HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF FOOD INDUSTRY

Faculty of Foreign Languages

AMERICAN CULTURE

Synthesized and composed by Ly Cong Khanh, M.Ed

THIS REFERENCE MATERIAL IS FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

Table of Content i
 Table of Content

Unit 1: Symbols and Holidays ................................................................................1

Module 1A: American Symbols ........................................................................................................ 2
A. The flags of the United States ............................................................................................. 2
B. The Pledge of Allegiance .................................................................................................... 4
C. More American symbols ..................................................................................................... 4
D. The Star-Spangled Banner .................................................................................................. 7
Module 1B: Thanksgiving and Independence Day ......................................................................... 8
A. Thanksgiving Day ............................................................................................................... 8
B. Independence Day ............................................................................................................... 9
Module 1C: More National Holidays ............................................................................................. 10
A. New Year’s Day ................................................................................................................ 10
B. Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. ................................................................................. 10
C. Washington's Birthday ..................................................................................................... 11
D. Memorial Day ................................................................................................................... 11
E. Juneteenth National Independence Day ............................................................................ 11
F. Labor Day .......................................................................................................................... 12
G. Columbus Day................................................................................................................... 12
H. Veterans Day ..................................................................................................................... 12
I. Christmas Day .................................................................................................................... 13
J. Halloween ........................................................................................................................... 13

Unit 2: The American People .............................................................................. 15

Module 2A. The American People .................................................................................................. 16
A. The Native Americans ...................................................................................................... 16
B. The British ......................................................................................................................... 16
C. African-Americans ............................................................................................................ 16
D. Immigrants from Northern and Western Europe .............................................................. 17
E. Immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe ................................................................ 17
F. Hispanic-Americans .......................................................................................................... 17
G. Asian-Americans ............................................................................................................... 17
Module 2B. Famous Presidents ...................................................................................................... 19
A. George Washington........................................................................................................... 19
B. Thomas Jefferson .............................................................................................................. 21
C. Abraham Lincoln............................................................................................................... 23
ii American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)
 D. Theodore Roosevelt .......................................................................................................... 25
E. John F. Kennedy ................................................................................................................ 27
Module 2C. The History of Immigration ....................................................................................... 29
A. Immigration History .......................................................................................................... 29
B. Changes in Immigration .................................................................................................... 29
C. Immigration Law ............................................................................................................... 31
Module 2D. Historical Figures ........................................................................................................ 34
A. John James Audubon ........................................................................................................ 34
B. Susan B. Anthony.............................................................................................................. 34
C. Clara Barton ...................................................................................................................... 35
D. Cesar Chavez..................................................................................................................... 35
E. Samuel L. Clemens ............................................................................................................ 36
F. Thomas A. Edison ............................................................................................................. 36
G. Duke Ellington .................................................................................................................. 37
H. Henry Ford ........................................................................................................................ 37
I. Benjamin Franklin .............................................................................................................. 38
J. Hideyo Noguchi ................................................................................................................. 38
K. Eleanor Roosevelt ............................................................................................................. 39
L. Lawrence Welk .................................................................................................................. 39

Unit 3: The Geography of the United States ...................................................... 15

Module 3A. The Geography of the United States ......................................................................... 41
Module 3B. Famous Places.............................................................................................................. 46
A. Washington, D.C. .............................................................................................................. 46
B. New York .......................................................................................................................... 51
C. Missouri............................................................................................................................. 53
D. South Dakota ..................................................................................................................... 54
E. Wyoming ........................................................................................................................... 55
F. Arizona .............................................................................................................................. 56
G. California .......................................................................................................................... 57
Module 3C. States and Cities: The West ....................................................................................... 58
A. Alaska................................................................................................................................ 58
B. Wyoming ........................................................................................................................... 58
C. Texas ................................................................................................................................. 59
D. California .......................................................................................................................... 59
E. Other states of the West ..................................................................................................... 59
Module 3D. States and Cities: The East......................................................................................... 61
Table of Content iii
Unit 4: The History of the United States ............................................................ 63
Module 4A. Overview of U.S. History ............................................................................................ 64
Ten periods of U.S. history .................................................................................................... 64
Module 4B. Exploration and Colonization .................................................................................... 67
A. Exploration ........................................................................................................................ 67
B. Colonization ...................................................................................................................... 68
C. The thirteen original colonies ............................................................................................ 69
Module 4C. Revolution .................................................................................................................... 71
A. The American Revolution ................................................................................................. 71
B. Causes of the American Revolution .................................................................................. 71
C. Events of the Revolutionary War ...................................................................................... 75
Module 4D. Growth and Westward Movement ............................................................................ 76
A. The United States after the Treaty of Paris (1783) ........................................................... 76
B. The Louisiana Purchase, 1803 .......................................................................................... 76
C. The Purchase of Florida, 1819 .......................................................................................... 76
D. Texas Annexation, 1845 ................................................................................................... 77
E. The Treaty of Oregon, 1846 .............................................................................................. 77
F. The Mexican Cession, 1848 .............................................................................................. 77
G. The Gadsden Purchase, 1853 ............................................................................................ 77
H. The Alaska Purchase, 1867 ............................................................................................... 78
I. Annexation of Hawaii, 1898 ............................................................................................... 78
J. Moving West in wagon trains ............................................................................................ 79
K. Difficult years in Texas ..................................................................................................... 80
Module 4E. The Time of the Civil War.......................................................................................... 81
A. The South before the Civil War ........................................................................................ 81
B. Differences between the northern and the southern states ................................................ 82
C. Causes of the Civil War .................................................................................................... 83
D. Both sides in the Civil War (April 12, 1861 – April 9, 1865) .......................................... 84
E. Events of the Civil War (April 12, 1861 – April 9, 1865)................................................. 86
Module 4F. Industrialization .......................................................................................................... 89
A. The Time of Reconstruction ............................................................................................. 89
B. The Industrial Revolution.................................................................................................. 90
C. The Labor Movement ........................................................................................................ 92
D. A Political Party and a Movement .................................................................................... 93
Module 4G. The U.S. Becomes a World Power ................................................................................ 94
A. World War I ...................................................................................................................... 94

iv American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 B. The Great Depression ........................................................................................................ 98
C. World War II ................................................................................................................... 100
D. Cold War ......................................................................................................................... 103
Module 4H. Modern Times ........................................................................................................... 106
A. Korean War ..................................................................................................................... 106
B. Vietnam War ................................................................................................................... 107
C. Age of Technology .......................................................................................................... 108
D. Civil Rights Movement ................................................................................................... 109
E. Gender equality ............................................................................................................... 110
Module 4I. Local History .............................................................................................................. 111
A. Cambridge, Massachusetts .............................................................................................. 111
B. St. Louis, Missouri .......................................................................................................... 111
C. Kansas ............................................................................................................................. 112
D. California ........................................................................................................................ 112
E. Arizona ............................................................................................................................ 113
F. Oklahoma ......................................................................................................................... 113
G. Chicago ........................................................................................................................... 113

Unit 5: The U.S. Constitution ............................................................................ 115

Module 5A. Overview of the U.S. Constitution ........................................................................... 116
Introduction to the U.S. Constitution ................................................................................... 116
Module 5B. The Seven Articles of the U.S. Constitution ............................................................ 117
A. Article 1: Legislative Branch .......................................................................................... 117
B. Article 2: Executive Branch ............................................................................................ 118
C. Article 3: Judicial Branch ................................................................................................ 119
D. Article 4: Relationship to the States ................................................................................ 121
D. Article 5: Amendments ................................................................................................... 121
E. Article 6: Supreme Law of the Land ............................................................................... 122
F. Article 7: Ratification ...................................................................................................... 122
Module 5C. The Amendments ...................................................................................................... 123
A. The Bill of Rights............................................................................................................ 123
B. Other Amendments ......................................................................................................... 124

Unit 6: The Federal Government ...................................................................... 127

Module 6A. The American System of Government .................................................................... 128
A. The American System of Government............................................................................ 128

Table of Content v
 B. The Three Branches of Government ............................................................................... 128
C. Political Parties ................................................................................................................ 130
Module 6B. The Legislative Branch ............................................................................................. 131
A. The Congress................................................................................................................... 131
B. The House of Representative and the Senate .................................................................. 131
C. Making a Law.................................................................................................................. 133
Module 6C. The Executive Branch............................................................................................... 135
A. The President................................................................................................................... 135
B. Requirement to Become President .................................................................................. 136
C. Vise President .................................................................................................................. 136
D. Executive Office of the President ................................................................................... 136
E. Cabinet ............................................................................................................................. 137
F. Agencies .......................................................................................................................... 137
G. The Electoral College...................................................................................................... 138
Module 6D. The Judicial Branch .................................................................................................. 141
A. Judicial branch of the federal government ...................................................................... 141
B. Supreme Court Decisions ................................................................................................ 142
C. The Judicial Process ........................................................................................................ 143

vi American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 UNIT 1
Symbols and Holidays

Unit 1: American Symbols & Holidays 1

 Module 1A. American Symbols
A. The flags of the United States
The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the American flag or the U.S.
flag, consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with
a blue rectangle in the canton (referred to specifically as the "union") bearing fifty small, white, five-
pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows, where rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternate
with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 U.S. states, and the 13 stripes represent
the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and
became the first states in the U.S. Nicknames for the flag include the Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, and
the Star-Spangled Banner.

1. (Before 1776) This is the British (English) flag. Before the American
Revolution, it was the flag of the thirteen American colonies.

2. (1776–1777) This was the “Great Union Flag.” It was the flag of the
American army during the Revolutionary War. The flag of England
was in the corner. The red and white stripes were symbols for the
thirteen American colonies.
The "Grand Union Flag" is considered to be the first national flag of
the United States of America. Like the current U.S. flag, the Grand
Union Flag has 13 alternating red and white stripes, representative of
the Thirteen Colonies. The upper inner corner, or canton, featured the
flag of the Kingdom of Great Britain, of which the colonies had been
subjects.

3. (1792) Some people say that Betsy Ross made the first American flag.
In the corner, there were thirteen white stars in a field of blue. The new
flag also had seven red stripes and six white stripes.
The origin of the stars and stripes design has been muddled by a story
disseminated by the descendants of Betsy Ross. The apocryphal story
credits Betsy Ross for sewing one of the first flags from a pencil sketch
handed to her by George Washington. No evidence for this exists either
in the diaries of George Washington or in the records of the
Continental Congress.

4. (1795–1818) During the War of 1812 the flag had fifteen stars and
fifteen stripes for the fifteen states. After a battle Francis Scott Key
wrote a song about the American flag. The “Star­Spangled Banner”
became the national anthem of the United States.
In 1795, the number of stars and stripes was increased from 13 to 15.
It was the 15-star, 15-stripe flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to
write "Defence of Fort M'Henry", later known as "The Star-Spangled
Banner", which is now the American national anthem.

5. (1960–present) The United States grew and admitted more states to the
Union. Now the flag has thirteen stripes for the thirteen original
colonies and fifty stars for the fifty states.

2 American Culture (collected by Khanh C. Ly)

Since 1818, a star for each new state has been added to the flag on the Fourth of July the year
immediately following each state's admission. In years in which multiple states have been admitted,
the corresponding number of stars were added to the flag. This change has typically been the only
change made with each revision of the flag since 1777, with the exception of changes in 1795 and
1818, which increased the number of stripes to 15 and then returned it to 13, respectively. As the exact
pattern of stars was not specified prior to 1912, many of the historical U.S. national flags (shown
below) have had varied arrangements of the stars.

Further reading Besty Ross story

Betsy Ross, formerly Elizabeth Griscom, (born January 1,

1752, Gloucester City, New Jersey [U.S.]—died January
30, 1836, Philadelphia), American seamstress who,
according to family stories, fashioned and helped design
the first flag of the United States.
The story that Betsy Ross made and helped design the
American flag has been disseminated since her grandson
William Canby presented his paper “The History of the
Flag of the United States” to the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania in 1870. According to Canby’s account, his
grandmother not only made the first Stars and Stripes at George Washington’s behest but also helped
design it. Canby based his paper on stories that he had heard from family members, along with his
own memories of his grandmother’s tales of her involvement in making flags.
Canby claimed that in June 1776 Washington and a committee from the Continental Congress asked
his grandmother to make a flag for the new country on the verge of declaring its independence. The
story then goes on to say that Ross made suggestions to improve a rough sketch of the flag that was
presented to her—including the use of the five-pointed star rather than the six-pointed one chosen
by Washington—and Washington incorporated her suggestions. Ross then fashioned the flag in her
back parlour—again, according to the legend.

Unit 1: American Symbols & Holidays 3

B. The Pledge of Allegiance
The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is
an expression of allegiance to the flag of the
United States and the republic of the United
States of America. Such a pledge was first
composed, with a text different from the one
used at present, by Captain George Thatcher
Balch, a Union Army Officer during the Civil
War and later a teacher of patriotism in New
York City schools. The form of the pledge used
today was largely devised by Francis Bellamy
in 1892, and formally adopted by Congress as
the pledge 50 years later, in 1942. The Pledge of Allegiance

The official name of The Pledge of Allegiance was adopted in 1945. The most recent alteration of its
wording came on Flag Day (June 14) in 1954, when the words "under God" were added.

C. More American Symbols

Declaration of Independence
The delegates of the thirteen American colonies
planned the Declaration of Independence, and
Thomas Jefferson wrote it. The document
declared the independence (separation) of the
colonies from England.
The United States Declaration of
Independence, formally The unanimous
Declaration of the thirteen united States of
America, is the pronouncement adopted by the
Second Continental Congress meeting in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776.
Enacted during the American Revolution, the
Declaration explains why the Thirteen Colonies
at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain
regarded themselves as thirteen independent
sovereign states, no longer under British rule.
With the Declaration, these new states took a
collective first step in forming the United States
of America.
The Declaration of Independence
The declaration was signed by 56 of America's
Founding Fathers, congressional
representatives from New Hampshire,
Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia.
The Declaration became one of the most
circulated and widely reprinted documents in
early American history.

4 American Culture (collected by Khanh C. Ly)

The Liberty Bell The Statue of Liberty

Congress adopted the Declaration of The French gave the Statue of Liberty to the
Independence, and the delegates signed the United States as a symbol of friendship. Now it
document on July 4, 1776. The Liberty Bell in is a symbol of freedom for new immigrants to
the State House in Philadelphia rang out on that this country.
day. A gift from France to the United States in the
The Liberty Bell has long been a symbol of 1800s, the Statue of Liberty still stands today in
American freedom and democracy. After more New York Harbor.
than 90 years of use in Pennsylvania's State Often referred to as Lady Liberty, this lovely
House, now referred to as Independence Hall, statue was dedicated in 1886, then became
the bell developed a crack, and further cracked recognized as a National Monument in 1924.
while in the process of being repaired. It was not She is a symbol of democracy, freedom, hope,
put back into active use after that time but and liberty.
instead became a beloved American symbol.
The statue's message inspires not just the people
The original Liberty Bell is now on display in of the United States, but also people around the
Philadelphia. world.

Bald Eagle
The American eagle is the official emblem
(symbol) of the United States. It appears on the
Presidential flag and on some coins.
In 1782, the Founding Fathers of the United
States of America chose the bald eagle to be the
country's national bird. It is visible as part of
many governmental objects, including coins,
paper money, the Great Seal, the military's
insignia, the president's flag, and many others.
It is also featured in many government
buildings and appears on official government
documents.

Unit 1: American Symbols & Holidays 5

The Donkey and the Elephant American Bison

The donkey and the elephant first appeared in The American bison was designated as the
political cartoons. They are symbols for the country's national mammal in 2016. Bison have
Democratic and Republican Parties. lived in North America since prehistoric times,
While the bald eagle is a national symbol for the though they were at risk of extinction. Bison
United States, the two major political parties have lived on the land that makes up
that govern it are often represented by two Yellowstone National Park continuously since
different animals: a donkey for the Democratic prehistoric times. Their continued presence
Party and an elephant for the Republican Party. there and elsewhere is due to conservation
These animals are commonly linked with these efforts undertaken by the United States
two parties in everything from political analysis Department of Interior (USDOI) in partnership
to bumper stickers. with various states and Native American tribes.

Uncle Sam Columbia

Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as Columbia is the female national personification
United States) is a common national of the United States.
personification of the federal government of the The earliest known personification of the
United States or the country in general. United States was as a woman named
According to legend, the character came into Columbia, who first appeared in 1738 (pre-US)
use during the War of 1812 and may have been and sometimes was associated with another
named for Samuel Wilson. The actual origin is female personification, Lady Liberty.
obscure.
While the figure of Uncle Sam specifically
Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has represents the government, the female figure of
been a popular symbol of the U.S. government Columbia represents the United States as a
in American culture and a manifestation of nation.
patriotic emotion.

6 American Culture (collected by Khanh C. Ly)

D. The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national
anthem of the United States. The lyrics come
from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem
written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old
lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after
witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry
by British ships of the Royal Navy in Baltimore
Harbor during the Battle of Baltimore in the
War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large U.S.
flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, known as the
Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly
above the fort during the U.S. victory. The earliest surviving sheet music of "The Star-
Spangled Banner", from 1814
Lyrics:
 O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last
gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the
perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly
streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still
there;
Francis Scott Key
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

 On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the

deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence
reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

 And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps'
pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
Francis Scott Key's original manuscript copy of
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave, his "Defence of Fort M'Henry" poem. It is now
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. on display at the Maryland Historical Society.
Unit 1: American Symbols & Holidays 7
 Module 1B. Thanksgiving and Independence Day
A. Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday in the Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the
United States, and Thanksgiving 2021 occurs colonists remained on board the ship, where
on Thursday, November 25. In 1621, the they suffered from exposure, scurvy and
Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag shared outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of
an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew
today as one of the first Thanksgiving lived to see their first New England spring. In
celebrations in the colonies. For more than two March, the remaining settlers moved ashore,
centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated where they received an astonishing visit from a
by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until member of the Abenaki tribe who greeted them.
1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that
President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a
national Thanksgiving Day to be held each
November.

Several days later, he returned with another

Native American, Squanto, a member of the
Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an
English sea captain and sold into slavery before
escaping to his homeland. Squanto taught the
In September 1620, a small ship called the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness,
Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple
102 passengers—an assortment of religious trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid
separatists seeking a new home where they poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers
could freely practice their faith and other forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local
individuals lured by the promise of prosperity tribe, which would endure for more than 50
and land ownership in the "New World." After years and tragically remains one of the sole
a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that examples of harmony between European
lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip colonists and Native Americans.
of Cape Cod, far north of their intended
destination at the mouth of the Hudson River.
One month later, the Mayflower crossed
Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they
are now commonly known, began the work of
establishing a village at Plymouth.

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn

harvest proved successful, Governor William
Bradford organized a celebratory feast and
invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native
American allies, including the Wampanoag
chief Massasoit. Now remembered as
American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the
Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term
at the time—the festival lasted for three days.

8 American Culture (collected by Khanh C. Ly)

B. Independence Day
Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of This historic document contains several
July) is a federal holiday in the United States important principles of American government.
commemorating the Declaration of It says that “all men are created equal,” all
Independence of the United States, which was people have the right to “life, liberty, and the
ratified by the Second Continental Congress on pursuit of happiness,” and government can exist
July 4, 1776. only with “the consent of the governed.”
Congress adopted the Declaration of
Independence, and the delegates of the thirteen
colonies, now new states, signed the document
on July 4, 1776. The Liberty Bell in the State
House of Philadelphia rang out that day

The Second Continental Congress declared that

the thirteen American colonies were no longer
subject (and subordinate) to the monarch of
Britain, King George III, and were now united,
free, and independent states. The Congress had Families often celebrate Independence Day by
voted to declare independence two days earlier, hosting or attending a picnic or barbecue; many
on July 2, but it was not declared until July 4. take advantage of the day off and, in some
years, a long weekend to gather with relatives
or friends. Decorations (e.g., streamers,
balloons, and clothing) are generally colored
red, white, and blue, the colors of the American
flag. Parades are often held in the morning,
before family get-togethers, while fireworks
displays occur in the evening after dark at such
places as parks, fairgrounds, or town squares.

During the American Revolution, the legal

separation of the thirteen colonies from Great
Britain in 1776 actually occurred on July 2,
when the Second Continental Congress voted to
approve a resolution of independence that had
been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of
Virginia declaring the United States
independent from Great Britain's rule. After
voting for independence, Congress turned its
attention to the Declaration of Independence, a
statement explaining this decision, which had
been prepared by a Committee of Five, with
Thomas Jefferson as its principal author.
Congress debated and revised the wording of
the Declaration to remove its vigorous
denunciation of the slave trade, finally
approving it two days later on July 4.

Unit 1: American Symbols & Holidays 9

 Module 1C: More National Holidays
Most of the 11 U.S. federal holidays are also state holidays. A holiday that falls on a weekend is
usually observed on the closest weekday (e.g. a holiday falling on a Saturday is observed on the
preceding Friday, while a holiday falling on a Sunday is observed on the succeeding Monday). The
official names come from the statute that defines holidays for federal employees.

A. New Year’s Day

Most of the 11 U.S. federal holidays are also
state holidays. A holiday that falls on a weekend
is usually observed on the closest weekday (e.g.
a holiday falling on a Saturday is observed on
the preceding Friday, while a holiday falling on
a Sunday is observed on the succeeding
Monday). The official names come from the
statute that defines holidays for federal
employees.

B. Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.

This holiday honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
civil rights leader, who was actually born on
January 15, 1929; combined with other holidays
in several states. Some cities and municipalities
hold parades; and more recently, the 1994 King
Holiday and Service Act, which was passed to
encourage Americans to transform the King
Holiday into a day of citizen action volunteer
service, has gained in popularity (sometimes
referred to as a National Day of Service or
American Civil Rights Day). The holiday is
observed on the third Monday of January.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became a Baptist
minister. In 1956, because blacks had to sit in
the back of buses, he led a 381-day boycott of
(refusal to use) the bus system in Montgomery,
Alabama. He was the leader of many protests in
the 1950s and 60s. The police often arrested
King’s followers or used dogs and fire hoses to
oppose them. On August 28, 1963, King joined
200,000 black and white protesters called
Freedom Marchers at the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington, D.C. to support new laws for civil
rights. There, his “I have a dream...” speech
moved the nation.

Martin Luther King, Jr. used only peaceful methods to fight against unjust laws because he opposed
violence. He said that it was important to change laws but even more important to change minds and
hearts. He helped blacks win their legal rights and made progress in the cause of integration (the
mixing of the races) in schools, churches, and public places. King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
But on April 4, 1968, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Now on Martin Luther King, Jr.
Day Americans remember a great man and promise to work hard for civil rights.

10 American Culture (collected by Khanh C. Ly)

C. Washington's Birthday
Washington's Birthday was first declared a
federal holiday by an 1879 act of Congress. The
Uniform Holidays Act, 1968, shifted the date of
the commemoration of Washington's Birthday
from February 22 to the third Monday in
February (between February 15 and 21,
meaning the observed holiday never falls on
Washington's actual birthday). Because of this,
combined with the fact that President Lincoln's
birthday falls on February 12, many people now
refer to this holiday as "Presidents' Day" and
consider it a day honoring all American
presidents. However, neither the Uniform
Holidays Act nor any subsequent law changed
the name of the holiday from Washington's
Birthday to Presidents' Day.

