen Freelon, Charlton Matter,” New York Times, July 10, 2016. situation?
D. McIlwain, and Meredith D. Clark see it as a significant example of
the power of newer media to support various liberation movements.
They write:
Thinking Critically
1. Comparison
In the United States, police violence against people of African
How do you account for the huge differences in perspective
descent is nothing new. But widespread public use of mobile
between #BlackLivesMatter and Mayor Giuliani? How much
phone cameras and social media has recently thrust the issue
is an issue of race? How much is related to other factors?
into the national spotlight like never before. Videos, images,
2. Contextualization
and text narratives of violent encounters between police and
How does the context of other developments during the
unarmed black people circulated widely through news and social
Obama years—new media as well as changes in race
media in the summer of 2014, galvanizing public outrage. …
relations—impact all of these statements?
insist that, though inequality is rising, many are actually better off than in the past, though
others dispute that claim.
Most statistics point to a general stagnation in salaries among the vast majority of
Americans. But it is not just salaries that seem to be stuck. The sociologist Arlie Russell
Hochschild reports that a large number of people fear a range of forces, cultural eclipse

Evidence—Primary
30.1
Sources
the photo. How did events 30.2
in the United States in
the twenty-first century
lead to the Black Lives
Matter movement? How 30.3
did the Black Lives Matter
movement attempt to
Janine Wiedel Photolibrary/Alamy Stock Photo

address long-existing
injustices in America? To 30.4
what extent was it similar to
and different from the civil
rights Movement of the
1960s?
Reasoning Skills:
Comparison
Ask students how the In the summer and fall of 2014, a new political movement, Black Lives Matter, often led by young women,
disparity revealed by the galvanized African American communities across the United States as protests of the killing of blacks by
Congressional Budget police escalated.
Office’s report resembled
the distribution of wealth
in the 1920s. Why might
along with economic decline and a sense that the government has betrayed them. This level
this disparity have posed of alienation is especially true among working-class whites and males but includes a good
a danger to the nation number of women; it is also true among people who feel that the bailout saved the banks
politically and economically? but did not help them and among those who believe that many upper-middle-class profes-
How might this disparity sionals are doing quite well but look down on others. In addition, the sense of alienation is
have had a polarizing effect fueled by the fact that, far too often, Americans speak only to people like themselves and do
on the nation?
not meet or mingle or listen to people of other races or economic brackets. The nation seems
divided by class, by geography, and by basic attitudes toward the government and toward
Argument Development
other Americans.
Ask students to what extent
the nation became more
divided and homogeneously
The Angry Election of 2016
grouped as our digital In the midst of many debates—about politics, about race, about economics—the United
and electronic interaction States turned to another presidential election to be held in November 2016. The midterm
took the place of personal elections of 2014 had brought Republican majorities to both houses of Congress, but both
interaction. What factors parties were as divided internally as they were from each other. Republican House Speaker
might have accounted for
John Boehner was forced out by conservatives in his own caucus in 2015 because he seemed
this dichotomy? Students
should use information from too willing to compromise. Both parties saw the rise of so-called outsider candidates in 2016.
the text, their knowledge Even though the platforms of the two major outsiders could not have been more different,
of history, and their own there was a sense of rebellion in the air.
experiences to respond. Among the Democrats, Hillary Clinton was the clear frontrunner for the 2016 presiden-
tial nomination, though some worried that she had also been the frontrunner in 2008 yet
had lost the nomination to a then newcomer, Barack Obama. By 2016, Clinton had gained
significant stature—she had served as Obama’s secretary of state for his first term—but she
also had some new concerns to overcome, including the attack on Benghazi, Libya, in which
the U.S. ambassador was killed while she was secretary of state and her use of a private
e-mail server rather than the secure government one. Nevertheless, early on she seemed like
the only serious candidate in the field, and the strength of her political and financial support
kept other possible challengers out of the race.
Clinton was challenged by two less-well-known candidates, Martin O’Malley, for-
mer Maryland governor, and Bernie Sanders, an Independent senator from Vermont and

