19 S Western Cultures2

==已经稍微调整了顺序，目前最合理顺序应为： Jefferson 1-3, Guggenheim 4-5, Clinton 6-7, Zuckerberg 8-9, Reagan 10-11, Harvard 12-13。==
1) 美国与西方章节一览：
美国：
:美3始
:美4政
:美5经
:美6宗
:美7文
:美8教
:美9六
:美10问
:美11认
:美12妇
:美13技
:美14外
:美15体
:美16流
西方：
:西1希
:西2罗
:西3犹
:西4基
:西5日
:西6复
:西7启
:西8自
:西9哲
:西10现
:西11意
:西12艺
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2) 美国-西方 Projects 的名字：
美国与西方章节亲和度（只分为几个板块）(每个板块中，美国章分“前半后半”，西方章分“前半后半”。 而与前面重合的章，则打星)：
Projects Jefferson-Reagan (该板块为“Magna-Churchill”的延申) (:美3始 :美4政 // :美5经 :美14外 ) + (:西2罗 :西3犹* :西7启 // :西11意* :西9哲* )
Projects Guggenheim-Clinton (该板块为“Banksy-Beckham 的延申”)(:美16流 :美15体 :美11认 // :美6宗 :美12妇 :美9六 :美10问 ) + (:西10现 :西12艺 // :西3犹 :西4基 :西11意 )
Projects Harvard-Zuckerberg (该板块为“Oxford” 的延申) (:美7文 // :美8教 :美13技) + (:西1希 :西5日 :西6复 :西9哲 :西8自 // )
1.初步排序： 1 Jefferson, 2 Guggenheim, 3 Harvard; 4 Clinton, 5 Reagan, 6 Zuckerberg.
2.已经稍微调整了顺序，目前最合理顺序应为： Jefferson 1-3, Guggenheim 4-5, Clinton 6-7, Zuckerberg 8-9, Reagan 10-11, Harvard 12-13。
详细请以 19 S Homework Chapters Western Cultures 为准
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美国-西方册： 记住这个“每周优惠章口诀”就行了，只有“优惠章”全做完了关键词-页码 能得2分。 非优惠章则不能得二分。 打星的是我以前没布置过的章：
* 1-3周 Jefferson： US 3始,4政,/ 5经,14外 （任何其他老师认为有一定关联的美国章可能也能算）； Western 只算 W2罗*，3犹*，7启*; Long rhyme any US chapter.
* 4-5周 Guggenheim： US 11认，15体，16流，/ 8教，13技 （任何其他老师认为有一定关联的美国章可能也能算）； Western 只算 W10现*,12艺*; Long rhyme any US chapter.
* 6-7周 Clinton： US 6宗,9六,10问,12妇,/ 5经，14外，7文 （任何其他老师认为有一定关联的美国章可能也能算）； Western 只算 W3犹, 4基*, 11意*; Long rhyme any US chapter.
* 8-9周 Zuckerberg： US 8教，13技 / 5经，14外，7文 （任何其他老师认为有一定关联的美国章可能也能算）； Western 任何chapter只能算一分。 ; Long rhyme any US OR Western chapter.
* 10-11周 Reagan： Western W11意,9哲* （任何其他老师认为有一定关联的西方章可能也能算）； US 只能算 5经,14外; Long rhyme any Western chapter.
* 11-12周 Harvard： Western W1希*，5日*，6复*，9哲，8自* （任何其他老师认为有一定关联的西方章可能也能算）； US 只能算 US 7文; Long rhyme any Western chapter.
* 13周开始： ; Long rhyme any Western chapter.
*
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3） 其中上学期还没做过练习的在下面章码后面打星：
1 Jefferson (美3，4*), 2 Guggenheim (美16，15，11), 3 Harvard (美7); 4 Clinton (美6，12，9，10), 5 Reagan (美5*，14*), 6 Zuckerberg (美8，13).
%%
1 Jefferson (西2，3，7), 2 Guggenheim(西10，12), 3 Harvard(西1，5，6，8，9); 4 Clinton(西3，4，11), 5 Reagan(西11，9), 6 Zuckerberg(西无).
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:1 Jefferson(美3，4*)(西2，3，7),
:2 Guggenheim(美16，15，11)(西10，12),
:3 Harvard(美7)(西1，5，6，8，9);
:4 Clinton(美6，12，9，10)(西3，4，11),
:5 Reagan(美5*，14*)(西11，9),
:6 Zuckerberg(美8，13).
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4） 记住这个顺序
1 Jefferson, 2 Guggenheim, 3 Harvard; 4 Clinton, 5 Reagan, 6 Zuckerberg.
1 杰佛逊 2 古根海姆 3 哈佛 4 克林顿 5 里根 6 扎克伯格
它们都是些什么鬼？ 请 必应 和 维基百科 以下词条搜索：
必应搜
:https://cn.bing.com/search?q=thomas+jefferson+legacy&FORM=HDRSC1
:thomas jefferson legacy
:https://cn.bing.com/search?q=guggenheim+pop+&FORM=HDRSC1
:guggenheim pop
:https://cn.bing.com/search?q=havard+greek+roman+medieval+renaissance&FORM=HDRSC1
:havard greek roman medieval renaissance
:https://cn.bing.com/search?q=clinton+liberals+left&FORM=HDRSC1
:clinton liberals left
:https://cn.bing.com/search?q=reagan+ideology+&FORM=HDRSC1
:reagan ideology
:https://cn.bing.com/search?q=zuckerberg+elon+musk+steve+jobs+&FORM=HDRSC1
:zuckerberg elon musk steve jobs
维基搜：
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States
:Jefferson
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum
:Guggenheim
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Humanities_institutes
:Harvard
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Medieval_studies
:Harvard
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clintonism
:Clinton
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way#United_States
:Clinton
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Ronald_Reagan
:Reagan
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_Era
:Reagan
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Facebook
:Zuckerberg
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup_ecosystem
:Zuckerberg
哔哩哔哩搜：
:https://search.bilibili.com/all?keyword=%E7%BE%8E%E5%9B%BD%E7%8B%AC%E7%AB%8B&from_source=banner_search
:Jefferson
:https://search.bilibili.com/all?keyword=%E5%8F%A4%E6%A0%B9%E6%B5%B7%E5%A7%86
:Guggenheim
:https://search.bilibili.com/all?keyword=%E5%8F%A4%E5%85%B8%20%E4%B8%AD%E4%B8%96%E7%BA%AA
:Harvard
:https://search.bilibili.com/all?keyword=%E5%B9%B3%E6%9D%83
:Clinton
:https://search.bilibili.com/all?keyword=%E7%BE%8E%E8%8B%8F
:Reagan
:https://search.bilibili.com/all?keyword=%E7%A1%85%E8%B0%B7
:Zuckerberg
（集中发）
%%%%
5） 美国-西方文化的 projects, 和 以前“美国历史”按历史时代分的“讲题”的对应关系：
我拟把 其中第____ 个 Project，暂拟名称为 “美国历史”, 的 十八、十九世纪部分，分为这几个阶段：
* 1小鱼独立阶段 （亚当斯）
* 2 中鱼吃小鱼阶段（杰佛逊）
* 3 大鱼吃中鱼阶段（杰克逊）
* 4 小鱼长了大牙齿吃掉大鱼阶段（林肯）
* 5 一群小鱼pk一条鲨鱼阶段（美国梦）
* 二十世纪阶段
* 二十一世纪阶段
十八十九世纪，分出了 5 个阶段。
二十二十一世纪可以分这几个阶段：
* 1工业PK老牌
* 2法斯PK老牌
* 3意识阵营PK老牌
* 4反全球化PK老牌
其实： 属于“美国历史”的Project, 应该包括：
* 小鱼独立亚当斯=Jefferson
* 中鱼吃小鱼杰佛逊=Jefferson
* 大鱼吃中鱼杰克逊=Jefferson
* 小鱼大牙齿吃大鱼林肯=Jefferson + Reagan + Clinton
* 一群小鱼一（两）条鲨鱼=Jefferson + Reagan + Clinton
* 工业PK老牌= Reagan
* 法斯PK老牌= Reagan + Harvard
* 意识阵营PK老牌= Reagan + Guggenheim + Clinton + Harvard
* 反全球化PK老牌= Jefferson + Reagan + Clinton + Guggenheim + Zuckerberg
所以，其实美国历史最“当代”的那个时代， 涉及的 Projects 是最多的。 越靠近当代，涉及的 projects 就越多。
==美国 After chapter questions in a slightly distorted order==
:http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa01/guide01.asp.htm
:Unit 1: American Beginnings
:http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa02/guide02.asp.htm
:Unit 2: The Political System in the United States
:http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa03/guide03.asp.htm
:Unit 3: American Economy
:http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa04/guide04.asp.htm
:Unit 4: Religion in the United States
:http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa05/guide05.asp.htm
:Unit 5: American Literature
:http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa06/guide06.asp.htm
:Unit 6: Education in the United States
:http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa07/guide07.asp.htm
:Unit 7: Social Movements of the 1960s
:http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa08/guide08.asp.htm
:Unit 8: Social Problems in the United States
:http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa09/guide09.asp.htm
:Unit 9: Technology in America
:http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa10/guide10.asp.htm
:Unit 10: Scenic America
:http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa11/guide11.asp.htm
:Unit 11: Sports in America
:http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa12/guide12.asp.htm
:Unit 12: Early American Jazz
===Unit 3始 American Beginnings 原为 1 Beginnings===
英语文章自然读音转换
把 Speed 调到 -3 阅读者要调到 US, Tim 要点击左上角的N字，然后复制黏贴大量文字进方格内
* http://www.naturalreaders.com/online/
* https://cn.bing.com/search?q=Text+to+Speech+Online+with+Natural+Voices&FORM=HDRSC1
Focal Points:
* Meaning of being an American according to Crevecoeur
* Two immigration movements to the Americas
* American Indians
* Discovery of America
* The forces that brought about the modern development of Europe
* The settlement of Virginia
* The heritage of the settlement of Virginia
* Puritanism
* The Pilgrim Fathers
* The influence of Puritanism on American culture
* Lord Baltimore and his feudal plan
* Quakerism
* William Penn and his Holy Experiment
* The heritage of the Holy Experiment in American culture
* The causes and major leaders of the American Revolution
* The Declaration of Independence
* http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa01/text01_p1.asp.htm
Text
Crevecoeur
What is an American? This has become a classic question asked not only by foreigners visiting the United States, but more often by Americans themselves. When Americans feel confused or when they are in a crisis, they ask who they are and try to find out what being an American means. In fact, this famous question was first asked by a Frenchman called J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur who settled in Pennsylvania in the 18th century. In 1782, this French farmer published a book in London entitled Letters from an American Farmer in which he posed the question and answered it himself: "What then is the American, this new man? He is either a European, or the descendant of a European, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds.… Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.… The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions.… This is an American." According to Crevecoeur, the American in those days had the mixed blood of Europeans or their descendants without taking into consideration other nationalities such as American Indians and blacks. Today, the picture of an American is more complex. In American families, there may be sons—in—law or daughters—in—law with European descendants or Afro—Americans or Asian immigrants although these mixed blood families of whites with other blacks or Asians are in the minority. To understand this American, let us go back to American past.
Boston Harbor
A New Land
The American continents were peopled as a result of two long-continuing immigration movements, the first from Asia, and the second from Europe and Africa. The first movement began probably 25 000 years ago when Siberian tribes, in search of new hunting grounds or of refuge from pursuing enemies, crossed over the Bering Strait to Alaska. By 1492, over 10-20 million people, mistakenly called Indians by Christopher Columbus, inhabited the Americas. They developed their own aboriginal cultures, which ranged
Alaska
Columbus
from the simple to the complex, from those of the primitive tribes to the brilliant civilizations of the Aztecs, the Incas and the Mayas. But their technological development had lagged behind that of Europe and Asia.
Aztecs
Incas
Mayas
The second migration to the Americas began with the expansion of Europe at the start of the modern period from the 16th century. In 1492, Columbus persuaded the king and queen of Spain to finance his voyage. He believed that by sailing west from Europe, he could reach the Far East. He never succeeded, but instead he landed on one of the Bahama Islands in the Caribbean Sea and "discovered" the New World. Based on Columbus' discovery, the Spanish king could claim the territory in the Americas and later Spain conquered the new land and established a huge empire and grabbed enormous wealth from the Indians. In 1497, another Italian sailor, John Cabot who was in the service of the English king, arrived in today's Canada and the English king claimed that the whole of the territory of North America belonged to England. Enforcing this claim, the Englishmen began to establish permanent settlements in North America by the beginning of the 17th century.
Europe in the 16th and 17th Centuries
The English permanent settlements in North America began in the 17th century when Western Europe was undergoing great changes. During the Middle Ages (between A.D. 500 and A.D.1500), Europe was under the single spiritual authority of the Roman Catholic Church. The feudal system of serfdom prevailed. The peasants, or the serfs, were tied to the soil and worked in the fields for their lords. Merchants and craftsmen were handicapped by the social disorders. Art and learning were controlled by the Church. By the 16th century, some new and powerful social forces began to emerge which led to the awakening of Europe and the discovery of America. The first new force was the development of capitalism. The growth of capitalism produced two new classes—the bourgeois class and the working class. With the fast development of commerce and trade, the bourgeoisie became increasingly powerful in politics as well as in economy. They wanted to share power with feudal lords and in some countries such as England they wanted to have more power from the king so that they could have free development. The English Revolution was the result of this growth of capitalism.
The second major force that brought about the modern development of Europe was the Renaissance, which was marked by a changing outlook on life. The God-centered world was challenged by the great progress in natural and social science. People began to be more confident in themselves and show more interest in the world about them. Many challenged the authority of the Bible and were willing to observe, experiment and test truths for themselves. This attitude pushed the development of technology.
Martin Luther
The third influential force was the Religious Reformation, a religious reform movement that started from Germany. In 1517, Martin Luther, a German professor of theology, put up "95 Theses" on the church door in protest against abuses and corruption in the church. He argued that the Pope had no right to sell "indulgences" for the remission of sins. He believed that sinful men could win salvation neither by good works nor through the church or the Pope, but only by faith in Jesus Christ and through a direct relationship to God. And the only true guide to the will of God was the Bible. Because Martin Luther protested against the Catholic Church, the Reformation came to be called the Protestant Reformation. Soon after Martin Luther began his revolt, John Calvin, a Frenchman, who had fled to Switzerland, started his reform movement. Calvinism which had many followers in
John Calvin
King Henry VIII
England will be dealt with later. In England, King Henry VIII, because of the political disputes with the Roman Catholic Church and because of his personal marital problems, broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and set up the Church of England, and he became the head of the Church of England himself. These religious reforms had much in common. They all challenged the authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church which controlled people's religious beliefs and interfered in political affairs of the nation states. The individual Christian believers who supported the Reformation believed that human beings could be saved only by faith, by establishing a direct contact with God, not through the church or its priests. These reforms reflected the rise of nationalism in Europe, represented the
A Protestant Church
demand of the bourgeois class for free development and expressed the desire of ordinary working people, especially the serfs, for the liberation from the feudal control. Therefore, the Protestant Reformation was welcomed by leaders, middle class and working people in Europe, especially in Western European countries. As a result, the Protestants and their denominations spread far and wide.
Against the background of those emerging new forces, the English colonies that would become the United States of America were planted in North America.
The Settlement in Virginia
John Smith
Jamestown
John Rolfe
The first English permanent settlement was founded in 1607 in Virginia. This was organized by the London Company with a charter from the English king James I. The company sent three small ships with 144 English men to Virginia. During the long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, 44 people died and 100 survivors landed by the side of a river, the James River, which they named after their king and began to build a town called Jamestown. Most of the 100 colonists were adventurous English gentlemen including some business people who refused to do any manual labour, and very few of them were willing laborers. Yet the London Company had wished to have a quick return for its investment and had instructed them to hunt for gold and other wealth as soon as they landed in Virginia. When the colonists settled down, they did not grow food. Instead, a few laborers among them started to dig for gold and look for other riches while those English gentlemen were idle, doing nothing. Unfortunately, nothing was found. Soon they ran into the shortage of food. When the second group of men were sent by the London Company with supplies, all but 38 of the first arrivals were dead. Jamestown was in a great crisis. Then Captain John Smith took the leadership. He imposed discipline by making everyone work. A few years later, another colonist, John Rolfe began to experiment with the West Indian Tobacco and this plant grew well in Virginia soil. Tobacco cultivation quickly spread up and down the settlement and yielded profits by selling tobacco to Europe. Meanwhile, John Rolfe married the princess of an Indian tribe chief. This marriage led to the ending of hostility between the white people and Indians for some time. The plantation of tobacco saved the settlers and the marriage gave time to the colonists for development.
In 1619, two events took place in Virginia, which would influence the shaping of American culture a great deal. On July 30, 1619, in the Jamestown church, the delegates elected from various communities in Virginia met as the House of Burgesses to discuss, along with the governor and his council members who were appointed, the enactment of laws for the colony. This was the first example for the future United States, the first meeting of an elected legislature, a representative assembly, in North America. It was thought to be the brilliant example of self-government of Americans although white servants did not have their representatives. A month later there occurred in Virginia another event. A Dutch ship brought in over 20 Negroes, who were bought to be held as servants for a term of years. Thus a start had been made toward the enslavement of Africans within what was to be the American republic. The two events combined constituted a unique American phenomenon. On the one hand, the English and other Europeans went to North America for seeking freedom. But on the other hand, these very white people who were seeking and fighting for their own freedom deprived black Africans of their freedom. George Washington was a great fighter for American freedom, and Thomas Jefferson was a chief author of the Declaration of Independence and yet both of them were slave owners, each with over 200 black slaves.
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
The Declaration of Independence
Puritan New England
Puritan
Puritan
New England today includes Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island in the Northeast of the United States. The second enduring English settlement was established in Massachusetts Bay in 1620. It was founded by English puritans who separated themselves from the Church of England. As mentioned above, King Henry VIII cut off the political relationship with the Pope in Rome and set up the Church of England, but there was no reform in religious beliefs and practices. A group of people thought that the Church of England was too catholic and wanted to "purify" the church, hence the name "puritans". These puritans were Protestants who followed the doctrine preached by John Calvin. They had some different religious beliefs from the Catholic Church. They believed that God was incomprehensible to man, and the power of God was all-knowing, yet hidden and unknown to man, while Catholics believed that God could be reached through his representative on the earth—the Pope. Puritan salvation was different from that of Catholics. Puritans were convinced that human beings were predestined by God before they were born. Some were God's chosen people while others were predestined to be damned to hell. Therefore no good works could save anyone, and nobody knew if he or she was God's elect. But Catholics argued that a person could confess his or her sin, do good works and give money to the church and buy back his or her soul. Was there any evidence for Puritans to show that some people were God's chosen people? Puritans believed that everyone had a calling, which was given by God. The success of one's work or the prosperity in his calling was the sign of being God's elect. Therefore, everyone must work hard, spend little and invest for more business. Working hard and living a moral life were their ethics. How could Puritans find God's will and establish a direct contact with God? They concluded that the Bible was the authority of their doctrine. So every Puritan must read the Bible in order to find God's will and search for one's individual contact with God. To be able to read the Bible and understand God's will, education was essential for Puritans.
Such Puritan beliefs were heretical to the Church of England, so they were cruelly persecuted. Some of them were thrown into prison and even executed for their religious beliefs. Some of them fought back and started the English Revolution. Oliver Cromwell, one of the Puritans, became the revolutionary leader, overthrew the monarchy, had King Charles I beheaded and founded a
Cromwell
Charles I
Boston City
republic. Some other Puritans thought that England was too corrupted and hopeless and decided to separate themselves from England. They fled to Holland where there was religious freedom. There they were allowed to meet and hold their services without interference. But as foreigners, they were not allowed to join the Dutch guilds of craftsmen, and so they had to work long and hard at unskilled and poorly paid jobs. They were further troubled as their children began to speak Dutch, marry into Dutch families, and lose their Englishness. Some of the Puritans decided to move again, this time across the Atlantic, where they might find an opportunity for a happier living and also worship as they pleased. The leaders of this group of Puritans found the necessary funds for the voyage from some merchants in London. In 1620, 35 Puritans and 67 non-Puritans took the ship Mayflower and left Holland for North America. Before they reached their destination, one of the Pilgrim Fathers drew up an agreement which was called Roger Williams and was signed by 41 of the passengers. They formed their own religious community and set up a civil government for the general good of the colony they were going to found in the new land. They settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. A much larger Puritan colony was established in the Boston area in 1630 and by 1635 more Puritan settlers were migrating to nearby Connecticut.
Mayflower
Roger Williams
Puritanism in New England changed gradually due to the frontier environment and the mobility of the population. As time went on, many of the new generations no longer adhered to the orthodox Puritanism. Many moved to the West and other parts of the United States. Today, Puritans are no longer in existence. But their legacies are still felt in American society and culture. For example, the Puritans hoped to build "a city upon hill" an ideal community. Since that time, Americans have viewed their country as a great experiment, a worthy model for other nations. This sense of mission has been very strong in the minds of many Americans. New England also established another American tradition—a strain of often intolerant moralism. The Puritans believed that governments should enforce God's morality. They strictly punished drunks, adulterers, violators of the Sabbath and other religious believers different from themselves. Roger Williams, one of the Puritans who protested that the state should not interfere with religion, was driven out of Massachusetts. In 1635, he set up Rhode Island colony, which guaranteed religious freedom and the separation of church and state. The Puritans also have left rich cultural heritage to future Americans. The American values such as individualism, hard work, respect of education owe very much to the Puritan beliefs.
Catholic Maryland
Lord Baltimore
Following the two patterns of early American culture in Virginia and New England was the pattern in the colony of Maryland founded by the Catholics. The founder was the second Lord Baltimore. His father, George Calvert, was born into an ordinary English family, not from the nobility nor from a Catholic background. While at Oxford, he came to know some influential people, and upon his graduation, he became the secretary of state in the king's Privy Council. During his service to the throne, he was converted to Roman Catholicism. This conversion created some problems for his service to the English king. In England, the king was both the head of state and the head of the Church of England. Anyone who served the king must take the oath of supremacy recognizing the monarch as the supreme head of state and church. As a Catholic, Calvert could not take the oath because his religious supreme head was the Pope in Rome. So he was driven out of the court. But the English king Charles I personally excused him and made him a noble with the title of Baron Baltimore. As he had the experience of being suppressed for his Catholic beliefs and witnessed the persecution of his fellow Catholics, he decided to find a haven in North America for his persecuted fellow religious believers. He went to his old friend King Charles I and asked for his help. In 1623, he was granted a charter from the king and was allowed to set up a colony in today's Maryland. But before he could do so, he died. His son, the second Lord Baltimore, carried out his father's will in 1632. He became the owner of the colony, captain—general of the armed forces, head of the church and disposer of all offices and the governor. In fact, he had the power comparable to that of the king in England. All he had to do was the promise of one—fifth of all the gold and silver discovered in Maryland and two Indian arrow heads a year to the king.
Colonial Servant
Lord Baltimore wished to introduce a feudal system similar to the manor system in Europe to his colony. His plan was that each gentleman who brought 5 servants with him settled in his land was allowed to establish a manor of 2000 acres. This gentleman had the privileges received in England, the privileges such as wearing distinctive medals to set the manor lord apart from the common herd. Lord Baltimore also declared that each freeholder was given 100 acres of land plus another 100 acres for his wife, 100 acres for a servant, and 50 acres for each of his children. But the freeholders could not enjoy the rights and privileges as the gentlemen. Both lords and freeholders must pay some rent to Lord Baltimore. Gentlemen's lands were to be tilled by indentured servants.
Indentured Labor
This feudal plan was bound to be doomed as were other feudal plans experimented with in North America due to various factors in the New World. In order to develop his colony, Baltimore had to attract as many settlers as possible to his land. So he encouraged the immigration of Protestants as well as Roman Catholics. Since relatively few of the Catholics were inclined to leave England, the Protestant settlers soon far outnumbered the Catholics. In 1648, Lord Baltimore appointed a Protestant governor, and the next year, the Maryland Toleration Act, which assured freedom of worship to all who believed in Jesus Christ, was passed. Because the Protestant majority were capitalistic-minded people and refused to carry out the feudal plan, and because the wilderness of North America provided plenty of land while labor was scarce, it was impossible for Lord Baltimore to have his feudal plan executed. Not long after the founding of his colony, the feudal experimental plan was dropped, and the colony, like other colonies in North America, followed a capitalist development road.
Quaker Pennsylvania
William Penn
Quaker
The fourth colonial pattern in North America was set by William Penn, an English Quaker who had been looking for a place for his fellow believers to live according to their religious faith. The term "Quakers" was coined by their enemies because the Quakers were so faithful to God that when they spoke of God, they trembled. These Quakers, though they were Protestants, had very different religious beliefs not only from the Catholics, but also from Puritans and other Protestant sects. They denied both the church and the Bible as the highest authority. They believed that people could communicate directly with God because everyone had an inner light and God was in everyone's soul and in man's heart. They believed in God through their faith without the help of church and priests. They did not build any church and did not train any priest. Their religious place of worship was called a meeting place, which could be anywhere. Since everyone had a divine light in his heart, all were born equal, and all were brothers and sisters. People were not born sinful. Quakers had their own way of life too. They lived a simple life, with thrifty and self-denial. They believed that God required everyone to work hard and have a productive life. Even in jail, they busily set about working at crafts. They refused all forms of war and followed a passive resistance. Their religious beliefs taught them that everyone was equal, so they refused to take off their caps to nobles when they met them and even refused to bow to the king. They wore plain clothes and used plain language. They rejected all the polite forms which were used in high society. As they rejected the authority of church, they refused to pay taxes for the support of the church. As a result, they were persecuted, and many of them were put into prison. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was such a Quaker.
Catholic Church
The Symbol of The Church of England
Benjamin Franklin
William Penn's father was the admiral of England and a member of the Church of England. When Penn was at Oxford, he was converted and became a confirmed Quaker. For this, he was thrown into jail, and his father threatened to cut him off financially. All this could not prevent him from his religious determination. In 1681, after his father's death, he used the debt of 16000 pounds King Charles II owed to his father as an excuse and asked the king to grant him a right to plant a colony in North America. He received the grant from the king and decided to found a colony for his persecuted fellow Quakers in today's Pennsylvania, a name after his father. Before he went to Pennsylvania, he wrote a pamphlet called " Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania", which was translated into several European languages and circulated far and wide. In the pamphlet, he explained his plan. All those who settled in his land would enjoy religious freedom. This was a great attraction to thousands of people with different religious backgrounds who were being persecuted for their religion in Europe. Another great appeal to Europeans, especially to those peasants hungry for land, was that he offered very easy terms for land. Anyone who would settle in his colony could get some land almost for nothing. Many Europeans were attracted to go to live in Pennsylvania, Germans, French people, Irish people, Northern Europeans as well as the English. When Penn arrived in his colony, he started to carry out what he called "the Holy Experiment". From his religious belief that man was not born sinful and everyone was born equal, he encouraged the spirit of liberty and equality. He set no restrictions on immigration, and naturalization was made easier for non—English people. So many American historians believe that the idea of the melting—pot was first practiced here. William Penn also established a liberal self—government. In his colony, there was a representative assembly elected by the landowners, and death penalty was imposed only for the two crimes of treason and murder, as compared with about 200 crimes leading to capital punishment in England at the time. The Quakers argued that religion was a person's private business with God , therefore no government should interfere in his or her religious beliefs. In accordance with Quakerism, William Penn carried out the policy of separation of state and church in his colony. Penn's holy experiment had great impact on American culture. Voltaire always held this colony up as proof that man could lead a good life without absolute monarch, feudalism or religious and racial uniformity. Some American founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were inspired by Penn's experiment.
The American Revolution
Those four patterns set by the early colonial leaders were filled with meanings for the future development of the United States. By the early 1760s, the 13 English colonies in North America had developed a similar American pattern in politics, economy and cultural life and enjoyed the same frontier environment. The English people and Europeans had become Americans and they were ready to separate themselves from the Old World. The American Revolution officially proclaimed the birth of a new nation of Americans.
On the eve of the American Revolution, while the 13 English colonies occupied the Atlantic coast, from New Hampshire in the north to Georgia in the south, the French controlled Canada and Louisiana. Between 1689 and 1815, France and Britain fought several wars, and North America was drawn into every one of them. In 1756, England and France began to fight the Seven Years' War, known in America as the French and Indian War. The English government invested soldiers and money in North America and won a great empire. The British forces captured several Canadian strong points such as Quebec and Montreal. The Peace of Paris, signed in 1763 between Britain and France, gave Britain title to Canada and all of North America east of the Mississippi River.
Britain's victory led directly to a conflict with its American colonies. The British government argued that Britain had spent large sums of money to defend their American colonies in those wars, and that the colonists therefore should pay a part of those expenses. As a result, the British government began to charge new taxes on sugar, coffee, textiles and other imported goods. For instance, with the passage of the Stamp Act, special tax stamps had to be attached to all newspapers, pamphlets, legal documents and licenses. The Quartering Act passed by British Parliament forced the colonies to house and feed British soldiers. But the Americans feared that new taxes would make trading difficult, and that British troops stationed in the colonies might be used to crush the civil liberties which the colonists had heretofore enjoyed. The colonial Americans insisted that they could be taxed only by their own colonial assemblies. "No taxation without representation" was their rallying cry. The colonists refused to obey the British laws, so British soldiers were sent to Boston.
In 1773, a group of patriots responded to the tea tax by staging the "Boston Tea Party". Disguised as Indians, they boarded British merchant ships and tossed 342 crates of tea into Boston harbor. British Parliament then passed the Intolerable Acts: The independence of the Massachusetts colonial government was sharply curtailed, and more British soldiers were sent to the port of Boston, which was now closed to shipping. In September 1774, the First
Boston Tea Party
Boston Port
The First Continental Congress
Continental Congress, a meeting of colonial leaders who opposed British oppression in the colonies, met in Philadelphia. These leaders urged Americans to disobey the Intolerable Acts and to boycott British trade. At the same time, the colonists began to organize militias and collect and store weapons and ammunition in order to defend themselves. On April 19, 1775, the first shot was fired when 700 British soldiers went to capture a colonial arms depot in a small town of Concord near Boston. Thus the American War of Independence began.
The Second Continental Congress
John Adams
Franklin
In May 1775, a second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and began to assume the functions of a national government. It founded a Continental Army and Navy under the command of George Washington. On July 2, 1776, the Congress finally resolved that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states." Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, assisted by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, drafted Declaration of Independence, which the Congress adopted on July 4, 1776. The Declaration officially proclaimed the independence of 13 North American colonies. It solemnly declared:"We hold these truths to be self—evident, that all men are created equal; that they were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Most importantly, it explained the philosophy of governments:"to secure these rights, governments are instituted
Locke
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;" "whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." This theory of politics and a guiding principle of the American Revolution came from John Locke, an English political philosopher in the 17th century.
The War of Independence came to an end in 1781 with the victory of North Americans. The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 and Britain had to recognize the independence of the United States. A new American nation was thus born.
The Statue of Liberty
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The Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence
by Stephen E. Lucas
The Declaration of Independence is perhaps the most masterfully written state paper of Western civilization. As Moses Coit Tyler noted almost a century ago, no assessment of it can be complete without taking into account its extraordinary merits as a work of political prose style. Although many scholars have recognized those merits, there are surprisingly few sustained studies of the stylistic artistry of the Declaration. This essay seeks to illuminate that artistry by probing the discourse microscopically—at the level of the sentence, phrase, word, and syllable. By approaching the Declaration in this way, we can shed light both on its literary qualities and on its rhetorical power as a work designed to convince a "candid world" that the American colonies were justified in seeking to establish themselves as an independent nation.
The text of the Declaration can be divided into five sections—the introduction, the preamble, the indictment of George III, the denunciation of the British people, and the conclusion. Because space does not permit us to explicate each section in full detail, we shall select features from each that illustrate the stylistic artistry of the Declaration as a whole.
The introduction consists of the first paragraph—a single, lengthy, periodic sentence:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Taken out of context, this sentence is so general it could be used as the introduction to a declaration by any "oppressed" people. Seen within its original context, however, it is a model of subtlety, nuance, and implication that works on several levels of meaning and allusion to orient readers toward a favorable view of America and to prepare them for the rest of the Declaration. From its magisterial opening phrase, which sets the American Revolution within the whole "course of human events," to its assertion that "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" entitle America to a "separate and equal station among the powers of the earth," to its quest for sanction from "the opinions of mankind," the introduction elevates the quarrel with England from a petty political dispute to a major event in the grand sweep of history. It dignifies the Revolution as a contest of principle and implies that the American cause has a special claim to moral legitimacy—all without mentioning England or America by name.
Rather than defining the Declaration's task as one of persuasion, which would doubtless raise the defenses of readers as well as imply that there was more than one publicly credible view of the British-American conflict, the introduction identifies the purpose of the Declaration as simply to "declare"—to announce publicly in explicit terms—the "causes" impelling America to leave the British empire. This gives the Declaration, at the outset, an aura of philosophical (in the eighteenth-century sense of the term) objectivity that it will seek to maintain throughout. Rather than presenting one side in a public controversy on which good and decent people could differ, the Declaration purports to do no more than a natural philosopher would do in reporting the causes of any physical event. The issue, it implies, is not one of interpretation but of observation.
The most important word in the introduction is "necessary," which in the eighteenth century carried strongly deterministic overtones. To say an act was necessary implied that it was impelled by fate or determined by the operation of inextricable natural laws and was beyond the control of human agents. Thus Chambers's Cyclopedia defined "necessary" as "that which cannot but be, or cannot be otherwise." "The common notion of necessity and impossibility," Jonathan Edwards wrote in Freedom of the Will, "implies something that frustrates endeavor or desire…. That is necessary in the original and proper sense of the word, which is, or will be, notwithstanding all supposable opposition." Characterizing the Revolution as necessary suggested that it resulted from constraints that operated with lawlike force throughout the material universe and within the sphere of human action. The Revolution was not merely preferable, defensible, or justifiable. It was as inescapable, as inevitable, as unavoidable within the course of human events as the motions of the tides or the changing of the seasons within the course of natural events.
Investing the Revolution with connotations of necessity was particularly important because, according to the law of nations, recourse to war was lawful only when it became "necessary"—only when amicable negotiation had failed and all other alternatives for settling the differences between two states had been exhausted. Nor was the burden of necessity limited to monarchs and established nations. At the start of the English Civil War in 1642, Parliament defended its recourse to military action against Charles I in a lengthy declaration demonstrating the "Necessity to take up Arms." Following this tradition, in July 1775 the Continental Congress issued its own Declaration Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking Up Arms. When, a year later, Congress decided the colonies could no longer retain their liberty within the British empire, it adhered to long-established rhetorical convention by describing independence as a matter of absolute and inescapable necessity. Indeed, the notion of necessity was so important that in addition to appearing in the introduction of the Declaration, it was invoked twice more at crucial junctures in the rest of the text and appeared frequently in other congressional papers after July 4, 1776.
Labeling the Americans "one people" and the British "another" was also laden with implication and performed several important strategic functions within the Declaration. First, because two alien peoples cannot be made one, it reinforced the notion that breaking the "political bands" with England was a necessary step in the course of human events. America and England were already separated by the more basic fact that they had become two different peoples. The gulf between them was much more than political; it was intellectual, social, moral, cultural and, according to the principles of nature, could no more be repaired, as Thomas Paine said, than one could "restore to us the time that is past" or "give to prostitution its former innocence." To try to perpetuate a purely political connection would be "forced and unnatural," "repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things."
Second, once it is granted that Americans and Englishmen are two distinct peoples, the conflict between them is less likely to be seen as a civil war. The Continental Congress knew America could not withstand Britain's military might without foreign assistance. But they also knew America could not receive assistance as long as the colonies were fighting a civil war as part of the British empire. To help the colonies would constitute interference in Great Britain's internal affairs. As Samuel Adams explained, "no foreign Power can consistently yield Comfort to Rebels, or enter into any kind of Treaty with these Colonies till they declare themselves free and independent." The crucial factor in opening the way for foreign aid was the act of declaring independence. But by defining America and England as two separate peoples, the Declaration reinforced the perception that the conflict was not a civil war, thereby, as Congress noted in its debates on independence, making it more "consistent with European delicacy for European powers to treat with us, or even to receive an Ambassador."
Third, defining the Americans as a separate people in the introduction eased the task of invoking the right of revolution in the preamble. That right, according to eighteenth-century revolutionary principles, could be invoked only in the most dire of circumstances—when "resistance was absolutely necessary in order to preserve the nation from slavery, misery, and ruin"—and then only by "the Body of the People." If America and Great Britain were seen as one people, Congress could not justify revolution against the British government for the simple reason that the body of the people (of which the Americans would be only one part) did not support the American cause. For America to move against the government in such circumstances would not be a justifiable act of resistance but "a sort of Sedition, Tumult, and War … aiming only at the satisfaction of private Lust, without regard to the public Good." By defining the Americans as a separate people, Congress could more readily satisfy the requirement for invoking the right of revolution that "the whole Body of Subjects" rise up against the government "to rescue themselves from the most violent and illegal oppressions."
Like the introduction, the next section of the Declaration—usually referred to as the preamble—is universal in tone and scope. It contains no explicit reference to the British- American conflict, but outlines a general philosophy of government that makes revolution justifiable, even meritorious:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Like the rest of the Declaration, the preamble is "brief, free of verbiage, a model of clear, concise, simple statement." It capsulizes in five sentences—202—words what it took John Locke thousands of words to explain in his Second Treatise of Government. Each word is chosen and placed to achieve maximum impact. Each clause is indispensable to the progression of thought. Each sentence is carefully constructed internally and in relation to what precedes and follows. In its ability to compress complex ideas into a brief, clear statement, the preamble is a paradigm of eighteenth-century Enlightenment prose style, in which purity, simplicity, directness, precision, and, above all, perspicuity were the highest rhetorical and literary virtues. One word follows another with complete inevitability of sound and meaning. Not one word can be moved or replaced without disrupting the balance and harmony of the entire preamble.
The stately and dignified tone of the preamble—like that of the introduction—comes partly from what the eighteenth century called Style Periodique, in which, as Hugh Blair explained in his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, "the sentences are composed of several members linked together, and hanging upon one another, so that the sense of the whole is not brought out till the close." This, Blair said, "is the most pompous, musical, and oratorical manner of composing" and "gives an air of gravity and dignity to composition." The gravity and dignity of the preamble were reinforced by its conformance with the rhetorical precept that "when we aim at dignity or elevation, the sound [of each sentence] should be made to grow to the last; the longest members of the period, and the fullest and most sonorous words, should be reserved to the conclusion." None of the sentences of the preamble end on a single-syllable word; only one, the second (and least euphonious), ends on a two-syllable word. Of the other four, one ends with a four-syllable word ("security"), while three end with three-syllable words. Moreover, in each of the three-syllable words the closing syllable is at least a medium- length four-letter syllable, which helps bring the sentences to "a full and harmonious close."
It is unlikely that any of this was accidental. Thoroughly versed in classical oratory and rhetorical theory as well as in the belletristic treatises of his own time, Thomas Jefferson, draftsman of the Declaration, was a diligent student of rhythm, accent, timing, and cadence in discourse. This can be seen most clearly in his "Thoughts on English Prosody," a remarkable twenty-eight-page unpublished essay written in Paris during the fall of 1786. Prompted by a discussion on language with the Marquis de Chastellux at Monticello four years earlier, it was a careful inquiry designed "to find out the real circumstance which gives harmony to English prose and laws to those who make it." Using roughly the same system of diacritical notation he had employed in 1776 in his reading draft of the Declaration, Jefferson systematically analyzed the patterns of accentuation in a wide range of English writers, including Milton, Pope, Shakespeare, Addison, Gray, and Garth. Although "Thoughts on English Prosody" deals with poetry, it displays Jefferson's keen sense of the interplay between sound and sense in language. There can be little doubt that, like many accomplished writers, he consciously composed for the ear as well as for the eye—a trait that is nowhere better illustrated than in the eloquent cadences of the preamble in the Declaration of Independence.
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The preamble also has a powerful sense of structural unity. This is achieved partly by the latent chronological progression of thought, in which the reader is moved from the creation of mankind, to the institution of government, to the throwing off of government when it fails to protect the people's unalienable rights, to the creation of new government that will better secure the people's safety and happiness. This dramatic scenario, with its first act implicitly set in the Garden of Eden (where man was "created equal"), may, for some readers, have contained mythic overtones of humanity's fall from divine grace. At the very least, it gives an almost archetypal quality to the ideas of the preamble and continues the notion, broached in the introduction, that the American Revolution is a major development in "the course of human events." Because of their concern with the philosophy of the Declaration, many modern scholars have dealt with the opening sentence of the preamble out of context, as if Jefferson and the Continental Congress intended it to stand alone. Seen in context, however, it is part of a series of five propositions that build upon one another through the first three sentences of the preamble to establish the right of revolution against tyrannical authority:
Proposition 1: All men are created equal.
Proposition 2:
They [all men, from proposition 1] are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.
Proposition 3:
Among these [man's unalienable rights, from proposition 2] are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Proposition 4:
To secure these rights [man's unalienable rights, from propositions 2 and 3] governments are instituted among men.
Proposition 5:
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [securing man's unalienable rights, from propositions 2-4], it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.
When we look at all five propositions, we see they are meant to be read together and have been meticulously written to achieve a specific rhetorical purpose. The first three lead into the fourth, which in turn leads into the fifth. And it is the fifth, proclaiming the right of revolution when a government becomes destructive of the people's unalienable rights, that is most crucial in the overall argument of the Declaration. The first four propositions are merely preliminary steps designed to give philosophical grounding to the fifth.
At first glance, these propositions appear to comprise what was known in the eighteenth century as a sorites—"a Way of Argument in which a great Number of Propositions are so linked together, that the Predicate of one becomes continually the Subject of the next following, until at last a Conclusion is formed by bringing together the Subject of the First Proposition and the Predicate of the last." In his Elements of Logick, William Duncan provided the following example of a sorites:
:God is omnipotent.
:An omnipotent Being can do every thing possible.
:He that can do every thing possible, can do whatever
:involves not a Contradiction.
:Therefore God can do whatever involves not a
:Contradiction.
Although the section of the preamble we have been considering is not a sorites (because it does not bring together the subject of the first proposition and the predicate of the last), its propositions are written in such a way as to take on the appearance of a logical demonstration. They are so tightly interwoven linguistically that they seem to make up a sequence in which the final proposition—asserting the right of revolution—is logically derived from the first four propositions. This is accomplished partly by the mimicry of the form of a sorites and partly by the sheer number of propositions, the accumulation of which is reinforced by the slow, deliberate pace of the text and by the use of "that" to introduce each proposition. There is also a steplike progression from proposition to proposition, a progression that is accentuated by the skillful use of demonstrative pronouns to make each succeeding proposition appear to be an inevitable consequence of the preceding proposition. Although the preamble is the best known part of the Declaration today, it attracted considerably less attention in its own time. For most eighteenth-century readers, it was an unobjectionable statement of commonplace political principles. As Jefferson explained years later, the purpose of the Declaration was "not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of … but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take."
Far from being a weakness of the preamble, the lack of new ideas was perhaps its greatest strength. If one overlooks the introductory first paragraph, the Declaration as a whole is structured along the lines of a deductive argument that can easily be put in syllogistic form:
Major premise:
When government deliberately seeks to reduce the people under absolute despotism, the people have a right, indeed a duty, to alter or abolish that form of government and to create new guards for their future security.
Minor premise:
The government of Great Britain has deliberately sought to reduce the American people under absolute despotism.
Conclusion:
Therefore the American people have a right, indeed a duty, to abolish their present form of government and to create new guards for their future security.
As the major premise in this argument, the preamble allowed Jefferson and the Congress to reason from self-evident principles of government accepted by almost all eighteenth-century readers of the Declaration.
The key premise, however, was the minor premise. Since virtually everyone agreed the people had a right to overthrow a tyrannical ruler when all other remedies had failed, the crucial question in July 1776 was whether the necessary conditions for revolution existed in the colonies. Congress answered this question with a sustained attack on George III, an attack that makes up almost exactly two-thirds of the text.
The indictment of George III begins with a transitional sentence immediately following the preamble:
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
Now, 273 words into the Declaration, appears the first explicit reference to the British-American conflict. The parallel structure of the sentence reinforces the parallel movement of ideas from the preamble to the indictment of the king, while the next sentence states that indictment with the force of a legal accusation:
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these states.
Unlike the preamble, however, which most eighteenth-century readers could readily accept as self-evident, the indictment of the king required proof. In keeping with the rhetorical conventions Englishmen had followed for centuries when dethroning a "tyrannical" monarch, the Declaration contains a bill of particulars documenting the king's "repeated injuries and usurpations" of the Americans' rights and liberties. The bill of particulars lists twenty-eight specific grievances and is introduced with the shortest sentence of the Declaration:
To prove this [the king's tyranny], let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
This sentence is so innocuous one can easily overlook its artistry and importance. The opening phrase—"To prove this"—indicates the "facts" to follow will indeed prove that George III is a tyrant. But prove to whom? To a "candid world"—that is, to readers who are free from bias or malice, who are fair, impartial, and just. The implication is that any such reader will see the "facts" as demonstrating beyond doubt that the king has sought to establish an absolute tyranny in America. If a reader is not convinced, it is not because the "facts" are untrue or are insufficient to prove the king's villainy; it is because the reader is not "candid."
