Andrzej Diniejko

ENGLISH SPEAKING-COUNTRIES

Volume Two

INTRODUCTION TO
THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA

Revised and updated e-book for students of English

1 September, 2009
Copyright © 2009: Andrzej Diniejko
 Acknowledgements

For their consulations and advice, I am indebted to John Anderson (UK), Martin Murphy, and
Jolanta Palowska, whose improvements of the text and comments on matters of detail have
been of great assistance.
Photo credit: William Warby (Wikipedia)
This is an updated and enlarged PDF edition of the book published by EGIS (Cracow) in
2005.

Od redaktora

Publikacja, któr oddajemy Czytelnikom stanowi zwi y wyk ad wiedzy o krajach

angloj zycznych (Wielka Brytania i Irlandia). Obejmuje ona w syntetycznym skrócie
wiadomo ci o geografii, demografii, historii, ustroju politycznym, gospodarce, nauce i
technice, edukacji, literaturze, kulturze, yciu codziennym i obyczajach mieszka ców tych
krajów.
Opracowanie jest adresowane do szerokiego kr gu czytelników: uczniów szkó
rednich, kandydatów na studia z angielskim j zykiem wyk adowym, studentów kolegiów
zyka angielskiego, nauczycieli j zyka angielskiego oraz tych wszystkich, którzy pragn
mie skondensowany wyk ad wiedzy o krajach angloj zycznych. Ksi ka jest bogato
zaopatrzona w wiczenia sprawdzaj ce. Przy ko cu ka dego paragrafu znajduj si
pytania, które pomog Czytelnikowi sprawdzi , czy zrozumia przeczytan tre oraz
owniczek trudniejszych wyrazów. Ponadto na ko cu ka dego rozdzia u podano adresy
stron internetowych oraz zalecan literatur poszerzaj dane zagadnienie, a tak e
zestawy wicze uzupe niaj cych (More Tests and Tasks).
Autor i redakcja z wdzi czno ci przyjm wszelkie uwagi i zalecenia odnosz ce si
do zawarto ci niniejszej pracy.

2
 To the Reader

The aim of this book is to provide readers with basic information about the life,
institutions, and culture of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It is intended
for a wide group of learners of English, including students in secondary and advanced
education, as well as pre-service and in-service teachers of English and other learners of
English who need a comprehensive overview of background information relating to
English-speaking countries. Much of the information here offered is of course little more
than a compilation and distillation of facts found in numerous publications devoted to
Great Britain and Ireland. The basic approach is historical. Starting with a geographical
account there follow accounts surveying the population structure, history, language, public
life and institutions, economy, science and technology, education, culture, media and
lifestyles of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
I could not have written this book without reference to a number of authoritative
sources, including the pamphlets of the Central Office of Information, The Encyclopaedia
Britannica, The Columbia Encyclopedia as well as numerous web sites, including
Wikipedia, and many others acknowledged in the Bibliography. Although the material is
primarily factual and descriptive, an attempt has been made to highlight some of the major
problems of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Limitations of space do not
allow the inclusion of all that is worth mentioning. Nor is the book exempt from
drawbacks. I am well aware of the difficulty of avoiding errors in a publication like this.
Corrections of this book will be most gratefully welcomed.
The book is divided into two unequal parts. Part One deals with the United
Kingdom; Part Two, with the Republic of Ireland. In order to make reference easier, the
book is further divided into chapters, sections and subsections. Each section ends with Test
your knowledge questions and each chapter ends with More Tests and Tasks.
It is hoped that this book may encourage the reader to further study of English-
speaking countries. Therefore, at the end of each chapter a list of useful web sites and
further reading is provided.

3
 Facts in Brief

Area: total: c. 9.8 million square km

land: c. 9,4 million sq km
water: c. 0.4 million sq km
coastline: 19,924 km
Population: 303 million (2008 estimate)
Division: 50 states and 1 federal district
Capital: Washington, D.C.
Head of State: President
Government: federal constitutional republic with strong democratic tradition
Language(s): English
Currency: 1 dollar (USD) = 100 cents
Natural resources: coal, copper, lead, phosphates, uranium, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury,
petroleum, natural gas, timber.

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 Chapter One

Land and People

1. Geography

The United States is one of the largest countries in the world. On the continent of North
America, it stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean over a distance of more
than 4,800 kilometers. Its total area including Alaska and Hawaii is about 9.8 million
square kilometers.
The capital of the United States is located in Washington, D.C. The major cities in
the United States, with a population of over 1 million, are New York City, Los Angeles,
Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, San Diego, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Dallas.
The U.S.A. is a federation of fifty states. The largest state is Alaska, the second
largest is Texas, and the smallest is Rhode Island. The ten most populous states in 2008
were: California (over 36 million), Texas (over 20 million), New York (almost 19 million),
Florida (18 million), Pennsylvania (over 12 million), Ohio (over 11 million), Michigan (10
million), New Jersey (8.5 million), Georgia (8 million), and North Carolina (over 8
million).
Within its physical geography, the United States has varied landforms, climate,
natural vegetation, and soil.

5
 The eastern part of the U.S.A. is a vast plain along the Atlantic Coast from New
Jersey in the northeast to Texas in the southwest. To the west is higher country called the
Piedmont, an area of rolling hills that stretches from southern New York southwards to
Alabama.
The Appalachian Mountains extend from Alabama in the south to the Canadian
border in the north. The highest mountain in the Appalachians is Mount Mitchell in North
Carolina (2,037 meters).
The Interior Lowlands, stretching from the Appalachians to the Rocky Mountains,
contain some of America’s richest soils. They include the Central Lowland and the Great
Plains, and make up much of the central part of the country. In a few places plateaux rise
above the plains, e.g. the Ozark Plateau to the south. The Great Plains are drier than the
rest of the area.
The western part of the United States is a land of mountains and of sudden, great
changes in elevation. The West includes three important mountain ranges: the Rocky
Mountains, the Cascade Ranges and the Sierra Nevada Range. The highest peak of the
Rocky Mountains is Mount Elbert (4,399 meters) in Colorado. The Rocky Mountains
stretch along the entire western part of the United States from Canada almost to Mexico.
They have many beautiful pine forests and clear lakes. The “Rockies” are broken into
several separate mountain units.
East of the lowlands are the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade mountain ranges. The
Sierra Nevada look like a massive section of earth tilted upward, with the highest segments
exposed towards the east. Although the western borders of the Sierra Nevada are
reasonably gentle, on the eastern side the mountains rise in some places more than 3,000
meters. Volcanic activity contributed to the formation of the Cascade Range. Some of
America’s best known volcanic peaks, such as Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens in
Washington, are found there. Between these two highland regions is the area of the Great
Plains. There are also areas of plains along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
Alaska is far to the north along the Pacific Coast past Canadian British Columbia.
There are mountains in the north and in the south of Alaska. Central Alaska has plateaux.
The highest peak in the U.S.A., Mt. McKinley, is in Alaska. It reaches 6,193 meters.
The twenty islands of Hawaii are volcanic. Only seven of them are inhabited.
The longest rivers are the Mississippi (3,779 kilometers) and the Missouri (3,726
kilometers), flowing from the north and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi
River is also the traditional dividing line between “East” and “West”. A number of its
tributaries include the Platte, the Arkansas, the Ohio and the Tennessee rivers. The
Potomac River, nicknamed the “Nation’s River” flows through the capital of the U.S.A.,
Washington, D.C. Other major rivers are the Columbia in the Northwest and the Colorado
in the Southwest, the Rio Grande, and the San Joaquin-Sacramento rivers, which flow into
the Pacific Ocean. The Rio Grande, the fifth longest river in the United States, is woven
into America’s national mythology. It was the scene of the Spanish imperial quests and US
conquest of one third of Mexico’s territory. The Colorado River, which flows through parts
of seven western states (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona,
California) and the Grand Canyon, binds and defines the West of the United States. The
picturesque Yellowstone River flows from the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
in Wyoming to the Montana/North Dakota border.
The United States has a great number of picturesque lakes. The northern state of
Minnesota is known as “the land of 10,000 lakes”. The state of Michigan, formed of two
large peninsulas, is surrounded by four great lakes: Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie.

6
Together with the Lake Ontario and their connecting channels, they all form the largest
fresh surface water system on earth. Great Salt Lake, situated in northern Utah, is much
saltier than the ocean. It is the remnant of a prehistoric glacial lake in the Great Basin.
The most fertile land in the United States is in the Midwestern “Corn Belt”. Maize
(called “corn” in American English) is grown in the moister, eastern area called the “long
grass prairie”, and wheat is grown in the northern, drier area called the “short grass
prairie”. There are some deserts in the West and nearly tropical areas in the
Southeast, vast timberlands in the Northwest and fertile valleys in the hilly eastern regions.
Death Valley in California is an interesting geographical feature about 160 kilometers long
(north to south) and between 16 to 30 kilometers wide. There is no vegetation at the
bottom of Death Valley because of a lack of water. Some of the most impressive wonders
of nature in the United States are the Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone,
Glacier and Yosemite National Parks.
The U.S. has a great variety of climates. The wettest region of the US includes the
mountains near the Pacific north western coast. California has a warm climate. Extremes of
temperature occur in the North of the US. The northernmost areas near the Canadian
border have a very short growing season and long, cold winters. The Appalachians and the
eastern coasts are generally humid with varying temperatures. Southward the temperature
becomes moderate; the growing season is longer, winters are milder, and summers are hot.
The South is a humid subtropical zone with short, cool winters and long, hot summers. The
southernmost climate is tropical. The climate along the northern part of the western coast
resembles that of Britain. In the northern, inland part of the country the extreme
temperatures may reach 360 C in summer and plunge to - 400 C in winter. In the eastern
part of the country the differences between summer and winter are not so extreme.
The United States has immense natural resources. Iron is a major natural resource.
Three-quarters of American iron ore comes from the Lake Superior region. Coal, oil and
natural gas are common sources of energy in the United States. Other rich mineral deposits
include copper (Arizona, New Mexico and Utah), gold (gold mining in the U.S. takes place
in the western states including Alaska), lead (the U.S. is the world’s largest producer and
consumer of lead metal), silver (Idaho) and zinc (Tennessee, Missouri, and New York).
Uranium is mined in New Mexico and Wyoming.
The United States has many forested areas. Some of them have become national
parks, like the Yellowstone National, founded in 1872. The national parks are run by the
National Park Service. Large forests of redwood and fir trees grow on the north-western
coast.
Thanks to the thousands of kilometers of coastline and modern city ports, such as
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Mobile, New Orleans, Houston, San
Francisco, and Seattle, the United States has become one of the leaders in world trade. The
five Great Lakes, linked to the Mississippi waterways make cheap transport via water
possible.
Wheat and corn are grown in the central prairies and the plains states. Corn, used as
hog and cattle feed, is probably the most important of all American crops. Iowa produces
about one fifth of the total United States corn crop. Cotton and tobacco are grown in the
South. Citrus fruits are grown in California and in the semitropical areas of the Southeast.
Apples are grown in the Northwest and Northeast. Cattle are raised throughout the plains
states.
The mainland United States is divided into four Standard Time Zones: Eastern,
Central, Mountain, and Pacific. When it is noon in Poland, it is 6 a.m. in New York,

7
Boston, Washington, DC, and other Eastern Time Zone areas. In Chicago, which is in the
Central Time Zone, it is an hour earlier (5 a.m.). The next time zone, referred to as the
Mountain Time Zone, includes the Rocky Mountain States of Montana, Arizona, Utah, and
New Mexico. This time is eight hours earlier than in Poland. Finally, the Pacific Time
Zone comprises the states of Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada. The time
difference between these and Poland is nine hours.
The outlying U.S. areas include: the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam,
American Samoa, minor Caribbean Islands, Wake, Midway, and other Pacific Islands, the
Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the
Republic of Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.
Puerto Rico (9,104 square kilometers) is a self-governing territory of the United
States with commonwealth status. It has a distinct Caribbean/Hispanic culture. Puerto
Ricans cannot vote in U.S. national elections, but are represented in the U.S. House of
Representatives by one resident commissioner, whom they elect for a four-year term and
who has no congressional vote. Puerto Ricans are free to relocate to the U.S. mainland,
have access to employment, health and welfare benefits, and can join the U.S. armed
services.

Fact file:
Major rivers of the United States
Alabama-Coosa (966 km)
Arkansas (2,348 km)
Colorado (2,333 km)
Columbia (2,000 km)
Mississippi-Missouri-Red Rock (5,970 km)
Ohio (1,579 km)
Platte (1,593 km)
Potomac (616 km)
Red (2,080 km)
Rio Grande (3,060 km)
Snake (1,670 km)
Tennessee (1,049 km)
Yellowstone (1,110 km)

Source: Time Almanac 2004.

Assignment:
Find these rivers on the U.S. map.

Fact file:
Major lakes of the United States
Superior (US/Canada) 82,414 sq km, 406 m
Huron (US/Canada) 59,596 sq km, 229 m
Michigan-Erie (US/Canada) 58,016 sq km, 281 m
Ontario (US/Canada) 19,477 sq km, 237 m
Great Salt Lake 4,662 sq km, 5–8 m

Source: Time Almanac 2004.

8
Assignment:
Find these lakes on the US map.

Fact file:
Miscellaneous data about the United States

Highest point: Mt. McKinley, Alaska, 6,198 m

Lowest point: Death Valley, California, 86 m below sea level
Points farthest apart (50 states): Log Point, Elliot Key,
Florida, and Kure Island, Hawaii (9,429 km)
Geographic center (50 states): in Butte County, South
Dakota (west of Castle Rock) 44°58'N 103°46'W
Geographic center (48 contiguous states): in Smith
County near Lebanon, Kansas 39°50'N 98°35'W

Boundaries: between Alaska and Canada 2,475 km;

between the 48 contiguous states and Canada
(including the Great Lakes) 6,416 km;
between the United States and Mexico 3,111 km.

Assignment:
Find Mt. McKinley and Death Valley on the map.

Test your knowledge

1. What is the area of the United States?
2. How many states make up the United States of America?
3. What is the longest river in the U.S.A.?
4. What is the highest mountain in the U.S.A.?
5. How many standard time zones are there in the U.S.?
6. What are the U.S. outlying areas?

Glossary
bauxite – the principal ore of aluminum (boksyt)
commissioner – a person authorized to perform certain duties (komisarz, pe nomocnik)
contiguous – neighboring; adjacent (s siedni, przyleg y)
corn – a cereal (kukurydza)
glacial – of, relating to, or derived from a glacier (lodowcowy)
gulf – a large area of a sea or ocean partially enclosed by land (zatoka)
interior – of, relating to, or located on the inside; inner (wewn trzny)
lead – a soft heavy metal that is found naturally (o ów)
lowland – an area of land that is low in relation to the surrounding country (nizina)
mainland – a continuous body of land that constitutes the main part of a country or

9
continent
(sta y l d)
mercury – a silvery-white poisonous metallic element; Hg (rt )
miscellaneous – concerned with diverse subjects or aspects (ró norodny)
outlying – relatively distant or remote from a center or middle (oddalony, poza granic )
plain – an extensive, level area of land (równina)
plateau(x) – an elevated, comparatively level area of land; a tableland (p akowy , plateau)
range – a row or chain of mountains (pasmo górskie)
redwood – sequoia (sekwoja)
tributary – a stream flowing into a larger stream (dop yw)
wheat – a cereal (pszenica)

2. Population

The population of the United States in 2008 is estimated to reach 303,000,000 million,
which includes about 242 million white Americans, about 39 million African-Americans,
16 million Asian Americans, nearly 5 million American Indians and Alaska Native, and
almost 1 million of Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders. People of Hispanic or Latino
origin, who can be of any race, numbered in 2006 nearly 36 million.
The inhabitants of the United States are a mixture of many different nationalities.
The United States has been called “a nation of immigrants” because the country was settled
and developed by generations of immigrants from many European and non-European
countries. The majority of immigrants came from Europe in the years between 1861
and 1914. Until about 1860, the vast majority of the population in the United States was
WASP, i.e. White Anglo-Saxon Protestant along with Irish Catholics as well as a certain
number of Germans, Dutch, and Scandinavians. After that year, almost 30 million
immigrants arrived from Europe. They were Italians, Germans, Poles (about 2 million),
Ukrainians, Czechs, Russians, and many other nationalities.
In Europe, famine, poor harvests, rising populations and political unrest caused an
estimated 5 million people to leave their homelands each year. In Ireland, a blight attacked
the potato crop, and c. 750,000 people starved to death. Many of the survivors emigrated.
In one year alone, 1847, the number of Irish immigrants to the United States reached
118,120. Today there are about 39 million Americans of Irish descent.
Jews came to the United States in large numbers beginning in about 1880, as a
result of fierce pogroms in Russia. Over the next forty-five years, two million Jews moved
to the United States. The U.S. Jewish population today is more than five million.
Until the early 1970s, immigration from Europe prevailed. In the 1970s and 1980s
more immigrants came from Latin America and Asia than from Europe. Apart from legal
immigrants, it is estimated that there are currently about 6 million illegal immigrants in the
US, the majority of them coming from Mexico, and Central and South America.
The immigrants who settled in the U.S. brought with them not only their skills but
also a different cultural heritage which many of their descendants maintain. For example,
many Jewish immigrants, who were persecuted in Europe, contributed significantly to the
development of commerce, science, literature, and the arts in the U.S. Today America is a
multiethnic nation, although 94 percent of all Americans were born in the United States.
Immigration has contributed to the rapid growth of the Asian and Hispanic
populations since the 1960s. In 1997, 38 per cent of the Hispanic population and 61 per

10
cent of the Asian population were foreign-born, compared with 8 per cent of the white
population, 6 per cent of the African American population, and 6 per cent of the Native
American population. The increased immigration of Asians and Hispanics over the past
several decades is largely the result of changes in immigration policy. In particular, the
1965 Immigration Act ended
the system of national origin quotas that had previously restricted immigration from non-
European countries. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 also contributed to
the increase in the documented Asian and Hispanic populations by legalizing a large
number of immigrants who had been residing illegally.
While immigration of Asians and Hispanics has increased, population growth has
slowed dramatically for the United States as a whole, largely due to declining fertility rates
among non-Hispanic blacks and non-Hispanic whites. As a result of this declining fertility,
the non-Hispanic white share of the population has fallen since 1970, and the non-Hispanic
black share of the population has increased only slightly.
The United States has also been called “melting pot” because the new land offered
a unique opportunity of assimilation and integration for many different nationalities. Today
the “melting pot” metaphor, which implies a smooth assimilation resulting in homogeneity,
is replaced instead by the more realistic “salad bowl” or “pizza” metaphors, which mean
that various ethnic communities make up American society without losing their cultural
attributes.
America’s population reveals remarkable ethnic diversity which includes people of
different race, color of skin, nationality, and religion. Race distribution in particular states
is uneven. In Mississippi, African-Americans make up about 35 per cent of the state’s
population, compared with 1 percent in Wyoming. In Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital,
Afro-Americans form the majority (70 per cent of the population).
In 17 states, Hispanic Americans form the largest minority. The American Indian
and Alaska Native population amounts to 5 million, which is about only 1.5 percent of the
whole population. However, it is believed that 20 million U.S. citizens may have an
admixture of Indian blood.
It is estimated that in the year 2010, 40 percent of the population of California will
be Hispanic, Asian, or black. Similar demographic changes will be taking place in most
metropolitan areas of the United States. This will have an impact on the evolution of
American life. Excluding Latin barrios (neighborhoods), every large city in the U.S. has
many ethnic neighborhoods, e.g. Chinatowns in New York, San Francisco and Los
Angeles; Italian (Little Italies), East Indian, Vietnamese, Arab, Polish, and, of course,
black districts, such as Harlem in New York City.
For a long time the core of the American way of life has been the Protestant
tradition founded on rationalism, a strong sense of discipline, management of time, respect
for the individual, etc. Now traditional Protestant values are being supplemented by new
values introduced by ethnic groups. For example, Hispanics bring to American society a
strong Catholic element, including such values as a sense of compassion and sharing as
well as adherence to the bonds of extended family.
As indicated earlier, the number of the inhabitants of the United States is a little
over 303 million. 75 percent of Americans live in metropolitan areas. However,
metropolitan areas are becoming increasingly suburban, i.e. c. 60 per cent of residents live
outside great cities. Since 1986, the U.S. population has grown faster in rural areas than in
urban locations. Approximately, 25 per cent of the U.S. population lives in rural areas. In
recent decades, many Americans have changed their residence. A large number of people

11
have left the Northeast and Midwest to move to the South and Southwest. These states of
the South and Southwest are called the “Sun Belt” because they usually have sunny, hot
weather. In the last twenty years, the number of people in Florida and Arizona has almost
doubled. In the same period, the population of Texas has grown larger by one quarter.
Many companies have set up their factories and offices in the prosperous Sun Belt.

Black Americans

Among the flood of immigrants to North America, one group came unwillingly. The first
Africans were brought to America by Europeans in the 17th century and they were sold in
slave markets. Some 500,000 blacks were brought over as slaves from 1619 until 1808,
when importing slaves into the United States became illegal.
President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 marked the beginning of a
long struggle by black Americans for civil rights and equal opportunity. The problem of
race and color prejudice still remains one of America’s greatest moral dilemmas. In 1835, a
French visitor, Alexis de Tocqueville, observed that whites and blacks were “two foreign
communities”. In 1944, the Swedish scholar, Gunnar Myrdal, wrote a book entitled An
American Dilemma, in which he stated that American blacks still could not escape the
caste condition into which they were born. It was not until 1965 that Afro-Americans
began to participate fully in the social, economic and political life of the United States.
Now Afro-Americans hold high federal and state offices, including seats in Congress.
However, some critics of the U.S. argue that it is still a segregated nation. It is true to say
that even at the beginning of the 21st century many blacks feel unequal in American
society, although racism is officially outlawed.
Today there is certainly much more contact between the races. Surveys indicate a
sharp decline in racist sentiment among whites. However, race relations are still a source of
conflict, particularly in urban communities. Many cities have become more segregated
residentially than they were in the 1960s. One reason is that the violent crime rate is
statistically highest among young black males. Again, statistically, black men commit
violent crimes at a rate six to eight times higher than whites. It seems that one of the ways
of reducing racism in America is to reduce the black crime rate by improving the quality of
life of the black population in inner cities. Many blacks live in poor, disorganized, drug-
infested neighborhoods which create favorable conditions for the growth of juvenile
delinquency and crime. This fact is a byproduct of their still unequal socioeconomic status.

Hispanics

Hispanics tend to place great emphasis on family life. They usually have larger families
than other Americans. Hispanics can be divided into Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and
other Latinos. They live all over the United States. However, two thirds of Cubans live in
Florida; more than two thirds of Puerto Ricans live in the Northeast and about three fifths
of Mexicans live in the West. Some Hispanic communities live in very distant places, e.g.
Chicago, where Mexicans are concentrated in the Little Village and Pilsen districts, and
Puerto Ricans live in Logan Square and Humboldt Park. In Chicago, Mexicans constitute
65 percent of Hispanics and Puerto Ricans about 22 percent. Puerto Ricans are also the
largest Hispanic group in New York City.

12
The Native Americans

The ancestors of the American Indians came from Asia about 10,000 years ago. At that
time the Bering Strait was frozen, so animals and people could pass from Siberia to
Alaska on foot. They gradually spread all over North and South America.
The Algonquin Indians were the first to meet English settlers. In 1621 the early
English colonists, known as Pilgrims or Pilgrim Fathers, settled in Massachusetts. They
were indebted to local Indians who had shown them how to cultivate and harvest maize,
squash, and pumpkins. After their first harvest, the Massachusetts Pilgrims decided to
thank God for the abundance of crops. They organized a feast and invited the Indians to
share it with them. This was probably the origin of the celebration of Thanksgiving Day in
the United States on the third Thursday of November. Thanksgiving was probably an
adaptation of the Amerindian (American Indian) Green Corn Ceremony, once widespread
among the native peoples of eastern North America, who gave thanks for successful crops
of corn1.
There were over a quarter of a million Indians living in the American West. The
Sioux, Blackfoot, Crow, Cheyenne, Comanche, Apache, Pueblo, and Navajo were
independent tribes. They were often at war with one another and with the United States
Army. One by one they were defeated and driven into reservations. The reservations were
often located on poor land with few resources. Therefore, Indians could hardly make a
living and preserve their way of life.
When the early settlers arrived in the West, the Apaches lived in thatched huts, or
in tepees made of animal skin. The Apaches hunted for their food. They fought fiercely to
keep their lands but were mercilessly defeated by the United States Army. In 1886, their
leader, Geronimo, led a group of Apaches from a reservation in a final fight against the
invaders, but he was defeated and again placed in a reservation. Today, descendants of the
Apaches live in Arizona and New Mexico.
The Pueblo Indians were mostly farmers. They grew corn, beans, and squash. The
Pueblo Indians, who live in New Mexico and Arizona, are well known for their art.
The Navajos are the largest group of American Indians in the United States. They
live in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. In the mid-1800s, the Navajos fought against
white settlers. The United States Army prevailed and forced them to march several
hundred kilometers to a reservation. The majority died along the way. This is known in
history as the “Long March”.
Today, the Native Americans are among the poorest and least educated people in
the USA. It is hard for them to find employment, so many of them remain apathetic and
unable to live outside their reservations, although there are a few exceptions, for example,
the Mohawk Indians are favored in the high rise construction business; they have
contributed to the building of many skyscrapers in New York City.

Polish Americans

Polish immigration to the United States followed in three major waves. The first
wave of immigrants, from the late 1800s to World War I, came to America mainly for
economic reasons. Many immigrants were illiterate and unskilled laborers in their own
1
Philip R. De Vita and James D. Armstrong (eds.). Distant Mirrors. America as a Foreign Culture. Belmont,
CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1993, p. 137.

13
country. The majority came from the southern and south-eastern parts of Poland (the Tatra
Mountains and Ma opolska region). These early Polish immigrants had been registered as
citizens of Russia, Austria or Prussia because Poland did not exist then as an independent
country.
The second wave of immigration took place after World War II. It consisted
primarily of ex-soldiers serving the Allied Forces in the West, ex-POWs (prisoners of
war), labor camp prisoners, dissidents and intellectuals from refugee camps all over
Europe.
The third wave of Polish immigrants arrived in great numbers after the introduction
of martial law in 1981. Some of them were expelled by the Communist authorities as
dissidents. Others won their visas in the US visa lottery. Many of the new immigrants were
highly skilled professionals. It is estimated that the number of Americans of Polish descent
is more than 10 million. There are many Polish ethnic organizations, institutes and clubs in
the U.S.
The Polish American Congress (PAC) represents Americans of Polish descent. It is
a federation of over 3,000 Polish American organizations, such as the Polish National
Alliance, Polish Women’s Alliance, Polish Roman Catholic Union, Polish Falcons and
others, including veteran, cultural, professional, religious and social associations, with a
total membership of over one million. The PAC promotes civic, educational and cultural
programs designed to further not only the knowledge of Polish history, language and
culture, but to stimulate Polish American involvement and accomplishments.
Polish Americans live in all parts of the U.S., but only Chicago and New York City
have large Polish American communities. In Chicago Polish American cultural and
economic life is concentrated in the Polish neighborhood called Jackowo, which takes its
name after the Polish Church of St. Jacek. There are many Polish shops and pharmacies as
well as offices with Polish-speaking lawyers. Poles of Chicago, with a population of over
300,000, account for one in four of the non-Hispanic residents of this city. About 50,000
Poles came to Chicago in the 1980s, mostly as a result of introducing martial law in
Poland.
The Polish community has a local Polish-language press, radio and television. In
the Polish restaurants, waiters serve tons of Polish pierogi, kielbasa, bigos, golonka,
golambki, etc. There are also two distinct Polish neighborhoods in New York City. One of
them is located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and the other in Greenpoint,
Brooklyn, which has many Polish bars, restaurants, bookshops and shops, e.g. Mazur Meat
Market, Podlasie, Staropolski Deli, etc.

Famous Poles in America

Mieczys aw Bekker (1905–1989) – engineer; developed mobility systems for luna rovers.
Zbigniew Brzezi ski (1928–) – scholar and political writer; National Security Adviser to
President Jimmy Carter.
Francis S. Gabreski (Franciszek Gabryszewski, 1919– ) – fighter pilot during World War
II
and the Korean War.
Korczak Ziolkowski (1908–1982) – sculptor.
Thaddeus Kosciusko (Tadeusz Ko ciuszko, 1746–1817) – Polish patriot and America’s
Revolutionary War hero.

14
 odzimierz Krzy anowski (1824–1887) – Brigadier General in the Union army.
Helena Modjeska (Helena Modrzejewska, 1840–1909) – actress; famous for her
interpretations of Shakespearean roles.
Ralph Modjeski (1861–1940) – Helena Modrzejewska’s son; a famous engineer and
bridge
constructor.
Pola Negri (Apolonia Cha upiec, 1899?–1987) – a popular Hollywood star.
Jan Ignacy Paderewski (1860–1941) – a great Polish pianist, patriot and statesman.
Casimir Pulaski (Kazimierz Pu aski, 1747–1779) – a Polish aristocrat and cavalry officer
in
the service of the colonists during the American Revolution.
Stanis aw Ulam (1909–1984) – mathematician; one of the creators of the American A- and
H-bombs.

Test your knowledge

1. What is the population of the United States?
2. Why is the United States called “a nation
of immigrants”?
3. What is the percentage of African-Americans, Hispanic Americans
and Native Americans in the US?
4. Where do the Hispanic communities concentrate in the U.S.?
5. What are the best known Indian tribes living in the American West?
6. What were the three waves of Polish immigration to the U.S.?

Five most populous cities in the United States (2006)

1 New York City 8,215,000

2 Los Angeles 3,850,000
3 Chicago 2,830,000
4 Houston 2,145,000
5 Phoenix 1,513,000

15
 Glossary
admixture – something added in mixing (domieszka)
ancestor – a person from whom one is descended, especially if more remote than a
grandparent (przodek, protoplasta)
blight –a plant disease (zaraza ziemniaczana)
color prejudice – racism (uprzedzenie rasowe)
cultural heritage – culture and cultural artefacts inherited by the present-day society
(dziedzictwo kulturowe)
descent – origin, ancestry (pochodzenie, ród)
fertility rate – birth rate (wspó czynnik p odno ci)
(to) further – to support (popiera )
harvest – the act or process of gathering a crop ( niwa)
homogeneity – the quality of being similar or comparable in kind or nature (jednorodno ,
jednolito )
juveline delinquency – antisocial or criminal behavior by children or adolescents
(przest pczo ma oletnich)
luna-rover – an electric-powered open vehicle used by astronauts to explore the surface of
the moon (pojazd ksi ycowy)
maize – corn (kukurydza)
martial law – temporary rule by the military authorities over the civilian population (stan
wyj tkowy)
melting pot – a container in which metals or other substances are melted; a country, place,
or
area in which immigrants of various nationalities and races are assimilated (tygiel)
(to) outlaw – to bar or ban (zakaza , wyj spod prawa)
pumpkin – a large, round, orange-yellow, edible fruit with many seeds (dynia)
refugee – a person who flees from home or country to seek refuge elsewhere, as in a time
of
war or of political or religious persecution (uchod ca)
salad bowl – a large bowl for mixing and serving a salad; a metaphor of multicultural
American society (salaterka)
squash – a fleshy, edible fruit (kabaczek, patison)
Thanksgiving Day – a legal holiday in the United States (Dzie Dzi kczynienia, wi to
plonów)
unskilled laborer – unprofessional worker (robotnik niewykwalifikowany)

3. A Brief Outline of American History

Pre-colonial America

The earliest human settlements in North America date from around 10,000 BC.
Descendants of hunters from Siberia moved to the American continent. These proto-
Americans settled in all parts of the land. The Norse (Vikings) were probably the first
Europeans to reach the northern continent. They established a settlement called “Vineland”
in New Foundland in 1000. Almost 500 years later Christopher Columbus discovered

16
America while trying to sail west to Asia. Thinking that he had reached India, he called the
people he saw “Indians”. It was the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci who gave his name
to America.
The first known European landing on what is now the United States was made by
the Spanish sailor Juan Ponce de León in 1513. He reached the shores of what is now
Florida. The Spaniards set up their colonies in both Americas between the 1500s and
1600s. Soon other Europeans, English, French and Dutch, also began to settle in North
America.

