United States
The
United States of America, also known as the
United States, the
U.S., the
U.S.A., the
U.S. of A., the
States, and
America is a
country in
North America. A
federal republic, the United States shares land borders with
Canada and
Mexico, and extends from the
Atlantic Ocean to the
Pacific Ocean. Its
capital is
Washington, D.C.The present-day continental United States has been inhabited for at least 15,000 years by
indigenous tribes.
["Indian, American", 2001 Standard Edition CD-ROM of The World Book Encyclopedia: "Most scientists think the first Indians came to the Americas from Asia at least 15,000 years ago. Other scientists believe the Indians may have arrived as early as 35,000 years ago. [* * *] By 12,500 years ago, Indians had spread throughout the New World and were living from the Arctic in the north all the way to southern South America."] After 16th-century
European exploration and settlement, the
English established new colonies, and gained control of others, in the eastern portion of the continent in the 17th and early 18th centuries. On
4 July 1776, at
war with Britain over fair governance,
thirteen of these colonies declared their
independence; in 1783, the war ended in British acceptance of the new nation. Since then, the country has more than quadrupled in size: it now consists of 50
states and one
federal district, and has a number of
overseas territories.
At over 3.7 million
square miles (over 9.5 million
km²), the U.S. is the
third or fourth largest country by area, depending on the reckoning of the disputed areas of China. It is also the world's
third most populous nation, with nearly 300 million people.
The United States has maintained a
liberal democratic political system since it adopted its
Articles of Confederation on
1 March 1781 and the
Constitution, the Articles' replacement, on
17 September 1787. American military, economic, cultural, and political influence increased rapidly throughout the 20th century; with the
collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the
Cold War, the nation emerged as the world's
sole remaining superpower.
[History and the Hyperpower by Eliot A. Cohen. July/August 2004. Council on Foreign Relations. URL accessed July 14, 2006.]The earliest known use of the name
America is from 1507, when a globe and a large map created by the
German cartographer
Martin Waldseemuller in
Saint-Die-des-Vosges described the combined continents of North and South America. Although the origin of the name is uncertain
[Theories on the origin of America's name], the most widely held belief is that expressed in an accompanying book,
Cosmographiae Introductio, which explains it as a
feminized version of the
Latin name of Italian explorer
Amerigo Vespucci (
Americus Vespucius); in Latin, the other continents' names were all feminine. Vespucci theorized, correctly, that
Christopher Columbus, on reaching islands in the
Caribbean Sea in
1492, had come not to
India but to a "
New World".
The Americas were also known as
Columbia, after Columbus, prompting the name
District of Columbia for the land set aside as the U.S. capital.
Columbia remained a popular name for the United States until the early
twentieth century, when it fell into relative disuse; but it is still used poetically and appears in various names and titles. A female
personification of the country is also called
Columbia; she is similar to
Britannia.
[http://www.nasa.gov/columbia/home/index.html],[http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/columbiabroa/columbiabroa.htm],[http://www.reelclassics.com/Studios/Columbia/columbia.htm],[http://memory.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000004/default.html] Columbus Day, a holiday in the U.S. and other countries in the Americas, commemorates Columbus's October 1492 landing.
The term "united States of America" was first used officially in the
Declaration of Independence, adopted on
4 July 1776. On
15 November 1777, the
Second Continental Congress adopted the
Articles of Confederation, the first of which stated "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America.'"
The
adjectival and
demonymic forms for the United States are
American, a point of
controversy among some.
Before the
European colonization of the Americas, a process that began at the end of the 15th century, the present-day continental U.S. was inhabited exclusively by various
indigenous tribes, including
Alaskan Natives, who arrived on the
continent over a period that may have begun 35,000 years ago and may have ended as recently as 11,000 years ago.
["Paleoamerican Origins". 1999. Smithsonian Institution. Accessed 2 May 2006.] The first confirmed European landing in the present-day United States was by a Spaniard,
Juan Ponce de Leon, who landed in 1513 in
Florida, and as part of his claim, the first
European settlement was established by Don
Pedro Menendez de Aviles on the site of a
Timucuan Indian village in 1565 at
St. Augustine, Florida. The first successful
English settlement was at
Jamestown,
Virginia, in 1607, followed in 1620 by the
Pilgrims' landing at
Plymouth,
Massachusetts. In 1609 and 1617, respectively, the
Dutch settled in part of what became
New York and
New Jersey. In 1638, the
Swedes founded
New Sweden, in part of what became
Delaware, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania after passing through Dutch hands. Throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries, England (and later
Great Britain) established new colonies, took over Dutch colonies, and split others. With the division of the
Carolinas, in 1729, and the colonization of
Georgia, in 1732, the British colonies in North America, excluding Canada, numbered thirteen. These
thirteen colonies would be drawn closer together over the coming decades.
Tensions between American colonials and the British during the
revolutionary period of the 1760s and 1770s led to open military conflict in 1775.
George Washington commanded the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (1775â€"1783) as the
Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on
4 July 1776. The Second Continental Congress had been formed to confront British actions, and did create the
Continental Army, but did not have the authority to levy
taxes or make federal laws. In 1777, the Congress adopted the
Articles of Confederation, uniting the states under a weak federal government, which operated from 1781 until 1788, when enough states had ratified the
United States Constitution. The Constitution, which strengthened the union and the federal government, has since remained the supreme law of the land.
[Yanak, Ted and Cornelison, Pam. The Great American History Fact-finder: The Who, What, Where, When, and Why of American History. Page 114. Houghton Mifflin; 2nd Updated edition: 27 August 2004. ISBN 0618439412] |
National Atlas map depicting dates of select territorial acquisitions. Full Oregon and other claims are not included. |
From 1803 to 1848, the size of the new nation nearly tripled as settlers (many entrenched with the concept of
Manifest Destiny as an inevitable consequence of
American exceptionalism) pushed beyond national boundaries even before the
Louisiana Purchase.
[Manifest Destiny- An interpretation of How the West was Won. Crossroads of Earth Resources and Society. URL accessed on 4 May 2006.] The expansion was tempered somewhat by the stalemate in the
War of 1812, but was subsequently reinvigorated by victory in the
Mexicanâ€"American War in 1848.
As new territories were being incorporated, the nation was divided over the issue of
states' rights, the role of the federal government, and, by the 1820s, the expansion of slavery. The
Northern states were opposed to the expansion of slavery whereas the
Southern states saw the opposition as an attack on their way of life, since their economy was dependent on
slave labor. The failure to permanently resolve these issues led to the American Civil War, following the secession of many
slave states in the South to form the
Confederate States of America after the
1860 election of
Abraham Lincoln.
[Morrison, Michael A Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War. Page 176. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807847968.] The 1865
Union victory in the Civil War effectively ended slavery, as well as settling the question of whether a state had the right to secede. The event was a major turning point in American history, with an increase in federal power.