The pivotal word in the sentence, though, is "facts." As a term in eighteenth-century jurisprudence (Jefferson, like many of his colleagues in Congress, was a lawyer), it meant the circumstances and incidents of a legal case, looked at apart from their legal meaning. This usage fits with the Declaration's similarity to a legal declaration, the plaintiff's written statement of charges showing a "plain and certain" indictment against a defendant. If the Declaration were considered as analogous to a legal declaration or a bill of impeachment, the issue of dispute would not be the status of the law (the right of revolution as expressed in the preamble) but the facts of the specific case at hand (the king's actions to erect a "tyranny" in America).
In ordinary usage "fact" had by 1776 taken on its current meaning of something that had actually occurred, a truth known by observation, reality rather than supposition or speculation.18 By characterizing the colonists' grievances against George III as "facts," the Declaration implies that they are unmediated representations of empirical reality rather than interpretations of reality. They are the objective constraints that make the Revolution "necessary." This is reinforced by the passive voice in "let Facts be submitted to a candid world." Who is submitting the facts? No one. They have not been gathered, structured, rendered, or in any way contaminated by human agents—least of all by the Continental Congress. They are just being "submitted," direct from experience without the corrupting intervention of any observer or interpreter.
But "fact" had yet another connotation in the eighteenth century. The word derived from the Latin facere, to do. Its earliest meaning in English was "a thing done or performed"—an action or deed. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was used most frequently to denote an evil deed or a crime, a usage still in evidence at the time of the Revolution. In 1769, for example, Blackstone, in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, noted that "accessories after the fact" were "allowed the benefit of clergy in all cases." The Annual Register for 1772 wrote of a thief who was committed to prison for the "fact" of horse stealing. There is no way to know whether Jefferson and the Congress had this sense of "fact" in mind when they adopted the Declaration. Yet regardless of their intentions, for some eighteenth-century readers "facts" many have had a powerful double-edged meaning when applied to George III's actions toward America.
Although one English critic assailed the Declaration for its "studied confusion in the arrangement" of the grievances against George III, they are not listed in random order but fall into four distinct groups. The first group, consisting of charges 1-12, refers to such abuses of the king's executive power as suspending colonial laws, dissolving colonial legislatures, obstructing the administration of justice, and maintaining a standing army during peacetime. The second group, consisting of charges 13-22, attacks the king for combining with "others" (Parliament) to subject America to a variety of unconstitutional measures, including taxing the colonists without consent, cutting off their trade with the rest of the world, curtailing their right to trial by jury, and altering their charters.
The third set of charges, numbers 23-27, assails the king's violence and cruelty in waging war against his American subjects. They burden him with a litany of venal deeds that is worth quoting in full:
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. 
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and
totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
The war grievances are followed by the final charge against the king—that the colonists' "repeated Petitions" for redress of their grievances have produced only "repeated injury."
The presentation of what Samuel Adams called George III's "Catalogue of Crimes" is among the Declaration's most skillful features. First, the grievances could have been arranged chronologically, as Congress had done in all but one of its former state papers. Instead they are arranged topically and are listed seriatim, in sixteen successive sentences beginning "He has" or, in the case of one grievance, "He is." Throughout this section of the Declaration, form and content reinforce one another to magnify the perfidy of the king. The steady, laborious piling up of "facts" without comment takes on the character of a legal indictment, while the repetition of "He has" slows the movement of the text, draws attention to the accumulation of grievances, and accentuates George III's role as the prime conspirator against American liberty.
Second, as Thomas Hutchinson complained, the charges were "most wickedly presented to cast reproach upon the King." Consider, for example, grievance 10: "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance." The language is Biblical and conjures up Old Testament images of "swarms" of flies and locusts covering the face of the earth, "so that the land was darkened," and devouring all they found until "there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field" (Exodus 10:14-15). It also recalls the denunciation, in Psalms 53:4, of "the workers of iniquity … who eat up my people as they eat bread," and the prophecy of Deuteronomy 28:51 that an enemy nation "shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee." For some readers the religious connotations may have been enhanced by "substance," which was used in theological discourse to signify "the Essence or Substance of the Godhead" and to describe the Holy Eucharist, in which Christ had "coupled the substance of his flesh and the substance of bread together, so we should receive both."
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From the revolutionaries' view, however, the primary advantage of the wording of charge 10 was probably its purposeful ambiguity. The "multitude of New Offices" referred to the customs posts that had been created in the 1760s to control colonial smuggling. The "swarms of Officers" that were purportedly eating out the substance of the colonies' three million people numbered about fifty in the entire continent. But Congress could hardly assail George III as a tyrant for appointing a few dozen men to enforce the laws against smuggling, so it clothed the charge in vague, evocative imagery that gave significance and emotional resonance to what otherwise might have seemed a rather paltry grievance.
Third, although scholars often downplay the war grievances as "the weakest part of the Declaration," they were vital to its rhetorical strategy. They came last partly because they were the most recent of George III's "abuses and usurpations," but also because they constituted the ultimate proof of his plan to reduce the colonies under "absolute despotism." Whereas the first twenty-two grievances describe the king's acts with such temperate verbs as "refused," "called together," "dissolved," "endeavored," "made," "erected," "kept," and "affected," the war grievances use emotionally charged verbs such as "plundered," "ravaged," "burnt," and "destroyed." With the exception of grievance, there is nothing in the earlier charges to compare with the evocative accusation that George III was spreading "death, desolation and tyranny … with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages," or with the characterization of "the merciless Indian Savages, whose known mode of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions." Coming on the heels of the previous twenty-two charges, the war grievances make George III out as little better than the notorious Richard III, who had forfeited his crown in 1485 for "unnatural, mischievous, and great Perjuries, Treasons, Homicides and Murders, in shedding of Infants' blood, with many other Wrongs, odious Offences, and abominations against God and Man."
To some extent, of course, the emotional intensity of the war grievances was a natural outgrowth of their subject. It is hard to write about warfare without using strong language. Moreover, as Jefferson explained a decade later in his famous "Head and Heart" letter to Maria Cosway, for many of the revolutionaries independence was, at bottom, an emotional—or sentimental—issue. But the emotional pitch of the war grievances was also part of a rhetorical strategy designed to solidify support for independence in those parts of America that had yet to suffer the physical and economic hardships of war. As late as May 1776 John Adams lamented that while independence had strong support in New England and the South, it was less secure in the middle colonies, which "have never tasted the bitter Cup; they have never Smarted—and are therefore a little cooler." As Thomas Paine recognized, "the evil" of British domination was not yet "sufficiently brought to their doors to make them feel the precariousness with which all American property is possessed." Paine sought to bring the evil home to readers of Common Sense by inducing them to identify with the "horror" inflicted on other Americans by the British forces "that hath carried fire and sword" into the land. In similar fashion, the Declaration of Independence used images of terror to magnify the wickedness of George III, to arouse "the passions and feelings" of readers, and to awaken "from fatal and unmanly slumbers" those Americans who had yet to be directly touched by the ravages of war.
Fourth, all of the charges against George III contain a substantial amount of strategic ambiguity. While they have a certain specificity in that they refer to actual historical events, they do not identify names, dates, or places. This magnified the seriousness of the grievances by making it seem as if each charge referred not to a particular piece of legislation or to an isolated act in a single colony, but to a violation of the constitution that had been repeated on many occasions throughout America.
The ambiguity of the grievances also made them more difficult to refute. In order to build a convincing case against the grievances, defenders of the king had to clarify each charge and what specific act or events it referred to, and then explain why the charge was not true. Thus it took John Lind, who composed the most sustained British response to the Declaration, 110 pages to answer the charges set forth by the Continental Congress in fewer than two dozen sentences. Although Lind deftly exposed many of the charges to be flimsy at best, his detailed and complex rebuttal did not stand a chance against the Declaration as a propaganda document. Nor has Lind's work fared much better since 1776. While the Declaration continues to command an international audience and has created an indelible popular image of George III as a tyrant, Lind's tract remains a piece of arcana, buried in the dustheap of history.
In addition to petitioning Parliament and George III, Whig leaders had also worked hard to cultivate friends of the American cause in England. But the British people had proved no more receptive to the Whigs than had the government, and so the Declaration follows the attack on George III by noting that the colonies had also appealed in vain to the people of Great Britain:
Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
This is one of the most artfully written sections of the Declaration. The first sentence, beginning "Nor …," shifts attention quickly and cleanly away from George III to the colonists' "British brethren." The "have we" of the first sentence is neatly reversed in the "We have" at the start of the second. Sentences two through four, containing four successive clauses beginning "We Have … ," give a pronounced sense of momentum to the paragraph while underlining the colonists' active efforts to reach the British people. The repetition of "We have" here also parallels the repetition of "He has" in the grievances against George III.
The fifth sentence—"They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity"—contains one of the few metaphors in the Declaration and acquires added force by its simplicity and brevity, which contrast with the greater length and complexity of the preceding sentence. The final sentence unifies the paragraph by returning to the pattern of beginning with "We," and its intricate periodic structure plays off the simple structure of the fifth sentence so as to strengthen the cadence of the entire paragraph. The closing words—"Enemies in War, in Peace Friends"—employ chiasmus, a favorite rhetorical device of eighteenth-century writers. How effective the device is in this case can be gauged by rearranging the final words to read, "Enemies in War, Friends in Peace," which weakens both the force and harmony of the Declaration's phrasing.
It is worth noting, as well, that this is the only part of the Declaration to employ much alliteration: "British brethren," "time to time," "common kindred," "which would," "connections and correspondence." The euphony gained by these phrases is fortified by the heavy repetition of medial and terminal consonants in adjoining words: "been wanting in attentions to," "them from time to time," "to their native justice," "disavow these usurpations," "have been deaf to the voice of." Finally, this paragraph, like the rest of the Declaration, contains a high proportion of one- and two-syllable words 82 percent). Of those words, an overwhelming number (eighty-one of ninety-six) contain only one syllable. The rest of the paragraph contains nine three-syllable words, eight four-syllable words, and four five-syllable words. This felicitous blend of a large number of very short words with a few very long ones is reminiscent of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and contributes greatly to the harmony, cadence, and eloquence of the Declaration, much as it contributes to the same features in Lincoln's immortal speech.
The British brethren section essentially finished the case for independence. Congress had set forth the conditions that justified revolution and had shown, as best it could, that those conditions existed in Great Britain's thirteen North American colonies. All that remained was for Congress to conclude the Declaration:
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
This final section of the Declaration is highly formulaic and has attracted attention primarily because of its closing sentence. Carl Becker deemed this sentence "perfection itself":
It is true (assuming that men value life more than property, which is doubtful) that the statement violates the rhetorical rule of climax; but it was a sure sense that made Jefferson place "lives" first and "fortunes" second. How much weaker if he had written "our fortunes, our lives, and our sacred honor"! Or suppose him to have used the word "property" instead of "fortunes"! Or suppose him to have omitted "sacred"!
Consider the effect of omitting any of the words, such as the last two "ours"—"our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor." No, the sentence can hardly be improved.
Becker is correct in his judgment about the wording and rhythm of the sentence, but he errs in attributing high marks to Jefferson for his "sure sense" in placing "lives" before "fortunes." "Lives and fortunes" was one of the most hackneyed phrases of eighteenth-century Anglo-American political discourse. Colonial writers had used it with numbing regularity throughout the dispute with England (along with other stock phrases such as "liberties and estates" and "life, liberty, and property"). Its appearance in the Declaration can hardly be taken as a measure of Jefferson's felicity of expression.
What marks Jefferson's "happy talent for composition" in this case is the coupling of "our sacred Honor" with "our Lives" and "our Fortunes" to create the eloquent trilogy that closes the Declaration. The concept of honor (and its cognates fame and glory) exerted a powerful hold on the eighteenth-century mind. Writers of all kinds—philosophers, preachers, politicians, playwrights, poets—repeatedly speculated about the sources of honor and how to achieve it. Virtually every educated man in England or America was schooled in the classical maxim, "What is left when honor is lost?" Or as Joseph Addison wrote in his Cato, whose sentiments were widely admired throughout the eighteenth century on both sides of the Atlantic:
"Better to die ten thousand deaths/Than wound my honour." The cult of honor was so strong that in English judicial proceedings a peer of the realm did not answer to bills in chancery or give a verdict "upon oath, like an ordinary juryman, but upon his honor."
By pledging "our sacred Honor" in support of the Declaration, Congress made a particularly solemn vow. The pledge also carried a latent message that the revolutionaries, contrary to the claims of their detractors, were men of honor whose motives and actions could not only withstand the closest scrutiny by contemporary persons of quality and merit but would also deserve the approbation of posterity. If the Revolution succeeded, its leaders-stood to achieve lasting honor as what Francis Bacon called "Liberatores or Salvatores"—men who "compound the long Miseries of Civil Wars, or deliver their Countries from Servitude of Strangers or Tyrants." Historical examples included Augustus Caesar, Henry VII of England, and Henry IV of France. On Bacon's five-point scale of supreme honor, such heroes ranked below only "Conditores Imperiorum, Founders of States and Commonwealths," such as Romulus, Caesar, and Ottoman, and "Lawgivers" such as Solon, Lycurgus, and Justinian, "also called Second Founders, or Perpetui Principes, because they Govern by their Ordinances after they are gone." Seen in this way, "our sacred Honor" lifts the motives of Congress above the more immediate concerns of "our Lives" and "our Fortunes" and places the revolutionaries in the footsteps of history's most honorable figures. As a result it also unifies the whole text by subtly playing out the notion that the Revolution is a major turn in the broad "course of human events."
At the same time, the final sentence completes a crucial metamorphosis in the text. Although the Declaration begins in an impersonal, even philosophical voice, it gradually becomes a kind of drama, with its tensions expressed more and more in personal terms. This transformation begins with the appearance of the villain, "the present King of Great Britain," who dominates the stage through the first nine grievances, all of which note what "He has" done without identifying the victim of his evil deeds. Beginning with grievance 10 the king is joined on stage by the American colonists, who are identified as the victim by some form of first person plural reference: The king has sent "swarms of officers to harass our people," has quartered "armed troops among us," has imposed "taxes on us without our consent," "has taken away our charters, abolished our most valuable laws," and altered "the Forms of our Governments." He has "plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns,… destroyed the lives of our people," and "excited domestic insurrections amongst us." The word "our" is used twenty-six times from its first appearance in grievance 10 through the last sentence of the Declaration, while "us" occurs eleven times from its first appearance in grievance 11 through the rest of the grievances.
Throughout the grievances action is instigated by the king, as the colonists passively accept blow after blow without wavering in their loyalty. His villainy complete, George III leaves the stage and it is occupied next by the colonists and their "British brethren." The heavy use of personal pronouns continues, but by now the colonists have become the instigators of action as they actively seek redress of their grievances. This is marked by a shift in idiom from "He has" to "We have": "We have petitioned for redress …," "We have reminded them …," "We have appealed to their …," and "We have conjured them." But "they have been deaf" to all pleas, so "We must … hold them" as enemies. By the conclusion, only the colonists remain on stage to pronounce their dramatic closing lines: "We … solemnly publish and declare …" And to support this declaration, "we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."
The persistent use of "he" and "them," "us" and "our," "we" and "they" personalizes the British-American conflict and transfigures it from a complex struggle of multifarious origins and diverse motives to a simple moral drama in which a patiently suffering people courageously defend their liberty against a cruel and vicious tyrant. It also reduces the psychic distance between the reader and the text and coaxes the reader into seeing the dispute with Great Britain through the eyes of the revolutionaries. As the drama of the Declaration unfolds, the reader is increasingly solicited to identify with Congress and "the good People of these Colonies," to share their sense of victimage, to participate vicariously in their struggle, and ultimately to act with them in their heroic quest for freedom. In this respect, as in others, the Declaration is a work of consummate artistry. From its eloquent introduction to its aphoristic maxims of government, to its relentless accumulation of charges against George III, to its elegiac denunciation of the British people, to its heroic closing sentence, it sustains an almost perfect synthesis of style, form, and content. Its solemn and dignified tone, its graceful and unhurried cadence, its symmetry, energy, and confidence, its combination of logical structure and dramatic appeal, its adroit use of nuance and implication all contribute to its rhetorical power. And all help to explain why the Declaration remains one of the handful of American political documents that, in addition to meeting the immediate needs of the moment, continues to enjoy a lustrous literary reputation.
NOTES
c 1989 by Stephen E. Lucas
Stephen E. Lucas is professor of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. The present essay is derived from a more comprehensive study, "Justifying America: The Declaration of Independence as a Rhetorical Document," in Thomas W. Benson, ed., American Rhetoric: Context and Criticism (1989).
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The Declaration of Independence
A Transcription
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences：
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
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===Unit 4政 The Political System in the United States 原为 2 Political System===
Focal Points:
* The Articles of Confederation
* The making of the U.S. Constitution
* The three branches of the federal government
* Checks and balances
* The Bill of Rights
* Political parties
* http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa02/text02_p1.asp.htm
The peace treaty of 1783 recognized the independence of the United States and the former 13 British colonies along the east coast of the Atlantic became 13 states of the new nation. These 13 states were: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire in New England in the Northeast; Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, and New Jersey in the Mid-Atlantic, and Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia in the South. Although the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that 13 united colonies "are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states", they were not very clear about the future political system of the United States and about the relationships between the states and the government of the new nation. A constitution was badly needed.
Articles of Confederation
The War of Independence
When the War of Independence was over, the United States was not one unified nation as it is today. Each new state had its own government and was organized very much like an independent nation. Each made its own laws and handled all of its internal affairs. During the war, the states had agreed to work together by sending representatives to a national congress patterned after the "Congress of Delegates" that conducted the war with England. After the war was won, the Congress would handle only problems and needs that the individual states could not handle alone. It would raise money to pay off debts of the war, establish a money system and deal with foreign nations in making treaties. The agreement that set this plan of cooperation was called the Articles of Confederation.
The Articles of Confederation failed because the states did not cooperate with the Congress or with each other. When the Congress needed money to pay the national army or to pay debts owed to France and other nations, some states refused to contribute. The Congress had been given no authority to force any state to do anything. It could not tax any citizen. Only the state in which a citizen lived could do that.
Many Americans worried about the future. How could they win the respect of other nations if the states did not pay their debts? How could they improve the country by building roads or canals if the states would not work together? They believed that the Congress needed more power.
The Congress asked each state to send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia, the city where the Declaration of Independence had been signed, to discuss the changes which would be necessary to strengthen the Articles of Confederation.
The smallest state, Rhode Island, refused, but delegates from the other 12 states participated. The meeting, later known as the Constitutional Convention, began in May of 1787. George Washington, the military hero of
George Washington
the War of Independence, was the presiding officer. 54 other men were present. Some wanted a strong, new government. Some did not.
Constitution
The U.S. Congress
In the course of the Convention, the delegates designed a new form of government for the United States. The plan for the government was written in very simple language in a document called the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution set up a federal system with a strong central government. A federal system is one in which power is shared between a central authority and its constituent parts, with some rights reserved to each. The Constitution also called for the election of a national leader, or president. It provided that federal laws would be made only by a Congress made up of representatives elected by the people. It also provided for a national court system headed by a Supreme Court.
In writing the Constitution, the delegates had to deal with two main fears shared by most Americans.
One fear was that one person or group, including the majority, might become too powerful or be able to seize control of the country and create a tyranny. To guard against this possibility, the delegates set up a government consisting of three parts, or branches, the executive, the legislative and the judicial. Each branch has powers that the others do not have and each branch has a way of counteracting and limiting any wrongful action by another branch.
Another fear was that the new central government might weaken or take away the power of the state governments to run their own affairs. To deal with this the Constitution specified exactly what power the central government had and which power was reserved for the states. The states were allowed to run their own governments as they wished, provided that their governments were republican.
The Constitution opens with a statement, called a Preamble, which
The U.S. Constitution
makes it clear that the government is set up by "We, the People" and its purpose is to "promote the general welfare and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
Before the new government could become a reality, a majority of the citizens in 9 of the 13 states would have to approve it. Those in favor of the adoption of the Constitution argued long and hard in speeches and writing. They finally prevailed, but the states made it clear that one more change would have to be made as soon as the new government was established.
Representatives of various states noted that the Constitution did not have any words guaranteeing the freedoms or the basic rights and privileges of citizens. Though the Convention delegates did not think it necessary to include such explicit guarantees, many people felt that they needed further written protection against tyranny. So, a "Bill of Rights" was added to the Constitution in 1791.
Legislative Branch
The legislative branch is made up of elected representatives from all of the states and is the only branch that can make federal laws, levy federal taxes, declare war or put foreign treaties into effect. It consists of a Congress that is divided into two houses:
The House of Representatives comprises lawmakers who serve two-year terms. Each House member represents a district in his or her home state. The number of districts in a state is determined by a count of the population taken every 10 years. The most heavily populated states have more districts and, therefore, more representatives than the smaller states, some of which have only one. In the 1980s, there were 435 representatives in the House of Representatives.
The Senate comprises lawmakers who serve six-year terms. Each state, regardless of population, has two senators. That assures that the small states have an equal voice in one of the houses of Congress. The terms of the senators are staggered, so that only one-third of the Senate is elected every two years. That assures that there are some experienced senators in Congress after each election.
The U.S.Congress
The main duty of the Congress is to make laws, including those which levy taxes that pay for the work of the federal government. A law begins as a proposal called a "bill." It is read, studied in committees, commented on and amended in the Senate or House chamber in which it was introduced. It is then voted upon. If it passes, it is sent to the other house where a similar procedure occurs. Members of both houses work together in "conference committees " if the chambers have passed different versions of the same bill. Groups who try to persuade congressmen to vote for or against a bill are known as "lobbies". When both houses of Congress pass a bill on which they agree, it is sent to the president for his signature. Only after it is signed does the bill become a law.
Executive Branch
The 42nd President of the U.S., William J. Clinton
The chief executive of the United States is the president, who, together with the vice president, is elected to a four-year term. Under a Constitutional Amendment passed in 1951, a president can be elected to only two terms. Except for the right of succession to the presidency, the vice president's only constitutional duties are to serve as the presiding officer of the Senate; the vice president may vote in the Senate only in the event of a tie.
The powers of the presidency are formidable, but not without limitations. The president, as the chief formulator of public policy, often proposes legislation to Congress. The president can also veto any bill passed by Congress. The veto can be overridden by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and House of Representatives. As head of his political party, with ready access to the news media, the president can easily influence public opinion regarding issues and legislation that he deems vital.
The president has the authority to appoint federal judges as vacancies occur, including members of the Supreme Court. All such court appointments are subject to confirmation by the Senate.
Within the executive branch, the president has broad powers to issue regulations and directives regarding the work of the federal government's many departments and agencies. He also is commander in chief of the armed forces.
The president appoints the heads and senior officials of the executive branch agencies; the large majority of federal workers, however, are selected through a nonpolitical civil service system. The major departments of the government are headed by appointed secretaries who collectively make up the president's cabinet. Each appointment must be confirmed by a vote of the Senate. Today these 13 departments are: State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy and Education.
Under the Constitution, the president is primarily responsible for foreign relations with other nations. The president appoints ambassadors and other officials, subject to Senate approval, and with the secretary of state, formulates and manages the nation's foreign policy. The president often represents the United States abroad in consultations with other heads of state, and, through his officials, he negotiates treaties with other countries. Such treaties must be approved by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. The president also negotiates with other nations less formal "executive agreements" that are not subject to Senate approval.
Judicial Branch
The Supreme Court of the U.S.
The judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Court, which is the only court specifically created by the Constitution. In addition, the Congress has established 11 federal courts of appeal and, below them, 91 federal district courts. Federal judges are appointed for life or voluntary retirement, and can only be removed from office through the process of impeachment and trial in the Congress.
Federal courts have jurisdiction over cases arising out of the Constitution; laws and treaties of the United States; maritime cases; issues involving foreign citizens or governments; and cases in which the federal government itself is a party. Ordinarily, federal courts do not hear cases arising out of the laws of individual states.
The Supreme Court today consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. With minor exceptions, all its cases reach the Court on appeal from lower federal or state courts. Most of these cases involved disputes over the interpretation of laws and legislation. In this capacity, the Court's most important function consists of determining whether congressional legislation or executive action violates the Constitution. This power of judicial review is not specifically provided for by the Constitution; rather, it is the Court's interpretation of its Constitutional Role as established in the landmark Marbury v. Madison case of 1803.
Checks and Balances
When Americans talk about their three-part national government, they often refer to what they call its system of “checks and balances”. This system works in many ways to keep serious mistakes from being made by one branch or another. But sometimes they do not work the way as they are supposed to work. Here are a few examples of checks and balances:
If Congress proposes a law that the president thinks is unwise, the president can veto it. That means the proposal does not become law. Congress can enact the law despite the president's views only if two-thirds of the members of both houses vote in favor of it.
If Congress passes a law which is then challenged in the courts as unconstitutional, the Supreme Court has the power to declare the law unconstitutional and therefore no longer in effect.
The president has the power to make treaties with other nations and to make all appointments to federal positions, including the position of Supreme Court justice. The Senate, however, must approve all treaties and confirm all appointments before they become official. In this way the Congress can prevent the president from making unwise appointments.
Bill of Rights
To all Americans, another basic foundation in their constitution is the Bill of Rights, adopted in 1791. This consists of 10 very short paragraphs which guarantee freedom and individual rights and forbid interference with lives of individuals by the government. Each paragraph is an Amendment to the original Constitution.
In the Bill of Rights, Americans are guaranteed freedom of religion, of speech and of the press. They have the right to assemble in public places, to protest government actions and to demand change. They have the right to own weapons if they wish. Because of the Bill of Rights, neither police nor soldiers can stop and search a person without good reason. They also cannot search a person's home without legal permission from a court.
A Fair Trial by the Jury
The Bill of Rights guarantees Americans the right to a speedy trial if accused of a crime. The trial must be by a jury and the accused person must be allowed representation by a lawyer and must be able to call in witnesses to speak for him or her. Cruel and unusual punishment is forbidden.
There were 16 other amendments to the Constitution as of 1991. The changes are not many considering that the Constitution was written in 1787. Only a few need to be mentioned here. One forbids slavery and three others guarantee citizenship and full rights of citizenship to all people regardless of race. Another gives women the right to vote and another lowered the national voting age to 18 years.
Political Parties
There is one more very important part of the American political scene which is not part of any formal written document: the political party system.
Political parties are organized groups of people who share a set of ideas about how the United States should be governed and who work together to have members of their group elected in order to influence the governing of the country. When members of a political party form a majority in Congress, they have great powers to decide what kinds of laws will be passed. With exceptions, presidents tend to appoint members of their party or supporters of the views of their party to executive branch positions, including those of secretaries (heads of federal executive agencies) within the presidential cabinet.
The writers of the Constitution feared that parties representing narrow interests rather than the general interest of all the people could take over the government. They hoped the government would be run by qualified people who did not have a second loyalty—a loyalty to a party. They believed their government would work well without parties. Despite this, parties began to form shortly after the Constitution went into effect.
Donkey, the Symbol of the Democratic Party
Today, the United States has two major political parties. One is the Democratic Party, which evolved out of Thomas Jefferson's party, formed before 1800. The symbol of the party is the donkey. The other is the Republican Party, which was formed in the 1850s, by people in the states of the North and West, such as Abraham Lincoln, who wanted the government to prevent the expansion of slavery into new states then being admitted to the union. The symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant.
The Elephant, Symbol of the Republican Party
The Great Depression
Most Americans today consider the Democratic Party the more liberal party. By that they mean that Democrats believe the federal government and the state governments should be active in providing social and economic programs for those who need them, such as the poor, the unemployed or students who need money to go to college. The Democrats earned that reputation in the 1930s when there was a worldwide economic
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
depression. Under President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" plan, Democrats set up government programs that provided paid employment for people building dams and roads and public buildings. The government under the Democratic Party established many other programs, including Social Security, which ensures that those who are retired or disabled receive monthly payments from the government.
Republicans are not necessarily opposed to such programs. They believe, however, that many social programs are too costly to the taxpayers and that when taxes are raised to pay for programs, everyone is hurt. They place more emphasis on private enterprise and often accuse the Democrats of making the government too expensive and of creating too many laws that harm individual initiative. For that reason, Americans tend to think of the Republican Party as more conservative.
Voting Station
Americans do not have to join a political party in order to vote or to be a candidate for public office. However, running for office without the money and campaign workers a party can provide is difficult. Many voters become members of a party because they feel strongly about the party goals or want a voice in selecting its candidates. Whether or not they belong to a party, voters may cast ballots for any candidate they wish. Everyone votes in secret, and no one can know how another votes or force another person to vote for any particular program or candidate.
One concern many Americans have about their political system is the high cost of campaigning for public office. These costs have risen sharply in recent years, in part because most candidates, in order to reach a large number of voters, buy advertising time on television. In 1990, the average winning candidate for election to the House of Representatives spent $406,000—more than four times the average spent in 1976. People worry that the high cost of getting elected may force candidates to spend more time raising money than dealing with important issues and may discourage many qualified people from running for public office. They are also concerned because much of the money to fund political campaigns comes from organized interest groups rather than individuals. Many Americans question whether, after election, these officials will feel more beholden to the groups which gave them money than to the people they represent.
The Rockfella Center in New York City
The concerns of the public and of elected office-holders themselves have started a movement to change the financing of elections. Some people advocate voluntary spending limits. Others want the government to set limits. It is uncertain exactly what changes will be made, but public concern is so great that reforms in political campaign spending are bound to come soon.
*E-Library
*Supplementary Reading
The Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Inaugural Address
President John F. Kennedy
Washington, D.C.
January 20, 1961
Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, Reverend Clergy, fellow citizens:
We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom-symbolizing an end as well as a beginning—signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago.
The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
This much we pledge—and more.
To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do—for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.
To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom—and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.
To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required—not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge—to convert our good words into good deeds—in a new alliance for progress—to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every　other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.
To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support—to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective—to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak—and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.
Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.
We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.
But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course—both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war.
So let us begin anew—remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.
Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms—and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.
Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce.
Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah-to "undo the heavy burdens … (and) let the oppressed go free."
And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.
All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.
Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need—not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"-a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.
Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.
　
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.
Related Websites
* http://www.whitehouse.org
* http://www.yahoo.com/uspolitics
* http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/executive/fed.html
* http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/
* http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/legislative/congress.html
===Unit 5经 American Economy 原为 3 Economy===
Focal Points:
* Samuel Slater
* Eli Whitney
* Industrial Revolution in America
* Corporation
* Service industries
* Stock
* The root of America's affluence
* Agribusiness
* Migrant workers
* The success and problems of American agriculture
* http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa03/text03_p1.asp.htm
Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The birth of the United States and the publication of Adam Smith's book came at a time when yet another kind of revolution was taking place, the Industrial Revolution. In England, especially, machinery run by water power and later by steam power was used to manufacture cloth. This changed the ways that people worked. Instead of weaving cloth at home, people worked in factories where the machinery made much more cloth in a short time.
Americans lost no time in industrializing their new nation and in building trade with other countries.
The United States that emerged from the American Revolution of 1776 was principally an agricultural country. It would remain so for another century, but some early decisions by American social and political leaders planted the seeds of industrial growth. For example, the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, persuaded Congress to establish a protective tariff—a tariff high enough to discourage imports and give domestic industries time to grow. This and other Hamiltonian measures gave great encouragement to business in general.
Early American industries depended largely on skilled artisans working in small shops to serve a local market. But the Industrial Revolution that started in England during the 18th century did not take long to cross the Atlantic. It brought many changes to American industry between 1776 and 1860. Because labor was scarce in the United States and wages were high, employers welcomed any new method that could reduce the requirement for labor.
Slater Mill
One key development was the introduction of the factory system, which gathered many workers together in one workplace and produced goods for distribution over a wide area. The first factory in the United States is generally dated to 1793. It was a cotton textile mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, that combined carding, roving and spinning operation.
A Cotton Office in 1873
In 1793, an Englishman named Samuel Slater came to America to build a cotton cloth factory. He built the machinery from memory, because it was a crime to carry factory plant out of England. The success of Slater's factory started a process of change that turned the northeastern region of the United States into an important manufacturing center. The making of textiles also meant increased demand for cotton, grown in the southern region of the United States. As a result, the nation became a major cotton producer.
A second development was the "American system" of mass production, which originated in the firearms industry about 1800. The new system required precision engineering to create parts that were interchangeable. This, in turn, allowed the final product to be assembled in stages, each worker specializing in a specific operation.
Just as Slater's new factory system was being introduced, an American named Eli Whitney made cotton production more efficient by inventing a machine—the cotton gin—that rapidly removed the seeds from the bolls of cotton. Removing the seeds by hand was a difficult task; Whitney's machine made the job almost easy.
Whitney also began manufacturing rifles in a new way. Guns had always been made by gun makers working in their homes or small shops. Because the guns were handmade individually, a part from one gun would not necessarily fit another gun. Whitney began making guns with machinery, so that all the parts were the same in each gun. This method of manufacturing goods in a factory, with interchangeable parts, helped to advance American industry. In 1913, the auto-maker Henry Ford introduced the "moving assembly" line. This was a variation on the earlier practice of continuous assembly. By improving efficiency, it made possible a major saving in labor costs. A new breed of industrial managers began the careful study of factory operations with the aim of finding the most efficient ways of organizing tasks. Their concepts of "scientific management" helped to lower the costs of production still further.
Eli Whitney Gun Factory
An Assemly Line
Lower costs made possible both higher wages for workers and lower prices for consumers. More and more Americans were gaining the ability to purchase products made in the United States. During the first half of the 20th century, mass production of consumer goods such as cars, refrigerators and kitchen ranges helped to revolutionize the ways in which Americans lived.
The Early Locomotive
A third development was the application of new technologies to industrial tasks. Large water wheels and water turbines drove the machinery of early factories. As the steam engine was perfected, it provided an alternative source of energy, first for mobile operations such as powering steamboats and locomotives, then for factories. The textile industry, the dominant American industry for many decades, completed the switch to steam power after 1860.
The economic activity increased as a result of new inventions. Some of the inventions were original American ideas; others were adapted from inventions created elsewhere. The 19th century saw the introduction of new farm machinery, sewing machines, the telegraph, railroads, food-processing plant, the telephone, the perfection of the electric light bulb, the phonograph, the camera, moving pictures and many other devices. The 20th century brought still more, among them the airplane, the use of aluminum, mass production of automobiles, radio, television, various electric household products and computers.
A fourth development was the emergency of new forms of business organization, notably the bank and the corporation, which facilitated the growth of industry. The first American commercial bank appeared in the 1780s and more banks soon followed. For many years, the only paper money consisted of "bank notes" that represented a particular bank's promise to pay. Banking policy was highly controversial and early attempts to establish a national or central bank were short-lived. Not until 1863 did the United States create a truly national banking system with a standard paper currency.
In the early years of the United States, banks were one of the few businesses organized in the form of corporations. The creation of each corporation required a special law. As time passed, business people found the corporation to have irresistible advantages over the sole proprietorship and the partnership. Unlike those types of businesses, the corporation survived the death of its founder or founders. Because it could draw on a pool of investors, it was a much more efficient tool for raising the large amounts of capital needed by expanding businesses. And, as it finally evolved, it enjoyed limited liability, so investors risked only the amount of their investment and not their entire assets.
Many people objected to the very idea of the corporation. It had, as one critic said, “no body to be kicked and no soul to be damned.” But the rise of the corporation proved unstoppable. Connecticut, in 1837, became the first state to pass a general act of incorporation, making it relatively simple for any group to get a corporate charter by complying with a set of standard rules. As late as 1860, however, most manufacturing enterprises were still organized as sole proprietorships or partnerships.
Building Railways
Finally, the construction of railroads beginning in the 1830s, marked the start of a new era for the United States. Large infusions of private capital from Europe mainly after 1850, helped to pay for the railroad lines that soon snaked across the North American continent. Local, state and national governments contributed both money and land. Private American investors contributed, too. The greatest thrust in railroad building came after 1862, when Congress set aside public land for the first transcontinental railroad.
By providing transportation links between far-flung parts of the United States, the railroads increased business activities and the spread of settlements. But that was not all. Railroad construction created a growing demand for coal, iron and steel, helping to support the heavy industries that expanded rapidly in the decades after the Civil War (1861-1865). One growing industry specialized in machine tools—that is, tools used in the production of other goods. An expanding agricultural equipment industry turned out many kinds of machines for use on American farms.
Up to the 1880s, the bulk of Americans' income came from farming. The census of 1890 was the first in which the output of American factories was shown to exceed that of American farms. Thereafter industry in the United States grew by leaps and bounds. By 1913, more than one-third of the world's industrial production came from the United States.
The century's two world wars spared the United States the devastation suffered by Europe and Asia, and American industries proved capable of great production increases to meet war needs. By the time World War II ended in 1945, the United States had the greatest productive capacity of all of the world's nations.
Car Industry
The 20th century has seen the rise and decline of a succession of industries in the United States. The auto industry, long the centerpiece of the American economy, has had to struggle to meet the challenge of foreign competition. But over the years many new industries have appeared. Their products range from airplanes to television sets; from microchips to space satellites; from microwave ovens to ultra-high speed computers. Many of the currently rising
Aircraft Industry
Space Science
industries are among what are known as high-technology or "high-tech" industries because of their dependence on the latest developments in technology.
Bill Gates
High-Tech
Service Industry
High-tech industries tend to be highly automated and thus to need fewer workers than traditional industries such as steel making. As high-tech industries have grown and older industries have declined in recent years, the proportion of American workers employed in manufacturing has declined. Service industries—industries that sell a service rather than make a product—now dominate the economy. Service industries range from banking to telecommunications to the provision of meals in restaurants. It is sometimes said that the United States has moved into a "post-industrial era".
Free Enterprise
Most Americans think that the rise of their nation as a leading producer of manufactured goods, food and services could not have occurred without the economic freedom of capitalism—which many prefer to call free enterprise.
The story of American economic growth is a story of people inventing new devices and processes, starting new businesses and launching new ventures. For each of these endeavors, money is needed. That money is known as capital.
Samuel Slater could not have opened that very important original textile factory unless people had been prepared to provide money to buy the land and build the factory. Slater and those capitalists would not have acted if they had not thought they would profit from their investment. Because they wanted a profit for themselves and a chance to establish even more factories later, they started a whole new American industry. This industry helped cotton growers by increasing the market for cotton. It also put more American ships to work in international trade.
The story of major companies in the United States is not much different from that of Samuel Slater's mill. Individuals started enterprises with money borrowed from others. They share the profit gained with those investors. When they wanted to expand their businesses, they again borrowed money.
Very early, people in the United States saw that they could make money by lending it to those who wanted to start or to expand a business. That led to the creation of an important part of the current economic scene: the selling of stock, or shares, in a business. This practice started in Europe centuries before the American Revolution, but the stock trading practice was greatly increased in the vigorous free-market climate of the young United States.
In order to invest, individuals do not have to have a great deal of money: they can buy just a small portion of a business—called a share. The business of buying and selling shares in enterprises has become so big that offices have had to be set up where the selling of shares, or stock , can take place. These places, located in many cities in the United States and around the world, are called stock exchanges. The best-known is perhaps the New York Stock Exchange, located in the Wall Street area of New York City, the nation's largest city and a major business center.
Stock Exchange
New York
Except for weekends and holidays, the stock exchanges are busy every day as people buy and sell stock. In general, individual stocks are rather low-priced, and many working Americans buy them in order to make a profit.
When people buy stock, they become part owner of the company. If the company makes a profit, they receive a share of it. Likewise, if the company lose money, the stockholders will not make a profit or the value of their shares will drop. If that happens, they lose money. For that reason, buying stock is a risk. Knowing about business is important if one wishes to make a profit in the stock market.
Not all businesses sell stock. Smaller ones usually do not. Their profits are shared by those who put their money into the business when it was started. A person who wants to start a small business—a shop, for example—may still need to borrow money. The money can come from a bank—if the bank is willing to take a risk on that business.
Adam Smith would easily recognize these elements of American business, but other aspects he would not. Many problems accompanied the development of modern American industrial capitalism during the past century. Immigration and the rapid growth of American cities resulted in a large urban population seeking to earn a living. Factory owners often exploited this situation by offering low wages for long working hours, by providing unsafe and unhealthy working conditions and by hiring the children of poor families. There was discrimination in hiring: Black Americans and members of some immigrant groups were refused work or were forced to work under even more unfavorable conditions than the average worker. Entrepreneurs also took full advantage of the lack of government oversight, under the doctrine of laissez-faire, to enrich themselves by forming monopolies, eliminating competition, setting high prices for goods and producing poor quality merchandise.
The Roots of Affluence
Business Meeting
No single factor is responsible for the successes of American business and industry. Bountiful resources, the geographical size of the country and population trends have all contributed to these successes. Religious, social and political traditions; the institutional structures of government and business; and the courage, hard work and determination of countless entrepreneurs and workers have also played a part.
The vast dimensions and ample natural resources of the United States proved from the first to be a major advantage for national economic development. With the fourth largest area and population in the world, the United States still benefits greatly from the size of its internal market. The Constitution of the United States bars all kinds of internal tariffs, so manufacturers do not have to worry about tariff barriers when shipping goods from one part of the country to another.
Holiday Makers
A population of more than 250 million people provide both workers and consumers for American businesses. Thanks to several waves of immigration, the United States gained population rapidly throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, when business and industry were expanding. Population grew fast enough to supply a steady stream of workers, but not so fast as to overwhelm the capacity of the economy.
Rapid growth helped to promote a remarkable mobility in the American population—a mobility that contributes a useful flexibility to business life. Census figures show that, over a five-year period, about one family in ten moves to a new state (the United States contains 50 states in all.) Mobility has been not only geographical but also social and economic. Lacking the rigid social classes of many European nations, the early United States provided many opportunities for advancement, although mainly for those who were Caucasian. Racial barriers that long blocked advancement for darker-skinned peoples, however, have largely disappeared in the past three decades. Class structure today is quite fluid.
The American people have possessed to an unusual degree the entrepreneurial spirit that finds its outlet in such business activities as manufacturing, transporting, buying and selling. Some have traced this entrepreneurial drive to religious sources. They have said, for example, that a “Puritan ethic” or “Protestant ethic” imbues many Americans with the belief that devotion to one's work is a way of pleasing God, and that success in business can be an onward sign of God's blessing. Others have put forward a contrary view. They have argued that capitalist enterprise often is characterized by a material acquisitiveness that could develop only in the absence of deep religious feeling.
A variety of institutional factors have favored the success of American business and industry. Mindful of the potential for abuse that lay in a powerful government, the founders of America's political institutions sought to limit governmental powers while widening opportunities for individual initiative. The relative reluctance of American political leaders to intervene in economic activities gave great freedom to market forces. By channeling economic initiative into activities that promised the greatest return on investment, free-market institutions fostered dynamic growth and rapid change. One result was a rapid accumulation of capital, which could then be used to produce further growth.
American Agriculture
Early Agriculture
From the earliest days, the sight of farmers working the land has been at the heart of the American experience. If an observer had trudged through the forest of eastern North America on the eve of the arrival of European colonists, he would have found stump-strewn clearings in which Native American, or "Indian", communities were growing crops such as maize, beans and squash. Today, from a plane soaring high above the Great
Maize
Squash
Plains in the center of the North American continent, the observer can look down upon vast, rolling fields of wheat, corn, soybeans and other crops.
Outward forms have changed, but the vital importance of agriculture has not. Now, as then, agriculture provides the sustenance that meets people's most basic needs. Agriculture and its related industries serve as the foundation of American economic life, accounting for a larger portion of the United States' GNP (Gross National Product) than any other endeavor. Agriculture represents a bond of continuity between present and past, linking new generations with the rhythms and dreams of generations of long ago.
Monticello—Jefferson's Home
From the nation's infancy, American leaders have extolled the virtues of the hardy, self-sufficient farmer as those most worthy of emulation by the people as a whole. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, put it this way: "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its interests by the most lasting bonds".
Farmers have never truly been as self-sufficient as myth suggests, dependent as they are on the whims of weather and the marketplace and on the nature of government policy. Nonetheless, American farmers have shown a spirit of individualism and egalitarianism that the rest of society has widely admired. To a large extent, agricultural values have been adopted and celebrated by the society as a whole.
A Farm in Illinois
American agriculture assumes a richness and variety unmatched in most other parts of the world. In part, this is due to the vastness of the nation itself; in part, it is due to the generosity of nature. Only in a relatively small area of the West are rainfall and snowfall so limited that deserts exist. Elsewhere, rainfall ranges from modest to abundant, and rivers and underground water allow for irrigation where necessary. Large areas of level or gently rolling land—especially in the eastern Great Plains—provide ideal conditions for large-scale agriculture. Today the average American farm comprises 462 acres (187 hectares).
A Farm in the Midwest
The successes of American agriculture are easy to see—and many farmers are quick to boast of them. In parts of the Midwest, signs along major highways remind motorists that "one farmer feeds 75 people." Thanks to nature's bounty and to the effective use of machines, fertilizers and chemicals, American farmers are virtually unrivaled in producing crops cheaply and in quantity. The United States produces as much as half of the world's soybeans and corn for grain, and from 10 to 25 percent of its cotton, wheat, tobacco and vegetable oils.