D. Memorial Day
Memorial Day, first called Decoration Day,
began after the Civil War to honor the war dead
of both the North and the South. Today,
patriotic Americans remember the dead soldiers
of all American wars, as well as their own
family members who died. People decorate
graves with flags and flowers. They watch
military parades. Some watch the Indianapolis
500, one of America’s greatest auto races.
Memorial Day not only honors the nation's war
dead from the Civil War onwards but also
marks the unofficial beginning of the summer
season. (traditionally May 30, shifted by the
Uniform Holidays Act 1968). The holiday is
observed on the last Monday in May.

E. Juneteenth National Independence Day

Juneteenth (officially Juneteenth National
Independence Day and also known as Jubilee
Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, and
Black Independence Day) is a federal holiday in
the United States commemorating the
emancipation of enslaved African-Americans.
It is also often observed for celebrating African-
American culture. Originating in Galveston,
Texas, it has been celebrated annually on June
19 in various parts of the United States since
1865. The day was recognized as a federal
holiday on June 17, 2021, when President Joe
Biden signed the Juneteenth National
Independence Day Act into law.
Unit 1: American Symbols & Holidays 11
F. Labor Day
Labor Day honors and recognizes the American
labor movement. 52% of Americans celebrate
Labor Day as the unofficial end of summer,
although roughly 40% of employers require
some employees to work on the holiday. The
holiday is observed on the first Monday in
September.
Labor Day celebrates the industrial spirit of the
United States. It was the idea of Labor leader
Peter S. McGuire over one hundred years ago.
Today, Labor Day represents the idea that the
success of the individual and the nation comes
from hard work. The holiday marks the end of
summer and the beginning of the school year.
Families and friends enjoy the three-day
weekend with trips, sports, or relaxation.

G. Columbus Day
Columbus Day honors the achievement of an
Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus.
Columbus knew the world was round, and he
wanted to sail to the other side. Finally, King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain agreed
to support him. On October 12, 1492, this
European sailor discovered a new world.
Today, patriotic citizens remember Columbus,
and school children learn that education and
hard work are important for progress.
Columbus Day honors Christopher Columbus,
whose exploration of the Americas in the years
1492 to 1504 marked the beginning of the
European exploration and colonization of the
Americas. The holiday is observed on the
second Monday in October, and is one of two
federal holidays where stock market trading is
permitted. In some areas it is instead a
celebration of Indigenous Peoples, or Italian
culture and heritage; traditionally October 12.

H. Veterans Day
Veterans Day, once called Armistice Day,
began after World War I. At 11:00 a.m. on
November 11, 1919, Americans stopped for two
minutes of silence to honor the courage of those
who died in that war. Today on this day of
remembrance, citizens honor veterans (former
soldiers) still living, as well as the dead of all
American wars. Patriotic Americans watch
memorial parades and attend quiet ceremonies.

12 American Culture (collected by Khanh C. Ly)

I. Christmas Day
The most widely celebrated holiday of the
Christian year, Christmas is observed as a
commemoration of the birth of Jesus of
Nazareth. Commonly celebrated by Christians
and some non-Christians with various
traditions. On the day before this holiday, the
stock market trading session ends three hours
early.
Christmas, making the birth of Christ in the
Christian religion, is another time when many
families get together. Christmas is an important
time for giving gifts. In fact, people start buying
gifts right after Thanksgiving, although
Christmas is a month away. Many families put
up a Christmas tree and bake lots of special
Christmas cookies.
Small children believe that their gifts come
from Santa Claus. Their parents tell them that
Santa lives in the North Pole and, on the night
before Christmas, he travels the world in a sled
pulled by reindeer. He goes down the chimneys
of houses to leave gifts for children who have
been good. Naturally, children are the first to
get out of bed on Christmas morning!

J. Halloween
Although Halloween, on October 31, is not an
official holiday, it is a very special day.
American colonists are responsible for initially
bringing Halloween to the United States.
Although the Celtic religious traditions had
long been replaced by Christianity, many of the
old practices remained. Influenced by a variety
of cultures, the Halloween traditions in the
American Colonies began to meld and change.
On Halloween, children dress in costume as all
kinds of things – as witches, ghosts, monsters,
pirates, TV characters, and even computers and
cereal boxes. The windows of many houses
have Halloween decorations and jack-o’-
lanterns. (Jack-o’-lanterns are pumpkins that
have been carved with strange faces and have a
candle inside.) In the evening, the children go
from house to house, knocking on doors and
saying “trick or treat.” The people in the houses
give the children candy or some other treat. If
they don’t, the children might play a small trick
on them!

Unit 1: American Symbols & Holidays 13

14 American Culture (collected by Khanh C. Ly)
 UNIT 2
The American People

Unit 2: The American People 15

 Module 2A. The American People
The United States has the third-largest B. The British
population in the world (after China and India).
In 2022, population in the United States passed Beginning in the 1600s, the British settled the
the 330,000,000 mark. Who are the American eastern part of North America. By the time of
people? the American Revolution (1776), the culture of
the American colonists (their religion,
The most distinctive characteristics of the language, government, etc.) was thoroughly
United States is its people. As nineteenth- British culture was the foundation on which
century poet Whitman said, the United States America was built. Also, over the years, many
“is not merely a nation but a nation of nations.” immigrants to the United States have come from
People from around the world have come to the the United Kingdom and Ireland.
United States and influenced its history and
culture.
A. The Native Americans
The first people on the American continent
came from Asia. They came across the Bering
Strait from Siberia to Alaska at various times
when the sea level dropped. The first migration
might have been as early as 40,000 years ago.
Once in America, these people migrated east
across North America and south through C. African-Americans
Central and South America. When Columbus From 1620 to 1820 by far the largest group of
arrived the fifteenth century, there were perhaps people to come to the United States came, not
10 million people in North America alone. They as willing immigrants, but against their will.
had developed many different kinds of These people were West Africans brought to
societies. These were the people that Columbus work as slaves, especially on the plantations, or
called “Indians,” in the mistaken belief that he large farms, of the South. In all, about 8 million
had reached the East Indies. people were brought from Africa.

The Civil War, in the 1860s, ended slavery and

Native Americans, or Indians established equal rights for black Americans.
But many states, especially in the South, passed
The story of the westward growth of the United laws segregating (separating) and
States was also the story of the destruction of discriminating against black Americans. The
the Native Americans, or Indians. Today there civil rights, in the 1950s and 1960s, helped get
are about 1.5 million Indians in the United rid of these laws.
States. Western states – especially California –
have the largest Indian populations. About one- However, the effects of 200 years of slavery,
third of the Native Americans live on 100 years of segregation, and continued
reservations, land that was set aside for them. prejudice are not as easy to get rid of. Despite
Most of the others live in cities. Poverty and many changes, black Americans are still much
unemployment are major problems, especially more likely than white Americans to be poor
on the reservations. and to suffer the bad effects that poverty brings.

16 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

D. Immigrants from Northern During this period, the United States was
changing from a mainly agricultural to a mainly
and Western Europe
industrial country. The new immigrants helped
Beginning in the 1820s, the number of make this change possible. Many settled in
immigrants coming to the United States began cities and worked in factories, often under
to increase rapidly. Faced with problems in conditions that were quite bad.
Europe – poverty, war, discrimination –
In the 1920s, discrimination and prejudice in the
immigrants hoped for, and often found, better
United States led to laws limiting immigrations.
opportunities in the United States. For the first
Immigration slowed down until the 1960s,
half-century, most immigrants were from
when these laws were changed.
northwestern Europe – from Germany, the
United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, and F. Hispanic-Americans
Norway. In the late 1800s, for example,
widespread hunger resulting from the failure of Hispanics are people of Spanish or Spanish
the potato crop led many Irish people to American origin. Some Hispanics lived in areas
immigrate to the United States. that later became part of the United States (for
example, in what are now the states of
California and New Mexico). Many others
immigrated to the U.S. Hispanic immigration
has increased greatly in recent decades.
Hispanics come from many different countries.
Three especially large groups are Mexican-
Americans (who make up about two-thirds of
the total Hispanic population), Puerto Ricans,
and Cuban-Americans. (Puerto Rico was a U.S.
territory and since 1952 has been a self-
governing commonwealth.) While the groups
Immigrants arriving in the late 1800s have much in common (especially the Spanish
During these years, the United States was language), there are also many differences. The
expanding into what is now the Midwest. To groups are also concentrated in different areas –
this day, German and Scandinavian influence is Mexican-Americans in Texas and California,
obvious in Midwestern foods and festivals. Puerto Ricans in New York, and Cuban-
Americans in Florida. Many recent immigrants
E. Immigrants from Southern are from Central American countries.
and Eastern Europe Hispanics are one of the fasted growing groups
Although immigration from northwestern in the United States population. Within 25
Europe continued, from the 1870s to the 1930s years, they will be the largest minority group.
even more people came from the countries of
southern and eastern Europe – for example,
G. Asian-Americans
Italy, Greece, Poland, and Russia. Like the In the nineteenth century, laws limited Asian
earlier immigrants, they came to escape immigration. Also, Asians in the Unites States,
poverty and discrimination. From 1900 to 1910 such as the Chinese and Japanese who had come
alone, almost 9 million people arrived from to California, met with widespread
these and other countries. discrimination.
Since the mid-1960s, with changes in
immigration laws and with conflicts in
Southeast Asia, Asians have been a major
immigrant group. In the 1980s, for example,
almost half of all immigrants were Asian.
Countries that Asian-Americans have come
from include China and Taiwan, Japan, the
Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos,
Thailand, and India.

Unit 2: The American People 17

18 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)
 Module 2B. Famous Presidents

A. George Washington George Washington's Early Years

Before the United States won independence
from British rule, George Washington was a
farmer in the colony of Virginia. George
Washington was born on February 22, 1732, at
his family’s plantation on Pope’s Creek in
Westmoreland County, in the British colony of
Virginia, to Augustine Washington (1694-
1743) and his second wife, Mary Ball
Washington (1708-89). George, the eldest of
Augustine and Mary Washington’s six children,
spent much of his childhood at Ferry Farm, a
plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia. After
Washington’s father died when he was 11, it’s
likely he helped his mother manage the
plantation.

George Washington (1732-99) was commander

in chief of the Continental Army during the
American Revolutionary War (1775-83) and
served two terms as the first U.S. president,
from 1789 to 1797. The son of a prosperous
planter, Washington was raised in colonial
Virginia. As a young man, he worked as a
surveyor then fought in the French and Indian
War (1754-63).

George Washington During the American

Revolution
By the late 1760s, Washington had experienced
firsthand the effects of rising taxes imposed on
American colonists by the British and came to
believe that it was in the best interests of the
colonists to declare independence from
During the American Revolution, he led the England. Washington served as a delegate to the
colonial forces to victory over the British and First Continental Congress in 1774 in
became a national hero. In 1787, he was elected Philadelphia. By the time the Second
president of the convention that wrote the U.S. Continental Congress convened a year later, the
Constitution. Two years later, Washington American Revolution had begun in earnest, and
became America’s first president. Realizing Washington was named commander in chief of
that the way he handled the job would impact the Continental Army. He served as a military
how future presidents approached the position, leader in the Revolutionary War. The colonists
he handed down a legacy of strength, integrity trusted him because he did not want power for
and national purpose. Less than three years after himself. He wanted all the states and the people
leaving office, he died at his Virginia plantation, to work together as one. He wanted the
Mount Vernon, at age 67. government to serve the people well.

Unit 2: The American People 19

 George Washington’s Accomplishments
The United States was a small nation when
Washington took office, consisting of 11 states
and approximately 4 million people, and there
was no precedent for how the new president
should conduct domestic or foreign business.
Mindful that his actions would likely determine
how future presidents were expected to govern,
Washington worked hard to set an example of
fairness, prudence and integrity. In foreign
matters, he supported cordial relations with
other countries but also favored a position of
neutrality in foreign conflicts. He did not think
that the United States should have strong ties
with other countries.

America’s First President

In 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris
between Great Britain and the U.S.,
Washington, believing he had done his duty,
gave up his command of the army and returned
to Mount Vernon, intent on resuming his life as Domestically, he nominated the first chief
a gentleman farmer and family man. However, justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Jay
in 1787, he was asked to attend the (1745-1829), signed a bill establishing the first
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and national bank, the Bank of the United States,
head the committee to draft the new and set up his own presidential cabinet.
constitution. His impressive leadership there
convinced the delegates that he was by far the
most qualified man to become the nation’s first
president.

Washington left one of the most enduring

legacies of any American in history. Known as
the “Father of Our Country,” his face appears
on the U.S. dollar bill and quarter, and dozens
of U.S. schools, towns and counties, as well as
the state of Washington and the nation’s capital
city, are named for him.

20 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

B. Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson’s Early Years
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743,
at Shadwell, a plantation on a large tract of land
near present-day Charlottesville, Virginia.
Jefferson began working as a lawyer in 1767.
As a member of colonial Virginia’s House of
Burgesses from 1769 to 1775, Jefferson, who
was known for his reserved manner, gained
recognition for penning a pamphlet, “A
Summary View of the Rights of British
America” (1774), which declared that the
British Parliament had no right to exercise
authority over the American colonies.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), author of the

Declaration of Independence and the third U.S.
president, was a leading figure in America’s
early development. During the American
Revolutionary War (1775-83), Jefferson served
in the Virginia legislature and the Continental
Congress and was governor of Virginia. He Marriage and Monticello
later served as U.S. minister to France and U.S.
secretary of state and was vice president under After his father died when Jefferson was a teen,
John Adams (1735-1826). the future president inherited the Shadwell
property. In 1768, Jefferson began clearing a
Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican who mountaintop on the land in preparation for the
thought the national government should have a elegant brick mansion he would construct there
limited role in citizens’ lives, was elected called Monticello (“little mountain” in Italian).
president in 1800. During his two terms in Jefferson, who had a keen interest in
office (1801-1809), the U.S. purchased the architecture and gardening, designed the home
Louisiana Territory and Lewis and Clark and its elaborate gardens himself.
explored the vast new acquisition. Although
Jefferson promoted individual liberty, he also
enslaved over six hundred people throughout
his life. After leaving office, he retired to his
Virginia plantation, Monticello, and helped
found the University of Virginia.

Over the course of his life, he remodeled and

expanded Monticello and filled it with art, fine
furnishings and interesting gadgets and
architectural details. He kept records of
everything that happened at the 5,000-acre
Statue of Thomas Jefferson (University of Virginia) plantation.

Unit 2: The American People 21

On January 1, 1772, Jefferson married Martha Jefferson's Path to the Presidency
Wayles Skelton (1748-82), a young widow. The After returning to America in the fall of 1789,
couple moved to Monticello and eventually had Jefferson accepted an appointment from
six children; only two of their daughters— President George Washington (1732-99) to
Martha (1772-1836) and Mary (1778-1804)— become the new nation’s first secretary of state.
survived into adulthood. In 1782, Jefferson’s
wife Martha died at age 33 following In the early 1790s, Jefferson, who favored
complications from childbirth. strong state and local government, co-founded
the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose
Hamilton’s Federalist Party, which advocated
for a strong national government with broad
powers over the economy.
In the presidential election of 1796, Jefferson
ran against John Adams and received the
second-highest amount of votes, which,
according to the law at the time, made him vice
Although he was an advocate for individual president.
liberty and at one point promoted a plan for the
gradual emancipation of slaves in America, he
enslaved people throughout his life.
Additionally, while he wrote in the Declaration
of Independence that “all men are created
equal,” he believed African Americans were
biologically inferior to whites and thought the
two races could not coexist peacefully in
freedom.
Jefferson and the American Revolution
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
In 1775, with the American Revolutionary War
recently underway, Jefferson was selected as a Jefferson ran against Adams again in the
delegate to the Second Continental Congress. presidential election of 1800, which turned into
Although not known as a great public speaker, a bitter battle between the Federalists and
he was a gifted writer and at age 33, was asked Democratic-Republicans. Jefferson defeated
to draft the Declaration of Independence (before Adams; however, due to a flaw in the electoral
he began writing, Jefferson discussed the system, Jefferson tied with fellow Democratic-
document’s contents with a five-member Republican Aaron Burr (1756-1836). The
drafting committee that included John Adams House of Representatives broke the tie and
and Benjamin Franklin). The Declaration of voted Jefferson into office.
Independence, which explained why the 13
colonies wanted to be free of British rule and
also detailed the importance of individual rights
and freedoms, was adopted on July 4, 1776.

Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr

In order to avoid a repeat of this situation,

Congress proposed the Twelfth Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution, which required separate
voting for president and vice president. The
amendment was ratified in 1804.

22 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

C. Abraham Lincoln His political career began at a time when
Americans were becoming divided over the
issue of slavery. Lincoln’s speeches revealed
his insight and his simple eloquence. Lincoln
was against slavery and gave some famous
speeches about his ideas when he was running
for the Senate. Running in 1858 for US Senator
from Illinois, he said, quoting from the Bible:
“‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ I
believe this government cannot endure
permanently, half slave and half free.”

Lincoln lost this election, but his ‘House

Divided’ speech brought him national
recognition. In 1860, he became the Republican
candidate for president. There was an unusual
Abraham Lincoln grew up in Kentucky in a log election with four candidates. In 1861 Abraham
cabin. He was a frontiersman and had all the Lincoln became the sixteenth President of the
frontiersman’s skills. He could split rails-that is, United States. Lincoln won, although he had
cut logs so they could be used to make fences. almost no support in the South. Soon Lincoln
He could tell a good story or joke and liked stood on the Springfield train platform, waving
going to county fairs, where he’d ‘stand backs’ well-wishers goodbye. His trunks were labeled
with other men to see who was taller. (At 6’4’, simply ‘A. Lincoln. White House. Washington
Lincoln often won.) D.C.’

Within months of Lincoln election, the house

divided against itself fell. The Southern states
Restored log cabin at Abraham Lincoln Boyhood
Home seceded from the Union. He wanted the states
of the Union to work together as one country,
But Lincoln also had ambitions. He couldn’t go but he had to lead the North against the South in
to school, so he taught himself. He educated the Civil War. Some people thought that
himself, studied laws and became a lawyer in Lincoln was too strong as President because he
Springfield, Illinois. Friends called him used power that the Constitution did not give
“Honest Abe.” In 1834, at the age of 15, he was him. Despite his lack of experience, Lincoln
elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. was a very capable political and military leader.
As a delegate from Illinois, he served in He brought the country through four years of
Congress from 1847 to 1849. civil war.

Unit 2: The American People 23

Lincoln never lost touch with the people. He President Lincoln freed the slaves with the
visited soldiers in hospitals and in battlefields. Emancipation Proclamation. He had a plan to
He often opened the White House to ordinary bring the South back into the Union after the
citizens, meeting with them and listening to Civil War. Could Lincoln lead the country
their problems. successfully in this process of healing? Peace
would bring problems almost as difficult as war.
The Southern states had to be readmitted and
former slaves had to be incorporated into the
society.
Unfortunately, the answer to this question
would never be known. On April 14, 1865,
Lincoln went to the theater to see a comedy.
John Wilkes Booth, a Southern sympathizer,
slipped into Lincoln’s theater box and
assassinated him.

Lincoln visiting soldiers

The war greatly affected Lincoln. Friends
noticed how much he aged. Once, after a battle
in which many were killed, Lincoln was telling
one of his jokes, when a congressman
interrupted him, pointing out that jokes were not
appropriate at such a time. Lincoln broke into
tears. His body shaking, he explained that if he
did not tell jokes, his sorrow became too much
to bear.
As the war neared its end, Lincoln showed his
compassion for those on the other side-those
who had been and would again be part of the All along the route as Lincoln made in final trip
nation. He stated clearly: ‘With malice toward home to Springfield, Illinois, 7 million
none, with charity for all ..., let us strive on to Americans went down to the train tracks to pay
finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s their last respects. The nation was in shock and
wound.’ mourning.

24 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

D. Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt’s Early Life and Career
Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27,
1858, to Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. and Martha
Bulloch Roosevelt, a wealthy family in New
York City. Known as “Teedie”–later “Teddy”–
he was frail and sickly as a boy, and as a
teenager followed a program of gymnastics and
weightlifting to build up his strength. Upon
graduating from Harvard College in 1880,
Roosevelt married Alice Hathaway Lee and
entered Columbia University Law School,
though he dropped out after only one year to
enter public service. He was elected to the New
York State Assembly at the age of 23 and served
two terms (1882-84).

Theodore Roosevelt unexpectedly became the

26th president of the United States in
September 1901 after the assassination of
William McKinley. Young and physically
robust, he brought new energy to the White
House and won a second term on his own merits
in 1904.
Roosevelt, a Republican, confronted the bitter
struggle between management and labor head-
Teddy Roosevelt’s Unexpected Path to the
on and became known as the great “trust buster”
White House
for his strenuous efforts to break up industrial
combinations under the Sherman Antitrust Act. In 1900, the leading New York Republican
He was also a dedicated conservationist, setting Thomas C. Platt conspired with national party
aside some 200 million acres for national boss Mark Hanna to get Roosevelt named as
forests, reserves and wildlife refuges during his McKinley’s running mate, in order to keep him
presidency. from running for a second term in the
governor’s office. Roosevelt campaigned
In the foreign policy arena, Roosevelt won a
vigorously for McKinley, traveling by train for
Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations to end
more than 21,000 miles to speak in 24 states,
the Russo-Japanese War and spearheaded the
and McKinley and Roosevelt won in a landslide
beginning of construction on the Panama Canal.
over Democrats William Jennings Bryan and
After leaving the White House and going on
Adlai E. Stevenson.
safari in Africa, he returned to politics in 1912,
mounting a failed run for president at the head
of a new Progressive Party. But his complex
legacy includes not just his achievements as a
progressive reformer and conservationist who
regulated big business and established the
national park system. Like many of his time, he
also believed firmly in the existence of a racial
hierarchy topped by those of white Anglo-
Saxon descent, a belief that shaped his
attitudes—and policies—on race relations, land
rights and American imperialism.

Unit 2: The American People 25

On September 6, 1901, a deranged anarchist Theodore Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy
named Leon Czolgosz shot McKinley at the Like McKinley, Roosevelt sought to bring the
Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New United States out of its isolationism and fulfill
York. McKinley died eight days later, and its responsibility as a world power. He believed
Roosevelt was sworn in as the 26th president. that America should “speak softly and carry a
Only 42 years old when he took office, he was big stick” in the realm of international affairs
the youngest president in the nation’s history, and that its president should be willing to use
and his youth and vigor immediately force to back up his diplomatic negotiations.
transformed the public image of the presidency. Roosevelt followed this big-stick policy most
conspicuously in his dealings in Latin America.

