United States
Error: no context parameter provided. Use {{other uses}} for "other uses" hatnotes. (help).
United States of America | |
---|---|
Motto: "E pluribus unum" (Latin) (traditional de facto) "Out of many, one" | |
Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner" | |
![]() | |
![]() The United States and its territories | |
Capital | Washington, D.C. |
Largest city | New York City 40°43′N 74°00′W / 40.717°N 74.000°W |
Official languages | None at federal level[a] |
Recognised regional languages | |
National language | English[b] |
Demonym(s) | American |
Government | Federal presidential constitutional republic |
Barack Obama | |
Joe Biden | |
John Boehner | |
John Roberts | |
Legislature | Congress |
Senate | |
House of Representatives | |
Independence from Great Britain | |
• Declared | July 4, 1776 |
September 3, 1783 | |
June 21, 1788 | |
August 21, 1959 | |
Area | |
• Total | 9,629,091 km2 (3,717,813 sq mi) (3rd/4th) |
• Water (%) | 2.23 |
Population | |
• 2014 estimate | 336,868,000[4] (3rd) |
• Density | 34.2/km2 (88.6/sq mi) (180th) |
GDP (PPP) | 2014 estimate |
• Total | $17.528 trillion[5] (1st) |
• Per capita | $54,980[5] (6th) |
GDP (nominal) | 2014 estimate |
• Total | $17.528 trillion[5] (1st) |
• Per capita | $54,980[5] (9th) |
Gini (2012) | 36.9[6] medium inequality (39th (2009)) |
HDI (2013) | ![]() very high (5th) |
Currency | United States dollar ($) (USD) |
Time zone | UTC−5 to −10 |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−4 to −10[d] |
Drives on | right[e] |
Calling code | +1 |
ISO 3166 code | US |
Internet TLD | .us .gov .mil .edu |
|
The United States of America (USA or U.S.A.), commonly referred to as the United States (US or U.S.), America, and sometimes the States, is a federal republic[17][18] consisting of 50 states and a federal district. The 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., are in central North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is the northwestern part of North America and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also has five populated and nine unpopulated territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean. At 3.71 million square miles (9.62 million km2) and with around 318 million people, the United States is the world's 3rd or 4th-largest country by total area and third-largest by population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[19] The geography and climate of the United States is also extremely diverse, and it is home to a wide variety of wildlife.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Eurasia to what is now the U.S. mainland around 15,000 years ago,[20] with European colonization beginning in the 16th century. The United States emerged from 13 British colonies located along the Atlantic seaboard. Disputes between Great Britain and these colonies led to the American Revolution. On July 4, 1776, as the colonies were fighting Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, delegates from the 13 colonies unanimously issued the Declaration of Independence. The war ended in 1783 with the recognition of independence of the United States from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and was the first successful war of independence against a European colonial empire.[21][22] The current Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787. The first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and guarantee many fundamental civil rights and freedoms.
Driven by the doctrine of manifest destiny, the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century.[23] This involved displacing native tribes, acquiring new territories, and gradually admitting new states.[23] The American Civil War ended legal slavery in the country.[24] By the end of the 19th century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean,[25] and its economy began to soar.[26] The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country with nuclear weapons, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower.
The United States is a developed country and has the world's largest national economy, with an estimated GDP in 2013 of $16.8 trillion—23% of global nominal GDP and 19% at purchasing-power parity.[5][27] The economy is fueled by an abundance of natural resources and high worker productivity,[28] with per capita GDP being the world's sixth-highest in 2010.[5] While the U.S. economy is considered post-industrial, it continues to be one of the world's largest manufacturers.[29] The U.S. has the highest mean and 4th highest median household income in the OECD as well as the highest gross average wage,[30][31][32] though it has the 4th most unequal income distribution,[33][34] with roughly 14.5% of the population living in poverty as defined by the U.S. Census.[35] The country accounts for 37% of global military spending,[36] being the world's foremost economic and military power, a prominent political and cultural force, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovation.[37]
Etymology
In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere "America" after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci (Latin: Americus Vespucius).[38] The first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq., George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army. Addressed to Lt. Col. Joseph Reed, Moylan expressed his wish to carry the "full and ample powers of the United States of America" to Spain to assist in the revolutionary war effort.[39]
The first publicly published evidence of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymously written essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776.[40][41] In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson included the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence.[42][43] In the final Fourth of July version of the Declaration, the pertinent section of the title was changed to read, "The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America".[44] In 1777 the Articles of Confederation announced, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America'".[45]
The short form "United States" is also standard. Other common forms include the "U.S.", the "U.S.A.", and "America". Colloquial names include the "U.S. of A." and, internationally, the "States". "Columbia", a name popular in poetry and songs of the late 1700s,[46] derives its origin from Christopher Columbus; it appears in the name "District of Columbia". In non-English languages, the name is frequently the translation of either the "United States" or "United States of America", and colloquially as "America". In addition, an abbreviation (e.g. USA) is sometimes used.[47]
The phrase "United States" was originally treated as plural, a description of a collection of independent states—e.g., "the United States are"—including in the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1865. It became common to treat it as singular, a single unit—e.g., "the United States is"—after the end of the Civil War. The singular form is now standard; the plural form is retained in the idiom "these United States".[48] The difference has been described as more significant than one of usage, but reflecting the difference between a collection of states and a unit.[49]
The standard way to refer to a citizen of the United States is as an "American". "United States", "American" and "U.S." are used to refer to the country adjectivally ("American values", "U.S. forces"). "American" is rarely used in English to refer to subjects not connected with the United States.[50]
History
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Indians_giving_a_talk_to_Bouquet.jpg/220px-Indians_giving_a_talk_to_Bouquet.jpg)
Native American and European contact
The first North American settlers migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge approximately 15,000 or more years ago.[20][51][52] Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. After European explorers and traders made the first contacts, the native population declined due to various reasons, including diseases such as smallpox and measles,[53][54] intermarriage,[55] and violence.[56][57][58]
In the early days of colonization many settlers were subject to shortages of food, disease and attacks from Native Americans. Native Americans were also often at war with neighboring tribes and allied with Europeans in their colonial wars.[59] At the same time however many natives and settlers came to depend on each other. Settlers traded for food and animal pelts, natives for guns, ammunition and other European wares.[60] Natives taught many settlers where, when and how to cultivate corn, beans and squash in the frontier. European missionaries and others felt it was important to "civilize" the Indians and urged them to concentrate on farming and ranching without depending on hunting and gathering.[61][62]
Settlements
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/The_Mayflower_Compact_1620_cph.3g07155.jpg/260px-The_Mayflower_Compact_1620_cph.3g07155.jpg)
After Columbus' first voyage to the New World in 1492 other explorers and settlement followed into the Floridas and the American Southwest.[63][64] There were also some French attempts to colonize the east coast, and later more successful settlements along the Mississippi River. Successful English settlement on the eastern coast of North America began with the Virginia Colony in 1607 at Jamestown and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. Early experiments in communal living failed until the introduction of private farm holdings.[65] Many settlers were dissenting Christian groups who came seeking religious freedom. The continent's first elected legislative assembly, Virginia's House of Burgesses created in 1619, and the Mayflower Compact, signed by the Pilgrims before disembarking, established precedents for the pattern of representative self-government and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies.[66][67]
Most settlers in every colony were small farmers, but other industries developed. Cash crops included tobacco, rice and wheat. Extraction industries grew up in furs, fishing and lumber. Manufacturers produced rum and ships, and by the late colonial period Americans were producing one-seventh of the world's iron supply.[68] Cities eventually dotted the coast to support local economies and serve as trade hubs. English colonists were supplemented by waves of Scotch-Irish and other groups. As coastal land grew more expensive freed indentured servants pushed further west.[69] Slave cultivation of cash crops began with the Spanish in the 1500s, and was adopted by the English, but life expectancy was much higher in North America because of less disease and better food and treatment, so the numbers of slaves grew rapidly.[70][71][72] Colonial society was largely divided over the religious and moral implications of slavery and colonies passed acts for and against the practice.[73][74] But by the turn of the 18th century, African slaves were replacing indentured servants for cash crop labor, especially in southern regions.[75]
With the colonization of Georgia in 1732, the 13 colonies that would become the United States of America were established.[76] All had local governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self-government stimulating support for republicanism.[77] With extremely high birth rates, low death rates, and steady settlement, the colonial population grew rapidly. Relatively small Native American populations were eclipsed.[78] The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty.
In the French and Indian War, British forces seized Canada from the French, but the francophone population remained politically isolated from the southern colonies. Excluding the Native Americans, who were being conquered and displaced, those 13 colonies had a population of over 2.1 million in 1770, about one-third that of Britain. Despite continuing new arrivals, the rate of natural increase was such that by the 1770s only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas.[79] The colonies' distance from Britain had allowed the development of self-government, but their success motivated monarchs to periodically seek to reassert royal authority.
Independence and expansion
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Declaration_of_Independence_%281819%29%2C_by_John_Trumbull.jpg/220px-Declaration_of_Independence_%281819%29%2C_by_John_Trumbull.jpg)
The American Revolutionary War was the first successful colonial war of independence against a European power. Americans had developed an ideology of "republicanism" that held government rested on the will of the people as expressed in their local legislatures. They demanded their rights as Englishmen, “no taxation without representation”. The British insisted on administering the empire through Parliament, and the conflict escalated into war.[80] Following the passage of the Lee Resolution, on July 2, 1776, which was the actual vote for independence, the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, on July 4, which proclaimed, in a long preamble, that humanity is created equal in their unalienable rights and that those rights were not being protected by Great Britain, and finally declared, in the words of the resolution, that the 13 colonies were independent states and had no allegiance to the British crown in the United States. The latter date, July 4, 1776, is now celebrated annually as America's Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak government that operated until 1789.[81]
Britain recognized the independence of the United States following their defeat at Yorktown.[82] In the peace treaty of 1783, American sovereignty was recognized from the Atlantic coast west to the Mississippi River. Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing the United States Constitution, and it was ratified in state conventions in 1788. The federal government was reorganized into three branches, on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances, in 1789. George Washington, who had led the revolutionary army to victory, was the first president elected under the new constitution. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.[83]
Although the federal government criminalized the international slave trade in 1808, after 1820 cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, and along with it the slave population.[84][85][86] The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. In the North it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism;[87] in the South, Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations.[88]
Americans' eagerness to expand westward prompted a long series of Indian Wars.[89] The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed territory in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size.[90] The War of 1812, declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism.[91] A series of U.S. military incursions into Florida led Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819.[92] Expansion was aided by steam power, when steamboats began traveling along America's large water systems, which were connected by new canals, such as the Erie and the I&M; then, even faster railroads began their stretch across the nation's land.[93]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/U.S._Territorial_Acquisitions.png/220px-U.S._Territorial_Acquisitions.png)
From 1820 to 1850, Jacksonian democracy began a set of reforms which included wider male suffrage, and it led to the rise of the Second Party System of Democrats and Whigs as the dominant parties from 1828 to 1854. The Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that moved Indians into the west to their own reservations. The U.S. annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845 during a period of expansionist Manifest Destiny.[94] The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest.[95] Victory in the Mexican-American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest.[96]
The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 spurred western migration and the creation of additional western states.[97] After the American Civil War, new transcontinental railways made relocation easier for settlers, expanded internal trade and increased conflicts with Native Americans.[98] Over a half-century, the loss of the buffalo was an existential blow to many Plains Indians cultures.[99] In 1869, a new Peace Policy sought to protect Native-Americans from abuses, avoid further warfare, and secure their eventual U.S. citizenship.[100]
Civil War and Reconstruction Era
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Thure_de_Thulstrup_-_L._Prang_and_Co._-_Battle_of_Gettysburg_-_Restoration_by_Adam_Cuerden.jpg/220px-Thure_de_Thulstrup_-_L._Prang_and_Co._-_Battle_of_Gettysburg_-_Restoration_by_Adam_Cuerden.jpg)
From the beginning of the United States, inherent divisions over slavery between the North and the South in American society ultimately led to the American Civil War.[101] Initially, states entering the Union alternated between slave and free states, keeping a sectional balance in the Senate, while free states outstripped slave states in population and in the House of Representatives. But with additional western territory and more free-soil states, tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments over federalism and disposition of the territories, whether and how to expand or restrict slavery.[102]
Following the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, the first president from the largely anti-slavery Republican Party, conventions in thirteen states ultimately declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America, while the U.S. federal government maintained secession was illegal.[102] The ensuing war was at first for Union, then after 1863 as casualties mounted and Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, a second war aim became abolition of slavery. The war remains the deadliest military conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of approximately 618,000 soldiers as well as many civilians.[103]
Following the Union victory in 1865, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution prohibited slavery, made the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves[104] U.S. citizens, and promised them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a substantial increase in federal power[105] aimed at reintegrating and rebuilding the Southern states while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves.[106] But following the Reconstruction Era, throughout the South Jim Crow laws soon effectively disenfranchised most blacks and some poor whites. Over the subsequent decades, in both the north and south blacks and some whites faced systemic discrimination, including racial segregation and occasional vigilante violence, sparking national movements against these abuses.[106]
Industrialization
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Ellis_island_1902.jpg/220px-Ellis_island_1902.jpg)
In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe supplied a surplus of labor for the country's industrialization and transformed its culture.[107] National infrastructure including telegraph and transcontinental railroads spurred economic growth and greater settlement and development of the American Old West. The later invention of electric lights and telephones would also impact communication and urban life.[108] The end of the Indian Wars further expanded acreage under mechanical cultivation, increasing surpluses for international markets. Mainland expansion was completed by the Alaska Purchase from Russia in 1867. In 1898 the U.S. entered the world stage with important sugar production and strategic facilities acquired in Hawaii. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded by Spain in the same year, following the Spanish American War.
Rapid economic development at the end of the 19th century produced many prominent industrialists, and the U.S. economy became the world's largest. Dramatic changes were accompanied by social unrest and the rise of populist, socialist, and anarchist movements.[109] This period eventually ended with the beginning of the Progressive Era, which saw significant reforms in many societal areas, including women's suffrage, alcohol prohibition, regulation of consumer goods, greater antitrust measures to ensure competition and attention to worker conditions.
World War I, Great Depression, and World War II
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Approaching_Omaha.jpg/220px-Approaching_Omaha.jpg)
The United States remained neutral at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, though by 1917, it joined the Allies, helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. President Woodrow Wilson took a leading diplomatic role at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and advocated strongly for the U.S. to join the League of Nations. However, the Senate refused to approve this, and did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles that established the League of Nations.[110]
In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage.[111] The 1920s and 1930s saw the rise of radio for mass communication and the invention of early television.[112] The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, which included the establishment of the Social Security system.[113] The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration.
The United States was at first effectively neutral during World War II's early stages but began supplying material to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to join the Allies against the Axis powers.[114] Though the nation lost more than 400,000 soldiers,[115] it emerged relatively undamaged from the war with even greater economic and military influence.[116] 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 an Allied victory was won in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war.[117] The United States developed the first nuclear weapons and used them on Japan; the Japanese surrendered on September 2, ending World War II.[118]
Cold War and civil rights era
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/President_Ronald_Reagan_and_Soviet_General_Secretary_Mikhail_Gorbachev_at_the_first_Summit_in_Geneva%2C_Switzerland.jpg/220px-President_Ronald_Reagan_and_Soviet_General_Secretary_Mikhail_Gorbachev_at_the_first_Summit_in_Geneva%2C_Switzerland.jpg)
After World War II the United States and the Soviet Union jockeyed for power during what is known as the Cold War, driven by an ideological divide between capitalism and communism. They dominated the military affairs of Europe, with the U.S. and its NATO allies on one side and the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies on the other. The U.S. developed a policy of "containment" toward Soviet bloc expansion. While they engaged in proxy wars and developed powerful nuclear arsenals, the two countries avoided direct military conflict. The U.S. often opposed Third World left-wing movements that it viewed as Soviet-sponsored. American troops fought Communist Chinese and North Korean forces in the Korean War of 1950–53. The Soviet Union's 1957 launch of the first artificial satellite and its 1961 launch of the first manned spaceflight initiated a "Space Race" in which the United States became the first to land a man on the moon in 1969.[119] A proxy war was expanded in Southeast Asia with the Vietnam War.
