It was an important event in the nation's history because it was the first time that America was dominated by internal conflicts that challenged its democracy (Fortuna, n.d.). However, once the fighting came to an end, its significance became clear because of its effects on the American society. Despite of taking more than 60,000 lives, the American Civil War contributed to the establishment of the Democratic South and Republican North.

Nineteenth Century Reform The nineteenth century, particularly between 1825 and the outbreak of the civil war in 1861, the United States was in a state of reform. There were five key reform movements that made themselves present in America in the nineteenth century. There was the Utopianism/ Communitarian Movement, which established an ideal society separate from present politics. Educational reforms were important in the creation of taxes to support the public school

Even in the 2008 general election, which had widely-touted voter turnout, a number of eligible people did not vote. Michael McDonald engaged in a complex study, which not only looked at people in the population who were age-eligible for voting, but also looked at the number of people who were not otherwise disenfranchised, such as felons or foreign nationals. He found an overall turnout rate of truly eligible people

Women's History Throughout the history of Western civilization, cultural beliefs allowed women only limited roles in society, such as mothers and wives, and it was believed that women were intellectually inferior to men (Women's pp). Women shared the same disadvantages with the majority of working class men, since many social, economic, and political rights were restricted to the wealthy elite (Women's pp). During the late eighteenth century, political theorists and philosophers

Birmingham Campaign of 1963 and the Civil Rights Movement Since the end of the Civil War and the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery in America, equal rights for African Americans was one of the anticipated outcomes. Yet, the law did not swing entirely in favor of equality; rather, it offered freedom and segregation. Jim Crow laws were essentially institutionalized with the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision, which

The 16th Amendment was the first to be passed in the 20th century. It allowed incomes to be taxed as a clear response to the Supreme Court decision in the Pollock v Farmers' Loan and Trust Company (Fonder and Shaffrey 2002). Congress previously passed an income tax law in 1894, which the Supreme Court found to be unconstitutional, not being divided among the states by population. Before the 16th Amendment,