1861-1865
1869-1877
1901-1909
"With malice [hatred] toward none; with
charity for all; with firmness in the right, as
God gives us to see the right, let us strive on
to finish the work we are in; to bind up the
nation’s wounds;; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow
and his orphan; to do all which may achieve
and cherish a just and lasting peace among
ourselves and with all nations.”
“Wars of extermination, engaged
in by people pursuing commerce
and all industrial pursuits, are
expensive even against the
weakest people, and are
demoralizing and wicked.”
26th President of the United States of America
Theodore Roosevelt
18th President of the United States of America
Ulysses S. Grant
“Speak softy and carry a big stick”
“I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot – but it takes more
than that to kill a Bull Moose.”
“I am in this cause with my whole heart and
soul. I believe that the Progressive
movement is making life a little easier for
all our people”
Herbert Hoover
Franklin Roosevelt
1913-1921
1929-1933
1933-1945
“You are not here merely to make a
living. You are here in order to enable
the world to live more amply, with
greater vision, with a finer spirit of
hope and achievement. You are here
to enrich the world, and you
impoverish yourself if you forget the
errand.”
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“Economic depression cannot be
cured by legislative action or
executive pronouncement.
Economic wounds must be healed
by the action of the cells of the
economic body - the producers
and consumers themselves.”
32nd President of the United States of America
Woodrow Wilson
31st President of the United States of America
16th President of the United States of
28th President of the United States of America
Abraham Lincoln
“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself”
Theodore Roosevelt
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Theodore Roosevelt was the leader of the
Rough Riders during the Spanish
American War.
Theodore Roosevelt was the first
progressive in the White House (the
others were Taft and Wilson). He was a
strong president who believed in using
his position to influence the nation.
During his two terms in office, he
expanded presidential powers.
Roosevelt proposed the Square Deal in
which he believed all people should
receive fair and honest treatment.
Roosevelt began the trust busting
movement with the Sherman Anti-trust
Act and worked to protect consumers and
workers with the Pure Food and Drug
Act and Meat Inspection Act.
Like other Progressives, Roosevelt
supporting protecting the environment
and conservation and established the US
Forest Service.
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Ulysses S. Grant
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Franklin Roosevelt
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In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt launched an
ambitious campaign tour and promoted the
New Deal, a plan to do whatever was needed to
help the needy and promote recovery.
During the First Hundred Days of his
administration, Congress enacted many
programs to provide relief, promote recovery,
and enact reforms.
FDR took an active role to solving the
problems of the Great Depression including the
NIRA, AAA, TVA, CCC, WPA, and the
SEC (Alphabet Soup).
Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to increase the
number of US Supreme Court Justices which
made the government more aware of checks
and balances.
Domestically, American industry began
converting America’s industrial base to produce armaments and other war material,
rather than civilian goods during WWII.
Internationally, Roosevelt’s relationship with Winston Churchill led to the Lend Lease Act,
which allowed the U.S. to support Britain’s war effort before the U.S. entered World War II.
Ulysses S. Grant supported
Congressional Reconstruction and
promised to protect the rights of
freedmen in the South.
Under Grant, the Fifteenth Amendment
was passed which states that “the right of citizens … to vote shall not be denied or abridged [limited] by the United States or
bay any State on account of race, color,
or previous condition of servitude.”
Grant also dealt with widespread racism
in the south with the resurgence of the
Ku Klux Klan, a terror group that
“opposed to negro equality, both social
and political”. In 1870 and 1871, Congress took action
to end the wave of terror by passing the
Enforcement Acts. These laws made it a
federal crime to deprive citizens of their
civil rights. Grant sent federal marshals
into the South to crush the terror group
Abraham Lincoln
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On January 1, 1863, Lincoln signed the
Emancipation Proclamation, which
declared all slaves living in states “in rebellion against the US” to be “thenceforward, and forever free”
Several months later, Lincoln gave the
Gettysburg Address noting that the war
was testing whether a nation “conceived
in liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that ‘all men are created equal’…can long endure”. President Abraham Lincoln was one of
the last casualties of the Civil War. By
the time of his death on April 14, 1985,
more than half a million people had died
in the struggle. Moreover, much of the
South lay in ruins. Rebuilding cities like
Richmond, Virginia, would be hard
enough. Reconstructing a nation after
such a long and bitter war would be even
more difficult.
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Herbert Hoover
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Herbert Hoover strongly believed in selfreliance, rugged individualism, and hard
work.
