The United States of America is a federal constitutional
republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country
is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight
contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie
between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the
north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest
of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west
across the Bering Strait, and the state of Hawaii is in the mid-Pacific.
The United States also possesses several territories, or insular
areas, that are scattered around the Caribbean and Pacific.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over
300 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest
country by total area, and third largest by land area and by population.
The United States is one of the world's most ethnically diverse
nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[7]
The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with
a nominal 2006 gross domestic product (GDP) of more than US$13 trillion
(over 19% share of the world total based on purchasing-power-parity
(PPP)).[4]
The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain located
along the Atlantic seaboard. Proclaiming themselves "states,"
they issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The
rebellious states defeated Britain in the American Revolutionary
War, the first successful colonial war of independence.[8] A federal
convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September
17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part
of a single republic. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional
amendments, was ratified in 1791.
In the nineteenth century, the United States acquired land from
France, Spain, Mexico, and Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas
and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South
and industrial North over states' rights and the expansion of the
institution of slavery provoked the American Civil War of the 1860s.
The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and
led to the end of slavery in the United States. The Spanish-American
War and World War I confirmed the nation's status as a military
power. In 1945, the United States emerged from World War II as the
first country with nuclear weapons, a permanent member of the United
Nations Security Council, and a founding member of NATO. The United
States emerged from the Cold War to become the only superpower in
the post-Cold War era and a dominant economic, political, and cultural
force in the world.[9]
Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Geography
3 Environment
4 History
4.1 Native Americans and European settlers
4.2 Independence and expansion
4.3 Civil War and industrialization
4.4 World War I, Great Depression, and World War II
4.5 Superpower
5 Government and politics
5.1 Parties and elections
6 States
7 Foreign relations and military
8 Economy
8.1 Income, human development, and social class
8.2 Science and technology
8.3 Transportation
9 Demographics
9.1 Language
9.2 Religion
9.3 Education
9.4 Health
9.5 Crime and punishment
10 Culture
10.1 Popular media
10.2 Literature, philosophy, and the arts
10.3 Food
10.4 Sports
11 See also
12 References
13 External links
Etymology
The term America, for the lands of the western hemisphere, was coined
in the early sixteenth century after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian
explorer and cartographer. The full name of the country was first
used officially in the Declaration of Independence, which was the
"unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America"
adopted by the "Representatives of the united States of America"
on July 4, 1776.[10] The current name was finalized on November
15, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles
of Confederation, the first of which states, "The Stile of
this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America.'"
Common abbreviations of the United States of America include the
United States, the U.S., and the U.S.A. Colloquial names for the
country include America and the States. Columbia, a once popular
name for the Americas and the United States, was derived from Christopher
Columbus. It appears in the name District of Columbia. A female
personification of Columbia appears on some official documents,
including certain prints of U.S. currency.
The standard way to refer to a citizen of the United States is
as an American. Though United States is the formal adjective, American
and U.S. are the most common adjectives used to refer to the country
("American values," "U.S. forces"). American
is rarely used in English to refer to people not connected to the
United States.[11]
The phrase "the United States" was originally treated
as plural, e.g. "the United States are", including in
the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of 1865. However, it
was commonly treated as singular by the turn of the twentieth century,
e.g. "the United States is". Remnants of the plural usage
remain in the set idiom "these United States".[12]
Geography
Main articles: Geography of the United States and Territorial evolution
of the United States
Topographic map of the contiguous United States
Climate zones of the contiguous United StatesThe United States is
situated almost entirely in the western hemisphere: the contiguous
United States stretches from the Pacific on the west to the Atlantic
on the east, with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast, and bordered
by Canada on the north and Mexico on the south. Alaska is the largest
state in area; separated from the contiguous U.S. by Canada, it
touches the Pacific on the south and Arctic Ocean on the north.
Hawaii occupies an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest
of North America. The United States is the world's third or fourth
largest nation by total area, before or after China, depending on
how two territories disputed by China and India are counted; including
only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia
and China, just ahead of Canada.[13] The United States also possesses
several insular territories scattered around the West Indies (e.g.,
the commonwealth of Puerto Rico) and the Pacific (e.g., Guam).
The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland
to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The
Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great
Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi-Missouri
River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north-south
through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie land
of the Great Plains stretches to the west. The Rocky Mountains,
at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across
the continental United States, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000
feet (4,300 m) in Colorado.[14] The area to the west of the Rockies
is dominated by deserts such as the Mojave and the rocky Great Basin.
The Sierra Nevada range runs parallel to the Rockies, relatively
close to the Pacific coast. At 20,320 feet (6,194 m), Alaska's Mount
McKinley is the country's tallest peak. Active volcanoes are common
throughout the Alexander and Aleutian Islands and the entire state
of Hawaii is built upon tropical volcanic islands. The supervolcano
underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's
largest volcanic feature.[15]
Because of the United States' large size and wide range of geographic
features, nearly every type of climate is represented. The climate
is temperate in most areas, tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida,
polar in Alaska, semiarid in the Great Plains west of the 100th
meridian, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California,
and arid in the Great Basin. Extreme weather is not uncommon—the
states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and
most of the world's tornadoes occur within the continental United
States, primarily in the Midwest.[16]
Environment
The bald eagle has been the national bird of the United States since
1782Main article: Environment of the United States
U.S. plant life is very diverse; the country has more than 17,000
identified native species of flora.[17] More than 400 mammal, 700
bird, 500 reptile and amphibian, and 90,000 insect species have
been documented.[18] The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects
threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are
monitored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The U.S. has fifty-eight national parks and hundreds of other federally
managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas.[19] Altogether, the
U.S. government regulates 28.8% of the country's total land area.[20]
Most such public land comprises protected parks and forestland,
though some federal land is leased for oil and gas drilling,[21]
mining, or cattle ranching.
The energy policy of the United States is widely debated; many
call on the country to take a leading role in fighting global warming.[22]
The United States is currently the second largest emitter, after
China, of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.[23]
History
Main article: History of the United States
Native Americans and European settlers
Main articles: Native Americans in the United States, European colonization
of the Americas, and Thirteen Colonies
The indigenous peoples of the U.S. mainland, including Alaska, migrated
from Asia. They began arriving at least 12,000 and as many as 40,000
years ago.[24] Several indigenous communities in the pre-Columbian
era developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level
societies. European explorer Christopher Columbus arrived at Puerto
Rico on November 19, 1493, making first contact with the Native
Americans. In the years that followed, the majority of the Native
American population was killed by epidemics of Eurasian diseases.[25]
The Mayflower transported Pilgrims to the New World in 1620, as
depicted in William Halsall's The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,
1882Spaniards established the earliest European colonies on the
mainland, in the area they named Florida; of these, only St. Augustine,
founded in 1565, remains. Later Spanish settlements in the present-day
southwestern United States drew thousands through Mexico. French
fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great
Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior
as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English
settlements were the Virginia Colony in Jamestown in 1607 and the
Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts
Bay Colony resulted in a wave of migration; by 1634, New England
had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s
and the revolution, an estimated 50,000 convicts were shipped to
England's, and later Great Britain's, American colonies.[26] Beginning
in 1614, the Dutch established settlements along the lower Hudson
River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. The small settlement
of New Sweden, founded along the Delaware River in 1638, was taken
over by the Dutch in 1655.
