Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2: HISTORY
Historiography is the study of how historians develop history, and by extension is
any body of historical work on a particular subject. Traditionally understood, history is
what happened in the past, and historiography is what we write/say about history. History
is not the same as historiography. However, from a different position, there is no
difference between history and historiography; all we have of ‗the past‘ is what people
have written/said. The past has been created by people‘s writing and speaking. The
histories introduced in this chapter invite your attention to the ways in which histories are
constructed and the power relations they produce. Below are some questions that might
be helpful for your consideration of the historians‘ choices and their implications
regarding who the primary makers of the countries have been. Please note that while the
texts recount past events, they are recent and serve the present.
- Who are the main subjects of the texts?
- What types of event are included in the texts?
- The history of the UK starts with the first Homo sapiens who arrived in the
region during the Ice Age (about 35,000 to 10,000 years ago) whereas the
history of the US starts with the first Europeans who reached North America
around the year 1000. Why is this so?
Based on your knowledge of recent events in the UK and the US, how would you
add to these historical accounts? This exercise is a chance for you to reflect on what is
prominent about the UK and the US in your society as well as your own personal
tendencies and limits.
The texts in this chapter are not meant to offer a rich resource for your
understanding of and participation in discussions on the making of the two nation
states/modern empires. For such a purpose, you should also consult other sources (see the
syllabus).
READING 1
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
The United Kingdom, also known as Britain or the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland, is a European region with a long and storied history. The
first modern humans (Homo sapiens) arrived in the region during the Ice Age (about
35,000 to 10,000 years ago), when the sea levels were lower and Britain was connected to
the European mainland. It is these people who built the ancient megalithic monuments of
Stonehenge and Avebury.
Between 1,500 and 500 BCE, Celtic tribes migrated from Central Europe and
France to Britain and mixed with the indigenous inhabitants, creating a new culture
slightly distinct from the Continental Celtic one. This came to be known as the Bronze
Age.
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The Romans controlled most of present-day England and Wales, and founded a
large number of cities that still exist today. London, York, St Albans, Bath, Exeter,
Lincoln, Leicester, Worcester, Gloucester, Chichester, Winchester, Colchester,
Manchester, Chester, and Lancaster were all Roman towns, as were all the cities with
names now ending in -chester, -cester or -caster, which derive from the Latin
word castrum, meaning ‗fortification‘.
The Anglo-Saxons
In the 5th century, the Romans progressively abandoned Britannia, as their
Empire was falling apart and legions were needed to protect Rome.
With the Romans vacated, the Celtic tribes started warring with each other again,
and one of the local chieftains had the (not so smart) idea to request help from some of
the Germanic tribes from the North of present-day Germany and South of Denmark.
These were the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries.
When the fighting ceased, the Germanic tribes did not, as expected by the Celts,
return to their homeland. In fact, they felt strong enough to seize the whole of the
country for themselves, which they ultimately did, pushing back all the Celtic tribes to
Wales and Cornwall, and founding their respective kingdoms of Kent (the Jutes), Essex,
Sussex and Wessex (the Saxons), and further northeast, the kingdoms of Anglia, Mercia
and Northumbria (the Angles). These 7 kingdoms, which ruled over the United Kingdom
from about 500 to 850 AD, were later known as the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.
The Vikings
In the latter half of the 9th century, the Norse people from Scandinavia began to
invade Europe, with the Swedes putting down roots in Eastern Europe and the Danes
creating problems throughout Western Europe, as far as North Africa.
Towards the dawn of the 10th century, the Danes invaded the Northeast of
England, from Northumerland to East Anglia, and founded a new kingdom known as
the Danelaw. Another group of Danes managed to take Paris, and obtain a grant of land
from the King of France in 911. This area became the Duchy of Normandy, and its
inhabitants were the Normans (from ‗North Men‘ or ‗Norsemen‘, another term for
‗Viking‘).
The Normans
After settling in to their newly acquired land,
the Normans adopted the French feudal system and
French as the official language.
During that same period, the Kings of Wessex
had resisted, and eventually vanquished the Danes in
England in the 10th century. However, the powerful
Canute the Great (995-1035), king of the newly
unified Denmark and Norway and overlord of
Schleswig and Pomerania, led two other invasions on
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England in 1013 and 1015, and became king of England in 1016, after crushing the
Anglo-Saxon King, Edmund II.