He did not believe that the federal
government should give aid to the needy, he
worried, it would undermine self-reliance
and encourage people to become dependent
on government handouts. Instead, he
supported “mutual self-help through
voluntary giving”.
Hoovervilles were shantytowns that
homeless Americans in many cities built out
of crude cardboard and tarpaper during the
Great Depression.
To deal with failing banks, he supported the
creation of the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation (RFC) which issued
government loans to banks, railroads, and
other big business.
Hoover battled the Bonus Army during the
Great Depression (WWI vets that wanted
their bonus early)
Hoover also attempted to help the economy
with the construction of the Hoover Dam.
Woodrow Wilson
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Woodrow Wilson, the last progressive president,
was a scholar and idealist. The president, he wrote
in 1907, “is the only voice in national affairs. Let him once win the admiration and confidence of the
country, and no other single force can withstand
him, no combination of forces will easily
overpower him.”
As president, he set out to implement a reform
called New Freedom, to eliminate all trusts and
limit their power.
Wilson expanded worker protection and supported
an eight-hour workday – at least for some workers.
In 1916, Wilson supported the creation of the
National Park Service (NPS).
Under Wilson, the 17th Amendment was ratified
requiring the direct election of senators by popular
votes.
He wrote the Fourteen Points Plan which
suggested freedom of the seas, reduced armaments,
and a League of Nations, among other things.
Wilson believed that providing collective security
in the League of Nations would fix many
problems that the Treaty of Versailles created but
it fell short in Congress
Harry S. Truman
Dwight Eisenhower
1953-1961
35th President of the United States of America
34th President of the United States of America
“I doubt whether any of these people
[pacifists], with their academic or dogmatic
hatred of war, detest it as much as I do.
They probably have not seen bodies rotting
on the ground and smelled the stench of
decaying human flesh. What separates me
from the pacifists is that I hate the Nazis
more than I hate war.”
1961-1963
“Now the trumpet summons us again – not
as a call to bear arms, though arms we need
– not as a call to battle, though embattled
we are – but a call to bear the burden of a
long twilight struggle, year in and year out,
‘rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation’ – a
struggle against the common enemies of
man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war
itself.”
Richard Nixon
Jimmy Carter
1963-1969
1969-1974
1977-1981
“I am a free man, an American, a United
States Senator, and a Democrat, in that
order. I am also a liberal, a conservative, a
Texan, a taxpayer, a rancher, a
businessman, a consumer, a parent, a voter,
and not as young as I used to be nor as old
as I expect to be – and I am all of these
things in no fixed order.”
“I have never been a quitter. To leave
office before my term is completed is
abhorrent to every instinct in my
body. Bus as President I must put the
interests of America first…Therefore, I shall resign the presidency, effective
at noon tomorrow.”
39th President of the United States of America
Lyndon Johnson
37th President of the United States of America
36th President of the United States of America
32nd President of the United States of America
1945-1953
“Sixteen hours ago an American
airplane dropped one bomb on
Hiroshima…The force from which the sun draws it powers has
been loosed against those who
brought war to the Far East.”
John F Kennedy
“I thought a lot about our Nation
and what I should do as President.
And Sunday night before last, I
made a speech about two
problems of our country – energy
and malaise.”
John F. Kennedy
Dwight Eisenhower
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In 1961, when John F. Kennedy, the youngest
man elected to the presidency, replaced Dwight
Eisenhower, one of the oldest presidents, the
atmosphere in the White House changed.
Kennedy worked to translate his New Frontier
rhetoric into a list of concrete goals. However
he had trouble getting his legislative agenda
through Congress.
After the Bay of Pigs invasion, people
throughout Latin America criticized Kennedy
for interfering in another country’s affairs. On October 22, 1962, Kennedy announced to
the nation the discovery of the missile sites in
Cuba and this became known as the Cuban
Missile Crisis.
Kennedy wanted to aid foreign countries and to
spread this “know-how” he issued an executive order creating the Peace Corps.
Tragically on November 22, 1963, Kennedy
was assassinated in Texas by Lee Harvey
Oswald.
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Jimmy Carter
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When Jimmy Carter took office, he
wanted to “promote justice, equity, and human rights”.
He took a step towards peace and won the
Nobel Peace Prize with the Camp David
Accords.
However, the Iran Hostage Crisis would
be an embarrassing moment for his
presidency.
An accident at the Three Mile Island
Nuclear Generating Station in 1978
highlighted the potential dangers of
nuclear energy that President Carter
promoted.