In the French and Indian War, the colonial extension of the Seven
Years' War, British forces seized Canada from the French, but the
francophone population remained politically isolated from the southern
colonies. By 1674, British forces had won the former Dutch colonies
in the Anglo-Dutch Wars; the province of New Netherland was renamed
New York. With the 1729 division of the Carolinas and the 1732 colonization
of Georgia, the thirteen British colonies that would become the
United States of America were established. All had active local
and colonial governments with elections open to most free men, with
a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense
of self government that stimulated support for republicanism. All
had legalized the African slave trade. With high birth rates, low
death rates, and steady immigration, the colonies doubled in population
every twenty-five years. The Christian revivalist movement of the
1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in
both religion and religious liberty. By 1770, the colonies had an
increasingly Anglicized population of three million, approximately
half that of Britain itself. Though subject to British taxation,
they were given no representation in the Parliament of Great Britain.
Independence and expansion
Main articles: American Revolution, American Revolutionary War,
and Manifest Destiny
Declaration of Independence, by John Trumbull, 1817–18Tensions
between American colonials and the British during the revolutionary
period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary
War, fought from 1775 through 1781. On June 14, 1775, the Continental
Congress, convening in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army
under the command of George Washington. Proclaiming that "all
men are created equal" and endowed with "certain unalienable
Rights," the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence,
drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4, 1776. In 1777, the
Articles of Confederation were adopted, uniting the states under
a weak federal government that operated until 1788. Some 70,000–80,000
loyalists to the British Crown fled the rebellious states, many
to Nova Scotia and the new British holdings in Canada.[27] Native
Americans, with divided allegiances, fought on both sides of the
war's western front.
U.S. growth by date of statehood and ratification of the ConstitutionAfter
the defeat of the British army by American forces, who were assisted
by the French, Great Britain recognized the sovereignty of the thirteen
states in 1783. A constitutional convention was organized in 1787
by those who wished to establish a strong national government with
power over the states. By June 1788, nine states had ratified the
United States Constitution, sufficient to establish the new government;
the republic's first Senate, House of Representatives, and president,
George Washington, took office in 1789. New York City was the federal
capital for a year, before the government relocated to Philadelphia.
In 1791, the states ratified the Bill of Rights, ten amendments
to the Constitution forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms
and guaranteeing a range of legal protections. Attitudes toward
slavery were shifting; a clause in the Constitution protected the
African slave trade only until 1808. The Northern states abolished
slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South
as defenders of the "peculiar institution." In 1800, the
federal government moved to the newly founded Washington, D.C. The
Second Great Awakening made evangelicalism a force behind various
social reform movements.
Territorial acquisitions by dateAmericans' eagerness to expand westward
began a cycle of Indian Wars that stretched to the end of the nineteenth
century, as Native Americans were stripped of their land. The Louisiana
Purchase of French-claimed territory under President Thomas Jefferson
in 1803 virtually doubled the nation's size. The War of 1812, declared
against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened
American nationalism. A series of U.S. military incursions into
Florida led Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819.
The country annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845. The concept of
Manifest Destiny was popularized during this time.[28] The 1846
Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day
American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the Mexican-American War
resulted in the 1848 cession of California and much of the present-day
American Southwest. The California Gold Rush of 1848–1849
further spurred western migration. New railways made relocation
much less arduous for settlers and increased conflicts with Native
Americans. Over a half-century, up to 40 million American bison,
commonly called buffalo, were slaughtered for skins and meat and
to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the bison, a primary economic
resource for the plains Indians, was an existential blow to many
native cultures.
Civil War and industrialization
Main articles: American Civil War, Reconstruction, and Spanish-American
War
Battle of Gettysburg, lithograph by Currier & Ives, ca. 1863Tensions
between slave and free states mounted with increasing disagreements
over the relationship between the state and federal governments
and violent conflicts over the expansion of slavery into new states.
Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the largely antislavery Republican
Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven
slave states declared their secession from the United States, forming
the Confederate States of America. The federal government maintained
secession was illegal, and with the Confederate attack upon Fort
Sumter, the American Civil War began and four more slave states
joined the Confederacy. The Union freed Confederate slaves as its
army advanced through the South. Following the Union victory in
1865, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution ensured freedom
for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves,[29]
made them citizens, and gave them voting rights. The war and its
resolution led to a substantial increase in federal power.[30]
Immigrants landing at Ellis Island, New York, 1902After the war,
the assassination of President Lincoln radicalized Republican Reconstruction
policies aimed at reintegrating and rebuilding the Southern states
while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves. The resolution
of the disputed 1876 presidential election by the Compromise of
1877 ended Reconstruction; Jim Crow laws soon disenfranchised many
African Americans. In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented
influx of immigrants hastened the country's industrialization. The
wave of immigration, which lasted until 1929, provided labor for
U.S. businesses and transformed American culture. High tariff protections,
national infrastructure building, and new banking regulations encouraged
industrial growth. The 1867 Alaska purchase from Russia completed
the country's mainland expansion. The Wounded Knee massacre in 1890
was the last major armed conflict of the Indian Wars. In 1893, the
indigenous monarchy of the Pacific Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown
in a coup led by American residents; the archipelago was annexed
by the United States in 1898. Victory in the Spanish-American War
that same year demonstrated that the United States was a major world
power and resulted in the annexation of Puerto Rico and the Philippines.[31]
The Philippines gained independence a half-century later; Puerto
Rico remains a commonwealth of the United States.
World War I, Great Depression, and World War II
Main articles: American Expeditionary Force, Great Depression, and
Military history of the United States during World War II
An abandoned farm in South Dakota during the Dust Bowl, 1936At the
outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States remained neutral.
Americans sympathized with the British and French, although many
citizens, mostly Irish and German, opposed intervention.[32] In
1917, the United States joined the Allies, turning the tide against
the Central Powers. Reluctant to be involved in European affairs,
the Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which established
the League of Nations. The country pursued a policy of unilateralism,
verging on isolationism.[33] In 1920, the women's rights movement
won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage.
In part due to the service of many in the war, Native Americans
gained U.S. citizenship in the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
During most of the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a period of
unbalanced prosperity as farm profits fell while industrial profits
grew. A rise in debt and an inflated stock market culminated in
the 1929 crash that triggered the Great Depression. After his election
as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New
Deal, a range of policies increasing government intervention in
the economy. The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming
communities and spurred a new wave of western migration. The nation
would not fully recover from the economic depression until the industrial
mobilization spurred by its entrance into World War II. The United
States, effectively neutral during the war's early stages after
the Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939, began supplying materiel
to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program.
