Americans have produced much notable literature across genres — its citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature twelve times. Toni Morrison became the most recent recipient in 1993. The genre of literature which captures the American essence in its narrative is the 'Great American Novel'. The term has been used to describe Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.
Toni Morisson
Toni Morrison (b. February 18, 1931, Lorain, Ohio) is a Nobel Prize winning American author. Her works are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed African American characters; among the best known are her novels The Bluest Eye, Beloved (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), and Song of Solomon. In 2001 she was named one of the 30 most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American Jazz Age author of novels and short stories. He is regarded as one of the greatest twentieth century writers. Fitzgerald was of the self-styled "Lost Generation," Americans born in the 1890s who came of age during World War I. He finished four novels, left a fifth unfinished, and wrote dozens of short stories that treat themes of youth, despair, and age.
Herman Melville
Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His earliest novels were bestsellers, but his popularity declined later in his life. By the time of his death he had been almost completely forgotten, but his longest novel, Moby-Dick — largely considered a failure during his lifetime, and responsible for Melville's drop in popularity — was rediscovered in the 20th century as a literary masterpiece.
____________________
*Wikipedia.org
*Browne, Ray B. ed. The Guide to United States Popular Culture (2001) (ISBN 0879728213)
*CQ Guide to Current American Government: Spring 2007 (2006)
*Jonathan Crowther. Oxford Guide to British and American Culture for Learners of English. (2004)
*M. Thomas Inge and Dennis Hall, eds. The Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture (4 vol 2002)
*Johnson, Paul M. A History of the American People. 1104 pages. Harper Perennial: 1999. ISBN 0-06-093034-9, conservative historian
Thursday, May 17, 2007
United States
The United States of America is a federal costutional republic comprised of 50 states and several territories. Forty-eight contiguous states lie in central North America between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bounded on land by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south; Alaska is seperated by Canada to the south and east, and Hawaii sits in the mid-Pacific. At over 3.7 million square miles (over 9.6 million km²) and with more than 300 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and third largest by land area and population. American society is the product of large-scale immigration and is home to a complex social structure as well as a wide array of hausehold arrangements. The U.S. is one of the world's most ethnically and socially diverse nations. The United States had the largest national economy with a GDP of more than $13 trillion, constituting 22 percent of the gross world product. In terms of GDP per capita the US ranks 3rd and 8th, depending on measurement.
The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain who issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. It adopted the current constitution on September 17, 1787 making 27 amendments afterwards. The country greatly expanded throughout the 19th century, acquiring territory from France, Mexico, Spain, and Russia. The United States became one of two major superpowers due to its role in World War II and its development of nuclear weapons. As the remaining superpower after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States continues to exert dominant economic, political, cultural, and military influence in the western world and around the globe.
Native Amerikans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Native Americans in the United States
Before the European colonization of the Americas, a process that began at the end of the 15th century, the present-day continental U.S. was inhabited exclusively by various indigenous peoples, including Alaskan natives, who migrated to the continent over a period that may have begun 35,000 years ago and may have ended as recently as 11,000 year ago. Several indigenous communities developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state level Pre-Columbian societies. However, first contact between Native Americans and early Spanish explorers spread epidemics that killed a large portion of the indigenous population. These epidemics combined with violence by European settlers to marginalize the Native American population in the United States.
European Colonization
The first confirmed European landing in present-day United States territory was by Christopher Columbus, who visited Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493. Florida was home to the earliest European colonies on the mainland; of these colonies only St. Augustine, which was founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565, remains.
A hundred or so French fur traders set up small outposts in the Great Lakes region. A few thousand Spanish settled in New Mexico and California, as well as other parts of the Southwestern United States. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, followed in 1620 by the Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts. In 1609 and 1617, respectively, the Dutch settled in part of what became New York and New Jersey. In 1638, the Swedes founded New Sweden, in part of what became Delaware New Jersey, and Pennsylvania after passing through Dutch hands. Throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries, England (and later Great Britain) established new colonies, took over Dutch colonies, and split others. Britain's Seven Years War spread into the French and Indian War that won Britain the bulk of Canada.
Several colonies were used as penal settlements from the 1620s until the American Revolution. With the division of the Carolinas in 1729 and the colonization of Georgia in 1732, the 13 British colonies that became the United States of America in 1776 were established and all had active local and colonial governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self government that stimulated support for republicanism. By the 1770s, the colonies were becoming "Anglicized" (that is, more like England). With high birth rates, low death rates
, and steady immigration, the colonies doubled in population every 25 years. By 1770, they had a population of three million, approximately half as many as that of Britain itself. However, they were given no representation in the Parliament of the United Kingdom
War for Independence and early republic
Tensions between American colonials and the British during the revolutionary period of the 1760s and 1770s led to open warfare 1775-1781. George Washington commanded the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) as the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The Congress created the Continental Army, but was handicapped in its ability to fund it by lack of authority to levy taxes; instead, it over-printed paper money triggering hyperinflation. During the conflict, some 70,000 loyalists to the British Crown fled the new nation, with some 50,000 United Empire Loyalist refugees fleeing to Nova Scotia and the new British holdings in Canada.
In 1777, the Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, uniting the states under a weak federal government, which operated until 1788. After the defeate of Great Britain, dissatisfaction with the weak national government led to a constitutional convention in 1787. By June of 1788, enough states had ratified the United States Constitution to establish the new government, which took office in 1789. The Constitution, which strengthened the union and the federal government, is still the supreme law of the land.
