Văn hóa mỹ lê hoàng duy thuần

Websites: 1.http://fpc.state.gov/ 2.http://info-pedia.americancorners.or.kr/ENG/index_eng.html 3.http://www.america.gov/publications/ejournalusa.html 1 &2 Chapter 1: American Geography A

UNIT INFORMATION Unit overview

Welcome to

64092 The American Culture

This is a 30-period unit which is designed for the students who have finished the learning of fourskills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and would like to learn about the culture in theUnited States

Unit objectives

The learning objectives of this unit are:

- to increase students’ awareness and understanding of the cultural values of the UnitedStates, students’ own country (Vietnam), and, we hope, other countries

- To provide interesting cross-cultural activities for small group and class discussions, andtopics for oral presentations and research

We value your feedback on the organization, content and teaching of this unit An evaluationsheet will be circulated at the end of the semester for your comments Informal comments arewelcome during the semester and may be made in person or in writing (e.g email) to the lecturer

Unit timetable

This timetable will help you to plan your study over the semester

Note: 2 periods (50 minutes each) per week

4 Falk, R (1993) Spotlight on the USA Oxford University Press

5 Bromhead, P (1997) Life in Modern America Pearson ESL

Websites:

1.http://fpc.state.gov/

2.http://info-pedia.americancorners.or.kr/ENG/index_eng.html

3.http://www.america.gov/publications/ejournalusa.html

1 &2 Chapter 1: American Geography And History

3 & 4 Chapter 2: Government And Politics In The United States

5 & 6 Chapter 3: Traditional American Values And Beliefs

7 & 8 Chapter 4: The American Religious Heritage

9 & 10 Chapter 5: Ethnic And Racial Diversity In The United States

11 & 12 Chapter 6: Education In The United States

Assessment Processes

Assessment components and timetable for submission

Assessment components Value Due date

Individual written report 25% Week 10

Group oral presentation 25% Week 13

Assignment:

All groups are required to work on a cultural point about the United States They need to showthe deep understanding about the point through research reports and presentations

Guidelines for assignment

1 The group topics must be approved by the lecturer and announced in the class at least 2 weeks before the first assignment due date.

2 Each group of 4 or 5 students, which is formed by themselves, will be working together and

giving an oral presentation (15 minutes) before the class They will be assessed according totheir performance and their answers to the follow-up questions from the classmates (no morethan 5 questions)

3 The research report (about 2000 words) consists of the findings about the cultural point and

personal ideas about it

4 Plagiarism is strictly prohibited Students must not take and use another person’s ideas or

work and pass these off as one’s own by failing to give appropriate acknowledgement, that is,not indicating by referencing that the ideas expressed are not your own

5 Assignments must be submitted by the due date in both electronic and printed forms.

Assignments which arrive late will have 10% of marks deducted for each late day Underexceptional circumstances an extension can be provided Extensions for assignmentsubmissions can only be granted if requested in advance of the due date for submission, andwith a good reason

American Culture

Compiled by Lê Hoàng Duy Thuần

Chapter 1: AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

“Culture hides much more than it reveals, and strangely enough what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own participants Years of study have convinced me that the real job is not to understand foreign culture but to understand our own”.

Edward T Hall (1914 - )

Warm-up questions:

1 What is the culture of a country? If someone asked you to describe your country’s culture,which of these would you mention?

geography literature climate government music customs history

…

2 Do you agree with the quotation by Edward T Hall? Do people really not understand theirown culture? What aspects of a country’s culture are the hardest to understand?

Location and Geography

The United States is the world's fourth largest country, with an area of 3,679,192 squaremiles (9,529,107 square kilometers) It includes fifty states and one federal district, where thecapital, Washington, D.C., is located Its forty-eight contiguous states are situated in the middle

of North America The mainland United States borders Canada to the north and Mexico, the Gulf

of Mexico, and the Straits of Florida to the south The western border meets the Pacific Ocean,and to the east lies the Atlantic Ocean

Alaska and Hawaii are not joined to the other forty-eight states Alaska is at the extremenorth of North America, between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, and is bordered by Canada to theeast The island chain of Hawaii is situated in the east-central Pacific Ocean, about two thousandmiles southwest of San Francisco.

Stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, theUnited States occupies the central latitudes of the North American continent The American landitself provides several lasting sources of industrial and economic strength

 The land is rich in raw materials, from oil to timber to iron ore

 From the vast prairies of the American heartland to the fertile valleys of California, theUnited States has some of the most productive agricultural areas on the planet

 American waterways, including the substantial river systems, provided key natural

transportation networks as the nation was building itself Railroads, highways, and airroutes would later overlay this early network

The rich land attracted people from all over the world (it still does) Combine the Americanland with the American people and you have a dynamic force indeed To add to all this, theUnited States, over much of its land mass, is a beautiful country, with some of the mostbreathtaking landscapes on earth

Politically, the United States is divided into 50 states, each having separate stategovernments, flags, laws and traditions Puerto Rico, the U.S Virgin Islands, Guam andAmerican Samoa are also part of the United States, each with a special status as a dependency orterritory

People

Any study of the American people must take into account how complicated that subject is.The United States is a large country encompassing more than 300 million people Indigenouspeople (today called Native Americans) make up at most 2% of the American population today.The other 98% are either immigrants or descendants of immigrants Many people came to theUnited States to seek economic opportunity or religious freedom Others came as slaves Somegroups, including many from the British Isles, became well established by the time of Americanindependence from Great Britain in 1776 Others, like the Irish and many Germans, came inwaves during the 19th century Asians came in their own waves, especially over the past halfcentury So-called Hispanic people (actually a very varied group) could be descendants of 17thcentury settlers from Spain, or they could have arrived in the United States last week (or any timespan in between)

Unlike many other countries, the United States has an identity that does not depend onethnic continuity, but rather on the ideas that inspired the formation of the nation The sectionsthat follow give some general guidance on the major ethnic groups in the United States, with theunderstanding that generalizations always have exceptions Next comes a short section on socialclasses that, once again, can only make broad generalizations Finally, we cover some lifestyledistinctions that have meaning in America today

The best way to look at the United States is to realize that ethnicity, social class, and

lifestyle do matter in some aspects of life, and, in some sense, they do not matter All these

people share the quality of being American, even if that quality is almost impossible to define

50 U.S States and District of Columbia

Washington D.C is a federal district under the authority of Congress Puerto Rico is acommonwealth associated with the United States Other dependent areas include AmericanSamoa, Baker Island, Guam, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef,Midway Islands, Navassa Island, Palmyra Atoll, Virgin Islands, Wake Island From 18 July 1947until 1 October 1994, the US administered the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, but recentlyentered into a new political relationship with all four political units: the Northern Mariana Islands

is a commonwealth in political union with the US (effective 3 November 1986); Palau concluded

a Compact of Free Association with the US (effective 1 October 1994); the Federated States ofMicronesia signed a Compact of Free Association with the US (effective 3 November 1986); the

Republic of the Marshall Islands signed a Compact of Free Association with the US (effective 21October 1986).

In general, matters that lie entirely within state borders are the exclusive concern of stategovernments These include internal communications; regulations relating to property, industry,business, and public utilities; the state criminal code; and working conditions within the state.There are many areas of overlap between state and federal jurisdictions In recent years, thefederal government has assumed broader responsibility in such matters as health, education,welfare, transportation, and housing and urban development The constitutions of the variousstates differ in some details but generally follow a pattern similar to that of the federalConstitution, including a statement of the rights of the people and a plan for organizing thegovernment On such matters as the operation of businesses, banks, public utilities, andcharitable institutions, state constitutions are often more detailed and explicit than the federalconstitution

Regions of the United States

Americans often speak of their country as one of several large regions These regions arecultural units rather than governmental units; formed by history and geography and shaped by theeconomics, literature and folkways that all the parts of a region share What makes one regiondifferent from another? A region's multicultural heritage as well as distinct demographiccharacteristics like age and occupation make regions different and special Within severalregions, language is used differently and there are strong dialects There are also differences inoutlook and attitude based on geography

The Six Regions of the United States:

1 New England

New England has played a dominant role in American history Until well into the 19thcentury, New England was the country's cultural and economic center The earliest Europeansettlers of New England were English Protestants who came in search of religious liberty They

gave the region its distinctive political format town meetings (an outgrowth of meetings held

by church elders) in which citizens gathered to discuss issues of the day Town meetings stillfunction in many New England communities today and have been revived as a form of dialogue

in the national political arena New England is also important for the cultural contribution it hasmade to the nation The critic Van Wyck Brooks called the creation of a distinctive Americanliterature, in the first half of the 19th century, "the flowering of New England." Education isanother of the region's strongest legacies The cluster of top-ranking universities and colleges inNew England - including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Wellesley, Smith, Williams,Amherst, and Wesleyan - is unequaled by any other region America's first college, Harvard, wasfounded at Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1636 Without, however, large expanses of richfarmland or a mild climate, generations of exasperated New England farmers declared that thechief product of their land was stones By 1750, many settlers had turned from farming to otherpursuits In their business dealings, New Englanders gained a reputation for hard work,shrewdness, thrift, and ingenuity