self-described democratic socialist who normally sided with Democrats in the Senate and
was running for the Democratic nomination. While O’Malley dropped out early, Sanders 30.1
became a surprisingly strong challenger. Sanders campaigned on the slogan “a future to
believe in,” promising to widen Obamacare into a guaranteed medical program for all,
to address the nation’s growing income inequality through programs to close the gap, and
30.2
to end what he called a corrupt campaign finance system that supported pro-business can-
didates in both parties. He was surprisingly popular, drawing huge crowds and becom-
ing the first candidate in history to receive financial support from more than one million
donors, mostly in small amounts. He rejected all large corporate support. He connected 30.3
A Deeper Look
with white working-class voters, but trailed significantly among black voters. In the end, For more information
he could never overcome Clinton’s institutional support and lead in fund-raising and rec- on Sanders’s platform,
ognition. At the Democratic Convention in July, Sanders endorsed her in a strong speech 30.4 read or watch his speech
while insisting that “the political revolution continues” and maintaining his own organiza- announcing his candidacy:
tion. Clinton selected Virginia senator Tim Kaine as her vice presidential running mate and https://berniesanders.com/
bernies-announcement/
entered the fall campaign with a strong lead.
The Republican field was much more wide open with no clear frontrunner. Some To what extent did Sanders
offer Americans an
thought that former Florida governor Jeb Bush would emerge as a consensus candidate,
alternative to the policies
but though he received strong financial backing, he never took off with Republican and strategies of past
primary voters. The field was crowded and early primary debates had as many as ten administrations? Why might
speakers on stage, with others in the wings, wanting to be there. Two Republican senators, his platform have garnered
Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, were stronger than Bush in that crowded significant grassroots
field, and some thought one of them would eventually emerge as the nominee. To the support?
surprise of many, however, Donald Trump, a New York businessman and reality TV star,
with no experience in elective office, won the most votes in primary after primary. Bernie Reasoning Skills:
Contextualization
Sanders ran well to the left of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic primaries; in contrast,
Ask students why Clinton’s
Trump ran well to the right of most Republican candidates on some issues and toward a nomination was historic.
traditionally left stance on others. He was as strongly anti–free trade as Sanders was and, To what extent might her
like Sanders among the Democrats, Trump tapped into the sense of alienation and “being candidacy have indicated
left behind” that many voters—most of all white poor and working-class voters—felt. the changing status of
But quite unlike Sanders, Trump was also extremely anti-immigrant, especially attack- women in the United States?
ing Muslim immigrants. At one point, he said he would bar all Muslims from entering
the United States and at another promised to deport all eleven million undocumented (or
illegal) immigrants currently in the United States and promised to build a wall to stop
immigration from Mexico.
Most thought that Trump was too extreme a candidate to win the nomination, but Reasoning Skills:
his extremism, his anti establishment rhetoric, and, some said, his not-very-hidden Contextualization
racism connected with a significant number of primary voters—more voters than any Ask students whether
Trump’s primary victories
other single Republican candidate. By the end of the primaries, it was clear that the out-
indicated that voters
side candidate had won the nomination against former governors and senators. Trump sought change in the 2016
selected Indiana governor Mike Pence, a nationally known conservative, as his running election. To what extent
mate. might the crowded field
Right up to the Republican nominating convention in Cleveland in August 2016, have contributed to Trump’s
Republican nominee Mitt Romney along with many other moderate Republicans did victories?
everything they could to stop the nomination. Former presidents George Bush, father
and son, announced that they would not vote for Trump. Former nominee John McCain
said that Trump had “fired up the crazies,” but finding himself in a tough reelection
battle for his Arizona Senate seat, endorsed him anyway. Most other current elected
officials, from House Speaker Paul Ryan on down did the same thing. The fall election—
pitting Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump—promised to be one of the most difficult
on record.
In the fall of 2016, while the election was fought out, the country seemed caught in a Reasoning Skills:
moment of unusual malice. Candidates and their supporters displayed strong dislike of Contextualization
the other side that reached heights not seen in decades. More than almost any time since Ask students why other
Republicans might have
the Civil War, different Americans heard the news from different sources and, indeed,
come out in opposition to
heard different news. Trump supporters chanted “lock her up” at political rallies, believ-
Trump. Why might Trump’s
ing that Clinton’s use of her private e-mail account was not only a serious mistake—which candidacy have frightened
the Republican elite?

many believed it was—but also a crime. Many within Trump’s base saw Clinton and the
30.1 Democratic Party as elite snobs out of touch with many Americans’ economic pain or,
perhaps even more, many Americans’ anger at being dismissed as not worthy of serious
consideration. In contrast, Clinton supporters, including President Obama, feared Trump
in a way that they had not feared previous Republican candidates. Trump’s promise to
30.2
A Deeper Look build a wall all along the border with Mexico to stop immigration seemed outlandish, his
For additional information anti-Muslim rhetoric seemed to play directly into the hands of Muslim extremists while
on the division during the alienating the majority of Muslims in the United States and the world, his continued
2016 election, read this 30.3 demeaning comments about women frightened a wide range of women and led many
article from NBC News:
women and men to oppose him, his willingness to humiliate people with disabilities and
http://www.nbcnews.com/
politics/white-house/how- his very personal attacks on members of the media seemed out of bounds for any candi-
2016-election-exposed- 30.4 date, while his dismissal of concerns about climate change and his hair-trigger temper
america-s-racial-cultural- worried many who thought about the future of the planet and the control of the nuclear
divides-n682306 codes. On the other hand, every one of these positions seemed to solidify Trump’s popu-
According to the article, larity with his core supporters.
what new trends and At the same time, Americans thought about many things besides politics, and impor-
divisions did the 2016 tant community ties survived the turmoil. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof
election reveal? To what
reminded readers that in the midst of an angry election, many Americans found ways to
extent were the divisions
that were evident in the
be generous. Kristof reported on an India-born Muslim, Malik Waliyani, who had recently
2016 election different from bought a gas station and convenience store in Georgia but found his new business bur-
those in past elections? Why glarized and damaged. It was not clear whether Waliyani’s Muslim faith had been an
might the divisions that were issue in the destruction, but when the members of the Smoke Rise Baptist Church heard
revealed and caused by the what happened and their pastor said, “Let’s shower our neighbor with love. … Our faith
election have been difficult inspires us to build bridges, not to label people,” over two hundred church members
for the nation to overcome?
bought gas and goods from Waliyani, letting him know they cared. As Kristof concluded,
“Good people, like the members of Smoke Rise Baptist, are reweaving our nation’s social
fabric even as it is being torn.”
In the weeks before the election, the nation’s social fabric continued to tear. The can-
didates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump met for three increasingly tense debates and,
by the end, had dispensed with the usual handshakes and signs of comity. When stories of
hugely demeaning comments and actions by Trump toward many women emerged, some
Republicans distanced themselves from him and Clinton’s lead widened, though Trump
dismissed the comments as “locker room talk.” Then a week before the election, the director
of the FBI announced that he had found new material and was reopening the investigation
into Clinton’s use of her private e-mail account. The investigation was completed in only
a few days and no new evidence of wrong doing was found, but the news seemed to slow
Clinton’s momentum.
Finally, as the long and angry campaign came to an end in the evening of November
8, 2016, it became clear that nearly all pollsters and commentators had been wrong. While
Clinton carried the nation’s cities—from New York to Atlanta to Chicago as well as smaller
ones—and liberal states from Massachusetts to California, Trump carried the suburbs, most
of the South, and surprisingly large majorities in rural areas everywhere (see Map 30-3).
Clinton won almost three million more votes than Trump, but given the power of suburbs
and rural areas in the Electoral College, Trump’s victory in the electoral count that mattered
was clear. The final popular vote was 65,844,610 for Clinton but 62,979,636 for Trump. In the
Electoral College, however, Trump won 306 votes to 232 for Clinton. It was the third time in
U.S. history that a Republican had won the electoral vote in spite of a Democrat winning the
popular vote.
Trump’s supporters saw the vote as a victory for the people who, like themselves, had
been forgotten in a fast-changing America—a mostly older, often rural or suburban, and
overwhelmingly white group. Clinton’s supporters feared that the election had been deter-
mined by people who were afraid of a rapidly developing ethnic diversity of the country,
discomfort with their candidate’s gender, and nostalgia for an earlier time in the nation’s
history. They also worried about the mental stability of the president-elect and the anger
that he and his supporters brought to the nation.