Westward expansion
From 1803 to 1848, the size of the new nation nearly tripled as settlers (many embracing the concept of Manifest Destiny as an inevitable consequence of American exceptionalism) pushed beyond national boundaries even before the Louisiana Purchase. The expansion was tempered somewhat by the stalemate in the War of 1812, but it was subsequently reinvigorated by victory in the Mexican-American War in 1848, and the prospect of gold during the California Gold Rush (1848-1849).
Between 1830–1880, up to 40 million American Bison, commonly called Buffalo, were slaughtered for skins and meat, and to aid railway expansion. The expansion of the railways reduced transit times for both goods and people, made westward expansion less arduous for the pioneers, and increased conflicts with the Native Americans regarding the land and its uses. The loss of the bison, a primary resource for the plains Indians, added to the pressures on native cultures and individuals for survival.
Civil War
As new territories were being incorporated, the nation was divided on the issue of states' rights, the role of the federal government, and the expansion of slavery, which had been legal in all thirteen colonies but was rarer in the north, where it was abolished by 1804. The Northern states were opposed to the expansion of slavery whereas the Southern states saw the opposition as an attack on their way of life, since their economy was dependent on slave labor. The failure to resolve these issues led to the American Civil War, following the secession of many slave states in the South to form the Confederate States of America after the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln. The 1865 Union victory in the Civil War effectively ended slavery and settled the question of whether a state had the right to secede. The event was a major turning point in American history and resulted in an increase in federal power.
Reconstruction and industrialization
After the Civil War, an unprecedented influx of immigrants hastened the country's rise to international power. These immigrants helped to provide labor for American industry and create diverse communities in undeveloped areas together with high tariff protections, national infrastructure building and national banking regulations. The growing power of the United States enabled it to acquire new territories, including the annexation of Puerto Rico and the Philippines after victory in the Spanish-American War, which marked the debut of the United States as a major world power.
World Wars and The Great Depression
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States remained neutral. In 1917, however, the United States joined the Allied Powers, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. For historical reasons, American sympathies favored the British and French, although many citizens, mostly Irish and German, were opposed to intervention. After the war, the Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles because of a fear that it would pull the United States into European affairs. Instead, the country continued to pursue its policy of unilateralism that bordered at times on isolationism. During most of the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity as farm profits fell while industrial profits grew. A rise in debt and an inflated stock market culmination in a crash in 1929, combined with the Dust Bowl, triggered the Great Depression. After his election as President in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched his New Deal policies increasing government intervention in the economy in response to the Great Depression.
The nation would not fully recover from the economic depression until its industrial mobilisation related to entering World War II. On December 7, 1941 the United States was driven to join the Allies against the Axis Powers after a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan. World War II was the costliest war in economic terms in American history, but it helped to pull the economy out of depression because the required production of military material provided much-needed jobs, and women entered the workforce in large numbers for the first time.
During this war, the United States became the first nuclear power following the success of the Manhattan Project. To bring about a quick end to World War II and forgo a land-invasion of Japan, the United States dropped nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August of 1945. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were the second and third nuclear devices detonated and the only ones ever used in war. Japan surrendered soon after, on September 2, 1945, ending World War II.
Cold War and civil rights
After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became superpowers in an era of ideological rivalry dubbed the Cold War. Through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact, the United States and the Soviet Union gained considerable power over military affairs in Europe. The United States officially promoted liberal democracy and capitalism, while the Soviet Union officially promoted communism and a centrally planned economy. Both sides sometimes supported dictatorships when politically convenient, leading to proxy wars, including the Korean War, the tense nuclear showdown of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
The Soviet Union beat the United States to launch the first manned space probe, prompting an effort to raise proficiency in mathematics and science in American schools and led to President John F. Kennedy's call for the United States to be first to land "a man on the moon" by the end of the 1960s, which was realized in 1969. Meanwhile, America experienced a period of sustained economic expansion. A growing civil-rights movement headed by prominent African Americans such as Martin Luther King, Jr. fought racism, leading to the abolition of the Jim Crow laws in the South. Following Kennedy's assasination in 1963, his successors expanded a proxy war in Vietnam into the unsuccesful Vietnam War. After withdrawing from Vietnam, President Richard Nixon became the first President to resign, lest he be removed from office by impeachment over electoral fraud allegations during the Watergate scandal.
When the Soviet Union collapsed and Russian power diminished in the late 1980s and 1990s, the United States continued to intervene in overseas military conflicts. The leadership role taken by the United States and its allies in the United Nations-sanctioned Gulf War and the Yugoslav wars helped to preserve its position as the world's last remaining superpower and to expand NATO.
Politics
The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, a representative democracy with a government regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the United States Constitution. The 1789 constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation, which was in effect from 1781 – 1789. However, it is "not a simple representative democracy, but a constitutional republic in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law." Citizens are usually subject to three levels of government, at federal, state, and local levels, although most areas are also subject to multiple local governments, such as county or metropolitan governments in addition to municipal government. Officials at all three levels are either elected by voters in a secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Executive and legislative offices are decided by a plurality vote of citizens in their respective districts. Judicial and cabinet-level offices are nominated by the Executive branch and approved by the Legislature in the federal government and most states, although some state judges are elected by popular vote.
