American Beginnings

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American Beginnings

• Wang, Yueh-chiu
• National Penghu University

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• 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 worldThe
  American is a new man, who acts upon new
  principles he must therefore entertain new
  ideas, and form new opinions. This is an
  American.

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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.

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• 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.

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• The second migration to the American began with
  the explanation of Europe at the start of the
  modern period in 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.

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• He never succeeded, instead he landed on one of
  the Bahama Islands in the Caribbean Sea and
  discovered the New World. Based on Columbuss
  discovery, the Spanish king could claim the
  territory in the Americans.

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Europe in the 16th and 17th Centuries

• The permanent English settlements in North
  America began in the 17th century when Western
  Europe was undergoing great changes. During the
  Middle Ages, 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

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• soil and worked in the fields for their lords.
• 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.

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• The growth of capitalism produced two new
  classesthe 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.

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• The second major force that brought about the
  modern development of Europe was the Renaissance,
  which was marked by a changing outlook on life.
  People began to be more confident in themselves
  and show more interest in the world about them.

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• The third influential force was the Religious
  Reformation, a religious reform movement that
  started from Germany.
• Against the background of those emerging new
  forces, the 13 English colonies that would become
  the United States of America were planted in
  North America.

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The Settlement in Virginia

• The first permanent English settlement was
  founded in 1607 in Virginia. This was organized
  by the London Company with a charter from the
  English king James I.

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Puritan New England

• New England today includes Massachusetts,
  Conneticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and
  Rhode Island in the Northeast of the United
  States.

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• 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 the Mayflower Compact and was
  signed by 41 of the passengers.

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• 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.

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• Today, Puritans are no longer in existence. But
  their legacies are still felt in American society
  and culture.

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• The Puritans also have left rich cultural
  heritage to future Americans. The American
  values, such as individualism, hard work, and
  respect for education, owe very much to the
  Puritan beliefs.

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Catholic Maryland

• 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.

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• In 1623, he was granted a charter from the king
  and was allowed to set up a colony in todays
  Maryland. But before he could do so, he died.
  His son, the second Lord Baltimore, carried out
  his fathers will in 1632. He became the owner
  of the colony.

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Quaker Pennsylvania

• 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
  termQuakers was coined by their enemies because
  the Quakers were so faithful to God that when
  they spoke of God, they trembled.

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• Quakers had their own way of life too. They
  lived a simple life, with thrift 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. 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

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• to bow to the kings. They wore plain clothes
  and used plain language. The Quakers argued that
  religion was a persons private business with
  God, therefore no government should interfere in
  his or her religious beliefs.

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• In accordance with Quakerism, William Penn
  carried out the policy of separation of state and
  church in his colony. Penns holy experiment had
  great impact on American culture. Voltaire
  always held this colony up as a proof that man
  could lead a good life without absolute monarch,
  feudalism, or religious and racial uniformity.

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• Some American founding fathers such as Thomas
  Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were inspired by
  Penns experiment.

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The American Revolution

• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, assisted by John
  Adams and Benjamin Franklin, drafted the
  Declaration of Independence, which the Congress
  adopted on July 4, 1776. The Declaration
  officially proclaimed the independence of 13
  North American colonies.

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• 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 pursuit of happiness.

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• Most importantly, it explained the philosophy of
  governments to secure these rights,
  governments are instituted among men, deriving
  their just powers from the consent of the
  governed whenever any form of government
  becomes destructive of these ends, it is

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• the right of 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.

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• The theory of politics and a guiding principle of
  the American Revolution came from John Locke, an
  English political philosopher in the 17th century.

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• 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.

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American Economy

• Industrial Revolution
• The Industrial Revolution 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.

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• The United States that emerged from the American
  Revolution of 1776 was principally an
  agricultural country.

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• 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.

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• Because labor was scarce in the United States and
  wages were high, employers welcomed any new
  method that could reduce the requirement for
  labors. 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.