Theodore Roosevelt’s 'Square Deal'

Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” domestic program In 1903, he helped Panama secede from
included a promise to battle large industrial Colombia in order to facilitate the beginning of
combinations, or trusts, which threatened to construction on the Panama Canal, which he
restrain trade. In 1902, his government brought later claimed as his greatest accomplishment as
a successful suit under the previously president. The following year, after several
ineffective Sherman Antitrust Act against the European nations had attempted to forcibly
Northern Securities Company, a railroad collect on debts owed to them by Latin
combination formed by James J. Hill, E.H. American nations, Roosevelt issued a
Harriman and J.P. Morgan. That same year, he “corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine stating that
intervened in a prolonged coal strike in the United States would bar foreign intervention
Pennsylvania, using a combination of in Latin America and act to police the
negotiation tactics to halt the strike and gain a hemisphere, ensuring that countries paid their
modest pay increase for the miners. international debts.
Theodore Roosevelt: After the White House
As the 1908 election approached, Roosevelt
prepared grudgingly to fulfill the campaign
pledge he had made in 1904 not to seek another
term, and threw his support behind Secretary of
War William Howard Taft. Immediately after
leaving office in early 1909, Roosevelt left for
a 10-month African safari and a tour of Europe,
where he enjoyed international acclaim. Upon
his return, Roosevelt found that President Taft
had failed to follow through on the promised
program of progressive reforms, instead siding
with the more conservative wing of the
Republican Party.
Roosevelt also used his executive power to
further his passion for conservationism. In June Incensed, Roosevelt campaigned against Taft
1902, the National Reclamation Act (dedicated for the Republican nomination in 1912; when
to large-scale irrigation projects in the that effort failed, he and his supporters bolted to
American West) became the first major form the Progressive Party, popularly known as
legislative achievement of his presidency. the Bull Moose Party.

26 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

E. John F. Kennedy for America. For example, he promised that the
United States would land a man on the moon
before 1970. Kennedy was a man for the future.
He worked to stop the testing of nuclear
weapons.
His assassination on November 22, 1963, in
Dallas, Texas, sent shockwaves around the
world and turned the all-too-human Kennedy
into a larger-than-life heroic figure. To this day,
historians continue to rank him among the best-
loved presidents in American history.
John F. Kennedy’s Early Life
Born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline,
Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy (known as
Jack) was the second of nine children. His
parents, Joseph and Rose Kennedy were
members of two of Boston’s most prominent
Elected in 1960 as the 35th president of the Irish Catholic political families. Despite
United States, 43-year-old John F. Kennedy persistent health problems throughout his
became one of the youngest U.S. presidents, as childhood and teenage years (he would later be
well as the first Roman Catholic. He was born diagnosed with a rare endocrine disorder called
into one of America’s wealthiest families and Addison’s disease), Jack led a privileged youth,
parlayed an elite education and a reputation as a attending private schools such as Canterbury
military hero into a successful run for Congress and Choate and spending summers in Hyannis
in 1946 and for the Senate in 1952. Port on Cape Cod. Joe Kennedy, a hugely
successful businessman and an early supporter
Kennedy was against Communism. For
of Franklin D. Roosevelt, was appointed
example, when the Soviet Union put missiles in
chairman of the Securities and Exchange
Cuba, he sent U.S. ships to surround the island.
Commission in 1934 and in 1937 was named
But he believed that the best way to fight
U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. As a student
Communism was not by sending armies but by
at Harvard University, Jack traveled in Europe
attacking poverty and injustice. As president,
as his father’s secretary.
Kennedy confronted mounting Cold War
tensions in Cuba, Vietnam and elsewhere. Jack joined the U.S. Navy in 1941 and two years
later was sent to the South Pacific, where he was
He organized the Alliance for Progress to help
given command of a Patrol-Torpedo (PT) boat.
the countries of Latin America. He started the
In August 1943, a Japanese destroyer struck the
Peace Corps and sent Americans to over sixty
craft, PT-109, in the Solomon Islands. Kennedy
countries in Africa, Asia, and South America.
helped some of his marooned crew back to
These young volunteers worked and lived with
safety and was awarded the Navy and Marine
the people, built schools, and taught farmers
Corps Medal for heroism.
more modern methods.
He also led a renewed drive for public service
and eventually provided federal support for the
growing civil rights movement. Kennedy
supported the ideas of Martin Luther King, Jr.
and fought for civil rights, fair housing, and
programs to stop poverty. He asked Congress
for more money for education and medical care
for elderly people.
John F. Kennedy was President for only three
years, from 1961 to 1963, but his personality
and ideas changed America. He set clear goals John F. Kennedy in uniform in 1942

Unit 2: The American People 27

JFK’s Beginnings in Politics Kennedy lent an unmistakable aura of youth and
glamour to the White House. In his inaugural
Abandoning plans to be a journalist, Jack left
address, given on January 20, 1961, the new
the Navy by the end of 1944. Less than a year
president called on his fellow Americans to
later, he was back in Boston preparing for a run
work together in the pursuit of progress and the
for Congress in 1946. As a moderately
elimination of poverty, but also in the battle to
conservative Democrat, and backed by his
win the ongoing Cold War against communism
father’s fortune, Jack won his party’s
around the world. Kennedy’s famous closing
nomination handily and carried the mostly
words expressed the need for cooperation and
working-class Eleventh District by nearly three
sacrifice on the part of the American people:
to one over his Republican opponent in the
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask
general election. He entered the 80th Congress
what you can do for your country.”
in January 1947, at the age of 29, and
immediately attracted attention (as well as some
criticism from older members of the
Washington establishment) for his youthful
appearance and relaxed, informal style.
Kennedy won reelection to the House of
Representatives in 1948 and 1950, and in 1952
ran successfully for the Senate, defeating the
popular Republican incumbent Henry Cabot
Lodge Jr. On September 12, 1953, Kennedy
married the beautiful socialite and journalist
Jacqueline (Jackie) Lee Bouvier. Two years
later, he was forced to undergo a painful
operation on his back. While recovering from
the surgery, Jack wrote another best-selling Kennedy’s Foreign Policy Challenges
book, Profiles in Courage, which won the
In April 1961, Kennedy approved the plan to
Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. (The book
send 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles in an
was later revealed to be mostly the work of
amphibious landing at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba.
Kennedy’s longtime aide, Theodore Sorenson.)
Intended to spur a rebellion that would
Kennedy’s Road to Presidency overthrow the communist leader Fidel Castro,
After nearly earning his party’s nomination for the mission ended in failure, with nearly all of
vice president (under Adlai Stevenson) in 1956, the exiles captured or killed.
Kennedy announced his candidacy for president That June, Kennedy met with Soviet leader
on January 2, 1960. He defeated a primary Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna to discuss the city
challenge from the more liberal Hubert of Berlin, which had been divided after World
Humphrey and chose the Senate majority War II between Allied and Soviet control. Two
leader, Lyndon Johnson of Texas, as his months later, East German troops began
running mate. In the general election, Kennedy erecting a wall to divide the city. Kennedy sent
faced a difficult battle against his Republican an army convoy to reassure West Berliners of
opponent, Richard Nixon, a two-term vice U.S. support, and would deliver one of his most
president under the popular Dwight D. famous speeches in West Berlin in June 1963.
Eisenhower.
The tense standoff lasted nearly two weeks
Offering a young, energetic alternative to Nixon before Khrushchev agreed to dismantle Soviet
and the status quo, Kennedy benefited from his missile sites in Cuba in return for America’s
performance in the first-ever televised debates, promise not to invade the island and the
watched by millions of viewers. In November’s removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey and other
election, Kennedy won by a narrow margin– sites close to Soviet borders. In July 1963,
less than 120,000 out of some 70 million votes Kennedy won his greatest foreign affairs
cast–becoming the youngest man and the first victory when Khrushchev agreed to join him
Roman Catholic to be elected president of the and Britain’s Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
United States. in signing a nuclear test ban treaty.

28 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 Module 2C. The History of Immigration

A. Immigration History
1500’s There were about twenty­five million “native Americans” (Indians) living in North and
South America.

1600’s The English were the largest immigrant group to settle in North America. They were
farmers, fishermen, and traders.

1700’s By the time of the American Revolution, there were also many immigrants from Scotland,
Ireland, France, Holland, Germany, Sweden, and Poland. Most of these settlers were
Protestants.
The Spanish settled mainly in the Southwest, especially California. They were managers,
priests, and soldiers.

1600’s to American slave traders captured black Africans and forced them to work on plantations
1800’s in the United States.

1820 to During the Industrial Revolution, about 3.5 million Irish Catholics left poverty and
1880 discrimination to work in America. They were coal miners and railroad and canal
builders. At the same time, many Germans became farmers, laborers, and businessmen in
the United States.

1850 to After the Gold Rush in California, 100,000 poor Chinese came to work in mining camps
1870 and on the railroad.

1880 to During the “Great Migration,” twenty­five million Europeans of almost every nationality
1930 immigrated to America. They included Russian and Polish Jews, Slavic people from
Eastern Europe, Italians, Greeks, Armenians, and Syrians. Canadians, Mexicans, and
Central Americans came, too.

1940’s to The United States welcomed thousands of refugees after the end of World War II.
1950’s

1960’s to The U.S. government abolished quotas for immigration from non-European nations.
1970 Today, most immigrants are from Asian and Latin American countries.

B. Changes in Immigration
The history of the United States is the history of immigration.
Before 1880, the United States welcomed immigrants from
all countries. Because Americans were moving west,
factories in the East needed new workers. Most of these
immigrants came from northern and western Europe, so they
looked like born Americans, and their cultures were similar.
The talents, spirit, and hard work of millions of immigrants
built American farms, industry, and cities.
But then Americans began to worry about the influence and
power of large groups of immigrants from cultures very
different from their own. In the next century, the U.S. government passed many immigration acts.
Before World War II, these laws limited immigration, especially from non-European nations. But after
the war, new acts made it easier for refugees and immigrants to come to the United States.

Unit 2: The American People 29

30 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)
C. Immigration Law
1880 – 1899
European Jews, Italians, Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks came in large numbers. The Chinese Exclusion
Act of 1882 was the first federal attempt to limit immigration by nationality. The Chinese Exclusion
Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting
all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years.
In 1892, the government opened a new immigration center on Ellis Island, in New York Bay. More
than 12 million immigrants passed through it over the next several decades.

Ellis Island, in New York Bay

1900 – 1919
These years were dominated by immigration from Italy.
The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 was an informal agreement between the United States of
America and the Empire of Japan whereby Japan would not allow further emigration to the United
States and the United States would not impose restrictions on Japanese immigrants already present in
the country. US President Theodore Roosevelt, who had a positive opinion of Japan, accepted the
Agreement as proposed by Japan to avoid more formal immigration restrictions.[
The 1917 Immigration Act excluded Asians, except from the Philippines, an American territory. It
also required that immigrants be able to read. The Literacy Test Act of 1917 was the first national
language restriction on immigration and was used as a means of excluding "undesirable" linguistic
minorities.

Japanese Day parade on Seattle's Second Avenue, 1909

Unit 2: The American People 31

1920 – 1939
An immigration act set up a quota system (yearly limits on the numbers of immigrants from each
country). The law allowed higher quotas for some nations than for others. The National Origins Act
of 1924 set limits for people from each country outside the Western Hemisphere. It was very
prejudiced against eastern and southern Europeans. It excluded all Japanese, Chinese, and other Asians
from the United States.
Many Mexicans started immigrating to the U.S. Immigration dropped to its lowest level in 100 years.
Wall Street’s crash and the Great Depression made the U.S. less attractive.

Immigrants during the Great Depression

1940 – 1959
Most earlier immigrants and their children became Americanized. The foreign-born population
dropped. In 1942, during World War II, when the U.S. was fighting Japan, Japanese Americans were
sent to detention camps.
The Fulbright Act of 1946 brought in scholars from around the world. Many of them stayed in this
country.
In 1948, the U.S. began to admit war refugees. The Displaced Persons Act allowed 500,000 war
victims to immigrate to the United States. After that, it let in victims of the Korean War and the
Hungarian Revolution.
In 1952, the McCarran-Walter Act allowed small numbers of Asians to immigrate again. But the
quota system still discriminated against non-Europeans.
The Refugee Relief Act of 1953 admitted over 200,000 refugees outside the quota system.

Korean War refugees aboard USS Weiss, 16 September 1952

32 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

1960 – 1979
The Immigration Act of 1965 changed the system, which had been set up to help Europeans. It opened
up largescale immigration from other parts of the world. The new rules set area quotas instead of
national ones: 120,000 immigrants per year from the Western hemisphere (Canada and Central and
South America) and 170,000 per year from the rest of the world.
Revolutions and economic instability brought record numbers of immigrants from the Caribbean and
Central and South America.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the bill into law

1980 – 2014
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 gave amnesty to many illegal aliens and allowed
them to legalize their status. The law puts penalties on employers that hire employees without work
authorization.
According to government figures from 2014, there are more than 42.4 million immigrants living in
the U.S. This number includes documented and undocumented immigrants, as well as refugees.
Undocumented immigrants are people who do not have the papers required to enter and live in a
country legally. In 2014, the leading countries of birth for new documented immigrants were Mexico
(13 percent), India (7.7 percent), and China (7.5 percent).
Each year since 2013, the U.S. has opened its doors to nearly 70,000 refugees who can’t return to their
own countries because of persecution due to their race, religion, or nationality. In 2015, more than half
of these refugees came from Myanmar, Iraq, and Somalia, with most of the rest coming from the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bhutan, Iran, Syria, Eritrea, Sudan, and Cuba.

President Ronald Reagan signs the Immigration Reform and

Control Act of 1986 in the Roosevelt Room

Unit 2: The American People 33

 Module 2D. Historical Figures

A. John James Audubon B. Susan B. Anthony

John James Audubon (1785-1851) was an Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) was an

American self-trained artist, naturalist, and American social reformer and women's rights
ornithologist. activist who played a pivotal role in the
women's suffrage movement.
His combined interests in art and ornithology
turned into a plan to make a complete pictorial Born into a Quaker family committed to social
record of all the bird species of North America. equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at
the age of 17. In 1856, she became the New
He was notable for his extensive studies
York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery
documenting all types of American birds and
Society.
for his detailed illustrations, which depicted the
birds in their natural habitats. She and Elizabeth Cady Stanton initiated the
American Equal Rights Association, which
His major work, a color-plate book titled The
campaigned for equal rights for both women
Birds of America (1827–1839), is considered
and African Americans.
one of the finest ornithological works ever
completed. In 1872, Anthony was arrested in her hometown
of Rochester, New York for voting in violation
Audubon is also known for identifying 25 new
of laws that allowed only men to vote. She was
species. He is the eponym of the National
convicted in a widely publicized trial.
Audubon Society, and his name adorns a large
number of towns, neighborhoods, and streets Although she refused to pay the fine, the
across the United States. authorities declined to take further action. In
1878, Anthony and Stanton arranged for
Dozens of scientific names first published by
Congress to be presented with an amendment
Audubon are still in use by the scientific
giving women the right to vote.
community.

34 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

C. Clara Barton D. Cesar Chavez

Clarissa Harlowe Barton (1821-1912) was an Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) was an American
American nurse who founded the American labor leader and civil rights activist.
Red Cross. She was a hospital nurse in the Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the
American Civil War, a teacher, and a patent National Farm Workers Association (NFWA),
clerk. which later merged with the Agricultural
Since nursing education was not then very Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to
formalized and she did not attend nursing become the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor
school, she provided self-taught nursing care. union.
Barton, along with several other women, Ideologically, his world-view combined leftist
personally provided clothing, food, and politics with Catholic social teachings.
supplies for the sick and wounded soldiers in
wars in America and Europe. In 1965, Filipino American farm workers,
organized by the AWOC, initiated the Delano
She was known as the "Angel of the Battlefield" grape strike to protest for higher wages. Chavez
after she came to the aid of the overwhelmed and his largely Mexican American supporters
surgeon on duty following the battle of Cedar voted to support them. Influenced by the civil
Mountain in Northern Virginia in August 1862. rights movement's successful use of boycott
In 1869, during her trip to Geneva, Switzerland, campaigns, Chavez decided to launch his own.
Barton was introduced to the Red Cross and Dr. Rallying against the Teamsters, Chavez
Appia. When Barton returned to the United emphasized that their union was run by white
States, she inaugurated a movement to gain people, in contrast to the largely non-white
recognition for the International Committee of makeup of the lettuce cutters. There, the cutters
the Red Cross (ICRC) by the United States voted to go on strike. The Teamsters agreed to
government. relinquish their contracts with the Grower-
Barton finally succeeded during the Shipper Association, opening the way for the
administration of President Chester Arthur, lettuce cutters to choose the UFW as their
using the argument that the new American Red representative.
Cross could respond to crises other than war From the mid-1980s, Chavez increasingly
such as natural disasters like earthquakes, forest focused the UFW's campaigns on opposing the
fires, and hurricanes. use of pesticides in the fields, which he argued
Barton is noteworthy for doing humanitarian posed a danger both to farmworkers and to
work and civil rights advocacy at a time before consumers. As the UFW's boycott of Bruce
women had the right to vote. She was inducted Church products failed to gain traction, in July
into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1988 Chavez launched another public fast at
1973. Forty Acres.

Unit 2: The American People 35

E. Samuel L. Clemens F. Thomas A. Edison

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was an

known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American inventor and businessman.
American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, He developed many devices in fields such as
publisher, and lecturer. electric power generation, mass
He was praised as the "greatest humorist the communication, sound recording, and motion
United States has produced", and William pictures. These inventions, which include the
Faulkner called him "the father of American phonograph, the motion picture camera, and
literature". early versions of the electric light bulb, have
had a widespread impact on the modern
His novels include The Adventures of Tom
industrialized world.
Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn (1884), the latter of which He was one of the first inventors to apply the
has often been called the "Great American principles of organized science and teamwork
Novel". to the process of invention, working with many
researchers and employees. He established the
Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which
first industrial research laboratory.
later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and
Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship Edison was raised in the American Midwest.
with a printer and then worked as a typesetter, Early in his career he worked as a telegraph
contributing articles to the newspaper of his operator, which inspired some of his earliest
older brother Orion Clemens. He later became a inventions.
riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before In 1876, he established his first laboratory
heading west to join Orion in Nevada. facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where many
Twain was an adamant supporter of the of his early inventions were developed. With
abolition of slavery and the emancipation of 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as patents
slaves. He argued that non-whites did not in other countries, Edison is regarded as the
receive justice in the United States. most prolific inventor in American history.

36 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

G. Duke Ellington H. Henry Ford

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899- Henry Ford (1863-1947) was an American
1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, industrialist, business magnate, founder of the
and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of
from 1923 through the rest of his life. the assembly line technique of mass production.
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington By creating the first automobile that middle-
was based in New York City from the mid- class Americans could afford, he converted the
1920s and gained a national profile through his automobile from an expensive luxury into an
orchestra's appearances at the Cotton Club in accessible conveyance that profoundly
Harlem. impacted the landscape of the 20th century.
Ellington wrote or collaborated on more than His introduction of the Ford Model T
one thousand compositions; his extensive body automobile revolutionized transportation and
of work is the largest recorded personal jazz American industry.
legacy, and many of his pieces have become As the Ford Motor Company owner, he became
standards. one of the richest and best-known people in the
Ellington recorded for most American record world.
companies of his era, performed in and scored He is credited with "Fordism", the mass
several films, and composed a handful of stage production of inexpensive goods coupled with
musicals. high wages for workers.
Although a pivotal figure in the history of jazz, Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as
Ellington himself embraced the phrase "beyond the key to peace. His intense commitment to
category", considering it a liberating principle, systematically lowering costs resulted in many
and referring to his music as part of the more technical and business innovations, including a
general category of American Music. franchise system that put dealerships
Ellington was known for his inventive use of the throughout North America and major cities on
orchestra, or big band, as well as for his six continents.
eloquence and charisma. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford
He was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize Foundation and arranged for his family to
Special Award for music in 1999. permanently control it.

Unit 2: The American People 37

I. Benjamin Franklin J. Hideyo Noguchi

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was an Hideyo Noguchi (1876-1928), also known as

American polymath who was active as a writer, Seisaku Noguchi, was a prominent Japanese
scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, bacteriologist who in 1911 discovered the agent
publisher, and political philosopher. of syphilis as the cause of progressive paralytic
disease.
Among the leading intellectuals of his time,
Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the In 1900 Noguchi travelled on the America Maru
United States, a drafter and signer of the United to the United States, where he obtained a job as
States Declaration of Independence, and the a research assistant with Dr. Simon Flexner at
first United States Postmaster General. the University of Pennsylvania and later at the
Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research. He
As a scientist, he was a major figure in the
thrived in this environment. At this time his
American Enlightenment and the history of
work concerned venomous snakes.
physics for his studies of electricity, and for
charting and naming the current still known as While Noguchi was influential during his
the Gulf Stream. As an inventor, he is known lifetime, later research was not able to
for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin reproduce many of his claims, including having
stove, among others. discovered the causes of polio, rabies, syphilis,
trachoma, and yellow fever.
He was promoted to deputy postmaster-general
for the British colonies on August 10, 1753, In May 1928, having failed to find evidence for
having been Philadelphia postmaster for many his theories, Noguchi was set to return to New
years, and this enabled him to set up the first York, but was taken ill in Lagos. After lingering
national communications network. for some days, he died on 21 May.
In June 1776, he was appointed a member of the Noguchi's most famous contribution is his
Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration identification of the causative agent of syphilis
of Independence. (the bacteria Treponema pallidum) in the brain
tissues of patients with partial paralysis due to
As the only person to have signed the
meningoencephalitis.
Declaration of Independence in 1776, Treaty of
Alliance with France in 1778, Treaty of Paris in Other lasting contributions include the use of
1783, and U.S. Constitution in 1787, Franklin is snake venom in serums, the identification of the
considered one of the leading Founding Fathers leishmaniasis pathogen and of Carrion's disease
of the United States. with Oroya fever.

38 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

K. Eleanor Roosevelt L. Lawrence Welk

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) was an Lawrence Welk (1903-1992) was an American
American political figure, diplomat, and accordionist, bandleader, and television
activist. impresario, who hosted the The Lawrence Welk
Show from 1951 to 1982.
She was the first lady of the United States from
1933 to 1945, during her husband President His style came to be known as "champagne
Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office, music" to his radio, television, and live-
making her the longest-serving first lady of the performance audiences.
United States. Welk was born in the German-speaking
Roosevelt served as United States Delegate to community of North Dakota. He was sixth of
the United Nations General Assembly from the eight children of Ludwig and Christiana
1945 to 1952, and in 1948 she was given a Welk, Roman Catholic ethnic Germans who
standing ovation by the assembly upon their emigrated in 1892 from Russian Empire.
adoption of the Universal Declaration. Welk did not learn to speak English until he was
President Harry S. Truman later called her the twenty-one and never felt comfortable speaking
"First Lady of the World" in tribute to her it in public. Welk became an iconic figure in the
human rights achievements. German-Russian community of the northern
Great Plains - his success story personified the
She advocated for expanded roles for women in
American dream.
the workplace, the civil rights of African
Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights During the 1920s, he performed with various
of World War II refugees. bands before forming an orchestra. During the
1930s, Welk led a traveling big band
Following her husband's death in 1945,
specializing in dance tunes and "sweet" music.
Roosevelt remained active in politics for the
remaining 17 years of her life. She pressed the In 1951, Welk began producing The Lawrence
United States to join and support the United Welk Show on KTLA in Los Angeles. The
Nations and became its first delegate. Lawrence Welk Show continued on as a first-run
syndicated program shown on 250 stations
She served as the first chair of the UN
across the country until the final original show
Commission on Human Rights and oversaw the
was produced in 1982, when Welk decided to
drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human
retire.
Rights.