[De Rosa, Marshall L. The Politics of Dissolution: The Quest for a National Identity and the American Civil War. Page 266. Transaction Publishers: 1 January 1997. ISBN 1560003499] After the Civil War, an unprecedented influx of
immigrants, who helped to provide labor for American industry and create diverse communities in
undeveloped areas together with high tariff protections, national infrastructure building, and national banking regulations, hastened the country's rise to international power (although as WWI approached American politicians began embracing free trade). The United States subsequently gained new territories as a result of its growing power status, including the annexation of
Puerto Rico after victory in the
Spanishâ€"American War[Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization: Volume II: Since 1500. Page 708. Wadsworth Publishing: 10 January 2005. ISBN 0534646042], which marked the beginning of the U.S. as a
major world power.
|
Landing at Ellis Island, 1902. Immigration helped spur the American economy. |
At the start of the
First World War, in 1914, the U.S. remained neutral; but, in 1917, the U.S. joined the
Allied Powers, helping to turn the tide against the
Central Powers. For historical reasons, American sympathies were very much in favor of the British and French, even though a sizable number of citizens, mostly Irish and German, were opposed to intervention.
[Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, The Reader's Companion to American History. Page 576. 21 October 1991. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0395513723.] After the war, the Senate did not ratify the
Treaty of Versailles, because of a fear that it would pull the U.S. into European affairs which President Washington had warned against. Instead, the country chose to pursue a policy of
unilateralism that bordered at times on being
isolationist.
[McDuffie, Jerome, Piggrem, Gary Wayne, and Woodworth, Steven E. U.S. History Super Review. Page 418. Research & Education Association: 21 June 2005. ISBN 0738600709] During
most of the 1920s, the U.S. enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity as farm prices fell and industrial profits grew. A rise in debt and an inflated
stock market culminated in a
crash in 1929, triggering the
Great Depression, which with the
New Deal, led to the rise of greater government intervention in the economy.
The nation did not fully recover until 1941, when the U.S. was driven to join the
Allies against the
Axis after a surprise
attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese.
World War II was the costliest war in American history, but helped to pull the economy out of depression as the required production of military
materiel provided much-needed jobs and women entered the workforce in large numbers for the first time.
[Walker, John F, and Vatter, Harold G The Rise of Big Government in the United States. Page 63. M.E. Sharpe: May 1997. ISBN 0765600676.] After World War II, the United States and the
Soviet Union became superpowers in an era of ideological rivalry dubbed the
Cold War. The U.S. represented
liberal democracy and
capitalism, while the USSR represented
communism and a centrally
planned economy. The result was a series of
proxy wars, including the
Korean War, the
Vietnam War, the tense nuclear showdown of the
Cuban Missile Crisis, and the
Soviet war in Afghanistan.
|
U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the moon, 1969. |
The perception that the U.S. was losing the
space race spurred government efforts to raise proficiency in mathematics and science in schools
[Rudolph, John L. Scientists in the Classroom: The Cold War Reconstruction of American Science Education. Page 1. Palgrave Macmillan: 3 May 2002. ISBN 0312295715.] and lead to
President Kennedy's call for the United States to land "a man on the
moon" by the end of the 1960s, which was realized in 1969.
[Rudolph, John L. Scientists in the Classroom: The Cold War Reconstruction of American Science Education. Page 1. Palgrave Macmillan: 3 May 2002. ISBN 0312295715.]Meanwhile, American society experienced a period of sustained economic expansion. At the same time, discrimination across the U.S., especially in the
South, was increasingly challenged by a growing
civil-rights movement headed by prominent African Americans such as
Martin Luther King, Jr., which led to the abolition of the
Jim Crow laws in the South.
[Klarman, Michael J. From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality. Page 552. Oxford University Press, USA: 4 May 2006. ISBN 0195310187.]After the
fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States continued to involve itself in military action overseas, such as the
Gulf War.
Following the
September 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. foreign policy focused on the threat of
terrorist attacks. In response, the government under
George W. Bush began a series of military and legal operations termed the
War on Terror, beginning with the overthrow of Afghanistan's
Taliban government in October 2001. Soon after, the War on Terror continued with the controversial
2003 invasion of Iraq, with support from 30 governments, which George W. Bush referred to as the '
Coalition of the Willing'. The reasons for which the war in Iraq was fought have been severely criticized, and the Bush administration later admitted having acted on flawed intelligence.
|
The United States Capitol |
The United States is the longest-surviving extant
constitutional republic, with the oldest wholly written
constitution in the world. Its government operates as a
representative democracy through a
congressional system under a set of powers specified by its
Constitution. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials at all three levels are either elected by voters in a
secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Executive and legislative offices are decided by a
plurality vote of citizens in their respective districts, with judicial and cabinet-level offices nominated by the Executive and approved by the Legislature. In some states, judicial posts are filled by popular election rather than executive appointment.
The
federal government comprises three branches, which are designed to
check and balance one another's powers:
*
Legislative: The
Congress, made up of the
Senate and the
House of Representatives.
*
Executive: The
President, who appoints, with Senate approval, the
Cabinet and other officers to help administer federal law.
*
Judiciary: The
Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the President with Senate approval.
The United States Congress is a
bicameral legislature. The
House of Representatives has 435 members, each representing a
congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are
apportioned among the
states according to
population every tenth year, with each state guaranteed at least one. Currently, there are seven states which have only one representative; the most populous state, California, has 53. Each state has two Senators, regardless of population, elected
at large to six-year terms; one third of the 100 Senators are elected every second year.
Under the country's
federal system, the relationship between the state and national governments is complex; under
U.S. law, states are considered sovereign entities. However, the American Civil War and
Texas v. White established that states do not have the right to secede, and, under the Constitution, they are not allowed to conduct
foreign policy.
Federal law overrides
state law in the areas in which the federal government is empowered to act; but the powers of the federal government are subject to limits outlined in the Constitution. All powers not granted to the federal government in the Constitution are left to the states or the people themselves. However, the "
Necessary and Proper" and "
Commerce" clauses of the Constitution legally allow the extension of federal powers into other affairs, though this is the topic of considerable debate over
states' rights.
The Constitution contains a dedication to "preserve
liberty" with a "
Bill of Rights" and other
amendments, which guarantee
freedom of speech,
religion, and
the press; the
right to a fair trial;
the right to keep and bear arms;
universal suffrage; and
property rights. However, although the United States is committed to the Western ideology to pursue human rights, the extent to which these rights are available in practice is debated: various forms of ethnic
discrimination were not legally prohibited until the 1964
Civil Rights Act. However, discrimination is fading with a more tolerant culture and the passage of numerous anti-discrimination laws, embraced by the majority of Americans.