The north side of the White House.
The federal government comprises three branches, which are designed to check and balance one another's powers:
Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, which makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the rarely used power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.
Executive: The President, who appoints, with Senate approval, the Cabinet and other officers, who administers and enforces federal law, can veto bills, and is Commander in Chief of the military.
Judiciary: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the President with Senate approval, which interpret laws and can overturn laws they deem unconstitutional.
The United States Constitution is the supreme legal document in the American system, and serves as a social contrart for the people of the United States, regulating their affairs through government chosen by and populated by the people. All laws and procedures of both state and federal governments are subject to review, and any law ruled by the judicial branch to be in violation of the Constitution is overturned. The Constitution can be amended by two methods, both of which require the approval of three-fourths of the states. The Constitution has been amended 27 times, the last time in 1992.
The Constitution contains a number of amendments, including the Bill of Rights, which guarantee freedom of speech, religion, and the press; the right to a fair trial; the right to keep and bear arms; universal suffrage; and property rights. However, the extent to which these rights are protected and universal in practice is heavily debated. The Constitution also guarantees to every State "a Republican Form of Government". However, the meaning of that guarantee has been only slightly explicated. The Constitution also defines term limits for the President and the size of the Congress. The House of Representatives has 435 members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states according to population every tenth year. As of the 2000 census, seven states have the minimum of one representative; California, the most populous state, has 53. Each state has two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one third of Senate seats are up for election every second year.
American politics is dominated by the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Members of these two parties hold the overwhelming majority of elected offices across the country at federal, state, and lower levels. Independent or third party candidates tend to do better in lower-level elections, although there are currently two independent members of the Senate. Within American political culture the Republican Party is considered "center-right" or conservative and the Democratic Party is considered "center-left" or liberal. The size of both parties allows for considerable divergence of views within both parties. Since 2001, the President has been George W. Bush, a Republican. Following the 2006 mid-term elections, the Democratic Party holds a majority of seats in both the House and Senate for the first time since 1994.
Foreign relations
The United States has vast economic, political, and military influence on a global scale, which makes its foreign policy a subject of great interest and discussion around the world. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many host consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, and Sudan do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, a permanent member of the Security Council, and hosts the United Nations headquarters in New York City. America's principal allies include the NATO member states, Australia, Japan, and Israel. America enjoys a special relationship with United Kingdom, its closest ally. Additionally, the United States enjoys close ties to its neighbors through the Organization of American States and free trade agreements such as the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Economy
The economic system of the United States can be described as a capitalist mixed economy. Although private organizations constitute the bulk of the economy, government activity accounts for 36 percent of the GDP. Most businesses in the U.S. are not corporations and sole proprietorships with no payroll. Both the regulatory burden on its companies and its social safety net are smaller than in most developed nations.
The economy is fueled by an abundance in natural resources, well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity. Americans tend to work considerably more hours annually, take less vacation, and produce more an hour than workers in other developed nations, increasing productiveness and GDP. 79 percent of Americans are employed in the service sector. Although income levels in the U.S. are high, income is distributed less equally than in similar developed nations such as Austria or Sweden. The United States is the second largest exporter and largest importer of goods, with Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany as its top five trading partners
Socio-economic class
Although the social class structure of the United States remains a vaguely defined concept, sociologists point to social class as the perhaps most important societal variable. Occupation, educational attainment and income are used as the main indicators of socio-economic status. Sociologist Dennis Gilbert of Hamilton College has proposed a system, adapted by other sociologists, with six social classes. He identified an upper, or capitalis, class consisting of the wealthy and powerful (1%), an upper middle class consisting of highly educated professionals (15%), a middle class consisting of semi-professionals and craftsmen (33%), a working class consisting of clerical and blue-collar workers (33%), and two lower classes: the working poor (13%) and an underclass (12%). The former consists of service and low-rung blue collar workers and the latter of those who do not participate in the labor force.
Social mobility is another issue of debate, especially when attempting to conduct international comparisons. Although some analysts have found the U.S. to have a relatively low social mobility compared to Western Europe and Canada, others point out that bottom quintile households are more likely to rise to the top fifth than to remain near the bottom. Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan has suggested that the growing income inequality and low class mobility of the U.S. economy may eventually threaten social stability in the future. The locally funded education system is stipulated to provide lower quality education to those in poor jurisdictions than to those in more affluent jurisdictions.
Innovation
Beginning with the industrial revolution, the U.S. became a world leader in the design, production, and selling of products and services. The United States is now one of the most influential countries in scientific and technological research and the production of innovative technological products. The bulk of Research and Development funding (69 percent) comes voluntarily from the private sector, rather than from taxation. During World War II, the U.S. led the Allied program to develop the atomic bomb, ushering in the atomic age. Beginning early in the Cold War, as a response to USSR's space program, the U.S. pursued a wide and successful space program of its own, through the federaly funded NASA program. This competition between the two superpowers, dubbed the Space Race, led to rapid advances in rocketry, material science, computers, and many other areas. The U.S. was also the most instrumental nation in the development of the Internet, while also developing its predecessor, Arpanet. The United States has become a world leader in science, producing the largest percentage of scientific research papers of any country. Many scientists from across the world have come to work in the United States, a very notable example being Albert Einstein. There are also a number of famous American-born scientists, such as the physicist Richard Feynman, who helped develop quantum electrodynamics, and James D. Watson, who helped discover the structure of DNA. The U.S. continues to lead the way in all fields of innovation, industry and science.