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• 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.

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• 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 29th century, mass
  production of consumer goods such as cars,
  refrigerators and kitchen ranges

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• helped to revolutionize the ways in which
  Americans lived.
• A third development was the application of new
  technologies to industrial tasks. Large water
  wheels and water turbines drove the machinery of
  early factories.

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• 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 plants, the telephone, the
  perfection of the electric light bulb, the

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• the phonograph, the camera, moving pictures, and
  many other devices.
• A fourth development was the emergence of new
  forms of business organization, notably the bank
  and the corporation, which facilitated the growth
  of industry.

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• Finally, the construction of railroads, beginning
  in the 1830s, marked the start of a new era for
  the United States.

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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 capitalismwhich
  many prefer to call free enterprise.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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The Roots of Affluence

• 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

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• 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 from the first to be a major
  advantage for national economic development.

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• Rapid growth helped to promote a remarkable
  mobility in the American populationa mobility
  that contributes a useful flexibility to business
  life. 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

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• 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.

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• 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.
  

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• The relative reluctance of American political
  leaders to intervene in economic activities gave
  great freedom to market forces.

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American Agriculture

• From the earliest days, the sight of farmers
  working the land has been at the heart of the
  American experience. Agriculture represents a
  bond of continuity between present and past,
  linking new generations with the rhythms and
  dreams of generations of long ago.

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• From the nations 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. Please refer
  to p. 52.

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• American farmers have shown a spirit of
  individualism and egalitarianism that the rest of
  society has widely admired.

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• 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.

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• The standard of living of American farmers is
  generally high. Incomes of farm families average
  about three-quarters of those of nonfarm
  families, but because farm families living
  expenses are lowers, their standard of living is
  close to the national average.

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• 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.

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• Though responding to innovation and evolving with
  the passage of time, agriculture remains the
  foundation upon which American well-being and
  prosperity are based. This bond linking past,
  present and future is fundamental to the American
  way of life.

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American Literature

• 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 come to the New World in search of the
  lost continent of Atlantis.

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• 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.

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• In one way or another, however, it has always
  been a pursuit of happiness. American
  literature is the continuous narrative of that
  pursuit.

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Early Fiction

• 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.

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Transcendentalists

• The country was expanding westward, but in the
  older cities of the northeastern statesstill
  referred to as New Englandthe influence of
  early Puritan teachings remained strong.
  However, such authoritarian religious
  organizations inevitably produce dissenters.

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• Emerson claimed that by studying and responding
  to nature individuals could reach a higher
  spiritual state without formal religion. For the
  next several years, Emersons essays made his
  extremely influential, not only upon other
  thinkers and writers, but upon the general
  population as well.

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• 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.

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• Transcendentalists are based on their acceptance
  of Emersons theories about spiritual
  transcendence. One of Emersons most gifted
  fellow-thinkers was Henry David Thoreau
  (1817-1862).

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• Thoreau was passionate about individuals
  learning to think for themselves and being
  independent, both traditional American values.

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• In Walden, many of its statements about the
  individuals role in societysimply put, that the
  dictates of an individuals conscience should
  take precedence over the demands, even the laws,
  of societysound radical even today.

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Power of Imagination

• While these new England intellectuals presented
  perspectives of literature and life, other
  writers were concentrating upon human imagination
  and emotion rather than the intellect. Edgar
  Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne were the
  symbols of imagination writers.

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New Visions of America

• Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville all struggled to
  find their individual voices, and through them
  American literature began to acquire its own
  personality.

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• 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.

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• Like Melville in Moby Dick, Whitman ventured
  beyond traditional forms to meet his need for
  more space to express the American spirit.
  Whitman dwelt on himself simply because he saw
  himself as a prototype of The American.

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Reform and Liberation

• New 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.