During the 11 century, the Norman King Edward the Confessor (1004-1066)
nominated William, Duke of Normandy, as his successor, but upon Edward‘s death,
Harold Godwinson, the powerful Earl of Wessex, crowned himself king. William refused
to acknowledge Harold as King and invaded England with 12,000 soldiers in 1066. King
Harold was killed at the battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror become William I
of England.
The Norman rulers kept their possessions in France, and even extended them to
most of Western France (Brittany, Aquitaine...). French became the official language of
England, and remained that way until 1362, a short time after the beginning of the
Hundred Years‘ War with France. English nevertheless remained the language of the
populace, and the fusion of English (a mixture of Anglo-Saxon and Norse languages)
with French and Latin (used by the clergy) slowly evolved into the modern English we
know today.
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Edward III was often off fighting in France, leaving his third son, John of Gaunt,
Duke of Lancaster, to run the government. Later, John‘s son, Henry Bolingbroke, would
be proclaimed King Henry IV (1367-1413).
Henry V (1387-1422) famously defeated the French at the Battle of Agincourt in
1415, but his pious and peace-loving son Henry VI (1421-1471), who inherited the throne
at age one, was to have a much more troubled reign. The regent lost most of England‘s
possessions in France to a 17-year old girl (Joan of Arc) and in 1455 the Wars of the
Roses broke out. This civil war opposed the House of Lancaster (the Red Rose,
supporters of Henry VI) to the House of York (the White Rose, supporters of Edward
IV). The Yorks argued that the crown should have passed to Edward III‘s second son,
Lionel of Antwerp, rather than to the Lancaster descendant of John of Gaunt.
Edward IV‘s son, Edward V, only reigned for one year, before being locked in the
Tower of London by his evil uncle, Richard III (1452-1485). In 1485, Henry Tudor
(1457-1509), the half-brother of Henry VI, defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth
Field and became Henry VII, founder of the House of Tudor.
Following Henry (Tudor) VII to the throne was perhaps England‘s most famous
and historically significant ruler, the magnificent Henry VIII (1491-1547).
16th Century
Henry VIII is remembered in history as one
of the most powerful kings of England. He changed
the face of England, passing the Acts of Union with
Wales (1536-1543), and became the first ruler to
declare himself king of both Wales and Ireland.
In 1533, Henry VIII divorced Catherine of
Aragon to remarry Anne Boleyn, causing the Pope
to excommunicate him from the church. As a result,
Henry proclaimed himself head of the Church of
England. He dissolved all the monasteries in the
country (1536-1540) and nationalized them,
becoming immensely rich in the process.
Henry VIII was the last English king to
claim the title of King of France, as he lost his last
possession there, the port of Calais (although he
tried to recover it, taking Tournai for a few years,
the only town in present-day Belgium to have been
under English rule).
It was also under Henry VIII that England
started exploring the globe and trading outside
Europe, although this would only develop to
Portrait of Henry VIII colonial proportions under his daughters, Mary I
and especially Elizabeth I.
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Upon the death of Henry VIII, his 10-year old son, Edward VI, inherited the
throne. Six years later, however, Edward VI died and was succeeded by Henry‘s elder
half-daughter Mary. Mary I (1516-1558), a staunch Catholic, intended to restore Roman
Catholicism to England, executing over 300 religious dissenters in her 5-year reign
(which owned her the nickname of Bloody Mary). She married the powerful King Philip
II of Spain, who also ruled over the Netherlands, the Spanish Americas and the
Philippines (named after him), and was the champion of the Counterreformation. Mary
died childless of ovarian cancer in 1558, and her half-sister Elizabeth ascended to the
throne.
The great Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) saw the first golden age of England. It
was an age of great navigators like Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh, and an age
of enlightenment with the philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626), and playwrights such
as Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
Her reign was also marked by conflicts with France and Scotland, and later Spain
and Ireland. She never married, and when Mary Stuart tried and failed to take over the
throne of England, Elizabeth kept her imprisoned for 19 years before finally signing her
act of execution.
Elizabeth died in 1603, and ironically, Mary Stuart‘s son, James VI of Scotland,
succeeded Elizabeth as King James I of England—thus creating the United Kingdom.