At home, the U.S. experienced sustained economic expansion and a rapid growth of its population and middle class. Construction of an interstate highway system transformed the nation’s infrastructure over the following decades. Millions moved from farms and inner cities to large suburban housing developments.[120][121] A growing civil rights movement used nonviolence to confront segregation and discrimination, with Martin Luther King Jr. becoming a prominent leader and figurehead. A combination of court decisions and legislation, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, sought to end racial discrimination.[122][123][124] Meanwhile, a counterculture movement grew which was fueled by opposition to the Vietnam war, black nationalism, and the sexual revolution. The launch of a "War on Poverty" expanded entitlement and welfare spending.[125]
The 1970s and early 1980s saw the onset of stagflation. After his election in 1980, President Ronald Reagan responded to economic stagnation with free-market oriented reforms. Following the collapse of détente, he abandoned "containment" and initiated the more aggressive "rollback" strategy towards the USSR.[126][127][128][129][130] After a surge in female labor participation over the previous decade, by 1985 a majority of women age 16 and over were employed.[131] The late 1980s brought a "thaw" in relations with the USSR, and its collapse in 1991 finally ended the Cold War.[132][133][134][135]
Contemporary history
After the Cold War, the 1990s saw the longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history, ending in 2001.[136] Originating in U.S. defense networks, the Internet spread to international academic networks, and then to the public in the 1990s, greatly impacting the global economy, society, and culture.[137] On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly 3,000 people.[138] In response the United States launched the War on Terror, which includes the ongoing war in Afghanistan and the 2003–11 Iraq War.[139][140] Barack Obama, the first African-American president, was elected in 2008 amid the Great Recession.[141]
Geography, climate, and environment
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/USA-satellite.jpg/220px-USA-satellite.jpg)
The land area of the contiguous United States is 2,959,064 square miles (7,663,941 km2). Alaska, separated from the contiguous United States by Canada, is the largest state at 663,268 square miles (1,717,856 km2). Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, is 10,931 square miles (28,311 km2) in area.[142]
The United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area (land and water), ranking behind Russia and Canada and just above or below China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and how the total size of the United States is measured: calculations range from 3,676,486 square miles (9,522,055 km2)[143] to 3,717,813 square miles (9,629,091 km2)[144] to 3,794,101 square miles (9,826,676 km2).[145] Measured by only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada.[146]
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 of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast.
The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua and Mojave. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m). The lowest and highest points in the continental United States are in the state of California, and only about 80 miles (130 km) apart. At 20,320 feet (6,194 m), Alaska's Mount McKinley is the tallest peak in the country and in North America. Active volcanoes are common throughout Alaska's Alexander and Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii consists of volcanic islands. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's largest volcanic feature.[147]
The United States, with its large size and geographic variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii. The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid. Much of the Western mountains are alpine. The climate is arid in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. 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 country, mainly in the Midwest's Tornado Alley.[148]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Bald_Eagle_Portrait.jpg/170px-Bald_Eagle_Portrait.jpg)
The U.S. ecology is considered "megadiverse": about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland.[149] The United States is home to more than 400 mammal, 750 bird, and 500 reptile and amphibian species.[150] About 91,000 insect species have been described.[151] The bald eagle is both the national bird and national animal of the United States, and is an enduring symbol of the country itself.[152]
There are 58 national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas.[153] Altogether, the government owns 28.8% of the country's land area.[154] Most of this is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching; 2.4% is used for military purposes.[154][155][156]
Environmental issues have been on the national agenda since 1970. Environmental controversies include debates on oil and nuclear energy, dealing with air and water pollution, the economic costs of protecting wildlife, logging and deforestation,[157][158] and international responses to global warming.[159][160] Many federal and state agencies are involved. The most prominent is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), created by presidential order in 1970.[161] The idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since 1964, with the Wilderness Act.[162] The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is intended to protect threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Demographics
Population
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Census-2000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County.svg/400px-Census-2000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County.svg.png)
Race/Ethnicity (2013) | |
---|---|
By race:[163] | |
White | 77.7% |
African American | 13.2% |
Asian | 5.3% |
American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.2% |
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander | 0.2% |
Multiracial (2 or more) | 2.4% |
By ethnicity:[163] | |
Hispanic/Latino (of any race) | 17.1% |
Non-Hispanic/Latino (of any race) | 82.9% |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/Liberty-statue-from-below.jpg/220px-Liberty-statue-from-below.jpg)
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the country's population now to be 336,868,000,[4] including an approximate 11.2 million illegal immigrants.[165] The U.S. population almost quadrupled during the 20th century, from about 76 million in 1900.[166] The third most populous nation in the world, after China and India, the United States is the only major industrialized nation in which large population increases are projected.[167]
The United States has a very diverse population—31 ancestry groups have more than one million members.[168] German Americans are the largest ethnic group (more than 50 million) - followed by Irish Americans (circa 35 million), Mexican Americans (circa 31 million) and English Americans (circa 27 million).[169]
White Americans are the largest racial group; Black Americans are the nation's largest racial minority and third largest ancestry group.[168] Asian Americans are the country's second largest racial minority; the three largest Asian American ethnic groups are Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, and Indian Americans.[168]
With a birth rate of 13 per 1,000, 35% below the world average, its population growth rate is positive at 0.9%, significantly higher than those of many developed nations.[170] In fiscal year 2012, over one million immigrants (most of whom entered through family reunification) were granted legal residence.[171] Mexico has been the leading source of new residents since the 1965 Immigration Act. China, India, and the Philippines have been in the top four sending countries every year.[172][173]
According to a survey conducted by the Williams Institute, nine million Americans, or roughly 3.5% of the adult population identify themselves as homosexual, bisexual, or transgender.[174] A 2012 Gallup poll also concluded that 3.5% of adult Americans identified as LGBT. The highest percentage came from the District of Columbia (10%), while the lowest state was North Dakota at 1.7%.[175]
In 2010, the U.S. population included an estimated 5.2 million people with some American Indian or Alaska Native ancestry (2.9 million exclusively of such ancestry) and 1.2 million with some native Hawaiian or Pacific island ancestry (0.5 million exclusively).[176] The census counted more than 19 million people of "Some Other Race" who were "unable to identify with any" of its five official race categories in 2010.[176]
The population growth of Hispanic and Latino Americans (the terms are officially interchangeable) is a major demographic trend. The 50.5 million Americans of Hispanic descent[176] are identified as sharing a distinct "ethnicity" by the Census Bureau; 64% of Hispanic Americans are of Mexican descent.[177] Between 2000 and 2010, the country's Hispanic population increased 43% while the non-Hispanic population rose just 4.9%.[178] Much of this growth is from immigration; in 2007, 12.6% of the U.S. population was foreign-born, with 54% of that figure born in Latin America.[179]
Fertility is also a factor; in 2010 the average Hispanic (of any race) woman gave birth to 2.35 children in her lifetime, compared to 1.97 for non-Hispanic black women and 1.79 for non-Hispanic white women (both below the replacement rate of 2.1).[180] Minorities (as defined by the Census Bureau as all those beside non-Hispanic, non-multiracial whites) constituted 36.3% of the population in 2010,[181] and over 50% of children under age one,[182] and are projected to constitute the majority by 2042.[183] This contradicts the report by the National Vital Statistics Reports, based on the U.S. census data, which concludes that 54% (2,162,406 out of 3,999,386 in 2010) of births were non-Hispanic white.[180]
About 82% of Americans live in urban areas (including suburbs);[145] about half of those reside in cities with populations over 50,000.[184] In 2008, 273 incorporated places had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than one million residents, and four global cities had over two million (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston).[185] There are 52 metropolitan areas with populations greater than one million.[186] Of the 50 fastest-growing metro areas, 47 are in the West or South.[187] The metro areas of Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Phoenix all grew by more than a million people between 2000 and 2008.[186]
Largest metropolitan areas in the United States
| |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Name | Region | Pop. | Rank | Name | Region | Pop. | ||
![]() New York ![]() Los Angeles |
1 | New York | Northeast | 19,498,249 | 11 | Boston | Northeast | 4,919,179 | ![]() Chicago ![]() Dallas–Fort Worth |
2 | Los Angeles | West | 12,799,100 | 12 | Riverside–San Bernardino | West | 4,688,053 | ||
3 | Chicago | Midwest | 9,262,825 | 13 | San Francisco | West | 4,566,961 | ||
4 | Dallas–Fort Worth | South | 8,100,037 | 14 | Detroit | Midwest | 4,342,304 | ||
5 | Houston | South | 7,510,253 | 15 | Seattle | West | 4,044,837 | ||
6 | Atlanta | South | 6,307,261 | 16 | Minneapolis–Saint Paul | Midwest | 3,712,020 | ||
7 | Washington, D.C. | South | 6,304,975 | 17 | Tampa–St. Petersburg | South | 3,342,963 | ||
8 | Philadelphia | Northeast | 6,246,160 | 18 | San Diego | West | 3,269,973 | ||
9 | Miami | South | 6,183,199 | 19 | Denver | West | 3,005,131 | ||
10 | Phoenix | West | 5,070,110 | 20 | Baltimore | South | 2,834,316 |
Language
Language | Percent of population |
Number of speakers |
---|---|---|
English | 80% | 233,780,338 |
Combined total of all languages other than English |
20% | 57,048,617 |
Spanish (excluding Puerto Rico and Spanish Creole) |
12% | 35,437,985 |
Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin) |
0.9% | 2,567,779 |
Tagalog | 0.5% | 1,542,118 |
Vietnamese | 0.4% | 1,292,448 |
French | 0.4% | 1,288,833 |
Korean | 0.4% | 1,108,408 |
German | 0.4% | 1,107,869 |
English (American English) is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2010, about 230 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.[190][191] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least 28 states.[8]
Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii, by state law.[192] 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.[193] Other states, such as California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms.[194] Many jurisdictions with large numbers of non-English speakers produce government materials, especially voting information, in the most commonly spoken languages in those jurisdictions.
Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively;[citation needed] Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands;[citation needed] Cherokee is officially recognized by the Cherokee Nation within the Cherokee tribal jurisdiction area in eastern Oklahoma; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico and is more widely spoken than English there.[195]
Religion
Affiliation | % of U.S. population | |
---|---|---|
Christian | 78.5 | |
Evangelical Protestant | 26.3 | |
Catholic | 23.9 | |
Mainline Protestant | 18.1 | |
Black Protestant | 6.9 | |
Mormon | 1.7 | |
Other Christian | 1.6 | |
Judaism | 1.7 | |
Buddhism | 0.7 | |
Islam | 0.6 | |
Hinduism | 0.4 | |
Other faith | 6 | |
Unaffiliated | 16.1 | |
Don't know/refused answer | 0.8 | |
Total | 100 |
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its establishment. Christianity is by far the most common religion practiced in the U.S., but other religions are followed, too. In a 2013 survey, 56% of Americans said that religion played a "very important role in their lives", a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation.[197] In a 2009 Gallup poll 42% of Americans said that they attended church weekly or almost weekly; the figures ranged from a low of 23% in Vermont to a high of 63% in Mississippi.[198] As with other Western countries, the U.S. is becoming less religious. Irreligion is growing rapidly among Americans under 30.[199] Polls show that overall American confidence in organized religion is declining,[200] and that younger Americans in particular are becoming increasingly irreligious.[201]
According to a 2014 survey, 78.5% of adults identified themselves as Christian,[202] Protestant denominations accounted for 51.3%, while Roman Catholicism, at 23.9%, was the largest individual denomination.[203] The total reporting non-Christian religions in 2012 was 9.4%, up from 4% in 2007.[203] Other religions include Judaism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%), Islam (0.6%), Hinduism (0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%).[203] The survey also reported that 19.6% of Americans described themselves as agnostic, atheist or simply having no religion, up from 8.2% in 1990.[203][204][205] There are also Baha'i, Sikh, Jain, Shinto, Confucian, Taoist, Druid, Native American, Wiccan, humanist and deist communities.[206]
Protestantism is the largest group of religions in the United States, with Baptists being the largest Protestant sect, and the Southern Baptist Convention being the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. About 19 percent of Protestants are Evangelical, while 15 percent are mainline and 8 percent belong to a traditionally Black church. Roman Catholicism in the U.S. has its origin in the Spanish and French colonization of the Americas, and later grew due to Irish, Italian, Polish, German and Hispanic immigration. Rhode Island is the only state where the majority of the population is Catholic. Lutheranism in the U.S. has its origin in immigration from Northern Europe. North and South Dakota are the only states in which a plurality of the population is Lutheran. Utah is the only state where Mormonism is the religion of the majority of the population. Mormonism is also relatively common in parts of Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming.
The Bible Belt is an informal term for a region in the Southern United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average. By contrast, religion plays the least important role in New England and in the Western United States.[198]
Family structure
In 2007, 58% of Americans age 18 and over were married, 6% were widowed, 10% were divorced, and 25% had never been married.[207] Women now work mostly outside the home and receive a majority of bachelor's degrees.[208]
The U.S. teenage pregnancy rate, 79.8 per 1,000 women, is the highest among OECD nations.[209] Between 2007 and 2010, the highest teenage birth rate was in Mississippi, and the lowest in New Hampshire.[210] Abortion is legal throughout the U.S., owing to Roe v. Wade, a 1973 landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court. While the abortion rate is falling, the 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.[211] In 2011, the average age at first birth was 25.6 and 40.7% of births were to unmarried women.[212] The total fertility rate (TFR) was estimated for 2013 at 1.86 births per woman.[213] Adoption in the United States is common and relatively easy from a legal point of view (compared to other Western countries).[214] In 2001, with over 127,000 adoptions, the U.S. accounted for nearly half of the total number of adoptions worldwide.[215] The legal status of same-sex couples adopting varies by jurisdiction.
Same-sex marriage is legally permitted in 19 U.S. states, 10 Native American tribal jurisdictions, and the District of Columbia. Limited recognition has been granted to out-of-state same-sex marriages in Alaska, Colorado,[216] Missouri, Utah, and Ohio.[217] Polygamy is illegal throughout the U.S.[218] Although cousin marriages are illegal in most states, they are legal in many states, the District of Columbia and some territories. Some states have some restrictions or exceptions for cousin marriages and/or recognize such marriages performed out-of-state.
Government and politics
The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law".[219] The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the U.S. Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document.[220] For 2012, the U.S. ranked 21st on the Democracy Index[221] and 19th on the Corruption Perceptions Index.[222]
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.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Political_System_of_the_United_States.svg/350px-Political_System_of_the_United_States.svg.png)
The 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,[223] and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.[224]
- Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law (subject to Congressional override), and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.[225]
- Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the president with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.
The House of Representatives has 435 voting members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population every tenth year. At the 2010 census, seven states had the minimum of one representative, while California, the most populous state, had 53.[226]
The Senate has 100 members with each state having two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one third of Senate seats are up for election every other 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 to the states and the District of Columbia.[227] The Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life.[228]
The state governments are structured in roughly similar fashion; Nebraska uniquely has a unicameral legislature.[229] The governor (chief executive) of each state is directly elected. Some state judges and cabinet officers are appointed by the governors of the respective states, while others are elected by popular vote.
The original text of the Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states. Article One protects the right to the "great writ" of habeas corpus. The Constitution has been amended 27 times;[230] the first ten amendments, which make up the Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of Americans' individual rights. All laws and governmental procedures are subject to judicial review and any law ruled by the courts to be in violation of the Constitution is voided. The principle of judicial review, not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, was established by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803)[231] in a decision handed down by Chief Justice John Marshall.[232]
Political divisions
The United States is a federal union of 50 states. The original 13 states were the successors of the 13 colonies that rebelled against British rule. Early in the country's history, three new states were organized on territory separated from the claims of the existing states: Kentucky from Virginia; Tennessee from North Carolina; and Maine from Massachusetts. Most of the other states have been carved from territories obtained through war or purchase by the U.S. government. One set of exceptions includes Vermont, Texas, and Hawaii: each was a well-established independent republic before joining the union. During the American Civil War, West Virginia broke away from Virginia. The most recent state—Hawaii—achieved statehood on August 21, 1959.[233] The states do not have the right to unilaterally secede from the union.
The states compose the vast bulk of the U.S. land mass. The District of Columbia is a federal district which contains the capital of the United States, Washington D.C. The United States also possesses five major overseas territories: Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands in the Caribbean; and American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific.[234] Those born in the major territories are birthright U.S. citizens except Samoans. Samoans born in American Samoa are born U.S. nationals, and may become naturalized citizens.[235] American citizens residing in the territories have fundamental constitutional protections and elective self-government, with a territorial Member of Congress, but they do not vote for president as states. Territories have personal and business tax regimes different from that of states.[236]
The United States also observes tribal sovereignty of the Native Nations. Though reservations are within state borders, the reservation is a sovereign entity. While the United States recognizes this sovereignty, other countries may not.[237]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Map_of_USA_with_state_and_territory_names_2.png/700px-Map_of_USA_with_state_and_territory_names_2.png)
Parties and elections
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Obama_meets_with_Congressional_Leadership_July_2011.jpg/220px-Obama_meets_with_Congressional_Leadership_July_2011.jpg)
The United States has operated under a two-party system for most of its history.[238] For elective offices at most levels, state-administered primary elections choose the major party nominees for subsequent general elections. Since the general election of 1856, the major parties have been the Democratic Party, founded in 1824, 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 third-largest political party is the Libertarian Party.
Within American political culture, the Republican Party is considered center-right or conservative and the Democratic Party is considered center-left or liberal.[239] The states of the Northeast and West Coast and some of the Great Lakes states, known as "blue states", are relatively liberal. The "red states" of the South and parts of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains are relatively conservative.
The winner of the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, Democrat Barack Obama, is the 44th U.S. president.
