United States of America

The United States of America is a country in North America. It has an area of 9.4 million sq km and a population of 219 million (as of Jan. 1, 1979). The capital city is Washington, D.C. The country is divided administratively into 50 states and the Federal District of Columbia. The states are divided into counties.
Since 1959 the USA has consisted of three, noncontiguous physiographic divisions—the coterminous states, Alaska, and the Hawaiian Islands—which vary in size, level of development, and population. The coterminous states (within the USA’s pre-1959 borders) have an area of 7.8 million sq km and a population of 202 million (1970 census). They border Canada on the north, Mexico on the south, the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Gulf of Mexico on the southeast. Alaska occupies the northwestern part of North America and includes many islands, for example, the Aleutians. The Hawaiian Islands are situated in the Pacific Ocean (seeHAWAII and HAWAIIAN ISLANDS).
For statistical purposes the USA is divided into nine census bureau
Table 1. Area and population of the United States 	Table 1. Area and population of the United States 	Table 1. Area and population of the United States 	Table 1. Area and population of the United States
Regions and states 	Area (thousand sq km) 	Population (thousands, 1970 census) 	Capital
1The city of Washington, D.C. is coextensive with the District of Columbia.	1The city of Washington, D.C. is coextensive with the District of Columbia.	1The city of Washington, D.C. is coextensive with the District of Columbia.	1The city of Washington, D.C. is coextensive with the District of Columbia.
North 	North 	North 	North
New England ............... 	172.6 	11,842 	
Maine ............... 	86.0 	992 	Augusta
New Hampshire ............... 	24.1 	738 	Concord
Vermont ............... 	24.9 	444 	Montpelier
Massachusetts ............... 	21.5 	5,689 	Boston
Rhode Island ............... 	3.2 	947 	Providence
Connecticut ............... 	12.9 	3,032 	Hartford
Middle Atlantic ............... 	266.1 	37,199 	
New York ............... 	128.4 	18,237 	Albany
New Jersey ............... 	20.3 	7,168 	Trenton
Pennsylvania ............... 	117.4 	11,794 	Harrisburg
East North Central ............... 	643.1 	40,253 	
Ohio ............... 	106.7 	10,652 	Columbus
Indiana ............... 	94.1 	5,194 	Indianapolis
Illinois ............... 	146.1 	11,114 	Springfield
Michigan ............... 	150.3 	8,875 	Lansing
Wisconsin ............... 	145.4 	4,418 	Madison
West North Central ............... 	1,339.7 	16,320 	
Minnesota ............... 	217.8 	3,805 	St. Paul
Iowa ............... 	145.8 	2,824 	Des Moines
Missouri ............... 	180.4 	4,677 	Jefferson City
North Dakota ............... 	183.1 	618 	Bismarck
South Dakota ............... 	199.5 	666 	Pierre
Nebraska ............... 	200.0 	1,483 	Lincoln
Kansas ............... 	213.1 	2,247 	Topeka
South 	South 	South 	South
South Atlantic ............... 	722.3 	30,671 	
Delaware ............... 	5.3 	548 	Dover
Maryland ............... 	27.4 	3,922 	Annapolis
Virginia ............... 	105.7 	4,648 	Richmond
West Virginia ............... 	62.6 	1,744 	Charleston
North Carolina ............... 	136.5 	5,082 	Raleigh
South Carolina ............... 	80.4 	2,591 	Columbia
Georgia ............... 	152.5 	4,590 	Atlanta
Florida ............... 	151.7 	6,789 	Tallahassee
District of Columbia ............... 	0.2 	757 	1
East South Central ............... 	471.3 	12,804 	
Kentucky ............... 	104.6 	3,219 	Frankfort
Tennessee ............... 	109.4 	3,924 	Nashville
Alabama ............... 	133.7 	3,444 	Montgomery
Mississippi ............... 	123.6 	2,217 	Jackson
West South Central ............... 	1,136.4 	19,320 	
Arkansas ............... 	137.5 	1,923 	Little Rock
Louisiana ............... 	125.7 	3,641 	Baton Rouge
Oklahoma ............... 	181.1 	2,559 	Oklahoma City
Texas ............... 	692.1 	11,197 	Austin
West 	West 	West 	West
Mountain ............... 	2,237.3 	8,282 	
Montana ............... 	381.1 	694 	Helena
Idaho ............... 	216.4 	713 	Boise
Wyoming ............... 	253.6 	332 	Cheyenne
Colorado ............... 	269.9 	2,207 	Denver
New Mexico ............... 	315.1 	1,016 	SantaFe
Arizona ............... 	295.0 	1,771 	Phoenix
Utah ............... 	219.9 	1,059 	Salt Lake City
Nevada ............... 	286.3 	489 	Carson City
Pacific ............... 	2,374.3 	26,522 	
Washington ............... 	176.6 	3,409 	Olympia
Oregon ............... 	251.2 	2,091 	Salem
California ............... 	411.0 	19,953 	Sacramento
Alaska ............... 	1,518.8 	300 	Juneau
Hawaii ............... 	16.7 	796 	Honolulu
regions. Historically the territory of the coterminous states has been divided into three principal regions: the North, South, and West (see Table 1).
Possessions of the USA in the West Indies include Puerto Rico (area, 8,900 sq km; population, 3.2 million in 1976), which has the formal status of a commonwealth, and the Virgin Islands (area, 300 sq km; population, 95,000). Possessions in the Pacific Ocean include Guam (area, 500 sq km; population, 96,000), American Samoa (area, 200 sq km; population, 30,000), and a number of smaller islands. Also under US administration are the UN trust territories of the Caroline, Mariana, and Marshall islands in the Western Pacific.
The USA is a federal republic consisting of 50 states. Its Constitution was drafted in 1787 by a constitutional convention held in Philadelphia. Prior to 1787 the Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1781, had functioned as a constitution. The Constitution is concisely worded, and many of its articles are general in nature. Hence, its interpretation, the duty of the Supreme Court, is vitally important. A very complicated procedure has been set up for adding amendments to the Constitution. The amendments are proposed by Congress or by a constitutional convention convoked by Congress on the petition of the legislatures of two-thirds of the states. An amendment has the force of law after it has been ratified by the legislatures or special conventions of three-fourths of the states. Since 1787, 26 amendments have been adopted.
The first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were adopted in 1789. The amendments subsequently adopted are as follows:
Eleventh Amendment (1798), limiting the jurisdiction of the federal courts;
Twelfth Amendment (1804), establishing a procedure for electing the president, including the election of the president and vice-president by the House of Representatives if none of the candidates receives a majority of the electoral votes;
Thirteenth Amendment (1865), abolishing slavery;
Fourteenth Amendment (1868), protecting the life, liberty, and property of citizens through due process of law and setting up a system for the apportionment of representatives in Congress;
Fifteenth Amendment (1870), prohibiting discrimination in voting;
Sixteenth Amendment (1913), giving Congress the power to levy and collect taxes on incomes;
Seventeenth Amendment (1913), establishing the procedure for senatorial elections, including the introduction of the popular election of senators;
Eighteenth Amendment (1919), prohibiting the production and sale of alcoholic beverages (the “dry law”);
Nineteenth Amendment (1920), granting women the right to vote;
Twentieth Amendment (1933), establishing the date for the beginning of the terms of office of the president, vice-president, senators, and representatives;
Twenty-first Amendment (1933), abolishing the Eighteenth Amendment;
Twenty-second Amendment (1951), prohibiting the same person from being elected president more than twice;
Twenty-third Amendment (1961), granting the residents of Washington D.C. the right to vote for president and vice-president;
Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964), abolishing the poll tax;
Twenty-fifth Amendment (1967), establishing a procedure for filling in a vacancy in the office of the president or vice-president by confirmation of the Congress;
Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971), setting the voting age at 18 or older.
A twenty-seventh amendment to the Constitution, granting equal rights to women, was proposed in 1972 but has not yet been ratified by enough states.
The US Constitution is theoretically constructed on the principle of the separation of powers. It stipulates that legislative power belongs to the Congress, executive power to the president, and judicial power to the Supreme Court. The area of competence of each of these powers is clearly defined.
The president, the head of state and government, is elected by the population for a four-year term by means of indirect election (by way of the Electoral College). The vice-president is on the same ballot as the president; for electoral purposes they never come from the same state. The Constitution provides that the president must be a natural-born citizen who is at least 35 years of age and has lived in the USA for at least 14 years. A president can be removed from office only by impeachment, a special procedure provided for by the Constitution for indicting persons in the federal service, including the president and Supreme Court justices, for such crimes as committing treason and accepting bribes. Impeachment is initiated by the House of Representatives; the case is tried by the Senate, with conviction requiring a two-thirds vote of the senators present. An official who is found guilty is removed from office and may subsequently be tried before an ordinary court like any other citizen. Impeachment has been initiated 12 times; only four cases ended in conviction. A president was impeached only once, in 1868. In 1974, President Nixon was forced to resign when threatened with impeachment.
The president’s powers are very broad. They include the right to veto bills passed by Congress; a presidential veto may, however, be overridden by repassage of the bill by a two-thirds majority of both houses. The president drafts a national budget and sends messages to Congress, setting forth his own legislative program. In addition, the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces and has the power to conclude international treaties and executive agreements (the latter without the advice and consent of the Senate). The president may order the commencement of military operations. He has the authority to make appointments to the highest positions, with the advice and consent of the Senate; he also has the unilateral right to dismiss these officials. The president also has the right of pardon.
The administrative establishment subordinate to the president consists of the cabinet, the executive office of the president, and various administrative agencies and commissions.
The cabinet, which includes 12 department heads (secretaries) and a number of persons having the rank of cabinet members, is a consultative body without any constitutional powers. The president selects the members of the cabinet, and cabinet meetings are held at the president’s request. Cabinet members may not be members of Congress.
The executive office of the president coordinates domestic and foreign policy. Its agencies include the White House Office, the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Council, and the Council of Economic Advisers. The executive branch also includes a number of administrative and independent agencies, for example, the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Reserve System, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the International Communication Agency, and the Civil Service Commission.
Congress consists of two houses—the Senate and the House of Representatives—which are chosen by direct election. The Senate has 100 members (two from each state), elected for six-year terms. Only one-third of the Senate seats become vacant in any single election year. A senator must be at least 30 years old, a US citizen for at least nine years, and a resident of the state he or she represents. The vice-president is the president of the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, elected for two-year terms. A representative must be at least 25 years old, a US citizen for at least seven years, and a resident of the state he or she represents. The presiding officer elected by the House is the speaker. Congressional business is conducted along party lines, with each party electing its own leaders. Permanent (standing) and temporary congressional committees do the preparatory work on legislation; bills coming out of the committees are later introduced onto the floors of both houses for action.
After the 1978 elections, the membership of the House of Representatives included 276 Democrats and 159 Republicans, and the membership of the Senate included 58 Democrats, 41 Republicans, and one Independent.
Congress’ area of competence is defined by the Constitution. The principal functions of Congress are law-making and the approval of a national budget. Congress also regulates commerce with foreign countries and among the states. It has the right to declare war, to conclude treaties concerning loans, and to raise and support armies. Legislative initiative belongs to the members of both houses, and the powers of the houses are considered to be equal. The Senate, however, has the exclusive right to ratify international treaties and to confirm the president’s appointment of certain high-ranking officials, including cabinet secretaries and ambassadors. Money bills may be introduced only in the House of Representatives.
The Constitution defines the general principles of election law. Electoral systems, even for federal elections, are basically established by the states. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s a number of electoral reforms were carried out: poll taxes were abolished, the legal minimum voting age was lowered to 18, and the literacy requirement was dropped. However, there are still numerous means of preventing citizens, especially Negroes, from voting; for example, most states have a residency requirement, ranging from one month to one year. Elections are characterized by absenteeism—the conscious nonparticipation of eligible voters. For example, only 63 percent of eligible voters participated in the presidential election in 1960, 61 percent in 1964 and 1968, and 55 percent in 1972.
The states have various nominating systems, including nomination by petition and nomination by party convention. Twenty-six states hold primaries, or preliminary elections, in which the voters choose a candidate to represent the state party organization. Each party may nominate only one candidate for president, and this candidate is selected at the party’s national convention. The results of elections are determined by the majority system; in other words, the winning candidate is the one who receives the majority of votes. There are laws limiting campaign spending, but they are systematically circumvented.
The judicial system includes federal, state, and local courts. The federal system consists of 89 district courts, 11 circuit (appellate) courts, and the Supreme Court. All federal judges are appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Supreme Court is composed of nine justices. It has original jurisdiction in certain important types of cases, but it basically considers appeals from lower court rulings. Moreover, the Supreme Court carries out the function of constitutional supervision. The national judicial system also includes a number of special courts, for example, the Customs Court, the Tax Court, the Court of Claims, and the Court of Military Appeals. The states have their own judicial systems, headed by state supreme courts.
Each state has its own constitution; most state constitutions have been in effect since the late 18th century. Legislative power belongs to the state legislatures, which are elected for terms ranging from two to four years. Executive power belongs to a governor, who is popularly elected for a term of two to four years; judicial power belongs to the state supreme court. All legislatures are bicameral, with the exception of Nebraska’s single-house legislature. Each state has set up its own system of local government. Counties and large cities have governing boards and mayors, and in a number of cities a small commission is elected to run the city. Also widespread is the city manager system, whereby a person is hired to run a city under the supervision of an elected council.
===REFERENCES===
Gromyko, A. A. Kongress SShA. (Vybory, organizatsiia, polnomochiia). Moscow, 1957.Gromakov, B. S. Ocherki po istorii antidemokraticheskogo zakono datel’stva SShA. Moscow, 1958.Mishin, A. A. Gosudarstvennyi stroi SShA. Moscow, 1958.Boichenko, G. G. Konstitutsiia SShA. Moscow, 1959.“Konstitutsiia SShA.” In the collection Konstitutsii gosudarstv ameri-kanskogo kontinenia, vol. 3. Moscow, 1959.Gitsenko, K. F. Sudebnaia sistema SShA i ee klassovaia sushchnost’. Moscow, 1961.Mamaev, V. A. Reglament kongressa SShA. Moscow, 1962.Marinin, S. B. SShA: Politika i upravlenie. Moscow, 1967.Krylov, B. S. SShA: Federalizm, shtaty i mestnoe upravlenie. Moscow, 1968.Kalenskii, V. G. Politicheskaia nauka v SShA. Moscow, 1969.Belonogov, A. M. Belyi dom i kapitolii: Partnery i soperniki. Mos cow, 1974.M. V. BAGLAI
Most of the territory of the USA lies in the subtropical and temperate belts of North America; it stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Alaska is situated in the subarctic and arctic belts and borders on the Pacific and Arctic oceans. Occupying the tropical belt are southern Florida and the Hawaiian Islands.
Coasts. The coastline of the mainland USA is 22,860 km long. The Atlantic coast is low-lying, bordered by a broad shelf reaching 300 km in width, and strongly dissected by bays (river estuaries and lagoons). The Pacific coast is hilly and bordered by a shelf reaching 100 km in width. The northern Pacific coast, along Washington and southern Alaska, is characterized by branching systems of fjords and straits separated from the ocean by islands.
Terrain. Mountains and tablelands occupy about one-half of the mainland USA. The western part of the country, including almost all of Alaska, consists of the high mountain ranges, tablelands, and plateaus of the Cordilleran mountain system. Great elevations and dissected surfaces characterize the Appalachian Mountains (Appalachia). The Northern Appalachians extend to the Atlantic Ocean, but the Southern Appalachians are separated from the ocean by the flat Atlantic Coastal Plain.
West of Appalachia is the southern part of the Laurentian Upland (with elevations ranging from 300 to 400 m) and the Interior Plains, which include the Central Lowland, the Great Plains, and the Gulf Coastal Plain. The Central Lowland has elevations from 200 and 500 m; it is characterized by hilly, morainal terrain in the north and by eroded terrain in the central and southern parts. The Great Plains, which are situated west of 97°-98° W long., constitute a strongly dissected piedmont plateau of the Cordilleras. They have elevations ranging from 500 m in the east to 1,600 m in the foothills; in certain regions the network of valleys is so dense that the territory is unsuitable for economic use. The Gulf Coastal Plain, with elevations reaching 150 m, is swampy near the coast and bordered by a belt of marshes.
The Cordilleras consist basically of a number of mountain chains, with maximum elevations from 3,000 to 5,000 m, and a broad band of interior tablelands and plateaus. In Alaska the ranges extend mainly from west to east, and in the northern section they are bordered by the flat Arctic Slope. They include the Brooks Range, the Yukon Plateau, the Aleutian Range, the Alaska Range, the Kenai Mountains, the Chugach Mountains, and the St. Elias Mountains. The Alaska Range includes Mount McKinley, which at 6,193 m is the highest peak in the USA and all of North America.
In the coterminous USA the Cordilleras are oriented from north to south. Their eastern edge is formed by the Rocky Mountains, which reach elevations of almost 4,400 m. To the west of the Rockies lie the volcanic Columbia Plateau, the deserts of the Great Basin (an area of closed depressions—the largest of which is Death Valley), and the Colorado Plateau. These intermontane plateaus are typified by the alternation of flat areas (at elevations of approximately 2,000 m) and mountain massifs (at elevations reaching 3,000–3,500 m) with numerous deep river canyons. The plateaus and tablelands are bounded on the west by a narrow belt formed by the volcanic Cascade Mountains and the Sierra Nevada (with elevations greater than 4,400 m), which farther to the west border on the belt of valleys, including the Willamette Valley, the Central Valley, and Lower California. The strongly dissected Coast Ranges, which have elevations reaching 2,400 m, extend along the Pacific coastline. The Hawaiian Islands are a group of volcanoes, with elevations as high as 4,205 m.
Geological structure and mineral resources. The country’s interior and northern parts correspond to the southern part of the North American Shield. In the Great Lakes region the basement is exposed in two outcrops of the Canadian Shield: the southeastern outcrop forms the Adirondack Mountains, and the southwestern outcrop forms the Superior Highland, which is partly buried. Located to the south is the midcontinental platform, with a mantle of Paleozoic (Upper Cambrian-Carboniferous) deposits on a Precambrian basement. The principal geological structures running east to west are the Cincinnati anticline, the Michigan and Illinois synclines, the Wisconsin dome, the Ozark uplift, and the Forest City, Salinas, and Dodge City synclines.
The Folded Appalachians are represented in the USA by the southern part of the Northern Appalachians and by the Southern Appalachians. In the east and south the Paleozoic fold system of Appalachia is concealed under Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Peninsular Florida, and the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The thickness of the mantle greatly increases toward the ocean and the gulf (reaching 12–16 km); the subsidence of the basement is interrupted by relative uplifts (for example, the Sabine, Monroe, and Jackson uplifts).
Data obtained from borings show that the buried continuation of the Appalachian system in Mississippi sharply changes its southeast-northwest orientation for a latitudinal direction and comes to the surface in the Ouachita Mountains. The Ouachita Mountains are characterized by sedimentary beds deposited at the end of the Paleozoic to the north on the deep Arkansas syn-cline. To the west of the mountains the Paleozoic fold zone is covered by a younger sedimentary mantle, enveloping the Bend anticline; it appears again in the Marathon Mountains on the Mexican border.
Stretching along the Pacific coast is a considerable portion of the late Mesozoic-Cenozoic fold system of the Cordilleras, which attain their greatest width, about 1,600 km, within the USA. In the east the Cordilleras include the western edge of an ancient platform that underwent intensive dislocation during the Cretaceous (the eastern section of the Rocky Mountains). South of this region is the Colorado Plateau, to the north of which is seen an alternation of oval depressions and fault-block uplifts of a Precambrian basement. The depressions are filled with thin carbonate Paleozoic deposits and thick terrigenous beds of Mesozoic and Lower Paleozoic age. Stretching farther to the west is the miogeosyncline of the Rocky Mountains, which is marked by a complex thrust faulting of sedimentary beds and whose principal tectonic deformation occurred during the Laramide orogeny.
The Coast Ranges are separated from the Sierra Nevada by the Great Valley, a vast trough filled with Cretaceous and Cenozoic deposits. The ranges are cleaved from the north-northwest to the south-southeast by the San Andreas fault, which is associated with repeated, at times catastrophic, earthquakes (for example, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906). In addition to the Great Valley, thick terrigenous Cenozoic deposits developed on the coast of southern California, where they underwent intensive folding, and in Oregon and Washington. The Cascade Range, which extends through these three states, is a chain of young volcanoes; their eruptions consist primarily of andesitic lavas. The Columbia Plateau is formed of thick mantles of Miocene basalts.
The most important mineral resources of the USA are the deposits of petroleum and natural gas distributed over the North American Platform. Major Paleozoic deposits are located in the Appalachian, Arkansas, and Anadarko downwarps, as well as in the Michigan Basin. Mesozoic deposits are found in the Eastern Rocky Mountains and in the sedimentary mantle of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and Paleozoic and Mesozoic deposits are located in the West Texan downwarp, Peninsular Florida, and the shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. Important petroleum and natural gas deposits are also found in Cretaceous and Cenozoic Cordilleran depressions near Los Angeles, as well as in Paleozoic and Mesozoic beds of the Arctic Slope of northern Alaska and in the Cenozoic depression of the Cook Inlet in southern Alaska.
The USA has substantial reserves of coal in Middle and Upper Carboniferous beds in the Illinois and Pittsburgh basins, as well as in the Appalachian downwarp. There also are coal-bearing Cretaceous and Paleogenic deposits in the Rocky Mountains. Large iron deposits are found in the Precambrian basement of the shield near Lake Superior and in the Colorado Plateau. Sedimentary deposits of uranium are located in the Colorado Plateau and in the eastern part of the Rocky Mountains. The Cordilleras have numerous deposits of nonferrous metals, including copper (at Bingham, Utah), lead (at Tintic), zinc (at Tintic), mercury (at Almadén, Calif.), gold, molybdenum, and tungsten. There are seams of lead-zinc deposits in the carbonate strata of the platform.
Climate. The climate is temperate and subtropical marine on the Pacific coast, continental-marine on the Atlantic coast, continental in the Interior Plains, and extremely continental in the interior plateaus and tablelands of the Cordilleras. Northern Alaska has an arctic climate with very severe winters and cold summers, southern Alaska has a subarctic marine climate, and the Yukon tablelands of central Alaska have a continental climate.
The contrasts between the climatic conditions of various regions are most pronounced in the winter. For example, the average January temperature is −30°C in Fort Yukon, – 1.6°C in Juneau, – 13.3°C in Duluth, – 3.7°C in Chicago, – 0.8°C in New York, 1°C in Washington, 12.3°C in Los Angeles, and 20°C in Miami. The record low temperature of – 64°C was recorded in the Yukon tablelands. Temperatures below 0°C have been recorded throughout the USA, with the exception of the Southwest (southern California), the southern part of Florida, and the Hawaiian Islands.
Variations in temperature are not so great in the summer, except for the interior plateau regions of the Cordilleras, where extremely hot weather persists. The average July temperature is 15°C in Fairbanks, 14°C in San Francisco, 23°C in New York, 25°C in Washington, 27°C in New Orleans, and 32°C in Yuma. The record high temperature for the USA and the entire western hemisphere was 56.7°C in Death Valley.
In the northern part of the Interior Plains the growing season lasts 180 to 190 days; south of 38° N lat. crop growing is possible year-round. The annual precipitation totals 3,000–4,000 mm in southeastern Alaska and western Washington, 1,500–2,000 mm in the Southeast, 300 mm in the interior foothills of the Rocky Mountains, 1,500 mm in the eastern parts of the Interior Plains, and less than 100 mm in places in the interior tablelands and plateaus. The slopes of the Cordilleras are covered with snow throughout the winter, as is the northeastern part of the country (north of 40°N lat.).
There is considerable air pollution in the USA, especially in large cities and industrial centers. Each year toxic gases and as much as 215 million tons of dust enter the atmosphere.
Rivers and lakes. In the mainland USA the average annual flow depth is 27 cm; the total flow volume is 1,600 cu km. The water resources vary from year to year. The annual flow depth is 60–120 cm in western Washington and western Oregon, 40–100 cm in Appalachia, 20–40 cm in the Central Lowland, 10–20 cm in the Great Plains, and as little as 10 cm in the interior tablelands and plateaus.
The largest rivers are the Mississippi (with an annual flow rate of 180 cu km), St. Lawrence (with an annual flow rate of 67 cu km), and the Columbia (with a flow rate of 60 cu km). The regimen of most of the rivers is irregular, especially in regions with a continental climate. The St. Lawrence River, which rises in the Great Lakes, has a regular regimen. The largest lakes—Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario—are located in the northern part of the country. More than half of their area belongs to the USA; the remainder is Canadian territory. A number of important closed salt lakes, for example, the Great Salt Lake, are located in the lowlands of the Great Basin. There are numerous karst and lagoon-type lakes in Florida. Alaska has a number of large lakes of glacier-tectonic origin, for example, Lake Iliamna. Total groundwater reserves amount to 60,000 cu km, of which 85 cu km are replenished each year.
The rivers and lakes are used extensively to supply water for industrial purposes, public consumption, and irrigation. They are also used for the production of electric energy and for shipping. The greatest reserves of water power are in the West, particularly in the Columbia River basin. The water intake in 1975 totaled 540 cu km, while losses without return (for the most part, to irrigation) totaled 130 cu km. Because of the increased pollution of lakes and rivers, especially in the northeastern and southwestern areas, purification measures are being implemented.
Soils. The soil cover is characterized by a change of single soil types both with latitude and as one travels from the oceans toward the country’s interior. In the Northeast, in the foothills of the Appalachians, and in the Great Lakes region there is a predominance of soddy-podzols and brown forest soils, which in the southern states change to red and yellow soils. These soils are highly productive, although they require substantial amounts of fertilizer. The western part of the Central Lowland has prairie soils with a high humus content; these extremely fertile soils are used for the cultivation of such highly productive crops as soybeans and corn.
Under the more arid and continental climatic conditions of the Great Plains, chernozem and chestnut soils formed. Brown and gray-brown soils are typical south of 38° N lat. The interior plateaus and tablelands of the Cordilleras, which are characterized by a very arid climate, have brown semidesert soils and subtropical desert soils. Also widespread in the plains region soddy-car-bonate soils (Great Lakes region, Gulf Coastal Plain), alluvial soils (Mississippi Valley), and meadow-swamp soils. The mountain regions are characterized by brown forest soils and brown soils. The principal soil cover in Alaska is composed of tundra, soddy-peaty, and cryogenic-taiga soils. The Hawaiian Islands have ferralitic soils.
More than 72 million hectares (ha) of land have been damaged by erosion, primarily in the western part of the Great Plains. Each year about 3 billion tons of soil are carried away by water and wind. Dust storms are also observed. Soil salinization has become more intensive, as has the pollution of soil by industrial discharges and pesticides.
Flora. Prior to the arrival of the European settlers, nearly one-half of the territory of what is now the USA was occupied by forests. Forests covered the entire eastern section and most of the slopes of the Cordilleras; a substantial area of the Interior Plains was occupied by steppes. By the 1970’s more than 50 percent of the forests had been cut down, and the steppes were plowed under. Only in the mountain regions has vegetation been preserved in its original form. In the Northeast and near the Great Lakes coniferous-broadleaf forests of pine, spruce, fir, maple, linden, and ash are encountered; also common are meadows and plowed areas. To the south, in the lower elevations of the Appalachians (up to 800 m), coniferous-broadleaf forests are replaced by broadleaf forests of oak, maple, sumac, tulip trees, and plane trees. Magnolias, laurels, and other hard-leaved evergreens occur in these forests south of 35°-39° N lat.
The high-grass prairie vegetation that previously predominated in the Central Lowland is no longer extant. West of 100° W long., the prairies give way to arid low-grass steppes, which have been plowed under only in some isolated sections and are used extensively as pasture. Steppes are also characteristic of certain isolated regions of the Cordilleras. The deserts and semideserts of the Great Basin are characterized by wormwood, orache, and other shrubs and subshrubs; large cacti and other succulents occur south of 38° N lat.
Coniferous forests predominate in the Cordilleras. Pine forests cover the principal, most arid, portions of the slopes; spruce-fir forests occur higher up in less arid sections; and subalpine and alpine meadows are found above 2,100–3,300 m. Widespread along the Pacific coast are forests of Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, and canoe cedar. The giant sequoia and one other sequoia species are encountered in California. In the arid Southwest, forests give way to thickets of hard-leaved shrubs and trees. Sparse coniferous forests and tundra vegetation are prevalent in Alaska; the forests are of the northern taiga type.
The forested area of the USA totals 315 million ha. Commercial forests occupy 210 million ha and include a timber reserve of 15 billion cu m.
Fauna. The mixed-forest zone is inhabited by the brown bear, lynx, wolverine, and fisher. The white-tailed deer, the bay lynx, the Eastern chipmunk, the star-nosed mole, and various species of bats are encountered in the forests of Appalachia. The southeastern USA is characterized by a fauna consisting of a mixture of boreal and tropical species. Its wildlife includes alligators, alligator snappers, peccaries, opossums, flamingos, pelicans, and hummingbirds. Steppe fauna has been preserved in the Southeast only in small numbers: examples are bison (extant only in preserves), pronghorn, brockets, coyotes, kit foxes, and rattlesnakes. There are numerous local varieties of skunks, badgers, and ground squirrels. The semideserts and deserts are inhabited by various rodents and reptiles. The Cordilleran slopes are the habitat of mountain goats, bighorn sheep, and grizzly bears (mainly in Alaska); the southern slopes are inhabited by jaguars, armadillos, and cacomistles. The animal life of Alaska includes numerous taiga and tundra species, for example, caribou. The Aleutian Islands are frequented by valuable marine mammals, including sea otters and seals.
Important commercial fishes found in the coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean include the Atlantic cod and the Atlantic herring in the north and the Atlantic menhaden in the south. Commercially valuable marine animals in the Pacific Ocean include salmon, halibut, tuna, crabs, shrimp, and oysters.
On the whole, the wildlife of the USA is sharply decreasing in number.
Preserves. As of 1970, the USA had approximately 4,000 national parks, national monuments, state parks, wildlife preserves, and recreational areas. The largest national parks are Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, Everglades, Redwood, and Carlsbad Caverns.
Natural regions. The USA is made up of a number of natural regions. Appalachia, a mountainous region of medium elevations, is covered primarily by mixed and broad-leaved forests. The Laurentian Upland, which within the borders of the USA includes only a region west of Lake Superior, is marked by a hilly morainal terrain, coniferous forests, and numerous lakes and swamps. The Central Lowland, whose terrain is hilly in the north and more gently rolling in the south, is strongly dissected by ravines and valleys. Its soils—brown forest soils and chernozems—have been cultivated almost throughout the region. The Central Lowland has several large navigable rivers, including the Mississippi and its tributaries. The Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains have a flat surface; there are occasional marshes along the coasts. The forests of the coastal plains consist of evergreens—pines in the arid sections and a predominance of deciduous species in more humid areas. The Great Plains, a broad piedmont plateau of the Cordilleras, is strongly dissected by river valleys and ravines, which in some places form badlands (seeBADLANDS). Low-grass steppe vegetation predominates in the Great Plains.
The Cordilleras of the mainland USA constitute a mountainous region with high ranges extending mainly parallel to the Pacific coast and with a chain of interior plateaus and tablelands. The region is divided into three parts: (1) the Rocky Mountains—a long chain of short ranges broken up by basins, (2) the Intermontane Plateaus—a belt of plateaus, tablelands, and extensive flat basins broken up by short ranges and massifs, and (3) the Pacific Mountain System—two parallel chains of high mountains, the Cascade-Sierra Province in the east and the Coast Ranges in the west, divided by the Willamette Valley in the north and the Central Valley in the south. The mountains are covered by dense coniferous forests. The Central Valley consists of steppes, which have been plowed under, and semideserts; there are regions of scrub vegetation in the extreme southwest.
The Alaskan Cordilleras are divided into three regions: (1) the Brooks Range and the plateau and lowlands bordering it on the north, (2) the Yukon Tableland, and (3) the Southern High-mountain Region, which includes the Alaskan Range, the St. Elias Mountains, the Chugash Mountains, the Kenai Mountains, the Aleutian Range, and the Aleutian Islands, as well as the valleys and basins separating the various mountain ranges.
===REFERENCES===
Ignat’ev, G. M. Severnaia Amerika: Fizicheskaia geografiia. Moscow, 1965.Buzovkin, B. A. Klimal Soedinennykh Shtatov Ameriki. Leningrad, 1960.Parson, R. Priroda pred”iavliaet schet. Moscow, 1969. (Translated from English.)Thornbury, W. D. Regional Geomorphology of the United States. [2nd ed.] New York [1965].Hunt, C. B. Physiography of the United States. San Francisco-London, 1967.Iseri, K. T., and W. B. Langbein. Large Rivers of the United States. Washington, D.C., 1974.
Climatic Atlas of the United States. Washington, D.C., 1968.N. A. BOGDANOV, V. E. KHAIN (geological structure and mineral resources), and G. M. IGNATEV (physical geography)
The population of the USA consists principally of Americans, a nation formed in the process of the mixing and ethnic integration of the descendants of settlers from Europe. In the 17th and 18th centuries most immigrants were from England, Scotland, Holland, Germany, and Ireland. The English formed the nucleus of the American people. The immigration of the third quarter of the 19th century was primarily from Germany, Ireland, England, and the Scandinavian countries. In the last quarter of the 19th century there was an influx of new Americans from Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and other Southern and Eastern European countries. During the 20th century immigrants from other parts of the Americas—Canada, Mexico, and the West Indies—have constituted an ever increasing portion of the total immigration. In the 17th and 18th centuries many Negro slaves were brought from Africa. All these groups were gradually assimilated: they adopted the English language (its American variant) and took part in creating the American culture. This process was accompanied by economic and other types of discrimination, to which, in changing forms, various groups of the population were subjected.
An internal heterogeneity continues to be characteristic of the American nation. Standing out particularly are the Negroes, who number about 23 million (this figure and subsequent estimates are based on the 1970 census) and who have formed their own ethnic group within the American nation. Immigrants make up transitional ethnic groups, which are continuously being renewed by fresh settlers and eroded by the processes of assimilation. It is impossible to draw a precise dividing line between such transitional groups and the American nation proper. The number of Americans in the narrow sense of the word—including Negroes and immigrants (beginning with the third generation)—is approximately 180 million.
Of the total US population, 16.5 percent is represented by persons who have lived in the USA for a comparatively short time (two generations) and who have retained their own native language to a considerable extent. This portion of the population includes 4.2 million persons from Italy, approximately 4 million from Mexico, 3.6 million from Germany, 3 million from Canada, 2.5 million from Great Britain, 2.4 million from Poland, 2.3 million from Russia, 1.7 million from the Scandinavian countries, 1.5 million from Ireland, 1.4 million from Puerto Rico, 591,000 from Japan (a considerable number have settled in the Hawaiian Islands), 435,000 from China, and 343,000 from the Philippines. There are 5.9 million Jews (calculated on the basis of religious faith). The remnants of the indigenous population are not numerous: American Indians total about 800,000 (a considerable number of them live on reservations), and Eskimo number approximately 30,000.
The official language of the USA is English, with 79 percent of the country’s population considering it their native language. Many second-generation Americans, while retaining many of the old country’s customs and traditions, nevertheless do speak English. At the same time a number of groups retain the language of their forebears in the third and subsequent generations. Along with a continuing assimilation, tendencies have been observed toward the isolation and internal consolidation of a number of ethnic groups (ethnocentrism), and toward an intensification of the movement against the discrimination of Negroes and American Indians.
Approximately 55 percent of the US population are Protestants of various denominations (Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and many others), and about 37 percent are Roman Catholics. The remainder of the population consists of the Eastern Orthodox, Jews, and—to a lesser extent—Muslims, Buddhists, and adherents of other religious faiths. The official calendar is the Gregorian.
M. IA. BERZINA
The rapid population growth during the 19th and the early 20th centuries was caused by a high natural increase (accounting for a 2.5 percent population increase by the turn of the 20th century) and large immigration. Between 1820 and 1920 approximately 39 million immigrants entered the country. With the passage of restrictive legislation after World War I (1914–18), immigration declined. In 1965 a new immigration law was promulgated, which was basically just as restrictive as the earlier legislation. Since World War II (1939–45) the average number of immigrants entering the country has totaled about 400,000 a year.
Table 2a. Population of the United States	Table 2a. Population of the United States
Year 	Population
1790 ............... 	3,929,000
1800 ............... 	5,308,000
1850 ............... 	23,192,000
1900 ............... 	76,212,000
1910 ............... 	92,288,000
1920 ............... 	106,021,000
1930 ............... 	123,202,000
1940 ............... 	132,165,000
1950 ............... 	151,326,000
1960 ............... 	179,323,000
1970 ............... 	203,212,000
1974 ............... 	211,900,000
1977 ............... 	217,700,000
Table 2a shows the dynamics of the US population. Since the mid-19th century the natural population growth rate has declined; by 1970 it had declined to 0.8 percent. The decrease was the result of a decline in the birth rate and a stabilization of the death rate.
Scientific and technological progress has brought about a shift in the occupational makeup of the US work force. During the past 20 years there has been a great increase among white-collar workers in the proportion of highly skilled specialists (for example, scientists and engineers), managers, and highly paid civil servants and office workers. Among hired workers (in the area of physical labor) the proportion of persons engaged in the service fields has increased. Table 2b shows the shifts in the population’s occupational makeup.
Table 2b. Occupational make-up of the employed population (percentage of total)	Table 2b. Occupational make-up of the employed population (percentage of total)	Table 2b. Occupational make-up of the employed population (percentage of total)	Table 2b. Occupational make-up of the employed population (percentage of total)	Table 2b. Occupational make-up of the employed population (percentage of total)
 	1940 	1950 	1960 	1970
Highly skilled specialists ............... 	7.5 	8.6 	11.4 	13.0
Managers and high-level civil servants ............... 	7.3 	8.7 	8.4 	10.4
Office workers ............... 	9.6 	12.3 	15.0 	17.2
Trade employees ............... 	67 	70 	7.5 	7.5
Industrial and construction workersh ............... 	39.8 	41.1 	39.6 	33.8
Workers in the service field ............... 	11.7 	10.5 	11.8 	13.3
Farmers ............... 	10.4 	74 	32 	2.9
Hired farm laborers ............... 	7.0 	4.4 	2.4 	1.9
In 1970 there were 82 million persons in the labor force, including 51.5 million men and 30.5 million women. About 2,840,000 persons worked in agriculture, lumbering, and fishing, 630,000 in mining, 19,838,000 in manufacturing, 4,572,000 in construction, 16,473,000 in business and hotel management, 3,902,000 in transportation and communications, 5,133,000 in finance and insurance, 25,162,000 in community, social, and domestic services, and 3,497,000 in other industries.
More than 90 percent of the labor force consists of hired workers. Although low-paid white-collar and blue-collar workers constitute about 40 percent of the work force, they receive only 12 percent of the total salaries and wages. About 20 percent of the highest paid workers receive 46 percent of all earnings. The monopolistic bourgeoisie, which receives huge profits, constitutes less than 1 percent of the economically active population.
More than half of the US population is concentrated in the North, but this region’s proportion of the country’s population has been decreasing as a result of internal migration during the postwar years. There has been noticeable population growth in the West and South. Between 1960 and 1976 the portion of the population in the West increased from 15 to 18 percent, the portion of the population in the South increased from 28 to 32 percent, and the portion of the population in the North decreased from 56 to 50 percent. In 1970, California was the most highly populated state, with 19.9 million persons, followed by New York, with 18.2 million persons.
The average population density is about 24 persons per sq km. The eastern half of the country is more densely populated, with the highest densities found in the old industrial states in the Northeast (for example, New Jersey, with 336 persons per sq km). West of the Mississippi River the density decreases, and in the mountain states of the Cordilleras it ranges from 1.3 (in Wyoming) to 8.4 persons per sq km. In California the population density is 48.6 persons per sq km. The least populated region in the USA is Alaska, where the population density is 0.2 persons per sq km.
The process of urbanization has intensified. The urban population accounted for 45.7 percent of the total US population in 1910 and 69.9 percent in 1960. In 1970 approximately 149.3 million persons, or 73.5 percent of the total population, lived in cities or suburbs. (In American statistics, cities have a population of 2,500 or greater. Counted separately are the “farm” population and rural “nonfarm” population living in mining, lumbering, and trading settlements inhabited by less than 2,500 persons.) The greatest level of urbanization has taken place in the northeastern states, where the urban population constitutes 80 percent of the population, and in California, where the urban population constitutes 90 percent of the total.
Large cities—those with more than 100,000 inhabitants —account for only 2 percent of the total number of cities, but they have a concentration of 38 percent of the urban population. Cities having 1 million or more inhabitants (within city limits in 1976) are New York (7.4 million), Chicago (3.1 million), Los Angeles (2.7 million), Philadelphia (1.8 million), Detroit (1.4 million), and Houston (1.5 million). Other major cities with populations greater than 500,000 within their administrative limits (1976 estimates) include Baltimore (827,000), Boston (618,000), Cleveland (626,000), Columbus (533,000), Dallas (849,000), Indianapolis (709,000), Jacksonville (532,000), Memphis (668,000), Milwaukee (661,000), New Orleans (581,000), Phoenix (680,000), St. Louis (519,000), San Antonio (784,000), San Diego (789,000), San Francisco (663,000), San Jose (574,000), and Washington, D.C. (700,000).
As a result of the concentration of population around large cities, the suburbs have grown rapidly. Encompassing more and more territory, they form metropolitan regions of small and medium-sized towns. The USA is divided into standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSA’s). The 1970 census listed 7,062 cities and 243 SMSA’s; in 1976 there were 277 SMSA’s. The largest SMS A was the New York City region, with more than 10 million inhabitants.
A belt of densely populated areas stretches along the Atlantic coast and forms a megalopolis of 40 million inhabitants. The megalopolis is composed of 34 large SMSA’s that have merged together; it encompasses the Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington metropolitan areas. Similar megalopolises are developing along the Pacific coast and the shores of the Great Lakes. In 1970, 52 percent of urban dwellers lived in the suburbs of metropolitan areas.
Ethnic minorities frequently form their own neighborhoods, and congested Negro ghettos have become typical of large cities. Landlords collect high rents for unmaintained housing, which has become catastrophically obsolete.
The socioeconomic problems of US cities are becoming more critical, aggravated by racial discrimination and a high level of unemployment. Emissions from numerous industrial plants and the exhaust fumes from motor vehicles, along with industrial wastes dumped into bodies of water, have led to a worsening of living conditions in the cities. One of the most urgent problems facing US cities is environmental protection.
M. G. SOLOV’EVA
Primitive communal structure among the peoples of North America. Prior to the European colonization of North America, the land was populated by Indians and Eskimo, whose ancestors probably migrated to America from Northeast Asia by way of the Bering Sea region about 20,000 or 30,000 years ago. The Indians and Eskimo were at different stages of a primitive communal structure. The Eskimo, who lived along the Arctic coast of North America, engaged primarily in hunting. The Indian tribes of the northwestern coast of North America, including the Tlingit and Haida tribes, engaged in fishing and the hunting of marine mammals. Social relations were characterized by a transition from a matriarchal to a patriarchal family structure; patriarchal slavery and barter had already appeared. In the Southwest the agricultural tribes, such as the Pueblos and the Pimas, were the most developed. The Indians of California, who lagged behind the other peoples of North America in level of development, engaged in gathering, fishing, and hunting. The Plains were inhabited by nomadic hunting tribes. Along with features of a matriarchate, many Plains tribes exhibited the beginnings of a patriarchal family structure. The tribes of settled farmers in the East, for example, the Iroquois, Algonquins, and Muskogee, were acquainted with hoe land cultivation; they also engaged in hunting and gathering.
According to rough estimates the territory of the present-day USA was inhabited by about 1 million Indians during the 16th century. By the time of European colonization many tribes had established tribal and military alliances, such as the League of the Iroquois and the Creek Confederacy. A league of seven Dakota tribes presented very stubborn resistence to the Europeans.
Colonial period (1607–1775). America was discovered by Columbus in 1492. The colonization of North America by Europeans began in the following century, with the establishment of colonies by Spain, France, England, Holland, and Sweden. Alaska was discovered and settled by the Russians in the 18th century. Spanish and Russian settlements were founded in California in the late 18th century and early 19th century, respectively.
Most of the European settlers were from England. The English established their first permanent settlement in the south (in Virginia) in 1607; their first permanent northern settlement (in Massachusetts) was founded in 1620. After seizing the Dutch colony of New Netherland (as a result of wars with Holland), England expanded its possessions along the Atlantic coast. As a result of the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), the English acquired Canada and Eastern Louisiana from France.
The socioeconomic development of the 13 English colonies in North America had as its basis elements of the capitalist order. (The New England colonies were Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island; the Middle Atlantic colonies were New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware; and the Southern colonies were Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.) The New England and Middle Atlantic colonies primarily had a small-scale farming economy; in the second half of the 17th century capitalist manufacturing began to develop. There were also certain elements of feudalism in agriculture, although attempts by the ruling upper classes to monopolize rights to the land and to establish feudal rule in the vast uncolonized lands were doomed to failure. Conflicts between the American farmers and feudal elements were often resolved by the granting of squatter’s rights and, in certain instances, by armed struggle against large landowners. The social struggle, which took on various forms, included a number of anticolonial uprisings, for example, the one led by N. Bacon in Virginia in 1676 and the one led by J. Leisler in New York from 1689 to 1691.
Particularly important in the socioeconomic development of the colonies was slavery. The extensive use of slave labor was brought about primarily by the comparatively easy acquisition of land by the colonists. As a consequence, the number of people making up the labor force in the colonies was extremely limited, and the wages of freemen were high. A stratum of “white slaves” was formed, consisting of immigrants who had entered into bondage-type agreements with shipowners and merchants, as well as of political outcasts, criminals, and debtors. Gradually the use of white slaves was replaced by the more economical Negro slavery. The first group of “black slaves” was brought from Africa to Virginia at the beginning of the 17th century. In the southern colonies Negro slave labor served as the basis for the plantation economy, which was based primarily on tobacco cultivation until the late 18th century.
As the economic development of the colonies proceeded apace, conflicts with the mother country arose. The English bourgeoisie regarded the colonies as a source of raw materials and a market for English industry. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the English government adopted various measures to suppress industrial development in the colonies. However, the development of capitalism, the gradual establishment of a unified market in the colonies, and the strengthening of ties among the colonies led to the emergence of a North American nation. A progressive bourgeois ideology resulted from the struggle against church regulations, religious fanaticism, and superstition. Leading representatives of the American Enlightenment included B. Franklin and T. Jefferson.
A direct cause of the mass movement against the mother country during the 1760’s was the policy pursued by Great Britain in the colonies after the Seven Years’ War. In 1763 the British government prohibited the colonists from settling beyond the Allegheny Mountains. It also adopted stiff measures against smuggling, a practice in which almost all American merchants were engaged. The Stamp Act, enacted by the British Parliament in 1765, affected almost every colonist, since it placed a tax on commercial and legal documents, periodicals, and all other printed matter. Representatives of the emerging American colonial bourgeoisie convoked the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 to voice their refusal to recognize the mother country’s right to tax the colonies when they were not represented in the British Parliament. Thus, in essence, the question of authority was posed.
A number of political revolutionary organizations were founded in the colonies. Chief among them were the Sons of Liberty and the committees of correspondence—mass organizations of artisans, laborers, farmers, and members of the urban petite bourgeoisie. Beginning in the mid-1760’s a chain of uncoordinated disturbances and uprisings took place, leading eventually to a victorious war for independence.
American Revolution (1775–83) and the formation of the USA. The period of colonial development paved the way for the American Revolution, the first bourgeois revolution on the American continent. The Revolution was unique in that it was at the same time a national-liberation, national-unification, and antifeudal movement. The popular masses played a decisive role in the Revolution, but political leadership belonged to the bourgeoisie, which formed a bloc with the plantation owners.
The Revolution brought about the overthrow of the colonial yoke and the formation of an independent nation—the United States of America. On July 4,1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. In accordance with the Peace Treaty of Versailles of 1783, Great Britain recognized American independence. The Revolution eliminated elements of feudalism in landownership. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 converted the western lands into general state property; this extremely important progressive measure created the prerequisites for the capitalist development of agriculture in the northern part of the country.
The Revolution did not, however, resolve all the problems confronting the new nation. For example, slavery was not abolished in the South, and the class struggle intensified. The economic difficulties of the postwar period laid all the burdens on the shoulders of the workers. Shays’ Rebellion (1786–87) and a number of other uprisings by poor farmers attempted to further the Revolution by plebeian methods; the uprisings were suppressed by armed force.
The Constitution of 1787 officially established the USA as a federal republic, consisting initially of 13 states. The centralization of power provided for by the Constitution was intended to put an end to attempts to further the Revolution. At the same time, the strengthening of central authority and other provisions of the Constitution facilitated the unification of the states and the growth of capitalist relations. G. Washington, commander in chief of the American troops during the Revolution, was the first president of the USA. In 1791 the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which are known as the Bill of Rights, were adopted. Proposed in 1789 in response to pressure from the popular masses, the amendments assured the fundamental democratic liberties.
End of the 18th century to the Civil War (1861–65). The formation of an independent nation created the conditions for the rapid development of capitalism in the USA. Other important factors favorable to capitalist growth included the existence of extensive lands and natural resources, large-scale immigration from Europe, and an influx of foreign capital.
The prerequisites for an industrial revolution were established by the beginning of the 19th century. Industrialization was uneven in nature: during the first half of the 19th century it was localized for the most part in the Northeast, spreading subsequently to the northwestern states. The formation of a bourgeoisie and a proletariat occurred in the industrialized regions. The industrial revolution first manifested itself primarily in the production of cotton and woolen goods. From the 1820’s through the 1840’s revolutionary changes also took place in other sectors of industry. The expansion of the domestic market led to a revolution in transportation during the first quarter of the 19th century. In 1807, R. Fulton built the world’s first steamboat. Between 1828 and 1830 the first railroad was built, connecting the city of Baltimore with the Ohio River; by 1855 there were about 30,000 km of railroad track in the USA.
The industrial revolution in the Northeast paralleled the colonization of the West. The struggle concerning land distribution was the most important aspect of the class struggle in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Ordinance of 1785, in the interests of land speculators, sanctioned the sale of public lands only in tracts of no less than 640 acres. As a result of pressure from the farmers’ and workers’ movement, the government was compelled to gradually reduce the size of the tracts, to permit the sale of land on an installment basis, and to make other concessions. These changes led to increased settlement of western lands. In 1790, 110,000 persons lived west of the Allegheny Mountains, in 1810, 660,000, and in 1840, 4.6 million. In the colonized regions of the West there was a rapid process of differentiation and a shift from patriarchal households to capitalist farmer households.
While profound changes in industry and agriculture occurred in the North, a reactionary slaveholding system continued to predominate in the South. The destiny of the slaveholding South was greatly influenced by the growth of the textile industry in Great Britain during the industrial revolution and by the appearance of a new commercial crop—cotton. The number of Negro slaves in the South increased from 678,000 in 1790 to 4 million in 1860.
In 1790 the USA produced about 3,000 bales of cotton (409.5 kg per bale); by 1860 cotton production had increased to 3,841,000 bales. Given the expansive nature of the plantation system of farming and the increased exploitation of Negro slaves, an unlimited reserve of free land was required. By the 1830’s the regions of plantation farming had been extended westward—to the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River Basin. The simultaneous development of two social systems—capitalist production in the North and slavery in the South—later led to their confrontation, which spilled over into a second bourgeois revolution.