Transportation
The United States has a variety of freeway and highway systems, multiple large international airports, and an extensive freight train network. Automakers developed early and rapidly in the United States. The U.S. is home to more roadways than any other country in the world. Although Public transport systems are heavily used in some large cities, these systems tend to be less extensive than in other developed nations. Air travel is the preferred mode of transport for long distances. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield – Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). In terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport, a superhub of Federal Express. The airlines are privately owned, but most airports are owned by local governments. Likewise, several major seaports in the United States include New York to the east, Houston and New Orleans on the gulf coast, Los Angeles to the west. The interior of the U.S. also has major shipping channels, via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Mississippi River. The first water link between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic, the Erie Canal, allowed the rapid expansion of agriculture and industry in the Midwest and made New York City the economic center of the country.
Demographics
On October 17, 2006 at 7:46 a.m. EST, the United States' population stood at an estimated 300,000,000.This figure excludes persons living in the U.S. illegally. Due to the nation's size any population estimate needs to be seen as a somewhat rough figure, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. According to the 2000 census, about 79 percent of the population lived in urban areas. The United States has a highly diverse population, being home to 31 ethnic groups with more than a million members.Among racial demographics, whites, who are of European ancestry, remained the largest racial group with German-Americans, Irish-Americans and English-Americans constituting the three largest ethnic groups. The percentages of whites among the general population is, however, declining. African Americans, who are largely the descendants of former slaves, constituted the nation's largest racial and third largest ethnic minority.
Demographic trends include the immigration of Hispanics from Latin America into the Southwest, a region that is home to about 60 percent of the 35 million Hispanics in the United States. Immigrants from Mexico make up about 66 percent of the Hispanic community and are the second largest ethnic group in the country. It is estimated that with current population trends non-Hispanic Whites will become a plurality by 2040 to 2050. In the four "majority-minority states'' such as California, New Mexico, Hawaii and Texas such is already the case.
Crime in the United States is characterized by relatively high levels of gun violence and homicide, compared to other developed countries. Levels of property crime and other types of crime in the United States are comparable to other developed countries.
Indigenous peoples
The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 gave United States citizenship to Native Americans, in part because of an interest by many to see them merged with the American mainstream, and also because of the service of many Native American veterans in the First World War.
According to the 2003 census estimates, there are 2,786,652 Native Americans in the United States.
Languages
Although the United States has no official language at the federal level, English is the de facto national language. In 2003, about 215 million, or 82 percent of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. English is the most common language for daily interaction among both native and non-native speakers. Knowledge of English is required of immigrants seeking naturalization. More languages are, however, used in daily life. Spanish is the second most spoken language and the most widely taught foreign language. Some Americans advocate making English the official language, which is the law in twenty-five states. Three states also grant administrative status to languages other than English: Hawaiian in Hawaii (where it is granted official status by the Hawaiian Constitution), French in Louisiana, and Spanish in New Mexico (where the languages are not official but are promoted and preserved through several legislative acts).
Largest cities
The largest cities of the United States figure prominently in the economy, culture, and heritage of the U.S. In 2005, 254 incorporated places in the U.S. had populations greater than 100,000, nine cities had populations greater than one million, and four global cities had populations greater than 2 million (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston).The United States has 54 metropolitan areas with populations greater than one million. Miami, Washington, Atlanta, and Detroit are examples of cities whose populations of the cities proper are not in the top 10 in the U.S. but whose metropolitan areas rank in the top 10
Religion
The United States government keeps no official register of Americans' religious status.However, in a private survey conducted in 2001 and mentioned in the Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract of the United States, 76.7 percent of American adults identified themselves as Christian; about 52 percent of adults described themselves as members of various Protestant denominations. Roman Catholics, at 24.5 percent, were the most populous individual denomination. The most popular other faiths include Judaism (1.4 percent), Islam (0.5 percent), Buddhism (0.5 percent), Hinduism (0.4 percent) and Unitarian Universalism (0.3 percent).About 14.2 percent of respondents described themselves as having no religion. The religious distribution of the 5.4 percent who elected not to describe themselves for the survey (up from 2.3 percent in 1990) is unknown. Although the total U.S. population grew by 18.5 percent between 1990 and 2001, 13 religious groups declined in absolute numbers, while 20 groups more than doubled in number.
Culture
The United States is a diverse and multicultural nation, home to a wide variety of ethnic groups and cultures. The culture held in common among most Americans has evolved from that of colonial Dutch and English settlers, modified by a melting pot of various European cultures. English, German, and Irish cultures and later Italian, Greek, and Eastern European Jewish cultures were among the most significant influences on modern American culture. Descendants of enslaved West Africans preserved some cultural traditions from West Africa in the early United States. Geographical place names largely reflect the combined English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, and Native American components of U.S. history.
There are two main theories regarding the current evolution of American culture. In the traditional melting pot, immigrants from other cultures bring unique cultural aspects which are incorporated into the larger American culture and adopt features of the mainstream culture. A more recently articulated model is that of the salad bowl, in which immigrant cultures retain some of their unique characteristics while culturally intermingling.An important component of American culture is the American Dream: the idea that, through hard work, courage, and determination, regardless of social class, a person can gain a better life.