A Turkey Farm
American agriculture is, by any standards, big business. Indeed, the term "agribusiness" has been coined to reflect the large-scale nature of agricultural enterprise in the modern U.S. economy. The term covers the entire complex of farm-related businesses, from the individual farmer to the multinational maker of farm chemicals. Agribusiness includes farmer cooperatives, rural banks, shippers of farm products, commodity dealers, firms that manufacture farm equipment, food-processing industries, grocery chains and many other businesses.
Both American and foreign consumers benefit from the American farmers, low-cost output. American consumers pay far less for their food than the people of many other industrial countries. Moreover, one-third of the cropland in the United States is planted in crops destined for export—to Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. Agricultural exports were 35.6 thousand million in 1989. Agricultural import lags far behind, leaving a surplus in the agricultural balance of trade.
The standard of living of American farmers is generally high. Incomes of farm families average about three-quarters of those of non-farm families, but because farm families' living expenses are lower, their standard of living is close to the national average. Although farm living once meant isolation from the comforts of modern life, this is no longer the case.
The readiness of many farmers to adopt new technology has been one of the strengths of American agriculture. Computers are but the latest in a long line of innovations that have helped American farmers to cut costs and improve productivity. Yet farmers have been traditionalists as well as innovators. They preserve a deep conservatism and respect for tradition that has helped to lend stability to rural communities in times of rapid change.
However, American agriculture has a dark side as well as a bright side. Farmers in the United States go through alternating periods of prosperity and recession and some farm practices have raised environmental and other concerns.
While the high productivity of American agriculture has kept food prices low for consumers, farmers have been perhaps too successful. Crop surpluses and low prices have made it hard for many farmers to make a profit. The cost of the products that farmers buy—tractors, fertilizers, pesticides—has risen faster than the prices they receive for their crops. High interest rates have added to the farmers' burden.
A period of economic difficulty began in the early 1980s. Agricultural exports declined, partly due to the high value of the United States dollar (which raised the cost of American products to foreign buyers). Crop prices fell and interest rates rose. Many farmers found themselves hard-pressed to keep up payments on loans and mortgages taken earlier when prices (and income) were higher. As in the 1930s, some farmers lost their farms and equipment, which were sold off to satisfy the farmers' debts. In dozens of farm communities, the crisis caused the closing of banks, farmer cooperatives and small businesses. A variety of governmental and private programs helped to ease the suffering, but many farmers wondered whether the good times had finally come to an end.
In 1987, there were slightly more than 2 million farms in the United States—down by about 7 percent from the number just five years earlier. Slightly more than 86 percent of the total number of farms are owned by individuals or families. Some 67000 farms, or 3.2 percent of the total, are owned by corporations, but most of those corporations are owned by families. Although family farms are not disappearing, as some people fear, smaller farms are disappearing. People who farm small pieces of land find they cannot invest in the modern equipment they need to make the farms pay. Often, they sell their land—sometimes to other farmers, sometimes to developers who build houses on it. According to the Department of Agriculture, the number of small farms—those with under $50000 in annual sales—dropped by 120000 between 1982 and 1987.
Many farm owners, especially owners of smaller farms, do not work on the farms full-time. Forty-five percent of the people we call farmers actually have other occupations. And not all farmers own their land. Some 240000 are tenant farmers—who either rent their land for cash or pay the owner a share of the crops they grow. On large farms, many of the workers are hired only for a specific chore, such as picking crops. Many of these seasonal workers travel from farm to farm, staying only until the crops are picked. They are known as migrant workers. Some are housed under poor conditions, have inadequate health care, and are paid low wages. In recent years, there has been an effort on the part of government and others to improve the lives of these workers.
Critics accuse both corporate and family farmers of damaging the environment. Since the 1940s, American farmers have multiplied their use of artificial fertilizers and chemicals designed to kill weeds and insect pests and to protect against crop diseases. Such farming aids have played an indispensable role in increasing crop output, but they have also caused problems. Rainfall that seeps through or runs off the soil has carried fertilizers into ground water, rivers and lakes, damaging water quality and promoting the growth of undesirable water plants. Toxic farm chemicals, some linked to cancer and other diseases, have at times found their way into the nation's water, food and air, although constant vigilance by government officials at the state and federal levels is taken to protect these resources. Some have caused harm to farmers and farm workers, although chemical companies insist that their products are safe when used according to directions. Over the years, many farm pests have developed a resistance to milder chemicals, so farmers have had to resort to stronger and costlier ones.
Cattle and Sheep in Virginia
Though responding to innovation and evolving with the passage of time, agriculture remains the foundation upon which American wellbeing and prosperity are based. This bond linking past, present and future is fundamental to the American way of life.
*E-Library
*Supplementary Reading
Excerpts from The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
Introduction
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Introduction and Plan of the Work
The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations.
According therefore as this produce, or what is purchased with it, bears a greater or smaller proportion to the number of those who are to consume it, the nation will be better or worse supplied with all the necessaries and conveniences for which it has occasion.
But this proportion must in every nation be regulated by two different circumstances; first, by the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which its labour is generally applied; and, secondly, by the proportion between the number of those who are employed in useful labour, and that of those who are not so employed. Whatever be the soil, climate, or extent of territory of any particular nation, the abundance or scantiness of its annual supply must, in that particular situation, depend upon those two circumstances.
The abundance or scantiness of this supply, too, seems to depend more upon the former of those two circumstances than upon the latter. Among the savage nations of hunters and fishers, every individual who is able to work, is more or less employed in useful labour, and endeavours to provide, as well as he can, the necessaries and conveniences of life, for himself, or such of his family or tribe as are either too old, or too young, or too infirm to go a hunting and fishing. Such nations, however, are so miserably poor that, from mere want, they are frequently reduced, or, at least, think themselves reduced, to the necessity sometimes of directly destroying, and sometimes of abandoning their infants, their old people, and those afflicted with lingering diseases, to perish with hunger, or to be devoured by wild beasts. Among civilised and thriving nations, on the contrary, though a great number of people do not labour at all, many of whom consume the produce of ten times, frequently of a hundred times more labour than the greater part of those who work; yet the produce of the whole labour of the society is so great that all are often abundantly supplied, and a workman, even of the lowest and poorest order, if he is frugal and industrious, may enjoy a greater share of the necessaries and conveniences of life than it is possible for any savage to acquire.
The causes of this improvement, in the productive powers of labour, and the order, according to which its produce is naturally distributed among the different ranks and conditions of men in the society, make the subject of the first book of this Inquiry.
Whatever be the actual state of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which labour is applied in any nation, the abundance or scantiness of its annual supply must depend, during the continuance of that state, upon the proportion between the number of those who are annually employed in useful labour, and that of those who are not so employed. The number of useful and productive labourers, it will hereafter appear, is everywhere in proportion to the quantity of capital stock which is employed in setting them to work, and to the particular way in which it is so employed. The second book, therefore, treats of the nature of capital stock, of the manner in which it is gradually accumulated, and of the different quantities of labour which it puts into motion, according to the different ways in which it is employed.
Nations tolerably well advanced as to skill, dexterity, and judgment, in the application of labour, have followed very different plans in the general conduct or direction of it; those plans have not all been equally favourable to the greatness of its produce. The policy of some nations has given extraordinary encouragement to the industry of the country; that of others to the industry of towns. Scarce any nation has dealt equally and impartially with every sort of industry. Since the downfall of the Roman empire, the policy of Europe has been more favourable to arts, manufactures, and commerce, the industry of towns, than to agriculture, the industry of the country. The circumstances which seem to have introduced and established this policy are explained in the third book.
Thomas Jefferson
In the thick of party conflict in 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a private letter, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
This powerful advocate of liberty was born in 1743 in Albermarle County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied at the College of William and Mary, then read law. In 1772 he married Martha Wayles Skelton, a widow, and took her to live in his partly constructed mountaintop home, Monticello.
Freckled and sandy-haired, rather tall and awkward, Jefferson was eloquent as a correspondent, but he was no public speaker. In the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, he contributed his pen rather than his voice to the patriot cause. As the "silent member" of the Congress, Jefferson, at 33, drafted the Declaration of Independence. In years following he labored to make its words a reality in Virginia. Most notably, he wrote a bill establishing religious freedom, enacted in 1786.
Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785. His sympathy for the French Revolution led him into conflict with Alexander Hamilton when Jefferson was Secretary of State in President Washington's Cabinet. He resigned in 1793.
Sharp political conflict developed, and two separate parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, began to form. Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in France. Attacking Federalist policies, he opposed a strong centralized Government and championed the rights of states.
As a reluctant candidate for President in 1796, Jefferson came within three votes of election. Through a flaw in the Constitution, he became Vice President, although an opponent of President Adams. In 1800 the defect caused a more serious problem. Republican electors, attempting to name both a President and a Vice President from their own party, cast a tie vote between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House of Representatives settled the tie. Hamilton, disliking both Jefferson and Burr, nevertheless urged Jefferson's election.
When Jefferson assumed the Presidency, the crisis in France had passed. He slashed Army and Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey so unpopular in the West, yet reduced the national debt by a third. He also sent a naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates, who were harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. Further, although the Constitution made no provision for the acquisition of new land, Jefferson suppressed his qualms over constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803.
During Jefferson's second term, he was increasingly preoccupied with keeping the Nation from involvement in the Napoleonic wars, though both England and France interfered with the neutral rights of American merchantmen. Jefferson's attempted solution, an embargo upon American shipping, worked badly and was unpopular.
Jefferson retired to Monticello to ponder such projects as his grand designs for the University of Virginia. A French nobleman observed that he had placed his house and his mind "on an elevated situation, from which he might contemplate the universe."
He died on July 4, 1826.
How Much Growth?
One of the major issues facing the American public in the late 20th century had to do with growth. Economic growth has been at the core of American success: despite periodic depressions or recessions, the U.S. economy over time has continued to grow. The economic "pie" was always getting large enough for new generations of immigrants to carve themselves a slice.
Still, the voices of those who argue that a high rate of economic growth cannot be maintained, or perhaps might have to be forcibly constrained, had become increasingly loud. While no one accepted all the positions taken by nogrowth or slow-growth advocates, there clearly had been a weakening of belief in the idea that unconstrained, uninhibited growth was automatically good in itself.
For example, the development of land was being questioned as never before. In the 1990s, developers were required to file environmental impact reports with various levels of government. Local planning commissions and a number of federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, were conducting research and administering programs in the name of safe, well-planned, economic development.
How much pollution is too much? How much open space are Americans willing to abandon in the drive to create new jobs? How many jobs should be sacrificed in order to protect endangered wildlife? (Some Americans were delighted—and others enraged—by a decision in 1991 to curtail timber cutting in certain federal forests in order to preserve the existence of an endangered species of owl.) How will decisions on these and other questions affect the overall quality of life? These are hard issues that generate almost as many opinions as there are interested parties.
Similar concerns on a global level were making their way to the forefront of U.S. policymakers' agendas (as well as those of other nations): How to deal with environmental challenges such as climate change, ozone depletion, deforestation and marine pollution. Will coal-burning power plants and gasoline-powered automobiles have to be constrained to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse" gases, so-called because they are believed to contribute to a phenomenon known as global warming? If global warming occurs, will it lead to devastating changes, such as the destruction of rich agriculture-producing areas like the American heartland? Because of the huge size of its economy, the United States has necessarily become a major actor in such matters.
These questions and others like them go to the crux of the debate about future economic growth. What is an acceptable level of economic inequality in a nation as affluent as the United States? Would a prolonged period of slow or no growth, coupled with declining real incomes bring with it a host of new and possibly explosive social, political and economic problems—problems that can barely be discerned from today's perspective?
Given the continuing existence of budget deficits, not just at the federal level, but also at the state and local levels, public funds seem sure to be limited. Will government maintain its role of watchdog and regulator? What will become of the services provided by the various forms of government? Will they be increasingly turned over to the private sector? Should such services continue to be provided at all?
As in the past, the decisions made in the future will substantially affect the shape and character of the U.S. economy.
Thus, more than two centuries after the birth of their nation, Americans continue to face many challenges. But as they had done 200 years earlier, immigrants continued to flood into the United States. In the 1990s, they were no longer coming in such great numbers from Europe, but from Asia and Latin America. For them, America was still what it had always been: the land of opportunity.
The Global Knowledge Economy:
and Its Implications for Business
Various observers describe today's global economy as one in transition to a 'knowledge economy', or an 'information society'. But the rules and practices that determined success in the industrial economy of the 20th century need rewriting in an interconnected world where resources such as know-how are more critical than other economic resources. This briefing highlights recent thinking and developments and offers guidance on developing appropriate organizational strategies to succeed into the new millennium. It summarizes key conclusions from our trends database and research analysis.
Growing interest
Various management writers have for several years highlighted the role of knowledge or intellectual capital in business. The value of high-tech companies such as software and biotechnology companies, is not in physical assets as measured by accountants, but in their intangibles such as knowledge and patents. The last few years have a growing recognition by accounting bodies and international agencies that knowledge is a crucial factor of production. For example, the OECD has groups investigating 'human capital' and also the role of knowledge in international competitiveness. Several conferences in 1997, including one sponsored by the World Bank, have placed knowledge firmly at the heart of the economic agenda.
Driving forces
Our analysis suggests three interlocking driving forces are changing the rules of business and national competitiveness:
* Globalization—markets and products are more global. Products by Nike and Virgin are known the world over. Today, even resourcing is becoming global. Thus many companies outsource manufacturing and software development to distant locations.
* Information/Knowledge Intensity—efficient production relies on information and know-how; over 70 per cent of workers in developed economies are information workers; many factory workers use their heads more than their hands.
* Networking and Connectivity—developments such as the Internet bring the 'global village' ever nearer.
The net result is that goods and services can be developed, bought, sold, and in many cases even delivered over electronic networks. Electronic commerce offers many advantages in terms of costs savings, efficiencies and market reach over traditional physical methods.
Related Websites
* http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/trade/ameconom/pt10.htm
* http://www.bernstein.com/research/investmentplanning/ip_summers_future.htm
===Unit 6宗 Religion in the United States 原为 4 Religion===
Focal Points:
* American history and religious liberty
* The U.S. Constitution and religion
* Protestants and different Protestant groups in the U.S.
* Catholics in the U.S.
* Jews and their religious faith
* Religious diversity in the U.S.
* Characteristics of American religious beliefs
Text
Worship by Early Protestant Settlers
From Chapter 1, we came to know that American mainstream culture was developed from what is known as "WASP" culture and that people who settled in the 13 North American colonies that would become the United States were mostly Protestant believers.
Religious Liberty
A Puritan Girl
By the middle of the 18th century, many different kinds of Protestants lived in America. Lutherans had come to America from Germany. The Dutch Reformed Church flourished in New York and New Jersey. Presbyterians came from Scotland and Huguenots from France. Congregationalists, as the Puritans came to be called, still dominated in Massachusetts and the neighboring colonies, an area which came to be known as New England.
Although the Church of England was an established church in several colonies, Protestants lived side by side in relative harmony, and they influenced each other. The Great Awakening of the 1740s, a "revival" movement that sought to breathe new feeling and strength into religion, cut across the lines of Protestant religious groups, or denominations.
At the same time the works of John Locke were becoming known in America. John Locke reasoned that the right to govern comes from an agreement or "social contract" voluntarily entered into by free people. The Puritan experience in forming congregations made this idea seem natural to many Americans. Taking it out of the realm of social theory, they made it a reality and formed a nation.
It was politics and not religion that most occupied Americans' minds during the War of Independence and for years afterward. A few Americans were so influenced by the new science and new ideas of the Enlightenment in Europe that they became deists, believing that reason teaches that God exists but leaves man free to settle his own affairs.
Many traditional Protestants and deists could agree, however, that, as The Declaration of Independence states, "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights," and that "the laws of Nature and Nature's God" entitled them to form a new nation. Among the rights that the new nation guaranteed, as a political necessity in a religiously diverse society, was freedom of religion.
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States forbade the new federal government to give special favors to any religion or to hinder the free practice, or exercise, of religion. The Unites States would have no state-supported religion. In this way, those men who formulated the principal tenets of the newly established political system hoped to insure that diversity of religious belief would never become the source of social or political injustice or disaffection. But Protestant churches kept a privileged position in a few of the states. Not until 1833 did Massachusetts cut the last ties between church and state.
The First Amendment insured that American government would not meddle in religious affairs or require any religious beliefs of its citizens. But did it mean that the American government would have nothing at all to do with religion? Or did it mean that government would be religiously neutral, treating all religions alike?
A Priest in the Army
In some ways, the government supports all religions. Religious groups do not pay taxes in the United States. The armed forces pay chaplains of all faiths. Presidents and other political leaders often call on God to bless the American nation and people. Those people whose religion forbids them to fight can perform other services instead of becoming soldiers.
But government does not pay ministers' salaries or require any belief—not even a belief in God—as a condition of holding public office. Oaths are administered, but those who, like Quakers, object to them, can make a solemn affirmation, or declaration, instead.
The Supreme Court Justices
The truth is that for some purposes government ignores religion and for other purposes it treats all religions alike—at least as far as is practical. When disputes about the relationship between government and religion arise, American courts must settle them.
American courts have become more sensitive in recent years to the rights of people who do not believe in any God or religion. But in many ways what Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote in 1952 is still true. "We are a religious people," he declared, "whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being."
In the early years of the American nation, Americans were confident that God supported their experiment in republican government. They had just defeated Great Britain—probably the most powerful nation in the world at that time. Protestant religion and republican forms of government, they felt, went hand in hand.
Protestants in the United States
Baptist Immersion
Today, the majority of Americans belong to the Protestant church. Over 60% of Americans are said to be Protestant believers. The Baptists are the largest Protestant group. They believe in adult baptism by immersion, symbolizing a mature and responsible conversion experience. From a beginning in 17th century England, the Baptists have continued on a small scale in England where they are about 1% of the population. But in the Unites States, they have
The Holy Bible
their main strength, with over 25 million members (19.4% of the population), divided among more than 20 branches and concentrated particularly in the Southern Bible Belt. Some white Baptists have liberal attitudes toward the blacks and stand up courageously in difficult circumstances for their belief in the equality of all human beings before God, whatever their color. But the great majority seems to have no difficulty in reconciling their Christian belief and practice with their racial prejudice. Meanwhile, most of the blacks are Baptists too, but they go to different churches from the white. In southern communities the blacks find their main social center in their Baptist churches and sometimes a base from which to organize group action.
A Methodist Camp Meeting
Next to the Baptists, the most numerous Protestants are the Methodists, adherents of the group which grew up in 18th century England following the lead of John Wesley. Most Methodists are united in the Methodist Church, which has a form of service based on that of the Church of England.
Thus the main Protestant groups with the origins in Britain are flourishing, and seem to have taken on a distinctively American character, including a tendency to form subgroups. But this is not the whole story of Protestantism. Smaller sects from Europe have taken root, and new sects have formed within America, some of them around individual leaders.
A Christ Church in New Jersey
There are more than 100 other Protestant sects, many of them hardly known to anyone except their own members, but with a combined membership of more than 20 million. They express variety, rather than doctrinal schism. Some of them are of recent foundation, and the dominant trend is fundamentalist.Four of the smaller sects are really quite large, with 2 million or more members. These are the Latter Day Saints, the Churches of Christ,the United Church of Christ and the International Convention of Disciples of Christ. Some of the small sects are extremely intolerant, and depend on a highly emotional and even hysterical approach. Some have shown themselves particularly ready to be pragmatic in adapting themselves to what they imagine to be the ideas of modern society. And new prophets and movements of religion are appearing all the time.
Catholics
Crystal Cathedral,LA(outside)
Although the largest church is of the Protestant faith, the largest single religious group is that of Roman Catholics. More than one-quarter of all Americans are now of the Roman Catholic faith. According to a survey done in the early 1990s, Roman Catholics represent 26.2% of the U.S population(the 4 large Protestant groups, the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians represent 31.9% of the population). The majority of the Catholics are descendants of immigrants from Ireland, Italy and Poland. Most of the early Catholics stayed near the East Coast. They were concentrated especially in New York and Massachusetts, and are still a very
Irish Immigrants
important element of the population in those two states. By the Civil War, over a million Irish Catholics, many driven by hunger, had come to the United States. Most were working people. Anti-Catholic prejudice was so strong that, on a few occasions, it broke out in mob violence. In 1844, two Catholic churches were burnt and 13 people died in rioting that swept through the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. More often prejudice took the form of discrimination, particularly at the polls. By 1960, however, John F. Kennedy's presidential election victory put to rest the catholic religion as an issue in national politics. Kennedy was Roman Catholic. Catholics were not shut out of public schools and hospitals but they wanted their own schools, colleges and hospitals.Catholics believed that these institutions were needed
Nortre Dame University Church
to preserve their faith. Many Catholics now attend public schools and secular colleges. But Catholic institutions, especially in large cities, still serve large numbers of Catholics and a growing number of non-Catholics, who are attracted by the discipline and education offered in these schools. By the 1950s, many Catholics had risen to positions of leadership, not only in labor unions, but also in business and politics as well. As Catholics grew more confident about their place in American life, they began to challenge, not the basic idea of separation of Church and State, but the way American courts interpreted it. The costs of modern education had made their schools very expensive to maintain. Catholics began to seek some way in which they could obtain public funds to help meet these expenses. Other private schools, not necessarily religious in origin or concern, also sought this help.
The lawmaking bodies of many states were sympathetic to these demands. But most attempts to provide help for religious schools were ruled unconstitutional (declared to violate the Constitution) by the Supreme Court of the United States. Giving public money to a religious school was held to violate the clause, or part of the First Amendment which prohibits the establishment of religion. Public money for religious schools remains an issue in American politics in the 1990s.If Catholics feel that government should support the non-religious aspects of private education, other American groups call for even less government connection to religion. Sunday closing laws were a real hardship to Jews. In effect, they were forced to observe two Sabbaths, or days of rest—their own and the majority Christian one as well. Nonbelievers, and some religious people as well, objected to prayer and Bible reading in public schools. They thought that a modern government in a free society should be basically secular.
Three Faiths
Passover
Like Catholics, Jews were a small minority in the first years of the American republic. Until the late 19th century, most Jews in America were of German origin. Many of them belonged to the Reform movement, a liberal branch of Judaism, which had made many adjustments to modern life. Anti—Semitism, or anti—Jewish prejudice, was not a big problem before the Civil War. But when Jews began coming to America in great numbers, anti-Semitism appeared.
A Jewish Wedding
Usually, Jewish children attended public schools. The children of the immigrants moved rapidly into the professions and into American universities, where many became intellectual leaders. Many remained religiously observant. Others, while they continued to think of themselves as ethnically Jewish, adopted a secular, non—religious outlook.
When faced with prejudice and discrimination, Jews responded by forming organizations to combat prejudice. The Anti—Defamation League played a major role in educating Americans about the injustice of prejudice and making them aware of the rights, not only of Jews, but of all minorities.
By the 1950s, a kind of “three faiths”model of the United States had developed. Americans were considered to come in three basic varieties: Protestant, Catholic and Jewish, the order reflecting the strength in numbers of each group. But an increasing number of Americans did not fit into any of these categories. And some who could be considered Protestant had styles of life and beliefs that did not fit into “Mainstream”America.
Religious Diversity
Amish People in Pennsylvania
The United States has always been a fertile ground for the growth of new religious movements. Frontier America provided plenty of room to set up a new church or found a new community. For example, the ancestors of the Amish, very strict Protestants who live in rural areas and scorn modern life, came from Germany in the 18th century to escape persecution.
Many religious communities and secular utopias, or experiments in new forms of social living, were founded in 18th and 19th century America. Most did not last long. But some prospered for a while and a few are still in existence. 20th-century Americans who follow the impulse to withdraw from society and "join a commune" are following in an old American tradition.
Small sects and "cults" do have certain tendencies in common. Often they regard the larger society as hopelessly corrupt. Prohibition of alcohol, tobacco and caffeine are common. Sometimes dramatic expectations about the future—predictions of the end of the world or the dawning of a new age—form the main tenets, or doctrines, of the group. Often the founder is a charismatic person, dynamic personality who claims some special revelation or relationship with God. Some groups never win a large following. Others grow smaller or disappear when the founder dies or his prophecies fail to come true. Still others prosper, win large followings and “graduate” into the ranks of the "respectable" denominations.
Some groups, like the Amish of Pennsylvania, simply want to be left alone in their rural communities. They wish to keep their children out of high school so they will not be affected by modern society.
A few prefer faith healing to modern medicine or object to certain medical practices. What should society do when a Jehovah's Witness refused a blood transfusion for himself or his child?
A Mormon Temple in the Great Salt Lake City
Questions like these often come before the courts in the United States. They are generally settled according to a principle the Supreme Court established when it ruled that the Mormons, a large and prosperous Christian sect that settled the state of Utah, could not marry more than one wife. Individuals may believe anything they please in America, but they may not do anything they want, even if the action is based on a religious belief. Such questions do not usually cause great controversy, because they do not reflect basic divisions in American society. The Mormons, for example, continue to flourish, and are one of the fastest growing church groups in the United States.
But other questions reflect continuing conflicts in American life. When a 1973 Supreme Court decision made abortion legal in America, many Catholics were shocked. Many evangelical Protestants and Orthodox Jews also objected. Yet more liberal Protestant and Jewish clergymen joined nonbelievers in maintaining that abortion is a basic right in a pluralistic, or religiously varied, society.
Other world religions are increasing their numbers and influence in America. Over 2 million members of the Islamic religion live in America.Some are immigrants or the children of immigrants; others are Americans, including some black Americans who have converted to Islam.
Praying Outside a Mosque in New Mexico
A Buddhist Temple in Hawaii
Buddhism is a growing faith in America. Recent immigration from Asia has raised the number of Buddhists in America to several hundred thousand—no one seems quite sure how many. Several hundred thousand Hindus have also come to America. In recent years, young native-born Americans have shown great interest in these and other eastern religions and philosophies.
Worship in a Hindu Temple in New Jersey
An Anglican Woman Priest
American pastors are as varied as the flocks they serve. Some of them are women. The Protestant Episcopal Church now ordains women as priests,although the Catholic Church continues to have an all-male clergy. The United Methodist Church has appointed women as bishops. Women can also be ordained as rabbis among some Jewish congregations. Catholic nuns teach and manage large hospitals. Chaplains of all faiths visit the sick in hospitals and nursing homes.
American pastors of churches are expected to be active in the civic affairs of their communities. Often they have psychological training and spend part of their time counseling people with personal problems. They preach to congregations assembled in small chapels and huge city cathedrals, in modern synagogues, and even sometimes in drive-in churches where people can worship without leaving their cars! Some evangelical preachers reach a television audience of millions.
Princeton University Chapel
Preaching in a First Congregational Church, New England
How do Americans of so many different religions manage to live together under common laws and pursue common goals? The answers can be found in the American character of religion.
American Character of Religion
Some phenomena in American religion are uniquely American. First of all, Americans with different religions live together under the same law. The Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution insists that there should be no state religion. That means that the government has no right to interfere in people's religious affairs. The freedom of religion and the separation of state and church guaranteed in the Constitution are believed to be the basic principles against religious persecution. Due to this tradition and the basic law about religion, various religious groups in America have coexisted more harmoniously than the Old World.
A Church in Georgia
Crystal Cathedral in LA
Secondly, the religious beliefs of Americans continue to be strong with social progress.Every Sunday morning, all over America, people pour into the churches.Half of American Protestants are active church members, and there are few who habitually stay away. Not only the Catholic churches, but the Protestant ones too, are flourishing, and new church buildings, some with interesting architecture, keep pace with the ever-growing suburbs. Yet in England, leaving aside the Catholics, four-fifths of the people go to church less than once a month, and in Sweden the vast majority hardly ever go to church at all. In America, through all the social and economic changes religion has remained a constant factor. In Europe, scientific and economic advance and rising material prosperity have been accompanied by a decline in religious observance, but in the United States this has not happened.
Thirdly, in the United States every church is a completely independent organization, and concerned with its own finance and its own building. There has been little concentration on doctrine or religious argument such as in European history. If one goes to a Protestant church, he or she will hear morality preached, but not a word of doctrine. Anglicans do not pay much attention to 39 articles on which the belief of the Anglican Church is based. Churches and religious sects are expressions of group solidarity rather than of rigid adherence to doctrine. Baptist ministers are invited to preach in Methodist churches. Exchange of pulpits has been common for many years. A Protestant family moving to a new place will probably try out several of the nearby churches before deciding on the one that suits them best, not for doctrinal reasons, but that is where they find their friends.
Several explanations may be offered. In American history, religion has not been identified with an oppressive or dominant social class or set of political institutions. The Pilgrim Fathers, and many of those who followed them, left Europe to be free to worship in their own way, not as the established authorities told them to. Although some religious groups were also persecuted in early America and Catholics were prejudiced against, generally speaking, Americans have enjoyed greater religious freedom than Europeans. Paradoxically, the original basis of freedom creates a social pressure in favor of religion. Most people want to identify themselves with dominant values, and going freely to the church of one's choice is a way of doing so, and of gaining acceptance in the face of a subtle demand for conformity. And the church is a place where people can meet others with whom they would like to make friends. Religion, for most people, is important mainly as a means of getting together with others in a context which is so little defined that its values, expressing merely generally good will, can be easily shared. People go to church , and it helps them feel that they have a place in a community.
Young Students Praying
*E-Library
*Supplementary Reading
The Bible and Christianity
General introduction
Among all the religions by which people seek to worship, Christianity is by far the most influential in the West. Every phase of man's life is touched by this religion, so much so that it has become part and parcel of Western culture. Judeo-Christian tradition constitutes one of the two major components of European culture. Judaism and Christianity are closely related. In fact, it was the Jewish tradition which gave birth to Christianity. Both originated in Palestine—the hub of migration and trade routes, which led to exchange of ideas over wide areas.
Some 3,800 years ago the ancestors of the Jews—the Hebrews—wandered through the deserts of the Middle East. They were travelling merchants, moving from one trading post to the next. And that was how they came to be called "Hebrews", which means "wanderers". About 1300 BC., the Hebrews came to settle in Palestine, known as Canaan at that time, and formed small kingdoms. Their history was handed down orally from one generation to another in the form of folktales and stories, which were recorded later in the Old Testament, which still later became the first part of the Christian Bible. Though a minor tribe in ancient Middle East with a small population, the Hebrews made one of the greatest contributions to the world civilization.
The Old Testament
The Bible is a collection of religious writings comprising two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The former is about God and the Laws of God; the latter, the doctrine of Jesus Christ. The word "Testament" means "agreement"—namely, the agreement between God and Man.
The Old Testament consists of 39 books, the oldest and most important of which are the first live books, called Pentateuch.
1. The Pentateuch
Genesis: a religious account of the origin of the Hebrew people, including the origin of the world and of man, the career of Issac and the life of Jacob and his son Joseph
Exodus: a religious history of the Hebrews during their flight from Egypt, the period when they began to receive God's Law
Leviticus: a collection of primitive laws
Numbers: a continuation of the account of the flight from Egypt with two censuses about the Exodus
Deuteronomy: the final words of Moses to his people, restating his orders and fifty years' experiences as a leader
Through all the ages, people of all lands have sought to understand the world in which they live, to understand themselves as human beings. Big questions all peoples have tried to answer are: How did the world begin? How did life come to be? And what is man?
In the beginning, says the Bible, God created the heaven and earth. When the world was formed, God created man and woman—Adam and Eve. They lived in perfect happiness in the Garden of Eden. But at the temptation of the serpent one day, Eve picked the fruit from the forbidden tree and shared it with Adam. Immediately afterwards, they were driven from Paradise and went forth into the world. Thus, man's story of misfortune and hardships began.
*E-Library
a. The fall of man
And the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help mate for him." And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowls of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help mate for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, "Yea, hath God said, 'Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" And the woman said unto the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees, of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, 'Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.'" And the serpent said unto the woman, "Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam., and said unto him, "Where art thou?" And he said, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." And he said, "Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?" And the man said, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." And the Lord God said unto the woman, "What is this that thou hast done?" And the woman said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." And the Lord God said unto the serpent, "Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Unto the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." And unto Adam he said, "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
And the Lord God said, "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever." Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
(Genesis 2-3)
For many hundreds of years the family of man multiplied and spread over the earth. Because Adam and Eve had disobeyed God and passed on the knowledge of wickedness, man became more and more corrupt. Consequently, God decided to put an end to all this by destroying all life on earth in a great flood. There was, however, one good man, Noah, who still remembered God and tried to be at peace with his conscience. So God spoke to Noah about His intention and told him to build an ark to protect him and his kins from the waters. Noah followed God's instructions. For 40 days it rained, the whole earth was covered with water, those sheltered in the ark being the only survivals.
*E-Library
b. Noah's Ark
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, "My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. Both man, and beast, and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them." But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
And God said unto Noah, "The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all fesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shall thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them." Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
And the Lord said unto Noah, "Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female; and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth." And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.
And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the femme, as God had commanded Noah. And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; they, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in. And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
(Genesis 6-7)
After the flood, Noah's sons moved about to live and multiply in different places. Generations later, the various nations of ancient world came into being. And among all the nations, the Old Testament concentrated on one—the Hebrews belonging to the Semitic tribe.
As the legend goes, around 1900 BC. there lived a descendent of Noah in Ur by the name of Abraham. God told Abraham that he and his people should not worship so many divinities as their neighbours did but to obey and worship him, Yahweh, as the only true God. And as a reward, God promised them the land of Canaan. Thus, Abraham led the Hebrews to the Promised Land, which roughly corresponds to the present-day Palestine. From then on they gave up trading and turned to raising sheep and growing wheat, figs and olives. Unfortunately a serious drought occurred about a hundred years later, which drove the Hebrews to Egypt. About six hundred years later, the descendents of the once welcomed guests in Egypt were forced into slavery, degraded and persecuted in every possible way. Around 1300 BC. Moses, the famous Hebrew leader, went to see the pharaoh of Egypt, telling him that Yahweh wanted the pharaoh to end Hebrew slavery and let the Hebrews leave Egypt. With this began the Exodus, which lasted forty years.
The forty years in the wilderness in and around the desert made the Hebrews tough and strong, welding them into a great nation. When the wandering tribes left the desert and entered the mountainous Sinai, Moses climbed to the top of the mountain to receive from God message, which came to be known as the Ten Commandments.
*E-Library
c. Ten Commandments
And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire, (I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to show you the world of the Lord: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying:
"I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
" Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
"Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
"Keep the sabbath day to sanctury as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.
"Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God bath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
"Thou shalt not kill.
"Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
"Neither shalt thou steal.
"Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.
"Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's."
(Peuteronomys 5)
(From European Culture: an Introduction)
Related Websites
* http://www.academicinfo.net/amrelig.html
* http://www.theada.com
* http://are.as.wvu.edu/linkres.htm
===Unit 7文 American Literature 原为 5 Literature===
Focal Points:
* Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper
* Transcendentalists
* Nathaniel Hawthorne
* Herman Melville
* Walt Whitman
* Mark Twain
* Emily Dickinson
* Henry James
* The naturalists
* Sherwood Anderson
* T. S. Eliot
* The "Lost Generation"
* William Faulkner
* The Harlem Renaissance
* Eugene O'Neill
* Black writers
* Women writers
Text
From the beginning of American history to the present day, American literature has recorded the story of a quest. At different times the quest has taken different forms. In the 16th century Europeans came to the New World in search of the lost continent of Atlantis. They came looking for the golden "cities of Cibola" that haunted Coronado's imagination. They searched for the fabled Northwest Passage to the Orient.
Covered Wagons
These fantastic dreams changed in time to more down-to-earth dreams of success. These dreams brought millions of young men and women from farms and small towns to cities in the hope of winning fame and fortune. At times the quest was a religious pilgrimage. For example, the Puritans hoped the New World would become a New Canaan, where a chosen people might at last build a society of which god would approve. The Mormons who trekked across the plains to Utah were inspired by a similar vision. Other pioneers (and many later Americans as well) were pulled westward neither by financial nor by religious ambitions. They were simply restless. Whether they traveled by covered wagon or by automobile trailer, they believed that being on the road was better than staying put. The questing of the American people has indeed been a drama of many parts. In one way or another, however, it has always been a "pursuit of happiness". American literature is the continuous narrative of that pursuit
Early Fiction
Washington Irving
Writers of the post-Revolutionary period had been embarrassed that America did not have much of a history. Washington Irving (1783-1859) solved this problem by inventing a history. His History of New York (1809) is supposedly an account of the Dutch settlement of Manhattan Island. With this work Irving furnished America with its first myth—hero, Father Knickerbocker. In "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Irving contributed even more memorable characters to his legendary recreation of the American past. In his accounts of his history of The Alhambra (1832), the fabulous palace of the Moors in Granada, Spain, Irving also demonstrated that an American writer need not write only about America in order to remain a patriot.
Cowboys
His Tour on Prairies (1835) showed Irving's interest in the literary possibilities of the West. Here, however, he was poaching on the literary territory of fellow New Yorker James Fenimo Cooper (1789-1851). Cooper's novel The Spy (1821) was an exciting story of espionage in New York during the Revolution, but he did not really hit his stride as an author until he turned to The Pioneers (1823). This was the first of the five great romances known as the Leather—Stocking Tales. Surpassing Irving as a mythmaker, Cooper introduced in The Pioneers the fabulous woodsman, Natty Bumppo. He was the forerunner of all heroic forest scouts, bear hunters, and cowboys of later American novels and films. The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Deerslayer (1841) pursued Natty's career both forward and backward in time, from the first flush of manhood to his death as an old man on the western plains.
Transcendentalists
The country was expanding westward, but in the older cities of the northeastern states—still referred to as "New England"—the influence of early Puritan teachings remained strong. However, such authoritarian religious organizations inevitably produce dissenters. In 1836, an ex-minister named Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) published a startling book
Emerson
called Nature. In this volume, Emerson claimed that by studying and responding to nature individuals could reach a higher spiritual state without formal religion. For the next several years, Emerson's essays made him extremely influential, not only upon other thinkers and writers, but upon the general population as well, thanks to growing popular lecture circuit that brought controversial speakers to small towns across the country. In effect, Emerson's lectures were like sermons, with their direct, motivating language. In his poetry, Emerson developed a free-form, natural style, using symbols and imagery drawn from nature. His work had an immense impact on other poets of the time.
A circle of intellectuals who were discontented with the New England establishment soon gathered around Emerson. They were known as "the Transcendentalists," based on their acceptance of Emerson's theories about spiritual transcendence. One of Emerson's most gifted fellow-thinkers was Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862).
Thoreau was passionate about individuals' learning to think for themselves and being independent, both traditional American values. He carried out this ideal by going to live by himself for two years in a simple cabin beside a wooded pond, where he survived essentially by his own labor and meditated in solitude. The book he wrote about this experience, Walden, was published in 1854, but many of its statements about the individual's role in society—simply put, that the dictates of an individual's conscience should take precedence over the demands, even the laws, of society—sound radical even today.
Power of Imagination
Edgar Allan Poe
While these New England intellectuals presented perspectives of literature and life, other writers were concentrating upon human imagination and emotion rather than the intellect. A young Virginian, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), was publishing poems of musical language and extravagant imagery, which made him a worthy rival of the European Romantic poets. Brilliant but unstable, Poe earned his living as a journalist, often writing devastating reviews of other writers' works. In 1835, he also began writing bold, original short stories, such as "The Masque of Red Death" and "The Fall of the House of Usher." These suspenseful, sometimes terrifying tales plunged deep into human psychology, and explored the realms of science fiction and the mystery story long before such genres were recognized.
Hawthorne
Meanwhile, in 1837, a young writer in New England named Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) published a volume called Twice-Told Tales, stories rich in symbolism and peculiar incidents. Although he knew the Transcendentalists, Hawthorne did not share their beliefs. His way of rebelling against the traditional New England outlook on life was to write imaginative "romances," stories and novels which were not necessarily realistic but which were designed to explore certain moral themes such as guilt, pride and emotional repression. His masterpiece was The Scarlet Letter, a novel published in 1850. Set in the Puritan past, it is the stark drama of a woman harshly cast out from her community for committing the sin of adultery.
Herman Melviile
Hawthorne's writing had a profound impact upon another writer, originally from New York, who was living at the time in New England. Herman Melville (1819-1891), whose wealthy father had gone bankrupt, had worked at many jobs before signing on in 1839 for the first of several sea voyages. Seven years later, he began writing accounts of his adventures on the open seas and in exotic ports, which won him instant success. Yet Melville longed to write something more serious. Inspired by Hawthorne's example, he began writing novels which were fundamentally allegories on politics and religion. The public rejected them, however, and, discouraged, Melville published little except poetry for the rest of his life. Ironically, the very books that proved unacceptable during his lifetime are the ones most admired today. Moby Dick, published in 1851, uses a story of a whaling voyage to explore profound themes such as fate, the nature of evil, and the individual's struggle against the universe. It is considered an American masterpiece.
New Visions of America
Walt Whitman
Poe, Hawthorne and Melville all struggled to find their individual voices, and through them American literature began to acquire its own personality. One more figure emerged in the 1850s to assert a truly American voice, one that celebrated the American landscape, the American people, their speech and democratic form of government. His name was Walt Whitman (1818-1892), and like so many others of these writers, he had had to work hard for a living as a school teacher, printer and journalist. In 1848, he took a trip to the southern city of New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, that great waterway flowing through the heart of the country. There Whitman gained a new vision of America and began writing poetry that would embody his vision. In 1855, he published a ground—breaking book called Leaves of Grass. Readers were amazed by the free—flowing structure of this poetry, with its long irregular lines. Like Melville in Moby Dick, Whitman ventured beyond traditional forms to meet his need for more space to express the American spirit. Some readers were disturbed by Whitman's egotism (one main poem in Leaves of Grass is called "Song of Myself"), but Whitman dwelt on himself simply because he saw himself as a prototype of "The American." Startling as this poetry was, it won Whitman admirers across America and in Europe. Throughout the rest of his life, he kept rewriting and republishing editions of Leaves of Grass. He celebrated a sweeping panorama of the American landscape and sang almost mystically of the rhythms of life uniting all citizens of the democracy.
Reform and Liberation
New England intellectuals had, in fact, a tradition of involvement in liberal reform. In the 1850s, this took the form of a movement to end the institution of slavery, which by that time was practiced chiefly in the southern states. In 1852, a New England woman named
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, an antislavery novel that galvanized political opinion across the nation. Sentimental and melodramatic as it was, Uncle Tom's Cabin portrayed black slaves as sympathetic, suffering figures, and created an image of the cruel slaveowner in the character of Simon Legree. Largely as a result of this best-selling novel, the slavery question became a passionately debated political issue. Eventually the Southern states determined to secede from the Union and to establish themselves as an independent country in order to preserve their way of life, which included an agrarian economy based in great part on slave labor. The result of Northern reaction to this secession was the Civil War (1861-1865), fought to preserve the Union. One consequence of the South's defeat in that war was the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Regionalism
Mark Twain
In many ways, this bloody divisive war dimmed American optimism, and for a time writers retreated from national themes. The country had been growing; as pioneers settled new territories in the West, writers now focused on the differences between the various regions of the United States rather than on a single vision of the expanding country. One of the most important leaders of this "regionalism" movement was William Dean Howells (1837-1920), who in 1866 became editor of the influential Atlantic magazine. Howells published stories from all over the United States, and in his literary reviews he praised writers who described local life realistically. The raw mining camps and settlements of the far West were brought to life by storytellers such as Bret Harte, in The Luck of Roaring Camp, and a newspaper correspondent named Samuel Clemens (1835-1910), who wrote under the pen name of Mark Twain.
The Mississippi River
Mark Twain was the first major American writer to be born away from the East Coast. He grew up in a small town on the banks of the Mississippi River and received only a basic public school education. He began working in a printer's shop when he was still a boy, and this experience led to a series of newspaper jobs in the Midwest and the West. Twain was a new voice, an original genius, a man of the people, and he quickly won readers. He captured a peculiarly American sense of humor, telling outrageous jokes and tall tales in a calm, innocent, matter-of-fact manner. He sometimes used local dialect for comic effect, but even his normal prose style sounded distinctively American—rich in metaphor, newly invented words and drawling rhythms.
Twain had a cynical streak that matched the country's skeptical post-Civil War mood. He soon developed beyond merely "regional" stories and turned to comic novels. His shrewd social satire was most apparent in books such as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, but perhaps his greatest book is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). This is the story of a boy running away from home and steering a raft down the Mississippi River, but it is more than that. The people the boy meets cover the entire spectrum of humanity, and his voyage down the river becomes a metaphor for a journey through life. Funny, powerful, humane and laced with social commentary and criticism, Huckleberry Finn has been called the greatest novel in American literature.
While prose fiction in the United States was developing in vital imaginative ways, poetry seemed to recede as an art form. The poetic giant Whitman died in the 1880s, as did a poet who has been admired by later generations, but who was barely known while she lived. This unrecognized poet was Emily Dickinson (1830-1886).Her poetry mixed gaiety and gloom. During the last 25 years of her life, she rarely left the grounds of the Dickinson household in Amherst, Massachusetts. But her imagination took her on long flights of fancy. Her verses are filled with the names of faraway,
A Play about Emily Dickinson
exotic places that she visited only in imagination. On the other hand, she could make poetic drama out of things close at hand--a cracked plate on a shelf in the dining room or the sound of a honeybee in the garden. She was fascinated by life. She was also more than a little in love with death. Of the 1500 poems she composed, more than 600 have to do with dying. Almost all of her poems are brief, rarely more than 12 or 15 lines long. But in small spaces she packed an emotional charge of surprising force.