During the acute political struggle of 1789–91, the Federalist and Democratic-Republican (Anti-Federalist) political parties were organized. The Federalists represented the interests of the commercial big bourgeoisie, bankers, and land speculators. They sought to strengthen centralized authority and limit bourgeois democratic liberties. The Democratic-Republicans derived their support from a bloc of mixed social makeup, including farmers, village merchants, the urban petite bourgeoisie, and plantation owners. They advocated greater access to land for the farmers, a democratization of the Constitution, and broader rights to the states. In foreign policy the Federalists leaned toward Great Britain, and the Democratic-Republicans toward Revolutionary France.
In the interests of the commercial-financial bourgeoisie a law was passed in 1790 providing for government assumption of state debt bonds, most of which had been bought up by speculators. In 1791 the First Bank of the USA was opened. The secretary of the treasury, the Federalist A. Hamilton, conducted an economic policy encouraging national industry and trade through the increase of tariff duties and the attraction of capital to the USA. The Federalists’ desire for economic and political rapprochement with Great Britain found expression in the USA’s neutrality during the war of the European allied powers against Revolutionary France. In 1798 the Federalist J. Adams (president, 1797–1801) enacted the Alien Act, directed against revolutionary emigrants from France and Ireland, and the Sedition Act, which authorized the imprisonment of persons who criticized the government’s actions.
The Federalists encountered resistance from democratic forces, who united around the Democratic-Republicans to ensure the victory of T. Jefferson in the presidential election of 1800. Jefferson (president, 1801–09) abolished the Alien and Sedition Acts and implemented a number of progressive measures. Laws enacted in 1800 and 1804 led to a partial agrarian reform: the size of tracts being sold from public holdings was reduced to 160 acres, with a reduction of sale prices and a deferment of payments.
Desiring to strengthen its international position, the USA established diplomatic relations with Russia in 1808–09. Great Britain remained the USA’s principal antagonist in the early years of the 19th century. Taking advantage of the USA’s military weakness and economic dependence on Great Britain, the English bourgeoisie continued efforts to restore British domination of the former colonies. The ruling circles of the USA, seeking to expand US territory, attempted to win control of Canada. In June 1812 the USA declared war on Great Britain; in 1814 the two countries signed the Treaty of Ghent, which recognized prewar American-Canadian borders.
In 1803 the USA purchased Louisiana—a region west of the Mississippi River whose size almost equaled that of the entire USA—from France for $15 million. In accordance with a treaty of 1819, Spain was compelled to cede Florida to the USA; Florida had been annexed de facto by the USA even earlier. In 1823, J. Monroe proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine, which at that time was directed against European intervention in the western hemisphere. However, from the very beginning the doctrine reflected US expansionist tendencies with regard to Latin America and US pretensions to dominate the entire American continent.
After the War of 1812, the Federalist Party in effect ceased to exist; power remained in the hands of the Democratic-Republicans until 1828. During the terms of the Democratic-Republican presidents J. Madison (1809–17), J. Monroe (1817–25), and J. Q. Adams (1825–29) a number of important measures were enacted to aid industrial development (for example, the protective tariffs of 1816, 1824, and 1828). By the end of the 1820’s, as the slaveholders attempted to strengthen their political position, a conflict arose between the North and the South concerning the issue of slavery, an issue that threatened to split the country. The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which prohibited slavery north of 36° 30’ N lat., did not eliminate the contradictions but merely postponed the confrontation between the capitalist North and the slaveholding South.
In the late 1820’s the American proletariat entered the political arena for the first time. Working conditions were extremely poor: the length of the workday was between 12 and 14 hours, and the employment of women and children was prevalent. The formation of a working class was furthered by European immigration and the overflow of the labor force from northeastern cities to newly settled regions. Until the reserve supply of free lands was used up, the “lateral” spread of capitalism was possible, and the sharp conflicts that had arisen between labor and capital did not assume their final form. This also had an effect both on the ideology and the organizational forms of the labor movement. The first labor parties were founded in the late 1820’s. Consisting of local associations of workers and artisans, they advocated the implementation of democratic political and social reforms within an individual state or city. In the early years of the labor movement the Utopian socialist ideas of Fourier and Owen became widespread among the workers and the radical intelligentsia. The heightened political struggle between the bourgeoisie and the slaveholders and an upswing in the movement for democratic reforms led to the disintegration of the Democratic-Republican Party. In 1828 the Democratic Party of the USA was formed, which during its initial period united farmers, many planter-slaveholders, and some members of the bourgeoisie. A. Jackson, the candidate of the Democratic Party, was the victor in the presidential election of 1828. His presidency was characterized by political maneuvering among the slaveholders, the bourgeoisie, and the farmers. A number of democratic reforms were carried out. In the new western states constitutions were adopted providing suffrage for the entire white male population, laws authorizing imprisonment for debt were abolished, and labor organizations that previously had been nonregistered were allowed to function without government interference. The workers’ and farmers’ movement was the principal force in carrying out democratic measures. The mass nature of the squatter-farmers’ movement led to the adoption of the Preemption Act of 1841, which gave the squatter first opportunity to buy his claim (not more than 160 acres) at the minimum price of $1.25 an acre. During Jackson’s presidency, Indian tribes were forced west of the Mississippi River, and about 20 million acres of land were taken away from them.
By the 1840’s the Democratic Party had become the party of slaveholders, bankers, and the commercial bourgeoisie. It maintained political control of the country, except for brief intervals, until 1860. The bourgeois Whig Party, which took shape in 1834, was victorious in only two presidential elections, in 1840 and 1848. The Whigs opposed a strengthening of federal authority, advocated industrial development in both the North and the South, and maintained a compromise position regarding slavery.
In 1836 the USA effected the separation of Texas from Mexico, and in 1845 Texas was annexed by a unilateral act of the USA. As a result of the Mexican War (1846–48) the USA annexed almost half of Mexico, and in accordance with the American-Mexican treaty of 1853 (the Gadsden Treaty) approximately 120,000 more sq km were taken from Mexico. In 1846 the USA acquired from Great Britain a large part of Oregon, a vast region on the Pacific coast. US involvement in countries of the Far East began in the 1840’s. The USA imposed inequitable treaties upon China (1844 and 1858) and Japan (1854) and participated in the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion of 1850–64 in China.
The early 1830’s marked the beginnings of a mass national abolitionist movement, which advocated the immediate abolition of slavery. Leading abolitionists were W. L. Garrison and F. Douglass. The Underground Railroad, an underground organization established by the abolitionists, helped Negro slaves escape from the southern states. The chief impulse of the abolitionist movement was the Negro people’s struggle for their own liberation. The entire history of the slaveholding South is punctuated by a series of uncoordinated disturbances and armed uprisings. The most important of these were the insurrection of slaves led by Gabriel near Richmond (1800), the conspiracy of Denmark Vesey in South Carolina (1822), and the Nat Turner rebellion in Virginia (1831). Labor organizations took part in the struggle against slavery.
After the defeat of the Revolution of 1848–49 in Germany, thousands of German immigrants came to the USA. Among the immigrants were leaders of the Communist League, including J. Weydemeyer, F. Sorge, and F. Jacobi, on whose initiative the first Marxist organizations in the USA were founded in 1852. The Communist Club was organized in New York in 1857.
The 1850’s were marked by an accelerated revolutionary crisis. In 1850, California was admitted to the USA as a nonslaveholding state. As a result, the balance of free and slave states, a balance that had been maintained with difficulty for 30 years by the slaveholders, was destroyed. Political power still remained in the hands of the planters. In 1850a fugitive slave law was enacted, requiring authorities in the northern states to capture fugitive slaves and return them to their owners. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 provided that settlers would themselves determine whether to establish free or slave states. In 1857 the US Supreme Court handed down a decision in the Dred Scott case, wherein it held that a slave remained the property of his master in any state. Between 1854 and 1856 clashes between farmers and slaveholders in Kansas grew into an armed struggle, during the course of which the government supported the slaveholders. The de facto abrogation of the Missouri Compromise and the civil war in Kansas led to the disbanding of the Whig Party, the breaking away of the “northern wing” of the Democratic Party, and the formation of the new Republican Party (1854). The Republican Party platform, which advocated the limiting of slavery to territory where it existed, the granting of free land to settlers in the West, and the encouragement of industry, was supported by the industrial bourgeoisie, farmers, and workers.
As the struggle against slavery became more acute, a revolutionary trend crystallized within the abolitionist movement. On Oct. 16, 1859, an armed uprising against slavery was led by John Brown. Although the uprising was crushed, it served as a powerful impetus for intensifying the struggle of slaves, workers, and farmers against slavery. In 1860 the Republican candidate, A. Lincoln, won the presidential election. The slaveholders, who had been preparing a counterrevolutionary insurrection for a long time, adopted a resolution calling for the secession of the slave states.
Civil War (1861–65) and Reconstruction (to the end of the 1870’s). The abrupt sharpening of the contradictions between “two social systems—the system of slavery and the system of free labor” (K. Marx, in K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 15, p. 355) led to the bourgeois revolution of 1861–77. The revolution consisted of two stages: the Civil War (1861–65), during which slavery was abolished and a military defeat was inflicted on the counterrevolutionaries, and Reconstruction (1865–77), during which the struggle to complete the bourgeois-democratic changes in the South continued.
The revolution changed the social structure of the South and resolved in a democratic manner the agrarian question in the western part of the country, granting settlers the right to acquire lands from the public domain. Throughout most of the USA a final victory had been gained in the farmers’ path of capitalist development in agriculture. All power passed into the hands of the bourgeoisie. In the struggle against the planters, the leading role belonged to those among the bourgeoisie who recognized the necessity of abolishing slavery and, after prolonged hesitation, embarked upon the path of revolutionary action. However, the decisive contribution to the defeat of the rebels was made by the popular masses: it was their lengthy and insurmountable pressure that made the transition to revolutionary war inevitable.
During Reconstruction the revolution proceeded with less intensity and a narrowed base, localized mainly in the South. The former slaves, who had struggled for their social and political rights, became the most revolutionary force. The democratic resolution of the agrarian question in the South was one of the principal tasks of the revolution. The bourgeoisie, however, having used the struggle of the Negroes in order to strengthen its own political power, refused to resolve the agrarian question, proceeded to work out an accommodation with the planters, and subsequently attempted to “restore everything possible, and do everything possible and impossible for the most shameless and despicable oppression of the Negroes” (V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 27, p. 142).
The abolition of slavery and the undermining of the power of the southern planters opened the way for rapid capitalist development as early as the first decade after the war. It was during this period that the industrial revolution in the USA was completed. Intensive railroad construction made possible the establishment of permanent economic ties throughout the country and the expansion of the domestic market. Between 1867 and 1873 about 54,000 km of railroads were built.
The socioeconomic development of the USA, accompanied by an intensified exploitation of the toiling masses, caused a sharpening of the contradictions between labor and capital. In 1866, W. Sylvis organized the National Labor Union, which was active until the early 1870’s. The first national trade labor union in American history, the National Labor Union, supported ties with the First International. After the Civil War the influence of the socialists increased. In 1867 sections of the First International were organized, and in 1872 the General Council of the First International moved its headquarters to the USA.
US foreign policy during Reconstruction was characterized primarily by an effort to strengthen US influence on the American continent and to weaken the influence of Great Britain and the other European powers. In 1867 tsarist Russia, burdened by the vestiges of serfdom and incapable of defending remote Russian settlements, sold Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to the USA.
The transition to imperialism (from the end of the 1870’s to the 1890’s). During the last quarter of the 19th century the USA was transformed into a mighty industrial power, ranking first in world industrial output by 1894. Growth in industrial production was linked to the concentration of production and the centralization of capital, on the basis of which monopoly capitalism took shape.
The formation of trusts in industry, railroading, and banking was intensive. The largest US monopolies at the close of the 19th century were the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the Carnegie Steel Company, the American Sugar Refining Company, the General Electric Company, the Consolidated Tobacco Company, and the Amalgamated Copper Company. Corporations and large trusts accounted for about 70 percent of the entire industrial output.
The economic process of concentrating production and capital was accompanied by a consolidation of political power in the hands of the emerging financial oligarchy, within which the principal role was played by representatives of the northern bourgeoisie. The two-party political system, which received its final form after the Civil War, was the political instrument that allowed the big bourgeoisie to maintain power and to put down resistance by the exploited classes. By 1900 both the Republican and the Democratic parties had become the parties of big capital.
The oppressive yoke of the monopolies invoked protest from various segments of the population. Demonstrations by the working class were harshly suppressed by the authorities. Rough justice was meted out to demonstrating Pennsylvania miners in 1874–75 and to striking railroad workers in 1877. In 1886 a demonstration of labor unionists in Chicago was put down by the authorities; some of the leaders of the demonstration were arrested, put on trial, and executed. In 1892 troops fired upon striking steelworkers at the Homestead mill of the Carnegie Steel Company, and in 1894 shots were fired upon railroad workers participating in the strike against the Pullman Company.
The workers’ struggle during the 1880’s for an eight-hour workday marked the beginning of the mass labor movement in the USA. Active in this movement were the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor, which was founded in 1869, and the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which was founded in 1881. The latter, an organization of skilled workers, became the leading force in the labor movement, although its leadership, headed by S. Gompers, adopted a course of cooperation with management.
During this period an organized socialist movement emerged, under the leadership of F. A. Sorge. In 1876 various socialist groups merged to form the Socialist Labor Party. The petit bourgeois farmers’ movement, whose representatives included the Grangers, Greenbackers, and Populists, was antimonopolistic. In 1891 the Populists formed the Populist, or People’s, Party, which formulated a number of democratic proposals. The Antitrust League (1899) also opposed the yoke of the monopolies. An antiimperialist movement emerged, protesting the policy of intensified expansionism that was being pursued at the end of the 19th century by the ruling circles of the USA.
Under pressure from monopolies, which required new markets to sell their goods and invest capital, the USA attempted military expansion in Korea (1871–82), annexed the Hawaiian Islands (1893, officially in 1898), and unleashed a war against Spain (1898). As a result of the war with Spain, the USA seized the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico and established a protectorate over Cuba. In the Far East the USA proclaimed the open door doctrine.
The period of imperialism (until the end of World War 1). At the end of the 19th century the USA entered the stage of imperialism. The entire economic and political system was influenced by the big trusts, which V. I. Lenin called “the highest expression of the economics of imperialism or monopoly capitalism” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 30, p. 94). The influence of the financial oligarchy also extended to the state machinery. Political corruption and bribe-taking became the norm of political life. Corruption in business and politics brought about a movement among the bourgeois intelligentsia and the urban petite bourgeoisie for such progressive reforms as a purging of corruption in elections and a democratization of electoral laws. In the labor movement a shift was observed toward expanding the social base by attracting broader masses of unskilled workers to the movement. The ideas of the Russian Revolution of 1905–06 also spread to the USA. In 1905 the labor organization Industrial Workers of the World was organized; its leadership included W. Haywood, E. Debs, and D. De Leon.
In the first decades of the 20th century the strike movement developed into sharp class conflicts, for example, the coal-miners’ strikes of 1900–02 and 1906–07, the struggle of the working class for freedom of speech in 1909–11, and the textile-workers’ strike in Lawrence, Mass., in 1912. Especially bloody was the coal-miners’ strike in Colorado in 1914; the strike resulted in the Ludlow Massacre, in which the authorities fired on the miners and their families.
The Socialist Party of the USA, which was organized in 1900–01, had a membership of 120,000 by the tenth or 11th year of its existence. However, an intraparty struggle between the left revolutionary wing and the right-centrist leadership weakened the movement, and by 1912 the right-centrist wing had gained the upper hand. The Negro movement for social rights also intensified during the early years of the 20th century; in 1909 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed.
The spread of socialist ideas, the growth of the labor movement, and an increase in demonstrations by petit bourgeois progressives compelled the US government to resort in its domestic policies to the methods of bourgeois reformism. T. Roosevelt, who became president in 1901, considered reforms an antidote to socialism. His successor, W. H. Taft (president, 1909–13), conducted an openly conservative policy, which provoked opposition within the Republican Party. In the 1912 elections the progressive Republicans left the party and formed the Progressive Republican Party. The new party had a liberal, reformist platform and nominated Roosevelt as its presidential candidate. The split within the Republican Party facilitated the victory of the Democratic candidate, W. Wilson, in the 1912 presidential election. Wilson proclaimed the demagogic program of a New Freedom. The principal accomplishment of his administration was the establishment of the Federal Reserve System (1913), which fully served the interests of the financial oligarchy.
In foreign policy both the Republican and Democratic parties pursued an imperialist course. Under President Roosevelt, who used a policy of force (the “big stick”), the USA acquired freedom of action from Great Britain in 1901 to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama; in 1903 the USA seized the Canal Zone. There was US intervention in Cuba in 1906 and 1912 and in Nicaragua in 1912; the USA also dealt harshly with Filipino insurgents. In the Far East, attempts by American monopolies to obtain advantageous concessions encountered resistance from Great Britain, Japan, and Russia. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, the USA took a pro Japanese position.
When World War I began, the USA proclaimed its neutrality. American monopolies took upon themselves the role of suppliers and creditors to the warring states, primarily to the countries of the Entente. At the same time, seeking to share in the redivision of the world, the USA prepared for war. The USA hoped to occupy a dominant position when the warring countries had weakened each other. On Apr. 6, 1917, the USA entered the war on the side of the Entente. In May 1917 universal conscription was introduced. It was not until the spring of 1918 that American troops played a significant role in combat. In May 1918 there were only nine American divisions at the various fronts; by November 1918 the number of American divisions had increased to 42.
During US involvement in the war, the ruling circles at the home front conducted a policy of economic regulation. This policy, in conjunction with a growth of political reaction, reflected the development of state-monopoly capitalism and ensured the large monopolies of colossal incomes. At the same time, the standard of living of the popular masses greatly worsened. The workers responded to tax and price increases with a number of strikes. In return the government intensified repression and carried out mass arrests; among those imprisoned were Debs and Hay wood. A split took place in the Socialist Party: the right wing supported the government, and the left wing opposed the war.
During the war, American monopolies firmly established their economic domination in Latin America. The USA also carried out military interventions in Mexico (1914 and 1916), Haiti (1915), the Dominican Republic (1916), and Cuba (1912 and 1917). It forced Denmark to sell the Virgin Islands. In the Far East, however, American expansion was kept in check by Japanese imperialism. After the overthrow of tsarism in Russia, the USA supported the bourgeois Provisional Government.
The period of the general crisis of capitalism. During World War I the economic potential of the USA grew considerably, as did the country’s role in the world capitalist economy. Many countries became economically dependent on the USA. The intensified transformation of monopoly capitalism into state-monopoly capitalism led to the financial oligarchy’s control over all spheres of social life. Nevertheless, the internal contradictions of American capitalism grew more acute with the onset of the general crisis of capitalism. There was an abrupt deepening of the gulf of inequality, dividing the financial-industrial elite from the millions of toilers, whose position greatly worsened as a result of the postwar economic crisis of 1920–21 and the chronic depression in a number of economic sectors, including agriculture.
The Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia inspired increased strike activity, in 1919 more than 4 million workers participated in strikes. The Hands Off Russia movement appeared, and the antimonopolistic struggle of the farmers became more active. The left wing in the Socialist Party gained strength and defended the principles of revolutionary Marxism. In September 1919 two Communist parties were organized: the Communist Labor Party of America, headed by J. Reed, and the Communist Party of America, headed by C. Ruthenberg. In 1921 the two parties merged to form a single party. There was a sharp increase in openly reactionary tendencies (for example, the Red scare) in the domestic policy of the ruling class. As a result of the repression and persecution of progressive elements, the labor and democratic movement was weakened by the early 1920’s, and the Communist Party was forced to operate underground. Social legislation was in effect frozen. Myths about “prosperity” and the “uniqueness” of American capitalism became widespread.
The Republican administration that came into power in 1921 followed a course of noninterference in business. It rejected price controls and regulation of production, thereby encouraging wild speculation and supporting capitalism’s oppression of the toiling masses. Corruption and embezzlement penetrated the highest government circles, which included President W. Harding (1921–23) and members of his cabinet.
The USA’s reaction to the victory of the Socialist Revolution in Russia was hostile. The American ruling circles, together with the governments of Great Britain, France, and Japan, organized armed intervention against Soviet Russia and, after the failure of this effort, refused to recognize the Soviet state. At the same time, the Wilson administration sought to bring about a situation whereby the USA, in accordance with its new economic might, would occupy the dominant position among the major world powers; this conflicted with the interests of other imperialist countries, primarily Great Britain and Japan. The USA convened the Washington Conference on Naval Limitations (1921–22), at which important concessons were obtained from its rivals. The US ruling circles hoped to increase their influence in China by means of the open door policy. Armed intervention was carried out on the side of the Chinese counterrevolutionary forces by the USA and other imperialist forces (for example, the shelling of Nanking by American warships in 1927). In Latin America the USA pursued a policy of direct diplomatic and military dictation.
C. Coolidge’s Republican administration (1923–29) continued American military intervention in Haiti and in Nicaragua, where an anti-imperialist liberation movement had developed. The USA also infringed upon Mexico’s sovereignty, as well as upon that of other Latin American countries. In the hopes of establishing control over the German economy, the USA sought to revive German militarism and Germany’s military-industrial potential. It participated in the drawing up of reparations plans for Germany—the Dawes Plan of 1924 and the Young Plan of 1929.
The comparatively prosperous economic situation that existed between 1924 and 1928 ensured a Republican victory in the 1928 presidential election. However, in the first year of H. Hoover’s administration the USA became the center of the 1929–33 global economic crisis, which greatly exacerbated the basic contradictions of American capitalism. In no other country did the economic crisis assume such a devastating and all-encompassing character. Industrial production between mid-1929 and July 1932 decreased by approximately 50 percent, and by 1933 about 17 million Americans were unemployed. Agricultural production plummeted, leading to the ruination of great numbers of farmers.
The Hoover administration gave no assistance to the unemployed, the farmers, or the urban middle classes but instead implemented a series of measures aimed at providing support for the monopolies. In 1930 a high protective tariff went into effect, and in 1932 the government established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which used federal monies to assist big capital. The Federal Farm Board was created to implement a number of “stabilization” measures, but these measures did not provide any positive results for the farmers.
The USA continued its nonrecognition of the USSR in the hopes of keeping the Soviet state in international isolation. It supported reactionary regimes in Latin America. The US position in Europe favored German revanche; at the London Conference of 1930 the USA refused to discuss the question of guarantees against German aggression. In the Far East the USA did not try to prevent Japan’s occupation of Northeast China in 1931, since it hoped to suppress, with Japan’s assistance, the revolutionary movement of the Chinese people and subsequently to direct Japanese aggression against the USSR. However, the threat of Japan’s deep penetration into mainland China alarmed the US ruling circles, which feared a possible weakening of American influence in the region. Hence, the foundation was laid for the future conflict between Japan and the USA.
The growing poverty of broad strata of American workers led to an intensification of the class struggle. Demonstrations by the unemployed, organized by the Communist Party of the USA, took place throughout the country during the crisis of 1929–33. Labor unions, whose initiative had been fettered for a long time by the capitulatory policy of the leadership of the AFL, became more active. The upswing in the working class’s struggle was followed by the rapid growth of the farmers’ movement.
By 1932 the bankruptcy of the administration’s domestic policy was so evident that even influential circles of the bourgeoisie no longer supported Hoover. The opposition rallied around F. D. Roosevelt, the leader of the Democrats, who condemned Hoover’s policies and promised a New Deal for the country. Roosevelt’s reforms were aimed at rendering the economy “controllable” by means of the intensive development of state-monopoly capitalism. Through the granting of certain concessions to workers and farmers, Roosevelt sought to reduce the white heat of the class struggle and to avert revolutionary activity. In the area of social reform the administration initially tried to stay within the framework of moderate bourgeois liberalism, but the growing struggle of the popular masses for social change compelled the government at times to go beyond the restrictions it had set for itself.
The most important of Roosevelt’s reforms was the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA, enacted June 16, 1933), which made possible the implementation of several measures providing for state regulation of economic activity. The act protected labor’s right to organize and bargain collectively with management (art. 7a). A number of other laws were enacted to stabilize the economy; these included measures for the reform of the financial system, for the administration of public works projects, and for the regulation of agriculture (for example, measures implemented by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration). Also enacted was legislation providing aid to the unemployed.
Despite the expectations of liberal bourgeois leaders, the reforms did not lead to social harmony. Trade unions grew rapidly in number; of particular importance was the organization of industrial trade unions in the principal sectors of industry. Sitdown strikes became widespread. There was growth in the youth and Negro movements, and antifascist and antiwar organizations became more active. In the mid-1930’s the struggle between the progressive and conservative wings of the labor movement became acute. At the 1935 AFL convention there was an open split between the conservative majority and the left wing. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was organized in the late 1930’s; many of its founding members were Communists.
The radicalization of the masses frightened the reactionaries, who considered the growth of the “rebellious spirit” to be a result of liberal reforms. However, the democratic forces compelled Roosevelt to take several new steps to the left. In 1935 the administration pushed a number of laws through Congress, including the Wagner Act regulating labor relations (which was based on Article 7a of the NIRA), a law providing social security and pensions for the elderly, widows, and orphans, laws earmarking supplementary funds for public works projects, and a law establishing a minimum wage. The new legislation was a victory for the toiling masses, whose support subsequently assured Roosevelt a decisive majority in the 1936 election. The popularity of the New Deal was so great that, despite economic difficulties, the Democrats were also victorious in the 1940 election, with Roosevelt being elected to a third term (an event unprecedented in US history).
Roosevelt’s foreign policy was more flexible than that of his predecessors. In November 1933 diplomatic relations were established between the USA and the USSR. Roosevelt declared that the USA intended to follow a “good neighbor policy” in Latin America; this meant that the old policy of direct dictation would be replaced by more masked forms of economic and political expansion. In 1934 the USA granted autonomy to the Philippines. In European affairs the USA, advocating a policy of appeasement, did not favor collective security, thereby playing into the hands of the fascist powers. Citing a law on neutrality that had been adopted in 1935, the US government did not oppose the Italian aggression in Ethiopia (1935–36) or the Italo-German intervention in Spain (1936–39). In January 1937 the US Congress imposed an embargo on the export of arms to Spain, in essence encouraging intervention against the Spanish Republic. Although the USA verbally condemned Japan’s aggression in the Far East, it did not break off economic ties with Japan and continued to export war materials. In a speech of Oct. 5,1937, Roosevelt called for a “quarantine” against aggressors. However, in 1938 the USA gave de facto recognition to Hitler’s Anschluss of Austria and facilitated the conclusion of the Munich Pact of 1938. This policy of “going along” with fascist aggression encouraged the outbreak of World War II (1939–45).
World War II. After the outbreak of war in Europe, the USA, owing to increased orders for military supplies, was finally able (in 1940) to surpass its industrial production level of 1929. The monopolies carried out a renewal of fixed capital and made largescale capital investments in almost all branches of the national economy. State-monopolistic tendencies were further developed. Special governmental bodies were established to direct the wartime economy; members of such bodies included representatives and agents of big capital. Experiments were begun in the production of atomic weapons.
Recognizing the threat presented to the USA’s international position by a strengthened fascist Germany, the American government rendered increasing amounts of aid to Great Britain and France, and in November 1939 Congress lifted the arms embargo. After Germany’s attack on Belgium in May 1940, the USA declared that its sympathies were with the victims of aggression. There developed a movement of cooperation with the peoples fighting against Nazism. The Lend-Lease Act of March 1941 provided for the granting of loans and the lease of arms. On Aug. 14, 1941, Roosevelt and W. Churchill, the prime minister of Great Britain, proclaimed the Atlantic Charter, which in general terms discussed war aims and the postwar arrangement of the world.
After fascist Germany’s treacherous attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Roosevelt announced (June 24) the USA’s resolve to render aid to the USSR. Meanwhile, relations between the USA and Japan sharply worsened. On December 7, Japan made a surprise attack on American naval bases at Pearl Harbor (Hawaiian Islands), on the Philippines, and on the islands of Guam, Wake, and Midway. War began between the two powers. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the USA.
The USA was among the signatories of the Declaration by United Nations of Jan. 1, 1942. It, along with the USSR and Great Britain, headed the anti-Hitler coalition. As a result of Soviet-American and Soviet-British negotiations, joint communiqués were issued in June 1942 stating that complete agreement had been reached with regard to the urgency of opening up a second front in Europe within the year. However, both the USA and Great Britain delayed in fulfilling their obligations.
British-American troops invaded North Africa in November 1942 and Italy in 1943. Throughout the war the USA increased its economic and political influence in Canada and Latin America. US armed forces reinforced their positions in Iceland, Greenland, and North Africa. The USA took part in several Allied conferences, including the Moscow conferences of 1941, 1943, and 1945, the Cairo Conference of 1943, the Tehran Conference of 1943, and the Yalta Conference of 1945. After the Soviet Army’s victories in the battle of Stalingrad (1942–43) and the battle of Kursk (1943), the British and American forces stepped up action in Italy. On June 6, 1944, the British-American invasion of Normandy (via the English Channel) took place, thus opening up a second front. Aided by members of the Resistance, British and American troops occupied France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and most of Italy.
The USA took part in the Potsdam Conference of 1945, which was convened after the defeat of fascist Germany. The conference adopted a number of important resolutions dealing with the demilitarization, de-Nazification, and democratic reconstruction of Germany. The American representative at the conference was H. Truman, who had become US president after the death of Roosevelt on Apr. 12, 1945. The USA also attended the San Francisco Conference of 1945, which ratified the Charter of the United Nations.
In the Pacific theater of military operations the strategic initiative had shifted by late 1943 to the American and British forces. In mid-1945, despite its numerous defeats on the islands of the Pacific and in the Philippines, Japan still maintained its principal ground forces, which were concentrated, for the most part, in Manchuria. The American military command planned to put off landing operations until 1946. Meanwhile, the USA and Great Britain continued the intensive bombing of Japanese cities. In 1945 the USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). This monstrous action in fact pursued political goals rather than military ones: the US ruling circles had calculated that the use of atomic bombs would ensure them of the leading role in the world arena after the war. Fulfilling its obligations as one of the Allies, the USSR entered the war against Japan on Aug. 9, 1945. The Soviet Union, with the participation of troops from the Mongolian People’s Republic, routed the main forces of the Japanese ground army, compelling Japan to surrender on Sept. 2, 1945. Japan was occupied by the American Army.
After World War II. The damage suffered by the USA in the war was comparatively light. Personnel losses have been computed at 322,000 killed and 800,000 wounded, captured, or missing in action. The USA was the only country that as a result of the war strengthened its economic, political, and military positions in the capitalist world. The index of industrial production reached 235 in 1944, as compared to 100 during the base period of 1935–39. In 1946 the USA accounted for 62 percent of the capitalist world’s total output, as contrasted with 36 percent in 1938. The profits of American corporations during the war years increased 350 percent and in 1945 totaled $21.5 billion. However, as early as 1945 there were signs of a decline in business activity and a growth in unemployment. The worsening of working-class conditions immediately after the war led to an increased struggle by workers for economic rights.
The USA pursued a foreign policy that relied for some time on its monopoly of atomic weapons and on its sharply increased industrial potential and untouched human resources. Its goals were to strengthen the world system of capitalism and ensure a dominant role for American imperialism. Growing influence on the US economy and politics was exerted by the military-industrial complex, which consisted of an alliance of the largest monopolies and the military.
US foreign policy was directed primarily against the socialist states, and it was based chiefly on the concept of action “from a position of strength.” In 1946–47, citing an alleged foreign threat, the most reactionary members of the American military openly called for a “preventive” war against the USSR, a war that would involve the use of atomic weapons. In 1946 the US ruling circles adopted a “hard line” toward the USSR; this policy subsequently grew into a cold war against the socialist countries. In March 1947 the Truman Doctrine was issued, and in June 1947 the Marshall Plan was proposed. A great deal of aid was rendered to reactionary forces in Asia.
A considerable portion of the USA’s economic potential continued to be subordinated to military goals. Work was accelerated on the development of new types of weapons. Old military bases were enlarged, and new ones were established. American imperialism assisted in the installation of dictatorial regimes in a number of Latin American countries, for example, in Bolivia in 1946 and in Venezuela in 1948. At the Inter-American Conference held in Rio de Janeiro in August and September 1947 the USA pushed through ratification of the Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, which drew most of the countries of Latin America into the US military-political sphere of influence. In 1949 the USA initiated the establishment of the aggressive NATO military bloc, which gave new impetus to the arms race and increased the danger of a world war. The USA increasingly backed away from the four-power resolutions on Germany, inclining instead toward an alliance with a remilitarized West Germany. After the formation in September 1949 of the Federal Republic of Germany, the USA rendered the new republic increasing amounts of economic, diplomatic, and military aid.
By means of a separate peace treaty with Japan (September 1951), the USA acquired the right to maintain military bases in Japan. Military alliances were concluded with the Philippines and with Australia and New Zealand (ANZUS). In 1950 the US ruling circles interfered in the internal affairs of the Korean people, having initiated an intervention in which several other countries (under the guise of “UN troops”) also took part.
On Dec. 16, 1950, Truman declared a state of emergency. The increase in foreign political expansion and military expenditures was closely linked with important economic issues and internal political developments. Between 1945 and 1960 the USA experienced several economic recessions; in 1948–49, 1953–54, and 1957–58. Social contradictions within the country became exacerbated. The strike movement of the working class was white-hot, particularly in 1945–46, 1949, and 1952. The 1949 strikes, which affected many branches of heavy industry, were especially intractable. In 1959, 500,000 steelworkers were on strike for 116 days—from July 15 through November 7. The efforts of the working class were hindered, however, by the course of class cooperation taken by the conservative union leaders, whose stance in international affairs was in the spirit of the cold war. In 1955 the CIO and the AFL merged to form a single central trade union—the AFL-CIO. Although the merger itself represented a positive step, it nevertheless did not bring about any essential change in the trade union movement.
After World War II a widespread campaign was unleashed against the trade unions, which were accused of upholding “monopolistic tendencies” and undermining the nation’s internal unity. In 1947, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act, which substantially curtailed the rights accorded to trade unions by the legislation of the 1930’s. At the same time, a wave of persecution arose against freethinking and democratic activity. The work of the Un-American Activities Committee (created 1934) took on unprecedented proportions. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI, created 1908) assumed an expanded role in the government. Communists, prominent public figures, and union activists were tried in court. Extreme manifestations of reaction were associated with J. McCarthy, the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations.
The defeat of the Democrats in the 1952 presidential election was a result of the growing discontent and the increased cost of living caused by the Korean War. Another reason for the Democratic defeat was the loss of faith by the voters in the possibility of social reform. The promise of a speedy end to the war in Korea by the Republicans and their presidential candidate, D. Eisenhower, was also instrumental in securing a Republican victory.
Eisenhower terminated military actions in Korea in July 1953. However, in October the USA signed a treaty with the South Korean regime providing for the continued stationing of American armed forces in South Korea. Taking into account the growing opposition to McCarthyism, the administration and the Congress dissociated themselves from that movement’s most odious methods, which presented the “American system” in an unfavorable light to the entire world. In December 1954 the Senate adopted a resolution censuring McCarthy.
The continued strengthening of the socialist community, headed by the Soviet Union, and the beginning of the colonial imperialist system’s disintegration created a new international situation. Plans for a “preventive” war against the USSR and the other socialist countries were forestalled. Of particular importance in thwarting these plans was the news of the successful testing of nuclear weapons in the USSR in 1949.
In 1954, to counteract a furthering of the worldwide revolutionary process, Secretary of State J. F. Dulles proposed a new foreign policy of “massive retaliation,” which entailed the creation and reinforcement of imperialist military blocs capable of waging “local wars.” The doctrine also required that the USA be prepared on its “own option” to inflict a “lightning-like nuclear strike” against the socialist countries. In 1954, in line with Dulles’ foreign policy, the US ruling circles took on the role of protector of the puppet regime in South Vietnam, at the same time intensifying military interference in the region. On US initiative a treaty was signed in September 1954 providing for the creation of a military bloc consisting of the USA and a number of countries in Europe and Southeast Asia (SEATO). In Western Europe the USA forced through the speedy inclusion of the Federal Republic of Germany in NATO. When the situation heated up in the Middle East as a result of the growth of the national liberation struggle and the aggression of the imperialist powers in 1956, President Eisenhower set forth the Eisenhower Doctrine (January 1957), which proclaimed the USA’s right of armed interference in the affairs of the countries of the Middle East. In July 1958, American troops landed in Lebanon. (Prior to this, in August 1953, the USA had helped engineer the overthrow of the Mossadegh government in Iran.) In Latin America the Eisenhower administration organized an armed intervention of mercenaries in Guatemala in June 1954. Shortly after the victory of the Cuban Revolution (1959) the USA severed diplomatic relations with Cuba and adopted a number of economic and military sanctions against the new government.
The balance of power in the world moved increasingly toward socialism. The USSR’s peace-loving policy and persistent initiative in lessening international tensions led to changes in the political climate of many capitalist countries. The US foreign policy of balancing “on the brink of war” and of violently suppressing revolutionary and national-liberation movements provoked growing dissatisfaction. A significant portion of the ruling circles began to seek a greater degree of realism in foreign policy. Growing favor of a policy of peaceful coexistence was facilitated to a considerable extent by the 1959 visit to the USA by the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
The strategy of “nuclear terror,” which was a major aspect of the US policy of acting “from a position of strength,” clearly showed its lack of perspective after the testing of a hydrogen bomb by the USSR in 1953 and the launching of a Soviet artificial satellite on Oct. 4, 1957. The increased realism in US policy was also brought about by economic and social factors. By the end of the 1950’s the US share in the industrial production of the capitalist world had decreased, constituting 45.9 percent in 1958. Economic crises had intensified, there was an increase in unemployment, and the problem of race relations was sharply exacerbated.
The victor of the 1960 presidential election was the Democratic candidate, J. Kennedy, who advocated corrective measures for the domestic and foreign policy of the USA. Kennedy’s accession to the presidency coincided with an upswing in the American economy. From 1961 to 1966 the gross national product increased by an average of 5 percent annually, a rate more than double that of the previous five years. The principal factors influencing the accelerated economic growth during this period included a high level of capital investments, an increase in military production, and a growth in consumer spending. The heavy capital investments were dictated by the needs of the scientific and technological revolution that was unfolding.
The domestic policy of the Kennedy administration included a number of measures to stimulate the economy, primarily by increasing military purchases from monopolies and by granting tax privileges to business. In 1961 the USA began to speed up the arms race and developed strategic types of offensive nuclear weapons. To ease social conflict, laws were passed providing for an increase in the minimum hourly wage and for an extension of the length of time during which unemployment compensation might be paid.
In the international arena the Kennedy administration, on the one hand, used the old devices of the policy of acting “from a position of strength” and, on the other hand, attempted to adapt the country’s foreign policy course to the new balance of power, which had shifted in favor of socialism. The doctrine of “massive retaliation” was replaced by such theories as “flexible response” and “limited wars.” These changes in policy took into account the equalization of nuclear missile potential between the USA and the USSR. In June 1961, President Kennedy and the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR met in Vienna. In September 1961 a Soviet-American declaration was signed agreeing in principle to disarmament talks. At the same time, aggressive reactionary circles in the USA intensified their opposition to peaceful coexistence. In 1961, American imperialism organized an invasion of Cuba by counterrevolutionaries at the Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs); the invasion was a complete failure.
The Kennedy administration’s policy toward the European socialist countries was one of “building bridges.” This policy, while permitting within certain bounds the development of commercial, economic, and cultural ties with the socialist countries, was aimed at “softening” the socialist structure within the countries and weakening their ties with the Soviet Union. In the period 1961–62 the USA rejected Soviet proposals on concluding a German peace treaty and took steps that increased tension in Europe. The renewal of underground nuclear tests was announced in September 1961, and atmospheric tests were renewed in December. In 1963 the USA proposed a plan for creating multilateral NATO nuclear forces for the purpose of allowing the Federal Republic of Germany to share in nuclear weapons. American imperialist interference in the affairs of South Vietnam and Laos was intensified. US policy toward Cuba led to the Caribbean Crisis of 1962 (Cuban Missile Crisis), which brought about a threat of armed conflict between the USA and the USSR. The crisis, resolved as a result of the energetic actions of the Soviet government and the steadfastness of the Cuban people, had a sobering effect on US ruling circles.
In June 1963, Kennedy came out in favor of a limited review of American foreign policy and, with certain stipulations, for the development of peaceful relations with the USSR and other socialist countries. In 1963 the USA, the USSR, and Great Britain signed the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, which prohibited nuclear testing in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water. In the same year Soviet-American agreements were concluded on cooperation in the exploration of outer space and on the peaceful use of atomic energy. The course taken by the Kennedy administration evoked increasingly fierce attacks from extreme right-wing elements.
On Nov. 22, 1963, during a trip around the country, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. All the reactionary forces in the country became more active and rallied around the Republican senator B. Goldwater, who ran for president in 1964. The winner of the 1964 election was the Democratic incumbent, L. Johnson, who had become president upon Kennedy’s death and had campaigned under the banner of continuing Kennedy’s policies. In February 1964 a tax reform was implemented, giving American capitalists gains of several billion dollars in 1964 alone.
The Johnson administration proposed the all-embracing program of the Great Society. Between 1964 and 1966 a number of limited measures were instituted in the areas of education, public health, and the “war on poverty.” The implementation of Johnson’s program, however, was deferred owing to the increased military expenditures needed in the intensified struggle against national-liberation movements, a struggle that included direct armed interference in the affairs of other countries. In early August 1964, US militaristic circles provoked an armed incident in the Gulf of Tonkin; they used this incident as an excuse for bombing the coast of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). On August 7, Congress gave the administration broad powers to wage war in Southeast Asia.
In the period 1965–66 the Johnson Doctrine was formulated and actively implemented; it openly proclaimed the “right” of the USA to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries under the pretext of “saving” them from “world communism.” In 1965 an intervention was undertaken against the Dominican Republic. The barbarous bombing of DRV territory by the American Air Force beginning in February 1965 and the sending of a 500,000-man American army into South Vietnam between 1965 and 1967 threatened international peace; these actions led to mass protest movements in the USA and in many other countries. Relations with the Soviet Union were practically frozen. The war in Vietnam complicated the USA’s relations with the developing countries and heightened inter-imperialist contradictions, which were aggravated by the growing penetration of American capital into Western Europe. Conflicts became particularly acute between the USA and France, and in 1966 the latter declared that it was leaving NATO. In 1967 the US ruling circles attempted to weaken the anti-imperialist struggle of the Arab peoples and gave de facto support to Israeli militaristic circles, which had unleashed a war of aggression against the Arab countries.
The failure of an aggressive foreign policy posed the question of the need to reexamine US foreign policy as applied to the realities of international life. A protest movement developed calling for the cessation of American aggression in Vietnam and for the democratization of the domestic political situation. Beginning in 1963 there was considerable growth in the Negro people’s struggle against racial discrimination, for civil rights and liberties, and for an improvement in social conditions. The movement’s ties with other democratic movements, including the antiwar movement, were strengthened. In 1967 and 1968 mass Negro riots engulfed about 500 cities, including Washington. Army units were called in to suppress a Negro riot in Detroit in 1967. On Apr. 4, 1968, racists assassinated M. L. King, the leader of the Negro movement; the assassination brought about a new wave of Negro riots. In May and June 1968, about 50,000 persons, mainly Negroes, took part in a poor people’s “march on Washington.” There was a big upswing in the student and labor movements.
In the spring of 1967, after various courts had affirmed the unconstitutionality of the prosecution that had been conducted for several years against the Communist Party and its members for refusing to register as “agents of a foreign power” (as required by the McCarran-Wood Act of 1950), the Justice Department declared that it would no longer prosecute the Communist Party of the USA on these grounds. This was an important victory for the progressive forces. The Communist Party took part in the presidential elections of 1968 and 1972.
Questions connected with Vietnam were at the center of the primary campaigns of 1968. Senators R. Kennedy and E. McCarthy, two of the Democratic presidential candidates, sharply criticized President Johnson’s Vietnam policy. However, the assassination of R. Kennedy in early June 1968 considerably weakened the position of the opponents of the administration within the Democratic Party. The Republican Party’s nominee for president was R. Nixon, who had served as vice-president in the Eisenhower administration. Nixon criticized Johnson’s domestic and foreign policies. He declared his intention to achieve a peaceful settlement in Vietnam, to proceed in relations with the Soviet Union from an “era of confrontation” to an “era of negotiations,” and to ensure “law and order” within the USA. At the same time, Nixon called for a strengthening of US military power and the conduct of foreign policy “from a position of strength.” The Democratic leadership and President Johnson took a number of steps that they calculated would lessen the dissatisfaction among the voters and strengthen the preelection position of the Democrats. On Mar. 31, 1968, Johnson declared that the bombing of the DRV would be limited to the southern regions and that he would begin negotiations with the DRV. (Negotiations were begun in Paris in May 1968.) On July 1, 1968, the USA, the USSR, and Great Britain signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. At the same time a joint American-Soviet declaration was published, announcing agreement to begin talks on limiting and subsequently reducing the number of offensive and defensive strategic nuclear weapons. On Oct. 31,1968, Johnson announced the complete cessation (beginning on November 1) of the bombing of the DRV and the initiation of negotiations between the DRV, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, the USA, and representatives of the Saigon regime. These measures, however, did not change the political mood in the country. Nixon won the presidential election in November 1968; he was reelected to a second term in 1972.
The early years of the Republican administration coincided with an economic crisis (1969–71). Military expenditures continued to be an enormous burden, amounting to $81 billion in 1969 (including $29 billion for the war in Vietnam). Inflation increased rapidly, and in 1971 more than 5 million persons were out of work. The working class’s struggle for rights intensified. In its struggle against the strike movement the Nixon administration, like its predecessors, utilized antilabor legislation, including the Taft-Hartley Act. Under conditions of a rapidly worsening economic situation—in particular, the growth of inflation—Nixon introduced wage and price controls. However, real wages continued to decrease as a result of inflation and increased local and indirect taxes. With regard to the level of development of social institutions, the USA continued to lag behind many developed capitalist countries. Its systems of public health and higher education remained costly, as did apartment rentals (amounting to as much as one-third of a tenant’s wages). Many forms of state social services were lacking.
In the early 1970’s the movement against the continued aggression in Vietnam grew stronger. Members of the movement were subjected to persecution by the authorities; between May 3 and 5, 1971, 13,000 participants in the “spring offensive for peace” were arrested in Washington. The struggle of democratic forces attempting to free Negro public leader and Communist A. Davis had great repercussions. Davis had been arrested in 1970 on the fabricated charge of being an accessory to robbery and murder; she was acquitted in 1972.
In 1969–70 the Nixon Doctrine was set forth. It provided for a curtailment of direct participation by the US armed forces in “local wars” and a shift to the USA’s allies of most of the burden of bearing the material expenses in struggles against liberation movements. At the same time, the doctrine maintained American obligations within the framework of military blocs and bilateral treaties. In its attempt to achieve a military resolution of the Vietnam War, the Nixon administration relied primarily on the air force and navy, reducing the number of US ground forces and increasing the number of troops provided by the Saigon regime. In 1970, American imperialism stepped up military intervention in Laos and undertook several invasions into Cambodia.
The failure of the US war of aggression in Indochina—which may be credited to the heroic struggle of the Vietnamese people encouraged by the multilateral support of the USSR and other socialist countries—and the complications of the domestic political situation connected with this failure in the final analysis forced the Nixon administration to sign an agreement on Jan. 27, 1973, to end the war and restore peace in Vietnam. In accordance with the agreement, the USA ceased its military operations in Vietnam and removed most of its troops from the area. The agreement established the necessary conditions for a peaceful settlement in South Vietnam. However, relying on the support of the USA, the Saigon regime violated the agreement, leading to a renewal of military action in South Vietnam. An increased struggle against the puppet regime brought about the regime’s complete collapse and led to victory for the patriotic forces in the spring of 1975. Somewhat earlier, a pro-American puppet regime was overthrown in Cambodia. US expenditures on the war in Vietnam totaled (according to official data) $137 billion. The war resulted in 360,000 US casualties.
In the early 1970’s the USA maintained a policy toward its Western European allies that was charactrized by efforts to strengthen NATO and, at the same time, to redistribute “responsibility and obligations” in Europe. In trying to maintain its role as the leading power in the capitalist world, the USA was compelled to consider the tendencies of most Western European countries toward greater independence, toward a relaxation of international tension, and toward general European cooperation. In September 1971 the USA, the USSR, Great Britain, and France signed the Four-Power Agreement on West Berlin. The USA participated in the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which ended on Aug. 1, 1975. Since 1973 it has taken part in multilateral talks on reducing armed forces and armaments in Central Europe.
The change in the balance of power, which is primarily the result of the increased might of the USSR and the entire socialist community, and the growing support in the USA for a lessening of international tension forced the ruling circles to reevaluate policy with regard to the countries of the socialist community. The early 1970’s marked a turning point in the relations between the USA and the USSR. As a result of Soviet-American summit meetings (Nixon’s visits to the Soviet Union in May 1972 and June 1974 and the visit of L. I. Brezhnev, general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, to the USA in 1973), agreements were concluded that established a political and legal basis for developing mutually advantageous cooperation between the USSR and the USA on the principles of peaceful coexistence. The agreements also reduced, to a limited degree, the danger of nuclear war. Soviet-American agreements included those on the basic principles of mutual relations between the USSR and the USA (1972), on limiting antimissile defense systems (1972), on certain measures limiting strategic offensive arms (1972), on averting nuclear war (1973), and on long-term economic, industrial, and technical cooperation (1974).
In the Middle East the USA continued to render extensive political, military, and economic aid to Israel.
Beginning in 1972 the relationship between the legislative and executive branches of the American government were strained. Domestic political difficulties were aggravated by the Watergate affair, which resulted from the exposure of illegal activities by the Committee for the Reelection of the President during the 1972 election campaign. In August 1974, under the circumstances of an acute domestic political crisis, President Nixon was forced to resign.
G. Ford, Nixon’s successor, declared his intention to concentrate on normalizing the domestic political situation and resolving the economic problems that had arisen in late 1973. At the same time, Ford continued to develop relations with the USSR and to reduce international tension as a whole. In November 1974 a working meeting was held in the vicinity of Vladivostok between President Ford and L. I. Brezhnev, general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Both sides affirmed their intentions of developing relations in the direction that had been established by previous joint resolutions, treaties, and agreements. Understanding was reached on working out and concluding a new longterm agreement on limiting strategic offensive arms, and a joint declaration was adopted defining the general terms of this agreement. In May 1976 the USA and the USSR signed a treaty on underground nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes.
Despite these achievements, the development of Soviet-American relations has been complicated by the actions of influential forces in the USA that are opposed to the principles of peaceful coexistence and cooperation.
The presidential election of 1976 was won by the Democratic candidate, J. Carter, who received 50.1 percent of the vote, a figure representing 40.8 million voters. One of the principal reasons for the Democrats’ success was the American people’s dissatisfaction with the inability of President Ford and the Republican administration to cope with a number of difficulties of a socioeconomic, moral, and political nature. Also contributing to the Democratic victory were Carter’s campaign promises to improve the living conditions of various strata of the population, to put the country as a whole on a better footing, and to cut back the defense budget. Another important factor was Carter’s populist criticism of government bureaucracy and multinational corporations.