Unit 2: The American People 39

40 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)
 UNIT 3

The Geography of
the United States

Unit 3: Geography 41
 Module 3A. The Geography of the United States
The United States, officially United States of America, abbreviated U.S. or U.S.A., byname America,
is a country in North America, a federal republic of 50 states. The United States is the fourth largest
country in the world in area (after Russia, Canada, and China). The national capital is Washington,
which is coextensive with the District of Columbia, the federal capital region created in 1790.
Besides the 48 conterminous states that occupy the middle latitudes of the continent, the United States
includes the state of Alaska, at the northwestern extreme of North America, and the island state of
Hawaii, in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The conterminous states are bounded on the north by Canada, on
the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico, and on the west by
the Pacific Ocean. It is about 3000 miles (4800 kilometers) from the east coast to the west coast and
about 1500 miles (2400 kilometers) from the Canadian border on the north to the Mexican border on
the south.

The current population of the U.S.A. is 333,287,557 in 2022 according to the U.S. Census Bureau's
Vintage 2022. Although the U.S.A. ranks number 3 in the list of countries by population, its overall
population density is relatively low. The country embraces some of the world’s largest urban
concentrations as well as some of the most extensive areas that are almost devoid of habitation.

42 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

The map below shows the geography of the United States. The two main mountain ranges run north
and south—the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern part of the United States and the Rocky
Mountains in the west. Between them are the Great Plains. There is another mountain chain west of
the Rockies—the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade ranges.

The Appalachian Mountains in the east The Rocky Mountains in the west

The Great Plains

Unit 3: Geography 43
The longest river in the United States is the Mississippi (in the past). The Missouri and Ohio Rivers
flow into the Mississippi, and the Mississippi flows south into the Gulf of Mexico. The major rivers
in the western part of the United States are the Colorado and the Rio Grande. The highest mountains
of the Rockies form the Continental Divide. Rivers to the east of the divide flow east, and rivers to the
west of it flow into the Pacific Ocean.

Nowadays, the Missouri River is the longest river in the United States. Rising in the Rocky Mountains
of the Eastern Centennial Mountains of Southwestern Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for
2,341 miles (3,767 km) before entering the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, Missouri. The
Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in
North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake
Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for 2,340 miles (3,770 km) to the Mississippi
River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Missouri River The Mississippi River

The Great Lakes on the northern border of the country are Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron,
Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario. Covering 37,700 square miles or 82,103 square kilometers, Lake
Superior is indeed superior among the five Great Lakes when it comes to surface area. The second-
largest of the Great Lakes is Lake Huron which measures 23,007 square miles or 59,588 square
kilometers. Measuring by surface area, Lake Michigan is the third largest of the Great Lakes, but it is
one of the largest lakes entirely within the United States territory. Lake Michigan has a surface area
of 22,300 square miles or 57,800 square kilometers. Ranking fourth among the Great Lakes is Lake
Erie, and the smallest Great Lake by surface area is Lake Ontario.

44 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

The Great Salt Lake is in a desert area in the western part of the United States. The Mojave, the Gila,
and the Painted Deserts are in the southwestern part of the country.

The Great Salt Lake The Mojave Desert

The Gila Desert The Painted Desert

The major characteristic of the United States is probably its great variety. Its physical environment
ranges from the Arctic to the subtropical, from the moist rain forest to the arid desert, from the rugged
mountain peak to the flat prairie.

Unit 3: Geography 45
 Module 3B. Famous Places
A. Washington, D.C.

46 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

The District of Columbia, on the Potomac River Library of Congress
between Maryland and Virginia, was set aside East of the Capitol is the Library of Congress.
as the nation's capital so that the federal It's the world's largest library, modeled on the
government would not be located in any single Opera House in Paris. This huge library has
state. copies of all books with a U.S. Copyright.
The most important of these is Pennsylvania Displayed here are one of the three surviving
Avenue, connecting two iconic buildings: the complete Gutenberg Bibles, an earlier hand-
White House and the impressive domed Capitol printed Bible, Thomas Jefferson's draft of the
Building. Declaration of Independence, Jefferson's
personal library, and galleries filled with
exhibits focusing on topics.

Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United

States
The Library of Congress
United States Capitol and Capitol Hill
Recognized around the world as a symbol of the
Supreme Court Building
United States, the Capitol is the seat of the
House of Representatives and the Senate. The The Supreme Court Building houses the
Senate and the House of Representatives meet Supreme Court of the United States.
in this building and make the laws of the land Also referred to as "The Marble Palace," the
The huge dome, based on the dome of St. Peter's building serves as the official workplace of the
in Rome, stands out above all other Washington chief justice of the United States and the eight
buildings. associate justices of the Supreme Court.
Like Washington itself, the building has grown It is located at 1 First Street in Northeast
over the years since the central portion was built Washington, D.C., in the block immediately
between 1793 and 1812. The last addition, in east of the United States Capitol and north of
1958-62, enlarged the main façade where the Library of Congress. The building is
presidents take the oath. On the other side, a managed by the Architect of the Capitol. On
marble terrace offers beautiful views over the May 4, 1987, the Supreme Court Building was
mall and the city. designated a National Historic Landmark.

The Capitol, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C.

Unit 3: Geography 47
Constitution Avenue The Washington Monument
Constitution Avenue is a major east–west street The 555-foot white shaft of the Washington
in the northwest and northeast quadrants of the Monument is a familiar icon and a beautiful
city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. sight, especially when mirrored in the long
Reflecting Pool at its foot.
It received its current name on February 26,
1931, though it was almost named Jefferson Construction of the obelisk to honor the nation's
Avenue in honor of Thomas Jefferson. first president was started in 1848 and it was
finally completed by the Army Corps of
Many federal departmental headquarters,
memorials, and museums line Constitution Engineers in 1885.
Avenue's western segment. The base of the monument is surrounded by a
circle of 50 American Flags.

The Washington Monument

Jefferson Memorial
Constitution Avenue, Washington, D.C.
The design for the domed white memorial to
Thomas Jefferson, the third US president, is
National Archives based on the Roman Pantheon, its low dome
supported by 54 Ionic columns.
The National Archives holds permanent records
of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, Inside, appearing in a dramatic silhouette
District of Columbia courts, and some federal through the columns, is a 19-foot statue of a
agencies, as well as pre-World War I military standing Jefferson, and around are engraved
service records for U.S. Army and Confederate excerpts of the Declaration of Independence
veterans, and pre-1940 vessel and station and other writings.
logbooks for the U.S. Navy. The monument stands alone at the far end of the
The records are open to researchers, and in the Tidal Pool, which reflects the monument in its
Rotunda, you can see the Declaration of surface, and all around the edge of the water are
Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. cherry trees, a gift from Japan.

The National Archives, Washington, D.C. Jefferson Memorial with cherry blossoms

48 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

The Lincoln Memorial The White House
The best-loved of all Washington's memorials, The White House is the official residence of the
the Lincoln Memorial stands at the far end of President of the United States. The home of
the mall, separated from the Washington every president except George Washington, it
Monument by the Reflecting Pool. This was originally built by James Hoban in 1792,
monument was built in honor of Abraham and after being burned down by British forces
Lincoln, President during the Civil War. in 1814 was rebuilt in 1818.

The Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. The White House, Washington, D.C.

Inside the building are a statue of Lincoln and The White House is the official residence and
two murals (wall paintings) with symbols of workplace of the president of the United States.
freedom and justice. On two huge stone tablets It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
we read some of Lincoln’s important speeches. in Washington, D.C.

Two murals with symbols of freedom and justice The White House Visitor Center

At its center is a 19-foot marble statue of a The term "White House" is often used as a
seated and pensive President Abraham Lincoln metonym for the president and his advisers. The
surrounded by 36 columns, one for each of the residence was designed by Irish-born architect
states that existed at the time of Lincoln's death. James Hoban in the neoclassical style.

Marble statue of President Abraham Lincoln at President Joe Biden poses with dogs Champ
the Lincoln Memorial and Major on February 2021, in the Oval Office

Unit 3: Geography 49
National Mall National Air and Space Museum
If you look at a Washington, D.C. attractions The National Air and Space Museum is one of
map, you'll notice that many of them line the the world's most popular museums, with a
National Mall, so you're likely to spend a lot of collection of history-making air and spacecraft
time here. that includes the original 1903 Wright Brothers
Flyer and Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St.
Along with providing a park for walking,
Louis, the first plane to fly solo across the
running, and picnicking, the Mall is a place for
Atlantic Ocean.
celebrations and festivals. Best known of these
is the annual Independence Day celebration More recent flight history is represented here by
with fireworks around the Washington the Apollo 11 command module, part of the first
Monument. manned lunar landing mission.

The National Mall, Washington, D.C. National Air and Space Museum

Veterans Memorials National Gallery of Art

The spacious swath of lawns and pools that Housed in two separate buildings connected by
forms a wide greenbelt from the Capitol a tunnel, the National Gallery of Art is one of
Building to the Lincoln Memorial is also the site the world's premier art museums and one of the
of many of Washington's landmark buildings most popular in the U.S.
and monuments. Based on the sizable collection of financier and
Most prominent at its center point is the later Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, its
Washington Monument, and war memorials large and diverse collection includes
include those to veterans of World War II, the masterpieces of European and American
Korean War, and Vietnam. paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a poignant Frequent temporary exhibitions add to this
wall inscribed with the names of all American outstanding permanent collection to highlight
servicemen and women who lost their lives or arts from cultures around the world. Among the
are missing, is one of Washington's most visited highlights is Ginevra de Benci, the only Da
memorials. Vinci painting in any American museum.

World War II Memorial West Building of the National Gallery of Art

50 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

B. New York
Statue of Liberty Headquarters of the United Nations
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical The United Nations is headquartered in
sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United
in New York City, in the United States. States, and the complex has served as the
official headquarters of the United Nations
The Statue of Liberty is the nation's most iconic
since its completion 72 years ago in 1951.
monument, a symbol of freedom and hope to
millions of immigrants on their way to Ellis The headquarters holds the seats of the principal
Island. organs of the UN, including the General
Assembly and the Security Council.
The copper statue, a gift from the people of
France, was designed by French sculptor Although it is physically situated in New York
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal City, the land occupied by the United Nations
framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. headquarters and the spaces of buildings that it
rents are under the sole administration of the
United Nations and not the U.S. government.

Statue of Liberty

Empire State Building Headquarters of the United Nations

The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art
Central Park
Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New
York City. Central Park is an urban park in New York City
located between the Upper West and Upper East
The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb &
Sides of Manhattan.
Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name
is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering
the state of New York. 843 acres (341 ha).
The building has a roof height of 1,250 feet It is the most visited urban park in the United
(380m) and stands a total of 1,454 feet (443.2m) States, with an estimated 42 million visitors
tall, including its antenna. annually as of 2016, and is the most filmed
location in the world.

The Empire State Building Central Park, New York City

Unit 3: Geography 51
Grand Central Station Times Square
Grand Central Terminal (also referred to as Times Square is a major commercial
Grand Central Station) is a commuter rail intersection, tourist destination, entertainment
terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan,
in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. New York City.
Grand Central is the southern terminus of the It is formed by the junction of Broadway,
Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson and Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street.
New Haven Lines, serving the northern parts of Brightly lit at all hours by numerous digital
the New York metropolitan area. billboards and advertisements as well as
It also contains a connection to the New York businesses offering 24/7 service, Times Square
City Subway at Grand Central–42nd Street is sometimes referred to as "the Crossroads of
station. the World", "the Center of the Universe", “the
Center of the Entertainment Universe”, and "the
The terminal is the second-busiest train station
heart of the world".
in North America, after New York Penn Station.

Grand Central Terminal Times Square

Niagara Falls Finger Lakes

Niagara Falls is one of the natural wonders of The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long,
North America, drawing millions of visitors narrow, roughly north–south lakes located
each year. south of Lake Ontario in an area called the
At Niagara Falls, the waters of Lake Erie fall Finger Lakes region in New York, in the U.S.
into Lake Ontario. This region straddles the northern and
Located along the border of Canada and the transitional edge, known as the Finger Lakes
United States, there are actually three waterfalls Uplands and Gorges ecoregion, of the Northern
within the park: Bridal Veil Falls, American Allegheny Plateau and the Ontario Lowlands
Falls, and Horseshoe Falls. ecoregion of the Great Lakes Lowlands.

Niagara Falls Finger Lakes

52 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

C. Missouri
Gateway Arch Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot-tall (192 m) The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art
monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for
its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly
Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a
every continent and culture, and especially for
weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest
its extensive collection of Asian art.
arch and Missouri's tallest accessible building.
On the museum grounds is a sculpture garden
Built as a monument to the westward expansion
that everyone can appreciate without even
of the United States and officially dedicated to
having to enter the building.
"the American people", the Arch, commonly
referred to as "The Gateway to the West", is a Admission is always free to the Nelson-Atkins
National Historic Landmark in Gateway Arch Museum of Art, and rotating exhibits keep each
National Park and has become an visit unique.
internationally recognized symbol of St. Louis,
as well as a popular tourist destination.

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

St. Louis Gateway Arch

Silver Dollar City
Silver Dollar City is a 61-acre (25 ha)
Branson amusement park in Stone County, Missouri,
Branson is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. near the cities of Branson and Branson West.
The community was named after Reuben Silver Dollar City in Branson combines a major
Branson, postmaster and operator of a general
theme park with crafts and the preservation of
store in the area in the 1880s. 1880s Ozark culture. Craftsmen in the park
Branson, in southwest Missouri, with no false demonstrate glassblowing, basket weaving,
modesty, calls itself the "Live country music blacksmithing, pottery, candy making, and
capital of the universe." It draws millions of candle making. The park also has rides and
tourists each year, mainly country music fans. attractions, shops, restaurants, and live shows.

Fountains at Branson Landing in Branson Waterfall at Silver Dollar City

Unit 3: Geography 53
D. South Dakota
Mount Rushmore National Monument Custer State Park
This historical monument is South Dakota's As one of the best state and national parks in
most prominent tourist attraction. South Dakota, Custer State Park covers a wide
range of different terrain.
Carved majestically into the side of the
mountain are the heads of Presidents George A large herd of bison roams the peaceful
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham landscape, which is also home to a wide variety
Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. of other wildlife. And Granite peaks tower over
the forests, lakes, and streams.
The carving, designed by Gutzon Borglum, was
begun in 1927, halted for several decades, and One must-travel route in Custer is the Sylvan
finally completed in 1991. In its creation, more Lake Shore Trail. This waterfront route leads
than 400,000 tons of rock was blasted from the around the rock-lined reservoir and has many
side of the mountain. side trails to explore.

Mount Rushmore Sylvan Lake, Custer State Park

Badlands National Park Crazy Horse Memorial

The dramatic landscape of Badlands National The Crazy Horse Memorial, north of Custer, has
Park consists of uniquely formed hills and been a work in progress since it was begun in
pinnacles made from the erosion of clay and 1947.
sand. The head and upper body portion of revered
A large herd of bison roams freely within the Lakota leader Crazy Horse have been carved
park, adding a unique element to the whole into this mountain, like the Mount Rushmore
experience. carvings just down the road.
This inhospitable scenery is strangely beautiful The on-site Indian Museum of North America
and one of South Dakota's most visited enriches visitor experiences, including the
destinations Native American Education & Cultural Center.

Badlands National Park Crazy Horse Memorial

54 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

E. Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park Jackson
Established in 1872, Yellowstone is the world's Tucked in a sprawling valley at the foot of the
first and oldest national park. At Yellowstone spectacular Teton Mountains, Jackson,
National Park in Wyoming, you can see some Wyoming exudes the spirit of the Wild West.
of the natural wonders of North America. Rustic wooden buildings and boardwalks,
Water under the earth turns to steam. It comes quaint shops, galleries, and restaurants, add to
to the surface in hot springs or erupts in the charm of this charismatic town.
spectacular geysers. Jackson is also the gateway to beautiful Grand
It's home to one of the most awe-inspiring Teton National Park and a popular stop on the
wilderness areas on the planet. Huge herds of way to Yellowstone.
bison still roam free in the valleys, and the Bordering town, the National Elk Refuge
abundant wildlife includes grizzly and black protects the largest herd of wintering elk in the
bears, gray wolves, elk, and antelope. world.

Yellowstone National Park Jackson

Grand Teton National Park

Crowned by the craggy peaks of the mighty Hot Springs State Park, Thermopolis
Teton Mountain Range, Grand Teton National Built around the world's largest single mineral
Park is one of the jewels of Wyoming. hot spring, Hot Springs State Park is a great
These mountains, in the state's northwest, were place to stop for a relaxing soak.
formed millions of years ago, when a fault in the The steamy mineral water gushing from Big
earth's crust buckled, creating 12 peaks Spring is channeled into bathhouses and kept at
reaching heights of more than 12,000 feet. a constant 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
The highest of these, Grand Teton, soars 13,770 You can soak in the warm waters indoors at the
feet above sea level. State Bath House or in the two outdoor pools.

Grand Teton National Park Hot Springs State Park

Unit 3: Geography 55
F. Arizona
Grand Canyon Monument Valley
One of the biggest attractions in America, and The Navajo people own the land of Monument
certainly in the state of Arizona, the Grand Valley on the Arizona-Utah border. The
Canyon is a place that has to be visited to be beautiful, natural red rock formations are
fully appreciated. spectacular monuments of the West.
Standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon Some of the most iconic images of the
peering out over the endless ridges of colorful Southwest are the sandstone buttes that
cliff walls and deep ravines, it's impossible not dominate Monument Valley.
to be inspired by this natural wonder. This area, straddling the border between
The canyon glows in the late afternoon sun, Arizona and Utah, includes jagged rock
revealing hues of orange, red, yellow, and formations, stone spires and buttes, and sand
everything in between. dunes.

Grand Canyon Monument Valley

Sedona Phoenix
Surrounded by stunning red rock mountains and Phoenix is the capital and most populous city of
buttes, Sedona has one of the most beautiful the U.S. state of Arizona.
settings in Arizona. It is a great base for exploring Arizona but it's
About a 1.5-hour drive north of Phoenix, also a major destination in the winter for golfers
Sedona is a popular day trip from Phoenix, but and sun seekers, who simply want to enjoy a
the town is worthy of much more than just a few stay at a resort or spa and spend a little time
hours. basking in the heat of the desert.
The drive into Sedona from the south, In the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, which
beginning at the Village of Oak Creek, is includes Scottsdale and Mesa, you'll find great
stunning and pullouts along the way allow you shopping, dining, golf courses, desert parks
to stop and enjoy the scenery. with hiking trails, biking trails, campgrounds.

Sedona Phoenix

56 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

G. California
San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
The iconic Golden Gate Bridge is one of the key Home to the largest trees on Earth, Sequoia and
sights and what many people call to mind when Kings Canyon National Parks are bucket-list
they think of the San Francisco, and even destinations.
California. The sequoias here are the largest living things
The orange frame against the blue water of San in the world, and many of them are more than
Francisco Bay, or rising out of the fog that often 2,000 years old, with some even more than
covers the area is an unforgettable sight. 3,000 years old.
You can appreciate the bridge from afar or, for Although both parks are home to the giant
a more personal experience, drive over it, walk sequoias, Sequoia National Park is arguably the
on it, or even bike across it. best place to visit these ancient wonders.

The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay Sequoia National Park

Redwood National and State Parks Lake Tahoe

Walking through a forest of giant redwoods, Stunning Lake Tahoe lies high in the Sierra
towering more than 300 feet above you, feels Nevada mountain range and is a popular year-
like entering another era. round vacation destination in California.
Descendants of trees from the Jurassic Period, Lake Tahoe is about more than just the lake, it's
these are the tallest trees on the planet, and they the forests and mountains, small towns, and
are truly one of California's greatest treasures. multitude of activities the area offers.
These jointly managed parks, which include The blue lake, with its turquoise coves and
Redwood National Park, Jedediah Smith surrounding mountains, is a summer
Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Redwoods playground for boaters, beach goers, campers,
State Park, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State and nature lovers. The beautiful beaches and
Park, stretch out along a spectacular portion of shallow coves are some of the main draws for
Northern California Coast. families visiting the area in summer.

Redwood National and State Parks Lake Tahoe

Unit 3: Geography 57
 Module 3C. States and Cities: The West

A. Alaska B. Wyoming
 Capital: Juneau  Capital: Cheyenne
 Land area: 570,640.95 sq mi (1,477,953 km2)  Land area: 97,813.01 sq mi (253,335 km2)
 Rank in land area: 1  Rank in land area: 10
 Rank in population: 50 in 1979  Rank in population: 49 in 1979
48 in 2022 (733,583) 50 in 2022 (581,381)

58 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

C. Texas D. California
 Capital: Austin  Capital: Sacramento
 Land area: 261,231.71 sq mi (676,587 km2)  Land area: 163,694.74 sq mi (423,967 km2)
 Rank in land area: 2  Rank in land area: 3
 Rank in population: 3 in 1979  Rank in population: 1 in 1979
2 in 2022 (30,029,572) 1 in 2022 (39,029,342)

E. Other states of the West

 State: Montana  State: New Mexico  State: Arizona

 Capital: Helena  Capital: Santa Fe  Capital: Phoenix
 Land area: 380,831 km2  Land area: 314,917 km2  Land area: 295,234 km2
 Rank in land area: 4  Rank in land area: 5  Rank in land area: 6
 Population (2022): 1,122,867  Population (2022): 2,113,344  Population (2022): 7,359,197
 Rank in population (2022): 43  Rank in population (2022): 36  Rank in population (2022): 14

Unit 3: Geography 59
 State: Nevada  State: Colorado  State: Oregon
 Capital: Carson City  Capital: Denver  Capital: Salem
 Rank in land area: 7  Rank in land area: 8  Rank in land area: 9

 State: Idaho  State: Utah  State: Kansas

 Capital: Boise  Capital: Salt Lake City  Capital: Topeka
 Rank in land area: 11  Rank in land area: 12  Rank in land area: 13

 State: Nebraska  State: South Dakota  State: North Dakota

 Capital: Lincoln  Capital: Pierre  Capital: Bismarck

 State: Washington  State: Oklahoma  State: Hawaii

 Capital: Olympia  Capital: Oklahoma City  Capital: Honolulu

60 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 Module 3D. States and Cities: The East

State Rank in Rank in State Rank in Rank in

land area population (1979) land area population (1979)

Connecticut 48 24 New York 30 2

Delaware 49 47 Pennsylvania 33 4
Rhode Island 50 39 Illinois 24 5

Unit 3: Geography 61
62 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)
 UNIT 4
The History of the
United States

Unit 4: The History of the United States 63

 Module 4A. Overview of U.S. History
Ten periods of U.S. history
1. Exploration & colonization (1492 - 1600’s)
 1492: Christopher Columbus discovered
North America.
 1500’s: European explorers and settlers
came to the new land for gold,
adventure, and freedom.
 1600’s: The colonists lived under British
laws.

2. Revolution War (1700’s - 1776)

 1700’s: Americans in the thirteen colonies
wanted to be free of British rule.
 1775: General George Washington led the
colonists in the Revolutionary War.
 1776: Thomas Jefferson wrote the
Declaration of Independence, and
the colonies approved it.

3. Independence (1783 - 1789)

 1783: The American colonists won the
war, and the colonies became the
United States of America.
 1787: The Constitution became the
highest law of the land.
 1789: George Washington became the first
President.

4. Westward movement (1840’s - 1853)

 1800’s: After the American Revolution, the
new nation grew and added more
states.
 1840’s: Millions of Europeans came to
America as workers during the
Industrial Revolution.
 1853: The United States expanded to the
Pacific Ocean.