A New Wave
As the wounds of the Civil War slowly healed, many Americans became discontented with the growing materialism of society in the United States. Henry James (1843-1916), an American who lived in Europe, examined American society by observing the divergence between American and European culture in novels like The American and Portrait of a Lady.
"Regional" writers began to drop their narrow provincial focus, while still using realistic descriptions of everyday life. As they concentrated increasingly upon the grimmer aspects of reality and a deterministic view of life, they were called "naturalists," linking them to European naturalists such as French novelist Emile Zola. Again, William Dean Howells led the American realistic movement, both with his magazine criticism and with his own novels, such as The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885), a probing but sympathetic portrait
Stephen Crane
of an American businessman. Stephen Crane's(1871-1900) Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, in 1893, and Theodore Dreiser's (1871-1945) Sister Carrie, in 1900, were considered shocking because they described young urban women who fell into sexual sin. Crane's next novel, The Red Badge of Courage (1895) was set during the Civil War. By limiting itself to a young soldier's confused impressions of battle, it became the first impressionistic novel in America. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906) exposed the horrible lives of meat-packing factory workers. Jack London's Call of the Wild (1903), the tale of a sled dog, was set in the snowy wilderness of the Northwest, where the discovery of gold had caused a rush of greedy prospectors. In this novel and other celebrated tales set in Alaska and in the South Pacific, London expressed his sense that primitive urges underlie all of life, reducing even humans to the level of animals.
While these controversial books disturbed the reading public, other writers were quietly exploring the fate of the individual. After the turn of the century, Henry James, still living in Europe, wrote three brilliant novels, The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl, in which he plunged deep into the characters and personalities of his subjects. These were chiefly wealthy, cultured Americans living in Europe, but, like the lower-class characters of the naturalists' novels, James' people were trapped in their environment, struggling to find happiness. James' interest was psychological rather than social, however. Recording the most minute details of perception, he drew his readers close to his characters' mental and emotional processes. His writing style became increasingly complex, but this led attention away from action and setting and onto what the characters were feeling.
New York in Wharton's Time
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was one of James' close friends and literary followers. She came from a socially prominent New York family and had married into an equally important Boston family. This high-toned social circle disapproved of her writing, but eventually she defied her peers and produced insightful novels and stories. One of her finest books, The House of Mirth (1905), tells the tragic story of a fading beauty hunting desperately for a rich husband and falling victim to the hypocritical high society of New York.The Age of Innocence (1920) is another successful novel written by Wharton, who exposed her upper-class world as only an insider could.
Sympathetic Views
Kate Chopin
Two other women, in different parts of the country, were also writing sympathetic psychological studies. Though influenced by regionalism, they didn't emphasize setting so much as they did their characters, individuals who often felt out of place in their environments. Kate Chopin's The Awakening (1899) is set in the heart of the South, in New Orleans; Willa Cather's O Pioneers! (1913) depicts life on the sweeping plains of midwestern Nebraska. Cather went on to write several novels and establish herself as a major American writer,but Chopin stopped writing after her book was condemned by literary critics.
Cather's Birthplace
W.E.B.Du Bois
American literature entered the 20th century not as optimistic or patriotic as it had been a century earlier, yet full of democratic spirit. There were some voices still to be heard, however. Black Americans were just beginning to make their mark in literature in the wake of the Civil War's having freed them from slavery. In 1903, W. E. B. Du Bois (1869-1963) published Souls of Black Folk, a series of sketches of the common lives of his people which was the first glimpse many white Americans had had of the social condition of blacks since slavery.
Rebellious Spirit
Sherwood Anderson
In the first decades of the 20th century the United States became increasingly urban. Two major works of literature expressed this new attitude of rebellion against the limited life of the typical small American town. In 1919, a writer named Sherwood Anderson published a book of short stories called Winesburg, Ohio. This was a series of portraits of different personalities in one midwestern town, creating an overall impression of narrow-minded ignorance and frustrated dreams. The second "revolt from the village" work was a novel called Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis, published in 1920. Again, the setting was a small midwestern town, this one called Gopher Prairie, a name that suggested crudeness and lack of culture. In this book, and in others such as Babbitt and Arrowsmith, Lewis drew vivid caricatures and satirized the traditional "American dream" of success. To urban Americans and Europeans both, Lewis seemed to sum up what small-town America was all about. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930, the first American to be so honored.
The Modernists
One important literary movement of the time was "Imagism," whose poets focused on strong, concrete images. Ezra Pound began as an Imagist but soon went beyond, into complex, sometimes obscure poetry, full of references to other art forms and to vast range of literature. Living in Europe, Pound influenced many other poets, especially T.S. Eliot.
T.S.Eliot
Eliot wasborn in St. Louis but settled in England. He wrote spare, intellectual poetry, carried by a dense structure of symbols. His 1922 poem, The Waste Land spun out, in fragmented, haunting images, a pessimistic vision of post-World War I society. From then on, Eliot dominated the so-called "Modern" movement in poetry. Another Modernist, E.E.Cumming, called attention to his poetry by throwing away rules of punctuation, spelling, and even the way words were placed on the page. His poems were songlike but satiric, humorous and anarchistic. Wallace Stevens, in contrast, wrote thoughtful speculations on how man can know reality. Stevens's verse was disciplined, with understated rhythms, precisely chosen words and a cluster of central images. The poetry of William Carlos Williams, with its light, supple rhythms, was rooted in Imagism, but Williams, a New Jersey physician, used detailed impressions of everyday American life.
The Lost Generation
The Fitzgerald's Family
In the aftermath of World War I many novelists produced a literature of disillusionment. Some lived abroad and were known as "the Lost Generation." F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels captured the restless, pleasure-hungry, defiant mood of the 1920s. Fitzgerald's great theme, expressed poignantly in The Great Gatsby, was of youth's golden dreams turning to disappointment. His prose was exquisite, yet his vision was essentially melancholy and nostalgic.
Young Hemingway
War had also affected Ernest Hemingway Having seen violence and death close at hand, Hemingway adopted a moral code exalting simple survival and the basic values of strength, courage and honesty. In his own writing, he cut out all unnecessary words and complex sentence structure, concentrating on concrete objects and actions. His main characters were usually tough, silent men, good at sports or war but awkward in their dealings with women. Among his best books were The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). He eventually won the Nobel Prize and is considered one of the greatest American writers.
William Faulkner
A Southerner, William Faulkner, found in one small imaginary corner of the state of Mississippi, deep in the heart of the South, enough material for a lifetime of writing. His social portraits were realistic, yet his prose style was experimental. To show the relationship of the past and the present, he sometimes jumbled the time sequence of his plots; to reveal a character's primitive impulses and social prejudices, he recorded and edited the rambling of his or her consciousness. Some of his best novels are The Sound and the Fury (1929) , Light in August (1932). Absalom, Absalom! (1936). Faulkner, too, was a Nobel Prize winner.
Harlem Renaissance
Jazz
The 1920s also saw the rise of an artistic black community centered in New York City in Harlem, a fashionable black neighborhood. African-Americans had brought a lively, powerful music called jazz with them as
Langston Hughes
they moved to northern cities; the jazz clubs of Harlem became chic night spots in the 1920s. The nation suddenly discovered "the new Negro," an articulate urban black, conscious of his or her racial identity. Magazines and newspapers dedicated to black writing sprang up. New poets such as Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen wrote about what it meant to be black. They used exotic images drawn from their African and slavery pasts, and incorporated the rhythms of black music such as jazz, blues and the folk hymns called "spirituals." The Harlem Renaissance gave African-American culture prominence and an impetus to grow.
New Drama
There was another burst of intense literary activity in the 1920s in drama. Although the premiere theater town was the large eastern city of New York, most cities had their own theaters. Professional actors toured the United States, performing British classics, musical entertainments or second-rate melodramas. But there had not yet been an important American dramatist. Then, in 1916, a company called the Provincetown Players began to produce the works of Eugene O'Neill(1888-1953)—plays that were more than just entertainment.
O'Neill
O'Neill borrowed ideas from European playwrights. Like the Modernists, he used symbolism, adapted stories from classical mythology and the Bible, and drew upon the new science of psychology to explore his characters' inner lives. What made O'Neill unique was his incorporation of all these elements into a new American voice and dramatic style. His characters spoke heightened language—not realistic, yet not flowery. To express psychological undercurrents, he had characters speak their thoughts aloud or wear masks, to represent the difference between public self and private self. He wrote frankly about sex and family relations, but his greatest theme was the individual's search for identity. Among his major plays were Desire under the Elms (1924), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), The Iceman Cometh (1946) and Long Day's Journey into Night (1956). O'Neill won a Nobel Prize in 1936 for literature.
Depression, Realism and Escapism
Steinbeck's novel
The Depression caused novelists to focus on social forces. In the West, John Steinbeck (1902-1968) told sympathetic stories about drifting farm laborers and factory workers. His 1939 masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath, depicted an impoverished midwestern family joining a stream of poor farm laborers heading west to the "land of opportunity," the state of California. By interweaving chapters of social commentary with his story, Steinbeck made this portrait of the Joad family into a major statement about the Depression.
Gone with the Wind
Historical fiction became increasingly popular in the Depression, for it allowed readers to retreat to the past. The most successful of these books was Gone with the Wind,a 1936 best-seller about the Civil War by a southern woman, Margaret Mitchell.
In 1939, war broke out in Europe, and eventually the entire world was embroiled in conflict again. The United States joined the war in December 1941, fighting both in Europe and in the Pacific. Right after the war, a series of young writers wrote intelligent novels showing how the pressures of war highlight men's characters. These included Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and Herman Wouk's Caine Mutiny. By 1961, Joseph Heller (1923-) published his satiric war novel Catch-22 in which war is portrayed as an absurd exercise for madmen.
Postwar Voices and the"Beat Generation"
Richard Wright
Ralph Ellison
James Baldwin
The new receptivity of American society to a diversity of voices incorporated black writers and black protest into the mainstream of American literature. Richard Wright's (1908-1960) disturbing novel Native Son, published in 1940, revealed a new black hero, whose character had been warped by this violent and cruel society. The hero of Ralph Ellison's (1914-1994) Invisible Man (1952), is also driven underground by the values of white society. James Baldwin's characteristic themes, hatred of racism and celebration of sexuality, were expressed in novels like Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) and in essays like Nobody Knows My Name (1961), The Fire Next Time (1963).
American Jews also began to raise their literary voices at this time. Writers such as Saul Bellow (The Adventures of Augie March, 1953), Bernard Malamud (The Assistant, 1957), and Philip Roth (Good-bye, Columbus,1959) not only focused upon Jewish characters and social questions, but brought a distinctively Jewish sense of humor to their novels. Their prose often carried echoes of Yiddish, the language used by European Jews, which had helped preserve Jewish culture, isolated but intact, until the early 20th century. Another Jewish writer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, who was born in Poland but had emigrated to the United States in 1935, continued to write in Yiddish, though his stories were quickly translated into English and became part of the national literature. Both Singer and Bellow won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Street Car Named Desire
In the theater, Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), beginning with The Glass Menagerie (1945), expressed his southern heritage in poetic yet sensational plays, usually about a sensitive woman trapped in an insensitive environment. Street Car Named Desire is considered his best play. Arthur Miller portrayed the common man pressured by society; his greatest play, Death of a Salesman (1947), turned a second-rate traveling salesman, Willy Loman, into a quasi-tragic hero. When this play was staged in china, it was a big success.
Allen Ginsberg
The San Francisco writers were part of a large group called the "Beat Generation," a name that referred simultaneously to the rhythm of jazz music, to their sense that society was worn out, and to their interest in new forms of experience, through drugs, alcohol or Eastern mysticism. Poet Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956) set for them a tone of social protest and visionary ecstasy, in elaborate language reminiscent of Whitman.
While other writers did not espouse the life style of the Beats, they also viewed the world on a comic, absurd light. In J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951), a sardonic teenage boy resists the hypocrisies of adult society. Funny as the novel is, there is something tragic in the boy's hopelessness about his world.
New American Voices
Toni Morrison
Alice Walker
The feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s fueled creative energies for many women writers. Some poets, with their personal poetry, revealed the pain and joy of being a woman. As the women' movement gained more acceptance, however, women wrote less in protest and more in affirmation—particularly black women writers, such as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, who portrayed strong black women as the source of continuity, the preservers of values, in black culture. Only in the 1970s did other ethnic groups begin to find their literary voice. Magazines and anthologies were dedicated to the works of American Hispanics, who had come largely from Mexico and the Caribbean. Chinese-American Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston
Amy Tan
wrote about her ancestors in the books The Woman Warrior (1975) and China Men (1980). And writers from foreign ethnic backgrounds did not occupy the fringe of American literature—they were very much in the mainstream. Amy Tan, a Chinese-American writer, told of her parents' early struggles in China and in the United States in The Joy Luck Club (1989), which quickly climbed to the top of the best-selling book list.
Toni Morrison(1931- ), a professor at Princeton University, has published seven novels up to now, of which Song of Solomon (1977) and Beloved (1987) are considered her best works. Although they are descriptions of African-American experience, her novels are widely read all over the world by people of all colors, ages and creeds. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, the first African-American writer to receive this honor.
*E-Library
*Supplementary Readings
Song of Myself (excerpts)
Walt Whitman
　
1
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul. I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their　parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.
　
6
A child said What is the grass? Fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more 　than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green　stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,
Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see　and remark, and say Whose?
Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the　vegetation.
Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones, 
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I　receive them the same.
And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.
Tenderly will I use you curling grass, 
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them,
It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out　of their mothers' laps,
And here you are the mothers' laps.
This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mother.
Darker than the colorless beards of old men, 
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.
O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues,
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for　nothing.
I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and　women,
And the hits about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken　soon out of their laps.
What do you think has become of the young and old men?
And what do you think has become of the women and children?
They are alive and well somewhere, 
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceas'd the moment life appear'd.
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.
　
20
Who does there? Hankering, gross, mystical, nude,
How is it I extract strength from the beef I eat?
What is a man anyhow? what am I? what are you?
All I mark as my own you shall offset it with your own,
Else it were lost listening to me.
I do not snivel that snivel the world over,
That months are vacuums and the ground but wallow and filth.
***
In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barley-corn less,
And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them.
I know I am solid and sound,
To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow,
All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means.
I know I am deathless, 
I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter's compass,
I know I shall not pass like a child's carlacue cut with burnt stick at night.
***
I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content, 
And if each and all be aware I sit content.
One world is aware and by far the largest to me, and that is myself,
And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years,
I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait.
***
　
21
I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,
The pleasures of heaven are with me the pains of hell are with me,
The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue.
I am the poet of the woman the same as the man,
And I say it is as great to be woman as to be a man,
And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men.
I chant the chant of dilation or pride,
We have had ducking and deprecating about enough,
I show that size is only development.
Have you outstript the rest? are you the President?
It is a trifle, they will more than arrive there every one, and still pass on.
I am he that walks with the tender and growing night,
I call to the earth and sea half-held by the night.
Press close bare-bosom'd night-press close magnetic nourishing night!
Night of sound winds-night of the large few stars!
Still nodding night-mad naked summer night.
***
Prodigal, you have given me love-therefore I to you give love!
O unspeakable passionate love.
　
52
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my
　
gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
The last scud of day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds,
I coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.
Emily Dickison
　
585
I like to see it lap the Miles-
And lick the Valleys up-
And stop to feed itself at Tanks
And then-prodigious step
Around a Pile of Mountains-
And supercilious peer
In Shanties-by the siedes of Roads-
And then a Quarry pare
To fit its Ribs
And crawl between
Complaining all the while
In horrid-hooting stanza-
Then chase itself down Hill-
And neigh like Boanerges-
Then-punctual as a Star
Stop-docile and omnipotent 
At its own stable door-
Notes:
1. In the first line the word "it" refers to iron-horse, namely, train.
2. Boanerges: In Hebrew it means "sons of thunder," a term used to describe loud-voiced preachers and orators.
712
Because I could not stop for Death-
He kindly stopped for me-
The Carriage held but just Ourselves-
And Immortality.
We slowly drove-He knew no haste
And I had put away 
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility-
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess-in the Ring
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain-
We passed the Setting Sun-
Or rather-He passed Us-
The Dews drew quivering and chill-
For only Gossamer, My Gown-
My Tippet-only Tulle-
We passed before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground-
The Roof was scarcely visible-
The Cornice-in the Ground-
Since then-'tis Centuries-and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' heads
Were toward Eternity-
Notes:
1. Tippet: A cape or a scarf.
2. Tulle: Thin net.
　
986
A narrow Fellow in the Grass
Occasionally rides-You may have met Him-did you not
His notice sudden is-
The Grass divides as with a Comb-
A spotted shaft is seen-
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on-
He likes a Boggy Acre
A Floor too cool for Corm-
Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot-
I more than once at Noon
Have passed, I thought, a Whip lash
Unbraiding in the Sun
When stooping to secure it
It wrinkled, and was gone-
Several of Nature's People
I know, and they know me-
I feel for them a transport 
Of Cordiality-
But never met this Fellow
Attended, or alone
Without a tighter breathing
And Zero at the Bone--
Note:
A narrow fellow: A snake
Ezra Pound
In a Station of the Metro
　
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
　
Petals on a wet, back bouth.
*E-Library
Soldier's Home
Ernest Hemingway
Krebs went to the war from a Methodist college in Kansas. There is a picture which shows him among his fraternity brothers all of them wearing exactly the same height and style collar. He enlisted in the Marines in 1917 and did not return ;o the United States until the second division returned from the Rhine in the summer of 1919.
There is a picture which shows him on the Rhine with two German girls and another corporal. Krebs and the corporal iook too big for their uniforms. The German girls are not beautiful. The Rhine does not show in the picture.
By the time Krebs returned to his home town in Oklahoma ;he greeting of heroes was over. He came back much too late. The men from the town who had been drafted had all been welcomed elaborately on their return. There had been a great ,teal of hysteria. Now the reaction had set in. People seemed to think it was rather ridiculous for Krebs to be getting back late, years after the war was over.
At first Krebs, who had been at Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champagne, St. Mihiel and in the Argonne did not want to talk about the war at all. Later he felt the need to talk but no one wanted to hear about it. His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities. Krebs found that :o be listened to at all he had to lie, and after he had done ?his twice he, too, had a reaction against the war and against talking about it. A distaste for everything that had happened ?o him in the war set in because of the lies he had told. All If the times that had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself when he thought of them; the times so long back when he had done the one thing, the only thing for a man to do, easily and naturally, when he might have done something else, now lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost themselves.
His lies were quite unimportant lies and consisted in attributing to himself things other men had seen, done or heard of, and stating as facts certain apocryphal incidents familiar to all soldiers. Even his lies were not sensational at the pool room. His acquaintances, who had heard detailed accounts of German women found chained to machine guns in the Argonne forest and who could not comprehend, or were barred by their patriotism from interest in, any German machine gunners who were not chained, were not thrilled by his stories.
Krebs acquired the nausea in regard to experience that is the result of untruth or exaggeration, and when he occasionally met another man who had really been a soldier and they talked a few minutes in the dressing room at a dance he fell into the easy pose of the old soldier among other soldiers: that he had been badly, sickeningly frightened all the time. In this way he lost everything.
During this time, it was late summer, he was sleeping late in bed, getting up to walk down town to the library to get 2 book, eating lunch at home, reading on the front porch until he became bored and then walking down through the town to spend the hottest hours of the day in the cool dark of the pool room. He loved to play pool.
In the evening he practised on his clarinet, strolled down town, read and went to bed. He was still a hero to his two young sisters. His mother would have given him breakfast in bed if he had wanted it. She often came in when he was in bed and asked him to tell her about the war, but her attention always wandered. His father was non?committal.
Before Krebs went away to the war he had never been allowed to drive the family motor car. His father was in the real estate business and always wanted the car to be at his command when he required it to take clients out into the country to show them a piece of farm property. The car always stood outside the First National Bank building where his father had an office on the second floor. Now, after the war, it was sill the same car.
Nothing was changed in the town except that the young girls had grown up. But they lived in such a complicated world of already defined alliances and shifting feuds that Krebs did got feel the energy or the courage to break into it. He liked to look at them, though. There were so many good-looking young girls. Most of them had their hair cut short. When he went away only little girls wore their hair like that or girls that were fast. They all wore sweaters and shirt waists with 7-ound Dutch collars. It was a pattern. He liked to look at them from the front porch as they walked on the other side of the street. He liked to watch them walking under the shade of the trees He liked the round Dutch collars above their sweaters. He liked their silk stockings and flat shoes. He liked their bobbed hair and the way they walked.
When he was in town their appeal to him was not very strong. He did not like them when he saw them in the Greek's ice cream parlor. He did not want them themselves really. They were too complicated. There was something else. Vaguely he wanted a girl but he did not want to have to work to get her. He would have liked to have a girl but he did not want to have to spend a long time getting her. He did not want to get into the intrigue and the politics. He did not want to have to do any courting. He did not want to tell any more lies. It wasn't worth it.
He did not want any consequences. He did not want any consequences ever again. He wanted to live along without consequences. Besides he did not really need a girl. The army had taught him that. It was all right to pose as though you had to have a girl. Nearly everybody did that. But it wasn't true. You did not need a girl. That was the funny thing. First a fellow boasted how girls mean nothing to him, that he never -bought of them, that they could not touch him. Then a fellow boasted that he could not get along without girls, that he had to have them all the time, that he could not go to sleep without them.
That was all a lie. It was all a lie both ways. You did not need a girl unless you thought about them. He learned that in the army. Then sooner or later you always got one. When you were really ripe for a girl you always got one. You did not have to think about it. Sooner or later it would come. He had learned that in the army.
Now he would have liked a girl if she had come to him and not wanted to talk. But here at home it was all too complicated. He knew he could never get through it all again. It was not worth the trouble. That was the thing about French girls and German girls. There was not all this talking. You couldn't talk much and you did not need to talk. It was simple and you were friends. He thought about France and then he began to think about Germany On the whole he had liked Germany better. He did not want to leave Germany. He did not want to come home. Still, he had come home. He sat on the front porch.
He liked the girls that were walking along the other side of the street. He liked the look of them much better than the French girls or the German girls. But the world they were in was not the world he was in. He would like to have one of them. But it was not worth it. They were such a nice pattern. He liked the pattern. It was exciting. But he would not go through all the talking. He did not want one badly enough. He liked to look at them all, though. It was not worth it. Not now when things were getting good again.
He sat there on the porch reading a book on the war. It was a history and he was reading about all the engagements he had been in. It was the most interesting reading he had ever done. He wished there were more maps. He looked forward with a good feeling to reading all the really good histories when they would come out with good detail maps. Now he was really learning about the war. He had been a good soldier. That made a difference.
One morning after he had been home about a month his mother came into his bedroom and sat on the bed. She smoothed her apron.
"I had a talk with your father last night, Harold," she said, "and he is willing for you to take the car out in the evenings."
"Yeah?" said Krebs, who was not fully awake. "Take the car out? Yeah,"
"Yes. Your father has felt for some time that you should be able to take the car out in the evenings whenever you wished but we only talked it over last night."
"I'll bet you made him," Krebs said.
"No. It was your father's suggestion that we talk the matter over.
"Yeah. I'll bet you made him," Krebs sat up in bed.
"Will you come down to breakfast, Harold?" his mother said.
"As soon as I get my clothes on," Krebs said.
*E-Library
Soldier's Home
His mother went out of the room and he could hear her frying something downstairs while he washed, shaved and dressed to go down into the dining-room for breakfast. While he was eating breakfast his sister brought in the mail.
"Well, Hare," she said. "You old sleepy-head. What do you ever get up for?"
Krebs looked at her. He liked her. She was his best sister.
"Have you got the paper?" he asked.
She handed him The Kansas City Star and he shucked off its brown wrapper and opened it to the sporting page. He folded The Star open and propped it against the water pitcher with his cereal dish to steady it, so he could read while he ate.
"Harold," his mother stood in the kitchen doorway,
"Harold, please don't muss up the paper. Your father can't read his Star if it's been mussed."
"I won't muss it," Krebs said.
His sister sat down at the table and watched him while he read.
"We're playing indoor over at school this afternoon," she said. "I'm going to pitch."
"Good," said Krebs. "How's the old wing?"
"I can pitch better than lots of the boys. I tell them all you taught me. The other girls aren't much good."
"Yeah?" said Krebs.
"I tell them all you're my beau. Aren't you my beau, Hare?"
"You bet."
"Couldn't your brother really be your beau just because he's your brother?"
"I don't know."
"Sure you know. Couldn't you be my beau, Hare, if I was old enough and if you wanted to?"
"Sure. You're my girl now."
"Am I really your girl?"
"Sure."
"Do you love me?"
"Uh, huh."
"Will you love me always?"
"Sure."
"Will you come over and watch me play indoor?"
"Maybe."
"Aw, Hare, you don't love me. If you loved me, you'd want to come over and watch me play indoor."
Krebs's mother came into the dining-room from the kitchen. She carried a plate with two fried eggs and some crisp bacon on it and a plate of buckwheat cakes.
"You run along, Helen," she said. "I want to talk to Harold."
She put the eggs and bacon down in front of him and brought in a jug of maple syrup for the buckwheat cakes. Then she sat down across the table from Krebs.
"I wish you'd put down the paper a minute, Harold," she said.
Krebs took down the paper and folded it.
"Have you decided what you are going to do yet, Harold?" his mother said, taking off her glasses.
"No," said Krebs.
"Don't you think it's about time?" His mother did not say this in a mean way. She seemed worried.
"I hadn't thought about it," Krebs said.
"God has some work for every one to do," his mother said. "There can be no idle hands in His Kingdom."
"I'm not in His Kingdom," Krebs said.
"We are all of us in His Kingdom."
Krebs felt embarrassed and resentful as always.
"I've worried about you so much, Harold," his mother went on. "I know the temptations you must have been exposed to. I know how weak men are. I know what your own dear grandfather, my own father, told us about the Civil War and I have prayed for you. I pray for you all day long, Harold."
Krebs looked at the bacon fat hardening on his plate.
"Your father is worried, too," his mother went on. "He thinks you have lost your ambition, that you haven't got a definite aim in life. Charley Simmons, who is just your age,has a good job and is going to be married. The boys are all settling down; they're all determined to get somewhere; you can see that boys like Charley Simmons are on their way to being really a credit to the community."
Krebs said nothing.
"Don't look that way, Harold," his mother said. "You know we love you and I want to tell you for your own good how matters stand. Your father does not want to hamper your freedom. He thinks you should be allowed to drive the car. If you want to take some of the nice girls out riding with you, we are only too pleased. We want you to enjoy yourself. But you are going to have to settle down to work, Harold. Your father doesn't care what you start in at. All work is honorable as he says. But you've got to make a start at something. He asked me to speak to you this morning and then you can stop in and see him at his office."
"Is that all?" Krebs said.
"Yes. Don't you love your mother, dear boy?"
"No," Krebs said.
His mother looked at him across the table. Her eyes were shiny. She started crying.
"I don't love anybody," Krebs said.
It wasn't any good. He couldn't tell her, he couldn't make her see it. It was silly to have said it. He had only hurt her. He went over and took hold of her arm. She was crying with her head in her hands.
"I didn't mean it," he said. "I was just angry at something. I didn't mean I didn't love you:"
His mother went on crying. Krebs put his arm on her shoulder.
"Can't you believe me, mother?"
His mother shook her head.
"Please, please, mother. Please believe me."
"All right," his mother said chokily. She looked up at him. "I believe you, Harold."
Krebs kissed her hair. She put her face up to him.
"I'm your mother," she said. "I held you next to my heart when you were a tiny baby."
Krebs felt sick and vaguely nauseated.
"I know, Mummy," he said. "I'll try and be a-good boy for you:'
"Would you kneel and pray with me, Harold?" his mother asked.
They knelt down beside the dining-room table and Krebs's mother prayed.
"Now, you pray, Harold," she said.
"I can't," Krebs said.
"Try, Harold."
"I can't."
"Do you want me to pray for you?"
"Yes."
So his mother prayed for him and then they stood up and Krebs kissed his mother and went out of the house. He had tried so to keep his life from being complicated. Still, none of it had touched him. He had felt sorry for his mother and she had made him lie. He would go to Kansas City and get a job and she would feel all right about it. There would be one more scene maybe before he got away. He would not go down to his father's office. He would miss that one. He wanted his life to go smoothly. It had just gotten going that way. Well, that was all over now, anyway. He would go over to the schoolyard and watch Helen play indoor baseball.
References
钱青主编：《美国文学名著精选》，商务印书馆，1994年
Annette T. Rubinstein, American Literature: Root and Flower. Beijing: Foreing Language Teaching and Research Press, 1988
===Unit 8教 Education in the United States 原为 6 Education===
Focal Points:
* Goal of education
* Different education laws for different states
* Several levels of schooling
* Curricula for students
* Compulsory education for all children
* Equal education opportunities for minority groups
* Strong demand for higher education
* The complex system of higher education
* Varieties of colleges and university
* Trends in degree programs
* The Servicemen's Readjustment Act
* Affirmative action programs
* Non-traditional students
Text
Going to School in America Today
School Chidren
Each fall almost 50 million young Americans walk through the doorways of about 100000 elementary and secondary schools for the start of a new school year. Filling classrooms from kindergarten to the 12th grade, they attend classes for an average of five hours a day, five days a week, until the beginning of the following summer. These students are part of one of the most ambitious undertakings in the history of education: the American effort to educate an entire national population. The goal is—and has been since the early decades of the republic—to achieve universal literacy and to provide individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote both their own individual welfare as well as that of the general public. Though this goal has not yet been fully achieved, it remains an ideal toward which the American educational system is directed. The progress which has been made is notable both for its scope and for the educational methods which have been developed in the process of achieving it.
A High School Lab
About 85% of American students attend public schools (schools supported by American taxpayers). The other 15% attend private schools, for which their families choose to pay special attendance fees. Four out of five private schools in the United States are run by churches, synagogues or other religious groups. In such schools, religious teachings are a part of the curriculum, which also includes the traditional academic courses of reading, mathematics, history, geography and science.(Religious instruction is not given in public schools.)
A Private School
A Church School
The combined expenses of both education systems, public and private, exceed $190000 million a year. From that point of view, American education is a powerful consumer. Who decides how many of these thousands of millions of dollars should be used annually for teachers' salaries, new computers or extra books? Private schools that meet state standards use the fees they collect as they think best. But where public taxes are involved, spending is guided by boards of education (policy makers for schools) at the state and/ or district level. The same thing is true for decisions about the school curriculum, teacher standards and certification, and the overall measurement of student progress.
Education—A Local Matter
Physical Education
From Hawaii to Delaware, from Alaska to Louisiana, each of the 50 states in the United States has its own laws regulating education. From state to state, some laws are similar; others are not. For example:
All states require young people to attend school. (The age limits vary: 32 states require attendance to age 16; eight to 18; etc.) Thus, every child in America is guaranteed up to 13 years of education. This is true regardless of a child's race, religion, sex, learning problems, physical handicap or inability to speak English.
Some states play a strong role in the selection of learning material for their students. For example, state committees may decide which publisher's textbooks can be purchased with state funds. In other cases, decisions about buying instructional material are left entirely to local school officials.
Americans have a strong tendency to educate their children about major public concerns—problems such as environmental pollution, nuclear issues, neighborhood crime and drugs. Responding to public pressure, boards of education in different areas often add courses on various relevant issues to the elementary and secondary school curriculum.
What an American Student Learns
Learning Computer
American students pass through several levels of schooling—and thus, several curricula—on their way to a high school diploma. They attend:
Elementary School. In statistical reports published by the federal government, "elementary school" usually means grades kindergarten(K) through 8. But in some places, the elementary school includes only grades K—6. And sometimes grades 4, 5 and 6 make up what is called a "middle grade" school.(Many Americans refer to the elementary grades as "grammar school.")
Secondary School. Again, in statistical reports, "secondary school" generally means grades 9-12. These grades are popularly called "high school." However, in many districts, "junior high school" includes grades 7 * 9. And when grades 7 * 9 are included with the 10th, 11th and 12th grades, all six are said to form a "senior high school."
Although there is no national curriculum in the United States, certain subjects are taught in all K to 12 systems across the country.
Almost every elementary school provides instruction in these subjects: mathematics; language arts (subject that includes reading, grammar, composition and literature); penmanship; science; social studies (a subject that includes history, geography, citizenship and economics); music; art; and
Drama
physical education. In many elementary schools, courses in the use of computers have been introduced. And in some cases, a second language (other than English) is offered in the upper elementary grades.
Most secondary schools offer the same "core" of required subjects: English, mathematics, science, social studies and physical education. But school boards differ greatly from one district to another in the amount of class time they want high school students to spend on these basic subjects. In some high schools, for example, students must complete three years of mathematics before graduation. The national average is lower.
Students are guided by school counselors in choosing electives, which can range from specialized academic to vocational subjects.
For example, high schools offer more than one year—in most cases, several years—of math, science and the other core subjects. After they complete the required units in these core areas (for example, one year of American history), students can take additional units as electives (perhaps a year of European history and a year of world political issues).
Other elective courses vary from school to school. Some high schools specialize in particular types of subjects—business education, or industrial trades, or foreign languages, for example. A student planning to be a physician would want to attend a school offering many electives in science.
Education in a New Nation
Eearly Education
Americans trace the origins of their nation to the English colonialists (settlers) who came to the eastern coast of North America in the early 17th century. The largest group of these first colonists, the Puritans, founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. Like others who followed them to America, the Puritans sought the freedom to practice their religion—a freedom they could not enjoy in their native country. They found this freedom in the small towns and villages they built on the edge of the forest in Massachusetts.
One of the things the Puritans believed was that every person should be able to read the Bible. One hundred percent literacy seemed like a dream in the 17th century. Within just a few years after their arrival, they took steps to set up a system of education in their colony:
In 1634, they opened a "Latin grammar" school, a school for those who wanted to prepare for college.
In 1636, Harvard College was founded for the training of religious ministers.
Memorial Harvard Yard
Harvard
In 1634 and 1638, the Puritans passed laws declaring that all property could be taxed for the common good, which included the support of schools.
In 1642 and 1647, the Bay Colony passed laws requiring all parents to provide reading education for their children.
Thus, in less than 20 years, the Puritans introduced two practices that still influence American youth: compulsory education for all children and public taxation for schools. The situation was different in other British colonies in North America. In Pennsylvania, for example, where there were several different religious groups, decisions about education were left to the leaders of each church. In southern colonies such as Virginia, those who could afford tutors hired them for their sons (and sometimes for their daughters). The older sons of wealthy landowners were sent to England for their education. Occasionally, a landowner might allow a literate adult to teach reading to the children of poor whites and, perhaps, a few blacks. But mostly, custom forbade the teaching of children of slaves to read.
Throughout the colonies, young men and women could receive an education in reading by becoming an apprentice in a small business. It had been a practice in England to have young boys and girls live with the families of those for whom they worked (bakers, printers, etc.). In return for a youth's work, the business owner promised to teach him or her to read, as well as how to do a craft (bake or print, for example). This practice was brought to North America.
On July 4, 1776, the 13 colonies issued a Declaration of Independence, and went to war for their freedom from England. They won the war for independence in 1781, and negotiated a favorable treaty in 1783. But it was not until 1789 that they shaped a unified national government. The shape and power of this new government, described in the Constitution, were determined after many debates and compromises. The new United States was to be a federal republic—a union of states with a strong central government representing all the people.
The states did not easily give up their own political powers to this new central government. In fact, the 10th Amendment was added to the Constitution to guarantee that "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution … [would be] reserved to the [governments of the] States … ". One of these reserved powers was the right of each state to provide for the education of its people.
Actually, at the end of the 18th century, elementary education throughout the United States was in local hands. State governments were allowing local districts (small towns and villages) to set up and run their own elementary schools. Most often, these schools were in one-room buildings, with one teacher for all the students who could attend. The teacher, who was hired by a committee of citizens, had to teach what the local community expected. And so the future was decided: Education in the United States was to remain in the hands of state and local governments.
Learning to Be World Citizens
Black and White Pupils
After 1920, the K to 12 education in America remained very much the same until World War II. That tragic event introduced changes that affected every institution in America—including the schools. American parents—especially young couples who married in the late 1940s wanted their children to be educated for the postwar world. At the same time, American blacks and other minority groups demanded educational opportunities equal to those of whites. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that the practice of segregating， blacks into separate schools was unconstitutional. By 1945, the United States was a nuclear power, a member
Protesting against School Segregation
of the United Nations, and a competitor with the Soviet Union for world influence. American jobs were changed by new technology (especially by the computer), and American businesses spread around the globe. Television brought the faces of presidents, entertainers and people from all over the world into America's homes each evening. Discoveries by scientists opened new secrets of the stars and of the atom. Between 1950 and 1960, more new knowledge was developed than in all of the world's history before 1950.
Discovering Secrets of Stars
Sputnik
Schools were asked not only to teach this new information, but to help students ask their own questions about it. The "inquiry" method of learning, focusing on solving problems rather than memorizing facts, became popular. More science courses were added to the curriculum, some as a result of the orbiting of the first man-made satellite, Sputnik, by the Soviet Union in 1957. The federal government began to spend millions for the development of new science curricula and for training teachers to use them. (Federal spending would spread to other fields, too, especially for programs to aid students with learning difficulties. By the early 1980s, the federal government was spending about 8 to 10 thousand million dollars annually on elementary and secondary education.)
But a good secondary education was no longer enough for many Americans. In one school district after another, parents insisted on high school programs that would prepare their sons and daughters for admission to a university. More and more Americans viewed the university as the doorway to a medical or law degree, a position in government, or a management position in a major business office.
Higher Education
University Students
Out of more than three million students who graduate from high school each year, about one million go on for higher education. Simply by being admitted into one of the most respected universities in the United States, a high school graduate achieves a degree of success. A college at a leading university might receive applications from 2% of these high school graduates, and then accept only one out of every ten who apply12. Successful applicants at such colleges are usually chosen on the basis of: (a) their high school records; (b) recommendations from their high school teachers; (c) the impression they make during interviews at the university; and (d) their scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SATs).
The system of higher education in the United States is complex. It comprises four categories of institutions:(1) the university, which may contain: (a) several colleges for undergraduate students seeking a bachelor's (four year) degree and (b) one or more graduate schools for those continuing in specialized studies beyond the bachelor's degree to obtain a master's or a doctoral degree; (2) the four-year undergraduate institution—the college—most of which are not part of a university; (3) the technical training institution, at which high school graduates may take courses ranging from six months to four years in duration and learn a wide variety of technical skills, from hair styling through business accounting to computer programming; and (4) the two-year, or community college, from which students may enter many professions or may transfer to four-year colleges or universities.
Any of these institutions, in any category, might be either public or private, depending on the source of its funding. There is no clear or inevitable distinction in terms of quality of education offered between the institutions which are publicly or privately funded. However, this is not to say that all institutions enjoy equal prestige nor that there are no material differences among them.
Many universities and colleges, both public and private, have gained reputations for offering particularly challenging courses and for providing their students with a higher quality of education. The great majority are generally regarded as quite satisfactory. A few other institutions, conversely, provide only adequate education, and students attend classes, pass examinations and graduate as merely competent, but not outstanding, scholars and professionals. The factors determine whether an institution is one of the best or one of lower prestige are quality of teaching faculty,
Faculty Members
A University Library
quality of research facilities; amount of funding available for libraries, special programs, etc.; and the competence and number of applicants for admission, i.e., how selective the institution can be in choosing its students. All of these factors reinforce one another.
In the United States it is generally recognized that there are more and less desirable institutions in which to study and from which to graduate. The more desirable institutions are generally—but not always more costly to attend, and having graduated from one of them may bring distinct advantages as the individual seeks employment opportunities and social mobility within the society. Competition to get into such a college prompts a million secondary school students to take the SATs every year. But recently emphasis on admissions examinations has been widely criticized in the United States because the examinations tend to measure only competence in mathematics and English. In defense of using the examinations as criteria for admissions, administrators at many universities say that the SATs provide a fair way for deciding whom to admit when they have 10 or 12 applicants for every first-year student seat.
Selecting a College or University
A Girl College Student
In addition to learning about a school's entrance requirements (and its fees), Americans have a lot of questions to think about when they choose a university or college. They need to know:
What degrees does the school offer? How long does it take to earn one? At the undergraduate (college) level, a four-year "liberal arts" course of study is traditionally offered in such subjects as history, languages and philosophy. (The term "liberal arts" comes from "liberales artes", a Latin expression for free, or human, arts and skills. In the time of the Roman Empire these were skills and arts that only a free person—not a slave—could acquire.) Many liberal arts colleges also offer a bachelor of science (B.S.) degree in physics, chemistry or other scientific subjects. A technical training institution, offering such courses as agriculture or business, offers courses of varying lengths, and community college studies last two years.
Group Discussion
Graduate schools in America award master's and doctor's degrees in both the arts and sciences. (The term "doctor" comes from the Latin word docere, meaning "to teach.") The courses for most graduate degree can be completed in two to four years. But if a graduate program requires original research, a student could spend many additional months or even years in a university library or laboratory.
What curricula does a college or university offer? What are the requirements for earning a degree? In an American university, each college and graduate school has its own curriculum. At the undergraduate level, there may be some courses that every student has to take (for example, classes in world history, math, writing or research). But students do select their "major" (the field in which they want their degree), plus a specific number of "electives" (courses that are not required but that students may choose). The National Institute of Education, a government agency, reports that a total of more than 1 000 majors are offered in America's colleges and universities. The combined electives available in these schools probably amount to a number in the tens of thousands.
Typically, an undergraduate student has to earn a certain number of "credits" (about 120) in order to receive a degree at the end of four years of college. Credits are earned by attending lectures (or lab classes) and by successfully completing assignments and examinations. One credit usually equals one hour of class per week in a single course. A three-credit courses in biology could involve two hours of lectures plus one hour in a science lab, every week. A course may last 10 to 16 weeks-the length of a "semester."
Is the college or university a public institution (operated by a state or local government) or a private one? If it is private, is it a religious school? The United States does not have a national (federal) school system, but each of the 50 states operates its own universities, and so do some large city governments. (The government does grant degrees in the schools it operates for professional members of the armed services for example, the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.
About 25 percent of all schools of higher education in the United States are privately operated by religious organizations. Most are open to students of different faiths, but in some religious schools all students are required to attend religious services. There are also privately owned schools with no religious connection.
Both public and private colleges depend on three sources of income: student tuition, endowments (gifts made by wealthy benefactors) and government funding. Some endowments are very large: Harvard, Princeton and Yale
Princeton University
Yale library
Universities have more than a thousand million dollars each. Public institutions receive a large portion of public tax money than private schools do.
SUNY
How large is the school? There are many small American colleges—some with fewer than 100 students. But the larger universities tend to keep attracting larger numbers of enrollments. By the mid-1980s, at least seven universities had total enrollments of over 100 000 each. (One of the seven, the State University of New York, had more than 60 campuses in different parts of the state.)
The Mainframe
Why do the large universities flourish? Until recent years, a major answer to this question was: They offer the best libraries and facilities for scientific research. Access to a "mainframe" (very large) computer and to modern laboratories attracts leading scientists to the faculties of such schools. And students enroll to study with the experts. Research programs continue to be important to the reputation of America's universities. But in recent years, the percentage of advanced degrees awarded in the "pure" (research) sciences has declined17. The same has been true for the liberal arts. Students continue to seek the largest, most respected universities—but for new and different programs.
Trends in Degree Programs
MBA Students
During the 1970s and 1980s, there was a trend away from the traditional liberal arts. Instead, students were choosing major fields that would prepare them for specific jobs. In 1987, 56% of the four-year bachelor's degrees were conferred in business and management, computer and information science, education, engineering, health professions, and public affairs. Only 13% of the degrees were conferred in the traditional arts and sciences.
But some observers believe this trend toward pre-professionalism may be ending and that students are switching back to traditional areas of study. They cite the fact that in 1987 bachelor's degrees in mathematics were up 49% since the low point they had reached in 1981. Bachelor's degrees in English and literature, foreign languages, history, and physics also saw an upswing.
In many ways, this new popularity of liberal arts is a return to the early traditions of American education.
Education for All
In 1944 Congress passed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, soon popularly called the "GI Bill of Rights." ("GI" at the time, was a nickname for the American soldier. The nickname came from an abbreviation for "Government Issue"—the uniforms and other articles "issued" to a soldier.) The Act promised financial aid, including aid for higher education, to members of the armed forces after the end of World War II.
The war ended in the following year. The prediction had been that 600 000 war veterans would apply for aid for education. By 1955, more than two million veterans of World War II and of the Korean War had used the GI Bill of Rights to go to college. Many of these veterans were from poor families. 30% were married when they applied for college aid; 10% had children. More than a few had to work part time while they took courses. It was difficult, but these veterans believed that a college degree (which they could not afford on their own) would improve their chances for a good job in the postwar economy. Some went to liberal arts colleges; others to technical and professional institutions. Their outstanding success in all these schools forced everyone connected with higher education to rethink its purpose and goals. Within just a few years, American veterans had changed the image of who should go to college. In postwar America, other groups sought their place on America's campuses, too. The enrollment of women in higher education began to increase. Racial segregation in elementary and secondary education ended, and thus blacks achieved an equal opportunity to get into any college of their choice.