The US economy in the second half of the 1970’s was characterized by falling general growth rates, an increasing rate of inflation, and persistently high unemployment. In 1979 the inflation rate reached 13.2 percent, and the unemployment rate stood at 5.8 percent. The economic position of the USA relative to the other countries of the capitalist world was further weakened by growing deficits in the balance of trade and balance of payments and by the decline of the dollar in the international exchange market. As a result, American goods became less competitive, and interimperialist contradictions in the areas of economic activity and currency were aggravated. A sharp rise in the prices of imported petroleum also had a negative effect on the US economy.
Beginning in the mid-1970’s, US domestic policy was concerned primarily with the rapid increase in the cost of living, chronic unemployment, the growing tax burden, the energy crisis, the critical condition of the large cities, the rise in crime, and the continued failure to solve the many problems of welfare, education, and medical care. The Carter administration in effect reneged on many of its campaign promises and pursued, on the whole, a moderately conservative course. Adopting a policy of fighting inflation at the expense of the working people, the administration cut back on expenditures for social needs in order to increase the country’s military might. Conservative circles exerted a heightened influence on the country’s development. They argued that the international position of the USA needed to be strengthened by increasing the country’s military power. With regard to domestic affairs, the conservatives opposed attempts to alleviate urgent problems through government regulation. Rightist and chauvinistic attitudes spread, and slanderous anti-Soviet campaigns became a regular occurrence.
Discrimination against Negroes, Indians, women, young people, the elderly, and other groups continued. Unemployment among Negroes was 100–150 percent higher than whites. In 1979 the average wage of the colored worker was 80 percent of that of the white worker, and the earnings of women averaged 61 percent of those of men.
The influence of progressive forces and tendencies in the labor and trade union movement increased, and the vanguard role played by the Communist Party of the USA continued to grow.
After 1976 military planning was directed toward the construction of a realistic deterrent; the arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons was modernized and expanded, and the development of conventional arms was accelerated. The Carter administration undertook to increase annual defense expenditures by 3 percent in constant prices, advocated strengthening the NATO forces, and supported new armaments development projects, including Trident missile submarines, cruise missiles, and a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile. The production of neutron bomb components was authorized in 1978. The US defense budget was planned to increase from $127.8 billion in 1979 to $253.2 billion in 1985.
A course of closer political, economic, and military cooperation with America’s allies within the triangle formed by North America, Western Europe, and Japan was declared a cornerstone of US foreign policy in the late 1970’s. The Carter administration’s basic goals included the strengthening of NATO, the securing of US positions in the Middle East—by encouraging separate agreements between Egypt and Israel that were detrimental to the interests of the Arab nations—and in other parts of Asia, and the development of closer relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Continuing the contacts with the leadership of the PRC initiated by the Nixon administration, the USA agreed to establish diplomatic relations with the PRC in January 1979.
Positive tendencies in Soviet-American relations were strengthened by the growing importance of the USSR in international affairs and by the readiness of the USSR to engage in mutually advantageous cooperation with the USA in various fields. An important stage in the development of cooperation between the two countries was reached when President Carter and L. I. Brezhnev, general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, met in Vienna from June 15 to June 18,1979. The Soviet-American agreements signed in Vienna included a treaty on limiting strategic offensive arms (SALT II), a protocol to the treaty, a number of agreed statements and common understandings connected with the treaty, and a joint Soviet-American communiqué. Based on the principle of arms parity, the Salt II treaty was aimed at curbing the growth of the military potentials of the two sides. The improvement in relations between the USSR and the USA, however, was brought to a virtual standstill by attempts of the Carter administration to secure for the USA exclusive advantages to the detriment of the agreed-upon principles of equality, respect for national sovereignty, mutual benefit, and noninterference in the internal affairs of the other side. Early in 1980, using recent events in Afghanistan as a pretext, President Carter announced a decision to postpone indefinitely the ratification of the SALT II treaty. At the same time, the USA sharply curtailed economic, scientific, technological, and cultural exchanges with the USSR. In addition, it was decided to increase the US military presence in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Somewhat earlier, in December 1979, NATO, in response to pressure from the USA, approved the deployment of new medium-range nuclear missiles in several Western European countries.
“Human rights” campaigns were devised by the Carter administration to provide an ideological foundation for US foreign policy in the second half of the 1970’s. Aimed against the USSR and other socialist countries, the campaigns were also intended to dispel the growing mistrust of the American way of life in the developing countries and to conceal infringements of human rights inside the USA. The large scale of these infringements was revealed in the exposure of illegal activities carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency, the FBI, and military intelligence agencies.
I. P. DEMENTEV (until the end of the 1870’s),I. A. BELIAVSKAIA (from the late 1870’sto 1917),V. L. MAL’KOV (1918–1960), and V. P. VIKTOROV (since 1960)
===REFERENCES===
Works by the founders of Marxism-Leninism
Marx, K. “Grazhdanskaia voina v Severnoi Amerike.” In K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 15.Marx, K. “Grazhdanskaia voina v Soedinennykh Shtatakh.” Ibid.Marx, K. “K kritike polozheniia v Amerike.” Ibid.Marx, K. “K sobytiiam v Severnoi Amerike.” Ibid.Marx, K. “Prezidentu Soedinennykh Shtatov Ameriki Avraamu Linkol’nu.” Ibid., vol. 16.Marx, K. “Obrashchenie k Natsional’nomu rabochemu soiuzu Soedinennykh Shtatov.” Ibid.Marx, K. “Rezoliutsu o raskole v federatsii Soedinennykh Shtatov. . . .” Ibid., vol. 18.Marx, K., and F. Engels. “Tsirkuliar protiv Krige.” Ibid., vol. 4, pp. 6–9.Marx, K., and F. Engels. “Pervyi mezhdunarodnyi obzor.” Ibid., vol. 7, pp. 232–33.Marx, K., and F. Engels. “Grazhdanskaia voina v Amerike.” Ibid., vol. 15.Marx, K., and F. Engels. “Polozhenie na amerikanskom teatre voiny.” Ibid.Engels, F. “Internatsional v Amerike.” Ibid., vol. 18.Engels, F. “Amerikanskie produkty pitaniia i zemel’nyi vopros.” Ibid., vol. 19.Engels, F. “O kontsentratsii kapitala v Soedinennykh Shtatakh.” Ibid.Engels, F. Proiskhozhdenie sem’i, chastnoi sobstvennosti i gosudarstva. Ibid., vol. 21, pp. 25–26, 28–37, 41–45, 53–57, 86–99, 156–59.Engels, F. “Prilozhenie k amerikanskomu izdaniiu ‘Polozheniia rabochego klassa v Anglii.’” Ibid., pp. 262–64.Engels, F. “Rabochee dvizhenie v Amerike.” Ibid.Engels, F. “Protektsionizm i svoboda torgovli.” Ibid., pp. 376–79, 385–87.Engels, F. “Vvedenie k rabote K. Marksa ‘Grazhdanskaia voina vo Frantsii.’” Ibid., vol. 22, pp. 199–200.Engels, F. “Prezidentskie vybory v Amerike.” Ibid.Marx, K., and F. Engels. Letters to Americans: 1848–1895. New York [1963].Lenin, V. I. “Marks ob amerikanskom ‘chernom peredele.’” Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 10.Lenin, V. I. “Predislovie k russkomu perevodu knigi ‘Pis’ma I. F. Bekkera, I. Ditsgena, F. Engel’sa, K. Marksa i dr. k F. A. Zorge i dr.’” Ibid., vol. 15, pp. 232–35, 243–14.Lenin, V. I. “Agrarnaia programma sotsial-demokratü v pervoi russkoi revoliutsii 1905–1907 godov.” Ibid., vol. 16, pp. 215–16, 252–53, 270.Lenin, V. I. “Itogi i znachenie prezidentskikh vyborov v Amerike.” Ibid., vol. 22.Lenin, V. I, “Posle vyborov v Amerike.” Ibid.Lenin, V. I. “Russkie i negry.” Ibid.Lenin, V. I. “Kapitalizm i immigratsiia rabochikh.” Ibid., vol. 24,Lenin, V. I. “Sekretariu ‘Ligi sotsialisticheskoi propagandy.’” Ibid., vol. 27.Lenin, V. I. Novye dannye o zakonakh razvitiia kapitalizma v zemledelii, fase. 1:”Kapitalizm i zemledelie v Soedinennykh Shtatakh Ameriki.” Ibid.Lenin, V. I. Imperializm, kak vysshaia stadiia kapitalizma. Ibid., pp. 309, 317–19, 365–71, 409, 423.Lenin, V. I. “Pis’mo k amerikanskim rabochim.” Ibid., vol. 37.Lenin, V. I. On the United States of America. Moscow. 1967.
General works
Ocherki novoi i noveishei istorii SShA, vols. 1–2. Moscow, 1960.Efimov, A. V. SSha: Puti razvitiia kapitalizma (Doimperialisticheskaia epokha). Moscow, 1969.
SShA: Politicheskaia mysl’i istoriia. Moscow, 1976.Ivanov, R. F. V. I. Lenin o SSha. Moscow, 1965.Foster, W. Ocherk politicheskoi istorii Ameriki, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1955. (Translated from English.)Foster, W. Negritianskii narod v istorii Ameriki. Moscow, 1955. (Translated from English.)Aptheker, H. Istoriia amerikanskogo naroda, vols. [1–2]. Moscow, 1961–62. (Translated from English.)Aptheker, H. Istoriia afro-amerikantsev: Sovremennaia epokha. Moscow, 1975. (Translated from English.)Foner, P. Istoriia rabochego dvizheniia v SShA, vols. 1–4. Moscow, 1949–69. (Translated from English.)Boyer, R. O., and H. M. Moráis. Nerasskazannaia istoriia rabochego dvizheniia SShA. Moscow, 1957. (Translated from English.)Channing, E. A History of the United States, vols. l-[7]. New York, 1932–38.
The Economic History of the United States, vols. 1–10. New York, 1945–68.
Precolonial and colonial periods
Narody Ameriki, vol. 1. Moscow, 1959.Samoilo, A. S. Angliiskie kolonii v Severnoi Amerike v XVII v. Moscow, 1963.Rochester, A. Amerikanskii kapitalizm: 1607–1800. Moscow, 1950. (Translated from English.)Andrews, C. M. The Colonial Period of American History[vols.] 1–1. New Haven-London, 1939–45.
The USA from the mid-1870’s to 1917
Voina za nezavisimost’ i obrazovanie SShA. Moscow, 1976.Bolkhovitinov, N. N. Rossiia i voina SShA za nezavisimost’: 1775–1783. Moscow, 1976.Kuropiatnik, G. P. Fermerskoe dvizhenie v SShA . . . 1867–1896. Moscow, 1971.Zubok, L. I. Ocherki istorii SShA (1877–1918). Moscow, 1956.Zubok, L. I. Ocherki istorii rabochego dvizheniia v SShA. 1865–1918. Moscow, 1962.Zubok, L. I. Ekspansionistskaia politika SShA v nachale XX veka. Moscow, 1969.Inozemstev, N. N. Vneshniaia politika SShA v epokhu imperializma. Moscow, 1960.Dement’ev, 1. P. Ideinaia bor’ba v SShA po voprosam ekspansii. Moscow, 1973.Lan, V. I. SShA: Ot Ispano-amerikanskoi do pervoi mirovoi voiny. Moscow, 1975.MacMaster, J. B. A History of the People of the United States From the Revolution to the Civil War, vols. 1–8. New York-London, 1917–21.Oberholtzer, E. P. A History of the United States Since the Civil War, vols. 1–5. New York, 1926–37.
Recent history
Lan, V. I. SShA ot Pervoi do Vtoroi mirovoi voiny. [Moscow] 1947 (2nd ed., 1976).Lan, V. I. SShA v voennye i poslevoennye gody (1940–1960). Moscow, 1964.Zubok, L. I., and N. N. Iakovlev. Noveishaia istoriia SShA: 1917–1968. Moscow, 1972.Sivachev, N. V., and E. F. Iaz’kov. Noveishaia istoriia SShA: 1917–1972gg. Moscow, 1972.Mal’kov, V. L., and D. G. Nadzhafov. Amerika na pereput’e. Moscow, 1967.Fursenko, A. A. Kriticheskoe desiatiletie Ameriki: 60-gody. Leningrad, 1974.
Istoriia rabochego dvizheniia v SShA v noveishee vremia: 1918–1965, vols. 1–2. Moscow, 1970–71.
SShA: Problemy vnulrenneipolitiki. Moscow, 1971.
SSha: Sotsial’no-politicheskii krizis, problemy rabochego i demokraticheskogo dvizheniia. Moscow, 1972.Geevskii, I. A. SShA: Negritianskaiaproblema. Politika Vashingtona v negritianskom voprose (1945–1972gg.). Moscow, 1973.Gvishiani, L. A. Sovetskaia Rossiia i SShA (1917–1920). Moscow, 1970.Kuznets, Iu. L. Ot Perl-Kharbora do Potsdama: Ocherk vneshneipolitiki SShA. Moscow, 1970.Mel’nikov, Iu. M. Ot Potsdama k Guamu: Ocherki amerikanskoi diplomatii. Moscow, 1974.
Politika SShA v Azii. Moscow, 1977.Kremeniuk, V. A. Politika SShA v razvivaiushchikhsia stranakh: Problemy konfliktnykh situatsii. 1945–1976. Moscow, 1977.
Massovye dvizheniia sotsial’nogo protesta v SShA (Semidesiatye gody). Moscow, 1978.Foster, W. Oktiabr’skaia revoliutsiia i SShA. Moscow, 1958. (Translated from English.)Dennis, E. Stat’i i rechi (1947–1951). Moscow, 1952. (Translated from English.)Hall, G. Pokonchit’ s “kholodnoi voinoi.” Moscow, 1963. (Translated from English.)Shannon, D. A. Between the Wars: America, 1919–1941. Boston [1965].Buchanan, A. R. The United States and World War II, vols. 1–2. New York [1964].Zinn, H. Postwar America: 1945–1971. Indianapolis-New York, 1973.
Bibliographical and reference works
“Raboty sovetskikh avtorov po istorii SShA. . . .” In Amerikanskii ezhegodnik. Moscow, 1971—.“Raboty inostrannykh avtorov po istorii SShA.” Ibid.
Harvard Guide to American History, vols. 1–2. Cambridge, Mass., 1974.
Encyclopedia of American History. Edited by R. B. Morris. New York, 1970.A. B. GERMAN
Political parties. The leading bourgeois political parties in the USA are the Democratic Party, founded in 1828 and the Republican Party, founded in 1854. Both parties represent the interests of monopolistic capital. The Communist Party was founded in 1919; the Young Worker Liberation League operates under the direction of the Communist Party. There are also a number of small parties, groups, and factions.
Trade unions and other organizations. The largest labor union is the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor—Congress of Industrial Organizations), which was organized in 1955 by the merging of the AFL and CIO. The AFL-CIO is a confederation of more than 106 trade unions representing various branches of industry and having a total membership of approximately 16 million (1978).
Major business organizations include the National Association of Manufacturers (founded 1895), the Business Council (1933), and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States (1912). Other important American organizations are the Americans for Democratic Action, the National Urban Coalition, the American Friends Service Committee, the American Veterans Committee, the Young Men’s Christian Association, the National Governors’ Conference, and the United States Conference of Mayors.
The USA has about 2,000 right-wing and ultra-right-wing organizations. The most influential are the American Legion (founded 1919), the Ku Klux Klan (1865), the John Birch Society (1958), the National Socialist White People’s Party (1959), and the Minutemen (1949–51). Also active are the Liberty Lobby, the White Citizens Council, the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade, the Americans for Constitutional Action, and the National Rifle Association.
The most important Negro organizations are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (founded 1909), the National Urban League (1910), the Congress of Racial Equality (1942), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957).
Organizations dealing with American-Soviet relations include the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship in New York (founded 1943), the American-Russian Institute in San Francisco (1932), the Society for Cultural Relations— USA-USSR in Los Angeles (1946), and the Council for American-Soviet Friendship in Chicago (1943).
V. V. SHIMANOVSKII
General state of the economy. The USA is the preeminent representative of contemporary capitalism, the strongest imperialist power, and the leading country of the capitalist world in terms of gross national product (GNP), industrial and agricultural production, labor productivity, per capita income, and investment abroad. At the same time, the USA reveals with especial clarity the capitalist system’s contradictions and social contrasts, here more pronounced than anywhere else. An overwhelming percentage of the national wealth is controlled by a few monopolistic groups, 18 of which control about 70 percent of the country’s bank assets and 85 percent of industry’s fixed capital stock.
The USA is highly advanced industrially and agriculturally. Structurally, its economy is characterized by a growing predominance of industry over agriculture.
In 1977 the national income was $1.555 trillion, of which agriculture, forestry, and fisheries accounted for 2.4 percent, mining 1.5 percent, manufacturing 26.3 percent, contract construction 5 percent, transportation 3.8 percent, communications 2.2 percent, public utilities (including electric power) 1.9 percent, wholesale and retail trade 15.2 percent, services 13.7 percent, finance, insurance, and real estate 11.4 percent, government 15 percent, and revenues from abroad 1.1 percent. In 1974, the GNP was $1.413 trillion, and in 1978, $2.108 trillion (current dollars). In constant 1972 dollars, the GNP increased from $1.218 trillion in 1974 to $1.386 trillion in 1978.
The emergence of the USA as the preeminent country of capitalism vividly illustrates the law of the uneven development of capitalism. After a sharp increase during World War II, the USA’s share in the world economy began to decrease. In rate of economic growth, the USA lags behind Japan and most of the capitalist countries of Europe, let alone the socialist countries. The USA accounted for 36 percent of the capitalist world’s industrial production in 1938, 54.6 percent in 1950, 40.9 percent in 1973, and 41.4 percent in 1978. It accounts for about one-third of the capitalist world’s commercial agricultural output.
The concentration of production and the centralization of capital have reached an extremely high level. In 1972, enterprises with more than 1,000 employees, which make up 0.6 percent of all US industrial enterprises, accounted for 28.7 percent of all employees in manufacturing and 34.9 percent of new capital investments. In 1947 the 50 largest industrial corporations accounted for 17 percent of value-added net US industrial output, and in 1970, 25 percent; during the same period, 200 corporations increased their share from 30 to 43 percent.
Monopoly capital controls the banks, insurance companies, transportation, and trade. Agricultural production is being increasingly concentrated on large farms. Growing monopolistic control over agriculture has gone hand in hand with integration of the production, sales, and processing of agricultural output. Gigantic financial-industrial groups hold sway in economic and political life, notably the Morgan and Rockefeller financial groups; the California and Texas groups, which are closely linked with defense production, have grown rapidly. Militarization of the economy has contributed to the coalescence of defense-industry firms and the defense establishment and to the emergence of the military-industrial complex, which supports reaction at home and aggression abroad; few aspects of life in the USA escape the influence of this complex. The monopolies make large profits from government military contracts.
The export of capital has grown to enormous proportions. The US monopolies have intruded themselves into the economies of many countries and have succeeded in establishing control over key areas in these economies.
By setting up a network of subsidiaries and branches abroad, the largest US monopolies have become multinational. In 1976 the foreign operations of these monopolies accounted for $515 billion worth of production. Of the ten largest multinational companies in the capitalist world, eight are US companies.
The general crisis of the capitalist system, which has profoundly affected all aspects of US life, continues to worsen. As the scientific and technological revolution moves forward, the USA’s economic development has grown not less, but more unstable. Production capacities are increasingly underused, even in periods when the economic climate is favorable. Chronic unemployment is high. At the end of 1975, according to official statistics, more than 8 million people were out of work; trade union statistics put unemployment at about 10 million. The number of underemployed—those who work less than a full work week—and those not counted among those looking for work is also high.
The US economy has been marked by uneven cyclical development, in which periods of rapid growth alternate with periods of zero growth and recession. Between World Wars I and II, it was shaken three times by crises of overproduction. The crisis of 1929–33 was particularly severe and prolonged; the volume of industrial production fell by one-half. During the postwar years, for example, in the periods 1948–49, 1953–54, 1957–58, and 1960–61, production fell off considerably at several junctures. The crisis of 1969–71 gave way to a brief upswing; in 1974—75, the country was hit by a new economic crisis, the longest and most severe of the postwar period. The subsequent worsening of the general crisis of capitalism at the present stage manifests itself in reduced production in the wake of the currency crisis, the growing energy crisis, and inflation, which has led to a drop in real wages.
Steep increases in the prices of fuel and raw materials on the world market, increases that stem from the developing countries’ attempts to resist the industrial capitalist countries’ unfair exchange practices, have naturally had an adverse effect on the US economy. The monopolies have exploited the resulting situation to increase their own profits sharply, in 1976 to $92 billion, up from $37 billion in 1970. At the same time, the consumer debt has increased sharply, reaching an unprecedented $271 billion in the spring of 1978. Sixteen percent of all personal income went to pay off this indebtedness.
As a result of sharp increases in environmental pollution, the US government has been compelled to adopt a series of antipollution measures; in consequence, a significant amount of new capital investment in industry has been diverted to antipollution equipment and devices, and production costs have risen markedly. In 1976 such investments accounted for 11 percent of all investments in manufacturing.
Because of the crisis state of the US economy, the contradictions between the USA and the other capitalist countries, including the Common Market countries and Japan, have become much more marked. Owing to the energy crisis of the 1970’s, the contradictions between the USA and the developing countries have likewise grown sharper. In the economic and political conditions that took shape under the impact of these and other factors, the ruling circles of the USA were forced in the early 1970’s to modify their trade policies toward the socialist countries and to take steps to develop economic ties with these countries. However, these steps have met with resistance from the adversaries of international détente.
Industry. The USA ranks first in the capitalist world in total volume of industrial production and in the scientific and technological level achieved in several leading manufacturing sectors. In 1978 per capita industrial production was 10,400 kilowatt-hours of electricity, 2 tons of petroleum, 2,500 cu m of natural gas, 2.7 tons of coal, 0.57 tons of steel, and 0.3 tons of cement.
In the development of US industry, a marked unevenness and abrupt upswings and downturns have been the rule. The index of industrial production (1967 = 100) was 89.2 in 1965, 106.7 in 1970, 129.3 in 1974, 117.8 in 1975, 129.8 in 1976, 131.1 in 1977, and 145 in 1978. The scientific and technological revolution has led to much greater unevenness among industrial sectors. The greatest growth has been in defense-related sectors, such as the aerospace, electronics, computer, nuclear, and petrochemical industries. In expenditures for research and development, the USA leads the capitalist world, far surpassing other countries with respect to the development of the scientifically advanced industries. Electric power production has also made exceedingly rapid strides. Automation has expanded rapidly, a fact that in US conditions has thrown many workers out of work and resulted in increased exploitation.
Geographically, US industry is distributed very unevenly, with especially large concentrations in the North. During the last few decades, however, several industries have been moving into other areas of the country, notably to the South and the West, which now account for a larger percentage of US industrial production.
MINING AND ENERGY. The USA leads the capitalist world in the extraction of many mineral raw materials, such as coal, crude petroleum, natural gas, uranium, iron ore, copper, lead, sulfur, and phosphorites. It is consuming fuels and raw materials more rapidly than it is producing them. As a result, the USA, before World War II a major exporter of mineral raw materials and fuels, is now a major importer, especially of crude petroleum, iron ore, and nonferrous metals. It imports almost all its tin, chromites, manganese ore, antimony, diamonds, and mica and most of its nickel and cobalt.
More than three-fourths of US mining output (by value) consists of fuels, and about 9 percent, of metallic ores. The major region in this respect is the South, which produces most of the crude petroleum and natural gas and much of the coal. Table 3 gives figures on the US production of fuels and other mineral raw materials.
In 1977, US energy consumption was approximately 26 percent higher than US domestic energy production. In 1977, in order to cover the deficit, the USA imported 331 million tons of crude petroleum and 75 million tons of petroleum products; at the same time, it also began to import natural gas, all the while exporting coal—49 million tons in 1977. The growing energy crisis in the capitalist world has focused attention on the problem of energy independence, that is, on the use of existing energy reserves, increased production of nuclear power, and limitation of imports. The US government and US private companies have directed increasingly large investments to research in this field. A program to eliminate US dependence on petroleum imports has been developed. However, energy supply remains an extremely difficult problem in the USA.
Most energy in the USA is supplied by petroleum and natural gas (Table 4).
In 1940, installed capacity at electric power plants was 51 million kilowatts (kW), and in 1977, nearly 580 million kW. Steam power plants produce more than 80 percent of US electric power. Hydroelectric power plants are producing relatively less; their share in US production of electric power dropped from 34.3 percent in 1930 to 10.5 percent in 1977.
Of the US hydropower resources, estimated in 1976 at 169 million kW, 59 million have been utilized. The principal hydropower systems are in the Columbia River basin, the site of the Grand Coulee Dam, the country’s largest hydroelectric plant, and in the
Table 3. US production of fuels and other mineral raw materials 	Table 3. US production of fuels and other mineral raw materials 	Table 3. US production of fuels and other mineral raw materials 	Table 3. US production of fuels and other mineral raw materials 	Table 3. US production of fuels and other mineral raw materials 	Table 3. US production of fuels and other mineral raw materials 	Table 3. US production of fuels and other mineral raw materials
 	1937 	1960 	1970 	1975 	1977 	19787
1Without gas condensate 	1Without gas condensate 	1Without gas condensate 	1Without gas condensate 	1Without gas condensate 	1Without gas condensate 	1Without gas condensate
2Content of recoverable metal in ore 	2Content of recoverable metal in ore 	2Content of recoverable metal in ore 	2Content of recoverable metal in ore 	2Content of recoverable metal in ore 	2Content of recoverable metal in ore 	2Content of recoverable metal in ore
3Content of U3O8 in uranium concentrates 	3Content of U3O8 in uranium concentrates 	3Content of U3O8 in uranium concentrates 	3Content of U3O8 in uranium concentrates 	3Content of U3O8 in uranium concentrates 	3Content of U3O8 in uranium concentrates 	3Content of U3O8 in uranium concentrates
4K2O content 	4K2O content 	4K2O content 	4K2O content 	4K2O content 	4K2O content 	4K2O content
5Since 1960, production by all methods, including native sultur (million tons): 5.1 in 1960, 7.2 in 1970, 7.3 in 1975, 5.9 in 1977	5Since 1960, production by all methods, including native sultur (million tons): 5.1 in 1960, 7.2 in 1970, 7.3 in 1975, 5.9 in 1977	5Since 1960, production by all methods, including native sultur (million tons): 5.1 in 1960, 7.2 in 1970, 7.3 in 1975, 5.9 in 1977	5Since 1960, production by all methods, including native sultur (million tons): 5.1 in 1960, 7.2 in 1970, 7.3 in 1975, 5.9 in 1977	5Since 1960, production by all methods, including native sultur (million tons): 5.1 in 1960, 7.2 in 1970, 7.3 in 1975, 5.9 in 1977	5Since 1960, production by all methods, including native sultur (million tons): 5.1 in 1960, 7.2 in 1970, 7.3 in 1975, 5.9 in 1977	5Since 1960, production by all methods, including native sultur (million tons): 5.1 in 1960, 7.2 in 1970, 7.3 in 1975, 5.9 in 1977
61976 data 	61976 data 	61976 data 	61976 data 	61976 data 	61976 data 	61976 data
7 Preliminary data 	7 Preliminary data 	7 Preliminary data 	7 Preliminary data 	7 Preliminary data 	7 Preliminary data 	7 Preliminary data
Coal (million tons) ............... 	451 	394 	556 	576 	586 	593
Petroleum1 (million tons) ............... 	173 	347 	475 	413 	403 	429
Natural gas (billion cu m) ............... 	70 	359 	621 	569 	566 	555
Iron ore (million tons) ............... 	73 	89 	91 	81 	56 	78
Copper2 (thousand tons) ............... 	764 	991 	1,560 	1,282 	1,364 	1,355
Zinc2 (thousand tons) ............... 	422 	386 	533 	468 	448 	372
Lead2 (thousand tons) ............... 	568 	224 	540 	517 	550 	544
Molybdenum2 (thousand tons) ............... 	13.3 	14.9 	27.4 	51 46 	54.5 	na
Bauxites (million tons) ............... 	0.4 	2.0 	2.1 	1.8 	2.0 	1.8
Uranium3 (thousand tons) ............... 	— 	16.0 	11.7 	10.5 	13.5 	16.3
Phosphates (million tons) ............... 	4.3 	17.0 	35.1 	44.3 	42.9 	na
Potassium salts4 (million tons) ............... 	0.3 	2.4 	2.5 	2.3 	2.2 	2.2
Sulfur (million tons) ............... 	2.8 	6.05 	8.75 	10.26 	9.65 	9.7
Table 4. Energy consumption (percentages)	Table 4. Energy consumption (percentages)	Table 4. Energy consumption (percentages)	Table 4. Energy consumption (percentages)	Table 4. Energy consumption (percentages)	Table 4. Energy consumption (percentages)	Table 4. Energy consumption (percentages)
 	1936–401 	1960 	1970 	1973 	1976 	19772
1 Yearly average 	1 Yearly average 	1 Yearly average 	1 Yearly average 	1 Yearly average 	1 Yearly average 	1 Yearly average
2 Preliminary data 	2 Preliminary data 	2 Preliminary data 	2 Preliminary data 	2 Preliminary data 	2 Preliminary data 	2 Preliminary data
3 Including geothermal energy 	3 Including geothermal energy 	3 Including geothermal energy 	3 Including geothermal energy 	3 Including geothermal energy 	3 Including geothermal energy 	3 Including geothermal energy
Coal ............... 	53.0 	22.8 	19.0 	17.8 	18.5 	18.6
Petroleum ............... 	32.0 	41.8 	40.1 	43.2 	44.3 	45.6
Natural gas ............... 	11.3 	31.7 	36.7 	33.8 	30.4 	29.0
Hydropower ............... 	3.7 	3.7 	3.9 	4.0 	4.13 	3.33
Atomic energy ............... 	— 	na 	0.3 	1.2 	2.7 	3.5
Colorado and Tennessee River basins. Large hydroelectric plants are also situated on the Niagara River. In 1977 the capacity of working nuclear power plants was estimated at approximately 50 million kW, and that of plants under construction or in planning, about 150 million kW.
Between 1937 and 1978, US petroleum production increased by a factor of about 2.5. In 1978 there were 508,000 working wells, whose average annual capacity was less than 1,000 tons each. Approximately two-thirds of the crude petroleum produced in the USA comes from the West South Central states, mainly Texas and Louisiana; considerable quantities of crude petroleum are produced in California and the Mountain States, and smaller quantities in Kansas and Illinois. In 1978, US consumption of petroleum products totaled 777 million tons. The petroleum industry is run by a handful of monopolies, the largest being Exxon, the Rockefeller corporation formerly known as Standard Oil of New Jersey.
Natural gas, like petroleum, is of great importance. The US accounts for about 60 percent of the capitalist world’s total production, notably from the West South Central states, including the offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico. In 1978 it imported approximately 28 billion cu m, mostly from Canada.
The US coal industry was long stagnant, suffering strong competition from the petroleum and natural gas industries. Coal production reached its highest level in 1947—624 million tons. From that time, it fell off sharply—to 378 million tons in 1954-only to increase again during the following years, to 602 million tons in 1977. The recent increase stems from increased coal use in steam power plants. More than 60 percent of US coal is mined in the Appalachians in West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, which supply most of the US coking coals. The growing energy shortage and shortfalls of liquid fuels and natural gas have created conditions favorable to expanded coal production and export; in 1978, 37 million tons of coal were exported, primarily to Canada and Western Europe. More bituminous coal is mined than other coals. The huge reserves of lignite in the western USA are little exploited.
Uranium mining has grown to a large scale, primarily in response to military needs. In 1960 it yielded concentrates containing about 16,000 tons of uranium oxide (U3O8). Once strategic stockpiles of nuclear weapons were established, it dropped off sharply. Subsequently, however, as conventional fuels grew scarcer and as the construction of nuclear power plants progressed, uranium production promptly increased, in 1978 reaching 16,300 tons in terms of uranium oxide. The principal uranium-mining center is Ambrosia Lake, near Grants, N.M. Uranium is mined in significant quantities in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona as well.
Although the figures have varied considerably, the USA has generally tended to account for a decreasing share of the capitalist countries’ production of metallic ores. It has become increasingly dependent on imports of such ores. As before, it obtains more than 80 percent of its iron ore from the Lake Superior region, primarily the Mesabi Range. Most of the iron ore is converted to pellets and agglomerates. In 1977 the USA imported about 39 million tons of ore, from Canada and Latin America. The USA accounts for about one-fifth of the copper and lead and one-tenth of the zinc mined in the capitalist world (by ore metal content). Copper is mined primarily in Arizona and Utah, zinc in the Mountain States, and lead in southeastern Missouri. Anaconda, Kennecott Copper, St. Joe Minerals, and other large monopolies control the mining of nonferrous and rare metals. The most important nonmetallic minerals include phosphorites (Florida and the Mountain States), potassium salts (New Mexico), and sulfur (the Texas and Louisiana coasts).
Manufacturing. In manufacturing, a sector of central importance to the US economy as a whole, heavy industry has achieved a growing predominance over light industry. Prominent in this respect are machine building and metalworking, metallurgy, and the chemical industry, which together account for approximately 52 percent of employment in manufacturing and about 58 percent of the value added by manufacturing. Table 5 shows the structure of manufacturing by industries.
Ferrous metallurgy in the USA has been favored by rich deposits of iron ore in the Lake Superior region and of coking coals in the Appalachians, regions that are linked by a cheap and convenient water route through the Great Lakes. The USA leads the capitalist world in the production of ferrous metals. However, it is rapidly being overtaken by Japan and the Common Market countries. The US share in the steel production of the capitalist countries decreased from 46.6 percent in 1950 to 26.6 percent in 1978. The plant equipment used in US ferrous metallurgy is
Table 5. Manufacturing by industry 	Table 5. Manufacturing by industry	Table 5. Manufacturing by industry	Table 5. Manufacturing by industry 	Table 5. Manufacturing by industry
Industry 	Employees (percentage) 	Employees (percentage) 	Value added by manufacture (percentage)	Value added by manufacture (percentage)
 	1972 	1976 	1972 	1976
Primary metal Industries ............... 	6.3 	6.3 	6.6 	6.7
Fabricated metal products ............... 	8.3 	8.3 	7.6 	7.7
Machinery ............... 	31.4 	32.4 	33.5 	33.5
electronics and electrical ............... 	9.2 	8.9 	8.6 	8.2
automotive ............... 	4.5 	4.5 	6.2 	6.1
aviation and missile ............... 	3.3 	3.1 	3.7 	3.5
Chemicals and allied products ............... 	4.6 	4.8 	9.2 	10.1
Petroleum and coal products ............... 	0.8 	0.8 	1.6 	2.6
Rubber and plastic products ............... 	3.4 	3.5 	3.3 	3.1
Stone, clay and glass products ............... 	3.5 	3.4 	3.6 	3.3
Lumber and wood products (Including furniture and paper and allied products) ...............	9.9 	9.4 	8.3 	8.1
Printing and publishing ............... 	5.9 	6.1 	5.7 	5.4
Textile mill products ............... 	5.3 	5.0 	3.3 	2.8
Apparel and related products ............... 	7.6 	7.2 	3.8 	3.3
Leather and footwear products ............... 	1.5 	1.4 	0.8 	0.7
Food and condiments ............... 	9.1 	9.1 	10.8 	11.1
Miscellaneous ............... 	2.4 	2.3 	1.9 	1.6
All industries (employees in millions; value added, billion dollars) ............... 	19.0 	18.8 	354.0 	511.5
largely obsolete. Some blast furnaces have been modernized, but many are of low productivity and have to be replaced. The USA was slow to switch to oxygen-converter steelmaking; in 1965 this method accounted for 17 percent of US steel production, and in 1976, 62 percent. The number of small-tonnage mills—with capacities of less than 1 million tons—utilizing iron and steel scrap increased from 44 in 1971 to 62 in 1975.
About 90 percent of the steel is produced in the industrial East, notably the Pittsburgh-Youngstown region, which has long been noted for steel production. Other major centers of ferrous metallurgy are situated on the Great Lakes, notably Chicago-Gary, Detroit, Cleveland, and Lorain, and in the mid-Atlantic coast region, notably Baltimore-Sparrows Point, Philadelphia, Fairless Hills, and Bethlehem, which make extensive use of high-grade imported iron ore. Concentrates from Canada are also shipped to the Great Lakes region via the deepwater route along the St. Lawrence. In the South, Birmingham, with its local deposits of coal and ore, is noted for ferrous metallurgy. In the West, fully integrated steel mills are located in Fontana, Calif, (near Los Angeles), Geneva, Utah, and Pueblo, Colo. The commanding positions in the steel industry are held by large monopolies, notably US Steel, which is controlled by the Morgan group, and Bethlehem Steel and Republic Steel, which together own more than one-half of the US steelmaking capacity.
In nonferrous metallurgy, the production of aluminum, copper, lead, and zinc is of major significance. There is an increasing discontinuity between the mining of the ore, the production of the refined metals, and the consumption of the refined metals. The US share in the capitalist production of refined copper fell from 40 percent in 1965 to 25 percent in 1978, and its share of zinc production, from 32 percent to 11 percent; its share of the lead production is more than 30 percent. In 1978 the USA produced 1.7 million tons of refined copper and consumed 2.1 million tons, produced 1.1 million tons of lead and consumed 1.3 million tons, and produced 0.4 million tons of zinc and consumed 1 million tons.
The principal centers of nonferrous metallurgy are in the Mountain States (primarily Arizona and Montana), on the North Atlantic coast (New York), and in Texas. More aluminum is produced than other nonferrous metals. More than 90 percent of the aluminum is produced from imported alumina or bauxites. Aluminum plants are located in regions with an ample supply of electric power, such as the Pacific Northwest, West South Central region, and the Tennessee and Ohio River basins. Most of the US aluminum-making capacity is in the hands of the Alcoa, Reynolds, and Kaiser monopolies.
Machine building is highly diversified in the USA. In 1976 vehicles of various kinds accounted for 32 percent of the value added by machine building, other machines for 34 percent, electrical and electronics equipment for 24 percent, and instruments for 10 percent.
The automotive industry is the leading sector of machine building. It is subject to abrupt fluctuations related to the cyclical development of the economy. Foreign-made vehicles are a source of increasing competition. The automotive industry is centered in Detroit and the nearby area (Flint, Lansing, and Toledo). Automotive-assembly plants are found throughout the USA, notably in Los Angeles. Ninety-five percent of the passenger cars are produced by the Big Three—General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—which, with affiliates and subsidiaries in many countries, are truly multinational monopolies.
The aviation industry grew rapidly during World War II and has since acted as the springboard for production in missile and space technology. In 1976 aircraft construction employed a work force of 408,000, and military missile production, 142,000. The production of civil-aviation planes is also of great importance. In 1978 the USA produced 246 large airliners, 820 helicopters, and 8,500 light and service aircraft. The aviation and missile industry is concentrated on the Pacific coast—aircraft manufacture in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Seattle, with missile production in San Jose-Sunnyvale. In the South, the aviation and missile industry is centered in Fort Worth, Dallas, Atlanta, Huntsville, and the Cape Canaveral region in Florida, in the North, in New York, Baltimore, Bridgeport, and St. Louis, and in the Mountain States, in Salt Lake City-Ogden and Phoenix. Aircraft engines are manufactured primarily in the industrial East, notably in Hartford, New York, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Boston. The aircraft and missile monopolies are integral parts of the US military-industrial complex. In the postwar period, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed, Boeing, and other such firms have been among the largest government military contractors.
In terms of tonnage, the USA in 1977 was the capitalist world’s seventh largest producer of merchant ships. Military shipbuilding has considerable scope, in both privately owned and naval shipyards. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Newport News on the Atlantic coast, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle-Bremerton on the Pacific coast, and Pascagoula and Mobile on the Gulf coast are noted for shipbuilding. Groton, in New England, is noted for the construction of nuclear submarines.
Industrial equipment is produced principally in the industrial East. Machine-tool production is centered in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Hartford, Bridgeport, and Milwaukee. The production of electric power equipment is highly developed. The USA is the capitalist world’s largest supplier of equipment for nuclear power plants and electronic equipment (in 1977, $45.2 billion worth). Westinghouse and General Electric are the leading producers of nuclear reactors and of most electrical goods. Computers and automation devices, especially for military needs, are the fastest-growing industries. International Business Machines is the leading computer manufacturer.
Agricultural machinery is also an important industry; in 1976 the USA produced $5.9 billion worth of agricultural machinery and $5.6 billion worth of tractors (excluding lawn-and-garden tractors). The principal manufacturers are International Harvester, Ford, Allis-Chalmers, and Deere & Company, which are located mainly in the North Central states, namely, in the cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Rock Island-Moline, Chicago, Peoria, and Kansas City.
The USA is the capitalist world’s largest refiner of petroleum. At the beginning of 1979, 285 refineries were in operation, with a total straight-run distillation capacity of 858 million tons.
The chemical industry is growing more rapidly than other industries. However, the US share in the capitalist output of chemical products declined from 40 percent in 1960 to 31 percent in 1977. Inorganic chemicals are produced in large quantities.
The petrochemicals industry has also assumed major significance in the US economy. Since it is based on the processing of petroleum and natural gas, the South and especially the West South Central region are growing rapidly in importance; the Gulf coast is now the center of this industry. Ninety-five percent of the organic chemicals are made from crude petroleum and natural gas. In 1978 the USA accounted for 41 percent of the capitalist world’s production of sulfuric acid, 43 percent of the caustic soda, 33 percent of the plastics and synthetic tars, 40 percent of the synthetic rubber, and 37 percent of the chemical fiber. The US chemical industry is dominated by powerful monopolies, notably Du Pont, Monsanto, and Dow Chemical. The rubber industry primarily produces automotive tires, notably in Akron, Ohio.
Enormous resources have been invested in the nuclear industry, which has served primarily the interests of the military. The principal nuclear plants belong to the US government but are operated by private firms. Gaseous-diffusion plants in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Paducah, Ky., and Portsmouth, Ohio, produce uranium 235. The Savannah River plant in South Carolina produces tritium and plutonium, and the reactors in Hanford, Wash., have been converted to the production of electric power.
Textiles and, especially, apparel are prominent in the light industries. After World War II, the structure of fiber use changed drastically as natural fibers increasingly gave way to synthetic fibers. In 1976, cotton accounted for 30 percent of US textile fiber, wool 1.1 percent, and chemical fiber 68.9 percent, including 61.3 percent synthetic fiber. Once centered in New England, the textile industry has in the 20th century gradually moved to the South, primarily to North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. In 1977 the South accounted for 16.6 million of the USA’s 16.8 million cotton spindles and produced more than 80 percent of the cotton fabric. The apparel industry is largely concentrated in the large cities, especially in the North, principally New York, where it employs 300,000 workers. Inexpensive clothing is increasingly manufactured in the South. The leather products and footwear industry is located primarily in New England.
Table 6. Output of certain industrial products 	Table 6. Output of certain industrial products	Table 6. Output of certain industrial products	Table 6. Output of certain industrial products	Table 6. Output of certain industrial products	Table 6. Output of certain industrial products	Table 6. Output of certain industrial products
 	1937 	1960 	1970 	1973 	1975 	19781
1 Preliminary data 	1 Preliminary data 	1 Preliminary data 	1 Preliminary data 	1 Preliminary data 	1 Preliminary data 	1 Preliminary data
2 1977 data 	2 1977 data 	2 1977 data 	2 1977 data 	2 1977 data 	2 1977 data 	2 1977 data
Electric power (at busbar; billion kW-hr) ............... 	147 	840 	1,638 	1,952 	2,003 	2,260
Cast iron (million tons) ............... 	38 	61 	83 	92 	73 	80
Steel (million tons) ............... 	51 	90 	119 	139 	106 	124
Rolled metals (shipped; million tons) ............... 	35 	55 	83 	101 	73 	83 2
Aluminum (primary; million tons) ............... 	0.1 	1.8 	3.6 	4.1 	3.5 	4.4
Motor vehicles (million units) ............... 	4.8 	7.9 	8.3 	12.6 	9.0 	12.8
passenger cars (million units) ............... 	3.9 	6.7 	6.6 	9.7 	6.7 	9.1
Tractors (excluding lawn-and-garden tractors; thousand units) ...............	272 	270 	200 	237 	224 	172
Radios (million units) ............... 	8 	18 	18 	24 	35 	48
Televisions (million units) ............... 	— 	5.8 	9.5 	17.4 	10.7 	17.4
Cement (million tons) ............... 	20 	54 	68 	78 	62 	72
Sulfuric acid (100%; million tons) ............... 	4.5 	16 	26.8 	29 	26 	33
Plastics and synthetic tars (million tons) ............... 	0.1 	2.7 	8.7 	11.8 	10.2 	12.3
Synthetic rubber (million long tons) ............... 	na 	1.5 	2.2 	2.6 	1.9 	2.5
Chemical fiber (million tons) ............... 	0.2 	0.8 	2.3 	3.5 	3.2 	3.6
synthetic (million tons) ............... 	na 	0.3 	1.6 	2.9 	2.8 	3.2
Cotton fabric (billion linear m) ............... 	8.0 	8.6 	5.7 	4.1 	3.7 	3.6
Wool fabric (million linear m) ............... 	339 	261 	163 	97 	72 	na
Footwear (excluding rubber and felt; million pairs) ............... 	412 	601 	562 	488 	413 	3842
Paper and paperboard (million tons) ............... 	12 	30 	48 	56 	48 	562
The food-processing industry has made great strides, now accounting for more than 10 percent of the value added by all US manufacturing industries and employing a work force of more than 1.5 million. Its most important sectors are meat-packing, flour-milling, canning, dairying, and sugar refining. The West North Central and Great Lakes states, and especially the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, are large flour-milling centers. Kansas City, Omaha, and Chicago are noted for meat-packing. California leads in the production of canned fruits, vegetables, and juices and in viticulture. Wisconsin and Minnesota are the leading dairy states. New Orleans, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York are major centers for the refining of sugar, principally from imported raw sugarcane. The Mountain States and the East North Central States produce beet sugar. Food processing, like other US manufacturing sectors, has been heavily monopolized. The tobacco-growing regions of North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky are the home of the US tobacco industry. The Pacific Northwest (Oregon and Washington) and the South are noted for lumber, pulp, and paper. Table 6 shows the output of several important industrial products over time.
Agriculture. US agriculture is characterized by highly developed capitalist relations, regional specialization, and the highly commercial character of agricultural production. As a result of the scientific and technological revolution, capital investments in agriculture have grown dramatically, and large farms have squeezed small and medium farmers off the land at an increasingly rapid pace. The number of farms decreased from 6.8 million in 1935 to 2.7 million in 1978; at the same time, the average farm size increased.
The decline of the family farm has gone hand in hand with a sharp reduction in the relative number of tenant farmers, who accounted for 38.2 percent of all farmers in 1940 and only 11.3 percent in 1974. Farm indebtedness to the banks is up strongly. Since World War II, the major agricultural changes have been in the South, where the semifeudal relations once prevalent have given way to large-scale capitalist farming and sharecropping has declined. The proportion of tenant farmers in the South dropped from 48.2 percent in 1940 to 10 percent in 1974. Since most sharecroppers were Negroes, the proportion of Negroes among all US farmers fell from 7.7 percent in 1959 to 2 percent in 1974. Large “cotton factories,” similar to the “grain factories” of the North in terms of organization of production and level of mechanization, have taken the place of the small farms.
Large capitalist farms dominate US agriculture. In 1974 farms with sales volumes of $40,000 or more constituted 20.7 percent of the number of farms but accounted for 79 percent of commercial agricultural output; farms with sales volumes of $100,000 or more accounted for more than 50 percent of the agricultural output. Farms with sales volumes of less than $10,000 constituted 52 percent of the number of farms but accounted for 4.7 percent of all agricultural output. The monopolistic control of agriculture and the farmers’ dependence on banks and marketing companies have led to the emergence of agribusinesses, which combine agricultural production, processing, and marketing.
The high level of mechanization, the increased use of chemicals, and the broad use of fertilizers and hybrid seed have increased labor productivity in US agriculture and sharply reduced labor outlays per unit of production. As the capacity of the domestic market is limited by the effective monetary demand, employment in agricultural production has fallen, from 9.9 million in 1950 to 4.2 million in 1977; by the same token, some agricultural lands were taken out of production, and government regulation was introduced. The area harvested for basic crops decreased from 140 million hectares (ha) in 1950 to 119 million ha in 1970. Since 1970 the US government has gradually revised its previous policy of regulating and limiting the output of certain important agricultural products; as a result, agricultural land use has expanded, by about 18 million ha between 1972 and 1976. Accordingly, US farm exports have jumped sharply.
In 1977, US farms had 4.4 million tractors (excluding lawn-and-garden tractors), 3.1 million trucks, 0.5 million combines, and 0.6 million corn harvesters. Tractor capacity per worker increased by a factor of six between 1950 and 1977, and tractor capacity per 100 ha of cultivated area, by a factor of 2.5. The South has markedly cut the gap between it and the North and the West with regard to mechanization. In 1977–78, US use of mineral fertilizers (by active-ingredient content) was 9 million tons of nitrogen fertilizers, 5 million tons of phosphorus fertilizers, and 4.6 million tons of potassium fertilizers.
Of the total US land area of approximately 770 million ha (excluding Alaska), approximately 580 million ha are devoted to agriculture, including 150 million ha of government-owned pasture-land, located mostly in the arid West. In the moister eastern areas, cultivated areas and forests prevail, and in the arid West, rangeland. Much of the West, especially the mountain regions, is Uninhabited wasteland. The proportion of arable land is particularly high in the prairies of the central USA; in places, for example, in certain parts of Iowa, it reaches 90–95 percent. In areas of the West, particularly in the Mountain States, as much as 90 percent of the agricultual land is rangeland. Here, cultivated tracts of various sizes are scattered in irrigated areas. More than 16 million ha are irrigated, mostly in the West.
