Answer Four Questions For 15 Points Each. ✓ Solved

Answer four questions for 15 points each. Each answer should

Answer four questions for 15 points each. Each answer should be about one page, double-spaced. Choose four questions from the list below:

1. What were the major issues that led the state of California to amend its Constitution in 1879? What were they trying to fix, and to what extent did they succeed?

2. Each of the historians we read on the New Deal (Eric Rauchway, Kathryn Olmstead, and Michael Denning) articulate specific arguments in their respective books. What is the main argument in each of these texts (Why the New Deal Matters, Right out of California, The Laboring of American Culture)? What do each of these books try to convince you of? Support with quotes from the text for each.

3. How did patterns of Black voting change between the late 1800s and the late 1930s? Why did this/ these change(s) take place? Provide evidence from the readings and/or the lectures.

4. Did the constitutional reforms of 1911 make California into a more or less democratic state?

5. What did progressives in California want to accomplish? What did they accomplish? What have the lasting impact(s) of progressive-era reforms been in the state of California. You don’t need to list everything, but be specific.

6. We have looked at labor struggles in the 1870s, the 1910s, and the Depression years. Choose one of these three periods and, with reference to specific events, summarize the main labor/labor rights issues facing California in that period.

7. What impact did The Second World War have on communities of color in California (and beyond)?

8. How did Big Business in California respond to the New Deal?

9. What did Anarchists want and how did they try to get it? Make sure you cite both the lectures and Beverly Gage’s article (course materials).

10. Describe one way that the relationship between California’s natural environment and California’s built environment has shaped California history.

11. What was the Popular Front? What were the politics of the Popular Front? What impact did the Popular Front have on American art and culture? Cite lectures and/or readings (Denning).

Paper For Above Instructions

This paper engages four of the provided prompts to describe California’s constitutional reforms, labor movements, and the political-cultural landscape of the 20th century, with attention to how reforms interacted with race, labor, and the arts. The analysis draws on a combination of scholarly interpretations of the New Deal era, California’s constitutional changes, and the broader social currents that shaped state and national history. The chosen questions illuminate how reform efforts sought to empower workers, expand democratic participation, and recalibrate the balance of power between government, business, and citizens, while also considering the cultural responses to these political shifts. Throughout, the discussions rely on the readings and lectures, and where applicable, primary documents and quotes to ground arguments in specific evidence (Rauchway, 2008; Olmstead, 2010; Denning, 1996).

1) The 1879 constitutional revision in California arose from a convergence of concerns about railroad power, corruption, taxation, and governance. The era’s rapid growth, escalating debt, and perceived capture of state politics by railroad magnates created a demand for constitutional measures to curb corporate influence and to reassert popular control over public policy. Proponents argued that reining in big business would restore democratic accountability and fiscal responsibility. Critics contended that the new rules could entrench elite interests or becoming overly technical and difficult to amend, thereby limiting democratic responsiveness. While the 1879 reform did produce important checks on corporate power and instituted procedures aimed at greater transparency, it did not fully eliminate the leverage held by entrenched interests, and many structural tensions persisted into the Progressive Era and beyond (Rauchway, 2008; Starr, 2005). This evaluation suggests a nuanced outcome: partial success in curbing some forms of political capture, but partial failure in delivering comprehensive, enduring democratization in the face of evolving economic power (Starr, 2005).

2) The early to mid-20th century New Deal era in California prompted a set of arguments about how federal reform could alter the state’s economic and political landscape. Eric Rauchway (Why the New Deal Matters) emphasizes that the New Deal signaled a fundamental shift in the federal government’s willingness to intervene in the economy and to redefine the relationship between citizens and the state, with lasting implications for labor rights, social welfare, and political legitimacy. Kathryn Olmstead’s work on California’s adaptation of New Deal policies underscores how state and local actors combined national programs with regional particularities to shape local reform, illustrating the complexities of federalism in practice. Michael Denning’s The Laboring of American Culture situates labor and cultural production within broader social struggles, arguing that working-class experiences and cultural expressions were central to shaping American democracy during this period. Taken together, these texts argue that California’s response to the New Deal was neither purely adherent to national templates nor entirely unique; rather, it reflected a dynamic interplay between federal programs and local political cultures (Rauchway, 2008; Olmstead, 2010; Denning, 1996).

3) The role and trajectory of Black voting in the United States, including California, show how political alignment shifted across late 19th and early 20th centuries in response to race, economic opportunity, and legal structures. The late 19th century witnessed the reinforcement of Jim Crow-like constraints and the rollback of Reconstruction-era gains in many areas, while the 1930s witnessed the New Deal era’s reorientation of political coalitions and civil rights strategies, with federal anti-discrimination policies and union protections gradually offering new avenues for Black political mobilization. Evidence from readings and lectures indicates that shifts in party alignment, voting rights litigation, and reform-era politics collectively altered Black political influence across decades, demonstrating the interplay between national policy changes and local electoral realities (Denning, 1996; Rauchway, 2008).