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• Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin was an
  antislavery novel that galvanized political
  opinion across the nation. Sentimental and
  melodramatic as it was, this novel portrayed
  black slaves as sympathetic, suffering figures,
  and created an image of the cruel slaveowner in
  the character of Simon Legree.

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Regionalism

• One of the most important leaders of this
  regionalism movement was William Dean Howells,
  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

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• realistically.
• Mark Twain was the first major American writer to
  be born away from the East Coast. 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

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• calm, innocent, matter-of-fact manner.
• Twain had a synical streak that matched the
  countrys skeptical post-Civil War blood.

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• Emily Dickinsons poetry mixed gaiety and gloom.
  Her verses are filled with the names of faraway,
  exotic places that she visited only in
  imagination.

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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, an American who lived in
  Europe, examined American society by observing
  the divergence between American and European
  culture in novels like The American and the
  Portrait of a Lady.

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• 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
  focused attention away from action and

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• Setting and onto what the characters were
  feeling.

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Sympathetic Views

• Three other women, in different parts of the
  country, were also writing sympathetic
  psychological studies.

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• American literature entered the 20th century not
  as optimistic or patriotic as it had been a
  century earlier, yet full of democratic spirit.
  Black Americans were just beginning to make their
  mark in literature in the wake of the Civil Wars
  having freed them from slavery.

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Rebellious Spirit

• 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.

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• 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.

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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.

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• Living in Europe, Pound influenced many other
  poets, especially T.S. Eliot. He wrote spare,
  intellectual poetry, carried by a dense structure
  of symbols.

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Lost Generation

• 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 Fitzgeralds novels
  captured the restless, pleasure-hungry, defiant
  mood of the 1920s. Fitzgeralds great theme,
  expressed poignantly in The Great Gatsby, was of
  youths gold dreams turning to disappointment.
  His prose was exquisite, yet

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• Vision was essentially melancholy and nostalgic.
  
• War had also affected Earnest 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.

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Harlem Renaissance

• 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 they moved to
  northern cities the jazz clubs of Harlem became
  chic night spots in the 1920s.

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• The Harlem Renaissance gave African-American
  prominence and an impetus to grow.

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New Drama

• There were 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 reviews or
  second-rate melodramas.

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• ONeill 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
  ONeill unique was his incorporation of all these
  elements into a new American voice and dramatic
  style.

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Depression Realism and Escapism

• The Depression caused novelists to focus on
  social forces. In the West, John Steinbeck told
  sympathetic stories about drifting farm laborers
  and factory workers.
• By interweaving chapters of social commentary
  with his story, Steinbeck made this portrait of
  the Joad family into a major statement about the
  Depression.

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• Historical fiction became increasingly popular in
  the Depression, for it allowed readers to retreat
  to the past.

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Postwar Voices and the Beat Generation

• The new receptivity of American society to a
  diversity of voices incorporated black writers
  and black protest into the mainstream of American
  literature.

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• 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 drus, alcohol, or Eastern mysticism.

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New American Voices

• 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
  womens movement gained more acceptance, however,
  women wrote less in protest and more in
  affirmation.

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Education in the United States

• Going to school in America today Each fall
  almost 50 million young Americans walk through
  the doorways of about 100,000 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.

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• 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 isand have
  been since the early decades of the republic to
  achieve universal literacy and to provide
  individuals with the knowledge and skills

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• 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 towards which the American
  educational system is directed. The progress
  which has been made is notable both for its scope
  and for the educational methods

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• which has been developed in the process of
  achieving it.

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Educationa local matter

• 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.

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• Americans have a strong tendency to educate their
  children about major public concernsproblems
  such as environmental pollution, nuclear issues,
  neighborhood crime, and drugs.

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What an American Student Learns

• American students pass through several levels of
  schoolingand thus, several curriculaon their
  way to a high school diploma.

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• Almost every elementary school provides
  instruction in these subjects mathematics
  language arts, penmanship science social
  studies music art and physical education.