The USA is the capitalist world’s leading producer of corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton, tobacco, several other agricultural
Table 7. Area harvested and harvest of principal agricultural crops	Table 7. Area harvested and harvest of principal agricultural crops	Table 7. Area harvested and harvest of principal agricultural crops	Table 7. Area harvested and harvest of principal agricultural crops	Table 7. Area harvested and harvest of principal agricultural crops	Table 7. Area harvested and harvest of principal agricultural crops	Table 7. Area harvested and harvest of principal agricultural crops	Table 7. Area harvested and harvest of principal agricultural crops	Table 7. Area harvested and harvest of principal agricultural crops	Table 7. Area harvested and harvest of principal agricultural crops	Table 7. Area harvested and harvest of principal agricultural crops
 	Area harvested(million ha) 	Area harvested(million ha) 	Area harvested(million ha) 	Area harvested(million ha) 	Area harvested(million ha) 	Harvest(million tons) 	Harvest(million tons) 	Harvest(million tons) 	Harvest(million tons) 	Harvest(million tons)
 	1934–3811 	1961–651 	1973 	1977 	19782 	1934–381 	1961–651 	1973 	1977 	19782
1Average per year 	1Average per year 	1Average per year 	1Average per year 	1Average per year 	1Average per year 	1Average per year 	1Average per year 	1Average per year 	1Average per year 	1Average per year
2Preliminary data 	2Preliminary data 	2Preliminary data 	2Preliminary data 	2Preliminary data 	2Preliminary data 	2Preliminary data 	2Preliminary data 	2Preliminary data 	2Preliminary data 	2Preliminary data
Wheat ............... 	22.4 	19.4 	21.8 	26.8 	22.9 	19.5 	33.0 	46.4 	55.4 	48.4
Corn ............... 	37.8 	23.0 	25.0 	28.3 	27.5 	53.1 	95.5 	143.4 	161.8 	175.0
Oats ............... 	14.1 	8.6 	5.7 	5.4 	4.8 	14.0 	13.8 	9.7 	10.9 	8.6
Rice ............... 	0.4 	0.7 	0.9 	0.9 	1.2 	na 	3.1 	4.2 	4.5 	6.2
Soybeans ............... 	1.0 	12.0 	22.8 	23.3 	25.6 	1.2 	19.6 	42.6 	47.9 	49.2
Cotton ............... 	11.5 	6.0 	4.9 	5.4 	5.0 	2.8 	3.3 	2.8 	3.1 	2.4
Sorghum ............... 	1.6 	4.8 	6.4 	5.7 	5.4 	1.2 	na 	23.6 	20.1 	17.9
Potatoes ............... 	0.50 	0.55 	0.53 	0.55 	0.55 	10.3 	12.4 	13.5 	16.1 	16.4
Tobacco ............... 	0.70 	0.46 	0.36 	0.39 	0.38 	na 	0.99 	0.8 	0.9 	0.9
crops, and meat, milk, and eggs. In 1976, it accounted for 20.9 percent of the capitalist world’s harvest of wheat, 59.3 percent of the corn, 70.6 percent of the soybeans, and 30.8 percent of the cotton fiber. US agriculture produces a significant surplus for export—in 1977, 22.7 percent of the value of all US agricultural production.
By value of agricultural commodities, stock raising in 1977 accounted for 49.5 percent of total farm income, and crop cultivation for 50.5 percent. The ratio of stock raising to crop cultivation varies widely across the country. In the dairy, and corn belts, where stock raising is common, the principal crops are feed crops. California and several southern states are noted for commercial crops, such as fruits, vegetables, cotton, and tobacco, which provide more commercial output than stock raising does.
In the late 1970’s, 55–60 percent of the total acreage harvested was in grains, 15–17 percent in soybeans, 4 percent in cotton, 1.5 percent in vegetables, 0.3 percent each in tobacco and potatoes, and as much as 20 percent in seeded grasses. Wheat is the principal food crop, in 1977 accounting for 19 percent of the sown area. Feed corn accounted for 21 percent of the sown area and yielded a harvest 3 times larger than the wheat harvest. Four-fifths of the corn is grown in the corn belt—that is, in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and adjacent parts of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. Most corn is fed locally to livestock and poultry. Table 7 shows the area harvested and harvest for the principal US crops.
Wheat is grown throughout the country, but chiefly in the wheat belt, which extends from the Canadian border through the Great Plains to central Texas. Spring wheat is grown in the north, and winter wheat in the south. The Columbia Plateau in Washington State is also noted for wheat growing. Oats and barley are gradually diminishing in acreage. In arid regions, sorghum is an important crop, and on the Gulf coast, rice. Soybeans, which are widely used in the manufacture of concentrated livestock feeds, are being grown in increasing quantities, principally in the corn belt. Other oil plants grown are cotton (seed), peanuts, sunflowers, and flax. Feed grasses and hay are important crops, especially in dairying areas in the northern parts of the Great Lakes states and in the Northeast. There are large areas of alfalfa on irrigated lands in the West. Cotton was once the principal crop throughout the South, and most was grown by sharecroppers. Now, it is grown primarily in the lower Mississippi River bottomlands, in Texas, and on irrigated lands in California and Arizona, principally on large, highly mechanized farms. The US cotton acreage has been more than halved since 1938; as a result of higher yields, however, the harvest of cotton fiber has remained at its former level. More long-staple cotton is being grown, especially on irrigated land in the West. Tobacco is cultivated primarily in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and Tennessee. Sugar beets are grown on irrigated land in California, the Mountain States, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and on nonirrigated land in the East North Central region, especially in Michigan. Sugarcane is produced on the Gulf coast and in Hawaii, regions in which approximately one-half the US harvest is produced and in which sugarcane is the leading crop. Highly commercialized truck gardens and orchards are common on the Atlantic coast, in the Great Lakes region, in the California valleys, and in the Willamette River valley. Southern California and Florida are noted for their citrus fruits and early vegetables, and Hawaii is acclaimed for its pineapples.
Stock raising in the USA is oriented primarily to the production of meat (Table 8). The percentage of dairy cattle is on the decline, remaining high only in the dairy belt of the northeastern USA, including Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota, and in areas near large cities. In 1970 the average dairy cow yielded 4,250 kg of milk. Dairy farms in the Northeast supply primarily whole-milk products to the cities; in Wisconsin and Minnesota, most of the milk is made into cheese, butter, and other dairy products.
In the West, beef cattle and other meat animals are grazed on ranches and open rangeland. In the corn belt, where most of the US meat-packing is located, many cattle are fattened on farms before slaughter. In the South, stock raising is also making strides. The number of sheep has declined; most of the sheep in the USA are raised in the arid Mountain States. Poultry husbandry has grown rapidly, especially the production of young meat chickens (approximately 4.5 million tons of broiler chicken in 1978), turkeys (900,000 tons in 1978), and spent hens. US egg production, approximately 70 billion per year, is concentrated on large poultry farms, mostly in the southeastern states. In 1978, US meat production totaled 17.3 million tons, including 10.9 million tons of beef and 6 million tons of pork.
FISHERIES. In 1975 the US fisheries employed a work force of 166,000. In 1977 the total US catch of fish and other ocean products was 2.4 million tons, 1.5 million tons of which were used for food. Increasing numbers of fish are caught in distant waters. The principal fisheries are on the Pacific coast (especially Alaska and California), in Louisiana, and in Chesapeake Bay. The catch of freshwater fish in the Great Lakes and in rivers has declined, owing largely to water pollution. Fish farming for the domestic market is on the rise. US imports of fish and other ocean products have grown rapidly, from 32.5 percent of US domestic consumption in 1955 to 51 percent in 1977.
Table 8. Number of livestock, as of January 1 of year cited (millions)	Table 8. Number of livestock, as of January 1 of year cited (millions)	Table 8. Number of livestock, as of January 1 of year cited (millions)	Table 8. Number of livestock, as of January 1 of year cited (millions)	Table 8. Number of livestock, as of January 1 of year cited (millions)	Table 8. Number of livestock, as of January 1 of year cited (millions)
 	1950 	1960 	1970 	1976 	19791
1 Estimate 	1 Estimate 	1 Estimate 	1 Estimate 	1 Estimate 	1 Estimate
Cattle ............... 	78.0 	96.2 	112.3 	122.8 	116.3
dairy cows and heifers ............... 	23.8 	19.5 	13.9 	na 	na
Hogs and pigs ............... 	58.9 	59.0 	56.7 	57.6 	57.8
Sheep and lambs ............... 	26.2 	28.8 	17.4 	12.7 	12.4
FORESTRY. In 1977 the USA processed 316 million cu m of wood, of which 252 million cu m were softwoods and 64 million cu m hardwoods. Milled lumber accounted for 156 million cu m, and wood used for pulp and paper, 96 million cu m. The principal logging regions are the Pacific states (including Alaska) and the southeastern states (primarily pulp and paper). Once an exporter of timber, the USA is now a major importer.
Transportation. The USA has a highly developed network of highways, railroads, and petroleum and natural gas pipelines, as well as an extensive system of inland waterways. Overseas and air
Table 9. US foreign trade 	Table 9. US foreign trade 	Table 9. US foreign trade 	Table 9. US foreign trade 	Table 9. US foreign trade 	Table 9. US foreign trade 	Table 9. US foreign trade
 	Value (billion dollars, current prices)	Value (billion dollars, current prices)	Value (billion dollars, current prices)	Value (billion dollars, current prices)	Value (billion dollars, current prices)	Value (billion dollars, current prices)
 	1950 	1960 	1970 	1975 	1977 	1978
1Excess of exports (+) or imports (-) 	1Excess of exports (+) or imports (-) 	1Excess of exports (+) or imports (-) 	1Excess of exports (+) or imports (-) 	1Excess of exports (+) or imports (-) 	1Excess of exports (+) or imports (-) 	1Excess of exports (+) or imports (-)
Exports (excluding reexports) ...............	10.1 	20.4 	42.6 	106.2 	119.0 	141.2
Imports ............... 	89 	15.1 	39.8 	103.0 	156.8 	182.8
Balance1 ............... 	+12 	+5.3 	+2.8 	+3.2 	–37.8 	–41.6
transportation have made rapid strides. In 1976 the intercity freight traffic (excluding gas pipelines) was about 3.2 trillion ton-km. The railroads, as a result of competition from vehicular transportation and pipelines, have carried relatively less intercity freight traffic, their share of such traffic decreasing from 82 percent in 1910 to 63.2 percent in 1940 to 36.5 percent in 1976. Vehicular transportation carried 9 percent of intercity freight traffic in 1940 and 23.3 percent in 1976, and petroleum pipelines 9.1 percent in 1940 and 23.9 percent in 1976.
In 1976 automobiles carried 85.8 percent of intercity passenger traffic, airways 11.4 percent, motor coaches 1.7 percent, railroads 0.8 percent, and inland waterways 0.3 percent. Since the energy crisis has made itself felt, the percentage carried by rail has tended to increase, and that carried by motor vehicles, to decrease.
The total length of US highways and roads exceeds 6 million km, including 5 million km in rural localities; three-fourths are paved. The key element in the US highway network is the system of national interstate highways, in 1976 more than 370,000 km in length. In 1977 the USA had 144 million registered motor vehicles, of which 114 million were passenger cars.
In 1975 the total length of US railroads was 119,000 km, a figure that represents a 20 percent decrease since 1916. Single-track lines make up 85 percent of the rail network; only 3,300 km of track are electrified. The principal type of motive power is the diesel locomotive. About 90 percent of the freight traffic is generated by industry, 60 percent by the mining industry. The chief bulk freight is coal and petroleum. The principal freight route runs between New York and Chicago; transcontinental trunk lines are also of vital importance. Intermodal hauls, which combine, for example, truck and rail transportation (piggybacking), water and rail transportation, and truck and water transportation, are common.
The total length of US petroleum and product trunk pipelines is 275,000 km, and that of gas pipelines, more than 300,000 km. Pipelines link the principal oil and gas regions with refineries, industrial and commercial users, and ports, and link the ports through which petroleum is imported with regions of consumption. Pipelines are especially common in the largest oil and gas region, the West South Central states, from which trunk pipelines extend to the Northeast and Great Lakes. A petroleum pipeline now stretches from the Prudhoe Bay region in northern Alaska to the Pacific coast.
US inland waterways exceed 40,000 km in length and in 1976 carried more than 540 billion ton-km of freight traffic. The Great Lakes are especially important in this respect; they are linked by canals with the Atlantic Ocean (via the Hudson River) and the Mississippi River. The deepwater route along the St. Lawrence has opened the Great Lakes to large oceangoing ships; in 1976 the volume of freight traffic along this route was 153 billion ton-km. The Mississippi, together with the Ohio River and a tributary, the Tennessee River, forms an important river route. The Intracoastal Waterway is linked by canals with the lower reaches of the large rivers that empty into the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Long-distance cabotage (via the Panama Canal) and short-haul coastwise shipping are of considerable significance.
In terms of tonnage, the US flag fleet ranks sixth among the capitalist countries. In 1977 it totaled 17.6 million gross registered tons (including the “mothball fleet,” which totaled more than 3.5 million gross registered tons), which included 7.1 million gross registered tons of dry-cargo ships and 10.5 million gross registered tons of liquid-cargo ships. US capital also owns many of the ships that sail under the Liberian, Panamanian, or other flags of convenience, a practice that brings the shipowners large additional profits. The tonnage of the Great Lakes fleet totals more than 2 million gross registered tons. The largest seaports are New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, and Newport News on the Atlantic coast, New Orleans, Houston, and Beaumont on the Gulf coast, and San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle on the Pacific coast. The port of New York handles the largest volume of cargo, more than 100 million tons a year; Houston, Philadelphia, and New Orleans each handle more than 50 million tons a year. The principal Great Lakes ports are Chicago, Duluth, Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland, and Toledo. The airways carry most of the long-distance domestic and foreign passenger traffic. The largest air terminals are New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, and Dallas.
Foreign trade. The USA leads the capitalist countries in foreign trade and export of capital. During the immediate postwar years, it accounted for a much greater share of the capitalist countries’ foreign trade; subsequently, however, its share has dropped off. Its share of world capitalist exports fell from 32.5 percent in 1947 to 16.6 percent in 1965 and 12 percent in 1978. The USA accounts for relatively fewer of the industrial goods exported by the developed capitalist countries, its share dropping from 25.3 percent in 1960 to 18.6 percent in 1972 (Table 9).
The sharp increase in the value of US foreign trade in 1973 and 1974 stemmed primarily from the large rises in export and import prices; for example, the index of foreign trade prices for fuels (1963 = 100) increased from 108 in 1970 to 553 in 1974.
The commodity structure of US foreign trade is characterized by a growing predominance of finished goods, among both exports and imports (Table 10). Imports of industrial and transportation equipment, consumer goods, petroleum, petroleum products, and newsprint are up considerably.
Table 10. Commodity structure of US foreign trade (percent)	Table 10. Commodity structure of US foreign trade (percent)	Table 10. Commodity structure of US foreign trade (percent)	Table 10. Commodity structure of US foreign trade (percent)	Table 10. Commodity structure of US foreign trade (percent)	Table 10. Commodity structure of US foreign trade (percent)	Table 10. Commodity structure of US foreign trade (percent)	Table 10. Commodity structure of US foreign trade (percent)	Table 10. Commodity structure of US foreign trade (percent)
 	Exports 	Exports 	Exports 	Exports 	Imports 	Imports 	Imports 	Imports
 	1960 	1970 	1975 	1977 	1960 	1970 	1975 	1977
Foodstuffs ............... 	13.2 	10.2 	14.6 	12.0 	19.9 	13.5 	8.8 	8.5
Beverages tobacco ............... 	2.4 	1.6 	1.2 	1.6 	2.6 	2.1 	1.5 	1.1
Industrial raw materials ............... 	13.7 	10.8 	9.2 	10.9 	18.3 	8.3 	5.8 	5.4
Fuels ............... 	4.1 	3.7 	4.2 	3.5 	10.5 	7.7 	27.5 	30.2
Chemicals ............... 	8.7 	9.0 	8.2 	9.2 	5.3 	3.6 	3.8 	3.7
Machinery and means of transportation ............... 	34.3 	42.0 	43.0 	43.3 	9.7 	28.0 	24.4 	24.2
Other industrial goods ............... 	18.7 	17.9 	19.6 	19.5 	30.3 	33.3 	29.2 	26.9
Table 11. US foreign trade with blocs of countries (percent)	Table 11. US foreign trade with blocs of countries (percent)	Table 11. US foreign trade with blocs of countries (percent)	Table 11. US foreign trade with blocs of countries (percent)	Table 11. US foreign trade with blocs of countries (percent)	Table 11. US foreign trade with blocs of countries (percent)	Table 11. US foreign trade with blocs of countries (percent)
 	Exports 	Exports 	Exports 	Imports 	Imports 	Imports
 	1936–38 	1975 	1977 	1936–38 	1975 	1977
Industrially developed capitalist countries ............... 	67.4 	60.2 	61.4 	47.3 	58.5 	53.3
Western Europe ............... 	38.3 	27.8 	28.1 	24.4 	21.6 	18.7
Canada ............... 	15.2 	20.2 	21.4 	14.1 	22.9 	20.0
Japan ............... 	8.2 	8.9 	8.8 	6.7 	11.8 	12.7
Developing countries ............... 	27.2 	36.9 	36.3 	46.0 	40.6 	45.9
Latin America ............... 	18.3 	15.9 	14.9 	23.0 	16.6 	14.3
Asia ............... 	7.2 	17.1 	17.3 	20.8 	16.2 	20.8
Africa ............... 	1.7 	3.9 	4.1 	2.2 	7.8 	10.8
Socialist countries ............... 	5.4 	2.9 	2.3 	6.7 	0.9 	0.8
The principal US exports are industrial equipment, means of transportation (airplanes and motor vehicles), chemical products, coal, wheat and flour, corn, soybeans, and cotton.
The USA’s major trading partners are the developed capitalist countries, which account for more than 60 percent of US exports and more than 50 percent of US imports. The countries of Western Europe rank first in this respect, followed by Canada; US trade with Japan is up considerably. Since 1973, however, with the large price increases for petroleum and other mineral raw materials, the USA has sharply increased its imports from the developing countries (Table 11).
US trade with the USSR and other socialist countries virtually came to a halt during the cold war. As a result of the USSR’s consistent peace-loving policy and, thus, as a result of the improved international atmosphere, US-USSR foreign trade jumped from 183.6 million rubles in 1971 to 1,852 million rubles in 1978. The USSR has signed its first long-term contracts with US firms for cooperation in various economic spheres. The further development of US-USSR trade has been hindered by US legislation that discriminates against the socialist countries.
FOREIGN INVESTMENT. As US investment abroad has grown rapidly, investment trends with respect to region have changed substantially. Investment in the developed capitalist countries is up sharply, but investment in the developing countries is down (Table 12). US investments abroad increased from $14.4 billion at the end of 1939 to $328.6 billion at the end of 1976; the latter figure comprises $46 billion in government credits and $282.6 billion in private investments, including $137.6 billion in direct investments.
Table 12. Value of US direct investment abroad, by region (billion dollars)	Table 12. Value of US direct investment abroad, by region (billion dollars)	Table 12. Value of US direct investment abroad, by region (billion dollars)	Table 12. Value of US direct investment abroad, by region (billion dollars)	Table 12. Value of US direct investment abroad, by region (billion dollars)
 	1950 	1960 	1972 	1977
Total, all regions ............... 	11.8 	31.9 	94.0 	148.8
Economically developed capitalist countries ............... 	 	 	 	
Western Europe ............... 	1.7 	6.7 	30.7 	60.6
Canada ............... 	3.6 	11.2 	25.8 	35.4
Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa ............... 	0.3 	1.3 	5.4 	8.0
Japan ............... 	0.02 	0.3 	2.2 	4.1
Developing countries ............... 	 	 	 	
Asia ............... 	1.0 	2.1 	5.5 	3.2
Latin America ............... 	4.4 	8.4 	13.5 	27.7
Africa ............... 	na 	0.6 	3.1 	2.8
International ............... 	na 	1.4 	4.7 	7.0
Geographical shifts in US investment abroad have been greatly affected by the distribution of investment by industry group, a phenomenon that stems primarily from the scientific and technological revolution. Before World War II, US investment abroad went primarily to the extractive industries; after the war it went primarily to manufacturing (Table 13).
The USA had a balance-of-payments deficit of $15.3 billion in 1977 and $17 billion in 1978. It had a balance-of-payments surplus of $4.3 billion in 1976.
MONETARY UNIT. The US monetary unit is the US dollar. As of November 1979, at the rate of exchange used by the State Bank of the USSR, 100 US dollars equaled 65 rubles 40 kopeks.
V. M. GOKHMAN
Tourism. Recreation is an important part of the US economy. In the mid-1970’s expenditures by the population on recreation reached $70 billion, or about 4 percent of the total US GNP, and the industry itself grew at the rate of 5–7 percent annually. Approximately 60 percent of the income from this industry accrues to businesses that provide tourist services, such as hotels, motels, campsites, and service stations. The key element in tourist services is the hotel system, which consists of approximately 87,000 hotels, motels, and campsites, with 3.6 million rooms in all; 3.5 million people are employed in recreation and tourism. In the principal tourist areas—Florida, Hawaii, New England, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, and the Appalachians—tourism is of prime economic importance, ensuring employment for and revenues to the local population. For example, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has as many as 8 million visitors every year, and Yellowstone National Park, as many as 3 million.
A characteristic feature of the US tourist industry has been active government regulation of recreational resources. In practice, many federal, state, and municipal agencies have programs for the recreational use of natural resources, including the financing of tourist development, the conduct of scientific research, and the drafting of appropriate legislation. In 1977, US tourists spent $11.9 billion abroad, a sum that greatly exceeds the $7.2 billion that foreign tourists spent in the USA.
I. G. VASIL’EVA
Internal differences. Soviet literature distinguishes three principal economic regions in the USA: the North, the South, and the West (see V. I. Lenin, “Novye dannye o zakonakh razvitiia kapitalizma v zemledelii,” Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 27, pp. 129–227). Of the three, the North is economically the most advanced. Most emigrants from Europe settled here. Thanks in part to its large and accessible deposits of coal and iron ore and, in the Central Prairies, large tracts of fertile lands, the North greatly outstripped the other regions economically. Before 1865 the South was retarded in its development by slavery; after the emancipation, many vestiges of the antebellum period survived. The West, with its wide open spaces of mountains and deserts, was settled later than either the North or South; large areas here remain little populated and relatively untouched by the hand of man.
Each region has matured in the context of antagonistic struggle, primarily the struggle between the monopolistic groups rooted in the North and the burgeoning capitalistic groups of the West and South, especially California and Texas. Table 14 shows the economic development of each region.
The North accounts for approximately one-fourth of the total US land area and approximately one-third of the land area of the 48 contiguous states; however, it accounts for about one-half the total US population and almost three-fifths of US industrial output. It has more than 80 percent of the US capacity in ferrous metallurgy and produces most of the USA’s industrial equipment, motor vehicles, instruments, and computers. At the same time, it accounts for 50 percent of the USA’s commercial agricultural production. The North is preeminent in finance and commerce.
Table 13. Value of US direct investments abroad, by industry group (billion dollars)	Table 13. Value of US direct investments abroad, by industry group (billion dollars)	Table 13. Value of US direct investments abroad, by industry group (billion dollars)	Table 13. Value of US direct investments abroad, by industry group (billion dollars)	Table 13. Value of US direct investments abroad, by industry group (billion dollars)
 	1960 	1970 	1972 	1977
Mining (excluding petroleum) and smelting of nonferrous metals ............... 	3.0 	6.2 	7.1 	52.3
Petroleum ............... 	10.8 	21.7 	26.4 	30.9
Manufacturing ............... 	11.1 	32.3 	39.5 	65.6
Other industries ............... 	7.0 	18.0 	21.0 	—
Total ............... 	31.9 	78.2 	94.0 	148.8
Two large and very different regions within the North may be distinguished: the industrial East and the agrarian-industrial West North Central states. The industrial East—New England, the Middle Atlantic states, and the East North Central states—accounts for 45 percent of the North’s land area, more than 83 percent of its population, and 88 percent of its industrial production. The growth of large urban areas along the Atlantic coast has led to the emergence of a huge megalopolis, stretching almost 1,000 km from Boston to Washington, D.C. This megalopolis is especially important in US foreign trade, its ports handling more than two-thirds of US imports and a large part of US exports. New York is the principal financial, industrial, and trade center and the largest seaport and air terminus. Pittsburgh and the surrounding area, situated on the Appalachian Plateau at the juncture of the Middle Atlantic states and the East North Central states, constitute the most important US coal and metallurgical region.
The West North Central states lag far behind the industrial East in industrial development, population density, and urbanization. Within this region lies most of the wheat belt, which stretches from the Canadian border south through the region into the West South Central states. The northeastern part of the region and the adjoining parts of the East North Central states are noted for dairying. To the south lies the western part of the corn belt—the leading US region for corn, soybeans, and meat production. The state of Iowa is the heart of the corn belt.
The South accounts for one-fourth of the US land area and almost one-third of the US population. Economically, it is much less advanced than the North. Since World War II, it has grown rapidly, in no small measure owing to the growth of military-related industries, such as aircraft and missile construction, the production of electronic equipment, and the establishment of military research centers. However, industrial development has come only to certain parts of the South.
The South accounts for more than 60 percent of US mining output, including more than two-thirds of the crude petroleum, three-fourths of the natural gas, more than one-half of the coal, and most of the sulfur and phosphorites. It is the principal producer of cotton, tobacco, rice, and peanuts. In manufacturing, the South has long been noted for textiles and tobacco products. In the West South Central region, a major petroleum-refining and petrochemicals industry has grown up on the basis of local petroleum and natural gas. The extensive construction of energy facilities has led to the emergence of energy-intensive industries, such as the production of light metals and the nuclear industry. Nevertheless, the South still depends on the North for its industrial equipment and lags behind in ferrous metallurgy.
Agriculture, which underwent a radical change after World War II, is important to the South’s economy. The small cotton farms, worked by Negro sharecroppers enmeshed in veiled dependence on the landowners, have given way to large, highly mechanized capitalist farms. Most Negroes have moved to other regions and to the cities, a situation that has exacerbated social conflicts and racial segregation. Within the South, the West South Central states are becoming increasingly urbanized; here, in addition to petroleum refining, petrochemicals, and energy-intensive industries, there has been rapid growth in defense-related industries and missile production, in part stimulated by the NASA center in Houston. Florida is a leading US resort area.
The West (excluding Alaska and Hawaii, which US statistical agencies include in the region) accounts for about one-third of the total US land area and two-fifths of the land area of the 48 contiguous states; it accounts for one-sixth of the total US population. In most of the West, the population is not evenly distributed. The California coast is the most densely populated area. California is the principal region for defense-related production, notably aircraft and missile construction and the production of
Table 14. US land area, population, and economy, by region (1970)	Table 14. US land area, population, and economy, by region (1970)	Table 14. US land area, population, and economy, by region (1970)	Table 14. US land area, population, and economy, by region (1970)	Table 14. US land area, population, and economy, by region (1970)
 	North 	South 	West2 	USA3
1 1967 	1 1967 	1 1967 	1 1967 	1 1967
2 Excluding Alaska and Hawaii 	2 Excluding Alaska and Hawaii 	2 Excluding Alaska and Hawaii 	2 Excluding Alaska and Hawaii 	2 Excluding Alaska and Hawaii
3 Including Alaska and Hawaii 	3 Including Alaska and Hawaii 	3 Including Alaska and Hawaii 	3 Including Alaska and Hawaii 	3 Including Alaska and Hawaii
4 Including $2.1 billions notdistributed by region 	4 Including $2.1 billions notdistributed by region 	4 Including $2.1 billions notdistributed by region 	4 Including $2.1 billions notdistributed by region 	4 Including $2.1 billions notdistributed by region
Land area 	 	 	 	
million sq km ............... 	2.5 	2.3 	3.1 	9.4
percentage ............... 	27 	24 	33 	100
Population 	 	 	 	
million people ............... 	107.2 	69.8 	39.3 	216.3
percentage ............... 	50 	32 	18 	100
Mining output 	 	 	 	
billion dollars ............... 	13.0 	42.4 	13.2 	69.2
Percentage ............... 	19 	61 	19 	100
Employees in manufacturing 	 	 	 	
million people ............... 	10.9 	5.5 	2.6 	19.0
percentage ............... 	57 	29 	14 	100
Value added by manufacture 	 	 	 	
billion dollars ............... 	299.6 	139.5 	71.2 	511.5
percentage ............... 	59 	27 	14 	100
Production of electric power 	 	 	 	
billion kw-hr ............... 	873 	850 	394 	2,125
percentage ............... 	41 	40 	19 	100
Value added by machine building 	 	 	 	
billion dollars ............... 	96.9 	25.1 	23.3 	145.4
percentage ............... 	67 	17 	16 	100
Commercial agricultural output1 	 	 	 	
billion dollars ............... 	40.6 	23.4 	16.9 	81.5
percentage ............... 	50 	29 	21 	100
Research and development expenditures in industry 	 	 	 	
billion dollars ............... 	14.6 	3.2 	6.8 	24.64
percentage ............... 	59 	13 	28 	100
related electronic equipment. California is also noted for its large capitalist farms, and it leads the nation in volume of agricultural output.
The northern Pacific states—the Pacific Northwest—are rich in timber and hydropower. They are known for their energy-intensive industries, primarily aluminum production and the nuclear industry.
The Mountain States are the least populated part of the 48 contiguous states. Mining is of great importance here—primarily of nonferrous and rare metals, uranium, crude petroleum, natural gas, potassium salts, and phosphorites. Nonferrous metallurgy is also important. Crop cultivation is for the most part confined to irrigated areas. Livestock are grazed on seasonal pastures and on rangeland. Most of the Indian reservations are located in these mountainous and arid states. The region has many national parks.
Alaska accounts for 16 percent of the total US land area but only 0.19 percent of its population. Most of Alaska is sparsely populated, with most of the population concentrated on the Pacific coast. Indians and Eskimo inhabit the interior. The Alaskan economy is based on logging, sawmilling, and fishing. The mining of gold and copper, once very important, has fallen off sharply as reserves have been depleted. Extremely large deposits of petroleum and natural gas have been discovered in northern Alaska, near Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic coast; from this area a pipeline extends to the south. Of particular importance is Alaska’s and the Aleutian Islands’ strategic location in the northern Pacific; Alaska has several important military installations.
The Hawaiian Islands lie in the central Pacific, 4,000 km west of the US mainland. They have a total area of 16,700 sq km, or less than 0.2 percent of the total US land area; they account for 0.4 percent of the total US population. Hawaii is an important shipping and air center; there is a naval base at Pearl Harbor, near Honolulu on Oahu, the most highly populated island. Hawaii has large plantations of tropical crops, such as sugarcane and pineapple, and is noted for tourism.
===REFERENCES===
Lenin, V. I. Novye dannye o zakonakh razvitiia kapitalizma v zemledelii, fasc. 1: “Kapitalizm i zemledelie v Soedinennykh Shtatakh Ameriki.” Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 27.Lenin, V. I. Imperializm, kak vysshaia stadiia kapitalizma. Ibid.Lenin, V. I. “Pis’mo k amerikanskim rabochim.” Ibid., vol. 37.
Ekonomicheskie raiony SShA: Sever. Moscow, 1958.Gokhman, V. M. Geografiia tiazheloi promyshlennosti SShA. Moscow, 1956.Ziman, L. Ia. Ekonomicheskie raiony SShA. Moscow, 1959.Ivanova, Z. P. Nauchno-tekhnicheskaia revolutsiia v SShA. Moscow, 1971.Murphy, R. E. Amerikanskii gorod. Moscow, 1972. (Translated from English.)Mikhailov, E. D. SShA: problema bol’shikh gorodov. Moscow, 1973.Mel’nikov, A. N. Sovremennaia klassovaia struktura SShA. Moscow, 1974.Polovitskaia, M. E. Ekonomicheskie raiony SShA: lug. Moscow, 1956.Polovitskaia, M. E. Ekonomicheskie raiony SSha: Zapad. Moscow, 1966.
Severnaia Amerika, SShA, Kanada: Ekonomiko-statisticheskii spravochnik. Moscow, 1969.Solov’eva, M. G. Soedinennye Shtaty Ameriki. Moscow, 1974.
Soedinennye Shtaty Ameriki. [Moscow, 1972.]
SShA: sfera uslug v ekonomike. Moscow, 1971.Hanna, F. A. Statistika obrabatyvaiushchei promyshlennosti SShA. Moscow, 1962. (Translated from English.)Hansen, A. Poslevoennaia ekonomika SShA. Moscow, 1966. (Translated from English.)Higbee, E. Geografiia sel’skogo khoziaistva SShA. Moscow, 1961. (Translated from English.)Shamberg, V. M. SShA: problemy i protivorechiia gosudarstvenno-monopolisticheskogo regulirovaniia ekonomicheskogo rosta. Moscow, 1974.Estall, R. A. Modern Geography of the United States. London, 1972.Mouzon, O. T. Resources and Industries of the United States. New York, 1966.
Statistical Abstracts of the United States 1973. Washington [1974].Fuchs, V. R. Changes in the Location of Manufacturing in the United States Since 1929. New Haven-London, 1962.V. M. GOKHMAN
The US armed forces consist of the army, air force, and navy. Each branch includes regular forces and reserve forces. The army and the air force have national guards and reserves; the navy has only reserves. At the beginning of 1976, the total active military strength of the USA was approximately 2.1 million. The authorized strength of the reserve forces was approximately 955,000.
The commander in chief is the president, who exercises general leadership of the armed forces through the National Security Council and the Department of Defense. The National Security Council advises the president on the development of the armed forces. The Department of Defense has direct command over the armed forces. It is responsible for the use of the armed forces, their combat readiness, administrative organization, material and technical support, and centralized planning of research and development.
The secretaries of the army, air force, and navy bear the responsibility for training and supply of the armed services. The Department of Defense and, when necessary, the president himself command the armed services through the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a committee that consists of the chairman and the four service chiefs—army, air force, navy, and marine corps. The supporting staff bodies of the Joint Chiefs are the Joint Staff and the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff. The Joint Chiefs of Staff prepare war plans and the basic programs for armed forces and weapons development. They exercise command of the armed services through their operational subordinates, the commanders of the specified and unified commands. The specified commands are the Strategic Air Command (SAC) and the Air Defense Command. The unified commands are the US Readiness Command, which is headquartered in the USA, and the US armed forces commands headquartered abroad, such as in Europe, the Atlantic region, the Pacific region, Central and South America, and Alaska.
The unified and specified commands comprise large and small units from the various service branches—army, air force, and navy. The USA is a member of the imperialist NATO military alliance. Before 1973 the US armed forces consisted partly of conscripts and partly of volunteers; since July 1973 they have consisted solely of volunteers. In the army, the contract term of service is no less than two years, and in the air force and navy, no less than three years.
In 1976 the US Army consisted of the regular army, approximately 785,000 strong, and the reserves, approximately 650,000 strong, including approximately 400,000 in the Army National Guard and 250,000 in the Army Reserves. At combat strength, the active army includes 13 divisions in all—three armored divisions, four mechanized divisions, three infantry divisions, one airborne division, and one airmobile division. It also includes ten separate brigades, three armored cavalry regiments, and four Pershing surface-to-surface missile battalions. It also has Lance surface-to-surface missile battalions (with nuclear warheads), battalions of nuclear, field, and antiaircraft artillery, surface-to-air missile battalions (with nuclear warheads), and various units of army aviation, army engineers, chemical corps, and signal corps. The army is equipped with modern tanks, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled guns, howitzers, and antitank guided weapons. Army aviation is equipped with as many as 1,000 aircraft and 10,000 helicopters of various types and uses.
The US Army has seven divisions and eight brigades deployed in the USA, four divisions, two brigades, and several separate units in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), an infantry brigade in West Berlin, a tactical group in Italy, an infantry division and several separate units in South Korea, and a separate brigade in Panama.
The Army National Guard has eight divisions—two armored divisions, one mechanized division, and five infantry divisions—18 separate brigades, and several separate units of various types. The Army Reserves consist of 12 training divisions and three brigades. Units of the Army National Guard and Army Reserves can be brought up to full strength—in personnel and matériel—equivalent to the regular forces.
The US Air Force has about 2,500 combat aircraft. Its basic strike force consists of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), which is equipped with 1,054 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM’s), including 450 Minuteman II’s, 550 Minuteman Ill’s, and 54 Titan II’s. SAC also has approximately 400 strategic bombers, including 60 FB-111 supersonic bombers and approximately 350 B-52’s (some of which are in storage or reserve), as well as 615 tanker aircraft and two squadrons of SR-71 strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The principal tactical combat aircraft are supersonic fighter aircraft—the F-15, F-4, F-lll, and F-105 all have nuclear capability. In all, more than 1,000 tactical aircraft have nuclear capability.
With regard to US Air Force deployment, the Tactical Air Command is headquartered in the continental USA, with approximately 1,100 combat aircraft in the Ninth and Twelfth Air Forces. The Military Airlift Command, also stationed in the continental USA, has approximately 570 aircraft. The US Air Force, Europe, is the air force command in Europe, with command over the Third Air Force (Great Britain), the Sixteenth Air Force (Spain), the Seventeenth Air Force (FRG), and a logistics and supply group in Turkey. It has approximately 600 combat aircraft. The Pacific Air Forces comprises the Fifth Air Force (deployed in Japan, South Korea, and Okinawa) and the Thirteenth Air Force (Philippines). The Air National Guard has more than 1,000 combat aircraft, and the units of the Air Force Reserve have as many as 150 combat aircraft.
The US Navy consists of the fleet, naval aircraft, and the marine corps. It includes four separate fleets—the Second Fleet (Atlantic), the Third Fleet (Eastern Pacific), the Sixth Fleet (Mediterranean), and Seventh Fleet (Western Pacific). Its basic strike force consists of nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines, which together with the ICBM’s and the air force’s strategic aircraft form the USA’s strategic forces. At combat strength, the navy has 41 nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines, including (mid-1975) 25 armed with Poseidon C3 missiles and 16 with Polaris A3 missiles, the former with a range of 5,000 km and the latter with a range of 4,600 km. It also has 15 attack aircraft carriers and all-purpose aircraft carriers (including two nuclear carriers), with displacements of 33,000 to 76,000 tons; each carries from 70 to 90 aircraft. In all, US carriers have more than 1,200 F-14’s, F-4’s, F-8’s, A-4’s, and A-7’s. Other surface warships include one nuclear-powered guided-weapons cruiser, 26 guided-weapons cruisers, 38 guided-weapons destroyers, six guidedweapons frigates, 35 gun destroyers, 60 gun frigates, 65 nuclear-powered torpedo submarines, and 65 amphibious warfare ships. The navy also has land-based maritime reconnaissance aircraft, including 70 fighter and attack aircraft squadrons, ten reconnaissance squadrons, 20 antisubmarine warfare helicopter squadrons, 24 antisubmarine warfare squadrons, 34 other squadrons, and two attack carrier air wings.
The Navy Reserves has four antisubmarine warfare carriers, as many as 90 surface warships, 82 minesweepers, and 74 amphibious warfare ships. The Naval Air Reserve has approximately 550 aircraft and 100 helicopters.
The US Marine Corps, approximately 195,000 strong, consists of three divisions, each with support units of one tank battalion and two surface-to-air guided missile battalions. It also has three air wings, with as many as 550 combat aircraft, as well as 45 attack helicopters, six heavy helicopter squadrons, nine medium helicopter squadrons, and three assault-transport helicopter squadrons. The Marine Corps Reserves, 45,000 strong, consists of one division and one air wing.
S. I. PATRIKEEV
Medicine and public health. In 1974 the birth rate in the USA was 15 per 1,000 inhabitants and the mortality rate, 9.4; in 1973 the infant mortality rate was 17.6 per 1,000 live births. Demographic indicators vary substantially among different population groups. For example, the infant mortality rate among Negroes, Indians, and Puerto Ricans is 30–40 percent higher than it is among the white population. The averge life expectancy in 1971 was 71.9 years for whites and 65.2 years for other population groups.
Among the leading causes of illness are mental, cardiovascular, and acute respiratory diseases, tumors, metabolic disorders, allergies, diabetes mellitus, and tuberculosis. Urgent public health problems are traumatism, venereal disease, drug addiction, alcoholism, and suicide and other forms of violent death. Traumatism ranks fourth among the principal causes of death; among persons under 38 years of age it is the leading cause of death. More than 50 million Americans are the victims of accidents annually, with more than 100,000 fatalities included in this number (1972).
Iń 1972 the USA had more than 2.5 million mentally disturbed individuals, who occupied half of all hospital beds. According to data provided by the US Public Health Service, approximately 5 percent of all children and adolescents become mentally ill before reaching maturity. In 1971 there were 9 million cases of alcoholism reported, as well as more than 70,000 cases of drug addiction.
In 1970 cardiovascular diseases accounted for 51 percent of all deaths. According to the American Association for Cancer Research, in 1973 there were approximately 1.3 million cancer victims in the USA. Annually, there are from 300,000 to 700,000 new cases reported. The incidence of and death rate from malignant tumors are steadily increasing; in 1971 the death rate was 161.4 per 100,000 deaths and in 1972, 166.8.
Fifty-six percent of the population between the ages of 45 and 64 and 83 percent of the population over 64 suffer from various chronic diseases. Every year, 1.3 billion workdays are missed because of these diseases. Among the poor, chronic diseases occur 17–23 percent more frequently than among the well-to-do.
Infectious diseases, including those that are viral, are common. The morbidity rate from airborne infections is particularly high. In 1972 alone there were 421,500 reported cases of scarlet fever, 3,300 of whooping cough, 1,300 of meningococcic infection, and 31,700 of measles. The greatest incidence of disease occurs among those Negroes, Indians, and Puerto Ricans with a low socioeconomic standard of living. Among intestinal infections the most widespread are amebiasis, hepatitis, bacillary dysentery, and brucellosis.
The public health care system is based on the principle of private enterprise. The overwhelming majority of the population has to pay for medical services. There are no standard medical fees, and a visit to the doctor may cost from $30 to $50, a roentgenologic examination as much as $150, and a cesarean section as much as $2,000. Various types of medical insurance are offered by private companies. Federal medical assistance is available to civil servants, war veterans, merchant seamen, and those Indians living on reservations. The Medicare and Medicaid government programs provide reduced-rate medical coverage to those 65 years of age and older, as well as to the needy. In all, approximately 40 million Americans receive free or reduced-rate medical assistance.
Medical expenditures are constantly increasing. In 1972 they amounted to $83.4 billion, of which only $17.1 billion was assumed by the government, the remainder being paid directly by the population. In 1974 the social security tax was raised considerably, as were social security payments to the elderly and to disabled workers. Men are eligible for social security benefits at 65 years of age and women, at 62. Workers won an important victory in 1975 with the introduction of periodic reviews of social security benefits in light of increases in the consumer price index. The unemployment insurance system has not been changed, despite the steady growth in unemployment. Benefit payments amount to no more than one-third of previous wages, and the term of payments is limited to 26 weeks.
The administration of public health care is based on the principle of decentralization. On the federal level, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare develops general public health programs, administers medical benefits to those receiving federal assistance, and organizes drug control programs. The central role in the organization of medical assistance belongs to the states, each of which has its own health department.
Disease control is also decentralized. It is limited to the establishment of quarantines and to the monitoring of the quality of food products, drugs, and water. On the federal level, disease control is carried out by a system of public health care under the auspices of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970 in order to combat water, air, and soil pollution. However, there is still no general governmental antipollution legislation.
In 1971 there were 7,097 hospitals in the USA, with 1.6 million hospital beds, or 7.3 beds per 1,000 inhabitants (as compared with 9.2 beds per 1,000 inhabitants in 1960). The federal government administers 10 percent of the beds, the state health departments 45 percent, and noncommercial private institutions (universities, voluntary agencies, religious organizations) 40 percent. Approximately 5 percent of the beds are in private commercial institutions.
Nursing homes, which provide medical assistance to the elderly and chronically ill, are very important in public health care. In 1972 there were 18,400 homes with 762,000 beds. Brief hospital stays are characteristic of the USA, primarily because of the extremely high cost of hospitalization. For example, in 1972 the average cost for one day of treatment in a hospital was $140.
In 1970 the USA had approximately 319,900 physicians, as compared with more than 200,000 in 1950 and approximately 250,000 in 1960. Today, there is one physician per 629 inhabitants. There are 97,900 dentists, 129,300 pharmacists, and approximately 1.2 million secondary medical personnel. Outpatient medical care is rendered by private general practitioners and specialists. Since the 1950’s American public health care has been characterized by the development of group practice, which is also based on the principle of charging patient fees. Government-supported health centers are better equipped with medical and diagnostic apparatus, and they are able to consult with specialists. Emergency first aid and medical services for the poor are provided by 4.800 hospital clinics. Physicians are trained at 108 medical schools. In 1972 there were 9,600 graduates, of which only 9.2 percent were women. There were 2,200 nursing schools, as well as 2,000 schools for training other specialists, including dentists, pharmacists, physical therapists, and X-ray technicians.
An intergovernmental agreement on medicine and public health was signed by the USSR and the USA on May 23, 1972. This agreement opened up many possibilities for joint scientific research on the principal problems of modern medicine. Under study are cardiovascular diseases, malignant growths, arthritis, and influenza, as well as environmental protection programs. On June 28, 1974, an agreement was signed to provide cooperation on scientific research and on the development of an artificial heart.
The most famous balneological health resorts include Saratoga Springs; Glens Falls, which has artificially carbonated waters to which sodium chloride has been added; Clifton Springs, which has sulfur waters; French Lick, which has waters to which hydrogen sulfide and alkaline sodium chloride have been added; and Ballston Spa, which has chalybeate waters. Other health resorts include Hot Springs, White Sulphur Springs, Excelsior Springs, and Mount Clemens. Many resorts are located along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, on islands, and in mountains and deserts; the climate is conducive to good health in these areas. The oldest resort is Newport, R.I., which was settled in 1639. The New York area has many beaches, for example, Rockaway Beach, Long Beach, and Coney Island. South of New York, in New Jersey, are numerous ocean resorts, including Long Branch, Beach Haven, and Spring Lake; the most popular of the resorts is Atlantic City. Florida has many winter ocean resorts, for example, Palm Beach and Jupiter. Located on the Pacific coast are the ocean resorts of Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Santa Barbara. Mountain resorts for the treatment of tuberculosis are located at various geographical latitudes and at different elevations above sea level. Resorts located on the picturesque shores of mountain lakes are popular. The state of Arizona, which has a desert climate, has many resorts where the climate is conducive to good health; Tucson is especially famous.
O. A. ALEKSANDROV and V. V. TARASOV
Veterinary services. Infectious diseases are the primary causes of animal pathology. Many diseases are still being recorded, including rabies (3,584 cases in 1973), brucellosis in cattle (26,654 outbreaks), tuberculosis in cattle and swine (196 outbreaks), and enzootic equine encephalomyelitis (320 outbreaks). Anthrax occurs most often in the southern states, in cattle, horses, sheep, and swine.
The high incidence of rabies has been associated with the growing number of infected wild animals, including foxes, bats, and racoons. Infectious catarrhal fever in sheep, which was first recorded in 1948, is today primarily encountered in the western prairies. Tuberculosis afflicts cattle, poultry, dogs, goats, sheep, horses, and swine, primarily in the Northeast. Considerable economic losses result from infectious equine encephalomyelitis and from leptospirosis in cattle, goats, horses, sheep, swine, and wild animals. Also widespread are salmonellosis, coccidiosis, Marek’s disease, hypoderma infection, pasteurellosis, leukemia, Aujeszky’s disease, Q fever, and rickets-like keratoconjunctivitis.
As of 1974 hog cholera, myxomatosis, dourine, glanders, and fowl cholera had been eliminated. There have been no recorded cases of cattle peripneumonia and foot-and-mouth disease for a long time. The basic trend in combating infectious diseases among farm animals consists in the slaughter of sick and asymptomatic carriers of infection. Helminthiasis, protozoisis, and ectoparasitic diseases are common.
Veterinary services are directed by the US Department of Agriculture. Veterinary agencies are established and veterinary measures are approved by the Congress and regulated by federal and state laws. Particular precautions are taken to protect the country from infectious diseases that may be brought in from abroad, with animals being subjected to inspection, diagnostic study, and possibly quarantine. Raw material of animal origin is decontaminated. At livestock-breeding enterprises strict controls have been established over production equipment, sanitary conditions, and the use of supplements and additives. Special agencies monitor the occurrence of anthropozoonoses and design special preventive measures.
In 1974 the USA had 30,000 veterinarians. The overwhelming majority were engaged in private practice, with approximately 80 percent treating small animals. Most veterinarians in the USA and Canada are members of the American Veterinary Medical Association (founded 1863). Veterinarians are trained in veterinary colleges, most of which are part of state universities. Veterinarians must periodically undergo recertification. Scientific research is conducted at all veterinary colleges and at agricultural experimental stations having special veterinary divisions. The leading veterinary scientific research institutions under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture include the animal disease research laboratory in Ames, Iowa, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Md., and the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in Long Island, N.Y. The Plum Island center studies particularly dangerous infections that have not been recorded within the USA.
S. I. KARTUSHIN
The first schools in the USA were established during the early colonial period (16th—17th centuries). Schools were financed by local community funds or private donations and were modeled after the schools of the colonists’ countries of origin. A law passed in 1647 in the colony of Massachusetts established a public school system, whereby every town having 50 householders was required to have a school to teach children reading and writing, and larger towns had to have grammar schools. Harvard College, the first higher educational institution in the USA, was opened in 1636.
A national system of public education developed after the American Revolution. Important roles in this process were played by several representatives of the American Enlightenment, including B. Franklin, T. Paine, and T. Jefferson. Franklin was largely responsible for the establishment of academies, and Jefferson supported free and compulsory public education.
The industrial revolution, which resulted in the growth of large-scale factory production, brought about the rapid development of elementary school education. In 1852, Massachusetts passed the first compulsory attendance law in the USA; by 1918 compulsory attendance was mandatory in all states. During the 1860’s approximately 60 percent of all children between the ages of six and 13 were enrolled in school and by the late 19th century, 72 percent. H. Mann did a great deal to improve the public school system. On his initiative, state boards of education were established, normal schools were opened to train teachers, and the country’s first educational journal was founded. The southern states were largely unaffected by the establishment of public schools. The children of plantation owners attended private institutions, and Negroes were deprived of the right to an education.
After the Civil War, the further development of education was fostered by the need for a skilled work force in the developing economy and by the workers’ struggle for their rights. The USA was the first capitalist country to institute public secondary education. In 1910 secondary schools (grades 9 through 12) had an enrollment of 15.4 percent of the 14–17 age group; in 1920, 32.3 percent; and in 1930, 51.4 percent.
The program of secondary education was reorganized during this period. E. Thorndike and J. Dewey provided the theoretical and pedagogical foundation for school reform. Both thinkers were advocates of a psychopedagogical school of thought, which asserted the idea of genetic determinism and the fixed nature of an individual’s mental abilities. The school reformers established a minimum of compulsory subjects and broadened the elective program. Distinctions were first made at this time between those who were practically minded and those who were academically minded. The program included utilitarian courses that had such goals as vocational and household-management training. The mastery of the basic sciences and the development of the children’s mental abilities was of secondary importance.
In 1862, Congress passed the Morrill Act, which authorized the federal government to grant the states lands and certain funds for the endowment of colleges. This law laid the foundation for the state-supported colleges and universities. These land-grant colleges were characteristically closely associated with industry and especially with agriculture. They played an important role in the dissemination of knowledge on agronomy and effective management methods through the establishment of agricultural experiment stations and courses for farmers.
Today, both the public education system itself and the system’s financing are decentralized. Each state passes its own legislation on education and has its own administrative organs. In educational matters, the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare is primarily concerned with the collection and processing of statistical data, the distribution of federal funds for education, and the organization of educational research. School administration is carried out by school boards, which are elected by school districts for terms of three to four years. Most of the school budget consists of funds collected from school districts in the form of property taxes (55–57 percent); approximately 38 percent comes from the state government, with the federal government contributing an insignificant amount. The decentralization of school administration and financing has resulted in great inequalities in school funding and qualified teaching staffs. The quality of education has consequently suffered, particularly in Negro areas. Despite the 1954 US Supreme Court decision making segregation illegal, desegregation is proceeding very slowly.
In most states, schooling is compulsory until the age of 16. In 1974 school enrollment totaled 50 million, with approximately 10 percent of the students studying in non-state-supported schools (most of which were affiliated with religious organizations) and approximately 4 percent attending elite private schools with high tuitions.
Nursery schools are available to only a small percentage of preschoolers. Kindergartens are attended by 84 percent of all five-year-olds, with compulsory education starting at age six. Primary or elementary education encompasses grades 1 through 6 and in some school districts, grades 1 through 8. As early as the first few grades, instruction is differentiated to meet the needs of different students. On the basis of data obtained from various tests, children are divided into special classes according to their abilities and partake in independent research programs. There are no standard requirements and programs.