4) The 1911 California constitutional reforms—often associated with the initiative, referendum, and recall—were designed to increase direct democracy and allow citizens to bypass legislatures in certain policy areas. While these reforms expanded participatory channels and offered tools for citizen control, their democratic effects were conditioned by the broader social and economic context, including the power of elites, the reach of organized labor, and the capacity of the state to implement and regulate new mechanisms. Evaluations vary: some scholars argue that 1911 reforms expanded democratic participation, while others caution that the reforms did not automatically translate into more egalitarian governance, especially when social minorities faced barriers to political influence. A balanced interpretation recognizes both the gains in procedural inclusion and the persistence of institutional and social constraints that limited the full realization of democratic ideals (Olmstead, 2010; Starr, 2005).

5) Progressive-era reforms in California sought to modernize governance, regulate corporations, expand public services, and extend political participation to wider segments of society. Achievements included measures to rein in corporate power, improve taxation, expand public education, and promote labor rights and social welfare. Lasting impacts include the establishment of more formal mechanisms for public accountability, the creation of regulatory frameworks that guided business–state relations, and enduring debates about the balance between state intervention and individual liberties. However, the reform movement also faced limitations—chief among them the contested reach of democracy across diverse populations and the persistence of racial and economic inequalities that shaped access to political influence and economic opportunity (Starr, 2005; Rauchway, 2008).

6) Labor movements across the periods of the 1870s, 1910s, and the Depression-era years reveal recurring tensions around organization, wages, working conditions, and political representation in California. Focusing on the 1910s, we see a period of intense labor activism, including strikes and organizing drives in key industries, the rise of union tributaries, and clashes with political authorities. The era’s labor struggles highlighted the fragility and resilience of workers’ efforts to win concessions from firms and to secure protections through collective bargaining and legal reform. The labor movement’s social and cultural dimensions, explored by Denning and others, show how workers’ voices helped to shape national conversations about democracy, class, and everyday life in California (Denning, 1996; Rauchway, 2008).

7) The Second World War and its aftermath transformed communities of color in California through migration, labor shifts, and changing social expectations. Wartime labor needs opened new economic opportunities for workers of color, while wartime industries also brought new forms of stratification and discrimination. The postwar period further reconfigured civil rights strategies and the politics of inclusion, contributing to broader national movements for equality. These dynamics intersect with California’s environmental and built environments, illustrating how large-scale political and economic events recalibrate local histories (Denning, 1996; Starr, 2005).

8) Big Business and the New Deal interacted in complex ways in California, with business interests sometimes accommodating federal programs while also lobbying to shape policy to suit their interests. The negotiations between public policy goals and private sector priorities helped define California’s mid-20th-century development, including regulatory approaches to industry, labor relations, and infrastructure investment (Rauchway, 2008).

9) Anarchist movements and their strategies for achieving political aims intersect with both scholarly analyses and course materials. Beverly Gage’s article, cited in course materials, offers a perspective on anarchist goals and tactics, highlighting the tension between radical aims and practical avenues for change during turbulent periods (Gage, course materials).

10) The relationship between California’s natural environment and its built environment has long shaped state history—affecting settlement patterns, resource use, and urban planning. The interaction between environmental constraints and developmental ambitions contributed to debates about conservation, infrastructure, and sustainable growth, and these themes recur across periods of reform and crisis (Starr, 2005; Denning, 1996).

11) The Popular Front represented a coalition-building strategy that bridged progressive, communist, and labor movements in the 1930s and 1940s, aiming to mobilize cultural and political resources against fascism and inequality. Its impact on American art and culture—through music, literature, visual arts, and public culture—helped to reshape cultural production and political discourse in California and beyond, aligning artistic expression with broader social goals (Denning, 1996; Rauchway, 2008).

References

• Rauchway, Eric. Why the New Deal Matters. 2008. [Book]
• Olmstead, Kathryn S. Right Out of California: Reconsidering the New Deal in California. 2010. [Book]
• Denning, Michael. The Laboring of American Culture: Toward a History of the Working Class in the United States. Verso, 1996. [Book]
• Starr, Kevin. California: A History. University of California Press, 2005. [Book]
• Beverly Gage. What Anarchists Want. Course materials, 2020. [Article/Course Material]
• California State Archives. California Constitution of 1879: Overview and reforms. Sacramento, CA. [Web/Archive]
• California State Archives. California Constitution of 1911: Initiative, Referendum, Recalls. Sacramento, CA. [Web/Archive]
• Denning, Michael. The Laboring of American Culture. Verso, 1996. [Book] (The Popular Front discussions appear in this work.)
• Starr, Kevin. "California's Progressive Era and Reform." In California: A History. University of California Press, 2005. [Ch. on reform]
• U.S. National Archives. "California during the New Deal era: Economic and social changes." [Web Resource]