There are two major political parties: the
Republican Party and the
Democratic Party. The Republicans are generally
socially conservative and economically
classical-liberals with some right-leaning centrists. The Democrats are generally socially liberal and economically
progressive with some left-leaning centrists. Growing numbers of Americans identify with neither partyâ€"with some claiming the title Independent and others joining emerging parties, including the
Green,
Libertarian, and
Reform parties. Except for a Democratic plurality in the Senate in 2001â€"2002
[Secretary of the Senate. United States Senate Art & History: Party Division in the United States Senate, 1789â€"Present. Retrieved 21 June 2006.], the Republican Party has held the majority in both houses of Congress since the
1994 elections; since 2001, the president has been
George W. Bush, a Republican.
Foreign relations and military
The United States has vast economic, political, and military influence on a global scale, which makes its foreign policy a subject of great interest and discussion around the world. Almost all countries have
embassies in Washington, D.C., and
consulates around the country. However,
Cuba,
Iran,
North Korea, and
Sudan do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.
["Table 2 Aliens From Countries That Sponsor Terrorism Who Were Ordered Removed - 1 October 2000 through 31 December 2001". February 2003. U.S. Department of Justice. URL accessed May 30, 2006.] The U.S. is a founding member of the
United Nations (with a permanent seat on the
Security Council), among many other
international organizations.
In 1949, in an effort to contain communism during the Cold War, the U.S., Canada, and ten Western European nations formed the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a mutual-defense alliance in which they have since been joined by 14 other European statesâ€"including Turkey, which straddles the Eurasian border, and some former Soviet states. In an example of
realpolitik, the U.S. also established diplomatic relations with Communist countries that were antagonistic to the Soviet Union, like the
People's Republic of China during the
Sino-Soviet split. Recently, the foreign policy of the United States has focused on combating terrorism as well as the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction. Calls by a majority of American citizens continue for increased border security against
illegal immigration and the shipment of
illegal narcotics, with their primary goal the protection of American interests and the safety of U.S. citizens around the world, against such threats as terrorist infiltration at the border with Mexico.
[[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html#Issues "Transnational Issues"]. 20 April 2006. CIA World factbook. Accessed 30 April 2006.]The United States has a long-standing tradition of civilian control over military affairs. The
Department of Defense administers the United States
armed forces, which comprise the
Army, the
Air Force, the
Navy, and the
Marine Corps. The
Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the
Department of Homeland Security in
peacetime, but is placed under the
Department of the Navy in times of
war.
The military of the United States comprises 1.4 million
personnel on
active duty["Active Duty Military Personnel Strength Levels". 2002. Accessed 2 May 2006.], along with several hundred thousand each in the
Reserves and the
National Guard. Service in the military is voluntary, though conscription may occur in times of war through the
Selective Service System. The U.S. is considered to have the most powerful military in the world, in part due to the size of its defense budget; the
American defense expenditures in 2005 was estimated to be greater than the next 14 largest national military budgets combined.
[Anup Shah, High Military Expenditure in Some Places. Last updated 27 March, 2006. globalissues.org. Retrieved 30 June, 2006.] However, the U.S. military budget is only about 4% of the country's GDP
[[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html#Military Military]. 1 June 2006. CIA Factbook. Retrieved 3 June 2006.] and, after the military build-up of World War II, has decreased after the winding down of the
Cold War.
The U.S. military maintains
over 700 bases and facilities on every continent except
Antarctica.
[U.S. Department of Defense Base Structure Report, Fiscal Year 2005 Baseline. Retrieved 1 June 2006.]The American military is committed to having a technological edge over its potential enemies and has an extensive research program to maintain such an edge. Defense related research over the years yielded such major breakthroughs as space exploration,
computers, the
Internet,
hypertext, nuclear energy, the ,
stealth aircraft,
"smart" weapons, better
bullet-proof vests,
microwaves, and more recently ground-based lasers capable of targeting and destroying inbound cruise missiles. These force multipliers have traditionally borne more fiscal expense than personnel expenses. Military technology maintains a close relationship with the civilian economy and has contributed to general technological and economic development of the USA, and often, via technology transfer, other countries as well. Conversely, the military has also benefited from the American civilian infrastructure.
The conterminous, or contiguous, forty-eight statesâ€"all the states but
Alaska and
Hawaiiâ€"are also called the
continental United States. Some include Alaska in the "continental" states, because, although it is separated from the "lower forty-eight" by Canada, it is part of the North American mainland. All of these terms commonly include the
District of Columbia. Hawaii, the fiftieth state, is an
archipelago in the Pacific Ocean.
The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the
federal district of the District of Columbiaâ€"which contains the nation's capital city, Washingtonâ€"and several overseas
insular areas (commonly known as the
United States Minor Outlying Islands), the most significant of which are
American Samoa,
Guam, the
Northern Mariana Islands,
Puerto Rico, and the
United States Virgin Islands.
Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only
incorporated territory; but it is
unorganized and uninhabited. In addition, since 1898, the United States Navy has leased an extensive
naval base at
Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba.
Former U.S. possessions include the
Panama Canal Zone, which was a U.S. territory from 1903 until 1979. Additionally, the
Philippine Islands were
American territory from 1898 until 1935, when the United States established the
Commonwealth of the Philippines as a transition between
territorial status and full Philippine independence, which occurred in 1946. Because it was part of the United States at the time of
World War II, the Philippines is the only independent nation with a memorial pillar at the
National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC.
In addition to the actual states and territories of the United States, there are also nations which are
associated states of the U.S. The
Federated States of Micronesia (since 1986),
Palau (since 1994), and the
Marshall Islands (since 1986) are associated with the United States under what is known as the
Compact of Free Association, giving the states international sovereignty and ultimate control over their territory. However, the governments of those areas have agreed to allow the United States to provide defense and financial assistance. The U.S. also treats these nations uniquely by giving them access to many U.S. domestic programs, including disaster response and recovery and hazard mitigation programs under
FEMA. The freely associated states are all dependent on U.S. financial assistance to meet both government operational and capital needs. The Office of Insular Affairs administers this financial assistance. The freely associated states also actively participate in all Office of Insular Affairs technical assistance activities. Together with the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, each of these associated states were once part of the U.S.-administered
UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which existed from 1947 until 1986 in the case of the Marshall Islands, the Northern Marianas, and the Federated States of Micronesia; Palau's trusteeship ended in 1994.
Geography and climate
[[Image:USA-satellite.jpg|thumb|250px|right|A satellite composite image of the {{continental United States|contiguous U.S.}} {{Deciduous}} vegetation and {{grassland}}s prevail in the east, transitioning to {{prairies}}, {{boreal}} forests, and the {{Rocky Mountains}} in the west, and {{desert}}s in the southwest. In the northeast, the coasts of the {{Great Lakes}} and {{Atlantic seaboard}} host much of the country's population.]]