Harry S. Truman
When Eisenhower took office, the United
States and the Soviet Union were enthralled in
the Cold War.
As a response to NATO (1949), the Soviet
Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East
Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania
joined forces for mutual defense called the
Warsaw Pact.
Deep communist tensions lead to the Korean
War in 1950 as part of the Containment
Policy.
The combination of deterrence revolved around
developing a weapons arsenal so deadly that
the Soviet Union would not dare to attack. The
combination of deterrence and the willingness
to use nuclear weapons came to be known as
Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD).
The 1950’s was a culture filled with fear and accusations as the atomic age included
McCarthyism and fall out shelters.
President Truman guided the transition from
wartime to a peacetime economy. But he was
unable to get his Fair Deal reform program
approved by a Republican Congress.
Immediately after the war, a series of labor
strikes threatened to cripple the economy. In
response, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley
Act, which limited the power of unions.
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Richard Nixon
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President Nixon entered the White House with a
mandate to change the course of the Vietnam War.
He wanted to achieve “Peace with Honor”.
When diplomacy failed with “Peace with Honor”, he tried Vietnamization and invading neighboring
Cambodia.
The Pentagon Papers revealed how previous
administrations had deceived Congress and the public
about Vietnam.
Nixon reached out to conservatives with the plan,
New Federalism, to reduce the size and power of the
federal government. But he increased the power of
the government with domestic policies such as
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA), and the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
Nixon struggled with an energy crisis when OPEC
placed an oil embargo on the U.S. but his
international policy was successful in relaxing
tensions (détente) with Communist China and the
Soviet Union.
Nixon would eventually resign from office in
disgrace when the Watergate scandal revealed that
he was involved in the cover up.
After the successful test of the atomic bomb, or Abomb, President Truman had to decide whether to
drop the bomb on Japan or to launch an invasion.
Truman stuck to his demand for an unconditional
surrender. On August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Then three days
later, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki,
ending World War II.
After WWII a new organization called the United
Nations was formed to help “lay the foundations upon which, after victory, peace, freedom, and a
growing prosperity may be built for generations to
come.”
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(1948) affirms basic human rights, including life,
liberty, and equality before the law, as well as to
freedom of religion, expression, and assembly.
Truman declared in the Truman Doctrine, “to support free peoples who are resisting attempted
subjugation [conquest] by armed minorities or by
outside pressures” to stop the spread of Communism.
The Marshall Plan also offered all European
nations, including the Soviet Union, generous
funding to rebuild their economies as long as the
money was spent on goods made in the U.S.
Lyndon Johnson
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In contrast to Harvard-education Kennedy, Lyndon
Johnson was a rough-hewn Texan. He served in
Congress for 23 years before becoming vice president.
A master of the legislative process, Johnson had far
more political experience than Kennedy. Comparing
the two presidents, one journalist said, “Kennedy inspired…Johnson delivered.”
Johnson’s Great Society grew out of the liberal
tradition of the Progressive and New Deal eras. Its
centerpiece was an ambitious War on Poverty.
The Economic Opportunity Act created an umber of
antipoverty measures, including the Job Corps,
Project Head Start, and VISTA, which all helped
cut poverty rates almost in half.
As part of the Great Society, Congress amended the
Social Security Act to include medical health
insurance for the elderly and disabled.
The Immigration Act of 1965 ended the national
origins quota system that began in the 1920s. US entry
was now based on criteria such as skills and family
ties.
In a series of controversial decisions, the Warren
Court expanded the rights of the accused. It ensured
that people placed under arrest be informed of their
rights before questioning.
During the Vietnam War, Johnson increased troops
and it would ultimately be the deciding factor on him
not running for reelection
Bill Clinton
1981-1989
1989-1993
1993-2001
“Let us beware that while [Soviet
leaders] preach the supremacy of the
state, declare its omnipotence over
individual man, and predict its
eventual domination over all the
peoples of the earth, they are the focus
of evil in the modern world”
“The Congress will push me to
raise taxes, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again. And all I can say is ready my lips: No New
Taxes.”
42nd President of the United States of America
George H.W. Bush
41st President of the United States of America
“The real differences around the world
today are not between Jews and Arabs,
Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats
and Serbs. The real differences are between
those who embrace peace and those who
would destroy it; between those who look to
the future and those who cling to the past;
between those who open their arms and
those who are determined to clench their
fists.”
George W. Bush
Barack Obama
2001-2009
2009-present
“To those of you who received
honors, awards and distinctions, I
say well done. And to the C
students, I say you, too, can be
president of the United States.”