Test your knowledge

1. Where did the American Indians come from?
2. What was the name of the first European known to have landed in North America?
3. Who were the first European settlers of the North American continent?

Glossary
explorer – one who explores an unknown
or little-known region (badacz,
podró nik)
(to) settle – to establish as a resident or
(osiedla si )
settlement – a small or isolated community;
village; the act of settling (osada,
osadnictwo)

The Colonial Period

Organized emigration from Europe to North America began in the early 1600s. The
first English immigrants to what is now the United States arrived in 1607 and made their
permanent settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. Their effort proved to be a successful
business investment. In 1620 another group of colonists set off for the New World, hoping
to find religious tolerance and freedom. They were English Puritans who had been
persecuted by the Church of England. They left, first for Holland and then for a new home
in an English territory in America. The journey was long and rather unfortunate. A storm
drove their ship, the Mayflower, far north of the colony of Virginia, which had been their
intended destination. They finally made their landing in November 1620 at Cape Cod. The
group, known as the Pilgrims, consisted of fifty men, twenty women and thirty-four
children. They decided to start a new colony, which they called the Plymouth Plantation.
Soon the settlers drew up a set of rules for their new colony, which they named the
Mayflower Compact – perhaps the first effort to establish self-government in the New
World.
The new colony had to rely on Indians’ help. The locals showed them how to
cultivate and harvest maize, squash and pumpkins. After their first harvest, the Pilgrims

17
decided to thank God for the crops. They organized a feast and invited the Indians to share
the food with them. According to some sources, the Pilgrims simply adapted the Native
American Green Corn Ceremony. This was probably the origin of the celebration of
Thanksgiving Day in the United States.
New settlements spread along the Atlantic Coast. The settlers came for a variety of
reasons. In 1630, another wave of Puritans founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony (which
together with the Plymouth Plantation formed the colony of Massachusetts in 1634).
Maryland was founded in 1634 by Lord Baltimore as a refuge for Catholics persecuted in
England. A group of English nobles bought the Carolinas in 1663 as their personal
landholding. A year later New Amsterdam was captured from the Dutch and renamed New
York. Rhode Island was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, who fled from Massachusetts
because he did not accept the religion of that colony. Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 by
William Penn as a haven for Quakers. Finally, Georgia was formed in 1732 as a settlement
for English prisoners.
Between 1607 and 1733, the English established thirteen colonies along the
Atlantic coast. The death rate in the colonies was initially very high because of disease,
exhaustion and wars with Indians. In spite of this, the thirteen English colonies had more
than 1.5 million settlers by 1760 and managed to double that number within the next
twenty five years.
Soon the American colonies formed three geographical groups: New England, the
Middle Colonies, and the Southern Colonies.
Each colony had a legislature consisting of two houses, except Pennsylvania which
had a single house legislature. The lower house was chosen by popular vote. Members of
the upper house in all colonies except Massachusetts were appointed by the King. They
had some judicial and legislative powers but generally they functioned as advisors. The
colonies were the property of the British Crown and the King’s Privy Council established
colonial policy. The English authorities attempted unsuccessfully to exercise stricter
control of the colonies. One such measure was the introduction of the so-called Navigation
Acts. In 1650, Parliament barred foreign ships from the English colonies unless they were
specially licenced. The Navigation Act of 1660 reserved the entire trade of the American
colonies to English vessels; all goods to or from America had to be unloaded and reloaded
in England.

Test your knowledge

1. What was the first permanent English settlement in North America?

2. Who were the Pilgrims and where did they make a colony?
3. How many English colonies were established between 1607 and 1733?
4. How many people lived in the American colonies by 1760?

Glossary
compact – an agreement (ugoda)
destination – the place toward which someone or something is
going or sent (cel, miejsce przeznaczenia)
exhaustion – a great fatigue or weariness (wyczerpanie)

18
landholding – owning land (posiadanie ziemi)
legislature – an officially elected body of people vested with the
responsibility and power to make laws for a political unit,
such as a state or nation (w adza ustawodawcza)
Privy Council – a body that advises the head of state of a nation,
typically in a monarchy (Tajna Rada)
refuge – protection or shelter (schronienie, azal)
vessel – ship (statek, okr t)

The American Revolution, 1775–1783

In 1765 the British Parliament passed a Stamp Act which required American
colonists to validate official documents by buying and applying stamps issued by the royal
government. The Stamp Act aroused widespread protests in Virginia, New York and
Massachusetts. The Stamp Act Congress was held in 1765. It was the first mass
demonstration against British rule. The American colonists demanded representation in
English Parliament, which found expression in a popular slogan “No taxation without
representation”.
In 1766, the Stamp Act was repealed. However, in 1767 the British Parliament
approved the Townshend Acts which levied a high duty on tea, paper, lead and glass. In
reply to these new restrictive measures, the colonists organized boycotts of British goods.
In 1768 the British government sent two regiments of troops to the Boston area.
Unfortunately, the presence of British troops only intensified anti-British feelings in the
town, which led to conflict between soldiers and colonists.
British soldiers fired at and killed five colonists, which event came to be known as
the Boston Massacre. Meanwhile, the boycott of British goods was so effective that in
1770 Parliament repealed all the Townshend duties except the tax on tea. However, on
December 16, 1773, a group of citizens in Boston disguised as Indians seized a cargo of tea
on a British ship and tossed it overboard. The event came to be known as the Boston Tea
Party. In 1774, the British government passed several laws aimed at punishing the
colonists in Massachusetts. More English soldiers were sent to keep the peace. These
soldiers became a burden to the colonists who had to house and feed them.
The protests of the colonists were organized by Samuel Adams, John Hancock,
Benjamin Franklin and others. In 1774, the leaders of the colonists summoned the First
Continental Congress which petitioned King George III for a change in British policy
towards the American colonies. Meanwhile the Congress decided to form an American
army, or Continental Army, as it was called, and appointed George Washington of Virginia
as its first commander in chief. In March 1776 George Washington’s soldiers drove the
British out of Boston. Later Washington had to retreat across New York and New Jersey to
Pennsylvania because the British had much stronger forces. In 1777 the Continental Army
defeated the British at the Battle of Saratoga which marked the turning point of the war.

Many Europeans helped the Americans to fight for their independence. These
included two outstanding Poles: Tadeusz Ko ciuszko and Kazimierz Pu aski.
Tadeusz (Thaddeus) Ko ciuszko (1746–1816) is regarded in the U.S.A. as the hero
of two continents. On 18 October, 1776, Congress appointed Ko ciuszko as Colonel of

19
Engineers in the Continental Army. Ko ciuszko served under General Gates at
Ticonderoga in 1777, and later significantly contributed to the victory of the American
army at the Battle of Saratoga, which was perhaps the most decisive battle of the American
Revolution. Ko ciuszko was released from Army Service in June 1783 as Brigadier
General and sailed for home. In 1797 Ko ciuszko sailed back to America once again, this
time as an exiled leader of the Polish national insurrection. He was received by an
enthusiastic crowd.
Kazimierz (Casimir) Pu aski (1747–1779) arrived in America in June 1777. He
served with General Washington. Soon he was made Brigadier General by Congress and
put in charge of the Continental Cavalry. Later he commanded a mixed corps of cavalry at
the Battle of Savannah on 9 October , 1779, but was mortally wounded and died two days
later.
In 1781 the British commander, Lord Cornwallis, surrendered his army to the
Americans at Yorktown, Virginia. The war was over. However, it was the Treaty of Paris
in 1783 that ended the American Revolution. With this treaty Great Britain recognized the
independence of its colonies.

Test your knowledge

1. What restrictive measures were introduced by the British Parliament against
the American colonists?
2. What was the Boston Tea Party?
3. When was the First Continental Congress held?
4. Why is Tadeusz Ko ciuszko regarded as the hero of two continents?
5. Where was General Pu aski mortally wounded?

Glossary
cargo – Business Dictionary: goods or
merchandise on a transportation vehicle
(ship or plane) ( adunek)
corps – a separate branch or department of
the armed forces having a specialized
function (korpus)
(to) repeal – to annul, to revoke (anulowa ,
uchyla )
(to) surrender – to give oneself up to an
enemy (podda sie, kapitulowa )
turning point – the point at which a very
significant change occurs; a decisive
moment (punkt zwrotny)

The Declaration of Independence, 1776

A committee of five men was appointed to prepare a proclamation which would

declare independence from Britain. One of the members of the committee was Thomas
Jefferson, a lawyer from Virginia. He prepared the draft of the proclamation and called it

20
the Declaration of Independence. The principles which underlie the Declaration of
Independence were based on the writings of the English philosopher John Locke, who
maintained hat people have God-given or natural rights (life, liberty and property) that
cannot be taken away by any government.
According to Locke, liberty and property are inalienable rights of each individual.
Locke believed that government should exist not for the benefit of those who govern but
for the benefit of those who are governed. Government could be changed or abolished if it
did not meet people’s needs. Jefferson expressed the same idea in the Declaration:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The most important premise of the Declaration of Independence is that the people
have the right to revolt when they determine that their government is denying them their
legitimate rights. The Declaration provided weighty evidence against British rule and
proclaimed that the British monarch was denying the American colonists these rights. On 4
July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress.

Did you know that

1. approximately 35 million Americans are linked by blood
to one (or more) of the 102 pilgrims who came to
America on the Mayflower in 1620?
2. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp
paper?
3. the original copy of the Declaration of Independence is
lost? The copy in Washington D.C. is what is referred to
as a holograph.

Test your knowledge

1. Who drafted the Declaration of Independence?
2. What did the Declaration proclaim?

Glossary
(to) abolish – to do away, to annul (obala , uniewa nia )
Declaration of Independence – the proclamation of the
second Continental Congress (4 July 1776) asserting
the independence of the Colonies from Great Britain
(Deklaracja Niepodleg ci)
draft – a plan of a document (szkic)
hemp – a plant with tough fibers (konopie)
inalienable or unalienable – something which cannot be
given away or taken away (niezbywalny)
(to) endow – to provide with property, income, or a
source of income (obdarzy )

21
premise – a proposition upon which an argument is
based or from which a conclusion is drawn
(przes anka, stwierdzenie)
pursuit – striving (d enie)

The Constitutional Convention

The motto of the new nation, E pluribus unum (from many, one) perfectly
describes the process of natural integration of Americans. The United States of America
soon stretched from Canada to Northern Florida and from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Mississippi River.
The government created the Articles of Confederation which became the law of the
land in 1781. The Articles of Confederation joined the thirteen former British colonies into
an independent confederation. Under the Articles, the central government was made up of
a Congress which represented all the states. Each state had one vote in the Congress.
However, in practice the Articles did not work well. In May 1787, fifty-five delegates met
at a convention in Philadelphia, which was later called the Constitutional Convention, to
improve upon the Articles.
A major issue was how representation in the legislative body would be determined.
Delegates to the Constitutional Convention from larger and more populated states argued
that congressional representation should be based on a state’s population. Fearing
domination, delegates from smaller states called for equal representation. Roger Sherman,
a delegate from Connecticut, proposed bicameral legislature. The Great Compromise,
among other provisions, resulted in the creation of two houses, with representation based
on population in one and with equal representation in the other.
The Philadelphia Convention initially intended to change the content of the Articles
of Confederation. However, the delegates, including George Washington, decided to write
an altogether new Constitution. The constitutional committee was led by George
Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison. After several
months of debate a Constitution was written. It stated that:

1) a central national government was to be established;

2) the national government was to share power with the states and was to have special
powers of its own;
3) the national government was to consist of three branches: the legislature to make
laws;
the executive, to enforce laws; the judiciary, to interpret the meaning of the laws;
4) the House of Representatives would be elected by states on the basis of population,
whereas the Senate would always have two representatives from each state.

A British statesman described the American Constitution as “the most remarkable

work to have been produced by the human intellect at a single stroke”.
To help win support for the Constitution, James Madison together with Alexander
Hamilton published a series of articles known as the Federalist Papers, which called for its
quick adoption. By 1789 all thirteen states had accepted the Constitution. Because of his
effort, Madison is regarded as the Father of the American Constitution.

22
 The first President of the United States, George Washington, elected in 1789,
served as President for two terms until 1797. Congress set up several departments to help
him govern the Federation.
From 1789 to 1861, the new republic steadily grew to maturity, extending its
boundaries to the Pacific, and enjoyed the leadership of men of remarkable talent, tenacity
and wisdom. From the beginning, the Union was divided into two distinctly different
cultures: one characterized by agrarianism and slavery for some (the South), the other by
industrialism and freedom for all (the North).
In 1787 Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance concerning the government of
the western territories north of the Ohio River. Eventually, the states of Illinois, Indiana,
Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin were formed from the Northwest Territory.
The first ten amendments, called the Bill of Rights, were added to the Constitution
in 1791. They listed the rights that the government cannot take away from the American
people. They guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press,
freedom to meet together peacefully, and freedom to question government actions. People
charged with grave crimes have the right to trial by a jury of their peers.

Interesting facts about the American Constitution

1. Of all the written national constitutions, the U.S.

Constitution is the oldest and shortest; it has 4,440
words.
2. 12 of the 13 original states actually took part in
writing the U.S. Constitution. Rhode Island did not
attend the Constitutional Convention although it
eventually ratified the document in 1790.
3. The American Constitution has been amended 27
times.

Test your knowledge

1. When and where was the Constitutional Convention held?
2. What are the main provisions of the American Constitution?
3. Which states originally accepted the Constitution?
4. Who is regarded as the Father of the American Constitution?
5. What are the first ten amendments to the Constitution called and what do they
guarantee?

Glossary
amendment – a correction or alteration, as in a
manuscript (poprawka)
Articles of Confederation – written agreement ratified in 1781 by the
13 original states (Artyku y Konfederacji)
executive – the branch of government charged with putting into effect
a country’s laws and the administering of its functions (w adza
wykonawcza)
bicameral – composed of or based on two legislative chambers or \

23
 branches (dwuizbowy)
jury of peers – in trials, a group of people who are selected and sworn
to inquire into matters of fact and to reach a verdict on the basis
of the evidence presented to them (s d przysi y)
legislative body – persons who make or amend or repeal laws (cia o
ustawodawcze)
ordinance – a legally binding command or decision (rozporz dzenie)
provision – a clause in a document (postanowienie, klauzula)

Federalists versus Antifederalists

Soon after the formation of the new government, two distinct political groups emerged,
which were transformed into two parties: the Federalist party led by Alexander Hamilton
and the Antifederalist party led by Thomas Jefferson.
The Federalists favored closer union and a strong federal government and were, as
a rule, wealthy people. Hamilton advocated an economic development strategy in which
the federal government would develop infant industries by providing overt subsidies and
imposing protective tariffs on imports. He also urged the federal government to create a
national bank and to assume the public debts that the colonies had incurred during the
Revolutionary War.
Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, was an advocate of wide individual liberty
and the autonomy of state governments. He said that every man and every society possess
the right of self-government. He particularly praised small farmers as “the most valuable
citizens”. Antifederalists mostly represented the poorer classes. Many southern plantation
owners, who were often in debt, favored the cheap money policies of the Antifederalists.
The Federalist program was adopted by President Washington’s administration.
When the French Revolution broke out in 1789 both the Federalists and Antifederalists
supported it, but after the outbreak of the war between France and England in 1793,
President Washington declared the neutrality of the United States.
In 1796 the Federalists chose John Adams of Massachusetts as their candidate for
President. Adams had been one of the leaders of the American Revolution and had served
as Vice President under Washington. The candidate of the Antifederalists or Republicans,
as they came to be known, was Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, also a leader of the
Revolution and chief author of the Declaration of Independence. Due to a loophole in the
Constitution, the Electoral College elected the two opposing candidates as President (John
Adams) and Vice President (Thomas Jefferson). This possibility was removed by the
Twelfth Amendment.
As a result of the election, the Federalists had control of the Executive Branch of
government and a majority in Congress. After four years the Federalist party lost power.
Thomas Jefferson was elected President in 1800 and re-elected for another term in 1804.
He promoted a more decentralized, agrarian democracy. However, the new government
ultimately made tariffs an essential part of American foreign policy. The Republicans in
power reduced the national debt and reduced the expenditure of the federal government. In
1803 the Louisiana Purchase was made. This formerly Spanish region of Louisiana, bought
from France, nearly doubled the size of the Union, and opened the way for westward
expansion.

24
Test your knowledge
1. What were the political aims of the Federalists and Antifederalists?
2. Who was John Adams?
3. Who was Thomas Jefferson?
4. What was the significance of the Louisiana Purchase?

Glossary
Electoral College – a body of electors chosen to elect
the President and Vice President of the United
States (kolegium elektorów)
(to) incur – to come into or acquire (something
undesirable); to incur a debt (ponosi , zaci gn )
outbreak – a sudden violent appearance; outburst
(wybuch)
loophole – a small hole; a way of escaping a difficulty
(luka, furtka, kruczek)

The War of 1812

During the period of the Napoleonic Wars Britain became the leader in the fight
against France. Jefferson tried to avoid U.S. involvement in the European conflict, but the
British had set up blockades that damaged American sea trade. As a result US exports fell
dramatically and relations with Great Britain grew worse. War between the United States
and Great Britain broke out in 1812.
The Americans attempted to invade British Canada, but it was impossible with the
army of only 7,000 poorly trained regular soldiers. The first campaign ended with the
British blockade of Detroit and other American cities in the Northeast. The American
Navy, however, was successful both on the Atlantic and on internal waters. In 1813 it
defeated the British fleet in Lake Erie, and a new American campaign regained control of
the northeastern cities and parts of Canada. From then on, the British ships concentrated on
attacking the eastern coast and in August 1814 British soldiers marched to Washington,
D.C. and burned the White House. President James Madison, who succeeded Jefferson,
barely escaped capture. As the fighting continued, the war was becoming more and more
expensive, especially to the British. The negotiations to end it were conducted in Europe,
and a peace treaty was signed in Ghent on 24 December 1814. Paradoxically, the armies
were not informed about the treaty, and the fights continued until 1815 when General
Andrew Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans.
The war of 1812 strengthened American national unity and boosted patriotism. It
also led to the disintegration of the Federalist party which opposed the war. After the war
the United States was recognized as an independent power.

Test your knowledge

1. What was the attitude of President Jefferson to the war between Great Britain and

25
 France?
2. When did the war between the U.S. and Great Britain break out?
3. What was the outcome of the war?

Glossary
barely – only just; no more than
(zaledwie)
capture – a taking or being taken by force,
as enemy troops (pojmanie)
(to) boost –to make higher or greater; increase in
amount, power, etc. (podwy szy , zwi kszy )
fleet – a number of warships under one command; the
entire naval force of a country; navy (flota)
treaty – an agreement or contract (traktat)

National politics, 1816–1860

The period between 1816 and 1824 is often called the Era of Good Feeling. The
population was roughly 2 million, mostly English, except for some half a million Germans.
The Americans turned their attention to their country’s internal affairs. The decisions of the
Supreme Court strengthened the powers of the federal government. A new movement
westward began. Vast landholdings in the West were developed between 1810 and 1820,
the population doubled in the region west of the Appalachian Mountains. Six new western
states were created and admitted to the Union between 1816 and 1821: Indiana,
Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine and Missouri.
The most important achievements of American foreign policy in the years 1815–
1823 included: 1) the Rush-Begot Agreement of 1817 between the US and England
concerning demilitarization of the border between Canada and the United States; 2) the
agreement of 1818 settling disputes over the border between Canada and the United States;
3) the Adams – Onis Treaty of 1819 by which Spain ceded Florida to the United States,
which gave up its claims to Texas; 4) the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, a statement of United
States policy with regard to the Western hemisphere. It established that:
a) existing colonies in the Western hemisphere might be retained by European
powers.
b) no new colonization by Europeans in the Western hemisphere was to be
allowed.
c) the United States would not interfere in European affairs. Europe was not to
interfere in affairs of the Western hemisphere.

After 1820 three distinct regions emerged in the U.S.A. The North was largely
industrial and commercial. The South was agricultural with sugar, tobacco and cotton
plantations employing slave labor. The West was made up of small family farms and a few
large landholdings. These three major areas of the United States differed on the most
important current issues. The North favored protective tariffs on goods, whereas the South
opposed them. The North favored the establishment of a central Bank of the United States,
but the South and the West were against it. The North was opposed to the expansion of the

26
frontiers, whereas the South and West favored it. Unlike the South, the North and West
favored allowing new immigrants to enter the United States.
The Federalist party broke up after 1816 and by 1824 sectional interests had
divided the Antifederalists into the Whig Party, representing the interests of the
commercial and industrial North, and the Democratic Party. One of the most controversial
issues in the political debate was slavery. The South wanted to maintain slave labor,
whereas the North and West strongly opposed it.
In the House of Representatives the North had more control than the South because
representation was based on population. In 1820, about 5 million people lived in the North
and about 4.5 million in the South, including slaves.
In the Senate each state had two seats regardless of the population of the state. By
1818 there were eleven free states and eleven slave states. As long as the number of slave
states remained equal to the number of free states, the South had some control over the
Senate.
In 1828 Andrew Jackson was elected President of the United States. He served for
two terms, from 1829 to 1837. This period is known in American history as Jacksonian
democracy. Jackson’s success as President was primarily due to his personality. More than
any of his predecessors, he was regarded as the President of all the Americans. Jackson
was
a strong president and during his term of office more state officials were elected instead of
being appointed. After his inauguration President Jackson dismissed hundreds of officials
who had worked for the government for a long time. They were mostly members of the
upper class from the Northeast. In their places, the president put his own supporters, many
of them poor and uneducated westerners. This practice of filling government offices with
adherents of the winning political party was called by the opponents the “spoils system”.
Over the next decades the spoils system was often associated with corruption.

An important act

The Pendleton Civil Service Act, passed by Congress in

1882, separated civil service from government. The
government was to be formed by the party of the winner of
the Presidential election. The civil service, however, was
not to be tied to any particular government. The separation
between political activity and the civil service was made
stronger with the Hatch Act (1887), which prohibited
federal employees from engaging in political activities.
This state of affairs continues until today.

President Jackson also favored the development of the humanitarian movement

which sought to help the blind, oppose slavery, promote free education and give more
rights to women. Jackson strengthened the position of the executive branch of the federal
government in relation to the legislative and judicial branches.
1843 marked the beginning of an era of the largest and longest migration of people
from the eastern territories of the United States to the unsettled West. People traveled over
3,000 kilometers in long wagon trains drawn to Oregon and California. From 1836 to 1845
the southern states pressed for the admission of Texas to the United States. Texas had been

27
Mexico’s northern territory, with a growing American settlement. A war between the US
and Mexico over the issue of Texas broke out in 1846 and lasted until 1848. When the
peace treaty was signed, the border between Mexico and the United States was set at the
Rio Grande River; California and New Mexico were ceded to the United States. These
states were slave-free. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 attracted thousands of
people to go westwards in the movement known as the Gold Rush. By 1850 the United
States had substantially expanded westward to the Pacific Ocean and southward to Mexico
and the number of states had grown to thirty-two.
The production of corn, wheat and cotton doubled and the United States became a
great agricultural nation. In fact, cotton became the major export. The invention of the
reaper, the cotton gin and other agricultural machinery made it possible for farmers to
increase production on large farms. At the same time, a factory system began to develop in
urban areas. Improvements in transportation made it possible to send industrial and
agricultural products to distant markets within the United States and overseas.
Slavery became a national issue in the middle of the 19th century. The legal
importation of slaves had ended in 1808 but the slave population grew in the United States.
New lands in the West and South meant more land to grow cotton, tobacco and sugar cane.
All these crops required heavy labor, which slaves provided at no cost to the land owners.
In this way the rise of cotton-growing industry in the South made slavery much more
profitable than before. Before the Civil War there were some 3 million slaves in the
southern states and only 340,000 slave owners out of a total white population of 6 million.
The North strongly opposed slavery and favored a free labor economy. The North
produced goods and wanted to have customers who could buy them, but slaves did not
receive wages. By the time of the Civil War thousands of slaves had fled to freedom from
the South to the North via the “underground railroad”, which was a network of safe houses
and hideouts that led north.
In 1854 the Republican party was formed after the collapse of the Whig party. The
Republicans opposed any further extension of slavery into new lands. They also won
support from ex-Whigs, Southern Democratic Unionists, abolitionists (i.e. those who were
in favour of the abolition of slavery), and a small party called Free-Soilers. The
Republicans supported Abraham Lincoln for the United States presidency. Lincoln, elected
President in 1860, was an advocate of the abolition of slavery. The representatives of the
southern states were afraid that the federal government will abolish slavery in all states,
and decided to form their own federation and their own rules. As a result, South Carolina
and later six other southern states seceded from the Union. In February 1861, the leaders of
the secession movement met in Alabama and formed the Confederate States of America.
On 12 April, 1861, South Carolina troops fired upon the federal troops in Fort Sumter. It
was the beginning of the Civil War between the northern and southern states.

Test your knowledge

1. Why was the period between 1816 and 1824 called the Era of Good Feeling?
2. What were the most important achievements of American foreign policy in the
years
1816–1824?
3. What were the three distinct areas of the United States after 1820 and what were the
differences between them?

28
 4. What were the main features of Jacksonian democracy?
5. When did westward expansion start?
7. When was gold discovered in California?
8. When were California and New Mexico ceded to the United States?
9. What happened on April 12, 1861?

Glossary
(to) cede – to give up one’s rights in; to surrender formally; to transfer the title or
ownership
of (przekaza , cedowa )
hemisphere – half of a sphere, globe, or celestial body (pó kula)
hideout – shelter, retreat (kryjowka)
(to) secede – to withdraw formally from membership in, or association with, a group,
organization, etc., esp. a political group (od cza si , dokona secesji)
spoils system – the system or practice of regarding and treating appointive public offices as
the booty of the successful party in an election, to be distributed, with their
opportunities
for profit, among party workers (system upów)

3.9. The Civil War, 1861–1865

From the very beginning of the Civil War the North was better prepared militarily. It had
twenty three states in which it could make arms, ammunition clothes and other supplies. It
also controlled transportation by railways. The eleven states in the Southern Confederacy
did not have the means to produce war materials. They believed, however, that the federal
government would not be able to unite the north against them, and hoped to win the
support of the European nations which imported American cotton.
Despite its obvious advantages, the North was not able to defeat the South for four
years.
One of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War took place at the beginning of July
1863 at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, when General Robert E. Lee, the commander of the
southern army, tried to invade the North. Union and Confederate armies fought for three
days and nearly 50,000 men were either killed or wounded. The Confederate forces lost the
battle, almost at the same time as general Grant was winning in the south.
A few months after the Battle of Gettysburg, which claimed so many casualties, a
ceremony dedicated to the fallen soldiers was held on the battlefield. During the ceremony
President Abraham Lincoln made a famous speech, in which he outlined the principles of
American democracy: “... that government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from this earth”. On 14 April, 1865, five days after general Lee finally
surrendered the Confederate army, President Lincoln was assassinated by an insane actor,
John Wilkes Booth, at the theater. Vice President Andrew Johnson succeeded to the
Presidency. By 1870 all the southern states had been readmitted to the Union, but federal
troops remained on the entire Confederate area until 1877. In 1868, General Ulysses S.
Grant, a Civil War national hero (Union), was elected President of the United States.

29
 The Civil War not only resulted in the defeat of the South but also led to great
economic, political and social change in the United States. The power of the federal
government was greatly increased.
The authority of the states was limited to such areas as police, public health,
education, marriage and divorce, and to the operation of state governments. The power of
the Democratic party was weakened because it was closely associated with the secession.
The Republican party gained strength because it had the support of the Union veterans, and
of thousands of former slaves. The black voters strengthened the power of the Republican
party both in the South and North. The Civil War also brought about a lot of economic
change. About one million slaves became free laborers and full American citizens. They
were allowed to hold regular jobs for wages and their children could receive free
education. The wartime destruction and the abolition of slavery led to the disintegration of
the southern plantation system. As a result of the war, industry expanded in the North.

President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,

given November 19, 1983, on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation,
conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that
war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who
here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we
should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate – we can not consecrate – we can not hallow
– this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far
above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what
we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us –as
that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave
the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not
have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and
that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth.

Test your knowledge

1. Why did the South want to secede from the United States?
2. How many states were in the Union and in the Confederacy?
3. Where did one of the bloodiest battles occur?
4. What was the outcome of the Civil War?
5. What was the economic effect of the abolition of slavery?

Glossary
battlefield – field of war; front (pole walki)
civil war – a war between geographical sections or political factions of the same nation

30
 (wojna domowa)
(to) conceive – to become pregnant with; cause to begin life, to form or develop in the
mind
(pocz )
(to) detract – to belittle (umniejsza )
devotion – religious worship; loyalty (po wi cenie, ofiarno )
(to) endure – to hold up under (pain, fatigue, etc.); to put up with; tolerate (znosi )
fitting – suitable (stosowny, odpowiedni)
(to) hallow – to make holy or sacred; to consecrate (po wi ci , u wi ci )
(to) perish – to die, esp. to die a violent or untimely death (zgin )
proposition – statement (teza, twierdzenie)
(to) resolve – to decide (postanawia )
score – archaic twenty (dwadzie cia)
vain, as in vain – without success; in a disrespectful manner (pró ny, na pró no)

Industrialization of the United States

After 1865, many important changes occurred in the U.S. economy. One of them
was the industrial revolution in the North and the reconstruction of the South. The
population was more than 30 million people (mostly English, Scots and Irish). The war
disorganized the southern economy, but in the long run the abolition of slavery helped to
release great quantities of labor. Although all blacks were free by law, there was nowhere
for them to go. A new agricultural system was developed, known as sharecropping, in
which the southern planter provided housing, agricultural implements, draft animals, seed
and other supplies to black families who in turn provided labor. The crop was divided in
half between the planter and the black family. Blacks preferred sharecropping to wage
labor because it gave them more control over their lives.
The manufacturing industry developed rapidly in the northeastern states. Industrial
growth created an increased demand for labor. For that reason immigration was
encouraged. Thousands of skilled and unskilled workers arrived from Europe. Settlement
of the western territories intensified. Thanks to the Homestead Act of 1862 any settler who
lived on the land for five years received 160 acres free from the federal government.
Within thirty years following the end of the Civil War, the entire territory of the United
States was crisscrossed by railroads. Thanks to this, more and more settlers moved
westwards. Railroad transportation aroused the U.S. to grow rapidly. By 1850, there were
14,000 kilometers of railroad track. The Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroad
Companies met at Promontory Point, Utah on 10 May, 1869. In 1865 there were already
56,000 kilometers of railroad track and 320,000 kilometers by 1890.
After 1865 huge corporations began to grow in the U.S. The Standard Oil
Company, established in 1870, controlled about 90 percent of the country’s oil-refining
business by 1879. In 1901 the United States Steel Corporation was formed. By the end of
the century the volume of industrial production, the number of workers employed in
industry and the number of manufacturing plants had more than doubled. In 1881 a new
organization was formed which came to be known as the American Federation of Labor.
Its purpose was to win better working conditions and higher wages for its members.