2 Mid-Atlantic

If New England provided the brains and dollars for 19th-century American expansion, theMid-Atlantic states provided the muscle The region's largest states, New York and Pennsylvania,became centers of heavy industry (iron, glass, and steel) The Mid-Atlantic region was settled by

a wider range of people than New England Into this area of industry, came millions ofEuropeans who made of it what became known as the "melting pot." As heavy industry spreadthroughout the region, rivers such as the Hudson and Delaware were transformed into vitalshipping lanes Cities on waterways, New York on the Hudson, Philadelphia on the Delaware,Baltimore on Chesapeake Bay, grew dramatically New York is still the nation's largest city, itsfinancial hub, and its cultural center But even today, the visitor who expects only factories andcrowded cities is surprised In the Mid-Atlantic, there are more wooded hills than factorychimneys, more fields than concrete roads, and more farmhouses than office buildings

3 The South

The South is perhaps the most distinctive region of the United States region The AmericanCivil War (1861-65) devastated the Old South socially and economically Slavery was the issuethat divided North and South To northerners, it was immoral; to southerners, it was integral totheir way of life and their plantation system of agriculture The scars left by the war took decades

to heal The abolition of slavery failed to provide African Americans with political or economicequality; and it took a long, concerted effort to end segregation The "New South" has evolvedinto a manufacturing region and high-rise buildings crowd the skylines of such cities as Atlantaand Little Rock The region however still has many landscapes to delight the human sense ofpoetry and wonder The region is blessed with plentiful rainfall and a mild climate Crops groweasily in its soil and can be grown without frost for at least six months of the year Owing to itsmild weather, the South has become a mecca for retirees from other regions

4 Midwest

The Midwest is known as the nation's "breadbasket." The fertile soil of the region makes itpossible for farmers to produce abundant harvests of cereal crops such as wheat, oats, and corn

Corn is the most important of all American crops, as basic to American agriculture as iron is toAmerican industry The annual crop is greater than the nation's yield of wheat, rice and othergrains combined On hot, still midsummer nights in the Corn Belt, farmers insist they can hearthe corn growing.

Farms are normally located separate from each other, close to the fields, and often beyondthe sight of its neighbors The village or town is principally a place where the farm family travels

to buy supplies, to attend church and to go for entertainment or political, social or businessmeetings Midwesterners are praised as being open, friendly, and straightforward Their politicstend to be cautious, but the caution is sometimes peppered with protest

5 The Southwest

The Southwest is drier than the adjoining Midwest in weather The population is less denseand, with strong Spanish-American and Native-American components, more ethnically variedthan neighboring areas Outside the cities, the region is a land of open spaces, much of which isdesert The magnificent Grand Canyon is located in this region, as is Monument Valley, thestarkly beautiful backdrop for many western movies Monument Valley is within the NavajoReservation, home of the most populous American Indian tribe To the south and east, lie dozens

of other Indian reservations, including those of the Hopi, Zuni, and Apache tribes Parts of theSouthwest once belonged to Mexico The United States obtained this land following theMexican-American War of 1846-48

The population in the region is growing rapidly Arizona, for example, now rivals thesouthern states as a destination for retired Americans in search of a warm climate Since the lastthird of the 19th century, the immense stretch of barren American desert has been growingsmaller In the 1860s, the wasteland extended from the Mississippi Valley almost to the PacificCoast But settlers learned that the prairies could grow corn and that the grasslands could feedcattle and sheep or yield wheat As they continued to cultivate the desert, its size decreased.Dams on the Colorado and other rivers and aqueducts have brought water to the once smalltowns of Las Vegas, Nevada, Phoenix, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, allowing them

to become metropolises

6 The West

Americans have long regarded the West as the last frontier Yet California has a history ofEuropean settlement older than that of most midwestern states Spanish priests founded missionsalong the California coast a few years before the outbreak of the American Revolution In the19th century, California and Oregon entered the Union ahead of many states to the east