64 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

5. The time of the Civil War (1861 - 1865)
 1861: Americans fought against one
another in the Civil War between the
North and the South.
 1863: President Abraham Lincoln freed
the slaves in the Emancipation
Proclamation.
 1865: The northern states won the war,
and the period of Reconstruction
(rebuilding) began.

6. Becoming a World Power (1917 - 1920)

 1917: The United States grew to be one of
the great powers in the world.
 1919: The nation fought in the First World
War.
 1920: After the war, women got the right
to vote for the first time.

7. The Great Depression (1929 - 1933)

 1929: The Great Depression began with
the stock market crash.
 1930’s: Banks, factories, and farms shut
down, and many Americans were
unemployed.
 1933: President Franklin Roosevelt helped
end the Depression with the New
Deal government.

8. The second World War (1941 - 1945)

 1941: The United States entered the
Second World War when Japan
attacked the Hawaiian Islands.
 1945: The war ended when the United
States dropped the first atomic
bombs, and the world entered the
Nuclear Age.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 65

9. Cold War (1950’s - 1960’s)
 1950’s: Because of its distrust of and
competition with the Soviet Union
and other Communist nations, the
United States entered a time of Cold
War.
 1950’s: Americans fought in the Korean
War.
 1960’s: Americans fought in the Vietnam
War.

10. Modern times (1955 - now)

 1955: The Civil Rights Movement began,
and black and white Americans
fought against segregation
(separation of the races).
 1969: The Space Age began. The United
States put the first men on the moon
in the Apollo Program.
 1970’s: The Women’s Liberation
Movement became strong.
 1980’s: Computers began to change the
nation faster than ever before.
 1990’s: The 20th century saw a wave of
organized activism to secure civil
rights and freedoms for lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, and queer
(LGBTQ) people.
 1992: Democratic Party candidate Bill
Clinton elected president.
 2001: Co-ordinated suicide attacks by al-
Qaeda terror group prompts the US
to embark on a ''war on terror'' that
includes invasions of Afghanistan
and Iraq.
 2003: Missile attacks on Baghdad mark
the start of a US-led campaign to
topple the Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein.
 2008: Democratic Senator Barack Obama
becomes the first black president of
the United States.
 2016: The 2016 election of Republican
Donald Trump - whose campaign
was grounded in nationalism and
anti-immigrant rhetoric.
 2020: Democrat former Vice-President
Joe Biden defeats Donald Trump in
the presidential election.

66 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 Module 4B. Exploration and Colonization

A. Exploration Subsequent explorations by others, however,

persuaded most Europeans that Columbus had
Christopher Columbus launched Spain’s discovered a “New World.” Ironically, that
imperial ambitions. Born in Genoa, Italy, New World was named for someone else. A
around 1451, Columbus learned the art of German geographer, Martin Waldseemüller,
navigation on voyages in the Mediterranean and accepted the claim of Amerigo Vespucci that he
the Atlantic. had landed on the American mainland before
Columbus. In 1507 Waldseemüller published a
book in which he named the new land
“America.”

In August 1492, Columbus sailed west with his

now famous ships, Niña, Pinta and Santa María.
After ten weeks he sighted an island in the
Bahamas, which he named San Salvador.
Thinking he had found islands near Japan, he Soon other European explorers sailed across the
sailed on until he reached Cuba (which he Atlantic to learn about this exciting discovery.
thought was mainland China) and later Haiti. The Spanish explored South America in search
of adventure and gold. Priests came to teach the
native people.

Columbus returned to Spain with many

products unknown to Europe–coconuts,
tobacco, sweet corn, potatoes–and with tales of The British and the French explored North
dark-skinned native peoples whom he called America. Explorers traveled into the interior
“Indians” because he assumed he had been and discovered many beautiful forests, valleys
sailing in the Indian Ocean. and rivers.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 67

B. Colonization
The Spanish established the first permanent
settlement in North America. It was St.
Augustine, now in the state of Florida. The
oldest permanent European settlement in what
is now the United States was founded in
September 1565 by a Spanish soldier named
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in St. Augustine,
Florida.

Some of the native people were friendly to the

colonists and taught them about the land, how
to hunt, fish, and plant corn, beans, and other
The British established their first permanent foods.
settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.

But other Indians attacked them.

People from Spain, France, Holland, England,

and other countries started other villages on the
east coast of North America.

The settlers killed many Indians and took their

land. They pushed the Indians to the west.

Thirteen settlements became colonies of

England. They were Virginia, Massachusetts,
Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, and Georgia.

68 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

C. The thirteen original colonies The other colonies were founded for business
and economic expansion. The Middle Colonies
Prior to declaring independence, the Thirteen were established on an earlier Dutch colony,
Colonies in their traditional groupings were: New Netherland.
• New England (New Hampshire; All the Thirteen Colonies were part of Britain's
Massachusetts; Rhode Island; Connecticut); possessions in the New World, which also
• Middle (New York; New Jersey; included territory in Canada, Florida, and the
Pennsylvania; Delaware); Caribbean.
• Southern (Maryland; Virginia; North
Carolina; South Carolina; and Georgia).

1. New Hampshire (1622)

Settlers came here from
Massachusetts. They lived by
fishing and trading.

2. Massachusetts (1630)
The Pilgrims came to Plymouth in 1620. The
Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay
The Thirteen Colonies came to have very Colony. They came for religious freedom, but
similar political, constitutional, and legal they didn’t give the same freedom to other
systems, dominated by Protestant English- churches.
speakers. The first of these colonies was
Virginia Colony in 1607, a Southern colony.

3. Rhode Island (1636)

Some Puritans left
Massachusetts to start a new
While all these colonies needed to become colony with religious
economically viable, the founding of the New freedom for everyone. They
England colonies, as well as the colonies of established the principle of
Maryland and Pennsylvania, were substantially separation of church and state
motivated by their founders' concerns related to (religion and government).
the practice of religion.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 69

4. Connecticut 9. Maryland
Thomas Hooker and The King of England gave the land to Lord
people from his Baltimore. Lord Baltimore sold the land to
church left settlers. He also gave religious freedom to
Massachusetts for Catholics.
this new colony
because the
farmland was better.

5. New York
Dutch settlers were
living in New
Netherlands, but the 10. Virginia
British took the land
The colonists wanted to find gold to be rich.
from them and
They didn’t want to do the difficult work to live,
named it New York. and many people died. Then the settlers
discovered tobacco and used it for trade with
Europe.
6. New Jersey
Landowners rented the land
to settlers.

7. Pennsylvania
11. North Carolina 12. South Carolina
William Penn established this colony. The
The King of England gave away the land, and
Quakers settled here and gave religious freedom
the landowners rented it to settlers from
to everyone.
Virginia and Europe.

8. Delaware 13. Georgia

William Penn gave settlers from Pennsylvania People came here from England because they
this land because they wanted a separate were in debt (owed money). The government
government. gave them land to farm.

70 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 Module 4C. Revolution
A. The American Revolution
The American Revolution (U.S. War of British attempts to assert greater control over
Independence) was the insurrection fought colonial affairs after a long period of salutary
between 1775 and 1783 through which 13 of neglect, including the imposition of unpopular
Great Britain’s North American colonies threw taxes, had contributed to growing estrangement
off British rule to establish the sovereign United between the crown and a large and influential
States of America, founded with the segment of colonists who ultimately saw armed
Declaration of Independence in 1776. rebellion as their only recourse.

B. Causes of the American Revolution

1. The Founding of the Colonies
Up until the French and Indian War, the British
had left the American colonies mostly on their
own.
But under the rule of King George III, Great
Britain began to exert more control over the
colonies.
One thing to keep in mind is that many of the
American colonies were first founded by people
trying to escape religious persecution in
England.
As the British government became more
involved in the affairs of colonies, people began
to worry that they would once again lose their
freedoms. King George III

Unit 4: The History of the United States 71

2. French and Indian War (1754 - 1763)
The French and Indian War took place between
the American colonies and New France. Both
sides allied with various Native American
tribes.
This war lasted from 1754 to 1763. British
troops not only helped the colonists to fight the
war, but were stationed in the colonies for
protection after the war.
These troops weren't free and Britain needed
money to pay for the troops. The British
Parliament decided to tax the American
colonies to help pay for the troops. Colonial trade routes and goods

3. Taxes and more taxes (1765 - 1767)

The French and Indian War put the British
crown in debt. In order to increase revenues for
the costs of defending the expanding British
Empire, Britain taxed the colonies.
It imposed the Sugar Act in 1764, and, one year
later, it added the Stamp Act. The British
witnessed these tensions first-hand when the
The British capture Quebec City during the Stamp Act of 1765 was introduced. Colonists
French and Indian War bitterly opposed the new direct taxation on
printed materials and forced the British
After the British won the war, they gained
Government to eventually repeal the legislation
possession of France’s North American
a year later.
territories in Canada and the Mid-West as a
result of the Treaty of Paris in 1763.
But by this time the colonists felt they were
“Americans.” They often traded with other
countries. They felt strong, and they did not
need the Mother Country for protection in wars
anymore. They were used to freedom and
self-government. Sheet of penny revenue stamps printed by
Britain for the American colonies, after the
Stamp Act of 1765.
In another effort to raise money and exert its
authority over the colonies, Britain established
the Townshend Acts in 1767. This series of acts
placed taxes on tea, lead, paint, paper, and glass
imported to the colonies.

Trade in colonies
But the English needed the colonies for
economic reasons. They were buying goods
from the colonies at low prices and selling back
manufactured products at high prices.

72 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

4. Strict laws 6. The Boston Tea Party (December 1773)
As early as 1660, Parliament had passed the The British eventually withdrew their forces
Navigation Acts controlling trade between the from Boston and repealed much of the onerous
colonies and England. These laws were passed Townshend legislation. But they left in place
because it was believed that the wealth of the the tax on tea, and in 1773 enacted a new law,
colonies should go to the parent country. the Tea Act, to prop up the financially
struggling British East India Company.
This idea was called mercantilism. For
example, they could send their products only on
British ships, and they had to sell some goods
only to England at very low prices.

British East India Company

The act gave the company extended favorable
treatment under tax regulations so that it could
sell tea at a price that undercut the American
merchants who imported from Dutch traders.
The Navigation Acts enforced mercantilism
Other strict laws made life difficult for the
colonists. British officials could enter homes to
search for illegal goods. The colonists were not
free to settle west of the Appalachian
Mountains, and they had to allow British
soldiers to live in their homes.

5. The Boston Massacre (March 1770)

The colonists were especially angry about the
new taxes. They said they should not have to The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor
pay British taxes because they had no Yet it was in December 1773 that the most
representatives in the British Parliament. Their famous and overt display of anger and
motto became "No Taxation Without resistance took place. A group of colonists led
Representation." by Adams hopped aboard the East India
Many colonists began to protest against these Company trade vessel Dartmouth and poured
new British taxes and laws. A group called the 342 chests of tea (worth close to $2,000,000 in
Sons of Liberty formed in 1765 in Boston and today’s currency) of British tea into the sea at
soon spread throughout the colonies. Boston Harbour. This act – now known as the
‘Boston Tea Party’, remains important in
During one protest in Boston, a fight broke out patriotic American folklore.
and several colonists were shot and killed. This
incident became known as the Boston
Massacre.

The Boston Massacre, 1770 Boston Tea Party destroying tea in Boston Harbor

Unit 4: The History of the United States 73

7. Intolerable Acts (March–June 1774) 9. King George III’s Speech to Parliament
The British decided that the colonies needed to After representatives for the colonists called on
be punished for the Boston Tea Party. They Britain to cancel the Intolerable Acts, Britain
issued a number of new laws that the colonists responded by sending more troops.
called the Intolerable Acts in 1774 by the On 26 October 1775 George III, King of Great
British Crown. Britain, stood up in front of his Parliament and
These punitive measures included the forced declared the American colonies to be in a state
closure of Boston port and an order of of rebellion.
compensation to the East India Company for Here, for the first time, the use of force was
damaged property. British ships blockaded authorised against the rebels. The King’s
Boston Harbor, punishing everyone who lived speech was long but certain phrases made it
in Boston, both patriots and loyalists. Town clear that a major war against his own subjects
meetings were now also banned, and the was about to commence.
authority of the royal governor was increased.

A 1774 cartoon by Paul Revere depicts Lord North,

with the Boston Port Bill extending from a pocket, King George III’s Parliament
forcing tea (the Intolerable Acts) down the throat of
a female figure representing America.
10. The War Begins (April 18–19, 1775)
8. First Continental Congress (Sept. 5, 1774)
In 1775, British soldiers in Massachusetts were
In 1774, twelve of the thirteen colonies sent ordered to disarm the American rebels and to
representatives to the First Continental arrest their leaders.
Congress as a direct response to the Intolerable
Acts. They sent a petition to King George III to
repeal the Intolerable Acts. They never got a
response. They also established a boycott of
British goods and demanded rights for the
colonists in a declaration.

The Battle of Lexington broke out on April 19, 1775

The Revolutionary War began on April 19,
1775 when fighting broke out between the two
sides at the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
Fighting ensued, and the colonies officially
The First Continental Congress, 1774 declared independence on July 4, 1776.

74 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

C. Events of the Revolutionary War
Event Date and places Some facts

 April 19, 1775  British soldiers shot at some

Minute Men (colonists ready to
 Lexington and
fight) at Lexington.
Concord, Massachusetts
 The colonists fired shots at British
soldiers at Concord and began the
Revolutionary War.

 June 1775  General George Washington led

the colonists, but the colonial army
 Boston, Massachusetts
did not have enough soldiers,
(Bunker Hill)
training, or supplies.
 other colonies
 The British won many battles.

 July 4, 1776  Representatives of the Second

Continental Congress declared the
 Philadelphia,
independence of the colonies from
Pennsylvania
British rule.
 The Congress adopted the
Declaration of Independence.

 1778, 1779, 1780  The colonial army could shoot

 the middle and southern well, and George Washington gave
the soldiers courage.
colonies
 France entered the war on the side
of the colonists.

 October 19, 1781  The colonial army won some

important battles and took control.
 Yorktown, Virginia

 1783  The war ended.

 Paris, France  American delegates signed a
peace treaty with England.
 America won land and
independence.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 75

 Module 4D. Growth and Westward Movement
A. The United States after the Treaty of Paris (1783)
According to the Treaty of Paris, the final agreement was that the Mississippi River would be the
western border of the United States. After 1783 the eastern border of the United States was the Atlantic
Ocean, and the western border was the Mississippi River. The Spanish controlled Florida and the land
west of the Mississippi River. The British controlled the land north of the Great Lakes.

The boundaries of the United States after the American Revolutionary War

B. The Louisiana Purchase, 1803 C. The Purchase of Florida, 1819

The purchase of the Louisiana Territory by The Adams-Onís Treaty is also called the
means of the Louisiana Treaty took place on Transcontinental Treaty, or the Purchase of
April 30, 1803. Florida.
Thomas Jefferson was president at the time. John Quincy Adams for the U.S. (under
President James Monroe) and Luis de Onís for
The United States bought the land from the
Spain (under King Ferdinand VII) signed at
French, who sold it for less than 3 cents per
Washington D.C. on February 22, 1819.
acre.
The U.S. agreed to pay up to five million dollars
The Louisiana Purchase expanded the territory
to U.S. citizens who demanded compensation
of the United States by 828,000 square miles.
for loss or damage of property from Spain.

Louisiana Purchase 1803 The Purchase of Florida, 1819

76 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

D. Texas Annexation, 1845 F. The Mexican Cession, 1848
Until 1836, Texas had been part of Mexico, but In the spring of 1846, tensions mounted
in that year a group of settlers from the United between the United States and Mexico, and the
States who lived in Mexican Texas declared Mexican-American War (1846-1848) started, in
independence. They called their new country part, over a border dispute between the two
the Republic of Texas, which was an countries.
independent country for nine years. Finally, on Feb. 2, 1848, the Treaty of
Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845 Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, establishing the
and became the 28th state a slave state. Rio Grande (and not the Nueces River) as the
U.S.-Mexican border.
The annexation of Texas contributed to the
coming of the Mexican-American War (1846- Under the treaty, Mexico also recognized the
1848). U.S. annexation of Texas, and agreed to sell
California and the rest of its territory north of
the Rio Grande for $15 million plus the
assumption of certain damage claims.

Texas annexation, 1845

E. The Treaty of Oregon, 1846 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Map, and Mexican
Cession Map
The United States and Great Britain signed the
Treaty of Oregon on June 15, 1846, ending 28 G. The Gadsden Purchase, 1853
years of joint occupancy of the Pacific
Northwest. The Gadsden Purchase, or Treaty, was an
agreement between the United States and
The treaty established the 49th parallel as the Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United
border between the two countries. States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a
29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later
became part of Arizona and New Mexico.
Gadsden’s Purchase provided the land
necessary for a southern transcontinental
railroad and attempted to resolve conflicts that
lingered after the Mexican-American War.

The Treaty of Oregon, 1846 The Gadsden Purchase, 1853–1854

Unit 4: The History of the United States 77

H. The Alaska Purchase, 1867 I. Annexation of Hawaii, 1898
The Alaska Purchase was the United States' In the mid-1800s, the Kingdom of Hawaii and
acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire. the United States had established close ties and
trade treaties.
Alaska was formally transferred to the United
States on October 18, 1867, through a treaty In 1893, the Kingdom of Hawaii was
ratified by the United States Senate. overthrown and the Republic of Hawaii was
established.
U.S. Secretary of State William Seward and
Russian minister Eduard de Stoeckl agreed to a A few years later, in 1898, Hawaii became a
treaty on March 30, 1867. territory of the United States.
The purchase added 586,412 sq mi (1,518,800 Over the next several years the United States
km2) of new territory to the United States for the would built military bases on the islands
cost of $7.2 million 1867 dollars. including Pearl Harbor.

The Alaska Purchase, 1867 The annexation of Hawaii, 1898

From the Atlantic to the Pacific in fifty years

78 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)
J. Moving West in wagon trains
The Oregon Trail was a major route that people took when migrating to the western part of the United
States. Between 1841 and 1869, hundreds of thousands of people traveled westward on the trail. Many
of them traveled in large wagon trains using covered wagons to carry their belongings.

1. The Route 3. Dangers

The Oregon Trail began in Independence, Traveling the Oregon Trail in the 1800s was a
Missouri and ended in Oregon City, Oregon. dangerous journey. However, the danger wasn't
from Native Americans as you might think.
It stretched for around 2,000 miles and through
six different states including Missouri, Kansas, As a matter of fact, many records show that
Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. Native Americans helped many of the travelers
along the way. The real danger was from a
Along the way, travelers had to cross all sorts of
disease called cholera that killed many settlers.
rough terrain such as the Rocky Mountains and
the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Other dangers included bad weather and
accidents while trying to move their heavy
2. Covered wagons wagons over the mountains.
The main vehicle used to carry the pioneer's
belongings was the covered wagon. Sometimes
these wagons were called "Prairie Schooners",
because they were like boats going over the vast
prairies of the west.
The wagons were made of wood with iron
around the wheels like tires. The covers were
made from waterproofed cotton or linen canvas.
The typical covered wagon was about 10 feet
long and four feet wide. Wagon trains

A covered wagon Wagon cicles

Unit 4: The History of the United States 79

K. Difficult years in Texas
1. Republic of Mexico
It wasn't until the late 1600s that the Europeans
began to settle in Texas in 1685.
The French didn't last long in Texas, however,
and soon the Spanish took over.
Texas was a part of Mexico when Mexico
gained its independence from Spain in 1821.
In 1825, American Stephen F. Austin
The Mexican army of General Santa Anna defeated
established a colony in Texas.
the rebels at the Alamo in 1836
The colony grew rapidly, but also they began to
But with the spirit of the battle cry “Remember
have many disagreements with the Mexican
the Alamo,” General Sam Houston and the
government.
Texans won a battle at San Jacinto on April 21.
They signed a peace treaty with Mexican
leaders and elected Houston President of the
“Lone Star Republic.”

New Spain Map, 1810

The Battle of the Alamo, 1836
2. Republic of Texas
4. Becoming a State
The tensions between the Texans and Mexico
Some people wanted to join the United States
turned to battle in 1835 at the Battle of
while others wanted to remain independent.
Gonzales.
Most northerners opposed the annexation of
another slave state.
Sam Houston convinced the Texan leaders that
joining the United States would offer Texas
protection from Mexico as well as new trade
partners.
On December 29, 1845 Texas was admitted as
the 28th state.

The Battle of Gonzales, 1835

At the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, 180 Texans

held off 4,000 Mexican soldiers for thirteen
days before being killed.
Despite the defeat, the Texans declared their
independence and formed the Republic of
Texas on March 2, 1836. The Annexation of Texas to the Union

80 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 Module 4E. The Time of the Civil War
A. The South before the Civil War
The South has a warm climate and a long
growing season for crops. So it's not surprising
that the South's economy came to depend on
agriculture. By the 1820s, the South produced
and exported rice, sugar, and especially, cotton.
The South felt no need to develop factories. And
it remained rural; New Orleans was its only
large city.

A scene from ‘Gone with the Wind’

Slaves' lives differed greatly, depending on

their masters. But the basic fact was that slaves
had no real control over what happened to them.
A husband and wife could be sold to different
owners and never see each other again. Slaves
often worked for long hours in the fields and
The South's economy came to depend on agriculture received insufficient food, clothing, and shelter.
Crops like cotton were best grown on
plantations - large landholdings. They also
required a large labor force. For this, the old
South depended on slaves, who were originally
brought from Africa. Slavery was the basis for
the South's economy; it was also what, more
than anything, made the South different from
the rest of the country. (By 1820, the other states
had ended slavery.)

Slaves' lives

Slaves were able to survive because they

developed a strong culture of their own. This
culture combined African and American
elements. Songs and stories, religion and
community were all important.
Cotton pickers
For a long time, the North and the South each
People often think that whites in the old South developed differently but without conflicts. The
lived an elegant life - something like the conflicts came when the nation began to expand
beginning of the famous movie Gone With the west. Southern states said the new areas that
Wind. In fact, very few whites lived on were being settled should allow slavery; the
plantations. Most whites were small farmers Northern states disagreed. In the 1840s and
who did not own any slaves. But these small 1850s Congress passed a series of laws that
farmers also favored slavery; it gave them were compromises between the North and the
someone to look down on. South. In the end, the compromises failed.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 81

B. Differences between the northern and the southern states
The North (the Union) The South (the Confederacy)

36-star U.S. flag First Confederate National Flag, 13 stars

 It lived from industry and the manufacture of  It depended on agriculture for its economy,
goods such as clothing and furniture. the main crop was cotton.

 Northern factories did not use slaves.  It needed slave workers to make money.

 The abolitionists worked to free the slaves.  It opposed the abolition of slavery.

 It produced expensive products and got the  It preferred cheap European goods to the
U.S. government to put a protectionist tax on expensive products of northern factories and
products from other countries. opposed the protective tax on them.

 It was adding free states to the Union and had  It was adding slave states to the Union but
a larger population than the South. had a smaller population than the North.

 The northern states had more representatives  The southern states were losing power in the
in Congress than the southern ones. House of Representatives.

 It believed in the unity of the United States  It opposed federal laws and seceded
and opposed the separation of the southern (separated) from the Union by creating the
states from the Union. Confederate States of America.