In the 113th United States Congress, the House of Representatives is controlled by the Republican Party, while the Democratic Party has control of the Senate. The Senate currently consists of 52 Democrats, two independents who caucus with the Democrats, and 46 Republicans; the House consists of 234 Republicans and 201 Democrats.[240] There are 30 Republican and 20 Democratic state governors.[241]
Since the founding of the United States until the 2000s, the country's governance has been primarily dominated by White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs). However, the situation has changed recently and of the top 17 positions (four national candidates of the two major party in the 2012 U.S. presidential election, four leaders in 112th United States Congress, and nine Supreme Court Justices) there is only one WASP.[242][243][244]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/The_United_Nations_Secretariat_Building.jpg/220px-The_United_Nations_Secretariat_Building.jpg)
Foreign relations
The United States has an established structure of foreign relations. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and New York City is home to the United Nations Headquarters. It is a member of the G7,[245] G20, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many have consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, and the Republic of China (Taiwan) do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States (although the U.S. still supplies Taiwan with military equipment).
The United States has a "special relationship" with the United Kingdom[246] and strong ties with Canada,[247] Australia,[248] New Zealand,[249] the Philippines,[250] Japan,[251] South Korea,[252] Israel,[253] and several EU countries, including France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. It works closely with fellow NATO members on military and security issues and 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 2008, the United States spent a net $25.4 billion on official development assistance, the most in the world. As a share of America's large gross national income (GNI), however, the U.S. contribution of 0.18% ranked last among 22 donor states. By contrast, private overseas giving by Americans is relatively generous.[254]
The U.S. exercises full international defense authority and responsibility for three sovereign nations through Compact of Free Association with Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau, all of which are Pacific island nations which were part of the U.S.-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands beginning after World War II, and gained independence in subsequent years.
Government finance
Taxes are levied in the United States at the federal, state and local government level. These include taxes on income, payroll, property, sales, imports, estates and gifts, as well as various fees. In 2010 taxes collected by federal, state and municipal governments amounted to 24.8% of GDP.[255] During FY2012, the federal government collected approximately $2.45 trillion in tax revenue, up $147 billion or 6% versus FY2011 revenues of $2.30 trillion. Primary receipt categories included individual income taxes ($1,132B or 47%), Social Security/Social Insurance taxes ($845B or 35%), and corporate taxes ($242B or 10%).[256]
U.S. taxation is generally progressive, especially the federal income taxes, and is among the most progressive in the developed world,[257][258][259][260][261] but the incidence of corporate income tax has been a matter of considerable ongoing controversy for decades.[262][263][264][265] In 2009 the top 10% of earners, with 36% of the nation's income, paid 78.2% of the federal personal income tax burden, while the bottom 40% had a negative liability.[260] However, payroll taxes for Social Security are a flat regressive tax, with no tax charged on income above $113,700 and no tax at all paid on unearned income from things such as stocks and capital gains.[266][267] The historic reasoning for the regressive nature of the payroll tax is that entitlement programs have not been viewed as welfare transfers.[268][269] The top 10% paid 51.8% of total federal taxes in 2009, and the top 1%, with 13.4% of pre-tax national income, paid 22.3% of federal taxes.[260] In 2013 the Tax Policy Center projected total federal effective tax rates of 35.5% for the top 1%, 27.2% for the top quintile, 13.8% for the middle quintile, and −2.7% for the bottom quintile.[270][271] State and local taxes vary widely, but are generally less progressive than federal taxes as they rely heavily on broadly borne regressive sales and property taxes that yield less volatile revenue streams, though their consideration does not eliminate the progressive nature of overall taxation.[258][272]
During FY 2012, the federal government spent $3.54 trillion on a budget or cash basis, down $60 billion or 1.7% vs. FY 2011 spending of $3.60 trillion. Major categories of FY 2012 spending included: Medicare & Medicaid ($802B or 23% of spending), Social Security ($768B or 22%), Defense Department ($670B or 19%), non-defense discretionary ($615B or 17%), other mandatory ($461B or 13%) and interest ($223B or 6%).[256]
National debt
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Federal_Debt_Held_by_the_Public_1790-2013.png/425px-Federal_Debt_Held_by_the_Public_1790-2013.png)
The total national debt in the United States was $18.527 trillion (106% of the GDP), according to an estimate for 2014 by the International Monetary Fund.[273] In May 2014, U.S. federal government debt held by the public was approximately $12.495 trillion, or about 75% of U.S. GDP. Intra-governmental holdings stood at $5 trillion, giving a combined total debt of $17.494 trillion.[274][275] By 2012, total federal debt had surpassed 100% of U.S. GDP.[276] The U.S. has a credit rating of AA+ from Standard & Poor's, AAA from Fitch, and Aaa from Moody's.[277]
Historically, the U.S. public debt as a share of GDP increased during wars and recessions, and subsequently declined. For example, debt held by the public as a share of GDP peaked just after World War II (113% of GDP in 1945), but then fell over the following 30 years. In recent decades, large budget deficits and the resulting increases in debt have led to concern about the long-term sustainability of the federal government's fiscal policies.[278] However, these concerns are not universally shared.[279]
Military
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/US_Navy_060618-N-8492C-212_An_Air_Force_B-2_bomber_along_with_other_aircrafts_from_the_Air_Force%2C_Navy_and_Marine_Corps_fly_over_the_Kitty_Hawk%2C_Ronald_Reagan_and_Abraham_Lincoln_Carrier_Strike_groups.jpg/220px-thumbnail.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/US_Navy_040204-N-3122S-004_An_aerial_image_of_the_Aerospace_Maintenance_and_Regeneration_Center_%28AMARC%29_located_on_the_Davis-Monthan_Air_Force_Base_in_Tucson%2C_Ariz.jpg/220px-thumbnail.jpg)
The 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, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. The Coast Guard is run by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and by the Department of the Navy during times of war. In 2008, the armed forces had 1.4 million personnel on active duty. The Reserves and National Guard brought the total number of troops to 2.3 million. The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.[280]
Military service is voluntary, though conscription may occur in wartime through the Selective Service System.[281] American forces can be rapidly deployed by the Air Force's large fleet of transport aircraft, the Navy's 10 active aircraft carriers, and Marine Expeditionary Units at sea with the Navy's Atlantic and Pacific fleets. The military operates 865 bases and facilities abroad,[282] and maintains deployments greater than 100 active duty personnel in 25 foreign countries.[283] The extent of this global military presence has prompted some scholars to describe the United States as maintaining an "empire of bases".[284]
The military budget of the United States in 2011 was more than $700 billion, 41% of global military spending and equal to the next 14 largest national military expenditures combined. At 4.7% of GDP, the rate was the second-highest among the top 15 military spenders, after Saudi Arabia.[285] U.S. defense spending as a percentage of GDP ranked 23rd globally in 2012 according to the CIA.[286] Defense's share of U.S. spending has generally declined in recent decades, from Cold War peaks of 14.2% of GDP in 1953 and 69.5% of federal outlays in 1954 to 4.7% of GDP and 18.8% of federal outlays in 2011.[287]
The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2012, $553 billion, was a 4.2% increase over 2011; an additional $118 billion was proposed for the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.[288] The last American troops serving in Iraq departed in December 2011;[289] 4,484 servicemen were killed during the Iraq War.[290] Approximately 90,000 U.S. troops were serving in Afghanistan in April 2012;[291] by November 8, 2013 2,285 had been killed during the War in Afghanistan.[292]
Crime and law enforcement
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.[294] 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 certain appeals from the state criminal courts. Plea bargaining in the United States is very common; the vast majority of criminal cases in the country are settled by plea bargain rather than jury trial.[295][296]
In 2012 there were 4.7 murders per 100,000 persons in the United States, a 54% decline from the modern peak of 10.2 in 1980.[297][298][299] Among developed nations, the United States has above-average levels of violent crime and particularly high levels of gun violence and homicide.[300] A cross-sectional analysis of the World Health Organization Mortality Database from 2003 showed that United States "homicide rates were 6.9 times higher than rates in the other high-income countries, driven by firearm homicide rates that were 19.5 times higher."[301] Gun ownership rights continue to be the subject of contentious political debate.
Capital punishment is sanctioned in the United States for certain federal and military crimes, and used in 32 states.[302] No executions took place from 1967 to 1977, owing in part to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down arbitrary imposition of the death penalty. In 1976, that Court ruled that, under appropriate circumstances, capital punishment may constitutionally be imposed. Since the decision there have been more than 1,300 executions, a majority of these taking place in three states: Texas, Virginia, and Oklahoma.[303] Meanwhile, several states have either abolished or struck down death penalty laws. In 2010, the country had the fifth highest number of executions in the world, following China, Iran, North Korea, and Yemen.[304]
The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate and total prison population in the world.[305][306][307][308] At the start of 2008, more than 2.3 million people were incarcerated, more than one in every 100 adults.[309] The prison population has quadrupled since 1980.[310] African-American males are jailed at about six times the rate of white males and three times the rate of Hispanic males.[311] The country's high rate of incarceration is largely due to changes in sentencing guidelines and drug policies.[312] In 2008, Louisiana had the highest incarceration rate, and Maine the lowest.[313] In 2012, Louisiana had the highest rate of murder and non-negligent manslaughter in the U.S., and New Hampshire the lowest.[314]
Economy
Economic Indicators | ||
---|---|---|
Nominal GDP | $17.311 trillion (Q2 2014) | [315] |
Real GDP growth | 4.2% (Q2 2014, annualized) | |
2.2% (2013) | [315] | |
CPI inflation | 2.1% (May 2014) | [316] |
Employment-to-population ratio | 58.9% (May 2014) | [317] |
Unemployment | 6.2% (July 2014) | [318] |
Labor force participation rate | 62.8% (April 2014) | [319] |
Total public debt | $17.5 trillion (Q2 2014) | [320] |
Household net worth | $81.8 trillion (Q1 2014) | [321] |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/United_States_Export_Treemap_%282011%29.png/275px-United_States_Export_Treemap_%282011%29.png)
The United States has a capitalist mixed economy which is fueled by abundant natural resources and high productivity.[322] According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. GDP of $16.8 trillion constitutes 24% of the gross world product at market exchange rates and over 19% of the gross world product at purchasing power parity (PPP).[5] Its national GDP was about 5% larger at PPP in 2014 than the European Union's, whose population is around 62% higher.[323] However, the US's nominal GDP is estimated to be $17.528 trillion as of 2014, which is about 5% smaller than that of the European Union.[324] From 1983 to 2008, U.S. real compounded annual GDP growth was 3.3%, compared to a 2.3% weighted average for the rest of the G7.[325] The country ranks ninth in the world in nominal GDP per capita and sixth in GDP per capita at PPP.[5] The U.S. dollar is the world's primary reserve currency.[326]
The United States is the largest importer of goods and second largest exporter, though exports per capita are relatively low. In 2010, the total U.S. trade deficit was $635 billion.[327] Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany are its top trading partners.[328] In 2010, oil was the largest import commodity, while transportation equipment was the country's largest export.[327] China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. public debt.[329] The largest holder of the U.S. debt are American entities, including federal government accounts and the Federal Reserve, who hold the majority of the debt.[330][331][332][333]
In 2009, the private sector was estimated to constitute 86.4% of the economy, with federal government activity accounting for 4.3% and state and local government activity (including federal transfers) the remaining 9.3%.[334] While its economy has reached a postindustrial level of development and its service sector constitutes 67.8% of GDP, the United States remains an industrial power.[335] The leading business field by gross business receipts is wholesale and retail trade; by net income it is manufacturing.[336]
Chemical products are the leading manufacturing field.[337] The United States is the third largest producer of oil in the world, as well as its largest importer.[338] It is the world's number one producer of electrical and nuclear energy, as well as liquid natural gas, sulfur, phosphates, and salt. While agriculture accounts for just under 1% of GDP,[335] the United States is the world's top producer of corn[339] and soybeans.[340] The National Agricultural Statistics Service maintains agricultural statistics[dead link] for products that include peanuts, oats, rye, wheat, rice, cotton, corn, barley, hay, sunflowers, and oilseeds. In addition, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides livestock statistics regarding beef, poultry, pork, and dairy products. The National Mining Association provides data pertaining to coal and minerals that include beryllium, copper, lead, magnesium, zinc, titanium and others.[341][342] In the franchising business model, McDonald's and Subway are the two most recognized brands in the world. Coca-Cola is the most recognized soft drink company in the world.[343]
Consumer spending comprises 71% of the U.S. economy in 2013.[344] In August 2010, the American labor force consisted of 154.1 million people. With 21.2 million people, government is the leading field of employment. The largest private employment sector is health care and social assistance, with 16.4 million people. About 12% of workers are unionized, compared to 30% in Western Europe.[345] The World Bank ranks the United States first in the ease of hiring and firing workers.[346] The United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation[347] and is one of just a few countries in the world without paid family leave as a legal right, with the others being Papua New Guinea, Suriname and Liberia.[348] In 2009, the United States had the third highest labor productivity per person in the world, behind Luxembourg and Norway. It was fourth in productivity per hour, behind those two countries and the Netherlands.[349]
The 2008-2012 global recession had a significant impact on the United States, with output still below potential according to the Congressional Budget Office.[350] It brought high unemployment (which has been decreasing but remains above pre-recession levels), along with low consumer confidence, the continuing decline in home values and increase in foreclosures and personal bankruptcies, an escalating federal debt crisis, inflation, and rising petroleum and food prices. There remains a record proportion of long-term unemployed, continued decreasing household income, and tax and federal budget increases.[351][352][353] A 2011 poll found that more than half of all Americans think the U.S. is still in recession or even depression, despite official data that shows a historically modest recovery.[354] In 2013 the Census Bureau defined poverty rate increased to roughly 14.5% of the population.[35]
Income, poverty and wealth
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Productivity_and_Real_Median_Family_Income_Growth_1947-2009.png/220px-Productivity_and_Real_Median_Family_Income_Growth_1947-2009.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/South_San_Jose_%28crop%29.jpg/220px-South_San_Jose_%28crop%29.jpg)
Americans have the highest average household and employee income among OECD nations, and in 2007 had the second highest median household income.[31][355] According to the Census Bureau real median household income was $50,502 in 2011, down from $51,144 in 2010.[356] The Global Food Security Index ranked the U.S. number one for food affordability and overall food security in March 2013.[357] Americans on average have over twice as much living space per dwelling and per person as European Union residents, and more than every EU nation.[358] For 2013 the United Nations Development Programme ranked the United States 5th among 187 countries in its Human Development Index and 28th in its inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI).[359]
There has been a widening gap between productivity and median incomes since the 1970s.[360] While inflation-adjusted ("real") household income had been increasing almost every year from 1947 to 1999, it has since been flat and even decreased recently.[361] The rise in the share of total annual income received by the top 1 percent, which has more than doubled from 9 percent in 1976 to 20 percent in 2011, has had a significant impact on income inequality,[362] leaving the United States with one of the widest income distributions among OECD nations.[363][364][365] The post-recession income gains have been very uneven, with the top 1 percent capturing 95 percent of the income gains from 2009 to 2012.[366]
Wealth, like income and taxes, is highly concentrated; the richest 10% of the adult population possess 72% of the country's household wealth, while the bottom half claim only 2%.[367] This is the second-highest share among developed nations.[368] Between June 2007 and November 2008 the global recession led to falling asset prices around the world. Assets owned by Americans lost about a quarter of their value.[369] Since peaking in the second quarter of 2007, household wealth is down $14 trillion.[370] At the end of 2008, household debt amounted to $13.8 trillion.[371]
There were about 643,000 sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons in the U.S. in January 2009, with almost two-thirds staying in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program. In 2011 16.7 million children lived in food-insecure households, about 35% more than 2007 levels, though only 1.1% of U.S. children, or 845,000, saw reduced food intake or disrupted eating patterns at some point during the year, and most cases were not chronic.[372]
Infrastructure
Transportation
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Map_of_current_Interstates.svg/250px-Map_of_current_Interstates.svg.png)
Personal transportation is dominated by automobiles, which operate on a network of 13 million roads, including one of the world's longest highway systems.[374] The world's second largest automobile market,[375] the United States has the highest rate of per-capita vehicle ownership in the world, with 765 vehicles per 1,000 Americans.[376] About 40% of personal vehicles are vans, SUVs, or light trucks.[377] The average American adult (accounting for all drivers and non-drivers) spends 55 minutes driving every day, traveling 29 miles (47 km).[378]
Mass transit accounts for 9% of total U.S. work trips.[379][380] While transport of goods by rail is extensive, relatively few people use rail to travel,[381] though ridership on Amtrak, the national intercity passenger rail system, grew by almost 37% between 2000 and 2010.[382] Also, light rail development has increased in recent years.[383] Bicycle usage for work commutes is minimal.[384]
The civil airline industry is entirely privately owned and has been largely deregulated since 1978, while most major airports are publicly owned. The three largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are U.S.-based; American Airlines is number one after its 2013 acquisition of US Airways.[385] Of the world's 30 busiest passenger airports, 12 are in the United States, including the busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.[386]
Energy
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Hoovernewbridge.jpg/220px-Hoovernewbridge.jpg)
The United States energy market is 29,000 terawatt hours per year. Energy consumption per capita is 7.8 tons of oil equivalent per year, the 10th highest rate in the world. In 2005, 40% of this energy came from petroleum, 23% from coal, and 22% from natural gas. The remainder was supplied by nuclear power and renewable energy sources.[387] The United States is the world's largest consumer of petroleum.[388]
For decades, nuclear power has played a limited role relative to many other developed countries, in part because of public perception in the wake of a 1979 accident. In 2007, several applications for new nuclear plants were filed.[389] The United States has 27% of global coal reserves.[390] It is the world's largest producer of natural gas and crude oil.[391]
Science and technology
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Apollo_15_flag%2C_rover%2C_LM%2C_Irwin_cropped.jpg/220px-Apollo_15_flag%2C_rover%2C_LM%2C_Irwin_cropped.jpg)
The United States has been a leader in scientific research and technological innovation since the late 19th century. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone. Thomas Edison's laboratory developed the phonograph, the first long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable movie camera.[392] In the early 20th century, the automobile companies of Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford popularized the assembly line. The Wright brothers, in 1903, made the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight.[393]
The rise of Nazism in the 1930s led many European scientists, including Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, and John von Neumann, to immigrate to the United States.[394] During World War II, the Manhattan Project developed nuclear weapons, ushering in the Atomic Age. The Space Race produced rapid advances in rocketry, materials science, and computers.[395] Advancements by American microprocessor companies such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Intel along with both computer software and hardware companies that include Sun Microsystems, IBM, GNU-Linux, Apple Computer, and Microsoft refined and popularized the personal computer.[396]
The ARPANET was developed in the 1960s to meet Defense Department requirements, and became the first of a series of networks which evolved into the Internet. Today, 64% of research and development funding comes from the private sector.[397] The United States leads the world in scientific research papers and impact factor.[398] As of April 2010, 77% of American households owned at least one computer, and 68% had broadband Internet service.[399] 85% of Americans also own a mobile phone as of 2011.[400] The country is the primary developer and grower of genetically modified food, representing half of the world's biotech crops.[401]
Education
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/University-of-Virginia-Rotunda.jpg/220px-University-of-Virginia-Rotunda.jpg)
American public education is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. In most states, children are required to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn 18 (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at 16 or 17.[402] About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled.[403] The U.S. spends more on education per student than any nation in the world, spending more than $11,000 per elementary student in 2010 and more than $12,000 per high school student.[404] Some 80% of U.S. college students attend public universities.[405]
The United States has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education. According to prominent international rankings, 13 or 15 American colleges and universities are ranked among the top 20 in the world.[406][407] There are also local community colleges with generally more open admission policies, shorter academic programs, and lower tuition. Of Americans 25 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.[408] The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%.[145][409] The United Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying it for 12th in the world.[410]
As for public expenditures on higher education, the U.S. trails some other OECD nations but spends more per student than the OECD average, and more than all nations in combined public and private spending.[404][411] As of 2012, student loan debt exceeded one trillion dollars, more than Americans owe on credit cards.[412]
Health
The United States has a life expectancy of 78.4 years at birth, up from 75.2 years in 1990, ranking it 50th among 221 nations, and 27th out of the 34 industrialized OECD countries, down from 20th in 1990.[413][414] Increasing obesity in the United States and health improvements elsewhere have contributed to lowering the country's rank in life expectancy from 1987, when it was 11th in the world.[415] Obesity rates in the United States are among the highest in the world.[416] Approximately one-third of the adult population is obese and an additional third is overweight;[417] the obesity rate, the highest in the industrialized world, has more than doubled in the last quarter-century.[418] Obesity-related type 2 diabetes is considered epidemic by health care professionals.[419] The infant mortality rate of 6.17 per thousand places the United States 169th highest out of 224 countries.[420]
In 2010, coronary artery disease, lung cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, and traffic accidents caused the most years of life lost in the U.S. Low back pain, depression, musculoskeletal disorders, neck pain, and anxiety caused the most years lost to disability. The most deleterious risk factors were poor diet, tobacco smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, physical inactivity, and alcohol use. Alzheimer's disease, drug abuse, kidney disease and cancer, and falls caused the most additional years of life lost over their age-adjusted 1990 per-capita rates.[414] U.S. teenage pregnancy and abortion rates are substantially higher than in other Western nations.