31
 Much of the progress which the United States made in the 19th century was
facilitated by a series of inventions. Cyrus McCormick (1809-1884) made the first
mechanical reaper, a farm machine which could do the work of many farm hands. Other
machines were soon invented in order to facilitate and increase farm production: the steel
plough, the automatic wire-binder, the threshing machine, the combine, the corn cutter, the
husker, the potato planter, hay dryer, etc. Samuel Morse (1791–1872) invented the
telegraph in 1840. The telephone was invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell (1847–
1922). By 1880, eighty-five towns and cities in the United States had local telephone
networks. By 1900, the number of telephones reached 800,000. The telephone business
was controlled almost entirely by the Telephone and Telegraph Company. Another great
technical invention was made by Thomas Edison (1847–1931) who experimented with the
idea of producing light by passing electricity through a thin wire in a vacuum. In 1879,
Edison produced a carbonized wire that would glow brightly in a vacuum tube for 170
hours. In 1882, he opened the first power station in New York City and began to supply
current for eighty-five consumers. By 1885, 139,000 electric lamps were giving light to
American homes and offices. Edison also invented the phonograph and the motion picture
camera.
The election of 1896 brought victory to the Republican party led by William
McKinley who represented the new industries. As a new congressman he had promoted the
so-called McKinley Tariff of 1890 which aimed to protect American industry against
foreign goods.
In 1898, the Spanish-American War began as a result of American interest in Cuba,
which had revolted against Spain. Many Americans had a desire for colonial expansion.
Soon the United States defeated Spain in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. According
to the peace treaty, Cuba gained independence although it remained under U.S.
“protection”, and Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines came under United States direct
control. McKinley was re-elected in 1900, but he was assassinated shortly
after his second term began. Theodore Roosevelt became the new President. Theodore
Roosevelt became the new President.

Test your knowledge

1. What economic transformations occurred after the end of the Civil War?
2. What were the provisions of the Homestead Act of 1862?
3. What were the aims of the American Federation of Labor?
4. What important technical inventions were developed in the last quarter of the 19th
century?
5. What was the outcome of the Spanish-American war of 1898?

Glossary
(to) assassinate – to murder (a prominent person) by surprise attack, as for political reasons
(dokona zamachu, zamordowa )
combine – a power-operated harvesting machine that cuts, threshes, and cleans grain
(kombajn)
dryer – an appliance that removes moisture by heating or another process (suszarka)
farm hand – a person who is hired to work on a farm (robotnik rolny)
husker – a machine which removes the husks, leaves, from ears of corn ( uszczarka)

32
motion picture – movie (film)
potato planter – an agrcultural machine (maszyna do sadzenia ziemniaków)
reaper – a machine for harvesting grain (kosiarka)
sharecropping – giving a share of the crops raised by a tenant farmer to the landlord instead
of rent (oddawanie przez dzier awc po owy plonów z ziemi nale cej do w ciciela
w
zamiast czynszu)
threshing machine – a farm machine used in threshing grain or seed plants (m ockarnia)
vacuum tube – an electron tube (lampa pró niowa)
wage labor – hired job (praca najemna)
wire binder – a machine for binding wire (wi zarka drutu)

The Progressive Era, 1901–1914

The period between the end of the Spanish-American War and American entry into World
War I is known as the Progressive Era. Theodore Roosevelt introduced a new program of
reforms known as Progressivism which was based on a belief in the right of the
government to regulate society in the interest of that society. The progressive movement
sprang from many sources, including the need to fight corruption and inefficiency in
government and efforts to regulate and control big business.
It also marked the transition of the U.S. capitalist system from its earlier structure
based on individual competitiveness to its contemporary structure based chiefly on the
competition of big corporations.
Progressivism was a philosophy of political reform which emphasized the goodness
and wisdom of individual citizens and distrusted “special interest” groups, such as political
parties and business corporations.
Roosevelt insisted that the federal government should have the right to control and
regulate trusts (a group of companies that have combined to reduce competition and
control prices to their advantage). In fact, on his recommendation Congress passed several
anti-trust laws to protect the American consumer, for example the rule which gave the
government, not the companies, the right to set prices for railroad transport, or Pure Food
and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act which enabled federal inspectors to examine
medicines and foods.
The program of reforms was continued by Roosevelt’s successor William Taft.
During his presidency in 1913 the Congress voted on the XVI amendment to the
constitution introducing a federal income tax. Towards the end of his term Taft became
very conservative and lost support even in his own party. The elections in 1912 brought the
victory of the Democratic party under Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President. Wilson had a
strong personality and convinced Congress to pass a number of reform bills which
included: tariff reform, banking and financial reform (the Federal Reserve System), anti-
trust laws aimed at preventing the growth of trusts, and the expansion of labor rights (an
eight-hour working day). President Wilson’s program of reforms was interrupted by the
outbreak of World War I in Europe in 1914.

Test your knowledge

1. Who introduced the idea of Progressivism and what was its main tenet?

33
2. Who succeeded Theodore Roosevelt?
3. What reforms did President Wilson introduce?

Glossary
bill – a draft of a proposed law presented
for approval to a legislative body
(project ustawy)
inefficiency – lack of the ability or skill to
perform effectively; incompetence
(nieudolno )
tariff – tax (c o)

World War I, 1914-1918

Americans tried to stay out of the war as long as possible by remaining neutral, but
the Germans interfered in free trade between the U.S. and European countries. The sinking
of the British passenger liner the Lusitania with a group of American citizens on board
increased anti-German attitudes in the USA. Still, Wilson did not want his country to enter
the war. His policy of isolationism won him a victory in the 1916 election. At the
beginning of 1917, however, American intelligence received secret information about a
telegram from Berlin to Mexico with the suggestion that if the U.S. were to enter the war,
Mexico should declare war against the United States and become Germany’s ally. In
return, the Germans promised Mexico help in reclaiming Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against
Germany and the other Central Powers. More than 1 million American soldiers went to
Europe to help the Allies, mostly in France. The American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in
France was led by General John Pershing.
President Wilson conceived a plan to establish a League of Nations, an
international organization which would guarantee peace in the world after the war.
However, many members of Congress did not want the US to join the League because they
were afraid that this organization would try to control the US foreign policy. As a result,
the U.S. never joined the League of Nations.

Independence of Poland
In a speech called “Fourteen Points”, delivered at a joint session of the United States
Congress on January 8, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed independence
of Poland in Point 13.

Test your knowledge

1. When did the United States enter World War I?
2. Who was General Pershing?
3. Why was World War I a period of prosperity for American farmers?
4. Why did the U.S. refuse to join the League of Nations?

34
 Glossary
ally – a country, person, or group with an agreement to support another (sojusznik, aliant)
board – the side of a ship (pok ad)
intelligence – secret information, especially about an actual or potential enemy (wywiad)
(to) reclaim – to get back possession of ( da zwrotu)

The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, 1918–1939

After World War I, American society underwent a profound transformation.

Women finally gained the right to vote in 1920. Educational opportunities for them
expanded and more women worked professionally. The strict standards of sexual morality
were gradually relaxed. In most states divorce laws were liberalized and birth control
movement was initiated by Margaret Sanger.
The 1920s marked the beginning of a modern consumer society in America.
Radios, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and other home appliances were making people’s
lives more comfortable. Assembly lines and mass production speeded the production
process and dramatically lowered the prices of the products. The father of new production
methods was Henry Ford, an inventor and founder of Ford Motor Company in Detroit.
Ford factories were making one car every ten seconds. The price of the most popular
Model T was only $290 and millions of Americans could now afford to buy one. By 1920
there were 9 million cars on American roads. Almost at the same time the Wright brothers
began to experiment with the airplane, which later became a popular means of travel.
American lifestyles were greatly changed by the motion picture industry.
Hollywood in California became the movie capital of the world. Jazz became popular
entertainment music for an increasing number of people. America entered a period of
prosperity.
World War I was a period of prosperity for American farmers. During the war the
prices for agricultural products rose. However, after the end of the war the prices of farm
crops fell as the large wartime demand in Europe ended and from 1922 the situation of
American farmers deteriorated. Thousands of farmers were in debt and had to work as
farm laborers. The new President, Warren G. Harding, cut back the reform program of
Progressivism. America entered a period of isolationism. High tariffs were introduced on
many imports from foreign countries, which in turn refused to buy American goods. This
also meant that farmers lost foreign markets.
The next President, Calvin Coolidge, was elected in 1924. During his term of office
there was a great expansion of industries making consumer goods. The nation became
more and more prosperous. However, organized crime increased largely due to the
Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution which prohibited the sale of alcohol. This law
could not be enforced and the illegal sale of liquor became a lucrative business for the
mobs (gangs).
One of the most notorious gangsters was Al Capone (1898–1947), the leader of organized
crime in Chicago from 1925 to 1931.
In 1929 the period of prosperity ended abruptly. The big crash on the New York
Stock Exchange known as “Black Tuesday” marked the beginning of a depression in the
economy that lasted until 1933 and affected not only the United States but also many
countries of the world.

35
 In 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt assumed the Presidency at the time of deep crisis.
FDR introduced a new program of reforms known as the New Deal, aimed at limiting
unemployment and reviving the economy by providing federal jobs working on the
country’s infrastructure – roads, bridges, schools, etc. The New Deal program was
interrupted by the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

Test your knowledge

1. What important social transformations occurred in the Twenties?
2. Why did agriculture experience a crisis?
3. What event triggered the period of depression in the American economy?
4. What was the New Deal?

Glossary
home appliance – a device that does a particular job in the home
(sprz t domowy)
liquor – alcohol (alkohol)
New Deal – the programs and policies to promote economic
recovery and social reform introduced during the 1930s by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Nowy ad)

U.S. involvement in World War II, 1941–1945

The United States entered the war in 1941 after the Japanese attack on the U.S.
naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The surprise attack caused over 5,000 U.S.
casualties. Six battleships and many smaller vessels were destroyed. The next day,
Congress declared war on Japan, and in return Germany and Italy, declared war on the
United States. America had to face a war across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Millions of Americans entered the army. President Roosevelt and his chief military
advisor, General George C. Marshall, devised a strategy to “hold the line” in the Pacific
and focus attention on Europe. American forces under the command of General George
Patton landed in Africa. A victory in North Africa in May 1943 helped the Allies to invade
Italy.
Another American general, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was ordered to start Operation
Overlord, the largest sea and land expedition in history. On 6 June, 1944, nearly 200,000
Allied troops on 600 ships and 11,000 planes attacked the beaches of Normandy in France.
After a fierce battle the Germans were defeated and began to retreat, which led to total
victory on the Western Front.
On the Pacific, the Japanese advance was stopped by the US Navy in mid-1942 at
the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. By mid-1944 the Americans recaptured the island
of Guam. In early 1945 Iwo Jima and Okinawa were captured with heavy Allied casualties.
After the death of President Roosevelt on 12 April, 1945 Harry S. Truman became the
President and the nation’s Commander in Chief. A month later the War in Europe ended.
In July the Allies met in Potsdam to decide on the future of Germany and its supporters

36
and signed the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender. The Japanese,
however, rejected the Proclamation. When President Truman was informed that an atomic
bomb had been successfully developed by a team of scientists working on the top-secret
“Manhattan Project” in New Mexico, he decided to use this new weapon in the war. On
August 6, 1945, the flying “superfortress” Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on
Hiroshima. About 130,000 people were killed and over 100,000 suffered severe or fatal
injuries caused by nuclear fallout. As the Japanese still showed no intention of
surrendering, three days later another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Eventually on
September 2, 1945, Japan surrendered. The greatest war in history had come to an end. The
United States suffered over a million casualties (nearly 325,000 dead and 700,000
wounded). US war costs exceeded $300 billion.

Test your knowledge

1. When did the U.S.A. enter World War II?
2. Who succeeded President Roosevelt?
3. What was the Enola Gay?

Glossary
casualty – one injured or killed (ofiara
miertelna)
nuclear fallout – the fall of radioactive particles
after a nuclear explosion (opad radioaktywny)
(to) retreat – to withdraw (wycofywa si )
weapon – arms (bro )

The postwar scene, 1945–1959

The postwar years brought enormous social and economic change in the United States.
Millions of U.S. servicemen returned home and sought employment.
Advances in transportation, such as the development of the Interstate Highway System,
contributed to the increased mobility of American society. This was the beginning of a
huge economic boom, the creation of suburbia and the acquisition of fast cars.
Meanwhile the Cold War with the Soviet Union had begun. Since the end of the
war the distrust between the Allies and the Soviet Union was growing. Differences about
the amount of control the Americans and the Soviets should have in Eastern Europe had
been mentioned as early as the Potsdam Conference.
On April 4, 1949, The United States Canada, the Netherlands, Luxembourg,
France, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland signed a
military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) in Washington, D.C.
In 1950 a war in Korea broke out. The U.S. sent troops to Korea to support the anti-
Communist forces of the South. The U.S. suffered more than 135,000 casualties, including
33,000 dead. The final peace treaty was signed in 1953.
The next president after Truman was General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a WWII
veteran and a Republican. During the war Eisenhower had been the commander of the

37
Allied armies in Europe. During his Presidency America was bitterly divided by the issue
of McCarthyism. It was an evil period of U.S. history started by the Republican Senator
Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, who led a witch-hunt of suspected Communists hidden in
the US population and headed a special commission to investigate “un-American”
activities. McCarthy’s methods were met with the disapproval and opposition of many
influential people, and finally they were discredited and abandoned.

Test your knowledge

1. When did the Korean War break out?
2. Who was Dwight D. Eisenhower?
3. What was the purpose of Senator McCarthy’s commission?

Glossary
advances – progress (post p)
boom – a time of economic
prosperity (o ywienie
gospodarcze)
serviceman – soldier ( nierz,
wojskowy)
suburbia – residential areas or
outlying a city; suburbs
przemie cia)

Contemporary America: 1960–2008

The period between 1960 and 1970 was a time of great change in the United
States. The rate of immigration decreased sharply and in the mid-1960s over 95 percent of
all Americans were native born.
The new President John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) declared that he would accelerate
economic growth by increasing government spending and cutting taxes. His victory
marked a return to the reform program of the New Deal. President Kennedy started a
program to end poverty in the United States. He called for medical care for old people,
low-cost public housing for the poor, school construction, more social security benefits and
an increase in the minimum wage. Special educational programs were introduced to help
people to re-train. Although President Kennedy could not carry out this plan fully, because
he was assassinated in 1963, significant improvements were made by the subsequent
administrations. The most important elements of this program included: (1) aid to
Appalachia (building of roads, health centers, and schools in areas of economic decline);
(2) Job Corps (recruitment of young men and women for special educational and job
training programs); (3) community action programs (special re-training programs for the
poor and unemployed). In 1966 Congress approved a Medicare program which provided
assistance to people over sixty-five, therefore, old people could get medical care even if
they were unable to pay for it.
JFK successfully resolved an international crisis caused by the supply of Soviet
nuclear rockets to Cuba. He also stepped up American space exploration.

38
 Kennedy also started the international outreach program called the Peace Corps.
Idealistic and usually young volunteers were trained to provide services abroad in areas in
need of assistance. In the 1990s this program brought to Poland many Americans who
taught English in high schools and colleges.
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded to the presidency and continued some
of Kennedy’s plans. He continued new programs like Medicare (health care for the
elderly), and Food Stamps (food assistance for the poor). However, Johnson’s popularity
was very limited due to the Vietnam War. In 1964 Johnson began to send American
advisors to South Vietnam and to direct air attacks on North Vietnam in February 1965. By
mid-1968, the number of American soldiers in Vietnam exceeded half a million. The
United States was engaged in a full-scale war which had never been officially declared in
Congress, and which divided American society.
The Vietnam war was the longest war for the United States and the most
controversial one since the Civil War of the 1860s. Opponents argued that Americans
should not interfere in Vietnamese affairs. The students of the University of California at
Berkeley started mass protests against the war. They burned their draft cards and staged
“sit-ins”, occupying university campus offices until they were removed by the police or the
National Guard. Massive aerial bombings of targets in North and South Vietnam provoked
protests not only in the USA but all over the world. However, President Johnson and his
supporters believed that America was defending freedom and democracy in South
Vietnam.
Black Americans tried to gain the civil rights that had been denied to them. In 1954
the Supreme Court made a decision that racial segregation in schools had to be ended.
During the 1960s the civil rights movement reached a culmination. On August 28, 1963,
250,000 people of all races marched in Washington, DC, to demand “justice for all”. A
prominent spokesman of the Afro-Americans, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.,
declared in one of his most famous speeches:

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and see this truth to be self-
evident, that all men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves
and the sons of former slaveholders will be able to sit down together at the table of
brotherhood... I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of
their character.2

Although King was assassinated in 1968, nevertheless the legal basis of racial
discrimination was dismantled. In the years 1964–1968, Congress passed laws prohibiting
discrimination in voting, education, employment, housing, and public accommodation.
In January 1969 Richard Nixon assumed the office of President. He normalized
relations with China and signed the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) with the
Soviet Union in 1972. The United States ended the war in Vietnam in 1973. However, in
internal affairs, Nixon’s credibility was destroyed by the Watergate scandal. Prominent
members of the Republican party were found guilty of “bugging” the Democratic party
headquarters in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. The scandal eventually forced

2 Quoted after David M. Katzman et al., A History of the United States. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1986, p. 943.

39
Nixon to resign. He would probably have faced impeachment if he had not resigned
voluntarily.
Vice President Gerald Ford became President after the resignation of Richard
Nixon on August 6, 1974. Ford was criticized for displaying inconsistency, and for
apparent incompetence in managing the U.S. economy. However, it seems that Ford’s
efforts to lead the nation were severely hampered by Nixon’s misdeeds and a crippled
economy ravaged by inflation and unemployment. The President was confronted with
insurmountable tasks to curb inflation, revive a depressed economy, solve chronic energy
shortages and to maintain world peace.
In 1977 Ford was succeeded by Jimmy Carter (Democrat), the 39th President of the
United States. He was the first southerner to win a major party presidential nomination
since 1848. He had won a reputation as a public official who treated black citizens fairly
and hung a portrait of the Rev: Martin Luther King, Jr: in his office. Carter’s political style
was informal and based on deep religious faith and commitment to civil rights. However,
he turned out to be a disappointment as President. At home Carter was strongly criticized
for poor management of the economy and high inflation (18 percent a year at one time).
The highest recession in U.S. postwar history occurred in 1980.
In foreign affairs, Carter championed human rights as the “soul of his policy”,
which annoyed the leaders of the Soviet Union, but encouraged dissenters in Soviet-bloc
countries to call for more political and personal freedom. Zbigniew Brzezi ski, Carter’s
National Security Adviser, elaborated a new frame-work for American foreign policy to
combat Communism. However, noticeable results – the disintegration of the Soviet bloc –
were felt during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. In the meantime, in 1978 the U.S. was
denounced as the Great Satan by the religious leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini. A new
form of anti-Americanism spread in Iran and Arab nations, which would have serious
consequences in years to come.
In his four years in office, Carter enacted the policy of human rights by suspending
or reducing U.S. aid to countries known for their human rights violations, such as Chile,
Argentina, Nicaragua, Ethiopia and South Africa. He also openly criticized the USSR and
Soviet bloc states for arresting dissidents and suppressing freedom of expression. Jimmy
Carter was defeated in the next presidential elections by Ronald Reagan (Republican) in
1980.
Ronald Reagan took office in 1981. He was the first conservative president since
Calvin Coolidge. In his inaugural address as the 40th president he called upon Americans
to “begin an era of national renewal”. He promised to restore a constitutional relationship
between the federal, state and local governments and he attempted to decrease the
responsibility of federal government for solving social and economic problems. Reagan
made massive budget reductions and substantial tax cuts. Runaway inflation, which had
been inherited from previous administrations, was halted. Millions of new jobs were
created and in June 1988 the unemployment rate was only 5.2 percent. By the time he left
office, the U.S. had recovered economic prosperity. However, he was not entirely
successful as the US had a serious trade deficit with other countries.
In foreign policy President Reagan demonstrated a firm opposition to the spread of
Communism throughout the world. He also strongly supported the new US Strategic
Defense Initiative (SDI) known as the “Star Wars” program. SDI was a system of lasers to
track and destroy any incoming nuclear missiles from the moment of launch should the
U.S. ever come under attack. Approximately $30 billion was spent on SDI research, with
little result, before President Bill Clinton cancelled the program in 1993. However, there

40
are some who believe that SDI did have one far-reaching effect: it contributed to the
collapse of the Soviet Union which could not afford to continue expensive arms race with
the US.
President Reagan often invoked America’s destiny in religious terms. He described
America as a “shining city on a hill”, a nation imbued with God’s grace and a sense of
mission. He believed that America must be armed to the teeth for a war that may never be
fought. His main target was the Soviet Union, which he called the “Evil Empire”. Reagan’s
crusade against Communism led him to support anti-Communist insurgencies worldwide:
Solidarity in Poland, the Muhajaddin in Afghanistan and the Contras in Nicaragua. This
crusade also led to the invasion of Grenada, in 1983, and to the scandal which came to be
known as Iran-Contra. In November 1986 President Reagan confirmed reports that the
United States had secretly sold arms to Iran, which was engaged in a bloody war with Iraq.
Later it was also discovered that some of the arms profits had been diverted to aid the
Contra rebels, who fought against the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
In the U.S. the Reagan era produced, ironically, a generation of status seekers
called yuppies. For Young Urban Professionals flamboyant consumerism became a way of
life and “Shop Till you Drop” was the current watchword. An increasing number of
Americans began using personal computers in offices, schools and homes. Pop, rock, new
wave, punk, country, and especially rap or hip hop became popular in the 1980s.
Reagan’s political heir was his Vice-president, George Herbert Walker Bush. In
1988, Bush became the first sitting Vice President since Martin Van Buren in 1836 to be
elected President of the United States. Bush continued the economic policies of Ronald
Reagan. While Reagan and Bush presided, the communist regimes collapsed in Eastern
Europe and the Soviet Union. The United States emerged as the single uncontested military
and economic world power.
During his Presidency, George Bush led America into a conflict which is
commonly known as the Gulf War (1990–1991). This conflict was begun by the Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein, who invaded the small oil-rich country Kuwait and declared it a
19th province of Iraq. President Bush believed that Iraq also intended to invade Saudi
Arabia and take control of the in the region oil supplies. He soon began organizing a
multinational coalition to restore the legitimate government in Kuwait. 230,000 American
troops arrived in Saudi Arabia to take defensive action, but when Iraq continued a huge
military buildup in Kuwait, the President ordered an additional 200,000 troops deployed to
prepare for a possible offensive action by the U.S.-led coalition forces. The ground war
began on February 24, 1991. In a rapid campaign, U.S. and coalition forces defeated
Saddam Hussein’s troops in only four days of combat. There were a total of 147 U.S. battle
deaths during the Gulf War, 145 non-battle deaths and 467 wounded in action.
In 1992, Bill Clinton (Democrat) defeated George Bush and became the 42nd
President of the United States. In 1996 he was re-elected, although the Republicans
retained control of both Houses of Congress. During the Clinton administration the
American economy grew rapidly. Developments in telecommunications and computer
networking spawned a vast computer hardware and software industry and radically
changed the ways many industries operate. Low inflation and low unemployment as well
as high profits added to the prosperity of a great number of Americans. Like his
predecessors, Clinton pushed for elimination of trade barriers. The North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) increased economic ties between the United States and its
most important trading partners, Canada and Mexico.

41
 In 1998, for the third time in history, the House of Representatives voted for the
impeachment of the President of the United States. This House action was prompted by the
submission of a report which stated that President Clinton had lied under oath, obstructed
justice and abused powers of his office in an effort to cover his sexual relationship with a
former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. After a long legal battle Clinton was
acquitted of most of the charges and he remained in office until the end of the century,
when he was succeeded by George W. Bush, a Republican from Texas, and the son of the
41st U.S. President.
At the turn of the 20th century the United States was the strongest economic and
military power in the world and played the role of world policeman, sometimes alone but
more often in alliances. In 1993 American troops were sent to Somalia to stop the civil war
and oust the warlord, General Aidid. In 1994, the U.S. once again sent troops to a foreign
country to overthrow a military dictatorship in Haiti. In 1996, about 20,000 American
soldiers were deployed in Bosnia as part of a NATO peacekeeping force. In late March
1999 the U.S. joined NATO in air strikes against Yugoslavia in an effort to halt the Serbian
government’s policy of ethnic cleansing in its province of Kosovo.
The year 1993 brought terrorism to the American shores as a bomb was detonated
in the garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York.
On September 11, 2001, America suffered another, unimaginable terrorist attack on
both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. These attacks killed over 3,000 people
within minutes. For more than half a century U.S. leadership has made a significant
contribution to sustaining world peace, progress and justice, but its failure to provide
security to the American people has shaken the nation and has stunned the whole world.
Once the source of the 11 September terrorist attacks was traced to Osama bin Laden and
his Al-Qaeda network operating out of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, President Bush
launched a military campaign against the country. On November 13, 2001, American
troops overthrew the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Several hundred individuals
accused of connections to Al-Qaeda or the Taliban were captured and sent to the U.S.
military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they are detained without trial.
America’s doctrine of the war against terror says that the United States should not
differentiate between terrorist groups and the governments that support them. In his second
State of the Union Address, President Bush singled out several nations as an “Axis of
Evil”. According to him Iran, Iraq and North Korea are the states that sponsor terrorism. In
early 2002 President Bush announced that his government had reason to believe that Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein had ties to terrorist groups and was developing weapons of
mass destruction. Soon the United Nations sent inspectors to Iraq to look for these
weapons but they did not make any significant finds. The Bush administration claimed
they were being manipulated and deceived by the Iraqi.
On March 20, 2003, President Bush started a full-scale military intervention in Iraq.
US forces aided by the troops from the United Kingdom invaded Iraq, which led to the
collapse of the Iraqi government in about three weeks. Ground forces from Australia and
Poland (200 troops) as well as naval forces from Denmark and Spain took part in the
military operations known as Operation Iraqi Freedom. However, the international
community was divided on the legitimacy of this invasion and subsequent occupation of
the country. After the collapse of the Iraqi government, Saddam Hussein and other top
Iraqi leaders disappeared. Step by step most of them, including Saddam, were captured but
the war on terror has not ended.

42
 In domestic policy President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2003,
which promotes early learning, measures student performance, gives options over failing
schools, and ensures more resources for schools. Critics say that schools were not given the
resources to help meet new standards despite a 50 percent increase in federal education
spending. Some state governments are refusing to implement provisions of the Act as long
as they are not adequately funded. President Bush also signed the Medicare Act of 2003
that will provide 40 million seniors and people with disabilities with better benefits and
more options.
On November 2, 2004, after a close and bitter race that polarized Americans,
George W. Bush won a second term over the Democratic candidate John Kerry. He took
51 percent of the vote, 3.5 million more than his Democratic opponent, and in absolute
terms the largest number of votes any presidential candidate has won.
George W. Bush’s second term as President of the United States began at noon on
January 20, 2005 and is due to expire with the swearing-in of the 44th President of the
United States at noon on January 20, 2009.
The United States remained committed militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although
the American economy has not suffered recession during the presidency of George W.
Bush, unemployment rose to about 6 percent (2008). The next president will have to deal
with social and economic issues at home brought about by globalization and the crippling
dollar, which may soon be replaced by the euro as the major international reserve currency.

Test your knowledge

1. What reform programs did President Kennedy start?
2. Who was Martin Luther King?
3. When did the war in Vietnam end?
4. Why did President Nixon have to resign?
5. When was Bill Clinton elected President?
6. Who is the current President of the United States?
7. What happened on September 11, 2001?

Glossary
(to) acquit – to free or clear from a charge or accusation (uniewinni )
bugging – recording secret conversations (pods uch)
civil rights – the rights belonging to an individual by virtue of citizenship, including civil
due
process, equal protection of the laws, and freedom from discrimination (prawa
obywatelskie)
domestic policy – internal policy (polityka wewn trzna)
draft card – conscription card (karta powo ania do wojska)
crippling – weakening (s abn cy)
flamboyant – brillaint (b yskotliwy)
headquarters – main seat (siedziba)
(to) imbue – to permeate or saturate; to inspire or influence thoroughly (przepaja )
impeachment – an accusation against a public official with improper conduct in office
before
a proper tribunal (postawienie w stan oskar enia wysokiego urz dnika rz dowego)

43
legitimacy – legality (legalno )
misdeed – an illegal deed; wrongdoing (czyn karalny)
outreach program – a widespread program (program o szerokim zasi gu)
sit-in – an organized protest demonstration in which participants seat themselves in an
appropriate place and refuse to move (strajk okupacyjny, strajk w oski)
watchword – a password (has o)

Chronology of main historical events

c. 1000 The Norse (Vikings) sail to the eastern coast of North America.
1607 Founding of Jamestown, by the Virginia Company of London.
1620 Founding of Plymouth Colony (Massachusetts) by the Pilgrims of the
Mayflower.
1636 America’s first college, Harvard, is founded at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1647 Massachusetts School of Law lays foundation for free public education.
1664 Capture of New Amsterdam (New York) from the Dutch.
1754–60 French and Indian War, culminating in the defeat of the French in North
America and cession of French territories (by the Treaty of Paris in 1763).
1774 The first Continental Congress opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 5
September, “to consult upon the present unhappy state of the colonies”.
1775–83 American Revolutionary War; independence of the colonies formally
recognized by the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
1776 The thirteen colonies sign the Declaration of Independence from Britain on
July 4.
1781 General Cornwallis surrenders British army at Yorktown, Virginia, to
combined Franco-American forces, under command of George Washington
on 17 October.
1783 Britain and the United States sign the Treaty of Paris recognizing American
independence.
1787 Constitutional Convention held at Philadelphia. Publication of series of pro-
Constitution articles that became the Federalist Papers.
1789–97 Presidency of George Washington.
1791 The first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights, are added to the US
Constitution.
1801–09 Presidency of Thomas Jefferson.
1801 The federal capital moves to Washington, DC, from temporary quarters at
Philadelphia.
1803 Purchase from France of the Louisiana Territory (between the Mississippi
and the Rocky Mountains), from which thirteen new states were eventually
formed.
1812–14 War against Britain.
1819 Purchase of Florida from Spain.
1820–21 The Missouri Compromise over slavery (involving the admission to the
Union
of Missouri as a slave state, simultaneously with that of Maine as a free
state).