 It supported the election of Abraham Lincoln  It opposed the election of Lincoln and chose
as President of the United States. Jefferson Davis President of the Confederacy.

82 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

C. Causes of the Civil War
While there were many political and cultural 3. Expansion
differences between the North and the South As the United States continued to expand
that contributed to the American Civil War, the westward, each new state added to the country
main cause of the war was slavery. shifted the power between the North and the
South. Southern states began to fear they would
1. Slavery
lose so much power that they would lose all
At the heart of the divide between the North and their rights. Each new state became a
the South was slavery. The South relied on battleground between the two sides for power.
slavery for labor to work the fields. Many
people in the North believed that slavery was
wrong and evil. These people were called
abolitionists. They wanted slavery to be illegal
throughout the United States. Abolitionists such
as Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Harriet
Tubman, and Harriet Beecher Stowe began to
convince more and more people of the evil of
slavery. This made wealthy landowners in the
South fearful that their way of life would come
to an end.
4. Industry vs. Farming
In the mid-1800s, the economies of many
northern states had moved away from farming
to industry. A lot of people in the North worked
and lived in large cities like New York,
Philadelphia, and Boston. The southern states,
however, had maintained a large farming
economy and this economy was based on slave
labor. While the North no longer needed slaves,
the South relied heavily upon slaves for their
way of life.

2. States' Rights
The idea of states' rights was not new to the
Civil War. Since the Constitution was first
written there had been arguments about how
much power the states should have versus how
much power the federal government should
have. The southern states felt that the federal
government was taking away their rights and
powers. 5. Bleeding Kansas
The first fighting over the slavery issue took
place in Kansas. In 1854, the government
passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowing the
residents of Kansas to vote on whether they
would be a slave state or a free state. The region
was flooded with supporters from both sides.
They fought over the issue for years. Several
people were killed in small skirmishes giving
the confrontation the name Bleeding Kansas.
Eventually Kansas entered the Union as a free
state in 1861.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 83

6. Abraham Lincoln 7. Secession
The final straw for the South was election of When Lincoln was elected, many of the
Abraham Lincoln to President of the United southern states decided they no longer wanted
States. Abraham Lincoln was a member of the to be a part of the United States.
new anti-slavery Republican Party. He They felt that they had every right to leave.
managed to get elected without even being on Starting with South Carolina, eleven states
the ballot in ten of the southern states. The would eventually leave the United States and
southern states felt that Lincoln was against form a new country called the Confederate
slavery and also against the South. States of America.
Abraham Lincoln said they did not have the
right to leave the United States and sent in
troops to force the Southern states to rejoin the
Union.
The Civil War had begun.

D. Both sides in the Civil War (April 12, 1861 – April 9, 1865)
1861 - 1865 The United States of America The Confederate States of America

Flag

States California, Connecticut, Delaware, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida,

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North
Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Carolina
New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont,
West Virginia, Wisconsin

Position Anti slavery Pro slavery

Population 22,000,000 (71% of the country) 9,000,000 (29% of the country)

President

Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson Jefferson Davis

84 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 1861 - 1865 The United States of America The Confederate States of America

Capital city

Washington, D.C. Richmond

Nickname(s) "Union" "The Confederacy"

"The North" "The South"

Commanding
General(s)

Ulysses S. Grant William Sherman Robert E. Lee Stonewall Jackson

Advantages 1. The North had a larger population 1. The South could produce all the
than the South. food it needed, though transporting it
2. The Union also had an industrial to soldiers and civilians was a major
economy, whereas the Confederacy problem.
had an economy based on agriculture. 2. The South also had a great nucleus
3. The Union had most of the natural of trained officers.
resources, like coal, iron, and gold, and 3. Seven of the eight military colleges
also a well-developed rail system. in the country were in the South.
4. The North was richer, and its 4. Supplies for the Confederate army,
factories supplied its army with on the other hand, had to travel only
weapons. short distances.
5. Most of the railroads were in the 5. Its soldiers had more spirit because
North, and the Union controlled the they were fighting for their own land.
U.S. Navy.

Disadvantages 1. The men in the Union army would 1. They did not have factories like
be invading a part of the country that those in the North.
they were not familiar with. 2. They could not quickly make guns
2. They would not be defending their and other supplies that were needed.
own homes like the army in the South. 3. There weren't a lot of railroads in
3. It would be harder to supply the the South and also, many of the tracks
Union troops as they got farther and did not connect to each other.
farther away from home.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 85

E. Events of the Civil War (April 12, 1861 – April 9, 1865)
1. South Carolina Seceded (Dec. 20, 1860) 4. The Civil War Began (April 12, 1861)
South Carolina became the first state to secede, The South attacked Fort Sumter South Carolina
or leave, the United States. They decided to and starts the war.
make their own country rather than be part of
the USA. Within a few months several other
states including Georgia, Mississippi, Texas,
Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana would also
leave the Union.

Bombardment of Fort Sumter

5. More States leave the Union (April 1861)

South Carolina secession debate, 1860 Within a short period of time Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas all left the
2. The Confederation was formed (Feb 9, 1861) Union to join the Confederacy.
The southern states formed their own country
called the Confederate States of America.
Jefferson Davis is their president.

States seceded from the Union after the fall of Fort

Sumter ◼
Confederate States of America
6. Union Blockade (April 19, 1861)
3. Abraham Lincoln became President
Abraham Lincoln announced the Union
(March 4, 1861)
Blockade where the Union Navy would attempt
Now that President Lincoln was in office, he to keep supplies from entering or leaving the
wanted to restore the Union, in other words, get Confederacy. This blockade would weaken the
all the states back into the same country. Confederacy later in the war.

86 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

7. First Battle of Bull Run (July 1861) 9. Emancipation Proclamation (Jan. 1, 1863)
The First Battle of Bull Run was the first major The Emancipation Proclamation was an order
battle of the Civil War. The battle took place on given on January 1, 1863 by Abraham Lincoln
July 21, 1861 at the start of the Civil War. to free the enslaved.
Many people in the North thought it would be
an easy Union victory resulting in a quick end
to the war.
Although the Union forces outnumbered the
Confederates, the experience of the Confederate
soldiers proved the difference as the
Confederates won the battle.

First Battle of Bull Run

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

8. Many battles of 1861 and 1862
In the Emancipation Proclamation, President
Throughout 1861 and 1862 there were many Abraham Lincoln announced that the slaves in
battles where lots of soldiers from both sides all states under Confederate control were free.
were wounded and killed. The proclamation weakened the spirit of the
Some of the major battles include the First and South.
Second Battles of Bull Run, The Battle of
Shiloh, The Battle of Antietam, and the Battle
of Fredericksburg.
There was also the famous sea battle between
the two ironclad battleships the Monitor and the
Merrimac. These ships had iron or steel plates
on their sides for armor making them much
stronger and changing war on the seas forever.

The 13th Amendment abolishing slavery is certified

by the Secretary of State
The Emancipation Proclamation wasn't fully
law per the Constitution yet. However, the
advantage of the Proclamation was that it could
pave the way for the Thirteenth Amendment
quickly. The Thirteenth Amendment took a few
more years to get passed by congress and
implemented, but on December 6, 1865 the
Thirteenth Amendment was adopted and
Lincoln visiting McClellan and Troops at Antietam became part of the United States Constitution.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 87

10. The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1, 1863) 11. Sherman's March to the Sea (Sep 2, 1864)
The Battle of Gettysburg took place on July 1- Not only did General Sherman take control of
3, 1863 in and near the town of Gettysburg, Atlanta, a major railroad hub, and Savannah, a
Pennsylvania. major sea port, but he laid the land between
Atlanta and Savannah to waste, destroying all
This battle was one of the most important
that was in his path.
battles of the Civil War for the North. Robert E.
Lee had invaded the North and was trying to
defeat the Union Army once and for all.
However, the Union Army held him off and sent
him retreating. This was a major turning point
in the war.

Battle of Gettysburg, 1863

Map of Sherman's March to Savannah
Later that year, on November 19, 1863,
President Lincoln attended the dedication of the The army of General William Sherman
Soldier's National Cemetery in Gettysburg, marched through the South and destroyed
Pennsylvania. homes, plantations, and railroads. The cruelty
of the soldiers destroyed the spirit of the South.
His Gettysburg Address speech was short and
lasted only two minutes. Not much was thought
of the speech at the time, but today it is 12. General Robert E. Lee surrendered
considered one of the greatest speeches ever (April 9, 1865)
given. On April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee
surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant
at Appomattox, Virginia. This signaled the start
of the end of the American Civil War.

General Robert E. Lee's Surrender at Appomattox

On May 5, 1865 Confederate President
Jefferson Davis held the last meeting of his
Lincoln made a famous speech, the Gettysburg cabinet. Davis tried to escape, but was soon
Address, at the battlefield captured. He spent the next two years in prison.

88 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 Module 4F. Industrialization
A. The Time of Reconstruction
The rebuilding of the South after the Civil War New Amendments to the Constitution
is called the Reconstruction. The To help with the Reconstruction and to protect
Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877. The the rights of all people, three amendments were
purpose of the Reconstruction was to help the added to the US Constitution:
South become a part of the Union again.
• 13th Amendment - Outlawed slavery
• 14th Amendment - Said that black people
were citizens of the United States and that
all people were protected equally by the
law.
• 15th Amendment - Gave all male citizens
the right to vote regardless of race.

The ruins of Carey Street, Richmond, VA after the

Civil War, 1865

To punish the South or not

The North also wanted to punish the South, so
Congress established military government in
the southern states. Former southern leaders
could not hold political office.
Federal troops occupied much of the South Amendment 13 put an end to slavery
during the Reconstruction to ensure that laws
were followed and that another uprising did not
occur.

Amendment 14 made all blacks citizens

Few white southerners believed that blacks
were equal to whites, so they opposed the new
laws. But black people had some political
power in the South.

The End of the Reconstruction

The Reconstruction officially ended under the
presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877. He
removed the federal troops from the South and
the state governments took over. Unfortunately,
many of the changes to equal rights were
immediately reversed. Amendment 15 gave blacks the right to vote

Unit 4: The History of the United States 89

B. The Industrial Revolution
What is the Industrial Revolution? Inventions and Technology
The Industrial Revolution was a time when the New inventions and technologies played an
manufacturing of goods moved from small important role in the Industrial Revolution.
shops and homes to large factories. These new developments allowed the industrial
revolution to grow rapidly and spread
throughout Europe and the United States.

This shift brought about changes in culture as

people moved from rural areas to big cities in
order to work. It also introduced new
technologies, new types of transportation, and a
different way of life for many. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin

During the Industrial Revolution, machines Elias Howe’s sewing machine

changed the methods of production, and
America grew to be an industrial power. Mass
production made manufacturing quick and
cheap.

When did it start in the United States?

Many historians place the start of the Industrial
Revolution with the opening of Samuel Slater's
Mill in 1793 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
By the end of the 1800s, the United States had
become the most industrialized nation in the Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone
world.

Portrait of Samuel Slater and a Diagram of a Water Thomas A. Edison invented the phonograph and the
Powered Mill electric light bulb

90 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 Cultural Changes
The Industrial Revolution brought about many
cultural changes. Before the revolution, most
people lived in the country and worked on
farms. During the revolution, people moved to
the cities to work in factories.
James Watt’s steam engine Cities grew and became overcrowded,
unsanitary, and polluted. In many cities, poor
workers lived in crowded and unsafe buildings.
This was a dramatic shift in the way of life for
the average person.

Economy
The federal government helped industry. It
passed high tariffs (taxes) to keep out foreign
Spinning jenny invented by James Hargreaves products and supported the free exchange of
goods among the states.

Samuel Morse’s electrical telegraph

Transportation
Transportation changed dramatically
throughout the Industrial Revolution.
Robert Fulton's steamboat Where before people traveled by horse,
walking, or boat; new ways of travel were
New inventions and technologies changed the introduced including railroads, steam boats, and
way things were powered, how goods were automobiles.
manufactured, how people communicated, and
the way goods were transported. This changed the way people and products were
able to travel around the country and the world.

Farmers produced more food with machines

Unit 4: The History of the United States 91

C. The Labor Movement
Labor unions are large groups of workers, The unions organized strikes and negotiated
usually in a similar trade or profession, that join with employers for better working conditions
together to protect the workers' rights. The and pay. During the Industrial Revolution this
Industrial Revolution was a time when national wasn't always a peaceful process.
labor unions began to form in the United States. One of the first national unions was the Knights
Since the Industrial Revolution, labor unions of Labor in the 1880s. It grew rapidly, but just
have fought for safe and healthy working as quickly collapsed. The next major union to
conditions, fair wages, an eight-hour workday, form was the American Federation of Labor.
job security, health benefits, pension plans, The AFL was founded in 1886 by Samuel
workers’ rights, and civil rights. Gompers.

Beginning Union Founder Activities

1869 the Knights of Labor Uriah S. Stephens This union represented all
workers, but it wasn’t very
successful.

1886 the American Federation of Samuel Gompers This union represented only
Labor (AFL) skilled workers. It got them higher
wages, shorter hours, and better
working conditions.

1938 the Congress of Industrial John L. Lewis This union represented semi-
Organizations (CIO) skilled - and skilled workers. Its
strikes shut down whole industries,
not just individual factories.

1955 AFL-CIO (merger) Liz Shuler The AFL joined the CIO and was
(president, 2023) powerful until President Reagan’s
government weakened the unions.

92 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

D. A Political Party and a Movement
The Populist Party The Progressive Movement

Who formed it?  Farmers  Progressive thinkers

When?  In 1892  In the first part of the 20th century

What did the  They felt that big business had too much  Progressives believed in a “square
members power and that the system was unfair to deal” for ordinary Americans, so
believe? farmers and industrial workers. they tried to help workers, small
 They also believed in government businesses, and farmers.
control of the railroads and the telephone
system.

What did they  They wanted a graduated income tax (a  They wanted the federal
want? higher percentage of tax on higher government to control big business,
incomes), secret ballots (voting), and take responsibility for the quality of
direct election of U.S. Senators by the food and drugs, and protect the
people, not by state legislatures. environment.

What did they  Populists became mayors of towns, state  Some leaders of the Progressive
do? representatives, and even Senators. Movement held political office and
 They lost power after the election of made reforms.
1896, but their ideas influenced the major  Their ideas also led to several
political parties. amendments to the Constitution:
the Sixteenth Amendment
established the federal income tax,
and the Seventeenth Amendment
allowed voters to elect U.S.
Senators directly.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 93

 Module 4G. The U.S. Becomes a World Power
A. World War I
World War I was fought between two major
alliances of countries: the Allied Powers and the
Central Powers.
 The Central Powers began as an alliance
between Germany and Austria-Hungary. Later
the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria became part
of the Central Powers.
 The Allied Powers were largely formed as a
defense against the aggression of Germany and
the Central Powers. They began as an alliance
between France, Britain, and Russia called the
Triple Entente. The United States also fought on
◼ Central Powers ◼ Allied Powers ◼ Neutral
the side of the Allies after 1917. Other Allied
countries included Italy, Japan, Belgium,
Brazil, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia.

June 28, 1914 August 1, 1914

June 28 - Archduke Franz Ferdinand, prince to Germany declared war on Russia.
the Austria-Hungary throne, is assassinated in
Sarajevo by a Serbian named Gavrilo Princip.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

July 28, 1914 August 3, 1914

Austria-Hungary declared war on the small Germany declared war on France as part of the
country of Serbia. Russia began mobilizing its Schlieffen Plan.
troops. The Schlieffen Plan is a name given after the
First World War to German war plans, due to
the influence of Field Marshal Alfred von
Schlieffen and his thinking on an invasion of
France and Belgium, which began on 4 August
1914.

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia

94 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

August 4, 1914 December 24, 1914
Germany invaded Belgium. Britain declared An unofficial truce was declared between the
war on Germany. two sides at Christmas.

German invasion of Belgium The Christmas Truce

September 5 to 12, 1914 April 25, 1915

The advancing German army was stopped The Allies attacked the Ottoman Empire at the
before Paris by the British and French at the Battle of Gallipoli. This campaign would last
First Battle of the Marne. The Germans dug in over eight months and would end as a victory
and four years of trench warfare began. for the Ottomans and the retreat of the Allies.

First Battle of the Marne The Battle of Gallipoli

October 19 to November 22, 1914 May 7, 1915

The Allies defeated the Germans at the First The Lusitania, a luxury British passenger ship,
Battle of Ypres. was sunk by a German submarine.

First Battle of Ypres 1,195 civilians were killed. This act sparked
international outrage and contributes to the
November 11, 1914 United States joining the war against Germany.
The Ottoman Empire declared war on the Americans were angry and wanted to fight this
Allies. “war to end all wars.”

Unit 4: The History of the United States 95

February 21, 1916 April 6, 1917
The Battle of Verdun began between France and The United States entered the war, declaring
Germany. This battle would last until December war on Germany.
of 1916 and would finally result in a French
victory.

The U.S. declared war on Germany

The Battle of Verdun
May 18, 1917
May 31, 1916 On May 18, 1917, Congress passed the
Selective Service Act, which authorized the
The largest naval battle of the war, the Battle of Federal Government to temporarily expand the
Jutland, was fought between Britain and military through conscription.
Germany in the North Sea.
The act eventually required all men between the
ages of 21 to 45 to register for military service.

Selective Service Act of 1917

November 7, 1917
The Battle of Jutland
The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin,
overthrow the Russian government.
July 1, 1916
The Battle of the Somme began. Over 1 million
soldiers would be wounded or killed.

December 17, 1917

The Russians agreed to peace with the Central
The Battle of the Somme powers and left the war.

96 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

July 15, 1918 January 1, 1920
The Second Battle of the Marne began. This The League of Nations was established at the
battle would end on August 6 as a decisive end of World War I as an international
victory for the Allies. peacekeeping organization.

The Second Battle of the Marne The League of Nations

Despite support by President Woodrow Wilson,
November 11, 1918
the U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles
Germany agreed to an armistice and the fighting and Wilson's proposed League of Nations to
came to an end at 11am on the 11th day of the avoid involvement in world affairs.
11th month.
The League of Nations effectively resolved
some international conflicts but failed to
prevent the outbreak of the Second World War.

Interesting Facts about World War I

• More than 65 million men fought in the war.
• Dogs were used in the trenches to carry
messages.
• A well-trained messenger dog was
considered a very fast and reliable way to
carry messages.
Germany signed an armistice on Nov 11, 1918
• It was the first major war where airplanes
June 28, 1919 and tanks were used.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed by • Ninety percent of the 7.8 million soldiers
Germany and World War I came to an end. from Austria-Hungary who fought in the
war were either injured or killed.
• When the British first invented tanks they
called them "landships."
• The terrorist group responsible for
assassinating Archduke Ferdinand was
called the Black Hand.
• Famed scientist Marie Curie helped to
equip vans with x-ray machines that
enabled French doctors to see bullets in
wounded men. These vans were called
The Treaty of Versailles "petites Curies", meaning "little Curies."

Unit 4: The History of the United States 97

B. The Great Depression
1. What is the Great Depression? Because American goods were too expensive
for other countries to buy and American wages
The Great Depression was a time of great
were low, many investors lost confidence in the
economic crisis during the 1930s. It began in the
stock market and sold their stocks (shares, or
United States, but quickly spread throughout
part ownership, of companies).
much of the world. During this time, many
people were out of work, hungry, and homeless.

October 29th, 1929 the last day of the stock market

crash that would become known as Black Tuesday
Flood victims line up for Red Cross relief in Historians and economists give various causes
Kentucky. 1937 for the Great Depression including drought,
overproduction of goods, bank failures, stock
In the city, people would stand in long lines at
speculation, and consumer debt.
soup kitchens to get a bite to eat. In the country,
farmers struggled in the Midwest where a great
drought turned the soil into dust causing huge
dust storms.

Farm machinery buried by a dust storm near a barn Men looking for work hold up signs. Location and
lot in Dallas, S.D. May 1936 date unspecified
Thousands of businesses, factories, and banks
2. How did it start?
closed down, and millions of workers lost their
The Great Depression began with the stock jobs. This time of economic depression lasted
market crash on Black Tuesday, October 29, for ten years.
1929.

98 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

3. Change of Presidents President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped end the
Great Depression with his “New Deal” of relief,
Herbert Hoover was President of the United
recovery, and reform (“the Three R’s”).
States when the Great Depression began.

FDR's New Deal during the Great Depression

Herbert Clark Hoover served as the 31st president 4. The New Deal
of the United States from 1929 to 1933
The New Deal was a series of laws, programs,
Many people blamed Hoover for the Great and government agencies enacted to help the
Depression. They even named the shantytowns country deal with the Great Depression.
where homeless people lived "Hoovervilles"
after him. These laws placed regulations on the stock
market, banks, and businesses. They helped put
people to work and tried to help house and feed
the poor. Many of these laws are still in place
today like the Social Security Act.
His government relieved suffering with
payments to unemployed people and loans to
farmers and homeowners. It created
government jobs to help the economy recover.
Roosevelt also worked on economic reform to
prevent future depressions.

5. How did the Great Depression end?

The Great Depression ended with the start of
Shanty town dwellings sit in New York's Central World War II. The wartime economy put many
Park at the height of the Great Depression, 1933 people back to work and filled factories to
In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected capacity.
president. He promised the people of America a
"New Deal."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his

initials FDR, was an American politician and
lawyer who served as the 32nd president of the
United States from 1933 until his death in 1945 In 1939, the Great Depression ended

Unit 4: The History of the United States 99

C. World War II
1933 January 30 1940 April 9 to June 9
Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Germany invaded and took control of Denmark
His Nazi Party, or the Third Reich, took power and Norway.
and Hitler was essentially the dictator of
Germany.

The occupation of Norway by the German invasion

on April 9, 1940
The rise of Adolf Hitler

1935 - 1939 1940 May 10 to June 22

U.S. Congress wanted to avoid involvement in Germany used quick strikes called blitzkrieg,
world affairs and stay neutral. In the 1930s it meaning lightning war, to take over much of
passed Neutrality Acts to keep the seas free. western Europe including the Netherlands,
Belgium, and northern France.

The Neutrality Acts were a series of acts passed

by the US Congress in 1935, 1936, 1937, and Blitzkrieg 1940
1939 in response to the growing threats and
wars that led to World War II. 1940 June 10
Italy entered the war as a member of the Axis
1939 September 1 powers.
Germany invaded Poland. World War II began.

The Axis powers was a military coalition that

initiated World War II and fought against the Allies.
Adolf Hitler views victory parade in Warsaw after Its principal members were Nazi Germany, the
the German invasion of Poland, 1939 Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire of Japan.

100 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

1940 September 27 1943 September 3
Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Italy surrendered to the Allies, however
Pact creating the Axis Alliance. Germany helped Mussolini to escape and set up
a government in Northern Italy.

The signing of the Tripartite Pact by Germany,

The surrender of Italy, 1943
Japan, and Italy on 27 September 1940 in Berlin
1944 June 6
1941 June 22
The Normandy landings were the landing
Germany and the Axis Powers attacked Russia operations and associated airborne operations
with a huge force of over four million troops. on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion
of Normandy in Operation Overlord during
World War II.

The Allies’ principal members by 1941 were the

United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, and
China
Allied forces invade France and push back the
Germans
1941 December 7
Codenamed Operation Neptune and often
The Japanese attacked the US Navy in Pearl referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne
Harbor. The next day the US entered World invasion in history.
War II on the side of the Allies.