The USA has the following types of secondary schools: junior high schools (three-year programs), senior high schools (three-and six-year programs), and middle schools (three-year programs). In all, elementary and secondary education lasts 12 years.
The curricula of junior high schools are designed to familiarize students with many subjects. Educational and vocational training are based on the premise that the abilities of a student are of an inborn, predetermined nature. The curricular segregation of students, which is in fact social segregation, becomes more pronounced. The curricula often include special programs for exceptional children and are supplemented by a system of elective courses.
Senior high schools usually offer a comprehensive program of study. They may specialize in academic or vocational studies. Compulsory subjects include English, social studies, physical education, and one year of natural science and mathematics, with specialization requirements being fulfilled by electives. Seventy-five percent of all 17-year-olds graduate from secondary school. High schools do not provide a well-rounded education. In 1967, only 22 percent of the graduates had studied physics in school; 37 percent, chemistry; 38 percent, algebra; and 22 percent, foreign languages. Vocational schools offer a curtailed general education program; young people from the lower social strata make up 85 percent of the student body.
During the 1960’s the public education system was somewhat reorganized in order to meet the requirements of scientific and technological progress. Modern courses in physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics were introduced into the schools, and audiovisual instructional aids became popular. In 1972 the federally financed National Institute of Education was established to organize educational scientific research and to coordinate its financing.
Vocational training in industrial skills is provided by governmental and private vocational schools, adult evening courses, and junior colleges. However, apprenticeship is still the primary way to obtain a vocational education. The USA has 431 specialized vocational schools, 1,000 vocational area schools, and 16,000 vocational departments attached to regular secondary schools. More than 12 million persons (including adults) are enrolled in vocational training.
The American system of post-secondary education is characterized by diversity. Higher educational institutions in the USA include not only universities and other university-level institutions but also two-year junior colleges and one- and two-year technical institutes, which are higher educational institutions only in a limited sense. In the early 1970’s there were 159 universities, 1,542 professional schools and liberal arts colleges, and 964 junior colleges. During the 1974–75 academic year there were a total of 3,038 American universities and colleges. Although most universities and colleges are private institutions, their enrollment accounts for only 2 million of the 9.2 million students enrolled in post-secondary institutions. Higher educational institutions charge tuition, which is as much as $5,000 annually at private schools (1976).
Students are selected for admission to higher educational institutions on the basis of the results of college-entrance examinations taken in their senior year in high school. The examinations are drawn up by the College Entrance Examination Board, which includes university representatives and prominent scholars. The National Commission on Accrediting grants accreditation to secondary schools if the schools have met certain standards. The commission evaluates schools by the quality of faculty, equipment, and curriculum. An accredited school receives a certificate confirming its recognition as an institution that adequately prepares students for entrance into college.
The accreditation system also encompasses higher educational institutions, which allows for distinctions to be made between educational institutions that meet the requirements set for higher educational institutions and those that do not. Accreditation is conducted by special agencies and associations at the request and at the expense of the educational institution itself. Lists of accredited institutions are published regularly; however, the length of the time period wherein accreditation is valid has not been standardized.
The first two years of instruction at an American higher educational institution begin with a program of general education. Majoring in a particular subject usually begins in the third year. Seventy-five percent of all students complete only a four-year program, after which they receive a bachelor’s degree. Approximately 20 percent continue their education for another one or two years at a graduate school, after which they receive a master’s degree. Graduate work may be done, for example, in the engineering and teaching fields. The training of highly qualified specialists, especially those whose work requires a license, takes from four to five years at specialized schools; these schools include law and medical schools.
Only slightly more than 2 percent of those students who have the financial means to pay for additional instruction enter doctoral programs. They are required to write a dissertation in order to receive a doctoral degree, which corresponds to the degree of candidate of sciences in the USSR. Those universities that offer master’s and doctoral degrees are among the most distinguished in the country. They include Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, the University of California, Cornell University, the University of Chicago, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The major libraries in the USA include the Library of Congress, university libraries, and the public libraries of New York (founded 1895; approximately 8.4 million volumes), Chicago (1872; 5.07 million volumes), Boston (1852; more than 3.092 million volumes), and Los Angeles (1872; 4.162 million volumes).
The USA’s notable museums include the Smithsonian Institution, a complex of museums and galleries that includes the National Air and Space Museum (founded 1946), National Gallery of Art (1937), National Collection of Fine Arts (1846), and National Portrait Gallery (1962)—all in Washington, D.C. Other notable museums include the Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum in New York, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, and the Mariners Museum (1930) in Newport News.
Z. A. MAL’KOVA
Natural sciences and technology. THE COLONIAL PERIOD (TO 1775). The accumulation of knowledge of the country’s flora and fauna, as well as of climatic and hydrologic phenomena, predates the arrival of the Europeans. The Indians worked with limestone and flinty slate, made mineral dyes, and cultivated maize, American plums, tobacco, and other crops. They were also acquainted with irrigation in farming. The 16th century saw the beginning of the country’s exploration by Europeans. In the 17th and 18th centuries, science in the North American colonies was closely linked with European, mainly British, science.
Researchers were faced with the task of studying, describing, and classifying the natural objects of the country. The botanists J. Bannister, J. Bartram, J. Clayton, the ornithologist M. Catesby, and the chemist B. Rush gathered specimens and compiled biological, geographical, geological, and other data, which were published by the Royal Society of London. G. Croghan began work on a collection of paleontological and mineralogical materials. Experimental work was done on maize (J. Logan) and on clover and chicory (J. Eliot). Regular astronomical observations were conducted (J. Winthrop IV, T. Brattle), and in 1768, D. Rittenhouse founded the first astronomical observatory in North America. Working in physics were J. Bowdoin, C. Colden, Rittenhouse, who also conducted research in chemistry and medicine, and J. Churchman (foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, 1795). In addition, there was the outstanding scientist and political figure B. Franklin, a pioneer in the study of electricity (foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, 1789). Franklin was respected by his contemporaries not so much for his theoretical works as for his numerous inventions, including the lightning-rod and the explosion of gunpowder by an electric spark. The greater prestige accorded to applied, as opposed to basic, research distinguished American science from European right up until the beginning of the 20th century.
In 1636 the country’s first institution of higher learning was founded in Cambridge, Mass. The college, which beginning in 1639 was called Harvard College, later became Harvard University. In 1701, the school that became known as Yale College and that became a university in 1810 was founded in New Haven. An academy was founded in Philadelphia in 1740 that grew to become the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1746 the College of New Jersey, which in 1896 became Princeton University, was established. In 1754, Kings College, which later became Columbia University, was founded in New York. By 1800, the country had 27 higher educational institutions, with curricula based mainly on the humanities and theology. The chief centers for the development of the natural sciences and technology were the learned societies, the first of which—the Boston Philosophical Society—was founded in 1683. In 1727, Franklin created a club of naturalists in Philadelphia, which in 1743 became the American Philosophical Society.
THE PERIOD FROM THE FORMATION OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE CIVIL WAR. During the last quarter of the 18th century, research in natural science and technology intensified in response to the country’s accelerated economic and social development. Construction techniques were improved, new types of spinning and other machines were invented, and the first designs for a steamship were proposed (J. Rumsey, 1787; J. Fitch, 1787). In 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in Boston. A medical society (1781) and an agricultural society (1792) were founded in Massachusetts. In Philadelphia, an agricultural society was founded in 1785, and in 1792 the city became the home of the world’s first chemical society. The year 1797 saw the founding of the Academy Society in Maryland, and in 1799 the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in New Haven. T. Jefferson (US president 1801–09) set up national meteorological and hydrologic surveys, promoted the introduction of new agricultural crops and the exploration of the country’s territory, and adopted other measures for the development of science. Geological surveys and societies were founded in a number of states. Applied research in engineering, meteorology, and medicine, in particular, epidemiology, was begun by US military institutions, among them the United States Military Academy at West Point (founded 1802), the Revenue-Marine (1807), and the Marine Hospital Service (1818). The Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences was founded in 1812, followed by the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences in 1816, Saint Louis University (Missouri) in 1818, the University of Virginia (at Charlottesville) and Cincinnati College (university since 1870) in 1819, George Washington University (Washington, D.C.) in 1821, the Boston Society of Natural History in 1830, and New York University and the University of Alabama in 1831. An important center for the popularization and dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge was the Franklin Institute, founded in Philadelphia in 1824. The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1832, also performed this function and, in addition, trained specialists in the applied sciences. In disseminating agricultural knowledge, an important role was played by agricultural fairs, the first of which was organized in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1807 by E. Watson.
The study of the country’s territory became more detailed. W. Maclure compiled the first geological map of the eastern states (1809, 1817). J. F. Dana and S. Dana carried out a detailed geological survey of Boston in 1818. Regional geological surveys were made of North Carolina, Massachusetts, and a number of other states (Tennessee in 1831, Maryland in 1834, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Virginia in 1835). Up until the 1820’s, American biology was dominated by the Linnaean system, as reflected in J. Bigelow’s Florula Bostoniensis (1814), the first American floristic taxonomic work. The materials collected on the expedition of S. Long (1819) and on other joint expeditions aided in developing a scientific classification of plants (J. Torrey) and animals (J. Audubon). Through the expeditions of B. Bonneville, J. Fremont, and Z. Pike, studies were made of the Cordilleras and the Pacific coast.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the influence of the industrial revolution was felt in science and technology. The use of machinery in production stimulated scientific and technical progress and hastened the application of new inventions. The power loom came into use in 1791, and in 1793, E. Whitney invented the cotton gin. Steam-powered flour mills became common. At the beginning of the 19th century, principles of mass production and standardization were applied to various branches of industry. They affected the textile industry, as well as the manufacture of weapons (E. Whitney, S. North, S. Colt), farm implements, and timepieces. New types of bridges were built (I. Town). In 1825 a canal, at that time the longest in the world, was constructed from Albany to Buffalo, thereby linking New England with the Great Lakes region. Attempts were made to create a high-pressure steam engine (O. Evans). In 1807 a voyage was made on the Hudson River by the first steamboat suitable for practical use; the ship was built by R. Fulton. The first railroad line in the United States, approximately 20 km in length, was built from Baltimore to the outlying suburbs in the years 1828–30, and the first American steam locomotive (P. Cooper, 1829) was constructed for this line.
Among the numerous inventions and improvements were a method of vulcanizing rubber (C. Goodyear, 1839), new types of hydraulic turbines (J. Francis, 1849) and electric motors (T. Davenport, 1837), sewing machines (W. Hunt; 1834, E. Howe, 1846), and typewriters (C. Sholes and others, 1867). The web press was invented (W. Bullock, 1863), as were new types of reapers (C. McCormick, 1830’s-1850’s; O. Hussey, 1833), mowing machines and threshers. Considerable attention was given to the practical use of electricity. J. Henry built an electromagnet with a multilayered winding (1828); he also discovered self-induction (1832) and electrical oscillations during the discharge of a capacitor (1842). Relying on Henry’s research, S. Morse proposed an electromagnetic telegraph apparatus in 1837, and D. Hughes designed a letter-printing device in 1855. In 1844 the first telegraph line was constructed (from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore), and the year 1866 saw the successful laying of two transatlantic cables.
Scientific research was financed for the most part by the states and by private contributions. Funds bequeathed in 1829 by the British chemist J. Smithson were used to found the Smithsonian Institution, the first scientific institution in the United States at which only basic research was conducted; J. Henry was the first director. Bureaus organized during the second half of the 19th century as part of the Smithsonian included, in addition to a weather-observation network, the National Museum, the Astro-physical Observatory, and the National Zoological Park.
Basic research was carried out in a growing number of fields. B. Gould compiled a standard star catalog, and in 1848, G. Bond discovered Hyperion, the eighth satellite of Saturn. During the 1840’s and 1850’s, notable contributions in chemistry were made by L. Beck, W. Johnson, C. Shepard, and J. Emmett. Important work in paleontology was done by J. Bailey, J. Green, J. Leidy, and J. Hall (who described approximately 5,000 Paleozoic fossils). J. Bachman, J. De Kay, J. Audubon, and R. Harlan made contributions to zoology, and W. Beaumont, D. Drake, and J. Wyman did important research in physiology. In 1846, the physician W. Morton introduced ether as an anesthetic in surgery. In the years 1838–43, J. Torrey and A. Gray worked on Flora of North America; the latter was a pioneer in evolutionary plant geography. Developments were seen in stratigraphy, tectonics, and paleontology. J. Hall and J. D. Dana formulated the concept of geosynclines, and in 1837, Dana proposed a chemical classification of minerals that was to remain without substantial change until the end of the century. M. F. Maury compiled the first chart of the floor of the North Atlantic, made calculations on winds and currents of the oceans, and wrote a manual on oceanography (1855). J. W. Bailey established that the organic part of the ocean floor consists of the remains of organisms.
G. Marsh’s work Man and Nature (1864) was the first attempt to systematically reveal the character and scope of the changes brought about by man in nature.
Research by American scientists began receiving international recognition. Among the scientists elected foreign corresponding members of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences were the zoologist and paleontologist R. Harlan (1838), the director of the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., M. F. Maury (1855), the geologist J. D. Dana (1858), the physicist and chemist A. Bache (1861), the naturalist J. Agassiz (1869), and the mathematician J. Sylvester (1872). International scientific ties were strengthened with England, France, and Germany. Thus, in the 1840’s, C. Lyell lectured in the United States, and the ideas of J. Liebig’s German school of chemistry, with which the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture is associated, became known.
During the 19th century, approximately 10,000 American students received their educations in German universities, and universities founded in the United States, for example, Johns Hopkins University (1876), to a great extent resembled German universities. National scientific associations came into being. In 1840 the Association of American Geologists was founded in Washington, D.C. (from 1841 the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists; from 1848 the American Association for the Advancement of Science). In 1844 the first national congress of the natural sciences was held in Washington, D.C., and in 1852 the American Geographical Society was established in New York. Agricultural research was coordinated by the Department of Agriculture (founded 1862), which organized the first government laboratories. The major center for applied research was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founded in 1865 and closely linked with Harvard University. Academies of sciences were set up by individual states (California Academy of Sciences, 1853; Chicago Academy of Sciences, 1857), and the National Academy of Sciences was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1863.
FROM THE LATE 19TH CENTURY THROUGH THE FIRST THIRD OF THE 20TH CENTURY. During the second half of the 1860’s, the abolition of slavery and the accelerated development of the country’s domestic market facilitated the introduction of new technology and indirectly led to an intensification of scientific research. A number of innovations (block signal—T. Hall, 1867; air brakes —G. Westinghouse, 1869; refrigerator car—W. Davis, 1867) were introduced on the railroads. The invention of industrially suitable celluloid also dates to the late 1860’s. It was during these years that T. Edison (honorary foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1930) began his productive work. Edison’s work and the laboratory he founded in 1876, the country’s first industrial research laboratory (Menlo Park, N.J.), typified the American approach to scientific research in the late 19th century. This approach was characterized by an emphasis on applied research, a wide variety of research topics, and a direct link with industry. In 1876, A. Bell patented the telephone. Improvements were seen in bridge and road construction. The use of steel frames made possible the construction of buildings with a height of almost 380m.
Among the inventions in the mining industry were the electrolytic refining of aluminum from bauxite (C. Hall, 1886), the extraction of gold from ore using cyanide solutions (J. MacArthur, R. W. Forrest, and W. Forrest, 1887–88), and the electrothermal production of calcium carbide and silicon carbide in electric furnaces (1880’s-1890’s). Perceiving the importance of the invention of a cutting machine (1881) to the United States, K. Marx wrote that “it will give a powerful push to the development of the Yankees’ country” (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 35, p. 160). In 1867, J. Leyner proposed a design for a jackhammer, and in 1884, O. Mergenthaler invented the Linotype machine. Improved models of mechanical calculating machines were developed, such as D. Felt’s Comptometer (1887) and W. Burroughs’ arithmometer (1888).
The late 19th century saw increased governmental interest in science. In 1879 the first government office dealing with scientific problems was set up within the Department of the Interior; this office was the US Geological Survey, whose purpose was to produce topographic surveys and to study the country’s geological structures, paleontology, and mineral and water resources. In the period between 1870 and 1900, numerous projects of applied research were carried out by the Department of Agriculture, including the study of locusts and other pests and research on animal husbandry, plant cultivation, and meteorology. In 1883, a division of chemistry was established within the Department of Agriculture that was also concerned with soil analysis and the use of fertilizers.
The monopolies began to set aside a considerable share of their profits for research and development. Examples of the research laboratories organized for this purpose include those of the Eastman Kodak Company (1893), B. F. Goodrich Company (1895), and General Electric Company (1900). In 1886 the consulting firm of Arthur D. Little was established in Boston. Scientific and technical societies were founded for engineers in the mining, metallurgical, and petroleum industries (1871), mechanical engineers (1880), and naturalists (1883), and for the fields of chemistry (1876), geology (1888), physiology (1887), mathematics (1888), astronomy (1899), physics (1899), and geography (1888). In all, more than 400 scientific societies and professional associations were formed in the 19th century; of this number, more than 300 came into being after 1860. The California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, 1891), and a number of other institutions of higher learning were founded.
The universities’ research activity and links with industry increased to a significant extent at the end of the 19th century. Physics and mathematics moved to the forefront in basic research at this time. Among the achievements in these fields were B. Peirce’s works on algebra and other branches of pure and applied mathematics. J. Draper’s star spectrograms and photographs of a nebula in Orion, C. Young’s study of protuberances in the spectrum of the solar chromosphere, and H. Rowland’s improvement of the diffraction grating. Other achievements included E. Pickering’s meridian photometer and compilation of photometeric star catalogs, S. Newcomb’s determination of the precession and nutation constants and compilation of catalogs for the exact positions of stars, and G. Hill’s precise theory of planetary movement and development of computational methods for astronomy. Membership in the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences as foreign corresponding members was accorded to the astronomers A. Hall (1880), E. Pickering (1908), and L. Boss (1910). In 1881, A. Michelson began the experiments that demonstrated the independence of the velocity of light on the motion of the earth (Nobel Prize, 1907).
Seminal works on thermodynamics and statistical mechanics were written by J. Gibbs. An American school of geology as applied to mining was formed (J. Spurr, W. Lindgren, E. Emmons, W. Emmons) that used an analysis of geological structures in studying mineral deposits. F. Clarke compiled the world’s first major work on geochemistry (1882); he also developed a method through which he was able to make numerous calculations on the average composition of the earth’s crust (1889–1924). H. Washington proposed a scheme describing the geochemical zoning of the earth (1905–25), and J. Murray investigated sedimentation in the oceans. W. Twenhofel produced the first fundamental work on sedimentology (1925). An important role in the development of geomorphology was played by the theory of W. Davis concerning the development in stages of the earth’s topography, that is, geographic cycles (1899), and by G. Gilbert’s concept concerning the dependence of topography on vertical movements in the earth’s crust. A number of geographical discoveries were made by the polar expeditions of C. Hall (1864–69) and A. Greely (1881–84). R. Harrison wrote works on experimental embryology, L. Burbank created more than 800 new varieties of plants, and J. Loeb laid the foundation for biochemical conceptions of regeneration, stimulation, and fertilization.
The onset of the 20th century brought quantitative and structural changes in the development of the natural sciences and technology. The interaction between government on the one hand and the universities on the other gave rise to a diverse, decentralized program of scientific research. The universities played an important role in applied research and development for monopolies. While in 1915 monopolies maintained a total of 100 research laboratories, the number had risen to approximately 1,600 in 1930. The monopolies also organized branch institutes, for example, the American Iron and Steel Institute, which was established in 1908 as a noncommercial body funded by metallurgical companies. The industrial barons A. Mellon and G. Battelle founded the Mellon Institute for Industrial Research in Pittsburgh (1913) and the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio (1925). The connection between basic and applied research was strengthened, especially in physics and chemistry. In 1901, the National Bureau of Standards was established, with one of its tasks the standardization of scientific apparatus and instruments. Large enterprises saw a need for scientific and engineering consultation. In 1910 the American Institute (actually, society) of Consulting Engineers was created in New York, and the year 1928 saw the founding of the Association of Consulting Chemists and Chemical Engineers. A society for agricultural sciences was founded (1903), as were an agronomic society (1907), associations of chemical engineers (1908) and engineers (1915), and an association of aviation medicine (1929).
While developments in technology followed a number of new directions (aviation, automobile manufacture, radio), there were also many innovations in traditional fields. In the petroleum industry, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, founded in 1917 in Oklahoma, was responsible for a number of scientific developments. An analogous role in metallurgy was played by the American Society for Metals (Ohio, 1913). Blooming and slabbing mills were improved, continuous sheet mills were constructed, and methods of electric welding and new types of steel were developed. In late 1903, the first flight of an airplane having an internal-combustion engine was carried out in Kitty Hawk, N.C., by the brothers W. Wright and O. Wright. In 1911, G. Curtiss built the country’s first hydroplane. In 1908 the War Department began funding aviation research. In 1926, R. Goddard achieved the first launch of a rocket having a liquid-propellant engine.
In the period 1910–30, a number of innovations were introduced at the plants of H. Ford and General Motors that made possible the mass production of automobiles. Research was done on arc and high-frequency oscillators for radio transmission (E. Alexanderson, E. H. Armstrong, H. G. Dyar, R. Fessenden, Lee De Forest). In 1908, Alexanderson designed an induction-type, high-frequency industrial alternator (100–200 kilohertz). A plan for heterodyne reception was proposed by Fessenden (1905) and was followed by Armstrong’s scheme for superheterodyne reception (1918); Armstrong also developed an effective method for regenerative reception (1913). In 1906, De Forest invented the triode.
Research in the theoretical branches of natural science was conducted, as before, by the universities; it was financed by the government, especially when relating to military contracts, and by outwardly noncommercial “philanthropic organizations.” Between 1896 and 1911, a number of foundations were established with funds provided by the oil and steel magnate A. Carnegie; in 1913 the Rockefeller Foundation was set up. In 1915 there were 27 such organizations, and in 1926, 180.
During the period 1900–30, the physical sciences and mathematics continued to dominate basic research. In mathematics, significant contributions were made by G. D. Birkhoff (differential equations, theoretical mechanics, mathematical logic), O. Veblen (differential geometry, projective geometry), and J. Alexander and S. Lefschetz (topology, algebraic geometry). In 1931, V. Bush invented the differential analyzer. H. Shapley worked out methods for determining the orbital elements of eclipsing variables and the distances to remote galaxies and star clusters. E. Hubble proposed a classification of nebulae into galactic and extragalactic (1922) and established the dependence of the red shift in the spectra of galaxies on the galaxy’s distance (1929).
R. Wood’s research, connected with the discovery of optical resonance (1902) and the dependence of the polarization of resonance radiation on the magnetic field, formed the basis for the theory of atomic and molecular spectra. In 1911, R. Millikan measured the charge of an electron, and in the years 1912–15 he determined the numerical value of Planck’s constant (Nobel Prize, 1923). In 1922, A. Compton discovered that X rays scattered by electrons undergo a change in wavelength (Nobel Prize, 1927). G. Hale (foreign corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1924) conducted research on the physics of the sun and stars. In 1927, C. Davisson (Nobel Prize, 1937) and L. Germer discovered electron diffraction.
T. W. Richards confirmed experimentally the laws of Faraday (1902) and the existence of isotopes (1913) and determined the exact values of the atomic weights of certain elements (Nobel Prize, 1914). I. Langmuir made a number of discoveries relating to surface phenomena (Nobel Prize, 1932), thermionic emission, and the thermal ionization of gases (1924); he also improved vacuum technology. G. Lewis (honorary foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1942) proposed an electron theory of chemical bonding (1912–16). Problems of mass spec-troscopy were studied in the 1920’s by A. Dempster, who discovered a number of new isotopes.
Important research in geology and petrography was carried out by R. Daly (foreign corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1929), who calculated the average composition of magmatic rocks and worked out a new classification of intrusive bodies. Among the scientists elected foreign corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR were the geophysicist L. Bauer (1924) and the geochemist and petrographer H. Washington (1932). A number of geographical discoveries in the northern part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago were made in the years 1908–16 by R. Anderson. In 1915, W. Jones and C. Sauer developed techniques of field research for economic geography.
Considerable attention was devoted to the development of medical science. In 1901 the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research was established, and in 1906 the institute’s first permanent laboratory was opened. In 1904, A. Carrel developed highly effective methods for suturing blood vessels; he also wrote works on the experimental transplantation of organs (Nobel Prize, 1912). G. Whipple, G. Minot, and W. Murphy proposed a method in 1926 for treating pernicious anemia (Nobel Prize, 1934). W. Cannon formulated the theory of homeostasis (1929). The discovery (1936) and subsequent use of cortisone (E. Kendall and P. Hench, Nobel Prize, 1950) had great medical importance.
Biological research developed under the influence of the works of T. Morgan (Nobel Prize, 1933; foreign honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1932), C. Bridges, H. Muller, and A. Sturtevant. These works laid the foundation for the chromosome theory of heredity. At the same time, discoveries in genetics served as the basis for a synthesis of earlier, seemingly unrelated theoretical and applied studies in the biological sciences. In particular, the successes achieved in the period between 1910 and 1930 in developing hybrids of maize and other agricultural crops led to a sharp increase in crop yields. Muller’s experiments in inducing mutations through X rays (1927; Nobel Prize, 1946) led to the creation of radiation genetics. Important work in plant ecology in the 1920’s and 1930’s was done by F. Clements and the members of his school. The biologists H. Osborn (1923) and H. Neal (1924) were elected foreign corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and C. Walcott (1925) and L. Howard (1930) were made honorary members of the academy.
SINCE THE 1930’s. During the years 1929–33, the economic crisis in the country led to a curtailment of scientific research. The increased centralization of production and capital that followed the crisis was accompanied by a growth of interest on the part of the monopolies in scientific research and by the establishment of new private foundations, including the largest—the Ford Foundation (founded 1936)—as well as the W. K. Kellogg Foundation (1930) and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Inc. (1934). Government support of science increased. In the years after 1933, immigrants to the United States fleeing fascist regimes included the outstanding scientists H. Bethe, N. Bohr, K. Gödel, L. Szilard, E. Fermi, O. Stern, and A. Einstein, who were to play an important role in American science. This influx of talent accounts in part for the great scientific potential of the United States, primarily in the fundamental sciences and especially in physics, at the time of the country’s entry into World War II.
During the 1930’s and 1940’s, the research in mathematics by J. von Neumann on functional analysis, game theory, and mathematical physics became well known, as did that of K. Gödel on mathematical logic and set theory and N. Wiener on mathematical analysis, probability theory, electric circuit theory, and cybernetics. Problems of strength, stability, and vibration were worked out by S. Timoshenko (foreign corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1928), and the basic ideas of information theory were formulated by C. Shannon. Problems of stellar spectroscopy and the evolution of stars were studied by O. Struve. Cosmic rays were studied by A. Compton and R. Millikan, as well as by C. Anderson, who discovered within cosmic rays positrons (1932; Nobel Prize, 1936) and muons (1936, jointly with S. Neddermeyer). During the 1940’s, Nobel Prizes in physics were awarded to P. Bridgman for research on high-pressure physics (1946), O. Stern for discovering the magnetic moment of protons (1943), and I. Rabi for developing the resonance method for determining the magnetic moment of protons and deuterons (1944). In the 1930’s, J. Oppenheimer and M. Phillips provided an explanation for the reactions that occur from the collisions of deuterons with atomic nuclei.
The appearance of accelerators for charged particles was of great importance to the development of atomic physics. In 1930, E. Lawrence (foreign honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1942) proposed the idea of a cyclotron and constructed a cyclotron model (Nobel Prize, 1939), and in 1940, D. Kerst built a betatron. In 1945, E. McMillan (somewhat later than V. I. Veksler in the USSR) worked out the idea of phase stability, on the basis of which synchrotrons and other types of resonance accelerators were built. In 1932, H. Urey discovered deuterium by a spectral method (Nobel Prize, 1934), and in 1933, G. Lewis (jointly with R. MacDonald) obtained heavy water and isolated deuterium in the pure form. In 1939 tritium was isolated by L. Alvarez (Nobel Prize, 1968, for research in the field of elementary particles). W. F. Giauque developed methods for measuring extremely low temperatures and studying the thermodynamic properties of substances at these temperatures (Nobel Prize, 1949). L. Pauling (foreign honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1958) produced seminal works on the nature of chemical bonding (Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1954; Nobel Peace Prize, 1962).
E. A. Doisy clarified the chemical nature of a number of hormones, antibiotics, and vitamins (Nobel Prize, 1943). The capacity of enzymes to undergo crystallization was discovered by J. Sumner (Nobel Prize, 1946), and J. Northrop and W. Stanley developed a method for obtaining chemically pure enzymes and virus proteins (Nobel Prize, 1946). In 1940, A. Wiener and K. Landsteiner discovered the rhesus factor in human beings. C. Cori and G. Cori studied carbohydrate metabolism in animals (Nobel Prize, 1947). Antibiotics isolated in their pure forms from cultures of microorganisms included tyrothricin by R. Dubos (1939) and streptomycin by S. Waksman (1944; Nobel Prize, 1952). Research on problems of biological development carried out by botanists E. Sinnott and G. Stebbins and the zoologists T. Dobzhansky, E. Mayr, G. Simpson, and A. Sturtevant helped link chromosome genetics with phylogeny and population ecology and create a synthesized theory of evolution.
In the early 1930’s, N. L. Bowen, H. Yoder, and C. Tilley advanced a hypothesis for the existence of a single basaltic magma; experimental work was begun on the origin of various magmatic and metamorphic rocks. The development of petroleum geology owes much to the work of P. S. Smith, P. Trask, F. Van Tuyl, and A. Levorsen. Studies were carried out on soil geography (C. F. Marbut and others) and climatology (H. Lansberg and others). In 1933 the Tennessee Valley Authority formulated a comprehensive scientific program whose implementation involved hydrologic, agronomic, and ecological studies on a territory of approximately 100,000 sq km.
Qualitatively new directions manifested themselves in applied research. In 1931 and 1932, the iconoscope—the first television camera tube with storage of electric charges—was invented by V. K. Zworykin. The first electronic digital computer was built in 1945–46. In 1931 a method for obtaining chloroprene rubber was developed (with industrial production beginning in 1942), and in 1937 nylon was developed (W. Carothers; industrial production began in 1939). Projects of military importance were carried out on a large scale, among them projects for producing high-octane fuel, improving the thermal and chemical methods of treating armor, and building aircraft. In the years 1939–41, I. Sikorsky developed the single-rotor helicopter, and the year 1942 saw the first flight in the United States of an aircraft with a turbojet engine. Research in aviation carried out in the 1940’s subsequently led to the development of a large and varied fleet of aircraft. During World War II, the country’s leading scientists (Alvarez, Compton, Lawrence, Oppenheimer, Urey, Szilard, Fermi), working with a number of other immigrant physicists from Europe, took part in the Manhattan Project, which had as its goal the development of nuclear reactors (with the first put into operation in 1942) and an atom bomb (1945).
After the war, the militarization of science and technology was intensified. Nuclear weapons continued to be developed, and in 1954 a hydrogen bomb was detonated. Research was stepped up on chemical, bacteriological, and other types of weapons of mass destruction. Work was done on rocketry and was greatly influenced by German specialists captured after the war, among whom W. von Braun was the most prominent. Thousands of specialists were brought over to the United States from war-torn Germany, along with more than 1 million patented and unpatented inventions in all branches of science and technology.
Research projects have been conducted in practically all fields of modern science and technology. Nobel Prizes in physics have been awarded to F. Bloch and E. Purcell for the discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance in solids (1952), W. Lamb for revealing the shift in energy levels in the spectra of hydrogen and deuterium atoms (1955), P. Kusch for measuring the magnetic moment of an electron (1955), E. Segré and O. Chamberlain for the discovery of the antiproton (1959), and D. Glaser for developing the bubble chamber (1960). Nobel Prizes in physics were also awarded to R. Hofstadter for determining the form and size of nucleons (1961), M. Goeppert-Mayer for creating a shell model of the nucleus (1963), E. Wigner for research on nuclear interactions (1963), J. Schwinger and R. Feynman for fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (1965), and H. Bethe for research on the sources of thermonuclear energy within stars (1967). M. Gell-Mann received the Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the systematization of elementary particles (1969), J. Bardeen, L. Cooper, and J. Schrieffer became Nobel laureates for developing the theory of superconductivity (1972), and I. Giaever and L. Esaki received the prize in physics for research on the tunnel effect (1973).
In 1948, J. Bardeen, W. Brattain, and W. Shockley created the first transistor (Nobel Prize, 1956). New types of high-speed computers became common. In 1955, C. Townes (simultaneously with A. M. Prokhorov and N. G. Basov of the USSR) invented the maser (Nobel Prize, 1964). In 1955 the first nuclear-powered submarine was built, and in 1960, the first nuclear-powered vessel for cargo and passengers. The first nuclear power plant was built in 1957 (three years later than in the USSR).
Nobel Prizes in chemistry were won by E. McMillan and G. Seaborg for discovering and studying transuranium elements (1951), W. Libby for developing the radiocarbon method of determining the age of organic remains in archaeological specimens (1960), R. Woodward for synthesizing biologically important organic compounds (1965), and R. Mulliken for studying chemical bonding by the method of molecular orbitals (1966). Nobel Prizes in chemistry were also awarded to L. Onsager for his contribution to the thermodynamics of irreversible processes (1968) and P. Flory for his research on solutions of polymers (1974). Among the American biochemists to win Nobel Prizes were F. Lipmann (1953), S. Ochoa (1959), and A. Kornberg (1959). C. Anfinsen, S. Moore, and W. Stein won a Nobel Prize (1972) for studies on the chemistry of enzymes and on the mechanism by which enzymes act. Other biochemists who have won Nobel Prizes include V. du Vigneaud (1955), E. Sutherland for the synthesis and study of the mechanism of hormone action (1971), G. Edelman for discoveries in immunology (1972), M. Calvin for research on the chemical aspects of photosynthesis (1961), and K. Bloch for his work on the biosynthesis of cholesterol and fatty acids (1964).
In molecular biology, Nobel Prizes have been won by G. Beadle and E. Tatum for research on the genetic regulation of biochemical processes (1958), J. Lederberg for work on the genetics of bacteria (1958), J. Watson for discovering the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (1962), H. Khorana, M. Nirenberg, and R. Holley for interpreting the genetic code (1968), and G. Palade and C. R. de Duve for work on the structure and functions of the cell (1974). J. Enders, T. Weller, and F. Robbins (1954) and M. Delbrück, A. Hershey, and S. Luria (1969) won Nobel Prizes for research on viruses. The chemistry of nerve transmission was studied by J. Axelrod (Nobel Prize, 1970), who continued the work of H. Gasser and J. Erlanger (Nobel Prize, 1944).
Nobel Prizes in medicine were awarded to M. Theiler for his research on the yellow fever virus and creation of a counteracting vaccine (1951), D. Richards, Jr. and A. Cournand for the development of a method of heart catheterization (1956), G. Bekesy (1961) for work on the physiology of hearing, C. Huggins and F. Rous for cancer research (1966), and H. Hartline and G. Wald (1967) for work on the physiology of vision. With growing industrial pollution and the wasteful use of natural resources, research on environmental protection and human ecology (D. Meadows, The Limits to Growth, 1972, with others) is felt to have great importance.
A comprehensive program of research on the world’s oceans began in the late 1940’s. In 1955, H. Stommel proposed a new theory on ocean currents and the overall circulation of the ocean waters; his work on the Gulf Stream (1963) became well known. Research has been done on the mineral resources of the ocean (J. L. Mero), as well as on marine geology (H. W. Menard, F. P. Shepard, B. C. Heezen, M. Ewing), marine chemistry (D. E. Fisher, R. H. Fleming), and marine biology (J. D. Isaacs III, W. M. Chapman). During the International Geophysical Year, a survey of the Atlantic Ocean was made and a complete atlas compiled.
There has been an extensive program of space exploration. In 1958 the first American artificial earth satellite was launched, and in 1962, J. Glenn completed the first US orbital flight. In 1969 the Apollo program resulted in N. Armstrong and E. Aldrin’s landing and extravehicular activity on the lunar surface. In all, there were nine manned flights to the moon as part of the Apollo program, six of which included extravehicular activity on the lunar surface. In addition, space probes have been sent to Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn. A series of research projects has been carried out (with changes of crews) aboard the orbital space station Skylab. Development work has also been done on ferry spacecraft designed to be used a number of times. New information has been obtained about Venus, Mars, and Jupiter; special maps of the lunar surface have been compiled, and with the aid of data obtained from instrumentation, the density, composition, and origin of the lunar crust have been studied. In 1975, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project resulted in the first joint mission in space, in which an orbital docking was effected between the Soviet Soyuz and American Apollo spacecraft.
Various comprehensive long-term programs have been initiated that require the participation of large numbers of organizations and specialists from many fields. In addition to the Apollo project, they include programs of arctic, global atmospheric, and oceanographic research, the American work in the International Biological Program, and American projects for developing countries. Work done in the 1960’s on high-yield varieties of grain crops resulted in the “Green Revolution” (N. Borlaugh; Nobel Peace Prize, 1970). A comprehensive program of deepwater ocean drilling, for example, that done by the research ship Glomar Challenger, is currently under way; material has been obtained on the structure of the sedimentary layer beneath the ocean, on biostratigraphic correlations, and on the geological history of the oceans. A new global tectonics is being developed.
In response to the energy crisis, Project Independence was launched in 1974; its goal is to satisfy the country’s energy needs using domestic resources by the 1980’s. The total cost of research and other work on this project will exceed $20 billion, of which approximately 25 percent will be devoted to work on the extraction and utilization of coal (gasification and hydrogenation), approximately 22 percent to nuclear power, primarily the development of fast breeder reactors (liquid-metal-cooled and gascooled), and approximately 20 percent to exploration for and extraction and utilization of petroleum and natural gas. Of the remaining amount, approximately 17.5 percent will be spent on the efficient use of energy resources (transmission of electric power, development of magnetohydrodynamic generators and high-temperature gas turbines, improvement of the equipment used in the transmission of electric power), and approximately 11 percent will be spent on the development of thermonuclear, geothermal, solar, and other types of energy.
B. A. STAROSTIN
SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS. Research and development work is conducted by more than 11,000 private, primarily industrial, firms, as well as by approximately 700 institutions of the federal government and 400 private and semigovernmental “nonprofit” research institutions. Most state and private higher educational institutions are also involved in this work, and approximately 600 conduct research in the natural, exact, and technical sciences. As of 1972, there were 769 national scientific and technical societies. Higher educational institutions and societies are regarded as noncommercial scientific organizations; that is, they are formally obligated to devote their nontaxable income, for example, income received from research contracts, solely to science and education. In point of fact, however, these organizations function as businesses and seek to use their capital to make a profit.
A concern with practical applications is typical of American research programs, which rely on industry’s assimilation of research results. Of the estimated $34 billion spent on research in 1975, 12 percent went for basic research and 23 percent for applied research; 65 percent was devoted to experimental design work and technological development. The average period for implementing large-scale programs involving qualitatively new scientific and technical problems is five to ten years; for developing new industrial products on the basis of known or modified principles, the period is two to three years. The contradictions inherent in the capitalist approach to science, contradictions connected with the profit motive, the free play of market forces, the duplication and militarization of programs, inflation, and unemployment, interfere with the proper development and utilization of scientific resources. In the opinion of many American experts, less than one-half of the research and development programs of major companies result in commercial success. Nevertheless, science is considered an important factor in economic growth; the payoff period for investments in research and development in industry is usually three to five years, and high profits can be expected. Every four years, between 15 and 20 percent of the output of the manufacturing industry is replaced by newer products. A rise in the technological level of production can increase the productive capacity of industry by as much as 75 percent; it also accounts for no less than half of any rise in gross national product (GNP). Great importance is attached to improving scientific and technical information. Government, private, and university information services are well equipped, receiving hundreds of millions of dollars; however, they do not form a unified national scientific and technical information system. The organization of scientific activity is increasingly being controlled, in a variety of ways, by state-monopoly capitalism. This control derives from processes related to the socialization of production that are being accelerated by the scientific and technological revolution.
The United States does not have a center for directing scientific institutions; however, higher government organs are participating to a greater extent in the formulation and direction of scientific and technical policy. Congress has approved federal financing of more than one-half of all research and development work ($21.7 billion in the 1976 fiscal year). A significant role in the formulation of a scientific policy is played by the National Science Foundation (founded 1950), which finances and oversees scientific activity (especially in the basic sciences), the training of scientific personnel, and the development of scientific information. Also prominent in the formulation of policy are the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Council of Learned Societies. An important role in solving pressing problems of national importance is played by ad hoc programs of research and development (Manhattan Project, Apollo project, Project Independence), which permit a concentration of the efforts and funds of federal organizations, private firms, universities, and research institutes. This form of organization for scientific activity is particularly important in view of the lack of overall government planning in science and the spontaneous nature of scientific and technological progress.
Among government organizations, the greatest funds for research and development work are allocated to the Department of Defense ($10.2 billion in 1976), which funds more than 100 scientific research and experimental centers, with more than 100,000 employees. Included here are the Mitre Corporation (Bedford, Mass.; more than 2,000 persons; automatic control systems) and the Rand Corporation (Santa Monica, Calif.; more than 1,000 persons; military strategy, economics, technology). A significant portion of military-related research is conducted by other government departments. A number of large scientific institutions are funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA; budget of $3.5 billion in 1976), among them the Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, Calif.; approximately 3,000 employees; physics, biology, chemistry, control systems), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is run under contract by the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena; more than 5,000 employees; automatic space equipment), and the Langley Research Center (Hampton, Va.; more than 4,000 employees; rocket and space technology). The Energy Research and Development Administration (prior to 1975, the Atomic Energy Commission; 1976 budget of $2.8 billion) funds the Argonne National Laboratory, which is run by the University of Chicago (more than 5,000 employees; physics, biology, reactors), the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, run by the University of California (Berkeley and Livermore; approximately 9,000 employees; physics, chemistry, biology, nuclear weapons, controlled thermonuclear synthesis), and the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, operated by the University of California (Los Alamos, N.M.; more than 4,000 employees; physics, chemistry, biology, materials science, cryogenic engineering). It was at the Los Alamos facility that the first atom bombs were developed near the end of World War II. Other facilities under the Energy Research and Development Administration include the Sandia Military Base (Albuquerque, N.M.; more than 8,000 employees; physics, chemistry, geology, oceanography, technology), the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, operated by the Union Carbide Corporation (Oak Ridge, Tenn.; more than 5,000 employees; reactor construction, use of isotopes), and the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
An extensive network of institutes and laboratories is operated under the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (research budget of approximately $2.3 billion in 1975–76), including institutes of internal medicine, pediatrics, oncology, cardiology, arthritis, neurology, allergies, and dentistry. The Department of Commerce oversees the National Bureau of Standards (Gaithersburg, Md.; more than 4,000 employees). A broad network of laboratories and experimental centers is maintained by the Department of Agriculture, the states, and the universities. The Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.), which formally has the status of a corporation, is also a government institution; it conducts research in many fields of natural science.
Most research and development work is carried out by the private sector, which absorbs 85 percent of all outlays for design work and technological development, 55 percent of all outlays for applied research, and 16 percent of all outlays for basic research. Practically all large industrial firms have research laboratories and experimental facilities. However, more than 60 percent of all research and development work in industry is done in the centers and laboratories of 30 monopolies, for the most part electricalengineering, aerospace, machine-building, and chemical firms. A major scientific and technical center is the Bell Telephone Laboratories, a complex of research institutes and laboratories of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The laboratory headquarters are in Murray Hill, N.J., and there are 17,000 employees, including 2,000 Ph.D.’s in science and approximately 6,000 holders of master’s or bachelor’s degrees in science. In 1974 the firm’s research budget exceeded $500 million; work is done in physics, chemistry, physical metallurgy, and electronics. The biggest monopoly in the development, production, and servicing of computers and office equipment is the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). The 32 scientific research and other centers operated by IBM employ 20,000 persons, including 4,000 in Western European countries, and annual expenditures on research and development exceed $700 million. The chemical monopoly E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company annually spends more than $250 million on research and development. The company maintains more than 50 scientific and experimental laboratories, employing 3,000 scientists and engineers; research is geared toward discovering new phenomena in chemistry, developing new products and technology, and improving the company’s technical and economic performance. The manufacturing industry as a whole spends an amount on research and development equivalent to 2.5 percent of the value of its finished output, or more than 50 percent of the amount of new capital investments.
Certain firms and institutes, both commercial and noncommercial, specialize entirely in research and development. For example, Arthur D. Little, Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.; approximately 2,000 employees) specializes in research on organization and administration, information systems, chemistry, physics, biology, metallurgy, instrument manufacture, and defense matters. Other research organizations include the Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus, Ohio; approximately 6,000 employees), which conducts research on chemistry, physics, technical sciences, agriculture, and market conditions, and Stanford Research Institute (SRI) International (Palo Alto, Calif.; approximately 3,000 employees), which specializes in research on biology, chemistry, physics, military technology, and socioeconomic sciences. A number of specialized firms (Xerox Corporation, Polaroid Corporation, Digital Equipment Corporation) were created in order to introduce certain inventions into industry, a function that also explains the origin of industrial and research parks that encompass business laboratories and enterprises, government scientific institutions, and universities. An example here is the Stanford Industrial Park in the vicinity of Palo Alto, Calif. (17,000 persons), where in an area of 300 hectares an integrated complex is formed by branches of the General Electric Company, Lockheed Corporation, Varian Associates Inc., and Hewlett-Packard Company, as well as by Stanford University and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.
Universities and colleges together perform 61 percent of all basic and 13 percent of all applied research, and they employ 65 percent of the country’s Ph.D.’s in the sciences. They also provide scientific consultation for government organizations and private firms and serve as centers for the dissemination and exchange of scientific and technical knowledge. The better research facilities and resources are concentrated in a relatively small number of higher educational institutions; a mere 20 universities account for 30 percent of all research done at higher educational institutions. Among the higher educational institutions with the largest research programs are (with figures showing 1974 research expenditures) the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($132 million), the University of Wisconsin at Madison ($86 million), the University of Michigan ($63 million), the University of California at San Diego ($67 million), at Berkeley ($58 million), and at Los Angeles ($50 million), Harvard University ($58 million), Cornell University ($57 million), Columbia University ($56 million), Stanford University ($54 million), the University of Minnesota ($60 million), the University of Washington ($57 million), and the University of Chicago ($53 million). University research budgets comprise funds received through contracts and subsidies from the federal government, state governments, and private firms, as well as donations and the universities’ own funds. Universities, either individually or jointly, run a number of major scientific centers, including the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia (near Chicago), whose proton accelerator can generate energies up to 400 gigaelectron volts. The laboratory, built at a cost of $250 million and having an annual operating budget of up to $60 million, is run by an association of 51 higher educational institutions that was formed in 1965 on the initiative of the National Academy of Sciences and the Atomic Energy Commission.
Figure 1. Outlays for research and development in the years 1953–75, in billions of dollars: (I) total outlays, (II) government outlays, and (III) outlays of private firms and universities. The real growth in expenditures has been reduced to a considerable extent by inflation. Solid lines reflect expenditures in current prices, and dotted lines show expenditures in 1958 dollars.The growth in expenditures for science in current prices can be seen in Figure 1. From 1953 to 1968, the growth in outlays for science (from 1.4 percent to 2.9 percent of the GNP) far exceeded the total increase in capital investments in the economy, as well as any increase in the GNP. This growth was brought about by the arms race and, from the late 1950’s, American efforts to catch up with the Soviet Union in space research after the USSR’s launching in 1957 of the first artificial earth satellite. The share of research financed by the government rose during these years from 53 to 64 percent. During the period 1969–71, expenditures on the war in Southeast Asia and the currency-financial crisis, economic decline, and the completion of certain major scientific and technical programs slowed to a considerable extent the rate of growth of science expenditures; the share financed by the government fell from 64 to 54 percent, and there was considerable unemployment among scientists and engineers. The years 1971 and 1972 witnessed an increase in government appropriations for science, which were directed toward a broader use of the achievements in science and technology. In 1975 outlays on research and development were equivalent to 2.3 percent of the GNP. The number of technicians, scientists, and engineers engaged in research and development work rose from 237,100 in 1954 to 527,800 in 1974 (calculated on the basis of full-time research work). In the natural, exact, and technical sciences, one-third of all technicians, scientists, and engineers, or 25 persons per 10,000 population, do work in research and development. Approximately one-tenth of all scientific and engineering personnel in the country exist by virtue of the “brain drain,” a process whereby the United States derives considerable advantage while weakening the scientific and technical potential of other capitalist and developing countries. During the period 1949–74, approximately 200,000 scientists, engineers, and physicians emigrated to the United States, which permitted the country to save approximately $6 billion on higher education costs alone.
One of the sources of funds for science remains the private, “philanthropic” foundations, which also belong to the category of nonprofit organizations. In 1971 these foundations granted $111 million to the natural sciences and $103 million to the humanities. In the overall financing of research and development, the foundations’ share is less than 1 percent.
The United States participates in more than 30 major international global and regional governmental scientific organizations, and American scientists are active in dozens of nongovernmental organizations; the country seeks to develop scientific and technical ties between its own companies and the companies’ foreign branches and between its own companies, universities, institutes, scientific societies, and individual scientists and counterparts in other countries. For example, NASA has ties in space research with more than 80 countries.
Soviet-American scientific and technical ties, which were all but severed during the cold war, have developed on a limited basis beginning in the late 1950’s. After 1972, the first government agreements providing for genuine scientific and technical cooperation were signed. Soviet-American ties encompass the fields of power engineering, space research, health care, environmental protection, agriculture, oceanography, water resources, catalylsis, microbiological synthesis, transportation, and the use of computers in administration. The forms of cooperation include the exchange of scientists, specialists, and information, the organization of courses, seminars, and conferences, and the development and implementation of joint scientific and technical programs, including such large-scale projects as the Apollo-Soyuz flight in 1975.
V. I. MASLENNIKOV
Social sciences, PHILOSOPHY. During the first few years after the discovery of America, the ideology of various Protestant faiths, primarily of the Puritans, predominated among the European colonists who had settled there. The first major European philosopher to visit colonial America (1729–31) was G. Berkeley, who came as an Anglican missionary. His influence and that of the Cambridge Platonists shaped the philosophical and theological doctrines of J. Edwards and S. Johnson, which were the foundations of American philosophy of the first half of the 18th century.
The first well-known opponent of religious dogmatism was C. Colden, governor of New York, a deist and a founder of the American Philosophical Society (1743). The ideologists of the national liberation movement, T. Jefferson, B. Franklin, E. Allen, and T. Paine, helped disseminate humanist and anticlerical ideas in the USA. They augmented bourgeois democratic ideals with the theories of natural law and the social contract. T. Cooper and B. Rush supported the materialist trend in American philosophy during this period; their views were akin to those of 18th-century French materialism.
Early in the 19th century, anticlerical and humanist theories gave way to moderate trends tending toward philosophical idealism. The most outstanding figure in American philosophy during this period was the romantic poet and philosopher R. W. Emerson, leader of the Concord school of transcendentalists. Emerson tended toward pantheism and had an abstract, emotional approach to humanism. J. McCosh and N. Porter, claiming to create an independent national American philosophy, in fact advocated traditional theological orthodoxy in the spirit of the Scottish Common Sense school and contrasted this orthodoxy to speculative philosophy.