On December 7, 1941, the United States joined the Allies against
the Axis powers after a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan.
World War II cost far more money than any other war in American
history,[34] but it boosted the economy by providing capital investment
and jobs, while bringing many women into the labor market. Among
the major combatants, the United States was the only nation to become
richer—indeed, far richer—instead of poorer due to the
war.[35] Allied conferences at Bretton Woods and Yalta outlined
a new system of international organizations that placed the United
States and Soviet Union at the center of world affairs. As victory
was achieved in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in
San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became
active after the war.[36] The United States, having developed the
first nuclear weapons, used them on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in August. Japan surrendered on September 2, ending
the war.[37]
Superpower
Main articles: Cold War, African-American Civil Rights Movement
(1955-1968), and War on Terrorism
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivering his "I Have a Dream"
speech, 1963The United States and Soviet Union jockeyed for power
after World War II during the Cold War, dominating the military
affairs of Europe through NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The United States
promoted liberal democracy and capitalism, while the Soviet Union
promoted communism and a centrally planned economy. The Soviet Union
supported dictatorships, as did the United States, and both engaged
in proxy wars. United States troops fought Communist Chinese forces
in the Korean War of 1950–53. The House Un-American Activities
Committee pursued a series of investigations into suspected leftist
subversion, while Senator Joseph McCarthy became the figurehead
of anticommunist sentiment.
The Soviet Union launched the first manned spacecraft in 1961,
prompting U.S. efforts to raise proficiency in mathematics and science
and President John F. Kennedy's call for the country to be first
to land "a man on the moon," achieved in 1969.[38] Kennedy
also faced a tense nuclear showdown with Soviet forces in Cuba.
Meanwhile, America experienced sustained economic expansion. A growing
civil rights movement headed by prominent African Americans, such
as Martin Luther King, Jr., fought segregation and discrimination,
leading to the abolition of Jim Crow laws. Following Kennedy's assassination
in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed under President
Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, expanded
a proxy war in Southeast Asia into the unsuccessful Vietnam War.
President Ronald Reagan (1981–89) challenges Soviet general
secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, 1987As
a result of the Watergate scandal, in 1974 Nixon became the first
U.S. president to resign, rather than be impeached on charges including
obstruction of justice and abuse of power; he was succeeded by Gerald
Ford. During the Jimmy Carter administration in the late 1970s,
the U.S. economy experienced stagflation. The election of Ronald
Reagan as president in 1980 marked a significant rightward shift
in American politics, reflected in major changes in taxation and
spending priorities.[39] In the late 1980s and 1990s, the Soviet
Union's power diminished, leading to its collapse. The leadership
role taken by the United States and its allies in the United Nations–sanctioned
Gulf War, under President George H. W. Bush, and later the Yugoslav
wars helped to preserve its position as the world's last remaining
superpower. The longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history—from
March 1991 to March 2001—encompassed the administration of
President Bill Clinton.[40] In 1998, Clinton was impeached by the
House on charges relating to a civil lawsuit and a sexual scandal,
but was acquitted by the Senate and remained in office.
The controversial presidential election of 2000 was resolved by
a Supreme Court decision that effectively awarded the presidency
to Texas governor George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush. On September
11, 2001, terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City
and The Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly three thousand
people. In the aftermath, President Bush launched the War on Terrorism
under a military philosophy stressing preemptive war now known as
the Bush Doctrine. In late 2001, U.S. forces led a NATO invasion
of Afghanistan, removing the Taliban government and al-Qaeda terrorist
training camps. Taliban insurgents continue to fight a guerrilla
war against the NATO-led force. In 2002, the Bush administration
began to press for regime change in Iraq on controversial grounds.
Lacking the support of NATO or an explicit United Nations mandate
for military intervention as was obtained for the first Gulf War,
Bush formed a Coalition of the Willing and the U.S. invaded Iraq
in 2003, removing President Saddam Hussein from power. Although
facing both external[41] and internal[42] pressure to withdraw,
the United States maintains its military presence in Iraq. The United
States has been criticized for its alleged use of torture and other
violations of human rights in its pursuit of the War on Terrorism.[43]
Government and politics
Main articles: Federal government of the United States, Politics
of the United States, and Political ideologies in the United States
The west front of the United States Capitol, which houses the United
States CongressThe United States is the world's oldest surviving
federation. It is a constitutional republic, "in which majority
rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law."[44]
It is fundamentally structured as a representative democracy, though
U.S. citizens residing in the territories are excluded from voting
for federal officials.[45] The government is regulated by a system
of checks and balances defined by the United States Constitution,
which serves as the country's supreme legal document and as a social
contract for the people of the United States. In the American federalist
system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government,
federal, state, and local; the local government's duties are commonly
split between county and municipal governments. In almost all cases,
executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote
of citizens by district. There is no proportional representation
at the federal level, and it is very rare at lower levels. Federal
and state judicial and cabinet officials are typically nominated
by the executive branch and approved by the legislature, although
some state judges and officials are elected by popular vote.
The north side of the White House, home and work place of the U.S.
presidentThe federal government is composed of three branches:
Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and
the House of Representatives makes federal law, declares war, approves
treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the rarely used power
of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.
Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military,
can veto legislative bills before they become law, and appoints
the Cabinet and other officers, who administer and enforce federal
laws and policies.
Judiciary: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges
are appointed by the president with Senate approval, interpret laws
and can overturn laws they deem unconstitutional.
The House of Representatives has 435 members, each representing
a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned
among the fifty states by population every tenth year. As of the
2000 census, seven states have the minimum of one representative,
while California, the most populous state, has fifty-three. Each
state has two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one
third of Senate seats are up for election every second year. The
president serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office
no more than twice. The president is not elected by direct vote,
but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining
votes are apportioned by state. The Supreme Court, led by the Chief
Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life.
The front of the United States Supreme Court buildingAll laws and
procedures of both state and federal governments are subject to
review, and any law ruled in violation of the Constitution by the
judicial branch is overturned. The original text of the Constitution
establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government,
the relationship between it and the individual states, and essential
matters of military and economic authority. Article One protects
the right to the "great writ" of habeas corpus, and Article
Three guarantees the right to a jury trial in all criminal cases.
Amendments to the Constitution require the approval of three-fourths
of the states. The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times;
the first ten amendments, which make up the Bill of Rights, and
the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of individual rights
in the United States.
Parties and elections
Main article: Elections in the United States
Politics in the United States have operated under a two-party system
for virtually all of the country's history. For elective offices
at all levels, state-administered primary elections are held to
choose the major party nominees for subsequent general elections.
Since the general election of 1856, the two dominant parties have
been the Democratic Party, founded in 1824 (though its roots trace
back to 1792), and the Republican Party, founded in 1854. Since
the Civil War, only one third-party presidential candidate—former
president Theodore Roosevelt, running as a Progressive in 1912—has
won as much as 20% of the popular vote.
