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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 four
skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and would like to learn about the culture in the
United States.

Unit objectives
The learning objectives of this unit are:
- to increase students’ awareness and understanding of the cultural values of the United
States, students’ own country (Vietnam), and, we hope, other countries.
- To provide interesting cross-cultural activities for small group and class discussions, and
topics for oral presentations and research.

Unit prerequisites
Students are required to have finished learning the four skills before taking this unit.

Unit staff

Lê Hoàng Duy Thuần

Email:
Mobile phone: 0909 489204

Unit evaluation
We value your feedback on the organization, content and teaching of this unit. An evaluation
sheet will be circulated at the end of the semester for your comments. Informal comments are
welcome 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


week

Content

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

remarks

11 & 12 Chapter 6: Education In The United States
13 & 14 Oral and written presentations

Group assessment

15

Individual assessment

Review and in-class test

Resources
Books:
1. Datesman, M., Crandall, J., Kearny, E. (2005). Americans Ways: An Introduction to American
Culture, 3rd Edition. Pearson ESL.
2. Tiersky, E., Tiesky, M. (2001). The U.S.A.: Customs and Institutions, Fourth Edition. Pearson
ESL.
3. Nash, G. (2005) The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society, 7th Edition. Prentice
Hall
4. Falk, R. (1993). Spotlight on the USA. Oxford University Press
5. Bromhead, P. (1997). Life in Modern America. Pearson ESL.
Websites:
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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

Final test

50%

Scheduled according to NTU

Assignment:
All groups are required to work on a cultural point about the United States. They need to show
the 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 to
their performance and their answers to the follow-up questions from the classmates (no more
than 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. Under
exceptional circumstances an extension can be provided. Extensions for assignment
submissions can only be granted if requested in advance of the due date for submission, and
with 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?
art
dance
holidays
beliefs

food
houses
cities
geography literature
climate
government
music
customs
history
…
2. Do you agree with the quotation by Edward T. Hall? Do people really not understand their
own 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 square
miles (9,529,107 square kilometers). It includes fifty states and one federal district, where the
capital, 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 extreme
north of North America, between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, and is bordered by Canada to the
east. The island chain of Hawaii is situated in the east-central Pacific Ocean, about two thousand
miles southwest of San Francisco.
Stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, the
United States occupies the central latitudes of the North American continent. The American land
itself 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, the
United 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 air
routes would later overlay this early network.

The rich land attracted people from all over the world (it still does). Combine the American
land with the American people and you have a dynamic force indeed. To add to all this, the
United States, over much of its land mass, is a beautiful country, with some of the most
breathtaking landscapes on earth.
Politically, the United States is divided into 50 states, each having separate state
governments, flags, laws and traditions. Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and
American Samoa are also part of the United States, each with a special status as a dependency or
territory.

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. Indigenous
people (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 the
United States to seek economic opportunity or religious freedom. Others came as slaves. Some
groups, including many from the British Isles, became well established by the time of American
independence from Great Britain in 1776. Others, like the Irish and many Germans, came in
waves during the 19th century. Asians came in their own waves, especially over the past half
century. So-called Hispanic people (actually a very varied group) could be descendants of 17th
century settlers from Spain, or they could have arrived in the United States last week (or any time

span in between).
Unlike many other countries, the United States has an identity that does not depend on
ethnic continuity, but rather on the ideas that inspired the formation of the nation. The sections
that follow give some general guidance on the major ethnic groups in the United States, with the
understanding that generalizations always have exceptions. Next comes a short section on social
classes that, once again, can only make broad generalizations. Finally, we cover some lifestyle
distinctions 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
Alabama (AL)
Alaska (AK)
Arizona (AZ)
Arkansas (AR)
California (CA)
Colorado (CO)
Connecticut (CT)
Delaware (DE)
Florida (FL)
Georgia (GA)
Hawaii (HI)
Idaho (ID)
Illinois (IL)
Indiana (IN)
Iowa (IA)
Kansas (KS)
Kentucky (KY)

Louisiana (LA)
Maine (ME)
Maryland (MD)
Massachusetts (MA)
Michigan (MI)
Minnesota (MN)
Mississippi (MS)
Missouri (MO)