17th Century
James I (1566-1625), a Protestant, aimed at improving relations with the Catholic
Church. But 2 years after he was crowned, a group of Catholic extremists, led by Guy
Fawkes, attempted to place a bomb at the parliament's state opening, hoping to eliminate
all the Protestant aristocracy in one fell swoop. However, the conspirators were betrayed
by one of their own just hours before the plan's enactment. The failure of the Gunpowder
Plot, as it is known, is still celebrated throughout Britain on Guy Fawkes‘ night (5th
November), with fireworks and bonfires burning effigies of the conspirators‘ leader.
After this incident, the divide between Catholics and Protestant
worsened. James's successor Charles I (1600-1649) was eager to unify Britain and
Ireland. His policies, however, were unpopular among the populace, and his totalitarian
handling of the Parliament eventually culminated in the English Civil War (1642-1651).
Charles was beheaded, and the puritan Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) ruled the
country as a dictator from 1649 to his death. He was briefly succeeded by his son Richard
at the head of the Protectorate, but his political inability prompted the Parliament to
restore the monarchy in 1660, calling in Charles I‘s exiled son, Charles II (1630-1685).
Charles II, known as the ―Merry Monarch,‖ was much more adept than his father
at handling Parliament, although every bit as ruthless with other matters. During his
reign, the Whig and Tory parties were created, and the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam
became English and was renamed New York, after Charles' brother, James, Duke of York
(and later James II).
Charles II was the patron of the arts and science, helping to found the Royal
Society and sponsoring some of England‘s proudest architecture. Charles also acquired
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Bombay and Tangiers through his Portuguese wife, thus laying the foundation for the
British Empire.
Although Charles produced countless illegitimate children, his wife couldn't bear
an heir, and when he died in 1685 the throne passed to his Catholic and unpopular brother
James.
James II‘s unpopularity led to his quick removal from power in the Glorious
Revolution of 1688. He was succeeded by his Protestant daughter Mary, who was
married to his equally Protestant nephew, William of Orange.
The new ruling couple became known as the ―Grand Alliance,‖ and parliament
ratified a bill stating that all kings or queens would have to be Protestant from that point
forward. After Mary‘s death in 1694, and then William‘s in 1702, James‘s second
daughter, Anne, ascended to the throne. In 1707, the Act of Union joined the Scottish and
the English Parliaments thus creating the single Kingdom of Great Britain and
centralizing political power in London. Anne died heirless in 1714, and a distant German
cousin, George of Hanover, was called to rule over the UK.
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guillotined. George III suffered from a hereditary disease known as porphyria, and his
mental health seriously deteriorated from 1788. In 1800, the Act of Union merged the
Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland.
The United Kingdom during this time also had to face the ambitions of Napoleon,
who desired to conquer the whole of Europe. Admiral Nelson's naval victory at Traflagar
in 1805, along with Wellington's decisive victory at Waterloo, saved the UK and further
reinforced its international position. The 19th century would be dominated by the British
Empire, spreading on all five continents, from Canada and the Caribbean to Australia and
New Zealand, via Africa, India and South-East Asia.
19th Century
In 1837, then king William IV died of liver disease and the throne passed to the
next in line, his 18-year old niece Victoria (1819-1901), although she did not inherit the
Kingdom of Hanover, where the Salic Law forbid women to rule.
Victoria didn't expect to become queen, and being unmarried and inexperienced in
politics she had to rely on her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne (1779-1848). She finally
got married to her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1819-1861), and
both were respectively niece and nephew of the first King of the Belgians, Leopold I (of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha).
Britain asserted its domination on virtually every part of the globe during the 19
century, resulting in a number of wars, including the Opium Wars (1839-42 & 1856-60)
with Qing China and the Boer Wars(1880-81 & 1899-1902) with the Dutch-speaking
settlers of South Africa. In 1854, the United Kingdom was brought into the Crimean
War (1854-56) on the side of the Ottoman Empire and against Russia. One of the best
known figures of that war was Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), who fought for the
improvement of women‘s conditions and pioneered modern nursing.