The current Republican president, George W. Bush, is the 43rd president
in the country's history. All presidents to date have been white
and male though if the Democrats win the next presidential election
in November 2008, either a Black male, Barack Obama, or a woman,
Hillary Clinton, will become president. Following the 2006 midterm
elections, the Democratic Party controls both the House and the
Senate. Every member of the Senate and the House is a Democrat or
a Republican except two independent members of the Senate —
one a former Democratic incumbent, the other is a self-described
socialist.
An overwhelming majority of those elected at state and local level
are also either Democrats or Republicans.
Within American political culture, the Republican Party is considered
"center-right" or conservative and the Democratic Party
is considered "center-left" or liberal, but members of
both parties have a wide range of views. In a January 2008 poll,
39% of Americans described themselves as "conservative,"
33% as "moderate," and 20% as "liberal."[46]
On the other hand, a plurality of adults, 35.9%, identify as Democrats,
32.9% as independents, and 31.3% as Republicans.[47] The states
of the Northeast, Great Lakes, and West Coast are relatively liberal-leaning—they
are known in political parlance as "blue states." The
"red states" of the South and the Rocky Mountains lean
conservative.
States
Main article: U.S. state
The United States is a federal union of fifty states. The original
thirteen states were the successors of the thirteen colonies that
rebelled against British rule. Most of the rest have been carved
from territory obtained through war or purchase by the U.S. government.
The exceptions are Vermont, Texas, and Hawaii; each was an independent
republic before joining the union. Early in the country's history,
three states were created out of the territory of existing ones:
Kentucky from Virginia; Tennessee from North Carolina; and Maine
from Massachusetts. West Virginia broke away from Virginia during
the American Civil War. The most recent state—Hawaii—achieved
statehood on August 21, 1959. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that
the states do not have the right to secede from the union.
The states comprise the vast bulk of the U.S. land mass; the only
other areas considered integral parts of the country are the District
of Columbia, the federal district where the capital, Washington,
is located; and Palmyra Atoll, an uninhabited but incorporated territory
in the Pacific Ocean. The United States possesses five major territories
with indigenous populations: Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin
Islands in the Caribbean; and American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern
Mariana Islands in the Pacific. Those born in the territories possess
U.S. citizenship.
Foreign relations and military
Main articles: Foreign relations of the United States and Military
of the United States
President George W. Bush (right) with UK prime minister Gordon BrownThe
United States has vast economic, political, and military influence
on a global scale, which makes its foreign policy a subject of great
interest around the world. Almost all countries have embassies in
Washington, D.C., and many host consulates around the country. Likewise,
nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Cuba,
Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, and Sudan do not have formal diplomatic
relations with the United States.[48]
American isolationists have often been at odds with internationalists,
as anti-imperialists have been with promoters of Manifest Destiny
and American Empire. American imperialism in the Philippines drew
sharp rebukes from Mark Twain, philosopher William James, and many
others. Later, President Woodrow Wilson played a key role in creating
the League of Nations, but the Senate prohibited American membership
in it. Isolationism became a thing of the past when the United States
took a lead role in founding the United Nations, becoming a permanent
member of the Security Council and host to the United Nations Headquarters.
The United States enjoys a special relationship with the United
Kingdom and strong ties with Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel,
and fellow NATO members. It also works closely with its neighbors
through the Organization of American States and free trade agreements
such as the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement with
Canada and Mexico. In 2005, the United States spent $27.3 billion
on official development assistance, the most in the world; however,
as a share of gross national income (GNI) , the U.S. contribution
of 0.22% ranked twentieth of twenty-two donor states. On the other
hand, nongovernmental sources such as private foundations, corporations,
and educational and religious institutions donated $95.5 billion.
The total of $122.8 billion is again the most in the world and seventh
in terms of GNI percentage.[49]
The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrierThe president holds the title
of commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces and appoints
its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces,
including the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Air Force.
The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of
Homeland Security in peacetime and the Department of the Navy in
times of war. In 2005, the military had 1.38 million personnel on
active duty,[50] along with several hundred thousand each in the
Reserves and the National Guard for a total of 2.3 million troops.
The Department of Defense also employs approximately 700,000 civilians,
disregarding contractors. Military service is voluntary, though
conscription may occur in wartime through the Selective Service
System. The rapid deployment of American forces is facilitated by
the Air Force's large fleet of transportation aircraft and aerial
refueling tankers, the Navy's fleet of eleven active aircraft carriers,
and Marine Expeditionary Units at sea in the Navy's Atlantic and
Pacific fleets. Outside of the American homeland, the U.S. military
is deployed to 770 bases and facilities, on every continent except
Antarctica.[51] Due to the extent of its global military presence,
scholars describe the United States as maintaining an "empire
of bases."[52]
U.S. military spending in 2006, over $528 billion, was 46% of the
entire military spending in the world and greater than the next
fourteen largest national military expenditures combined. (In purchasing
power parity terms, it was larger than the next six such expenditures
combined.) The per capita spending of $1,756 was approximately ten
times the world average.[53] At 4.06% of GDP, U.S. military spending
ranked 27th out of 172 nations.[54] The official Department of Defense
budget in 2006, $419.3 billion, was a 5% increase over 2005.[55]
The estimated total cost to the United States of the war in Iraq
through 2016 is $2.267 trillion.[56] As of February 4, 2008, the
United States had suffered 3,945 military fatalities during the
war and over 28,800 wounded.[57]
Economy
Main article: Economy of the United States
Economy of the United States
National economic indicators
Unemployment 4.9% January 2008[58]
GDP growth 2.9% 2005–2006[4]
CPI inflation 4.1% December 2006–December 2007[59]
National debt $9.211 trillion February 1, 2008[60]
Poverty 12.3% or 13.3% 2006[5][61]
Monetary value
Exchange rate (per €) 1.4832 February 4, 2008[62]
Exchange rate (per £) 1.9777 February 4, 2008[62]
Exchange rate (per ¥) .0094 February 4, 2008[62]
The United States has a capitalist mixed economy, which is fueled
by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure,
and high productivity. According to the International Monetary Fund,
the United States GDP of more than $13 trillion constitutes over
19% of the gross world product.[4] The largest national GDP in the
world, it was slightly less than the combined GDP of the European
Union at purchasing power parity in 2006.[63] The country ranks
eighth in the world in nominal GDP per capita and fourth in GDP
per capita at purchasing power parity.[4] The United States is the
largest importer of goods and second largest exporter. Canada, China,