Montana (MT)
Nebraska (NE)
Nevada (NV)
New Hampshire (NH)
New Jersey (NJ)
New Mexico (NM)
New York (NY)
North Carolina (NC)
North Dakota (ND)
Ohio (OH)
Oklahoma (OK)
Oregon (OR)
Pennsylvania (PA)
Rhode Island (RI)
South Carolina (SC)
South Dakota (SD)
Tennessee (TN)
Texas (TX)
Utah (UT)
Vermont (VT)
Virginia (VA)

Washington (WA)
West Virginia (WV)
Wisconsin (WI)
Wyoming (WY)

The federal entity created by the Constitution is the dominant feature of the American
governmental system. There are fifty (50) states and Washington D.C. The last two states to join
the Union were Alaska (49th) and Hawaii (50th). Both joined in 1959.
Washington D.C. is a federal district under the authority of Congress. Puerto Rico is a
commonwealth associated with the United States. Other dependent areas include American
Samoa, Baker Island, Guam, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef,
Midway Islands, Navassa Island, Palmyra Atoll, Virgin Islands, Wake Island. From 18 July 1947
until 1 October 1994, the US administered the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, but recently
entered 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 of
Micronesia 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 21
October 1986).
In general, matters that lie entirely within state borders are the exclusive concern of state
governments. 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, the
federal government has assumed broader responsibility in such matters as health, education,
welfare, transportation, and housing and urban development. The constitutions of the various
states differ in some details but generally follow a pattern similar to that of the federal
Constitution, including a statement of the rights of the people and a plan for organizing the
government. On such matters as the operation of businesses, banks, public utilities, and

charitable institutions, state constitutions are often more detailed and explicit than the federal
constitution.

Regions of the United States
Americans often speak of their country as one of several large regions. These regions are
cultural units rather than governmental units; formed by history and geography and shaped by the
economics, literature and folkways that all the parts of a region share. What makes one region
different from another? A region's multicultural heritage as well as distinct demographic
characteristics like age and occupation make regions different and special. Within several
regions, language is used differently and there are strong dialects. There are also differences in
outlook 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 19th
century, New England was the country's cultural and economic center. The earliest European
settlers 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 still
function 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 has
made to the nation. The critic Van Wyck Brooks called the creation of a distinctive American
literature, in the first half of the 19th century, "the flowering of New England." Education is
another of the region's strongest legacies. The cluster of top-ranking universities and colleges in
New England - including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Wellesley, Smith, Williams,
Amherst, and Wesleyan - is unequaled by any other region. America's first college, Harvard, was
founded at Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1636. Without, however, large expanses of rich
farmland or a mild climate, generations of exasperated New England farmers declared that the

chief product of their land was stones. By 1750, many settlers had turned from farming to other
pursuits. 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, the
Mid-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 of
Europeans who made of it what became known as the "melting pot." As heavy industry spread
throughout the region, rivers such as the Hudson and Delaware were transformed into vital
shipping 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, its
financial hub, and its cultural center. But even today, the visitor who expects only factories and
crowded cities is surprised. In the Mid-Atlantic, there are more wooded hills than factory
chimneys, 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 American
Civil War (1861-65) devastated the Old South socially and economically. Slavery was the issue
that divided North and South. To northerners, it was immoral; to southerners, it was integral to
their 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 economic
equality; and it took a long, concerted effort to end segregation. The "New South" has evolved
into a manufacturing region and high-rise buildings crowd the skylines of such cities as Atlanta
and Little Rock. The region however still has many landscapes to delight the human sense of
poetry and wonder. The region is blessed with plentiful rainfall and a mild climate. Crops grow
easily in its soil and can be grown without frost for at least six months of the year. Owing to its
mild 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 it
possible 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 to
American industry. The annual crop is greater than the nation's yield of wheat, rice and other
grains combined. On hot, still midsummer nights in the Corn Belt, farmers insist they can hear
the corn growing.
Farms are normally located separate from each other, close to the fields, and often beyond
the 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 business
meetings. Midwesterners are praised as being open, friendly, and straightforward. Their politics
tend 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 dense
and, with strong Spanish-American and Native-American components, more ethnically varied
than neighboring areas. Outside the cities, the region is a land of open spaces, much of which is
desert. The magnificent Grand Canyon is located in this region, as is Monument Valley, the
starkly beautiful backdrop for many western movies. Monument Valley is within the Navajo
Reservation, 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 the
Southwest once belonged to Mexico. The United States obtained this land following the
Mexican-American War of 1846-48.
The population in the region is growing rapidly. Arizona, for example, now rivals the
southern states as a destination for retired Americans in search of a warm climate. Since the last
third of the 19th century, the immense stretch of barren American desert has been growing
smaller. In the 1860s, the wasteland extended from the Mississippi Valley almost to the Pacific
Coast. But settlers learned that the prairies could grow corn and that the grasslands could feed
cattle 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 small
towns 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 of
European settlement older than that of most midwestern states. Spanish priests founded missions
along the California coast a few years before the outbreak of the American Revolution. In the
19th 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 undeveloped
land. Americans use these areas for recreational and commercial activities, such as fishing,
camping, hiking, boating, grazing, lumbering, and mining. In recent years, some local residents
who earn their livelihoods on federal property have come into conflict with the government
agencies, 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 the
Hollywood film industry. Fueled by the growth of Los Angeles and the "Silicon Valley" area
near San Jose, California has become the most populous of all the states. Perhaps because so
many westerners have moved there from other regions to make a new start, Western cities are
known 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 was
and what never will be."1

