While reading Chapter 24, I found that it mainly focused on change. The change that was occurring was not all good, and in order for their to be good change, it also brought bad change with it.
The US was undergoing great economic expansion. The economic expansion brought in more money for the US, and it supplied jobs to people. The economic expansion also helped accelerate technological advancements, such as computers, radios, and more efficient trains. With the US undergoing so much prosperity, it made more people want to come into the US, and changed the Culture of the US.
The economic growth in the US caused a more urban and consumer-oriented culture.
The amount of purchasing going on in the US went way up and people were more focused on money and power. The thirst for money and power was so great that some people started interpreting the bible in a different way to be more successful and not be inhibited by the bible. The change in culture changed the way people lived their lives to focus more on power, therefore making education a necessity.
The want to be educated caused the attendance in schools to increase drastically.
High School attendance went from 2.2 million to 5 million. Schools also started to offer modern classes, in addition to the traditional classes. Everywhere there was change in order to accommodate the growing US economy.
The changing culture in the US was threatening many traditions, and religious beliefs and practices. The modernists were either not affected by the changes in culture or realized that the benefits of the changes outweighed the negative things. The majority of the US where modernists, so the US continued to change even more. The group that opposed the modernists where the fundamentalists, who did not want any of the new change.
The fundamentalist wanted to stick to their traditions. The fundamentalist did not like the changes that were going on such as the religion changing because of scientific findings.
They also did not like the amount of foreign immigration that was going on. The dislike of foreign immigration led to the formation of the klan, which led to violence and conflict.
Economic Expansion, cultural change, and the improvement of education where all either great or bad things, depending if you were a modernists or a fundamentalists. All of the change if it had accepted by everyone would not have caused that much bad change, but the fundamentalists were not okay with the change and that created conflict and some violence, both of which are bad changes.