Mexico, Japan, and Germany are its top trading partners.[64] The
leading export commodity is electrical machinery, while vehicles
constitute the leading import.[65] The national debt is the world's
largest; in 2005, it was 23% of the global total.[66] As a percentage
of GDP, U.S. debt ranked thirtieth out of 120 countries for which
data is available.[67]
The private sector constitutes the bulk of the economy, with government
activity accounting for 12.4% of the GDP.[68] The economy is postindustrial,
with the service sector contributing over 75% of GDP. The leading
business field by gross business receipts is wholesale and retail
trade; by net income it is finance and insurance.[69] The United
States remains an industrial power, with chemical products the leading
manufacturing field.[70] The United States is the third largest
producer of oil in the world, and its largest consumer.[71] It is
the world's number one producer of electrical and nuclear energy,
as well as liquid natural gas, aluminum, sulfur, phosphates, and
salt. Agriculture accounts for only 1% of GDP but 60% of the world's
agricultural production.[72] The country's leading cash crop is
marijuana, despite federal laws making its cultivation and sale
illegal.[73] Coca-Cola and McDonald's are the two most recognized
brands in the world.[74]
Wall Street is home to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)Three quarters
of U.S. business firms have no payroll, but they account for only
a small fraction of business receipts. Firms with payrolls of 500
or more employ 49.1% of all paid workers; in 2002, they accounted
for 59.1% of business receipts.[75] The United States ranks third
in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index.[76] Compared to
Europe, U.S. property and corporate income taxes are generally higher,
while labor and, particularly, consumption taxes are lower.[77]
The New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest by dollar volume;
the exchange's parent company, NYSE Euronext, represents over $29
trillion in total market capitalization of listed securities.[78]
In 2005, 155 million persons were employed with earnings, of whom
80% worked in full-time jobs.[79] The majority, 79%, were employed
in the service sector.[1] With approximately 15.5 million people,
health care and social assistance is the leading field of employment.[80]
About 12% of American workers are unionized, compared to 30% in
Western Europe.[81] The U.S. ranks number one in the ease of hiring
and firing workers, according to the World Bank.[76] Americans tend
to work considerably more hours annually than workers in other developed
nations, taking fewer and shorter vacations. Between 1973 and 2003,
a year's work for the average American grew by 199 hours.[82] Partly
as a result, the United States maintains the highest labor productivity
in the world. However, it no longer leads the world in productivity
per hour as it did from the 1950s through the early 1990s; workers
in Norway, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg are now more productive
per hour.[83] Spending on the social safety net is relatively low:
the United States redistributes between 8 and 9% of GDP through
social protection programs, slightly under the Japanese rate and
less than half the estimated 19% of the European Union.[84]
Income, human development, and social class
Main articles: Income in the United States, Income inequality in
the United States, Poverty in the United States, Affluence in the
United States, and Social class in the United States
Income and wealth in the United States
Income and earnings (2005)
(change from 2004 in constant dollars) [85]
Median income $46,326 per household (+1.1%)
Per capita income (mean) $25,036 per capita (+1.5%) [86]
Median earnings (age 15+)
(working full-time, year-round) $41,386 per male (-1.8%)
$31,858 per female (-1.3%)
Median earnings (age 25+) $39,336 per worker (FT, YR) [87]
$32,140 per worker (all workers) [88]
Income distribution (2005)
(change from 1967 in constant dollars) [5][88]
Top 5% $100,000 per individual
$166,000 per household (+76.4%)
Top 20% $52,500 per individual
$91,705 per household (+56.4%)
Bottom 20% $12,500 per individual
$19,178 per household (+29.1%)
Gini index (2006) 47.0 (1967: 39.7)
Median net wealth (2004)
(change from 1995 in constant dollars) [89]
Overall $93,100 per household (+31%)
Top income quartile $422,400 per household (+97%)
Second income quartile $124,500 per household (+71%)
Third income quartile $44,740 per household (0%)
Bottom income quartile $9,960 per household (+5%)
According to the Census Bureau, the pretax median household income
in 2006 was $48,201.[5] The two-year average ranged from $66,752
in New Jersey to $34,343 in Mississippi.[90] Using purchasing power
parity exchange rates, these income levels are similar to those
found in other postindustrial nations. Depending on the method of
analysis, 12.3% or 13.3% of Americans were below the federally designated
poverty line.[5][61] The number of poor Americans, 36.5 million,
was actually 3.5 million more than in 2001, the bottom year of the
most recent U.S. recession.[5][91] The United States was ranked
eighth in the world in the UNDP's 2006 Human Development Report.[92]
A 2007 UNICEF study of children's well-being in twenty-one industrialized
nations, covering a broad range of factors, ranked the U.S. next
to last.[93]
Between 1967 and 2006, median household income rose 30.8% in constant
dollars, largely due to the growing number of dual-earner households.[5]
Though the standard of living has improved for nearly all classes
since the late 1970s,[94] income inequality has grown substantially.[95][96]
The share of income received by the top 1% has risen considerably
while the share of income of the bottom 90% has fallen, with the
gap between the two groups being roughly as large in 2005 as in
1928.[97] According to the standard Gini index, income inequality
in the United States is higher than in any European nation.[98]
Some economists, such as Alan Greenspan, see rising income inequality
as a cause for concern.[99]
While American social classes lack defined boundaries,[96] sociologists
point to social class as a crucial societal variable. Occupation,
educational attainment, and income are used as the main indicators
of socioeconomic status.[100] Dennis Gilbert of Hamilton College
has proposed a system, adapted by other sociologists,[101] with
six social classes: an upper, or capitalist, class consisting of
the wealthy and powerful (1%), an upper middle class consisting
of highly educated professionals (15%), a middle class consisting
of semiprofessionals and craftsmen (33%), a working class consisting
of clerical and blue-collar workers who conduct highly routinized
tasks (33%), and two lower classes—the working poor (13%)
and a largely unemployed underclass (12%).[96] Where it was once
common for middle-class households to employ domestic servants,
many domestic tasks are now outsourced to the service industry.[102]
Wealth is highly concentrated: The richest 10% of the adult population
possesses 69.8% of the country's household wealth, the second-highest
share of any democratic developed nation.[103] The top 1% possesses
33.4% of net wealth, including more than half of the total value
in publicly traded stocks.[104] Though the American Dream, or the
perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, played a key
role in attracting immigrants to the United States, particularly
in the late 1800s,[105] some analysts find that the United States
has relatively low social mobility compared to Western Europe and
Canada.[106]
Science and technology
Main articles: Science and technology in the United States and Technological
and industrial history of the United States
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin during the first human landing on the Moon,
1969The United States has been a leader in scientific research and
technological innovation since the late nineteenth century. In 1876,
Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the
telephone. The laboratory of Thomas Edison developed the phonograph,
the first long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable movie camera.