44
1823 Announcement of the Monroe Doctrine (no further European colonization
accepted on the American continent).
1829–37 Presidency of Andrew Jackson.
1836 Declaration by Texas of independence from Mexico, and establishment of
the “Lone Star Republic”.
1844 Samuel Morse sends the first telegraph message from Washington, DC, to
Baltimore, Maryland.
1845 Annexation of Texas to the United States.
1846–48 Mexican War (acquisition from Mexico of territory between the Rocky
Mountains and the Pacific, including the present states of California,
Arizona, New Mexico, etc.).
1861–65 Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (Republican)
1862 Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation granting freedom
to slaves in southern states.
1863 President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address on 19 November.
1865 The Civil War ends with surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee to
the Union commander Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in
Virginia on 9 April. President Lincoln is shot while attending the theatre in
Washington on 14 April and dies the next morning.
1867 The territory of Alaska is purchased from Russia.
1868 The Fourteenth Amendment forbids states to deny equal rights to any
citizen.
1869–77 Presidency of General Ulysses S. Grant (Republican).
1880 Thomas Alva Edison invents the first electric lamp.
1886 Founding of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
1890 Ellis Island in New York Harbor opens as immigration centre.
1901–09 Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt (Republican).
1912 Admission to statehood of New Mexico and Arizona, the 47th and 48th
states of the Union.
1913–21 Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (Democrat).
1917 The US enters World War I, declaring war after German violation of
American neutrality.
1919 Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution (prohibition; repealed by the
Twenty-First Amendment, 1933).
1920 Nineteenth Amendment (female suffrage); return to isolation politics;
suspicion towards aliens.
1921–23 Presidency of Warren G. Harding (Republican).
1923–29 Presidency of Calvin Coolidge (Republican).
1927 Charles A. Lindbergh makes the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic
Ocean, from New York to Paris.
1929–33 Presidency of Herbert Hoover (Republican).
1929 “Black Tuesday”, a collapse of New York stock market.
1933 Inauguration as president of Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat); beginning
of New Deal legislation.
1935 Congress passes the Social Security Act, providing old-age and an
unemployment insurance and aid to needy elderly persons, the blind and
dependent children.
1939 President Roosevelt announces neutrality of the USA in the war.

45
1941 Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, a U.S. naval base on the Pacific; America enters
the war with Japan and subsequently with Germany and Italy.
1942 The US scores victory in the air and naval Battle of Midway against Japan
on 3–5 June. Physicists at the University of Chicago, Illinois, achieve the first nuclear
chain
reaction.
1945 A U.S. aircraft drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6 and on
Nagasaki on 9 August; Japan surrenders on September 2; the beginning of
the Cold War in Europe. President Franklin D. Roosevelt suddenly dies,
Harry Truman takes office.
1947 Marshall aid program for Europe rejected by the Soviet Union.
1949 Creation of NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
1950 The U.S. and other members of the United Nations send troops to Korea.
1950–70 Period of great prosperity in America and struggle for civil rights.
1953 Inauguration as president of Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican).
1953–55 Rise and fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy. The US Supreme Court rules
segregation of races in public schools unconstitutional, reversing the
decision of 1896.
1955–68 Martin Luther King’s campaign against racial discrimination.
1957 Inauguration for second (and last) term as president of Dwight D.
Eisenhower (Republican).
1961 Inauguration as president of John F. Kennedy (Democrat).
1962 The Soviet Union withdraws offensive missiles from Cuba after President
Kennedy warns that any nuclear attack from Cuba on any Western
Hemisphere nation would bring full US retaliation.
1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivers “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington,
DC. President Kennedy is assassinated on 22 November. Lyndon B.
Johnson becomes the 36th president.
1965 The U.S. forces begin operations in Vietnam.
1968 Reverend Martin Luther King Jr, the civil rights leader and winner of the
Nobel Prize, is shot in Memphis, Tennessee. Senator Robert F. Kennedy is
fatally wounded at Los Angeles celebration of his victories in two state
presidential primary elections. Richard Nixon is elected the 37th president.
1969 In April, US forces in Vietnam peak at 543,000; withdrawals begin in July.
1971 Constitution’s Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowers minimum age for voting in
all elections to eighteen.
1972 May 22, US and Soviet leaders sign first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
(SALT) in Moscow. June 17, five men are arrested for breaking into
Democratic Party offices in the Watergate office complex in Washington,
DC. November 7, President Nixon is elected to second term.
1973 January 27, four-party agreement on ending war and restoring peace in
Vietnam is formally signed in Paris.
1974 May 9, impeachment hearings against President Nixon begin in House of
Representatives on charges of covering up the Watergate break-in. August
9, President Nixon resigns from office (the first president to do so) and is
succeeded by Vice President Gerald R. Ford.
1976 November 2, Jimmy Carter is elected the 39th president.

46
1979 June 18, President Carter and General Secretary Brezhnev sign Salt II
Treaty in Vienna, Austria.
1981 Ronald Reagan is elected President.
1983 March 23, President Reagan announces the Strategic Defense Initiative
(SDI) research program to explore advanced technologies that would defend
against nuclear ballistic missiles. 6 November, President Reagan is elected
for second term.
1987 December 8, at summit meeting in Washington, President Reagan and
General Secretary Gorbachev sign a treaty eliminating an entire class of
intermediate range and shorter-range nuclear missiles.
1988 November 8, George Bush is elected the 41st president.
1991 The First Gulf War against Iraq.
1992 William Jefferson Clinton is elected the 42nd President.
1993 The first terrorist attack of Islamic fundamentalists on the World Trade
Center in New York on February 26. A bomb exploded in a parking garage
beneath the World Trade Center, killing six people.
1994 NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) takes effect on January 1.
1996 William Jefferson Clinton is re-elected President.
1998 The House of Representatives, voting largely along party lines, impeaches
President Clinton for lying about an affair with a White House intern,
Monica Lewinsky.
1999 January 12, President Clinton is acquitted on the charges raised against
him in the impeachment trial.
2000 After a prolonged legal battle George W. Bush, Jr. (Republican) defeats
Albert Gore (Democrat) in the presidential election and becomes the 43rd
president.
2001 The unimaginably cruel terrorist hijacking attack on the World Trade Center
in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC using hijacked
airplanes as bombs shocked and horrified America and the world.
2002 On October 7, the U.S. begins its war on terror by air strikes on targets in
Afghanistan aimed at the destruction of the Taliban regime which shelters
the chief suspect of the World Trade Center terrorist attack, Osama bin
Laden.
2003 The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster with the loss of all seven crew on
February 1. On March 19, the U.S. begins operations against Iraq. On
November 2, President George W. Bush is re-elected for a second term.
2004 U.S. presidential election: George W. Bush is re-elected.
2007 In the Virginia Tech Massacre, a mentally ill former student kills 32
people and wounds many more before committing suicide, making it the
deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
2008 Barack Obama (democrat) won the presidential election scheduled for
Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

4. Language

47
There is no official language in the U.S.A., but English is the language spoken by most of
the population. The English language was brought to America by English colonists who
settled there in the early 17th century. They spoke a language similar to that of
Shakespeare. The English which developed in the United States showed a high degree of
uniformity, unlike the variety of dialects in Great Britain. A standard American English
developed over three centuries. The first major American dictionary was published by the
lexicographer Noah Webster in 1828. Webster wanted to show that the English language
spoken in the United States was a distinct language which had developed independently of
British English. He believed that American English would become as different from
British English as the modern Dutch, Danish and Swedish are different from one another.
The most noticeable differences between American English (AmE) and British
English (BrE) are in the area of pronunciation. Vowel differences occur in such words as
dance, ask, John, etc. The /r/ sound is fully articulated in AmE, with the exception of some
New England states, whereas in BrE it is articulated only before a following vowel as in
her eyes.
Some more obvious pronunciation differences include (AmE/BrE): progress (o as
in fog/o as in grow); semi (i as in ice/ i as in sit); leisure (ei as in read/ ei as in pleasure);
new (ew as in too/ ew as in you); tomato (a as in say/ a as in car).
Notable differences also occur in the stress of such words as: laboratory, military,
address (noun), cigarette, resource, research, and frontier. Some prepositional differences
include (AmE/BrE): on the street/in the street, wait on somebody/wait for somebody, on
weekend/at weekend.
There are few grammatical differences between AmE and BrE. In AmE collective
nouns such as government, team, crew, are normally used in the singular, e.g. The
government proposes price rises. In BrE it is possible to use the plural form as well, e.g.
The government propose price rises. It is interesting to remember that AmE has two past
participles for get – got/gotten, whereas BrE has only one. In AmE, the past simple tense is
often used in situations which would require the present perfect tense in BrE, e.g. I just
finished my work (AmE) and I have just finished my work (BrE).
American spelling often differs a little from that of British English. The most
characteristic spelling differences include:

American English British English

center centre
color colour
defense defence
favor favour
dialed dialled
inquiry enquiry
meter metre
practice practice (verb)
realize realise
sulfur sulphur
theater theatre
tire tyre
traveled travelled

48
Also, words ending in -ent in British English, such as absorbent, can appear as -ant in
AmE.
There are a number of vocabulary variations between American and British
English. Some of these differences are shown by the following pairs

American English British English

apartment flat
attorney solicitor
bathrobe dressing gown
bill (bank) note
buddy chap
bus coach
can tin
check bill
coed female student
cookie biscuit
conductor city centre
downtown guard
elevator lift
fall autumn
first floor ground floor
French fries chips
garbage rubbish
gas petrol
high school secondary school
hood bonnet
license plate number plate
movies cinema
rent a car hire a car
subway underground
truck lorry
windshield windscreen

A number of idioms show lexical differences between the British and the American
version although they have identical meaning:

American English British English

sweep under the rug sweep under the carpet

knock on wood touch wood

49
 skeleton in the closet skeleton in the cupboard

drop in the bucket a drop in the ocean

tempest in a teapot storm in a teacup

American English contains a number of loan words derived from various

languages. The Algonquin Indians were the first tribe to meet the English settlers in the
17th century. Most of the Indian words that are now used in English came from the
Algonquin language, e.g. wigwam, tomahawk, and squaw. Other borrowings from Indian
languages include: kayak, moccasin, raccoon, sequoia, skunk, toboggan, tamarack, and
totem.
French borrowings include: bureau, depot, dime, prairie. There are very many
Spanish borrowings in AmE, e.g. cafeteria, coyote, lasso, hacienda, pueblo, sierra,
tornado. German loan words include: delicatessen, frankfurter, hamburger, pumpernickel,
pretzel and kraut. Asian (Indian) loans words include pajama, verandah, curry, etc.
Today American English has some dialects. The most important are: Eastern New
England dialect, Inland Northern dialect, Midland dialect, and Southern dialect.
Black English is regarded as a nonstandard version of the language. Characteristic
examples of speech patterns in black English include sentences like She don’t know. She be
busy. We was happy. John he run. She don’t know what she be talking about. I ain’t
believe you, man. He been married for ten years. Can’t nobody say nothin’ to dem peoples!
A recent characteristic of American English is emphasis on political correctness in
the choice of words. Americans tend to avoid words which have masculine or racial
connotations. For example, instead of saying policeman, you should say police officer;
fireman should be called firefighter and postman is postal worker. You should also avoid
using the words Negroes or Indians and say Afro-Americans, blacks and Native Americans,
respectively. Many lexicographers believe that American English is now the most
dynamic variety of the language. A number of genuinely American words are now widely
used in British English, e.g. boyfriend, brunch, fan (e.g. of music, football, etc.), movies,
jazz, joy-ride, lynch, prairie, radio, teenager, payphone, typewriter, okay, etc.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the noticeable differences between American and British English in
pronunciation?
2. What obvious differences occur in stress?
3. What are the most characteristic differences in the use of prepositions?
4. What are the most important differences in spelling?
5. List some characteristic borrowings from other languages including American
Indian languages.

50
 Glossary

borrowing – something that is borrowed, especially a word borrowed from one language
for
use in another (zapo yczenie)
bucket – a cylindrical vessel used for holding or carrying liquids or solids; a pail (wiadro)
connotation – an idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing
(konotacja,
skojarzenie poj ciowe)
depot – a warehouse or storehouse (sk ad, magazyn)
dime – a ten cent coin (moneta dziesi ciocentowa)
emphasis – stress (nacisk, podkre lenie)
joy-ride – a drive in a car one has stolen (przeja ka cudzym samochodem dla
przejemno ci)
kraut – cabbage (kapusta)
loan word – a loan word is a word taken from a different language (wyraz zapo yczony)
political correctness – avoidance of expressions or actions that can be perceived to exclude
or
marginalize or insult people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated
(poprawno
polityczna)
raccoon – a North American mammal having grayish-brown fur, black masklike facial
markings, and a black-ringed bushy tail (szop, szop pracz)
squaw – a Native American woman, especially a wife (kobieta india ska, ona)

Useful websites

http://americanhistory.about.com
http://usinfo.state.gov./usa/infousa

Portrait of the USA

http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/factover/homepage.htm

Country Profile: United States: The World Factbook

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html

The Flag of the United States

http://www.usflag.org/toc.html

Holidays in the United States

http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/factover/holidays.htm

Further reading

51
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Americans, 1965.
Campbell, Jeff. Lonely Planet USA, 2008.
O’Callaghan, Bryn. An Illustrated History of the USA. Harlow: Longman, 1993.
Jurczy ski, Tomasz. Dictionary of the United States. Warszawa: WSiP 1995.
Katzman, David., M. et al. A People and a Nation. A History of the United States, 1994.
Kuniczak, W. S., My Name is Million. An Illustrated History of the Poles in America,
1978.
Micha ek, Krzysztof. Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki 1861-1945, 1993.
Micha ek, Krzysztof. Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki 1945-1965, 1995.
Mittleman, Earl., N. An Outline of American Geography, 1989.
Norton, Mary Berth et al. A People and a Nation. A History of the United States. 4th ed.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.
Oswalt, W.O. and S. Neeley. This Land was Theirs. A Study of North American Indians,
1996.
Schwartz, Seymour, I. This Land Is Your Land: The Geographic Evolution of the United
States, 2000.
Woods, R.B. and Gatewood, W.B. The American Experience: A Concise History, 2000.

MORE TESTS AND TASKS

TRUE OR FALSE
Carefully read each statement. If the statement is true according to information in the book,
write T after it, if it is false, write F. Try to give reasons why a statement is false.

1. The capital city of the U.S.A. is New York.

2. The USA borders Mexico on the south.
3. The Mississippi is longer than the Missouri.
4. The Rocky Mountains are in the East.
5. Death Valley is in California.
6. New England is in the Northeast region.
7. Before 1836 Texas was a French colony.
8. The Grand Canyon is in Montana.
9. The highest peak in the U.S.A., Mt. McKinley, is in California.
10. The ancestors of the American Indians came from Africa.

MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST

52
Circle the letter a), b) or c) with the correct answer.

1. The USA is a federal union of _____ independent states.

a) forty b) fifty c) fifty-two
2. The United States of America is ________.
a) bigger than Canada b) bigger than Russia c) bigger than Australia.
3. The population of the U.S.A. is over _________.
a) 300 million b) 350 million c) 150 million
4. The longest river in the U.S.A. is the ___________.
a) Missouri b) Mississippi c) Rio Grande
5. How many colonies had been formed on the eastern seaboard in the middle of the 18th
century?
a) 10 b) 12 c) 13
6. General Tadeusz Ko ciuszko contributed to the victory of the American army at the battle
of
_____ .
a) Ticonderoga b) Saratoga c) Yorktown
7. Which day is the national day of the United States of America?
a) the 4th of July b) the 14th of July c) the 1st of April
8. Which sailor and chronicler gave America its name?
a) Amerigo Vespucci b) Christopher Columbus c) Ferdinand Magellan
9. The USA bought Alaska from ...
a) England b) Canada c) Russia
10. How many time zones are in the USA?
a) Two b) Five c) Four

FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION

Prepare yourself for a class discussion on one of the following topics:

1. Discuss the “melting pot” and “salad bowl”or ”pizza” metaphor of the
United States.
2. Find out information about famous Poles in the United States.
3. Characterize the basic differences between American English and British English.
4. Find some borrowings from American English in contemporary Polish (e.g.
“hamburger”).
5. The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution was finally revoked. Why? Can
prohibition be successful?

PROJECT
Prepare a presentation on one of the following topics:
1. The American Revolution.
2. The Civil War.
3. The United States in World Wars I and II.
4. American National Parks.

53
 5. American rivers and lakes.
6. Plan a journey from New York to some of the most interesting sites in the U.S.A. and
describe it.

EXPRESS YOUR OPINION

Are there more pro-American or anti-American sentiments among young Poles?

54
 Chapter Two

Geographic and cultural regions of the U.S.A.

1. Introduction
It is not easy to distinguish the main regions of the United States because areas often
overlap. Historically, the United States was divided into New England, the Middle
Atlantic, and the Southern States. Gradually, the territory of the United States was
extended westward. At present the following four major regions can be distinguished in
the United States: the Northeast, the Midwest, the South, and the West.

2. The Northeast
The Northeast includes New England and the Middle Atlantic region. It is the most
economically and industrially developed region.
The Northeast covers nine states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
New England is the smallest cultural region of the United States and the cradle of
modern America. The name was given by the English Puritans who settled there in the
early 1600s. It consists of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode
Island and Vermont. Four of six New England states were members of the original thirteen
colonies. Throughout the centuries New England retained its unique character. Farming,
shipbuilding, fishing and trade became its most important industries. In the 19th century
the American Industrial Revolution began in New England. A number of factories were
established in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Originally, the region was
settled by Protestants. Now the majority of the population of New England are Roman
Catholics, except in certain rural areas where Protestants still predominate. Several
important universities and colleges are concentrated in the region. New England has many
recreational sites, e.g. White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire, Green
Mountain National Forest in Vermont and Acadia National Park in Maine.
Connecticut is the southernmost of New England’s states. It consists of a narrow
lowland area, extending north and south through the central part of the state and bounded
east and west by highlands. Connecticut has cold winters, rain and fog. However, the
summer temperature is often very high and humid. The chief industries are the
manufacturing of aircraft engines and parts, submarines, helicopters, machinery and
computer equipment, electronics and electrical equipment, medical instruments,
pharmaceuticals and retail trade. The soil is generally fertile. Chief crops include
mushrooms, vegetables, sweet corn, tobacco and apples.

55
 The state capital is Hartford, and major cities include New Haven and Stamford.
Many of the names of towns are of English, Biblical, or Indian origin: Greenwich,
Cheshire, Durham, Cornwall, Avon, Canaan, Quassapaug, Quinnipiac. The very name of
the State itself is derived from the Indian word “Quinatucquet”, meaning “upon the long
river”.
It is interesting to know that the first hamburgers in U.S. history were served in
New Haven, Connecticut, at Louis’ Lunch Sandwich Shop in 1895. Louis Lassen ran a
small lunch wagon selling steak sandwiches to local factory workers. Because he did not
like to waste the excess beef, he ground it up, grilled it, and served it between two slices of
bread. This is how America’s first hamburger was created.
Maine lies farther northeast than any other state. It is mostly hilly, with abundant
forests. It has very cold winters and cool summers. The White Mountain National Forest
stretches over an area of nearly 800,000 acres, and the forest covers a landscape ranging
from hardwood forests to the largest alpine area east of the Rocky Mountains.
Maine gained its statehood in 1820. The state is one of the chief producers of paper
and pulp in the U.S. Maine also produces 99 per cent of all the blueberries in the country,
making it the single largest producer of blueberries in the United States. However, in the
20th century, Maine became a major tourist attraction and the state adopted the slogan
“Vacationland” for its license plates. Tourists enjoy in Maine vast areas of relatively
unspoiled wilderness, ski-friendly mountains, and its hundreds of miles of coastline.
Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island is a popular tourist destination in Maine.
Massachusetts became an English colony in the 17th century, when groups of
English Puritans made settlements at Plymouth (1620), Salem (1628) and Boston (1630).
Massachusetts was the initiator of the revolution in the American colonies. In the 19th
century, the state was the centre of literary activity and reform movements. Today it is one
of the leading industrial states in the USA, particularly famous for its textile industry.
Massachusetts is also a center of the electronics industry and scientific research.
Massachusetts has always been famous for its high standards of education. The first public
school in the U.S., the Boston Latin School, was founded in 1635.
The name Massachusetts comes from Algonquian Indian words that mean the great
mountain The Commonwealth of Massachusetts entered the Union on February 6, 1788, as
the sixth state.
Boston, the largest city in New England and the capital of Massachusetts, now with
a population of almost 600,000, was established in 1630 by John Winthrop, ten years after
the landing of the Pilgrims in Plymouth. Soon the city became the financial heart of the
American colonies. Boston has been called the “Athens of America” because of its renown
as the educational and cultural centre of New England. There are about thirty colleges and
universities in the Boston metropolitan area. Downtown Boston has many narrow and
winding streets. Across the Charles River is Cambridge, the home of two famous
institutions of higher learning, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Harvard, founded in 1636, was the first college established in North America.
Boston built the first subway system in the United States in 1897. West of Boston is the
historic town of Lexington, “the birthplace of American liberty”. It was on Lexington
Green on 19 April, 1775, that the American War of Independence began. North of Boston
is the town of Salem, notorious for the witchcraft hysteria that broke out in 1692. Tourists
usually visit the Witch Museum and the House of Seven Gables, made famous by the
writer Nathaniel Hawthorne.

56
 New Hampshire is mostly hilly and wooded, with many lakes and rivers. It has
harsh winters and mild, short summers. Before the American Revolution, New Hampshire
residents seized a British fort at Portsmouth in 1774 and drove the royal governor out. New
Hampshire became the first colony to adopt its own constitution. The state’s most
important natural resources are its hardwood and softwood forests. However, New
Hampshire is also a highly industrialized state. It produces electric and electronic
machinery, plastics, paper, textiles and leather goods. Recently tourism has become the
state’s leading industry. Many visitors come to enjoy the state’s picturesque beaches,
mountains and lakes. The largest lake, Winnipesaukee, is dotted with 274 inhabitable
islands, while along the Atlantic shore 29 kilometers of curving beaches attract numerous
holiday-makers.
The New Hampshire primary is the first in a series of nationwide political party
primary elections held in the United States every four years as part of the process of
choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidential elections.
Rhode Island, the smallest state in size in the United States, is now densely
populated and highly industrialized. Its major industries include electronics, metal and
plastic products, boat and ship construction. It is also an important centre for jewelry
manufacturing. Rivers and the sea are the state’s most important natural resources. Despite
its name, most of the state of Rhode Island lies on the North American mainland.
Rhode Island has a flourishing fishing industry. In rural areas small-size farming is
well developed. The state has cold winters and warm summers. The weather is extremely
changeable.
Providence, founded by Roger Williams as a haven from religious persecution in
the 17th century, is an important site of colonial history. Brown University, located in
Providence, is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the US.
Vermont has long, cold winters and short, warm summers. The Green Mountains
constitute the dominant feature of the state. The rivers of Vermont flow either into the
Connecticut River or into Lake Champlain. Vermont has limited areas of arable land, but
the state is attractive for tourists and holiday-makers. In the winter thousands of skiers
flock to Vermont. In 1777, Vermont proclaimed itself an independent state and in 1791
entered the Union. It was the first state to be admitted after the adoption of the Constitution
by the thirteen original states.
The Middle Atlantic region – stretching from New York south to Virginia – was a
pivotal area in the early development of the American colonies and the United States. It is
composed of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The region became the major
centre of heavy industry in the 19th century and provided employment for thousands of
immigrants from Europe.
Named by Charles II after his brother, the Duke of York, later James II of England,
New York had been explored earlier by the French and the Dutch. Dutch immigrants
moved into the lower Hudson River Valley in what is now New York State. Before
Europeans began to arrive in the 16th century, the New York area was inhabited mainly by
Algonquian- and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans.
New York holds its premier position in wealth and population by reason of its being
an industrial and commercial State. It has been officially described for tourist interest as
‘the State that has everything’, partly because of its striking contrasts.
Eastern New York is dominated by the Great Appalachian Valley. The rest of New
York State is hilly, sloping gradually to the valleys of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario.

57
The Mohawk River. The principal rivers are the Hudson and the Mohawk. Albany is the
state’s capital.
New York City, the greatest metropolis of the nation, expanded quickly into the
largest and richest city in the world. It has become a world centre of finance and the
cultural centre of the United States. New York City has been called “the city that never
sleeps”. Its population is more than 8 million. Situated at the confluence of the Hudson and
East Rivers with New York Bay, New York is a city of islands. The Dutch bought
Manhattan Island from the Indians for the equivalent of $24 and named it New Amsterdam
in 1625. After a war between the English and the Dutch the city was seized by the English
in 1664 and renamed New York.
The business and cultural activities of New York City are located on Manhattan,
which is the most densely populated of the city’s five boroughs. Manhattan has the greatest
number of office skyscrapers in the world. They are clustered around Wall Street, regarded
as the financial centre of America. The most famous skyscrapers are Chrysler Building and
the Empire State Building. Until recently the third famous complex of skyscrapers was the
World Trade Center, demolished by terrorist attack on 11 September, 2001.
New York is bounded by the Hudson, Harlem and East Rivers, and upper New
York Bay. Other boroughs in New York are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond
(Staten Island). They are joined with each other by immense bridges and tunnels. New
York’s boroughs are divided into neighborhoods which often have a distinct ethnic
character like Harlem or Chinatown. Chinatown, with its main Canal Street, is the home of
the largest Asian community in North America. You can find there Chinese food markets
filled with amazing varieties of fish and exotic vegetables, funky pagoda-style buildings
and hundreds of tea-houses and restaurants serving traditional Chinese cuisine. Harlem has
been a Mecca of African-American culture for more than a century. The 1920s were
Harlem’s heyday. Black musicians, such as Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson and many
others performed in Harlem clubs, including the famous Cotton Club.
Within the city is an efficient network of subways, bridges (including the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge), tunnels and highways. The port of New York is a gigantic
shipping and trade complex. New York City is also home to the headquarters of the major
national television networks and to the advertising agencies. One of the most famous
monuments
in New York City is the Statue of Liberty which stands on a small island in New York
Harbor. It was a gift to the people of the United States from the people of France in 1886 to
honor the friendship and the commitment to liberty between France and the United States.
This famous monument portrays a crowned woman stepping from broken shackles and
holding a burning torch and a tablet representing the Declaration of Independence. About a
mile from the Statue of Liberty is Ellis Island which was the main gateway for millions of
immigrants to the United States.
New York City is the cultural centre of the United States. There are a number of
museums in New York City, the best known being the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American
Art. Music lovers can go to the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera or the New
York Philharmonic. The Metropolitan Museum, located on Fifth Avenue, is probably one
of the greatest tourist attractions. Millions of people visit it every year. One of the most
interesting sights in New York City is perhaps Times Square-Broadway. It looks shabby by
day, but at night, when the neon lights up, it offers a breathtaking view. Times Square is
formed by the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Broadway. In the neighborhood are the

58
city’s magnificent cinemas, theatres, bars and souvenir shops. The most famous park in
New York City is Central Park, which was designed in the 1850s by landscape architects
Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and opened in 1858. It extends from 59th to
110th Street, from Fifth Avenue to Central Park West Avenue. Apart from wild rambles,
lakes, hills and winding paths, there are facilities for tennis, riding and boating. Fifth
Avenue is lined with famous shops like Tiffany, Gucci, Saks and Teller. Greenwich
Village is still famously the home of artists and writers. It has homes on narrow, tree-lined
streets. The United Nations complex of buildings is located alongside the East River
between 42nd and 48th Streets. Pennsylvania was originally a centre of immigration,
particularly of Germans and Scotch-Irish. In the past, the state was predominantly Quaker
and Presbyterian. Pennsylvania provided coal for New England industries. Philadelphia,
which was the capital of the USA between 1790 and 1800, is the historic city where the
Declaration of Independence was signed and the American Constitution was written. The
Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), which took place near the town of Gettysburg, in
Pennsylvania, was the greatest battle fought not only during the American Civil War but
also in the entire history of the Western Hemisphere. It is considered the pivotal battle of
the American Civil War.
At present Pennsylvania is a commercial and industrial centre. Its major industries
include the primary metal industries, electrical machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and
farm products. Pittsburgh, a river port, is Pennsylvania’s second largest city. It used to be
one of the world’s largest steel-making centers. The state’s chief tourist attractions are,
among others, the Gettysburg National Military Park and Independence National Historical
Park in Philadelphia.
New Jersey, nicknamed the Garden State, boasts of scenic sights of The Great
Swamp and the Appalachian Mountains in the north and the Pine Barrens in the south.
New Jersey’s largest city, Newark, is the third oldest city in the U.S. The south of the state
is coastal plain and the north is upland. The state, also known as the Crossroads of the East,
is an important insurance and banking centre. The chief industries in New Jersey produce
electrical equipment, chemicals, metal goods, and processed foods. Princeton University in
New Jersey is one of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the U.S.

Test your knowledge

1. What cultural regions are included in the Northeast?

2. Which states make up New England?
3. Which states belong to the Middle Atlantic Region?
4. Where is the Statue of Liberty and what does it symbolize?
5. What was the function of Ellis Island?

Glossary

abundant – rich (obfity)

alpine – of, relating to, or characteristic of the Alps; of or relating to high mountains
(alpejski, wysokogórski)
bay – a body of water partially enclosed by land but with a wide mouth, affording access to
the sea (zatoka)
blueberry – a small sweet juicy dark-blue fruit (borówka, czarna jagoda)
borough – an administrative unit of New York City (cz miasta, dzielnica)

59
breathtaking – inspiring or exciting; astonishing (zapieraj cy dech, osza amiaj cy)
coastal – located on or near or bordering on a coast (przybrze ny)
confluence – a flowing together of two or more streams, rivers ( czenie si , nap yw)
corn – a cereal plant; maize (kukurydza)
funky – stylish and modern in an unconventional way (niekonwencojnalny, slang
m odzie owy “zakr cony”)
gateway – something that serves as an entrance or a means of access (brama wjazdowa,
wrota)
harsh – severe (surowy)
hemisphere – a half of a sphere bounded by a great circle. (pó kula)
humid – wet (wilgotny, mokry)
intersection – the point where one street crosses another (skrzy owanie)
pivotal – of central importance (kluczowy, centralny)
plain – an extensive, level area of land (równina)
primary election – a preliminary election in which voters nominate party candidates for
office (prawybory)
pulp – a mixture of pressed cellulose material, such as wood, (miazga drzewna, masa
drzewna)
Quaker – a member of a Christian sect, the Religious Society of Friends (kwakier)
ramble – a leisurely, sometimes lengthy walk (w ócz ga)
rural – of, relating to, or characteristic of the country (wiejski)
subway – underground railway (metro, kolej podziemna)
swamp – a lowland region saturated with water (bagno, mokrad o)
westward – toward, to the west (na zachód)
winding – spiral (kr ty, wij cy si )
witchcraft – magic (czary)

2. The Midwest

The Midwest Region, which is usually divided into the East North Central and the West
North Central, includes the states westward from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa to Nebraska
and southward from North Dakota and South Dakota to Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin,
Missouri and Michigan. It is a region of small towns and huge farms, although Chicago,
Illinois, is America’s third largest city.
Culturally, the region is so diversified that it is usually divided into the Upper and
Central Midwest. The Upper Midwest has a strong concentration of Scandinavian,
German, Dutch and Polish people. The Central Midwest includes central Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, most of Iowa and Nebraska, northern Missouri and Kansas. The region has been
influenced by the culture of the South and New England. The Central Midwest is
sometimes referred to as the “heartland” of the United States. The most dominant religious
groups in the region are the Methodists, Presbyterians and northern Baptists, referred to as
the Church of God.
The Midwest is one of the most important manufacturing regions in the United
States. Food processing is one of its major industries. Flour mills are scattered throughout
the states of Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota. The Midwest has great waterway
“highways”. The lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie are connected with each other

60
by small rivers and dams. Most of the Midwest is lowland, stretching from the
Appalachians to the Rocky Mountains.
Ohio is at the far eastern end of the Midwest. It contains the edge of the
Appalachian Mountains in the east and plains in the west. Ohio is also part of the Great
Lakes region. The Ohio River follows the state’s southern border. In 1803, Ohio became
the seventeenth state to join the Union and it was the first to be admitted from the
Northwest Territory. The state’s name is derived from an Iroquois word meaning “good (or
great) river”. Except for a small area along the Ohio River, Ohio has a humid continental
climate.
Columbus, the capital of Ohio, makes mining machinery, while Cincinnati
produces machine tools and Cleveland is the cultural capital, famous for its world-
renowned orchestra and the Cleveland Museum of Art, which has an interesting Chinese
collection. Ohio’s 2,500 lakes and 70,000 kilometers of river landscapes are a great
attraction for thousands of boaters, fishermen and swimmers.
Flat in the north and hilly in the south, Indiana is one of the leading agricultural
states in the U.S.A. More than three quarters of the state’s total land area is farmland.
Many Amish live on the farmland of Northeastern Indiana. Indiana is also among the
leading producers of steel, motor vehicles, pharmaceuticals, household furniture and
electrical machinery. Although Indiana means “Land of the Indians”, there are fewer than
8,000 Native Americans living in the state today. True to its motto, “Crossroads of
America”, Indiana has more kilometers of Interstate Highway per square kilometer than
any other state. This motto can be traced back to the early 1800s, when river traffic,
especially along the Ohio, was a major means of transportation.
Indianapolis is the capital of Indiana. The city is well known for a 500-mile
Formula One race held every Memorial Day.
Illinois was one of the five states created from the Northwest Territory. The
Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provided for the organization of the Northwest territory,
initially as a single district. By 1880, Illinois had become the fourth most populous U.S.
state.
Illinois is the most populous state in the Midwest. More than half of the population
lives in and around Chicago, the leading industrial and transportation center in the region.
The rest of the population lives in the smaller cities and on the farms. The state is a leader
in agriculture, manufacturing and mining. The rich soils of Illinois yield a wide variety of
crops, principally corn, soybeans and wheat. About 90 percent of the state’s area is farmed.
The state also manufactures electric machinery, processed meat and metal products.
At the northern edge of the state on Lake Michigan lies Chicago, the most
important city in Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States (almost 3
million in 2003). The city is 40 kilometers long and 16 kilometers wide. It is one of the
principal industrial cities in the U.S. Chicago has been regarded as the U.S. centre of
livestock trading and meat packing. It is also a busy grain market. The famous stockyards
are situated on the city’s South Side. Once Chicago had the reputation as the most lawless
city in the US.
During Prohibition (1919–1933), when federal law forbade the manufacture,
transportation or sale of alcohol in the United States, Chicago gangs flourished by selling
illegal liquor. One of its most notorious gangsters was Al Capone. Today Chicago is the
centre of American commerce and transportation. O’Hare Airport is one of the busiest
airports in the world, and the Sears Tower is one of the tallest buildings on the North
American continent.