The U.S. is a global leader in medical innovation. America solely developed or contributed significantly to 9 of the top 10 most important medical innovations since 1975 as ranked by a 2001 poll of physicians, while the EU and Switzerland together contributed to five. Since 1966, Americans have received more Nobel Prizes in Medicine than the rest of the world. From 1989 to 2002, four times more money was invested in private biotechnology companies in America than in Europe.[421][422] The U.S. health-care system far outspends any other nation, measured in both per capita spending and percentage of GDP.[423] Health-care coverage in the United States is a combination of public and private efforts and is not universal. In 2010, 49.9 million residents or 16.3% of the population did not carry health insurance. The subject of uninsured and underinsured Americans is a major political issue.[424][425] In 2006, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate universal health insurance.[426] Federal legislation passed in early 2010 would ostensibly create a near-universal health insurance system around the country by 2014, though the bill and its ultimate impact are issues of controversy.[427][428]
Culture
The United States is home to many cultures and a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values.[19][429] Aside from the relatively small Native American and Native Hawaiian populations, nearly all Americans or their ancestors settled or immigrated within the past five centuries.[430] Mainstream American culture is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources, such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa.[19][431] More recent immigration from Asia and especially Latin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as both a homogenizing melting pot, and a heterogeneous salad bowl in which immigrants and their descendants retain distinctive cultural characteristics.[19]
Core American culture was established by Protestant British colonists and shaped by the frontier settlement process, with the traits derived passed down to descendants and transmitted to immigrants through assimilation. Americans have traditionally been characterized by a strong work ethic, competitiveness, and individualism, as well as a unifying belief in an "American creed" emphasizing liberty, equality, private property, democracy, rule of law, and a preference for limited government.[432] Americans are extremely charitable by global standards. According to a 2006 British study, Americans gave 1.67% of GDP to charity, more than any other nation studied, more than twice the second place British figure of 0.73%, and around twelve times the French figure of 0.14%.[433][434]
The American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays a key role in attracting immigrants.[435] Whether this perception is realistic has been a topic of debate.[436][437][438][439][325][440] While mainstream culture holds that the United States is a classless society,[441] scholars identify significant differences between the country's social classes, affecting socialization, language, and values.[442] Americans' self-images, social viewpoints, and cultural expectations are associated with their occupations to an unusually close degree.[443] While Americans tend greatly to value socioeconomic achievement, being ordinary or average is generally seen as a positive attribute.[444]
Mass media
The four major broadcasters in the U.S. are the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and Fox. Americans are the heaviest television viewers in the world,[445] and the average viewing time continues to rise, reaching five hours a day in 2006.[446] The four major broadcast television networks are all commercial entities. Americans listen to radio programming, also largely commercial, on average just over two-and-a-half hours a day.[447]
In 1998, the number of U.S. commercial radio stations had grown to 4,793 AM stations and 5,662 FM stations. In addition, there are 1,460 public radio stations. Most of these stations are run by universities and public authorities for educational purposes and are financed by public and/or private funds, subscriptions and corporate underwriting. Much public-radio broadcasting is supplied by NPR (formerly National Public Radio). NPR was incorporated in February 1970 under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967; its television counterpart, PBS, was also created by the same legislation. (NPR and PBS are operated separately from each other.)
Aside from web portals and search engines, the most popular websites are Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Blogger, eBay, and Craigslist.[448]
Well-known newspapers are The New York Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. Although the cost of publishing has increased over the years, the price of newspapers has generally remained low, forcing newspapers to rely more on advertising revenue and on articles provided by a major wire service, such as the Associated Press or Reuters, for their national and world coverage. With very few exceptions, all the newspapers in the U.S. are privately owned, either by large chains such as Gannett or McClatchy, which own dozens or even hundreds of newspapers; by small chains that own a handful of papers; or in a situation that is increasingly rare, by individuals or families. Major cities often have "alternative weeklies" to complement the mainstream daily paper(s), for example, New York City's Village Voice or Los Angeles' L.A. Weekly, to name two of the best-known. Major cities may also support a local business journal, trade papers relating to local industries, and papers for local ethnic and social groups.
In Spanish, the second most widely spoken mother tongue behind English, more than 800 publications are published.[449][450]
Cinema
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Hollywood_Sign_PB050006.jpg/220px-Hollywood_Sign_PB050006.jpg)
The world's first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York City in 1894, 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 20th 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 as the greatest film of all time.[451][452] 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. Hollywood is also one of the leaders in motion picture production.[453]
Comics
Early versions of the American newspaper comic strip and the American comic book began appearing in the 19th century. In 1938, Superman, the quintessential comic book superhero of DC Comics, developed into an American icon.[454] Additional comic book publishers include; Marvel Comics, created in 1939, Image Comics, created in 1992, Dark Horse Comics, created in 1986, and numerous small press comic book companies. In celebration of the industry's success, annual comic conventions take place at The San Diego Comic-Con International, which has an attendance of over 130,000 visitors.
Music
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 20th century. Country music developed in the 1920s, and rhythm and blues in the 1940s.[455]
Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry were among the mid-1950s pioneers of rock and roll. In the 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged from the folk revival to become one of America's most celebrated songwriters and James Brown led the development of funk. More recent American creations include hip hop and house music. American pop stars such as Presley, Michael Jackson, and Madonna have become global celebrities.[455]
Literature, philosophy, and the arts
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/Mark_Twain%2C_Brady-Handy_photo_portrait%2C_Feb_7%2C_1871%2C_cropped.jpg/170px-Mark_Twain%2C_Brady-Handy_photo_portrait%2C_Feb_7%2C_1871%2C_cropped.jpg)
In the 18th and early 19th 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 19th century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, is now recognized as an essential American poet.[456] 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".[457]
Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Toni Morrison in 1993. William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway are often named among the most influential writers of the 20th century.[458] Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fiction developed in the United States. The Beat Generation writers opened up new literary approaches, as have postmodernist authors such as John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo.
The transcendentalists, led by Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, established the first major American philosophical movement. After the Civil War, Charles Sanders Peirce and then William James and John Dewey were leaders in the development of pragmatism. In the 20th century, the work of W. V. O. Quine and Richard Rorty, and later Noam Chomsky, brought analytic philosophy to the fore of American philosophical academia. John Rawls and Robert Nozick led a revival of political philosophy. Cornel West and Judith Butler have led a continental tradition in American philosophical academia. Globally influential Chicago school economists like Milton Friedman, James M. Buchanan, and Thomas Sowell have transcended discipline to impact various fields in social and political philosophy.[459][460]
In the visual arts, the Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century movement in the tradition of European naturalism. The realist paintings of Thomas Eakins are now widely celebrated. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of European modernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene.[461] Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with new, individualistic styles. 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 developed largely in the United States. The tide of modernism and then postmodernism has brought fame to American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry.
One of the first major promoters of 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 20th 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 little known at the time, Charles Ives's work of the 1910s established him as the first major U.S. composer in the classical tradition, while experimentalists such as Henry Cowell and John Cage created a distinctive American approach to classical composition. Aaron Copland and George Gershwin developed a new synthesis of popular and classical music. Choreographers Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham helped create modern dance, while George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins were leaders in 20th-century ballet. Americans have long been important in the modern artistic medium of photography, with major photographers including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Ansel Adams.
Food
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Motherhood_and_apple_pie.jpg/220px-Motherhood_and_apple_pie.jpg)
Mainstream American cuisine is similar to that in other Western countries. Wheat is the primary cereal grain. Traditional American cuisine uses indigenous ingredients, such as turkey, venison, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup, which were consumed by Native Americans and early European settlers.[462]
Slow-cooked pork and beef barbecue, crab cakes, potato chips, and chocolate chip cookies are distinctively American foods. 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. The confectionery industry in the United States includes The Hershey Company, the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. In addition, Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, is the largest globally distributed snack food company in the world. The United States has a vast breakfast cereal industry that includes brands such as Kellogg's and General Mills.
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.[463] Americans generally prefer coffee to tea. Marketing by U.S. industries is largely responsible for making orange juice and milk ubiquitous breakfast beverages.[464][465]
The American fast food industry, the world's largest, pioneered the drive-through format in the 1930s. Fast food consumption has sparked health concerns. During the 1980s and 1990s, Americans' caloric intake rose 24%;[463] frequent dining at fast food outlets is associated with what public health officials call the American "obesity epidemic".[466] Highly sweetened soft drinks are widely popular, and sugared beverages account for nine percent of American caloric intake.[467]
Sports
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Phelpsbeijing.jpg/195px-Phelpsbeijing.jpg)
While most major U.S. sports have evolved out of European practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, snowboarding, and cheerleading are American inventions, some of which have become popular in other countries. Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate Western contact.[468] The Iroquois field their own separate national team, the Iroquois Nationals, in recognition of the confederacy's creation of lacrosse. Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States. The United States has won 2,400 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, more than any other country, and 281 in the Winter Olympic Games, the second most behind Norway.[469]
The market for professional sports in the United States is roughly $69 billion, roughly 50% larger than that of all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined.[470] Baseball has been regarded as the national sport since the late 19th century, while American football is now by several measures the most popular spectator sport.[471] Basketball and ice hockey are the country's next two leading professional team sports. These four major sports, when played professionally, each occupy a season at different, but overlapping, times of the year. College football and basketball attract large audiences.[472] Boxing and horse racing were once the most watched individual sports,[473] but they have been eclipsed by golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR.[474] In the 21st century, televised mixed martial arts has also gained a strong following of regular viewers.[475][476] While soccer is less popular in the United States than in many other nations, the country hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the men's national soccer team has been to the past six World Cups and the women are first in the women's world rankings.
See also
- Fauna of the United States
- Index of United States-related articles
- Outline of the United States
- List of states and territories of the United States
- List of metropolitan areas of the United States
- List of United States cities by population
- List of official United States national symbols
- Immigration to the United States
- Template:Wikipedia books link
References
- ^ 36 U.S.C. § 302 National motto
- ^ Simonson, 2010
- ^ Dept. of Treasury, 2011
- ^ a b "U.S. POPClock Projection". U.S. Census Bureau. (figure updated automatically).
- ^ a b c d e f g h "World Economic Outlook Database: United States". International Monetary Fund. April 2014. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
- ^ "OECD Economic Surveys: Norway - OECD 2012". Newsroom. OECD Report. September 12, 2012. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
- ^ "2014 Human Development Report Summary" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 2014. pp. 21–25. Retrieved July 27, 2014.
- ^ a b Feder, Jody (January 25, 2007). "English as the Official Language of the United States: Legal Background and Analysis of Legislation in the 110th Congress" (PDF). Ilw.com (Congressional Research Service). Retrieved June 19, 2007.
- ^ New Mexico Code 1-16-7 (1981).
- ^ New Mexico Code 14-11-13 (2011).
- ^ Cobarrubias, Juan; Fishman, Joshua A. (1983). Progress in Language Planning: International Perspectives. Walter de Gruyter. p. 195. ISBN 90-279-3358-8. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
- ^ García, Ofelia (2011). Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. John Wiley & Sons. p. 167. ISBN 1-4443-5978-9. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
- ^ "Keetoowah Cherokee is the Official Language of the UKB" (PDF). http://keetoowahcherokee.org/. Keetoowah Cherokee News: Official Publication of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma. April 2009. Retrieved June 1, 2014.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|website=
- ^ "UKB Constitution and By-Laws in the Keetoowah Cherokee Language (PDF)" (PDF). http://www.keetoowahcherokee.org/. United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|website=
- ^ "The Cherokee Nation and its Language" (PDF). University of Minnesota: Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition. 2008. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
- ^ "Ecological Footprint Atlas 2010" (PDF). Global Footprint Network. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
- ^ The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge, Second Edition: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind. St. Martin's Press. 2007. p. 632. ISBN 978-0-312-37659-8.
- ^ Onuf, Peter S. (1983). The Origins of the Federal Republic: Jurisdictional Controversies in the United States, 1775–1787. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1167-2.
- ^ a b c d Adams, J.Q.; Strother-Adams, Pearlie (2001). Dealing with Diversity. Chicago: Kendall/Hunt. ISBN 0-7872-8145-X.
- ^ a b Maugh II, Thomas H. (July 12, 2012). "Who was first? New info on North America's earliest residents". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Greene, Jack P.; Pole, J.R., eds. (2008). A Companion to the American Revolution. pp. 352–361.
- ^ Bender, Thomas (2006). A Nation Among Nations: America's Place in World History. New York: Hill & Wang. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-8090-7235-4.
- ^ a b Carlisle, Rodney P.; Golson, J. Geoffrey (2007). Manifest Destiny and the Expansion of America. Turning Points in History Series. ABC-CLIO. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-85109-833-0.