By the end of 1960s, some colleges introduced special plans and programs to equalize educational opportunities—at every level, for all groups. Some of these plans were called "Affirmative Action Programs." Their goal was to make up for past inequality by giving special reference to members of minorities seeking jobs or admission to college. (In the United States, the term "minority" has two meanings, often related: (a) A minority is any ethnic or racial group that makes up a small percentage of the total population; (b) The term also suggests a group that is not the dominant political power.) Some colleges, for example, sponsored programs to help minority students prepare for college while still in high school.
By the 1970s, the United States government stood firmly behind such goals. It required colleges and universities receiving public funds to practice some form of affirmative action. But when colleges began to set quotas (fixed numbers) of minority students to be admitted, many Americans (including minority citizens) protested. They felt that this was another form of discrimination.
Minority Students
As with most (but not all) problems in American public life, the conflict was resolved by change and compromise. Colleges continued to serve the goal of affirmative action—but in less controversial ways. One large university, for example, announced a new policy: It would seek to admit students who would add diverse talents to the student body. It thus dealt with all applicants—minorities included—on a basis that was not restricted to high school performance and entrance tests, but which took into account the talents, voluntary activities and "life experience" of the student. What success did these efforts have? American college students are an increasingly diverse group. In 1987, 54% were women. Women received 51% of the bachelor's and master's degrees awarded that year, and 35% of the doctorates and professional degrees. But not all groups are doing so well.
Smith College—A Private Women's College
Although 59% of the students who graduated from high school in 1988 enrolled in college that same year, only 45% of the African-American high school graduates went on to college. Educators and others are working to increase that percentage.
U.S. colleges and universities are also enrolling a higher percentage of non-traditional students—students who have worked for several years before starting college or students who go to school part-time while holding down a job. In 1987, 41% of college students were 25 years of age or older and 43% were part-time students.
*E-Library
*Supplementary Readings
Sputnik and The Dawn of the Space Age
History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race.
The story begins in 1952, when the International Council of Scientific Unions decided to establish July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958, as the International Geophysical Year (IGY) because the scientists knew that the cycles of solar activity would be at a high point then. In October 1954, the council adopted a resolution calling for artificial satellites to be launched during the IGY to map the Earth's surface.
In July 1955, the White House announced plans to launch an Earth-orbiting satellite for the IGY and solicited proposals from various Government research agencies to undertake development. In September 1955, the Naval Research Laboratory's Vanguard proposal was chosen to represent the U.S. during the IGY.
The Sputnik launch changed everything. As a technical achievement, Sputnik caught the world's attention and the American public off-guard. Its size was more impressive than Vanguard's intended 3.5-pound payload. In addition, the public feared that the Soviets' ability to launch satellites also translated into the capability to launch ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear weapons from Europe to the U.S. Then the Soviets struck again; on November 3, Sputnik II was launched, carrying a much heavier payload, including a dog named Laika.
Immediately after the Sputnik I launch in October, the U.S. Defense Department responded to the political furor by approving funding for another U.S. satellite project. As a simultaneous alternative to Vanguard, Wernher von Braun and his Army Redstone Arsenal team began work on the Explorer project.
On January 31, 1958, the tide changed, when the United States successfully launched Explorer I. This satellite carried a small scientific payload that eventually discovered the magnetic radiation belts around the Earth, named after principal investigator James Van Allen. The Explorer program continued as a successful ongoing series of lightweight, scientifically useful spacecraft.
The Sputnik launch also led directly to the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In July 1958, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act (commonly called the "Space Act"), which created NASA as of October 1, 1958 from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government agencies.
School Segregation
High Court Bans School Segregation; 9-to-0 Decision Grants Time to Comply
1896 Ruling Upset
'Separate but Equal' Doctrine Held Out of Place in Education; High Court Bans Public Pupil Bias
By LUTHER A. HUSTON
SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES 
Washington, May 17—The Supreme Curt unanimously outlawed today racial segregation in public schools.
Chief Justice Earl Warren read two opinions that put the stamp of unconstitutionality on school systems in twenty-one states and the District of Columbia where segregation is permissive or mandatory.
The court, taking cognizance of the problems involved in the integration of the school systems concerned, put over until the next term, beginning in October, the formulation of decrees to effectuate its 9-to-0 decision.
The opinions set aside the "separate but equal" doctrine laid down by the Supreme Court in 1896.
"In the field of public education," Chief Justice Warren said, "the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
He stated the question and supplied the answer as follows:
"We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though physical facilities and other 'tangible' factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does."
States Stressed Rights
The court's opinion does not apply to private schools. It is directed entirely at public schools. It does not affect the "separate but equal doctrine" as applied on railroads and other public carriers entirely within states that have such restrictions.
The principal ruling of the court was in four cases involving state laws. The states' right to operate separated schools had been argued before the court on two occasions by representatives of South Carolina, Virginia, Kansas and Delaware.
In these cases, consolidated in one opinion, the high court held that school segregation deprived Negroes of "the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment."
The other opinion involved the District of Columbia. Here schools have been segregated since Civil War days under laws passed by Congress.
"In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools," the Chief Justice said, "it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government.
"We hold that racial segregation in the public schools of the District of Columbia is a denial of the due process of law guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution."
The Fourteenth Amendment provides that no state shall "deny to any person, within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The Fifth Amendment says that no person shall be "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law."
The seventeen states having mandatory segregation are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
Kansas, New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming have permissive statutes, although Wyoming never has exercised it.
South Carolina and Georgia have announced plans to abolish public schools if segregation were banned.
Although the decision with regard to the constitutionality of school segregation was unequivocal, the court set the cases down for reargument in the fall on questions that previously were argued last December. These dealt with the power of the court to permit an effective gradual readjustment to school systems not based on color distinctions.
Other questions include whether the court itself should formulate detailed decrees and what issues should be dealt with. Also, whether the cases should be remanded to the lower courts to frame decrees, and what general directions the Supreme Court should give the lesser tribunals if this were done.
Cases Argued Twice
The cases first came to the high court in 1952 on appeal from rulings of lower Federal courts, handed down in 1951 and 1952. Arguments were heard on December 9-10, 1952.
Unable to reach decision, the Supreme Court ordered rearguments in the present term and heard the cases for the second time on December 7-8 last year.
Since then, each decision day has seen the courtroom packed with spectators awaiting the ruling. That was true today, though none except the justices themselves knew it was coming down. Reporters were told before the court convened that it "looked like a quiet day."
Three minor opinions had been announced, and those in the press room had begun to believe the prophesy when Banning E. Whittington, the court's press information officer, started putting on his coat.
"Reading of the segregation decisions is about to begin in the court room," he said. "You will get the opinions up there."
The courtroom is one floor up, reached by a long flight of marble steps. Mr. Whittington led a fast moving exodus. In the courtroom, Chief Justice Warren had just begun reading.
Each of the Associate Justices listened intently. They obviously were aware that no court since the Dred Scott decision of March 6, 1857, had ruled on so vital an issue in the field of racial relations.
Dred Scott was a slave who sued for his freedom on the ground that he had lived in a territory where slavery was forbidden. The territory was the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase, from which slavery was excluded under the terms of the Missouri Compromise.
The Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott was not a citizen who had a right to sue in the Federal courts, and that Congress had no constitutional power to pass the Missouri Compromise.
Thurgood Marshall, the lawyer who led the fight for racial equality in the public schools, predicted that there would be no disorder and no organized resistance to the Supreme Court's dictum.
He said that the people of the South, the region most heavily affected were law-abiding and would not "resist the Supreme Court."
Association Calls Meetings
Mr. Marshall said that the state presidents of the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People would meet next week-end in Atlanta to discuss further procedures.
The Supreme Court adopted two of the major premises advanced by the Negroes in briefs and arguments presented in support of their cases.
Their main thesis was that segregation, of itself, was unconstitutional. The Fourteenth Amendment, which was adopted July 28, 1868, was intended to wipe out the last vestige of inequality between the races, the Negro side argued.
Against this, lawyers representing the states argued that since there was no specific constitutional prohibition against segregation in the schools, it was a matter for the states, under their police powers, to decide.
The Supreme Court rejected the "states rights" doctrine, however, and found all laws ordering or permitting segregation in the schools to be in conflict with the Federal Constitution.
The Negroes also asserted that segregation had a psychological effect on pupils of the Negro race and was detrimental to the educational system as a whole. The court agreed.
"Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments," Chief Justice Warren wrote. "Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education in our democratic society. It is the very foundation of good citizenship.
"In these days it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, must be made available to all on equal terms."
As to the psychological factor the high court adopted the language of a Kansas court in which the lower bench held: 
"Segregation with the sanction of the law, therefore, has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of Negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racially integrated school system."
1896 Doctrine Demolished 
The "separate but equal" doctrine demolished by the Supreme Court today, involved transportation, not education. It was the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, decided in 1896. The court then held that segregation was not unconstitutional if equal facilities were provided for each race.
Since that ruling six cases have been before the Supreme Court, applying the doctrine to public education. In several cases, the court has ordered the admission to colleges and universities of Negro students on the ground that equal facilities were not available in segregated institutions.
Today, however, the court held the doctrine inapplicable under any circumstances to public education. 
This means that the court may extend its ruling from primary and secondary schools to include state-supported colleges and universities. Two cases involving Negroes who wish to enter white colleges in Texas and Florida are pending before the court.
The question of "due process," also a clause in the Fourteenth Amendment, had been raised in connection with the state cases as well as the District of Columbia.
The High Court held, however, that since it had ruled in the state cases that segregation was unconstitutional under the "equal protection" clause, it was unnecessary to discuss "whether such segregation also violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."
However, the "due process" clause of the Fifth Amendment was the core of the ruling in the District of Columbia case. "Equal protection" and "due process," the court noted, were not always interchangeable phrases. 
Liberty Held Deprived
Liberty under law extends to the full range of conduct which an individual is free to pursue, and it cannot be restricted except for a proper governmental objective," Chief Justice Warren asserted.
"Segregation in public education is not reasonably related to any proper governmental objective, and thus it imposes on Negro children of the District of Columbia a burden that constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of their liberty in violation of the due process clause."
Two principal surprises attended the announcement of the decision. One was its unanimity. There had been reports that the court was sharply divided and might not be able to get an agreement this term. Very few major rulings of the court have been unanimous.
The second was the appearance with his colleagues of Justice Robert H. Jackson. He suffered a mild heart attack on March 30. He left the hospital last week-end and had not been expected to return to the bench this term which will end on June 7.
Perhaps to emphasize the unanimity of the court, perhaps from a desire to be present when the history-making verdict was announced, Justice Jackson was in his accustomed seat when the court convened.
A High School in Little Rock in 1957
Related Websites
* http://www.harvard.edu
* http://www.yale.edu
* http://www.nhps.org
* http://www.unesco.org
* http://www.edweek.org
* http://www.nea.org
* http://www.nd.edu
* http://www.ies-ed.com
* http://www.pbs.org/publicschool
* http://www.aenc.org
===Unit 9六 Social Movements of the 1960s 原为 7 Social Movements===
Focal Points:
* Greensboro "sit-in"
* The civil rights movement
* Martin Luther King, Jr.
* The anti-war movement
* Free speech movement
* The counter culture
* Women's liberation movement
Text
The Lunch Counter in Greensboro, North Carolina
On February 1, 1960, 4 freshmen from a black college in Greensboro, North Carolina, went to a store and sat down at a lunch counter. When they asked for coffee, the waitress said she could not serve people like them. The students, believing the segregation law which kept black and white people from eating together was wrong, did not move.
The manager came and talked to the students. A policeman walked up and down behind them, holding his stick. The students continued to sit at the counter. People crowded into the store to watch what might happen, until the store closed. The next day, a greater number of students came to the store and sat down at the lunch counter. Day after day, additional students came.
This quiet "sit-in" by black students in Greensboro began the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the first of several social movements during that decade.
One American historian, Howard Zinn, describes how the protests spread after the first sit-in in Greensboro in 1960: "In the next twelve months, more than fifty thousand people, mostly black, some white, participated in demonstrations of one kind or another in a hundred cities, and over 3 600 people were put in jail. But by the end of 1960, lunch counters were open to blacks in Greensboro and many other places."
The Woolworth lunch counter
The civil rights movement, and the youth anti-war, and the women's liberation movements which followed, had long roots in United States history. However, many people who worked in the 1960s movements believed they were creating something new and exciting which would make deep changes in American society.
"We shall overcome!" black Americans sang, affirming their commitment to fight racial prejudice.
"Let it all hang out!" young people advised each other, defying their parents, who controlled their emotions and tried to keep personal matters from becoming public.
"Hell, no, we won't go." anti-war demonstrators chanted, refusing government orders to be drafted into the army and fight in Vietnam.
The Civil Rights Movement
"Speak your heart without interruption," women encouraged each other in "consciousness-raising" groups which helped women recognize how they were being held back by a society in which men dominated politics, economics, the family, and even private conversation.
Why Did the Social Movements Begin?
Youth Anti-War Movement
Why did Black Americans risk their lives breaking the law and defying the Ku Klux Klan? Why did young people disobey their parents, school administrators, and civil and military authorities? What brought women out of their homes into public demonstrations for Civil Rights, against the War in Vietnam and for their own liberation from male dominance? And why did these social movements become strong in the 1960s?
During the fifteen years between the end of World War II and the 1960s, many American men worked hard to achieve their dreams. The federal government subsidized education and home ownership for veterans of World War II and the Korean War. They remembered the hard times of the depression of the 1930s and believed they could protect their families by working hard for long hours. Many of them encouraged their wives to stay in their middle-class homes in the suburbs, raising their three or four children. They believed they were living the American Dream.
However, there were some people in the United States who had a different idea of what the American Dream was. In the 1960s, three groups—Afro-Americans, young people and women—were dissatisfied with their lives.
During World War II, many American Negroes had a taste of life outside the South. Some earned good salaries in the war industry and in government jobs; others joined the army or navy. Their children attended high school and college. They knew that life in the segregated South, where Negroes were prevented from working at good jobs and getting a good education, was not the American way of life.
Middle-class white women were well-educated and had the opportunity to work in responsible jobs for good pay during World War II. But when men returned from the war, they were given the good jobs. Women earned less money and had fewer opportunities to advance than men working in the same jobs, or they became housewives, isolated at home with their children.
American Soldiers in Vietnam
Many young people resented traditional white male values in U.S. society. They believed their fathers, who worked long hours away from home to earn money for themselves and their families, were selfish. Young women did not want to follow their mothers' examples, staying home doing unpaid work, or working outside the home for low pay. Young people believed they had the right to choose the way they would live their lives. They wanted to work at jobs which were interesting, not just work to make money. They thought that they knew better than their teachers.
When the US army began to fight in Vietnam, many people thought the war was wrong. They did not understand why US troops were fighting in Asia. Young people, black and white, did not want to join the army and fight in Vietnam. Mothers did not want their sons drafted into the army.
Who Worked in the Social Movements?
Many people who believed the government and the society were wrong joined one or more of the social movements. Black and white young people worked in all the movements, as did many middle-class white women and some men.
Those who worked in the civil rights movement included older, usually male, Negro leaders; black and white young people, some white professional men and women, and some white housewives.
Young people who were rebelling against their teachers, parents and government authorities joined the youth movement. There were few older people involved, since many of the young people believed they could not trust anyone over thirty years old. However, many middle class white people, especially women, as well as lower and middle class black Americans, actively supported young people in the anti-war movement. They burned draft cards, held large rallies and marched in protest of the government war policy.
The women who formed the women's movement included professionals; educated women of color; young or middle-aged white housewives and mothers, as well as young activists.
Not only did some of the same people work in several movements, but the movements also used many of the same strategies and tactics, and songs. When the civil rights movement began, nonviolent, direct action tactics like "sit-ins" and boycotts were used to protest segregation laws. Young people also used "sit-ins" at the administration offices of their schools and added "teach-ins" to educate people about the war in Vietnam. The civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and the women's movement all used the legal system to test laws and to force changes. In all the movements, workers gathered public support by holding large rallies and marches to educate people about oppression and discrimination, to inform people about the movements, and to recruit new members.
What Is a Social Movement?
There are many definitions of "social movement". One professor argues that "a social movement is a type of behavior in which a large number of participants consciously attempt to change existing institutions and establish a new order of life." In other words, people work together to change government policies and society. Another professor says all social movements have two basic characteristics: "structure and spontaneity." There must be one or more organizations (structure) and people's actions should come from themselves (spontaneity). Other necessary parts of a social movement are:
1. a social base of people who can communicate with each other about the same problem such as black church members in the civil rights movement.
2. a "message" or ideology that names a problem and shows how to solve it. Nonviolent civil disobedience used in sit-ins, women's rallies demanding equal pay for equal work are such messages.
3. the ability to spread the message and get more supporters. Mass rallies and marches are held to attract media coverage for supporting a movement. Therefore, social movements need ideas for social change, collective action to make the change, and organization to direct the action and attract supporters.
The Civil Rights Movement
Segregation laws in Southern states in the US prevented black and white people from sitting together in movie theaters, eating in the same restaurants, drinking from the same water fountain, using the same washrooms or riding together on buses or trains. Black and white children could not go to the same schools, and most Negroes were not allowed to vote. Although these segregation laws were illegal under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, the US government would not declare the Southern laws unconstitutional until there were cases brought in federal courts. The civil rights movement began when black people spontaneously protested segregation laws and created organizations to make the protests successful. Long before the students in Greensboro, North Carolina began their sit-ins, there were many others who protested the segregation laws.
Women Speak up Their Minds
The spontaneous action of one woman, Rosa Parks, was believed to be the true beginning of the civil rights movement, 5 years before the Greensboro students "sit-in."
In 1955, Rosa Parks, tired from working all day, boarded a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. According to Alabama law, only white people could sit in the front of the bus. Since the back of the bus was full, Rosa Parks sat down in an empty seat in the middle of the bus. When the bus driver told her to get up and give her seat to a white man, she refused to do so. Rosa Parks was tired of segregation laws which kept black people from having the same rights as white people. She was arrested by the police for not giving her seat to the white man. From jail, she called the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and asked for help.
NAACP members raised money for bail to release Ms Parks from jail. They also informed other organizations about her act of civil disobedience. Black people in Montgomery, Alabama spontaneously began to boycott the bus system, refusing to ride on public buses. They spread the news of the bus boycott to church members at Sunday church services. Ministers and other church leaders organized cars and drivers to take Negroes to work and organized groups to walk together for protection against violence from white racists.
From Rosa Parks' spontaneous action of nonviolent civil disobedience, and from the social base of Negro churches, community and political organizations, grew support for protest against segregation. The civil rights movement began to spread all over the South. As a result, segregation was breaking down in the 1960s.
Organizations
One reason that the sit-ins in Greensboro were successful was that black students had formed a new organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). SNCC was the third main organization in the civil rights movement, the others being the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). These three groups provided the leadership, the nonviolent tactics, the network and the people to fight against Southern segregation. . CORE was founded by James Farmer and others who used nonviolent direct action to integrate restaurants in Chicago in the 1940s. In 1947, CORE members, Negro and white, joined other groups in a nonviolent "freedom ride" to integrate buses and bus stations in the South. Freedom rides became an integration strategy in the 1960s. The strongest leadership came from the SCLC, headed by Baptist minister Martin Luther King, Jr. This regional group,
The Ku Klux Klan
organized in 1957 to link Southern Negro churches in the work for civil rights, was begun by church ministers who were the moral and cultural leaders of Negro communities. Ministers, who met regularly in regional meetings, worked together across state lines. It was convenient for the ministers to pass information to their members and organize activities because church members met weekly for meetings of church organizations and for church services.
SNCC was founded by a group of students who wanted to end all forms of racial domination. Ella Baker, SCLC executive director, helped the students organize. SNCC, unlike SCLC, had a collective leadership which followed the principle, "Let the people decide." SNCC taught their members to be nonviolent when they protested segregation laws in Southern states, even when they were beaten and arrested. SNCC moved quickly from being just a "coordinating committee" to organizing direct action in the deep South. At the beginning of the movement, the base of their membership was the large number of black students in the South.
Direct Action Tactics
Civil rights activists first used "sit-in" tactics to fight segregation and later, "freedom rides". Black and white CORE members traveling together on buses to challenge segregation laws were badly beaten by white mobs in South Carolina and Alabama. When CORE decided to end the freedom rides, SNCC workers decided to continue. SNCC Freedom Riders rode buses into Mississippi, where they were beaten and arrested. An increasing number of students joined the freedom rides until the Mississippi jails had no more places for prisoners. In September 1961, the federal government declared segregation illegal in all interstate bus stations which served buses traveling to another state.
The next important direct action of the three civil rights organizations was voter registration. Voting laws in southern states tried to prevent Negroes from voting. As anti-segregation and voting registration work continued in 1962 and 1963, civil rights workers were beaten, jailed and murdered in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
In the summer of 1963, hundreds of thousands of peaceful demonstrators went to Washington, D.C., where Martin Luther King gave the famous speech "I have a dream." That same year, 4 black girls were killed when whites bombed a black church in Birmingham, Alabama. Northern white students began to go to the South to work with SNCC and other civil rights groups. While civil rights workers were beaten and murdered in the South, news of the assassination of President Kennedy in Texas shocked the country. Americans were further shocked when the man charged with President Kennedy's assassination was murdered in front of TV cameras.
Black Soldiers Fighting during WWII
In 1964, hundreds of volunteers from all over the country came to Mississippi to register Negroes to vote. Violence against civil rights workers increased. One white and two black workers were murdered. To improve the racial relations, the Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Johnson in the summer of 1964. In December 1964, Martin Luther King was given the Nobel Peace Prize.
Changes
In January 1965, President Johnson began his "war on poverty". As racial violence continued, black people began to question the nonviolent tactics used in the South, and black leaders in other parts of the country spoke in favor of black separatism and against nonviolence in fighting discrimination and racism. One strong black leader was Malcolm X, a black Moslem leader who worked in northern ghettos. He believed that blacks should arm themselves and fight the Ku Klux Klan and other white terrorists. Although he and Martin Luther King both worked to end discrimination and raise the self-image of blacks, they disagreed about the means to achieve their goal. In 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated in New York.
Murders of black and white civil rights workers in the South increased. People continue to see white violence against nonviolent blacks on TV. That summer, black people rioted in the Watts section of Los Angeles in response to white violence.
SNCC was also changing. Many of the members, tired of being beaten and watching their friends beaten, began to think the tactic of nonviolence was wrong. Some members also thought they needed one strong leader rather than collective leadership. They elected a new chairman, Stokeley Carmichael, who believed that black people should work to end discrimination without the help of white people. He spoke about "black power" and encouraged white members of SNCC to leave the South and work in white community.
Black Power
In June 1966, the first black student to enter the University of Mississippi, began a "march against fear", walking all alone through Mississippi. He was shot and seriously injured. The civil rights leaders decided to continue the march, under these conditions: no white people would march with them; they would be defended by the Deacons for Defense of Justice, a black, armed organization; and they would organize independent black organizations in the places wherever they marched.
Stokely Carmichael
The leaders who did not agree with these ideas left the movement. As the civil rights leaders continued the "march against fear," they were viciously attacked by white police and arrested. When Stokeley Carmichael was released from jail, he told a large crowd, "This is the twenty—seventh time I have been arrested—and I ain't going to jail no more!" He said that from now on, the black people would be shouting, "Black Power!" In 1966, the Black Panther Party for Self—Defense was organized in Oakland. Their major work was to enforce civil rights laws, telling black people of their rights. Martin Luther King disagreed. Although he understood why black people wanted black
Martin Luther King,Jr
power, he thought the idea would be misunderstood by the media, and in the end would defeat the movement. Black power, he said, should come through programs, not slogans.
1968 was another violent year. In April, Martin Luther King was assassinated in Tennessee. Many black people believed the FBI was responsible. Rioting broke out in black communities in 125 cities in 28 states. Robert Kennedy, who was running for president, was also assassinated.
The Youth Movement/Anti-War Movement
After working in the South during “Freedom Summer” 1964, many white students from the North changed greatly, both in appearance and in their attitudes and beliefs. When they returned to their college campuses in September, they continued to wear the same overalls and other farmers' clothing they had worn in the South, and they did not cut their hair. They had lost respect for authority after seeing their friends beaten and arrested by Southern policemen and sentenced to jail for long terms by Southern judges; they had seen Southern mayors and governors refusing to obey federal laws. They gave speeches about the civil rights movement, about nonviolence, and the need to change society and worked to gain support for the civil rights movement.
Anti-War Protest
In October 1964, a CORE organizer sat at a small table on a sidewalk at the campus of the University of California at Berkeley, distributing information and collecting money. The chief of the campus police and two university deans came to his table informing him that what he was doing was against university policy. The CORE organizer refused to stop. He stated that university authorities should not keep CORE from recruiting new workers for the civil rights movement in the South and that the university's rule was illegal under the 1st and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution. When the police chief arrested him a large crowd of students gathered, shouting, “Arrest all of us!” A police car came and the CORE organizer was put inside. The crowd of students spontaneously surrounded the car and sat down on the ground, preventing the police car from moving.
Draft Card Burning at an Anti-War Rally
Mario Savio, a student who had just returned from working with SNCC in the Mississippi Freedom Summer, took off his shoes and stood on top of the police car. He demanded that the CORE worker be freed and the rules against free speech be changed.
The students sat around the car for 32 hours in spontaneous, nonviolent, direct action. Other students "sat-in" at the administration buildings and organized "Free University" classes. The California governor called hundreds of police to the campus. 800 students were arrested. Graduate students organized a strike and closed the university. The teachers and professors voted to change the rule that violated the 1st and 14th Amendments. The young people's "Free Speech Movement" began with success.
Social Movement in the 1960's
As the youth movement spread outside the campuses, some young people formed a "counter-culture." They rejected capitalism and other American principles. They had morals that were different from those taught by their parents. The "Hippies"called themselves the "love generation." Happiness became their only goal in life. Their music was different from any other music, and the words they sang sounded rebellious to older people. Small groups of youth lived together in cities like San Francisco, turning their lives into one big party. They wore long hair, strange and colorful clothes and many of them used drugs. They went in huge numbers to rock music concerts.And they made very interesting news on TV.
College students, and some high-school students, were "dropping out" of school. Some became Hippies and dropped out of society. Others left the country to avoid the army.
The anti-war movement became more organized as a loose coalition of many organizations and leaders was formed under a series of “Mobilization Committees to End the War in Vietnam.” The organizations included church groups, SNCC, SDS, and many smaller groups which were formed to protest the war. Their direct action strategies included teach-ins on college campuses, protest marches and rallies, and attacks on federal offices to destroy draft records by radical anti-war groups. Public support for the anti-war movement grew stronger, although most people in the U.S. did not support radical acts of violence. As the U. S. government sent more troops to Vietnam and the number of war death grew, public feeling against government policy grew so strong that President Johnson decided not to run for re-election in 1968.
The Women's Movement
Media Covering Anti-war Protest
The women's movement in the 1960s was started by three groups of women and an accident. The first was a group of professional women who were appointed to a Commission on the Status of Women by President Kennedy in 1961. Most were not feminists until they began to investigate the situation for women in the United States. They found that women in the U. S. were not equal with men, and the situation of some women was shocking. So they recommended that Commissions be established in all 50 states, and the number of women working on Commissions soon grew to over 1000.
The second group were mostly white housewives and mothers who read Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963. The book changed the way large numbers of women—between 10000 and 20000—thought about themselves and other women.
The third group were young activists in the civil rights and anti-war movements. They believed the male leaders of these movements were discriminating against women in the movement. They became known as the "women's liberation" group, or "women's lib", used radical tactics and received a great deal of bad publicity. This group found strong support among large numbers of young activists from other organizations.
The accident was a word in the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. The law made discrimination in employment based on race or sex illegal, adding women to those groups not to be discriminated against.
Mrs. Rosa Parks
From these three groups and the almost accidental word, began the women's movement. There was, of course, a long history of women working for equal rights before this, just as there had been a long history of Afro-American effort for equal rights. In 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed by the first two groups. Many radical, active feminists joined as the movement grew stronger. Many of the radicals were young women, both black and white, who had worked in the civil rights movement and were critical of the leadership for discriminating against women. Women were strong leaders and organizers, they said, but the men only allowed them to cook and do secretarial work.
The changes women worked for included changes in economic practices, such as not only asking equal pay for equal work, but also equal opportunity for jobs in fields such as science and technology, management and politics. Women also wanted changes in social practices and attitudes which would acknowledge that women were not inferior to men in intelligence or ability.
To educate the public and gain support for their objectives, women used many of the same tactics used by the civil rights and anti-war movements and added some of their own tactics. The newspapers and TV made the women in the movement seem to be men-hating women who did not want to be feminine. Women worked hard in the 1970s to change this image.
Conclusion
Legal segregation ended in the South as a result of the civil rights movement. Southern Afro-Americans can vote. However, racism is still an extremely serious social, political and economic problem in the U.S.
By 1971, more than 60% of people in the U.S. thought the war in Vietnam was wrong and wanted the war to end. In 1973 the US signed a peace treaty.
The women's movement continues to gain more rights and opportunities for women. However, in the mid-1990s, the number of women in leadership in government and business corporations is still very low. Many more women work for pay outside their homes, however, and many more men are doing housework with their wives.
The social movements of the 1960s had a strong effect on the way people think and act, and caused changes in many laws. However, many of the same problems they hoped to solve are still major problems in US society.
*E-Library
*Supplementary Reading
“I Have a Dream”
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., "I HAVE A DREAM" SPEECH
BEFORE THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON, .
AUGUST 28, 1963
Before an enormous crowd o f blacks and whites stretched in front of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King delivered this moving statement of the aspirations of nonviolent civil rights protest.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who have been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's Capitol to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check-a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the Nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our Nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people … In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "when will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
Related Websites
* http://www.lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties
* http://www.sixties.com
* http://www.centenary.edu/home/jhendric/left-culture
===Unit 10问 Social Problems in the United States 原为 8 Social Problems===
Focal Points:
* Racial problems
* Inequality in American society
* Discrimination against blacks
* The black “underclass”
* Poverty as a social problem
* Drug abuse
* Social costs of drug abuse
* Crime
* The profile of a typical criminal
* Racial prejudice in the high rate of arrests
* White-collar crime
* The abuse of power by government
* The abuse of power by corporations
Text
Racial Problems
Early Immigrants Arrviving in the New World
Unlike most other peoples, Americans are primarily a nation of immigrants. The citizens or their ancestors immigrated from many parts of the globe—some as refugees from religious and political persecution, some as adventurers from the Old World seeking a better life, some as captives brought to America against their own will to be sold into slavery. Though people all share a common American culture, the nation contains many racial and ethnic subcultures with their own distinctive characteristics. These differences might seem trivial or irrelevant to outside observers, but they have contributed to racial conflicts that have been a persistent social problem to American society.
The Slave Trade Routes
The white Anglo-Saxon Puritans
The United States was founded on the principle of human equality, but in practice the nation has fallen far short of that ideal. American society is a stratified one, in which power, wealth, and prestige are unequally distributed among the population. This inequality is not simply a matter of distinctions between social classes; it tends to follow racial and ethnic lines as well, with the result that class divisions often parallel racial divisions. The first settlers from "Anglo-Saxon" northern Europe quickly took control of economic assets and political power in the United States, and they have maintained this control, to a greater or lesser degree, ever since. Successive waves of immigrants from other parts of Europe and elsewhere in the world have had to struggle long and hard to become assimilated into the mainstream of American life. Some have succeeded and have shared in the "American dream"; others notably those whose ethnic or racial characteristics differ most markedly from those of the dominant groups have been excluded by formal and informal barriers from full participation in American life . The result of this discrimination has been a severe and continuing racial tension in the United States that has periodically erupted into outright violence. Particularly since the civil rights demonstrations, ghetto riots, and other unrest in the 1960s, race and ethnic relations have been a major preoccupation of social scientists, politicians and the general public.
In the United States, any group other than the dominant white Anglo-Saxon Protestant majority is a minority group in American society. These racial and ethnic minorities mainly refer to the blacks, Native Americans or American Indians, the Hispanics, and Asian Americans. The social and economic conditions of Native Americans are probably worse than those of any other minority groups. All these racial groups including Asian Americans are still suffering from racial discrimination and injustice. But here we look more closely at one of them whose problems have attracted the most public attention: the blacks or Afro-Americans.
The largest of the racial and ethnic minorities in the United States is the blacks, who number over 25.2 million, or 11.7% of the population. Their history in the United States has been one of sustained oppression, discrimination, and denial of basic civil rights and liberties.
The first blacks were brought to North America in 1619. Within a few decades the demand for their cheap labor led to a massive slave trade that ultimately transported some 400 000 Africans to this continent. Captured by neighboring tribes in their native villages and then sold to white traders, the slaves were shipped in wretchedly crowded conditions to the Caribbean and then to the United States, where they were sold like cattle at auctions. The myth of their racial inferiority—their irresponsibility, promiscuity, laziness and lower intelligence as assiduously propagated as a justification for their continued subjugation. The whip or the lynch mob served to assert social control over slaves who challenged the established order.
The Northern states had all outlawed slavery by 1830, but the Southern states, in which slaves had become the backbone of the economy, maintained the institution until it was finally ended by the Civil War, Lincoln's emancipation of slaves in 1863, and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865. But even after the abolition of slavery, wholesale discrimination was practiced against black Americans. Many states passed segregation laws to keep the races apart in schools, housing, restaurants, and other public facilities, and institutionalized discrimination kept blacks in the lowest-paid jobs. A variety of methods, such as rigged "literacy" tests, were used to keep blacks off the voters' rolls and thus prevent them from exercising their political rights. Segregation laws continued to be enforced in Southern states until the 1950s; in the North informal methods were used—often just as effectively.
Black pride
The 1960s saw the great civil rights movement whose goals were to end segregation laws completely and fight for the equal rights for the colored people. Many American blacks began to have a new mood. They had feelings of pride; they declared that "black is beautiful"; and the black community showed signs of unprecedented self-confidence. Equally important, many black leaders began to disclaim full integration into the American mainstream as the goal of the black minority. Instead, they argued, blacks ought to coexist with other groups in a plural society containing different and distinctive communities living in mutual respect.
The current status of black Americans presents a mixed picture. The elimination of legal barriers to their advancement has been a major gain, but institutionalized discrimination is still rife. Housing in particular, remains highly segregated: the great majority of blacks continue to live in neighborhoods that are overwhelmingly black, and most whites live in neighborhoods that are overwhelmingly white. Busing and other programs aimed at integrating the schools have had some impact in inner-city areas but have made virtually no difference to the segregation that exists between predominantly black urban centers and the predominantly white suburbs and small towns that surround them. Blacks have achieved considerable educational gains; black enrollment in colleges rose spectacularly between
Black Student Association on Campus
1966, when 4.6% of college students were black, and 1976, when 10.7% were black. Median family income of blacks rose from $3230 in 1960 to $10142 in 1977, but the median income of white families rose at least as fast, and the income gap between the two groups has widened in recent years. A major source of this differential is the fact that blacks tend to be barred from positions of authority over other workers, and are restricted instead to lower-paying jobs further down the work-place hierarchy. This factor alone accounts for about a third of the total black-white income gap. The political influence of blacks is increasing, both in the South, where they are voting in unprecedented numbers, and in the major cities of the North, Midwest, and West, where they are a major voting bloc and, in some cases, a majority.
Race relations between black and white still leave much to be desired, although there is unmistakable evidence of some improvements in attitudes. However, there is a sharp divergence between the races on the question of how much progress has been made in ending discrimination. The majority of whites believe that there has been a lot of progress in getting rid of discrimination, but more than half of the blacks felt that there has not been much real change. Only less than 20% of the whites believe that many blacks miss out on jobs and promotion in their city because of discrimination. Many blacks are still pessimistic about progress in race relations.
One reason for the difference in the perceptions of the two groups may be that blacks are more acutely aware that a great many of their members have failed to share in the more general gains made by blacks since the 1960s. Over the past decade many blacks, perhaps as many as a third, have worked their way into the middle class, in the process often moving from the ghetto to the suburbs or to better housing within the cities. But other blacks have been left behind, and urban ghettos now contain a permanently impoverished "underclass" of habitually unemployed or underemployed black people. Many members of this "underclass" are young and unskilled. They live in cities where the unemployment rate for teenage black workers runs as high as 50%, or about 8 times the rate for the American work force as a whole. This "underclass" could continue to persist, even in the absence of racial discrimination, in much the same way as other pockets of poverty persist—that is, for reasons of social-class inequality. In any event, such progress as has been made in the past decade has brought no benefit whatever to the black "underclass." Living in an environment of poverty, decay, crime, drug addiction, joblessness, and hopelessness, this ghetto underclass offers an explosive potential for the future.
Poverty
By many standards the United States is the most fabulously wealthy society in history. Yet over 24 million people, more than 1 American in 10, are living at or below the official poverty line, on incomes that the federal government considers insufficient to meet basic requirement of food, clothing, and shelter. These people are not the only poor in the United States; there are millions more, living slightly above the poverty line, whose plight is not much better. Despite our celebrated affluence, social services in the United States compare unfavorably with those in most industrialized societies. Furthermore, the affluent majority sometimes seems indifferent to the problems of the poorest section of the population.
Poverty in the United States
Poverty in the United States does not simply mean that the poor do not live quite as well as other citizens. It means many old people eating dog and cat food to supplement their diets. It means malnutrition and deprivation for hundreds of thousands of children. It means greater susceptibility to disease, to alcoholism, to victimization by criminals, and to mental disorders. It often means unstable marriages, slum housing, illiteracy, ignorance, inadequate medical facilities, and shortened life expectancy. Poverty can mean low self-esteem, despair, and stunting of human potential.
The problem of poverty in the United States is aggravated because it occurs in a society in which the overall distribution of wealth (property and other capital) and income (wages, salaries, and other earnings) is very unequal. Like all but the simplest societies, the United States is characterized by social stratification, that is, it is divided into social classes that have varying degrees of access to the rewards the society offers. It was estimated in the 1970s that if the wealth in the United States were evenly distributed, every adult would have a net worth of around $25000. But, the distribution of wealth is highly unequal. The richlack workers run as high as 50%, or about 8 times the rate for the American work force as a whole. This "underclass" could continue to persist, even in the absence of racial discrimination, in much the same way as other pockets of poverty persist—that is, for reasons of social-class inequality. In any event, such progress as has been made in the past decade has brought no benefit whatever to the black "underclass", who are living in an environment of poverty, decay, crime, drug addiction, joblessness, and hopelessness. Most of this wealth has not been accumulated through the hard work or imaginative skills of those who now enjoy it. It has been inherited. Just as the children of the poor are born into poverty and tend to remain there, so the children of the rich tend to enjoy a lifetime of affluence.
The distribution of income in the United States follows a similar pattern. The richest fifth of American families receives over 40% of the national income, whereas the poorest fifth receives only 5.2%. This pattern has remained virtually unchanged at least since World War II. About 3000 families receive, in addition to whatever wealth they may possess, an annual income of over $ 1 million, most of it from investments. The highest executives of major corporations enjoy staggering salaries. A 1979 Industrial Conference Board report showed that the heads of the nation's major manufacturing corporations earned an average of $241 000 a year. Corporate executives enjoy many other tax-free benefits from their companies, such as the use of cars and private jets, expense accounts, medical care, and vacations disguised as business trips. These untaxed benefits can easily represent the equivalent of hundreds or even thousands of dollars of income every month. It was found that 80% of the checks at the most expensive restaurants and over a third of Broadway theater tickets were covered by expense accounts.
Broadway Meets Time Square
The continued existence of poverty in a generally affluent American society raises serious moral questions—and inevitably creates fierce conflicts of interest and many political controversies.
Drug Abuse
Drug Abuse in the United States
Drug abuse in the United States has come to be regarded as one of the most challenging social problems facing the nation. Indeed, the very word "drug" excites strong emotions, and opinion polls since the late 1960s have shown that the "drug problem" is perceived by most Americans as a major threat to our society, particularly to its younger members.
Drug abuse in the United States is a social problem because it has a wide range of social costs, or dysfunctions—some obvious and measurable, some hidden and difficult to quantify.
Drug Use and Crime
Crime. There is a strong association between some forms of drug use and crime. The use of alcohol, for example, is highly correlated with violent crime; more than half of those committing murder and other violent assaults have consumed alcohol immediately before the crime. Heroin addiction, too, is related to crime, although not so directly to violence. Heroin addicts may need as much as $100 a day to support their habit, and most addicts find that they must steal in order to raise these sums. In addition, users of illegal drugs have indirectly on criminal networks that manufacture, smuggle, and distribute these drugs. The profits from this illicit commerce are vast and the Mafia and other criminal syndicates have become deeply involved in the supply of heroin and, more recently, of cocaine.
A Play about the Mafia
Automobile accidents. Alcohol use is directly responsible for tens of thousands of highway accidents and injuries; the drug is blamed for half of the annual total of road traffic fatalities. Some 60% of all drivers fatally injured in auto accidents have a blood-alcohol concentration of over .05%, a level that the National Safety Council considers sufficient to impair driving ability, and over 35% have a concentration of over .15%, a level high enough to cause intoxication. The cost of property damage and medical expenses due to alcohol-related automobile accidents totals about $1 billion each year.
Effects on individuals. Drug dependence takes a significant toll in terms of personal health and safety. The heavy user of drugs is much more likely than a member of the general population to be killed or to commit suicide, either deliberately or accidentally. Alcoholics, for example, have a death rate nearly three times higher than that of the general population; they represent a third of all suicides and are seven times more likely than non-alcoholics to suffer fatal accidents. Use of heroin increases one's chances of premature death through overdose, infectious diseases such as hepatitis and Aids or suicide. Many drugs have severe and sometimes irreversible effects on mental as well as physical health. Drug dependence, too, may affect other areas of the individual's life, ranging from the home to the work place to personal relationships with friends.
Economic losses. The cost of alcohol abuse alone totals over $43 billion a year in accidents, medical bill, lost production, and so on. It is difficult, however, to estimate the total economic costs of drug use. One reason is that there are many indirect costs society must pay to support drug-dependent persons. Treatment and control of drug abuse constitute a major drain on law-enforcement and other public resources. Chronic drug abusers, for example, may become unemployable and end up on the welfare rolls. By the mid-1970s, federal and state governments were spending over $1 billion per year on the treatment of various drug abusers. Another half billion dollars annually goes into processing drug users through the criminal justice system.
Crime
President Nixon
Crime is one of the most serious social problems facing the nation. Former President Nixon remarked on several occasions that crime is the "number one enemy" and that "we must declare war against it." (Ironically, President Nixon and many of his top administrative officials later faced criminal charges—with some being imprisoned—in connection with the Watergate Affair.)
It is generally agreed that serious, violent crime has reached alarming proportions in the United States. A survey by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) found that 61% of all women feel unsafe in their own neighborhoods at night; that 45% of the population is afraid to walk alone at night near their own homes; and that 47% own guns, largely for self-protection.
Those arrested for crimes are disproportionately likely to be male, young, a member of a racial minority, and a city resident. Males are arrested about four times as often as females. Only in juvenile runaway cases and prostitution are females arrested more often than males. There are two major reasons why males are more often arrested. One is the sex role stereotyping which encourages males to be more aggressive and daring, while females are encouraged to be more passive and conforming to rules and norms. The second reason is the tendency of police officers and the courts to deal more leniently with female offenders. However, it should be noted, in the past decade, crime among females has been increasing at much faster rate than among males, a negative side effect which has been attributed to women challenging the traditional sex roles of passivity and conformity.
Young people appear to commit far more than their share of crime, including the crimes that are classified by the FBI as most serious—rape,
The FBI Headquarter in Washington D.C.
murder, robbery, arson, burglary, aggravated assault, auto theft, and larceny. In 1985, 31% of all arrests were of persons under the age of 21, and 50% of all arrests were of persons under 25. A partial explanation of the high arrest rate among juveniles and young adults is that they may be less skillful than older adults in avoiding being arrested. Another reason is that they tend to commit crimes, such as auto theft, which are highly visible to the police. Even when all these factors are taken into account, it is still the case that the young commit more crimes than the old.
Members of racial minority groups have a disproportionately higher rate of arrests. The arrest rate for the black population is three times higher than for whites. One reason for this higher rate is that a higher proportion of the black population is poor or unemployed; and there are high correlations between poverty (and unemployment) and the types of crime classified by the FBI as most serious. An additional reason for the higher arrest rates among minority groups may be racial prejudice. A number of studies have shown that the probability of arrest, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration for an offense that is committed decreases as the social status of the offender increases. In one study, 36 judges were given fact sheets on a hypothetical case and asked to recommend an appropriate sentence. The fact sheets contained the following information:
"Joe Cut", 27, pleaded guilty to battery. He slashed his common-law wife on the arms with a switchblade. His record showed conviction for disturbing the peace, drunkenness, and hit-run driving. He told a probation officer that he acted in self-defense after his wife attacked him with a broom handle. The prosecutor recommended not more than 5 days in jail or a $100 fine.
Half the fact sheets identified "Joe Cut" as white, and the other half identified him as black. The judges who thought he was white recommended a sentence of 3 to 10 days, while those who thought he was black recommended a sentence from 5 to 30 days.