The latter years of Victoria‘s reign were dominated by two influential Prime
Ministers, Benjamin Disraeli (1808-1881) and his rival William Ewart Gladstone (1809-
1898). The former was the favorite of the Queen, while Gladstone, a liberal, was often at
odds with both Victoria and Disraeli. However, the strong party support for Gladstone
kept him in power for a total of 14 years between 1868 and 1894. He is credited with
legalizing trade unions, and advocating for both universal education and suffrage.
Queen Victoria was to have the longest reign of any British monarch (64 years),
but also the most glorious, as she ruled over 40% of the globe and a quarter of the
world‘s population.
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involved. The monarchies in Germany, Austria, Russia and the Ottoman Empire all fell,
and the map of central and Eastern Europe was completely redesigned.
After World War I, the Labor Party was created in Britain. The General Strike of
1926 and the worsening economy led to radical political changes, including one in which
women were finally granted the same universal suffrage as men in 1928.
In 1936, Edward VIII (1894-1972) succeeded to the throne, but abdicated the
same year to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice divorced American woman. His brother then
unexpectedly became George VI (1895-1952) after the scandal.
Nazi Germany was becoming more menacing as Hitler grew more powerful and
aggressive. Finally, Britain and France were forced to declare war on Germany after the
invasion of Poland in September 1939, marking the beginning of World War II. The
popular and charismatic Winston Churchill (1874-1965) became the war-time Prime
Minister in 1940 and his speeches encouraged the British to fight off the attempted
German invasion. In one of his most patriotic speeches before the Battle of Britain
(1940), Churchill address the British people with ―We shall defend our island, whatever
the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we
shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never
surrender.‖ And indeed, Britain did not surrender.
Following World War II, the United Kingdom was bankrupt and in ruins. The
British Empire was dismantled little by little, first granting independence to India and
Pakistan in 1947, then to the other Asian, African and Caribbean colonies in the 1950's
and 60's. Most of these ex-colonies formed the British Commonwealth, now known as
the Commonwealth of Nations. 53 states are now members of the Commonwealth,
accounting for 1.8 billion people (about 30% of the global population) and about 25% of
the world's land area.
In 1952, the current queen of England, Elizabeth II, ascended to the throne at the
age of 26. The 1960s saw the dawn of pop and rock music, with bands like the Beatles,
Pink Floyd, and the Rolling Stones rising to prominence, and the Hippie subculture
developing.
The 1970‘s brought the oil crisis and the collapse of British industry.
Conservative Prime minister Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925) was elected in 1979 and served
until 1990. Among other accomplishments, she privatized the railways and shut down
inefficient factories, but she also increased the gap between the rich and the poor by
scaling back social security. Her methods were so harsh that she was nicknamed the ―Iron
Lady.‖
Thatcher was succeeded in her party by the unpopular John Major, but in 1997,
the ―New Labor‖ party came back to power with the appointment of Tony Blair (b.
1953). Blair's liberal policies and unwavering support for neo-conservative US President
George W. Bush (especially regarding the invasion of Iraq in 2003) disappointed many
Leftists, who really saw in Blair but a Rightist in disguise. Regardless, Blair has
impressed many dissenters with his intelligence and remarkable skills as an orator and
negotiator.
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Today, the English economy relies heavily on services and, like the rest of the
world, is in the process of beginning to rebuild after the global economic recession of
2008. The main industries in the country are travel, education, prestigious automobiles
and tourism.
READING 2
The following text is from ―Portrait of the USA,‖ published by the United States
Information Agency, September 1997.
Chapter Three
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North America, the French controlled Canada and Louisiana, which included the vast
Mississippi River watershed. France and England fought several wars during the 18th
century, with North America being drawn into every one. The end of the Seven Years‘
War in 1763 left England in control of Canada and all of North America east of the
Mississippi.
Soon afterwards England and its colonies were in conflict. The mother country
imposed new taxes, in part to defray the cost of fighting the Seven Years‘ War, and
expected Americans to lodge British soldiers in their homes. The colonists resented the
taxes and resisted the quartering of soldiers. Insisting that they could be taxed only by
their own colonial assemblies, the colonists rallied behind the slogan ―no taxation without
representation.‖
All the taxes, except one on tea, were removed, but in 1773 a group of patriots
responded by staging the Boston Tea Party. Disguised as Indians, they boarded British
merchant ships and dumped 342 crates of tea into Boston harbor. This provoked a
crackdown by the British Parliament, including the closing of Boston harbor to shipping.