In the early twentieth century, the automobile companies of Ransom
E. Olds and Henry Ford pioneered assembly line manufacturing. The
Wright brothers, in 1903, made what is recognized as the "first
sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight."[107]
The rise of Nazism in the 1930s led many important European scientists,
including Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, to immigrate to the
United States. During World War II, the U.S.-based Manhattan Project
developed nuclear weapons, ushering in the Atomic Age. The Space
Race produced rapid advances in rocketry, materials science, computers,
and many other areas. The United States largely developed the ARPANET
and its successor, the Internet. Today, the bulk of research and
development funding, 64%, comes from the private sector.[108] The
United States leads the world in scientific research papers and
impact factor.[109] Americans enjoy high levels of access to technological
consumer goods.[110] Almost half of U.S. households have broadband
Internet service.[111] The country is the primary developer and
grower of genetically modified food; more than half of the world's
land planted with biotech crops is in the United States.[112]
Transportation
Main article: Transportation in the United States
Interstate 80, the second-longest U.S. Interstate highway, runs
from California to New JerseyAs of 2003, there were 759 automobiles
per 1,000 Americans, compared to 472 per 1,000 inhabitants of the
European Union the following year.[113] Approximately 39% of personal
vehicles are vans, SUVs, or light trucks.[114] The average American
adult (accounting for all drivers and nondrivers) spends 55 minutes
behind the wheel every day, driving 29 miles (47 km).[115] The U.S.
intercity passenger rail system is relatively weak.[116] Only 9%
of total U.S. work trips employ mass transit, compared to 38.8%
in Europe.[117] Bicycle usage is minimal, well below European levels.[118]
The civil airline industry is entirely privatized, while most major
airports are publicly owned. The five largest airlines in the world
by passengers carried are all American; American Airlines is number
one.[119] Of the world's thirty busiest passenger airports, sixteen
are in the United States, including the busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta International Airport (ATL).[120]
Demographics
Main articles: Demographics of the United States and Immigration
to the United States
Largest ancestry groups by county, 2000On October 17, 2006, the
United States population was estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau
to be 300,000,000.[121] The U.S. population included an estimated
12 million unauthorized migrants,[122] of whom an estimated 1 million
were uncounted by the Census Bureau.[123] The overall growth rate
is 0.89%,[1] compared to 0.16% in the European Union.[124] The birth
rate of 14.16 per 1,000 is 30% below the world average, while higher
than any European country except for Albania and Ireland.[125] In
2006, 1.27 million immigrants were granted legal residence. Mexico
has been the leading source of new U.S. residents for over two decades;
since 1998, China, India, and the Philippines have been in the top
four sending countries every year.[126] The United States is the
only industrialized nation in which large population increases are
projected.[127]
The United States has a very diverse population—thirty-one
ancestry groups have more than a million members.[128] Whites are
the largest racial group, with German Americans, Irish Americans,
and English Americans constituting three of the country's four largest
ancestry groups.[128] African Americans, mostly descendants of former
slaves, constitute the nation's largest racial minority and third
largest ancestry group.[129][128] Asian Americans are the country's
second largest racial minority; the two largest Asian American ancestry
groups are Chinese and Filipino.[128] In 2005, the U.S. population
included an estimated 4.5 million people with some Native American
or Alaskan native ancestry (2.4 million exclusively of such ancestry)
and nearly 1 million with some native Hawaiian or Pacific island
ancestry (0.4 million exclusively).[129][130]
Race/Ethnicity (2005) [129]
White 73.9%
African American 12.4%
Asian 4.4%
Native American and Alaskan Native 0.8%
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander 0.1%
Other/multiracial 8.3%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 14.8%
Hispanic American population growth is a major demographic trend.
The approximately 44 million Americans of Hispanic descent constitute
the largest ethnic minority in the country. About 64% of Hispanic
Americans are of Mexican descent.[131] Between 2000 and 2004, the
country's Hispanic population increased 14% while the non-Hispanic
population rose just 2%.[132] Much of this growth is due to immigration:
As of 2004, 12% of the U.S. population was foreign-born, over half
that number from Latin America.[133] Fertility is also a factor:
The average Hispanic woman gives birth to three children in her
lifetime. The comparable fertility rate is 2.2 for non-Hispanic
black women and 1.8 for non-Hispanic white women (below the replacement
rate of 2.1).[127] Hispanics accounted for nearly half of the national
population growth of 2.9 million between July 2005 and July 2006.[134]
It is estimated on the basis of current trends that by 2050 whites
of non-Hispanic origin will be 50.1% of the U.S. population, compared
to 69.4% in 2000.[135] They are currently less than half the population
in four "majority-minority states"—California,[136]
New Mexico,[137] Hawaii,[138] and Texas[139]—as well as the
District of Columbia.[140]
About 83% of the population lives in one of the country's 363 metropolitan
areas.[141] In 2005, 254 incorporated places in the United States
had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than 1 million
residents, and four global cities had over 2 million (New York City,
Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston).[142] The United States has fifty
metropolitan areas with populations greater than 1 million.[143]
Of the fifty fastest-growing metro areas, twenty-three are in the
West and twenty-five in the South. Among the country's twenty most
populous metro areas, those of Dallas (the fourth largest), Houston
(sixth), and Atlanta (ninth) saw the largest numerical gains between
2000 and 2006, while that of Phoenix (thirteenth) grew the largest
in percentage terms.[141]
New York CityFive most populous incorporated places in the United
States (2006) [142][143]
Rank City Population
within
city limits Metropolitan
Area Region[144]
population rank
1 New York City 8,214,426 18,818,536 1 Northeast
2 Los Angeles 3,849,378 12,950,129 2 West
3 Chicago 2,833,321 9,505,748 3 Midwest
4 Houston 2,144,491 5,539,949 6 South
5 Phoenix 1,512,986 4,039,182 13 West
Language
Main articles: Languages of the United States and Language Spoken
at Home (U.S. Census)
Languages (2003) [145]
English (only) 214.8 million
Spanish, incl. Creole 29.7 million
Chinese 2.2 million
French, incl. Creole 1.9 million
Tagalog 1.3 million
Vietnamese 1.1 million
German 1.1 million
Although the United States has no official language at the federal
level, English is the national language.
In 2003, about 215 million, or 82% of the population aged five
years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by
over 10% of the population at home, is the second most common language
and the most widely taught foreign language.[145][146] Immigrants
seeking naturalization must know English. Some Americans advocate
making English the country's official language, as it is in at least
twenty-eight states.[147] Both Hawaiian and English are official
languages in Hawaii by state law.[148] Several insular territories
also grant official recognition to their native languages, along
with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by Samoa and Guam,
respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern
Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico.
While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing
for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English
and French.[149] Other states, such as California, mandate the publication
of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court
forms.[150]
Religion
Main articles: Religion in the United States, History of religion
in the United States, Freedom of religion in the United States,
Separation of church and state in the United States, and List of
religious movements that began in the United States
A church in the largely Protestant Bible BeltThe United States government
does not audit Americans' religious beliefs.[151] In a private survey
conducted in 2001, 76.5% of American adults identified themselves
as Christian, down from 86.4% in 1990. Protestant denominations
accounted for 52%, while Roman Catholics, at 24.5%, were the largest
individual denomination.[152] A different study describes white
evangelicals, 26.3% of the population, as the country's largest
religious cohort;[153] evangelicals of all races are estimated at
30–35%.[154] The total reporting non-Christian religions in
2001 was 3.7%, up from 3.3% in 1990. The leading non-Christian faiths
were Judaism (1.4%), Islam (0.5%), Buddhism (0.5%), Hinduism (0.4%),
and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%). Between 1990 and 2001, the number
of Muslims and Buddhists more than doubled. From 8.2% in 1990, 14.1%
in 2001 described themselves as agnostic, atheist, or simply having
no religion,[152] still significantly less than in other postindustrial
countries such as Britain (2005:44%) and Sweden (2001:69%, 2005:85%).[155]
Education
Main articles: Education in the United States and Educational attainment
in the United States
The University of Virginia, designed by Thomas Jefferson, is one
of 19 American UNESCO World Heritage SitesAmerican public education
is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United
States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants.