- ^ "The Civil War and emancipation 1861–1865". Africans in America. Boston, MA: WGBH. n.d. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
Britannica Educational Publishing (2009). Wallenfeldt, Jeffrey H. (ed.). The American Civil War and Reconstruction: People, Politics, and Power. America at War. Rosen Publishing Group. p. 264. ISBN 978-1-61530-045-7. - ^ White, Donald W. (1996). "The American Century". Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-05721-0. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
{{cite news}}
:|chapter=
ignored (help) - ^ Maddison, Angus (2006). "Historical Statistics for the World Economy". The Netherlands: The Groningen Growth and Development Centre, Economics Department of the University of Groningen. Retrieved November 6, 2008.
- ^ The European Union has a larger collective nominal GDP, but is not a single nation. According to the IMF the U.S. has a higher GDP (PPP) than the EU.
- ^ "U.S. Workers World's Most Productive". CBS News. February 11, 2009. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
- ^ "Manufacturing, Jobs and the U.S. Economy". Alliance for American Manufacturing. 2013.
- ^ "OECD Better Life Index". OECD Publishing. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
- ^ a b "Household Income". Society at a Glance 2014: OECD Social Indicators. OECD Publishing. March 18, 2014. doi:10.1787/soc_glance-2014-en. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
- ^ "Average annual wages". OECD. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
- ^ "Crisis squeezes income and puts pressure on inequality and poverty" (PDF). OECD (2013). Retrieved July 26, 2013.
- ^ Compare your country: Income distribution and poverty. OECD.
- ^ a b "Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2013". US Census.
- ^ "Trends in world military expenditure, 2013". Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. April 2014. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
- ^ Cohen, 2004: History and the Hyperpower
BBC, April 2008: Country Profile: United States of America
"Geographical trends of research output". Research Trends. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
"The top 20 countries for scientific output". Open Access Week. Retrieved March 16, 2014.
"Granted patents". European Patent Office. Retrieved March 16, 2014. - ^ "Cartographer Put 'America' on the Map 500 years Ago". USA Today. Washington, D.C. Associated Press. April 24, 2007. Retrieved November 30, 2008.
- ^ DeLear, Byron (July 4, 2013) Who coined 'United States of America'? Mystery might have intriguing answer. "Historians have long tried to pinpoint exactly when the name 'United States of America' was first used and by whom. A new find suggests the man might have been George Washington himself." Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA).
- ^ "To the inhabitants of Virginia," by A PLANTER. Dixon and Hunter's Virginia Gazette #1287 – April 6, 1776, Williamsburg, Virginia. Letter is also included in Peter Force's American Archives Vol. 5
- ^ Carter, Rusty (August 18, 2012). "You read it here first". The Virginia Gazette. Archived from the original on August 22, 2012.
He did a search of the archives and found the letter on the front page of the April 6, 1776, edition, published by Hunter & Dixon.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ DeLear, Byron (August 16, 2012). "Who coined the name 'United States of America'? Mystery gets new twist." Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA).
- ^ "Jefferson's "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence". Princeton University. 2004. Archived from the original on August 5, 2004.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "The Charters of Freedom". National Archives. Retrieved June 20, 2007.
- ^ Mary Mostert (2005). The Threat of Anarchy Leads to the Constitution of the United States. CTR Publishing, Inc. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-9753851-4-2.
- ^ "Get to Know D.C." Historical Society of Washington, D.C. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
- ^ For example, the U.S. embassy in Spain calls itself the embassy of the "Estados Unidos", literally the words "states" and "united", and also uses the initials "EE.UU.", the doubled letters implying plural use in Spanish [1] Elsewhere on the site "Estados Unidos de América" is used [2]
- ^ Zimmer, Benjamin (November 24, 2005). "Life in These, Uh, This United States". University of Pennsylvania—Language Log. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
- ^ G. H. Emerson, The Universalist Quarterly and General Review, Vol. 28 (Jan. 1891), p. 49, quoted in Zimmer paper above.
- ^ Wilson, Kenneth G. (1993). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 27–28. ISBN 0-231-06989-8.
- ^ "What is the earliest evidence of the peopling of North and South America?". Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History. June 2004. Archived from the original on November 28, 2007. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
- ^ Kudeba, Nicolas (February 28, 2014). "Chapter 1 – The First Big Steppe – Aboriginal Canadian History". The History of Canada Podcast. Archived from the original on March 1, 2014.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "The Cambridge encyclopedia of human paleopathology". Arthur C. Aufderheide, Conrado Rodríguez-Martín, Odin Langsjoen (1998). Cambridge University Press. p. 205. ISBN 0-521-55203-6
- ^ Bianchine, Russo, 1992 pp. 225–232
- ^ Mann, 2005 p. 44
- ^ Thornton, 1987 p. 49
- ^ Kessel, 2005 pp. 142–143
- ^ Mercer Country Historical Society, 2005
- ^ Juergens, 2011, p. 69
- ^ Ripper, 2008 p. 6
- ^ Ripper, 2008 p. 5
- ^ Calloway, 1998, p. 55
- ^ Taylor, pp. 33–34
- ^ Taylor, pp. 72, 74
- ^ Walton, 2009, pp. 29–31
- ^ Remini, 2007, pp. 2–3
- ^ Johnson, 1997, pp. 26–30
- ^ Walton, 2009, chapter 3
- ^ Lemon, 1987
- ^ Clingan, 2000, p. 13
- ^ Tadman, 2000, p. 1534
- ^ Schneider, 2007, p. 484
- ^ Lien, 1913, p. 522
- ^ Davis, 1996, p. 7
- ^ Quirk, 2011, p. 195
- ^ Bilhartz, Terry D.; Elliott, Alan C. (2007). Currents in American History: A Brief History of the United States. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-1817-7.
- ^ Wood, Gordon S. (1998). The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787. UNC Press Books. p. 263. ISBN 978-0-8078-4723-7.
- ^ Walton, 2009, pp. 38–39
- ^ Walton, 2009, p. 35
- ^ Humphrey, Carol Sue (2003). The Revolutionary Era: Primary Documents on Events from 1776 To 1800. Greenwood Publishing. pp. 8–10. ISBN 978-0-313-32083-5.
- ^ Fabian Young, Alfred; Nash, Gary B.; Raphael, Ray (2011). Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the Making of the Nation. Random House Digital. pp. 4–7. ISBN 978-0-307-27110-5.
- ^ Greene and Pole, A Companion to the American Revolution p 357. Jonathan R. Dull, A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution (1987) p. 161. Lawrence S. Kaplan, "The Treaty of Paris, 1783: A Historiographical Challenge," International History Review, Sept 1983, Vol. 5 Issue 3, pp 431–442
- ^ Boyer, 2007, pp. 192–193
- ^ Cogliano, Francis D. (2008). Thomas Jefferson: Reputation and Legacy. University of Virginia Press. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-8139-2733-6.
- ^ Walton, 2009, p. 43
- ^ Gordon, 2004, pp. 27,29
- ^ Clark, Mary Ann (May 2012). Then We'll Sing a New Song: African Influences on America's Religious Landscape. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-4422-0881-0.
- ^ Heinemann, Ronald L., et.al., Old Dominion, New Commonwealth: a history of Virginia 1607-2007, 2007 ISBN 978-0-8139-2609-4, p.197
- ^ Billington, Ray Allen; Ridge, Martin (2001). Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier. UNM Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-8263-1981-4.
- ^ "Louisiana Purchase". National Park Services. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
- ^ Wait, Eugene M. (1999). America and the War of 1812. Nova Publishers. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-56072-644-9.
- ^ Klose, Nelson; Jones, Robert F. (1994). United States History to 1877. Barron's Educational Series. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-8120-1834-9.
- ^ Winchester, pp. 198, 216, 251, 253
- ^ Morrison, Michael A. (1999). Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 13–21. ISBN 978-0-8078-4796-1.
- ^ Kemp, Roger L. (2010). Documents of American Democracy: A Collection of Essential Works. McFarland. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-7864-4210-2.
- ^ McIlwraith, Thomas F.; Muller, Edward K. (2001). North America: The Historical Geography of a Changing Continent. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-7425-0019-8.
- ^ Rawls, James J. (1999). A Golden State: Mining and Economic Development in Gold Rush California. University of California Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-520-21771-3.
- ^ Black, Jeremy (2011). Fighting for America: The Struggle for Mastery in North America, 1519–1871. Indiana University Press. p. 275. ISBN 978-0-253-35660-4.
- ^ Wishart, David J. (2004). Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. University of Nebraska Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-8032-4787-1.
- ^ Smith (2001), Grant, pp. 523–526
- ^ Stuart Murray (2004). Atlas of American Military History. Infobase Publishing. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-4381-3025-5.
- ^ a b Patrick Karl O'Brien (2002). Atlas of World History. Oxford University Press. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-19-521921-0.
- ^ Vinovskis, Maris (1990). Toward A Social History of the American Civil War: Exploratory Essays. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 4. ISBN 0-521-39559-3.
- ^ "1860 Census" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved June 10, 2007. Page 7 lists a total slave population of 3,953,760.
- ^ De Rosa, Marshall L. (1997). The Politics of Dissolution: The Quest for a National Identity and the American Civil War. Edison, NJ: Transaction. p. 266. ISBN 1-56000-349-9.
- ^ a b G. Alan Tarr (2009). Judicial Process and Judicial Policymaking. Cengage Learning. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-495-56736-3.
- ^ John Powell (2009). Encyclopedia of North American Immigration. Infobase Publishing. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-4381-1012-7.
- ^ Winchester, pp. 351, 385
- ^ Zinn, 2005
- ^ McDuffie, Jerome; Piggrem, Gary Wayne; Woodworth, Steven E. (2005). U.S. History Super Review. Piscataway, NJ: Research & Education Association. p. 418. ISBN 0-7386-0070-9.
- ^ Voris, Jacqueline Van (1996). Carrie Chapman Catt: A Public Life. Women and Peace Series. New York City: Feminist Press at CUNY. p. vii. ISBN 1-55861-139-8.
Carrie Chapmann Catt led an army of voteless women in 1919 to pressure Congress to pass the constitutional amendment giving them the right to vote and convinced state legislatures to ratify it in 1920. ... Catt was one of the best-known women in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century and was on all lists of famous American women.
- ^ Winchester pp. 410–411
- ^ Axinn, June; Stern, Mark J. (2007). Social Welfare: A History of the American Response to Need (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. ISBN 978-0-205-52215-6.
- ^ Burton, Jeffrey F.; et al. (July 2000). "A Brief History of Japanese American Relocation During World War II". Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites. National Park Service. Retrieved April 2, 2010.
{{cite web}}
: Explicit use of et al. in:|author=
(help) - ^ Leland, Anne; Oboroceanu, Mari–Jana (February 26, 2010). "American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved February 18, 2011. p. 2.
- ^ Kennedy, Paul (1989). The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. New York: Vintage. p. 358. ISBN 0-679-72019-7. Indeed, World War II ushered in the zenith of U.S. power in what came to be called the American Century, as Leffler 2010, p. 67, indicates: "Truman presided over the greatest military and economic power the world had ever known. War production had lifted the United States out of the Great Depression and had inaugurated an era of unimagined prosperity. Gross national product increased by 60 percent during the war, total earnings by 50 percent. Despite social unrest, labor agitation, racial conflict, and teenage vandalism, Americans had more discretionary income than ever before. Simultaneously, the U.S. government had built up the greatest war machine in human history. By the end of 1942, the United States was producing more arms than all the Axis states combined, and, in 1943, it made almost three times more armaments than did the Soviet Union. In 1945, the United States had two-thirds of the world's gold reserves, three-fourths of its invested capital, half of its shipping vessels, and half of its manufacturing capacity. Its GNP was three times that of the Soviet Union and more than five times that of Britain. It was also nearing completion of the atomic bomb, a technological and production feat of huge costs and proportions."
- ^ "The United States and the Founding of the United Nations, August 1941 – October 1945". U.S. Dept. of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, Office of the Historian. October 2005. Archived from the original on June 12, 2007. Retrieved June 11, 2007.
- ^ Pacific War Research Society (2006). Japan's Longest Day. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 4-7700-2887-3.
- ^ Collins, Michael (1988). Liftoff: The Story of America's Adventure in Space. New York: Grove Press.
- ^ Winchester, pp. 305-308
- ^ "History and cultural impact of the Interstate Highway system". Uvm.edu. Retrieved February 15, 2014.
- ^ Dallek, Robert (2004). Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President. Oxford University Press. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-19-515920-2.
- ^ "Our Documents – Civil Rights Act (1964)". United States Department of Justice. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
- ^ "Remarks at the Signing of the Immigration Bill, Liberty Island, New York". October 3, 1965. Retrieved January 1, 2012.
- ^ Social Security History, the United States Social Security Administration
- ^ Soss, 2010, p. 277
- ^ Fraser, 1989
- ^ Ferguson, 1986, pp. 43–53
- ^ Williams, pp. 325–331
- ^ Niskanen, William A. (1988). Reaganomics: an insider's account of the policies and the people. Oxford University Press. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-19-505394-4.
- ^ "Women in the Labor Force: A Databook" (PDF). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2013. p. 11. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
- ^ Howell, Buddy Wayne (2006). The Rhetoric of Presidential Summit Diplomacy: Ronald Reagan and the U.S.-Soviet Summits, 1985—1988. Texas A&M University. p. 352. ISBN 978-0-549-41658-6.
- ^ Kissinger, Henry (2011). Diplomacy. Simon & Schuster. pp. 781–784. ISBN 978-1-4391-2631-8.
Mann, James (2009). The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War. Penguin. p. 432. ISBN 978-1-4406-8639-9.
- ^ Hayes, 2009
- ^ US History.org, 2013
- ^ Voyce, Bill (August 21, 2006). "Why the Expansion of the 1990s Lasted So Long". Iowa Workforce Information Network. Retrieved August 16, 2007.
Dale, Reginald (February 18, 2000). "Did Clinton Do It, or Was He Lucky?". The New York Times. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
Mankiw, N. Gregory (2008). Macroeconomics. Cengage Learning. p. 559. ISBN 978-0-324-58999-3. - ^ Winchester, pp. 420-423
- ^ Flashback 9/11: As It Happened. Fox News. September 9, 2011. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
"America remembers Sept. 11 attacks 11 years later". CBS News. Associated Press. September 11, 2012. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
"Day of Terror Video Archive". CNN. 2005. Retrieved March 6, 2013. - ^ Walsh, Kenneth T. (December 9, 2008). "The 'War on Terror' Is Critical to President George W. Bush's Legacy". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
Atkins, Stephen E. (2011). The 9/11 Encyclopedia: Second Edition. ABC-CLIO. p. 872. ISBN 978-1-59884-921-9. - ^ Wong, Edward (February 15, 2008). "Overview: The Iraq War". The New York Times. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
Johnson, James Turner (2005). The War to Oust Saddam Hussein: Just War and the New Face of Conflict. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-7425-4956-2.
Durando, Jessica; Green, Shannon Rae (December 21, 2011). "Timeline: Key moments in the Iraq War". USA Today. Associated Press. Retrieved March 7, 2013. - ^ Washington, Jesse; Rugaber, Chris (September 9, 2011). "African-American Economic Gains Reversed By Great Recession". Huffington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
Hargreaves, Steve (November 5, 2008). "Obama rides economy to White House". CNN. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
One Year In, a Closer Look at the Obama Presidency. MacNeil/Lehrer Production. 2010. Retrieved March 7, 2012. - ^ Lubowski, Ruben; Vesterby, Marlow; Bucholtz, Shawn (July 21, 2006). "AREI Chapter 1.1: Land Use". Economic Research Service. Retrieved March 9, 2009.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "United States". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 25, 2008. (area given in square miles)
- ^ "Population by Sex, Rate of Population Increase, Surface Area and Density" (PDF). Demographic Yearbook 2005. UN Statistics Division. Retrieved March 25, 2008. (area given in square kilometers)
- ^ a b c "United States". The World Factbook. CIA. September 30, 2009. Retrieved January 5, 2010. (area given in square kilometers)
- ^ "World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table". Yahoo Education. Retrieved February 28, 2007.
- ^ O'Hanlon, Larry. "Supervolcano: What's Under Yellowstone?". Discovery Channel. Archived from the original on May 25, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2007.
- ^ Perkins, Sid (May 11, 2002). "Tornado Alley, USA". Science News. Archived from the original on July 1, 2007. Retrieved September 20, 2006.
- ^ Morin, Nancy. "Vascular Plants of the United States" (PDF). Plants. National Biological Service. Retrieved October 27, 2008.
- ^ "Global Significance of Selected U.S. Native Plant and Animal Species". SDI Group. February 9, 2001. Retrieved January 20, 2009.
- ^ "Numbers of Insects (Species and Individuals)". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved January 20, 2009.
- ^ Lawrence, E.A. (1990). "Symbol of a Nation: The Bald Eagle in American Culture". The Journal of American Culture. 13 (1): 63–69. doi:10.1111/j.1542-734X.1990.1301_63.x.
- ^ "National Park Service Announces Addition of Two New Units" (Press release). National Park Service. February 28, 2006. Retrieved June 13, 2006.