Colonial leaders convened the First Continental Congress in 1774 to discuss the colonies‘
opposition to British rule. War broke out on April 19, 1775, when British soldiers
confronted colonial rebels in Lexington, Massachusetts. On July 4, 1776, the Continental
Congress adopted a Declaration of Independence.
At first the Revolutionary War went badly for the Americans. With few
provisions and little training, American troops generally fought well, but were
outnumbered and overpowered by the British. The turning point in the war came in 1777
when American soldiers defeated the British Army at Saratoga, New York. France had
secretly been aiding the Americans, but was reluctant to ally itself openly until they had
proved themselves in battle. Following the Americans' victory at Saratoga, France and
America signed treaties of alliance, and France provided the Americans with troops and
warships.
The last major battle of the American Revolution took place at Yorktown,
Virginia, in 1781. A combined force of American and French troops surrounded the
British and forced their surrender. Fighting continued in some areas for two more years,
and the war officially ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, by which England
recognized American independence.
A NEW NATION
The framing of the U.S. Constitution and the creation of the United States are
covered in more detail in chapter 4. In essence, the Constitution alleviated Americans‘
fear of excessive central power by dividing government into three branches -- legislative
(Congress), executive (the president and the federal agencies), and judicial (the federal
courts) -- and by including 10 amendments known as the Bill of Rights to safeguard
individual liberties. Continued uneasiness about the accumulation of power manifested
itself in the differing political philosophies of two towering figures from the
Revolutionary period. George Washington, the war‘s military hero and the first U.S.
president, headed a party favoring a strong president and central government;
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put an end to slavery, and it decided that the country was not a collection of semi-
independent states but an indivisible whole.
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number of possessions from Spain: Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. In an
unrelated action, the United States also acquired the Hawaiian Islands.
Yet Americans, who had themselves thrown off the shackles of empire, were not
comfortable with administering one. In 1902 American troops left Cuba, although the
new republic was required to grant naval bases to the United States. The Philippines
obtained limited self-government in 1907 and complete independence in 1946. Puerto
Rico became a self-governing commonwealth within the United States, and Hawaii
became a state in 1959 (as did Alaska).
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Nations was included in the Treaty of Versailles, but the U.S. Senate did not ratify the
treaty, and the United States did not participate in the league.
The majority of Americans did not mourn the defeated treaty. They turned inward,
and the United States withdrew from European affairs. At the same time, Americans were
becoming hostile to foreigners in their midst. In 1919 a series of terrorist bombings
produced the ―Red Scare.‖ Under the authority of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer,
political meetings were raided and several hundred foreign-born political radicals were
deported, even though most of them were innocent of any crime. In 1921 two Italian-born
anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were convicted of murder on the basis
of shaky evidence. Intellectuals protested, but in 1927 the two men were electrocuted.
Congress enacted immigration limits in 1921 and tightened them further in 1924 and
1929. These restrictions favored immigrants from Anglo-Saxon and Nordic countries.
The 1920s were an extraordinary and confusing time, when hedonism coexisted
with puritanical conservatism. It was the age of Prohibition: In 1920 a constitutional
amendment outlawed the sale of alcoholic beverages. Yet drinkers cheerfully evaded the
law in thousands of "speakeasies" (illegal bars), and gangsters made illicit fortunes in
liquor. It was also the Roaring Twenties, the age of jazz and spectacular silent movies
and such fads as flagpole-sitting and goldfish-swallowing. The Ku Klux Klan, a racist
organization born in the South after the Civil War, attracted new followers and terrorized
blacks, Catholics, Jews, and immigrants. At the same time, a Catholic, New York
Governor Alfred E. Smith, was a Democratic candidate for president.
For big business, the 1920s were golden years. The United States was now a
consumer society, with booming markets for radios, home appliances, synthetic textiles,
and plastics. One of the most admired men of the decade was Henry Ford, who had
introduced the assembly line into automobile factories. Ford could pay high wages and
still earn enormous profits by mass-producing the Model T, a car that millions of buyers
could afford. For a moment, it seemed that Americans had the Midas touch.