Sources
30.2 the photo. What conclusions
can you draw about the
Christian Gooden/Tribune Content Agency LLC/Alamy Stock Photo

debates and the atmosphere
surrounding the 2016
30.3 presidential election in
general based on the
candidates’ appearance?
30.4
Reasoning Skills:
Continuity and Change
over Time
Ask students to what extent
the tactics, animosity, and
polarization present in the
2016 election were the
result of years of changing
political norms and
strategies in presidential
elections.
During the Fall 2016 campaign, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald
Trump participated in three increasingly tense debates that highlighted differences in their political
philosophies and in their personal styles.
Reasoning Skills:
Contextualization
Whatever people’s opinions, on January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump was inaugurated
Ask students how the
as the forty-fifth president of the United States. The inner circle of his advisors seemed to outcome of the 2016
represent a mix of some deeply ideologically conservatives, traditional politicians, and election led many to
his family. His cabinet nominees were mostly highly successful business leaders who question the need for and
had made their fortunes and were now joining the team of another unusually successful efficacy of the Electoral
businessman. They were largely white males, more so than any presidential cabinet since College. How might the
Ronald Reagan. discrepancy between the
popular and electoral votes
have led to a contentious
start to Trump’s presidency?
Richard Ellis/Alamy Stock Photo
After a hard-fought and close contest with Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump became the forty-fifth president
of the United States on January 20, 2017.

Analyzing Historical Map 30-3 The Two Americas of 2016.
Evidence—Primary
30.1
As this map shows, in the 2016 election, although Hillary Clinton won some three million more votes than
Sources Donald Trump, her voters were clustered in a few parts of the United States—mostly large urban areas
Ask students to describe and the West Coast. More sparsely populated parts of the nation voted for Trump by large majorities,
the photo. To what extent 30.2 which accounts not only for the land areas shown here but also for his victory in the all-important Electoral
did Trump’s inauguration College in spite of his loss of the popular vote.
represent a shift in
American politics? Trump’s America
30.3
A Deeper Look Gre a t e r
Pu ge t
For more information So u n d
R o le t t e
Alaskan Spokane
on the marches and the C o ve
30.4 Outpos
M isso u la Great Falls
International Falls Baxter
organization behind them, L a ke Minot Island
Eu ge n e Bo u n da r y
read this article from CBS: Po r t la n d Helena C o n n e c tic u t
Est u a r y Bismarck Wa te r Augusta
So u n d Fargo Str a it
http://www.cbsnews.com/ B o ze m a n
L a ke
Billings St a n din g
Rock Tw in
news/womens-march-on- Po n d C it ie s Upstate
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Boise Te t o n
a
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washington-dc-push-back- Pierre Bu ffa lo
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Sa n C le v e la n d
Why did millions of people, F r a n c isc o
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Cove
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Ac e la
Bay D .C .
and not only women, feel D e n ve r
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Kansas City Ke ttle D e lta Channel
Isthmus St. L o u is C in c in n a ti
compelled to march on Colorado Springs Po n d Slo u gh
Charleston N o r fo lk
Las
January 21, 2017? How Bakersfield GREAT AMERICAN L o u is v ille So u n d
Ve ga s
Hook Lake Ra le igh
did the organization and H a r bo r
L a ke PLAINS Ba y
N a s h v ille
L o s A n ge le s F la gst a ff Tulsa Po n d
support behind these Bay Sa n t a F e Se a Knoxville
Wilmington
Amarillo
marches illustrate the power Sa n D ie go Phoenix Oklahoma City Me mph is
H a r bo r Atla n ta C o lu mbia
of the American people to I n le t
Mis s .
Lake Lake
advocate for change? Bay of

Fort Worth
D a lla s Lake
Se lma
Tu c so n Po n d Se a
El Pa so
Bay Sa n A u st in Jacksonville
A n t o n io Po n d
H ou s to n
L a ke Lake
Ba y
D is n e y
L a re do
Gu lf Ta mpa
Ba y Mia mi
Corpus Christi
Ba y
Analyzing Historical Clinton’s America
Evidence—Secondary Seattle
Sources Portland
Montana
Archipelago Lutsen
Old Gla c ie r Ma in e
Referring to the map, Gu lf Island Cove
how did the ideological N o r t h w e st

