us history

us history

Exploring Key Events and Themes in United States History

1. Introduction to United States History

History is many things, including a multiplicity of happenings, events, and occurrences. It is also a record or account of these events, and this record of the past is the raw material out of which historians make judgments. Additionally, and related to the first two, history may be considered a science that analyzes and makes critical inferences from the data obtained from the past in order to determine generalizations about people and societies. Such generalizations concern not only the past, but the present and future as well. The primary interest of many historians is in understanding the changes that have taken place from the earliest societies to our own. The historian seeks to explain, not simply to describe. The goal of the student in studying history should be to learn to interpret it, not merely to memorize it.

As a prelude to our exploration of key events and themes in United States history, several key questions should be addressed, although our purposes and objectives are explicitly and unequivocally historical and intellectual. What is the purpose of studying history? Why isn’t history better defined? What interests does it serve? Why should you, as a unique individual with discrete, personal goals and aspirations, study history? And, finally, why is it included in the curriculum at all in the public school system? History transcends and unites nationality, colors, and religions. It is much more than “what happens when.” Yet history is so general and comprehensive a term that it is difficult to isolate its specific meaning without recourse to a specific basis.

2. Colonial America and the Revolutionary War

Positioned between the unknown and the carefully documented, early history is a blank canvas onto which humans have painted their own ideas and knowledge about themselves, their origins, and their place in the world. This is particularly true of the history of America. It is not simply that there was no written record. It is also that America and its indigenous people have become not just an expression of history, but a place of imagination created through myths and prejudices of those who have sought to picture it. Thus, it is no accident that for the colonizing pilgrims, America was a blank canvas upon which they were to create their ideal and purposeful society. Not only would it serve as an authority on the benefits of freedom from the oppression of the English church and the suffocation of the British class system, it would be an example of success, proving that through good works and right thinking, the unjust, dispossessed, and idle, the world of the Old World, could establish a virtuous life.

As part of the great European diaspora of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the English, like other colonizing nations, had to learn to become American. United only by their mother country, early America was made up of a wide range of colonies, made unique by its origin, economy, and colonists themselves. The colonies ranged from those comprising religious dissenters who sought a new Eden, to the prosperous plantations in the Chesapeake and Carolinas, made rich through the efficient exploitation of slave labor, and the others who sought to recreate the comforts and values of the English countryside they had left behind. The processes of this inevitable psychic adaptation to become American made a significant contribution toward what was to become the cause and consequence of the American Revolution.

3. Expansion and the Civil War

However, this ambitious move westward was not without significant long-term consequences. At the heart of the controversy surrounding the expansion of the United States was the issue of slavery. This issue – and the threat to the nation’s largely agrarian society that free labor posed – ultimately led to internal migration, an increase in the balance of North versus South, economic and territorial changes, secession, and the Civil War. This war, between a nation composed of free states and one composed of slave states, was a severe and divisive struggle. Even its lasting resolution, the abolition of slavery, did little to settle the more basic issue of the proper balance of power between the states and Federal Government.

In the United States, much of the nation’s mid-19th century history was shaped by the concept of “Manifest Destiny.” This concept was motivated by deep public sentiment associated with American nationalism, and it was bolstered by the belief that the United States was destined to extend its influence and power across North America. Western expansion, in particular, was seen by many as an opportunity to promote democracy and create new economic markets. First made manifest in the movement west of the Appalachian Mountains, the spirit of Manifest Destiny ultimately resulted in a continent-wide nation.

4. Industrialization and the Progressive Era

The era from 1890-1918 was marked by an era of vigorous industrial growth. The number of manufacturing plants increased from 350,000 to 1,500,000, employees increased from 4,500,000 to 15,000,000, and the value of goods produced soared from 70 billion to over 200 billion at a time when almost $2/hour was a decent wage. The contribution of coal and oil increased by 750 percent, chemicals 500 percent, and automobiles 1,200 percent while the remaining industries increased 300 percent. The active railroad system expanded by 60,000 miles, and a new demand for an infrastructure of roads, water, and sewerage, gas, electric, and telephone services and a pocket of efficiencies was required to meet the growing needs of urban dwellers. During the settlement, the United States changed from a rural agricultural society to an urban industrial one. With the expansion came a concentration of wealth and political power unprecedented in the United States History. Not all Americans prospered equally. Rail recognition struck short-term calls and long-term loss of personnel. The lives of steel workers, textile workers, southern and eastern European immigrants, and the lives of children were damaged by the petting of health, jobs, housing, and hope. Newspapers, magazines, political speeches, and personal recount the hardships of the average workers of 1900, such as the meat striker or the Texas grass-cutters. The time and time consequences included 10-hour days, six-day work weeks, breakup benefit payments, and a lack of protection against industrial accidents, guaranteeing the normal 24-week life to workers in 1915. Farmers remain outside the markets of banking and insurance, still struggling with the difficulties of long-distance transport, crop failures, monopoly pressure, and, on many occasions, exploitativeness. The working class and farmers both raised their voices and protested the reform. These reform complaints were part of a radical progressive movement with features of protest and reform.

The industrial growth that began in America with the coming of the railroads continued to gather speed. This boom had taken root in the Civil War when, as we have seen, a handful of industries in the Northern states achieved spectacular results by equipping the Union Army and Navy. This industrial expansion, which had led to the use of many new or improved processes such as the Bessemer method of turning iron into steel, had not flagged during the last years of the 19th century. In fact, it seemed to be accelerated by the heavy demand growing from an expanding population and by the increasing number and size of railroads and other enterprises that depended upon steel.

5. The United States in the 20th Century

Despite the overwhelming importance of the Cold War, other significant themes dominated the story of the United States in the 20th century. The Resurgence of Industrialism was important both as an outcome of the 19th-century industrial revolution and as a trend in its own right. The Progressive Movement won passage of many reforms. The US also became an important imperial power, with overseas colonies and responsibilities. There were victories for civil rights (while discrimination and prejudice remained dominant). The role of women changed dramatically. The United States became a major participant in two world wars and many other minor or limited conflicts.

5.2. The Cold War The most important theme or issue in 20th-century US history has been the theme of the Cold War—the deep and abiding hostility and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. The presidents who led the United States during the Cold War were Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton. They were all involved in making critical and fateful decisions about this contest and helping the United States outmaneuver the Soviet Union.

5.1. Foreign Affairs In the 20th century, the US became an increasingly important participant in the world community. The country was a major world power by this time and a member of the League of Nations, the United Nations, and many other international organizations. This international involvement has been, and continues to be, a dominant force both in the domestic affairs of the United States and in the world community as a whole.