The United States is the world's third largest country by land area, after Russia and Canada.
[[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2147rank.html Rank Order- Area]. 20 April 2006. CIA World Factbook. URL accessed 3 May 2006.] It is bounded by the North
Atlantic Ocean to the east, the North
Pacific Ocean to the west,
Mexico and the
Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Canada to the north. Alaska also borders Canada, with the Pacific Ocean to its south and the
Arctic Ocean to its north. The island state of Hawaii is situated in the Pacific, southwest of the
North American mainland.
The U.S. has an extremely varied geography, particularly in the West. The eastern seaboard has a
coastal plain which is widest in the south and almost nonexistent in the north. Beyond the coastal plain, the rolling hills of the
piedmont region end at the
Appalachian Mountains which rise above 6,000
feet (1,830
m) in
North Carolina and
New Hampshire. From the west slope of the Appalachians, the
Midwestern prairie is relatively flat and is the location of the
Great Lakes as well as the
Mississippi-
Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system.
[Mississippi River. 2004. Visit Bemidji- First City on the Mississippi. URL accessed May 3, 2006.] West of the Mississippi River, the prairie slopes uphill and blends into the vast and oftentimes featureless
Great Plains. The abrupt rise of the
Rocky Mountains at the western edge of the great plains, extends the entire width of the continental U.S., reaching altitudes over 14,000 feet (4,270 m) in
Colorado.
[Peakbagger.com, Colorado 14,000-foot Peaks, URL accessed May 3, 2006.] In the past, the Rocky Mountains had a higher level of volcanic activity; nowadays, the range only has one area of volcanism,
Yellowstone National Park in
Wyoming, possibly the world's largest volcano. Dozens of high mountain ranges, salt flats such as the
Bonneville Salt Flats, and valleys are found in the
Great Basin region located west of the Rockies and east of the Sierra Nevadas, which also has deep chasms, including the
Snake River. At the southwestern end of the Great Basin,
Death Valley lies below sea level and is the lowest point in the
Western Hemisphere and is situated near the
Mojave Desert. North of the Great Basin and east of the Cascades in the Northwest is the
Columbia River Plateau, a large igneous province caused by one of the largest
flood basalts ever to appear on Earth, it is marked by dark black rocks. Near the
Four Corners region lies the
Colorado Plateau, named after the
Colorado River, which flows through it. The Plateau is generally high in elevation, has highly eroded sandstone, and is a blood red in some locations with many national parks, such as
Arches,
Bryce Canyon,
Grand Canyon, and
Zion. Immediately to the east of the continental Pacific Coast, the
Sierra Nevada mountain range has
Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental U.S. Along the Pacific coast, the
Coast Ranges and the
volcanic Cascade Range extend across the width of the country. Alaska has numerous mountain ranges, including
Mount McKinley (Denali), the highest peak in North America. Numerous volcanoes can be found throughout the
Alexander and
Aleutian Islands extending south and west of the Alaskan mainland. The Hawaiian islands are
tropical, volcanic islands extending over 1,500
miles (2,400
km), and consisting of six larger islands and another dozen smaller ones that are inhabited.
The
climate of the U.S. is as varied as its landscape. In northern Alaska,
tundra and
arctic conditions predominate, and the temperature has fallen as low as minus 80 °
F (âˆ'62 °
C).
[Williams, Jack Each state's low temperature record, USA today, URL accessed 13 June, 2006.] On the other end of the spectrum,
Death Valley, California once reached 134 °F (56.7 °C); the second-highest temperature ever recorded on Earth.
[Death-Valley.us, Weather Landmarks, Death Valley Weather Facts, URL accessed June 13, 2006.] On average, the mountains of the western states receive the most snow and are one of the snowiest places on Earth. The greatest annual snowfall level is at
Mount Rainier, in
Washington, at 680
inches (1,727.2 cm); the record there was 1,122 inches (2849.8 cm) in the winter of 1971â€"1972. Other places with significant snowfall outside the
Cascade Range are the
Wasatch Mountains, near the Great Salt Lake, and the Sierra Nevadas, near
Lake Tahoe. In the east, while snowfall does not approach western levels, the region near the Great Lakes and the mountains of the northeast receive the most. Along the northwestern Pacific coast, rainfall is greater than anywhere else in the continental U.S., with
Quinault Ranger in Washington having an average of 137.21 inches.
[National Atlas, Average Annual Precipitation, 1961-1990, URL accessed 15 June 2006.] Hawaii receives even more, with 460 inches measured annually on
Mount Waialeale, in
Kauai. The
Mojave Desert, in the southwest, is home to the driest locale in the U.S.â€"
Yuma Valley, Arizona, with an average of 2.63 inches of
precipitation each year.
[Hereford, Richard, et al, Precipitation History of the Mojave Desert Region, 1893â€"2001, U.S. Geological Survey, Fact Sheet 117-03, URL accessed 13 June 2006.]In central portions of the U.S.,
tornadoes are more common than anywhere else on Earth
[NOVA, Tornado Heaven, Hunt for the Supertwister, URL accessed 15 June 2006.] and touch down most commonly in the spring and summer. Deadly and destructive
hurricanes occur almost every year along the Atlantic seaboard and the
Gulf of Mexico. The Appalachian region and the Midwest experience the worst floods, though virtually no area in the U.S. is immune to flooding. The Southwest has the worst droughts; one is thought to have lasted over 500 years and to have decimated the
Anasazi people.
[O'Connor, Jim E. and John E. Costa, Large Floods in the United States: Where They Happen and Why, U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1245, URL accessed 13 June 2006.]Flora and fauna
The U.S. has over 17,000 identified native plant and tree species, including 5,000 just in California (which is home to both the tallest and the most massive trees in the world).
[Morse, Larry E., et al, Native Vascular Plants, Our Living Resources, U.S. Department of the Interior, URL accessed 14 June 2006.] With habitats ranging from tropical to arctic, the flora of the U.S. is the most diverse of any country; yet, thousands of non-native
exotic species sometimes adversely affect indigenous plant and animal communities. Over 400 species of mammal, 700 species of bird, 500 species of reptile and amphibian, and 90,000 species of insect have been documented.
[National Biological Service, Our Living Resources, URL accessed 14 June 2006.] Many plants and animals are very localized in their distribution, and some are in danger of extinction. The U.S. passed the
Endangered Species Act in 1973, to protect native plant and animal species and their habitats.
Conservation has a long history in the U.S.; in 1872, the world's first
National Park was established, at
Yellowstone. Another 57 national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks and forests have since been designated.
