North Central Texas College An Analysis of Theodore Roosevelt’s “True Americanism” U.S. History 1302 April 4, 2017 Colbi Johnson From its initial days, America has always remained a nation of immigrants. “We were then already, what we are now, a people of mixed blood.” Native inhabitants, traversed the land bridge that connected Asia and North America tens of thousands of years ago. America’s first colonists came in search of freedom to practice their faith. Throughout the colonial period, many immigrants were brought to America against their will from West Africa. Throughout the 1900s America observed a major trend of immigration. People leaving their homelands with hopes of living the “American Dream”. During the late 19th …show more content…
Immigrants who came from Europe usually arrived through the East coast. By far, nearly all European arrivals entered America through the Ellis Island processing center in the state of New York. Immigrants who came mostly from Japan and China arrived on the West coast of the United States. All immigrants arriving on the West coast would go through the Angel Island immigrant processing center located in San Francisco, California. Many immigrants settled in the Northern cities due to lack of money to move away from the coastal ports they entered through. For much of the 1900s, the federal government left immigration policies to individual states. Leaders of the industry welcomed immigrants as a source of cheap, unskilled …show more content…
Roosevelt implies that as American people “we have a right to demand” the assimilation of newly arriving immigrants. “We must Americanize them in every way, in speech, in political ideas and principles”. Roosevelt thought that to be entirely involved in the sense of Americanism, one must fully trust that America is different than any other country. America has its own needs that do not relate to the needs of any other nation around the world. Consequently, it is un-American to imitate the ways or plans of other countries. Likewise, the speech from Richard Guenther, a German-born American, within the “True Americanism” incorporates Theodore Roosevelt’s message of the importance of “Americanism”. “We are no longer Germans; we are Americans” and immigrants who intended to become Americans should no longer cling to their homelands. Similar to Roosevelt’s suggestion of “cease[ing] to be Europeans, and become Americans like the rest of
American taking part in imperialism gained its motion from both economic and cultural justifications that stemmed from America's history of expansion; American imperialism only varied slightly in the first few generations of presidents as we will explore sampling from Theodore Roosevelt's presidency on into Woodrow Wilson's presidency. American's previous western expansion became the breeding grounds for American imperialistic justification. Though cultural justifications were used to keep the public interest in support of imperialism economic justifications were viewed as more important throughout the history of imperialism, even in uniting the similarities of Theodore Roosevelt's and Woodrow Wilson's imperial agendas.
During the Progressive Era, our country was going through many changes and those changes have had numerous effects that are still apparent today. Theodore Roosevelt and Randolph Bourne both had very differing opinions about how citizens should be seen by themselves and their governments. The main difference between Roosevelt’s and Bourne’s theories on citizenship is the amount of domination and empowerment that was posed to the people. Roosevelt had thought that the people of American should only identify as American, even if they were born in another country. Bourne’s opinion was drastically different form Roosevelt’s by believing that the people of America should embrace their own cultures and share it with the rest of the country. Using Randolph Bourne’s “Trans-National America” and Theodore Roosevelt’s “True Americanism” this essay will show that over time Bourne’s idea of empowering the diversity of citizens has been more successful than Roosevelt’s idea of having a society that was more dominated by a the need for everyone to be the same.
In the years from 1860 through 1890, the prospect of a better life attracted nearly ten million immigrants who settled in cities around the United States. The growing number of industries produced demands for thousands of new workers and immigrants were seeking more economic opportunities. Most immigrants settled near each other’s own nationality and/or original village when in America.
Immigration has existed around the world for centuries, decades, and included hundreds of cultures. Tired of poverty, a lack of opportunities, unequal treatment, political corruption, and lacking any choice, many decided to emigrate from their country of birth to seek new opportunities and a new and better life in another country, to settle a future for their families, to work hard and earn a place in life. As the nation of the opportunities, land of the dreams, and because of its foundation of a better, more equal world for all, the United States of America has been a point of hope for many of those people. A lot of nationals around the world have ended their research for a place to call home in the United States of America. By analyzing primary sources and the secondary sources to back up the information, one could find out about what Chinese, Italians, Swedish, and Vietnamese immigrants have experienced in the United States in different time periods from 1865 to 1990.