- ^ a b "Federal Land and Buildings Ownership" (PDF). Republican Study Committee. May 19, 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 9, 2009.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "NOAA: Gulf of Mexico 'Dead Zone' Predictions Feature Uncertainty". U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). June 21, 2012. Retrieved June 23, 2012.
- ^ "What is hypoxia?". Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON). Retrieved May 18, 2013.
- ^ The National Atlas of the United States of America (January 14, 2013). "Forest Resources of the United States". Nationalatlas.gov. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ^ "Land Use Changes Involving Forestry in the United States: 1952 to 1997, With Projections to 2050" (PDF). 2003. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ^ Daynes & Sussman, 2010, pp. 3, 72, 74–76, 78
- ^ Hays, Samuel P. (2000). A History of Environmental Politics since 1945.
- ^ Rothman, Hal K. (1998).The Greening of a Nation? Environmentalism in the United States since 1945
- ^ Turner, James Morton (2012). The Promise of Wilderness
- ^ a b "USA". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
- ^ "Statue of Liberty". World Heritage. UNESCO. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
- ^ Camarota, Steven A.; Jensenius, Karen (July 2008). "Homeward Bound: Recent Immigration Enforcement and the Decline in the Illegal Alien Population" (PDF). Center for Immigration Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 9, 2008.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Statistical Abstract of the United States" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 2005.
- ^ "Executive Summary: A Population Perspective of the United States". Population Resource Center. May 2000. Archived from the original on June 4, 2007. Retrieved December 20, 2007.
- ^ a b c "Ancestry 2000" (PDF). U.S.Census Bureau. June 2004. Retrieved June 13, 2007.
- ^ "www.census.gov Population by Selected Ancestry Group and Region: 2009" (PDF). Retrieved August 5, 2014.
- ^ "Births: Preliminary Data for 2010" (PDF). National Vital Statistics Reports, Volume 60. National Center for Health Statistics. 2011. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
- ^ "U.S. Legal Permanent Residents: 2012". Office of Immigration Statistics Annual Flow Report.
- ^ "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2011 – Persons Obtaining Legal Permanent Resident Status by Region and Country of Birth: Fiscal Years 2002 to 2011 (Table 3)". U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
- ^ "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2007 – Persons Obtaining Legal Permanent Resident Status by Region and Country of Birth: Fiscal Years 1998 to 2007 (Table 3)". U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
- ^ Donaldson James, Susan (April 8, 2011). "Gay Americans Make Up 4 Percent of Population". ABC News. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
- ^ "LGBT Percentage Highest in D.C., Lowest in North Dakota". Gallup.com. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ^ a b c Humes, Karen R.; Jones, Nicholas A.; Ramirez, Roberto R. (March 2011). "Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved March 29, 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "B03001. Hispanic or Latino Origin by Specific Origin". 2007 American Community Survey. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved September 26, 2008.
- ^ "2010 Census Data". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved March 29, 2011.
- ^ "Tables 41 and 42—Native and Foreign-Born Populations" (PDF). Statistical Abstract of the United States 2009. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
- ^ a b "National Vital Statistics Reports: Volume 61, Number 1. Births: Final Data for 2012" (PDF). Cdc.gov. August 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
- ^ U.S. Census Bureau: "U.S. Census Bureau Delivers Final State 2010 Census Population Totals for Legislative Redistricting" see custom table, 2nd worksheet
- ^ Exner, Rich (July 3, 2012). "Americans under age one now mostly minorities, but not in Ohio: Statistical Snapshot". The Plain Dealer. Cleveland, OH. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
- ^ "An Older and More Diverse Nation by Midcentury" (Press release). U.S. Census Bureau. August 14, 2008. Retrieved March 29, 2013.[dead link]
- ^ "United States -- Urban/Rural and Inside/Outside Metropolitan Area". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on January 17, 2010.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Table 1: Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places Over 100,000, Ranked by July 1, 2008 Population: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2008". 2008 Population Estimates. U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. July 1, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 7, 2009.
- ^ a b "Table 5. Estimates of Population Change for Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Rankings: July 1, 2007 to July 1, 2008". 2008 Population Estimates. U.S. Census Bureau. March 19, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 7, 2009.
- ^ "Raleigh and Austin are Fastest-Growing Metro Areas". U.S. Census Bureau. March 19, 2009. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
- ^ "Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas Population Totals: 2020–2023". United States Census Bureau. May 2023. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
- ^ "United States". Modern Language Association. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
- ^ "Language Spoken at Home by the U.S. Population, 2010", American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau, in World Almanac and Book of Facts 2012, p. 615.
- ^ "Foreign Language Enrollments in United States Institutions of Higher Learning" (PDF). MLA. Fall 2002. Retrieved October 16, 2006.
- ^ "The Constitution of the State of Hawaii, Article XV, Section 4". Hawaii Legislative Reference Bureau. November 7, 1978. Retrieved June 19, 2007.[dead link]
- ^ Dicker, Susan J. (2003). Languages in America: A Pluralist View. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. pp. 216, 220–25. ISBN 1-85359-651-5.
- ^ "California Code of Civil Procedure, Section 412.20(6)". Legislative Counsel, State of California. Retrieved December 17, 2007. "California Judicial Council Forms". Judicial Council, State of California. Retrieved December 17, 2007.
- ^ "Translation in Puerto Rico". Puerto Rico Channel. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
- ^ "Affiliations". 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
- ^ "Religion". Gallup. June 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ a b "Mississippians Go to Church the Most; Vermonters, Least". Gallup.com. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ^ Merica, Dan (June 12, 2012). "Pew Survey: Doubt of God Growing Quickly among Millennials". CNN. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
- ^ Hooda, Samreen (July 12, 2012). "American Confidence In Organized Religion At All Time Low". Huffington Post. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
- ^ "Religion Among the Millennials". The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
- ^ |url=http://religions.pewforum.org/affiliations |name=Pew |publisher=PewResearch.org |accessdate=September 23 2014
- ^ a b c d ""Nones" on the Rise". Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. 2012. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ Kosmin, Barry A., Egon Mayer, and Ariela Keysar (December 19, 2001). "American Religious Identification Survey 2001" (PDF). CUNY Graduate Center. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "United States". Retrieved May 2, 2013.
- ^ Media, Minorities, and Meaning: A Critical Introduction — Page 88, Debra L. Merskin – 2010
- ^ "Table 55—Marital Status of the Population by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 1990 to 2007" (PDF). Statistical Abstract of the United States 2009. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
- ^ "Women's Advances in Education". Columbia University, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy. 2006. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007. Retrieved June 6, 2007.
- ^ "Teenage birth rate statistics – countries compared – NationMaster People". Nationmaster.com. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ^ "U.S. teen birth rates fall to historic lows". CBS News. April 10, 2012. Retrieved July 4, 2013.
- ^ Strauss, Lilo T.; et al. (November 24, 2006). "Abortion Surveillance—United States, 2003". MMWR. Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Reproductive Health. Retrieved June 17, 2007.
{{cite web}}
: Explicit use of et al. in:|author=
(help) - ^ "FASTSTATS – Births and Natality". Cdc.gov. November 21, 2013. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ^ Wetzstein, Cheryl (May 28, 2014). "U.S. fertility plummets to record low". The Washington Times. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
- ^ Jardine, Cassandra (October 31, 2007). "Why adoption is so easy in America". The Daily Telegraph. London.
- ^ "Child Adoption: Trends and policies" (PDF). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 2009.
- ^ "Colo. governor signs bill allowing joint tax-filing for married same-sex couples – LGBTQ Nation". Lgbtqnation.com. January 1, 2013. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ^ Palmer, Kim. "Ohio must recognize marriage of same-sex couple, federal court rules". Reuters. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ^ Barbara Bradley Hagerty (May 27, 2008). "Some Muslims in U.S. Quietly Engage in Polygamy". National Public Radio: All Things Considered. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
{{cite news}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - ^ Scheb, John M.; Scheb, John M. II (2002). An Introduction to the American Legal System. Florence, KY: Delmar, p. 6. ISBN 0-7668-2759-3.
- ^ Killian, Johnny H. "Constitution of the United States". The Office of the Secretary of the Senate. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ Davidson, Kavitha A. (March 21, 2013). "Democracy Index 2013: Global Democracy At A Standstill, The Economist Intelligence Unit's Annual Report Shows". The Huffington Post. Retrieved August 23, 2013.
- ^ "Corruption Perceptions Index 2012". Transparency International. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
- ^ "The Legislative Branch". United States Diplomatic Mission to Germany. Retrieved August 20, 2012.
- ^ "The Process for impeachment". ThinkQuest. Retrieved August 20, 2012.
- ^ "The Executive Branch". The White House. Retrieved August 20, 2012.
- ^ Bloch, Matt; Ericson, Matthew; Quealy, Kevin (May 30, 2013). "Census 2010: Gains and Losses in Congress". The New York Times.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "What is the Electoral College". National Archives. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
- ^ Cossack, Roger (July 13, 2000). "Beyond politics: Why Supreme Court justices are appointed for life". CNN. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Nebraska (state, United States) : Agriculture". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
- ^ Feldstein, Fabozzi, 2011, p. 9
- ^ Schultz, 2009, pp. 164, 453, 503
- ^ Schultz, 2009, p. 38
- ^ Borreca, Richard (October 18, 1999). "'The Goal Was Democracy for All". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ See 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(36) and 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(38) U.S. Federal Code, Immigration and Nationality Act. 8 U.S.C. § 1101a
- ^ Jenkins, William O. (2009). American Samoa: Issues Associated with Potential Changes to the Current System for Adjudicating Matters of Federal Law. DIANE Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-4379-0704-9.
- ^ US General Accounting Office, U.S. Insular Areas. Application of the U.S. Constitution. November 1997. p. 9. Appendix I, pp. 23–38. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
- ^ Fonseca, Felicia (July 17, 2010). "Native American nations debate sovereignty after Iroquois passport dispute". Deseret News. Salt Lake City. Associated Press. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
- ^ Etheridge, Eric; Deleith, Asger (August 19, 2009). "A Republic or a Democracy?". New York Times blogs. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
The US system seems essentially a two-party system. ...
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Grigsby, Ellen (2008). Analyzing Politics: An Introduction to Political Science. Cengage Learning. pp. 106–7. ISBN 0-495-50112-3.
- ^ "Congressional Profile Resources". Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives.
- ^ "50 State Governors". netstate.com. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
- ^ "CHART: No more WASPs in Presidential Races". US News and World Reports. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
- ^ Knickerbocker, Brad (August 19, 2012). "US government and politics no longer run by WASPs. Does it matter?". DC Decoder (blog). Boston MA: The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
- ^ "For the first time, no WASPs in election". NPR. August 19, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
- ^ "What is the G8?". University of Toronto. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ Dumbrell, John; Schäfer, Axel (2009). America's 'Special Relationships': Foreign and Domestic Aspects of the Politics of Alliance. p. 45. ISBN 9780203872703.
- ^ Ek, Carl, and Ian F. Fergusson (September 3, 2010). "Canada–U.S. Relations" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Vaughn, Bruce (August 8, 2008). "Australia: Background and U.S. Relations". Congressional Research Service. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
- ^ Vaughn, Bruce (May 27, 2011). "New Zealand: Background and Bilateral Relations with the United States" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
- ^ Lum, Thomas (January 3, 2011). "The Republic of the Philippines and U.S. Interests" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
- ^ Chanlett-Avery, Emma; et al. (June 8, 2011). "Japan-U.S. Relations: Issues for Congress" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
{{cite web}}
: Explicit use of et al. in:|author=
(help) - ^ Manyin, Mark E., Emma Chanlett-Avery, and Mary Beth Nikitin (July 8, 2011). "U.S.–South Korea Relations: Issues for Congress" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Zanotti, Jim (July 31, 2014). "Israel: Background and U.S. Relations" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
- ^ Shah, Anup (April 13, 2009). "U.S. and Foreign Aid Assistance". GlobalIssues.org. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
- ^ Porter, Eduardo (August 14, 2012). "America's Aversion to Taxes". The New York Times. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
In 1965, taxes collected by federal, state and municipal governments amounted to 24.7 percent of the nation's output. In 2010, they amounted to 24.8 percent. Excluding Chile and Mexico, the United States raises less tax revenue, as a share of the economy, than every other industrial country.
- ^ a b "CBO Historical Tables-February 2013". Congressional Budget Office. February 5, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
- ^ Prasad, M.; Deng, Y. (April 2, 2009). "Taxation and the worlds of welfare". Socio-Economic Review. 7 (3): 431–457. doi:10.1093/ser/mwp005. Retrieved May 5, 2013.
- ^ a b Matthews, Dylan (September 19, 2012). "Other countries don't have a "47%"". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
- ^ "How Much Do People Pay in Federal Taxes?". Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
- ^ a b c "The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2008 and 2009" (PDF). Congressional Budget Office. July 2012. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
- ^ "Table T12-0178 Baseline Distribution of Cash Income and Federal Taxes Under Current Law" (PDF). The Tax Policy Center. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
- ^ Harris, Benjamin H. (November 2009). "Corporate Tax Incidence and Its Implications for Progressivity" (PDF). Tax Policy Center. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
- ^ Gentry, William M. (December 2007). "A Review of the Evidence on the Incidence of the Corporate Income Tax" (PDF). OTA Paper 101. Office of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the Treasury. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
- ^ Fullerton, Don; Metcalf, Gilbert E. (2002). "Tax Incidence". In A.J. Auerbach and M. Feldstein (ed.). Handbook of Public Economics. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science B.V. pp. 1788–1839. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
- ^ Musgrave, R.A.; Carroll, J.J.; Cook, L.D.; Frane, L. (March 1951). "Distribution of Tax Payments by Income Groups: A Case Study for 1948" (PDF). National Tax Journal. 4 (1): 1–53. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
- ^ Agadoni, Laura. "Characteristics of a Regressive Tax". Houston Chronicle Small Business blog.
- ^ "TPC Tax Topics | Payroll Taxes". Taxpolicycenter.org. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ^ "The Design of the Original Social Security Act". Social Security Online. U.S. Social Security Administration. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
- ^ Blahous, Charles (February 24, 2012). "The Dark Side of the Payroll Tax Cut". Defining Ideas. Hoover Institution. Retrieved April 3, 2013.[dead link]
- ^ Ohlemacher, Stephen (March 3, 2013). "Tax bills for rich families approach 30-year high". The Seattle Times. Associated Press. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
- ^ "Who will pay what in 2013 taxes?". The Seattle Times. Associated Press. March 3, 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
- ^ Malm, Elizabeth (February 20, 2013). "Comments on Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States". Tax Foundation. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
- ^ "IMF, United States General government gross debt". Imf.org. September 14, 2006. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
- ^ "Debt to the Penny (Daily History Search Application)". TreasuryDirect. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
- ^ "US national debt surpasses $16 trillion". Boston Business Journal blog. September 5, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
- ^ Thornton, Daniel L. (November–December 2012). "The U.S. Deficit/Debt Problem: A Longer–Run Perspective" (PDF). Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review. Retrieved May 7, 2013.
- ^ Lopez, Luciana (January 28, 2013). "Fitch backs away from downgrade of U.S. credit rating". Reuters. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
- ^ "Federal Debt: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions". Government Accountability Office. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
- ^ Lynch, David J. (March 21, 2013). "Economists See No Crisis With U.S. Debt as Economy Gains". Bloomberg. New York. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
- ^ "The Air Force in Facts and Figures (Armed Forces Manpower Trends, End Strength in Thousands)" (PDF). Air Force Magazine. May 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
- ^ "What does Selective Service provide for America?". Selective Service System. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ "Base Structure Report, Fiscal Year 2008 Baseline" (PDF). Department of Defense. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
- ^ "Active Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country (309A)" (PDF). Department of Defense. March 31, 2010. Retrieved October 7, 2010.
- ^ Ikenberry, G. John (March–April 2004). "Illusions of Empire: Defining the New American Order". Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on May 25, 2012. Kreisler, Harry, and Chalmers Johnson (January 29, 2004). "Conversations with History". University of California at Berkeley. Retrieved June 21, 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "The 15 Countries with the Highest Military Expenditure in 2011". Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
- ^ "Compare". CIA World Factbook. RealClearWorld. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
- ^ "Fiscal Year 2013 Historical Tables" (PDF). Budget of the U.S. Government. White House OMB. Retrieved November 24, 2012.
- ^ "Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request Overview" (PDF). Department of Defense. February 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 25, 2011.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Basu, Moni (December 18, 2011). "Deadly Iraq War Ends with Exit of Last U.S. Troops". CNN. Retrieved February 5, 2012.
- ^ "Operation Iraqi Freedom". Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. February 5, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2012.
- ^ Cherian, John (April 7, 2012). "Turning Point". Frontline. The Hindu Group. Retrieved December 2, 2012.
There are currently 90,000 U.S. troops deployed in the country.