[National Park Service, National Park Service Announces Addition of Two New Units, National Park Service News release (28 February 2006), URL accessed 13 June 2006.] In some parts of the country,
wilderness areas have been established to ensure long-term protection of pristine habitats. The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service monitors
endangered and
threatened species and has set aside numerous areas for species- and habitat-preservation. Altogether, the U.S. government owns 1,020,779 square miles (2,643,807 km²) which is 28.8% of the total land area of the U.S.
[Republican Study Committee, Federal Land and Buildings Ownership, (19 May 2005), URL accessed 13 June 2006.] The bulk of this land is protected park and forestland; but some is leased for
oil and gas exploration,
mining, and cattle ranching.
The
economic history of the United States has its roots in the marginally successful colonial economies that progressed to the largest industrial nation in the world by the turn of the 20th century.
The economic system of the United States can be described as a
capitalist-
mixed economy, in which
corporations and other private firms make the majority of
microeconomic decisions, and governments prefer to take a smaller role in the domestic economy, although the combined role of all levels of government is relatively large, at 36% of the GDP. The U.S. has a small
social safety net, and regulation of
businesses is slightly below the average of developed countries.
[Index of Economic Freedom 2006 by Heritage Foundation. URL accessed 13 May 2006.] The United States'
median household income in 2005 was $43,318.
Economic activity varies greatly across the country. For example,
New York City is the center of the American
financial,
publishing,
broadcasting, and
advertising industries, while
Los Angeles is the most important center for
film and
television production. The
San Francisco Bay Area and the
Pacific Northwest are major centers for technology. The
Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with
Detroit serving as the historic center of the American
automotive industry, and
Chicago serving as the business and financial capital of the region. The
Southeast is a major area for
agriculture,
tourism, and the
lumber industry, and, because of wages and costs below the national average, a growing center of industry.
The largest sector in the United States economy is
service, which employs roughly three quarters of the work force.
["Toward a Learning Economy" by Stephen A. Herzenberg, John A. Alic, and Howard Wial. 2006. Toward a Learning Economy. URL accessed 3 May 2006.] The economy is fueled by an abundance in
natural resources such as
coal,
petroleum, and
precious metals. However, the country still depends for much of its energy on foreign countries. In
agriculture, the country is a top producer of
corn,
soy beans,
rice, and
wheat, with the
Great Plains labeled as the "breadbasket of the world" for their tremendous agricultural output.
[Frazier, Ian. Great Plains. Page 9. 4 May 2001. Picador; 1st Picado edition. ISBN 0312278500] The U.S. has a large tourist industry, ranking third in the world
[The United States International Travel Industry- Key Facts About Inbound Tourism. 8 May 2000. ITA Office of Travel & Tourism Industries. URL accessed 3 May 2006.], and is also a major exporter in
goods such as
automobiles,
airplanes,
steel,
weapons, and
electronics. Canada accounts for 19% (more than any other nation) of the United States' foreign trade, followed by
China,
Mexico, and
Japan.
While the
per capita income of the United States is among the highest in the world, the wealth is comparatively concentrated, with approximately 40% of the population earning less than an average resident of
western Europe and the top 20% earning substantially more.
[Income Distribution in Europe and the United States by A B Atkinson. September 1995. Nuffield College in Oxford. URL accessed June 3, 2006.] Since 1975, it has been characterizeable as a "two-tier" labor market, in which virtually all the income gains have gone to the top 20% of households.
[[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html#Econ Economy]. June 13, 2006. CIA World Factbook. URL accessed June 15, 2006.] This polarization is explained by the relatively high level of
economic freedom the United States enjoys.
[[1]. September 2005. Fraser Institute. Accessed 18 July 2006.] The lower 40% of the population consists of a large proportion of new immigrants and young individuals and families, who will earn increasingly higher incomes over the course of their lifetimes. Some studies have suggested that they enter the upper 20%, replacing those retiring, while others contest this conclusion. With the impending retirement of the
Baby Boom generation, it may temporarily appear that income is becoming increasingly polarized as higher-income earners migrate from contributing actively to the economy to detracting from it.
[[Norberg, Johan. In Defence of Global Capitalism. Nov 2001. Timbro AB. pp. 50-54. Accessed 18 July 2006.]The
social mobility of U.S. residents relative to that of other countries is the subject of much debate. Analysts writing for the
Economist, the
Wall Street Journal and the
New York Times generally find that
social mobility in the United States is low relative to other
OECD states, specifically compared to
Western Europe,
Scandinavia and
Canada. They cite as primary factors the low state intervention in educational matters that are thought to favor the wealthy since income is highly correlated to education. In the U.S. the wealthy can send their children to high-cost pre-University private schools, while those who cannot afford it since there is no government assistance in this respect are sent to public schools, which often perform much lower. In addition, the practice of
legacy preference at elite universities gives preference to the children of alumni, who are often extremely wealthy, which have been documented to reduce available spaces for better-qualified lower income students.
[Alumni ties more important than grades Wall Street Journal] Some analysts argue that relative social mobility in the U.S. peaked in the 1960s and declined rapidly beginning in the 1980s.
[New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: May 15, 2005. pg. 1.1] Alan Greenspan, has also suggested that that the growing income inequality and low class mobility of the U.S. economy may eventually threaten the entire system in the near future.
Conversely, some analysts, such as those writing for the
Cato Institute,
Fraser Institute, and
Timbro, argue that U.S.
social mobility is greater than numbers indicate, pointing to the absence of class hierarchy (e.g., European class model, Indian caste system, etc.), and broader
economic freedom. They also highlight the existence of universal access to post-secondary education (the only barrier to which is the inability to afford tuition costs, rather than lack of connections or class). These analysts suggest that the absence of state intervention in the U.S., along with the resulting high economic competition, allows individuals greater opportunity to improve their conditions than
welfare states, which generally stifle productivity, and therefore income.
[[2]. September 2005. Fraser Institute. Accessed 18 July 2006.]The United States is an influential country in scientific and technological research and the production of
innovative technological products. During World War II, the U.S. was the first to develop the
atomic bomb, ushering in the
atomic age. During the beginnings of the
Cold War, the U.S. began successes in space science and technology, leading to a
space race, which led to rapid advances in
rocketry,
weaponry,
material science,
computers, and many other areas, culminating the first visit of a man to the moon, when
Neil Armstrong stepped off of
Apollo 11 in July 1969.
[Apollo 30th Anniversary. 20 September 2002. NASA. Accessed 2 May 2006.] The U.S. was also perhaps the most instrumental nation in the development of the
Internet, through the funding of its predecessor,
Arpanet, and the actual physical presence of much of the Internet.
In the sciences, Americans have a large share of
Nobel Prizes, especially in the fields of
physiology and
medicine. The
National Institutes of Health, a focal point for biomedical research in the United States, has contributed to the completion of the
Human Genome Project.