In the book Theodore Roosevelt by Louis Auchincloss, I learned a great deal about the twenty-sixth President of the United States of America. Former President T. Roosevelt made many accomplishments as president, and did not have a high number of scandals. Roosevelt did very well in keeping the peace between the different countries, which earned him many admirers and the coveted Nobel Peace Prize. The author’s purpose for writing Theodore Roosevelt was to tell his readers all about America’s former president, Theodore Roosevelt’s life. Louis Auchincloss did a great job at describing President T. Roosevelt’s life from Teddy’s childhood, his life before presidency, to all of Teddy’s accomplishments as president, and finally to his life after his
There is overwhelming evidence presented by Cather for the inability of American society to coexist harmoniously with the individualist immigrant; they can accept only those who are willing to subscribe to the conformist doctrine ...
Brinkley, Douglas. The wilderness warrior : Theodore Roosevelt and the crusade for America. New York : HarperCollins, 2009.
Burk Edwards Mr. Kriner Us History 19 October 2017 Ellis Island Intro Located in the upper New York Bay was the border or gateway for immigrants to come to the United States, in total over 12 million immigrants used Ellis island to get to the United States. Ellis Island has been used as an immigration inspection center for over 60 years. The process they used to get immigrants into the United States was asking basic questions like money, name and occupation. There was also a medical procedure to get by Ellis Island, Ellis Island closed its immigration process in 1954.
In the eyes of the early American colonists and the founders of the Constitution, the United States was to represent the ideals of acceptance and tolerance to those of all walks of life. When the immigration rush began in the mid-1800's, America proved to be everything but that. The millions of immigrants would soon realize the meaning of hardship and rejection as newcomers, as they attempted to assimilate into American culture. For countless immigrants, the struggle to arrive in America was rivaled only by the struggle to gain acceptance among the existing American population.
The United States of America has the largest foreign-born population in the world. With nearly thirteen percent of the total population being foreign-born, one may find it hard to imagine an immigrant-free country (U.S. Bureau of the Census). Immigration has been an integral part of the United States’ overall success and the country’s economy since it was established and without it, would have never been founded at all. Although there are some negative issues associated with immigration and many native-born Americans believe to be more of a problem than a solution, overall it actually has a positive effect. Immigrants in America, among other things, fill jobs where native-born Americans may not want to work or cannot work, they contribute to Social Services and Medicaid through taxes and they help provide the backbone of America, especially by working jobs that natives may have not even considered.
On August 31, 1910, former President Theodore Roosevelt visited Osawatomie, Kansas to give a speech and participate in a memorial dedication. (Hennessy, 1910). Roosevelt had declined to run for re-election to the presidency in 1908, deciding to exit politics and go on a yearlong African safari (Ellis, 2001, p. 284). Frustrated with President Taft’s actions, Roosevelt reentered political life in 1910 (Mowry, 1939). In the Osawatomie address, Roosevelt introduced his idea for a New Nationalism. Many of the speech’s components became the bedrock of the Bull Moose campaign used by the Progressive Party in the 1912 election (Spring, 1970). In the address, Roosevelt compares the struggle for economic equality to the one for abolition of slavery fought in the Civil War. He presents a plea for government and citizens to put nation before self to address economic injustice.
It has been observed that, from history American has served as a destination for most immigrants in the world the world (Williams 16).
Daniels, Roger. Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life. New York: Perennial, 2002. Print.
During the last 10-15 years of the Progressive Era, more than 15 million immigrants arrived in the United States— a number equal to the total number of immigrants that arrived in the previous 40 years. In 1910, three-fourths of New York City's population was made up of either immigrants or first generation Americans. Unlike earlier immigrants, the majority of the newcomers during this time came from non-English speaking European countries. Immigrants mostly traveled in from...
An immigrant country for immigrants founded by immigrants, America was destined the melting pot of all religion, race, and culture. During the decades of fresh new freedom, rush of the west, industrial and political machines, and the hustling, bustling new America, the country’s identity was not yet established or important. The ideal American at the time was the kin of her founders, white and protestant, the first immigrants, the true natives, and the powerful. Many believed it was the duty of the ideal American to help those who did not meet the definition, thus beginning the age of assimilation. Sometimes assimilation is deeply rooted in the fear of the foreign and the desire to transfer one’s own identity and beliefs to a seemingly inferior