44th President of the United States of America
40th President of the United States of America
43rd President of the United States of America
Ronald Reagan
“The pundits like to slice and dice our
country into red states and blue states. Red
states for Republicans, blue states for
Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue
states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the red
states. We coach Little League in the blue
states and, yes, we’ve got some gay friends
in the red states.”
Bill Clinton
As a moderate New Democrat, Clinton breathed new
life into the Democratic coalition. One of his main
legacies is welfare reform. Clinton failed to enact
universal health care, however. In his second term,
Clinton was impeached but not removed from office.
In the 1994 midterm elections, Republicans won
control of Congress with their 10-point Contract with
America.
Ethnic conflicts in various countries prompted mixed
responses from the United States. In the former
Yugoslavia, the United States backed NATO military
actions against ethnic cleansing. However, it failed to
stop genocide in Rwanda.
The United States offered humanitarian aid to ease
suffering in Somalia and North Korea, but with mixed
results. The HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa prompted
concern but little action.
In 1994, Congress ratified a new version of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
It also established the World Trade Organization
(WTO). The main function of the WTO is to set trade
policies and mediate disputes among members.
In 1993, Muslim terrorists set off a bomb beneath the
World Trade Center in New York City.
In 1998, the U.S. embassies in the East African
nations of Kenya and Tanzania were bombed.
In 2000, terrorists attacked the USS Cole, a Navy
destroyer anchored off the coast of the Arab nation of
Yemen.
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George H.W. Bush
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In 1988, Bush appealed to Reagan Republicans with
his campaign pledges to expand the economy, not
raise taxes, and create a “kinder, gentler” America. After a costly bailout of the savings and loans crisis,
he broke the no-taxes pledge in an effort to balance
the federal budget.
The United States worked to oust an aggressive
dictator in Panama. In the Persian Gulf War, it
fought alongside other nations to force Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait.
In the early 1990’s, President George H.W. Bush began to work for passage of the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which would
create a free-trade zone among the United States,
Mexico, and Canada.
Ronald Reagan
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Reagan’s conservative agenda called for lower taxes,
reduced government regulation of business, and cuts
in spending on social programs became known as the
Reagan Revolution.
Reagan’s strongest support came from the New Right,
a movement of conservative activists and
organizations. This movement included evangelical
Christian organizations like the Moral Majority.
Reagan’s economic plan was based on supply-side
economics. He cut taxes to stimulate business activity,
arguing that this would boost the economy and
produce jobs. Tax cuts and increased defense
spending, however, led to large budget deficits and a
huge national debt.
Reagan called for reducing regulations on business
and the environment. He also cut spending on social
services.
The Supreme Court moved to the right under Reagan.
Reagan increased military spending to counter the
Soviet threat by designing the Strategic Defense
Initiative (SDI).
The Reagan Doctrine backed anticommunist
movements around the world.
Reagan sent U.S. peacekeeping forces to Lebanon.
The Reagan administration faced a scandal over arms
sales to Iran and the diversion of funds to the Contras
with the Iran-Contra Affair.
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Barack Obama
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President Obama is the first African American
president of the United States.
President Obama’s years of public service are based around his unwavering belief in the ability to unite
people around a politics of purpose.
He passed the first major ethics reforms in 25 years,
cut taxes for working families, and expanded health
care for children and their parents.
In his first term, the President passed the landmark
Affordable Care Act, helping to put quality health
care within reach for more Americans.
He ended the war in Iraq and is working to
responsibly end the war in Afghanistan.
He also passed historical Wall Street reform to make
sure taxpayers never again have to bail out big banks
and cut taxes for every American worker.
He’s fought for equal rights and woman’s right to make her own health decisions. And he’s made a college education more affordable for millions of
students and their families.
The President believes an economy that’s built to last starts with a strong and growing middle class – that’s why he has a plan to create jobs and restore economic
security to working families.
George Bush
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In the 2000 election, Al Gore led George W. Bush in
the popular vote by a very thin margin. The Supreme
Court decided the outcome, denying Gore’s demand for a recount in Florida.
As a candidate, Bush reached out to moderates with
his compassionate conservatism. One of his main
legacies is education reform. However, Bush failed to
reform the Social Security system.
On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four
airplanes. They smashed three of the planes into
buildings in New York City and Washington, D.C. In
the days that followed, Americans learned that an
international terrorist network called al Qaeda had
carried out the 9/11 attacks.