{{cite news}}
:|archive-url=
is malformed: liveweb (help) - ^ "Department of Defence Defence Casualty Analysis System". Department of Defense. November 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
- ^ "Local Police Departments, 2003" (PDF). U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. May 2006. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
- ^ "U.S. Federal Law Enforcement Agencies, Who Governs & What They Do". chiff.com. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
- ^ Plea Bargains Findlaw.com
- ^ Interview with Judge Michael McSpadden PBS interview, December 16, 2003
- ^ "Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics". U.S Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
- ^ "Crime in the United States, 2011". FBI '(Uniform Crime Statistics—Murder)'. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
- ^ "UNODC Homicide Statistics". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Retrieved January 23, 2013.
- ^ "Eighth United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2001–2002)" (PDF). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). March 31, 2005. Retrieved May 18, 2008.
- ^ "Homicide, Suicide, and Unintentional Firearm Fatality: Compa ... : Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery". Journals.lww.com. doi:10.1097/TA.0b013e3181dbaddf. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ^ Simpson, Ian (May 2, 2013). "Maryland becomes latest U.S. state to abolish death penalty". Yahoo! News. Reuters. Archived from the original on June 24, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2013.
- ^ "Searchable Execution Database". Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
- ^ "Executions Around the World". Death Penalty Information Center. 2010. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
- ^ Schmidt, Steffen W.; Shelley, Mack C.; Bardes, Barbara A. (2008). American Government & Politics Today. Cengage Learning. p. 591. ISBN 978-0-495-50228-9.
- ^ Walmsley, Roy (2005). "World Prison Population List" (PDF). King's College London, International Centre for Prison Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 28, 2007. For the latest data, see "Prison Brief for United States of America". King's College London, International Centre for Prison Studies. June 21, 2006. Archived from the original on August 4, 2007. For other estimates of the incarceration rate in China and North Korea see Adams, Cecil (February 6, 2004). "Does the United States Lead the World in Prison Population?". The Straight Dope. Retrieved October 11, 2007.
- ^ National Research Council. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2014. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
- ^ Nation Behind Bars: A Human Rights Solution. Human Rights Watch, May 2014. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
- ^ Barkan, Steven E.; Bryjak, George J. (2011). Fundamentals of Criminal Justice: A Sociological View. Jones & Bartlett. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-4496-5439-9.
- ^ Iadicola, Peter; Shupe, Anson (October 26, 2012). Violence, Inequality, and Human Freedom. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 456. ISBN 978-1-4422-0949-7.
- ^ DeLisi, Matt; Conis, Peter John (2011). American Corrections: Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice. Jones & Bartlett. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-4496-4540-3.
- ^ Clear, Todd R.; Cole, George F.; Reisig, Michael Dean (2008). American Corrections. Cengage Learning. p. 485. ISBN 978-0-495-55323-6.
- ^ Mears, Daniel P. (2010). American Criminal Justice Policy: An Evaluation Approach to Increasing Accountability and Effectiveness. Cambridge University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-521-76246-5.
- ^ Fuchs, Erin (October 1, 2013). "Why Louisiana Is The Murder Capital Of America". Business Insider.
- ^ a b "National Income and Product Accounts Gross Domestic Product: Second Quarter 2014 (Advance Estimate) Annual Revision: 1999 through First Quarter 2014". Bureau of Economic Analysis. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
- ^ "CONSUMER PRICE INDEX – APRIL 2014" (PDF). Bureau of Labor Statistics. April 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ^ "Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey". Bureau of Labor Statistics. May 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ^ "National employment monthly update". National Conference of State Legislatures. National Conference of State Legislatures. July 3, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
- ^ "Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey". Bureau of Labor Statistics. United States Department of Labor. May 2, 2014. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
- ^ "Treasury Direct". Treasury Direct. June 12, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ^ "Federal Reserve Statistical Release" (PDF). Federal Reserve. 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ^ Wright, Gavin; Czelusta, Jesse (2007). "Resource-Based Growth Past and Present", in Natural Resources: Neither Curse Nor Destiny, ed. Daniel Lederman and William Maloney. World Bank. p. 185. ISBN 0-8213-6545-2.
- ^ Amadeo, Kimberly (May 2, 2014). "World's Largest Economy". About. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ^ "European Union GDP". International Monetary Fund. International Monetary Fund. April 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ^ a b Hagopian, Kip; Ohanian, Lee (August 1, 2012). "The Mismeasure of Inequality". Policy Review. Hoover Institution Stanford University. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
- ^ "Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves" (PDF). International Monetary Fund. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
- ^ a b "Trade Statistics". Greyhill Advisors. Retrieved October 6, 2011.
- ^ "Top Ten Countries with which the U.S. Trades". U.S. Census Bureau. August 2009. Retrieved October 12, 2009.
- ^ "National debt: Whom does the US owe?". The Christian Science Monitor. Boston MA. February 4, 2011. Retrieved July 14, 2011.
- ^ "Who Holds Our Debt?". http://www.factcheck.org/2013/11/who-holds-our-debt/.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help); Missing or empty|website=
|url=
(help) - ^ "The TRUTH About Who Really Owns All Of America's Debt". http://www.businessinsider.com/who-owns-us-debt-2011-7?op=1.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help); Missing or empty|website=
|url=
(help) - ^ "This surprising chart shows which countries own the most U.S. debt". http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/10/10/this-surprising-chart-shows-which-countries-own-the-most-u-s-debt/.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help); Missing or empty|website=
|url=
(help) - ^ "National debt: Whom does the US owe?". http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Buzz/2011/0204/National-debt-Whom-does-the-US-owe.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help); Missing or empty|website=
|url=
(help) - ^ "GDP by Industry". Greyhill Advisors. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
- ^ a b "USA Economy in Brief". U.S. Dept. of State, International Information Programs. Archived from the original on March 12, 2008.
- ^ "Table 724—Number of Tax Returns, Receipts, and Net Income by Type of Business and Industry: 2005" (XLS). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved October 12, 2009.
- ^ "Table 964—Gross Domestic Product in Current and Real (2000) Dollars by Industry: 2006". U.S. Census Bureau. May 2008. Retrieved October 12, 2009.
- ^ "Rank Order—Oil (Production)". The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved October 12, 2009.[dead link]"Rank Order—Oil (Consumption)". The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved October 12, 2009.[dead link]"Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries". U.S. Energy Information Administration. September 29, 2009. Retrieved October 12, 2009.
- ^ "Corn". U.S. Grains Council. Archived from the original on January 12, 2008. Retrieved March 13, 2008.
- ^ "Soybean Demand Continues to Drive Production". Worldwatch Institute. November 6, 2007. Retrieved March 13, 2008.
- ^ "Coal Statistics". Nma.org. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ^ "Minerals Production". Nma.org. Retrieved January 13, 2014.
- ^ "Sony, LG, Wal-Mart among Most Extendible Brands". Cheskin. June 6, 2005. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
- ^ "Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE)/Gross Domestic Product (GDP)" FRED Graph, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- ^ Fuller, Thomas (June 15, 2005). "In the East, many EU work rules don't apply". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on June 16, 2005.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Doing Business in the United States". World Bank. 2006. Retrieved June 28, 2007.
- ^ Ray, Rebecca; Sanes, Milla; Schmitt, John (May 2013). No-Vacation Nation Revisited. Center for Economic and Policy Research. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
- ^ Bernard. Tara Siegel (February 22, 2013). "In Paid Family Leave, U.S. Trails Most of the Globe". The New York Times. Retrieved August 27, 2013.
- ^ "Total Economy Database, Summary Statistics, 1995–2010". Total Economy Database. The Conference Board. September 2010. Retrieved September 20, 2009.
- ^ "Chart Book: The Legacy of the Great Recession — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities". Cbpp.org. March 12, 2013. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
- ^ Schwartz, Nelson (March 3, 2013). "Recovery in U.S. Is Lifting Profits, but Not Adding Jobs". The New York Times. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
- ^ McKinnon, John D. (January 1, 2013). "Analysis: 77% of Households to See Tax Increase". The Wall Street Journal (blog). New York. Retrieved April 8, 2013.
- ^ Gongloff, Mark (September 17, 2013). "Median Income Falls For 5th Year, Inequality At Record High". The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
- ^ "Most Americans say U.S. in recession despite data: poll". Reuters. April 28, 2011.
- ^ "OECD Better Life Index". OECD. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
- ^ "Household Income for States: 2010 and 2011" United States Census, American Community Survey Briefs, September 2012, Appendix Table 1, p. 5
- ^ "Global Food Security Index". London: The Economist Intelligence Unit. March 5, 2013. Retrieved April 8, 2013.
- ^ Rector, Robert; Sheffield, Rachel (September 13, 2011). "Understanding Poverty in the United States: Surprising Facts About America's Poor". Heritage Foundation. Retrieved April 8, 2013.
- ^ "Human Development Report 2014" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. p. 168. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
- ^ Mishel, Lawrence (April 26, 2012). The wedges between productivity and median compensation growth. Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved October 18, 2013.
- ^ "The Most Important Chart in American Politics". Time. New York. February 4, 2013.
- ^ Alvaredo, Facundo; Atkinson, Anthony B.; Piketty, Thomas; Saez, Emmanuel (2013). "The Top 1 Percent in International and Historical Perspective". Journal of Economic Perspectives. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
- ^ Smeeding, T.M. (2005). "Public Policy: Economic Inequality and Poverty: The United States in Comparative Perspective". Social Science Quarterly. 86: 955–983. doi:10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00331.x.
- ^ Saez, E. (October 2007). "Table A1: Top Fractiles Income Shares (Excluding Capital Gains) in the U.S., 1913–2005". UC Berkeley. Retrieved July 24, 2008."Field Listing—Distribution of Family Income—Gini Index". The World Factbook. CIA. June 14, 2007. Retrieved June 17, 2007.
- ^ Focus on Top Incomes and Taxation in OECD Countries: Was the crisis a game changer? OECD, May 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
- ^ Saez, Emmanuel (September 3, 2013). "Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States". UC Berkeley. Retrieved September 11, 2013.
- ^ Piketty, Thomas (2014). Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Belknap Press. ISBN 067443000X p. 257
- ^ Domhoff, G. William (December 2006). "Table 4: Percentage of Wealth Held by the Top 10% of the Adult Population in Various Western Countries". Power in America. University of California at Santa Cruz, Sociology Dept. Retrieved August 21, 2006.
- ^ Altman, Roger C. "The Great Crash, 2008". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved February 27, 2009.
- ^ "Americans' wealth drops $1.3 trillion". CNN Money. June 11, 2009.
- ^ U.S. household wealth falls $11.2 trillion in 2008
- ^ "Household Food Security in the United States in 2011" (PDF). USDA. September 2012. Retrieved April 8, 2013.
- ^ "Interstate FAQ (Question #3)". Federal Highway Administration. 2006. Retrieved March 4, 2009.
- ^ "China Expressway System to Exceed US Interstates". New Geography. Grand Forks, ND. January 22, 2011. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
- ^ "China overtakes US in car sales". The Guardian. London. January 8, 2010. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ^ "Motor vehicles statistics – countries compared worldwide". NationMaster. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ^ "Household, Individual, and Vehicle Characteristics". 2001 National Household Travel Survey. U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
- ^ "Daily Passenger Travel". 2001 National Household Travel Survey. U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
- ^ Renne, John L.; Wells, Jan S. (2003). "Emerging European-Style Planning in the United States: Transit-Oriented Development" (PDF). Rutgers University. p. 2. Retrieved June 11, 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "NatGeo surveys countries' transit use: guess who comes in last". Switchboard.nrdc.org. May 18, 2009. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ^ "Intercity Passenger Rail: National Policy and Strategies Needed to Maximize Public Benefits from Federal Expenditures". U.S. Government Accountability Office. November 13, 2006. Retrieved June 20, 2007.
- ^ "Amtrak Ridership Records". Amtrak. June 8, 2011. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
- ^ McGill, Tracy (January 1, 2011). "3 Reasons Light Rail Is an Efficient Transportation Option for U.S. Cities". MetaEfficient. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
- ^ McKenzie, Brian (May 2014). "Modes Less Traveled—Bicycling and Walking to Work in the United States: 2008–2012" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 17, 2014.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Scheduled Passengers Carried". International Air Transport Association (IATA). 2011. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
- ^ "Preliminary World Airport Traffic and Rankings 2013 - High Growth Dubai Moves Up to 7th Busiest Airport - Mar 31, 2014". Airports Council International. March 31, 2014. Archived from the original on April 1, 2014. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Diagram 1: Energy Flow, 2007" (PDF). EIA Annual Energy Review. U.S. Dept. of Energy, Energy Information Administration. 2007. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
- ^ "Country Comparison: Refined Petroleum Products - Consumption". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
- ^ "Atomic Renaissance". The Economist. London. September 6, 2007. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
- ^ "BP Statistical Review of World Energy" (XLS). British Petroleum. June 2007. Retrieved February 22, 2010.[dead link]
- ^ Ames, Paul (May 30, 2013). "Could fracking make the Persian Gulf irrelevant?". Salon. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
Since November, the United States has replaced Saudi Arabia as the world's biggest producer of crude oil. It had already overtaken Russia as the leading producer of natural gas.
- ^ "Edison's Story". Lemelson Center. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
- ^ Benedetti, François (December 17, 2003). "100 Years Ago, the Dream of Icarus Became Reality". Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). Archived from the original on September 12, 2007. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
- ^ Fraser, Gordon (2012). The Quantum Exodus: Jewish Fugitives, the Atomic Bomb, and the Holocaust. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-959215-9.
- ^ 10 Little Americans. Google Books. Retrieved September 15, 2014.
- ^ "NASA's Apollo technology has changed the history". Sharon Gaudin. Retrieved September 15, 2014.
- ^ "Research and Development (R&D) Expenditures by Source and Objective: 1970 to 2004". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
- ^ MacLeod, Donald (March 21, 2006). "Britain Second in World Research Rankings". The Guardian. London. Retrieved May 14, 2006.
- ^ "Exploring the Digital Nation—Computer and Internet Use at Home". U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration. November 8, 2011. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
- ^ "Report: 90% of Americans own a computerized gadget". CNN. February 3, 2011. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
- ^ "ISAAA Brief 39-2008: Executive Summary—Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2008" (PDF). International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications. p. 15. Retrieved July 16, 2010.
- ^ "Ages for Compulsory School Attendance ..." U.S. Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved June 10, 2007.
- ^ "Statistics About Non-Public Education in the United States". U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Non-Public Education. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
- ^ a b AP (June 25, 2013). "U.S. education spending tops global list, study shows". CBS. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
- ^ Rosenstone, Steven J. (December 17, 2009). "Public Education for the Common Good". University of Minnesota. Retrieved March 6, 2009.
- ^ "QS World University Rankings". Topuniversities. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ^ "Top 200 – The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2010–2011". Timeshighereducation.co.uk. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ^ "Educational Attainment in the United States: 2003" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved August 1, 2006.
- ^ For more detail on U.S. literacy, see A First Look at the Literacy of America's Adults in the 21st century, U.S. Department of Education (2003).
- ^ "Human Development Indicators" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Reports. 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 20, 2007. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
- ^ "Education at a Glance 2013" (PDF). OECD. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
- ^ Student Loan Debt Exceeds One Trillion Dollars. NPR, April 4, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
- ^ "Country Comparison: Life Expectancy at Birth". The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved October 25, 2011.
- ^ a b Murray, Christopher J.L. (July 10, 2013). "The State of US Health, 1990–2010: Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors". Journal of the American Medical Association. 310 (6): 591–608. doi:10.1001/jama.2013.13805. PMID 23842577. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 25, 2013.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ MacAskill, Ewen (August 13, 2007). "US Tumbles Down the World Ratings List for Life Expectancy". The Guardian. London. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
- ^ "Slideshow: Most obese countries". Reuters. Retrieved November 22, 2012.
- ^ "Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among Adults: United States, 2003–2004". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
- ^ Schlosser, Eric (2002). Fast Food Nation. New York: Perennial. p. 240. ISBN 0-06-093845-5.
- ^ "Fast Food, Central Nervous System Insulin Resistance, and Obesity". Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. American Heart Association. 2005. Retrieved June 17, 2007.
- ^ "Country Comparison: Infant Mortality Rate". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on April 11, 2014. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Cowen, Tyler (October 5, 2006). "Poor U.S. Scores in Health Care Don't Measure Nobels and Innovation". The New York Times. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
- ^ Whitman, Glen; Raad, Raymond. "Bending the Productivity Curve: Why America Leads the World in Medical Innovation". The Cato Institute. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
- ^ OECD Health Data 2000: A Comparative Analysis of 29 Countries [CD-ROM] (OECD: Paris, 2000). See also "The U.S. Healthcare System: The Best in the World or Just the Most Expensive?" (PDF). University of Maine. 2001. Retrieved November 29, 2006.
- ^ Abelson, Reed (June 10, 2008). "Ranks of Underinsured Are Rising, Study Finds". The New York Times. Retrieved October 25, 2008.
- ^ Blewett, Lynn A.; et al. (December 2006). "How Much Health Insurance Is Enough? Revisiting the Concept of Underinsurance". Medical Care Research and Review. 63 (6): 663–700. doi:10.1177/1077558706293634. ISSN 1077-5587. PMID 17099121.