D-day and the Normandy invasion, 1944

On “D-Day” in 1944, the U.S. General Dwight
D. Eisenhower led the Allied armies to victory
Attack on Pearl Harbor, 1941 in Europe.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 101

1945 April 30 1945 September 2
Adolf Hitler committed suicide as he knew Japan surrendered to US General Douglas
Germany had lost the war. MacArthur and the Allies.

Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker General Yoshijiro signs the instrument of
in Berlin unconditional surrender

1945 May 7 After the war

Germany surrendered to the Allies. Many things changed once World War II was
over. Much of Europe and Eastern Asia had
been destroyed by the fighting and bombings
that had taken place over many years.
Also, many country's borders needed to be set
and governments re-established where
Germany or Japan had taken over.

Nazi Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl, center, signs the

instrument of surrender ending Nazi Germany’s
involvement in World War II in Rheims on May 1945

1945 August 6
The United States dropped the Atomic Bomb on
Hiroshima, Japan. The city is devastated. Leaders of the "Big Three" central Allies: Joseph
Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill
Germany was divided up into Eastern and
Western Germany. The Eastern part was
controlled by the USSR (Russia) and the
Western part by the Allies.

Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan

1945 August 9
Another atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki,
Japan.

102 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

D. Cold War
1. United Nations 2. The Cold War Begins
The Allies formed the United Nations in order The Cold War was a long period of tension
to solve problems among nations, keep the between the democracies of the Western World
peace, and try to prevent World War III from and the communist countries of Eastern Europe.
happening.

The United Nations was formed on October 24,

1945. There were 51 original member nations The west was led by the United States and
including 5 permanent Security Council Eastern Europe was led by the Soviet Union.
members: China, France, the Soviet Union, the These two countries were beginning to compete
United Kingdom, and the United States. for power and became known as superpowers.

Europe became divided into the Eastern Bloc of Although the two superpowers never officially
nations and the West. The Eastern Bloc was led declared war on each other, they fought
and controlled by the Soviet Union (Russia). indirectly in proxy wars, the arms race, and the
These countries were run by communist space race.
governments and had their own alliance called
the Warsaw Pact.

The period of history after World War II is

known as the Cold War because the U.S. and
the U.S.S.R., with their opposing economic and
The Western countries, including the United political systems, were trying to win influence
States, formed an alliance against communism and control over other countries through
called NATO. economic aid rather than weapons.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 103

3. Harry S. Truman Although the US had already been helping
rd Europe to recover, the Marshall Plan made it
Harry S. Truman became the 33 president
official in 1948.
when Franklin D. Roosevelt died. He is most
known for putting an end to World War II in the
Pacific by dropping the atomic bomb on Japan.

Over the next four years the US gave $13 billion

in assistance to Western European countries
including its former enemies. The US also
He is also known for the Marshall Plan, the
offered assistance to Russia and its allies,
Truman Doctrine, and the Korean War.
however, they turned it down.

4. Truman Doctrine 6. NATO

The Truman Doctrine was an effort to stop the In 1949 the U.S. and the nations of Western
spread of communism. It said that the United Europe formally allied in the North Atlantic
States would help countries that were Treaty Organization (NATO) to defend one
threatened by "armed minorities or outside another against attack.
pressures".

NATO is an alliance of democratic and western

countries including much of Western Europe,
Canada, and the United States.

7. Warsaw Pact
The U.S.S.R. began the Warsaw Pact with
Eastern Europe in 1955.
In 1947 under the Truman Doctrine, the U.S.
government gave $400 million in economic and
military aid to keep Greece and Turkey free of
Soviet control.

5. Marshall Plan
In order to help Europe recover from the war,
the United States came up with the Marshall
Plan. It is named after Secretary of State George
Marshall. The Marshall Plan offered help and The Warsaw Pact was an alliance between the
finances to European countries in order to Soviet Union and other Eastern Europe
recover from World War II. communist nations.

104 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

8. Time period of the Cold War (1945 - 1991) In 1987 President Ronald Reagan gave a speech
in Berlin where he asked the leader of the Soviet
The Cold War began not too long after World
Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to "Tear down this
War II ended in 1945.
Wall!"
Although, the Soviet Union was an important
member of the Allied Powers, there was great
distrust between the Soviet Union and the rest
of the Allies.

Reagan at the Berlin Wall

A few years later on November 9, 1989 the
announcement was made. The borders were
open and people could freely move between
Eastern and Western Germany. Much of the
wall was torn down by people chipping away as
Joseph Stalin they celebrated the end to a divided Germany.
On October 3, 1990 Germany was officially
The Allies were concerned with the brutal reunified into a single country.
leadership of Joseph Stalin as well as the spread
of communism.
10. Collapse of the Soviet Union
The Cold War came to an end with the collapse
of the Soviet Union in 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General
Secretary of the Soviet Union in 1985. When he
took over the Soviet Union economy was in bad
9. Berlin Wall shape and his idea was to reform the economy
The Berlin Wall was built by the communist and modernize the political situation in the
government of East Berlin in 1961. The wall country.
separated East Berlin and West Berlin. It was
built in order to prevent people from fleeing
East Berlin. In many ways it was the perfect
symbol of the "Iron Curtain" that separated the
democratic western countries and the
communist countries of Eastern Europe
throughout the Cold War.

Mikhail Gorbachev
On December 24, 1991 the Soviet Union was
dissolved. At the same time Mikhail Gorbachev
announced his resignation.
The Soviet Union divided up into 15 separate
independent countries including: Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania,
Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
Berlin Wall, 1990 Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 105

 Module 4H. Modern Times
A. Korean War
The Korean War was fought between South Supporting North Korea was the Soviet Union
Korea and communist North Korea. It was the and the People's Republic of China. Supporting
first major conflict of the Cold War as the South Korea was the United States, Great
Soviet Union supported North Korea and the Britain, and the United Nations.
United States supported South Korea.

On June 25, 1950 North Korea invaded South

Korea. The South Korean Army fled and forces
from the United Nations came to help out. Soon
the South Korea government only occupied a
small part of Korea on the southern tip.
Korean War: from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953
The leader and Prime Minister of North Korea
was Kim Il-sung. The President of South Korea
was Syngman Rhee.

On July 17, 1953 a treaty was signed that ended

the war. Few things had changed as a result of
the war. Both countries would remain
independent and the border would remain at the
38th parallel.
Kim Il-sung and Syngman Rhee
The US President at the start of the war was
Harry Truman. Dwight D. Eisenhower was
president by the end of the war.

The countries are still divided today and North

Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower Korea is still ruled by a communist regime.

106 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

B. Vietnam War
Prior to World War II Vietnam had been a Between 1961 and 1975, the United States
colony of the French. Vietnamese revolutionary intervened in the conflict on the side of the
and communist Ho Chi Minh wanted freedom South Vietnamese anticommunists. When
for the country of Vietnam. The people didn’t Richard Nixon became president he decided to
want war, but they wanted freedom from end US involvement in the war. He first began
foreign powers. removing troops from Vietnam in July of 1969.

South Vietnam visit - President Nixon with President

Nguyen Van Thieu in South Vietnam, August 1969
On Sept. 2, 1945, at Ba Dinh Square, President Ho The desire for independence gave the
Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence
Vietnamese their fighting spirit. On January 27,
giving birth to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
1973 a ceasefire was negotiated. A few months
In 1954 the French lost a major battle to the later in March the final US troops were removed
Vietnamese. The U.S. decided to pull out of from Vietnam.
Vietnam.

There were many protests against the Vietnam war

Democratic Republic of Vietnam flag on top of
In April of 1975 South Vietnam surrendered to
French commander bunker, 1954
North Vietnam. Soon the country became
The Vietnam War was fought between officially unified as the Socialist Republic of
communist North Vietnam and the government Vietnam. Vietnam is now a communist country.
of Southern Vietnam. The North was supported
by communist countries such as the People's
Republic of China and the Soviet Union. The
South was supported by anti-communist
countries, primarily the United States.

The fall of Saigon, April 30, 1975

Not only did the US lose the war and the
country of Vietnam to the communists, the US
lost prestige in the eyes of the world.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 107

C. Age of Technology
1. The Atomic Age On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin was the first
man to orbit the Earth in the spacecraft Vostok
The period of history since the invention of the
I. Three weeks later the US launched the
atomic bomb at the end of World War II is
Freedom 7 and astronaut Alan Shepherd
known as the Age of Technology and the
became the first American in space.
Atomic Age. The world powers and people of
all nations know that a nuclear war could
destroy the whole planet. However, the
superpowers, mainly the United States and the
Soviet Union, continued to build missiles,
bombs, military aircraft, and space weapons.

Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepherd

After many years of experiments, test flights,
and training the Apollo 11 spacecraft was
launched into space on July 16, 1969. On July
20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped outside and
2. Space race became the first man to walk on the Moon.

During the Cold War the United States and the

Soviet Union engaged a competition to see who
had the best technology in space.

Neil Armstrong with his first step on the Moon

3. Age of Technology
On October 4, 1957 the Russians placed the first At the heart of the Age of Technology is the
successful satellite into orbit. It was called computer. The first modern electronic digital
Sputnik I. The Russians had taken the lead in computer was called the Atanasoff-Berry
the Space Race. The Americans successfully computer, or ABC. It was built by physics
launched their first satellite four months later Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and his
called the Explorer I. graduate student, Clifford Berry, in 1942.

108 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

D. Civil Rights Movement
1. What does "civil rights" mean? One day Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, was on
her way home from work. The bus became
Civil rights are basic rights that every citizen
crowded, and she was told to give her seat to a
has under the laws of the government. Civil
white man. This, too, was the law. She refused
rights for every person mean that regardless of
to give up her seat. She was arrested and fined.
gender, skin color, religion, nationality, age,
disability, or religion, a person should not be
discriminated against

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat

In the United States the civil rights of each In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent
individual citizen are protected by the Constitution U.S. troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to force
the all-white university there to accept black
2. The rise of segregation students.
In the 1950s, “the American dream” of wealth
and freedom was easier for white males to
achieve than for members of minority groups.
Black Americans in the South, for example,
could not attend white schools or live in white
neighborhoods. Because of the policy of
segregation, blacks sat in the backs of buses,
used only restrooms for nonwhites, and ate at
nonwhite lunch counters. In some southern
states, black people could not even vote.
Northerners, too, often discriminated against Troopers from the Army take up positions outside
blacks, especially in jobs and housing. Central High on the morning of Sept. 26, 1957
Between 1957 and 1970, as a result of the civil
rights movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr.,
new laws helped blacks and other minorities to
achieve equality. Presidents John F. Kennedy
and Lyndon B. Johnson used King’s ideas in
their New Frontier and Great Society programs.

At the bus station in Durham, North Carolina

3. The civil rights movement

The Montgomery bus boycott, in 1955, was an
important event in blacks’ struggle for equal Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
treatment. Buses in Montgomery, Alabama There have been great changes in the last fifty
were segregated. Whites sat in the front of the years, but nonwhites have not yet achieved
bus; blacks had to sit in the back. equal status today.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 109

E. Gender equality
For a long time, American men did not believe In recent years, many citizens have tried to add
in equality of the sexes. Women worked in low- an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The
level jobs and usually received lower pay than “Equal Rights Amendment” (ERA) states that
men for equal work. both sexes have equal rights. But because many
people fear that the amendment could take away
some of women’s special protections, such as
the right to alimony (financial support after
divorce) and exemption from the military draft,
the amendment was not ratified (approved by
enough states).

Few women finished college, and even fewer

rose to executive-level positions with high
salaries.

Today, American women are still fighting for

equality because their salaries are generally
lower than men’s. However, many changes in
the positions of the sexes have occurred. Half of
all college students are women.

In 1869, women leaders Susan B. Anthony and

Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National
Women's Suffrage Association. The main goal
of this group was to get an amendment passed
that would allow women to vote. However, the
15th amendment passed in 1870 allowing all
men regardless of race to vote, but not women. More women are working than ever before, and
their pay has risen, especially in government
jobs, because it is easier for women to get jobs
that used to be for men only. Many women own
businesses, and others are executives in private
business and government.

In 1917, the National Women's Party was

formed to help fight for women's rights. In
1918, President Wilson changed his mind and
decided to support the amendment and on
August 26, 1920 the 19th Amendment was
signed into law.

110 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 Module 4I. Local History

A. Cambridge, Massachusetts B. St. Louis, Missouri

Cambridge, Massachusetts, is only a few miles In 1763 French fur trader Pierre Laclede greeted
from Boston, which the British held in the Indians at the place that is now St. Louis,
Revolutionary War. But Cambridge was a Missouri. French settlers began a town and
center of rebel activity. In 1775 soldiers trading post there the following year.
marched from the town to the Battle of Bunker
Hill.

Pierre Laclede greeted Indians

Battle of Bunker Hill
In 1817, when the Zebulon M. Pike landed in
When George Washington arrived in St. Louis after a 6-week trip from Louisville, the
Massachusetts to take command of the colonial steamboat era began on the Mississippi River.
troops, he lived and established military
headquarters in a mansion in Cambridge. From
this elegant house, he often rode to the hills
around Boston to plan military strategy.

Zebulon M. Pike
The Pike was the first of thousands of steam-
powered boats with paddle wheels that changed
George Washington, headquartered at the Vassal St. Louis from a frontier town to the third
mansion in Cambridge, Massachusetts
largest city in the nation in 1870.
In the following century, this mansion was the
home of another famous American: the poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

But in 1874 the completion of the Eads Bridge,

which joined Missouri to the state of Illinois,
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow marked the end of the steamboat age.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 111

C. Kansas D. California
To make railroad construction easier, in 1854 After 1865 railroad companies in central
the U.S. government opened Kansas to white California began to hire Chinese workers.
settlers. The residents of the new territory were
supposed to decide for themselves if Kansas
should become a slave state or a free state. But
when New England abolitionists began sending
anti-slavery citizens to settle there, proslavery
Missourians crossed the state border to vote
illegally in territorial elections.

The labor unions in San Francisco protested, but

when the Central Pacific Railroad Company
began to lay tracks in the Sierra Nevada
Mountains, most white workers quit because
the work was so hard and dangerous.

Proslavery voters invading Kansas, 1850s

Proslavery candidates won these elections, so
their opponents formed their own local
governments. In 1856 proslavery Southerners
formed armed bands to destroy Lawrence,
Kansas, the center of abolitionist power. John
Brown led raids against slaveholders along the
Kansas-Missouri border.
The Chinese worked in groups of twelve to
twenty men, each with its own cook and
supervisor.

John Brown in front of and between fighting Union

and Confederate soldiers
During the Civil War William Clarke Quantrill, Tea carriers brought hot tea to the workers, and
a young Northerner who believed in slavery, led the Chinese diet of rice, fish, and vegetables
a band of supporters in a raid of Lawrence, kept them in better health than the whites.
killing hundreds of civilians. The state became
known as “Bleeding Kansas” in this violent
period of history

Bleeding Kansas Many of the Chinese workers died from accidents

112 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

E. Arizona A land agent and a lawyer had already set up
outdoor offices to settle land disputes. Most
The Navajo Indians began thinking of settlers were living in tents or their wagons, but
themselves as a tribe during the winter of 1863 they soon built wooden houses. After about a
and 1864. U.S. troops trapped several hundred month, the town had a jail. Some of the
Navajo families near Canyon de Chelly in prisoners were called “Sooners” because they
northeastern Arizona. As punishment for had claimed land sooner than the law allowed.
stealing cattle, the soldiers killed the Indians’ (Today Oklahoma has the nickname “the
sheep, burned their corn, and cut down their Sooner State.”)
fruit trees. Then they made the Navajo march
three hundred miles to a camp at Bosque
Redondo in eastern New Mexico. The Indians
couldn’t raise crops in the poor land there, and
they missed their native home. Many of them
died.

Guthrie, Oklahoma ten days old, 1889

G. Chicago
The city of Chicago was once known for
organized crime. At the beginning of the
twentieth century, gambling was big business
there. After 1919, when Prohibition made the
sale of alcohol illegal, Chicago gangsters
Navajo Indians profited greatly from bootlegging (dealing in
liquor illegally).

F. Oklahoma
Between 1889 and 1906 the U.S. government
allowed white settlers to move into one part
after another of Indian territory in Oklahoma. A
signal gun started each stage of this famous
“Land Rush.”

Chicago gangsters
By the early 1920s corrupt politicians such as
“Big Bill” Thompson were running the city,
usually with the approval of the mayor. The
famous Al Capone, “king of the Chicago
underworld,” didn’t go to prison until 1931.

Land Rush
Thousands of settlers hurried into Oklahoma
each day. In Guthrie, for example, at the end of
the first day, there were settlers from 32 U.S.
States, three U.S. territories, and six foreign
countries.

Unit 4: The History of the United States 113

114 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)
 UNIT 5
The U.S. Constitution

Unit 5: The U.S. Constitution 115

 Module 5A. Overview of the U.S. Constitution
A. Introduction to the U.S. Constitution
1. What is the Constitution? 3. Constitutional Convention
The Constitution is the framework for the In May of 1787 the Constitutional Convention
federal government of the United States. It is the gathered to discuss changes to the Articles of
highest form of law in the country. The the Confederation. After some debate it became
Constitution creates the branches of apparent to the representatives that a new
government and gives them the power to Constitution was needed.
govern. However, it also protects the citizens of
the United States and guarantees their basic
rights.

United States Constitutional Convention, 1787

The Constitution of the United States A primary aim of the Constitution was to create
a government that would be powerful enough to
run the country, but would not impose on
2. The Articles of Confederation
people's or state's rights. To avoid too much
The first Constitution was called the Articles of power being held by one person or group, they
Confederation, which was ratified in 1781. It created the Balance of Power between the three
served as the first constitution of the United branches of government: Executive,
States. This document officially established the Legislative, and Judicial.
government of the union of the thirteen states.

Separation of powers
In the end, an agreement was reached called The
Great Compromise. This allowed the number of
representatives to the House be based on the
state's population while each state would have
two representatives in the Senate.
Three main principles form the basis of the
Articles of Confederation Constitution:
However, the main issue was that the 1. the separation of powers of the three
government had no money or way to get money branches of government
under the Articles. The army wasn't being paid
2. government of, for, and by the people
and was deserting. Debts to foreign countries
weren't being paid. The government became too 3. basic human rights (individual freedom,
weak and a new constitution was needed. equality, and justice)

116 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

4. Structure of the Constitution 5. Preamble to the Constitution
The Constitution has three parts: "We the People of the United States, in Order to
form a more perfect Union, establish Justice,
1. The Preamble tells its purposes: to protect
insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
the nation and to assure justice, peace, and
common defense, promote the general Welfare,
liberty for all.
and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
2. The Document contains seven articles. and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
3. Twenty-seven Amendments guarantee Constitution for the United States of America."
individual rights and freedoms and
establish other basic principles of
government.

Section Purpose

Preamble Introduces reasons for

creating the document
5. Articles of the Constitution
Article I Outlines the legislative branch
The Constitution is organized into 7 articles:
Article II Outlines the executive branch
1. Legislative Power
Article III Outlines the judicial branch 2. Executive Power
3. Judicial Power
Article IV Discuses relations among the
states and between the states 4. States' Powers and Limits
and the national government
5. Amendments
Article V Describes how to amend the 6. Federal Power
Constitution
7. Ratification
Article VI Declares the Constitution to The Articles of the Constitution talk about the
be the supreme law of the land duties of the three main parts of government:
the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch,
Article VII Lists requirements for and the Judicial Branch. The articles also talk
ratifying the Constitution about the separate powers of the Federal and
State government, and how to change the
Amendments Modify the Constitution
Constitution.

Module 5B. The Seven Articles of the U.S. Constitution

A. Article 1: Legislative Branch
1. The U.S. Congress makes the laws for the 2. Congress has two parts, called "Houses," the
United States. House of Representatives and the Senate.

Unit 5: The U.S. Constitution 117

3. The people of each state elect two Senators 4. The population of each state determines the
(term is 6 years). number of Representatives (term is 2 years).

B. Article 2: Executive Branch

The President, Vice-President, Cabinet, and
Departments under the Cabinet Secretaries
carry out the laws made by Congress.
1. The Electoral College elects the President
(the U.S Electoral College is the group of
presidential electors required by the Constitution
to form every four years for the sole purpose of
appointing the president and vice president).
2. The President is the chief executive of the
nation and Commander in Chief of the
armed forces.
3. The President has certain powers, such as
to enforce laws.
4. The President may initiate the law-making
process.

 Electoral votes, out of 538, allocated to each state

and the District of Columbia for presidential
elections to be held in 2024 and 2028, based on
representation, which depends on population data
from the 2020 census. Every jurisdiction is entitled
to at least 3.

118 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

C. Article 3: Judicial Branch
The Supreme Court decides court cases
according to US Constitution. The courts under
the Supreme Court decide criminal and civil
court cases according to the correct federal,
state, and local laws.
1. The Supreme Court is the highest court of
the land. It is a court of last appeal, and its
decisions are final.
2. It is the responsibility of the Supreme Court
to defend and interpret the principles of the
Constitution.
3. Residents of the U.S. have the right to trial
by jury. 3 levels to the U.S. Federal Court System

Unit 5: The U.S. Constitution 119

 Branches of the U.S. government

Checks & Balances in the U.S. Government

120 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)
D. Article 4: Relationship to the States
Article Four defined the relationship among the
states and the relationship of the states to the
Federal government.
States have the power to make and carry out
their own laws. State laws that are related to the
people and problems of their area. States respect
other states laws and work together with other
states to fix regional problems.

1. U.S. residents have the same rights in all states (equality among citizens regardless of “home”
state);
2. All states have a republican form of government;
3. Congress may admit new states and make laws for U.S. territories; no states can be made from
other states.
4. States must honor other states’ laws, records, court ruling;
5. Extradition: will be brought back to original state for trial.

D. Article 5: Amendments
Article Five described ways to amend (change) the Constitution. The Constitution can be changed.
New amendments can be added to the US Constitution with the approval by a two-thirds vote in each
house of Congress (67, 281) and three-fourth vote by the states (38).
1. Congress may propose (suggest) an amendment if two-thirds of both houses vote for it.
2. The states may initiate an amendment. If two-thirds of all state legislatures agree to propose it,
Congress will call a national convention.
3. To add the amendment to the Constitution, three-fourths of the state legislatures or special state
conventions must ratify (officially approve) it.

Unit 5: The U.S. Constitution 121

E. Article 6: Supreme Law of the Land
Article Six declared the Constitution the Supreme Law of the Land. The Constitution and federal laws
are higher than state and local laws. All laws must agree with the US Constitution.
1. Federal laws & Consitution are the highest laws in the land; no state constitution or law or judge
may contradict (state the opposite of) the Constitution;
2. All public officials must promise to support the Constitution in an official oath;
3. U.S. assumes pre-Constitution debts

F. Article 7: Ratification
Article Seven declared that nine states must ratify the Constitution for it to become law.
The Constitution was presented to George Washington and the men at the Constitutional Convention
on September 17, 1787, Representatives from twelve out of the thirteen original states signed the
Constitution. From September 1787 to July 1788, the states meet, talked about, and finally voted to
approve the Constitution.