Alba n y
Coos Se a New
and geographic divisions Bay Minneapolis
N a r ro w s
England
G re a t Ba y s Boston
in America contribute to Buffalo
Milwaukee
the outcome of the 2016 Reno Wyo m in g Detroit
Island Sh a llo w s Cleveland New York
election? To what extent Salt Lake City Chicago
was this divide the latest Philadelphia
Des Moines Midwest Pittsburgh
example of an evolving trend San Francisco Isles
Washington
Denver
dating back to the twentieth St. Louis
Cincinnati
century? Why might this B a ke r sf ie ld Las Vegas Blu e Ridge
Norfolk
Bay
division, and the disparity Gre a t
A m e r ic a n
Se a
Nashville Raleigh
between rural and urban Los Angeles Albuquerque Santa Fe
Oc e a n
Carolina
Americans, lead many San Diego M a r ic o pa
Island Memphis Islands
to question the system Se a Atlanta
by which we elect our Mississippi
Tucson H igh Pla in s Island
Island Dallas
presidents? El Paso Se a
Jackson
Island G e o r gia n
Str a it
Hawaiian Ala ba ma
Islands Houston G u lf
San Antonio
Tampa
Isla
Grande Miami

American Voices 30.1
Two Americas—2017
30.2
To the surprise of many, President Trump used his inaugural their commitment to resist the ideology and policies of the new
address to speak to the anger and alienation of his core administration, among them, a young actress, political activist,
constituency with little attention to unifying themes. The and daughter of Honduran parents—perhaps best known for
30.3
Women’s March of January 21 represented a very different her role in the TV series Superstar —thirty-two-year-old America
set of voices in the country. Speaker after speaker announced Ferrera.
Donald J. Trump, Inaugural Address, January 20, 2017 America Ferrera, Speech at the Women’s March, January 21, 2017 30.4 Disciplinary Practices:
Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, My name is America Ferrera. And I am deeply honored Argument Development
President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, and people of to march with you today as the chair of the artists’ table, as Ask students to what
the world: Thank you. … a woman and as a proud first-generation American born to extent the 2016 election
and people’s responses
Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because Honduran immigrants.
to it reflected Americans’
today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to It’s been a heart-rending time to be both a woman and an
continuing commitment
another, or from one party to another—but we are transferring power immigrant this country. Our dignity, our character, our rights have to using their voices and
from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People. all been under attack, and a platform of hate and division assumed the rights and institutions
For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped power yesterday. But the president is not America. His Cabinet is at their disposal to create
the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. not America. Congress is not America. We are America! And we are change when they believe
Washington flourished—but the people did not share in its wealth. here to stay! it to be necessary. To what
Politicians prospered—but the jobs left, and the factories closed. We march today for our families and our neighbors, for our extent has this ideal been
The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our future, for the causes we claim and for the causes that claim us. We a constant throughout
American history? Students
country. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have march today for the moral core of this nation, against which our new
should use information from
not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, president is waging a war.
the text and their knowledge
there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land. He would like us to forget the words “Give me your tired, your of U.S. history to respond.
That all changes—starting right here, and right now, because poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free,” and instead take up
this moment is your moment: it belongs to you. … January 20th, a credo of hate, fear and suspicion of one another. Disciplinary Practices:
2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers But we are gathered here and across the country and around Analyzing Historical
of this nation again. The forgotten men and women of our country the world today to say, Mr. Trump, we refuse. Evidence—Primary
will be forgotten no longer. … We reject the dehumanization of our Muslim mothers and Sources
Americans want great schools for their children, safe sisters. Ask students how Trump
neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. We demand an end to the systemic murder and incarceration and Ferrera describe
These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public. of our black brothers and sisters. “two Americas.” To what
But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: We will not give up our right to safe and legal abortions. extent were both speakers
concerned about the future
Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted- We will not ask our LGBTQ families to go backwards.
of the nation, albeit in very
out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our We will not go from being a nation of immigrants to a nation of
different ways?
nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our ignorance.
young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime We won’t build walls, and we won’t see the worst in each other.
and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed And we will not turn our backs on the more than 750,000
our country of so much unrealized potential. young immigrants in this country currently protected by DACA.
This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. . . . “Together we, all of us, will fight, resist and oppose every action
And now we are looking only to the future. We assembled here that threatens the lives and dignity of any and all of our communities,”
today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every America concluded. “Marchers, make no mistake. We are, every
foreign capital, and in every hall of power. single one of us, on attack. Our safety and freedom are on the
From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. chopping block and we are the only ones who can protect one
From this moment on, it’s going to be America First. another. If we do not fight together… we will lose together.”
Sources: www.whitehouse.gov/inaugural-address; downloaded March 4, 2017. Citizen Action Monitor, No. 1875, posted January 23, 2017; downloaded March 5, 2017.
Thinking Critically
1. Contextualization 2. Comparison
In what specific ways does President Trump’s 2017 speech Note at least one similarity and one difference between
reflect the themes of the 2016 presidential election? In what President Trump’s vision for the future of the United States
ways does Ferrera’s speech reflect the Clinton campaign or and that of America Ferrera.
something different?

