From These Beginnings is a series of mini-biographies of ten historical personalities-Mark Twain, Jane Addams, Gifford Pinchot, Henry Ford, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Richard Nixon, Elvis Presley, Betty Friedan and Ted Turner.
Assignment: Read the following chapters, and answer the following questions:
1. Henry Ford
a. What techniques did Henry Ford incorporate to turn his small automobile company into the giant Ford Motor Company?
b. In what ways was Henry Ford a "symbol for the age" of the 1920s? How does Ford epitomize the ambivalence of many Americans regarding modernity?
2. Martin Luther King Jr.
a. Two schools of thought on achieving advancement for black people dominated late-19th and early 20th century America. Compare and contrast the philosophies and practices of Booker T Washington and William EB Du Bois.
b. By the time of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth in 1929, black culture was making an increasing mark on the national culture. Identify the factors that made this so.
c. Legal decisions and nonviolent resistance proved successful during the 1950s in promoting black civil rights. Identify and discuss some of the watershed events of that decade.
3. Betty Friedan
a. As a graduate of Smith College, Friedan had limited career horizons. What historical factors created this condition for women of the 1940s? How did the condition worsen in the 1950s?
b. What experiences compelled Friedan to write the Feminine Mystique? What is the "feminine mystique" in Friedan's view?
c. The mid-1970s was the zenith of the women's movement. Why was this? What were some of the landmark events of the period, and what happened to the movement in the 1980s and 1990s?