TIMEFRAME

HISTORICAL EVENT

30,000 - 40,000 Nomadic tribes of woolly mammoth hunters cross the Bering Strait land bridge
BC

to North America

August 3, 1492

Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain aboard the Santa Maria accompanied by
the Nina and the Pinta

October 12,
1492

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

1513

Ponce de Leon searching for "The Fountain of Youth" reaches and names
Florida

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 on
present-day North Carolina Outer Banks


1586

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

1587

Raleigh sent another 107 men and women to help the Roanoke Island colonists
and they are nowhere to be found. To this day they have been dubbed "The
Lost 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 instead

1609-1610

The starving time. Jamestown Settlement in "dire straits": many dead,
cannibalism etc.

1612

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

1620

Massachusetts (Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay) Colony established: 2 of
original 13 colonies

November 11,
The Mayflower Compact
1620

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 13
colonies

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 Massachusetts

April 18, 1775
- February 3, Revolutionary War: 6,188 Americans Wounded, 4,435 Americans Killed
1783

July 4, 1776

The Declaration of Independence is signed

June 14, 1777

The first Flag design adopted by Congress

September 17, The Continental Congress votes to submit The U. S. Constitution to The States
1787
for ratification.
June 1788

The Constitution is Ratified by all States

December 15,
1791

The Bill of Rights is ratified

1886

The Statue 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 game
along the Siberian coast, they crossed the land bridge that connected the two continents about
30,000 to 34,000 years ago. Once in Alaska, it took these first North Americans, the ancestors of

Native American tribes, thousands of years to work their way south to what is now the United
States. Evidence of early life in North America has been found at sites throughout North and
South America, indicating that life was probably already well established in much of the Western
Hemisphere 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 North
America. Emigration from England often was not directly sponsored by the government but by
private 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 the
first shots were fired in 1775, England and America did not begin an overt parting of the ways
until 1763, more than a century and a half after the founding of the first permanent settlement at
Jamestown, Virginia. In 1763, the end of the Seven Years' War and the French and Indian War
left England in control of Canada and all of North America east of the Mississippi. The colonies
long accustomed to a large measure of independence, were now demanding more freedom. They
had grown vastly in economic strength and cultural attainment, and virtually all had long years of
self-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 colonists
through 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 as
the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Act or the Coercive Act. They insisted that they
could 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 a
proclamation 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 between
America and England lasted until 1783. Known as the Treaty of Paris, the peace settlement
acknowledged 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 and
south 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 soon
end. But during the next generation, the South became solidly united behind the institution of
slavery 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, two
labor-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. The
Missouri Compromise permitted slavery in the new state of Missouri and the Arkansas Territory
but it was barred everywhere west and north of Missouri. Sectional lines steadily hardened on the
slavery question. Politically, the 1850s can be characterized as a decade of failure in which the
nation'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 and
demoralized by racial warfare. As time passed, it became obvious that the problems of the South
were 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 political
rights 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 arose
called "progressivism." Almost all the notable figures of the period were connected, at least in
part, with the reform movement. The goals of the Progressives were greater democracy and
social justice, honest government, more effective regulation of business and a revived
commitment to public service. In general, they believed that expanding the scope of government
would ensure the progress of U.S. society and the welfare of its citizens. The years 1902 to 1908
marked the era of greatest reform activity. Many states enacted laws to improve the conditions
under 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 of
common 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 closed
their doors, factories shut down and banks failed. Farm income fell some 50 percent. By 1932
approximately one out of every four Americans was unemployed. The core of the problem was
the immense disparity between the country's productive capacity and the ability of people to
consume. 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 possible
remedies of the Great Depression. The Republican Herbert Hoover planned to depend largely on
natural processes of recovery, while the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was prepared to use the
federal 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 and
economic reform familiar to many Europeans for more than a generation. What was truly novel
about the New Deal, however, was the speed with which it accomplished what previously had