On Sunday, January 21, 2017, the day after the inauguration, the nation saw a
30.1 unique response—a series of women-led marches across the nation, and indeed all
around the world—protesting the policies that the new president had promised, espe-
cially his hostility to Muslims, to immigrants, and to women’s rights. A small group of
younger women had begun planning for such a demonstration immediately after the
30.2
November vote, and by January, the expected crowd grew and grew—from early esti-
mates of under 200,000 to the well over 500,000 in Washington, D.C., alone. While Trump
had won the election especially because of his strong support in small towns and rural
30.3 areas, the 500,000 to 1 million women and men who marched in Washington, D.C., were
joined by 450,000 who marched in New York City and 175,000 in Boston but also 200 in
Abilene, Texas; 500 in Bismarck, North Dakota; 7,200 in Birmingham, Alabama; 300–500
30.4 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin; and 3 hardy souls who marched in Nebraska City, Nebraska.
In addition, thousands of others marched in cities around the world. All told, some
3 million to 5 million protesters marched in demonstrations across the nation and many
others in numerous countries. Speaker after speaker at the Women’s Marches made it
clear that the new president was not going to have the honeymoon given to some of his
predecessors and that whatever came next, the president’s policies were going to be met
with resistance at every turn. Bipartisanship in politics or national unity on almost any
topic seemed a distant dream.
Evidence—Primary
Sources
the photo. Referring to this
photo, to what extent did the
Women’s March resemble
protests throughout
American history? To what
extent did the Women’s
March attempt to address
Jeff Grossman/WENN Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo
people’s frustration with

and opposition to Trump’s
election and policy ideas?
The day after President Trump’s inauguration, hundreds of thousands of women and men participated in
Women’s Marches in cities across the United States and around the world to protest his announced policies.
30.4 Quick Review

Describe the major divisions in the United States after 2001—racial, economic, political, and
cultural.

Conclusion Class Activity: Creative

Expression and Analysis
America in 2017 was a
In the days after the September 11 attacks, the Bush administration immediately developed
far different place from
a strategy to punish those responsible. U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan, which was pro- the land that European
tecting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, and quickly overthrew the Taliban regime there. settlers happened upon
Although the United States had forced a change in government in Afghanistan and had centuries earlier. Although
killed or captured many al-Qaeda operatives, others including bin Laden escaped into change is inevitable and
Pakistan. It took another ten years to find bin Laden; meanwhile, insurgents continued to time never stands still,
engage the U.S. military and destabilize Afghanistan and other parts of the world. the rapid development
and ascent of the United
While the United States waged war in Afghanistan, the Bush administration turned its
States over the course of its
attention to Iraq. Despite the lack of compelling evidence that Iraq was connected to the history was in many ways
September 11 attacks, the United States and Great Britain obtained UN and congressional remarkable. Students will
approval for an invasion, based on alleged Iraqi possession of weapons of mass destruc- reflect on conditions and
tion. Major combat operations in Iraq ended quickly, but the United States was ill prepared circumstances within the
to serve as an occupying force, and Iraq quickly descended into civil war. By 2004, public country and the international
opinion was turning against the war. U.S. casualties were high, Iraq was in chaos, and no affairs in which it was
involved in 2017, and
weapons of mass destruction were ever found. Still, the U.S. mission in Iraq continued.
evaluate how the United
In Bush’s second term, domestic problems also plagued the Bush administration. In States’ history led to that
2005, the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was wholly inadequate, and after 2008, the point. In pairs, students will
U.S. economy was in a deep recession. consider: How did events
The 2008 presidential election culminated in the election of the nation’s first African throughout the 1900s and
American president, Barack Obama. Obama moved quickly to address the financial crisis, 2000s transform the nation,
allowing it to become the
but although the economy was eventually stabilized, unemployment remained high. The
nation it is in 2017? What
Obama administration’s highest priority was to get Congress to approve a federal health were the most significant
insurance system, which was signed into law in 2010. In the midst of a very slow recovery national successes and
in which ordinary Americans suffered greatly, new protests, including the Tea Party and failures, and how did they
the Occupy Wall Street movements, emerged to express voter dissatisfaction with contin- inform ideas and policies in
ual war and with the economic meltdown. Obama won a second term in November 2012, the 2000s? What problems
but the political divisions in the country and in Washington continued. In the midst of this did the nation still have
to resolve in 2017? What
strengthening divide, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that same-sex marriage was a right
advice would you give to
everywhere in the country in 2015. Although the Court’s decision was accepted by many, U.S. leaders in 2017 on
it greatly disturbed some, who resisted strongly. In addition, Obama’s historic election and improving the nation for
reelection had not meant that the nation had entered a “post-racial” era; indeed, the issue the future? Students will
of race came to the foreground when in 2014 and 2015 a number of African Americans were use their answers to create
killed by white police officers. A new organization, Black Lives Matter, promised the begin- a written testament to the
ning of a new and different civil rights movement. The nation remained deeply divided on United States. Students can
choose between a poem, a
social, economic, and political issues throughout Obama’s second term, and lasting resolu-
song, a letter, a newspaper
tions seemed hard to find. In the election of 2016, many of the issues that had been bubbling article or editorial, or a skit.
up—anger about economic disparities, cultural alienation, gender, race, and immigration— Whatever form they choose,
all came to the foreground of national politics in an unusually nasty contest in which Donald students must include
Trump was elected. The divisions, turmoil, and deep concerns continued, however, and, detailed answers to each
indeed, even the social fabric that holds Americans together seems to be in for trying times. question in their writing.
Each pair will present
their writing to the class.
After each group shares,
the class can engage in a
Chapter Review discussion of the various
successes, failures, and
How did the election of 2016 encompass issues that had plagued the United States since pieces of advice offered.
2000? How was it different? Teachers will ask: What
were the most significant
challenges facing the United
States in 2017? What
accomplishments should
the United States have been
most proud of in 2017?