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Education in a New Nation

• Americans trace the origins of their nation to
  the English colonists (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.

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• The Puritans sought the freedom to practice their
  religiona 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• In return for a youths work, the business owner
  promised to teach him or her to read, as well as
  how to do a craft. This practice was brought to
  North America.

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• The new United States was to be a federal
  republica union of states with a strong central
  government representing all the people.

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Learning to be World Citizens

• 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 Americaincluding
  the schools. American parentsespecially young
  couples who married in the late 1940swanted
  their children to be educated for the post-war
  world.

116

• Schools were asked not only to teach this new
  information, but also to help students ask their
  own questions about it. The inquiry method of
  learning, focusing on solving problems rather
  than memorizing facts, became popular.

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• By the early 1980s, the federal government was
  spending about 8 to 10 billion dollars annually
  on elementary and secondary education.

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• 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.

119

• 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.

120
Higher Education

• Simply by being admitted into one of the most
  respected universities in the United States, a
  high school graduate achieve a degree of success.
  A leading university might receive application
  from 2 of these high school graduates, and then
  accept only one out of every ten who apply.

121

• 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 major departments for
  undergraduate students seeking a bachelors
  degree and (b) one or more graduate schools for
  those continuing in specializing studies beyond
  the bachelors degree to obtain

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• a masters or a doctors degree.
• Any of these institutions, in any category, might
  be either public or private, depending on the
  source of its funding.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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Selecting a College or University

• In addition to learning about a schools 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
  degree does the school offer? How long does it
  take to earn one?

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• What curricular does a college or university
  offer? What are the requirements for earning a
  degree? In an American university, each
  department and graduate school has its own
  curriculum.

127

• Typically, an undergraduate students has to earn
  a certain number of credits in order to receive a
  degree at the end of four years of college.

128

• 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 school students are required to attend
  religious services. There are also privately
  owned school with no religious connection.

129

• Both public and private colleges depended on
  three sources of income student tuition,
  endowments, and government funding.

130
Trends in Degree Programs

• 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 many ways, this new popularity of liberal arts
  is a return to the early tradition of American
  education.

131
Education for All

• 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 actionbut in less
  controversial ways. One large university, for
  example, announced a new policy It would seek to
  admit students who would ad diverse talents to
  student body.

132

• What success did these efforts have? American
  college students are an increasingly diverse
  group. In 1987, 54 were women. Women received
  51 of the bachelors and masters degrees
  awarded that year, and 35 of the doctorates and
  professional degrees.

133
Social Movements of the 1960s

• Background and Definition
• 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.

134

• The civil rights movement, and the youth
  anti-war, and the womens 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.

135
Why did the Social Movements begin?

• 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

136

• 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.

137
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.

138

• 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.

139

• Not only did some of the same people worked 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.

140
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.

141
The Civil rights Movement

• Segregation laws in Southern states in the US
  prevented black and white people from sitting
  together in movie theaters, easting in the same
  restaurants, drinking from the same water
  fountain, using the same washrooms or riding
  together on buses on trains. Black and white
  children could not go to the same schools, and
  most Negroes

142

• 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.

143
Organizations

• One reason that the sit-ins in Greenboro were
  successful was that black students had formed a
  new organization, the Student Nonviolent
  Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

144
Direct Action Tactics

• 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.

145
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
  separation and against nonviolence in fighting
  discrimination and racism.

146
The Youth Movement/Anti-war Movement

• 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.

147

• 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.

148
Social Problems in the United States

• Racial problems
• Unlike most other people, Americans are primarily
  a nation of immigrants. The citizens or their
  ancestors immigrated from many parts of the
  globesome as refugees from religious and
  political persecution, some as adventurers from
  the Old World seeking a better life, some as

149

• 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.

150

• 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

151

• 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,

152

• ever since.
• 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 group.

153

• 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.