61
 Iowa lies on plains which rise gradually from the southeast to the northwest. It has
cold winters with occasional blizzards and long, warm summers. The state has highly
developed, modern agriculture, with 90 per cent of its land devoted to farming. Most
manufacture in the state is related to agricultural tools and machines. The capital and
largest city of Iowa, Des Moines, is a trade and manufacturing centre.
Initially, Nebraska was part of Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Nebraska gets its name
from a Native American word meaning “flat water”, after the Platte River which flows
through the state. In 1854, the present state of Nebraska, along with much of the present
Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado, became part of the Nebraska Territory. In
1867 the state of Nebraska was admitted to the Union. Settlement increased after the
construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. Nebraska is the only state in the United States
with a unicameral legislature, that is a legislature with only one house. Although this house
is known simply as the “Legislature”, its members still call themselves “Senators”.
Nebraska is one of the great grain-growing states, a leading producer of corn, rye,
sorghum and wheat. Livestock raising is also important to the state economy. Omaha and
Lincoln are the largest trading and manufacturing cities. Omaha also contains the largest
livestock market in the USA. Nebraska has very cold winters and very warm summers.
North and South Dakotas, which have good soils, are centers of spring wheat
production. The climate in North Dakota is quite severe, with very cold winters and mild
summers. South Dakota has hot summers and cold winters, with extreme fluctuations in
temperature. It is a leader in gold and beryllium production. At Lead, in the Black Hills
region, is the largest gold mine in the United States. “Dakota” in Native American
language means “friend”.
North Dakota’s summer visitors can enjoy the exciting rodeos that are held in
numerous communities and colorful Indian ceremonies that are conducted on reservations
in the state.
South Dakota is known for two monumental sculptures carved into the Black Hills
– Mount Rushmore National Memorial, which honors presidents Washington, Jefferson,
Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, and the Crazy Horse Monument, still under
construction, which honors the Oglala Sioux war chief.
Kansas is situated at the geographic centre of the forty-eight states. It has warm
summers and cold winters. Traditionally, it has been a farm and ranch state, world-famous
for its wheat production. Other major crops are sorghum, grain, hay and corn. Kansas is
also one of the leading cattle-raising states. The traditional industries of Kansas have been
slaughtering, meat packing and flour milling. After World War II the manufacture of
aircraft was started in Wichita, which is also an important farm machinery center. Kansas
City is a great livestock market and meat-packing center.
An interesting tourist attraction is Dodge City, the legendary cattle town which has
a reconstructed Front Street. Dodge City, located on the Arkansas River, was settled in
1872, and soon became a notorious frontier town and cattle-shipping point on the Santa Fe
Trail, which went from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Today it is the
capital of the beef industry in the U.S.A.
Minnesota has a humid and continental climate. The state boasts of numerous
rivers and lakes (over 11,000), and three distinct ecological zones: prairie, coniferous
forests, and deciduous forests. The state has many dairy farms and is the leading U.S.
producer of butter.

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 The word “Minnesota” comes from the Dakota Indian language meaning “water”,
which refers to the Minnesota River (534 km long), which flows to the Mississippi River
south of Minneapolis. It was an important route of explorers and fur traders.
Minneapolis is the largest city and a center for the manufacture of underwear.
About three fifths of the U.S. production of iron ore comes from Minnesota, although the
state is primarily agricultural, and one of the leading producers of oats, corn, barley and
flax seed. The state’s numerous scenic lakes and deep pine woods are a wonderland for
holidaymakers.
Minnesota has contributed important figures to the American nation, including the
writers Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald; the economist Thorstein Veblen, and the
aviation pioneer Charles A. Lindbergh, who were born in the sate.
Wisconsin’s name is a French adaptation of an Indian name said to mean “the place
where we live”. The region was first explored by the French, who established a trading
post and a Roman Catholic mission in the mid-1600s. The region was governed by the
British between 1763 and 1812. Then it was part of the territories of Indiana, Illinois and
Michigan until 1830 when it became a separate territory. In 1848, it was admitted to the
Union as the 30th state.
Wisconsin, nicknamed “America’s Dairyland”, manufactures more dairy products
than any other state. Tourism is a major source of revenue. Madison, the capital of
Wisconsin, is in the middle of the dairy region. Milwaukee is the state’s largest city,
known for its old breweries. Milwaukee’s chief products include automobile frames,
engines, tractors, heavy machinery, paper, and food.
Wisconsin is famous for its natural beauty, clean lakes, rolling hills, quiet valleys
and deep forests. The winters in Wisconsin are ideal for skating, skiing, snow-mobiling
and tobogganing.
Missouri, which in Algonquin Indian language means “river of the big canoes”, has
cold winters and warm summers. Tornadoes are quite frequent between March and June.
The Missouri region was penetrated by white traders in the late 17th century. The first
permanent settlement was established at Sainte Genevieve in 1735. St. Louis, called the
“Gateway to the West”, is the most important inland port on the mighty Mississippi River.
Missouri leads in the production of lead. The first lead mines were opened in 1819. The
state has abundant wildlife, rugged hills, rushing streams and peaceful woodlands.
Hannibal is the hometown of the writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark
Twain.
After the American Revolution the area later to become Michigan was included in
the Northwest Territory. In 1805, Congress created the separate Territory of Michigan
which became the 26th state in 1837. The opening of the Erie Canal twelve years earlier
(1825) gave impetus to a large number of immigrants from Germany, Poland, Italy,
Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, Greece, and other countries
to settle there. Michigan’s industrial expansion began in the late 1890s, when automobiles
began to be manufactured in Detroit. This city, whose good location on the Great Lakes
makes it a fine industrial and trading center, is the heart of America’s automobile industry.
The Cadillac, Lincoln, Packard, Hudson, Chrysler, Plymouth, Oldsmobile and other
motorcars have been produced there. Cars are also manufactured in other cities of
Michigan: Flint, Pontiac and Lansing. Agriculture is still a major sector of the state’s
economy although it has long been dwarfed by the auto industry.
Michigan gets its name from an Ojibwa (Chippewa) Indian word meaning “large
lake”. The state touches four of the five Great Lakes – Erie, Huron, Michigan and

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Superior. It also has an additional 11,000 smaller lakes. The Great Lakes region is a good
place for rest and recreation. The beaches and the beautiful scenery around Lakes
Michigan, Superior and Huron attract thousands of summer visitors. Before the arrival of
white settlers, Michigan was Indian country. Tribes mostly of Algonquian stock lived there
– Ojibwa, Ottawa, Potowatomi, Miami and Menominee. The Michigan Indians were great
hunters and fishers.

Test your knowledge

1. Which states make up the Midwest?
2. What have you learnt about Chicago?
3. How many Polish Americans live in Chicago?
4. What is Detroit famous for?
5. What is Wisconsin famous for?

Glossary
beryllium – a steel-gray metallic element used as an aerospace structural material (beryl)
blizzard – a violent snowstorm with winds (zamie , zawieja)
brewery – an establishment for the manufacture of malt liquors, such as beer and ale
(browar)
coniferous trees – needle-leaved, chiefly evergreen trees (drzewa iglaste, szpilkowe)
deciduous trees – trees that lose their flat leaves in autumn (drzewa li ciaste)
dam – a body of water controlled by a barrier constructed across a waterway (tama)
dairy – relating to milk products or processing (mleczarski)
diversified – having variety of character or form or components (urozmaicony)
(to become) dwarfed – to become smaller (karle , kar owacie )
flax – a slender plant with delicate, blue flowers; the seeds are used to make linseed oil,
and
the fibers of the stem are spun into linen thread (len)
flour milling – machinery that processes flour by grinding or crushing grains (m ynarstwo)
heartland – center (centrum)
inland – of the interior of a country or region ( ródl dowy)
lead – a soft heavy toxic metallic element (o ów)
livestock – farm animals ( ywy inwentarz, byd o)
oats – a cereal (owies)
slaughtering – the killing of animals especially for food (ubój)
sorghum – a cereal (sorgo)
stockyard – a large enclosed yard, usually with pens or stables, in which livestock, such as
cattle or pigs, are temporarily kept until slaughtered, sold, or shipped elsewhere
(ogrodzenie na byd o)
toboggan – a long narrow sled used for the sport of coasting downhill over snow or ice
(tobogan, sanki)
unicameral legislature – composed of one legislative body; antonym: bicameral
(jednoizbowe cia o ustawodawcze)
wheat – a cereal (pszenica)

3. The South

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Washington, D.C.

Although the capital of the U.S.A., Washington, D.C., is not part of any state, it is included
geographically in the Southern Region.
Washington, D.C. is the capital of the U.S. situated in the District of Columbia, an
area separated from the neighboring states which is the property of the US government. It
was established in 1790 and became the capital of the United States in 1800. Named after
the first president of the United States, it is located in a 10-square-mile area along the east
side of the Potomac River, sandwiched between the states of Maryland and Virginia. It is
the head-quarters of the federal government, international and diplomatic establishments
and an expanding private sector.
Among the most important buildings in Washington, D.C., are the Capitol (the seat
of Congress) and the White House, the official home of the President of the United States.
George Washington was the only President not to live in the White House. The White
House stands on Pennsylvania Avenue, about 1.5 kilometers from the Capitol. In 1948–
1952, during the Truman Administration, the building was completely renovated.
The most famous monuments in Washington, D.C. are the Washington Monument,
the Lincoln Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial. Northeast of the Lincoln Memorial is
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. On two large black granite walls sunk into the earth are
inscribed the names of all the Americans who were killed in the Vietnam war or are listed
as missing in action.
Other establishments in Washington, D.C. include the National Gallery of Art, the
museums of the Smithsonian Institute, such as the Air and Space Museum and the National
Zoo, renowned for its collection of rare and unusual animals. The John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts offers rich cultural attractions. The Arena Stage is one of the
country’s leading repertory theatres. The city has a number of postsecondary education
institutions, such as Gallaudet University, devoted to the hearing-impaired; Howard
University, a leading black institution; and Georgetown University, held in especially high
regard for its famous Law School and School of Foreign Service. Other important public
institutions in Washington, D.C. include the Supreme Court and the National Archives.

Test your knowledge

1. What does the term District of Columbia refer to?

2. When did Washington, D.C., become the capital of the United States?
3. What is the history of the White House?
4. What is the Capitol?
5. What important institutions are situated in Washington, D.C.?
6. Name some famous monuments in Washington, D.C.

The White House

The White House, the official residence of the president, is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
in Washington, DC 20500. The site, covering about 18 acres, was selected by President
Washington and city planner Pierre Charles L’Enfant, and the architect was James Hoban.

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The design appears to have been influenced by Leinster House, Dublin, and James Gibb’s
Book of Architecture. The cornerstone was laid Oct. 13, 1792, and the first residents were
President John Adams and First Lady Abigail Adams in November 1800.
The White House has a fascinating history. The main building was burned by the
British in 1814 during the War of 1812. Afterward, when the building was being restored,
the smoke-stained gray stone walls were painted white. The name “White House,”
however, was not used officially until President Theodore Roosevelt had it engraved on his
stationery in 1901. Prior to that, the building was known variously as the “President’s
Palace,” the “President’s House,” and the “Executive Mansion.”
Over the years, there have been several additions made to the main building, including
the west wing (1902), the east wing (1942), and a penthouse and a bomb shelter (1952).
The west wing, which contains the president’s oval office and the offices of his staff, is the
center of activity at the White House. During Harry Truman’s presidency, from Dec. 1948
to March 1952, the interior of the White House was rebuilt, and the outer walls were
strengthened. Nevertheless, the exterior stone walls are the same ones that were first put in
place when the White House was constructed two centuries ago.
The rooms for public functions are on the first floor; the second and third floors are
used as the residence of the president and first family. The most celebrated public room is
the East Room, where formal receptions take place. Other public rooms are the Red Room,
the Green Room, and the Blue Room. The State Dining Room is used for formal dinners.
In all, there are 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, 8 staircases, and 3 elevators.

Source: Department of the Interior, U.S. National Park Service

The Southern Region is subdivided into South Atlantic, East South Central, and West
South Central. Geographically, the Southern Region is usually divided into the lowland
and upland South.
The historical South, which includes North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, was devastated during
the American Civil War in the years 1861–1865 and found it very difficult to recover.
Initially, the economy of the South was predominantly agrarian, whereas that of the North
was industrial. Until 1865 the economy of the South was mostly based on slave labor. At
the turn of the 19th century the region turned to manufacturing. The greatest economic
transformations occurred after World War II. Today the new industries in the South
Atlantic states, such as housing, electronics and high-tech, are booming.
The South has produced a variety of music styles, such as the black blues and white
country music. The cowboy songs from the American frontier were largely derived from
the Southeast. Nashville, Tennessee, is the capital of the “country and western” style.
In the past, the historical South was notorious for its oppression of blacks. Today, it
seems, race relations in the South are generally not much different from those in the North,
at least at superficial observation.
The South Atlantic states include Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina. Florida, and Georgia.
The name of Delaware is derived from Lord De La Warr, the captain general and
governor of the colony of Virginia who is believed to have visited the bay and the river
which also bear his name. Delaware has a mild climate. Located on the Atlantic Coast, the

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state contains a wide diversity of industries, including manufacture of explosives, plastics,
synthetic rubber, fertilizers, etc. It has a flourishing fishing industry, too. Delaware is both
an industrial and farming state. The capital of Delaware is Dover, and the only large city is
Wilmington Wilmington, a centre of the petrochemical industry. Other industries in
Delaware include dyes, textiles, airplane repairing.
Delaware became the first of the 13 original states to ratify the United States
Constitution on December 7, 1787. .
Maryland is seaboard state, bounded on the north by Pennsylvania, on the west by
West Virginia, on the east by Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean, and on the south, across
the Potomac River, by West Virginia and Virginia. East Maryland is divided by
Chesapeake Bay, which runs almost to the northern border; thus the region of Maryland
called the Eastern Shore is separated from the main part of the state and is dominated by
the bay.
The state has a moderate climate, with cold winters and warm summers. The metal
industry is well developed in the state. Maryland has also been a centre of aircraft
production. The “flagship” of Maryland’s industry was the Bethlehem Steel Company
plant at Sparrows Point near Baltimore, which was the largest steel mill in the world in the
1950s and 1960s. Situated at Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore is an important centre of culture
and science. It has John Hopkins University.
Important agricultural products in Maryland are greenhouse and nursery products,
chickens, dairy products, eggs, and soybeans. Stone, coal, sand, gravel, cement, and clay
are the chief mineral products. The Chesapeake Bay produces a lot of seafood – oysters,
crabs, and fin fish.
Located between New York and Florida, Virginia was once one state. People in the
western half did not want to secede. So, West Virginia was “admitted” to the union in
1863, and the other half, still named Virginia became a member of the confederate states.
Virginia is called the gateway to the South. Named after England’s “Virgin Queen”,
Elizabeth I, it was a royal British colony in the 17th century. This colony was second to
declare its independence from Great Britain in 1776, but ratification of the US Constitution
was delayed until 1788 because of the state’s opposition to slavery. In the early 19th
century, Virginia was the site of many Negro rebellions (the most noteworthy led by Nat
Turner in 1831).
Places of interest in Virginia include Jamestown Colonial National Park, Lexington
(home of General Robert E. Lee), Mount Vernon (George Washington’s plantation home
overlooking the Potomac River), Williamsburg (the colonial capital of Virginia from 1699
to 1779), Arlington National Cemetery (containing over 100,000 graves, including the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World Wars I and II, and the Korean and Vietnam
wars).
Jamestown was the first English settlement in the U.S.; it was also the first capital
of Virginia. Norfolk, the largest city in Virginia, is the site of the largest naval base in the
U.S. Virginia has a highly diversified economy. Tobacco is Virginia’s traditional produce.

The story of Princess Pocahontas

Pocahontas (c. 1595–1617) was a Native American who was born near the Chesapeake
Bay in Virginia. She was a daughter of Emperor Powhatan. She was a curious and
brave girl who was never afraid of adventures. Once she met the white men of the
Virginia Colony. They taught her English, and she, in turn, taught them her language
and culture. When her father learnt of her adventures, his warriors captured the

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 Colonists. Then Pocahontas, as legend says, saved Captain John Smith’s life.
Her real name was Matoaka. “Pocahontas” was her childhood nickname referring to
her easy-going behavior (in the Powhatan language it meant “little wanton”). She
married an English colonist, John Rolfe. The marriage brought peace with the Native
Americans for a few years. Pocahontas went to England in 1616 with her husband and
several other Indians. She was received as a princess and presented to King James I.
She never returned to Virginia. In 1617 she fell ill and died in England, where she was
buried.

West Virginia is usually associated with the Old South, but geographically and
administratively it is located within the Northeast Region. Originally forty western
counties of Virginia seceded on 27 April, 1861 to form the state of West Virginia, which
was admitted to the Union. West Virginia is a mountainous state, covered by the Allegheny
Highlands and Blue Ridge with the great Shenandoah Valley falling between the ranges.
The central piedmont region, with its rolling hills, flattens out into the sandy coastal plain
toward the Atlantic Ocean. The climate of West Virginia is mild with four distinct seasons.
West Virginia has extensive natural resources; it is a significant producer of coal,
natural gas, stone, steel, glass, aluminum, cement, salt, oil and chemicals (including
synthetic textiles). Lumber is also an important resource; about two thirds of the state is
covered with forests.
North Carolina is the tenth most populated state in the country. It is known for its
three major industries: tobacco, textiles and furniture. Its largest city, Charlotte, has a
population of approximately 540,000; the state’s other major cities include Greensboro,
Winston-Salem, Raleigh and Durham. Chapel Hill is one of the most charming small
towns in the state and home of the University of North Carolina, probably the most
distinguished institution of higher learning in the Southeast. Other institutions of higher
learning in North Carolina include Duke University, North Carolina State University and
North Carolina Central University. The beauty of the state is enhanced by the majestic
Smoky Mountains, the Piedmont region, Cape Hatteras on the Atlantic Ocean and the great
Roanoke River, along which Sir Walter Raleigh established the first English settlement in
the New World in 1585. Both North and South Carolina have mild winters and hot, humid
summers.

Did you know that

1. the first Pepsi was created and served in New Bern, North Carolina in 1898?
2. in 1902, while on a hunting expedition in Sharkey County, Mississippi, President
Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt refused to shoot a captured bear? This act resulted in
the creation of the world-famous teddy bear.
3. the Mississippi, the largest river in the United States, is America’s chief waterway?
Its nickname is Old Man River.
4. the world’s first Electric Trolley System was introduced in Montgomery, Alabama,
in 1886?
5. Florida alligators live in freshwater lakes, rivers, and swamps?

South Carolina, which separated from North Carolina in 1729, includes portions
of three major natural regions of the eastern United States: the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont
Plateau and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The climate is humid and subtropical with long, hot

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summers and short, mild winters. South Carolina separated from North Carolina before the
War of Independence, in 1729. It was the first state to ratify the first constitution of the
United States, the Articles of Confederation on 5 February, 1778. It was also the first state
which tried to secede from the United States to form the Confederate States of America.
The initial battle of the American Civil War occurred at Fort Sumter, which stands on an
island in Charleston harbor. Cotton production and the manufacture of textiles are the
principal industries of South Carolina.
Much of Georgia still remains rural. Textiles, apparel, lumber products, fruit,
cattle and poultry are the prominent sources of the state’s income. Until the end of the 18th
century, the territory of Georgia was inhabited mostly by Cherokee and Choctaw Indians.
Georgia used to be one of the most backward states. Now Georgia is one of the leading egg
and broiler producing states. Beef cattle, hogs and milk are also important. Georgia is also
a leader in the production of peanuts.
Atlanta, situated on the Piedmont Plateau, is the capital and largest city. During the
Civil War it was completely burned down. Today Atlanta is a booming business centre.
With a population of over 450,000 (2008) it is the heart of the “New South”. Atlanta is also
a city of historical and cultural importance. Its university was created in 1865.
Florida, first explored by the Spanish, is a culturally distinct region. Its name is
derived from the Spanish feast called Pasqua Florida (“Easter feast of flowers”). Although
it retains some southern cultural patterns, it has absorbed a massive influx of Northerners
seeking a better climate for retirement and recreation. Florida, with its sandy beaches and a
warm, sunny climate, is now one of the leading tourist states in the United States. People
go to Florida to enjoy swimming, fishing and water skiing in the inland and coastal waters.
Other tourist attractions include Disney World, Miami Beach, the Everglades National
Park and the Florida Keys.
More recently an influx of Latin American immigrants, particularly Cubans, has
further transformed the character of the state. Miami resembles a major Latin American
city. In 1969, the first people to land on the moon were launched from the Kennedy Space
Center at Cape Canaveral on Florida’s Atlantic coast. The capital of Florida, Tallahassee,
is an important trading center for dairy foods, nuts and lumber.
The East South Central States include Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and
Tennessee.
Alabama is comprised of coastal plains at the Gulf of Mexico turning to hills and
broken terrain in the north. In the southwest, the land is low and swampy. The southeast
plain is called the wiregrass section because of the tough grass that once grew there among
the pine forests. To the north, the terrain becomes hilly and is covered by many pine
forests.
Alabama was organized as a separate territory in 1817. Two years later it became a
state. In the 1950s Alabama was the scene of a bitter racial struggle, after the boycott by
blacks of segregated buses in Montgomery. Alabama has a great iron and steel industry
which developed after the Tennessee Valley Authority began to provide cheap
hydroelectric power in the 1930s. The capital of Alabama, Montgomery, was the
Confederacy’s first capital.
Kentucky is one of the border states between the North and the South. It is
bounded by the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers on the west, the Ohio River on the north, the
Big Sandy River, Pine Mountain, and Cumberland Mountain on the east, and the state of
Tennessee on the south. Its name comes from the Iroquois Indian word meaning “land of
tomorrow”. The state has a moderate climate, characterized by warm, yet moist conditions.

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Summers are usually warm and winters cool. Kentucky is nicknamed the “Bluegrass State”
because of the blue blossoms of the lush grass in Lexington area. Tobacco fields and
champion race horses have long been symbols of Kentucky. Today, Kentucky is often
associated with horse farms and racing.
Mississippi has mostly plains with low hills. It has mild winters and hot humid
summers. Tornadoes and tropical cyclones occur rather frequently. Mississippi’s economy
still depends on the production of cotton. In 2000, Mississippi ranked third in the
production of cotton in the U.S. In the past, Mississippi was a very poor state; the Civil
War had destroyed the work of generations of cotton growers. It was not until the late
1960s that manufacturing became the leading revenue-producing sector of the state’s
economy. The state’s most valuable mineral resources, petroleum and natural gas, have
been exploited since the 1930s.
Three groups of Native Americans lived in the Tennessee region when European
settlers first visited the area: Cherokee, Chickasaw and Creek. The name “Tennessee”
originated from the old Indian word, “Tana-see”, meaning “The Meeting Place”.
By the end of the 1600s, both England and France claimed land in North America
that included Tennessee. This eventually led to the French and Indian War (1754–1763). In
1763, the Treaty of Paris surrendered all French land east of the Mississippi to England.
The Tennessee region became part of the English colony North Carolina. By 1840, most of
the Native Americans had been forced to leave Tennessee. Many traveled the “Trail of
Tears” to what would become Oklahoma. During the Civil War Tennessee was the last
state to secede from the Union (1862) and the first state to be readmitted to the Union
(1866).
During the Great Depression the economy dropped dramatically, closing factories
and making thousands unemployed. In 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was
organized to conserve and develop natural resources. Many people found jobs building
dams on Tennessee rivers. After the war, the TVA continued to build dam and steam plants
throughout the state.
Since the 1960s, many new industries have moved to Tennessee. The predominant
industries are now manufacturing, food processing, banking, business, tourism and
entertainment. Tennessee is also a leading tobacco-producing state. Nashville has
developed a multi-billion dollar country music industry. Elvis Presley’s home Graceland
has become the most visited celebrity museum in the country.
The West South Central States include Arkansas, Louisiana Oklahoma, and Texas.
Arkansas is bounded on the north by Missouri; on the east it is separated from
Mississippi and Tennessee by the Mississippi River; to the south is Louisiana; and
stretching away to the west are the plains of Oklahoma and Texas. The climate of Arkansas
is humid subtropical and very favorable for agriculture. Warm, bright days are common
even in December and January. The spring is long and pleasant, and hot weather usually
does not begin until June.
Arkansas used to be a major cotton-producing state in the 19th cent. Today the state
diversified agricultural production and overall economy, but cotton is still an important
crop, though it ranks below soybeans and rice. The state’s most important mineral products
are petroleum and natural gas, and it is the nation’s leading bauxite producer. Principal
manufactures are food products, chemicals, lumber and paper goods, electrical equipment,
furniture, automobile and airplane parts, and machinery. The capital and largest city is
Little Rock.

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 Louisiana has a humid subtropical climate. The state is bounded on the east by
Mississippi, on the north by Arkansas, and on the west by Texas. The Mississippi River
flows between Mississippi and Louisiana for half the length of the state and then passes
entirely into Louisiana.
The state has a unique multicultural heritage. South Louisiana takes its character
from the French-speaking people who settled the vast, wet terrain, and who in the
eighteenth century penetrated its rivers and bayous to make homes for themselves in the
jungle-like forests.
New Orleans was once a French and Spanish city before it became a part of the
United States. Even today French culture and French customs persist, though the city has
spread out far beyond the boundaries of the Vieux Carré, the old town of iron lace,
balconies, and courtyards.
The most significant and the most colorful celebration in New Orleans is Mardi
Gras, when the city enters a season of carnival with nightly balls and other festivities from
Twelfth Night through Shrove Tuesday, a season which culminates with a week of street
pageantry, and with general masking in the streets on Mardi Gras itself.
Cajuns and Creoles of French ancestry are dominant in much of the southern part of
Louisiana. Cajuns are the descendents of French-speaking Acadians from colonial French
Acadia, which is now present day Nova Scotia. The Creole people consist of two racial
divisions: White French Creoles and Black Creoles. White French Creoles are mostly of
French and Spanish descent. Black Creoles are a mix of African, French, Spanish and
Native American heritage.
Oklahoma was once known as Indian Territory. It existed from 1834 to 1890. It
was originally established for the Five Civilized Tribes, but other Native Americans were
sent to live there in 1866 because the government had reserved the land for Indians. After
1889, however, the area was opened to white settlers in a “Land Rush” of 1889. Oklahoma
still has larger Native Indian population than any other state in the U.S. Many of the
250,000 American Indians living in Oklahoma are descended from the sixty-seven tribes
who inhabited the Indian Territory. Wheat, cotton, rice and sugar are important products of
Oklahoma’s agriculture. Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city with Tulsa as the
chief trading centre in the region. Farming is an important part of the economy. Places of
interest include Cherokee Cultural Centre and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in
Oklahoma City.
Texas, popularly known as the “Lone Star” State, has a population of more than 20
million (2000). The name “Texas” comes from the Hasinai Indian word tejas, meaning
“friends” or “allies”. Over 32 per cent of all Texans are of Spanish or Mexican descent.
Until 1836 Texas was a Mexican province. After the defeat and capture of the Mexican
dictator, general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Texas was proclaimed the Lone Star
Republic, and in 1845 became a state of the United States of America. Mexico did not
accept the incorporation of Texas into the US and a new war began. A peace treaty ended
the war in 1848, whereupon the United States also annexed the immense territory of the
present day states of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico,
Colorado and Wyoming.
Texas has a very diversified geography. In the east there are low coastal plains with
belts of sandy hills. In the northern central (Central Lowland) region there is a vast prairie.
The west of the state has rugged mountain ranges with dry basin valleys in between. The
climate is humid in the east, with hot summers and mild winters in the south. Occasional
tornadoes, hailstorms and floods occur in summer. Texas is said to have half of all U.S. oil

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reserves. Austin, the capital of Texas, is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United
States, with a population of over 715,000 (2007). The University of Texas is located in
Austin. It has an enrollment of over 50,000 students. Another interesting city is San
Antonio, founded by the Spanish in 1718 as the capital of the province of Texas. In the
1860s San Antonio became the first of the great bases along the cattle trail which led from
the west to Kansas and Nebraska. The city now has a population of approximately 1.3
million (2007), but it still retains much of its Spanish flavor. It is a major port of entry for
commerce with Mexico and Central America, a trade and shipping centre for cotton, oil,
livestock, wool, grain, vegetables and citrus fruits.
Other important cities in Texas include Houston, established in 1836 as a trading
centre for cotton farmers and cattle ranchers; Amarillo, another chief trade and shipping
centre; El Paso, the main trade centre with Mexico in the western part of Texas; Dallas, the
headquarters for several oil firms and a leading cotton market; Fort Worth, one of the
largest grain-milling and meat-packing centers in the Southwest.

