‘Instructor’s name’
The American century
‘The American Century’, was a term coined by Henry Luce, the publisher of the Times magazine, to denote the twentieth century, which he thought would see America dominating the world in political, cultural, and economical aspects. His words uttered in the year 1941 proved to be prophetic, as the past century indeed belonged to America. This essay is an attempt to explore some of the key events and personalities that were a part of this dynamic era, and, in a way, defined the American society of the nineteenth century.
Each decade of the past century had its own personality, which was shaped by the events and the people who lent character to it. In 1891, the Sioux were defeated in the battle of Wounded Knee and the Indian Wars were officially over. A century after the United Sates was born the country had put to rest all the internal conflicts and truly extended its geography from the coast to coast of the continent. Oil resources were being tapped in areas such as Illinois and Texas, and Andrew Carnegie started the world’s biggest steel factory in 1888, and by the 1900s America was the leading global steel producer.
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, and Henry Ford revolutionized the transportation industry, and there were notable inventors like Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison, who helped America become an economical and technological giant of its time. At the dawn of the nineteenth century, America was in the grip of the industrial revolution, which was economically beneficial, but posed many cultural and social challenges. The hordes of immigrants, who thronged the American shores with the hope for better lives, were seen by some faction as an unhealthy trend, and feared that the bonds linking communities in America will be severely strained.
However, need for labor to cater to the industrial growth overcame this fear, and the immigrants and cultural assimilation became cornerstones of the American society in the years that followed. The rural agrarian landscape gave way to the new industrialized towns, and there was optimism everywhere at the beginning of the century. Hence, the industrial revolution is one of the crucial events that propelled America towards glory and power.
The two World Wars profoundly altered the power dynamics of the global political scenario, and by the end of the Second World War, America was one of the two superpowers of the globe. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United Sates led the country during two most difficult events of the past century – The great depression and WWII. He was elected an unprecedented four times to the office, and is one of the most influential personalities of the twentieth century. Suffering from a bout of polio, he overcame his physical ailment, and helped rally the entire nation behind the government during the economic and military crisis faced by the nation, during the 1930s and 1940s. His fourth presidency was cut short due to his death in 1945, but his policies significantly impacted the lives of American people for decades afterward.
No discussion of American history, particularly of the twentieth century, is complete without mentioning the civil rights movement. When America was fighting on the WWII war fronts against States which oppressed its people, in its own backyard Blacks were segregated and considered unequal in the South. They were given separate bus seats, medical facilities, schools, housing and other such amenities. The South was in the grip of Jim Crow laws, and the Blacks were economically and socially oppressed.
Though many leaders and organizations, like the NAACP, were fighting for the cause of the Blacks, the catalyst for the civil rights movement proved to be the refusal of Rosa Parks in 1955, to give her seat to a White person. A decade long agitations and upheavals followed, and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. launched a prolonged protest campaign, which resulted in segregation becoming unconstitutional in the country and the civil rights act being passed. Though Armstrong landed in the moon in 1969, and the Beatles, who would take the entire country by storm, emerged in 1964, this decade will forever be remembered for the social progress made by America rather than its scientific and cultural achievements.
Cold war ended in the 1980s with the fall of the Soviet Union, and the US remained as the sole superpower. The 1990s saw the US winning the Gulf war comprehensively and once more asserting its military superiority. Thus, in every which way the twentieth century was ‘America’s century’, during which the country dominated the global scenario in more ways than one.