taken generations. Within three months, Roosevelt enacted a number of laws to help the economy
recover. New jobs were created by undertaking the construction of roads, bridges, airports, parks
and public buildings. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) passed by Congress in 1933 to
provide 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 wind
and 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 was
overshadowed by a new danger little noted by average Americans: the expansionist designs of
totalitarian regimes in Japan, Italy and Germany. As Germany, Italy and Japan continued their
aggression, the United States announced that no country involved in the conflict could look to it
for 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 the
framework 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 in
American foreign policy. The Cold War was the most important political issue of the early
postwar period. It grew out of longstanding disagreements between the Soviet Union and the
United States. During World War II, the two countries found themselves allied, but at the war"s
end, antagonisms surfaced again. Germany became a divided country, with a western zone under
joint British, French, and American occupation and an eastern zone under Soviet occupation. In
the spring of 1948, the Soviets sealed off West Berlin. The western powers responded with a
massive 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 was

the focus of the Truman Doctrine. Containment also called for extensive economic aid to assist
the 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 integral
component of U.S. national security policy. The United States also responded to challenges in
Asia and the Korean War (1950 - 1953) brought armed conflict between the United States and
China.
Decades of Change (1960 to 1980)


By 1960 government had become increasingly powerful. The number of civilians
employed by the federal government stabilized at 2.5 million throughout the 1950s. Federal
expenditures passed $150 thousand-million in the 1960s. Most Americans accepted government's
expanded 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 the
presidency. Kennedy wanted to exert strong leadership to extend economic benefits to all
citizens, but a razor-thin margin of victory limited his mandate and his policies were often
limited and restrained.
In October 1962, Kennedy was faced with what turned out to be the most drastic crisis of
the Cold War: the Cuban Missile Crisis. When the Soviet Union installed nuclear missiles in
Cuba, 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 of
tension, the Soviets backed down. Space was another arena for competition after the Soviet
Union launched Sputnik in 1957. In April 1961, they capped a series of triumphs in space by
sending the first man into orbit around the Earth. President Kennedy responded with a promise
that Americans would walk on the moon before the decade was over and in July of 1969, Neil
Armstrong 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 social
reform programs that he described as the "Great Society." The struggle of black Americans for
equality reached its peak in the mid-1960s. Although civil rights legislation was enacted, some

blacks became impatient with the pace of progress. Violence accompanied militant calls for
reform. 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 Vietnam
escalated. Although politicians tended to view the war as part of a necessary effort to check
communism on all fronts, a growing number of Americans saw no vital American interest in
Vietnam. Demonstrations protesting American involvement in the undeclared war broke out on
college 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 North
Vietnam and a number of other diplomatic breakthroughs. He opened ties to the People's
Republic 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 White
House involvement in the Watergate cover-up.
Towards the 21st Century

Shifts in the structure of American society, begun years or even decades earlier, had
become apparent by the time the 1980s arrived. The composition of the population and the most
important jobs and skills in American society had undergone major changes. The dominance of
service jobs became undeniable. The 1965 reform in immigration policy shifted the focus away
from 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, the
Republicans gained a majority in the Senate in 1980 and Republican Ronald Reagan was elected
president.
Ask Americans
1.
2.

