American History: A Survey

Nonfiction | Reference/Text Book | Adult | Published in 1971

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-20

Chapters 21-24

Chapters 25-28

Chapters 29-32

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Repeating Trends in American History

American History often refers back to previously discussed topics to draw comparisons between seemingly distinct and unrelated time periods. By doing this, it helps highlight important trends and common themes. The most visible trends include the cycle of the American economy, the rise and fall of conservatism and progressivism, and the push and pull of American foreign policy between isolationism and interventionism. American History presents all these trends as interrelated.

Throughout US history, the economy has repeatedly—and in a surprisingly consistent pattern—undergone periods of boom and bust. Economic cycles often relate to US involvement in wars, particularly in the period between and after the two World Wars. During the 1920s and 1950s, after World War I and World War II respectively, the US entered periods of great economic growth that closely accompanied developments in American technology. Shortly after these booms came times of economic decline: the Great Depression of the 1930s and the recession of the 1970s. Although the exact causes of these declines differed, both followed relatively unchecked growth during the postwar booms. These trends are not confined to the 20th century: After the Civil War, the North saw a period of significant industrial growth followed by an economic low period during the 1890s.

These economic trends tend to accompany cycles of rising progressivism followed by conservative backlash. During times when the privileged have plenty, activism among the underprivileged grows, often due to a collective feeling of being left out of the progress of American society. Examples include the growth of the women’s liberation movement during the 1920s and the civil rights movement of the 1950s. Typically, these uprisings achieve some advances for their members but are often followed by a surge of conservative sentiment among the wealthy and privileged, who throughout American history consisted mostly of white men.

Certain political and social issues repeat all the way back to the earliest days of American history. Debate over taxes was one of the first truly American issues; anti-tax sentiment was a driving force behind the American Revolution. Although the tax issue has evolved from a debate over the legitimacy of taxation by a distant government to a battle between social welfare versus individualism, even 300 years after the American Revolution the country largely retains a hostility toward citizens being taxed for things they view as unnecessary.

Social Versus Political History

Political trends and social realities have been at odds throughout most of American history. In the earliest days, the reasons for this were obvious: Only tiny segment of the early US population were allowed to participate in politics, so most citizens lacked the power to influence decisions affecting them. Voting and other rights of political participation began to expand in the 19th century when land ownership was removed from voting requirements. Slowly, and unevenly across states, these rights came to include Black men, women, and other groups. Despite the vast expansion of rights, they remained far from universal well into the 20th century; Indigenous reservation dwellers in certain states could not vote until the 1970s. To this day, white conservative efforts to restrict marginalized communities from voting are widespread. This effort has evolved from passing poll tax and literacy requirements to banning felons from voting, to restricting the formation of new voting districts in ways that disenfranchise mostly Black city dwellers.

Beyond direct limitations on political participation, a dichotomy between American political leadership and the desires of the American population is a common theme throughout the country’s history. In World War II, for example, many Americans pressured the government to assist victims of the Holocaust by opening the borders to refugees and by applying a more aggressive military strategy against the infrastructure of genocide. Bowing to pressure from influential anti-Semites, however, the US allowed very few European Jewish people into the country, and the military insisted that defeating the Nazis as a whole was the only way to put a stop to their crimes.

The long-running divide between federal policy and the needs of the majority were particularly clear during the Gilded Age of the early 1900s. Rapid advancements in industrial technology allowed a tiny sector of the population to gain enormous wealth. These elite men held nearly unchecked sway over the government and shaped federal policy in ways that benefited their own interests. Meanwhile, the lower classes worked long, arduous hours in factories with little financial reward. Although unionization and other forms of collective protest attempted to sway the government to address the needs of the masses, their influence was no match for the well-funded few. This trend persists today, as wealthy corporate donors continue to pressure the government to cater to their needs and launch propaganda campaigns to convince Americans that helping corporations will help the general population.

America as an Empire

Ever since the first white colonists arrived in what is now the US, expansion has been a core element of what defines the country. The origins of the US as a member of the British Empire are a huge part of why this occurred. In contrast to French and Spanish colonists, who often approached the Indigenous population with the goal of either assimilating them into their cultures or using their local knowledge to assist in building colonies, British colonists quickly embarked on a plan of universal replacement. Anyone outside the white, British sphere was seen as inferior, and the land was seen as a place to be conquered and cultivated to European standards.

This idea became even more prominent when the theory of Manifest Destiny emerged in the 19th century. Manifest Destiny formed an official doctrine around the superiority of white culture and led to rapid colonization of the western half of the North American continent. The philosophy continued to guide expansion into the rest of the world, as the US conquered distant lands like Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, and the Philippines. The country’s conquests were not always successful, as in the case of Cuba, which the US made repeated attempts to control.

As the 20th century progressed and outright colonialism became less popular throughout the world, the concept of American empire-building changed. Rather than conquering new lands to build colonies of white Americans, more recent examples of imperialistic sentiment focused on spreading American ideals. This idea first gained prominence after World War II and continued throughout the Cold War, when the US embarked on a mission to quell the rise of communism. Proponents of American idealism saw communism as the antithesis of American democracy, which they hoped would become the dominant political force throughout the world. This effort continued well into the 20th and 21st centuries and is highly visible in the Middle Eastern conflicts. American involvement in the Middle East has a complex set of motivations, but leaders like President George W. Bush successfully convinced many Americans that the primary goal was to bring American-style democracy and freedom to the Middle East.

Although the US never held an official empire in the same way as Britain or Spain, it may only be because the US gained the means to build such an empire long after the major empires began to crumble and former colonies began to fight for their freedom. Had the US become a country a century or two earlier, it likely would have competed with the other world powers like Britain, France, and Spain to conquer distant corners of the world.