Cuisine
American cuisine uses Native American ingredients such as turkey, potatoes, corn, and squash, which have become integral parts of American culture. Such popular icons as apple pie, pizza, and hamburgers are either derived from or are actual European dishes. Burritos and tacos have their origins in Mexico. Soul food, which originated among African slaves, is popular in the U.S. as well. However, many foods now enjoyed worldwide either originated in the United States or were altered by American cooks.
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*Stanley I. Kutler, ed. Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century. (4 vol 1995)
*Colin A. Palmer, ed. Encyclopedia Of African American Culture And History: The Black Experience in the Americas 6 vol. (2005)
*The Oxford Essential Guide to the U.S. Government (2000)
*Larry Schweikart and Michael Patrick Allen. A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror (2007), conservative
*George Tindall and David Shi. America: A Narrative History, Seventh Edition, (2006), college textbook
*Wikipedia.org
The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain who issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. It adopted the current constitution on September 17, 1787 making 27 amendments afterwards. The country greatly expanded throughout the 19th century, acquiring territory from France, Mexico, Spain, and Russia. The United States became one of two major superpowers due to its role in World War II and its development of nuclear weapons. As the remaining superpower after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States continues to exert dominant economic, political, cultural, and military influence in the western world and around the globe.
Native Amerikans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Native Americans in the United States
Before the European colonization of the Americas, a process that began at the end of the 15th century, the present-day continental U.S. was inhabited exclusively by various indigenous peoples, including Alaskan natives, who migrated to the continent over a period that may have begun 35,000 years ago and may have ended as recently as 11,000 year ago. Several indigenous communities developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state level Pre-Columbian societies. However, first contact between Native Americans and early Spanish explorers spread epidemics that killed a large portion of the indigenous population. These epidemics combined with violence by European settlers to marginalize the Native American population in the United States.
European Colonization
The first confirmed European landing in present-day United States territory was by Christopher Columbus, who visited Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493. Florida was home to the earliest European colonies on the mainland; of these colonies only St. Augustine, which was founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565, remains.
A hundred or so French fur traders set up small outposts in the Great Lakes region. A few thousand Spanish settled in New Mexico and California, as well as other parts of the Southwestern United States. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, followed in 1620 by the Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts. In 1609 and 1617, respectively, the Dutch settled in part of what became New York and New Jersey. In 1638, the Swedes founded New Sweden, in part of what became Delaware New Jersey, and Pennsylvania after passing through Dutch hands. Throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries, England (and later Great Britain) established new colonies, took over Dutch colonies, and split others. Britain's Seven Years War spread into the French and Indian War that won Britain the bulk of Canada.
Several colonies were used as penal settlements from the 1620s until the American Revolution. With the division of the Carolinas in 1729 and the colonization of Georgia in 1732, the 13 British colonies that became the United States of America in 1776 were established and all had active local and colonial governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self government that stimulated support for republicanism. By the 1770s, the colonies were becoming "Anglicized" (that is, more like England). With high birth rates, low death rates
, and steady immigration, the colonies doubled in population every 25 years. By 1770, they had a population of three million, approximately half as many as that of Britain itself. However, they were given no representation in the Parliament of the United Kingdom
War for Independence and early republic
Tensions between American colonials and the British during the revolutionary period of the 1760s and 1770s led to open warfare 1775-1781. George Washington commanded the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) as the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The Congress created the Continental Army, but was handicapped in its ability to fund it by lack of authority to levy taxes; instead, it over-printed paper money triggering hyperinflation. During the conflict, some 70,000 loyalists to the British Crown fled the new nation, with some 50,000 United Empire Loyalist refugees fleeing to Nova Scotia and the new British holdings in Canada.
In 1777, the Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, uniting the states under a weak federal government, which operated until 1788. After the defeate of Great Britain, dissatisfaction with the weak national government led to a constitutional convention in 1787. By June of 1788, enough states had ratified the United States Constitution to establish the new government, which took office in 1789. The Constitution, which strengthened the union and the federal government, is still the supreme law of the land.
Westward expansion
From 1803 to 1848, the size of the new nation nearly tripled as settlers (many embracing the concept of Manifest Destiny as an inevitable consequence of American exceptionalism) pushed beyond national boundaries even before the Louisiana Purchase. The expansion was tempered somewhat by the stalemate in the War of 1812, but it was subsequently reinvigorated by victory in the Mexican-American War in 1848, and the prospect of gold during the California Gold Rush (1848-1849).
Between 1830–1880, up to 40 million American Bison, commonly called Buffalo, were slaughtered for skins and meat, and to aid railway expansion. The expansion of the railways reduced transit times for both goods and people, made westward expansion less arduous for the pioneers, and increased conflicts with the Native Americans regarding the land and its uses. The loss of the bison, a primary resource for the plains Indians, added to the pressures on native cultures and individuals for survival.
Civil War
As new territories were being incorporated, the nation was divided on the issue of states' rights, the role of the federal government, and the expansion of slavery, which had been legal in all thirteen colonies but was rarer in the north, where it was abolished by 1804. The Northern states were opposed to the expansion of slavery whereas the Southern states saw the opposition as an attack on their way of life, since their economy was dependent on slave labor. The failure to resolve these issues led to the American Civil War, following the secession of many slave states in the South to form the Confederate States of America after the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln. The 1865 Union victory in the Civil War effectively ended slavery and settled the question of whether a state had the right to secede. The event was a major turning point in American history and resulted in an increase in federal power.