154
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

155

• There are millions more, living slightly above
  the poverty line, whole plight is not much
  better. Poverty can mean low self-esteem,
  despair, and stunting of human potential.

156

• The problem of poverty in the United States is
  aggravated because it occurs in a society in
  which the overall distribution of wealth and
  income is very unequal.

157

• 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.

158

• The continued existence of poverty in a generally
  affluent American society raises serious moral
  questionsand inevitably creates fierce conflicts
  of interest and many political controversies.

159
Drug Abuse

• 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.

160

• Drug abuse in the United States is a social
  problem because it has a wide range of social
  costs, or dysfunctionssome obvious and
  measurable, some hidden and difficult to quantify.

161

• Crime There is a strong association between some
  forms of drug use and crime. The use of alcohol
  is highly correlated with violent crime.

162

• 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.

163

• Economic losses the cost of alcohol abuse alone
  totals over 43 billion a year in accidents,
  medical bill, lost production, and so on. 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.

164
Crime

• Crime is one of the most serious social problems
  facing the nation.
• It is general agreed that serious, violent crime
  has reached alarming proportions in the United
  States.

165

• In summary, the Serious Crime Index of the FBI
  provides an indication of the rates and trends of
  certain crimes in the United States.

166
The Abuse of Power by Government and Corporations

• A crucial problem of government and corporations
  concerns powerand the abuse of it. American
  lives are dominated by large public and private
  organizations. The public organizations affects
  almost every area of their experience.

167

• The private organizations 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.

168
Scenic America

• 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 15,000 meters below.

169

• 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.

170
The Southwest

• There are other scenic spots nearby. To the
  east, the Painted Desert includes multicolored
  hills and small uprisings from the desert floor
  (buttes) that glow in the daylight in colors of
  reddish-brown, yellow, orange, and even purple.

171

• Moving north from Grand Canyon National Park, one
  encounters many scenic areas that not in parks.
  The desert areas of Nevada and the mountains and
  steams of southwestern Colorada are all quite
  beautiful.

172
The North west

• To the far north, near the Canadian border is
  Yellowstone National Park, named after 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 in
  area.

173
The Rock Mountains

• All of the places mentioned so far are to the
  west of the Rocky mountains, which are themselves
  worth touring.

174
The Pacific Coast

• To the west of the Rocky Mountains, towards the
  Pacific coast, there is in the south of a stretch
  of desert area that suddenly becomes verdant in
  the Imperial Valley of California.

175

• There are few places of natural beauty in
  Southern California. Most of the interest lies
  in human creations such Hollywood and Disneyland.
  

176
The Middle West

• The Rock Mountains slide down easterly towards
  the great Plains states, flat lands where grain
  fields extend for miles in either direction. In
  the north part of this region, in the state of
  South Dakota, is the unusual artistic project at
  Mt. Rushmore, there enormous portait of four
  famous U.S. Presidents.

177
Floria

• At 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.

178
The Southwest

• These states have the unusual property of having
  a cost line filled with beaches and fishing
  vessels to their east, and hills and mountains
  for hunting, camping, and freshwater fishing to
  their west.

179
The Northeast

• The Blue Ridge Mountains extend up through North
  Carolina to Virginia, but most visitors prefer to
  visit the Eastern seaboard to enjoy the Outer
  Banks, where deep sea fishing is a major
  attraction.

180
New York State

• The Adrindack Mountains, located mainly in the
  state of New York, contain some of the oldest
  rocks in the world. Mount March at 1, 629 m , is
  the tallest peak, but Whiteface Mountain is more
  accessible.

181
Urban Scenes

• During this brief visit to some of the scenic
  places in America, we have not had the chance to
  mention the different and distinctive urban
  centers that stretches from San Diego to Boston,
  from Seattle to Miami.

182
Sports in America

• American professional football is played during
  the summer, the fall, and the winter until late
  in January. All this culminate in the Super Bowl
  to decide the champion team for the year.