The West is a region of scenic beauty on a grand scale In much of the West, the population

is sparse and the federal government owns and manages millions of hectares of undevelopedland Americans use these areas for recreational and commercial activities, such as fishing,camping, hiking, boating, grazing, lumbering, and mining In recent years, some local residentswho earn their livelihoods on federal property have come into conflict with the governmentagencies, which are charged with keeping land use within environmentally acceptable limits.Hawaii is the only state in the union in which Asian Americans are the largest ethnic group.Beginning in the 1980s, large numbers of Asians have also settled in California Los Angeles -and Southern California as a whole - bears the stamp of its large Mexican-American population

Now the second largest city in the nation, Los Angeles is best known as the home of theHollywood film industry Fueled by the growth of Los Angeles and the "Silicon Valley" areanear San Jose, California has become the most populous of all the states Perhaps because somany westerners have moved there from other regions to make a new start, Western cities areknown for their tolerance and a very strong "live-and-let-live" attitude.

Timeline of American History

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never wasand what never will be."1

30,000 - 40,000

BC Nomadic tribes of woolly mammoth hunters cross the Bering Strait land bridgeto North America

August 3, 1492 Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain aboard the Santa Maria accompanied bythe Nina and the PintaOctober 12,

1492

Columbus discovers the Americas: San Salvador, more likely Samana Cay inthe Bahamas

1513 Ponce de Leon searching for "The Fountain of Youth" reaches and namesFlorida

1539 De Soto explores Florida

1541 De Soto discovers Mississippi River; Coronado explores from New Mexico

across Texas, Oklahoma and eastern Kansas

1565 St Augustine founded (razed by Francis Drake in 1586)

1585 Sir Walter Raleigh supports an expedition of colonists to Roanoke Island onpresent-day North Carolina Outer Banks

1586 Sir Francis Drake finds Roanoke Island colonists hungry and ready to return to

England1587

Raleigh sent another 107 men and women to help the Roanoke Island colonistsand they are nowhere to be found To this day they have been dubbed "TheLost Colony"

1605 The Virginia Company and The Plymouth Company given permission to

"colonize" Virginia (North America)

1605 Santa Fe, New Mexico, founded (some say 1609)

December 20,

1606

The ships: Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery; carrying 104 colonists

depart England, arrive Chesapeake Bay 1607 and founded Jamestown

1607 Virginia (Jamestown) Colony established: 1 of original 13 colonies

1609 Henry Hudson set sail aboard the Half Moon looking for "the northwest

passage" to China, discovered the Hudson Bay, River and Strait instead1609-1610 The starving time Jamestown Settlement in "dire straits": many dead,cannibalism etc.

1612 John Rolfe crosses Virginia Tobacco with a milder Jamaican Leaf resulting inthe cash crop tobacco as we know it today.

1620 Massachusetts (Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay) Colony established: 2 of

original 13 coloniesNovember 11,

1620 TheMayflower Compact

1626 New York (New Amsterdam) Colony established: 3 of original 13

1633 Maryland Colony established: 4 of original 13 colonies

1636 Rhode Island and Connecticut Colonies established: 5 and 6 of original 13

colonies

1638 Delaware and New Hampshire Colonies established: 7 and 8 of original 13colonies

1653 North Carolina Colony: 9 of original 13 colonies

1663 South Carolina Colony: 10 of original 13 colonies

1664 New Jersey Colony established: 11 of original 13 colonies

1682 Pennsylvania Colony established: 12 of original 13 colonies

1692 Salem Massachusetts: 19 "Witches" hung and one husband suffocated for

practicing witchcraft

1732 Georgia Colony established: 13 of original 13 colonies

March 5, 1770 The Boston Massacre: Crispus Attucks, former slave, first to be killed

December 16,

1773 The Boston Tea Party

April 18, 1775 Paul Revere's Ride

April 18, 1775 "The shot heard round the world"; 8 Minutemen killed by British troops at

Lexington MassachusettsApril 18, 1775

- February 3,

1783

Revolutionary War: 6,188 Americans Wounded, 4,435 Americans Killed

July 4, 1776 TheDeclaration of Independence is signed

June 14, 1777 The firstFlag design adopted by Congress

September 17,

1787 The Continental Congress votes to submit The U S Constitution to The Statesfor ratification.June 1788 TheConstitution is Ratified by all States