122 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 Module 5C. The Amendments
A. The Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights are the first 10 amendments The Fifth Amendment: The government must
to the United States Constitution. The idea follow the law (due process) before punishing a
behind the Bill of Rights was to insure certain person.
freedoms and rights to the citizens of America. The Fifth Amendment is famous for people
It put limits on what the government could do saying "I'll take the Fifth". This gives people the
and control. Freedoms protected include right to choose not to testify in court if they feel
freedom of religion, speech, assembly, the right their own testimony will incriminate
to bear arms, unreasonable search and seizure themselves.
of your home, the right to a speedy trial, and
more. The Sixth Amendment: A person has the right
On December 15, 1791 ten of the amendments to a fair and speedy trial by a jury.
were passed and made part of the Constitution. The 6th Amendment - guarantees a speedy trial
They would later become known as the Bill of by a jury of one's peers. Also, people accused
Rights. are to be informed of the crimes with which they
are charged and have the right to confront the
The First Amendment: People have freedom witnesses brought by the government. The
of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the amendment also provides the accused the right
press, freedom of assembly, and the right to to compel testimony from witnesses, and to
petition the Government. legal representation (meaning the government
has to provide a lawyer).
Congress shall make no law respecting the
establishment of religion or prohibiting its free The Seventh Amendment: A person has the
exercise. Also protected are freedom of speech, right to a jury trial for civil cases.
freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and
the right to petition the Government for a The 7th Amendment - provides that civil cases
redress of grievances. also be tried by jury.

The Eighth Amendment: The government

The Second Amendment: People have the
cannot demand excessive bail or fines, or any
right to have a weapon to protect themselves.
cruel and unusual punishment.
The 2nd Amendment protects citizen's right to
The 8th Amendment prohibits excessive bail,
bear arms.
excessive fines, and cruel and unusual
punishments.
The Third Amendment: Soldiers cannot take
or live in a person's house. The Ninth Amendment: The Constitution
rd
The 3 Amendment prevents the government does not include all of the rights of the people
from placing troops in private homes. This was and the states.
a real problem during the American The list of rights described in the Constitution
Revolutionary War. is not exhaustive, and that the people still have
all the rights that are not listed.
The Fourth Amendment: The government
cannot arrest a person or search their property The Tenth Amendment: Any powers that the
unless there is "probable cause." Constitution does not give to the federal
government belong to the states.
This amendment prevents the government from
unreasonable search and seizure of the property The 10th Amendment - gives all powers not
of US citizens. It requires the government to specifically given to the United States
have a warrant that was issued by a judge and government in the Constitution, to either the
based on probable cause. states or to the people.

Unit 5: The U.S. Constitution 123

B. Other Amendments
11th Amendment (1795): Citizens cannot sue 13th Amendment (1865): Slavery is illegal in
states in federal courts. (There are some the United States.
exceptions). This amendment abolished slavery and
This amendment set limits on when a state can involuntary servitude.
be sued. In particular it gave immunity to states
from law suits from out-of-state citizens and
foreigners not living within the state borders.

12th Amendment (1804): The President and 14th Amendment (1868): Every person born in
Vice President are elected on a party ticket. the USA is a citizen. An immigrant can become
This amendment revised the presidential a naturalized citizen.
election procedures. This amendment defined what it means to be a
US citizen. It prohibits states from reducing the
privileges of citizens and ensures each citizen
the 'right to due process and the equal protection
of the law'.

124 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

15th Amendment (1870): All US male citizens 19th Amendment (1920): All US female
have the right to vote. citizens have the right to vote.
This amendment gave all men the right to vote The 19th amendment gave women the right to
regardless of race or color or whether they had vote. It's also called women's suffrage.
been slaves.

20th Amendment (1933): The President is

inaugurated in January. Congress begins to
meet in January.
16th Amendment (1913): Congress can tax
income. This amendment gave details on the terms of
office for Congress and the President.
This amendment gave the federal government
the power to collect income tax.

21st Amendment (1933): Alcohol is legal. Each

state can make laws about making, selling, and
drinking alcohol.
17th Amendment (1913): The people can elect
US Senators. This amendment repealed the Eighteenth
Amendment.
This amendment established that senators
would be directly elected.

18th Amendment (1919): Alcohol is illegal.

(Prohibition). 22nd Amendment (1951): The President cannot
serve for more than two terms.
Prohibition of alcohol making alcoholic drinks
illegal. (It would later be repealed by the This amendment limited the president to a
Twenty-first Amendment) maximum of two terms or 10 years.

Unit 5: The U.S. Constitution 125

23rd Amendment (1961): The US Citizens in 26th Amendment (1971): US citizens who are
the District of Columbia have the right to vote 18 years old or older have the right to vote.
for President. This amendment set the national voting age at
This amendment provided that Washington, DC 18.
be allowed representatives in the Electoral
College. This way the citizens of Washington
DC would have a vote for the president even
though they are not officially part of a state.

27th Amendment (1992): Congress must limit

when and how much its members are paid.
24th Amendment (1964): It is illegal to make a
citizen pay a voting fee or take a reading test to This amendment states that Congressional
vote. salary changes cannot take effect until the
beginning of the next session of Congress.
People don't have to pay a tax, called a poll tax,
in order to vote.

25th Amendment (1967): If the president dies How Amendments Are Made
or cannot serve, the vice-president becomes It takes two steps to add an amendment to the
president. If both die, the Speaker of the House Constitution:
becomes president.
Step 1: Proposal - An amendment can be
This amendment defined the presidential proposed by either a two-thirds vote in
succession if something should happen to the Congress, including both the House of
president. The first in line is the Vice-President. Representatives and the Senate, or a national
convention made up of two-thirds of the states.
All our current amendments were proposed by
Congress.
Step 2: Ratification - Next, the amendment has
to be ratified. It can be ratified by either three-
fourths of the state legislatures or by state
conventions in three-fourths of the states. Only
the 21st amendment used the state convention
method.

126 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 UNIT 6
The Federal Government

Unit 6: The Federal Government 127

 Module 6A. The American System of Government
A. The American System of Government
The United States is a democratic republic (a The Founding Fathers established three
representative democracy). The national branches of government: the legislative, the
government is a government of all the people executive, and the judicial. Each branch has
and their representatives (elected officials). It is different functions and powers under the
called the federal government because the principle of separation of powers.
nation is a federation, or association, of states.

The U.S. Constitution gave the federal There is also a system of checks and balances
government only limited powers, the powers so that each branch has some control over the
stated in the Constitution. All other powers other two branches. This way, no one group can
belong to the individual states. have too much power.

B. The Three Branches of Government

1. The legislative branch 2. The executive branch 3. The judicial branch
The legislative branch is The executive branch consists The judicial branch consists of the
called Congress. It consists of of the President, the Vice Supreme (highest) Court, eleven
the Senate and the House of President, the Cabinet and the Circuit Courts of Appeals, and
Representatives. It is the thirteen Departments, and the ninety-four District Courts. This
responsibility of Congress to independent agencies. It’s the branch explains and interprets laws
propose and pass laws. In the responsibility of the executive and makes decisions in lawsuits. It
system of checks and to enforce laws. The President has power over the other two
balances, Congress can refuse has the power to veto (reject) branches because it can declare
to approve Presidential any bill (law) of Congress. He their laws and actions
appointments and can appoints all Supreme Court unconstitutional (against the
override a Presidential veto. Justices. principles of the Constitution).

128 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

Unit 6: The Federal Government 129
C. Political Parties
The U.S. Constitution does not talk about The Democratic Party
political parties, but they began during George The Democratic Party is the oldest party in the
Washington’s term of office. On one side were United States. In 1829, Andrew Jackson
the Federalists. They wanted a strong federal became the first Democratic President. Since
government. On the other side, the that time, the issues of the nation and the ideas
Democratic-Republicans wanted to limit the of the party have changed. Both the major
power of the national government. Their leader parties have liberal and conservative members,
was Thomas Jefferson, and their group later but in general people consider the Democrats
became the Democratic Party. today more liberal than the Republicans.
Democrats often want the government to
establish social programs for people in need,
such as the poor, the unemployed, and the
elderly. They usually say they believe in equal
rights for women and minorities and they
oppose nuclear weapons and too much military
spending. The symbol of the Democratic Party
(from political cartoons) is the donkey.

Some of the early political parties, such as the

Federalists and the Whigs, no longer exist.
Since 1854, the two major parties have been the The Republican Party
Democrats and the Republicans. Smaller parties The Republican Party, sometimes called the
have lasted for only a short time. “Third parties” G.O.P. (the Grand Old Party), began in 1854
have won in local elections, but their candidates over the issue of slavery. Republicans oppose
have never won a Presidential election. slavery. The first Republican candidate to
become President was Abraham Lincoln. After
the Civil War, Republicans got interested in
farm, land, and business issues. In general,
Republicans vote more conservatively than
Democrats. They want government to support
big business but not to control the lives of
citizens. They often oppose government
spending for social programs but support
military spending. The party symbol is the
elephant.

Many people say that there is not much

difference between the Republican and
Democratic Parties. “Liberal” politicians
usually favor reform (change) and progress.
“Conservative” politicians usually oppose
change. But both liberal and conservative
members belong to the two major political
parties, and their ideas often change with the
times and the issues.

130 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 Module 6B. The Legislative Branch

A. The Congress
The Legislative Branch is also called the
Congress. There are two parts that make up
Congress: the House of Representatives and the
Senate.
The Legislative Branch is the part of the
government that writes up and votes on laws,
also called legislation. Other powers of the
Congress include declaring war, confirming
Presidential appointments for groups like the
Supreme Court and the Cabinet, and
investigating power. Capitol of the United States

B. The House of Representative and the Senate

1. The House of Representative 2. The Senate
There are 435 total Representatives in the The Senate has 100 members. Each state has
House. Each state has a different number of two Senators.
representatives depending on their total
population. States with more people get more
representatives.
Representatives are elected every two years.
They must be 25 years old, have been a US
citizen for at least 7 years, and live in the state
they represent.
The Speaker of the House is the leader of the
House of Representatives. The House elects the
member they want to be the leader. The Speaker
is third in line in succession to the President.
United States Senate
Senators are elected every 6 years. To become
a Senator a person must be at least 30 years old,
have been a US citizen for at least 9 years, and
must live in the state they represent.

The current House speaker is Republican Kevin

McCarthy of California. The 55th person to serve as
speaker, he was elected on January 7, 2023, at the
beginning of the 118th Congress

Unit 6: The Federal Government 131

3. Differences between the House of Representative and the Senate

the House the Senate

Definition lower chamber of Congress upper chamber of Congress

Members are called representatives senators

Number of members 435 100

Number of members per state determined by state population 2

Length of term 2 years 6 years

Number of terms no limit no limit

Age requirement at least 25 at least 30

Citizen requirement at least 7 years as a U.S. citizen at least 9 years as a U.S. citizen

Dates of regular session January 3 to adjournment January 3 to adjournment

Organization many rules; more formal few rules; less formal

Debates can’t go longer than an hour are unlimited

Policy tax and revenue policy foreign policy

Constitutional powers initiates all revenue bills and provides advice and consent to
articles of impeachment the treaties and major
presidential appointments while
trying impeached officials

Structure consists of more committees consists of fewer committees

and subcommittees; it is also and subcommittees. It is less
more hierarchical organized, hierarchically organized, with
with power distributed less power distributed evenly among
evenly among the members the members

132 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

C. Making a Law
For a law to be made it must go through a bunch of steps called the Legislative Process. The first step
is for someone to write a bill. Anyone can write a bill, but only a member of Congress can present it
to the Congress.
Next the bill goes to a committee that is an expert on the subject of the bill. Here the bill may be
rejected, accepted, or changed. The bill may go to a number of committees. Experts are often brought
in to witness and give their opinions on the pros and cons of a bill. Once the bill is ready and the
committee agrees, it goes before the entire Congress.
Both the House and the Senate will have their own debates about the bill. Members will speak for or
against the bill and then the Congress will vote. A bill must get a majority of the votes from both the
Senate and the House of Representatives to pass.
The next step is for the President to sign the bill. The president can sign the bill into law or choose to
veto the bill. Once the president veto's a bill, congress can then try to override the veto by getting two
thirds of the vote from both the House and the Senate.

Unit 6: The Federal Government 133

134 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)
 Module 6C. The Executive Branch
A. The President
The leader of the executive branch is the One of the jobs of the president is to enforce and
president of the United States. The president implement the laws set in place by Congress. To
holds all the power for this branch of the do this there are federal agencies and
government and the other members report to the departments that work for the president. The
president. Other parts of the executive branch president appoints the heads or leaders of these
include the vice president, the Executive Office agencies. Some of these people are also on the
of the President, and the Cabinet. president's Cabinet.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, Flag of the Executive Office of the President
1942) is an American politician who is the 46th and
current president of the United States Other responsibilities of the president include
diplomacy with other nations, including signing
The president is seen as the leader of the US treaties, and the power to grant pardons to
Government and is both the head of state and criminals of federal crimes.
the Commander-in-Chief of the US armed
forces.

The Cabinet of the President

To further balance power and to keep too much

power from any one person, any person is
Kamala Devi Harris (born October 20, 1964) is an
American politician and attorney who is the 49th and limited to two four-year terms of being
current vice president of the United States president. The president and the First Family
live in the White House in Washington DC.
One of the main powers of the president is the
power to sign legislation from Congress into
law or to veto it. A veto means that, even though
congress voted for the law, the president does
not agree. The legislation can still become a law
if two-thirds of both the houses of Congress
vote to overturn the veto. This is all part of the
balance of powers put into place by the
Constitution.

Unit 6: The Federal Government 135

B. Requirement to Become President
The Constitution states three requirements for a
person to become president:
1. At least 35 years old.
2. A natural born US Citizen.
3. Live in the United States for at least 14
years.

C. Vise President
The qualifications for Vice President are the
same as the qualifications for President.

The main job of the vice president is to be ready

to take over for the president if something
should happen to the president. If the President
dies, these officials take over the position in this
order: the Vice President, the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, the President pro
tempore of the Senate, the Secretary of State,
the other twelve members of the Cabinet. Line of presidential succession

Other jobs include breaking a tie in voting in the Senate and advising the president.

D. Executive Office of the President

To help with the many duties of the president, The EOP includes the National Security
the Executive Office of the President (also Council, which helps to advise the president on
called the EOP for short) was created in 1939 issues such as national security and intelligence.
by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The White Another part of the EOP is the White House
House Staff heads up the EOP and has many of Communications and Press Secretary. The
the president's closest advisors. Some of the Press Secretary gives briefings on what the
EOP positions, like the Office of Management president is doing to the press, or media, so that
and Budget, are approved by the Senate, other the people of the US can stay informed.
positions are just hired by the president.

The EOP includes the National Security

Council, which helps to advise the president on
issues such as national security and intelligence.
Another part of the EOP is the White House
Communications and Press Secretary. The
Press Secretary gives briefings on what the
president is doing to the press, or media, so that
the people of the US can stay informed.

136 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

E. Cabinet
It is the responsibility of the executive branch of the federal government to enforce the U.S.
Constitution and federal laws. The President is the Chief Executive and head of the government. The
Vice President, the fourteen Cabinet members (usually called Secretaries) and their Departments, and
the federal agencies are also part of the executive branch.
The Cabinet is an important and powerful part of the executive branch. It is made up of the heads of
15 different departments. They all must be approved by the Senate.
The President chooses the members of his Cabinet (the heads of the departments), and the Senate
approves his choices.

F. Agencies
Many federal agencies provide special services and may be temporary. Some well-known agencies
are the Civil Rights Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the United States Postal
Service, and the Veterans Administration (VA).

Civil Rights Commission Environmental Protection Agency Federal Trade Commission

National Aeronautics and Space United States Postal Service Veterans Administration (VA)
Administration

Unit 6: The Federal Government 137

G. The Electoral College
What is the Electoral College? Number of electors each state gets
The United States Electoral College is the group Each state gets an elector for each member of
of presidential electors required by the Congress from that state. That is one for each
Constitution to form every four years for the member from the state in the House of
sole purpose of appointing the president and Representatives (which is based on the
vice president. population of the state) and two more for the
state's two senators.

The Electoral is the process that elects the president

of the United States

U.S. citizens don’t directly elect the president For example, California gets 55 electors, North
Carolina 15, and Wyoming 3
U.S. citizens do not vote on federal laws
because the U.S. system of government is a
representative democracy, but they do choose How states choose their electors
the President and Vice President of the United Each state has its own rules on how electors are
States. However, the system of electing these chosen. Usually, the political party of the
officials is an indirect one. presidential candidate who won the state
chooses the electors.

Pretty much anyone who can vote can be an elector

When people vote for president they are really
voting for an elector from their state The only people prevented from being electors
are certain political leaders like Senators and
When voters choose candidates on election day,
Representatives. Most electors are people who
they are actually voting for presidential
have been loyal and dedicated members of their
“electors”.
political party for a long time.
Each state has a certain number of electors.
The certain way electors have to vote depends
These electors then vote for president.
on the state. In some states there are laws
The numbers of electors in each state is equal to requiring that electors vote the same as the
the number of senators and representatives from people who voted for them. Most of the time
that state in Congress. Because states with large electors vote as expected, but in rare cases they
populations have more representatives than have changed their vote and voted for a
states with fewer people, they have more power different candidate than the people who voted
in an election. for them.

138 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

All or Nothing Pros and Cons of the Electoral College
The Electoral College is based on a Today, many people think that the Electoral
“winner­take­all” system. The winner of the College should be abolished and that the total
majority of votes in each state gets all of that popular vote should determine the president.
state’s electoral votes. Here are some of the arguments for and against
For example, the candidate with over fifty the Electoral College:
percent of the popular (total) vote in California For:
gets all of that state’s electoral votes, even if he
or she won with only a small majority. • The current process protects state's rights.
The United States is a republic of states and
each state should be able to apportion its
electorates as it sees fit.
• The Electoral College keeps high
population states and regions from deciding
the presidency.
• Without the Electoral College, a huge
popular margin in one state (like California
or Texas) could decide the entire election.
The U.S. 2020 election results Against:
• It is possible that the winner may not
In most states all the electors are awarded to one receive the most popular votes. This has
president. Even if one candidate won by a single happened four times.
popular vote, they would get all the electoral
votes. • Some votes count more than others. In 2012
there were less than 200,000 people per
So it is possible that one popular vote in electoral vote in Wyoming, but more than
California could make the difference of 55 700,000 people per electoral vote in Texas.
electoral votes. There are two states, Maine and
Nebraska, that split up the electors between the • It causes the elections to focus on swing
candidates. states such as Florida and Ohio.

Interesting Facts about the Electoral College

• There are 538 total electors.
• The District of Columbia has 3 electors.
• A total of 270 electoral votes is needed to
win the presidential election.
• The electoral votes are officially counted in
a joint session of Congress.

United States presidential election of 2020

Because of the Electoral College system,

occasionally the candidate with the majority of
the popular vote loses the presidential election.
This is unusual, however.
In December the electors meet in their state
capitals to cast their votes and send them to the
U.S. Senate. On January 6 the members of
Congress meet to count the votes.

Unit 6: The Federal Government 139

140 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)
 Module 6D. The Judicial Branch
A. Judicial branch of the federal government
The Judicial Branch of the government is made
up of judges and courts. Federal judges are not
elected by the people. They are appointed by the
president and then confirmed by the Senate.

Federal judges are appointed for life

The job of the courts is to interpret the laws of

the Congress. They do not make laws. They also
only make decisions on actual cases where
United States Supreme Court Building
someone has shown that they have been
There is a hierarchy of federal courts in the harmed.
United States. At lowest level are 94 U.S.
District Courts which cover different regions of
The Supreme Court
the country and handle most federal cases.
Above the District Courts are the 13 Courts of The highest court in the United States is the
Appeals. At the top of the Judicial Branch is the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has the
final say.

The Constitution doesn't say how many

Supreme Court Justices there should be. There
have been as few as 6 justices in the past, but
since 1869 there have been 9 justices.
The President nominates all the Supreme Court
members and the Senate confirms them. They
hold their offices for life.

The United States Federal Courts The Supreme Court doesn't have a lot of trials.
What they mostly do is review cases that have
Federal judges are appointed for life. They can been appealed from the lower courts.
only be removed from office by death or by Not all cases that are sent to the Supreme Court
impeachment from Congress. This is to allow are reviewed. Around 7,500 requests are sent to
judges to make decisions based on their the Supreme Court each year and they only
conscience and not on what they feel they need consider around 150 important enough to
to do to get elected. review.

Unit 6: The Federal Government 141

B. Supreme Court Decisions
Supreme Court decisions are very important to the nation because they set precedents. They serve as
a guide in law making and the future decisions of all courts. Here are some examples.

Year & Case Decision

1803 The Supreme Court has the right to interpret

laws and judge their constitutionality
Marbury v. Madison

1824 Only Congress can regulate interstate

commerce (trade between states).
Gibbons v. Ogden

1832 No state may control Indian Lands.

Worcester v. Georgia

1841 It is unconstitutional for states to control or

stop migration (movement) of people from
“Poor Migrants”
one state to another.

1954 Segregated schools are unconstitutional

because they are unequal. Integration (the
Brown v. the Board of
bringing together of different races) is a part
Education of Topeka,
of education.
Kansas

1963 Even in small cases, the government must

provide a lawyer to a defendant (person on
Gideon v. Wainwright
trial) if he or she can’t afford one.

1964 The police must tell an arrested person about

his or her right to remain silent and to have an
Escobedo v. Illinois
attorney (lawyer) present when he or she
answers questions.
1966
Miranda v. Arizona

1971 Unequal treatment based on sex violates

(goes against) the Fourteenth Amendment.
“Women’s Rights”

142 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)

 1973 States cannot make abortion illegal, except in
the later stages of pregnancy.
Roe v. Wade

1981 Congress may draft (take for military service)

only men (not women) into the armed forces.
Rotsker v. Goldberg

1982 Plyler v. Doe Illegal (undocumented) aliens are persons

under the Constitution and have the same
protections under the law as citizens and
residents.

1987 The U.S. government can give asylum

(protection) to refugees if they have reason to
INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca
fear death or mistreatment in their native
countries. Refugees no longer have to prove
that their lives are in danger.

2022 Abortion is not under the U.S. Constitution,

according to the current Supreme Court. In
Dobbs v. Jackson
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health
Women’s Health
Organization (2022), the Supreme Court
Organization
overturned Roe v. Wade (1973), which
guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion.

C. The Judicial Process

The Constitution states that every person has Once arrested for a crime, the accused will get
the right to a fair trial before a competent judge to appear before a judge to be charged with the
and a jury of their peers. The Bill of Rights adds crime and to enter a plea of guilty or not-guilty.
to this guaranteeing other rights such as a Next the accused is given a lawyer, if they can't
speedy trial, the right to legal representation, the afford their own, and is given time to review the
right not to be tried for the same crime twice, evidence and build up their defense. Then the
and protection from cruel punishments. case is tried before a judge and a jury. If the jury
determines that the defendant is not-guilty, then
charges are dropped and the accused goes free.
If the jury has a guilty verdict, then the judge
determines the sentence.
If one side feels that the trial wasn't handled
correctly or fairly, they can appeal to a higher
court. The higher court may overturn the
decision or keep it the same. The highest court
is the Supreme Court. There is no appealing a
Supreme Court decision.

Unit 6: The Federal Government 143

144 American Culture (synthesized by Khanh C. Ly)