Reconstruction and industrialization
After the Civil War, an unprecedented influx of immigrants hastened the country's rise to international power. These immigrants helped to provide labor for American industry and create diverse communities in undeveloped areas together with high tariff protections, national infrastructure building and national banking regulations. The growing power of the United States enabled it to acquire new territories, including the annexation of Puerto Rico and the Philippines after victory in the Spanish-American War, which marked the debut of the United States as a major world power.
World Wars and The Great Depression
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States remained neutral. In 1917, however, the United States joined the Allied Powers, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. For historical reasons, American sympathies favored the British and French, although many citizens, mostly Irish and German, were opposed to intervention. After the war, the Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles because of a fear that it would pull the United States into European affairs. Instead, the country continued to pursue its policy of unilateralism that bordered at times on isolationism. During most of the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity as farm profits fell while industrial profits grew. A rise in debt and an inflated stock market culmination in a crash in 1929, combined with the Dust Bowl, triggered the Great Depression. After his election as President in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched his New Deal policies increasing government intervention in the economy in response to the Great Depression.
The nation would not fully recover from the economic depression until its industrial mobilisation related to entering World War II. On December 7, 1941 the United States was driven to join the Allies against the Axis Powers after a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan. World War II was the costliest war in economic terms in American history, but it helped to pull the economy out of depression because the required production of military material provided much-needed jobs, and women entered the workforce in large numbers for the first time.
During this war, the United States became the first nuclear power following the success of the Manhattan Project. To bring about a quick end to World War II and forgo a land-invasion of Japan, the United States dropped nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August of 1945. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were the second and third nuclear devices detonated and the only ones ever used in war. Japan surrendered soon after, on September 2, 1945, ending World War II.
Cold War and civil rights
After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became superpowers in an era of ideological rivalry dubbed the Cold War. Through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Warsaw Pact, the United States and the Soviet Union gained considerable power over military affairs in Europe. The United States officially promoted liberal democracy and capitalism, while the Soviet Union officially promoted communism and a centrally planned economy. Both sides sometimes supported dictatorships when politically convenient, leading to proxy wars, including the Korean War, the tense nuclear showdown of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
The Soviet Union beat the United States to launch the first manned space probe, prompting an effort to raise proficiency in mathematics and science in American schools and led to President John F. Kennedy's call for the United States to be first to land "a man on the moon" by the end of the 1960s, which was realized in 1969. Meanwhile, America experienced a period of sustained economic expansion. A growing civil-rights movement headed by prominent African Americans such as Martin Luther King, Jr. fought racism, leading to the abolition of the Jim Crow laws in the South. Following Kennedy's assasination in 1963, his successors expanded a proxy war in Vietnam into the unsuccesful Vietnam War. After withdrawing from Vietnam, President Richard Nixon became the first President to resign, lest he be removed from office by impeachment over electoral fraud allegations during the Watergate scandal.
When the Soviet Union collapsed and Russian power diminished in the late 1980s and 1990s, the United States continued to intervene in overseas military conflicts. The leadership role taken by the United States and its allies in the United Nations-sanctioned Gulf War and the Yugoslav wars helped to preserve its position as the world's last remaining superpower and to expand NATO.
Politics
The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, a representative democracy with a government regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the United States Constitution. The 1789 constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation, which was in effect from 1781 – 1789. However, it is "not a simple representative democracy, but a constitutional republic in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law." Citizens are usually subject to three levels of government, at federal, state, and local levels, although most areas are also subject to multiple local governments, such as county or metropolitan governments in addition to municipal government. Officials at all three levels are either elected by voters in a secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Executive and legislative offices are decided by a plurality vote of citizens in their respective districts. Judicial and cabinet-level offices are nominated by the Executive branch and approved by the Legislature in the federal government and most states, although some state judges are elected by popular vote.
The north side of the White House.
The federal government comprises three branches, which are designed to check and balance one another's powers:
Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, which makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the rarely used power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.
Executive: The President, who appoints, with Senate approval, the Cabinet and other officers, who administers and enforces federal law, can veto bills, and is Commander in Chief of the military.
Judiciary: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the President with Senate approval, which interpret laws and can overturn laws they deem unconstitutional.
The United States Constitution is the supreme legal document in the American system, and serves as a social contrart for the people of the United States, regulating their affairs through government chosen by and populated by the people. All laws and procedures of both state and federal governments are subject to review, and any law ruled by the judicial branch to be in violation of the Constitution is overturned. The Constitution can be amended by two methods, both of which require the approval of three-fourths of the states. The Constitution has been amended 27 times, the last time in 1992.
The Constitution contains a number of amendments, including the Bill of Rights, which guarantee freedom of speech, religion, and the press; the right to a fair trial; the right to keep and bear arms; universal suffrage; and property rights. However, the extent to which these rights are protected and universal in practice is heavily debated. The Constitution also guarantees to every State "a Republican Form of Government". However, the meaning of that guarantee has been only slightly explicated. The Constitution also defines term limits for the President and the size of the Congress. The House of Representatives has 435 members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states according to population every tenth year. As of the 2000 census, seven states have the minimum of one representative; California, the most populous state, has 53. Each state has two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one third of Senate seats are up for election every second year.