Glossary
(to) annex – to incorporate (territory) into an existing political unit such (przy cza ,
anektowa )
apparel – clothing, especially outer garments (odzie )
bauxite – the principal ore of aluminum (boksyt)
cotton – a plant grown for white fibers used in making textiles and other products
(bawe na)
dye – a substance used to color materials (barwnik)
establishment – institution, organization (instytucja, firma)
(to) flatten – to make flat (sp aszcza )
fertilizer – any substance, such as manure, added to soil to increase its productivity
(nawóz,
nawóz sztuczny)
fin fish – an ocean fish, as opposed to a shellfish, jellyfish, or other so-called fish
(ryba)
flagship – the most important ship belonging to a shipping company; the most modern or
impressive product or asset of an organization (okr t flagowy)
flavor – distinctive taste; savor (smak, posmak)
hailstorm – a storm with hail (burza gradowa)
harbor – seaport (port)
incorporation – inclusion (wcielenie, przy czenie)
influx – flowing in (nap yw)
land rush – a chaotic settlement which refers to a historical event in which previously-
restricted land of the United States was opened for homesteading on a first arrival basis;
land run (zasiedlanie ziemi na zasadzie, kto pierwszy, ten otrzymuje ziemi )
lumber – timber sawed into boards, planks (drewno)
Mardi Gras – Shrove Tuesday, celebrated as a holiday in many places with carnivals,
masquerade balls, and parades of costumed merrymakers. (z francuskiego usty wtorek;
ostatki)
moist – humid (wilgotny)
naval base – naval dockyard (baza marynarki wojennej)
rancher – one who grazes cattle or sheep for market; farmer (w ciciel fermy

72
 hodowlanej, farmer)
range – an open region over which animals, as livestock, may roam and feed; a series of
mountains (otwarty teren; cuch górski)
(to) secede – (od cza si , dokona secesji)
shipping – (wysy ka, ekspedycja)
Shrove Tuesday – (ostatki, wtorek przed rod popielcow )
soybean – a southeast Asian edible plant (soja)
swamp – a lowland region saturated with water (bagno, moczary)
tomb – a tomb (grób)
trail – an overland route (szlak)
wanton – a playful woman (ba amutka, kokietka)
whereupon – on which; then (po czym, wtenczas)

6. The West

The West is subdivided into the Mountain and Pacific states, which include the outlying
states Alaska and Hawaii.
The West has always exerted a great fascination for Americans. In the early days of
the United States, the conquest of the West by trappers, explorers, and pioneers was a
dominant factor.
The Rocky Mountains are the largest mountain system in North America.
Beginning in northern New Mexico near Santa Fe, the mountains extend north through
Colorado and Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. In Canada, the mountains are located
in parts of western Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
To the west of the Rocky Mountains is the intermontane region extending to the
Sierra Nevada, a mountain range in East California made up of a number of high plateaux.
The most famous is the area called the Grand Canyon. Cactus grows well in the south-
western United States, being well suited to the sandy, rocky soil and the dry, hot, desert
climate. Giant coast redwood grow in the Sierra Nevada, where there is a wetter and cooler
climate. Sequoia trees are among the biggest and oldest living plants on earth. Saguaro
cactus is a large desert plant which grows mainly in the Southwest.
The western part of the Great Plains, which stretch east of the Rocky Mountains, is
a grassland region. Parts of the Southwest belonged to Mexico before 1848 and today the
region has a large Spanish-speaking population. Before European settlement, the region
was inhabited by many Indian tribes like the Pueblos, Navajos, and Apaches. As a
consequence of the westward expansion of the white man, the Plains Indians, who lived in
western central U.S. (Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow and Sioux) and the
buffalo, their principal source of subsistence, disappeared. Cattle were grazed on enormous
plains of the Southwest. Under the Homestead Act of 1862, the United States Congress
granted 160 acres (65 hectares) of land to any family who lived on the land for five years
and cultivated it. However, homestead settlement led to conflicts with cattle ranchers.
The Colorado River forms a natural boundary with Mexico. In the West the climate
is mild in winter but temperatures may be very high in summer. Generally, the climate is
drier than in the Midwest.

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 The Mountain states consist of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New
Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The Rocky Mountains run north-south throughout these
states.
Arizona was organized as a separate U.S. territory in 1863 and became a state in
1912. During the depression of the 1930s Arizona suffered severely, but during World War
II demand for metals revived the state economy. After the war, electronics and other
industries were developed. Arizona is the leading producer of nonferrous metals, especially
copper. Also, agriculture flourishes although the total area under cultivation is relatively
small. Having a clear and dry climate, Arizona is one of the major producers of citrus fruits
after California and Florida.
The state is mostly mountainous with fabulous landscapes. The greatest tourist
attraction is the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, the Petrified Forest and Painted
Desert. Petrified Forest is a park located in northeast Arizona which features one of the
world’s largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood. Other attractions
include the multi-hued badlands known as the Painted Desert, historic structures,
archeological sites and displays of 225-million-year-old fossils. Other places of interest in
Arizona include: the Navajo Indian Reservation, the Hopi Indian Reservation, Fort Apache
(established in 1870 as a garrison) and Yuma, which served as the gateway to the new
western territory of California in the middle of the 19th century. The state capital, Phoenix,
is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S.
Colorado is famous for the Rocky Mountains with notable peaks such as Long’s
Peak, Mount Evans and Pike’s Peak. The state has the highest mean elevation. The eastern
part of Colorado is covered by plains, the central part is mountainous and the western part
consists of sedimentary plateaux. To the west of the front range lies the Continental
Divide. Water west of the Continental Divide drains into the Pacific Ocean via the
Colorado River. Early state’s industry was based on the processing of minerals and
agricultural products. Current agricultural products are cattle, wheat, dairy products, corn
and hay. Colorado is an important producer of commercial vegetables in the United States.
Other industries include food processing, transportation equipment, machinery, chemical
products, minerals such as gold and tourism. The state has many climatic variations.
Almost all the wooded areas are situated along the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The
Rocky Mountain National Park attracts many tourists. Denver, the state’s capital, is an
important financial centre. Thanks to the breathtaking scenery of the Rocky Mountains,
Denver hosts an enormous number of tourists.
Idaho leads in the cultivation of its famous potatoes and production of lamb. Sheep
are grazed in the mountains in summer and are brought down to the valleys and plains in
winter. It is also a land of unbelievable grandeur and natural beauty. Over 40 per cent of
the state’s land area is forested. The ski trails of the Sun Valley are a popular holiday resort
1,800 meters above sea level. Tourism is one of the principal sources of income. Places of
interest in Idaho include Idaho Falls (an old Mormon agricultural centre), Hells Canyon
(the deepest and most awesome part of canyon of the Snake River) and a sea of lava flows
with scattered islands of cinder cones and sagebrush describes known as Craters of the
Moon.
Montana, the third largest of the continental American states, has a continental
climate with low humidity. Montana’s name comes from the Spanish word “mountain”.
After the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, the state’s population grew rapidly
during the mining boom that began in the mid-1800s, with the Rocky Mountains providing
a rich source of gold, copper and other minerals. Today Montana’s principal industries

74
include manufacturing, agriculture and tourism. Montana is the home of many Indian tribes
– Blackfoot, Crow, Sioux and Assiniboine. The Montana plains are grazed by buffalo
(American bison). Montana has the largest migratory elk herd in the nation. Yellowstone
National Park in southern Montana and northern Wyoming was the first national park in
the world. Another great tourist attraction is Glacier National Park which contains sixty
small glaciers, 200 picturesque lakes, numerous mountains, waterfalls and streams with
trout. The park is a grizzly and black bear habitat and also contains other large mammals,
such as mountain goats, mountain sheep, and elk.
Nevada’s name comes from the Spanish meaning “snow-capped”. The state has a
semi-arid climate and consists mainly of a plateau within the arid Great Basin. It has many
broken mountain ranges, running mostly north to south. Its climate is very dry with hot
summers and winters which are cold in the northeast and west, and mild in the south.
Nevada is also called the “two-city state” since the two metropolitan areas of Las
Vegas and Reno, famous for their casinos, contain some three-quarters of the state
population. Other tourist attractions of Nevada include rodeos, mountain climbing, skiing,
golfing, trout fishing and hunting. Nevada is also famous for dry days, beautiful scenery,
and easy divorce laws. Tourism is the state’s main industry. However, the state also has
rich mineral resources. A vast area of the state is covered by desert and wasteland.
Las Vegas is known as the entertainment capital of the United States. Roulette,
craps, poker, faro, chuckaluck and one-armed bandits (slot machines) attract customers in
numerous casinos in the city. In the early 20th century, Las Vegas was only a small town
with a railway station, some houses, and bars. In 1931, Nevada legalized gambling, which
provided the capital for the development of both Las Vegas and Reno. In 1946 the
notorious gangster Bugsy Siegel opened the first casino. Today over 20 million Americans
and some two million foreign guests visit Las Vegas’ numerous casinos, gambling houses,
and hotels. The city boasts the biggest hotel in the world, Excalibur, opened in 1990. It has
four thousand rooms, four thousand staff, and seven restaurants. Las Vegas is also famous
for its neon signs and lights which are visible over a vast area. Even McDonald’s
restaurants are covered with thousands of meters of neon lights.
Reno, “the biggest little city in the world”, also boasts numerous gambling houses.
A strange contrast to the world of gambling and leisure is the vast area in the north of the
state where until recently the United States Atomic Energy Commission carried out nuclear
tests.
In the 1850s Oregon and California were the focus of the westward movement. Later, in
the 1870s and 1880s, the pioneers turned the region under the bonds of fence and plow.
Thus, the last gap between the Atlantic and the Pacific was closed, and a unified nation
was created.
New Mexico has a dry, hot climate. Its principal industries are mining, agriculture,
wheat, hay, sorghum, grain, onions, cotton, corn and manufacturing (foods, electrical
machinery and lumber). Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico. Santa Fe is the
second largest city and capital which preserves many reminders of its Spanish history. New
Mexico is a living museum of the history of the Indian and Spanish wars. The Indian wars
ended in 1886, when the Apaches were finally defeated by the whites. One of the most
famous of New Mexico’s desperados was Billy the Kid, who killed his first man when he
was twelve and murdered a dozen others before he himself was gunned down in 1881 at
the age of twenty-two. He played a prominent role in a bloody war between cattlemen.
Since World War II major strategic research has been carried out in the Los Alamos

75
National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was constructed and
then exploded in Alamagordo.
Utah was established in the 19th century as a model state by the Mormon
community which wanted to create an exemplary society through hard work and discipline.
Their leader, Brigham Young, was determined to take his people to an area where they
would be able to practice their religion in peace. Finally, the Mormons built a settlement in
the desert of Utah. They irrigated land and planted crops. Salt Lake City gradually became
one of the major cities in the Rocky Mountains Region and the centre of the Mormon
Church. The chief places of interest in Utah include Canyonlands National Park, Dead
Horse Point State Park, Dinosaur
National Monument (the world’s most remarkable dinosaur fossil deposits, including
stegosaurus, brontosaurus and allosaurus bones), and the Great Salt Lake which is the
second saltiest lake in the world. Utah has substantial deposits of uranium, petroleum, coal,
and iron and copper ore.
Wyoming is a mountain state lying in the high western plateaux of the Great
Plains. It is a land of cowboys and mountain men. It was nicknamed the Equality State
because in 1869 the Wyoming Territorial Legislature granted women the right to vote and
to hold public office as the first governing body in the world. Wyoming has semi-desert
climatic conditions. The state’s greatest tourist attraction is Yellowstone National Park
which has some 10,000 thermal features, 500 of which are geysers, hot springs, mud
volcanoes and fossil forests. It is the oldest large wildlife preserve in the United States. Its
forests contain a variety of animals including the buffalo.
Three great river systems, the Columbia, the Colorado, and the Missouri, have
sources in the mountains of Wyoming. The canyons of the Yellowstone, Big Horn, Snake,
Shoshone, and Platte Rivers are spectacular gorges cut through the mountains. The falls of
the Yellowstone are considered one of the scenic wonders of the country. The leading
industry of the State is livestock raising.
Major cities of Wyoming are the capital city of Cheyenne, Casper and Laramie.
The chief industries are mining, cattle, wheat, barley, oats, sugar beets, alfalfa and hay.
One of the most interesting sites is Old Fort Laramie which was the first permanent
fur trading post built in Wyoming in 1834. Later it became an important rest station on the
Oregon Trail. It was also an important U.S. military post during the Plains Indian wars.
Another place of interest is Cody, a town named after its founder, William F. Cody, better
known as Buffalo Bill. The main event of the year is a famous rodeo in the town. A dozen
Indian tribes, including the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Shoshoni once inhabited the
plains and mountains of Wyoming.
The name Wyoming, meaning ‘large plains’ in the Indian language, describes the
State’s outstanding topographic feature, the Great Plains. West of the Great Plains rise the
ranges that form the Continental Divide, the lofty ridge of the Rocky Mountains. The high
peaks in this chain are crowned with perpetual glacier-forming snows, from which streams
cascade down the slopes through timbered woods and flowering meadows, carving
canyons and creating waterfalls and lakes.

Yellowstone National Park

Established in 1872, Yellowstone National Park in southern
Montana and northern Wyoming was the first national park in the
U.S.A It is home to a large variety of wildlife including grizzly

76
bears, wolves, bison, and elk. It has also a number of the world’s
most extraordinary geysers and hot springs.

Did you know that

1. the largest meteorite crater in the world is in Winslow, Arizona. 4,150 feet across
and 150 feet deep?
2. Seattle, Washington, like Rome, was built on seven hills?
3. the only city in the United States to celebrate Halloween on October 30 instead of
October 31 is Carson City, Nevada? October 31 is Nevada Day, and is celebrated
with a large street party.
4. Montana has the largest grizzly bear population except for Alaska?
5. Death Valley is recognized as the hottest, driest place in the United States? It isn’t
uncommon for the summer temperatures to reach more than 115 degrees F ( 46 0C).

The Pacific states include California, Oregon, Washington and the outlying states
Alaska and Hawaii.
California, known as the “Land of Milk and Honey”, “El Dorado State”, or
“Golden State”, was an almost uninhabited territory until 1848 when gold was discovered
there. Then the massive Gold Rush of 1849 occurred and the population of California
gradually increased.
In the 1860s the Pacific Railroad was built to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific
coasts. Abundant natural resources, excellent soil and a very good climate have made
California the wealthiest state in the U.S.
California was the first state ever to reach a trillion dollar economy in gross state
product. California generates 14 per cent ($1.4 trillion) of American gross domestic
product (estimated 2003). California is the chief mining state on the West Coast. It
produces large amounts of petroleum and natural gas, and is a leading state in the
manufacture of aircraft, ships, electronic equipment and foodstuffs.
If California seceded from the United States, it would be the fifth largest economic
power in the world. It is also the largest research and education centre in the USA. The
University of California (UC), established in 1853, has a total of 163,000 students (2006)
at nine independent campuses: Berkeley, San Francisco, Davis, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara,
Los Angeles, Riverside, Irvine and San Diego. Other outstanding institutions of higher
learning are the private Stanford University, and the Institute of Technology in Pasadena
(Caltech), which boasts 61 Nobel Prize winners (as of 2007) among its faculty members.
The Santa Clara Valley, now better known as Silicon Valley, is the cradle of the computer
and microchip revolution.
The most productive agricultural region is the San Joaquin Valley, basically the
entire middle area of California. The San Joaquin, Salinas and Imperial Valleys produce
almost 80 per cent of the fruit and vegetables in the USA. Thousands of legal and illegal
Mexican migrant workers are employed on Californian farms, often for less than the
minimum wage. Californian vineyards cover 132,000 hectares of land and yield over 17

77
million liters of wine a year, accounting for 70 per cent of U.S. production. California has
excellent trade relations with the Far East.
Earthquakes have always been frequent occurrences in California. It is estimated
that there are approximately 500,000 detectable seismic tremors in California annually.
Los Angeles and San Francisco are blessed with a mild climate but they lie on a fault, i.e. a
crack in the Earth’s surface which stretches down the Pacific coast of America and
occasionally produces devastating earthquakes. It is called the San Andreas Fault. In 1906
the whole of downtown San Francisco was destroyed by an earthquake and subsequent
fire. Los Angeles has been severely damaged several times, the last major quake having
occurred in 1994. Today most people prefer to live in the comfortable suburbs. The
recurrent problem California has to deal with is its shortage of water. Without air-
conditioning, life would be insufferable in southern California summers, where – as the
song goes – “it never rains”. Another serious problem is unprecedented population growth
which has been accompanied by increasing violence, often racially inspired.
California holds two of the two most populous cities in the region: Los Angeles and
San Diego. The largest city is Los Angeles with over 3.8 million inhabitants. It is also the
largest Spanish-speaking city in the US. San Diego has a population of over 1.25 million.
San Francisco’s population is less than half of the population of Los Angeles. The state
capital is Sacramento, east of San Francisco.
Los Angeles, also known as the City of Angels, has been described as “a lot of
suburbs looking for a city” on account of its uncontrollable sprawl over a vast area
covering about 50 towns and communities like Long Beach, Santa Monica, Pasadena, and
Beverly Hills. This conurbation continues to expand rapidly across the San Fernando
Valley and its population exceeded 15 million in 1995. LA is one of the wealthiest cities in
the world. In the second half of the 19th century, Los Angeles was the chief destination of
thousands of immigrants. Today Los Angeles has modern aircraft, electronics, and
automobile industries. Among the places of historic interest, mention should be made of
the Church of Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles and Lugo House (part of Loyola
University) – both from the 19th century.
San Francisco, founded in 1776 by the Spanish, is California’s third largest city
with a population of c. 745,000 (2007). It is the main manufacturing, trade and shipping
centre in northern California. San Francisco used to be an important immigration port.
Today its population has a great proportion of Americans of Mexican, Chinese, Japanese
and Filipino descent (over 50 per cent). It has a large Chinatown. San Francisco has a
sophisticated transportation system. The city boasts one of the largest suspension bridges
in the world, the Golden Gate, which was built at the entrance to San Francisco Bay in the
1930s. The bridge connects San Francisco, on the peninsula, with the north counties. A
characteristic feature of downtown San Francisco is a system of charming cable street cars
which go up and down the city’s numerous steep streets.
San Francisco is a cosmopolitan city now. It is called the most “European” city in
the US. It was the birthplace of the Beat Generation (Allen Ginsberg and other Beatniks),
who rejected the ideals of the American Dream and paved way for the different
countercultures of the 1960s. In the Sixties, San Francisco (also called Frisco) was the hub
of the hippie movement. The Haight-Ashbury District near Golden Gate Park became
famous for its “flower children” and psychedelic music. Since the end of the 1960s, San
Francisco has become famous for its homosexuals. Castro Street with its cafes and stores
became the most popular gay street in America. In the 1980s, the spread of the AIDS
epidemic changed the atmosphere of downtown San Francisco, although the city still

78
preserves much of its hedonistic character. Today San Francisco represents all the trends of
postwar American subcultures.
Other places of interest in California include Sequoia and Kings Canyon National
Parks, Yosemite National Park, Death Valley National Monument (which includes the
Ghost Town of Skidoo and Zabriskie Point), and cities such as Santa Barbara, famous for
its Spanish architecture, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Diego (with one of the world’s finest
zoos), and Sacramento (the capital city). Death Valley is recognized as the hottest place in
the United States. It is not uncommon for the summer temperature to reach more than 46
C.

The Northwest, a culturally varied subregion, includes two Pacific states: Oregon
and Washington. These states are less populated, except for urban areas, partly
mountainous and of exceptional scenic beauty. The land on the Pacific coastline is well
watered and great forests of redwood and fir grow over large areas.
Oregon is famous for its beautiful forests and streams. Agriculture is the principal
sector of the state’s economy. Production of apples and other fruit, cattle, dairy products,
potatoes and peppermint is a significant source of revenue. Oregon is also one of four
major world hazelnut growing regions. Oregon has one of the largest salmon-fishing
industries in the world.
Portland is the largest city, and its metropolitan area contains nearly half the state’s
population. Salem is the capital of Oregon. The Columbia River, which is one of North
America’s largest rivers, and the only river to cut through the Cascades, has played an
important role in the geological, economic and cultural development of the state.
The leading manufacturing industries in Oregon are lumber, wood and paper
production. Recently high technology industries, services and tourism have become an
important source of income. The Columbia River Gorge is considered by many to be the
best place in the world for windsurfing.
During the 19th century the Oregon Trail was the chief and longest overland route
for wagon trains pulled by horses, mules or oxen. They were used by people traveling west
to settle new lands. The construction of a railway link with the east in 1869 increased
settlement in the Northwest.
Over one hundred and fifty years ago the area of Washington State was largely
unexplored. The high mountains of the Cascade Range run, which north-south, split the
state into two sections. The eastern section is a semiarid plateau of rolling hills covered
with sagebrush and bunchgrass, the habitat of prairie dogs, coyotes, and rattlesnakes. Here
Indians roamed, hunted, and fished. The western section has a mostly marine west coast
climate with relatively mild temperatures, wet winters, and dry summers. Western
Washington has also supports dense forests. Forests of lodgepole and ponderosa pine, fir,
and tamarack grow the northern highlands and the eastern slope of the Cascades.
Through these sun-drenched barrens, the majestic Columbia River cuts its way to
the Pacific Ocean. Places of interest include Mount Rainier and North Cascades National
Park; Mount St. Helens, an active volcano, which devastated an area of more than 40,000
hectares in 1980.
The climate of Washington State varies from west to east. An oceanic humid
climate predominates in western Washington, and a much drier climate prevails east of the
Cascade Range.
Washington State is a major centre of the aircraft industry, which has its
headquarters in Seattle. It is the birthplace of Trident missiles and Boeing cruise missiles.

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Washington’s economy is also based on the exploitation of natural resources. The state
leads in commercial forestry, its sawmills producing large amounts of lumber, paper and
other wood products.
Washington’s largest city, Seattle, is a major Pacific port – the gateway to Alaska
and the Far East. The capital of Washington State is Olympia.

Outlying States: Alaska and Hawaii

Alaska is America’s largest state, and it is over twice the size of Texas. Measuring
from north to south the state is approximately 2,200 kilometers long and measuring from
east to west it is 4,400 kilometers wide. It is also a distinct region of the United States. It
was bought from Russia by the United States in 1867 for $7million or two cents per acre,
and in 1959 became the 49th state. Outsiders first discovered Alaska in 1741 when Danish
explorer Vitus Jonassen Bering sighted it on a voyage from Siberia. Russian whalers and
fur traders on Kodiak Island established the first settlement in Alaska in 1784.
Alaska occupies the northwestern portion of North America. This large peninsula is
divided into three distinct regions: Central Alaska, Northern Alaska and the Alaska Range,
containing America’s highest mountain, McKinley. Alaska also includes the Aleutian
Islands, a chain of about 150 islands that stretch westward across the Pacific Ocean for
1,800 kilometers.
Alaska has a total area of 1,593,438 square kilometers, including 45,327 square
kilometers of inland water and 70,849 square kilometers of coastal water over which the
state has jurisdiction. Alaska has a greater area of lakes and rivers than any other state,
equaling more than the entire land area of Massachusetts and Vermont combined. The
mean elevation is about 580 meters. North of an imaginary line from the Seward Peninsula
through Fort Yukon to the Canadian border, lies a large area within the Arctic Circle.
The population of Alaska is a little over 626,000 (2007). The temperature
sometimes drops to -40 0C in some places but in summer may rise to 300C in others. Alaska
contains some of the largest remaining wilderness areas in the US. Much of its wildlife is
protected in a network of national parks, forests and wilderness preserves.
Alaska is the natural habitat of the bald eagle, the moose, and brown and black
bear. The northern part of the state is the tundra. The Eskimos in the north, the Aleuts of
the southwest and the Indians of the southeast are the native inhabitants. When gold was
discovered near the Klondike River in Canada in 1896, just across the Alaskan border,
thousands of Americans rushed to Alaska to look for gold. Some settled there. Alaska’s
economy is based mostly on its abundant natural resources. Today its chief industries are
fishing, mining, petroleum extraction and lumber. Salmon, halibut, herring, cod and
shellfish are to be found in its waters. Alaska accounts for 25 per cent of the oil produced
in the United States. Places of interest include Mt McKinley National Park, as well as other
national parks, Anchorage (the largest city), Fairbanks (the second largest city) and the
Aleutian Islands. Another culturally as well as geographically distinct region is
Hawaii. Hawaii is the only US state that is made up entirely of islands (122 in all). The
state of Hawaii consists of eight main islands: Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai,
Kahoolawe and the Big Island of Hawaii. The islands of Hawaii are really the tips of giant
mountains, whose lower slopes lie on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, more than 1,800
meters below sea level. Hawaii is the 50th US state. The area of the islands is 16,700
square kilometers and the population is about one million.
The population is closely related to Pacific and Asian peoples. Polynesians from
islands 3,200 kilometers to the south settled the Hawaiian Islands, probably between AD

80
300 and AD 600. The first European visitor was British captain James Cook in 1778. From
1790 to 1810 the islands were united politically under the leadership of a native king,
Kamehameha I. In 1820 European missionaries arrived in the islands bringing Western
culture. Hawaii was annexed by the US in 1898. In 1900 it became a US territory and a
state in 1959.
The archipelago consists of eight major islands and over 100 small islets. The state
is located in a tropical zone and today it is a favorite tourist resort. The largest island,
Hawaii, has five volcanoes, three of them still active: Kilauea, Mauna Loa and Hualalai.
Mauna Loa is the world’s largest active volcano and it is situated in the scenic Hawaiian
National Park. The capital city, Honolulu, lies on the second largest and most populated
island, Oahu. Nearby is Pearl Harbor, the US naval base, attacked by the Japanese in 1941.
Waikiki Beach, on Oahu, is Hawaii’s most popular holiday resort. Sugarcane and
pineapple are Hawaii’s most important crops. It produces about one fifth of the world’s
crop of pineapples.
There are no racial or ethnic majorities in Hawaii. Everyone is a minority. Whites
(called Haoles) constitute about 34 per cent of the inhabitants; Japanese-American about
32 per cent; Filipino-American about 16 per cent, Polynesians about 13 per cent and
Chinese-American about 5 percent. It is very difficult to determine racial identification as
most of the population has some mixture of ethnicities.

Test your knowledge

1. What two groups of states make the American West?

2. Why is California one of the wealthiest states?
3. Where is the Mormon region?
4. What is Las Vegas famous for?
5. Where is Glacier National Park?

Did you know that

1. Russian whalers and fur traders on Kodiak Island established the first settlement in
Alaska in 1784?
2. United States Secretary of State William H. Seward offered Russia $7,200,000, or two
cents per acre, for Alaska, and on October 18, 1867 Alaska officially became the
property of the United States. Many Americans called the purchase “Seward’s Folly”.
3. Alaska accounts for 25% of the oil produced in the United States?
4. The strong and heavily Alaskan malamute sled dog was developed as a breed by a
group of Eskimos named the Malamutes?
5. Alaska could hold the 21 smallest states?

Did you know that

1. Hawaii is the only U.S. state that grows coffee?
2. Hawaii officially became a part of the U.S on June 14, 1900?
3. there are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet? Vowels: A, E, I, O, U; and

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 consonants: H, K, L, M, N, P, W.
4. Hawaii has two official state languages: English and Hawaiian?

Glossary
alfalfa – a deep-rooted plant of the pea family, with small divided leaves, used extensively
for fodder and pasture (lucerna)
badland – barren land (nieurodzajna ziemia)
beet – a crop plant which has edible reddish roots and leaves (burak)
boom – a time of economic prosperity (dobra koniunktura, boom)
chuck-a-luck – a gambling game in which players bet on the possible combinations of
three
thrown dice (hazardowa gra w trzy ko ci)
cinder – a burned or partly burned substance, such as coal or wood, that is not reduced to
ashes but is incapable of further combustion ( el, niedopalone drzewo)
crack – a partial split or break; a fissure (p kni cie, szczelina)
craps – a gambling game played with two dice (gra w dwie ko ci)
cone – a shape whose base is a circle and whose sides become gradually narrower up to a
point (sto ek)
downtown – in or to the center of a city (do lub w centrum miasta)
elk – a large deer ( )
explorer – one who explores an unknown or little-known region (odkrywca, badacz)
fault – a fracture in rock (uskok)
fir – an evergreen tree (jod a)
fossil – the remains (or an impression) of a plant or animal that existed in a past geological
age and that has been excavated from the soil (kopalina)
gambling – betting (hazard)
glacier – a slowly moving mass of ice (lodowiec)
gorge – a narrow pass, especially one between mountains (w wóz)
homestead – a house, especially a farmhouse, with adjoining buildings and land.
(gospodarstwo rolne)
intermontane – between mountains ( ródgórski)
outlying – far away from the main area (le cy poza granic )
missile – a weapon that is fired at a target (pocisk)
moose – a deer ( ameryka ski)
petrified forest; petrified wood – (skamienia y las)
pineapple – a tropical American plant (Ananas comosus) (ananas)
plains – an extensive, level of land (równina)
plateau(x) – an elevated, level of land; a tableland (p askowy )
preserve – reserve (rezerwat)
redwood – squoia (sekwoja)
sagebrush – an aromatic plant (bylica)
sawmill – a plant where timber is sawed into boards (tartak)
settlement – a newly colonized region; (osada, osadnictwo)

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slope – a stretch of ground forming a natural or artificial incline (pochy , nachylenie)
subsistence – existence (istnienie, utrzymywanie si przy yciu)
sugar cane – a very tall tropical grass cultivated as the main source of sugar
(trzcina cukrowa)
suspension bridge – overhead bridge; cable bridge (most wisz cy)
tamarack – a deciduous North American larch tree (modrzew ameryka ski)
trapper – one who traps animals for their fur (traper)
trout – a fresh-water fish (pstr g)
wasteland – land that is desolate, not cultivated (nieu ytki, pustkowie)
wilderness – an uncultivated, uninhabited area (uroczysko, puszcza)

Useful websites
www.usinfo.pl/aboutusa/travel/index.htm
www. usastudyguide.com/regionaldifferences.htm.
www. usaembassy/de.travel.com/regions.htm.
www.kidport.com/reflib/usageography/facts/
www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/

Further reading

Campbell, Jeff et al. USA (Lonely Planet Country Guide). Oakland: Lonely Planet
Publications 2008.
Kral, Thomas, Discover America. Washington, DC: USIA, 1996.
Luedtke, Luther, S., ed., Making America. The Society and Culture of the United States.
Washington, DC: USIA, 1990
Paine, Lauran, America and the Americans. A Visitor’s Companion. London: Robert Hale,
1984.
Ward, Greg et al. The Rough Guide to USA (Rough Guide Travel Guides). London: Penguin
Books Ltd (UK), 2008.

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 MORE TESTS AND TASKS

TRUE OR FALSE
Carefully read each statement. If the statement is true according to information in the book,
write T after it, if it is false, write F. Try to give reasons why a statement is false.

1. Boston is the capital of Massachusetts.

2. New York consists of Manhattan Island and Rhode Island.
3. Gettysburg is in Pennsylvania.
4. Tobacco is a major industry in North Carolina.
5. Elvis Presley was born in Alabama.
6. Disney World is in California.
7. Chicago lies on Lake Michigan.
8. Texas was a part of Mexico.
9. Las Vegas in California.
10. Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens are in Alaska.

MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST

Circle the letter a), b) or c) with the correct answer.

1. New England in the _____ region.

2. a) Northeast b) South c) Midwest
3. The most populated U.S. city is:
a) New York b) Los Angeles c) Chicago
4. The largest state is:
a) Texas b) Alaska c) California
5. The Grand Canyon is in _____
a) Montana b) California c) Arizona
6. The Golden Gate Bridge is in ________
a) Los Angeles b) San Francisco c) New York
7. Little Rock is in _______ .
a) Texas b) Arizona c) Arkansas
8. _______ is a Rocky Mountain state.
a) Idaho b) Montana c) Maryland
9. ________ is the capital of Texas.
a) Austin b) San Antonio c) Houston
10. _______ is a Mormon state.
a) Utah b) Michigan c) Washington

FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION

Prepare yourself for a class discussion on one of the following topics:
1. Discuss the role of New York City in the economic and cultural life of the United
States.
2. Discuss the characteristic features of the Northeast, South, Midwest, West.
3. Discuss the myth of the “Wild West”.