During the second half of the 19th century, the St. Louis school, headed by W. T. Harris, promoted the influence of classical German philosophy, particularly the absolute idealism of G. Hegel. In 1867, this school founded the St. Louis Philosophical Society and the first American philosophical journal, The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. The school was essentially right-wing Hegelian in nature; its most important representative was the Harvard professor J. Royce, who interpreted the absolute idea theistically and affirmed the unity of an infinite divine spirit and finite spiritual beings.
The St. Louis school was opposed by a pluralistic form of objective idealism, Protestant personalism. This trend was represented by the Boston school, whose adherents included B. P. Bowne, G. H. Howison, A. T. Flewelling, and E. S. Brightman. The main theorist of personalism was the Harvard professor W. E. Hocking. On the ontological level, personalism was based on the monadology of G. W. von Leibniz and R. Lotze; on the gnoseological level, it was similar to Berkeleianism. Personalism focused on ethics and theology. Its main category was the personality, an interrelationship of “I” and “Thou” as substantive, self-aware entities striving toward god.
The most distinctive trend influencing American philosophy of the first half of the 20th century was pragmatism, a voluntarist form of subjective idealism that treated truth as utility, as that which is in accordance with one’s interests. The founder of pragmatism was C. S. Peirce, and the leading representatives of the school were W. James and J. Dewey. Despite the uniformity of pragmatism’s fundamental principle, the theories of the pragmalists were not identical. James, who was also a psychologist, ultimately arrived at irrationalist, fideistic conclusions; in contrast, Dewey, G. Mead, and C. I. Lewis tried to make a science of instrumentalism. Pragmatism is the only trend in American philosophy to find adherents abroad, in Great Britain, Italy, and China.
Similar to pragmatism is operationalism, a subjective and idealist concept developed by the physicist P. W. Bridgman. In 1910, six forerunners of neorealism, including R. B. Perry and W. P. Montague, published a manifesto directed against philosophical idealism. Settling, in words, philosophy’s basic problem of the relationship between the object and subject of cognition, the doctrine elaborated in the manifesto rejected, in actuality, the relationship between the object and subject of cognition, the materialist theory of reflection. Essentially, the doctrine was close to the phenomenalist concept of neutral monism, which was based on an ambiguous interpretation of the concept of experience.
In 1920, neorealism came under criticism by a group of seven philosophers who were representatives of critical realism: A. K. Rogers, R. W. Sellars, J. B. Pratt, G. Santayana, A. Lovejoy, C. A. Strong, and D. Drake; their views, however, subsequently diverged. Some critical realists, in contrast to the neorealists, made a clear-cut distinction between the object of cognition and the ideas and concepts formed during the process of cognition, although tending toward agnosticism. Other critical realists, such as Santayana, had recourse to spontaneous animal faith and ideal essences. The traditions of objective idealism were continued in the USA by A. N. Whitehead, an Englishman by birth, who developed a panvitalist doctrine combining Platonism and monadology. Another objective idealist was B. Blanshard, an opponent of positivism.
The most influential trend in contemporary American philosophy is neopositivism. The founders of this trend were the leaders of the Vienna circle of logical positivism, who had emigrated to the USA: M. Schlick, R. Carnap, H. Reichenbach, and H. Feigl. This trend was joined by the advocates of general semantics, A. Korzybski, S. Hayakawa, and S. Chase, and by many representatives of the philosophy of logical analysis, including W. Quine, N. Goodman and B. Whorf. A more refined version of analytical philosophy that set limits to phenomenalist conclusions was developed by Sellars. The proponents of naturalism, F. J. Woodbridge, M. R. Cohen, Y. Krikorian, J. H. Randall, and E. Nagel, reject idealist speculative philosophy and oppose to it a methodology based on empirical cognition and logical analysis, thus occupying an ambiguous position in the conflict between the two camps of philosophy.
Neo-Thomism is taught in the numerous Catholic universities of the USA, including Fordham, and is also espoused by several non-Catholic philosophers, such as M. Adler and J. Wild. The American Catholic Philosophical Association has been in existence since 1926. Prevailing doctrines among Protestants have included both personalism and the neo-orthodox and irrationalist dialectical theology of R. Niebuhr and P. Tillich.
The first Marxists in the USA were the members of the revolutionary German emigration F. Sorge and J. Weydemeyer, who founded the Communist Club in New York (1857) and organized the American section of the First International (1867). The American Communist Party, founded in 1919, seeks to disseminate Marxism-Leninism and criticizes bourgeois philosophy and sociology. In 1962 the Society for the Philosophical Study of Dialectical Materialism was founded, and in 1964, the American Institute of Marxist Studies. Marxism-Leninism is publicized in the journals Science and Society and Political Affairs and in the works of H. Aptheker, H. Selsam, H. K. Wells, P. Grosser, C. Lamont, B. Dunham, H. L. Parsons, and D. DeGrood.
A number of progressive American philosophers, for example, Sellars, favor materialism in philosophy, highly value Marxism’s contribution to the development of scientific thought, and take a position close to that of Marxism. M. Färber, the most outstanding American phenomenolegist, advocates views close to those of dialectical materialism and opposes orthodox Husserlism. A major contribution to the objective elucidation of dialectical materialism has been made by J. Somerville, editor of a specialized journal that publishes translations of articles by Soviet authors (Studies in Soviet Thought, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, since 1961).
The American Philosophical Association, founded in 1902, has three regional divisions, the Eastern, Western, and Pacific divisions, and unites philosophers of diverse trends.
SOCIOLOGY. Sociology was established as a discipline in the USA during the last third of the 19th century under the influence of H. Spencer and pragmatism. The first course in this subject was given by W. Sumner at Yale University in 1874. The ideological and political orientations of the early American sociologists varied from conservative (Sumner and F. H. Giddings) to bourgeois liberal (L. Ward and A. Small) and radical democratic (T. Veblen). In 1892, the world’s first department of sociology was established at the University of Chicago, and by 1901 courses in sociology were taught at 169 higher educational institutions. In 1895, Small began publishing the American Journal of Sociology, and in 1905 the American Sociological Association was founded, with Ward as its first president.
The first American sociologists were adherents of European positivism. The most important sociological studies were those by Sumner on folkways and mores and C. H. Cooley’s studies on the ego as a mirror and on primary groups; these works were influential in the development of social psychology. During the 1920’s, sociology became primarily empirical as a result of the ruling circles’ search for new sources of information and means of controlling social processes in an intensifying class struggle.
During the 1920’s and 1930’s, studies were conducted at the University of Chicago on urban ecology (R. Park and E. Burgess), on immigrants (W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki), on community life and race relations (L. Wirth and E. F. Frazier), and on crime and social disorganization. Other researchers making important contributions to American sociology during the 1930’s and 1940’s were R. Lynd and P. A. Sorokin, the founder of the department of sociology at Harvard. Empirical studies, for example those of P. F. Lazarsfeld, were instrumental in the development of advanced research methods and techniques.
As a result of the extended scope of empirical studies after World War II (1939–45), sociology became one of the foremost social sciences; this facilitated the discipline’s further specialization and professionalization. The American Sociological Association has more than 14,000 members and more than 35 areas of specialization (1975). However, the growth of professionalization has also aggravated the traditional weaknesses of American sociology—empiricism, a lack of historical perspective, a gap between empirical data and theory, and a tendency to substitute psychological problems for sociological ones.
Structural functionalism, which has become the leading theoretical and methodological trend in postwar American sociology (T, Parsons and R. Merton), is adapted to describe the internal mechanisms of social systems but tends to gloss over these systems’ contradictions, the class struggle, and the laws of historical development. These deficiencies reflect the ideological positions of most American sociologists, who attempt to perfect capitalism. Sociology’s tendency toward specialization and toward the development of new applied functions has engendered among scholars illusions of nonpartisanship and ideological neutrality.
The exacerbation of socioeconomic contradictions and the growth of the democratic movement in the USA during the 1960’s inflicted a serious blow to these illusions and provoked an acute theoretical, methodological, and ideological crisis. Rightists among American sociologists, for example, Z. Brzezinski, are convinced anticommunists who have developed corresponding military, political, and ideological concepts. These rightists have also elaborated anti-Marxist global theories of contemporary social development, for example, D. Bell’s theory of the postindustrial society. Many American sociologists limit themselves to studying individual problems, interpreting them in a spirit of traditional liberalism.
Critical, or radical, sociology, whose precursor during the 1950’s was C. W. Mills, has become influential. This trend’s representatives, including A. Gouldner, have criticized the nondialectical nature, the antihistoricism, and the conservative ideology prevailing in sociology and have focused on social inequality, poverty, and the contradictions of capitalist society. Some young sociologists have been influenced by the ideas of H. Marcuse or by other left-wing anarchistic ideas. Confusion also reigns among different theoretical trends. Proposed alternatives to functionalism are neo-Freudianism, phenomenology, symbolic interactionism, and ethnomethodology. There is a rapidly growing interest in Marxism, but historical materialism is often perceived in a distorted way, through the prism of the concepts of the Frankfurt school (T. Adorno and Marcuse) or of the vulgar sociologism of the 1920’s.
PSYCHOLOGY. Beginning in the 1870’s and 1880’s, laboratories of experimental (physiological) psychology were established at universities in the USA. The representatives of experimental psychology, including J. M. Cattell and G. S. Hall, learned the new scientific methods in Europe. The ideological leader of American psychology during this period was W. James, whose book The Principles of Psychology (1890) was for many decades the chief college text in the field. Hall founded the American Psychological Association (1892) and was an editor of the American Journal of Psychology (1887—) .
A major contribution to the development of animal and child psychology was made by E. L. Thorndike. At the turn of the 20th century, the science of testing as an aid to vocational selection underwent extensive development. An important subject of experimental study was the problem of learning, which was interpreted primarily from the standpoint of behaviorism (J. Watson, E. Tolman, C. Hull, C. Leslie, and B. Skinner). Behaviorism reduced human behavior to a series of reactions to external stimuli and denied the active role played by the individual’s consciousness in organizing and controlling his behavior.
Psychoanalysis, and particularly neo-Freudianism (E. Fromm, H. Sullivan, and K. Horney), had an important influence on American psychology, in addition to behaviorism. Neo-Freudianism combined Freud’s theory of the primacy of sexual and aggressive instinctive motives with a recognition of the role played by social factors. The study of these factors stimulated the development of empirical social psychology.
In the mid-20th century, the humanist psychology of C. Rogers and G. Allport claimed to be a third force in American psychology. This trend was influenced by existentialism and sought to study the personality as a unique entity, capable of self-realization and self-development.
Contemporary American psychologists conduct a wide variety of experimental studies, particularly in areas bordering on cybernetics and neurophysiology; in testing, there is an increasing focus on determining the individual’s creative capacities. The USA has more laboratories and more psychologists employed in them than any other country. The fields experiencing the greatest development have been social psychology (L. Festinger, S. Asch, and D. McClelland), physiological psychology (N. Miller and K. Pribram), and learning and developmental psychology (J. Bruner).
The principal philosophical journals are The Journal of Philosophy (since 1904), American Philosophical Quarterly (since 1964), The Philosophical Review (since 1892), Philosophy of Science (since 1934), Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (since 1940), International Philosophical Quarterly (since 1961), The New Scholasticism (since 1927), and The Personalist (since 1920).
B. E. BYKHOVSKII (philosophy), I. S. KON (sociology), and M. G. IAROSHEVSKII (psychology)
HISTORY. The first examples of American historiography were the memoirs and chronicles of the colonial period. Owing to a prevalent faith in divine predetermination, these works treated events from a fatalistic point of view. The historical works of the 18th century reflected the ideas of the American Enlightenment, a trend that had originated during the struggle for independence and national unity and had been influenced by English and French Enlightenment writers. The publicist and historical works of B. Franklin, T. Jefferson, and T. Paine established the idea of historical progress, criticized the English colonial tyranny from the standpoint of natural law and of the theory of the contractural provenance of supreme power, and proclaimed the right of the North American colonies to independence.
Works by historians of the 18th and early 19th centuries dealt mainly with the American Revolution (1775–83) and were moralistic in nature. The leading approach in historiography during the first half of the 19th century was that of the romantic, or early, school, headed by G. Bancroft, which maintained that the USA had a unique historical destiny. Other representatives of this school, J. L. Motley and W. H. Prescott, were the first in American historiography to study the European Middle Ages.
The issue of slavery had many reflections in 19th-century historiography. Historians on the side of the slaveholding South crudely distorted the nature of slavery, as they later distorted the Civil War of 1861–65 (J. Davis and J. McCabe). The bourgeois liberal historians H. Greeley and J. Draper approved the abolition of slavery but de-emphasized the revolutionary nature of the Civil War. In the late 19th century, the works of J. Rhodes sought to reconcile bourgeois and slaveholding historiography. The radical abolitionists F. Douglass and W. Phillips emphasized the incompleteness of the democratic changes in the South and stressed the need to carry them through to fulfillment.
During the last quarter of the 19th century, great progress in the development of historiography took place in the USA. The number of available source materials increased, techniques of historical research were improved, and historical disciplines and education became better organized. Departments of history were established at the major universities, and historical journals were published. In 1884, the American Historical Association was founded; it began publishing the American Historical Review in 1895.
Important influences during this period were positivism and German historical methodology. The scope of historical research was extended. The works of J. McMaster, which emphasized cultural aspects in historical problems, depicted American history as an evolutionary process lacking in sharp social conflicts. H. Adams, a pioneer in the field of American diplomatic history, provided a broad portrayal of international relations during the early 19th century. An outstanding contribution to the study of primitive society was made by L. H. Morgan. Historians of the racist school, for example G. B. Adams, J. Burgess, and J. Fiske, regarded social evolution as merely the development of political ideas and institutions. Using the methodology of comparative politics, they attempted to trace the development of Anglo-Saxon political institutions in America. The thesis of these historians concerning the uniqueness and superiority of American democracy was propagandized at the turn of the 20th century to defend American expansionist policy.
With the onset of the imperialistic period, pragmatic and subjectively idealistic views of history became widespread. At the same time, an economic viewpoint arose that was well suited to express the tasks and aims of bourgeois reformism (F. J. Turner, C. Beard, and E. Channing). Turner emphasized how important the colonization of the American West was for the political and social structure of the USA. Beard’s concept of American history was based on the juxtaposition of agriculture and industry and on the conflict between agrarian tendencies and those of industrial capitalism. The work of historians adhering to this approach aided in the resolution of a number of problems related to economics, in particular, the economic causes of the American Revolution, the Civil War, and other important events in American history. However, the focus was not so much on the interrelations between people in the production process as on problems of exchange; the class division of society was replaced by a classification according to branches of the economy, whose development was associated solely with the geographic location of various regions. A Marxist trend in American historiography originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; important contributors were F. Sorge, E. V. Debs, and H. Schlueter.
The victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia and the development of the general crisis of capitalism engendered profound changes in bourgeois ideology. A new stage in bourgeois historiography was marked by an intensified methodological crisis, a greater emphasis on relativism and subjectivism, and, at the same time, a wider range of topics studied. In their methodological reorientation, many American bourgeois historians were influenced by the European neo-Kantians, who had proclaimed a fundamental distinction between the methodologies of the natural and social sciences and who had declared that in the social sciences it was impossible to establish general laws: the social sciences should merely describe individual, nonrecurring events.
Until the 1930’s, the economic orientation in historiography remained predominant. In addition to Beard, its proponents included A. M. Schlesinger, E. Bogart, H. Faulkner, L. Hacker. The Wisconsin School (J. Commons. S. Perlman, S. Slichter, J. Fitch, and E. B. Mittleman) dominated the study of the labor movement. Stressing such conditions of the working class’s formation in the USA as the existence of free lands, a constant influx of immigrants, and the enormous resources of the domestic market, this school sought to demonstrate the uniqueness of the labor movement in the USA and its basic trade unionism. An increasing number of studies on the history of foreign policy and diplomacy were written (D. Perkins, S. F. Bemis, T. Bailey). These studies sought to justify the USA’s Latin-American policies, the Spanish-American War (1898), the Open Door Policy, and other foreign-policy tactics of the USA, which were generally viewed apart from the country’s economic and social situation.
The traditions of antimonopolistic criticism that had been established in the early 20th century by the muckrakers were continued during the 1920’s and 1930’s by the school of social criticism (V. Parrington, L. Corey, F. Allen, M. Josephson). A Marxist trend in American historiography that had emerged during the struggle against bourgeois concepts of history underwent further development. The Marxist historians endeavored mainly to elucidate major problems of history and contemporary life, primarily the history of the labor and democratic movements (J. Allen, A. Bimba, H. Moráis, C. Ruthenberg, E. Flynn, W. Foster, J. Hardy).
After World War II (1939–45), amid the increasing domestic and foreign contradictions of American imperialism and the intensified ideological struggle between capitalism and socialism, the propagandistic function of bourgeois historiography expanded considerably. Both subject matter and ideological and political content became adapted to the official point of view on domestic and foreign policy and on the world historical process as a whole. The above causes led to a sharp increase in anticommunism, to the preaching of American capitalism’s special mission, and to a self-justifying depiction of capitalism’s past and present. On the gnoseological level there was an intensified crisis in the methodology of bourgeois historiography, which was reflected in the influence of neoidealist historical philosophy on historical scholarship.
A direct consequence of the increasing influence of subjectivism and relativism was the decline of the economic school of historiography. The economic school’s legacy was completely revised with the aim of overcoming the influence of Marxism and eliminating tendencies toward social criticism. This line was followed most consistently by the adherents of the neoconservative school (L. Hartz, D. Boorstin, R. Brown), who emphasized the unique nature of social development in the USA, which had allegedly been free of class conflicts (the consensus theory). Works by the neoconservatives and by the followers of the closely related business school (N. Gras, A. Nevins, F. Hayek, T. Cochran) were elitist in spirit and glorified the ruling upper class of society.
While retaining some traits in common with neoconservatism, the neoliberal trend (R. Hofstader, A. M. Schlesinger, Jr., H. S. Commager, C. Degler, F. Freidel, W. Leuchtenburg, A. Link) endeavors to surmount the neoconservatives’ narrowness and tendentiousness. However, in de-emphasizing the role of the class struggle and viewing today’s bourgeois state as the mainspring of social progress in the USA, the neoliberals render the concept of progress meaningless. They concentrate on the focal periods and on the history of bourgeois reformism (the era of progress and the New Deal).
Neoliberalism has strongly influenced bourgeis historical writings on the labor movement, especially works by the members of the California School (W. Galenson, C. Kerr, I. Bernstein). The attempt to detach historiography from analysis of socioeconomic regularities has also affected the study of foreign policy. The semiofficial trend dominating the study of foreign policy (D. Perkins, W. Langer, S. Gleason, S. Morison, S. F. Bemis, H. Feis, W. Kintner) propagandizes the idea of the benevolent nature of American imperialism and of its great creative mission.
Defenders of American foreign policy and advocates of expansionism have been criticized by the progressive historians W. A. Williams, F. Schuman, D. Fleming, G. Alperovitz, G. Kolko. The principles of nuclear diplomacy and of balancing on the brink of war have been attacked by the proponents of realpolitik, who have recommended taking into account the shifts occurring in the international balance of power after World War II (G. Kennan, H. Morgenthau). The revival of social criticism in historiography (the New Left) was linked with the acute political crisis and the growth of the democratic movement in the USA during the 1960’s and early 1970’s.
Negro historiography has developed since the end of the 19th century (W. Du Bois, C. Woodson, and B. Brawley) and has sought to re-create the true history of American Negroes. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, progressive Negro historiography has been active in opposing racist historical views.
Marxist historiography advanced considerably in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, and the research of Marxist historians increased in scope. The works of H. Aptheker, O. Johnson, G. Morris, V. Perlo, P. Foner, W. Foster, G. Hall, and H. Winston present a Marxist view of important events and movements in American history, including the American Revolution, the Civil War, the labor and farmers’ movements, and the struggle of the masses for democracy and against racism, reaction, and militarism.
In the USA, history is studied at such universities as Harvard University, Columbia University, Princeton University, the University of California, the University of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin, and Yale University and at specialized institutes and institutions. There are many historical associations and societies in the USA, including the American Historical Association (founded 1884), the Organization of American Historians (founded 1907), and the Economic History Association (founded 1941). Marxist historical research is conducted by the American Institute of Marxist Studies (founded 1964). The leading historical journals are the American Historical Review (since 1895), the Journal of American History (since 1914), the Journal of Modern History (since 1929), the Journal of the History of Ideas (since 1940), the Journal of Economic History (since 1941), History and Theory (since 1960), and the Journal of Social History (since 1967). The theoretical organ of the Communist Party of the USA, Political Affairs (since 1922), devotes considerable attention to historical topics.
I. P. DEMENTEV (to 1945) and V. L. MAL’KOV
ECONOMICS. The study of economics in the USA developed during the period of capitalism. Originating as a bourgeois discipline in the period of the primitive accumulation of capital, it reflected the specific historical conditions of capitalism’s development in the USA. In contrast to Western European economics, American bourgeois economic thought did not establish an independent school, owing to capitalism’s relatively late development in the USA. Elements of an analytic approach to political and economic problems existed in the works of B. Franklin (18th century). In criticizing the views of the British mercantilists, Franklin made a brilliant conjecture: the source of value, and hence of wealth, is labor.
The economic views of the 18th and early 19th centuries were closely related to the existing political struggle and reflected the interests of various strata of the bourgeoisie. A. Hamilton (second half of the 18th to the early 19th century), who helped establish vulgar apologetic political economy in the USA, defended the big bourgeoisie, identified its interests with those of society, and tried to justify a policy of intensively exploiting the working class. Hamilton’s contemporary T. Jefferson, a member of the radical bourgeoisie who was influenced by the European Physiocrats, condemned the excessive accumulation of wealth by upper-class financiers and landowners. He defended the institution of private property, which he regarded as man’s natural right.
The scholars of this period did not, however, lay the gnoseological foundations of bourgeois economics, owing to the narrowly utilitarian approach to economic problems in the evolving bourgeois society of the USA. Thus, according to K. Marx, Franklin’s analysis of exchange value “did not directly influence the overall development of scholarship, since it was concerned only with individual problems of political economy related to specific practical tasks” (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 13, p. 43).
An important influence on American and general bourgeois apologetic scholarship was the theory of harmony of interests of H. C. Carey (late 18th-early 19th centuries). Carey avoided analysis of the social structure and of the objective principles of its development. Selecting facts tendentiously, he attempted to demonstrate that American society lacked class conflicts, namely, conflicts between workers and capitalists and between Negro slaves and plantation owners. This theory was sharply criticized by Marx and Engels and by N. G. Chernyshevskii.
During the period of imperialism and the general crisis of capitalism, American bourgeois economic theories, reflecting the interests of American monopolistic capital, have helped consolidate the domination of the monopolies. In addition, they have aided in developing the ideological defenses of capitalism by disseminating illusions about capitalism’s capacity for continuous improvement and by intensifying anticommunist propaganda.
Scholarly centers and institutes of economics have been established in the USA, and complex research programs are carried out. Scholarly economic journals and other publications appear on a regular basis. Important studies are carried out at university departments of economics. Many scholars work independently, sometimes receiving financial support from private foundations and organizations in order to conduct specially commissioned research studies.
One of the principal economic concepts of the period of imperialism and the general crisis of capitalism has been the theory of marginal productivity, formulated by J. B. Clark and developed by other economists. This theory, which is closely related to the Austrian school’s marginal utility theory, is based on the principle of the independent productivity of labor and capital. This allegedly guarantees to each of these elements of production remuneration in proportion to the share of the social product created by each element. Ignoring the different qualitative roles of labor and of the means of production in the creation of value, Clark and his followers deny the existence of capitalist exploitation. Clark’s theory, which does not take into account the results of technological progress, also states that the labor of each additional worker is less productive than the labor of the preceding worker. Consequently, wages are determined by the product created by the last (marginal), least productive worker. This leads to a belief in the necessity and utility of establishing the lowest level of wages for workers. The theory maintains that low marginal productivity is caused by a large number of workers, and consequently its proponents are convinced that the only way to improve the workers’ lot is to limit their number. The concept of marginal productivity, used to justify capitalism and to conceal capitalism’s inherently exploitative nature, is hostile to Marxism and to labor. Its methodology is antiscientific, it borrows from a number of earlier, oversimplified theories, and it attempts to universalize the economic features of capitalism.
An important trend of economic thought during the period of imperialism and the general crisis of capitalism is institutional-ism, which originated in the early 20th century. It is represented by a sociopsychological trend (T. Veblen), a social and legal trend (J. Commons), and an empirical, descriptive-statistical trend (W. Mitchell). Veblen, the representative of the first and most radical trend, expressed the ideology of the middle and petite bourgeoisie. In stating that the decisive factors in social development are not economic but psychological and biological, he repudiated objective economic laws and the study of the economic principles of bourgeois society. Veblen’s views on capitalism contained fundamental contradictions. While criticizing finance capital and the financial oligarchy—the leisure class—he considered the main factor in capitalist society to be not the class-antagonistic conflict between the working class and the bourgeoisie but the conflict between the big financial bourgeoisie and the middle and petite bourgeoisie. Veblen expressed a reactionary Utopian idea that finance capital could be eliminated and private ownership of the means of production retained; he believed in placing the technical intelligentsia, or the technocracy, at the head of society. Veblen maintained that the role of labor and of the working class would decline as society developed. He opposed Marxist theory, especially the doctrines of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the proletarian revolution.
The second trend of institutionalism, the social and legal trend, reduced economic relations to an aggregate of legal norms. Descriptive-statistical institutionalism, represented by the American cyclical school, attempted to use the antiscientific methodology of institutionalism as a basis for a theory of cycles free of crises. This school also applied the methodology of institutionalism to the study of market conditions, the economic cycle, the compilation of economic forecasts, and methods of regulating cycles.
The leading theory in American economic thought during the second and third stages of the general crisis of capitalism has been neo-Keynesianism (A. Hansen and E. Domar), an adaptation to American conditions of the theory of the English economist J. M. Keynes. Neo-Keynesianism has sought to accelerate economic growth in the USA in order to ensure a steady growth of the economy and to achieve full employment. The theory maintains that the market mechanism is not able to assure full employment and high and steady economic growth rates. Neo-Keynesianism uses the macroeconomic method of analysis. The theory attempts to find the source of growth in the accumulation of capital, and develops methods for government regulation of the economy through finance-credit and fiscal policies.
During the 1970’s, neo-Keynesianism has undergone a profound crisis owing to the failure of the methods of government regulation of the economy that it had developed. This failure was caused by the neo-Keynesians’ efforts to maintain and strengthen the capitalist system of production relations and, primarily, capitalist ownership and the predominance of monopoly capital. Neo-Keynesianism also exaggerated the role of the capitalist state and denied its class-oriented nature and its support of monopolies. The theory’s antiscientific methodology attributed the shortcomings of capitalist economics to psychological laws rather than to capitalist reproduction’s inherent contradictions. In actuality, these contradictions negatively influence the economic growth rate, causing cycles and economic crises and precluding a steady development of production.
Another trend in contemporary American economic thought is that of free enterprise. The advocates of this trend maintain that the market mechanism is able automatically to ensure steady economic growth and full employment. Government interference in the economy should be limited: the government should merely create favorable conditions for entrepreneurs. Using a microeconomic approach and expressing the interests of big monopoly capital, the adherents of this trend demand lower wages and corporate taxes as well as the subsidy of monopolies in order to stimulate economic growth. The theory has been developed most fully by the economists of the Chicago School, headed by F. Knight and M. Friedman. These economists have recommended anti-inflationary programs involving government influence on the economy, in particular, on the monetary system of capitalism. Attempts to adapt Friedman’s recommendations to government regulation in the USA have not, however, met with success. Friedman’s theory does not take into account the nature of capitalist contradictions and seeks to escape the conflicts and contradictions of capitalism by means of a further development of state monopoly capitalism.
The eclectic theory of P. Samuelson, which has also proved to be unsound, sought to combine a number of the tenets of neo-Keynesianism and of the neoclassical trend into a single neoclassical synthesis. Samuelson’s theory inherited the shortcomings of the above two trends. It largely neglects to analyze capitalism’s production relations, which inevitably engender the acute contradictions and conflicts that are unavoidable in capitalism, despite the assertions of bourgeois theorists.
Contemporary American bourgeois economic scholarship seeks to develop and popularize various theories on the transformation of capitalism. Such theories have been influenced by the increasing power and success of the world socialist system and are regarded by bourgeois economists as alternatives to the conclusions of scientific communism on the inevitable collapse of capitalism. By means of these theories, American bourgeois economists attempt to affirm capitalism’s allegedly intrinsic capacity to overcome its inherent contradictions and to become “perfected” while firmly retaining its economic basis—private ownership of the means of production. As proof of this capacity, bourgeois economic scholars cite new phenomena in the economies of developed capitalist countries that for the most part have resulted from the development of state-monopoly capitalism and the contemporary scientific and technological revolution.
After World War II, considerable attention was accorded in the USA to the theories of people’s capitalism, the managerial revolution, the balance of power, the mixed economy, the welfare state, and the new industrial society. The adherents of the apologetic theory of people’s capitalism cite the growth in the number of stockholders in capitalist countries. However, in actuality, this growth has been accompanied by an enormous concentration of shares in the hands of a small group of stockholders, who are thus able to control the corporations. The adherents of the managerial revolution theory regard the managers of large modern corporations as a new social stratum, independent of the stockholders and consequently able to control production not in the interests of a small group of large stockholders but in the interests of all of society. However, in reality, the managers are universally dependent on the large stockholders. Some members of the upper stratum of managers also own significant holdings. They are consequently able to control the corporations not in the interests of the public but in the interests of the largest stockholders, including themselves. The theories of the mixed economy and of the welfare state (A. Hansen, J. M. Clark, P. Samuelson) distort the role of the capitalist state, which is regarded as a force independent of class interests that can free capitalism of its contradictions.
A distinct position in American economic scholarship is held by such sovietologists as C. Landauer, G. Grossman, and A. Bergson, who reject scientific communism and falsify the nature of socialism and of socialist transformations. American sovietologists have devised various theories of socialism, often presenting contemporary state-monopoly capitalism as socialism. Such theories are based on bourgeois political economy and on an extremely narrow foundation of empirical and distorted data on true contemporary socialism.
Also of significance in American economic thought are apologetic theories of the convergence of the two world systems. Their advocates, for example, J. Galbraith, deny the existence of fundamental contradictions between contemporary capitalism and socialism. They envisage a gradual convergence and a subsequent merging of the two world systems into a single industrial society engendered by the scientific and technological revolution, whose economic and social consequences they erroneously treat as suitable both for socialism and capitalism.
S. Kuznets is a prominent representative of the statistical school of economic thought in the USA. His statistical method for calculating national income and national product has been widely applied in capitalist countries. However, Kuznets overlooks the decisive influence of production relations on the development of capitalist economy.
During the second half of the 20th century, the mathematical school has exerted an increasing influence on American economic science owing to the widespread use of mathematical models in the government’s regulation of the economy. Mathematical models were the basis of the important studies of K. Arrow in the field of price formation under conditions of economic equilibrium. W. Leontief’s interbranch model of the national economy, based on the input-output method of economic analysis, has been used in economic programming and forecasting in the USA and in other capitalist countries. Also well known are the conclusions of T. Koopmans concerning the capitalist cycle, linear programming, and operations analysis. However, American bourgeois economists often use mathematical methods to solve economic problems in an oversimplified manner, without profound qualitative analysis, and disregarding the antagonistic contradictions of capitalist reproduction.
During the 1970’s, American bourgeois economics has undergone a deep crisis owing to the failure of neo-Keynesian methods of regulating the economy and to the ineffectiveness of the theories defending capitaism and falsifying socialism.
A profound scientific analysis of American state-monopoly capitalism and of the domination of American monopoly capital and the financial oligarchy has been provided by such Marxist economists as W. Foster, J. Allen, A. Rochester, V. Perlo, and G. Hall, whose works criticize contemporary bourgeois economic theories.
Economic research is conducted at universities and at the National Bureau of Economic Research (founded 1920) and The Brookings Institution (founded 1927). Professional organizations of economists include the American Economic Association (founded 1885), the American Finance Association (founded 1940), the American Statistical Association (founded 1839), and the Economic History Association (founded 1941). The most important economic journals are Survey of Current Business (since 1921), Economic Notes (since 1933), American Economic Review (since 1911), American Economist (since 1963), Journal of Political Economy (since 1892), and Journal of Economic Theory (since 1969).
G. N. SORVINA
GEOGRAPHY. In the USA, geography is regarded primarily as a social science (I. Bowman, 1934) that studies nature as the environment of human habitation. Geography is considered to be a single discipline, and a faint line of demarcation is drawn between physical and economic geography. Schools of human geography predominate. Many works on applied geography are published. The study of nature as man’s environment led in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the development of environmen-talism, which overestimated the role of nature in the development of human society; its extreme form was geographic determinism (E. Semple, E. Huntington).
Related to human geography is the study of the cultural landscape, that is, the environment as transformed by man, which is regarded as the main subject of geographical study. Another related trend is that of social geography, or the geography of populations and cities (B. Berry, J. Wolpert, F. Horton, C. Harris).
The development of geographical studies in the USA during the second quarter of the 20th century was considerably influenced by R. Hartshorne, who viewed geography’s basic task to be the study of the unique characteristics of individual localities. Thus the importance of seeking geographical generalizations and principles was rejected, and geography was regarded as a purely descriptive science. A related and widespread view among American geographers was a denial of the objective existence of regions, which were treated as intellectual concepts (D. Whittlesey).
The introduction of mathematical methods and the search for broad geographical principles began in American geography during the early 1950’s (W. Garrison, B. Berry, E. Ullman, L. King, E. Taafe). This trend was of considerable aid to the methodology of geographical research, but it often led to excessively formalized research. There has been a renewed interest in regional geography, which is regarded, in contrast to Hartshorne’s view, as the analysis of specific, integrated spatial systems. The region is considered to be a complex of interconnected and interacting parts organized by nature or man into a functional, integral whole. Geographical studies are increasingly important in regional development and regional programming and in programs for protecting and improving the environment (Berry and others).
American geographers also devote considerable attention to territorial space and its place in geography. For example, R. Morrill’s The Spatial Organization of Society (1970) considers space, spatial relations, and human communication over distances as the focal factors of geography.
Research in economic geography was long dominated by works on agriculture (O. Baker), industry (W. Miller), and transportation (Ullman); in recent years, increasing attention has been devoted to areas unconnected with production: trade, services, science, and recreation.
Parallel with geographical research, there has been a development of research on spatial economics, particularly as applied to the geographical distribution of industry. From the 1930’s through the 1960’s, a number of economists helped develop the mathematical foundations for the economic and geographical analysis of the distribution of industry and its branches. Of particular importance are E. Hoover’s The Location of Economic Activity (1947) and An Introduction to Regional Economics (1971), based on A. Weber’s location (Standort) theory of geographical distribution. Since the 1950’s, outstanding works have been written by members of W. Isard’s regional science school. Isard developed a theory on industrial complexes and attempted to formulate general principles on the distribution of human activity from the standpoint of the location theory.
The impossibility of attaining optimum geographical distribution of the economy under capitalism engendered a behaviorist approach to the geography of human activity. Closely related to this approach is the stochastic trend, which rejects the possibility of attaining optimum geographical distribution of the economy under capitalism, not because of the nature of capitalist production relations but because, according to the stochastic view, no complex economic system can achieve the optimum solution to the problem.
Important American scholarly associations of geographers include the Association of American Geographers (1904), the American Geographical Society (1852), the National Geographic Society (1888), and the Regional Science Association (1953). Geographical research is conducted mainly at universities. The leading journals are Geographical Review (since 1916), Annals of the Association of American Geographers (since 1911), Economic Geography (since 1925), and Professional Geographer (since 1949).
JURISPRUDENCE. The origin of American jurisprudence was determined by the USA’s historical development. During the colonial period, legal thought was influenced by the theological world view, particularly of the Protestant denomination, that was introduced by the first colonists. The American political and legal ideas that arose during the struggle for independence and during the drafting of the Constitution were influenced by the ideas of the European Enlightenment and, above all, by natural law and the theories of the social contract and of the division of powers. The concepts of natural law were upheld by the left-wing leaders of the American Revolution (T. Jefferson, T. Paine), as well as by the right-wing leaders (J. Adams, A. Hamilton). The legal views of the period during which the Constitution was drafted were first systematized by J. Wilson, a follower of the classical school of natural law.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, theoretical legal thought essentially mirrored the trends of European jurisprudence. Particularly influential was the English precedent system of law, according to which there was no line of demarcation between public and private law and no precise division of law into branches. The theorists of American legal scholarship were the justices of the Supreme Court. The dominant trend of legal scholarship during the 19th century was positivism—the analytical school of law in Anglo-American jurisprudence (W. Willoughby, W. Hohfeld, A. Kocourek).
During the 20th century, the leading school of legal theory was that of sociological jurisprudence (R. Pound). The adherents of this school viewed law as a means of social control and a system of legal procedures, legal norms, and law enforcement. Similar views were espoused by the school of legal realism (J. Gray, K. Llewellyn, J. Harlan, E. Patterson, J. Frank, H. Oliphant, T. Arnold). After World War II (1939–45), theories of natural law became prevalent and included the variant known as renascent natural law. Relatively early in the development of legal scholarship in the USA, in the first years of the 20th century, a distinction was made between legal science and political science. This distinction was made in Western Europe only after World War II.
In the USA, state law is studied as part of both constitutional law and political science. Theories of bourgeois democracies are accorded central importance. The theory of pluralistic democracy purports to eliminate the possibility of class domination of monopoly capital (D. Coyle, J. Burns, J. Peltason, L. Levy). Studies of the American Constitution have been made by C. Beard, A. Kelly, E. Corwin, C. Warren, and C. Pritchett. The concept of a living Constitution has been developed, and analyses have been made of the presidential power, Congress, federalism and local government, the electoral system, and the judicial system, particularly the Supreme Court.
The political dynamics of the state have been studied with a maximum utilization of the methods of empirical sociology (C. Merriam, H. Lasswell, D. Easton, S. Lipset, G. Almond, S. Verba, R. Snyder, H. Morgenthau, R. Dahl). The state and bourgeois democracy have been analyzed by the American Marxists, including G. Hall and H. Aptheker.
Within civil law, studies have been conducted of business law (H. Lusk, A. Coppola, M. Fisk, C. James), contract law (L. Fuller, R. Braucher, L. Simpson), torts (G. Harper, W. Prosser), and patent law (R. Brink), as well as of corporate law, family law, and bankruptcy proceedings.
Research in criminal law and especially criminology has also developed. Before the early 20th century, criminal legislation and court practice were considerably influenced by English traditions: the decisions of the higher courts of Great Britain had the force of precedent in the USA. The founding of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology in Chicago (1909) marked the beginning of independent legal research in the USA.
The enormous growth of crime in the USA and the appearance of such specifically American forms of crime as gangsterism and racketeering have engendered many theories that seek to explain crime and to propose methods of combating it without altering the economic, social, and political foundations of American society. The chief trends in contemporary criminology are biopsycho-logical and sociological (S. Glueck, E. Glueck, E. Hooton, W. Sheldon, D. Abrahamsen). Criminologists focus on juvenile delinquency and on the relations between crime and alcoholism and drug addiction.
Studies of criminal law and criminal procedures generally consist of commentaries on the legislation of individual states and on court proceedings. The most important work in this field is the Model Penal Code, formulated between 1951 and 1963 as a model for the criminal codes of the states. The research of American criminologists devotes much attention to penalties and their effectiveness, particularly to the death penalty, the prison system, and probationary sentences (J. Hall, G. Mueller, M. Wolfgang).
In the 1930’s, research in labor law underwent rapid development; its findings were used to regulate the relations between labor and capital. Studies focused on the legal regulation of labor or industrial relations and on the interpretation of such workers’ rights as the right to strike, to organize into trade unions, and to conclude collective bargaining agreements. Research was devoted to legislation on wages, hours, and labor protection. The legal and economic aspects of these subjects were studied by such specialists on labor economics as R. Mathews, N. Falcone, M. Forkosch, B. Taylor, F. Whitney, and S. Fox. Works on labor law were written by A. Cox, A. Gitlow, F. Harbison, B. Mabry, P. Ross, M. Bernstein, and N. Chamberlain. There are two trends in the development of bourgeois social legislation: the liberal and the reactionary (S. Petro, H. Simon, D. Richberg, P. Taft).
Among the most important centers of legal scholarship are Columbia University, Harvard University, Cornell University, Yale University, and Princeton University. Legal journals include the Harvard Law Review (since 1887), the Columbia Law Review (since 1901), the Yale Law Journal (since 1891), the New York University Law Review (since 1924), the California Law Review (since 1912), the American Bar Association Journal (since 1915), the American Business Law Journal (since 1963), the Atomic Energy Law Journal (since 1959), the Journal of Air Law and Commerce (since 1930), the Labor Law Journal (since 1949), Law and Contemporary Problems (since 1933), and the Texas Law Review (since 1922).
M. V. BAGLAI and F. M. RESHETNIKOV
LINGUISTICS. The study of linguistics in the USA began developing intensively in the 1880’s. Innovative descriptions of the American Indian languages were later published; an initiator of and major contributor to this work was F. Boas. Boas asserted that language, like thought and culture, should be studied as a form of human activity. He rejected Europe-centered views on the structure of language and sought to study linguistic phenomena in their interrelationships. He believed that grammatical categories should be interpreted in terms of logic and psychology, and urged that the formal aspects of language be described in a precise and orderly manner. Earlier, the principle of rigorous description had been advanced in American linguistics in the mid-19th century by W. Whitney, a specialist in general linguistics and Indology.
Since the 1920’s, Boas’ views have developed in two trends—the school of E. Sapir and that of L. Bloomfield. Sapir’s works, which stress the importance of analyzing the semantic content of units of language in terms of language’s systemic nature, were the basis of a new trend in linguistic typology. The theory developed by Sapir and B. Whorf on the connection between language, thought, and culture (the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis) formed the foundation of American ethnolinguistics and anthropological linguistics (J. Carroll, S. Chase, H. Hoijer, C. Osgood, D. Hymes, A. Kroeber, C. Kluckhohn).
Bloomfield developed a view of speech as a form of behavior and founded the behaviorist school of linguistics. He insisted on a precise and objective recording of linguistic facts, described according to a definite scheme; consequently, his theory is called descriptive. Many uniform descriptions of the phonic and grammatical structures of various languages, mainly those of American Indians, were based on Bloomfield’s theory. Important followers of the Bloomfieldian trend have included B. Bloch, G. Trager, J. Smith, H. Gleason, C. Fries, and M. Joos. The formal approach to the description of language was most fully manifested by Z. Harris, who formulated the theory of transformational analysis, widely used in American linguistics.
The 1930’s and 1940’s witnessed a conflict between various linguistic trends that gradually made scholars aware of the insufficiency of formal description and of the need to analyze meaning by using rigorous research methods. The extreme school of descrip-tivism, which disregarded linguistic meaning, had lost its influence by the 1950’s. The research of E. Nida on the morphological description of languages combined ideas of Sapir and Bloomfield, as did K. L. Pike’s theory of linguistic units viewed in terms of their meanings. The early 1940’s saw the founding of the Linguistic Circle of New York, headed by R. Jakobson. Together with M. Halle and G. Fant, Jakobson developed a theory of distinctive phonological features, based on the ideas of the Linguistic Circle of Prague. The theory fostered the development of phonological typology and was the basis of a general theory of linguistic features that were formulated for grammar and lexicon.
Since the 1950’s, research has been conducted on the theory of phonology, linguistic modeling, general grammar, typology, units and levels of language and their relationships, and methods of synchronic and diachronic analysis. Scholars in these fields have included C. Hockett, M. Swadesh (the founder of glotto-chronology), M. Haas, Y. Malkiel, W. Chafe, J. Marchand, W. Twaddell, M. Joos, W. Austin, Yuen Ren Chao, A. Hill, R. Wells, P. Garvin, C. Voegelin, and S. Saporta. J. Greenberg’s introduction of quantitative criteria into Sapir’s typology permitted numerical expression of the elements of linguistic structure. Greenberg helped develop a typology of universal linguistic categories. The sign theory of language, whose foundations were established in the second half of the 19th century by C. Peirce and developed in the 20th century by C. Morris, has found expression in works by Jakobson, U. Weinreich, and T. Sebeok.
By analogy with the theory of distinctive phonological features, the method of the componential analysis of semantics has been formulated by Weinreich and developed on a basis of kinship-terms by F. Lounsbury and W. Goodenough and, on a broader level, by E. Bendix. The idea of such an approach had been stated earlier by the American anthropologist and linguist A. Kroeber.
During the 1950’s and 1960’s, a new approach to grammar— the theory of transformational-generative grammar (TGG)—was developed by N. Chomsky. This theory sought not to describe but to explain the speech facts being analyzed. TGG models the actual linguistic activity of speakers, which is based on the interaction between linguistic competence and linguistic performance. The theory contrasts deep and surface structures and describes them in terms of transformation rules. Various aspects of TGG have been developed by Halle, who formulated generative phonology together with Chomsky, by R. Lees, who devised the theory of nominalization, by S. Lamb, the originator of stratifica-tional grammar, and by G. Miller, P. Postal, R. Langacker, J. Ross, and A. Joshi. TGG aided in the development of generative semantics, which is based on the analysis of language’s deep semantic structures.
Generative semantics is related to logical syntax in the works of E. Bach, G. Lakoff, J. Ross, and B. Hall. J. Katz and J. Fodor contributed to the generative theory the principle of the semantic interpretation of syntactic position (interpretative semantics). J. McCawley and C. Fillmore devised the logical theory of presupposition. Another trend examines the syntax of the sentence as a semantic unit in the sentence’s communicative and nominative aspects, and studies the meaning of words in terms of their syntactic functions (Z. Vendler, P. Kiparsky, D. Bolinger). Contemporary American studies on language theory treat semantic logic as the philosophical basis of linguistics.
American Indo-European studies are represented by E. Sturtevant, who developed the Indo-Hittite hypothesis, C. Watkins, whose works on the Celtic verb have consistently upheld the systemic principle in historical research, and H. Hoenigswald, who devised a theory of diachronic phonology. Other scholars in the field are W. Cowgill, E. Hamp, B. Schwartz, and J. Puhwel. Many works have been written on the history and typology of other language families; an example is J. Greenberg’s new genealogical classification of the African languages and the languages of Oceania. Semitic studies are represented by W. Leslau, Turkic studies by K. Menges, Finno-Ugric studies by T. Sebeok and A. Raun, and Slavic studies by H. Andersen, H. Kucera, E. Stankiewicz, and H. Aronson.
Important developments have taken place in machine translation and in computational, mathematical, and applied linguistics. In 1945, W. Weaver formulated a theory of automatic translation. In 1954, the first experiment with machine translation of Russian into English was conducted at Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.); it demonstrated the possibility in principle of translating with the aid of a machine. The theorists of automatic translation are A. Booth, Y. Bar-Hillel, A. Oettinger, P. Garvin, P. Toma, and D. Yates. Others in the field include J. Grimes, G. Matthews, and V. Yngve, who formulated a theory on the depth of structure in sentences known as the Yngve hypothesis.
The development of psycholinguistics is linked with G. Miller, C. Osgood, B. F. Skinner, E. Lenneberg, S. Ervin-Tripp, W. Lambert, D. Slobin, J. Jenkins, and S. Saporta. To a great extent, the principles of psycholinguistics are similar to Chomsky’s ideas. Recent studies have focused on bilingualism, interference, and language learning (U. Weinreich, E. Haugen, C. Osgood, J. Gumperz, W. Moulton, L. Jakobovits, R. Stockwell, R. Lado, R. Politzer). Another topic of study is speech as a process of generation and perception. A theory of the motor origins of speech is being developed by Miller, who uses Chomsky’s theory as well as C. Shannon’s ideas on information theory and communication. The works of B. Underwood, R. Schulz, and L. Postman analyze verbal memory. Studies in speech pathology and children’s speech by Jakobson, J. Jackson, K. Goldstein, H. Head, Jenkins, D. Fry, and D. Olmstead have led to the establishment of certain general principles in the structure and functioning of language.
From the late 1950’s to the I970’s, research in sociolinguistics has dealt with social influences on the development and functioning of language, the social aspects of multilingualism, the theory of urban languages, and language policy and language planning in various countries, including the developing countries of Africa and Asia (J. Fishman, W. Stewart, W. Labow, B. Bernstein, A. Grimshaw. D. Hymes, Gumperz, C. Ferguson, Haugen, Ervin-Tripp).
Research in linguistics is conducted at Harvard University, Columbia University, Ohio State University, Georgetown University, the University of California, the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, Yale University, Stanford University, and the University of Hawaii. Research is also conducted by the Linguistic Society of America (founded 1924), the Linguistic Circle of New York (1944–70; since 1970 the International Association of Linguistics), the American Dialect Society (1889), the Modern Language Association (1883), and the Speech Communication Association (1914).
Scholarly journals in the field include General Linguistics (1955–60, Lexington, Ky.; since 1960, Pennsylvania State University), International Journal of American Linguistics (since 1917), Language (since 1925; with the supplements Language Bulletins, Language Dissertations, Language Monographs), Word (since 1945), Mechanical Translation (since 1954), The Linguistic Reporter (since 1959), Mathematical Linguistics and Automatic Translation (since 1959), Language Sciences (since 1968), Linguistic Inquiry (since 1970), Papers in Philosophical Linguistics (since 1970), and Language and Society (since 1972).
V. A. VINOGRADOV and M. A. ZHURINSKAIA
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Politika SShA v oblasti nauki. Edited by D. M. Gvishiani. Moscow, 1971. (Translated from English.)
Sovremennaia nauchno-tekhnicheskaia revoliutsiia v razvitykh kapitalisticheskikh stranakh: Ekonomicheskie problemy. Moscow, 1971.Lebedeva, E. A. SShA: Gosudarstvennoe vozdeistvie na nauchnotekhnicheskii progress. Moscow, 1972.
Evoliutsiia form organizatsii nauki v razvitykh kapitalisticheskikh stranakh. Edited by D. M. Gvishiani and S. R. Mikulinskii. Moscow, 1972.
SShA: nauka i obrazovanie. Edited by E. S. Shershnev and V. I. Gromek. Moscow, 1974.Borisov, V. V. Pentagon i nauka. Moscow, 1975.Oliver, J. W. History of American Technology. New York, 1956.Dupree, A. H. Science in the Federal Government: A History of Policies and Activities to 1940. Cambridge, Mass., 1957.Steams, R. P. Science in the British Colonies of America. Urbana, III., 1970.Daniels, G. H. Science in American Society: A Social History. New York, 1971.Parrington, V. L. Osnovnye techeniia amerikanskoi mysli, vols. 1–3. Moscow, 1962–63. (Translated from English.)Kon, I. S. Pozilivizm v solsiologii. Leningrad, 1964.Andreeva, G. M. Sovremennaia burzhuaznaia empiricheskaia sotsiologiia. Moscow, 1965.Novikov, N. V. Amerikanskaia burzhuznaia sotsiologiia v XX v. Moscow, 1966.Becker, H.. and A. Boskoff, Comps. Sovremennaia sotsiologicheskaia teoriia. Moscow, 1961. (Translated from English.)
Sotsiologiia segodnia: Problemy i perspektivy. Amerikanskaia burzhuaznaia sotsiologiia serediny XX v.. Moscow, 1965. (Translated from English.)