American politics is dominated by the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Members of these two parties hold the overwhelming majority of elected offices across the country at federal, state, and lower levels. Independent or third party candidates tend to do better in lower-level elections, although there are currently two independent members of the Senate. Within American political culture the Republican Party is considered "center-right" or conservative and the Democratic Party is considered "center-left" or liberal. The size of both parties allows for considerable divergence of views within both parties. Since 2001, the President has been George W. Bush, a Republican. Following the 2006 mid-term elections, the Democratic Party holds a majority of seats in both the House and Senate for the first time since 1994.
Foreign relations
The United States has vast economic, political, and military influence on a global scale, which makes its foreign policy a subject of great interest and discussion around the world. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many host consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, and Sudan do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, a permanent member of the Security Council, and hosts the United Nations headquarters in New York City. America's principal allies include the NATO member states, Australia, Japan, and Israel. America enjoys a special relationship with United Kingdom, its closest ally. Additionally, the United States enjoys close ties to its neighbors through the Organization of American States and free trade agreements such as the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Economy
The economic system of the United States can be described as a capitalist mixed economy. Although private organizations constitute the bulk of the economy, government activity accounts for 36 percent of the GDP. Most businesses in the U.S. are not corporations and sole proprietorships with no payroll. Both the regulatory burden on its companies and its social safety net are smaller than in most developed nations.
The economy is fueled by an abundance in natural resources, well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity. Americans tend to work considerably more hours annually, take less vacation, and produce more an hour than workers in other developed nations, increasing productiveness and GDP. 79 percent of Americans are employed in the service sector. Although income levels in the U.S. are high, income is distributed less equally than in similar developed nations such as Austria or Sweden. The United States is the second largest exporter and largest importer of goods, with Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany as its top five trading partners
Socio-economic class
Although the social class structure of the United States remains a vaguely defined concept, sociologists point to social class as the perhaps most important societal variable. Occupation, educational attainment and income are used as the main indicators of socio-economic status. Sociologist Dennis Gilbert of Hamilton College has proposed a system, adapted by other sociologists, with six social classes. He identified an upper, or capitalis, class consisting of the wealthy and powerful (1%), an upper middle class consisting of highly educated professionals (15%), a middle class consisting of semi-professionals and craftsmen (33%), a working class consisting of clerical and blue-collar workers (33%), and two lower classes: the working poor (13%) and an underclass (12%). The former consists of service and low-rung blue collar workers and the latter of those who do not participate in the labor force.
Social mobility is another issue of debate, especially when attempting to conduct international comparisons. Although some analysts have found the U.S. to have a relatively low social mobility compared to Western Europe and Canada, others point out that bottom quintile households are more likely to rise to the top fifth than to remain near the bottom. Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan has suggested that the growing income inequality and low class mobility of the U.S. economy may eventually threaten social stability in the future. The locally funded education system is stipulated to provide lower quality education to those in poor jurisdictions than to those in more affluent jurisdictions.
Innovation
Beginning with the industrial revolution, the U.S. became a world leader in the design, production, and selling of products and services. The United States is now one of the most influential countries in scientific and technological research and the production of innovative technological products. The bulk of Research and Development funding (69 percent) comes voluntarily from the private sector, rather than from taxation. During World War II, the U.S. led the Allied program to develop the atomic bomb, ushering in the atomic age. Beginning early in the Cold War, as a response to USSR's space program, the U.S. pursued a wide and successful space program of its own, through the federaly funded NASA program. This competition between the two superpowers, dubbed the Space Race, led to rapid advances in rocketry, material science, computers, and many other areas. The U.S. was also the most instrumental nation in the development of the Internet, while also developing its predecessor, Arpanet. The United States has become a world leader in science, producing the largest percentage of scientific research papers of any country. Many scientists from across the world have come to work in the United States, a very notable example being Albert Einstein. There are also a number of famous American-born scientists, such as the physicist Richard Feynman, who helped develop quantum electrodynamics, and James D. Watson, who helped discover the structure of DNA. The U.S. continues to lead the way in all fields of innovation, industry and science.
Transportation
The United States has a variety of freeway and highway systems, multiple large international airports, and an extensive freight train network. Automakers developed early and rapidly in the United States. The U.S. is home to more roadways than any other country in the world. Although Public transport systems are heavily used in some large cities, these systems tend to be less extensive than in other developed nations. Air travel is the preferred mode of transport for long distances. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield – Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). In terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport, a superhub of Federal Express. The airlines are privately owned, but most airports are owned by local governments. Likewise, several major seaports in the United States include New York to the east, Houston and New Orleans on the gulf coast, Los Angeles to the west. The interior of the U.S. also has major shipping channels, via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Mississippi River. The first water link between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic, the Erie Canal, allowed the rapid expansion of agriculture and industry in the Midwest and made New York City the economic center of the country.
Demographics
On October 17, 2006 at 7:46 a.m. EST, the United States' population stood at an estimated 300,000,000.This figure excludes persons living in the U.S. illegally. Due to the nation's size any population estimate needs to be seen as a somewhat rough figure, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. According to the 2000 census, about 79 percent of the population lived in urban areas. The United States has a highly diverse population, being home to 31 ethnic groups with more than a million members.Among racial demographics, whites, who are of European ancestry, remained the largest racial group with German-Americans, Irish-Americans and English-Americans constituting the three largest ethnic groups. The percentages of whites among the general population is, however, declining. African Americans, who are largely the descendants of former slaves, constituted the nation's largest racial and third largest ethnic minority.