December 15,

1791 TheBill of Rights is ratified

1886 TheStatue of Liberty is presented by the French People to the American People;

designed by Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi

Early America

The first people to reach North America were Asian hunters and nomads Following gamealong the Siberian coast, they crossed the land bridge that connected the two continents about30,000 to 34,000 years ago Once in Alaska, it took these first North Americans, the ancestors ofNative American tribes, thousands of years to work their way south to what is now the UnitedStates Evidence of early life in North America has been found at sites throughout North andSouth America, indicating that life was probably already well established in much of the WesternHemisphere by some time prior to 10,000 B.C

The Colonial period

The early 1600s saw the beginning of a great tide of emigration from Europe to NorthAmerica Emigration from England often was not directly sponsored by the government but byprivate groups of individuals whose chief motive was profit.

Revolutionary Period and New Nation (1770s to 1800s)

Although some believe that the history of the American Revolution began long before thefirst shots were fired in 1775, England and America did not begin an overt parting of the waysuntil 1763, more than a century and a half after the founding of the first permanent settlement atJamestown, Virginia In 1763, the end of the Seven Years' War and the French and Indian Warleft England in control of Canada and all of North America east of the Mississippi The colonieslong accustomed to a large measure of independence, were now demanding more freedom Theyhad grown vastly in economic strength and cultural attainment, and virtually all had long years ofself-government behind them

The British government, which needed more money to support its growing empire, started

a new financial policy Money for the colonies' defense was to be extracted from the coloniststhrough a stronger central administration This would come at the expense of colonial self-

government The colonists resisted the new taxes and regulations imposed by England, such asthe Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Act or the Coercive Act They insisted that theycould be taxed only by their own colonial assemblies, and the colonists rallied behind the slogan

"no taxation without representation." The conflict escalated and King George III issued aproclamation on August 23, 1775, declaring the colonies to be in a state of rebellion On July 4,

1776, the Continental Congress adopted a Declaration of Independence Armed conflict betweenAmerica and England lasted until 1783 Known as the Treaty of Paris, the peace settlementacknowledged the independence, freedom and sovereignty of the 13 former colonies, now states,

to which Great Britain granted the territory west to the Mississippi River, north to Canada andsouth to Florida, which was returned to Spain

Slavery, Civil War and Westward Expansion

In the early 19th century, slavery began to assume greater importance as a national issue

In the early years of the republic, many leaders had supposed that slavery would die out As late

as 1808, when the international slave trade was abolished, many thought that slavery would soonend But during the next generation, the South became solidly united behind the institution ofslavery as new economic factors made slavery far more profitable than it had been before 1790.Chief among these was the rise of a great cotton-growing industry Sugarcane and tobacco, twolabor-intensive crops, also contributed to slavery's extension

The country was divided into states permitting slavery and states prohibiting it In 1820,politicians debated the question of whether slavery would be legal in the western territories TheMissouri Compromise permitted slavery in the new state of Missouri and the Arkansas Territorybut it was barred everywhere west and north of Missouri Sectional lines steadily hardened on theslavery question Politically, the 1850s can be characterized as a decade of failure in which thenation's leaders were unable to resolve, or even contain, the divisive issue of slavery

Growth and Transformation (1865 to 1900)

At the end of the war, the South was a region devastated by war, burdened by debt anddemoralized by racial warfare As time passed, it became obvious that the problems of the Southwere not being solved by radical reconstruction, harsh laws and continuing rancor against former

Confederates In May 1872, Congress passed a general Amnesty Act, restoring full politicalrights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.

War, Prosperity and the Big Crash (1900s to 1929)

The Progressive Era lasted from about 1890 to the outbreak of World War I In response

to the excesses of 19th-century capitalism and political corruption, a reform movement arosecalled "progressivism." Almost all the notable figures of the period were connected, at least inpart, with the reform movement The goals of the Progressives were greater democracy andsocial justice, honest government, more effective regulation of business and a revivedcommitment to public service In general, they believed that expanding the scope of governmentwould ensure the progress of U.S society and the welfare of its citizens The years 1902 to 1908marked the era of greatest reform activity Many states enacted laws to improve the conditionsunder which people lived and worked Child labor laws were strengthened and new ones adopted,raising age limits, shortening work hours, restricting night work and requiring school attendance

The Great Depression and the New Deal (1929 to 1941)

