An Outline of American History

When I was in college, my roommate Jeremy left this book to me. He was going back home and I am not quite sure if I asked for it or he just did so to jettison some of this stuff. I have had kept the book in the small bookshelf in my room for years and finally sometimes in June or July I mustered up the courage to visit it. And on my way home from the volunteering on Sunday, I at last finished it.

Knowing fully well about the current economic turmoil that the U.S. has been going through, I have found the book very much informative and topical. In particular, the exit plan... the answer(s) to the current crisis might be able to be found in the history of itself because, after all, the history is bits and pieces of the repetition of what happened. Therefore, I. kindly enough. decided to write some the memorable excepts from the book. Think long and hard what they mean and how we can graft them to the reality.


(p.32) As mixed as the people were in PA, NY best illustrated the polyglot nature of America. By 1646 the population along the Hudson River included Dutch, French, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, English, Scots, Irish, Germans,  Poles, Bohemians, Portuguese and Italians-the forerunners of millions to come.


(p.128) By intervening in countries where popular movements threatened monarchies, the Alliance -joined at time by France - hoped to prevent the spread of revolution into its dominions. This policy was the antithesis of the American principle of self-determination.


(p.219) An old immigrant saying is that "America beckons, but Americans repel." As the current wave of immigration spills into the American mainstreat economically, politically and culturally, the debate over immigration has sharpened. Deeply ingrained in most Amerians, however, is the conviction that the Statue of Liberty does, indeed, stand as a  symbol for the United States as she lifts her lamp before the "golden door." welcoming those "yearning to breathe free," This belief, and the sure knowledge that their forebearers were once immgrants, has kept the United States a nation of nations.


(p.370) A recession marked the early years of Reagan's presidency, hiting almost all sections of the country. Real gross national product (GNP) fell by 2.5 percent in 1972, as the unemployment rate rose aobve 10 pecent and almost one third of America's industrial plants lay idle.


(p.371) Under Reagan the national debt nearly tripled. Furthermore, virtually all the growth in national wealth took place in the highest income group. Many poor and middle-class familes actually lost ground, as low- and semi-skilled jobs were eliminated from the economy, or failed to keep pace with the rest of society.


(p.388) The United States is often the harbinger of the modernization and change that inevitably sweep up other nations and societies in an increasingly interdependent, interconnected world.