934 AIE
Chapter 30 Summary and Review
The Impact of September 11, 2001 Summary

30.1 Analyze the impact of 9/11 on the nation, the Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster compounded by
presidency of George W. Bush, and Bush human failure. The storm devastated the entire Gulf Coast, but
administration policies around the world. in the storm’s aftermath, it became clear that the worst scenes
of suffering and death were in New Orleans’ poor black com-
Summary munities. Failures and delays on the part of the New Orleans
Police Department and the Federal Emergency Management
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the worst attack
Agency (FEMA) only made the suffering worse. A few years
on the United States in history, led to profound changes in the
later, a financial panic on Wall Street shook the American
federal government and in U.S. foreign policy. In the imme-
economy. The crisis resulted from two related developments.
diate aftermath of the attacks, President Bush called for a
First, deregulation broke down the divide between investment
global war on terror and identified Afghanistan as the war’s
and commercial banks, which allowed financial institutions
first important battlefield. Afghanistan’s Taliban govern-
to become more closely interconnected and encouraged such
ment was quickly toppled, but the early gains there would
institutions to take greater risks. Second, financial institutions
prove largely illusory. Nonetheless, in the aftermath of 9/11,
changed the way they issued and invested in home mortgages,
foreign policy issues dominated Bush’s presidency. At home,
changes that encouraged the growth of a housing bubble. Swift
the PATRIOT Act expanded the powers and authority of the
federal intervention saved the economy from collapse, but sub-
Department of Justice, many claimed at the expense of civil
stantial damage had been done. In the coming years, unem-
liberties. Overseas, the Bush administration, ignoring critics
ployment increased and the economy slowed down.
who pointed out the dangers involved in invading Iraq and
who cast doubt on the administration’s justifications for the
war, proceeded to invade Iraq. As was the case in Afghani- Review Questions
stan, the existing regime was quickly toppled, but securing 3. Causation
the peace proved far more difficult than the administration How did human failure contribute to the death and
had predicted. Poor planning by the administration and destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina?
insufficient American troops contributed to Iraq’s spiral into 4. Argument Development
chaos and civil war. Revelations about conditions in Abu Was TARP an effective or ineffective government solution
Ghraib prison damaged U.S. credibility around the world, to the 2008 financial crisis?
and by 2004, American public opinion was turning against
the war. Despite the fact that Bush secured a second term in
the 2004 presidential election, opposition to the war contin-
The Obama Years
ued to mount, and Republican defeats in the 2006 midterm 30.3 Analyze the reasons for the successes and failures
elections signaled trouble ahead for the Republicans in the of the Obama administration and changes in
2008 presidential election. the American culture while he was president.
Review Questions Summary

1. Causation In 2006, with the encouragement of senior Democratic officials,
Describe the effects that the 9/11 attacks had on the Barack Obama made the decision to challenge Hillary Clinton for
psyches of Americans. the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Obama emerged
2. Argument Development victorious after a hard-fought primary campaign that did not
How do you think President Bush’s decision to invade wrap up until June. The Republicans nominated John McCain.
Iraq will be viewed by future historians? Trailing in fund-raising and public opinion, McCain selected
Sarah Palin as his running mate in an effort to shake up the race
and to energize his conservative base. The performance of the two
Difficult Years on the Domestic Front candidates during the September financial crisis convinced many
30.2 Explain the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf voters that Obama was the right person to solve the country’s
Coast and the costs and consequences of the 2008 economic problems, and Obama won a clear victory in Novem-
financial crisis. ber. Despite the passage of stimulus legislation, the economy
934

continued to struggle during Obama’s first term. Passage of the bitter, divisive election of 2016. After fending off the insurgent
Affordable Care Act was a major legislative accomplishment, campaign of Bernie Sanders and his enthusiastic supporters,
but it did not help Obama’s public approval ratings. The Obama Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination. The Repub-
administration also reformed No Child Left Behind by giving lican contest was even more hotly contested, and against all
more power to the states, while Democrats in Congress crafted odds, the outsider who was very familiar to Americans, Donald
Dodd-Frank to add layers of regulation to the mortgage process Trump, won the nomination. The general election was one like
in an effort to avoid a repeat of the crisis of 2008. Anger within the no other in recent history. Supporters of each candidate were
conservative wing of the Republican Party led to the emergence of fueled by sheer hatred of the other side. Clinton was the front-
the Tea Party, a loose coalition of irate, disaffected, and highly con- runner, but Trump’s controversial statements did not sink his
servative voters. The Tea Party was fueled by fear about the debt, candidacy as many expected. And his controversial positions
uncertainty about the economy, and anger at big institutions, most on issues such as immigration only brought him closer to his
of all the federal government but also corporations and univer- base. Defying the polls, Trump emerged as the winner of the
sities. The Tea Party played a central role in the 2010 midterm electoral vote, while Clinton won the popular one. It was a
elections and secured the election of a conservative, uncompro- crushing defeat for Democrats but a triumphant one for Trump
mising, Republican majority in the House of Representatives. On voters who felt that someone finally understood and repre-
the other end of the political spectrum, participants in the Occupy sented them. The day after Trump was sworn in as president
Wall Street movement focused their anger on growing income before a crowd of supporters, Women’s Marches took place
inequality. In the 2015 case Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court everywhere across the country as the left registered a loud
ruled that states could not ban same-sex marriage, reflecting protest against the policies of the new president. The two days
the rapidly changing public opinion on this issue. As the 2012 symbolized just how divided the country was, and few could
election neared, many believed that conditions were ripe for the envision how the divide could be bridged anytime soon.
Republicans to retake the White House. Despite conservative
misgivings, the Republicans nominated former Massachusetts Review Questions
governor Mitt Romney. Romney’s weakness as a candidate 7. Argument Development
and a strong showing by Obama’s supporters combined to seal “This ain’t your grandparents’ civil rights movement.”
Obama’s reelection. With a divided Congress and political rancor was a comment made about Black Lives Matter. What
making the prospects of major legislation slim, Obama’s turned to does it mean?
the use of executive order in his second term.
8. Comparison
Compare Trump’s connection to his base with Andrew
Review Questions
Jackson’s connection to his.
5. Contextualization
What does Obama’s election in 2008 and reelection in 2012 1. Preparing to Write: Analyzing Historical Evidence—
tell us about the state of race relations in the United States Primary Sources
in the early 2000s? Document-Based Question—Evaluate the extent to which
6. Comparison U.S. foreign policy was similar at the beginning of the Cold
Compare and contrast the goals of the Tea Party and War and the beginning of the war on terror.
Occupy Wall Street. After you develop a thesis statement for this question, use
the passages from President Bush’s September 20, 2001, speech
New Liberals, New Conservatives, in Section 30.1 as evidence to support your argument. Focus on
Bush’s main message and include discussion of how his his-
Election Surprises
torical situation (context) shaped it.
30.4 Analyze the most recent political developments in
the United States from the Tea Party movement to the 2. Preparing to Write: Organize Your Evidence
election of Donald Trump as president in 2016. Long Essay Question—Discuss the economic and social fac-
tors that shaped U.S. political movements during the years
Summary 2008–2016.
After the 2012 election, the United States found itself deeply For this question, the first section of your essay’s body
divided in a number of ways. Just years after the election of the could explain how the transformation played out on the politi-
nation’s first African American president, it was obvious the cal left, while the second half could explain how the change
country had not progressed as much on racial matters as origi- played out on the right. Create a t-chart and title the sides
nally thought. The emergence of Black Lives Matter under- Left and Right. On the left side, identify specific evidence that
scored this realization as the grassroots movement protested explains the election of President Obama and the rise of the
the killing of African Americans at the hands of police across populist movements Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Mat-
the country. Middle-class Americans grew frustrated with eco- ter. On the right side, identify specific evidence that explains
nomic inequality and wages that had remained stagnant for the rise of the Tea Party and the election of President Trump.
decades. All of the tension seemed to come to a head in the From your evidence, you can develop a thesis.