183

• 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.

184

• 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
  Pontinac Siverdome in Michigan with a capacity of
  a little over 80,000 seats.

185

• 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 could not
  easily be distinguished, making it quite
  difficult to follow the game.

186

• 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.

187
How game is played?

• The ball may be carried by a runner, or it may be
  thrown forward down the field to another player.
  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.

188
Baseball

• Baseball may still be the great American game,
  even though many other countries are deeply, for
  instance, in Japan, in Cuba, and in the Dominican
  Republic.

189

• 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, popcorns.

190

• 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.

191
How the Game is Played

• 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 throws the ball
  toward the home a plate at a speed often 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.

192
Basketball

• Basketball was deliberately created in 1891 by a
  physical educaiton 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.

193
How the game is played?

• A football 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 is fixed to a board
  about 3.1 m from the floor. Back boards are now
  made of transparent material so that spectators
  behind the basket can see the game.

194
Other Sport Activities

• American are avid sports fans. One sport that
  has been gaining in popularity is ice hockey,
  first played in Canada and states bordering that
  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. P. 221

195
Early American Jazz

• The whole world is familiar with 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.

196

• The individual style of jazz musicians is worth
  special comment. Violinists in an orchestra are
  interchangeable. One trumpet in a classical
  orchestra plays like every other there is no
  distinctive tone or texture that separates
  clarinet players.

197

• Perhaps this identification of the individual
  player appeals to those American values that
  stress the importance of the distinctive and
  different individual.

198
Early New Orleans Jazz

• 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,
  marches, and even European classical music,
  blended together in the form known as jazz.

199

• A definitive mark of this early New Orleans jazz
  was ensemble of musicians improvising their notes
  in changing chords around a specific melodic
  line.

200

• 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.

201

• Much of the appeal of jazz 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.

202

• 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.

203

• Jazz bands played dance music as well as marches
  and ragtime music. They also played cakewalks,
  a type of strutting dance, and blues, derived
  from a blend of field chantey and spiritual.

204

• 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-depreciating
  humor.

205

• 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.

206

• 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 everyones life.

207
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 1920s, 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.

208

• In Chicago, the music was played at a faster
  tempo than was usually the case with New Orleans
  style jazz.

209
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. A special
  style of music called ragtime was particularly
  well suited for a solo piano.

210

• Originally based on tunes for marching bands,
  ragtime music is marked by a syncopated melodic
  line with a regularly accented bass.

211

• Ragtime piano and jazz together in the first
  decade 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 being James P.
  Johnson.

212
The County and Its People

• In size, Canada is the second largest country on
  earth. In terms of economic power, it is the
  member of the Big Seven, the world leading
  industrial nations. Canada plays an active role
  in international affairs, often taking part in
  peacekeeping and humanitarian missions and
  spearheading aid and development

213

• Programs. It scenery of mountains, oceans,
  forests, and prairies is spectacular. It has a
  lively and rich culture, with many world famous
  actors, pop stars, and writers.

214

• Harlem at this time was a breeding ground for
  many jazz musicians who earned fame later in the
  1930s.

215
Boogie Woogie

• Another piano style was emerging in Chicago in
  the late 1920s and early 1930s. Pianists
  drifting into Chicago from the midwest were
  playing blues pieces with a distinctive, rock
  bass figure.

216

• 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.

217
The Canada Economy

• Canada is a leading industrial nation with a
  highly developed economy. The economy is
  influenced greatly by Canadas physical
  geography, which is rich in natural resources
  but the huge size and small population of the
  country has made extracting and transporting
  goods to markets difficult.

218

• The second major influence, as a result, is the
  United States, which has a much more powerful
  economy and a larger market. Given that most
  Canadians live close to the border, trade has
  quite naturally developed north to south, across
  the Can-Am border, rather than east-west, between
  provinces and regions. This accounts for a third
  influence on the eco