In October 1929 the stock market crashed, wiping out 40 percent of the paper values ofcommon stock and triggering a worldwide depression By 1933 the value of stock on the New

York Stock Exchange was less than a fifth of what it had been in 1929 Business houses closedtheir doors, factories shut down and banks failed Farm income fell some 50 percent By 1932approximately one out of every four Americans was unemployed The core of the problem wasthe immense disparity between the country's productive capacity and the ability of people toconsume Great innovations in productive techniques during and after the war raised the output

of industry beyond the purchasing capacity of U.S farmers and wage earners

The presidential campaign of 1932 was chiefly a debate over the causes and possibleremedies of the Great Depression The Republican Herbert Hoover planned to depend largely onnatural processes of recovery, while the Democrat Franklin D Roosevelt was prepared to use thefederal government's authority for bold experimental remedies Roosevelt was elected president

on the platform of a "New Deal" for the American people

In a certain sense, it is fair to say that the New Deal merely introduced types of social andeconomic reform familiar to many Europeans for more than a generation What was truly novelabout the New Deal, however, was the speed with which it accomplished what previously hadtaken generations Within three months, Roosevelt enacted a number of laws to help the economyrecover New jobs were created by undertaking the construction of roads, bridges, airports, parksand public buildings The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) passed by Congress in 1933 toprovide economic relief to farmers, helped increase farm income But throughout the 1930s, and

in particularly from 1935 to 1938, a severe drought hit the Great Plains states and violent windand dust storms ravaged the plains in what became known as the "Dust Bowl."

World War II (1941 - 1945)

Before Roosevelt's second term was well under way, his domestic program wasovershadowed by a new danger little noted by average Americans: the expansionist designs oftotalitarian regimes in Japan, Italy and Germany As Germany, Italy and Japan continued theiraggression, the United States announced that no country involved in the conflict could look to itfor aid Neutrality legislation, enacted from 1935 to 1937, prohibited trade with or credit to any

of the warring nations Neutrality was also the initial American response to the outbreak of war

in Europe in 1939

Postwar America (1945 to the 1960s)

On April 25, 1945, representatives of 50 nations met in San Francisco to erect theframework of the United Nations The U.S Senate promptly ratified the U.N Charter by an 89 to

2 vote This action confirmed the end of the spirit of isolationism as a dominating element inAmerican foreign policy The Cold War was the most important political issue of the earlypostwar period It grew out of longstanding disagreements between the Soviet Union and theUnited States During World War II, the two countries found themselves allied, but at the war"send, antagonisms surfaced again Germany became a divided country, with a western zone underjoint British, French, and American occupation and an eastern zone under Soviet occupation Inthe spring of 1948, the Soviets sealed off West Berlin The western powers responded with amassive airlift of food and fuel until the Soviets lifted the blockade in May 1949

Containment of the Soviet Union became American policy in the postwar years and wasthe focus of the Truman Doctrine Containment also called for extensive economic aid to assistthe recovery of war-torn Europe This program was known as the "Marshall Plan." In April 1949,the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed Arms control became an integralcomponent of U.S national security policy The United States also responded to challenges inAsia and the Korean War (1950 - 1953) brought armed conflict between the United States andChina

Decades of Change (1960 to 1980)

By 1960 government had become increasingly powerful The number of civiliansemployed by the federal government stabilized at 2.5 million throughout the 1950s Federalexpenditures passed $150 thousand-million in the 1960s Most Americans accepted government'sexpanded role, even as they disagreed about how far that expansion should continue In 1960,John F Kennedy was elected president At 43, he was the youngest man ever to win thepresidency Kennedy wanted to exert strong leadership to extend economic benefits to allcitizens, but a razor-thin margin of victory limited his mandate and his policies were oftenlimited and restrained.