936 AIE
Part 9 AP® Practice Test
Complete Answer Key can Section I: Multiple-Choice Questions

be found on p. 942.
Multiple-Choice Answers: Questions 9.1–9.3 refer to the following excerpt. Questions 9.4–9.6 refer to the following excerpt.
1. a; 2. c; 3. c; 4. b; 5. c; “Ubiquitous computers will … come in different sizes, each suited to “[W]ithin the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, we shall bring
6. a; 7. c; 8. d
a particular task. My colleagues and I have built what we call tabs, to the House Floor the following bills, each to be given full and open
pads and boards: inch-scale machines that approximate active Post-It debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote and each to be immedi-
notes, foot-scale ones that behave something like a sheet of paper (or a ately available this day for public inspection and scrutiny.
book or a magazine). … 1. The Fiscal Responsibility Act: A balanced budget/tax limitation
Obtaining information will be trivial: ‘Who made that dress? amendment and a legislative line-item veto. …
Are there any more in the store? What was the name of the designer 2. The Taking Back Our Streets Act: An anticrime package
of that suit I liked last week?’ The computing environment knows the including stronger truth-in- sentencing, “good faith” exclu-
suit you looked at for a long time last week because it knows both of sionary rule exemptions, effective death penalty provisions, and
your locations, and, it can retroactively find the designer’s name even cuts in social spending from this summer’s “crime” bill to fund
if it did not interest you at the time. … prison construction. …
Most important, ubiquitous computers will help overcome the 3. The Personal Responsibility Act: Discourage illegitimacy
problem of information overload. There is more information available and teen pregnancy by prohibiting welfare to minor mothers
at our fingertips during a walk in the woods than in any computer and denying increased AFDC for additional children while on
system, yet people find a walk among trees relaxing and comput- welfare. …
ers frustrating. Machines that fit the human environment, instead 4. The Family Reinforcement Acts: Child support enforce-
of forcing humans to enter theirs, will make using a computer as ment, tax incentives for adoption, strengthening rights of par-
refreshing as taking a walk in the woods.” ents in their children’s education, stronger child pornography
—Mark Weiser, “The Computer for the 21st Century,” laws. …
Scientific American, 1991 5. The National Security Restoration Act: No U.S. troops
under U.N. command and restoration of the essential parts of our
9.1 An implication of Weiser’s argument is that computer
national security funding.”
technology will
—Republican “Contract with America,” 1994
a. become increasingly integrated into our daily lives
b. take the place of many outdoor activities 9.4 The proposed Personal Responsibility Act reflected
c. have the effect of keeping people from reading great which of the following Republican beliefs about
books and going to museums Democratic programs?
d. damage our culture irreparably by diminishing a. Not enough legislation was aimed at helping the needy.
person-to-person contact b. The programs were counterproductive in fighting
9.2 In noting that “[o]btaining information will be trivial” poverty.
about products like dresses, Weiser was most likely c. The programs were not adequately funded.
arguing that computer technology will d. The scope of the programs needed to be widened.
a. replace salespeople in retail stores 9.5 Which of the following best describes the overarching
b. increase the variety of products available goals of the Republican Party in the late 1900s?
c. enable Americans to have wider participation in the a. The United States must play a greater role in world
world economy affairs.
d. diminish the lives of Americans since they will be able b. The free market needs regulation to effectively serve
to order products directly from dressmakers the people.
9.3 Which of the following sources from the 2000s would c. The size and scope of government needs to be reduced.
most likely support Weiser’s argument in the excerpt? d. The immigration system needs to become stricter.
a. A report on the distracting effects of personal devices 9.6 Which of the following statements about Republican
b. Sales figures from dress and suit retailers initiatives from the late 1900s is true?
c. A poll that asks Americans the degree to which a. Much of the legislation that aimed to eliminate exist-
increased access to information has improved their lives ing programs went nowhere because these programs
d. Data from phone companies on the amount of time were popular with voters.
devices are used and when they are used
936