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PROJECT
Prepare a presentation on one of the following topics:

1. The historical development of the American South.

2. The historical development of the American West.
3. The geographical features of Alaska.
4. The geographical features of Hawaii.
5. Major U.S. cities.

EXPRESS YOUR OPINION

What is the perception of the U.S.A. in Poland?

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 Chapter Three

Public Life and Institutions

1. The Political system

The United States is the oldest continuous democracy in the world. It was established in
1789, although not all features of the system were as democratic as they are now. The
country has a complex political structure where power is divided between a
central/national government and the States. The national government is called the Federal
Government. The United States is a federal republic with two legislative houses: Senate
and House of Representatives.

1.1. The Constitution

The United States is a democracy, where the rights of the individual citizen are
strongly protected by the Constitution. The Constitution of the United States, which is the
“supreme law of the land” and the oldest written national constitution in the world, has
served as the cornerstone of American democracy and the principal guarantor of freedom
and equality for US citizens. The Constitution of the United States comprises the nation’s
fundamental law, providing the framework for its governance and the principles under
which it must operate.
The first constitution of the United States was the Articles of Confederation ratified
in 1781. It was an agreement drawn up by representatives of the thirteen original colonies
establishing a confederacy to be known as the United States of America. However, this
document did not provide for a strong central government and left too much sovereignty to
the states. In May 1787, a general Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia. Twelve
states (all but Rhode Island) named seventy delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Of
these, fifty-five came but only thirty-nine signed the Constitution on 17 September, 1787.
The most important leaders of the convention included George Washington, Alexander
Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay and Benjamin Franklin. The author of the Declaration
of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, did not attend the Convention.
After it was signed, the Constitution was ratified by all thirteen of the original
states. Ratification was opposed by the Anti-Federalists, who feared that a powerful central
government would reduce the role of the people in governance and threaten individual
rights and local interests of citizens. The framework of government established in the
United States constitution emphasizes four principles: popular control without majority
rule, the limitation of governmental power, federalism and a tripartite government
The Constitution, which was written in the summer of 1789 in Philadelphia by a
group of men including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, known as the
Founding Fathers, was officially adopted on 4 March, 1789. It consists of a preamble,
seven articles and twenty-seven amendments. Its objectives are expressed in the preamble:

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 We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the
general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do
ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The first three articles of the Constitution divide the powers of the United States
government among three separate branches: (1) the legislative branch, represented by
Congress; (2) the executive branch, represented by the President; and (3) the judicial
branch, represented by the Supreme Court. This division, called the separation of powers,
is designed to prevent any branch of the government from becoming too powerful.
Interesting facts

Of the written national constitutions, the U.S. Constitution is the oldest

and shortest. It has 4,440 words.
There was initially a question as to how to address the President. The
Senate proposed that he should be addressed as “His Highness the
President of the United States of America and Protector of their
Liberties.” However, both the House of Representatives and the Senate
compromised on the use of “President of the United States.”

The Constitution enabled Americans to form a strong federal government with broad
powers and at the same time it maintained personal freedom. Final authority is vested in
the American people who can change the existing laws by amending the Constitution. The
U.S. Constitution makes provision for amendments. The Congress may introduce an
amendment by a two-thirds vote in each house. The Constitution has been amended
twenty-seven times since 1789. Within two years of its adoption the first ten amendments
known as the Bill of Rights were added.
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of worship, speech and press, the right of
peaceful assembly and the right to petition the government to correct wrongs. The Second
Amendment guarantees the right of citizens to bear arms. The Third provides that troops
may not be quartered in private homes without the owner’s consent. The Fourth prohibits
unreasonable searches, arrests and seizures of property. The Fifth provides that a major
crime should be tried only after indictment by a grand jury; it prohibits repeated trials for
the same offence, and provides for just compensation for private property taken for public
use. The Sixth, the Seventh and the Eighth Amendments deal with the system of justice.
The Ninth Amendment states that the rights of the American people go beyond those listed
in the Bill of Rights. The final Tenth Amendment is different from the other amendments.
It provides that any powers not delegated to the Federal Government by Constitution or
specifically prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states or to the people.

Test your knowledge

1. When was the U.S. Constitution adopted?
2. What is the major role of the American Constitution?
3. How many amendments have been added to the Constitution so far?
4. What are the Bills of Rights?

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 Glossary
amendment – a correction or alteration in an official document (poprawka)
cornerstone – an indispensable and fundamental basis (kamie w gielny)
executive – (wykonawczy)
Founding Fathers – members of the convention that drafted the U.S. Constitution in 1787
(Ojcowie Za yciele)
framework – a fundamental structure (ramy, konstrukcja, struktura, zr b)
governance – the act, process, or power of governing; government (rz dzenie)
grand jury – a special jury of citizens, usually more than 12, that investigates accusations
against persons charged with crime and indicts them for trial
if there is sufficient evidence (s d przysi ych, wielka awa przysi ych)
indictment – a written statement charging someone with the committing of a crime or
other
offense (akt oskar enia)
judicial – (s downiczy)
jurisdiction – the right or power to administer justice and to apply laws (jurysdykcja,
s downictwo, wymiar sprawiedliwo ci)
legislative – having the power to create laws (ustawodawczy, prawodawczy)
objective – aim, purpose (cel)
preamble – a preliminary statement, especially the introduction to a formal document that
serves to explain its purpose (preambu a, wst p)
Supreme Court – the highest U.S. federal court, consisting of nine judges: its decisions are
final and take precedence over those of all other judicial bodies in the country (S d
Najwy szy)

1.2. Government
As mentioned earlier, The U.S. Constitution provides separation of powers within
government, which is also known as the checks and balances system. The government of
the USA is established by the Constitution and is divided into three separate main branches
of government: the legislative branch (Congress, composed of the House of
Representatives and the Senate), the executive branch The President and his executive
office, often called “The White House”) and the judicial branch (the Supreme Court). None
of these three branches of government has total power. Each one can alter the functioning
of the others.
Thus, although Congress can act and make laws, the President may veto any act of
Congress. Congress, however, has the power to override a President’s veto by a two-third
majority of votes in each House. The Supreme Court has the power to determine whether
the enacted law is constitutional or not.
Originally, the capital of the U.S. was New York. Washington, D.C., became the
seat of government in 1800. The United States was organized as a constitutional republic
consisting of federal and state governments. Soon a dual system of government was
created, i.e. all authority was divided between the federal and state governments. In theory
each state is independent, but in reality it is a member of the Federal Commonwealth
whose government functions under the authority vested in it by the Constitution of the
United States.

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 The U.S. federal government is one of the largest public institutions in the world,
with almost three million employees. Its annual budget as well as its public debt are the
largest in the world. However, the United States is also one of the least governed nations in
the world, with more sectors in the hands of private enterprise than in most developed
countries. For example, most governments own railroads, airlines, heavy industries,
banking, broadcasting, and other public utilities and services that are outside U.S.
government control or ownership.

The true test of a good government is its aptitude and

tendency to produce a good administration.
Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist, no. 68

Test your knowledge

1. What is the checks and balances system?
2. What are the three separate branches of U.S. government?
3. What the does the dual system of government mean?

Glossary
check and balances system – a system whereby each branch of an organization can limit
the
powers of the other branches (system równowagi i wzajemnej kontroli)
(to) enact – to pass (a law); decree (ustanawia , uchwala )
(to) override – to cancel; nullify (uchyli , nie uwzgl dni )
(to) vest in – to place authority, property, or rights in the control of a person or group
(nadawa , przyznawa )

1.2.1. The legislative branch

The legislative branch of government (Congress) consists of: the Senate, in which
each State has equal representation, and the House of Representatives, whose members are
apportioned among the states on the basis of population.
The Constitution assigns each House of Congress equal responsibility for declaring
war, maintaining the armed forces, assessing and collecting taxes, borrowing money,
minting currency, regulating interstate and foreign commerce, establishing post offices and
making all laws necessary for the operation of the government. Congress has the power to
introduce legislation and make decisions concerning taxes, federal expenditure, and plays a
substantial role in the making of U.S. foreign policy; for example, it ratifies international
agreements.
A U.S. senator and a representative may serve an unlimited number of terms.

The Senate
The Senate is the upper house of Congress. There are 100 senators, two from each
state. Elections to the Senate are limited so that one third of the total body comes up for re-
election, leaving the remaining two thirds in office. Thus one third of the senators are

89
elected every two years for a six-year term of office. The Constitution requires that a
member of the Senate must be at least thirty years old, a citizen of the U.S. for at least nine
years and a resident of the state which he or she represents. The senators represent all the
population in the state. The Constitution designates the Vice-president of the United States
as President of the Senate. He may vote in the case of a “tie”, i.e. when senators’ votes are
equally divided. The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the U.S. Capitol
building in Washington, D.C.

The House of Representatives

The House of Representatives has 435 members elected every two years for a two-
year term. A representative must be at least twenty-five years old, a citizen of the US for at
least seven years and a resident of his or her district. The representatives represent the
population of the “congressional districts” into which each state is divided. The number of
representatives depends on the number of people in a state. For example, California has 53
representatives while Delaware has only one (2008). The Constitution provides that the
House must elect a Speaker to preside over it. The Speaker is chosen from the majority
party in the House. He has the authority to recognize Members to speak or not, decides the
legislative agenda and sends legislative proposals off to committees. The Speaker chooses
members of his party on the Rules Committee. Beside the Speaker, the majority party in
the House also chooses a majority leader. Similarly, the other party in the Houses chooses
a minority leader.

Powers of each House

Each House of Congress has the power to introduce legislation on any subject
except revenue bills, which must originate in the House of Representatives. Thus the main
constitutional power that differentiates the House of Representatives from the Senate is
their authority over the federal budget. The Senate also has certain exclusive powers; for
example, the authority to approve of presidential appointments of high officials and
ambassadors as well as the authority to ratify all treaties negotiated by the President by
two-thirds vote. In the case of impeachment of federal officials, the House has the sole
right to bring charges of misconduct that can lead to an impeachment trial. The Senate has
the sole power to try impeachment cases and to find officials guilty or not guilty. A finding
of guilt results in the removal of the federal official from public office.

How a bill becomes law

The work of Congress is initiated by the introduction of a proposal, which may
have one of four principal forms: the bill, the joint resolution, the concurrent resolution and
the simple resolution.

1. A bill is introduced by a senator or representative to the clerk of the House. It is

then sent to the appropriate Senate or House committee. This procedure is called
the first reading.
2. The committee either rejects the bill or holds a meeting to listen to the various
opinions of its members or outside experts.
3. The committee debates the bill and may make amendments. The members of the
committee vote on whether the bill is to be read to the House.
4. The clerk reads the bill to the House. This procedure is called the second reading.
Members of the House debate the bill and may propose further amendments.

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 5. The third reading of the bill involves voting by the House.
6. If voting is favorable, the bill goes to the other house where it may be defeated or
passed with or without amendments. If the bill is passed with amendments, a joint
Congressional committee works out a compromise version.
7. The bill is then sent to the President. If he signs it, the bill will become law.
However, if the President refuses to sign it, it is sent back to the House with his
reasons for objecting.
8. The House debates the President’s objections and votes again. If the bill is
supported by at least two-thirds vote of the House, it is sent to the other House. If
the bill receives at least two-thirds majority in the other House, the President’s veto
is overridden and the bill becomes law.

Sessions
Pursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, adopted in 1933, both Houses of Congress
meet at noon on the 3rd day of January after the November elections (unless another date is
determined by Congress) to organize for the forthcoming two-year period. One session is
held each year from January until adjournment (usually in autumn). Sessions are held in
the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Much of the business of the House of Representatives and
the Senate is done in committees. There are three categories of committees: standing, joint
and special, select or other. Committees often have subcommittees. Each committee has a
chairperson and a ranking minority leader.

Test your knowledge

1. What is the legislative branch of government composed of?
2. How many senators are there in the Senate?
3. What is the sole authority of the Senate?
4. How many members does the House of Representatives have?
5. What is the sole authority of the House of Representatives?
6. How often are elections to Congress held?
7. Who may introduce a bill?
9. Can the House override a Presidential veto?
10. What are the powers of the Senate and the House of Representatives?

Glossary

adjournement from : to adjourn – to suspend until a later time (odroczenie)

(to) apportion – to divide; distribute (podzieli )
bill – a draft of a law proposed to a lawmaking body (project ustawy)
(to) assign – to transfer (property, rights, or interests) from one to another (wyznacza ,
cedowa )
concurrent – in agreement; harmonious (zgodny)
impeachment – an administrative procedure, defined in the United States Constitution,
under
which the president or another high government official is brought up on charges and
tried
by the Congress, and, if convicted, is removed from office (oskar enie wysokiego
urz dnika pa stwowego)

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interstate – between or among states esp. of the U.S. (mi dzystanowy)
joint committee – a committee with members from both houses of a bicameral legislature
(komisja wspólna)
majority leader – the leader of the majority party in a legislature, as in the U.S. Senate or
House of Representatives (przywódca wi kszo ci parlamentarnej)
minority leader – the head of the minority party in a legislative body.
(przywódca mniejszo ci parlamentarnej)
pursuant – accordingly; consequently. (stosownie do, zgodnie z)
resolution – a formal statement of a decision or expression of opinion put before or
adopted
by an assembly such as the U.S. Congress. (rezolucja)
revenue – income (dochód)
select committee – a committee established by a resolution in either House of Congress for
a
special purpose and, usually, for a limited time (komisja wybrana)
Speaker – the presiding officer of a legislative assembly. (przewodnicz cy izby poselkiej)
standing committee – a permanent House committee that considers bills and issues and
recommends measures for consideration by the full House (sta a komisja)

1.2.2. The Executive branch

The Executive branch is headed by the President who, together with the Vice-
president, is chosen in nationwide elections, although not directly, but through an electoral
college. The President’s term in office lasts four years and can be extended to two terms.
Any natural-born American, who is thirty-five years old or over, may be elected to the
office of U.S. President. Political parties choose candidates for the Presidency several
months before the presidential election. The U.S. President is the chief of state, chief
executive, commander-in-chief of the armed services; he is also chief of his party, guardian
of the national economy and leader of the American nation (although the last three duties
are not mentioned explicitly in the Constitution). The chief duty of the President of the
United States is to protect the Constitution and enforce the laws made by Congress. He
also has the authority to recommend legislation to the Congress, to call special sessions of
the Congress, to deliver messages to the Congress, to veto bills, to appoint federal judges,
to appoint heads of federal departments and agencies and other countries (although
presidential nominations have to be confirmed by the Senate), to carry on official business
with foreign nations and to grant pardons for offences against the U.S. As the chief of state
the President manages national affairs and foreign policy.
The presidential term of four years begins on January 20 (it was changed from
March by the Twentieth Amendment, ratified in 1933) following a November election. The
president starts his official duties with an inauguration ceremony, traditionally held on the
steps of the U.S. Capitol, where Congress meets. The president publicly takes an oath of
office, which is traditionally administered by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. The
words are prescribed in Article II of the Constitution:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president
of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the
Constitution of the United States.

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 The oath-taking ceremony is followed by an inaugural address in which the new
president outlines the policies and plans of his administration.
The Vice-president is elected from the same party as the President. He acts as the
chairman of the Senate and in the event of the President’s death or disability he assumes
the Presidency for the rest of the term. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment, adopted in 1967,
amplifies the process of presidential succession. It describes the specific conditions under
which the Vice-president is empowered to take over the office of President if the President
should become incapacitated. It also provides for resumption of the office by the president
in the event of his recovery. In addition, the amendment enables the president to name a
Vice-president, with congressional approval, when the second office is vacated. The
President can also be removed from office for “high crimes and misdemeanors”, but only
after impeachment.
Impeachment, which has its origins in English law but fell out of use in the 18th
century, is the process by which a legislative body formally makes charges against a high
government official. Impeachment does not necessarily mean removal from office; it is
only a formal statement of charges, like an indictment in criminal law, and is thus only the
first step towards removal.
The U.S. President appoints the Heads of all executive departments and agencies.
They are usually members of his party. However, the majority of federal officials are not
appointed on a party-affiliation basis but are selected through the Civil Service system. The
heads of the departments, appointed by the President and approved by the Senate, form a
council of advisers known as the President’s Cabinet. All departments are headed by a
secretary, except the Justice Department which is headed by the Attorney General. The
most important departments include the Department of State (Foreign Affairs), the
Department of the Treasury, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the
Department of Labor, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Health and Human
Service, the Department of Education, the Department of Commerce and the Department
of Energy.
The Departments are divided into divisions, bureaus, offices and services. The
executive branch also includes a number of independent agencies, such as ACTION (a
federal agency for administrating domestic volunteer service programs to meet basic
human needs and to support the self-help efforts of poor individuals and communities);
CIA (the Central Intelligence Agency, to coordinate the intelligence activities of certain
government departments and agencies); USPS (United States Postal Service, a tax-
supported agency of the federal government), EPA (Environmental Protection Agency);
the Federal Reserve System (supervision of the private banking system of the United
States); NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, to conduct space
research); the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities (promoting American
arts, literature and scholarship); the Office of National Drug Control Policy (co-ordination
of efforts of such agencies as the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Customs
Service and the Coast Guard); the Peace Corps (training of volunteers to serve in foreign
countries for two years in the area of agricultural development, small business, health,
natural resources conservation and education).

Test your knowledge

1. Who is head of the executive branch of U.S. government and what are his powers?
2. What is the role of the Vice-president?

93
3. What are the most important executive departments and what are their roles?

Glossary

(to) empower – to give power, especially legal power or official authority (uprawnia ,
upe nomocni )
(to) grant pardon – (u askawia )
intelligence – secret information, especially about an actual or potential enemy; an agency,
staff, or office employed in gathering such information (wywiad)
misdemeanor – a lower degree crime; bad conduct (wykroczenie; z e prowadzenie si )
oath – something declared or promised (przysi ga)
offence – a crime (przest pstwo, obraza, zniewaga)
resumption – beginning again (wznowienie, ponowne obj cie)

1.2.3. The judicial branch

The third branch of the federal government is called the Judiciary. It consists of the
Supreme Court of the United States and a system of twelve Courts of Appeals, ninety-four
district courts and four courts of special jurisdiction, such as the Tax Court, the Court of
Federal Claims, the Court of Veterans Appeals and the Court of International Trade.
Congress has the power to create and abolish federal courts and to determine the number of
judges in the federal judicial system.
The power of the federal court extends to civil, criminal and appellate proceedings.
The United States legal system is historically based on English common law. It has a dual
system of courts: state and federal. Each state also has a supreme court, county and city
courts. For small settlements there is a judge called a “justice of the peace”, who handles
minor legal cases. Members of the armed forces have separate military courts. The
American Constitution safeguards the independence of court decisions. Federal judges are
appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate and hold office until
they retire or die, but if a judge commits a crime he or she will be impeached.
The Supreme Court, which is located across the street from the U.S. Capitol
Building in Washington, D.C., is the highest court in the United States. It consists of a
Chief Justice and eight associate justices appointed for life. The Chief Justice is the
executive officer of the court. The Supreme Court has jurisdiction in cases involving
foreign diplomats and those in which the state is a party. Besides this, the Supreme Court
hears appeals from lower courts. It usually has to decide whether legislative or executive
acts conform with the United States Constitution. Decisions of the Court are reached by a
simple majority of votes, provided that at least six justices participate in the decision. A
decision of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed to any other court.
The Supreme Court meets on the first Monday of October each year and usually
continues in session through June. The Supreme Court receives and disposes of about
5,000 cases each year. Each year the Court decides about 150 cases of great national
importance and interest.
Courts of Appeals form the second highest level of the federal judiciary. There are
eleven regional Courts of Appeals and one Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. These
courts review matters from district courts, the U.S. Tax Court, and from certain federal

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administrative agencies. In the Courts of Appeals, district courts and other courts, most of
the judicial officials are called judges.
The state courts have general, unlimited power to decide nearly every type of case,
subject only to the limitations of the U.S. Constitution, their own state constitutions and
state law. State courts handle most criminal matters as well as civil matters such as marital
disputes, dealings in land, commercial contracts, etc.

Test your knowledge

1. What is the judicial branch of U.S. government composed of?
2. What is the authority of the Supreme Court?
3. Who appoints federal judges?
4. What do state courts deal with?

Glossary

abolish – to do away with completely; put an end to; esp., to make (a law, etc.) null and
void
(uchyla , uniewa nia )
appellate – relating to or having jurisdiction to review appeals (apelacyjny)
dealing – transactions or relations, usually of business (transakcja)
proceedings – legal action, procedure (post powanie)
(to) safeguard – (chroni , gwarantowa )
subject to – open to (podlegaj cy)

1.3. Presidential elections

Every U.S. citizen aged eighteen or over may register to vote. Registration
procedures vary from state to state. The national presidential elections consist of two
separate campaigns: (1) nomination of candidates at national party conventions, (2) the
actual presidential election.
The former is referred to as presidential primary or primary election. The process of
choosing the President of the United States begins with a series of individual state primary
elections in which voters in particular parties express their preference among a series of
candidates. Voters actually choose delegates for each party to represent that state at the
party’s political convention. There, the delegates formally cast their votes for the nominees
and the person with the most votes becomes the party’s presidential candidate for the
general election.
The primary elections start as early as January of the election year and end in the
mid-summer national convention of each political party. Campaigning for the primaries
often begins six to twelve months before the first primary, almost two years before the
general election.
Presidential elections are held every four years. The presidential election years are
those divisible by four, e.g. 2004, 2008, 2012, etc. On the presidential election day (the
first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every fourth year), each state chooses
as many electors as it has senators and representatives in Congress, plus three electors from
the District of Columbia. The Electoral College meets shortly after the election and casts
their votes for the candidate with the largest number of popular vote in presidential
elections. The College consists of 538 members and their majority of 270 elected votes is

95
needed to elect the president. If no candidate for president has a majority, the House of
Representatives chooses a president from among the three candidates with most votes. This
indirect method of selecting the nation’s President is provided for in Article II, Section 1 of
the Constitution. The system makes it possible for the President to be elected without
getting a majority of the US people’s votes.
The following is a summary of the Electoral College process for election year 2008.

November 4, 2008
December 15, 2009
the
January 6, 2009
General Election: The voters in each State choose Komentarz [e1]: Kalendarz
2008
electors to serve in the Electoral College.
Meeting of Electors: The electors in each State meet to select
President and Vice-president of the United States.
Counting Electoral Votes before both Houses of Congress.

Who can vote and who can be elected?

1. Who can vote? Anyone who is 18 years of age, a citizen

of the U.S. and meets the residency requirements of his or
her state.
2. Who can be a Senator? Someone who is at least 30 years
old, a citizen of the U.S. for at least 9 years, a resident of
the state where he or she is elected.
3. Who can be a Representative? Someone who is at least
25 years old, a citizen of the U.S. for at least 7 years, a
resident of the state where he or she is elected.
4. Who can be President? Someone who is a natural-born
citizen of the U.S., at least 35 years of age, a resident of
the U.S. for at least 14 years.

Test your knowledge

1. Who has the right to vote in the U.S.A.?
2. How often are presidential elections held?

Glossary
(to) cast vote – to vote (odda g os)
convention – a large formal meeting (konwencja, zjazd)
primary election – preliminary election where delegates or nominees are
chosen (prawybory)

2. State and local government

2.1. State government

The Constitution limits the federal government to specific powers. All other powers
automatically belong to the states and to the local communities. Like the federal

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government, state governments have three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. All
states except Nebraska have bicameral legislatures. Each state has its own police and its
own criminal laws. Public education is the concern of the states.
What follows is an outline of California state and local government, which is
more or less similar in other states, except Nebraska.
The Houses of the California legislature are the Assembly (80 members), the lower
house elected for two years, and the Senate (40 members), the upper house elected for four
years. Half the Senate members stand for election every two years. Since a referendum in
1990, members of the Assembly are restricted by term limits, confining them to maximum
three two-year terms (six years). Both the Assembly and the Senate convene in the state
capital, Sacramento.
The executive branch consists of the Governor and ten other members elected by
the people. The elected members of the California executive branch are: Lieutenant
Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Controller, State Treasurer, Insurance
Commissioner, and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Governor, who
serves a four-year term and may be reelected only once, is the chief executive and party
leader, and customarily heads the state delegation to the presidential nomination
convention. The Lieutenant Governor assumes gubernatorial power when the Governor is
absent from the state.
The Secretary of State does not make policy. He normally issues licenses,
corporation and city charters, seals, etc. He is also the official custodian of the state
records.
The State Controller is the chief accounting and fiscal officer; he checks on state
bookkeeping for agencies and departments. The Superintendent of Public Instruction
oversees the public school system and heads the Department of Education. The Attorney
General heads the Department of Justice and is responsible for enforcing state laws. He
also supervises district attorneys and law enforcement officers; and prosecutes criminals at
the request of law-enforcing agencies.
The major state administrative functions are carried out by the following
departments: the Department of Food and Agriculture, the Department of Industrial
Relations, the Department of Finance, the Department of Transportation, the Department
of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Highway Control.
Other departments include: State Banking, Corporations, Housing and Community
Development, Insurance, Real Estate, Saving and Loans, and Economic and Business
Development. The Health and Welfare Agency oversees the Department of Benefit Paying,
the Department of Social Services, the Department of Rehabilitation, the Department of
Aging and many others.
The State Judiciary consists of the State Supreme Court with one chief justice and
six associate justices; the Court of Appeals; Superior Court; Municipal Court, and Justice
Courts.

2.2. Local government

The term “county” is used in forty-eight of the fifty states of the United States for
the level of local government below the state itself. Louisiana uses the term “parishes” and
Alaska uses “boroughs”. Although the power of the county government varies widely
from state to state, the county functions primarily as a unit of administrative and
geographical division. Each county has a county seat which serves as the county’s capital
city.

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 The county government is mainly responsible for public works, such as building
and maintaining county roads, facilities, purity of water, conducting elections for national,
state and country offices; keeping public records; maintaining jails, public libraries. A
county sheriff is the principal agent of law enforcement in some states, for areas outside of
cities and towns.

Test your knowledge

1. What is the power of the state government?
2. What is the legislature of California composed of?
3. What does the executive branch of the state of California consist of?
4. What is the authority of the state governor?
5. What are the departments of the state government?
6. What are the duties of a county government?

Glossary
bookkeeping – accounting; the process of recording financial transactions and maintaining
the financial records to support a company’s financial statements (ksi gowo )
county – the largest local administrative subdivision of most states of the U.S. (hrabstwo)
custodian – a person who has the custody or care of something (kurator, kustosz)
customarily – according to custom; usually (zwyczajowo)
law enforcement – insuring obedience to the laws (wymiar sprawiedliwo ci)
records – official notes (dokumentacja)

3. Law enforcement

3.1. Federal law enforcement agencies

There is no unified federal police force in the United States. The Department of
Justice is the chief institution in charge of law enforcement. The office of Attorney General
was established in 1789. Since 1870 the Attorney General has headed the Department of
Justice which supervises and directs the work of district attorneys and marshals, as well as
operating federal penal and correctional institutions and investigating violations of the law.
Attorney General represents the U.S. in legal matters and gives advice to the President.
The principal federal law enforcement agencies include the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the Law Enforcement Assistance Agency, the Internal Revenue Service of
Department of Treasury, the Bureau of Narcotics, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms of the Department of Transportation, Immigration and Naturalization Service,
Drug Enforcement Agency Administration of the Department of Justice and the Consumer
Marketing Service. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is probably the best known
of all these agencies. It is the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, which
investigates specific crimes, e.g. assassination or kidnapping. Founded in 1908 and
reorganized in 1924, the FBI investigates all criminal matters not assigned to other federal
law enforcement agencies. The Bureau also assists the enforcement of state or local laws.

Test your knowledge

1. Is there a unified police force in the United States?
2. What are the duties of the Attorney General?
3. What are duties of the FBI?

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 Glossary
civil rights – those rights guaranteed to the individual by the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th
Amendments to the Constitution of the United States and by other acts of Congress;
esp.,
the right to vote, exemption from involuntary servitude, and equal treatment of all
people
with respect to the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property and to the protection of law
(prawa obywatelskie)
(to) combat – to fight, contend, struggle (zwalcza , t pi )
marshal – a federal officer appointed to a judicial district to carry out orders and perform
functions like those of a sheriff (urz dnik s dowy z w adz szeryfa)
priority – precedence in time, order, importance, etc. (pierwsze stwo, priorytet)
(to) upgrade – to improve something (ulepsza , aktualizowa )
violation – infringement or breach, as of a law, rule, right, etc. (naruszenie, pogwa cenie)

3.2. Crime prevention

Crime is regarded by the majority of Americans as one of the most acute social
problems. Since the American media frequently devote too much coverage to crime
reports, the general public has the impression that crime incidence is relatively higher than
in other countries. However, official statistics show that the average crime rate in the U.S.
is even lower than that in some European countries like Sweden or Denmark. Nevertheless,
some areas are particularly dangerous. Some poor districts of New York City, Chicago or
Los Angeles are notorious for criminal activity.
Many people agree that a major cause of violence in the U.S. is the availability of
firearms. Guns are the main cause of death among older teenagers. Murder through use of
firearms is also the leading cause of death among young black males. The U.S. has some
70 million gunowners and over 200 million guns are in circulation. Violence seems to be
the favorite theme of American popular culture. Movie heroes, such as Rambo or the
Terminator, are popular idols for a lot of young people. In such circumstances crime
prevention is extremely difficult. Proposals have been made to restrict the sale of guns, put
more policemen on the streets, toughen penalties for terrorist and gang violence. Gun
deaths have increased by 40 per cent among adolescents and young adults since 1984.
Some banks, schools and offices have introduced metal detectors and security guards on
their premises in order to prevent violent crime.
The deteriorating quality of urban life is one of the most urgent issues in the US
today. In New York City alone there were roughly 1,000 murders every year and 250,000
reported felonies (up to 1996), although the crime rate has dropped in recent years by 50
per cent since special measures were introduced by the police and city authorities.
However, according to the New York City police estimates there are about one million
guns on the street, most of them illegal. Shoplifting, vandalism, aggression, car break-ins,
drinking and drug-induced disorderly behavior, all contribute to a growing deterioration of
the quality of life in the cities. The most distressing element is the city’s juvenile crime.
The number of youngsters aged fifteen and under arrested for carrying a loaded gun has
grown in recent years. Paradoxically, a youngster picked up for carrying a loaded weapon

99
cannot, by law, be fingerprinted or photographed. So when the police arrest a juvenile
delinquent, they do not know much about his record.

Test your knowledge

1. Which areas are particularly notorious for criminal activity?
2. What is, according to many people, the major cause of violence in the U.S.A.?
3. How many guns are there in private circulation in the U.SA.?