In October 1962, Kennedy was faced with what turned out to be the most drastic crisis ofthe Cold War: the Cuban Missile Crisis When the Soviet Union installed nuclear missiles inCuba, Kennedy decided on a quarantine to prevent Soviet ships from bringing additional missiles

to Cuba, and he demanded publicly that the Soviets remove the weapons After several days oftension, the Soviets backed down Space was another arena for competition after the SovietUnion launched Sputnik in 1957 In April 1961, they capped a series of triumphs in space bysending the first man into orbit around the Earth President Kennedy responded with a promisethat Americans would walk on the moon before the decade was over and in July of 1969, NeilArmstrong stepped onto the moon's surface

Kennedy, assassinated in 1963, did not live to see this achievement His successor,Lyndon B Johnson, enacted a number of new laws from the Kennedy agenda, establishing socialreform programs that he described as the "Great Society." The struggle of black Americans forequality reached its peak in the mid-1960s Although civil rights legislation was enacted, someblacks became impatient with the pace of progress Violence accompanied militant calls forreform Unrest in the cities erupted, as black leaders criticized the nonviolent tactics of Dr.Martin Luther King King's assassination in 1968 triggered race riots in over 100 cities

During President Johnson's six years in office, the United States involvement in Vietnamescalated Although politicians tended to view the war as part of a necessary effort to checkcommunism on all fronts, a growing number of Americans saw no vital American interest inVietnam Demonstrations protesting American involvement in the undeclared war broke out oncollege campuses

Increasingly unpopular, President Johnson decided not to run for a second full term.Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968 Nixon negotiated a peace treaty with NorthVietnam and a number of other diplomatic breakthroughs He opened ties to the People'sRepublic of China and successfully pursued a policy of detente with the Soviet Union In 1974,

he resigned from office as it became clear that Congress was about to impeach him for WhiteHouse involvement in the Watergate cover-up

Towards the 21st Century

Shifts in the structure of American society, begun years or even decades earlier, hadbecome apparent by the time the 1980s arrived The composition of the population and the mostimportant jobs and skills in American society had undergone major changes The dominance ofservice jobs became undeniable The 1965 reform in immigration policy shifted the focus awayfrom Western Europe, and the number of new arrivals from Asia and Latin America increased.For many Americans, the economic, social and political trends of the previous two decades,engendered a mood of disillusionment After 26 consecutive years of Democratic control, theRepublicans gained a majority in the Senate in 1980 and Republican Ronald Reagan was electedpresident

5 Most Americans believe in

6 The United States is a country where

7 The average American is

8 Americans today are worried about

9 The most important thing in life to most Americans is _

Chapter 2: GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES

“A wise and frugal Government shall restrain men from injuring one another, [and] shall leave

them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvements.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Warm-up questions:

1 Do you agree with the quotation by Thomas Jefferson? Paraphrase the quotation in yourown words

2 In the United States, who has more power, the president or Congress? Why do you thinkso?

3 What are the two major political parties in the United States? What is the main difference

in their beliefs?

The government

The United States is a federal union of 50 states, with the District of Columbia as the seat

of the federal government The Constitution outlines the structure of the national government andspecifies its powers and activities, and defines the relationship between the national governmentand individual state governments Power is shared between the national and state (local)governments Within each state are counties, townships, cities and villages, each of which has itsown elective government

Governmental power and functions in the United States rest in three branches ofgovernment: the legislative, judicial, and executive Article 1 of the Constitution defines thelegislative branch and vests power to legislate in the Congress of the United States Theexecutive powers of the President are defined in Article 2 Article 3 places judicial power in thehands of one Supreme Court and inferior courts as Congress sees necessary to establish In thissystem of a "separation of powers" each branch operates independently of the others, however,there are built in "checks and balances" to prevent a concentration of power in any one branch

and to protect the rights and liberties of citizens For example, the President can veto billsapproved by Congress and the President nominates individuals to serve in the Federal judiciary;the Supreme Court can declare a law enacted by Congress or an action by the Presidentunconstitutional; and Congress can impeach the President and Federal court justices and judges.

The Constitution divides the powers of the government into three branches: theExecutive, headed by the President; the Legislative, which includes both houses of Congress (theSenate and the House of Representatives); and the Judicial, which is headed by the SupremeCourt The Constitution limits the role of each branch, through a system of checks and balances,

to prevent any one branch from gaining undue power

The Bill of Rights (1791)

The Framers of the American Constitution did not include a bill of rights in thatdocument The reason for this omission was not indifference to fundamental rights, but a feelingthat as the Constitution did not specifically grant authority over such matters as freedom of thepress or assembly, there was no need whatsoever to state that this authority did not exist Thisposition was logically sound, but not psychologically; Americans generally wanted their rightsspecially set forth in the Constitution Shortly after the first Congress met, James Madisonintroduced a long Bill of Rights as amendments to the Constitution Twelve of these were passed

by the Congress However, only ten were ratified by the States, and became part of theConstitution on December 15, 1791 They became known as the Bill of Rights Most of them arestated as limitations on government things the National government may not do Eventually theycame to be interpreted to apply, in a general way, to State governments as well As almost everyState has a bill of rights either as part of the State Constitution or as amendments, it is correct tosay that all Americans everywhere enjoy protection of such bills of rights against allgovernments, local, State, and National