Certainty, Uncertainty, and New Beginnings 1980 to the Present 937 AIE937
b. Their wide popularity led to Republicans dominating out a steady diet of information and misinformation—including
presidential elections during this period. highly emotional claims—that keep Tea Party people in a constant
c. They grew out of the assumption that the previous state of anger and fear about the direction of the country and the
Congresses had placed too much emphasis on “family doings of government officials.”
values” at the expense of more substantive legislation. —Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson, The Tea Party and the Remaking
d. Most proposals reflected the Republican Party’s move of Republican Conservatism, 2013
to the left.
9.7 When Skocpol and Williamson wrote “the Tea Party
Questions 9.7–9.8 refer to the following excerpt. is neither a top-down creation, nor a bottom-up
explosion,” they made the point that the Tea Party
“Considered in its entirety, the Tea Party is neither a top-down
creation nor a bottom-up explosion. This remarkable political a. is made up of not just poor people; in fact, some
outpouring is best understood as a combination of three intertwined members are quite affluent
forces. Each force is important in its own right, and their interaction b. did not “burst on the scene,” but actually has a long
is what gives the Tea Party its dynamism, drama, and wallop. history going back many decades
Grassroots activism is certainly a key force, energized by angry, con- c. has sincere grassroots activists, but much of the
servative-minded citizens who have formed vital local and regional money that funds its activities comes from very
groups. Another force is the panoply of national funders and ultra- wealthy conservative sources
free-market advocacy groups that seek to highlight and leverage d. has many members that are seriously confused about
grassroots efforts to further their long-term goal of remaking the their own origins
Republican Party, pushing it towards the hard right on matters 9.8 In highlighting the role of conservative talk radio hosts,
of taxation, public spending, and government regulation. Finally, Skocpol and Williamson are highlighting the fact that
the Tea Party cannot be understood without recognizing the mobi-
a. they have made military spending a national issue
lization provided by conservative media hosts who openly espouse
b. the two parties were able to find common ground on
and encourage the cause. From Fox News to right-wing radio jocks
many, but not all, issues
and bloggers, media impresarios have done a lot to create a sense of
c. they have brought civility to public discourse
shared identity that lets otherwise scattered Tea Parties get together
d. debates over the size and scope of government
and feel part of something big and powerful. Media hosts also put
remained divisive
Section II: Short-Answer Question

Question 9.9 refers to the following excerpt. 9.9 Using the excerpt above, answer (a), (b), and (c).
“The “one big thing” Reagan knew was the power and value of human a. Briefly explain how ONE specific domestic policy
freedom, which proved to be the defining principle of his worldview. during the period 1981 to 1989 could be used to
It guided what he thought about domestic politics and was central to support Schweizer’s interpretation.
his vision for the world. For more than thirty years, Reagan embraced b. Briefly explain how ONE OTHER specific foreign
a vision for dealing with the Soviet Union and ending the Cold War policy during the period 1981 to 1989 could be used to
that was remarkably consistent and proved to be decisive. People who support Schweizer’s interpretation.
note his apparent lack of interest in the details of diplomacy, missile c. Briefly explain how ONE specific historical event or
throw weights, and international law fail to see his larger strategic development during the period 1981 to 1989 that is
vision. Details that animate so many in the word of politics, academe, not explicitly mentioned in the excerpt could be used
and journalism did not interest him so much as the “metaphysics” of to contradict Schweizer’s interpretation.
the Cold War.”
—Peter Schweizer, Reagan’s War, 2003

938 AIE 938 Part 9
Section III: Long Essay Questions

Directions: Answer Question 9.10 or Question 9.11 9.10 Evaluate the extent to which there are similarities in the
(Suggested writing time: 40 minutes) way technology impacted American society in the late
In your response you should do the following. 1800s/early 1900s and the late 1900s/early 2000s.
• Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible 9.11 Evaluate the extent to which there are similarities in the
thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning. way immigration impacted American society in the late
• Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt. 1800s/early 1900s and the late 1900s/early 2000s.
• Support an argument in response to the prompt using
specific and relevant examples of evidence.
• Use historical reasoning (e.g., comparison, causation,
continuity or change over time) to frame or structure an
argument that addresses the prompt.
• Use evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an
argument that addresses the prompt
Section IV:
Read on MyHistoryLab
Document-Based Question: Competing Political Visions

By The People: A History of The United States

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AIE903

The September 11, 2001, terror attack

M30_FRAS7095_02_AIE_C30.indd 903 12/12/17 12:05 AM

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the Taliban, Afghanistan How did Bush use this speech

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in front of the World Trade Center, between the Millennium Hotel

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Rahmat Gul/AP Images

The War on Terror at Home

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The Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

Beirut Damascus r Baghdad

West Bank SUNNI R Fallujah

ISRAEL Amman REGION Kandahar

Suez Strip JO R D A N REGION

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J. Scott Applewhite/AP Images

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Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath

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Marko Georgiev/Getty Images

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Jeff Grace/LA OPINION/Newscom

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The Obama Years 30.1

The Election of 2008

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The Rise of the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street,

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30.3 A Supreme Court case, decided in

Map 30-2 The Election of 2012.

to what extent was the 25( 0,11 1+

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30.3 Quick Review

New Liberals, New Conservatives,

Black Lives Matter

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Economic Troubles, Economic Stagnation,

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Janine Wiedel Photolibrary/Alamy Stock Photo

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Christian Gooden/Tribune Content Agency LLC/Alamy Stock Photo

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advocate for change? Bay of

how did the ideological N o r t h w e st

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American Voices 30.1

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AIE903

to what extent was the 25( 0,11 1+