Children are obliged in most states to attend school from the age
of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they
turn eighteen (generally bringing them through 12th grade, the end
of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen
or seventeen.[156] About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial
or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled.[157]
The United States has many competitive private and public institutions
of higher education, as well as local community colleges of varying
quality with open admission policies. Of Americans twenty-five and
older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended some college,
27.2% earned a bachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees.[158]
The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%.[1][159] The United
Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying
it for twelfth-best in the world.[160]
Health
Main article: Health care in the United States
The American life expectancy of 77.8 years at birth[161] is a year
shorter than the overall figure in Western Europe, and three to
four years lower than that of Norway and Switzerland.[162] Over
the past two decades, the country's rank in life expectancy has
dropped from 11th to 42nd place in the world.[163] The infant mortality
rate of 6.37 per thousand likewise places the United States 42nd
out of 221 countries, behind all of Western Europe.[164] Approximately
one-third of the adult population is obese and an additional third
is overweight;[165] the obesity rate, the highest in the industrialized
world, has more than doubled in the last quarter-century.[166] Obesity-related
type 2 diabetes is considered epidemic by healthcare professionals.[167]
The U.S. adolescent pregnancy rate, 79.8 per 1,000 women, is nearly
four times that of France and five times that of Germany.[168] Abortion
in the United States, legal on demand, is a source of great political
controversy. Many states ban public funding of the procedure and
have laws to restrict late-term abortions, require parental notification
for minors, and mandate a waiting period prior to treatment. While
the incidence of abortion is in decline, the U.S. abortion ratio
of 241 per 1,000 live births and abortion rate of 15 per 1,000 women
aged 15–44 remain higher than those of most Western nations.[169]
The United States healthcare system far outspends any other nation's,
measured in both per capita spending and percentage of GDP.[170]
Unlike most developed countries, the U.S. healthcare system is not
fully socialized, instead relying on a mix of public and private
funding. In 2004, private insurance paid for 36% of personal health
expenditure, private out-of-pocket payments covered 15%, and federal,
state, and local governments paid for 44%.[171] Medical bills are
the most common reason for personal bankruptcy in the United States.[172]
In 2005, 46.6 million Americans, or 15.9% of the population, were
uninsured, 5.4 million more than in 2001. The primary cause of the
decline in coverage is the drop in the number of Americans with
employer-sponsored health insurance, which fell from 62.6% in 2001
to 59.5% in 2005.[91] Approximately one third of the uninsured lived
in households with annual incomes greater than $50,000, with half
of those having an income over $75,000.[85] Another third were eligible
but not registered for public health insurance.[173] In 2006, Massachusetts
became the first state to mandate health insurance;[174] California
is considering similar legislation.[175]
Crime and punishment
Main articles: Policing in the United States, Law of the United
States, Crime in the United States, Prisons in the United States,
and Capital punishment in the United States
Homicide rates in selected countries, 2004 (2000 for Russia)Law
enforcement in the United States is primarily the responsibility
of local police and sheriff's departments, with state police providing
broader services. Federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Marshals Service have specialized
duties. At the federal level and in almost every state, jurisprudence
operates on a common law system. State courts conduct most criminal
trials; federal courts handle certain designated crimes as well
as appeals from state systems.
Among developed nations, the United States has above-average levels
of violent crime and particularly high levels of gun violence and
homicide.[176] In 2005, there were 5.6 murders per 100,000 persons,
compared to 1.0 in Germany[177] and 1.9 in Canada.[178] The U.S.
homicide rate, which decreased by 36% between 1986 and 2000, has
been roughly steady since.[179] Some scholars have associated the
high rate of homicide with the country's high rates of gun ownership,
in turn associated with U.S. gun laws which are very permissive
compared to those of other developed countries.[180]
The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate[181]
and total prison population[182] in the world and by far the highest
figures among democratic, developed nations: in 2006, 750 out of
every 100,000 Americans were jailed during the year, more than three
times the figure in Poland, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) country with the next highest rate.[183]
The current U.S. rate is almost five-and-a-half times the 1980 figure
of 139 per 100,000.[184] African American males are jailed at over
six times the rate of white males and three times the rate of Hispanic
males.[181] The country's extraordinary rate of incarceration is
largely due to changes in sentencing and drug policies.[181][185]
Though it has been abolished in most Western nations, capital punishment
is sanctioned in the United States for certain federal and military
crimes, and in thirty-seven states. Since the reinstatement of the
death penalty in 1976, there have been over 1,000 executions in
the United States.[186] In 2006, the country had the sixth highest
number of executions in the world, following China, Iran, Pakistan,
Iraq, and Sudan.[187]
Culture
Main article: Culture of the United States
The United States is a culturally diverse nation, home to a wide
variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values.[7][100] The culture
held in common by the majority of Americans is referred to as "mainstream
American culture," a Western culture largely derived from the
traditions of Western European migrants, beginning with the early
English and Dutch settlers. German, Irish, and Scottish cultures
have also been very influential.[7] Certain Native American traditions
and many cultural characteristics of enslaved West Africans were
absorbed into the American mainstream.[188] Westward expansion brought
close contact with the culture of Mexico, and large-scale immigration
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from Southern
and Eastern Europe introduced many new cultural elements. More recent
immigration from Asia and especially Latin America has had broad
impact. The resulting mix of cultures may be characterized as a
homogeneous melting pot or as a pluralistic salad bowl in which
immigrants and their descendants retain distinctive cultural characteristics.[7]
While American culture maintains that the United States is a classless
society,[189] economists and sociologists have identified cultural
differences between the country's social classes, affecting socialization,
language, and values.[190] The American middle and professional
class has been the source of many contemporary social trends such
as feminism, environmentalism, and multiculturalism.[191] Americans'
self-images, social viewpoints, and cultural expectations are associated
with their occupations to an unusually close degree.[192] While
Americans tend to greatly value socioeconomic achievement, being
ordinary or average is generally seen as a positive attribute.[193]
Women, formerly limited to domestic roles, now mostly work outside
the home and receive a majority of bachelor's degrees.[194] The
changing role of women has also changed the American family. In
2005, no household arrangement defined more than 30% of households;
married childless couples were most common, at 28%.[101] The extension
of marital rights to homosexual persons is an issue of debate, with
more liberal states permitting civil unions and the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court having ruled that state's ban on same-sex
marriage unconstitutional in 2003.[195] However, 44 states still
protect the traditional 'man-woman' idea of marriage either by statute
or state constitution (for further information see Same-sex marriage
in the United States).[196]
Popular media
Main articles: Cinema of the United States, Television in the United
States, and Music of the United States
The famous Hollywood signIn 1878, Eadweard Muybridge demonstrated
the power of photography to capture motion. In 1894, the world's
first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York
City, using Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope. The next year saw the first
commercial screening of a projected film, also in New York, and
the United States was in the forefront of sound film's development
in the following decades. Since the early twentieth century, the
U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood,
California. Director D. W. Griffith was central to the development
of film grammar and Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) is frequently
cited in critics' polls as the greatest film of all time.[197] American
screen actors like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe have become iconic
figures, while producer/entrepreneur Walt Disney was a leader in
both animated film and movie merchandising. The major film studios
of Hollywood are the primary source of the most commercially successful
movies in the world, such as Star Wars (1977) and Titanic (1997),
and the products of Hollywood today dominate the global film industry.[198]
Americans are the heaviest television viewers in the world,[199]
and the average time spent in front of the screen continues to rise,
hitting five hours a day in 2006.[200] The four major broadcast
networks are all commercial entities. Americans listen to radio
programming, also largely commercialized, on average just over two-and-a-half
hours a day.[201] Aside from web portals and web search engines,
the most popular websites are eBay, MySpace, Amazon.com, The New
York Times, and Apple.[202] Twelve million Americans keep a blog.[203]
The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African American music have
deeply influenced American music at large, distinguishing it from
European traditions. Elements from folk idioms such as the blues
and what is now known as old-time music were adopted and transformed
into popular genres with global audiences. Jazz was developed by
innovators such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington early in the
twentieth century. Country music, rhythm and blues, and rock and
roll emerged between the 1920s and 1950s. In the 1960s, Bob Dylan
emerged from the folk revival to become one of America's greatest
songwriters and James Brown led the development of funk. More recent
American creations include disco and hip hop. American pop stars
such as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Madonna have become
global celebrities.