[The National Human Genome Research Institute. 2006. National Human Genome Research Institute- National Institutes of health. Accessed May 2, 2006.] The main governmental organization for
aviation and space research is the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Major corporations, such as
Boeing and
Lockheed Martin, also play an important role.
The automobile industry developed earlier and more rapidly in the United States than in most other countries, and much of the nation's transportation development has been centered on the construction of a network of high-capacity
highways. From data taken in 2004, there are about 3,981,521
miles (6,407,637
km) of roadways in the U.S., the most in the world.
[[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2085rank.html Rank Order- Roadways]. 20 April 2006. CIA World Factbook. Accessed 30 April 2006.]Mass transit systems are also available in large cities, such as
New York, which operates one of the busiest
subway systems in the world. With a few exceptions, American cities are less dense than those in other parts of the world, which is partially caused by and largely necessitates automobile ownership by every household.
Whereas the freight rail network is among the world's best (and most congested), the passenger rail network may be considered underdeveloped by European and Japanese standards. This is partly due to the longer distances travelled in the U.S.; a destination two thousand miles away is reached more quickly by air than by rail. Government subsidies of air travel played a role in the bankruptcy of passenger-rail corporations in the 1970s. The U.S. had been unique in its high number of private passenger railroads. During the 1970s, government intervention reorganized freight railroads, and consolidated passenger service under the government-backed corporation
Amtrak. No other country has more miles of rail than the U.S.
[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2121rank.html]Air travel is the preferred means of travel for long distances. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest
airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest,
Hartsfieldâ€"Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). In terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest,
Memphis International Airport. In the first half of 2006,
Chicago's
O'Hare International Airport, often close behind Hartsfieldâ€"Jackson, processed more passengers than the Atlanta airport.
Several major
seaports are in the United States; the three busiest are California's
Port of Los Angeles and
Port of Long Beach, and the
Port of New York and New Jersey, all among the
world's busiest. The
Great Lakes region is also a locus of water traffic, the lakes being extensively connected to one another, the
Mississippi River system, and the Atlantic Ocean. The first of these manmade alterations, the
Erie Canal, allowed the rapid expansion of agriculture and industry in the Midwest, and made New York City the economic center of the U.S.
|
2000 Population Density Map |
As of June 2006, there are an estimated 298,967,801 people in the United States, with a population growth rate of about 0.59%.
[People. 12 June 2006. American Fact Finder. Accessed 13 June 2006.] According to
Census 2000, about 79% of the population lives in urban areas
["United States -- Urban/Rural and Inside/Outside Metropolitan Area". United States Census 2000. URL accessed 29 May 2006.], and the country has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, with numerous others represented in smaller amounts.
[Table 2. Ancestries With 100,000 or More People in 2000: 1990 and 2000. Ancestry: 2000 - Census 2000 Brief. URL accessed May 29, 2006.] In terms of wealth distribution, thirty-five million Americans live in poverty, about 12.6% of the population; twenty percent of the population possesses 80% of the nation's wealth.
The majority of Americans (80.4% in 2004)
[http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html] are the descendants of
white immigrants; people of solely non-Hispanic white ancestry were 67.4% of the population. The non-Hispanic white population is proportionally declining, both due to immigration from nonwhite countries and due to a higher birth rate among ethnic and racial minorities.
If current immigration trends continue, the number of non-Hispanic whites is expected to be reduced to a
plurality by 2040-2050. The largest ethnic group of European ancestry is
German at 15.2%, followed by
Irish (10.8%),
English (8.7%),
Italian (5.6%) and
Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from
Slavic countries, such as
Poland and
Russia, as well as from
French Canada.
[Figure 2 - Fifteen Largest Ancestries: 2000. 2000. U.S. Census Bureau. URL accessed 30 May 2006.] African Americans, or Blacks, largely descend from Africans who arrived as slaves during the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, and number about 35 million or 12.9% of the population. At about 1.5% of the total population,
Native Americans and
Alaska Natives number about 4.4 million
, approximately 35% of whom were living on
reservations in 2005
["Tribal trends" by Douglas Clement. March 2006. fedgazette. URL accessed 3 May 2006.].
Current demographic trends include the immigration of
Hispanics from
Latin America into the
Southwest, a region that is home to about 60% of the 35 million Hispanics in the United States. Immigrants from
Mexico make up about 66% of the Hispanic community
[Population & Economic Strength. United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Accessed 2 May 2006.], and are second only to the German-descent population in the single-ethnicity category. The Hispanic population, which has been growing at an annual rate of about 4.46% since the 1990s, is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades, because of both immigration and a higher birth rate among Latinos than among the general population.
["Latino Religion in the U.S.: Demographic Shifts and Trends" by Bruce Murray. January 5, 2006. FacsNet. Accessed 2 May 2006.] According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the population of the United States will reach 300 million people in October 2006.
[America Approaches 300 Million Population. January 13 2006. ABC News. Accessed 21 May 2006.]The United States has dozens of
major cities, which play an important role in U.S. culture, heritage, and economy. In 2004, 251
incorporated places had populations of at least 100,000 and nine had populations greater than 1,000,000, including several important
global cities, such as
New York City,
Los Angeles, and
Chicago. In addition, there are fifty
metropolitan areas with populations over 1,000,000.
Indigenous peoples
The
Native Americans of the United States (also known as
Indians or
American Indians, among others), are an ethnic group who have populated the land that is today the United States since circa 9,000 B.C., more than one hundred centuries before the arrival of European settlers. As in other countries throughout the
Western Hemisphere, the impact of
European colonization of the Americas changed the lives and cultures of the Native Americans. In the 15th to 19th century, their populations were ravaged by displacement, disease, warfare with the Europeans, and enslavement.
In the 19th century, the incessant Westward expansion of the United States incrementally compelled large numbers of Native Americans to resettle further west, sometimes by force, almost always reluctantly. Under President
Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the
Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the President to conduct treaties to exchange Native American land east of the
Mississippi River for lands west of the river. As many as 100,000 Native Americans eventually relocated in the West as a result of this
Indian Removal policy. In theory, relocation was supposed to be voluntary (and many Native Americans did remain in the East), but in practice great pressure was put on Native American leaders to sign removal treaties.
Conflicts, generally known as "
Indian Wars", broke out between U.S. forces and many different tribes. U.S. government authorities entered numerous treaties during this period, but later abrogated many for various reasons. On
January 31,
1876, the United States government ordered all remaining Native Americans to move into
reservations or reserves.
The
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 gave United States citizenship to Native Americans, in part because of an interest by many to see them merged with the American mainstream, and also because of the heroic service of many Native American veterans in the
First World War.
As of 2003 according to the 2003
United States Census Bureau estimates, there were 2,786,652 Native Americans in the United States.