Demographic trends include the immigration of Hispanics from Latin America into the Southwest, a region that is home to about 60 percent of the 35 million Hispanics in the United States. Immigrants from Mexico make up about 66 percent of the Hispanic community and are the second largest ethnic group in the country. It is estimated that with current population trends non-Hispanic Whites will become a plurality by 2040 to 2050. In the four "majority-minority states'' such as California, New Mexico, Hawaii and Texas such is already the case.
Crime in the United States is characterized by relatively high levels of gun violence and homicide, compared to other developed countries. Levels of property crime and other types of crime in the United States are comparable to other developed countries.
Indigenous peoples
The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 gave United States citizenship to Native Americans, in part because of an interest by many to see them merged with the American mainstream, and also because of the service of many Native American veterans in the First World War.
According to the 2003 census estimates, there are 2,786,652 Native Americans in the United States.
Languages
Although the United States has no official language at the federal level, English is the de facto national language. In 2003, about 215 million, or 82 percent of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. English is the most common language for daily interaction among both native and non-native speakers. Knowledge of English is required of immigrants seeking naturalization. More languages are, however, used in daily life. Spanish is the second most spoken language and the most widely taught foreign language. Some Americans advocate making English the official language, which is the law in twenty-five states. Three states also grant administrative status to languages other than English: Hawaiian in Hawaii (where it is granted official status by the Hawaiian Constitution), French in Louisiana, and Spanish in New Mexico (where the languages are not official but are promoted and preserved through several legislative acts).
Largest cities
The largest cities of the United States figure prominently in the economy, culture, and heritage of the U.S. In 2005, 254 incorporated places in the U.S. had populations greater than 100,000, nine cities had populations greater than one million, and four global cities had populations greater than 2 million (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston).The United States has 54 metropolitan areas with populations greater than one million. Miami, Washington, Atlanta, and Detroit are examples of cities whose populations of the cities proper are not in the top 10 in the U.S. but whose metropolitan areas rank in the top 10
Religion
The United States government keeps no official register of Americans' religious status.However, in a private survey conducted in 2001 and mentioned in the Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract of the United States, 76.7 percent of American adults identified themselves as Christian; about 52 percent of adults described themselves as members of various Protestant denominations. Roman Catholics, at 24.5 percent, were the most populous individual denomination. The most popular other faiths include Judaism (1.4 percent), Islam (0.5 percent), Buddhism (0.5 percent), Hinduism (0.4 percent) and Unitarian Universalism (0.3 percent).About 14.2 percent of respondents described themselves as having no religion. The religious distribution of the 5.4 percent who elected not to describe themselves for the survey (up from 2.3 percent in 1990) is unknown. Although the total U.S. population grew by 18.5 percent between 1990 and 2001, 13 religious groups declined in absolute numbers, while 20 groups more than doubled in number.
Culture
The United States is a diverse and multicultural nation, home to a wide variety of ethnic groups and cultures. The culture held in common among most Americans has evolved from that of colonial Dutch and English settlers, modified by a melting pot of various European cultures. English, German, and Irish cultures and later Italian, Greek, and Eastern European Jewish cultures were among the most significant influences on modern American culture. Descendants of enslaved West Africans preserved some cultural traditions from West Africa in the early United States. Geographical place names largely reflect the combined English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, and Native American components of U.S. history.
There are two main theories regarding the current evolution of American culture. In the traditional melting pot, immigrants from other cultures bring unique cultural aspects which are incorporated into the larger American culture and adopt features of the mainstream culture. A more recently articulated model is that of the salad bowl, in which immigrant cultures retain some of their unique characteristics while culturally intermingling.An important component of American culture is the American Dream: the idea that, through hard work, courage, and determination, regardless of social class, a person can gain a better life.
Cuisine
American cuisine uses Native American ingredients such as turkey, potatoes, corn, and squash, which have become integral parts of American culture. Such popular icons as apple pie, pizza, and hamburgers are either derived from or are actual European dishes. Burritos and tacos have their origins in Mexico. Soul food, which originated among African slaves, is popular in the U.S. as well. However, many foods now enjoyed worldwide either originated in the United States or were altered by American cooks.
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*Stanley I. Kutler, ed. Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century. (4 vol 1995)
*Colin A. Palmer, ed. Encyclopedia Of African American Culture And History: The Black Experience in the Americas 6 vol. (2005)
*The Oxford Essential Guide to the U.S. Government (2000)
*Larry Schweikart and Michael Patrick Allen. A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror (2007), conservative
*George Tindall and David Shi. America: A Narrative History, Seventh Edition, (2006), college textbook
*Wikipedia.org
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Welcome to My Blog
My name is Semi.I'm from Macedonia but at the moment I'm studing history in Turkey, in Mimar Sinan University. I opened this blog to share my knowledges and my experiences to the world. Also I'm interresting with historical places. Sometimes here you will see pictures from this wonderful and historical wonders. I wiil try to update my blog as frequently as I can. That's all from me. Have a nice day..
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