It must be noted that the Serious Crime Index of UCR focuses on crimes which are more apt to be committed by persons of lower social and economic status. It does not contain the types of crimes typically committed by higher income groups; fraud, false advertising, corporate price fixing, bribery, embezzlement, industrial pollution, tax evasion, and so on. If white-collar crimes were included in the Crime Index, and if authorities were more vigorous in their enforcement, the profile of a typical criminal would be very likely older, wealthier, whiter, and more suburban than suggested by the Crime Index.
In summary, the Serious Crime Index of the FBI provides an indication of the rates and trends of certain crimes in the United States. Yet these statistics that overlook white-collar crimes are affected by police reporting practices and have to be viewed against the fact that many crimes are unreported. It further appears that the poor, the undereducated, and minorities have been the victims not only of selective law enforcement, but also of misleading statistics on crime. Some sociologists have contended that, since higher-income classes are far more involved in white-collar crime (which is often ignored by law enforcement agencies), the higher classes may actually have a higher rate of crime than the lower classes.
The Abuse of Power by Government and Corporations
A crucial problem of government and corporations concerns power-and the abuse of it. American lives are dominated by large public and private organizations. The public organizations, primarily government agencies, affect almost every area of their experience. They register births, provide education and social services, record our marriages, regulate many of the conditions of employment, collect taxes, influence countless aspects of lives through thousands of laws, and finally register deaths. The private organizations, primarily business corporations, provide jobs for the bulk of the population and supply most of consumer needs, from banking and television services to clothing and gasoline. American lives and their entire complex civilization are largely dependent on big organizations. Yet these
Mass Protest Against the Watergate Scandal
organizations, originally established to satisfy needs and improve the quality of lives, are often experienced as oppressive, unresponsive, impersonal, inefficient, arrogant, and even corrupt. Particularly since the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s, it has been apparent that the major organizations in American society sometimes work in concert to advance their own interests rather than those of the people. The lack of public answerability of these large organizations has become a major social problem.
President Lyndon B. Johnson
Government and corporations are widely distrusted in the United States. The presidencies of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were marked by a well-founded public belief that their administrations were deliberately and systematically lying to the people. Distrust of government reached its height during the Watergate affair, when the discovery of the abuse of power drove a president from office. Although Nixon himself was pardoned by his successor and escaped accountability for his acts in office, the Watergate affair led to the trials and convictions of many high public officials on such charges as extortion, perjury, conspiracy, subverting the course of justice, misuse of campaign funds, bribery, illegal wiretapping, and tax fraud.
The CIA Headquarter in Maryland
The scandal provoked congressional investigations of the FBI and the CIA that turned up literally thousands of illegal acts in the executive branch of government. The FBI, for example, was responsible for hundreds of burglaries of presumed critics of the administration, and was guilty of widespread illegal wiretapping. It had also deliberately attempted to sabotage the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The CIA, whose charter specifically prohibits it from surveillance over the domestic population, had infiltrated the civil rights and antiwar movements, compiled dossiers on tens of thousands of Americans, and intercepted and read hundreds of thousands of private letters and telegrams. It had also, without any authorization from Congress, plotted the assassination of foreign
Fidel Castro
heads of state, including Fidel Castro of Cuba. The agency had also tested a variety of drugs, including LSD, on many people who were unaware that they were being used as guinea pigs, and had caused several deaths in the process.
As for corporations, they are widely believed to be more concerned with their own profits than with social responsibility, and the quality or price of their products, or the truth of their advertising. To further their interests, large corporations maintain professional lobbyists in Washington, D.C. to influence public officials behind the scenes. They argue for legislation to serve their own ends, influence the appointment of officials, block reforms they consider undesirable, and seem to have more say in the councils of government than the ordinary voters. There are now more than 15 000 professional lobbyists in Washington, representing a variety of economic and other special-interest groups. One poll showed that three out of five college students believe that "big business has taken the reins of government away from Congress and the Administration", and a national opinion poll found that nearly 60% of Americans think that "government is run by a few big interest groups looking after themselves."
*E-Library
*Supplementary Readings
Fred Graboske's Response to Re-evaluating Richard Nixon: His Domestic Achievements
Joan Hoff
Even though I have a certain familiarity with the Nixon administration (at least in the period 1971-1973), Joan Hoff's article opened my eyes to the sheer scope of the domestic programs of the Nixon administration. The main point that I would make to her is that it is important to distinguish RN (or any President) from his administration.
A President has only so much time to devote to the full range of domestic and foreign affairs. Each incumbent approaches the task differently. Some revel in details: Johnson telephoning mid-level civil servants to discuss some domestic issue; Carter personally approving staff members' use of the White House tennis courts. Reagan treated it as a 9-5 job, to be bothered outside work hours only with major crises. It all depends on the individual's personality and his trust in the staff (both White House and Cabinet) to whom so much power is delegated.
Bob Haldeman once described the Presidency to me as one person sitting atop a series of pyramids of information (a seemingly uncomfortable perch!). Each member of the WH staff, each Cabinet officer and his/her subordinates sits atop one of these pyramids; each one of these individuals is available to advise the President. A President cannot become engaged with every issue confronting him; that's why he has a Cabinet and, in more recent decades, a large WH staff. It is at the sub-Cabinet and staff levels that most policy decisions are made. RN spent hours every evening reading, and commenting on, memos on major issues. He spent days preparing for press conferences, so that he could speak knowledgeably on any issue that his staff thought might be raised.
RN was above all a politician. He engaged with those issues that, in his opinion, had the most political clout. In foreign policy, the major issues were Vietnam, China, and the Soviet Union. Second tier were the Middle East and western Europe (Britain, France, Germany). He dabbled with Romania and Yugoslavia in the context of Soviet relations. Kissinger and his NSC staff focused on these areas. Rogers and the State Department had the rest of the world, including significant input to the Middle East question, on which RN did not fully trust Kissinger.
Domestically, Nixon had a few particular interests: the Supreme Court, revenue-sharing, government reorganization, and dissent (mostly Vietnam but including civil rights). There is no political capital in government reorganization; I'll come back to the paradox of Richard Nixon. Joan cites the environment and Indian affairs as domestic accomplishments. So they were, but of the administration, not the President. The environment was delegated to Ehrlichman and Whitaker; Indian affairs were the province of Brad Patterson and Len Garment. For RN, there was no political capital to be gained in environmental policy. No matter what he did, the "long-hairs" would never support him, and the "hard hats" didn't care about the environment. Nixon had little interest in the environment. If his administration supported legislation, it was to preclude the passage of even worse legislation supported by his liberal Democrat opponents in the Congress, specifically Muskie, who loomed as a 1972 rival. Ehrlichman was allowed free rein in this area as a reward for his good and faithful service in other areas. RN's corporate supporters might not like it, but the President could always point to the liberal Democrats' proposals which would have been even worse.
Indian affairs definitely was (and is) not a sexy political issue. No one cared, not even the Democrats. There being no downside nor upside, RN could allow the staff to do what they thought right. This is not to say that he was totally without principle. Nixon had been through the school desegration battles of the Eisenhower administration. Not a particular friend of black people (who always voted overwhelmingly Democrat), he was willing to enforce Brown vs. Board of Education because it was the right thing to do. He believed in reorganizing the government to make the (as he believed) liberal Democrat bureaucracy more responsive to the elected President. He put a lot of time and effort into this struggle as a matter of principle.
Could politics override principle? Yes. Nixon the politician looked for the "big play". In foreign policy that translated to the opening to China, detente with the Soviets, and a successful disengagement from the war in Vietnam ("peace with honor"). Philosophically opposed to wage and price controls, he implemented them because, at that point, he believed they were necessary politically. His spokesman on the issue, John Connally, made this action a "ten strike" in his public pronouncements. Connally mesmerized Nixon; he was very unlike the other members of the administration. He had a self-confident, powerful personality-just the sort of man Nixon admired. Under his tutelage RN increasingly was encouraged to follow his instincts for the political "big play". For most domestic programs, there were no such opportunities, because they required action by the Democrat-controlled Congress. So, RN remained engaged with foreign policy, his first love. With Kissinger as his agent, the leader of the world's most powerful country enjoyed manipulating great power relationships. Only Nixon, a conservative Republican from the "who lost China" era, could deal with Chou and Mao. Only Nixon could initiate detente with Brezhnev. When Kissinger was unable to reach a negotiated accord with the North Vietnamese, Nixon increased military pressure until he finally got "peace with honor", in which the North Vietnamese agreed to wait a decent interval after US withdrawal from South Vietnam before they unified the country.
RN explored domestic issues for political advantage. If there was none, he usually left them to the staff. He believed himself to be the consummate politician in the administration, taking advice from Mitchell (on the Supreme Court especially) and Colson in this area-until he brought Connally into the administration (a "ten strike" in itself). School desegregation belonged to Mitchell and race relations to Ehrlichman. Initially, Nixon was unsure of the politics. However, as the 1972 election loomed, Nixon defined his political supporters as the "silent majority". Civil rights demonstrators did not fit. With George Wallace a potential threat to his vote totals, Nixon involved Colson and Harry Dent in the development of the "Southern strategy"-to pry loose white Southern conservatives from the Democrats. When racial problems erupted in Michigan, Colson was dispatched to encourage white resistance to court-ordered desegration-much to the surprise of Ehrlichman, who was trying to calm the situation. The point I've been trying to make is that Nixon was a complicated mixture of (some) principle and (mostly) politics. This is reflected in the policies of his administration. Where he was not personally engaged, he allowed his staff to act for the administration, which further complicates the analysis. Because of these factors, one cannot speak of RN as being identical to his administration.
*E-Library
'I JUST PAID OFF THE VICE PRESIDENT'
July 1, 1999 By Jim Krane
NEW YORK (APBnews.com)—Published for the first time today, an FBI file on Spiro Agnew, the U.S. vice president who resigned from office during a bribery scandal in 1973, provides new insights on the events that abruptly halted Agnew's career 26 years ago.
"I just paid off the Vice President of the United States," one contractor is quoted in the files as saying to a friend shortly after he gave Agnew $10,000 in a basement office of the White House.
According to the FBI report, the vice president also occasionally returned a favor. After Agnew pocketed a $1,500 cash payment intended as a campaign contribution, the giver told the FBI he was rewarded by being invited to fly to Florida on the vice president's jet and watch an Apollo moon launch.
During a political career that soared from the office of county executive of Baltimore County, Md., to the state governorship and on to the vice presidency, Agnew received tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from firms awarded state contracts in Maryland, the FBI file alleges.
Agnew, who died Sept. 17, 1996, at age 77, consistently denied the allegations. He eventually pleaded no contest to tax evasion and received probation, avoiding a jail term. Agnew never returned to politics, living out his final decades in relative obscurity in Ocean City, Md., and Palm Springs, Calif.
He was not the first vice president to face criminal charges or resign from office—Vice Presidents Aaron Burr and John C. Calhoun beat him to that—but Agnew was the first vice president to depart in disgrace with a criminal record.
Four 'friends' brought him down.
The case against Agnew stemmed from a corruption investigation initiated by U.S. Attorney George Beall, whose office in Baltimore struck deals with four Agnew associates implicated in the kickback scam: Jerome Wolff, an Agnew staffer and head of the Maryland Highway Administration; I.H. Hemmerman, a Baltimore developer; and engineering firm leaders Lester Matz and Alan Greene.
Beall, now a private attorney in the Baltimore firm Hogan & Hartson, said Matz was the person that led him to Agnew. Beall said Matz told him in a polygraphed interview that he'd given kickback payments to Agnew in his offices in Baltimore and Washington.
Many comments in the FBI files have the names redacted, or blacked out. But Matz is the likely source of the following exchange.
The unnamed source told investigators he personally handed Agnew at least three payments, all in $100 bills. The first, a $20,000 payment in July 1968, was delivered to then-Gov. Agnew in his office in Baltimore.
The second, after Agnew became vice president, took place in Agnew's temporary office in the White House basement.
In a script of the polygraph examination contained in the FBI report, the subject—probably Matz—admits paying off Agnew.
"During June 1968, did you personally give AGNEW $20,000 cash in his office in Baltimore, Md.?" the report states.
"Answer—Yes."
"In February 1969, did you give AGNEW at least $9,500 cash kickback in his office in the White House?"
"Answer—Yes."
Interestingly, said Beall, despite the FBI release of the files on Agnew, the bureau was never involved in the U.S. attorney's investigation and only learned of it as the scandal enveloping Agnew became public.
Maryland corruption
The report delves into the shady mechanics of government contracting in Maryland in the 1960s, when the state's farmland was being divided up for road and construction projects. At the time, politicians commonly took a percentage of any state contract awarded.
"That was standard operating procedure in Maryland politics at the time," said Robert D. Loevy, a speech writer who worked on Agnew's successful 1966 campaign for governor. "That's just the way it was done then."
The FBI's file describes a system that flouted the state's competitive bidding laws, allowing contractors to receive work as long as they handed out cash to the proper officials.
"The standard pattern of alleged kickbacks involving various local and state officials in Maryland and including Spiro Agnew was to obtain 3 to 5 percent kickbacks for each contract that was given to 'consulting engineers'," the bureau file states. "Consultants do not have to make a bid according to state regulations and contracts were awarded to those individuals who were willing to kick back the designated amount."
Agnew's cut of graft increases
At first, the FBI documents show Agnew received a third of the 5 percent kickbacks on road construction and consulting contracts, with the other two-thirds going to two other unnamed parties. But as Agnew's power grew, he was able to take half of the kickback fee, or 2.5 percent of the amount of the contract. 
At one point in the file, another recipient of the illicit fees told Beall's investigators that Agnew must have received at least $75,000 because he himself had taken $35,000 to $40,000.
"There were eight to 10 engineering firms contributing or kicking back in this manner," the source told investigators. "[T]he reason consulting firms were set up to kick back in the above- described manner was because they did not have to submit a bid."
Attorney general's dismay
Another interesting nugget in the file is a personal letter to Agnew from then-Attorney General Elliott Richardson. In the Aug. 23, 1973, letter Richardson expresses dismay at Department of Justice leaks on the investigation into Agnew's receipt of kickbacks
and pledges to find and halt the source.
"There seems to be no fully effective means to stop the cynical, speculative chain reaction of rumor and hypothesis that has been all too evident in recent weeks," Richardson wrote. The attorney general then advised Agnew that the Department of Justice and FBI would investigate the incidents, which did not amount to a criminal offense.
The file includes results of polygraph exams of Justice Department staffers apparently conducted after Richardson's directive.
'Do what you have to do'
Beall said his office's investigations into construction kickbacks in Maryland led him to Matz in April 1973.
"You probably don't want to know about this, but I've been paying off the vice president of the United States," Matz told Beall, perhaps figuring Beall—who was appointed by a Republican—wouldn't care to prosecute a Republican vice president.
"But you have to do what you have to do," said Beall.
By May, Beall said his office had solid evidence against Agnew. Beall said he kept mum about the investigation until the appointment of Attorney General Richardson in June. After Richardson was informed, Beall and his three assistant U.S. attorneys quietly built the case against Agnew until The Wall Street Journal broke the story in August 1973. Just two months later, on Oct. 10, 1973, Agnew quit.
News of Agnew's resignation came as a shock to many Americans because the revelations were overshadowed by the simultaneous coverage of the Watergate scandal enveloping President Richard Nixon, said Dean Mills, a reporter at The Sun in Baltimore at the time, now dean of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
"His resignation came pretty quickly once his world started to crumble," said Mills.
The disgraced vice president pleaded no contest to a single charge that he had failed to report $29,500 of income received in 1967. He was fined $10,000 and placed on three years' probation.
Related Websites
* http://www.salon.com
* http://www.yahoo.com/culture&society
* http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org
* http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/race
===Unit 11认 American Way of Life: A Search for Credible Generalizations===
===Unit 12妇 The Womens Liberation Movement in America===
===Unit 13技 Technology in America 原为 9 Technology ===
Focal Points:
* American system of production
* John H.Hall
* Cyrus H.McCormick and mechanical reaper
* The Stevens
* Samuel F.B.Morse
* The Pony Express System
* Alexander Graham Bell
* Thomas Alva Edison
* Frederick Winslow Taylor
* Henry Ford
* The science of management
* Rober Hutchings Goddard
* Household inventions in mid-20th century
* Significance of television
* PC
* Use of nuclear energy
Text
Introduction
In the 19th and 20th centuries, America was the source of many different inventions from air-conditioners to zippers. Of course some of these inventions, such as the electric light bulb, were more socially significant than others, such as the mechanical lawn mower. Yet the technologies that developed around these inventions were more important.
A technology is a system of practices, often involving a physical device that accomplishes some result desired by some influential segments of society: government planners, military leaders, businessmen, or even a large proportion of citizen consumers. To understand the development of America from a crude, backward, agricultural country in the early 19th century to the modern, high technology and consequently highly productive world power in the late 20th century, we should examine the role some inventions had in the rise of modern technological systems.
Early Nineteenth Century
Whitney's Cotton Gin
History is more vivid, and more easily remembered, if it is cast as a series of great achievements by heroic inventors. Thus, schoolchildren are familiar with Eli Whitney's triumph in inventing the cotton gin around 1793. Some children are even familiar with Whitney's development of the system of mass production of weapons with interchangeable parts. Yet few schoolchildren, and probably few teachers, are aware that Whitney's gin did not perform very well with most kinds of cotton being grown at that time, nor that Whitney's success in manufacturing interchangeable parts was mostly a public relations exaggeration. If there was one individual who can be credited with developing the so-called American system of production, it would be the little known director of the Rifle Works at the Harpers Ferry Armory, John H. Hall. Hall was an inventor himself, yet as is often the case, he was clever enough to borrow ideas from the developing systems in France and Great Britain. He was also an entrepreneur, and was able to obtain contracts from the U.S. Government even when his products cost as much as handmade weapons. With the support of the military branch of the government, which seemed not to be very cost conscious, Hall was able to improve and develop his system of manufacture, and eventually there were cost savings. There was also the displacement of skilled craftsmen who formerly handmade the rifles, their replacement being made by less skilled machine tenders. Hall's system was soon deployed in the manufacture of newly invented mass consumption items, such as sewing machines, typewriters, and bicycles.
Schoolchildren also know about Cyrus H. McCormick and his mechanical reaper, which harvested countless acres of wheat in the mid-western plains. Yet when McCormick constructed his first model in 1831, it did not work very well and had to be constantly adjusted so it would not shred the plants. Also, at that time, there were no large farms; farmers sowed what they (and their hired laborers) could reap by hand. After twenty years of development and improvement, McCormick could exhibit at the great London Exhibition of 1851, a model reaper that was genuinely effective in harvesting large fields of wheat. To take advantage of the efficiencies of such a machine, many farmers joined together in cooperative enterprises to minimize individual costs, and so benefit from higher profits. U.S. agriculture was moving away from subsistence farming towards a food marketing enterprise.
Yet in order to transport the vast quantities of grains harvested by the farmer cooperatives and the gigantic corporate farms, something more than the barge and canal system of the Northeast was needed. Of course,
The Erie Canal
railroads were the answer. But railroads were not a new invention, even when steam power was finally tamed for locomotion. Nor were they distinctively American. What significant developments in railroading were made by Americans during the period when McCormick was improving his mechanical reaper?
The significant role of the Stevens family in the history of transportation in early nineteenth century America is little appreciated. The father John Stevens, who not only worked on improving railroads but also joined with Robert Fulton and the early work with steamboats, and his two sons, Robert Livingston Stevens and Edwin Augustus, made possible cost-effective long
John Stevens
Robert Fulton
Robert L Stevens
distance railroading. Their contributions were not concerned as much with the locomotive and the carriages as they were with the mundane yet essential problem of railroad tracks, the fundamental constraint on the size and speed of trains. The shape of tracks, the bonding where two lengths of track join, the firm setting of ties, and protecting the roadbed from water erosion were some of the problems in addition to obvious ones such as the proper banking of curves that were slowly solved and improved upon during this century. Without such gradual development of the technology, the long distance, many carriage freight trains would not have been feasible.
Bell Telephone
Because of the natural tendency to focus on human heroes, it is well to emphasize that inventors such as Samuel F. B. Morse needed a web of supporting technology dealing with mundane matters such as erecting poles to support telegraph wires, to more esoteric issues such as minimizing signal strength losses over large distances. Alexander Graham Bell's telephone would not be of much use without some means of connecting different callers to different instruments, a switchboard at first, and then automatic switching devices. Regardless of how one allocates importance to individuals in the new technology of telecommunications, the fact remains that this technology altered the very texture of business, war, and politics. Information and messages could now be circulated at a faster pace over larger distances than was ever dreamed of. Just as the railroads led to the virtual abandonment of the newly constructed barge and canal system, so did the telegraph undercut the short-lived Pony Express system, the source of mythic stories and movies about the Wild West.
Late Nineteenth Century
Edison's Gramophone (phonograph)
Electricity was playing its role in communications during the nineteenth century, yet a new use for this source of power was developed by the most famous of all American inventors, Thomas Alva Edison, whose workshops located in Menlo Park, NJ, brought forth the system of motion pictures, the phonograph, and, as everyone knows, the electric light. This productivity earned Edison the title of The Wizard of Menlo Park. Regarding the electric light, most people concentrate attention on the story of the long search for a suitable filament that would not burn out after a short life of intense heat. Yet the successful development of electrical lighting depended more on solving less dramatic problems than that. The technology of electric lighting is a system. As Edison himself put it:
The lamps must be adapted to the current of the dynamos, and the dynamos must be constructed to give the character of the current required by the lamps, and likewise all parts of the system must be constructed with reference to all other parts, since, in one sense, all the parts form one machine, and the connections between the parts being electrical instead of mechanical. Like any other machine the failure of one part to cooperate properly with the other part disorganizes the whole and renders it inoperative for the purpose intended.
One crucial problem that Edison solved was one that many experts said was impossible to solve, namely, how to divide the electricity so it would flow in different locations when the circuit was interrupted at other locations. The experts could only envision what we call a series' circuit, where the failure (or absence) of any element along the path would cause an interruption in the flow of electricity through the entire circuit. Edison was clever enough to devise a ‘parallel' delivery of electricity, which does not require electricity to flow through every element. The solution to the problem of dividing the electricity is less dramatic than that of visualizing workmen huddled around a glowing bulb, congratulating themselves as every hour ticks by.
At the end of the nineteenth century, America was the scene of another significant technological development. This time no new invention was directly involved. Frederick Winslow Taylor began to conduct his time-motion
Frederick Winslow Taylor
studies in order to discover the most efficient ways for laborers to accomplish their tasks. The art of management was being transformed into the science of management. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Scientific Management merged with the concept of the assembly line for manufacture, a notion borrowed by Henry Ford from the practices of cattle
slaughtering houses, where carcasseswere hung on hooks that traveled to different processing stations in the slaughterhouse. So, Taylorism and Fordism combined to make the American system of manufacture in the twentieth century the dreary, mindless, alienating way of working so effectively satirized by Charlie Chaplin in his classic motion picture, Modern Times.
Henry Ford
Charlie Chaplin
Early Twentieth Century
James Maxwell
In 1873 the British scientist James Clerk Maxwell published his famous theory linking the phenomena of electricity and magnetism. One implication of this theory is that an electric spark would generate an electromagnetic disturbance that would travel in all directions with the speed of light. In 1887 the German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz experimentally produced electromagnetic pulses and detected them and determined that their properties accorded with Maxwell's theoretical predictions. These purely scientific results led inventors to think that such pulses could be used to transmit messages coded according to procedures used in the telegraph. The Italian engineer and inventor Guglielmo Marchese Marconi was operating a wireless telegraph system for short distances in 1895. By 1899 his system was transmitting signals across the English Channel between England and France, and by 1901 he was successfully transmitting across the Atlantic Ocean.
Reginald Fessenden
The general outline of this story is well known. What is less appreciated is that radio as we know it was not yet developed; only the wireless telegraph was in place. The key invention was due to the little known Canadian-born American physicist Reginald Fessenden who, in 1901, developed a device for transmitting a continuous wave, which could carry a signal in the audio frequency range. This enabled voices and music to be transmitted directly, and on Christmas Eve 1905 many wireless telegraphers were startled to hear music over their crackling earphones.
The whole system of detection was vastly improved by amplification circuits made possible by the invention of the vacuum tube by the American physicist Lee De Forest. At this time radio was used only for the transmission of messages from one point to another, much like cell telephones today. The idea of broadcasting widely to many potential listeners appeared to be a profitless activity, so it was left to amateurs to experiment with such
David Sarnoff
systems.The advent of World War I led the U.S. Government to restrict radio broadcasting by civilians. But David Sarnoff, an emigrant employee of Marconi's company, had plans for profitable radio broadcasting in 1916, although the company showed little interest then in pursuing his ideas. So, in 1920 the first commercial broadcasting station, KDKA, began broadcasting from Pittsburgh, PA to a small band of devoted amateurs.
A Radio Made in 1930
After World War I, America began to change from a predominantly rural and agricultural country to an urban industrial giant. As the population grew and as agriculture became more mechanized, more opportunities for employment were located in cities, mostly in the North and Central states, where industries had located factories. The growing broadcast radio business served many functions. For the isolated farmers who remained in the countryside, radio provided entertainment and information, and served to unify these separate families into one country. For the urban newcomers, who felt socially isolated and alone in unfriendly cities, the radio also served to connect them with "neighbors." And radio was an important locus of advertisements for the products to feed a growing consumerism in America.
Mid-twentieth Century
Franklin D.Roosevelt
During the economic depression of the 1930's, President Franklin D. Roosevelt held Fireside Chats in an effort to restore confidence in the economy and in the government. During this time, many comedians became famous for their radio shows. Sports heroes emerged mainly due to the exciting and colorful descriptions broadcast by sports announcers. And the brief episodes of drama shows held the interest and attention of housewives all over America. These radio shows were called soap operas because they advertised soap products aimed at housewives, and the themes were usually sad and tragic.
There was a counter-movement away from the city. The wealthier middle class attempted to escape the dirty and crowded cities, to live in a small town atmosphere away from the workplace. This out-migration was facilitated by the availability of the inexpensive automobile, made possible by Ford's assembly line technology (see above). People would have moved to suburban locations in any event, yet the structure and organization of these new communities would have been quite different had the basic mode of transportation been the horse and wagon supplemented by railroads and electric trolley cars. Furthermore, such inventions as the electric starter motor, which replaced the hand crank for starting automobile gasoline engines, made it easier for women to drive, and thus housewives and mothers could more easily travel farther away from their home to deal with household necessities.
The changes in household technologies spawned by such inventions as the refrigerator (and then the freezer), home oil furnaces instead of coal burning ones, automatic laundry machines, vacuum cleaners, electric dishwashers, all should have led to an easier life for the homemaker. These inventions as well as the newer ones such as the microwave oven, the electric blender, the food processor, and so on, should have freed housewives from tedious work and made much more time available to her. Careful study shows however that women today spend more time on household chores than in the past. Men no longer chop wood or shovel coal for burning. Men and children no longer wash dishes. Standards of cleanliness have gone up, so that where one load of laundry a week was sufficient, now several loads are needed to satisfy the new standards. Added to this is the new role of mother as chauffeur, driving the children to music teachers, dance lessons, sports activities, and other typical middle-class activities for children.
A Woman Driver in 1927
Late Twentieth Century
Digital Art
In the last half of the twentieth century, several new technologies intruded onto the American scene. First, television, whose commercial development was delayed by World War II, rapidly gained a place in American homes, spreading far faster than radios did in the 1920's. The pioneers of television, much like Edison and his motion picture machine, believed that the primary use of this new device would be educational. Instead of sitting in the back of a large hall trying to see the demonstrations performed by an instructor, students could clearly see everything close up. The Age of Visual Information had arrived! But experience showed that the average person was bored with educational programs, and that sports activities, quiz shows, and theatrical shows were more to his liking. Furthermore, already busy Americans seemed to be able to find time to watch television for hours at a time. At the end of the century, it was apparent that American schoolchildren were spending less time studying, and less time playing sports, and more time sitting passively in front of a TV set. Adults too were turning into "couch potatoes" much to the alarm of health officials.
As World War II approached, the U.S. military began to sponsor research into militarily useful inventions. Large organizations of engineers and scientists were assembled, pushing aside the lonely, eccentric inventor. And there were significant technical developments useful for military purposes. Yet in peacetime many of these military developments found a use in the wider society: radar for traffic control, microwave cooking (using the radar microwave generator for heating), nuclear energy, peaceful uses of computers, etc.
IBM's Office in 1924
Electronic computers were developed to assist artillery to predict the path of fired shells, and also to break enemy cryptographic messages. These machines were enormous in size, using miles of wires and thousands of vacuum tubes. They consumed great quantities of electricity. Peacetime applications seemed limited. Indeed, Thomas B. Watson, President of IBM, stated that there would be need for only a dozen computers in postwar America. In 1947 the transistor, a solid-state semiconductor, whose properties mimicked a simple vacuum tube, was discovered. This device promised to reduce the tremendous amount of electricity needed to run a computer. Next, many transistors could be incorporated together with no wiring in a complex 'chip ' of material. This led to a reduction in the size of circuits and also minimized the need for wiring components together. The large Research and Development (R & D) organizations still envisioned only those large computers used by the military during the war.
A Portable PC
It was up to two young visionary tinkerers, in the American tradition of amateur inventors, to devise a smaller, personal computer (PC). Young Steve Jobs, working in his garage with his friend Steve Wozniak, was finally able to package a small desktop computer that could process' symbols. Few people realized at the time that the most widespread use of the PC would be for word processing (and communications).
Bill Gates
There is another lesson about technology embodied in the development of personal computers. Steve Jobs founded the Apple Computer company and began to sell PCs to individuals. IBM, the foremost office machine company then, was not at all interested in making or selling such machines. But when they saw the commercial success of Apple computers, IBM decided to make and sell their own brand of computers. The heart of any computer is a set of coded instructions that instructs the components in how to react to different sorts of inputs (depressed keys, magnetized tapes or disks, etc.). Of course, Apple computers had copyrighted their system, so IBM needed a different system of coded instructions. Another young man, Bill Gates, had devised just such a set of instructions, a Disc Operating System, or DOS. Gates sold the rights to this system to IBM, becoming an overnight millionaire (and now a billionaire). The company founded by Gates, Microsoft, has gone on to develop other operating systems such as Windows 95. In the meantime, IBM with its immense credibility with office machine users is beginning to crowd Apple out of its share of the market. Ironically, most experts consider Apple's operating system to be technically superior to any of those devised by Gates and used by IBM. It is not always the case that better mousetraps attract customers! And, it is not always the case that corporation leaders can foresee the technologies that will develop around a new invention.
A Rocket
Rocketry is another example of the results of military research and development being used for peacetime activities. It is also an example of how the solitary, individual tinkerer has been replaced by organized research teams. Inspired as a young boy by fanciful tales of space travel, Robert Hutchings Goddard pursued an academic career in physics and turned his research interests to the construction of rockets. Supported for a number of years by individual grants, but only annual renewable ones, Goddard was able successfully to launch rockets into the stratosphere, ostensibly for weather research, yet always with the eventual goal of space exploration. Goddard's rockets were now using liquid propellants rather than combustible dry chemicals. He tried to interest the U.S. military in rocket propelled naval torpedoes or infantry missiles, but in the period between the two world wars, the U.S. military had little funds for speculative research; it was difficult enough to purchase traditional weapons. As America became more and more drawn into World War II, the military turned to Goddard for help in developing rockets to assist (propeller driven) aircraft to take off on shorter runways.
In Germany the story is very different. Because rockets were not specifically forbidden by the Versailles Treaty following World War I, Hitler was willing and able to support financially the R&D groups in rocketry, whose work initially replicated Goddard's and eventually surpassed him. While Warner von Braun's team worked to develop inter-continental missiles, the Allies developed solid propellant small weapons suitable for battleground warfare, the motorized batteries of rockets used so effectively by the Russians, and the single man, antitank missile of the Americans called the 'bazooka '.
A single person, even as brilliant and dedicated as Goddard, even had he had long term funding, would have found it next to impossible to construct the immense testing facilities, to organize and supervise the vast support staff, to maintain the complex monitoring and communications systems, that are all needed for developing the gigantic missiles and space exploration vehicles we have all watched with fascination. Modern technology requires a division of labor and an organization. The Goddards of the world are being replaced by team leaders such as von Braun.
Curiously enough, the most important contributions of rocketry to our present lives is from communication satellites, a use not foreseen by the early developers of this technology.
Finally there is the potentially most significant technology of the latter part of the twentieth century: nuclear energy. Here again, a laboratory discovery by two academic scientists working on a table top, with crude and simple apparatus became a subject for concerted effort by massive teams of scientists funded by unprecedented amounts of money for military purposes. Not even an Edison with his small band of technicians and skilled workmen could have achieved a nuclear fission bomb with any amount of money. It required the gigantic organization jointly administered by civilian scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, and army officer General Leslie Groves to accomplish this feat. The development of modern technologies is no longer the province of solitary, possibly eccentric inventors, but is now a territory inhabited by large-scale R & D organizations, funded less and less by corporations venturing into the unknown, but more and more by governments expanding on the uses of already known devices and phenomena.
Atomic Bomb Explosion
The Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant
What motivated most scientists and engineers in America to develop an atomic bomb in the first place was to prevent Nazi Germany from using such a device --to prevent the use of such a weapon. Once it was developed, however, pressure developed from other sources, military and political, to actually use the bomb on people. Then, after the war was over, this vast organization for producing fissionable material had to find peaceful uses for nuclear materials. So it was that applications in nuclear medicine were searched for, and national commissions began urging the deployment of nuclear reactors to generate electricity. The electric power generating companies at that time were decidedly cool towards the idea, for they thought the costs, especially the risk of devastating accidents for which they would be held financially liable, would not make nuclear generated electricity profitable. Legislation was enacted limiting the liability of commercial companies, and in many other ways, companies were assisted in developing nuclear energy plants. America now is busy trying to find technological solutions to such problems as accident-free generating plants, thermal pollution both atmospheric and hydrological, and nuclear waste disposal. The bottom line of the entire balance sheet has not yet been calculated.
*E-Library
*Supplementary Readings
John H. Hall
In 1819, John H. Hall, a New England gun-maker, signed a contract with the War Department to produce 1,000 breech loading rifles—a weapon he had designed and patented in 1811. Under the terms of the contract Hall came to Harpers Ferry, where he occupied an old Armory sawmill along the Shenandoah River. The site soon became known as Hall's Rifle Works, and the small island on which it stood was called Lower Hall Island. Hall spent several years tooling new workshops and perfecting precision machinery for producing rifles with interchangeable parts—a boldly ambitious goal for an industry which was traditionally based on the manual labor of skilled craftsmen.
In a letter to Secretary of War John Calhoun on December 20, 1822, Hall described his recent accomplishments at Harpers Ferry:
I have succeeded in an object which has hitherto completely baffled (notwithstanding the impressions to the contrary which have long prevailed) all the endeavors of those who have heretofore attempted it;I have succeeded in establishing methods for fabricating arms exactly alike, with economy, by the hands of common workmen, in such manner as to ensure a perfect observance of any established model, to furnish in the arms themselves a complete test of their conformity to it.
During his two decades at Harpers Ferry, Hall developed and constructed drop—hammers, stock—making machines, balanced pulleys, drilling machines, and special machines for straight—cutting, lever—cutting, and curve—cutting. Hall's straight—cutting machine was the forerunner of today's versatile milling machine, and a critical tool used in the fabrication of precision metal firearm components.
Hall's success at Harpers Ferry was attested to by Colonel George Talcott of the Ordnance Department, who wrote in 1832 that Hall's "manufactory has been carried to a greater degree of perfection, as regards the quality of work and uniformity of parts than is to be found anywhere —almost everything is performed by machinery, leaving very little dependent on manual labor."
From 1820-1840, John H. Hall devoted his uncompromising attention to the "uniformity principle" of interchangeable manufacture, laying a solid foundation for America's developing factory system right here at Harpers Ferry.
Thomas Alva Edison and His Electric Lamp
(Born February 11, 1847—Died October 18, 1931)
One of the outstanding geniuses in the history of technology, Thomas Edison earned patents for more than a thousand inventions, including the incandescent electric lamp, the phonograph, the carbon telephone transmitter, and the motion-picture projector. In addition, he created the world's first industrial research laboratory. Born in Milan, Ohio, Edison was an inquisitive child. By the time he was 10 he had set up a small chemical laboratory in the cellar of his home after his mother had aroused his interest in an elementary physical science book. He found the study of chemistry and the production of electrical current from voltaic jars especially absorbing and soon operated a homemade telegraph set. In 1868 he obtained a position in Boston as an expert night operator for Western Union Telegraph Company; by day he slept little, however, for he was gripped by a passion for manipulating electrical currents in new ways. Borrowing a small sum from an acquaintance, he gave up his job in the autumn of 1868 and became a free-lance inventor, taking out his first patent for an electrical vote recorder. In the summer of 1869 he was in New York, sleeping in a basement below Wall Street. At a moment of crisis on the Gold Exchange caused by the breakdown of the office's new telegraphic gold-price indicator, Edison was called in to try to repair the instrument; this he did so expertly that he was given a job as its supervisor. Soon he had remodeled the erratic machine so well that its owners, the Western Union Telegraph Company, commissioned him to improve the crude stock ticker just coming into use. The result was the Edison Universal Stock Printer, which, together with several other derivatives of the Morse telegraph, brought him a sudden fortune of $40,000. With this capital he set himself up as a manufacturer in Newark, New Jersey, producing stock tickers and high-speed printing telegraphs. In 1876 Edison gave up the Newark factory altogether and moved to the village of Menlo Park, New Jersey, to set up a laboratory where he could devote his full attention to invention. He promised that he would turn out a minor invention every ten days and a big invention every six months. He also proposed to make inventions to order. Before long he had 40 different projects going at the same time and was applying for as many as 400 patents a year. In September 1878, after having viewed an exhibition of a series of eight glaring 500-candlepower arc lights, Edison boldly announced he would invent a safe, mild, and inexpensive electric light that would replace the gaslight in millions of homes; moreover, he would accomplish this by an entirely different method of current distribution from that used for arc lights. To back the lamp effort, some of New York's leading financial figures joined with Edison in October 1878 to form the Edison Electric Light Company, the predecessor of today's General Electric Company. On October 21,1879, Edison demonstrated the carbon-filament lamp, supplied with current by his special high-voltage dynamos. The pilot light-and-power station at Menlo Park glowed with a circuit of 30 lamps, each of which could be turned on or off without affecting the rest. Three years later, the Pearl Street central power station in downtown New York City was completed, initiating the electrical illumination of the cities of the world. In 1887 Edison moved his workshop from Menlo Park to West Orange, New Jersey, where he built the Edison Laboratory (now a national monument), a facility 10 times larger than the earlier one. In time it was surrounded with factories employing some 5,000 persons and producing a variety of new products, among them his improved phonograph using wax records, the mimeograph, fluoroscope, alkaline storage battery, dictating machine, and motion-picture cameras and projectors. During World War I, the aged inventor headed the Naval Consulting Board and directed research in torpedo mechanisms and antisubmarine devices. It was largely owing to his urging that Congress established the Naval Research Laboratory, the first institution for military research, in 1920.
Throughout his career, Edison consciously directed his studies to devices that could satisfy real needs and come into popular use. Indeed, it may be said that in applying himself to technology, he was fulfilling the ideals of democracy, for he centered his attention upon projects that would increase the convenience and pleasure of mankind.
Scientific Management
Frederick Winslow Taylor:
Probably the first attempt at formally timing work was in 1760 when a Frenchman, Jean Radolphe Perronet, studied the manufacture of pins and attempted to establish standard times for various operations.
Documents have been found relating to the Old Derby China works for the year 1792 in which a Mr. Thomas Mason pledged himself to undertake time studies in the factory and to undertake his work conscientiously and diligently.
At the turn of the century the problems of layout and method were studied by Robert Owen. Owen's work at the New Lanark Mills was revolutionary at the time. Through experimentation, he succeeded in raising the living conditions of his workers whilst reorganizing his mills on commercial principles.
Robert Owen is credited with being the first to recognize fatigue and the work environment as factors affecting the performance of factory workers.
Frederick Winslow Taylor:
By far the most influential person of the time and someone who has had an impact on management service practice as well as on management thought up to the present day, was F. W. Taylor. Taylor formalized the principles of scientific management, and the fact-finding approach put forward and largely adopted was a replacement for what had been the old rule of thumb.
He also developed a theory of organizations which altered the personalized autocracy which had only been tempered by varying degrees of benevolence, such as in the Quaker family businesses of Cadbury's and Clark's.
Taylor was not the originator of many of his ideas, but was a pragmatist with the ability to synthesize the work of others and promote them effectively to a ready and eager audience of industrial managers who were striving to find new or improved ways to increase performance.
At the time of Taylor's work, a typical manager would have very little contact with the activities of the factory. Generally, a foreman would be given the total responsibility for producing goods demanded by the salesman. Under these conditions workmen used what tools they had or could get and adopted methods that suited their own style of work.
F.W. Taylor's contributions to scientific management:
By 1881 Taylor had published a paper that turned the cutting of metal into a science. Later he turned his attention to shoveling coal. By experimenting with different designs of shovel for use with different material (from 'rice' coal to ore) he was able to design shovels that would permit the worker to shovel for the whole day.
In so doing, he reduced the number of people shoveling at the Bethlehem Steel Works from 500 to 140. This work, and his studies on the handling of pig iron, greatly contributed to the analysis of work design and gave rise to method study.
To follow, in 1895, were papers on incentive schemes. A piece rate system on production management in shop management, and later, in 1909, he published the book for which he is best known, Principles of Scientific Management.
A feature of Taylor's work was stop-watch timing as the basis of observations. However, unlike the early activities of Perronet and others, he started to break the timings down into elements and it was he who coined the term 'time study'.
Taylor's uncompromising attitude in developing and installing his ideas caused him much criticism. Scientific method, he advocated, could be applied to all problems and applied just as much to managers as workers. In his own words he explained:
"The old fashioned dictator does not exist under Scientific Management. The man at the head of the business under Scientific Management is governed by rules and laws which have been developed through hundreds of experiments just as much as the workman is, and the standards developed are equitable."
Objectives of Scientific Management
The four objectives of management under scientific management were as follows:
The development of a science for each element of a man's work to replace the old rule-of-thumb methods.
The scientific selection, training and development of workers instead of allowing them to choose their own tasks and train themselves as best they could.
The development of a spirit of hearty cooperation between workers and management to ensure that work would be carried out in accordance with scientifically devised procedures.
The division of work between workers and the management in almost equal shares, each group taking over the work for which it is best fitted instead of the former condition in which responsibility largely rested with the workers. Self-evident in this philosophy are organizations arranged in a hierarchy, systems of abstract rules and impersonal relationships between staff.
*E-Library
F.W. Taylor's contribution to organizational theory:
This required an organization theory similar for all practical purposes to that advocated by those organizational theorists who followed. These theorists developed principles of management which included much of Taylor's philosophy.
His framework for organization was:
:　clear delineation of authority
:　responsibility
:　separation of planning from operations
:　incentive schemes for workers
:　management by exception
:　task specialization
Some problems:
However, there were problems—Taylor's papers were not always well received, as many of his ideas were associated with bad practice, such as rate-cutting by unscrupulous managers.
In 1911 and 1912 Taylor was questioned at length by a special committee of the US House of Representatives. As a result laws were passed banning the use of stop-watches by civil servants and it was only in 1949 that this restriction was lifted.
Taylor's view of the motivations of workers have had a profound influence throughout the century until the present day. His belief that man was rational and would make economic choices based on the degree of monetary reward led him to devise payment systems that closely related the kind of effort he sought with the level of reward offered.
Not surprisingly, there was strong criticism of this theory which treats human beings like machines and assumes that workers are satisfied by money alone.
Underlying assumptions:
His views on motivation, management and organization all presupposed certain conditions to be constant, which we now know they are not.
The assumptions underlying his work were:
The presence of a capitalist system and a money economy, where companies in a free market have as their main objective the improvement of efficiency and the maximization of profit; 
　
The Protestant work ethic, that assumes people will work hard and behave rationally to maximize their own income, putting the perceived requirements of their organization before their own personal objectives and goals. 
　
That an increased size is desirable in order to obtain the advantages of the division of labor and specialization of tasks.
Taylor's impact has been so great because he developed a concept of work design, work-measurement, production control and other functions, that completely changed the nature of industry. Before scientific management, such departments as work study, personnel, maintenance and quality control did not exist. What was more his methods proved to be very successful.
Address of President Roosevelt
by radio, delivered from the President's Study in the White House on March 12, 1933 (First of his radio "fireside chats")
I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking—with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of banking but more particularly with the overwhelming majority who use banks for the making of deposits and the drawing of checks. I want to tell you what has been done in the last few days, why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be. I recognize that the many proclamations from State Capitols and from Washington, the legislation, the Treasury regulations, etc., couched for the most part in banking and legal terms should be explained for the benefit of the average citizen. I owe this in particular because of the fortitude and good temper with which everybody has accepted the inconvenience and hardships of the banking holiday. I know that when you understand what we in Washington have been about I shall continue to have your cooperation as fully as I have had your sympathy and help during the past week.