Literature, philosophy, and the arts
Main articles: American literature, Visual arts of the United States,
Theater in the United States, and American classical music
Mount Rushmore, a massive sculpture of four prominent American presidentsIn
the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, American art and
literature took most of its cues from Europe. Writers such as Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established
a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the nineteenth
century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in
the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during
her lifetime, would be recognized as America's other essential poet.
Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most
recently Toni Morrison in 1993. Ernest Hemingway, the 1954 Nobel
laureate, is often named as one of the most influential writers
of the twentieth century.[204] A work seen as capturing fundamental
aspects of the national experience and character—such as Herman
Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn (1885), and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925)—may
be dubbed the "Great American Novel." Popular literary
genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fiction developed
in the United States.
The transcendentalists, led by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thoreau,
established the first major American philosophical movement. After
the Civil War, Charles Peirce and then William James and John Dewey
were leaders in the development of pragmatism. In the twentieth
century, the work of W.V.O. Quine and Richard Rorty helped bring
analytic philosophy to the fore in U.S. academic circles.
In the visual arts, the Hudson River School was an important mid-nineteenth-century
movement in the tradition of European naturalism. The 1913 Armory
Show in New York City, an exhibition of European modernist art,
shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene.[205] Georgia
O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with new styles,
displaying a highly individualistic sensibility. Major artistic
movements such as the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock
and Willem de Kooning and the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein
have developed largely in the United States. The tide of modernism
and then postmodernism has also brought American architects such
as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry to the top
of their field.
One of the first notable promoters of the nascent American theater
was impresario P. T. Barnum, who began operating a lower Manhattan
entertainment complex in 1841. The team of Harrigan and Hart produced
a series of popular musical comedies in New York starting in the
late 1870s. In the twentieth century, the modern musical form emerged
on Broadway; the songs of musical theater composers such as Irving
Berlin, Cole Porter, and Stephen Sondheim have become pop standards.
Playwright Eugene O'Neill won the Nobel literature prize in 1936;
other acclaimed U.S. dramatists include multiple Pulitzer Prize
winners Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and August Wilson.
Though largely overlooked at the time, Charles Ives's work of the
1910s established him as the first major U.S. composer in the classical
tradition; other experimentalists such as Henry Cowell and John
Cage created an identifiably American approach to classical composition.
Aaron Copland and George Gershwin developed a unique American synthesis
of popular and classical music. Choreographers Isadora Duncan and
Martha Graham were central figures in the creation of modern dance;
George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins were leaders in twentieth-century
ballet. The United States has long been at the fore in the relatively
modern artistic medium of photography, with major practitioners
such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Ansel Adams, and many
others. The newspaper comic strip and the comic book are both U.S.
innovations. Superman, the quintessential comic book superhero,
has become an American icon.
Food
Main article: Cuisine of the United States
American cultural icons: apple pie, baseball, and the American flagMainstream
American culinary arts are similar to those in other Western countries.
Wheat is the primary cereal grain. Traditional American cuisine
uses ingredients such as turkey, white-tailed deer venison, potatoes,
sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup, indigenous foods
employed by Native Americans and early European settlers. Slow-cooked
pork and beef barbecue, crab cakes, potato chips, and chocolate
chip cookies are distinctively American styles. Soul food, developed
by African slaves, is popular around the South and among many African
Americans elsewhere. Syncretic cuisines such as Louisiana creole,
Cajun, and Tex-Mex are regionally important. Characteristic dishes
such as apple pie, fried chicken, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs
derive from the recipes of various immigrants. French fries, Mexican
dishes such as burritos and tacos, and pasta dishes freely adapted
from Italian sources are widely consumed.[206] Americans generally
prefer coffee to tea. Marketing by U.S. industries is largely responsible
for making orange juice and milk ubiquitous breakfast beverages.[207]
During the 1980s and 1990s, Americans' caloric intake rose 24%;[206]
frequent dining at fast food outlets is associated with what health
officials call the American "obesity epidemic." Highly
sweetened soft drinks are widely popular; sugared beverages account
for 9% of the average American's daily caloric intake.[208]
Sports
Main article: Sports in the United States
The Pro Bowl (2006), American football's annual all-star gameSince
the late nineteenth century, baseball has been regarded as the national
sport; football, basketball, and ice hockey are the country's three
other leading professional team sports. College football and basketball
also attract large audiences. Football is now by several measures
the most popular spectator sport in the United States.[209] Boxing
and horse racing were once the most watched individual sports, but
they have been eclipsed by golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR.
Soccer, though not a leading professional sport in the country,
is played widely at the youth and amateur levels. Tennis and many
outdoor sports are also popular.
While most major U.S. sports have evolved out of European practices,
basketball, skateboarding, and snowboarding are American inventions.
Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian
activities that predate Western contact. Eight Olympic Games have
taken place in the United States. The United States has won 2,191
medals at the Summer Olympic Games, more than any other country,[210]
and 216 in the Winter Olympic Games, the second most.[211]
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