Free Seven Events That Made America America by Larry Schweikart

SENTINEL
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    First published in 2010 by Sentinel,
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Copyright © Larry Schweikart, 2010 All rights reserved
     
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
     
    Schweikart, Larry.
Seven events that made America America : and proved that the founding fathers were right all along /
Larry Schweikart.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
    eISBN : 978-1-101-43302-7
    1. United States—History—Miscellanea. 2. National characteristics, American—Miscellanea. I. Title.
E179.S353 2010
973—dc22
2010003098
     
     

     
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INTRODUCTION

    Y ou don’t have to be an American history expert to identify certain critical events in our past that shaped our country. Pearl Harbor, the D-Day invasion, 9/11, the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy, the Great Depression, important court decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education —these are just a few of the milestones in our nation’s history that likely spring to most people’s memory. On the other hand, not all important changes in our past have unfolded in a single day, but rather were the results of profound unresolved issues (slavery and the Civil War), a slow change in culture (the status of women in the twentieth century), or the response to long-standing international tensions (the Cold War). No one can point to a particular “where were you?” moment with such transformations, as they reflected slow, but important, incremental changes.
    The most difficult—and interesting—parts of history to understand are those that spark deep and significant changes but are not necessarily obvious. That is the purpose of this book—to explore and explain some of these forgotten or unheralded moments in an effort to show the profound way in which they influence our history. Yet there is a second purpose in this book, namely, to examine the seven events I have chosen in light of the Founders’ vision for America. How would George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and other Founders have interpreted these events? Did the event confirm the vision of the Founders or constitute a departure from their hopes? In short, would the Founders have approved or disapproved of the actions that followed from the event