First of all let me state the simple fact that when you deposit money in a bank the bank does not put the money into a safe deposit vault. It invests your money in many different forms of credit-bonds, commercial paper, mortgages and many other kinds of loans. In other words, the bank puts your money to work to keep the wheels of industry and of agriculture turning around. A comparatively small part of the money you put into the bank is kept in currency—an amount which in normal times is wholly sufficient to cover the cash needs of the average citizen. In other words the total amount of all the currency in the country is only a small fraction of the total deposits in all of the banks.
What, then, happened during the last few days of February and the first few days of March? Because of undermined confidence on the part of the public, there was a general rush by a large portion of our population to turn bank deposits into currency or gold.—A rush so great that the soundest banks could not get enough currency to meet the demand. The reason for this was that on the spur of the moment it was, of course, impossible to sell perfectly sound assets of a bank and convert them into cash except at panic prices far below their real value.
By the afternoon of March 3 scarcely a bank in the country was open to do business. Proclamations temporarily closing them in whose or in part had been issued by the Governors in almost all the states.
It was then that I issued the proclamation providing for the nation-wide bank holiday, and this was the first step in the Government's reconstruction of our financial and economic fabric.
The second step was the legislation promptly and patriotically passed by the Congress confirming my proclamation and broadening my powers so that it became possible in view of the requirement of time to entend (sic) the holiday and lift the ban of that holiday gradually. This law also gave authority to develop a program of rehabilitation of our banking facilities. I want to tell our citizens in every part of the Nation that the national Congress—Republicans and Democrats alike—showed by this action a devotion to public welfare and a realization of the emergency and the necessity for speed that it is difficult to match in our history.
The third stage has been the series of regulations permitting the banks to continue their functions to take care of the distribution of food and household necessities and the payment of payrolls.
This bank holiday while resulting in many cases in great inconvenience is affording us the opportunity to supply the currency necessary to meet the situation. No sound bank is a dollar worse off than it was when it closed its doors last Monday. Neither is any bank which may turn out not to be in a position for immediate opening. The new law allows the twelve Federal Reserve banks to issue additional currency on good assets and thus the banks which reopen will be able to meet every legitimate call. The new currency is being sent out by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in large volume to every part of the country. It is sound currency because it is backed by actual, good assets.
As a result we start tomorrow, Monday, with the opening of banks in the twelve Federal Reserve bank cities—those banks which on first examination by the Treasury have already been found to be all right. This will be followed on Tuesday by the resumption of all their functions by banks already found to be sound in cities where there are recognized clearing houses. That means about 250 cities of the United States.
On Wednesday and succeeding days banks in smaller places all through the country will resume business, subject, of course, to the Government's physical ability to complete its survey. It is necessary that the reopening of banks be extended over a period in order to permit the banks to make applications for necessary loans, to obtain currency needed to meet their requirements and to enable the Government to make common sense checkups. Let me make it clear to you that if your bank does not open the first day you are by no means justified in believing that it will not open. A bank that opens on one of the subsequent days is in exactly the same status as the bank that opens tomorrow.
I know that many people are worrying about State banks not members of the Federal Reserve System. These banks can and will receive assistance from members banks and from the reconstruction Finance Corporation. These state banks are following the same course as the national banks except that they get their licenses to resume business from the state authorities, and these authorities have been asked by the Secretary of the Treasury to permit their good banks to open up on the same schedule as the national banks. I am confident that the state banking departments will be as careful as the National Government in the policy relating to the opening of banks and will follow the same broad policy. It is possible that when the banks resume a very few people who have not recovered from their fear may again begin withdrawals. Let me make it clear that the banks will take care of all needs—and it is my belief that hoarding during the past week has become an exceedingly unfashionable pastime. It needs no prophet to tell you that when the people find that they can get their money—that they can get it when they want it for all legitimate purposes—the phantom of fear will soon be laid. People will again be glad to have their money where it will be safely taken care of and where they can use it conveniently at any time. I can assure you that it is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than under the mattress.
The success of our whole great national program depends, of course, upon the cooperation of the public—on its intelligent support and use of a reliable system.
Remember that the essential accomplishment of the new legislation is that it makes it possible for banks more readily to convert their assets into cash than was the case before. More liberal provision has been made for banks to borrow on these assets at the Reserve Banks and more liberal provision has also been made for issuing currency on the security of those good assets. This currency is not fiat currency. It is issued only on adequate security—and every good bank has an abundance of such security.
One more point before I close. There will be, of course, some banks unable to reopen without being reorganized. The new law allows the Government to assist in making these reorganizations quickly and effectively and even allows the Government to subscribe to at least a part of new capital which may be required.
I hope you can see from this elemental recital of what your government is doing that there is nothing complex, or radical in the process.
We had a bad banking situation. Some of our bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people's funds. They had used the money entrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans. This was of course not true in the vast majority of our banks but it was true in enough of them to shock the people for a time into a sense of insecurity and to put them into a frame of mind where they did not differentiate, but seemed to assume that the acts of a comparative few had tainted them all. It was the Government's job to straighten out this situation and do it as quickly as possible—and the job is being performed.
I do not promise you that every bank will be reopened or that individual losses will not be suffered, but there will be no losses that possibly could be avoided; and there would have been more and greater losses had we continued to drift. I can even promise you salvation for some at least of the sorely pressed banks. We shall be engaged not merely in reopening sound banks but in the creation of sound banks through reorganization. It has been wonderful to me to catch the note of confidence from all over the country. I can never be sufficiently grateful to the people for the loyal support they have given me in their acceptance of the judgment that has dictated our course, even though all of our processes may not have seemed clear to them.
After all there is an element in the readjustment of our financial system more important than currency, more important than gold, and that is the confidence of the people. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith; you must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system; it is up to you to support and make it work.
It is your problem no less than it is mine. Together we cannot fail.
Research Highlights—Ways Parents Can Reduce Children's TV Viewing Time
No TV in a child's bedroom associated with more time spent on homework and reading For Immediate Release: Monday, September 24, 2001.
Boston, MA-Access to television has a direct association with children's hours of viewing and school-related activity, according to a study from the Harvard School of Public Health. Children who do not have a television set in their bedroom spend about forty minutes less per day watching TV or playing video and computer games than children who do and read or do homework about twenty minutes more per day if their parents also set limits on television viewing. The study results are published in the September/October issue of Ambulatory Pediatrics.
The study, which analyzed data from nearly 1,200 sixth and seventh graders from 10 Boston-area middle schools, found that the students averaged approximately three hours and 20 minutes per day of viewing time, including playing computer/video games, and spent an average of one hour and 36 minutes per day reading or doing homework.
More than half (54 percent) of the respondents had a television set in their bedroom and 42 percent reported that their parents did not set limits on the amount of television they could watch. Students who regularly had dinner with their family spent half an hour less per day watching TV or playing computer/video games compared to students who rarely dined daily with their family.
Jean Wiecha, Deputy Director of the Harvard Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Harvard School of Public Health, said: "The findings in our study show that access to television increases use, and helps identify ways parents can reduce the time their children spend in front of the television or playing computer games. The study also supports American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations to make a child's bedroom media-free. These findings are important because high television use is associated with childhood obesity, which is epidemic in the US today."
The study was supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and from the Prevention Research Center's Cooperative Agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
===Unit 14外 Post-WWII American Foreign Policy===
===Unit 15体 Sports and Scenic Spots in America 原为 11 Sports 10 Scenic ===
Unit 10: Scenic America
Oh, wait a minute. Before we start, let's go over the focal points of the text:
* The Grand Canyon
* Yellowstone National Park
* Disneyland
* The National Monument
* The Gulf of Mexico
* The Everglades
* Niagara Falls
Unit 11: Sports in America
Ready to read the text? It may help you grasp the main content of the text if you keep the following focal points in mind as you read:
* AFC
* NFC
* Touchdown
* The National League
* The American League
* Jackie Robinson
* The "Black Sox" scandal of 1919
* Home run
* James Naismith
* NBA
* East Division
* West Division
* Shooting
* Foul
* http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa10/text10_p1.asp.htm
Text
Grand Canyon
The setting sun turns the western sky crimson red, lining higher clouds with golden borders. A dark shadow crawls slowly up the sides of the canyon ahead, first blotting out the tiny silver thread of the Colorado River 1500 meters below. The red brown layers across the way shine as if they were fired to a glowing heat. At times almost 29 kilometers across the great chasm, the North Rim is usually visible from the South Rim, which is more accessible for most tourists. As the silence of the desert night descends, one can only marvel at the awesome spectacle known as the Grand Canyon, America's most famous scenic wonder.
This is no valley between two mountains; this is not a separation due to an earthquake. This is a gorge slowly carved away for nearly 6 million years by the waters of the Colorado River. The canyon is so deep that there are four distinct zones of climate from top to bottom, each with its own distinctive flora and fauna. When it is snowing on the upper rim, it is tropically hot and moist on the floor of the canyon.
Over 4 million people each year visit this place approximately 120 kilometers north of Flagstaff, Arizona by train, bus, or private automobile to see this spectacle of nature. There are helicopter rides available for the adventuresome. Trails curve along the edge of the South Rim. And some trails lead down into the Canyon. Some tourists hike part of the way down, and slowly trudge back by evening. Others take a mule caravan either halfway down and back for the day, or else all the way to the river below to stay overnight and return the next day.
This scenic area is one of the U.S. National Parks, hence there are guides, Park Rangers, available for information in addition to small exhibition buildings where experts inform visitors about the geology, the flora and the fauna, and the history of the area. The Park was established in 1908 by President "Teddy" Roosevelt, and has continually incorporated more and more territory until, in 1975, the entire Grand Canyon, a total of 4930 sq km, is within the boundaries of the Grand Canyon National Park.
The Southwest
There are other National Parks nearby. To the east, the Painted Desert National Park includes multicolored hills and small uprisings from the desert floor that glow in the daylight in colors of reddish-brown, yellow, orange, and even purple. Within this park is also the Petrified Forest, a field of fallen trees that have turned to stone by a process of mineralization known as petrifaction. The organic cells and tree rings can easily be seen in these ancient "rocks". To the south, the Sunset Crater Volcano National Park has the remains of a very early volcano explosion, much greater than the recent Mt. St. Helens eruption. And to the west, there is Hoover Dam and the lake behind it, Lake Mead. Hoover Dam is a major hydroelectric power supplier and is named after President Herbert Hoover. It is no longer the largest dam in the western part of the United States, but it is of great historic interest, and the view of it is quite spectacular.
Petrified Trees
Sunset Crater Volcano National Park
Mt St Helens
Volcano Eruption
Lake Mead
Moving north from the Grand Canyon National Park, one encounters many scenic areas that are not in parks. The desert areas of Nevada and the mountains and streams of southwestern Colorado are all quite beautiful. Many Native American tribes live in these areas as well, and visits to their villages hold much interest for the inquisitive traveler.
The Northwest
Old Faith
To the far north, near the Canadian border is Yellowstone National Park, named after for the river flowing through the area. Yellowstone was established in 1872, and is the oldest of the national parks and also one of the largest, being almost 8 985 sq km in area. It is known for its geysers and hot springs, the most famous of the geysers being Old Faithful, which every hour or so sends an enormous plume of water and steam shooting high into the sky for 4 minutes. In addition to the several geysers, there are the hot springs and the pools of bubbling warm mud, all of which make this a very strange and wondrous place to visit.
Yellowstone National Park also contains beautiful vistas of waterfalls, rugged peaks, and lush valleys. The woodlands are home to many types of wildlife, especially rare species of birds. Many visitors take advantage of organized tours on horseback through the wilderness. Several days in the park is hardly enough time to see and do all the interesting things there. Incidentally, approach the park from the south, one will pass by Grand Teton National Park, which has immense scenic peaks and glacier scoured valleys. This park is not for the casual visitor but mountain climbers find it exhilarating.
Grand Teton National Park
Glacier
Not too far away is Dinosaur National Monument, the site of many fossils of prehistoric animal life. And nearby also is Bryce Canyon National Park, a small park with enormous sandstone spires and pinnacles, whose slopes are colored in red, white, pink and orange layers.
Dinosaur National Monument
Bryce Canyon
Spires
The Rocky Mountains
All of the places mentioned so far are to the west of the Rocky mountains,
The Rocky Mountains
which are themselves worth touring. There is a National Park covering the central Rockies, but there are also many state parks dotting the area from the Canadian border down to the southern part of the range in New Mexico where one can picnic and hike and enjoy the landscape. The streams in the Rockies are a trout fisherman's paradise. Also, various old mining towns still retaining a certain 19th century charm provide entertaining sites to visit. During the winter months, travel along the roads is difficult because of the snow. Yet it is the snow that attracts many people to such towns as Aspen and Vail, where skiing down mountain slopes is the major attraction.
The Pacific Coast
To the west of the Rocky Mountains, towards the Pacific coast, there is in the south a stretch of desert area that suddenly becomes verdant in the Imperial Valley of California. In the north, after leaving Salt Lake City behind, until one reaches the coastline one encounters foothills and a few isolated mountains such as Mt. Hood, overlooking Portland, Oregon. In the very northern part of the Pacific coast region is the city of Seattle located on Puget Sound and neighbored by the Olympic Peninsula, on which is located Olympia National Park, the location of a completely fascinating temperate rain forest, and the Cascade Range, where Mt. Rainier stands. Not too far away from the city is the site of the St. Helens eruption, where visitors can observe the ecological recovery from that devastating explosion.
Olympia Peninsula
Cascade Rang
Mt Rainier
The coastline towards the south is quite rugged, with precipitous cliffs and boulder strewn beaches. Only occasionally is there a sand beach suitable for picnicking and swimming, and these are usually found at the mouths of rivers emptying into the Pacific Ocean. It is not until one reaches Los Angeles that one finds long stretches of sandy beaches occasionally interrupted by a sheer cliff now and then.
Before then, the city of San Francisco remains an important center of urban sight-seeing, with Berkeley and its University across the Bay, and Stanford University a short distance south of San Francisco. Farther south is
UC Berkeley
Stanford University
Yosemite National Park with its spectacular scenery of valleys carved out by glaciers, and numerous magnificent waterfalls. And even farther south is Monterey, the scene of many John Steinbeck stories, as well as lovely
Big Sur
Carmel-by-the-Sea, home of the famous Pebble Beach Golf course. The coast road continues south through Big Sur, a picturesque retreat for such authors as Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, and poet Robinson Jeffers, until it reaches San Simeon, the fabulous home of the publishing tycoon, William Randolph Hearst. It is only a short distance farther south until Los Angeles is reached.
There are few places of natural beauty in Southern California. Most of the interest lies in human creations such as Hollywood and Disneyland. Yet for surfboard riders, sunbathers, and ocean swimmers, there are few places in the United States that can match the beaches stretching from Los Angeles to San Diego. The weather is always temperate and there is little rain. People spend most of their leisure time outdoors, and outdoor grilling is the usual mode of preparing food.
The Middle West
The Rocky Mountains slide down easterly towards the great plains states, flat lands where grain fields extend for miles in either direction. In the northern part of this region, in the state of South Dakota, is the unusual artistic project at Mt. Rushmore, where enormous portraits of four famous
Mt.Rushmore
U.S. Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, are sculpted on the face of the 1730 meter high mountain.
To the south of this National Monument, flowing down to the Gulf of Mexico, is the mighty Mississippi River, whose shores are dotted with such
The Mississippi
famous American cities as the twin cities Minneapolis and St. Paul, St. Louis, Memphis, and finally in Louisiana, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Each of these cities has its own distinctive charm and historic sites, yet surrounding the southern cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans are vestiges of the old Southern plantations, where some old mansions can still be seen and even visited.
Florida
Sanibel Island
The southernmost tip of the eastern United States is the state of Florida. Here the climate is mild all year, so when the weather is harsh and severe in the north, many people, especially older folks, visit Florida during the winter time. The western side of Florida lies on the Gulf of Mexico, over which the sun sets to golden-red skies. There are several famous beaches along this coast, and fishermen have the choice of visiting freshwater streams and lakes inland, or casting their lines from the beach or a boat at sea in the saltwater Gulf. One interesting beach on the Gulf Coast is Sanibel Island, near the city of Ft. Myers. This beach is famous for the brightly varicolored little clam shells (coquina) that wash ashore every day. In the morning, both youngsters and older folks can be seen plodding the beach with heads bent down trying to spot a new, nicely colored shell.
Farther south is the Everglades, an area south of Lake Okeechobee
Everglades
Lake Okeechobee
approximately 13000 sq km in size, where the Everglades National Park occupies approximately 6100 sq km. The Everglades is a subtropical wetlands, which one author has dubbed "The River of Grass." It contains a motley collection of wildlife including reptiles such as alligators and
Heron at Sunset
Alligator
Giant Ferns
snakes. Plant life includes varieties of palm trees, orchids, and giant ferns, There are 400 species of birds native to Florida, including rare herons,
Egret
Pelican
egrets, pelicans, and different kinds of ducks. One can visit the interior of the Everglades along wooden walkways or on an airboat, a craft propelled by a fanlike propeller mounted aft that spins in the air while the craft skims the surface of water or grass on inflated pontoons.
Stretching south of Miami towards Cuba is a chain of islands called the Florida Keys. These islands are connected by a series of bridges called the Overseas Highway reaching to the farthest island, Key West. Key West was a summer retreat for U.S. President Harry S Truman, and is also the site of the homes of novelist Ernest Hemingway, and naturalist John J. Audubon.
Kennedy Space Center
The cities of Miami and Miami Beach are located at the southern tip of the peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean. From here northward to the Kennedy Space Center are located many small communities barely separated from each other, where many retired people live in the warm to moderate climate. Inland is the city of Orlando, a favorite tourist stop because of the location of Disneyworld and Epcot Center. Yet the Atlantic Coast beaches are still an attraction for many tourists, especially the famous Daytona Beach, site of the famous automobile race. And farther up the coast is the historic city of St. Augustine, where Ponce de Leon landed in 1513, although the city itself was not established until 1565 (well before the Pilgrim settlements in New England).
The Southeast
North of Florida along the Atlantic Seaboard are the southern states of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. These states have the unusual property of having a coast line filled with beaches and fishing vessels to their east, and hills and mountains for hunting, camping, and freshwater fishing to their west. Along the eastern coast are such historic cities as Savannah, GA, with its stately mansions and Eighteenth Century downtown area, and in South Carolina is the city of Charleston, as well as famous beach resorts such as Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head Island and Kiawa Island. Charleston is a rapidly modernizing city yet it still maintains many gardens famous for their azaleas, magnolias, and camellias. Visitors should not
Magnolia
Camellia
Azalea
overlook Fort Sumter National Park, the site of the first battle of the American Civil War in April 1861.
The Smoky Mountain National Park
The western parts of the states of Georgia and South Carolina meet up with the eastern part of the state of Tennessee, where the Blue Ridge Mountains begin, and where the Smoky Mountain National Park is located. Here there are many mountain vistas, and lovely parks for hiking, camping, and fishing. The best mountain for viewing many different states is Lookout Mountain located in Tennessee near the city of Chatanooga. Tennessee also has many parks where Civil War battles took place, but they are of limited scenic interest and will appeal only to those interested in American history. The states from South Carolina up to Pennsylvania have numerous parks marking famous battles from the Civil War. The two most interesting are Antietam in Maryland, and the larger Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. For historians there is also the Biltmore Estate,
Biltmore Estate
illustrating the sort of mansions built by early twentieth century millionaires. Some tourists find Nashville, TN an interesting city to visit because of the Grand Ole Opry (a dialect rendering of Grand Old Opera), home to country folk music, sometime called bluegrass'.
The Northeast
The Blue Ridge Mountains extend up through North Carolina to Virginia, but most visitors will stay along the Eastern seaboard to enjoy the Outer Banks, where deep sea fishing is a major attraction. Kitty Hawk, where the Wright brothers(Wilbur Wright and) flew their first airplane, is also located in the Outer Banks. Along the coast from here to New York City are many beach communities where summer residents enjoy swimming in the moderate temperatures of the Atlantic and indulge in beach activities from lazy sunbathing to volleyball. One such beach community deserves special mention: Atlantic City , NJ. This used to be a sedate town where elderly folks would promenade on the Boardwalk, a platform of boards supported by pillars in the sand, which paralleled the shoreline right on the beach itself. Today however it is the site of legalized gambling, and many garish casinos crowd up against the Boardwalk, which is now the main path of gamblers going from one place to another.
North of the island on which New York City is located, the beach communities continue northward to Cape Cod, the enormous peninsula
Cape Cod
shaped like a flexed arm that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. The entire Cape is ringed with swimming beaches and docks for fishing boats and pleasure craft. Inland there are forests and fresh water ponds ideal for swimming and boating. The Cape is dotted with little towns that try to maintain a quaint, fishing village atmosphere. During the summer it is quite crowded with families fleeing the hot and stuffy cities, but in the spring and fall there are few tourists, and days on the Cape are very relaxing. Here the colorful sky, the reds and golds of a sun just below the horizon, are to be found in the east at dawn, a time for quiet walks on the beach, or calm half hour of casting a fishing line into the surf.
Farther north of the Cape, beaches are few and far between, as the coast becomes more precipitous and rocky along the Maine coast to Canada. It is farther inland to the west that one encounters the famous mountain ranges of the Northeast, far older than the relatively recent Rocky Mountains of the Far West.
The Green Mountains, one range of the Appalachian chain of mountains,
The Green Mountains
runs from central Massachusetts through Vermont to Canada. Few roads or pathways lead to the tops of mountains here. Between the sharply rising peaks are deep gorges, where public roads weave around the towering hills. Yet there is a wonderful and challenging footpath stretching for 3450 km from Maine all the way back down to Georgia called the Appalachian Trail. (The full name is: The Appalachian National Scenic Trail.) Hikers, or just robust walkers, may join this trail at any point and proceed as far as desired. The trail is maintained by the National Park Service, and access is possible all along its length.
Unlike the Blue Ridge Mountains in the South and the Rocky Mountains of the Far West, the mountain system of the Northeast has several distinct chains. Close to the Green Mountains of Vermont lies, to the west, the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Here the glaciers of 10 000 years ago rounded
The White Mountains
off the mountain peaks and created many lakes. The stark granite outcroppings, and the rocks and boulders left by the retreating glaciers, have led to this state's being called The Granite State. A trip up a cog railway passing above the tree line to the top of Mount Washington, the highest peak in New England at 1917 m, is a delightful journey. More adventuresome travelers can drive an automobile on a winding road to the peak.
Driving through the deep glacially carved valleys, one is presented by constantly shifting views of the various peaks. Occasionally, a peculiar formation in the gap between two peaks can be spotted. These gaps are called 'notches' and frequently have distinctive names identifying them.
A Covered Bridge
Vermont and New Hampshire are also famous for their covered bridges, remnants of the nineteenth century, which are bridges covered by a roof that is slanted to avoid the crushing weight of accumulated snow. The snowfall in winter is usually several meters, so these states also have a large skiing industry, matching that of Colorado. Large cabins, and even apartment buildings, next to a restaurant and recreation building huddle together at the base of a ski slope, where huge ski lifts carry people to the top so that they may ski down to the base. During the summer, one can frequently ride to the top of the slope and stroll down paths in the woods, a relaxing activity not as strenuous as winter skiing.
New York State
The Adirondack Mountains, located mainly in the state of New York, contain some of the oldest rocks in the world. Mount Marcy, at 1629 m, is the tallest peak, but Whiteface Mountain is more accessible. The peaks in this chain are separated by forests and woodlands that contain many famous lakes and unusual chasms and gorges. Lake Placid, the site of a Winter Olympics and a training area for winter sports competitors, is well known. Another one, Schroon Lake, was the model for Theodore Dreiser's Loon Lake in his novel An
Schroon Lake
American Tragedy. Because of the moderate temperatures of this region, before home air-conditioning became available, many wealthy families constructed elaborate summer camps here, some of which are now open to the public. Less wealthy city dwellers escaped the summer heat for short periods at resort hotels located in the Catskill Mountains in southeastern New York state. The low-lying Catskills however are technically part of the Appalachian chain and are not in the Adirondacks.
The western part of New York state contains a natural wonder comparable to the Grand Canyon. While the Canyon is a calm and static display of the slow effects of powerful natural forces, Niagara Falls is an awe inspiring, dynamic
The Niagara Falls
display of a torrent of water freely falling over a precipice for a distance of 55 m. The spray created by the falling water, visible from miles away, and the roaring sound of water striking the rocks or river below never fail to impress spectators with the wonders of natural forces. It is estimated that 5520m3 of water rushes over the Falls each second of time!
There are two sections of the Falls separated by a small island, which can be visited. The larger section is called the Horseshoe Falls, because it is curved inward like a horseshoe. It is located in Canada. The section in the United States is called the American Falls. Both sections can be seen from either country. There are footpaths leading to the very edge of the water, and there are tall observation towers where one can eat and drink while watching this natural spectacle. There is even a boat, the Maid of the Mist, that takes raincoated passengers to the very base of the Falls, a never to be forgotten adventure. And, on the Canadian side, one can don boots and a raincoat and wander through tunnels underneath the Falls, emerging from caves where the water cascades down only a several meters beyond.
Urban Scenes
During this brief visit to some of the scenic places in America, there has not been the chance to mention the different and distinctive urban centers that stretch from San Diego to Boston, from Seattle to Miami. Each of these cities, as well as Chicago, Philadelphia, and especially Washington, D.C. have much
Capitol Hill, Washington D.C.
to offer the sightseer. Cities have zoos, aquariums, museums, and shopping areas, all of which are entertaining to see. Each city has a unique atmosphere: the architecture, the pace of pedestrian traffic, and so on. Cities must be experienced to be appreciated for their special characters.
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Text
Watching or attending sports events is an important part of the lives of many Americans. What are some of these sports, and how do they affect the lives of the people?
Football
American Football
Sunday morning in thousands of American homes adults are hurrying to pack frankfurters, hamburgers, and sausages, with rolls and buns, mustard and ketchup, and various relishes: onions, pickles and the like. Bags of potato chips, pretzels, and peanuts are also gathered up. There is also the portable grill to get ready as well as a cooler filled with ice, beer and soda water. All of this food is for the "tailgate" party at the football game.
The Tailgate
(Station wagon automobiles, popular a few years ago, had a rear door that opened horizontally. It was called, after the rear gate of horse drawn wagons, the tailgate. When the car was parked in a lot, the tailgate was lowered and food and drinks were placed on it. Thus, a tailgate party.)
For those many other thousands not actually attending the game, a party nonetheless is held in front of a TV set, where one can watch three different games on a single Sunday afternoon and evening. American professional football is played during the late summer (preseason), the fall (regular season), and the winter until late in January (post-season, or play off time ). All this culminates in the Super Bowl to decide the champion team for the year. There are now twenty four teams divided into two conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). These teams are located throughout the country from Seattle to Miami, from San Diego to New England.
NFL Members
Professional sports in America is entertainment, especially football. Spectators are as much interested in eating and drinking as they are in the game itself. It is a time to party. And a time to advertise products for consumption. It was not always so. Professional football used to be a minor activity on the American scene. Because games were played only once a week, a football stadium had to accommodate many paying customers, so they were quite large. The largest stadium today is the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan with a capacity of a little over 80000 seats, and the smallest is the Oakland Coliseum in California seating just 50000 people. A large area of
The Yankee Stadium
land in the middle of a city is very expensive, and it would be essentially idle for days at a time. Thus stadiums were located on the fringes of cities or a waterfront land if that was available. But this made it difficult for spectators to attend.
Interest in professional football suddenly increased with the advent of color television. It had to be color television and not the simple black-and-white sort, because without viewing colors, the players on opposing teams cannot easily be distinguished, making it quite difficult to follow the game. With color, the teams are easily distinguished, and the pageantry, the colored banners and flags, heighten the visual interest. Technically advanced equipment permitted home viewers to see a replay, sometimes in slow motion. More experienced cameramen, with more cameras available, were able to anticipate unusual plays and follow the movement of the ball more closely. And announcers were able to describe the game and explain it to home viewers, and even provide background information about the players and owners. Television producers made arrangements with the officials to take intermissions from play so that corporate sponsors could broadcast commercials during the course of the game, rather than waiting until the end of a set period. Furthermore, games could be broadcast every week, with different games played at different times. All of this led to increased interest on the part of spectators, who now were more willing to leave their comfortable homes where they could watch on television, and travel to a far away stadium to join with other fans in attendance. Notice that one can view the game more clearly at home than one can see it from most seats in an enormous stadium, so the social aspects of being there with others is an important motivation for attending the game in person. Many stadiums today have a large screen visible from the seating area and capable of displaying a television picture. So even those spectators at the stadium itself can see "instant replays" of events on the field that they were unable to see from their seats.
Cheerleaders
In addition to professional football, most colleges and universities have a varsity football team, with additional personnel in a marching band and a squad of cheerleaders, whose task is to lead the spectators in cheering for their team. The marching band and cheerleaders usually provide entertainment during the major intermission halfway through the game.
A Runner
One reason football is so popular in America may be that the game combines teamwork with individual prowess in a rough, contact competition. The football hero is a ball carrier who can evade the defensive team, all of whom are trying to stop him. This explains why runners like O.J. Simpson became famous, while those teammates who protected him from the rushing defensive players are unknown. Similarly, an effective defensive player, who is able to move through the protection and stop the ball carrier, will often become famous.
Americans like to glorify individuals who succeed in overcoming obstacles, natural ones as well as those presented by others. Perhaps this inclination is not peculiar to Americans.
How the Game Is Played
Football Equipment
The Quarterback
The two opposing teams place eleven players on the field at one time. The team having possession of the football is the offense whose object is to advance the ball over the defense's goal line. The ball may be carried by a runner, or it may be thrown forward down the field to another player. The execution of these plays is directed by the quarterback, who is usually stationed directly behind the center of the line of players facing the opponent's goal. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four attempts (called downs) otherwise the defensive team gains possession of the ball and thus becomes the offense. When this happens the players on the field are usually replaced by other team members, because these days there is considerable specialization, or division of labor, one player being a kicker, another a runner, and so on.
If the offense believes it will fail to make the requisite ten yards, it will usually kick the ball on fourth down, so that when the defense takes possession it will be that much farther back from their desired goal. This kick is called a punt.
A team scores 6 points for a touchdown, running or passing the ball over the opponent's goal line. At that stage, the team can earn one additional point by kicking the ball through the goal posts, a Point After Touchdown (PAT). If a team is close enough to the goal posts, and believes it may not be able to score a touchdown, it can attempt to kick the ball through the goal posts. This is called a Field Goal, and is worth 3 points.
Play begins after both teams line up facing each other divided by a line stretching from sideline to sideline and passing through the ball on the field. The ball is handed or tossed by the player in the center of the line to someone in the backfield, usually the quarterback. Some of the defensive players attempt to restrain the player with the ball, which is called a tackle. Other defensive players move away from the line and attempt to prevent a successful pass. The play is over and the timing clock stops, when a goal is scored, the ball goes out of bounds, the ball carrier is tackled, or a pass is not caught. The clock can also stop if a team calls time out.
There are four quarters of playing time lasting 15 minutes for each quarter. At the end of an hour of playing, the team with the most points wins. In college football, there could be a tie, but in professional football, if both teams have the same score, the game will continue for additional 15 minute periods until one team scores, at which point they are the winners.
Baseball
A Baseball Player
Baseball may still be the great American game, even though many other countries are deeply involved with the game. It is very popular, for instance, in Japan, in Cuba, and in the Dominican Republic. In America, many children (not only boys these days) still play informal, "sandlot" baseball in their neighborhoods. Small towns and cities still maintain organized Little League or (for older children) Babe Ruth baseball teams. In many cities, young adults organize into informal "softball" leagues, and universities still maintain varsity baseball teams. Finally, professional baseball is still "big business".
The Anaheim Stadium
Earlier, before television and air travel, professional baseball was confined to a few cities mostly, but not exclusively, on the East coast . Baseball parks were located near the urban centers and were small compared to football fields. Even today, the largest baseball stadium is the home field of the California Angels, Anaheim Stadium, which holds almost 65 000 spectators, while older Fenway Park, the
Fenway Park
Boston Red Sox Logo
home of the Boston Red Sox, holds only 34 000 fans. The activity involved in baseball is not as intense as that in other sports, hence games can be played one day after another, and even two games on one day—a doubleheader. Baseball used to be played only in the daytime, but after World War II, parks began to install massive lighting systems, and night baseball increased in popularity.
The less intense activity on the playing field also means that spectators can watch the game in a more relaxed and lazy way, an ideal way to fritter away a hot summer afternoon. Beer and soft drinks are available in addition to such snacks as peanuts, popcorn and Cracker jacks (popped corn covered with a crisp coating of dried molasses). Fans will undoubtedly eat at least one of the American sausages called a Frankfurter (Hot Dog, Frank, Red Hot), with pickles, onions, relish and slathered with mustard or ketchup.
Early Baseball Cards
Before World War II, there were two major leagues, or groupings, of baseball teams, The older National League and the American League. A third professional grouping, located in the South and attended almost entirely by African Americans, was the Negro League, a reflection of the segregation policies prevalent then even in Northern cities. Players usually were identified over long periods of time with one team. As a result there was much fan loyalty not only to the team but also to individual players. Fans could quote the performance records of their favorite players, readjusting the figures every day after reviewing the newspaper accounts of the previous day's game. Children (at this time, boys) would collect Baseball Cards, 2 x 3 inch cards having a posed picture of a player on one side, and information about him on the other. These cards were only available in packages of chewing gum marketed particularly for children. (Later these cards were sold separately from the chewing gum. Early cards are collectors items, and command high prices in the souvenir business.
This was the period of hero worship, the era of the Lone Eagle, Lindbergh）, who conquered the Atlantic Ocean. Perhaps, as industrialization spread through America, people felt they were losing control of their lives, that they were becoming buried and lost in a mass, faceless society. To return to some mythical past, where woodsmen and cowboys supposedly conquered nature and wild savages through personal effort and courage, was one way to preserve the notion of individual triumph. And in the present, sports heroes could also serve to remind Americans that talented individuals can succeed through hard work.
Reagan as Sports Announcer
The radio announcers broadcasting descriptions of the games, and newspaper columnists (who frequently were masters of the short colloquial essay or story) writing about the games, exaggerated the exploits on the field and idealized the personal lives of players, thus actually creating many of the colorful heroes of this time. Sportswriter Westbrook Pegler became later in life a conservative political columnist, and sports radio announcer Ronald Reagan also became involved in politics later in his life.
Jackie Robinson
Dodger Logo
After World War II, great changes in the game took place. First, there was the demolition of the color barrier, starting slowly with the hiring of the superb athlete, African-American Jackie Robinson, by Brooklyn Dodgers manager Branch Rickey. At first Robinson was booed whenever he appeared on the field. But several of his respected teammates showed their solidarity with him. Then a few other teams hired African-Americans who had demonstrated their abilities with the Negro Baseball League. Still there were problems with segregated transportation facilities and with segregated dining and housing regulations in some cities. Gradually all teams have become integrated. The courage and determination of Jackie Robinson (and Branch Rickey) will never be forgotten.
Improved transportation led to the wider distribution of teams; cities that formerly had two teams lost one to cities that had no local baseball team. Television too brought in increasing revenues, and players began to negotiate for higher salaries. Players themselves began to be traded to other teams almost as easily as children traded the players' cards. Even then there were not enough baseball teams to locate in every city that wanted one, so a modest number of new teams were created. This necessitated a longer playing season, which in turn led to the desirability of covered stadiums, especially in the far northern part of the country.
The baseball season now begins with Spring Training in February at places such as Florida and Arizona, where the weather is mild at that time of year. The regular season begins at the beginning of April, and ends in October. The World Series between the leading teams in their respective leagues takes place in the latter part of October, when it is frequently uncomfortably cold for the players. This best four out of seven games determines the annual World Series Champions, and marks the end of the baseball season. The World Series is an occasion for neighbors and co-workers to engage in some minor wagering on the outcome of the games. Betting on baseball games has always been present, even leading once to a scandal of players affecting the outcome of a game on direction by big money gamblers (The Black Sox' scandal of 1919). Yet until recently the amount of money wagered had been relatively small. Now, gambling on sporting events such as baseball (and football and basketball, too) represents a sizable amount of money, as more and more Americans wager larger and larger amounts on these events.
Major league baseball stadiums have gotten larger and larger in recent times. The price of tickets has also risen considerably. Thus, more and more Americans are turning to minor league baseball played in some of the smaller cities around America. The minor league teams are supported by the major league owners as a place where new players can gain experience and improve their skills. Frequently a young player is called up to play in the major league, and sometimes a player in the majors who is not performing well may be sent down to the minors.
How the Game Is Played
An Early Baseball Field
Chicago White Sox Pitcher
Baseball is one of the few team sports that is not controlled by a clock; the location of the ball determines the play of the game. The pitcher of the defensive team (the one on the field) throws the ball towards the home plate at a speed often over 150 km/hr. A single player of the offensive team, the team at bat, attempts to hit the baseball somewhere in fair territory outlined by the lines running to the right over first base and to the left over third base. The batter has three tries at any ball thrown through the strike zone, an area over the home plate and between the batter's shoulders and his knees. If the batter swings and misses, or does not swing at
The Batter
a ball in the strike zone, the umpire will call a strike. Three such strikes is an out. If the ball does not cross through the strike zone, it is called a ball. If the pitcher throws four balls (and sometimes this is done deliberately for strategic reasons), the batter may walk to first base.
If the batter does hit the pitched ball, and it is caught by a defending player before it touches the ground, the batter is out. If the ball is not caught in the air, but touches the ground before it is retrieved by a defending player, then the batter tries to run to a base, first or second or third. The ball must reach a defensive player at one of the bases before the batter can touch the base. If the ball is relayed in time, the runner is out. If the runner reaches the base before the ball, he is safe.
Touching Home Plate
Scoring occurs when a batter travels around all the bases and returns to home plate. If a batter hits the ball out of the ballpark (safely between the first and third baselines), he has hit a home run ; he trots around the bases and touches home plate to score. Most players who hit the ball safely are unable to complete the entire circuit around the bases and usually stop at first or second base before the ball is returned to the defending players. He then must wait until his teammate at bat safely hits the ball before he can advance to the next base. (Sometimes a player will not wait for the ball to be hit, and attempts to advance to the next base by stealing the base. If he is not on base and is tagged with the ball, then he is out).
Returning to the Dug Out
The visiting team is at bat first. When the batting team registers three outs, the two teams switch positions: the team on the field returns to its dugout, and the batting team leaves its place on the benches and takes the field. When the home team registers three outs, the inning is over. There are nine innings in a regular game. If no team is winning at the end of nine innings, then the game goes into extra innings, where both teams have a chance to score during the inning. Extra innings continue until one team wins.
A No-hitter Game
Home runs are always exciting, especially when there are additional players on the bases. But baseball fans find it exciting also when a pitcher is able to prevent the batters of the other team from safely hitting the ball, a so-called no-hitter game.
There are other rules and regulations for the game of baseball. For those unfamiliar with the detailed rules, it is probably best to attend the first few games with a knowledgeable companion, who can comment on the reasons for various activities. Baseball is a game of strategy within the framework of rules, so a full appreciation of the game requires a detailed knowledge of the rules. Still, one can always enjoy the drinks and snack food on a hot, lazy summer afternoon.
Basketball
Basketball
Basketball was deliberately created in 1891 by a physical education teacher in Massachusetts, Canadian-born James Naismith, to provide an indoor sports activity during the snowy winter months when outdoor playing fields could not be used. The basic rules of the game have not much changed since then. Today however there are many basketball courts set up out of doors, and youngsters frequently fix a hoop to a convenient post or even a wall in order to practice playing the game.
In recent times, a new rule requires a team to try to score within a brief time: 35 seconds in the collegiate game, 30 seconds in international play, and 24 seconds in American professional play. Teams that are leading in scoring no longer have the luxury of passing the ball around safely out of reach of the defensive team; they must shoot at the basket before the shot clock runs down. The clock is set at, for example, 24 seconds when a professional team gains possession of the ball. It then ticks down to zero, unless someone attempts to shoot the ball into the basket. Either the offensive team scores, or it recovers the missed attempt, or the opposing team gains possession. In all cases, the clock is reset.
Basketball therefore is a fast game, which does not permit leisurely snacking. Most fans sip a cold drink, or possibly dip into a large bag of popcorn, while watching the teams race back and forth on the court. Because it is such a fast game, the score can suddenly shift, and many games are won or lost in the final few seconds of play. This keeps spectators at the game until the very end, whereas in football and baseball many fans leave before the game is over when one team is so far ahead that the outcome seems certain.
Invented in 1891, basketball had its first professional team in 1896. But it wasn't until 1950 that the National Basketball Association of professional teams was established. For the next thirty years, professional basketball did not have much of an audience. In 1979 two college players, Larry Bird of Indiana State University and Magic Johnson of Michigan State University motivated an increased interest in the game through their friendly rivalry. Bird subsequently joined the Boston Celtics, and Johnson the Los Angeles Lakers. Both teams dominated the professional game through the 1980s and
Larry Bird
Magic Johnson
Boston Celtics
L.A.Lakers
even into the 1990s. The growing market in larger sized TV sets also helped, since basketball games are hard to follow on small screens, and the game is played in an arena that frequently seats fewer than 20000 spectators. (The largest arena currently is the Charlotte (NC) Coliseum seating 24000 viewers.)
After a few exhibition games in the fall, the 82-game season begins the first week in November. In mid-February, there is an intermission for the All-Star game, where the best players from teams in both Eastern and Western divisions, display their skills. In mid-April, the eight teams with the best records in each division begin a series of play-off games, where the winner of four out of seven games in a series advances to meet the winners of another play-off series. Finally, the survivors in each division meet for the NBA Championship series of games.
At the collegiate level, teams play a schedule of games based on both the geographical location of the university and its size and resources—a small liberal arts college would not be fairly matched with a large state university, with a much larger sports department. Records are kept on all these so-called conferences, and in March sixty four (64) winning teams from the conferences around the United States are matched against each other in a single game elimination series called March Madness. Thirty two teams are eliminated the first weekend, sixteen the next, and so on until there are only four teams left, the Final Four. And they play two games on one weekend the end of March to determine the collegiate champion.
How the Game Is Played
A basketball court can vary slightly in dimensions, but they are all approximately 26 m long and 15 m wide. Professional courts tend to be a little longer. At each end a basket (actually a metal rim from which is suspended a net open at the bottom) is fixed to a board about 3.1 m from the floor. Backboards are now made of a transparent material so that spectators behind the basket can see the game. In earlier days with opaque backboards, no spectators sat at either end of the court.
The object of the game is to drop the basketball into the net, usually by shooting the ball into the air so that it drops in. This is a skill that can be developed, which explains why youngsters can be found practicing for hours at a time. If a player sinks a basket by throwing the ball from a distance of about 6 m, the team is awarded 3 points. If a player is closer than that, the team receives 2 points.
Dribble
The challenge in the game arises from the rule that players may not carry the ball. A player can throw (pass) the ball to a team mate, or he can bounce (dribble) the ball on the floor as he moves around the court. The defensive players naturally try to intercept a pass, or steal the ball while it is being dribbled. The defense also tries to prevent the offense from shooting the ball before the shot clock expires. If any one of these events occur, the defensive team gains possession. They can also get the ball if an offensive player is the last one to touch the ball before it goes out of bounds, or if the offense scores.
Players commit a foul if they touch another player. The player receiving the foul is awarded a free throw (or foul shot) from a distance about 4.6 m in front of the net. Under certain conditions the player can have two foul shots. Opposing players may not interfere and must stay away from the player when he takes his free throw. Other sorts of misbehavior or unsportsmanlike actions may bring down a technical foul, whereupon the team captain is awarded a free throw. Foul shots are worth one point each.
There are five players on each team, and collegiate games last forty minutes, while professional games go on for forty eight minutes. All games are broken into quarter periods of play measured by a game clock, which is stopped for time outs or when the ball is out of play. Towards the end of the game much thought is given to strategies to stop the clock by the losing team, and players are sometimes deliberately fouled in the hopes they will miss their free throws, thereby giving the other team a chance to score two or three points in a short period of time. If the score is tied at the end of the regular game period, additional overtime periods are played until one team emerges as the winner.
Other Sports Activities
Americans are avid sports fans. One sport that has been gaining in popularity is ice hockey, first played in Canada and states bordering that
Ice Hockey
country. Yet it has spread throughout the United States with professional teams in the warm states of Florida and California. It is also popular as a collegiate sport.
Not only is Track and Field popular, especially in universities, but Americans support racing of all sorts: horses , dogs, automobiles, and bicycles. Court games such as tennis, Racket ball, and Volleyball have their
Car Racing Women Track Athelets
Early Tennis Court Pete Sampras
supporters, and other field games such as Field Hockey, Lacrosse, and particularly Soccer, gain new spectators daily. The intensely individual sports of golf and bowling have many amateur participants, and sponsored matches are watched by many on television.
Golf
Muhammad Ali(left)
Professional wrestling is now a branch of the entertainment business, but collegiate wrestling is a serious sport, and boxing, both amateur and professional, has a large number of followers, nourished unfortunately by the urge to wager money.
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*E-Library
*Supplementary Readings
Early History of Yellowstone National Park
Those of us who have been blessed with the privilege of visiting or living near one of the great treasures of the world, are continually awed by the majestic beauty of its towering mountains, crystal-clear streams, lush mountain meadows, and wildlife. In the midst of this splendor, you cannot help but wonder about yesteryear and the history of the Yellowstone Plateau.