The Executive branch

The chief executive of the United States is the president, who together with the president is elected to a four year term As a result of a 1951 constitutional amendment, apresident may be elected to only two terms The president's powers are formidable but notunlimited As the chief formulator of national policy, the president proposes legislation toCongress and may veto any bill passed by Congress The president is commander-in-chief of thearmed forces

vice-The executive branch of the Government is responsible for enforcing the laws of the land.The Vice President, department heads (Cabinet members), and heads of independent agenciesassist in this capacity Unlike the powers of the President, their responsibilities are not defined inthe Constitution but each has special powers and functions.

The legislative branch

The legislative branch (the Congress) is made up of elected representatives from each ofthe 50 states The Constitution sets up a bi-cameral body known as the U.S Congress to raise and

to spend national revenue and to draft laws It is commonly said that Congress influencesAmerican policy by exercising the "power of the purse strings." It is the only branch of U.S.government that can make federal laws, declare war and put foreign treaties into effect

Political Parties

Today, there are two major political parties in the United States, the Democratic and theRepublican

The Democratic Party evolved from the party of Thomas Jefferson, formed before 1800.The Republican Party was established in the 1850s by Abraham Lincoln and others who opposedthe expansion of slavery.

The Democratic Party is considered to be the more liberal party, and the Republican, themore conservative Democrats generally believe that government has an obligation to providesocial and economic programs for those who need them Republicans are not necessarily opposed

to such programs but believe they are too costly to taxpayers Republicans put more emphasis onencouraging private enterprise in the belief that a strong private sector makes citizens lessdependent on government

Both major parties have supporters among a wide variety of Americans and embrace awide range of political views Americans do not have to join a political party to vote or to be acandidate for public office, but running for office without the money and campaign workers aparty can provide is difficult

Elections

Presidential Elections

The United States Constitution stipulates that a presidential election is to be held onceevery fourth year The process of electing a president and vice-president, however, begins longbefore election day

The nominating process within the political parties officially begins with the first stateprimaries and caucuses, which usually occur in the month of February of the election year These

primaries and caucuses choose slates of delegates (usually pledged to support particularcandidates) to represent the state at the national party conventions.

At the national party conventions, traditionally held in the summer, the delegates from thestates cast votes to select the party's candidate for president

On election day (the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November of an electionyear) every citizen of legal age who has taken the steps necessary in his or her state to meet thevoting requirements (such as registering to vote) has an opportunity to vote However, thepresident is not formally chosen by direct popular vote The constitution calls for a process ofindirect popular election known as the electoral college

The Electoral College

The political parties (or independent candidates) in each state submit to the chief electionofficial a list of electors pledged to their candidate for president and equal in number to the state'selectoral vote Each state is allocated a number of electors equal to the number of its U.S.senators (always 2) plus the number of its U.S representatives

Following election day, on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December,these electors assemble in their state capitals, cast their ballots, and officially select the nextpresident As a rule, whichever presidential ticket gets the most popular votes in a state wins all

of that state's electors (except in Maine and Nebraska)

The president-elect and vice president-elect take the oath of office and are inaugurated onJanuary 20th

Congressional Elections

The Congress is divided into two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives

The Senate is composed of two members from each state, as provided by the Constitution.Its current membership is 100 Senators are elected to serve six-year terms; every two years onethird of the Senate is up for reelection Before 1913, senators were chosen by their statelegislatures, as the Founding Fathers believed that since the senators represented the state, thestate legislature should elect them The 17th amendment to the constitution changed thisprocedure, mandating that senators be elected directly by the voters of their state

When the first Congress met in 1789, there were 59 members of the House ofRepresentatives As the number of states increased and the population grew, the number ofrepresentatives increased significantly A law passed in 1911 fixed the size of the House ofRepresentatives at 435 members Members of the House are up for reelection every two years.The number of representatives in each state depends upon its population as reported in thenation's most recent census Each state is divided into a corresponding number of congressionaldistricts There is a representative for every congressional district, elected by the voters residing

in that district