Amerikanskaia sotsiologiia. Moscow, 1972. (Translated from English.)
Amerikanskie prosvetiteli: Izbr. proizvedeniia, vols. 1–2. Moscow, 1968–69. (Translated from English.)Gol’dberg, N. M. Svobodomyslie i ateizm v SShA (XVIII–XIX w.). Moscow-Leningrad, 1965.Cohen, M. R. Amerikanskaia mysT. Moscow, 1958. (Translated from English.)Mel’vil’, Iu. K. Amerikanskii pragmatizm. Moscow, 1957.Bodnár, J. O sovremennoi filosofii SShA. Moscow, 1959. (Translated from Slovak.)Ermolenko, D. V. Sovremennaia burzhuaznaia filosofiia SShA. Moscow, 1955.Karimskii, A. M. Filosofiia amerikanskogo naturalizma. Moscow, 1972. (Contains bibliography.)Bogomolov, A. S. Burzhuaznaia filosofiia SShA XX veka. Moscow, 1974.Schneider, H. W. A History of American Philosophy, 2nd ed. New York, 1946.Werkmeister, W. H. A History of Philosophical Ideas in America. New York [1949].
Philosophic Thought in France and the United States. Edited by M. Farber. New York, 1950.Odum, H. W. American Sociology. New York, 1951.Winn, R. American Philosophy. New York [1955].
Philosophy. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. [1964].
Contemporary American Philosophy. Edited by J. E. Smith. London-New York, 1970.
The Establishment of Empirical Sociology. New York, 1972.
Istoriografiia novogo vremeni stran Evropy i Ameriki. Moscow, 1967.
Istoriografiia novoi i noveishei istorii stran Evropy i Ameriki. Moscow, 1968.Marushkin, B. I. Istoriia i politika: Amerikanskaia burzhuaznaia istoriografiia sovetskogo obshchestva. Moscow, 1969.
Osnovnye problemy istorii SShA v amerikanskoi istoriografii [vols. 1–2]. Moscow, 1971–74.
Amerikanskaia istoriografiia vneshneipolitiki SShA, 1945–1970. Moscow, 1972.
Amerikanskaia istoriografiia vnutripoliticheskikh problem SShA v poslevoennyi period. Moscow, 1974.Bliumin, I. G. Kritika burzhuaznoi politicheskoi ekonomii. Moscow, 1962.Seligman, B. Osnovnye techeniia sovremennoi ekonomicheskoi mysli. Moscow, 1968. (Translated from English.)Panova, M. I. “Narodnyi kapitalizm” segodnia. Moscow, 1970.Al’ter, L. B. Izbr. proizvedeniia: Burzhuaznaia politicheskaia ekonomiia SShA. Moscow, 1971.
Burzhuaznye ekonomicheskie teorii i ekonomicheskaia politika imperialisticheskikh stran. Editor in chief, A. G. Mileikovskii. Moscow, 1971.Osadchaia, I. M. Sovremennoe keinsianstvo. Moscow, 1971.
Amerikanskaia geografiia. 1957. (Translated from English.)
Novoe v lingvistike, fases. 1–7. Moscow, 1960–75.“Amerikanskii strukturalizm.” In Osnovnye napravleniia strukturalizma. Moscow, 1964.Mel’chuk, I. A., and R. D. Ravich. Avtomaticheskii perevod 1949–1963: Kritiko-bibliograficheskii spravochnik. Moscow, 1967.Mel’chuk, I. A., and R. D. Ravich. Avtomaticheskii perevod 1964–1971: Bibliograficheskii ukazatel’. Moscow, 1975.Hall, R. A. “American Linguistics, 1925–50.” Archivum Linguisticum, 1951, vol. 3, fasc. 2.
Readings in Linguistics. Washington, D.C., 1957.
Trends in European and American Linguistics, 1930–1960. Antwerp, 1963.
Current Trends in Linguistics. The Hague, 1963.On the whole, the press, radio, and television in the USA are controlled by newspaper chains, news agencies, press syndicates, and radio and television corporations. Closely linked with finance capital, they are mouthpieces for the ideology, politics, and morality of the ruling class. In the early 1970’s fewer than 200 monopolies controlled half the circulation of daily newspapers in the USA. The Scripps-Howard chain, for example, owns approximately 20 newspapers and the majority of shares of stock in United Press International (UPI). The Hearst chain owns more than 20 newspapers and magazines, as well as shares in UPI; it also controls a press syndicate that distributes news to more than 2,500 newspapers. Many newspaper chains and press syndicates own radio and television stations and enterprises of the lumber and paper industries.
In 1978 more than 20,000 newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals were published, including approximately 1,700 newspapers. Total newspaper circulation amounted to more than 60 million. As of 1978, the newspapers with the widest circulation were The New York Times (published since 1851; circulation, more than 820,000; circulation of Sunday edition, approximately 1.4 million), The Washington Post (1877, more than 500,000), The Wall Street Journal (1889, 1.46 million), The Chicago Tribune (1847, more than 750,000), The Los Angeles Times (1881, approximately 1 million), The Christian Science Monitor (1908, more than 160,000), The Philadelphia Inquirer (1771, 700,000), and The Detroit News (1873, more than 650,000).
Sociopolitical magazines and journals include Time (1923, approximately 4.5 million), Newsweek (1933, 3 million), US News & World Report (1933, more than 2 million). Fortune (1930, more than 625,000), Business Week (1929, more than 760,000), The Nation (1865, more than 30,000), and Foreign Affairs (1922, more than 70,000).
Progressive American publications include Daily World (1968, 37,000), Political Affairs (1922, 4,500; the monthly theoretical journal of the Communist Party of the USA), and the weekly newspaper People’s World (1938).
The leading news agencies are Associated Press (AP, founded 1848) and UPI (founded 1958).
The first commercial radio station in the USA was founded in 1920. In 1975 there were more than 7,000 radio stations and 900 television stations. The largest radio and television companies are the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), and the Mutual Broadcasting System.
Along with propagandistic programs, much of television broadcasting time is occupied by light entertainment, commercial advertisements, detective series, and the like.
V. V. SHIMANOVSKII
The first works of American literature were written during the colonial period. In the early 17th century, New England and Virginia were the centers of American literary life. The literature of New England, religious and moralizing, preached strict obedience to Puritan dogma. The most famous Puritan writer was C. Mather (1663–1728), author of Magnolia Christi Americana (1702), an ecclesiastical history of New England containing detailed material on the history of the Puritan settlements.
Opposition to the Puritan theocracy was first openly expressed in the mid-17th century. R. Williams (c. 1603–83) wrote theological works in defense of religious tolerance, and the doctrine of natural law was developed by the publicist J. Wise (1652–1725).
Secular literature also developed during this period. The austerity of Puritanism was ridiculed in New English Canaan, or New Canaan (1637) by T. Morton (c. 1575–c. 1647). The poet A. Bradstreet (1612–72) published her didactic collection of dialogues in verse The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650), and S. Sewall (1652–1730) wrote The Selling of Joseph (1700), in which he argued against slavery. Secular literature was highly developed in Virginia, which was free of Puritanism. Daily life on the plantations, the mores of the South, where “gentlemen adventurers” flocked in search of riches, and the bounty of nature in the region were described in the travel journals and memoirs of J. Smith (1580–1631), G. Alsop (1638–?), and W. Byrd (1674–1744). The cultural isolation of the South, characteristic of American culture, dates back to the colonial period.
The national traits of American literature emerged more distinctly in the works of the Enlightenment leaders of the American Revolution (1775–83), advocates of rationalism and deism. B. Franklin (1706–90), in his Poor Richard’s Almanack (1748), series of bagatelles (1778–80), and Autobiography (published in French in 1791), propagandized the ideals of America’s third estate. The manifesto of bourgeois democracy The Rights of Man (1791–92) was written by the philosopher and revolutionary T. Paine (1737–1809), whose pamphlet Common Sense (1776) revealed the vices of monarchy and demonstrated the need for the creation of an independent republic in the colonies. T. Jefferson (1743–1826), author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), defended the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” and man’s right to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” In his Notes on the State of Virginia (1784–85; published 1787) he argued against slavery and strongly advocated the separation of church and state.
Popular songs, the satire, and publicism also developed as literary forms, revealing the tendencies of revolutionary classicism. These tendencies also predominated in the poems of the Hartford Wits, notably J. Trumbull (1750–1831) and J. Barlow (1754–1812), whose works reflected themes of the Revolution. The most important representative of American classicism was the poet P. Freneau (1752–1832), who was inspired by the French Revolution. Certain works reveal the spirit of preromanticism, which to a greater degree pervaded the prose of C. Brockden Brown (1771–1810), an exponent of the gothic novel. A prominent prose writer of the Enlightenment, H. Brackenridge (1748–1816) was also one of the founders of American drama (The Battle of Bunker’s Hill, 1776). Works by Negro writers first appeared in the late 18th century, for example, the pamphlet Negro Slavery (1789), signed “Othello, a free Negro.”
The complex development of an American school of literature reached its culmination in the period of romanticism, in the first half of the 19th century. The romantics, criticizing the bourgeois social relations that had developed after the American Revolution, reflected tragically upon the discrepancy between the ideals of the Revolution and the materialism of the real world. They sought to understand the contradictions of American history and impact of these contradictions on the American national character and defended the spiritual and cultural independence of the USA. Free from Calvinist dogma, they enriched Puritan literary traditions with vital social and psychological themes. They inherited a devotion to social critique from the Enlightenment, yet stressed, in contrast to 18th-century rationalism, the unpredictable and dramatic forces of life. In these forces they saw the latent struggle between good and evil, which they interpreted in a moral, religious, and sometimes mystical light. Certain features of American romanticism anticipated the moral and ideological searchings of 20th-century literature. These included the drama of man’s confrontation with the tragic reality of bourgeois society, as well as interest in subconscious psychological motivations and profound spiritual conflicts.
The history of American romanticism is divided into two periods. In the early period, from approximately 1810 through the 1830’s, various satirical genres and the historical novel predominated. W. Irving (1783–1859) combined comical tales of people and events of the colonial period with satirical descriptions of contemporary mores in his History of New York (1809), written under the pen name Diedrich Knickerbocker. In his short stories, for example, in the collection The Sketch Book (1820), he treated traditional European romantic motifs in a matter-of-fact style and described the psychological make-up of the typical American, with his common sense and ambition. Irving also wrote of the rapid changes in American life in his tale “Rip Van Winkle.”
The “natural man,” an ideal figure of the Enlightenment, was celebrated in the Leatherstocking Tales of J. F. Cooper (1789–1851). Cooper’s hero, Natty Bumppo, flees from civilization to the romantic world of the western frontier separating the European settlers from the Indian tribes. Cooper’s historical novels displayed realistic tendencies. The lyrical nature poetry of W. C. Bryant (1794–1878) expressed protest against bourgeois utilitarianism. The Southerners W. G. Simms (1806–70) and J. P. Kennedy (1795–1870) wrote historical novels on American themes, in which they set forth the conservative concept that the South was developing in its own distinct way, bypassing, as it were, the stage of bourgeois development.
During the 1830’s, the Young America movement struggled to assert the unique national character of American literature. A declaration of the country’s intellectual independence was proclaimed in the essay “The American Scholar” (1837) by R. W. Emerson (1803–82), leader of the transcendentalists. Influenced by Fourierism, the transcendentalists formed in 1841 the colony of Brook Farm, where they attempted to distribute labor rationally and simplify their lives, striving for spiritual rebirth. The colony was dissolved in 1846, when the individualist nature of transcendentalism became evident. This individualist trend was theoretically grounded in Emerson’s basic works, notably “Self-reliance” (1841) and Representative Men (1850). The highest artistic achievement of transcendentalism was the lyrical and publicist narrative by H. D. Thoreau (1817–62) Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854). A study of the moral duty of the individual, the work sharply criticized bourgeois social relations. It is also noted for the poetic images of the American countryside.
Writers who appeared during the second period of American romanticism (1840’s and 1850’s) included H. Melville (1819–91) and N. Hawthorne (1804–64). Characterized by a serious quest for philosophical and social truth, works of this period expressed a growing disenchantment with the spiritual values and morals of bourgeois America by poeticizing patriarchal life. Ideas reminiscent of Rousseau were expressed in Melville’s novels Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847). H. W. Longfellow (1807–82) contrasted the discord of civilization with the harmony of nature in the cycle The Birds of Killingworth (1863) and recalled the beauty of the vanished world of the Indians in The Song of Hiawatha (1855).
The loneliness of the gifted individual and his despair in the inhuman world of profiteers were profoundly revealed in the poems and short stories of E. A. Poe (1809–19). Poe combined precise sketches of society with grotesque (“fantastic”) depictions of the spiritually oppressed individual, imbuing his works with symbolism and allegory.
Hawthorne analyzed social evil and the intense repression of spiritual life and studied individualist morality as a characteristic trait of Americans in his short stories and novels, for example, The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851). These themes also appeared in the mature works of Melville. In his novel Moby-Dick, or The White Whale (1851), Melville created a complex system of philosophical symbols and treated the romantic theme of the individual’s rebellion against society, paralleling it with man’s struggle against his tragic lot on earth, an age-old struggle doomed to defeat.
The broad scope of the abolition movement of the 1850’s encouraged civic themes in American romantic literature and paved the way for a realistic trend. The novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by H. B. Stowe (1811–96) made a considerable impact on society, depicting scenes objectively revolutionary in theme. Contributions to abolitionist literature were made by Thoreau (the essay “Civil Disobedience;” 1849), by Longfellow, by the prose writer R. Hildteth (1807–65), by the poets J. R. Lowell (1819–91) and J. G. Whittier (1807–92), and by F. Douglass (1817–95).
During the Civil War (1861–65) popular songs and satirical works criticizing slavery flourished. The rise in democratic sentiments on the eve of and during the war awakened the creativity of the people and strengthened realistic tendencies in American literature. In 1855 the first edition of Leaves of Grass by W. Whitman (1819–92) was published. Whitman’s poetry played an enormous role in the emergence of realism and in the rebirth of poetic vision and the depiction of life in American literature. Whitman portrayed urban life with all its contrasts, focusing on the industrial revolution and the world of ordinary people, and created an unusually lyrical, true-to-life panorama of American life. Social development in the USA after the Civil War deeply disturbed him. The poetics of free verse and the principles of poetic realism, which Whitman employed in Leaves of Grass and developed fully in the book Democratic Vistas (1871), exerted an influence on 20th-century poetry throughout the world.
In the last third of the 19th century, realistic tendencies developed rapidly in American prose. The emergence of realism was facilitated by writers who truthfully depicted the everyday life and psychology of people from various parts of the country; these writers included Stowe, S. O. Jewett (1849–1909), and Bret Harte (1836–1902). Such regionalist literature showed the contradictions of life but drew no broad generalizations. Attempting to work out a theory of realist fiction, W. D. Howells (1837–1920) believed that literature should depict American types and living conditions; at the same time, however, he believed there was no cause for serious social criticism in the USA. Howells’ “pretty” realism subsequently underwent changes, and some of his novels, for example, A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), were marked by significant social content.
Realist writers initiated a struggle against apologetic literature and the aesthetic concepts of the Boston brahmins, who spurned “vulgarity” in art and upheld “genteel tradition.” Aestheticism was also characteristic of the literary views of H. James (1843–1916). James, who emigrated to Great Britain to escape the vulgar practicality of American life, expressed the incompata-bility of art and American culture in his novel The American (1877). A fine master of psychological prose, he revealed the inhumanity of bourgeois progress in The Princess Casamassima (1886) and wrote of the conflict between the creative individual and a world indifferent to art in “The Lesson of the Master” (1892).
American realism of the 19th century reached its high point in the works of Mark Twain (pen name of S. Clemens; 1835–1910), who, in the course of his writing career, gradually came to debunk the basic principles of the bourgeois social structure. Twain depicted the many faces of contemporary America, capturing the world view typical of various strata of Americans. His versatile talent ranged from the straightforward humor of The Innocents Abroad (1869) to the intricate philosophy of “The Mysterious Stranger” (published 1916). The mature works of Twain, for example, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), provided a basis for 20th-century realist prose, which strove toward a fictional study of the unique drama of American daily life.
The transition from the 19th to the 20th century in literature became evident in the works of the master of the ironic short story, O. Henry (pen name of W. S. Porter; 1862–1910), and the prose writers E. Wharton (1862–1937), who wrote about old New York, and W. Cather (1876–1947), who depicted life in Nebraska.
During the 1890’s, naturalism gained prominence in American literature. Avoiding the extremes of social Darwinism, naturalist writers encouraged criticism of society. H. Garland (1860–1940) and F. Norris (1870–1902), for example, attempted to openly depict the social contradictions and class conflicts of the era of developed capitalism. S. Crane (1871–1900) dealt with the tragic life of outcasts in the big city. In The Red Badge of Courage (1895), Crane truthfully portrayed harsh scenes of the Civil War. A. Bierce (1842–1914?) also described such scenes in an honest unromanticized style. At the end of the 19th century, drama and poetry stagnated. The only important works of the period were the lyric poems of E. Dickinson (1830–86), whose work was little known during her lifetime. Negro literature produced notable works, for example, the poetry of P. L. Dunbar (1872–1906).
As the USA entered the era of imperialism, social criticism in literature intensified. The group known as the muckrakers, which included J. L. Steffens (1866–1936), published works exposing corruption and social contradictions. Mark Twain culminated his literary career with antiimperialist pamphlets.
By the early 20th century, a school of American critical realism had taken shape. The inevitability of political conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat was predicted in The Iron Heel (1907) by J. London (1876–1916). London’s novel Martin Eden dealt with the tragedy of an artist of the people who is destroyed by bourgeois entrepreneurship. Analysis and sharp criticism of society and an understanding of the profound crisis of American democracy characterized the works of T. Dreiser (1871–1945). In An American Tragedy (1925), Dreiser exposed the myth of “equal opportunity.” The young U. Sinclair (1878–1968), who embraced socialism, showed the inhumanity of capitalist exploitation in the novel The Jungle (1906), while in Jimmy Higgins (1919) he dealt with the growth of revolutionary consciousness among workers.
In the second decade of the 20th century, writers who advocated revolution organized around the journal The Masses (founded 1911). Outstanding among them were the critic R. Bourne (1886–1918), who supported principles of Marxist aesthetics, and the publicist J. Reed (1887–1920), who wrote an outstanding work about the October Revolution of 1917, Ten Days That Shook the World (1919). Socialist ideals were glorified by the poet Joe Hill (1879–1915). Progressive literature was noticeably influenced by the works of M. Gorky, highly praised by Bourne and London.
Outstanding realist poets included R. Frost (1874–1963), C. Sandburg (1878–1967), and E. L. Masters (1869–1950), who revived the traditions of Whitman and the romantic poets. These traditions were continued by E. A. Robinson (1869–1935) and were reconceived by a new generation, which strove to create a panorama of contemporary America and convey important social and philosophical themes.
E. O’Neill (1888–1953), a leading American playwright, emerged during this period. Beginning his career with a series of innovative plays, O’Neill in his mature works explored complex themes with profound psychological insight, as in the plays Mourning Becomes Electra (1931) and Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1940; published 1956).
A modernist school of literature eventually was formed. The poets E. Pound (1885–1972) and T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) and the prose writer G. Stein (1874–1946) cut their ties with America, considering that the triumph of bourgeois utilitarianism in the country precluded any genuine culture. Their attempts at artistic expression, which influenced 20th-century literature in the West, were, however, essentially limited and formalistic. Only rarely did these expatriate writers deal with the conflicts and fears of the times, as Eliot did in The Waste Land (1922). With respect to social issues, the modernists occupied extreme right-wing positions.
Ideological and aesthetic differentiation intensified in American literature as a result of the October Revolution in Russia and democratic movements of the interwar years. The writers who emeged after World War I (1914–18), the “lost generation,” expressed young people’s lack of faith in the ideals of the “rational” bourgeois world order. Writing bitterly of young lives wasted in the trenches, they reflected upon the demise of a rational and orderly life. The harsh lessons of war instilled in many of them a sense of man’s tragic fate. Such themes appeared in the early works of E. Hemingway (1899–1961), notably The Sun Also Rises (1926) and A Farewell to Arms (1929), in Three Soldiers (1921) by J. Dos Passos (1896–1970), the books of F. S. Fitzgerald (1896–1940), and the novel The Enormous Room (1922) by E. E. Cummings (1894–1962), who subsequently became a prominent expressionist poet.
Critical realism flourished in the 1920’s. The talent of the outstanding satirist S. Lewis (1885–1951) developed considerably, Dreiser enjoyed an especially creative period, and several young writers produced innovative works. A clearer perception of the world’s beauty and awareness of man’s premature spiritual and emotional emptiness determined the unique narrative style of the American novel during this period. The most important achievement of experimental prose during the 1920’s was the novel The Sound and the Fury (1929) by W. Faulkner (1897–1962). The novel, which expresses the disintegration of human ties, is noted for its profound analysis of the dialectics of the soul, which Faulkner presented by innovatively expressing time as a character’s perception of events in his family’s history and in his own life. Other common themes of the period were insurmountable loneliness and the search for a reliable moral code in the amoral, spiritually empty atmosphere of modern America. The heroes of Dreiser’s An American Tragedy and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925), for example, undergo moral decay as a result of the venality and egoism that eventually possess their very consciousness.
Writers became more interested in the everyday life of the average American, especially the inhabitant of the American small town. S. Anderson (1876–1941) introduced the “grotesque” hero into American literature. In his short-story collection Winesburg, Ohio (1919), for example, his hero is shattered by reality, spiritually crushed, and pitiful and tragic in his strivings for meaning and humanity in his life. Satire was intricately interwoven with compassion for such a hero in Lewis’s novels Main Street (1920) and Babbit (1922). In the short stories of R. Lardner (1885–1933) the very same character, at first portrayed as a heartless philistine, eventually becomes a victim of society’s indifference. In poetry this theme was developed by Masters. Alienation, loss of personal identity, and social contradictions in the large industrial city were major themes of Sandburg’s collection Smoke and Steel (1920) and the poems of W. C. Williams (1883–1963).
The novels of T. Wolfe (1900–38) dealt with the tragedy of a gifted individual confronted by the pragmatism, stagnation, and impersonality of the surrounding world. Combining lyrical ardor with a realistic depiction of everyday life, Wolfe created a new epic genre. Called roman-potok (“stream novel”) in Russian, Wolfe’s genre described everyday existence and the hero’s spiritual life as a continuous flow of events.
The Great Depression (1929–33) aggravated existing social antagonisms, which were reflected in the literature of the 1930’s, the “red decade.” The 1930’s saw qualitative shifts in 20th-century American critical realism, in particular, a deepening of social themes and a more assertive struggle for humanist ideals. Democratic forces in literature opposed oligarchy and the threat of fascism, resulting in the organization of John Reed clubs and the League of American Writers. Many writers supported the Spanish Republic. Hemingway dealt with Spain in his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). This novel and his novel To Have and Have Not (1937), both of which express an unshakable faith in man and humanism, marked a turning point in Hemingway’s career. In his novel It Can’t Happen Here (1935), Lewis exposed covert and overt adherents of fascism in the USA. The life and struggle of the working class were major themes of the collaborative work The Harlan Miners Speak: Report on Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields (1932), Anderson’s novel Beyond Desire, and the works of J. T. Farrell (1904–79) and J. Steinbeck (1902–68).
Socialist ideals, which influenced American literature during the 1930’s, were supported by Dreiser in his publicist collection Tragic America (1931), by Sandburg in his narrative poem The People, Yes (1936), by Dos Passos in the trilogy U.S.A. (1930–36), and by the playwright C. Odets (1906–63) and the poet A. MacLeish (born 1892). Steinbeck created an epic about the wretched lives of migrant farmers, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), in which he conveyed the turmoil of the class struggle. Pressing social problems were depicted in the novels Tobacco Road (1932) and God’s Little Acre (1933) by E. Caldwell (born 1903).
During the 1930’s, Negro literature developed fully as a distinct branch of American literature. L. Hughes (1902–67) considered the tasks of the poet to be directly related to the struggle of the oppressed. R. Wright (1908–60) in his novel Native Son (1940) depicted racial inequality and the resulting dehumanization of man.
Faulkner’s novels Light in August (1932) and Absalom, Absalom! (1936) and the trilogy consisting of The Hamlet (1940), The Town (1957), and The Mansion (1959) were fictional studies of the American South. These works examined the ruin of individuals hopelessly oppressed by racial prejudice and materialism.
The social upsurge after World War II (1939–45) gave way to a period of reaction. As a result of McCarthyism, Dos Passos, Sinclair, and other formerly progressive writers abandoned their ideals of the 1930’s. Traces of existentialism, which became widespread after the war, were evident in works of war veterans, who truthfully described the ugly effects of army life and combat. Militarism was assailed by N. Mailer (born 1923) in the novel The Naked and the Dead (1948) and by J. Jones (1921–77) in the novel From Here to Eternity (1951). Powerful antifascist statements were made by R. P. Warren (born 1905) in All the King’s Men (1946) and by K. A. Porter (born 1890) in Ship of Fools (1962).
By the mid-1950’s, the atmosphere affecting literary life in the USA had become less oppressive. J. D. Salinger (born 1919) became known for his novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951) and the short-story collection Nine Stories (1953), and J. Updike (born 1932) wrote the novel Rabbit, Run (1960). These representative works conveyed the emptiness of human existence and the tragedy of man’s search for moral support in an impersonal and indifferent world. Writers of the “beat generation,” including the poets A. Ginsberg (born 1926), G. Corso (born 1930), and L. Ferlinghetti (born 1919) and the prose writer J. Kerouac (1922–69), were among the first to rebel against McCarthyism. They revealed American “prosperity” to be a hideous manifestation of the country’s indifference to social issues and its intellectual uniformity. However, the social and moral credo of the beatniks, which revived certain attitudes of the lost generation of the 1920’s, was essentially anarchistic. As a result, the beat generation soon came to an end.
A much more profound analysis of the spiritual and ethical consequences of McCarthyism characterized the plays of A. Miller (born 1915), for example, Death of a Salesman (1949), A View From the Bridge (1955), and The Price (1968). In these works, Miller expressed his belief that man must bear certain personal and social responsibilities. Many plays by T. Williams (born 1914), despairing in tone, depict the inhuman chaos of capitalist society, where there is no place for true beauty. The growing barriers between people and the degradation of moral values became common themes in American plays, for example, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) by E. Albee (born 1928), who was influenced by the theater of the absurd.
Modern American poetry has decried the extinction of human emotions and man’s personal identity and the transformation of man into a mere statistic. Ethical problems have been reflected in the works of R. Lowell (1917–77), R. Wilbur (born 1921), D. Levertov (born 1923), and many other poets striving to express that life is unpredictable and incapable of rationalization. Important themes in poetry have included the complexity of the world, interest in everything illogical and odd, and the contradictions of human existence, which, however, do not upset life’s supreme harmony. These themes were subtly conveyed by W. Stevens (1879–1955) and T. Roethke (1908–63). J. Berryman (1914–72), R. Jarrell (1914–65), and other poets of the wartime generation understood modern man’s severe emotional traumas and his inability to become close to other people or to nature. During the period of the Vietnam War, political themes were reflected in poetry and in literature in general; writers played a significant role in the antiwar movement. Socialist traditions have been upheld by W. Lowenfels (born 1897) and T. McGrath (born 1916).
The civil rights movement encouraged Negro literature. Wright, influenced by modernism, wrote the novel The Long Dream (1958), in which he dealt with the psychological alienation caused by racial conflict. The failure of a young Negro to overcome feelings of racial inferiority fostered in him since childhood was described in the novel The Invisible Man (1952) by R. Ellison (born 1914). J. Baldwin (born 1924) wrote of the tormented efforts of Negro intellectuals to break out of their spiritual ghetto in Another Country (1962) and the growth of civic self-awareness among the common people in the collection of essays No Name in the Street (1972). The novels of J. O. Killens (born 1916) and the poetry of L. Jones (I. A. Baraka; born 1934) at times express distorted left-wing views.
American novels of the 1960’s and 1970’s sensitively capture the social contradictions in the country’s development and reveal a marked disillusionment with bourgeois values. The quest for a spiritual and moral code has led to an estrangement from the restraints of bourgeois society. This estrangement has caused avant-garde writers to turn to nihilism, as in the case of J. Barth (born 1930), or to justify immorality, as in the case of W. Burroughs (born 1914). Realistic literature emphasizes the moral determination of the hero, for example, The Eighth Day (1967) by T. Wilder (1897–1975) and the works of S. Bellow (born 1915).
From various points of view, F. O’Connor (1925–64), J. Cheever (born 1912), W. Styron (born 1925), and J. C. Oates (born 1938) have dealt with spiritual emptiness and the violent, destructive pseudoculture that inspires protest in their heroes. K. Vonnegut (born 1922), who analyzes the pragmatic man and his adulation of science, considers social issues and ethics to be superfluous, for example, in Cat’s Cradle (1963). Man’s relationship to science has also been discussed in science fiction by R. Bradbury (born 1920) and R. Sheckley (born 1928). Nonfic-tion writing has been successfully developed. Notable works have been written on political struggle (Mailer’s The Armies of the Night, 1968) and crime (In Cold Blood, 1965; by T. Capote [born 1924]). Tragic events of modern times were discussed in Hiroshima (1946) and The Algiers Motel Incident: Three Killings in Detroit (1968) by J. Hersey (born 1914) and in reports on Vietnam by M. McCarthy (born 1912).
American writers have been influenced by philosophical concepts that proclaim human life to be absurd and man—a slave of instincts—a plaything in the hands of fate; these concepts were based mainly on existentialism and Freudianism. The hero, frequently alienated from the world, remains a bystander in society and tries in vain to cast off the burden of his isolation. In the best works, modernist influences are overcome by precise social analysis and humanistic conviction, notably books by J. Heller (born 1923), Styron, and Capote, all of whom were influenced by Freudianism and existentialism.
Twentieth-century American literature has responded noticeably to the most recent phenomena of the crisis of bourgeois society. These phenomena include the destruction of the individual, the aggravation of social antagonisms, the growth of nihilist attitudes, the crushing of liberal illusions, the imposition of rigid intellectual restraints, and the distorted development of the scientific and technological revolution under capitalism. Striving to establish a reliable ideological and moral code and to effectively express ideas relevant to modern society, American writers have introduced innovations into their prose, poetry, and drama. Common literary devices include the interior monologue, a narrative style reminiscent of modern cinema, and precise, documentary-like description. Literary trends of the 1970’s include departure from traditional genres, the depiction of true events, and the use of symbolism, elements of the grotesque, and allegory.
The USA also produces conservative, conformist, anticommunist literature. This literature attempts to impart faith in the “ideals” of businessmen and militarists and frightens readers with myths of the cold war. Since the 1950’s, cheap reading matter, a manifestation of mass culture, has become a major force in the book trade. Largely devoid of art, such literature is primarily a social phenomenon of modern bourgeois society—a tool for the ideological suppression of the individual. It is far inferior to the works of great writers, who strive for uncompromising social analysis and recognize the serious responsibility of literature.
American literature gained worldwide recognition in the 1920’s, although certain writers, for example, Poe, Whitman, and Twain, had been admired abroad much earlier. The best works of American literature are characterized by a growing awareness of the alienation of bourgeois social relations from man’s basic needs and a recognition of the writer’s duty to the people.
Literary history and criticism in the USA date from the early 20th century. The school of historical culture was active during the early period of American literary scholarship, from approximately 1910 through the 1920’s. The most prominent representatives of the school were V. L. Parrington (1871–1929) and V. W. Brooks (1886–1963), who attempted to interpret literary history from a sociocultural point of view. They paid particular attention to the democratic and realist traditions of American literature and to a theoretical study of major historical trends and writers. At the same time, their works reflected the influence of positivism and simplified sociological concepts. These tendencies were largely overcome in the best works of F. O. Matthieson (1902–50) and M. Cowley (born 1898). They and other prominent literary scholars of the 1930’s and 1940’s combined a socio-historical approach to literature with a more profound analysis of its specifics, although they did not produce such broad, comprehensive works as Parrington’s Main Currents in American Thought (vols. 1–3, 1927–30).
A democratic trend developed within the polemics engaged in by numerous schools of formal literary history and criticism. The new schools of literature reflected the philosophical and aesthetic ideas of the New Humanists, notably I. Babbitt (1865–1933) and P. E. More (1864–1937). Organized during the 1920’s, the New Humanists proclaimed the artistic independence of literature and the immanence of its laws of development. These ideas also served as the basis of the New Criticism, a school that considers each literary work as a distinct system of images and meanings. Prominent members of the school included A. Tate (1899–1979) and J. C. Ransom (1888–1974). After dominating literary history and criticism during the 1930’s and 1940’s, the New Criticism was largely replaced during the 1960’s by Freudian, existentialist, and structuralist schools of critical literary analysis. These schools recognize that literature is to a certain degree dependent on social reality; however, they strive to interpret literary works not as objective studies of life but rather as models based on the philosophical principles of a given school.
===REFERENCES===
Istoriia amerikanskoi literatury, vol. 1. Moscow-Leningrad, 1947.Parrington, V. L. Osnovnye techeniia amerikanskoi mysli, vols. 1–3. Moscow, 1962–63. (Translated from English.)
Problemy istorii literatury SShA. Moscow, 1964.Mendel’son, M. O. Sovremennyi amerikanskii roman. Moscow, 1964.Orlova, R. Potomki Gekl’berri Finna. Moscow, 1964.Zasurskii, Ia. N. Amerikanskaia literatura XX v. Moscow, 1966.Finkelstein, S. Ekzistentsializm i problema otchuzhdeniia v amerikanskoi literature. Moscow, 1967. (Translated from English.)Brooks, V. W. Pisatel’ i amerikanskaia zhizn’, vols. 1–2. Moscow, 1967–71. (Translated from English.)Kashkin, I. A. Dlia chilatelia-sovremennika. Moscow, 1968.
Sovremennoe literaturovedenie SShA. Moscow, 1969.
Problemy literatury SShA XX v. Moscow, 1970.Allen, W. Traditsiia i mechta. Moscow, 1970. (Translated from English.)Startsev, A. I. Ot Uitmena do Khemingueia. Moscow, 1972.Matthiessen, F. O. Otvetstvennost’ kritiki. Moscow, 1972. (Translated from English.)Cowley, M. Dom so mnogimi oknami. Moscow, 1973. (Translated from English.)
Osnovnye tendenlsii razvitiia sovremennoi literatury SShA. Moscow, 1973.
Literary History of the United States. Edited by R. E. Spiller [et al.]. New York, 1963.
The Cambridge History of American Literature, vols. 1–3. Edited by W. P. Trent [et al.]. New York-Cambridge, 1946.Hart, J. The Oxford Companion to American Literature. New York, 1965.A. M. ZVEREV
The artistic culture of the Indian tribes, who were at various stages of the communal-clan system, developed from very ancient times on the territory of the USA. The Indians of the Southwest built large multilevel communal dwellings, known as pueblos, and partly underground ceremonial structures, known as kivas. Their pottery was decorated with highly stylized representations of birds, deer, and insects. Great expressiveness characterized the clay pipes and stone, clay, and wooden images of persons and animals produced by the Indians of the forest zone.
As a result of colonization, American Indian art was often destroyed and, for the most part, has disappeared. A number of Indian crafts have, however, been preserved: these include the polychrome woodcarvings with mythological motifs of the Indians of the Northwest Pacific Coast, the sand paintings and patterned woven blankets of the Indians of the Southwest, and the feather decorations and painted garments and teepees of the Indians of the Plains.
From the 16th through 18th centuries European culture spread throughout America. It was brought first to the South and Southeast by the Spanish and later to the Northeast by the Dutch and the English and to the lower reaches of the Mississippi River by the French. The diversity of natural conditions and of the national traditions and social makeup of the colonists led to the stylistic and typological variants of architecture even in the early years of the colonial period. In the regions of present-day Arizona, California, Texas, Florida, and, especially, New Mexico the traditions of Indian and Mexican architecture found reflection in the simple forms and carved portals of the massive reinforced mission buildings and churches. New England architecture, marked by a rugged strength, developed under the influence of the severe climate and the Puritan way of life, which was based on English medieval traditions and the use of very simple technical means.
In the mid-18th century plantation houses in Virginia and Maryland acquired a symmetrical composition reminiscent of that of Palladian villas. Beginning at the end of the 17th century cities were organized according to grid plans (for example, the plan for Philadelphia, 1682, drawn up with the participation of W. Penn), and generalized standard designs were gradually established in construction.
Portrait painting was the predominant form of representational art during the colonial period. Religious painting was popular only in the Southwest, where it was introduced by Spanish Catholic missionaries. The portraiture executed in the Northeast in the 17th and early 18th centuries is permeated by a spirit of sober practicality; despite its provinciality and primitive two-dimensionality it imparts a sense of meticulousness and truthfulness. In the mid-18th century faithful portrayals of colonists and Indians were produced by the portraitists G. Hesselius, J. Smibert, and R. Feke. J. S. Copley’s portraits reveal the strong character, energy, and practicality of Americans. B. West’s portraits and scenes from American history combine academic idealization with a rendering of specific ethnographic details.
The rise of national self-awareness and the spread of democratic ideas during the American Revolution (1775–83) were reflected in many ways in American culture at the turn of the 19th century. Outstanding examples of American classicism in architecture during this period were the civic-spirited structures designed by C. Bulfinch and the statesman T. Jefferson. Late-18th-century portraitists created psychological studies of revolutionary heroes and ordinary citizens. The portraits of R. Earl are noted for their severity and faithful portrayal, and those of C. W. Peale are distinguished by innovative conceptions. G. Stuart’s portraits are marked by a virtuoso technique and by sensitive and faithful portrayal. J. Trumbull’s historical paintings reflect the fervor of the participants in the struggle for liberation.
In the 1790’s construction of a new capital, Washington, D.C., was begun. P. C. L’Enfant superimposed radial main avenues and ceremonial esplanades on a grid pattern of streets. The resulting plan was a synthesis of American pragmatism and the baroque idea of “the city as a work of art. “The city’s layout is dominated by the Capitol (1793–1865, architects W. Thornton, B. Latrobe, T. Walter, and others), whose overall stately appearance is not diminished by the decorative interpretation of classical devices. Classicism predominated in official architecture until the 1840’s, when it was superseded by the romantic images of the Gothic revival and, subsequently, by eclecticism.
In the early 19th century disillusionment with bourgeois rationalism manifested itself in the romantic tendencies seen in W. Allston’s paintings. The Iandscapists of the Hudson River school, including T. Cole and J. F. Kensett, created romantic effects to convey their enthusiasm for the discovery of untouched nature, but their paintings were frequently marked by triviality and a dryness of technique. Formal portraiture was also popular at this time (for example, the works of J. Neagle and S. F. B. Morse).
Also developing in the first half of the 19th century was genre painting, which was realistic and unpretentious in style. The everyday life of simple people and an interest in the commonplace were conveyed in the works of W. S. Mount, G. C. Bingham, and E. Johnson. Americans from various social strata were vividly depicted in portraits by T. Sully, and the ornithologist J. J. Audubon reproduced scenes from nature in his watercolors.
The character of large-scale construction in the 19th century was determined by the introduction of new and efficient types of structural components. Beginning in the 1830’s and 1840’s timber trussed framing was used in the construction of apartment buildings; the use of metal framing in the construction of industrial, commercial, and administrative buildings was introduced in the late 1840’s (for example, structures by the engineer J. Bogardus).
After the Civil War (1861–65) the country entered a period of intensive industrial development. The headlong growth of construction required the constant improvement of building methods. Unprecedentedly massive forms emerged in bridge construction (for example, bridges designed by the engineers J. Roebling and W. Roebling). The speculative rise in land values in business centers necessitated greater building heights; such heights were made possible by the invention of the elevator in 1852 and the perfection of the metal frame. In the 1880’s and 1890’s a new type of multistory office building—the skyscraper—came into being. There was an awareness of the need to relate professional architecture to natural rationalistic traditions and to utilize new technology to create new artistic forms; this new awareness was expressed in articles written by H. Greenough.
H. H. Richardson designed massive structures that combined Romanesque elements with a striving for rationality and “truth” in expression. He influenced the formation of the Chicago school, which arose during the rebuilding of Chicago after the fire of 1871 and developed modern engineering techniques and architectural forms. W. Le Baron Jenney was the first to design a building whose skeleton was completely of steel; he thus unified architectural form and rational construction methods. The purest example of steel-frame construction was the multistory Reliance Building in Chicago (1890–94, architects D. H. Burnham and J. W. Root). The architecture of L. Sullivan contrasted with that of the other architects of the Chicago school, who strove to satisfy purely commercial requirements. Sullivan sought to introduce new aesthetic forms in his multistory architecture.
In the 1880’s and 1890’s another tradition derived from Richardson—the shingle style—was developed. Employed in the design of homes for the more affluent, the shingle style combined a romantic picturesqueness with a sense of grandeur and comfort. The dominant trend in American architecture during this period was eclecticism, a trend that openly sought to appeal to the wealthy bourgeoisie. The popularity of this trend was influenced by the World’s Fair of 1893 in Chicago, whose overall layout (architect D. H. Burnham) derived from classicism yet whose individual pavilions were designed in architectural styles characterized by unrestrained lavishness. The direct copying of architectural motifs and details became widespread. For example, the interiors of public buildings designed by C. F. McKim, W. Mead, and S. White were decorated with reproductions of motifs from Roman baths. The architect C. Gilbert concealed the frame of his skyscrapers behind a Gothic facade. The architects H. Bacon and J. R. Pope adhered strictly to academic formulas.
The representational arts of the second half of the 19th century were dominated by a “pseudo-salon” trend, a trend that provoked two different reactions. The symbolism of A. P. Ryder, filled with dark fantasies, was an innovative protest against the culture of the prospering bourgeoisie. At the same time, with the development of the democratic movement, the most important American realistic painters appeared on the scene. Their work was based on native tradition and the experience of European art. W. Homer, whose early works consisted of illustrations of Civil War scenes, contrasted the conditions of bourgeois urban civilization with the joys of rural life. Later works dramatically represented the arduous life of sailors and hunters amid the natural forces of the sea or forest. T. Eakins, with an uncompromising truthfulness, depicted urban life and his contemporaries, including noted persons in the science, art, and sports worlds. G. Inness brought the experience of the Barbizon school to American landscape painting. American impressionists included J. Whistler, whose realistic portraits and lyrical landscapes are marked by ingenuity and subtlety, and M. Cassatt, whose paintings on the theme of motherhood are noted for a sense of spontaneity and purity. J. S. Sargent, while compromising his art to the tastes of fashionable society, painted a number of vivid psychological portraits. W. Harnett, a master of the narrative still life, based his work on the American tradition of painting. The sculptor A. Saint-Gaudens achieved a position of artistic prominence with his realistic monuments, portraits, and burial monuments.
In the early 20th century F. L. Wright developed the principle of organic architecture set forth in the theoretical works of his mentor, L. Sullivan. His residential structures visually merge with the surrounding landscape and evoke a sense of “interflowing” architectural space. Closely related to Wright’s architecture were the works of certain California architects, including I. Gill and the brothers C. Greene and H. Greene, who combined local traditions with elements anticipating functionalism. In the early 1900’s A. Kahn established an architectural firm specializing in the design of large, functionally planned industrial complexes combining a sober practicality to meet economic requirements with bold engineering solutions.
Eclecticism remained popular throughout the early 20th century, becoming more and more extravagant. In the 1920’s mass culture was dispensed through motion-picture theaters, whose vulgar and ostentatious luxury reinforced the consolatory myths of the Hollywood “dream factory.”
The ideas of rational architecture, as set forth by the Chicago school, were forgotten for a long time and reappeared in the USA as a European style (for example, the apartment houses built by R. Neutra in California in the mid-1920’s). By the early 1930’s superficial forms of functionalism were incorporated into the design of multistory buildings (for example, the 102-story Empire State Building, 1930–31, architectural firm of Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon). However, urban construction was spontaneous and unplanned. The attempt to create an ensemble of multistory buildings in New York at Rockefeller Center (1931–10) was not crowned with success. Nevertheless, new ideas did emerge during the 1920’s for organizing low-rise housing and for designing superblocks, having pedestrian walks and allowing no through traffic (architect C. Stein). In the 1930’s Wright’s concepts of “nature philosophy” became widespread, in opposition to the extremes of technical development. A series of apartment houses designed near Boston in the late 1930’s by W. Gropius and M. L. Breuer led to the development of a regional trend in New England architecture, a trend combining functionalism with local traditions.
During World War II (1939–15) prefabricated construction developed in the USA. A new type of industrial building—an enormous, multispan structure lacking natural lighting and having a flat roof—was introduced. After the war American metallurgy (whose plant capacity had been increased during the war) directed much of its production for use in construction and thereby fostered the development of an “architecture of steel and aluminum.” Such slogans advanced by the USA as “integrating the West” were associated with the aim to create a “supernational style” and a “universal language” of architectural forms. Put forth as a standard were the works of L. Mies van der Rohe, who strove to express “absolute,” “timeless” values in the abstract-ness of elementary geometrical figures, in the clarity of right angles, and in the continuity of a glass shell. More accessible for imitation than the works of Mies van der Rohe was the glassparallelepiped Lever House in New York (1950–52, architect G. Bunschaft, architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill), which became a model for numerous buildings in the USA and Western Europe.
Since the end of the 1950’s, as a result of changing ideological trends, there has been a shift to a new variant of neoclassicism, as seen in the architecture of E. D. Stone. Rigorous logic has been replaced by traditional monumentality and a sophisticated decorative quality (for example, the structures of M. Yamasaki). The culmination of the neoclassicism of the 1960’s was the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York (1962–68, architects W. K. Harrison, M. Abramovitz, P. Johnson, Eero Saarinen, and others). The complex’s symmetrical main square is flanked by rectangular buildings with modern porticoes. The last important example of organic architecture is the Guggenheim Museum in New York (designed 1943, built 1956–59, architect F. L. Wright). The museum’s closed, inward-directed composition is concentrated around an enclosed court, surrounded by a concrete spiral ramp.
Many architects have used devices developed in various architectural styles. For example, Eero Saarinen, who at first was a follower of Mies van der Rohe, made a transition to the curvilinear forms of organic architecture and, subsequently, to elements of the Gothic Revival.
The commercial buildings of “big business” dating from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s are considered representative symbols because of their gigantic dimensions and overwhelming mas-siveness of upthrusted geometric forms. Examples of such structures are the world’s highest buildings—the two identical 110-story towers of the World Trade Center in New York (elevation 412 m, 1971–73, architects M. Yamasaki, E. Roth, and others) and the Sears Tower in Chicago (elevation 442 m, 1970–74, architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill). Seemingly weightless glass walls have given way to heavy exterior frames and emphatically massive load-bearing exterior walls of reinforced concrete or steel. L. Kahn’s structures are characterized by monumentality and a distinctive tension of architectural composition. Kahn reveals the most general structural principles and articulates each of the elements of his logically divided spaces. The intellectualism of P. Johnson, whose clearly defined structures are distinguished by great mass, is in opposition to the emphatic plasticity and striking contrasts of P. Rudolph’s structures. R. Venturi, the ideological leader of the young architects, calls for the expression in architecture of the complexity, contradictions, and significance of life’s phenomena. The critical burden of his concepts is expressed by the debunking of customary aesthetic ideas, by a deliberate prosaicism of image, and by an unusual use of traditional elements. In contrast to Venturi, K. Roche uses images of oppressive power in an apologetic way to express the strength of the USA. On the whole, American architecture of the 1960’s and 1970’s is characterized by instability and chaos. Low-rise construction, however, has remained conservative, subordinate to a few standardized designs.
In the mid-20th century a number of apartment complexes were built in New York, and various sections of Boston, Philadelphia, New Haven, and other cities underwent urban renewal. However, urban construction has not met the demands of the chaotic pace of urban growth. Large urbanized areas marked by the random alternation of residential, industrial, and commercial zones have arisen. A concentration of multistory buildings in urban centers is combined with a formless sprawl of low-rise housing over vast areas. The construction of expressways has not solved the cities’ traffic-related problems. Severe environmental pollution has led to a decline of the inner city and to a migration of the affluent to surrounding areas. It has also resulted in the creation of satellite cities for the “middle classes” in pleasant areas (for example, Reston and Columbia near Washington, D.C.) and in the growth of slums in districts adjacent to the commercial areas of cities. Another symptom of the urban crisis has been the emergence of large suburban shopping centers (architect V. Gruen).
The beginning of the 20th century witnessed an intensification of realistic tendencies in American art. New themes and means of expression were sought, and artists demonstrated a critical perception of reality. The development of progressive trends proceeded in a very sharp struggle with salon art (seeSALON ART) and, subsequently, with modernism. R. Henri founded a new realistic school, known as the ashcan school, whose proponents included J. Sloan, G. Luks, and W. Glackens. The ashcan school depicted the many sides of social life in a capitalist city; G. Bellows revealed the contradictions of American urban life with particular depth and power. Militantly political trends in graphic art developed, becoming particularly widespread after 1917. Progressive graphic artists included A. Young, R. Minor, W. Gropper, and F. Ellis, as well as H. Geliert, J. Burck, and other artists of the John Reed Club (founded 1929). Their art, which was linked with the labor press, was noted for its angry satire and lapidary style.
The American realistic tradition in painting and the graphic arts was developed further in the work of R. Kent, one of this century’s most important progressive artists, and in the paintings of E. Hopper and C. Burchfield. These three artists expressed profound thoughts on contemporary life; stylistically they achieved a simplicity and precision of form. The sculptors J. Epstein, W. Zorach, and P. Manship produced vividly realistic works.
During the 1930’s American isolationism nurtured the growth of a nationalistic artistic trend known as regionalism (T. H. Benton, G. Wood, J. S. Curry), which glorified—sometimes with a note of irony—the puritanism and uncrushable optimism of the provincial “100-percent American.” Also gaining popularity were the primitivist, for the most part idyllic, paintings of a number of self-taught artists, including Grandma Moses, H. Pippin, and J. Kane. At the same time there developed in painting and graphic arts a progressive political tendency expressed in a sharp and sometimes grotesque manner (B. Shahn, P. Evergood, J. Levine).
After the Armory Show of 1913 in New York, modernist art developed in the USA—for example, the colorful urbanistic fantasies of J. Marin, the abstract symbolism of A. Dove, the futurism of J. Stella, and the dadaism of M. Ray. An attempt to create a purely American variant of modernism was made by S. Davis and the precisionists (C. Sheeler, C. Demuth), whose composition, with their generalized forms and patches of pure color, incorporated devices derived from industry and advertising.
In the 1930’s elements of surrealism appeared in American painting (for example, in the work of G. O’Keeffe), and a number of European surrealists, including S. Dali and Y. Tanguy, settled in the USA. Bordering on surrealism was the gloomy art of A. Pickens and I. Albright, with its utter pessimism and its cult of the disintegration of all living things. Abstract expressionism developed in the 1940’s and spread rapidly; its leading practitioners were J. Pollock, A. Gorky, W. de Kooning, and M. Rothko. The most influential type of abstractionism, abstract expressionism emphasized the elemental energy of spots of color and strove to reduce painting to a recording of subconscious impulses or to a system of signs. Abstract sculpture was represented by the metal, sometimes mobile, constructions of A. Calder, D. Smith, and R. Lippold.