Native Americans have first claim on the Yellowstone Plateau and lived in the area in peaceful tranquillity until the early 1800s—undisturbed by the presence of white men. The Sheepeater Indians, a band of Shoshone, also known as Snake Indians, lived in the area of what is now Yellowstone Park. There they remained isolated and sheltered from the world around them. The mountain ranges surrounding Yellowstone and its pristine valleys provided shelter, protection, and food as Shoshones, Bannocks, and Nez Perce traversed the protective natural highway en route to the "Buffalo Country" of Wyoming and Montana. To the north of what is now Yellowstone Park flows one of its great rivers, the Yellowstone. The Yellowstone River Valley offered little protection, for several hundred miles, for travelers traveling down the Yellowstone Valley including Indians, as they were subject to attack from warring Indian Tribes like the Blackfeet. Yet, traveling down this valley would have been much preferred. Thus, Indian hunting parties traversing over the mountains and valleys of Yellowstone were afforded some measure of protection from attack. The widely-used trail would become known as the Bannock Trail.
In 1877 the Nez Perce followed much of the Bannock Trail through Yellowstone as the Nez Perce fled from government forces commanded by General Oliver O. Howard. The Government was determined to occupy and take possession of the non-treaty Nez Perce lands and force them onto the Nez Perce Reservation in Lapwai, Idaho. The tragic Nez Perce War erupted when Chief Joseph and other Nez Perce leaders including Chief Looking Glass were being forced onto the Nez Perce Reservation under orders from General Howard. After war broke out, the Nez Perce fought gallantly through 18 skirmishes and major battles for their ancestral lands, principles, and values in a defensive war that would take them approximately 1,500 miles through Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.
Much earlier, President Thomas Jefferson envisioned creating an American Empire stretching from coast-to coast. His dream began to bear fruition with the acquisition of Louisiana from France in 1803. The Discovery Corps led by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark would pave the way for the opening of the Pacific Northwest and begin the building of Jefferson's American Empire. Captain William Clark's party canoed down the Yellowstone River Valley, a short distance from today's Yellowstone Park, en route to their rendezvous with Meriwether Lewis at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers.
Young, athletic and strong person of mind, John Colter, who was a member of the Discovery Corps, would encounter two trappers somewhere near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. The trappers named Joseph Dixon and Forrest Hancock would become John Colter's partners. The date of their meeting, August 12, 1806, was an important day in John Colter's life for shortly after that he would return up the Yellowstone with his partners. From there they would follow the Clarks Fork River to an area believed to be near the mouth of the Clarks Fork Canyon where they spent the winter. The next spring Colter would leave the Rocky Mountains again as he began to make his way down the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers en route back to the United States. En route he ran into Manual Lisa's brigade. Colter was once again persuaded to return up the Yellowstone. The party stopped at the mouth of the Big Horn River and constructed a trading post, Fort Raymond. Colter was asked to let tribes in the area know about the new fort and trading opportunities. During Colter's epic journey, he would discover a thermal area near present day Cody, Wyoming, which would become known as Colter's Hell. From there he would travel through the Tetons, along the Gallatin Range, through Yellowstone Park's Lamar Valley and through the "Gap" at present day Cooke City, Montana. Then, he traversed the Sunlight Basin area and out onto the Big Horn Basin en route back to Fort Raymond.
Others would follow Colter into the Yellowstone area. In 1824, Jedediah Smith & Jim Bridger began trapping around Jackson Hole up to the south boundary of Yellowstone Park. On August 10, 1836, Osborne Russell and Jim Bridger explored Two Ocean Pass. In 1860, Captain William F Raynolds attempted to explore Yellowstone from the south. In 1869, David Folsom, Charles Cook and William Peterson explored Yellowstone. In 1870, the Washburn party explored Yellowstone with escort services provided by Lieutenant Doanne. In 1871, Hayden led his geological survey team into Yellowstone.
Yellowstone had been discovered and interest in preserving its majestic beauty was growing. Congressional delegate William H. Clagett along with the leadership of Senator Pomery worked to create legislation to create Yellowstone Park. It was created upon a roll call vote with 115 ayes, 65 nays and 60 abstaining on March 1, 1872, and signed by President Ulysses S. Grant.
Theodore Roosevelt and the Teddy Bear
The story of the Teddy Bear…
Many of us have loved a teddy bear. 
Maybe we've even had more than one very special "teddy" in our lives. Here is the real story of how the teddy bear sprang into our hearts. 
Nearly 100 years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt, went on a bear hunt. He enjoyed nature and being out in the woods where animals lived. Because he was the President of the United States, the people organizing the hunt wanted to make sure the hunt was successful. 
But after 3 days of walking and climbing and riding, no bears were found. Now what? The President's bear hunt would be a failure! 
The next day the hunt guide and his hunting dogs finally found an old bear. The dogs and guide followed the bear for quite a distance until the bear was very, very tired. The dogs attacked and injured the old bear. The guides tied the bear to a tree and called for the President. Here was a bear for him to shoot! 
President Roosevelt looked at the poor old bear and said "no!" No one would shoot this old bear for sport. That would not be right. However, the bear was injured and suffering. President Roosevelt ordered that the bear be put down to end its pain. 
A political cartoonist by the name of Clifford Berryman heard this story. A political cartoonist draws about current events in the news. Mr. Berryman drew a cartoon showing how President Roosevelt refused to shoot the bear while hunting in Mississippi. 
If you look at the first cartoon that was printed about the President's bear hunt you see Theodore Roosevelt in the front. In the back is the guide with a bear tied on a leash. Notice that the guide and the bear are about the same size, suggesting a grown bear. 
Look at the cartoon which appeared later in other papers. It has been redrawn. The bear is smaller than the guide. The bear is shaking with fear. This cute bear cub began to appear in other cartoons which Clifford Berryman drew throughout Theodore Roosevelt's career. 
So that is how a bear became connected to the name of President Theodore Roosevelt. 
But where do toy "teddy bears" come from? 
After this famous cartoon appeared in the papers, a shopkeeper, Morris Michtom took two stuffed toy bears which his wife had made and put them in his shop window. He had an idea. 
Mr. Michtom asked for permission from President Theodore Roosevelt to call these toy bears "Teddy's bears". This store eventually became the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company. 
Other stuffed animals were made by a German company, Steiff. An illness left Margaret Steiff unable to walk. She refused to be stopped by her handicap and earned her living by sewing. First she made stuffed elephants, then other animals. In 1903 an American saw a stuffed bear she had made and ordered many of them. 
The phrase caught on. Now toy bears are often called teddy bears!
3. Theordore Roosevelt and the Grand Canyon
Theodore Roosevelt was a great lover of animals and their natural environments. He was one of the very first to preserve parks and recreational spaces in this country. He made sure these places would be around for his children and everyone's children to see forever. One place he thought was very special was the Grand Canyon, so he made sure it would remain beautiful and unspoiled. 
"Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it." 
This speech which President Roosevelt made at the Grand Canyon, Arizona, on May 6, 1903 shows how he thought people should treat the Grand Canyon.
"In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which, so far as I know, is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to do one thing in connection with it in your own interest and in the interest of the country-to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. 
I was delighted to learn of the wisdom of the Santa Fe railroad people in deciding not to build their hotel on the brink of the canyon. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel, or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. 
Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American if he can travel at all should see. 
We have gotten past the stage, my fellow-citizens, when we are to be pardoned if we treat any part of our country as something to be skinned for two or three years for the use of the present generation, whether it is the forest, the water, the scenery. Whatever it is, handle it so that your children's children will get the benefit of it."
* from "Presidential Addresses and State Papers"
* http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa11/*E-Library11_p1.asp.htm
*E-Library
*Supplementary Readings
Diamonds for Everybody
When a group of businessmen in New York's genteel Murray Hill area adopted rules for hitting a little ball with a big stick in 1845, they had no idea that their diversion would become the national pastime. Indeed, the nattily dressed Knickerbocker Club tried to monopolize baseball by keeping "outsiders" away from matches and refusing to play with a Brooklyn team of "greasy mechanics." However, as one member of the elite noted, "The great mass who are in a subordinate capacity, can participate in this health-giving and noble sport," requiring only the great outdoors, hat, and ball. Democratization inevitably occurred, and soon urban workers, disadvantaged by long factory hours, were scheduling "morning-glory" games at dawn. Unlike wrestling or cockfighting, baseball was suitable for spectators of every age, class, and sex—though before the days of grandstands a lady might be offended by a frantic player looking for a stray ball under her hoop skirts. After the Civil War, baseball became a mania: professionals toured the country; amateurs neglected their jobs: and rooters either became rabid over victory or mourned.
The Simpson Case
It was a foggy June night in 1994 when Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were slashed to death outside her Brentwood, Calif., condo. There were no witnesses, but many clues: bloody shoe prints and glove, a knit cap. When police later noticed cuts on the left hand of Nicole's estranged husband, O. J. Simpson, it started a chain of events that's still reverberating.
It turned out that a trail of blood drops leading away from the bodies appeared to match the mighty former football player's blood type. Detective Mark Fuhrman told other cops that he had found the mate to the bloody glove at Simpson's posh Brentwood mansion. DNA experts testified that there was blood from the victims at Simpson's house and in the white Ford Bronco in which he had led police on a surreal televised freeway chase after the murders. And prosecutors showed he had a history of slapping his wife around.
The 1990s have seen terrorism in the United States-at the World Trade Center and at the federal office building in Oklahoma City. It has also been a time when angry, alienated boys opened fire on classmates in Columbine High and other schools. But it was the Simpson case-a tangled tale of money, power, celebrity, race, domestic abuse, media madness-that captured America's perverse fascination with the famous. It started as a macabre parlor game that, thanks to cameras in the courtroom, everyone could play. But as the case evolved, it became a racially tinged referendum on the American justice system.
"What made it unusual was O.J.," says Vincent Bugliosi, the former Los Angeles prosecutor who wrote a book about the case. "The murder was very garden-variety." The football star turned Hertz pitchman hired a colorful cadre of high-priced legal talent dubbed the "Dream Team." The televised 13-month trial, presided over by Superior Court Judge Lance Ito, was the most widely watched criminal proceeding in history. Simpson's lawyers accused the police of bungling the investigation. Forensic experts pointed to sloppiness that could have compromised blood samples; the bloody glove didn't seem to fit; Fuhrman was a disastrous witness.
The jury deliberated for only a few hours before acquitting Simpson. A civil jury later disagreed, finding Simpson liable for both deaths and ordering him to cough up $33.5 million in damages. He sold his mansion, lost his Heisman trophy, and now lives not far from the murder scene with his and Nicole's two children. Did he get away with murder? That's the question of the century. Race factor tilts the scales of public opinion.
The second O.J. Simpson verdict, like the first one, already is being viewed as part of the troubling landscape of the nation's racial divide.
"Race was not a daily headline in the second trial, but it was there," says John Mack of the Los Angeles Urban League, a community service organization. "An overwhelming majority of African-Americans felt it was payback time for white America."
A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll conducted after the Tuesday verdict found stark differences in the views of blacks and whites.
Whites overwhelmingly agreed with the jury's decision that Simpson is responsible for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Only about a fourth of blacks agreed with the verdict. And while most blacks were sympathetic to Simpson, a majority of whites said they were unsympathetic.
"There were a lot of differences between these two trials, but they all pale in comparison to the fact that one jury was predominantly white and the other predominantly black," says Brandeis University professor Jeffrey Abramson, author of a book on the jury system. "Two juries, two societies, two codes of justice."
The jury in the criminal trial comprised nine blacks, two whites and one Hispanic. The jury in the civil trial: nine whites, one Hispanic, one Asian and one person of black and Hispanic ancestry.
The civil trial was different from the criminal trial in several other ways: The civil trial did not require an unanimous verdict, the standard of proof for guilt was lower, and defendant Simpson could be compelled to testify—and was.
But the civil trial jury's sweeping unanimity in its verdict against Simpson erased some of those differences, in the view of some legal experts, and set up a more stark comparison between both trials.
Viewed that way, the sharply opposite racial composition of the juries and Simpson's testimony stand as the major differences between the two trials.
"The combination of the all-white jury and the fact that O.J. Simpson was his own worst enemy on the witness stand made the difference," Mack says.
"Sometimes we need these reality checks to look at the real state of (race) relations," says Darnell Hunt, sociologist at the University of Southern California. He says many blacks will see the verdict as reinforcement of the view that the justice system is biased against them.
Critics of the civil trial also note that Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki did not allow any of the racially charged testimony from the criminal trial that might have helped Simpson. Retired Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman, accused in the criminal trial of using racial epithets and having racist motives in his investigation, did not testify in the civil trial.
Abramson says research still supports the notion that black jurors are more willing than white jurors to acquit defendants, especially when police conduct is an issue.
"The dirty fact is that juries reflect the divisions of society," Abramson says. "It's telling us that the racial divide is getting worse."
But not everyone agrees that race was the dominant factor or that the justice system is flawed.
"So what if this was a predominantly white jury?" says Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy, author of a forthcoming book on race and the legal system. "People want to fold these events into their preordained feelings."
Kennedy says the media should focus on the substantial poll numbers of blacks who feel the verdict was fair and the whites who feel it wasn't.
"I'm not sure this is a story of polarity," Kennedy says. "A bunch of cases go against expectations."
Christopher Darden, a prosecutor in the Simpson criminal trial, agreed.
"This jury focused on the evidence, not race or politics," Darden said. "O.J. lied in front of this jury, he lied to the black community, and he lied to the American public."
And the head of a group of trial lawyers says the Simpson verdict exposes the strengths, not the weaknesses, of the legal system.
"It is the unique beauty of America's system of justice that every citizen has the opportunity to right wrongs and hold wrongdoers accountable before a jury of our fellow citizens," says Howard Twiggs, president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.
Reagan's Presidency
Fun Fact: To avoid long encounters with the press, President Ronald Reagan often took reporters' questions with his helicopter roaring in the background.
Fast Fact: Ronald Reagan envisioned a smaller Government, a greater America.
Biography: At the end of his two terms in office, Ronald Reagan viewed with satisfaction the achievements of his innovative program known as the Reagan Revolution, which aimed to reinvigorate the American people and reduce their reliance upon Government. He felt he had fulfilled his campaign pledge of 1980 to restore "the great, confident roar of American progress and growth and optimism."
On February 6, 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born to Nelle and John Reagan in Tampico, Illinois. He attended high school in nearby Dixon and then worked his way through Eureka College. There, he studied economics and sociology, played on the football team, and acted in school plays. Upon graduation, he became a radio sports announcer. A screen test in 1937 won him a contract in Hollywood. During the next two decades he appeared in 53 films.
He has two children, Maureen and Michael, from his first marriage, to actress Jane Wyman. In 1952 he married Nancy Davis, also an actress; their children are Patricia Ann and Ronald Prescott.
As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan became embroiled in disputes over the issue of Communism in the film industry; his political views shifted from liberal to conservative. He toured the country as a television host, becoming a spokesman for conservatism. In 1966 he was elected Governor of California by a margin of a million votes; he was re-elected in 1970.
Ronald Reagan won the Republican Presidential nomination in 1980 and chose as his running mate former Texas Congressman and United Nations Ambassador George Bush. Voters troubled by inflation and by the year-long confinement of Americans in Iran swept the Republican ticket into office. Reagan won 489 electoral votes to 49 for President Jimmy Carter.
On January 20, 1981, Reagan took office. Only 69 days later he was shot by a would-be assassin, but quickly recovered and returned to duty. His grace and wit during the dangerous incident caused his popularity to soar.
Dealing skillfully with Congress, Reagan obtained legislation to stimulate economic growth, curb inflation, increase employment, and strengthen national defense. He embarked upon a course of cutting taxes and Government expenditures, refusing to deviate from it when the strengthening of defense forces led to a large deficit.
A renewal of national self-confidence by 1984 helped Reagan and Bush win a second term with an unprecedented number of electoral votes. Their victory turned away Democratic challengers Walter F. Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro.
In 1986 Reagan obtained an overhaul of the income tax code, which eliminated many deductions and exempted millions of people with low incomes. At the end of his administration, the Nation was enjoying its longest recorded period of peacetime prosperity without recession or depression.
In foreign policy, Reagan sought to achieve "peace through strength." During his two terms he increased defense spending 35 percent, but sought to improve relations with the Soviet Union. In dramatic meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he negotiated a treaty that would eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Reagan declared war against international terrorism, sending American bombers against Libya after evidence came out that Libya was involved in an attack on American soldiers in a West Berlin nightclub.
By ordering naval escorts in the Persian Gulf, he maintained the free flow of oil during the Iran-Iraq war. In keeping with the Reagan Doctrine, he gave support to anti- Communist insurgencies in Central America, Asia, and Africa.
Overall, the Reagan years saw a restoration of prosperity, and the goal of peace through strength seemed to be within grasp.
No Good from Raising Race Issue
August 8, 1942 4. An editorial from 1942 issue of The Sporting News commenting on Robinson as the first black professional baseball player and the race issue.
There is no law against Negroes playing with white teams, nor whites with colored clubs, but neither has invited the other for the obvious reason they prefer to draw their talent from their own ranks and do not care to run the risk of damaging their own game. Other sports had their Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Fritz Pollard and like notables, respected and honored by all races, but they competed under different circumstances from those dominating in baseball.
The baseball fan is a peculiar creature. We believe no one will question that fact. He deems it his inalienable right and privilege to criticize and jeer, in words that not always are the choicest or the most gentlemanly. Not even a Ted Williams or a Joe DiMaggio or a Babe Ruth is immune. It is not difficult to imagine what would happen if a player on a mixed team, performing before a crowd of the opposite color, should thrown a bean ball, strike out with the bases full or spike a rival. Clear-minded men of tolerance of both races realize the tragic possibilities and have steered clear of such complications because they realize it is to the benefit of each and also of the game.
However, there are agitators, ever ready to seize an issue that will redound to their profit or self-aggrandizement, who have sought to force Negro players on the big leagues, not because it would help the game, but because it gives them a chance to thrust themselves into the limelight as great crusaders in the guise of democracy. There would be as much point in the reverse being tried and an attempt made by Negro teams to bolster their lineups with white stars. It is not difficult to visualize what would happen in the latter case.
As it is, players of both races have been permitted to develop in their own environments and rise to the heights of stardom within their own circles. Proper tribute has been paid to Satchel Paige, for instance, as being a great pitcher. Whether he would be held in such esteem had he attempted to win his laurels elsewhere is problematical: The same is true of other Negro stars. They have blossomed forth with the inspiration of the encouragement and sympathy of their own followers. It is doubtful if the road would have been so easy otherwise. 
As a result, the country has a great Negro major league, which draws heavy support from the colored folk. If its ranks were raised by the American and National leagues, with their tremendous resources, it would have fewer stars and the caliber of ball which has made it an attraction would be so lowered that the Negro loop, of necessity, would sink to the status of an inferior minor circuit, with consequent decline in enthusiasm by fans and prestige of performers.
Organized Negro baseball has become a million-dollar business annually and is beginning to emerge from the red-ink stage into the profit column. It would be a staggering blow should its leading players be drawn into the majors and, with them, its fan support. It is doubtful if the colored game could survive. Instead of gaining anything, Negro baseball would lose everything and without a medium for developing talent there would be no players, in a short time, who could make the grade, even if given the opportunity, in the American or National leagues, not to mention the minors.
Joe Bostic, sports columnist of the People's Voice, a Negro newspaper published in Harlem, commenting on the agitation, wrote: "While we are not against Negroes playing in the American or National leagues, at the very best, we are only lukewarm to the idea. Our reasons for this position are: (1) Our approach to the question is strictly mercenary; (2) We're deadly practical about the whole situation; (3) We're not convinced that the baseball played in the organized leagues necessarily represents the best caliber of ball played per se. We feel that the net results would be written in red ink on the ledgers of Negro baseball. On the second count of practicality, why subject any player to the humiliation and indignities associated with the problems of eating, sleeping and traveling in a layout dominated by prejudice-ridden southern whites?" And, he might have added, "The criticism of sometimes-cruel and hot-headed fans."
Or take Candy Jim Taylor of the American Giants, who has been playing with and managing Negro teams for almost a half-century. Taylor was quoted by Irv Kupcinet of the Chicago Daily Times: "We know there's no law against hiring colored boys in the majors. Just as there's no law against us hiring white boys for the American Giants. But we are going to stick to our colored boys and I know the majors are going to stick to the whites."
Of course, there are some colored people who take a different view, and they are entitled to their opinions, but in doing so they are not looking at the question from the broader point of view or for the ultimate good of either the race or the individuals in it. They ought to concede their own people are not protected and that nothing is served by allowing agitators to make an issue of a question on which both sides would prefer to be let alone.
John P. Carmichael of the Chicago Daily News relates a story that is especially pertinent and probably expressed the sentiment of clear thinkers on both sides: "There's still the story of Joe Louis, one of our favorite guys of all time, being interviewed in his Chicago home the morning after he whipped Jim Braddock for the heavyweight championship of the world," wrote Carmichael. "As the talk progressed, the fumes of pork chops on the fire assailed the nostrils of both men. Each allowed as how he could do with some. Quick as a flash, Louis set up a card table, arranged for one luncheon to be spread thereon.
"'If you'll excuse me,' he told the reporter, 'I'm gonna have lunch with some friends in the kitchen. When we get through we'll talk some more.'"
5. Magic Johnson and Big Bird
Magic Johnson joined Larry Bird as the two marquis players of the 1980s. They were forever linked after Magic's Spartans defeated Bird's Indiana State team to win the NCAA title in 1979. Magic was later named tournament MVP. Magic was the Number One pick in the draft in 1979 out of Michigan State, leaving as his school's all-time assists leader. Lakers' owner Jack Kent Cooke signed Magic to a 5 year deal worth 500,000 a year, the highest salary of a rookie to date … Bird later signed for $600,000 a year. He had an immediate impact on the league, but Larry Bird won rookie of the year honors. Magic led his Lakers to 5 NBA Championships in 1980, 1982, 1985 and back to back World Championships in 1987 and 1988. He was the Finals MVP in 1980, when he played every position for the team, and again in 1987. Even when he wasn't winning championships he was playing in the big games. Magic's Lakers finished as runner-ups in 1983, 1984, 1989 and 1991. As you can see, Magic's team only sat out of the NBA Finals in 1981, 1986 and 1990. Magic Johnson has individual honors as well, being a three time league MVP in 1987, 1989 and 1990. He is also a twelve time NBA all-star including the in 1990 and 1992 when he was named MVP of the game. He added an Olympic Gold Medal with the Dream Team to his other Championship titles in college and the NBA.
On April 15, 1991 Magic surpassed Oscar Robertson's assist record of 9,887. This record has since been broken by John Stockton, but Magic remains firmly entrenched at number two on the all-time list, being only the second player to reach 10,000. He stunned the world during the 1991-1992 season with his announcement of his retirement before the season began, due to testing positive to the HIV Virus. He made an appearance at the All-Star Game that year, winning the MVP honors with his 12th appearance and tenth start. He also made a failed comeback attempt and took over the Lakers as coach. In 1996 he made his return, looking like his old self again and leading the Lakers into the playoffs. Unfortunately, he retired again at the end of the year. Magic was named to the All-NBA Interview team in 1996 due in large part to the media hype associated with his return. As a last honor, before the Hall of Fame, Magic Johnson was named one of the 50 Greatest NBA Players of all time. In his retirement, Magic spends time with his wife Cookie and his son Earvin III. He also organized a team of ex-NBA stars and has been touring the Globe...another Harlem Globetrotters team I suppose.
===Unit 16流 American Popular Culture: Movies and Music 原为 12 Jazz===
Focal Points
* Jazz music
* New Orleans jazz
* Louis Armstrong
* Ragtime music
* Count Basie
* Boogie Woogie
　
Text
Introduction
The Jazz Age
The whole world knows American jazz music. Musicians and performers have appreciative fans in nearly every country. The newest songs are heard everywhere, and live performances are well attended. Yet many are not familiar with the early forms of jazz, a uniquely American contribution to the arts. No other art form, painting, fiction, poetry, has had a distinctive American contribution as has jazz music. Composers around the world during the twentieth century found inspiration in early American jazz.
Early Jazz Music
Why did a musical form initially performed and appreciated by a lower class segment of American society gain acceptance in all classes in America and spread throughout the country? First of all, the acceptance was slow and in some cases grudging. The appeal initially was to the young and rebellious. Secondly, as we shall see below, as the music was accepted it became modified, softened for more sensitive ears. Perhaps it would be better to say that the music itself was not accepted, but that it inspired other musicians to play acceptable versions of the original music. In any event, the emphasis on free invention and the development of individual ways of playing instruments appealed to themes in American culture.
The individual style of jazz musicians is worth special comment. Violinists in an orchestra are interchangeable. One trumpet in a classical orchestra
Trumpet
plays like every other; there is no distinctive tone or texture that separates clarinet players. Yet listeners can identify very easily the clarinet of Johnny Dodds, and distinguish him from other clarinetists, each of whom has his own style. This individual sound and style can be attributed to all the great jazz musicians. Perhaps this identification of the individual player appeals to those American values that stress the importance of the distinctive and different individual.
Early New Orleans Jazz
New Orleans Jazz
Church Music Group
At the end of the nineteenth century in America, folk music could be found in every state and territory. Yet it was in New Orleans that a new blend of folk music, work chants, spirituals (that is, church music), marches, and even European classical music, blended together in the form known as jazz. A defining mark of this early New Orleans jazz was an ensemble of musicians improvising their notes in changing chords around a specific melodic line. This "improvising together" within the constraints of an agreed upon melody requires a highly developed musical sense and also a familiarity with the musical thinking of one's companions. It is a community effort with a high degree of individualism.
Jazz trumpet
The "front line" of the ensemble included a cornet (or trumpet), a clarinet, and a trombone. The trumpet with its incisive brassy blare usually announced the melody, or some variation of it. The shrill clarinet wove a contrasting musical theme that complemented the trumpet. The trombone contributed long, gliding, full bodied sounds of the bass giving strength and body to the music.
Jazz Music Speaks to All People
The percussion section was behind the front line, and set the rhythm. Early jazz was also identified by its polyrhythmic structure, a clear contribution from the complex drumming of West Africa brought over to America by black slaves. Various instruments will frequently shade the beat slightly, either playing a note a little early, or hesitating and playing it a little late. This, along with other rhythmic techniques, causes the phenomenon known as "swing". Much of the appeal of jazz comes from these complex rhythmic devices. People from all cultures sway back and forth, or tap their feet, or clap their hands in time with jazz. It has a universal effect; it speaks to everyone.
If the band was marching while playing the music, then there were several drummers, some with small snare drums and others with large bass drums. If, on the other hand, the band was performing on a stage to provide music for social dancing, or to liven up a picnic or other social occasion, then one person had an assortment of drums in front of him, on which he played selectively. Percussion instruments also included the cymbal, bells, hollow wooden blocks, chimes, and so forth. The musical surprise evoked by the sudden intrusion of a "nonmusical" sound adds considerably to the humor of the music. Drums did more than merely establish the beat, the timing for the beginning and end of a bar of music. They also contributed to the "texture" of the sound of the ensemble. The famous drummer "Baby" Dodds explained and illustrated his techniques for drumming in a solo interview for the Library of Congress. One can almost hear the melody from his drumming alone.
Jazz Drummer
Baby Dodds
Another percussion instrument was the banjo, a common folk music instrument. The chords strummed on this instrument provided a general background for the other instruments as well as serving the rhythm section. Guitars were also found with, or instead of, a banjo. When the band was seated during a performance, it was frequently joined by a piano and sometimes a bass violin (fiddle), which was slapped or plucked as often as it was bowed.
Jazz Banjo
Jazz Guitar
Jazz
Jazz bands played dance music as well as marches and ragtime music.
Jazz Band
Ragtime Music
(Ragtime is apparently a contraction of “ragged time” where the timing of the music would change.) They also played “cakewalks”, a type of strutting dance, and blues, derived from a blend of field chantey and spiritual—a form of hymn singing prevalent in African-American Christian
African American Church
An African American Blues Singer
churches. The tradition of the vocal ballad, usually accompanied by a guitar, also contributed to the blues form. The music of the blues has a peculiar, poignant sadness, which is mainly the effect of a flattened seventh note in the scale. Furthermore, the lyrics of many blues pieces are sardonic, filled with wry, self-deprecating humor.
Chamber Music
One other major source of this distinctively American type of music is European classical music: operas, chamber music, and formal dances such as the quadrille. It should be noted that in the late Nineteenth century, New Orleans had three opera companies. Many early jazz musicians were trained in classical music. Still, many others were self-taught or apprenticed themselves to accomplished players. Thus, many early jazz musicians could not read written scores. In addition to this informal learning, there was a considerable amount of formal musical instruction in the schools and orphanages in the South.
Music was an important ingredient in the lives of Americans, black or white, at the end of the nineteenth century. From formal concerts and balls, where formal dances occurred, to weddings, funerals, and holiday fairs, music was an important part of everyone's life. At that time, in African American communities (mostly in southern states), music was a means of expressing joy, of taking small pleasures, within a broader context of repression and confinement. The attitude can best be described as admitting life was difficult at times, but it is brief, and much joy can still be had. The traditional New Orleans funeral exemplifies this thinking: a slow, mournful dirge to the interment, and then a joyful, sprightly march back to the place where food and drink was set out for the mourners.
A Sleighride
Jazz at a Funeral
Jazz for Fun
Jazz in Chicago and New York in the 1920s
Jazz did establish a foothold in California, but it flourished in Chicago and New York. In the early 1920's, Chicago emerged as the creative center for jazz. While New York had its musicians, especially in the predominantly African American district called Harlem, it was still the South Side of Chicago that was the most active and creative jazz venue. When Joe Oliver opened in Lincoln Gardens in 1922 with his King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, jazz began to take
Joe Oliver
Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
W.C Handy
on new characteristics distinctive of the Chicago style. This became quite evident when Louis Armstrong left his job with a riverboat orchestra to join Oliver's band in Chicago with the Dodds brothers, Johnny on clarinet and Warren (known as "Baby") on drums. The pianist at the time was Lil Hardin, soon to become Louis' wife. Neither Oliver himself nor any of these musicians were actually Creole (white or mixed descendants of French or Spanish settlers who speak a special language derived from French).
Lil Hardin, Armstrong's Wife
Louis Armstrong
In Chicago, the music was played at a faster tempo than was usually the case with New Orleans style jazz. The idea of a break—a pause in the rhythmic background—was pre-arranged, and opportunities for individual instruments to play a solo chorus or two against a background of other muted instruments were also pre-planned. This was the beginning of the arranged musical piece as distinct from ensemble improvisation.
Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901. He learned to play the cornet when he spent a few years in his early teens in a reform school, the consequences of a boyish prank. After an apprenticeship in several bands in New Orleans, where he acquired the nickname "Satchelmouth" or just plain "Satchmo", he was asked by Joe Oliver to join his orchestra in Chicago. Although Armstrong was in Chicago only two years, he set the style that was identified with Chicago, and which enthralled so many young, predominantly white musicians.
But Armstrong himself left Chicago in 1924 for New York with his new wife, Lil Hardin, to play with Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. The several years in New York were immensely productive for Armstrong. Recording opportunities were greater there. So, in addition to his work with Henderson's orchestra, he participated in small groups to record music. These small groups would frequently accompany blues singers during performances or recordings. During the 1920's the famous Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, who began her career in minstrel shows, dominated the scene, soon to be replaced by the even more musically talented Bessie Smith, whose sobriquet was "Empress of the Blues." Blues vocals were always poignant, frequently laced with ironic humor, and sometimes risque through the use of double entendre lyrics. But "St. Louis Blues", probably the most famous of the Armstrong-Smith recordings, is hardly raucous, having been composed by W.C. Handy, whose lyrics never offended anyone' sensitivities.
Fletcher Hhenderson
Gertrude Rainey
Bessie Smith
W.C.Handy
Armstrong organized, with the help of his wife, several of his friends into the recording groups known as the Hot Five and the Hot Seven to make a justly
Hot Five
Dancing in the Roaring Twenties
famous series of recordings for the Okeh Recording company. These recordings represent the origin of the frenetic Chicago style of jazz, reflecting the Roaring Twenties life in Chicago. The Dodds brothers, members of the Hot Five and Hot Seven, also recorded in small groups in Chicago, notably with (white) trumpeter Natty Dominique, but these recordings are still in the mode of the earlier New Orleans style—more relaxed and lyrical.
At this time, 1926, Armstrong also recorded his famous "scat singing", vocalizing nonsense syllables in tune with the music. In 1927 the Pittsburg born pianist Earl Hines joined him for a long lasting collaboration. Hines himself had developed a trumpet style of playing the piano: octaves with the right hand and stabbing the keyboard leading to a percussive brassy sound. He was musically inventive and his playing surprised other musicians who often thought he had lost his way while playing. His solo recording late in 1928 of "A Monday Date" exhibits an inventiveness that was years ahead of his time. Before returning to play with Armstrong in 1947, Hines led his own band in Chicago, which included at different times many famous jazz figures.
Armstrong continued to play and record during the 1930's, both in America and in Europe. France, especially, was most receptive to this new American style of music. The newer, swing bands of the late 1930's and early 1940's eclipsed Armstrong's trumpet, but with the New Orleans revival in the late 1940's and with his motion picture appearances, particularly with the popular Bing Crosby, Armstrong once again shone brightly as America's foremost jazz musician.
Bing Crosby performing
The Piano
Piano music had its own history. Primarily employed in taverns and houses of pleasure, the piano was used for sounding out melodies in addition to establishing a rhythm.So when it joined a jazz band it was used for both purposes there as well. A special style of music called "ragtime" was particularly well suited for a solo piano. Originally based on tunes for marching bands, ragtime music is marked by a syncopated melodic line with a regularly accented bass. During the course of music, the beat pattern frequently shifts, say, from 2/4 to 3/4. Now the technology for "recording" pianos comes well before the invention of Edison's phonograph. Player pianos were devices that "read" the music punched as holes in rolls of paper and then depressed the keys of the instrument accordingly, much like a Jacquard weaving loom. Many such piano rolls, made from the keyboard fingering of famous players, still survive, and vinyl or CD reproductions of the music are now available.
Scott Joplin
Sidney Bechet
Tunes composed specifically for ragtime piano were being published in the 1890's by such composers as Scott Joplin. In 1896 Joplin published the first really popular ragtime tune, "Maple Leaf Rag",which is still listened to with pleasure by newcomers to this music. But any tune could be given a ragtime treatment, illustrated by Jelly Roll Morton during his interview with the Library of Congress. That is, ragtime is an approach, a style of playing music of almost any type. The same incidentally can be said for jazz itself: there are tunes specifically composed for jazz bands, yet almost any tune could be "jazzed up." Sidney Bechet was notorious for taking straight tunes such as Summertime, and giving them a jazz treatment.
Ragtime piano and jazz evolved together in the first decades of the century. In New York however a new, distinctive style of piano playing called "stride" piano emerged in Harlem, the most notable proponent of this style
Today's Harlem, a Tourist Property
Fats Waller, America's Greatest Stride Pianist
being James P. Johnson, whose protege Fats Waller also gained a measure of fame. Johnson's "Carolina Shout" is a masterful example of stride piano, and many developing young pianists learned how to play this style from copying that number. Fats Waller recorded "Handful of Keys" in 1929, a number that assured him of a place among great jazz pianists. His self-mocking humor was quite distinctive with him and is nicely illustrated in his rendition of "Honeysuckle Rose."
In Harlem a tradition of pianists competing with each other, one trying to outdo the other in technically difficult pieces, led to this strident form of playing, where playing bass figures in tenths was not unusual. In New Orleans the tradition of competition between bands and even separate musical instruments was commonplace at picnics, parades, and fairs. In Harlem, however, the setting was usually a "house rent party," which as the name indicates was a party of drinks, food, and music for which admission was charged, the fee going to pay the rent of the organizer.
Edward Duke Ellington
Count Basie
Harlem at this time was a breeding ground for many jazz musicians who earned fame later in the 1930's. Among them were the gifted pianist Art Tatum, and the highly successful orchestra leader, and no mean pianist himself, Edward "Duke" Ellington. Count Basie, who was born in Red Bank, NJ, actually began his career in Kansas, but after that he spent his later years in Harlem developing his style. Both Tatum and Basie were strongly influenced by Earl Hines, mentioned above. Hines also mentored or strongly influenced many other jazz pianists.
Boogie Woogie
Another piano style was emerging in Chicago in the late 1920's and early 1930's. Pianists drifting into Chicago from the midwest were playing blues pieces with a distinctive, rocking bass figure. The pieces had themes of anywhere from 12 to 24 bars, and even 32 bars in some instances. "Pine Top" Smith recorded his "Pine Top's Boogie" in 1928, and the music with the rocking beat began to be called “Boogie Woogie.” Meade Lux Lewis recorded his "Honky Tonk Train" at this time, too. But it was left to a quiet, modest pianist, Jimmy Yancey, to standardize this style to a 12-bar blues melodic line with 8 beats to the bar. He worked with Meade Lux Lewis and the young Albert Ammons, both of whom were driving taxis in Chicago in the early 1930's. Yancey recorded only a few records for RCA before suffering a
Meade Lewis
Jimmy Yancey
RCA
slight stroke, that weakened his vigorous style, and made it more delicate and introspective. Again, Boogie Woogie is represented by specific pieces of music as well as being an approach to nearly any tune. This is evidenced most dramatically by a series of records Ammons made with Mercury Records, in which he and his accompanying band play "The Sheik of Araby," "The Eyes of Texas are Upon You," and other popular numbers. Just as ragtime was not confined to the piano only, so also a Boogie Woogie piece was in the repertoire of every jazz band of the 1930's.
Jazz developments after World War II until the end of the 20th century, a period of over 50 years, are another, even more complex story to tell.
* http://media.gdou.com/specls/cls/231211/231211b/usa12/*E-Library12.asp.htm
*E-Library
*Supplementary Readings
—— The Chalk Line Walk as it was originally known became popular around 1850 in the Southern Plantations. It originated in Florida by the African—American slaves who got the basic idea from the Seminole Indians (couples walking solemnly). Many of the special movements of the cake—walk, the bending back of the body, and the dropping of the hands at the wrists, amongst others, were a distinct feature in certain tribes of the African Kaffir dances. The Breakdown and Walk Around a Minstrel parody later to be named the Cakewalk was one of the main sources of the Chalk Line Walk.These "Walkers" as they were called, would walk a straight line and balance buckets of water on their heads. Over time the dance evolved into an exaggerated parody of the white, upper class ballroom figures who would imitate the mannerisms of the "Big House" (masters house) with such dignified walking, bowing low, waving canes, doffing hats, and high kicking grand promenade.
—— By the 1890's, the Cakewalk was the hottest thing around and Charles Johnson & Dora Dean are said to have introduced the Cakewalk in 1893. However in 1889 The Creole Show would feature the Cakewalk and in 1892 the first Cakewalk contest was held in a New York ballroom. Williams and Walker Inspired a Cakewalk in the play "Clorindy" origin of the Cakewalk. The Cakewalk sheet music would also list the March and Two-Step as dance options to the song so white audiences would be interested in buying it even if they did not know the Cakewalk. It was first introduced upon the Broadway stage by Dave Genaro.
—— The Idea of the Cakewalk was that of a couple promenading in a dignified manner, high stepping and kicking, mimicking high society. Some of the better plantation owners would bake a cake on Sundays and invite the neighbors over and have a contest of the slaves, different prizes were given but originally it was a cake and whoever won would get the cake… thus the term "That Takes The Cake!" and the name "Cakewalk" was now set. The Minstrel shows of the time would paint their faces black and at the end of the show would do a "Grand Finale," which often times was the Cakewalk.
—— The competition dancers were called "Walkers" and these dance contests grew very big, such as the National Cakewalk Jubilee in New York City as well as others, where the champions would receive gold belts and diamond rings. 
There were two categories of contests:
1) the "Grand Straight Cakewalk" ( regular type) and
2) the "Fancy Cakewalk", (Dressed up type)
the doors would open at 7:00p.m., contest at 11:00p.m., and dancing would continue till 5:00am. These Cakewalk dance contests eventually would be held in big cities as Tin-Pan Alley would make a fortune off of the dance and the Rag- time music they would produce.
—— The Cakewalk was the first American dance to cross over from black to white society as well as from the stage (Minstrel shows) to ballroom. The Cakewalk would be the window for other African-American dances to enter white society in the future. The Cakewalk eventually died in the 1920's, but there were still traces of the Cakewalk in the newer, more modern forms of dance, even the Lindy hop had the Apache and the Cakewalk thrown in as can be seen in the "Shorty George" video clip in "At The Jazz Band Ball" Video.
—— In Ireland, There was a practice of offering a cake to the best Jig Dancer on the Sunday get togethers. These dancers would do a Penny Jig, which the dancer would pay the Fiddler a Penny after dancing, trying to win the cake. Qouting from Mrs. Lully's Book: "Although the fare of Sunday seldom rises beyond the accustomed potatoes and milk of the rest of the week, some few halfpence are always spared to purchase the pleasures which the Sunday cake bestows. This cake set upon a distaff is the signal of pleasure and becomes the reward of talent; it is sometimes carried off by the best dancer, sometimes by the archest wag of the company."
Note: The Champion Strut (1954) was a mixture of the Lambeth Walk, Cakewalk and Swing.
Swinging the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture
Timothy E. Scheurer
It was with great anticipation that I plunged into Lewis Erenberg's most recent installment in what appears to be a comprehensive survey of America's musical culture in the twentieth century. He kicked off his journey through our musical odyssey with his very fine Steppin' Out: New York Nightlife and the Transformation of American Culture, 1890-1930 and now in this volume he continues the story, this time focusing on Big Band Jazz (or Swing) and how "it helped pave the way for a musical renaissance that appealed to young people, had interracial roots, and expressed many themes of the depression" (xv). He states that the work "is part of a new jazz history that analyzes the music's historical and cultural context, exploring ways in which the music was performed and presented to the public and meaning that audiences attached to it" (xvi-xvii). In the process he suggests that American culture experienced a rebirth built on pluralistic and egalitarian principles and offering youth in particular a new definition of freedom.
The virtues of this book are many. First, it is meticulously researched. Erenberg has surveyed historical sources, musical (both pop and jazz) sources, and cultural studies to frame his argument and then augments these with interviews and other types of first-hand observations. One of the best of these occurs in his discussion of the impact of the band singer on the decline of big band jazz when he cites comments by sailors and other men and women in Frederick Wiseman's Shore Leave to help explain the hold that Frank Sinatra had on women of the late '30s and early 40s' and how their allegiances shifted from the front-men of the bands to the men at microphones doing the singing.
Second, although he downplays his musical acumen, he nonetheless does a very commendable job in addressing the musical magic and impact of big band jazz. He captures very well, for instance, the power and intensity of the Basic band, detailing elements of their performance practice and sound. In short, readers will walk away from the book with a good feeling for the musical as well as extramusical factors that made this "renaissance" a reality.
Third, one of the strongest parts of the book is Erenberg's description of the decline of the big bands, especially his material on the rise of bop. Once again, drawing on primary sources and observations by musicians and fans, he offers an excellent glimpse into the more deeply rooted forces that upset the Swing applecart: fans who liked Woody Herman because you couldn't dance to him; the internecine warfare fought by critics; the intensity of the be-boppers' new vision for jazz; and, finally, the simple exhaustion of the genre.
All of this is presented in a relatively short and eminently readable fashion. If one prefers the Ann Douglas Mongrel Days approach to cultural analysis, one will be disappointed by this volume. I, however, from a scholar's as well as a teacher's perspective, found the format to be perfect.
I have no idea if Professor Erenberg will be forging on into the 1950s and 1960s, but if he does, I am sure he will have a ready band of readers waiting eagerly for yet another lucid, probing, and readable investigation into America's musical life.
Timothy E. Scheurer Franklin University
Related Websites
* http://www.apassion4jazz.net/
* http://www.tulane.edu/~lmiller/JazzHome.html
* http://www.jass.com/jaztable.html
* http://www.apassion4jazz.net/page3.html
===《美国国家社会与文化入门》课后问答答案===
===美国国家概况（1）（2）100问===
===美国范文 Part I True or False (10%) 来自整本书课后习题===
==西方 After chapter questions in a slightly distorted order==
===Chapter 1希 Culture in Ancient Greece===
===Chapter 2罗 Culture in Ancient Rome===
===Chapter 3犹 Jewish Culture and The Old Testament===
===Chapter 4基 Christianity and The New Testament===
===Chapter 5日 The Middle Ages and Germanic Culture===
===Chapter 6西复 Culture during the Renaissance===
===Chapter 7启 Culture during the Enlightenment===
===Chapter 8西自 Romanticism,Realism and Naturalism===
===Chapter 9哲 Ideology and Philosophy during the 18th and 19th Centuries===
===Chapter 10西现 The Modernist Movement and Literary Achievement===
===Chapter 11意 Ideology Developments of the Modern Age===
===Chapter 12西艺 Artistic Development in the 20th Century===
===Appendix 1时 Chronological Order of Major Events/Figures in Western Culture===
===Appendix 2引 Bibliography===
===《西方国家社会与文化入门》课后问答答案===
===西方国家概况（1）（2）100问===
===西方范文 Part I True or False (10%) 来自整本书课后习题===