Language
Although the United States has no official language,
English is the
de facto national language. In 2003, about 214.8 million, or 81.6%, of the population aged five years and older spoke only English at home.[
3] Although not all Americans speak English, it is the most common language for daily interaction among both native and non-native speakers. Knowledge of English is required of immigrants seeking
naturalization. Some Americans advocate making English the
official language, which it is in twenty-seven individual states. Three states also grant official status to other languages alongside English:
French in
Louisiana,
Hawaiian in
Hawaii, and
Spanish in
New Mexico.
[27 States Have Made English Official (25 State Laws Still in Effect). Englishfirst.org. ''URL accessed 21 May 2006.] Besides English, languages spoken at home by at least one million Americans aged five years and up are Spanish or
Spanish Creole, spoken by 29.7 million;
Chinese, 2.2 million; French (including
Patois and
Cajun), 1.4 million;
Tagalog, 1.3 million;
Vietnamese, 1.1 million; and
German, 1.1 million.
Religion
|
Pisgah Baptist Church in Four Oaks, North Carolina. The Bible Belt is well known for its large devout Protestant Christian population. |
The United States government keeps no official register of Americans' religious status. However, in a private survey conducted in 2001 and mentioned in the Census Bureau's
Statistical Abstract of the United States, 76.7% of American adults identified themselves as
Christian; about 52% of adults described themselves as members of various
Protestant denominations;
Roman Catholics, at 24.5%, were the most populous individual sect;
Judaism (1.4%), the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1.3%), and other faiths also have firm places in American culture; about 14.2% of respondents described themselves as having no religion; the religious distribution of the 5.4% who elected not to describe themselves for the survey is unknown.
[Self-Described Religious Identification of Adult Population: 1990 and 2001. U.S. Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2006.]The country has a relatively high level of religiosity among developed nations. About 46% of American adults say that they attend religious services at least once a week, compared with 14% of adults in Great Britain, 8% in France, and 7% in Sweden. Moreover, 58% of Americans say they often think about the meaning and purpose of life, compared with 25% of the British, 26% of the Japanese, and 31% of West Germans.
["U-M study: U.S. among the most religious nations in the world". 17 November 2003. University of Michigan News Service. URL accessed 29 May 2006.] However, this rate is not uniform across the country: regular attendance to religious services is markedly more common in the
Bible Belt, composed largely of
Southern and Southern
Midwestern states, than in the
Northeast or the
West.
["Who Goes to Church?". 2004. ABC News. Accessed 2 May 2006.]Religion among some Americans is highly dynamic: over the period 1990â€"2001, those groups whose portion of the population at least doubled were, in descending order of growth,
Wiccans, nondenominational Christians,
Deists,
Sikhs,
Evangelical Christians,
Disciples of Christ,
New Age adherents,
Hindus,
Full Gospel adherents,
Quakers,
Bahá'Ãs, independent Christians, those who refused to answer the question,
Buddhists, and
Foursquare Gospel adherents.
[Self-Described Religious Identification of Adult Population: 1990 and 2001. U.S. Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2006.]Over the same period, the group whose portion of the population grew by the most percentage points was those who claimed
no religion, making up 8.2% of the adult population in 1990, but 14.2% in 2001.
[Self-Described Religious Identification of Adult Population: 1990 and 2001. U.S. Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2006.] This group includes atheists, agnostics, humanists, secularists and those who answered to the effect of "No religion". The number of those with no religion varies wildly with location, reaching a high in Washington, at 25%, and the rest of the relatively
agnostic western United States, and a low in North Dakota, at 3%, followed shortly by the Bible Belt.
[ American Religious Identification Survey] In the U.S. women are generally more religious than men, at 42% and 31%, respectively; and younger Americans are more secular than their older counterparts, at 14% and 7%, respectively. Among racial and ethnic groups,
blacks are the most religious, while
Asians are the least, at 49% and 28%, respectively.
[ American Religious Identification Survey]Education
Education in the United States has been a state or local, not federal, responsibility. The
Department of Education of the federal government, however, exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. Students are generally obliged to attend schooling in
public schools starting with
kindergarten, and ending with the 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18, but many states may allow students to drop out as early as age 16. Besides
public schools, parents may also choose to educate their own children at
home or to send their children to
parochial or
private schools. After
high school, students may choose to attend universities, either
public or
private. Public universities receive funding from the federal and state governments, as well as from other sources, but most students still have to pay student loans after graduation. Tuition at private universities is generally much higher than at public universities.
There are many competitive
institutions of higher education in the United States, both private and public. The United States has 168 universities in the world's top 500, 17 of which are in the top 20.
[ARWU2005 Statistics by Shanghai Jiao Tong university. URL accessed on May 16, 2006] There are also many smaller universities and
liberal arts colleges, and local
community colleges of varying quality across the country with open admission policies.
The United States ranks 24th in the reading and science literacy as well as mathematical abilities of its high school students when compared with other developed nations.
[Programme for International Student Assessment 2003, URL accessed on July 11, 2006] The United States also has a low literacy rate as compared to other developed countries, with a reading
literacy rate at 86 - 98% of the population over age 15.
[A First Look at the Literacy of America's Adults in the 21st Century, U.S. Department of Education, 2003. Accessed 13 May 2006. 2% of the population still do not have basic literacy and 14% have Below Basic prose literacy.] In regards to
educational attainment, 27.2% of the population, aged 25 and above have earned a Bachelor's degree or higher with 84.6% having graduated high school.
Health
The
World Health Organization ranks the United States' health level 72nd among the world's nations.
["Health system performance in all Member States" 1997. World Health Organization. Accessed 1 May 2006.] Infant mortality is 5 per 1,000; among developed nations, only
Latvia ranks worse, at 6 per 1,000. However, this statistic is contested by some experts, referring to the different definitions of when an infant is pronounced dead by varying countries.
["U.S. gets poor grades for newborns' survival- Nation ranks near bottom among modern nations, better only than Latvia". 9 May 2006. Associated Press. URL accessed 9 May 2006.] Obesity is also a
public-health problem, which is estimated to cost tens of billions of dollars every year.
["Obesity cost US $75bn, says study" by Jannat Jalil. 21 January 2004. BBC News. URL accessed 12 May 2006.]Unlike most Western governments, the U.S. government does not guarantee
publicly funded health care to its citizens, leading to a notably high number of people suffering from lack of proper healthcare. Private charities and insurance play a huge role in covering health care costs. Health insurance in the United States is traditionally a benefit of employment, which is mandated by law in many cases. Also, emergency care facilities are required to provide service regardless of the patient's ability to pay. Medical bills are overwhelmingly the most common reason for personal
bankruptcy in the United States.
["Illness And Injury As Contributors To Bankruptcy", by David U. Himmelstein, Elizabeth Warren, Deborah Thorne, and Steffie Woolhandler, published at Health Affairs journal in 2005, Accessed 10 May 2006.] However, the country spends a notable amount on research through such federal agencies as the
National Institutes of Health.
