Description
Early in the seventeenth century, a few small groups of pioneers sought new homes on the Atlantic coastline of North America. This was the beginning of an astonishingly rapid process of expansion, which in little more than three and a half centuries has brought nearly 40 million immigrants across the ocean, carried all the institutions of civilization 3,500 miles across the continent to the Pacific, and made the United States in the twentieth century not only the richest and most powerful nation in the world but also the sponsor of new ideals and new institutions. Since the changing attitudes and preoccupations of the present cause us to look at the past in new perspectives, history has to be constantly rewritten, presenting new emphasis in the choice of subject matter and new values. Most historical scholars of earlier generations regarded the evolution of government as their central theme, interpreting the growth of different nations mainly in terms of their political development. Many historians of the present day, on the other hand, study society as a whole instead of concentrating on political institutions. This more comprehensive scope is especially appropriate in writings about the people of the United States since they have been engaged in creating not only new forms of government but a new way of life. In describing the growth of the United States from the first small settlements of the seventeenth century to the world power of the twentieth, this book presents the essential facts of her political history, but it also discusses economic and social development, the movement of beliefs and ideas, and the expression of the American spirit in literature and the arts The special qualities that differentiate the society of the United States from that of older nations spring from two primary factors. In the first place, the United States was settled by men and women who came from other parts of the world and belonged to many different ethnic and cultural groups.
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