But the superficial prosperity masked deep problems. With profits soaring and
interest rates low, plenty of money was available for investment. Much of it, however,
went into reckless speculation in the stock market. Frantic bidding pushed prices far
above stock shares‘ real value. Investors bought stocks ―on margin,‖ borrowing up to 90
percent of the purchase price. The bubble burst in 1929. The stock market crashed,
triggering a worldwide depression.
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created millions of jobs by undertaking the construction of roads, bridges, airports, parks,
and public buildings. Later the Social Security Act set up contributory old-age and
survivors' pensions.
Roosevelt‘s New Deal programs did not end the Depression. Although the
economy improved, full recovery had to await the defense buildup preceding America's
entry into World War II.
WORLD WAR II
Again neutrality was the initial American response to the outbreak of war in
Europe in 1939. But the bombing of Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii by the Japanese
in December 1941 brought the United States into the war, first against Japan and then
against its allies, Germany and Italy.
American, British, and Soviet war planners agreed to concentrate on defeating
Germany first. British and American forces landed in North Africa in November 1942,
proceeded to Sicily and the Italian mainland in 1943, and liberated Rome on June 4,
1944. Two days later -- D-Day -- Allied forces landed in Normandy. Paris was liberated
on August 24, and by September American units had crossed the German border. The
Germans finally surrendered on May 5, 1945.
The war against Japan came to a swift end in August of 1945, when President
Harry Truman ordered the use of atomic bombs against the cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Nearly 200,000 civilians were killed. Although the matter can still provoke
heated discussion, the argument in favor of dropping the bombs was that casualties on
both sides would have been greater if the Allies had been forced to invade Japan.
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new vulnerability was the work of traitors from within. Republican Senator Joseph
McCarthy asserted in the early 1950s that the State Department and the U.S. Army were
riddled with Communists. McCarthy was eventually discredited. In the meantime,
however, careers had been destroyed, and the American people had all but lost sight of a
cardinal American virtue: toleration of political dissent.
From 1945 until 1970 the United States enjoyed a long period of economic
growth, interrupted only by mild and brief recessions. For the first time a majority of
Americans enjoyed a comfortable standard of living. In 1960, 55 percent of all
households owned washing machines, 77 percent owned cars, 90 percent had television
sets, and nearly all had refrigerators. At the same time, the nation was moving slowly to
establish racial justice.
In 1960 John F. Kennedy was elected president. Young, energetic, and handsome,
he promised to ―get the country moving again‖ after the eight-year presidency of Dwight
D. Eisenhower, the aging World War II general. In October 1962 Kennedy was faced
with what turned out to be the most drastic crisis of the Cold War. The Soviet Union had
been caught installing nuclear missiles in Cuba, close enough to reach American cities in
a matter of minutes. Kennedy imposed a naval blockade on the island. Soviet Premier
Nikita Khrushschev ultimately agreed to remove the missiles, in return for an American
promise not to invade Cuba.
In April 1961 the Soviets capped a series of triumphs in space by sending the first
man into orbit around the Earth. President Kennedy responded with a promise that
Americans would walk on the moon before the decade was over. This promise was
fulfilled in July of 1969, when astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Apollo 11
spacecraft and onto the moon‘s surface.
Kennedy did not live to see this culmination. He had been assassinated in 1963.
He was not a universally popular president, but his death was a terrible shock to the
American people. His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, managed to push through Congress
a number of new laws establishing social programs. Johnson‘s ―War on Poverty‖
included preschool education for poor children, vocational training for dropouts from
school, and community service for slum youths.
During his six years in office, Johnson became preoccupied with the Vietnam
War. By 1968, 500,000 American troops were fighting in that small country, previously
little known to most of them. Although politicians tended to view the war as part of a
necessary effort to check communism on all fronts, a growing number of Americans saw
no vital American interest in what happened to Vietnam. Demonstrations protesting
American involvement broke out on college campuses, and there were violent clashes
between students and police. Antiwar sentiment spilled over into a wide range of protests
against injustice and discrimination.
Stung by his increasing unpopularity, Johnson decided not to run for a second full
term. Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968. He pursued a policy of
Vietnamization, gradually replacing American soldiers with Vietnamese. In 1973 he
signed a peace treaty with North Vietnam and brought American soldiers home. Nixon
achieved two other diplomatic breakthroughs: re-establishing U.S. relations with the
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People's Republic of China and negotiating the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
with the Soviet Union. In 1972 he easily won re-election.