[Chapter Seven A REPUBLIC OF SCIENCE- Inquiry and innovation in science and medicine. USINFO.STATE.GOV. Accessed 2 May 2006''.]The culture of the United States is rooted in its origin as British colonies, but has been strongly influenced by subsequent waves of immigration, first from
Europe and
Africa and later from all over the world. Overall, the most significant cultural influences came from northern Europe, especially from the
German,
English and
Irish cultures.
One model of American culture has been that of being a
melting pot in which immigrants eventually assimilate into American culture bringing contributions from their culture but ultimately adopting a unified American culture. A more recently proposed model is that of the
salad bowl in which immigrant cultures retain at least some of the unique characteristics of their culture without merging into the overall American culture.
[Joyce Millet, Understanding American Culture: From Melting Pot to Salad Bowl. culturalsavvy.com. Accessed 28 June 2006.] Modern sociologists tend to view pluralism, rather than assimilation, as a goal for American society, largely disregarding the idea of the melting pot.
A key component of American culture is the
American Dream: the idea that, through hard work, courage, and self-determination, regardless of social class, a person can
gain a better life.
[Boritt, Gabor S. Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream. Page 1. December 1994. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252064453.] American cuisine, embraces native American ingredients like
turkey,
potatoes,
corn, and
squash which have become integral parts of American culture. Such popular icons as
apple pie,
pizza, and
hamburgers are either derived from or are actual European dishes.
Burritos and
tacos have their origins in Mexico. And
Soul food, which originated from African slaves, is extremely popular in the U.S as well. However, many of the food items now enjoyed worldwide either originated in the United States or were substantially altered by American chefs.
Music in the United States also traces to the country's melting-pot population through a diverse array of styles.
Rock and roll,
hip hop,
country,
blues, and
jazz are among the country's most internationally renowned
genres. Since the late 19th century, popular recorded music from the United States has become increasingly known across the world, such that some forms of American
popular music are heard almost everywhere.
[Provine, Rob with Okon Hwang and Andy Kershaw. "Our Life Is Precisely a Song" in the Rough Guide to World Music, Volume 2, pg. 167. ISBN 1858286360.]However, not all American culture is derived from some other form found elsewhere in the world. For example, the birth of
cinema, as well as its radical development, can largely be traced back to the United States. In 1878, the first recorded instance of sequential photographs capturing and reproducing motion was
Eadweard Muybridge's series of a
running horse, which the British-born photographer produced in
Palo Alto, California, using a row of still cameras. Since then, the American film industry, centered in Hollywood, California, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world. Other areas of development include the
comic book and
Disney's
animated films, which saw widespread popularity and influence, especially in Asian
Anime and
Manga (the popularity of which has transformed them from an obscure art into a global
phenomenon), as well as
Chinese animation and
Korean animation.
|
Pro Bowl, 2006. American Football is the most popular spectator sport in the United States.[Maccambridge, Michael. America's Game : The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation. 26 October 2004. Random House. ISBN 0375504540] |
Sports are a national pastime, and playing sports, especially
American football,
baseball, and
basketball, is very popular at the
high-school level. Professional sports in the U.S. is big business, with most of the world's most highly paid athletes.
["The Best-Paid Athletes". 24 June 2004. Forbes.com. Accessed 2 May 2006.] The "Big Four" sports are baseball, football, ice hockey, and basketball. Baseball is popularly termed "the national pastime"; but, since the early 1990s, American Football has largely been considered the most popular sport in America.
Another popular sport is
auto racing, especially
NASCAR.
Lacrosse, originally played by some of the indigenous tribes, is a visible sport and growing.
Soccer (called
football in most other parts of the world) is a popular participatory sport, especially among children; but it does not have a large following as a
spectator sport, in contrast to its much greater popularity in other countries. In recent years, however, the national league,
Major League Soccer (MLS), has seen a rise in popularity and internationally famous players within the league. The
FIFA World Cup is also gaining popularity in the United States: during the
2006 World Cup, ratings were comparable to those of
NBA basketball
playoffs. The United States is among the most influential regions in shaping three popular
board-based recreational sportsâ€"
surfboarding,
skateboarding, and
snowboardingâ€"which have many competitions and a large, dedicated subculture. Eight
Olympiads have taken place in the
United States. The country generally fares very well in them, especially the
Summer Olympics: for instance, in the
2004 Olympics, the U.S. topped the
medals table, with a record 103 medals (35 gold, 39 silver, and 29 bronze).
[Medal Tally. ABC News. Accessed 3 May 2006.] *
Articles of Confederation*
United States Constitution*
History of the United States*
International rankings of the United States *
Historical Columbia*
Superpower
*Johnson, Paul M. A History of the American People. 1104 pages. Harper Perennial: March 1, 1999. ISBN 0060930349.
*Litwak, Robert S. Rogue States and U.S. Foreign Policy : Containment after the Cold War. 300 pages. Woodrow Wilson Center Press: February 1, 2000. ISBN 0943875978.
*Nye, Joseph S. The Paradox of American Power : Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone. 240 pages. Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition: 1 May 2003. ISBN 0195161106.
*Susser, Ida (Editor), and Patterson, Thomas C. (Editor). Cultural Diversity in the United States: A Critical Reader. 476 pages. Blackwell Publishers: December 2000. ISBN 0631222138.
*Whalen, Edward. The United States Of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy. 320 pages. The Penguin Press HC: 4 November 2004. ISBN 1594200335.
*Pierson, Paul. Politics in Time : History, Institutions, and Social Analysis. 208 pages. Princeton University Press: 9 August 2004. ISBN 0691117152.
*
Government**
Official U.S. government Web portal - Gateway to governmental sites
**
White House - Official site of the President of the United States
**
Senate - Official site of the United States Senate
**
House - Official site of the United States House of Representatives
**
Supreme Court - Official site of the Supreme Court of the United States
*
Overviews**
U.S. Census Housing and Economic Statistics Updated regularly by U.S. Bureau of the Census.
**
Portrait of the United States - Published by the United States Information Agency, September 1997.
**[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html CIA World Factbook Entry for United States]
**
Encyclopaedia Britannica, United States - Country Page**
Info links for each state**
Population, employment, income, and farm characteristics by State**
Tours to USA*
History**
Historical Documents**
National Motto: History and Constitutionality**
Historicalstatistics.org - Links to historical statistics of USA
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Maps**
WikiSatellite view of United States at
WikiMapia **
The National Atlas of the United States.**
United States map*
Immigration**
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS.gov.
**
U.S. citizenship sample civics questions for naturalization interview Immihelp.com - from an immigrant to future immigrants.
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Civic Orientation - Sample Questions for Naturalizationnds-nl:Verienigde Staoten van Amerikazh-yue:美國bat-smg:JAV