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Americans are ________________________________________________.
They like ____________________________________________________.
They don’t really like __________________________________________.
They act _____________________________________________________.
Most Americans believe in ______________________________________.
The United States is a country where ______________________________.
The average American is ________________________________________.
Americans today are worried about ________________________________.
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 your
own words.
2. In the United States, who has more power, the president or Congress? Why do you think
so?
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 and
specifies its powers and activities, and defines the relationship between the national government
and 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 its
own elective government.
Governmental power and functions in the United States rest in three branches of
government: the legislative, judicial, and executive. Article 1 of the Constitution defines the
legislative branch and vests power to legislate in the Congress of the United States. The
executive powers of the President are defined in Article 2. Article 3 places judicial power in the
hands of one Supreme Court and inferior courts as Congress sees necessary to establish. In this
system 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 bills
approved 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 President
unconstitutional; and Congress can impeach the President and Federal court justices and judges.
The Constitution
The American Constitution is the oldest written constitution in force in the world. The
authors of the Constitution built in a provision for amending the document when political, social
or economic conditions demanded it. Twenty-seven amendments have been passed since
ratification. The first 10 amendments to the Constitution, called the Bill of Rights, assure
individual rights and freedoms.
The Constitution divides the powers of the government into three branches: the
Executive, headed by the President; the Legislative, which includes both houses of Congress (the
Senate and the House of Representatives); and the Judicial, which is headed by the Supreme

Court. 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 that
document. The reason for this omission was not indifference to fundamental rights, but a feeling
that as the Constitution did not specifically grant authority over such matters as freedom of the
press or assembly, there was no need whatsoever to state that this authority did not exist. This
position was logically sound, but not psychologically; Americans generally wanted their rights
specially set forth in the Constitution. Shortly after the first Congress met, James Madison
introduced 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 the
Constitution on December 15, 1791. They became known as the Bill of Rights. Most of them are
stated as limitations on government things the National government may not do. Eventually they
came to be interpreted to apply, in a general way, to State governments as well. As almost every
State has a bill of rights either as part of the State Constitution or as amendments, it is correct to
say that all Americans everywhere enjoy protection of such bills of rights against all
governments, local, State, and National.
The Executive branch
The chief executive of the United States is the president, who together with the vicepresident is elected to a four year term. As a result of a 1951 constitutional amendment, a
president may be elected to only two terms. The president's powers are formidable but not
unlimited. As the chief formulator of national policy, the president proposes legislation to
Congress and may veto any bill passed by Congress. The president is commander-in-chief of the
armed forces.


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 agencies
assist in this capacity. Unlike the powers of the President, their responsibilities are not defined in
the Constitution but each has special powers and functions.
The legislative branch

The legislative branch (the Congress) is made up of elected representatives from each of
the 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 influences
American 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 the
Republican.


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 opposed
the expansion of slavery.
The Democratic Party is considered to be the more liberal party, and the Republican, the
more conservative. Democrats generally believe that government has an obligation to provide
social 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 on
encouraging private enterprise in the belief that a strong private sector makes citizens less
dependent on government.
Both major parties have supporters among a wide variety of Americans and embrace a
wide range of political views. Americans do not have to join a political party to vote or to be a
candidate for public office, but running for office without the money and campaign workers a
party can provide is difficult.

Elections
Presidential Elections

The United States Constitution stipulates that a presidential election is to be held once

every fourth year. The process of electing a president and vice-president, however, begins long
before election day.
The nominating process within the political parties officially begins with the first state
primaries 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 particular
candidates) to represent the state at the national party conventions.
At the national party conventions, traditionally held in the summer, the delegates from the
states cast votes to select the party's candidate for president.
On election day (the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November of an election
year) every citizen of legal age who has taken the steps necessary in his or her state to meet the
voting requirements (such as registering to vote) has an opportunity to vote. However, the
president is not formally chosen by direct popular vote. The constitution calls for a process of
indirect popular election known as the electoral college.
The Electoral College
The political parties (or independent candidates) in each state submit to the chief election
official a list of electors pledged to their candidate for president and equal in number to the state's
electoral 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 next
president. 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 on
January 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 one

third of the Senate is up for reelection. Before 1913, senators were chosen by their state
legislatures, as the Founding Fathers believed that since the senators represented the state, the
state legislature should elect them. The 17th amendment to the constitution changed this
procedure, 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 of
Representatives. As the number of states increased and the population grew, the number of
representatives increased significantly. A law passed in 1911 fixed the size of the House of
Representatives 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 the
nation's most recent census. Each state is divided into a corresponding number of congressional
districts. There is a representative for every congressional district, elected by the voters residing
in that district.