Since the mid-20th century modernist trends have taken on the character of a privileged art and have enjoyed official support. During the 1950’s and 1960’s the USA was the birthplace of one of the most extreme modernist trends—pop art. R. Rauschenberg, J. Johns, A. Warhol, R. Lichtenstein, and the other pop artists based their art on the alogism of banal everyday objects and bits of visual information taken out of context. Pop art often represents fetishism of certain objects and of standardized forms of mass culture, for example, comics and advertisements. Subsequent art movements include optical art (op art), “conceptual art,” and various trends that reduce art to “any manifestation of the artist’s will.”
Among young artists, however, there has been growing interest in objectivity, quality of depiction, and political expression. The early 1970’s marked the rise of photorealism, which reproduces by means of illusion individual fragments of life. As a style, photorealism has manifested itself in the USA primarily as a form of naturalism. Despite complex conditions, the classical tradition of realism has also developed, as seen in the poetic humanistic painting of A. Wyeth. The art of R. Soyer, M. Soyer, I. Olinsky, and J. Beauchamp depicts ordinary citizens of the USA, and the art of A. Refregier is permeated with social tension.
The USA has rich traditions of folk art. However, the art of the Indians, Negroes, Mexicans, and European settlers (and their descendants) has been destroyed in large measure or has suffered from competition with factory production.
Outstanding examples of American decorative applied arts have been preserved. Of particular note is furniture designed by such 17th- and 18th-century masters as T. Dennis and N. Disbrowe. Exquisite silverware was produced in the 17th and 18th centuries by J. Dummer, J. Coney, and P. Revere. At the turn of the 20th century L. C. Tiffany designed glasswork in the art nouveau style. American design took form in the late 1920’s and in the 1930’s under the influence of the Chicago architectural school and European rationalism (including the Bauhaus). Primarily commercial in nature, it employs methods frequently amounting to no more than the efficient design of industrial products. Nevertheless, it is an indispensable link in the industrial planning of the various sectors of capitalist industry. Designers work for specialized firms or in the design departments of companies and other commercial enterprises. Major American designers include H. Earl, H. Dreyfuss, C. Eames, W. D. Teague, N. B. Geddes, and R. Loewy. Furniture, lighting fixtures, and other furnishings are frequently made in accordance with the designs of major architects (for example, F. L. Wright, E. Saarinen, P. Johnson).
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Vystavka proizvedenii amerikanskikh khudozhnikov (catalog). Moscow, 1959.Chegodaev, A. D. Iskusstvo Soedinennykh Shtatov ot voiny za nezavisimost’ do nashikh dnei. Moscow, 1960.Chegodaev, A. D. Iskusstvo Soedinennykh shtatov Ameriki, 1675–1975: Zhivopis’. Arkhitektura. Skul’ptura. Grafika. Moscow, 1976.
Noveishaia arkhitektura SShA (1945–1960). Moscow, 1963.Ikonnikov, A. “Sovremennaia arkhitektura SShA—tendentsii i poiski.” Arkhitektura SSSR, 1974, no. 6.McCallum, I. Architecture USA. London [1959].Mumford, L. Roots of Contemporary American Architecture. New York [1959].Larkin, O. W. Art and Life in America. New York [I960].Buchard, J., and A. Bush-Brown. The Architecture of America: A Social and Cultural History. Boston-Toronto [1961].McCoubrey, J. W. American Art 1700–1960: Sources and Documents. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey [1965].Fielding, M. Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers. New York, 1965.Richardson, E. P. Painting in America: From 1502 to the Present. New York [1965].Green, S. M. American Art: A Historical Survey. New York [1966].Hunter, S. Modern American Painting and Sculpture, 8th ed. New York [1967],Scully, V. American Architecture and Urbanism. New York-Washington [1969].Stern, R. New Directions in American Architecture. New York, [1969].Baigell, M. A History of American Painting. New York [1971],A. V. IKONNIKOV (architecture) and A. G. KOSTENEVICH (art)
The music of the USA is unique owing to the country’s historical development and its diversified national makeup. American music was created by immigrants from various countries, who brought their own national traditions with them, and the fusion of these traditions served as the basis of American musical culture. American music has also reflected the later influences of the music of various peoples of Europe, Africa, and Asia.
The oldest musical culture in what is now the USA is that of the North American Indians, the original inhabitants of the country. The musical art of the numerous Indian tribes, still preserved on reservations, stems from a complex system of rituals and customs, both religious and everyday. The music itself is mono-phonic and uses a pentatonic scale. In the songs, melody is subordinate to rhythm, and the singing is characterized by various effects that imitate sounds in nature. The instruments used include flutes, whistles, drums, and rattles.
During the early colonization of North America (16th—17th centuries), American musical culture was, in fact, the musical culture of England. Subsequently, the way of life of the Puritan settlers, characterized by energy and austerity, demanded a more dynamic musical art than that of the mother country. In place of the old monophonic psalms a livelier and more flexible form became widespread—religious hymns, which were also sung outside of church and which were composed by semiprofessionals, such as E. Law, O. Holden, and J. Morgan. A movement arose that led to the spread of schools of singing, and important collections of psalms and hymns were published by J. Lyon (Urania) and, especially, W. Billings, whose music was distinguished by its originality and high artistic merits. The new trends of 18th-century English music—musical works for the stage and music making in the home—became established in America, thus laying the foundation for the development of a secular musical tradition. Various national musical cultures, primarily English, began developing, fostered by musicians who had received their professional training in Europe: J. C. G. Graupner in Boston, J. Hewitt, J. C. Moller, and V. Pelissier in New York, and A. Reinagle, the Carr family, R. Taylor, and F. Hopkinson in Philadelphia. Hopkin-son, a native American, composed The Temple of Minerva (1781)—the first American work for the musical stage—as well as patriotic songs. In the town of Bethlehem, Pa., a religious community was founded by the Unity of the Brethren of the Moravian Church. The first in the country to actually teach music, it organized the musical society known as the Collegium Musicum (1744).
Alongside the development of European music brought to America, native American musical forms arose and developed; they included religious hymns, various types of folk music (primarily of rural origins), and the tradition of the brass band. The religious hymn merged with the ballad genre and was often sung by as many as 20,000 persons at religious meetings. The brass bands became permanent features of holiday celebrations. P. S. Gilmore was the leader of the first well-known band. The patriotic song, a particularly important genre, arose during the American Revolution (for example, “Yankee Doodle,” which has been preserved), and its traditions were continued during the American Civil War (for example, in the songs of G. F. Root and H. C. Work).
Negro musical art played a special role in the development of American music. Negro slaves, brought over from Africa, were the bearers of an ancient and original musical culture. They developed the spiritual—the first synthetic Afro-American musical form—as well as plantation songs (hollers, shout songs, and old ritual songs). Another unique development was the appearance of highly unusual vocal-instrumental ensembles in which the performers made themselves up as Negroes and imitated the Negro’s rhythmic movements and performing style. Performances in this style, which became established during the second quarter of the 19th century and which was linked with general anti-Puritan trends, came to be known as Ethiopian, or minstrel, shows. They played an important role in developing contacts between the cultures of the European settlers and the African slaves. Topicality and parody of fashionable musical genres imported from Europe (such as Italian opera and salon music) as well as certain aspects of American life were of great importance in establishing the country’s national culture. The best of such minstrel groups, including the Virginia Minstrels, directed by D. D. Emmett, and G. W. Dixon’s ensembles, also performed in Europe. The creative art of S. Foster, a composer of popular songs, was linked with the minstrel movement. Subsequently, Negro performers began appearing in similar shows. Almost all the subsequent forms of American popular music can be traced back to the rich and varied traditions of the minstrel show.
European operatic troupes, such as that of the family of M. P. V. Garcia and others, successfully toured major American cities beginning in the second quarter of the 19th century on.
The music teacher L. Mason founded the Boston Academy of Music in 1832; the New York Academy of Music was established in 1854. From the 1860’s to the 1880’s, institutions of musical education were founded in Philadelphia, Oberlin (Ohio), Chicago, Cincinnati, and Baltimore. New music centers emerged, and Italian operatic troupes performed in many cities. Philharmonic societies and symphony orchestras were created in New York (the Philharmonic Society in 1842, the Symphony Society in 1878), Boston (1881), and Saint Louis (1881), and subsequently in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and other cities. Major European musicians performed with these orchestras, including O. Bull, H. von Bülow, J. Lind, A. G. Rubinstein, and P. I. Tchaikovsky, as well as such conductors (mostly Germans) as T. Thomas, L. Damrosch, W. Damrosch, and K. Muck, who performed primarily the music of German composers. Despite the presence of nationalistic elements in mid-19th-century American music (most evident in the works of the composer and virtuoso pianist L. M. Gottschalk), the influence of German romanticism was felt in the works of A. F. Heinrich, G. Bristow (composer of the first American symphony), W. Mason, and W. H. Fry (the opera Leonora). It was especially characteristic of the New England, or Boston, school of composition, which included J. Paine, G. Chadwick, H. Parker, A. Foote, D. G. Mason (cantatas, symphonies, and symphonic poems). Along with E. MacDowell, who achieved great fame in Europe, these composers laid the foundations for a professional American school of composition. A. Dvořák spent the years 1892–95 in New York composing and teaching, and he turned the attention of American composers to the rich potential of the national folklore.
In 1901 the composer A. Farwell founded the music publishing house Wa-Wan Press, which became a rallying point for composers developing an American musical folk idiom containing Anglo-Celtic, American Indian, and Negro elements. These elements were organically integrated in the works of H. F. B. Gilbert, E. Stillman Kelley, C. W. Cadman, and R. Goldmark.
In 1883, New York saw the opening of a permanent opera theater, the Metropolitan Opera, on whose stage the world’s greatest singers performed, including E. Caruso, A. Galli-Curci, F. I. Chaliapin, and B. Gigli. During the 1920’s permanent opera theaters were established in Chicago, New Orleans, Boston, and other cities.
At the beginning of the 20th century, many outstanding performers, primarily from Russia, settled in the USA. These included the pianists A. Rubinstein (Poland), O. S. Gabrilovitch, J. Lhévinne, and R. Lhévinne and the violinists L. S. Auer, J. Heifetz, and E. Zimbalist; they were later joined by the violinist N. Milstein, the pianist V. S. Horowitz, and the cellist G. P. Piatigorsky. Their concertizing and teaching activities facilitated the creation of a national school of performance. In 1903, M. I. Altschuler founded the Russian Symphony Orchestra in New York for the purpose of popularizing Russian music. S. V. Rachmaninoff settled in the USA in 1918, and many other performers toured regularly, including F. Busoni, I. Paderewski, F. Kreisler, J. Hofmann, P. Casals, E. Petri, V. I. Safonov, and, later, S. S. Prokofiev. Important American composers of this period included C. T. Griffes, C. M. Loeffler, H. K. Hadley, J. Carpenter, E. B. Hill, and F. S. Converse. Their compositions, especially after World War I, were markedly influenced by Parisian culture, as reflected in the works of E. Satie and C. Debussy and the ballets of I. F. Stravinsky. On the whole, their works may be judged as eclectic.
At the turn of the 20th century, the art of jazz came into being, spreading from the Storyville district of New Orleans via Chicago and New York throughout the country. Its early forms were ragtime, as practiced by S. Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton, and Dixieland, as practiced by King Oliver and L. Armstrong. These forms were later transformed into the swing style, as represented by the orchestras of Duke Ellington, T. Dorsey, G. Miller, and B. Goodman.
During the 1920’s, symphony orchestras were established in all the major cities of the USA, and they were directed by such outstanding conductors as A. Toscanini, S. A. Koussevitzky, P. Monteux, and L. Stokowski. Important schools established in these years included the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. (1921), the Juilliard School of Music in New York (founded 1905; reorganized 1923), and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (1924). All were founded by the private benefactors whose names they bear, and this system of private patronage still plays an important role in American music. University departments of music became increasingly important by helping major composers to carry on their creative and pedagogic work—a system that became a characteristic feature of American musical life. Music publishers, such as the firms of G. Schirmer and C. Fischer, also expanded their activities, and organizations, such as ASCAP and BMI, were set up to protect composers’ rights. The production of musical instruments attained a high level, as seen in Steinway pianos and Selmer wind instruments. Similar development occurred in the recording industry, with such firms as RCA Victor and Columbia, and in sound motion pictures, radio, and, subsequently, television.
The rapid development of various types of popular music centered on the unique section of New York that came to be known as Tin Pan Alley, where music publishers and stores selling sheet music were located. A complex synthesis of traditions drawn from the minstrel show, the European operetta, the Anglo-American comic opera, and the American music-hall show, or revue, gave rise to the genre of the musical. Theaters on Broadway staged operettas by V. Herbert and S. Romberg, comic operas by W. Spencer and R. De Koven, and, later, musicals by G. M. Cohan, G. Gershwin (Of Thee I Sing, 1931), J. Kern, V. Youmans, and I. Berlin. As the band tradition developed, J. P. Sousa achieved great popularity, earning the title “the March King.”
Interest in the study of the national folklore grew, and collections of folk songs appeared by J. Lomax (published 1910) and C. Sharp (1917). A genre known as country music (together with its variants—bluegrass and western music) gained popularity; its center is at Nashville, Tenn. Influential performers of country music have included G. Autry, H. Williams, and J. Cash. In Negro folk songs, the traditions of the blues genre and religious, or gospel, hymns continued their development; H. Ledbetter (“Leadbelly”), B. Smith, Odetta, and Sister R. Tharpe became famous in the performance of these genres. The wealth of folklore elements was also infused into songs of social protest, as performed by the prominent fighter for peace P. Robeson and the singer-composers W. Guthrie and P. Seeger.
In the early 20th century C. Ives, one of the most outstanding American composers, wrote some of his best works. In his compositions, Ives distilled the accumulated experience of the national musical culture—Puritan hymns, spirituals, and the traditions of the minstrel show, bands, and country music—and thus became the first genuinely national composer in the USA. However, his works, written between the 1900’s and the 1920’s, became famous only in the late 1940’s. A national school of composition, however, took shape during the mid-1920’s and 1930’s, when American music proceeded from eclecticism to become an art with clearly expressed, albeit stylistically diverse, national characteristics. Representatives of this school included R. Harris, R. Sessions, A. Copland, W. Piston, H. Cowell, W. G. Still, C. Ruggles, G. Antheil, W. Riégger, J. J. Becker, L. Sowerby, B. Rogers, and O. Luening. Despite their individual creative traits, these composers express the American national style, intrinsically freer than that of European music and with a heightened dynamism and an overall intensive quality. The works of H. Hanson, D. Taylor, V. Thomson, D. Moore, M. Blitzstein, and, especially, G. Gershwin, whose opera Porgy and Bess (1935) has become a classic, reflect the search for a national style in the operatic genre, which was influenced to a greater extent by the English ballad-type opera than by Western European classical opera.
Contributions were made to American music by many immigrants from Europe, including E. Várese, who founded the International Composers’ Guild in New York in 1921, E. Bloch, and L. Ornstein. Of great importance in popularizing American music were the concerts organized by Copland and Sessions (the Copland-Sessions Concerts) and by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Joseph Pulitzer Fund. These foundations introduced the practice of commissioning creative works and providing musicians with moral and financial encouragement by establishing scholarships and prizes. Prominent figures of the 1920’s and 1930’s included the symphony conductors A. Rodzinski, E. Ormandy, G. Szell, D. Mitropoulos, and, later, C. Munch, the leaders of symphonic jazz orchestras F. Waring and P. Whiteman, the pianist V. S. Horowitz, the violinists N. Milstein, Y. Menuhin, and I. Stern, the cellists R. Garbousova and L. Rose, and the singers M. Lanza, G. London, E. Steber, and M. Anderson. Prominent performers and composers in the diverse genres and styles of stage music included B. Crosby (creator of the intimate vocal style known as crooning), the dancer and singer F. Astaire, the Negro female blues singer B. Holiday, and the composers V. Duke (sentimental songs), J. Mercer, and W. C. Handy (blues).
At the end of the 1930’s, several composers had won international renown, including W. Schuman (nine symphonies, ballets, and other works), S. Barber (the opera Vanessa, a violin concerto, and vocal works), P. Crestón, E. Carter, E. Siegmeister, G. Read, R. R. Bennett, and G. Menotti, who composed popular operas based on his own librettos (The Consul and The Medium). The works of many American composers were influenced by European composers who emigrated to the USA before World War II, such as P. Hindemith, Stravinsky, A. Schönberg, and E. Kfenek. These major composers facilitated the spread in the USA of neoclassicism (D. Diamond, M. Gould, and N. Dello Joio) and of twelve-tone technique (G. Perle and, in part, R. L. Finney, B. Weber, and I. Fine). Many composers, including D. Rudhyar, J. Schillinger, and R. Crawford, have experimented with microtones, polyrhythms, and synthetic forms.
An American school of musicology has also developed; the American Musicological Society was founded in 1934. Leading musicologists and music critics have included O. Kinkeldey, P. Nettl, P. H. Lang, N. Slonimsky, M. Bukofzer, G. Reese, G. Chase, H. Schonberg, and G. Liebersohn.
In the 1940’s it was the bop style, as practiced by C. Parker and L. Young, that came to dominate jazz; during the 1950’s the dominant styles were “cool” jazz, then the progressive jazz of M. Davis. The musical was further developed in the works of R. Rodgers (Oklahoma!, 1943), C. Porter (Kiss Me, Kate, 1948), K. Weill (Lost in the Stars, 1949), F. Loewe (My Fair Lady, 1956), L. Bernstein (West Side Story, 1957), M. Wilson (The Music Man, 1957), J. Styne (Funny Girl, 1964), F. Loesser (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, 1961), J. Bock (Fiddler on the Roof, 1964), and J. Herman (Hello, Dolly!, 1964). Such leaders of popular band-music orchestras as S. N. Kenton, A. Kostelanetz, and J. Gleason became prominent. Important jazz and popular band-music male and female vocalists have been E. Fitzgerald, M. Jackson, F. Sinatra, and Nat King Cole; they are noted for their performances of songs by V. Young, D. Tiomkin, A. Wilder, and others.
American music during the 1950’s and 1960’s has been characterized by a variety of trends. V. Persichetti, P. Mennin, and W. Bergsma generally have developed the traditions of neoclassicism; G. Rochberg, L. Kirchner, A. Imbrie, N. Rorem, and others have often used the serial technique. C. McPhee, A. Hovhaness, Chou Wen-chung, H. Partch, R. Yardumian, and L. Harrison have shown a tendency to use elements derived from oriental musical cultures in combination with contemporary means of expression. One of the leaders of the avant-garde in the music of the USA and other countries is J. Cage, who experiments with extending the acoustic possibilities of music and attempts to structure his own compositions according to the principles of oriental religious-philosophical systems.
The high professional artistic level attained by American groups and soloists has helped popularize American music in other countries. Outstanding among the country’s approximately 100 symphony orchestras are those of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Chicago. Performing with and directing these orchestras are W. Steinberg, G. Solti, R. Kubelik, Z. Mehta, P. Boulez, L. Bernstein, L. Maazel, S. Ozawa, M. T. Thomas, and others. There are approximately 1,500 student and municipal orchestras and numerous well-known ensembles, such as those of the Eastman School of Music and of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. The best instrumental ensembles include the New York Pro Música, the Chamber Orchestra of Boston, and the Juilliard String Quartet; choral groups include those of R. Wagner and G. Smith. Outstanding soloists have included the pianists J. Browning, Byron Janis, Van Cliburn, M. Dichter, and Myung-Whun Chung, the violinists R. Ricci, P. Zukofsky, and P. Zukerman, and the cellist L. Parnas. Opera and concert singers have included R. Tucker, M. Dobbs, R. Peters, and L. Price. Prominent jazz soloists have included the pianists A. Tatum, D. Brubeck, and E. Garner, the saxophone players J. Coltrane and J. Mulligan, the drummers M. Roach and A. Blakey, the male vocalists R. Goulet, H. Belafonte, T. Bennett, and M. Torme. and the female vocalists S. Vaughan, P. Lee, D. Day, B. Streisand, and V. Carr. The best known groups performing popular music are the orchestras of N. Riddle, B. May. R. Conniff, and H. Mancini and the choral ensembles of N. Luboff and M. Miller.
From the 1960’s to the mid-1970’s, American music has presented an increasingly complicated and contradictory picture. The multiplicity and instability of forms and styles have become characteristic traits of the music and have lent a certain “uncontrolled” aspect to the musical culture. The market, that is, the consumer, dictates its own conditions, which has led to proportionally fewer genres of serious music. The search for the means of expression has led to experimentation both in the format of musical works and in the mastering of new possibilities of sound; this, in turn, has affected the work of many American composers. Electronic studios have been created—for the most part, at universities—where experiments are being conducted on the interaction of various media (multimedia compositions). V. Ussachevsky, E. Brown, and others have experimented with musique concéte, in which various noises, sounds, and electroacoustic effects are added to a musical composition. Chance music is being composed by H. Brant, G. Crumb, and C. Wuorinen, and improvisational ensembles and composer-performers, such as L. Foss, R. Shapey, and H. Farberman, have gained prominence. Third stream music is based on a synthesis of serious music and jazz, as performed by G. Schuller, L. Austin, and O. Coleman. Since the mid-1950’s, experiments on programming sound models by means of computers have been carried out by M. Babbitt, a composer with a mathematical education, and his followers (L. Hiller, M. Subotnick), who work with sound synthesizers. Such composers as J. Eaton and S. Silverman have experimented in the genre of opera. The search for new means of expression in the jazz of the 1960’s is linked primarily with the Negro movement in the USA and the striving for independence of contemporary Negro art, as exemplified by Sun Ra, A. Ayler, C. Mingus, and A. Shepp.
An important, extremely contradictory phenomenon of the first half of the 1960’s and the 1970’s is pop music, which reflects many negative aspects of American culture—pluralism, instability, and commercialism. Pop music is closely linked to the youth movement in the USA, for which it has become the principal means of artistic expression, having replaced the entire multiplicity of types of musical art. It clothes serious feelings and ideas in the easily accessible forms of the subculture of the masses. Pop music evolved from the successive movements of rhythm and blues (a type of Negro urban music of the 1940’s, as represented by M. Waters, T-bone Walker, and R. Charles), rock ’n’ roll (dating from the second half of the 1950’s, as represented by E. Presley, B. Haley, and others), and soul (a combination of rhythm and blues and gospel, dating from the late 1950’s and represented by A. Franklin, J. Brown, and others). Later, pop music interacted with serious music (as in L. Bernstein’s Mass, 1971), with avant-garde trends (as with F. Zappa and his group, The Mothers of Invention) and with jazz (thus forming the avant-garde jazz of C. Taylor, H. Hancock, and J. Zawinul). Under the influence of the British vocal-instrumental group The Beatles, several thousand similar groups appeared in the USA—America, Jefferson Airplane, Chicago, and Blood, Sweat, and Tears. On the whole, these groups express a “philosophy of drugs,” an interest in oriental mysticism, and a preaching of sexual freedom, all of which were evoked by the hippie movement. Since 1969, festivals, such as those at Woodstock, near Bethel, N.Y., where attendances have run as high as 500,000, have become centers of pop music.
During the 1970’s, pop music essentially became a commercial art; millions of copies of records were sold, and propaganda was conducted by means of various types of mass communication. Many pop music performers have exhibited a high degree of artistry, for example, the female vocalists C. King, J. Joplin, and A. Franklin, the male vocalists J. Webb and M. Gaye, and such groups as Simon and Garfunkel (who perform their own songs) and Peter, Paul, and Mary. One of the types of pop music that attained particular fame and which in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s pushed the musical into the background was a new form for the musical stage known as the rock opera; examples are Hair (G. MacDermot and others, 1967), Jesus Christ Superstar (the Englishman A. L. Webber, 1971), and Godspell (S. Schwartz, 1971).
In the 1960’s a new folk movement, with a musical style known as folk rock, was represented by the male vocalist B. Dylan and the female vocalist J. Baez, both of whom wrote the songs they performed. The movement took on a clearly social character, marked by antiwar and antiracist themes.
Music festivals, with traditions dating from the 19th century, play an important role in American musical life. The oldest of these were established in Worcester, Mass., and Bethlehem, Pa.; other popular festivals are held in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and Tanglewood, Mass, (at the Berkshire Music Center founded by Koussevitzky). Jazz festivals have been held in Newport, R.I., and Monterey, Calif. Such music centers as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., have a significant influence on American musical life. There are many music organizations, including the music funds of the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, which aid contemporary American music by means of publications, phonograph recordings, and concerts. Important international music competitions are held, such as the Van Cliburn International Quadrennial Piano Competition (Fort Worth, Texas) and the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Music Competition (New York). The most important music journals include The Musical Quarterly (New York, since 1915), Musical Digest (New York, since 1920), Notes (Ithaca, N.Y., since 1934), and Musical America (New York, 1898–1964; merged with the journal High Fidelity in 1965).
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Shneerson, G. Ocherki novoi i noveishei istorii muzyki SShA, vol. 1. Moscow, 1960. Pages 531–11. Vol. 2: Moscow, 1960. Pages 539–51.Konen, V. Puti amerikanskoi muzyki: Ocherki po istorii muzykal’noi kul’tury SShA, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1965.Mathews, W. S. B. A Hundred Years of Music in America. Chicago, 1889.Farwell, A., and D. W. Dermot. Music in America. New York, 1915.Elson, L. C. The National Music of America and Its Sources. Boston, 1924.Elson, L. C. The History of American Music. New York, 1925.Mason, D. G. The Dilemma of American Music and Other Essays. New York, 1928.Mason, D. G. Tune in America: A Study of Our Coming Musical Independence. New York, 1931.Cowell, H. American Composers on American Music. Stanford, Calif., 1933.Slonimsky, N. Music Since 1900, 3rd ed. New York, 1949.Ewen, D. American Composers Today. New York, 1949.Ewen, D. History of Popular Music. New York, 1961.McSpadden, J. W. Operas and Musical Comedies. New York, 1951.Chase, G. America’s Music, 2nd ed. New York, 1966.
One Hundred Years of Music in America. Edited by P. H. Lang. New York, 1961.Howard, J. T., and G. K. Bellows. A Short History of Music in America. New York [1957].Howard, J. T. Our American Music, 4th ed. New York, 1965.Laufe, A. Broadway’s Greatest Musicals. New York, 1970.Malone, B. C. Country Music USA. Austin, Texas-London, 1969.Eisen, J. The Age of Rock: Sounds of the American Cultural Revolution: A Reader. New York, 1969.Hitchcock, H. W. Music in the United States: A Historical Introduction, 2nd ed. New York, 1974.DZH. K. MIKHAILOV
Dances, especially ritual dances, played an important role in the life of the Indian tribes that inhabited what is now the USA; however, they had no influence on the formation of American stage dance. The first American dancers, J. Durang, A. May-wood, M. A. Lee, and G. W. Smith, came to the fore in the productions of European touring ballet companies in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Russian ballet first gained prominence in the USA in the first quarter of the 20th century, with the tours made by A. P. Pavlova and by S. P. Diaghilev’s troupe. At about this time, a new trend emerged in dance. Linked with the ideas of I. Duncan and conventionally named “modern dance,” it had a great impact on the development of American dance.
R. St. Denis and T. Shawn founded the first school of modern dance in 1915 and the first modern-dance company. Between the two world wars their school produced several important figures in modern dance, including M. Graham and D. Humphrey. Graham, in her symbolic and epic works, strove to embody the spiritual life of her contemporaries, while psychological and social problems attracted the attention of the dancer and choreographer D. Humphrey. Other leading figures from the school —C. Weidman, E. Tamiris, and H. Holm—turned to social themes. In the 1930’s and 1940’s modern dance was progressive and often antiwar and antifascist in nature.
American ballet traditions took shape in the 1930’s. Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, which worked in the USA from 1938 to 1963, staged ballets by A. de Mille, including Rodeo, to a score by A. Copland, as well as works by R. Page. Ballet Caravan, active from 1936 to 1941, staged works by L. Christensen, E. Loring, and W. Dollar. The 1930’s and 1940’s saw the founding and development of two companies still prominent in the mid-1970’s: the New York City Ballet (founded 1934; assumed its present name in 1948) and American Ballet Theatre (founded 1939; assumed its present name in 1957).
The repertoire of the New York City Ballet mainly features works by the company’s director, G. Balanchine; these are primarily plotless ballets set to symphonic and other instrumental music (by such composers as P. I. Tchaikovsky and I. F. Stravinsky). American Ballet Theatre stages works of the classical repertoire, as well as ballets by M. M. Fokine, A. Tudor, and the American choreographers de Mille, Loring, M. Kidd, and A. Ailey. Both companies have staged ballets by J. Robbins, a choreographer known for his keen sense of contemporary life and the American national spirit.
In the 1930’s ballet companies were established by Page and the Christensen brothers in Chicago, by C. Littlefield in Philadelphia, and by other choreographers in San Francisco and other cities. Several major companies emerged between the 1950’s and mid-1970’s. These include the City Center Joffrey Ballet, the Harkness Ballet (until 1974), and the National Ballet (until 1974), as well as the modern-dance companies created by Graham, J. Limón, Ailey, M. Cunningham, J. Butler, A. Nikolais, and others.
Ballet has become very popular in the USA, and various forms of stage dance have become widespread. Experiments are being conducted in combining dance with multimedia effects, including motion pictures, sculpture, and architecture; elements of improvisation are also being introduced into the dance. Since the 1950’s, choreographers who work in the classical idiom have introduced elements of modern dance into their work, and vice versa.
Leading dancers from the 1930’s through the mid-1970’s include A. Danilova, Maria Tallchief and Marjorie Tallchief, N. Kaye, R. Hightower, M. Hayden, L. Serrano, A. Kent, S. Farrell, C. Gregory, A. Eglevsky, F. Franklin, Dollar, T. Bolender, J. Taras, J. Kriza, A. Mitchell, and E. Villela. Ballet scholars include J. Martin and W. Terry. Since 1956 regional festivals have been held annually for professional and amateur dance companies.
The USA has the following publications on ballet and dance: Dance Magazine (New York, since 1927), Dance News (New York, since 1942), and Dance Perspectives (Brooklyn, N.Y., since 1959).
===REFERENCES===
Amberg, G. Ballet in America. [New York, 1955.]Cohen, S. J., and A. J. Pischl. The American Ballet Theater, 1940–1960. New York, 1960.
New York City Ballet. (Text by L. Kirstein.) New York, 1973.E. IA. SURITS
The earliest references to theatrical productions in America date from the late 17th century. Amateur productions were staged in the South, where the Puritans, who discouraged secular amusements, had little influence. The first theater in America was erected in Williamsburg, Va., in 1716. Despite disapproval on the part of the government, professional actors, most of whom were from England, performed in various regions of the USA. Small troupes, organized in New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and other cities, staged plays by Shakespeare, W. Congreve, T. Otway, and G. Lillo.
It is traditionally accepted that professional theater in the USA began with the arrival of L. Hallam’s troupe from London in 1752. The troupe’s first production, Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, was staged in Williamsburg. After Hallam’s death in 1758, the troupe was headed by D. Douglass, who built theaters in Philadelphia, New York (the John Street Theatre), and other cities. In the late 18th century, the younger L. Hallam and J. Henry directed the professional American Company, which in 1787 staged the first American comedy, R. Tyler’s The Contrast. The company included English actors, for example, T. Wignell and T. Cooper, as well as the American W. Dunlap, “father of the American theater” and author of A History of the American Theatre (1832).
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, new theaters were opened in New York, including the Park, Bowery, and Broadway theaters, in Philadelphia, including the Chestnut Street and Arch Street theaters, and in Charleston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Boston. They staged diverse variety programs and musical productions of generally poor quality. During the first half of the 19th century, as theatrical traditions grew stronger, actors developed better skills and the principal traits of an American school of acting were defined. The American theater strove for truthfulness and the expression of democratic themes.
By the mid-19th century, it had become common for showboats—floating theaters—to travel along the country’s major rivers and present plays. Traveling theatrical troupes increased in number and gained popularity because of the appeal of their repertoires—naive melodramas, often written by amateurs. An entrepreneur would assemble performers to present one play, which would run as long as it made a profit. When the play ceased to attract audiences, the troupe would be disbanded. The success of the play depended entirely on the performances of the leading actors, who were frequently the organizers and owners of the troupe. The leading performers enjoyed the best working conditions, were paid the highest fees, and gradually came to occupy a privileged position in the troupe; thus the “star system” evolved. Famous performers of the 19th century included J. B. Booth, E. T. Booth, C. S. Cushman, and E. Forrest.
By the mid-19th century, New York had more than ten theaters and public auditoriums and had become the theatrical center of America. New theatrical genres developed, for example, the minstrel show, a theatrical performance featuring Negro entertainers, now a part of American tradition. A notable minstrel was Jim Crow (T. D. Rice). Another unique genre, featuring sketches, parodies, and comic musical routines, became characteristic of the American theater. Burlesque and variety shows also gained popularity.
By the turn of the 20th century, the American theater was largely controlled by investors and had entered the world of big business. Beginning in 1896, the leading theatrical investor was the monopolistic Theatrical Syndicate. In the early 20th century the Shubert Theatre Corporation gained prominence. New theaters were built, primarily on Broadway, in New York. The Broadway theater was now a major commercial enterprise. A theater would be rented for a given production, for which a cast with star performers would be specially assembled. If successful, the production would run as long as several years. Commercial Broadway theaters produced lavish musical shows for box-office success, for example, vaudevilles, revues, and musical comedies, and thus replaced repertory theaters.
The progressive intelligentsia launched a campaign against Broadway theaters by organizing repertory companies. This campaign was led by the performers M. M. Fiske, R. Mansfield, and J. Jefferson and the director and producer D. Belasco. Owing to Belasco’s many talents, the theaters under his direction successfully maintained a repertoire and resisted the pressure of the Theatrical Syndicate.
The little theater movement, which became prominent in the first decades of the 20th century, effectively challenged the predominance of light entertainment. Semi-amateur groups were built up into moderately large companies with strong acting ensembles and regularly changing repertoires. Innovations in directing, based on developments in the European theater, were introduced into the American theater, along with new methods of acting. Classical and modern European plays and American works were staged. Many participants in the little theater movement were trained in the 47 Workshop, founded by Professor G. P. Baker in 1912 at Harvard University. These included the playwrights E. Sheldon, P. Barry, and S. Howard. University theaters, affiliated with the departments of drama and theater of colleges and universities, were also established.
Boston, Chicago, and New York and its environs became centers for little theaters, notably the Neighborhood Playhouse (1915, New York), the Washington Square Players (1914, New York; reorganized in 1919 as the Theatre Guild), and the Prov-incetown Players (1916, New York). The Provincetown Players became known for their productions of E. O’Neill’s early plays, including The Hairy Ape (1922) and All God’s Chillun Got Wings (1924). Major figures in the little theater movement included the outstanding actress K. Cornell, and the set designer L. Simonson.
In 1913, the American Actors’ Equity Association was organized, and in 1919 it conducted the first successful large-scale strike by actors. The agreement signed with the theatrical entrepreneurs in 1919 established certain legal guidelines still in effect in the 1970’s.
In the 1920’s as many as 280 theatrical productions were mounted annually in New York, and the number of Broadway theaters reached 80. F. Ziegfeld’s Ziegfeld Follies and early examples of the Broadway musical were especially popular. The older generation of actors, including M. Adams, the Barrymore family, and G. M. Cohan, was joined by new stars, for example, A. Lunt, H. Hayes, L. Fontanne, and, later, L. Taylor, J. Robards, Sr., and K. Hepburn. Several aspects of the American theater, especially directing techniques, were strongly influenced by the tours of the Moscow Art Theater in 1923 and 1924. The K. S. Stanislavsky method was adopted by many leading figures of the American stage, including the actress and stage director E. Le Gallienne, who organized the Civic Repertory Theatre. Active from 1926 to 1933, the Civic Repertory Theatre successfully staged European and American works. The Stanislavsky method also influenced the directors of the Group Theatre, including H. Clurman, C. Crawford, and L. Strasberg. The Group Theatre, one of the most progressive repertory theaters in the USA between 1931 and 1941, staged Odets’ Waiting for Lefty (1935, directed by E. Kazan) and Awake and Sing! (1935) and W. Saroyan’s My Heart’s in the Highlands (1939).
The Great Depression (1929–33) seriously affected American theaters. Many theaters closed, forcing actors into unemployment. The Federal Theatre Project, organized to alleviate this situation, went into effect in 1935. The project, directed by H. Flanagan, provided for the subsidizing of theaters by the federal government. A total of 158 government-subsidized theaters—the first in US history—were created and were directed by Flanagan and E. Rice. Approximately 1,000 plays of various genres were staged. Especially significant was the living newspaper drama, which dealt with pressing social issues; a notable example was A. Arent’s One-third of a Nation. This progressive trend was condemned by the Senate, which curtailed the subsidies in 1939, accusing the theater directors of communist sympathies.
In the 1930’s summer-stock theaters, student theaters, Negro troupes, and children’s theaters performed in various cities. In the late 1930’s the progressive dramas of L. Hellman were first staged, for example, The Little Foxes. Beginning in the 1930’s, several noncommercial theatrical organizations were created, for example, the American National Theatre and Academy (1935), New York’s City Center of Music and Drama (1943), and the New York Shakespeare Festival (1954), directed by J. Papp (1954), who also organized the Public Theater (1967). The Actors Studio was organized in 1947 and was put under the direction of L. Strasberg in 1948. The studio, founded as an educational institution, later staged productions for paid admission. Many well-known actors trained at the studio, including M. Brando and G. Page.
By the early 1950’s, the musical had attained great popularity and, along with comedy, had become a basic part of the repertoire of Broadway theaters. Outstanding directors of musicals included G. Abbott and G. Champion. Famous theatrical figures of the 1940’s and 1950’s were E. Kazan, A. Schneider, J. Quintero, and A. Burrows.
During the 1940’s, small, experimental theaters, which came to be known as off-Broadway theaters, flourished. During the 1950’s there were approximately 300 off-Broadway theatrical groups. In 1955, the League of Off-Broadway Theatres was established. League members rented modest-sized theaters, for example, the Phoenix Theater and the Circle in the Square, and acquainted audiences with classical and contemporary American works that had been rejected by Broadway. They also staged European works of the theater of the absurd, as well as comparable American plays, notably the plays of E. Albee, such as The Zoo Story (1960), The Death of Bessie Smith (1960), and The American Dream (1961), which secured his popularity on the American stage.
By the early 1960’s, off-Broadway theaters had become nearly as commercial as Broadway theaters. The predominance of light entertainment on the New York stage evoked strong protest from younger audiences, and various avant-garde off off-Broadway theaters were organized. During the 1970–71 season more than 300 new productions were staged by the 49 small off off-Broadway theaters, notably by La Mama Experimental Theater Club, several companies created in various cities under the direction of E. Stewart, the Judson Poets’ Theater, founded in 1961 by Al Carmines, and the Open Theater, founded in 1963 by J. Chaikin, who was its director until 1973. Many such theaters have been influenced by the Living Theater, organized in 1959 by J. Beck and J. Malina. After moving to Europe in 1963, the Living Theater undertook a series of foreign tours in 1968 and returned to the USA in 1971.
Off off-Broadway theaters have produced several talented young playwrights, including S. Shepard, L. Wilson, and P. Foster, and notable directors, for example, T. O’Horgan. They have presented works sharply critical of American society, for example, J.-C. van Itallie’s America Hurrah, M. Terry’s Viet-Rock, and the rock musical Hair, with music by G. MacDermot and book and lyrics by G. Ragni and J. Rado. These productions feature extremely naturalistic and expressive methods of acting and directing. During the 1971–72 season more than 100 off off-Broadway groups joined together in the Off Off-Broadway Alliance.
The Black Theatre Alliance was founded as a result of the sudden growth of Negro acting ensembles since the 1960’s. By the early 1970’s there were approximately 70 such companies. The majority are located in Harlem and other black ghetto districts of New York City, the best known being the New Lafayette Theater and the Negro Ensemble Company. There are similar theaters in New Orleans, California, and elsewhere. Famous Negro actors include J. E. Jones, R. Dee, and S. Poitier. Prominent Negro directors include D. T. Ward, R. Macbeth, and F. D. O’Neil.
The mid-1960’s saw the construction of New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which includes among its various facilities the Library and Museum of the Performing Arts and the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, with a resident company; after several administrative changes, J. Papp was named director of the theater in 1973 (he resigned in 1977). Many cities have organized community theaters. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s, along with older theaters, such as the Alley Theater in Houston (founded 1947) and the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. (founded 1951), dozens of new theaters with resident companies sprang up.
The 1960’s saw the peak of political activity of American youth, who in the process of creating a counterculture gave rise to a mass political theater. Radical, political, experimental, guerrilla, and street theatrical groups sprang up. This theatrical explosion brought about innovative staging, experimentation in dramatic concepts and techniques, and a search for new forms for establishing contact with the audience and mirroring reality. The best-known groups included the San Francisco Mime Troupe (founded 1959 by R. Davis, who headed it until the troupe turned to collective self-government in 1970), the Bread and Puppet Theatre (founded 1961 by P. Schumann), El Teatro Campesino (founded 1965 by L. Valdez), and Performance Group (founded 1968 and headed by R. Schechner).
In the wake of the changes in the country’s political climate in the 1970’s, this movement lost its former political stance, and the theatrical groups went through processes of stratification and adaptation. Some of these groups concerned themselves with purely formalistic experiments and merged in 1973 into a group of experimental theaters. The most typical of these is the Ontologi-cal-Hysteric Theatre, founded in 1968 by R. Foreman. These processes had some impact on the commercial theater. In the 1970’s Broadway theaters keenly responded to every innovation and experiment, with a view to digesting and adapting them for mass production.
The musical Hair was thought to be the symbol of Broadway in the 1960’s; likewise the musical A Chorus Line, staged in 1975 by the director-choreographer M. Bennett, symbolized Broadway productions of the 1970’s. In the second half of the 1970’s new dramatists came to the fore, including D. Mamet, A. Innaurato, M. Cristofer, and J. Guare, who continued the innovations initiated by S. Shepard and D. Rabe. Notable productions of the period were Mamet’s American Buffalo (1975) and A Life in the Theater (1977), Innaurato’s Gemini (1976), Cristofer’s The Shadow Box (1975), and Guare’s Landscape of the Body (1977). However, the best box-office plays were the entertaining comedies of N. Simon.
The best representatives of American stage art of the late 1970’s include the actresses L. Minnelli, E. Parsons, A. Bancroft, S. MacLaine, G. Page and J. Tandy; the actors A. Pacino, H. Cronyn, and G. C. Scott; and the directors M. Nichols, E. Rabb, R. Kalfin, A. Schneider, and G. Davidson.
Training in theater arts is offered by theater departments of colleges and universities and by private studios. Prominent critics and historians of the American theater include A. H. Quinn, B. Atkinson, S. Cheney, B. Clark, J. W. Krutch, B. Mantle, G. G. Nathan, W. Kerr, H. Taubman, M. Godfried, and C. Barnes.
The most popular theater journals include The Drama Review (New York, founded 1955) and The New York Theater Review (founded 1977).
===REFERENCES===
Odell, G. Annals of the New York Stage, vols. 1—15. New York, 1927–49.Hughes, G. A History of the American Theater, 1700–1950. New York, 1951.Hornblow, A. A History of the Theater in America From Its Beginning to the Present Time, vols. 1–2. New York, 1965.Taubman, H. The Making of the American Theater. New York, 1965.Little, S. W. Off-Broadway. New York, 1972.Atkinson, B. Broadway. New York, 1974.Z. V. VOINOVA and T. V. BUTROVACircus. In the early 18th century touring circus troupes with rope walkers, equestrians, and clowns performed outdoors in Philadelphia, New York, and other cities. The English equestrians M. F. Faulks, J. Sharp, and J. Bates, the slack-rope walker A. Templeman, and other performers appeared in various American cities. The first circus buildings were erected in Philadelphia (1792 and 1795) and New York (1797) by the Scottish equestrian acrobat J. B. Ricketts for the performances of his own troupe. Circuses later included menageries, where the training of animals, primarily elephants, was demonstrated. In 1830, A. Turner constructed the first American tent circus. In subsequent years circuses were opened by J. Anderson, the Cole Brothers, J. O’Brien, A. Forepaugh, and the Sells Brothers. From 1830 to 1875 the Flatfoot Syndicate operated as an organization of leading impressarios. R. Spaulding and C. Rogers also ran circuses and together organized the Floating Palace from 1840 to 1865, putting on shows along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.P. T. Barnum is known as the creator of the world’s first three-ring circus and as the first circus manager to bring railroad shows to remote towns. He also presented oddities in Barnum’s American Museum. Barnum’s circus later merged with the circuses of J. A. Bailey and the Ringling Brothers, and the monopoly that resulted dominated the American circus until the 1960’s. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows traveled around the USA from 1883 to 1903, depicting scenes from the life of cowboys and Indians, including bareback riding on unbroken horses and on bulls. Similar rodeo shows were also put on by other performing groups.The USA has no resident circuses, but traveling circuses display a high level of technical mastery. American circuses present showy, eye-catching spectacles and feature famous stars and guest artists.The most important circus performers in America have included Van Amburgh, the first American lion tamer, the equestrians T. Pool and A. Konyot, the clowns D. Rice, F. Oakley (“Slivers”), E. Kelly, and F. Adler, the aerialists A. Codona, L. Leitzel, Arthur Concello, Antoinette Concello, C. Colleano, the Wallendas, and the Nelsons, the juggler F. Brunn, and the rope walker Unus.
===REFERENCES===
Kuznetsov, E. M. Tsirk, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1971.Dmitriev, Iu. “V tsirke brat’ev Ringling-Barnum-Belei.” Sovetskaia estrada i tsirk, 1967, no. 12.Murray, M. Circus! From Rome to Ringling. New York, 1956.Freeman, H. Great Days of the Circus. New York, 1962.A. IA. SHNEER
Motion-picture production in the USA began in 1896 in New York and in 1909 in Hollywood. As early as the second decade of the 20th century, the American cinema had developed as an original art form with its own techniques and means of expression. The director D. W. Griffith made numerous historical and psychological dramas and epics. T. H. Ince was a pioneer in the western, while M. Sennett made silent comedies. The Hollywood system of making films evolved during the 1920’s, as motion-picture studios were concentrated in the hands of a few companies, principally RKO, Paramount, Columbia, Metro-Goldwyn-May-er, and Twentieth-Century-Fox.
The increasing importance of finance capital and large capital investments and expansion in the world market made motion-picture production a major branch of American industry. Motion pictures were used to disseminate ideological propaganda asserting the American way of life. The star system became firmly established in the American motion-picture industry. Motion-picture studios produced many westerns, drawing-room comedies, costume epics, superficial romances, and gangster films. Popular actors included R. Valentino, M. Pickford, D. Fairbanks, Sr., L. Gish, and, later, G. Garbo, N. Shearer, C. Gable, G. Cooper, and H. Bogart.
Only a few American directors succeeded in reflecting bourgeois society from the point of view of critical realism. Successful films of social criticism included E. von Stroheim’s Greed (1923), C. Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1941), K. Vidor’s The Crowd (1928), and J. Ford’s Stagecoach (1939, based on a short story by E. Haycox; Soviet title, The Journey Will Be Dangerous) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940, based on the novel by J. Steinbeck). Other films of social significance included F. Capra’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), W. Wyler’s The Little Foxes (1941, based on the play by L. Hellman) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, based on the novel by M. Kantor), and O. Welles’ Citizen Kane (1940). The director W. Disney worked out the basic principles of the animated cartoon. The characters of his animated films have become world famous, especially those of the Silly Symphonies and the feature cartoons Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938) and Bambi (1942).
During World War II (1939–15), progressive American filmmakers made a significant contribution to the anti-Hitlerite coalition by producing documentary motion pictures, for example, Capra’s series Why We Fight, J. Huston’s Report From the Aleutians (1943), Ford’s The Battle of Midway (1942), and Wyler’s Memphis Belle (1944).
As a result of the postwar persecution of progressive workers in the motion-picture industry, studios released films of inferior artistic quality. In addition, television became popular in the early 1950’s, causing a sharp decline in motion-picture attendance and an economic crisis in the film industry. Several attempts were made to revive interest in motion pictures, including the introduction of such technical improvements as new visual effects. These attempts did not prove successful, since they did not improve the ideological content or artistic level of the films.
In the mid-1950’s, Hollywood underwent a decline. A number of major motion-picture studios were purchased by the television industry, while others sharply curtailed film production, releasing only occasional high-budget spectaculars. Directors, actors, and producers financed films through loans from banks and special lending agencies. These independent producer-directors gave the American motion picture of the 1960’s and early 1970’s a new look. Bourgeois society was criticized in such films as S. Kramer’s On the Beach (1959), Inherit the Wind (1960), and Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) and A. Penn’s The Chase (1966) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Social criticism was also an important theme in S. Kubrick’s Doctor Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, based on a short story by A. Clarke), and A Clockwork Orange (1971, based on the novel by A. Burgess) and S. Lumet’s Twelve Angry Men (1957, based on the television play by R. Rose) and Serpico (1975).
The principles of realistic cinematography have also been developed in films by directors of the 1960’s and early 1970’s, for example, M. Nichols’ The Graduate (1967), S. Pollack’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) and The Way We Were (1973), F. Perry’s The Diary of A Mad Housewife (1970), P. Bog-danovich’s The Last Picture Show (1971) and Paper Moon (1972), B. Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces (1971), F. Coppola’s The Godfather (1972), The Godfather, Part II (1974), and The Conversation (1974), H. Ashby’s The Last Detail (1973) and Bound for Glory (1976), and N. Jewison’s FIST (1978). Film studios also release comedies, musicals, and detective films. Poor-quality horror films and films that stress sex and violence are common examples of mass culture in the USA.
Important contributions to the development of documentary films were made from the 1920’s through the 1940’s by the directors R. Flaherty, P. Lorentz, and P. Strand. Leading contemporary directors include R. Leacock (Primary, 1960) and D. Pennebaker (Jane, 1962). Popular science has been most successfully dealt with in the films of W. Disney, including The Living Desert (1953) and The Vanishing Prairie (1954), and those of W. Green, for example, The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971). The best representatives of the American school of acting include S. Tracy, F. March, B. Davis, H. Fonda, B. Lancaster, M. Brando, P. Newman, R. Steiger, A. Quinn, G. Peck, Jane Fonda, D. Hoffman, R. Redford, G. C. Scott, and J. Nicholson.
Many workers in the film industry are trained at the American Film Institute in Beverly Hills and the University of California at Berkeley. Research in the theory and history of film-making is conducted in the film archives of the American Film Institute in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. San Francisco holds an annual international film festival. The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, founded in Hollywood in 1927, awards annual prizes (Oscars) to the best American and foreign films. Important film journals include Film Quarterly (Berkeley, Calif., since 1945), Films in Review (New York, since 1950), and Film Culture (New York, since 1955). In 1974, approximately 190 feature films were released, and there were 14,000 motion-picture theaters in operation.’
===REFERENCES===
Mercillon, H. Kino i monopolii v SShA. Moscow, 1956. (Translated from French.)Toeplitz, J. Kino i televidenie v SShA. Moscow, 1966. (Translated from Polish.)Kolodiazhnaia, V., and I. Trutko. Istoriia zarubezhnogo kino, vol. 2. [2nd ed.: Moscow, 1970.]Goodman, E. The Fifty-year Decline and Fall of Hollywood. New York, 1961.Jacobs, L. The Rise of the American Film. New York, 1968.Brownlow, K. The Parade’s Gone By. London, 1970.N. P. ABRAMOV
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