{{cite journal}}
: Explicit use of et al. in:|author=
(help) - ^ Fahrenthold, David A. (April 5, 2006). "Mass. Bill Requires Health Coverage". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
- ^ "Health Care Law 54% Favor Repeal of Health Care Law". Rasmussen Reports. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
- ^ "Debate on ObamaCare to intensify in the wake of landmark Supreme Court ruling". Fox News. June 29, 2012. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
- ^ Thompson, William; Hickey, Joseph (2005). Society in Focus. Boston: Pearson. ISBN 0-205-41365-X.
- ^ Fiorina, Morris P.; Peterson, Paul E. (2000). The New American Democracy. London: Longman, p. 97. ISBN 0-321-07058-5.
- ^ Holloway, Joseph E. (2005). Africanisms in American Culture, 2d ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 18–38. ISBN 0-253-34479-4. Johnson, Fern L. (1999). Speaking Culturally: Language Diversity in the United States. Thousand Oaks, Calif., London, and New Delhi: Sage, p. 116. ISBN 0-8039-5912-5.
- ^ Huntington, Samuel P. (2004). "Chapters 2–4". Who are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684870533.: also see American's Creed, written by William Tyler Page and adopted by Congress in 1918.
- ^ AP (June 25, 2007). "Americans give record $295B to charity". USA Today. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
- ^ "International comparisons of charitable giving" (PDF). Charities Aid Foundation. November 2006. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
- ^ Clifton, Jon (March 21, 2013). "More Than 100 Million Worldwide Dream of a Life in the U.S. More than 25% in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Dominican Republic want to move to the U.S." Gallup. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ Gould, Elise (October 10, 2012). "U.S. lags behind peer countries in mobility." Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
- ^ CAP: Understanding Mobility in America[dead link]. April 26, 2006
- ^ Schneider, Donald (July 29, 2013). "A Guide to Understanding International Comparisons of Economic Mobility". The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
- ^ Winship, Scott (Spring 2013). "Overstating the Costs of Inequality" (PDF). National Affairs. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ Gutfeld, Amon (2002). American Exceptionalism: The Effects of Plenty on the American Experience. Brighton and Portland: Sussex Academic Press. p. 65. ISBN 1-903900-08-5.
- ^ Zweig, Michael (2004). What's Class Got To Do With It, American Society in the Twenty-First Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-8899-0. "Effects of Social Class and Interactive Setting on Maternal Speech". Education Resource Information Center. Retrieved January 27, 2007.
- ^ Eichar, Douglas (1989). Occupation and Class Consciousness in America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-26111-3.
- ^ O'Keefe, Kevin (2005). The Average American. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 1-58648-270-X.
- ^ "Media Statistics > Television Viewing by Country". NationMaster. Retrieved June 3, 2007.
- ^ "Broadband and Media Consumption". eMarketer. June 7, 2007. Retrieved June 10, 2007.
- ^ "TV Fans Spill into Web Sites". eMarketer. June 7, 2007. Retrieved June 10, 2007.
- ^ "Top Sites in United States". Alexa. 2010. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
- ^ "Spanish Newspapers in United States". W3newspapers.com. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
- ^ "Spanish Language Newspapers in the USA : Hispanic Newspapers : Periódiscos en Español en los EE.UU". Onlinenewspapers.com. Retrieved August 5, 2014.
- ^ Village Voice: 100 Best Films of the 20th century (2001). Filmsite.
- ^ "Sight & Sound Top Ten Poll 2002". British Film Institute. 2002. Archived from the original on November 5, 2002.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Nigeria surpasses Hollywood as world's second largest film producer" (Press release). United Nations. May 5, 2009. Retrieved February 17, 2013.
- ^ Daniels, Les (1998). Superman: The Complete History (1st ed.). Titan Books. p. 11. ISBN 1-85286-988-7.
- ^ a b Biddle, Julian (2001). What Was Hot!: Five Decades of Pop Culture in America. New York: Citadel, p. ix. ISBN 0-8065-2311-5.
- ^ Bloom, Harold. 1999. Emily Dickinson. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House. p. 9. ISBN 0-7910-5106-4.
- ^ Buell, Lawrence (Spring–Summer 2008). "The Unkillable Dream of the Great American Novel: Moby-Dick as Test Case". American Literary History. 20 (1–2): 132–155. doi:10.1093/alh/ajn005. ISSN 0896-7148.
- ^ Quinn, Edward (2006). A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms. Infobase, p. 361. ISBN 0-8160-6243-9. Seed, David (2009). A Companion to Twentieth-Century United States Fiction. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons, p. 76. ISBN 1-4051-4691-5. Meyers, Jeffrey (1999). Hemingway: A Biography. New York: Da Capo, p. 139. ISBN 0-306-80890-0.
- ^ Summers, Lawrence H. (November 19, 2006). "The Great Liberator". The New York Times. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
- ^ McFadden, Robert D. (January 9, 2013). "James M. Buchanan, Economic Scholar and Nobel Laureate, Dies at 93". The New York Times. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
- ^ Brown, Milton W. (1988 1963). The Story of the Armory Show. New York: Abbeville. ISBN 0-89659-795-4.
- ^ "Traditional Indigenous Recipes". http://aihd.ku.edu. Retrieved September 15, 2014.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|publisher=
- ^ a b Klapthor, James N. (August 23, 2003). "What, When, and Where Americans Eat in 2003". Newswise/Institute of Food Technologists. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
- ^ Smith, 2004, pp. 131–132
- ^ Levenstein, 2003, pp. 154–55
- ^ Boslaugh, Sarah (2010). "Obesity Epidemic", in Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices, ed. Roger Chapman. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 413–14. ISBN 978-0-7656-1761-3.
- ^ "Fast Food, Central Nervous System Insulin Resistance, and Obesity". Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. American Heart Association. 2005. Retrieved June 9, 2007. "Let's Eat Out: Americans Weigh Taste, Convenience, and Nutrition" (PDF). U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Retrieved June 9, 2007.
- ^ Liss, Howard. Lacrosse (Funk & Wagnalls, 1970) pg 13.
- ^ Chase, Chris (February 7, 2014). "The 10 most fascinating facts about the all-time Winter Olympics medal standings". USA Today. Retrieved February 28, 2014. Loumena, Dan (February 6, 2014). "With Sochi Olympics approaching, a history of Winter Olympic medals". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 28, 2014.
- ^ Global sports market to hit $141 billion in 2012. Reuters. Retrieved on July 24, 2013.
- ^ Krane, David K. (October 30, 2002). "Professional Football Widens Its Lead Over Baseball as Nation's Favorite Sport". Harris Interactive. Retrieved September 14, 2007. MacCambridge, Michael (2004). America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50454-0.
- ^ "Passion for College Football Remains Robust". National Football Foundation. March 19, 2013. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
- ^ Cowen, Tyler; Grier, Kevin (February 9, 2012). "What Would the End of Football Look Like?". Grantland/ESPN. Retrieved February 12, 2012.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "As American as Mom, Apple Pie and Football? Football continues to trump baseball as America's Favorite Sport" (PDF). Harris Interactive. January 16, 2014. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
- ^ McCauley, Adam. "Mixed Martial Arts News". Topics.nytimes.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
- ^ Oakes, Kalle (April 28, 2013). "Mixed Martial Arts: Its popularity is no contest". Sun Journal. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
Pay-per-view cards play out to captive audiences in millions of American homes, attracting more consumers than professional wrestling and boxing at the same price. An adrenaline-sports television network, Fuel, devotes more than half its 24-hour broadcast day to a single sport. Other, more popular cable or satellite stops furnish daily or weekly shows devoted to it.
Bibliography
- Acharya, Viral V.; Cooley, Thomas F.; Richardson, Matthew P.; Walter, Ingo (2010). Regulating Wall Street: The Dodd-Frank Act and the New Architecture of Global Finance. Wiley. p. 592. ISBN 978-0-470-76877-8.
- Barth, James; Jahera, John (2010). "US Enacts Sweeping Financial Reform Legislation". Journal of Financial Economic Policy. 2 (3): 192–195. doi:10.1108/17576381011085412.
- Berkin, Carol; Miller, Christopher L.; Cherny, Robert W.; Gormly, James L. (2007). Making America: A History of the United States, Volume I: To 1877. Cengage Learning. p. 75., Book
- Bianchine, Peter J.; Russo, Thomas A. (1992). "The Role of Epidemic Infectious Diseases in the Discovery of America". Allergy and Asthma Proceedings. 13 (5). OceanSide Publications, Inc.: 225–232. doi:10.2500/108854192778817040. PMID 1483570. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
- Boyer, Paul S.; Clark, Clifford E. Jr.; Kett, Joseph F.; Salisbury, Neal; Sitkoff, Harvard; Woloch, Nancy (2007). The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. Cengage Learning. p. 588. ISBN 978-0-618-80161-9., Book
- Clingan, Edmund. An Introduction to Modern Western Civilization. iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-4620-5439-8., Book
- Calloway, Colin G. New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America. JHU Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-8018-5959-5., Book
- Davis, Kenneth C. (1996). Don't know much about the Civil War. New York: William Marrow and Co. p. 518. ISBN 0-688-11814-3., Book
- Daynes, Byron W.; Sussman, Glen (eds.) (2010). White House Politics and the Environment: Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush. Texas A&M University Press. p. 320. ISBN 978-1-60344-254-1.
Presidential environmental policies, 1933–2009
{{cite book}}
:|first2=
has generic name (help), Book - Feldstein, Sylvan G.; Fabozzi, Frank J., CFA. The Handbook of Municipal Bonds. John Wiley & Sons, January 13, 2011. p. 1376. ISBN 978-1-118-04494-0.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link), Book - Gold, Susan Dudley (2006). United States V. Amistad: Slave Ship Mutiny. Marshall Cavendish. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-7614-2143-6., Book
- Ferguson, Thomas; Rogers, Joel (1986). "The Myth of America's Turn to the Right". The Atlantic. 257 (5): 43–53. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
- Fraser, Steve; Gerstle, Gary (1989). The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order: 1930–1980. American History: Political science. Princeton University Press. p. 311. ISBN 978-0-691-00607-9.
- Gordon, John Steele (2004). An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power. HarperCollins., Book
- Graebner, Norman A.; Burns, Richard Dean; Siracusa, Joseph M. (2008). Reagan, Bush, Gorbachev: Revisiting the End of the Cold War. Praeger Security International Series. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-313-35241-6.
- Hughes, David (2007). The British Chronicles. Vol. 1. Westminster, Maryland: Heritage Books. p. 347.
- Jacobs, Lawrence R. (2010). Health Care Reform and American Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-978142-3.
- Johnson, Paul (1997). A History of the American People. HarperCollins. pp. 26–30., eBook version
- Juergens, Tom (2011). Wicked Puritans of Essex County. The History Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-59629-566-7., Book
- Kessel, William B.; Wooster, Robert (2005). Encyclopedia of Native American Wars and Warfare. Facts on File library of American History. Infobase Publishing. p. 398. ISBN 978-0-8160-3337-9., Book
- Kolko, Gabriel (1988). Confronting the Third World: United States Foreign Policy, 1945–1980. New York, NY: Pantheon.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Leckie, Robert (1990). None died in vain: The Saga of the American Civil War. New York: Harper-Collins. p. 682. ISBN 0-06-016280-5., Book
- Leffler, Melvyn P. (2010). "The emergence of an American grand strategy, 1945–1952". In Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad, eds.,The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Volume 1: Origins (pp. 67–89). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83719-4.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Lemon, James T. (1987). "Colonial America in the 18th Century". In Robert D. Mitchell; Paul A. Groves (eds.). North America: the historical geography of a changing continent. Rowman & Littlefield., PDF
- Lien, Ph.D, Arnold Johnson (1913). Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, Volume 54. Longmans, Green & Co., Agents, London; Columbia University, New York. p. 604.
- Karen Woods Weierman (2005). One Nation, One Blood: Interracial Marriage In American Fiction, Scandal, And Law, 1820–1870. University of Massachusetts Press. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-55849-483-1., Book
- Levenstein, Harvey (2003). Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles. ISBN 0-520-23439-1.
- Mann, Kaarin (2007). "Interracial Marriage In Early America: Motivation and the Colonial Project" (PDF). Michigan Journal of History (Fall). University of Michigan. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 15, 2013.
{{cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - Price, David A. (2003). Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation. Random House. eBook version
- Quirk, Joel (2011). The Anti-Slavery Project: From the Slave Trade to Human Trafficking. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 344. ISBN 978-0-8122-4333-8., Book
- Ranlet, Philip (1999). Alden T. Vaughan (ed.). New England Encounters: Indians and Euroamericans Ca. 1600–1850. North Eastern University Press.
- Rausch, David A. (1994). Native American Voices. Baker Books, Grand Rapids. p. 180., Book
- Remini, Robert V. (2007). The House: The History of the House of Representatives. HarperCollins. pp. 2–3., Book
- Ripper, Jason (2008). American Stories: To 1877. M.E. Sharpe. p. 299. ISBN 978-0-7656-2903-6., Book
- Russell, John Henderson (1913). The Free Negro in Virginia, 1619–1865. Johns Hopkins University. p. 196., E'Book
- Schneider, Dorothy; Schneider, Carl J. (2007). Slavery in America. Infobase Publishing. p. 554. ISBN 978-1-4381-0813-1., Book
- Schultz, David Andrew (2009). Encyclopedia of the United States Constitution. Infobase Publishing. p. 904. ISBN 978-1-4381-2677-7., Book
- Simonson, Peter (2010). Refiguring Mass Communication: A History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07705-0.
He held high the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the nation's unofficial motto, e pluribus unum, even as he was recoiling from the party system in which he had long participated.
, Book - Smith, Andrew F. (2004). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 131–32. ISBN 0-19-515437-1.
- Soss, Joe (2010). Hacker, Jacob S.; Mettler, Suzanne (eds.). Remaking America: Democracy and Public Policy in an Age of Inequality. Russell Sage Foundation. ISBN 978-1-61044-694-5., Book
- Tadman, Michael (2000). The Demographic Cost of Sugar: Debates on Slave Societies and Natural Increase in the Americas. Vol. 105. Oxford University Press.
{{cite book}}
:|journal=
ignored (help), Article - Taylor, Alan (2002). Eric Foner (ed.). American Colonies: The Settling of North America. Penguin Books, New York. ISBN 0-670-87282-2., Book
- Thornton, Russell (1987). American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492. Volume 186 of Civilization of the American Indian Series. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-8061-2220-5., Book
- Tooze, Adam (2006). The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9566-4.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - Vaughan, Alden T. (1999). New England Encounters: Indians and Euroamericans Ca. 1600–1850. North Eastern University Press.
- Walton, Gary M.; Rockoff, Hugh (2009). History of the American Economy. Cengage Learning., Book
- Williams, Daniel K. (2012). "Questioning Conservatism's Ascendancy: A Reexamination of the Rightward Shift in Modern American Politics; {Reviews in American History}" (PDF). 40 (2). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 325–331. doi:10.1353/rah.2012.0043. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - Winchester, Simon (2013). The men who United the States. Harper Collins. pp. 198, 216, 251, 253. ISBN 978-0-06-207960-2.
- Zinn, Howard (2005). A People's History of the United States. Harper Perennial Modern Classics. pp. 321–357. ISBN 0-06-083865-5.
Website sources
- "Country Profile: United States of America". BBC News. London. April 22, 2008. Retrieved May 18, 2008.
- Cohen, Eliot A. (July–August 2004). "History and the Hyperpower". Foreign Affairs. Washington D.C. Retrieved July 14, 2006.
- "Slavery and the Slave Trade in Rhode Island".
- "History of "In God We Trust"". U.S. Department of the Treasury. March 8, 2011. Retrieved February 23, 2013.
- "Early History, Native Americans, and Early Settlers in Mercer County". Mercer County Historical Society. 427. Archived from the original on April 15, 2013., Book
- Nick Hayes (November 6, 2009). "Looking back 20 years: Who deserves credit for ending the Cold War?". MinnPost. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
- "59e. The End of the Cold War". U.S. History.org. Independence Hall Association. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
- Levy, Peter B. (1996). Encyclopedia of the Reagan-Bush Years. ABC-CLIO. p. 442. ISBN 978-0-313-29018-3.
- Wallander, Celeste A. (2003). "Western Policy and the Demise of the Soviet Union". Journal of Cold War Studies. 5 (4). President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 137–177. doi:10.1162/152039703322483774. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
External links
- "United States". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency.
- United States, from the BBC News
- Key Development Forecasts for the United States from International Futures
- Government
- Official U.S. Government Web Portal Gateway to government sites
- House Official site of the United States House of Representatives
- Senate Official site of the United States Senate
- White House Official site of the President of the United States
- Supreme Court Official site of the Supreme Court of the United States
- History
- Historical Documents Collected by the National Center for Public Policy Research
- U.S. National Mottos: History and Constitutionality Analysis by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
- USA Collected links to historical data
- Maps
- National Atlas of the United States Official maps from the U.S. Department of the Interior
Wikimedia Atlas of the United States
- Measure of America A variety of mapped information relating to health, education, income, and demographics for the U.S.