During that presidential campaign, however, five men had been arrested for
breaking into Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate office building in
Washington, D.C. Journalists investigating the incident discovered that the burglars had
been employed by Nixon's re-election committee. The White House made matters worse
by trying to conceal its connection with the break-in. Eventually, tape recordings made
by the president himself revealed that he had been involved in the cover-up. By the
summer of 1974, it was clear that Congress was about to impeach and convict him. On
August 9, Richard Nixon became the only U.S. president to resign from office.
Throughout the 1980s, the Soviet Union fought an increasingly frustrating war in
Afghanistan. At the same time, the Soviet economy faced the continuously escalating
costs of the arms race. Dissent at home grew while the stagnant economy faltered under
the combined burden. Attempted reforms at home left the Soviet Union unwilling to
rebuff challenges to its control in Eastern Europe. During 1989 and 1990, the Berlin Wall
came down, borders opened, and free elections ousted Communist regimes everywhere in
eastern Europe. In late 1991 the Soviet Union itself dissolved into its component
republics. With stunning speed, the Iron Curtain was lifted and the Cold War came to an
end.
DECADES OF CHANGE
After World War II the presidency had alternated between Democrats and
Republicans, but, for the most part, Democrats had held majorities in the Congress -- in
both the House of Representatives and the Senate. A string of 26 consecutive years of
Democratic control was broken in 1980, when the Republicans gained a majority in the
Senate; at the same time, Republican Ronald Reagan was elected president. This change
marked the onset of a volatility that has characterized American voting patterns ever
since.
Whatever their attitudes toward Reagan‘s policies, most Americans credited him
with a capacity for instilling pride in their country and a sense of optimism about the
future. If there was a central theme to his domestic policies, it was that the federal
government had become too big and federal taxes too high.
Despite a growing federal budget deficit, in 1983 the U.S. economy entered into
one of the longest periods of sustained growth since World War II. The Reagan
administration suffered a defeat in the 1986 elections, however, when Democrats
regained control of the Senate. The most serious issue of the day was the revelation that
the United States had secretly sold arms to Iran in an attempt to win freedom for
American hostages held in Lebanon and to finance antigovernment forces in Nicaragua at
a time when Congress had prohibited such aid. Despite these revelations, Reagan
continued to enjoy strong popularity throughout his second term in office.
His successor in 1988, Republican George Bush, benefited from Reagan's
popularity and continued many of his policies. When Iraq invaded oil-rich Kuwait in
1990, Bush put together a multinational coalition that liberated Kuwait early in 1991.
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Introduction to British and American Studies
By 1992, however, the American electorate had become restless again. Voters
elected Bill Clinton, a Democrat, president, only to turn around two years later and give
Republicans their first majority in both the House and Senate in 40 years. Meanwhile,
several perennial debates had broken out anew -- between advocates of a strong federal
government and believers in decentralization of power, between advocates of prayer in
public schools and defenders of separation of church and state, between those who
emphasize swift and sure punishment of criminals and those who seek to address the
underlying causes of crime. Complaints about the influence of money on political
campaigns inspired a movement to limit the number of terms elected officials could
serve. This and other discontents with the system led to the formation of the strongest
Third-Party movement in generations, led by Texas businessman H. Ross Perot.
Although the economy was strong in the mid-1990s, two phenomena were
troubling many Americans. Corporations were resorting more and more to a process
known as downsizing: trimming the work force to cut costs despite the hardships this
inflicted on workers. And in many industries the gap between the annual compensations
of corporate executives and common laborers had become enormous. Even the majority
of Americans who enjoy material comfort worry about a perceived decline in the quality
of life, in the strength of the family, in neighborliness and civility. Americans probably
remain the most optimistic people in the world, but with the century drawing to a close,
opinion polls showed that trait in shorter supply than usual.
References
A short history of the United Kingdom (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.studycountry.com/guide/GB-
history.htm [Accessed August 19, 2017]
The United States Information Agency (1997). Chapter 3: Towards a city upon the hill. Portrait of the
USA. Retrieved from https://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/factover/ch3.htm
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