Glossary
acute – severe and sharp (dotkliwy)
availability – the quality or condition of being available (dost pno )
break-in – the act of forcibly entering a building, apartment, etc., esp. in order to rob
(w amanie)
crime rate – a magnitude or frequency of committed crimes (wska nik przest pczo ci)
firearms – a weapon, especially a pistol or rifle (bro palna)
incidence – extent or frequency of occurrence (zasi g)
juvenile delinquent – a juvenile guilty of antisocial or criminal behavior. (m odociany
przest pca)
shoplifting – the stealing of anything from a shop (kradzie ze sklepu)

3.3. State and local police

In the United States the police forces include state police (state troopers), city and
county police.
Until recently state governors had no police force at their command. They had to
use municipal police, constables or, in emergencies, the militia.3 With the advent of mass
transport, a system of state police was established. The first state police force for border
patrols, known as the Texas Rangers, was organized in Texas in 1835, when the state was
still an independent republic. Pennsylvania established motor police in 1905. It usually has
general criminal jurisdiction. However, state police are generally prohibited from enforcing
laws and ordinances of local governments unless invited to do so. Legislation usually
prohibits state police from intervention in industrial (trade union) disputes. State police are
usually supervised by an agency of the state government called the State Police
Department.
Sheriffs are the principal peace officers of the county. They detect and arrest
criminals, administer county jails and execute court orders. They may be assisted by
deputies and constables. The State Militia consists of two sections: a reserve force of all
able-bodied males between seventeen and forty-five years of age and an organized force
better known as the National Guard volunteers. Administration of the National Guard is
normally the responsibility of a department of military affairs. Membership in the National
Guard requires occasional training at weekend or summer encampments. However, on
several occasions the performance of the National Guard has been severely criticized, e.g.
in 1970 during a protest at Kent State University, Ohio, against the American invasion of
Cambodia, when four students were killed by Guardsmen.

3
Militia in the U.S. means a body of men belonging to a regular army, but trained as soldiers to serve only in
their own country if it is attacked or in times when there is violence and disorder in a county, town or a city.

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 Municipal police operate in large cities, such as New York City, Chicago or Los
Angeles, where they number several thousand.

Test your knowledge

1. What is the difference between the state police force and the municipal police
force?
2. What is a sheriff?
3. What is the role of the National Guard?

Glossary
constable – a police officer; especially : one ranking below sergeant (posterunkowy)
deputy – someone authorized to exercise the powers of sheriff in emergencies (zast pca)
disorder – a disturbance of the peace or of public order (rozruchy, zamieszki)
emergency – a sudden unforeseen crisis (usually involving danger) that
requires immediate action (krytyczna sytuacja; zagro enie)
encampment – a temporary living quarters specially built by the army for
soldiers (obozowisko, obóz)
guardsman – a soldier who is a member of a unit called ‘the guard’ or
‘guards’ (gwardzista)
National Guard – United States military reserves recruited by the states and
equipped by the federal government (Gwardia Narodowa; ochotnicza rezerwa)
supervise – watch and direct (nadzorowa )

4. Political parties and interest groups

There are two leading parties in the U.S.A.: the Democratic party and the
Republican party. Apart from these there are a number of minor parties which do not play
any significant role in the country’s politics. The distinction between the Republicans and
Democrats is difficult to define. Generally, the Republicans are associated with big
business and industry and tend to oppose the greater involvement of the federal
government in public life. Democrats are sometimes associated with labor and they favor a
more active role of the central government. Therefore, Democrats receive considerable
support from ethnic and religious minorities, e.g. the Jewish and the black communities
traditionally vote in favor of the Democrats. The Republicans receive strong support
primarily from white Protestants and from people with high income. Many Americans
believe that the Democratic party is more liberal, whereas the Republican party is more
conservative.
Geographically, the Democrats are strong in large cities, particularly in the
Northeast and Midwest, whereas Republicans have more supporters in the suburbs, as well
as in the South and the Rocky Mountain Region.
At the national level, both major parties in the United States, the Republican and
the Democratic parties, have three main organizational components:
1) A National Convention, which is the supreme governing body of the party.
Each party convenes every four years in order to determine party policy and
nominate a candidate for President.
2) A National Committee, which is composed of party officials representing every
state.

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 3) A Congressional campaign Committee which raises funds to support candidates
in congressional elections.
Political parties in the United States have never had a strong centralized structure.
They are more like conglomerates of state parties. Their membership is not very large, but
they rely on millions of partisans, or supporters who are not necessarily party members.
One type of private interest group has grown in number and influence in recent
years. It is known as the Political Action Committee or PAC. These are independent
groups, organized around a single issue or set of issues. They are organized to promote a
particular point of view or contribute money to political campaigns for Congress or the
presidency.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the differences between the Republican party and the Democratic party?
2. What is the organizational structure of the two major parties?
3. What are the aims of PAC?

Glossary
involvement – participation (zaanga owanie)
issue – a point or matter of discussion, debate, or dispute (kwestia, sprawa)
suburbs – the usually residential region around a major city; the environs (przedmie cia)
support – to help the cause, policy, or interests of (poparcie)

5. The Media
The news media include newspapers, radio and television networks. They embrace
about 1,700 daily newspapers, 8,500 weekly newspapers and over 11,000 magazines,
several giant television networks and an enormous number of local radio and television
stations. There are two big news agencies in the US: the Associated Press (AP) and United
Press Inter-national (UPI), a privately-owned international news service founded in 1958.

5.1. The press

The press is a powerful means of public communication in the United States. The
First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of the press. This means that the
press cannot be influenced by the government or any other public institutions. The freedom
of the press is protected by the courts. A characteristic feature of a good newspaper should
be objectivity and detachment in reporting news. Opinion is excluded from news columns.
The first American newspaper appeared in Boston in 1690. It was called Publick
Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick (original spelling).
Among the best American newspapers today are The New York Times, The
Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times. The New York Times has
a circulation of about one million copies. The Wall Street Journal sells more than 1.5
million copies each day. U.S.A. Today is a mass-appeal paper with a national scope. It sells
2.25 million copies. Important public affairs magazines include Time, Newsweek, The U.S.
News and World Report.
Popular magazines include The Reader’s Digest, The National Geographic
Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, McCall’s, Woman’s Day,
Sports Illustrated, etc.

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Test your knowledge
1. What are the most important newspapers in the U.S.A.?
2. What are the leading public affairs magazines?
3. What are the most popular magazines?

Glossary
detachment – the state of being disinterested, impartial (bezstronno )
network – a chain of transmitting stations linked by cable, microwave relay, satellite, etc.,
usually sharing the same programs (sie )
scope – (zakres, zasi g)

5.2. Radio
Radio broadcasting began in 1920 on stations KDKA in Pittsburgh and WWJ in
Detroit. By 1940, over 860 stations were broadcasting to nearly 30 million American
homes. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first American leader to use radio as an
instrument of political persuasion. Today there are thousands of local radio broadcasting
stations and three nationwide networks: the American Broadcasting Company (ABC),
Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). In
addition, there are a great number of public radio stations, being part of the National Public
Radio. Most of these public stations are run by universities and public authorities for
educational purposes and are financed by public and private funds and subscriptions.
The Voice of America (VOA), a global radio network, is the oldest and best-known
American radio station broadcasting to listeners overseas. Today VOA reaches weekly
about 100 million listeners around the globe, by satellite and on FM, AM, and shortwave
radio frequencies in 46 languages, including American English.
Mention should also be made of Radio Free Europe (RFE) based in Munich,
Germany, whose broadcasts to listeners behind the Iron Curtain from the early 1950s to the
fall of Communism and beyond contributed significantly to the development of democracy
in Eastern and Central Europe.

Test your knowledge:

1. When did radio broadcasting begin in the USA?
2. What are the three nationwide radio networks?
3. What kind of radio station is National Public Radio?
4. What do VOA and RFE stand for?

Glossary

broadcast – transmission by radio or television (transmisja, audycja)

contribute – to have a share in bringing about (a result) (przyczyni si )
frequency – the number of times any action or occurrence is repeated in a given period
(cz stotliwo )
fund – a sum of money set aside for some particular purpose (fundusz)
Iron Curtain – a barrier of secrecy and censorship regarded as isolating the Soviet Union
and other countries in its sphere ( elazna kurtyna)
overseas – abroad (za granic ; zamorski)

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5.3. Television
Television is now the most popular medium in the United States; it has great
influence on the country’s electoral process and way of life. Almost every American
household (95 million in 2000) has at least one TV set, and 65 per cent of households own
two or more sets. The average American TV household in 2000 could receive more than
thirty channels.
Experiments with television began in the early 1920s. By 1937, seventeen
experimental stations were operating in the US. After World War II, television replaced
radio as the major means of information and entertainment. The first commercial television
broadcast was made in 1951. Television revolutionized life in America and later in the rest
of the world. By 1988, the United States had over one thousand commercial and three
hundred educational television stations.
Television in the USA consists of two different systems: commercial and
educational, the latter of which is called the Public Broadcasting Service. Television
stations serve the audience free of charge; the main source of income for commercial
television is advertising. Commercials are a regular feature of television broadcasts.
Additionally, viewers in most cities may watch for a monthly fee cable television such as
CNN (news network), TBS (documentaries, sports, variety specials), TNT (classic feature
films), MTV (pop music), and others. A typical metropolitan cable television system has
between fifty and sixty channels that usually include: general entertainment (USA
Network), an entertainment channel for women with medical programs on weekends
(Lifetime), an arts channel (Arts & Entertainment Television), a national and local sports
channel, two news channels, several channels with live reports of news, business and sport,
several channels with mostly religious programs, two channels pro-viding coverage of the
U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, with many political speeches, conferences and
hearings, one or two channels with special programs for Spanish and black American
audiences, a children’s channel, a channel for only weather reports, a channel with text and
picture stories for children, and one or two “shopping channels”. Satellite television is also
becoming very popular, especially in remote areas.
In the second half of the 20th century three major commercial networks provided
information and entertainment for TV audiences: CBS (the Columbia Broadcasting
System), NBC (the National Broad-casting Company) and ABC (the American Broad-
casting Company). The rapid spread of pay cable TV since the 1980s broke the hegemony
of the big three television networks. In 1986 a fourth network, the Fox Broadcasting
Company, owned by the Australian media baron, Rupert Murdoch, began broadcasting in
the US. Ten years later two more national networks appeared: WB Television Network,
owned by Warner Brothers Studios, and the United-Paramount Network (UPN), owned by
Viacom Paramount Communications. What is more, over 60 per cent of American
households subscribe to cable TV. The Cable News Network, CNN, is the most popular
cable network not only in the United States but all over the world.
American television usually shows news, talk shows, quiz shows, soap operas,
variety shows, westerns, spy thrillers, horror shows and sit-coms. Quiz shows are programs
in which members of the audience are asked general knowledge questions. If they give
correct answers, they receive prizes. Soap operas are social dramas that continue their story
from day to day. They were originally sponsored by soap advertisers and they present
highly melodramatic situations like 19th century operas. Sitcoms are situation comedies

104
usually aimed at a family audience. The Simpsons is the longest-running sitcom in U.S.
history. It is an animated satirical parody of the middle class American lifestyle. Westerns
which perpetuate the myth of the Wild West and its heroes are still a very popular form of
entertainment. “Whodunnits” are detective films or television series showing a world of
danger and suspense. Variety shows are programmes featuring some famous stars or
personalities from “showbiz” (show business).
There are more than 300 independent public television stations in the U.S. which do
not broadcast commercials and therefore have to rely on a limited budget provided by the
government. They popularize science and knowledge as well as serve local communities.

Test your knowledge

1. When did television replace radio as the main source of information and mass
entertainment?
2. What are the largest commercial TV networks in the US?
3. What programs are broadcast by commercial television?
4. What is the function of public television?

Glossary
commercial – a paid advertisement (reklama)
entertainment – amusement (rozrywka)
sitcom – a situational comedy (komedia sytuacyjna)
soap opera – a drama, typically performed as a serial on daytime television or radio,
characterized by stock characters and situations, sentimentality, and melodrama (opera
mydlana, telenowela)
whodunit – a story dealing with a crime and its solution; a detective story (krymina )

6. Defense strategy and the Armed Forces

6.1. An outline of US national defense strategy

The traditional U.S. defense strategy has been based on the following objectives:
1) The protection of the lives and personal safety of US citizens, both at home and
abroad.
2) The maintenance of the nation’s sovereignty, political freedoms and independence,
with its values, institutions and territory intact.
3) Material well-being and prosperity of the nation.
4) The protection of international security.

The United States defense establishment is probably the largest organization in the
world. The relationship between the military and the civilian components of the
government is complex and has gone through a number of changes throughout United
States history. In its early history, the United States felt almost immune from European and
Asian conflicts. However, following the outbreak of the
two world wars, the US became increasingly engaged in global conflicts.
The United States emerged from World War II with the most powerful military,
sustained by the most powerful economy in the world. Yet the nuclear arms race meant
that for the first time since the mid-1800s, the physical security of the U.S. was directly
threatened by a foreign power. For most of the past fifty years, most U.S. defense strategy

105
was directed against the Soviet Union. This situation changed radically with the fall of the
Soviet Union and its military alliances. U.S. military activity in the post-war era occurred
almost everywhere except Europe. Military commitments ranged from large-scale
operations, such as the Korean war, involvement in Vietnam, the War in Afghanistan, the
Gulf War, invasion of Iraq, to small-scale operations, such as Haiti and Panama.
At the beginning of the 21st century, particularly after the terrorist attacks on the
World Trade Center and other U.S. domestic targets, the United States radically changed
its national security strategy, formally shifting U.S. military strategy towards pre-emptive
strikes from the former Cold War strategy of containment and deterrence. The
administration of President George W. Bush recently published a document The National
Security Strategy of the United States, which declares that the strategies of containment
and deterrence, staples of American policy since the 1940s, are no longer effective. The
new strategy assumes that the United States will never allow its military supremacy to be
challenged the way it was challenged during the Cold War.

U.S. anti missile system

The United States has proposed to establish a new ballistic
missile defense site in Poland and the Czech Republic. The
system, which would complement the one already established in
California and Alaska, is intended primarily to protect Europe and
America from a missile launched from the Middle East. The
proposal has met with fierce opposition from Russia, which fears
that a system in its backyard could be expanded and used to
neutralize its huge missile force.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the principles of U.S. defense strategy?
2. Why did the Cold War strategy of containment and deterrence proved ineffective in
the late 20th century?
3. Explain briefly the concept of the new “pre-emptive” defense strategy of the United
States.

Glossary
backyard – a yard at the back of a house (podwórko)
containment – a policy of checking the expansion or influence of a hostile power or
ideology,
as by the creation of strategic alliances or support of client states in areas of conflict or
unrest (powstrzymanie)
defense – the act of defending against attack, danger, or injury. (obrona)
missile – a weapon that is fired, thrown, dropped, or otherwise projected at a target
(pocisk)
pre-emptive – designed or having the power to deter or prevent an anticipated situation or

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 occurrence (wyprzedzaj cy)
security – freedom from risk or danger; safety (bezpiecze stwo)
supremacy – the quality or condition of being supreme (przewaga)
target – a desired goal (cel)

6.2. The armed forces

The armed forces of the United States of America consist of:

1) the United States Army (composed of the Active Army, the Army National Guard
and the Organized Reserves);
2) the United States Navy;
3) the United States Air Force;
4) the United States Marine Corps (a quasi-military organization that operates naval
craft for coastal defense and customs purposes. In peacetime it is administered by
the United States Department of Homeland Security, but in wartime reports to the
Department of the Navy).

According to the Constitution, the President of the United States is the

Commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The President coordinates military action with
diplomatic action through an advisory National Security Council. The United States
Secretary of Defense, as the head of the United States Department of Defense, is directly
subordinated to the President in all military matters. The Secretary is a member of the
President’s Cabinet and the National Security Council. The President’s power as the
Commander-in-chief of the armed forces is extensive. That power increases in war or any
other national emergency. The President may declare an emergency and call out the
military Reserves. He may order the armed forces into military action before Congress
actually declares war. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, consisting of the highest-ranking members
of each major branch of the armed forces, provides advice to the President and the
Secretary of Defense as well as direction and guidance to the commanders of unified and
specified commands.
The combined United States armed forces consists of 1.4 million active duty
personnel along with several hundred thousands each in the Reserves and National Guard.
Elite cadres for the US armed forces are trained at three famous military academies: the
United States Military Academy at West Point, New York; the United States Naval
Academy at Annapolis, Maryland; and the United States Air Force Academy at Colorado
Springs, Colorado.

Glossary
active duty – full time military service (s ba czynna)
chief of staff – a senior military staff officer at the division level or higher; a ranking
officer of the U.S. Army or Air Force, responsible to the secretary of his or her branch and
to the President (szef sztabu)
command – a military authority; a unit of the U.S. Air Force that is larger than an air force
(dowództwo, dywizjon)
commander-in-chief – the supreme commander of all the armed forces of a nation; the
officer commanding a major armed force (naczelny dowódca)

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 The U.S. Army
The regular army is a vast organization made up of both volunteers and personnel
on active duty. In the late 1990s the U.S. Army’s active strength was about 560,000,
including 80,000 women. The army was organized in fourteen divisions and almost fifty
separate brigades, regiments, and groups. Its two main reserve components were the Army
National Guard, with ten divisions, and the Army Reserve, with twelve training divisions.

Fact file
1. The US has 247,000 troops and civilians posted overseas, with a presence in more
than 130 countries.
2. The U.S. has 13 military bases in countries around Afghanistan. It has military
presence in Uzbekistan, Takijstan, Kyrgystan and Georgia, all former Soviet
countries.
3. The U.S. headquarters at the Pentagon has over 17 miles of corridors.

The U.S. Navy

A permanent naval force was established by Act of Congress in 1798. Today the
US Navy consists of operating forces, Coast Guard (only in time of war), Naval Reserve,
Naval Air Reserve, Naval Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (NROTC), Marine Corps
Reserve and the administrative Navy Department. The regular Navy includes both men and
women volunteers. The Marine Corps is specially trained for landing operations.

The U.S. Air Force

The U.S. Air Force consists of the regular Air Force, the National Guard and the
US Air Force Reserve. For field operations the Air Force is divided into major commands,
such as Air Defense Common, Air Research and Development Command, Air University
and Strategic Air Command.
The Air Force is headed by a chief of staff, who is a four-star general. The Air
Force chief of staff also serves as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, together with the
Army and Navy chiefs.

The United States Marine Corps

The United States Marine Corps is the smallest branch of the United States armed
forces, serving as a versatile combat element, adapted to a wide variety of combat
situations. Its original purpose was to conduct amphibious operations from the sea onto
land. This tactic was developed and utilized in World War II, most notably in the Pacific
Island Campaign. The Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy but not part of
the United States Navy.

U.S. Army and Air Force insignia

general: four silver stars,
lieutenant general: three silver stars,
major general: two silver stars,
brigadier general: one silver star,

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colonel: silver eagle,
lieutenant colonel: silver oak leaf,
major: gold oak leaf,
captain: two silver bars,
first lieutenant: one silver bar,
second lieutenant: one gold bar.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the U.S. armed forces composed of?
2. Can women participate in the US armed forces?
3. What are the insignia of a US army general?

Glossary
colonel – a commissioned rank in the U.S. Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps that is above
lieutenant colonel and below brigadier general (pu kownik)
lieutenant colonel – (podpu kownik)
lieutenant general – (genera broni)
first lieutenant – (porucznik)
major general – (genera major)
second lieutenant – (podporucznik)

7. Religious Denominations
The United States is probably the most church-going nation in the industrialized
world. Only 10 per cent of the American people say that they are not religious at all. There
are over 200 different religious denominations. The largest religious denominations
include Protestants (over 56 percent), who are divided into 220 different churches, and
Roman Catholics (28 percent).
According to some sources, the largest non-Christian organized religions in the
U.S. are Judaism (2 percent) and Islam (1 percent).
Despite this seeming religiosity, it should be remembered that American society is
also overtly secular. The First Amendment of the American Constitution forbids the
government to give special favors to any religion or to obstruct the free practice of any
religion. As a result, there is no established church, as there is in England, and there are no
legal or official religious holidays, such as Christmas. Over 50 percent of Americans say
that religion is important in their lives, though membership of many Protestant churches
has decreased and so has attendance in the Roman Catholic Church.
The Roman Catholic Church is the single largest denomination in the USA.
American Protestants are distributed among many different, independent churches, such as
Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Mormons.
Among the smaller denominations, the Amish, the Mormons and the Quakers
occupy a distinctive place among traditional religious groups in the United States.
The Amish church is a Protestant religious group descended from the 16th-century
Anabaptists (who believed that only adults should be baptized). Today the Amish number
about 40,000. They avoid modern technology and worldly amusements. They practice
simple farming and handicrafts. Their homes have no electricity and telephones. The horse
and buggy is their traditional means of transportation. Amish men wear full beards and

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broad-brimmed hats; the women wear bonnets and long skirts. They are known for their
use of hooks and eyes instead of buttons and zippers.
Mormons, who refer to themselves as “Latter-day Saints”, believe that they are the
chosen people of the modern era, like the Israelites of the Old Testament and the early
Christians. In the past many church members practiced a form of polygamy which they
called “plural marriage”. Today polygamy is banned in the U.S., but there are rumors that
some “fundamentalist” Mormons have not relinquished it.
The Quakers or the “Society of Friends” practice a highly personal relationship
with God. They believe in an “inner” baptism and communion, but they do not perform
any special religious rites. Since early days Quakers have been associated with pacifism.
Many anti-war activists came from Quaker tradition.
Of the non-Christian denominations Jews and Muslims are the largest religious
groups. The American Jewish Identity Survey of 2000 concluded that there were some 5.5
million Jews in the United States. Of these, 1.4 million were conected with a religion other
than Judaism, 1.4 million were secular or non-religious, leaving 51 per cent of American
Jews (just over 3 million people) whose religion was Judaism. There are three major
divisions of American Jews. Orthodox Jews are the most traditional and observe all the
customs strictly, including the separation of men and women in the synagogue. They
conduct their services in Hebrew. Conservative Jews follow many of the old customs but
conduct services in English. Reform Jews allow women to worship together with men in
synagogues and do not follow strict dietary laws and dress just like everyone else.
Muslim religion is quickly growing in the U.S. Due to recent immigration from
Asia the number of American Muslims has dramatically increased. Recent surveys
estimate that there are approximately 2 million or more Muslims in the United States.
Eastern religions and philosophies, for example, Zen Buddhism, became popular
among American youth after World War II.
Some more recent minority spiritual movements include New Age, which is a
broad spiritual movement borrowing ideas from various belief systems.

Test your knowledge

1. Which are the largest religious denominations in the U.S.A.?
2. What does the First Amendment say about religion and religious practices?
3. In which state are Quakers particularly numerous?

Fact file
The largest religious denominations in the U.S.A.
1. Catholic Church 66,407,105 (2002)
2. Southern Baptist convention 16,400,000 (2004)
3. United Methodist Church
4. Church of Jesus Christ of 8,251,042 (2002)
Latter-day Saints (Mormons) 5,599,177 (2004)
5. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 4,984,925 (2005)
6. Church of God in Christ 4,500,000 (1991)
7. Presbyterian Church 3,595,259
8. National Baptist Convention of America 3,500,000 (1987)

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 9. Assemblies of God 2,687,366 (2002)
10. Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod 2,512,714 (202)

Source: Churches and Church Membership in the United States,

2005, published by the Glenmary Research Center, P.O.
Box 507, Mars Hill, NC 28754, at: Adherents.com

Glossary
attendance – (frekwencja, uczestnictwo)
(to) descend – (pochodzi , wywodzi si )
handicraft – (rzemios o, r kodzie o)
reliquish – (porzuci )
rumor – (pog oska)
secular – ( wiecki)
seeming – (pozorny, widoczny)

Useful web sites

Adherents.com
www.seeamerica.org.

Further reading

Ahlstrom, S.E. A Religious History of the American People, 1975.

Armbruster, M. E. The Presidents of the United States and Their Administrations from
Washington to the Present, 1981.
Axelrod, Alan. Encyclopedia of the American Armed Forces: v. 1. 2005
Bimber, Bruce. Information and American Democracy: Technology in the Evolution of
Political
Power (Communication, Society and Politics), 2003.
Bloom, Harold. American Religion, 2006.
Ferguson, John, H., and Dean McHenry. The American System of Government, 1973.
Friedman, Lawrence M. American Law: An Introduction, 1985.
Hudson, Winthrop, S. Religion in America, 1981.
Luedtke, Luther, S., ed. Making America The Society and Culture of the United States,
1990.
Mauk, David and John Oakland. American Civilization, 2002.
Schroeder, Richard, C., ed. An Outline of American Government, 1989.
Shaffrey, Mazry M. Melanie Fonder. The Complete Idiot's Guide to American
Government,
2005
Time Almanac 2008, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008.
United States Government Manual. Office of the Federal Register (annual publication)

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 MORE TESTS AND TASKS

TRUE OR FALSE
Carefully read each statement. If the statement is true according to information in the book,
write T after it, if it is false, write F. Try to give reasons why a statement is false.

1. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the country.
2. The Constitution has twelve amendments.
3. The powers of the U.S. government are divided into two main executive branches: the
executive branch and the legislative branch.
4. The President of the United States is elected every six years.
5. The Vice-president is not elected from the same party as the President.
6. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S.A.
7. Every U.S. citizen aged twenty-one or over may vote.
8. The CIA coordinates the work of federal and state police.
9. There are two leading political parties in the U.S.: the Republican and Democratic
parties.
10. There are over 100 senators in the U.S. Senate.

MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST

Complete the sentences below, choosing one of three possibilities: a, b, or c.

1. When was the American Constitution written?

a) 1776 b) 1787 c) 1812
2. The first capital of the United States was ….
a) Boston b) New York c) Philadelphia
3. The House of Representatives has ……….. elected members.
a) 250 b) 435 c) 460
4. The U.S. President must be at least …… years old.
5. a) 35 b) 45 c) 60
6. The Supreme Court consists of a Chief Justice and ….. associate justices.
a) 8 b) 10 c) 13
7. Which of the following rights is NOT guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution?
a) the right to bear arms (guns) b) the to free speech c) the right to free education
8. U.S.A. Today is a ………
a) popular newspaper b) popular television program c) popular television news
channel
9. The Voice of America broadcasts radio programs in ….. languages.
a) 15 b) 30 c) 46
10. The strength of the United States Armed Forces is over …….. million.
a) 1 b) 2 c) 3

FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION

Prepare yourself for a class discussion on one of the following topics:

1. The political system in the U.S.A.

112
2. The significance of the American Constitution.
3. The American legal system.
4. Is American democracy effective?

PROJECT
Prepare a project on one of the following topics:
1. Famous American Presidents.
2. Washington D.C., the seat of U.S. government.\
3. American Presidential Elections.
4. American media.

EXPRESS YOUR OPINION

Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States seeks world hegemony, which
means the political and economic reorganization of the entire world in the interests of the
American ruling elite.

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 Chapter Four

The Economy and Welfare

1. The Economy

The structure of the U.S. economy

The United States has the largest and most technologically advanced economy in the world.
While the United States accounts for only about 4 percent of the world’s population, its GDP
is 26 percent of the world’s total economic output.
The U.S. economy is based on the private, public, and international sectors. The
private sector is made up of independently owned firms that exist to make profit, non-profit
organizations, and individual households. A great corporation, like Microsoft, a lawyer, a
doctor, in private practice, and a street vendor who pays taxes, are part of the private sector
because they operate within the system of independent ownership and control.
In turn, the public sector is operated and controlled by the state. It consists of U.S.
government and its agencies at federal, state and local levels, the U.S. military forces and their
military and civilian employees, government employees, public school teachers, U.S. post
office workers, etc.
The international sector consists of the economies of foreign countries. The U.S.
economy is increasingly dependent on the world economies. The United States has major
economic and political interests in the Middle East, Asia, Central and South America and
Europe.

Fact file:
Five top U.S. trading partners
Imports Exports
1. Canada 1. Canada
2. China 2. Mexico
3. Mexico 3. Japan
4. Japan 4. China
5. Germany 5. UK
Source: U.S. Embassy Berlin
Fact Sheet Online, 2006

Despite its enormous output, the U.S. economy faces a number of problems. For
several decades the United States has imported far more manufactured goods than it exports.
The U.S. trade deficit in 2005 amounted to a record of $804.9 billion. In 2008, America’s
trade deficit with the rest of the world began to shrink for the first time in six years.

114
 Test your knowledge
1. What is the difference between the private and public sectors in the economy?
2. What are the segments of the public sector?
3. Why does the United States have a trade deficit?

Glossary
(to) account for – to constitute (stanowi )
GDP – Gross Domestic Product (PKB; produkt krajowy brutto)
employee – a person who works in the service of another (pracownik)
household – a domestic unit consisting of the members of a family who live together
(gospodarstwo domowe)
manufactured goods – articles produced in a large-scale industrial operation (wyroby
przemys owe)
output – production (produkcja)
tax – a compulsory fee charged (levied) by a government on a product, income, or activity
(podatek)
trade deficit – a negative balance of trade, i.e. imports exceed exports (deficit handlowy)
vendor – a salesperson without an established place of business, e.g. a street vendor
(sprzedawca, handlarz)

Historical outline

Approximately 100 years ago, the United States overtook Britain as the richest nation
in the world. The Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the late 18th century, soon
spread to the United States. By 1860, the U.S. industry, which was mostly limited to the
Northeast, produced a third of the nation’s income. The predominant industries included
cotton cloth production, the manufacture of shoes, woollen clothing and machinery. Most of
the workforce was immigrant. After the victory of the North in the Civil War (1861-1865),
the slave labor system was abolished in the South and northern industry gradually expanded
to southern states.
The second Industrial Revolution in the U.S. (1871-1914) was an epoch of rapid
urbanization, industrialization, electrification, telephone communication, and the emergence
of the “mass society”. By 1913 the United States accounted for more than a third of the
world’s industrial production. Post World War I America emerged as the world’s dominant
economy and the chief bastion of liberty. Crash on New York stock exchange (NYSE) on
October 29, 1929, destroyed 14 billion dollars in stockholder value. It was followed by the
Great Depression (1929-1940), which caused a significant reorientation in the economic
development of the nation
As a countermeasure, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) launched the New
Deal policy, which increased government involvement in the economy in order to alleviate
the crisis. New Deal legislation extended federal authority in various areas of the economy,
especially banking, agriculture and public welfare. It established standards for wages and
working hours. After World War II, an automobile and housing boom stimulated the national
economy. The gross domestic product (GDP) rose from $200 billion in 1940 to over $500
billion in 1960 and over 13 trillion in 2007.

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 A new (third) Industrial Revolution, which started in the 1980s, stems from two
innovations from the second half of the 20th century: the development of the world’s first
microcomputers (better known today as PCs) and the development of an international
computer network (the Internet). A wave of technological innovations in computing,
telecommunications, and the biological sciences has profoundly affected the American
economy and the lives of average people.
At the beginning of the 21st century the United States remains the world’s strongest economic
power. The terrorist attacks on the U.S. in 2001 and the resulting war on terror brought new
challenges for the U.S. economy and for America’s economic policy. However, at the
beginning of the century the strength of the U.S. economy continues to surpass the
expectations of even the most optimistic forecasters.
The U.S. remains the world leader in many high-tech industries, e.g. biochemical and
genetic engineering, aircraft manufacturing, computer and communication system services.
The U.S. is also the biggest supplier of agricultural products in the world.

Test your knowledge

1. When did the American economy begin to develop rapidly?
2. What was the result of the stock market crash?
3. What was the New Deal and who initiated it?
4. What is the present state of the U.S. economy?

Glossary
boom – a period of rapid economic expansion (o ywienie gospodarcze; o ywienie na rynku)
cotton – a bushy plant containing seeds with long hairy fibers (bawe na)
countermeasure – an action taken to offset another action ( rodek zaradczy)
forecaster – prognosticator (prognosta)
New Deal – the programs and policies to promote economic recovery and social reform
introduced during the 1930s by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Nowy ad)
public welfare – the provision of help for those in need of assistance (pomoc spo eczna)
stock market – an exchange where security trading is conducted by
professional stockbrokers (rynek akcji, gie da papierów warto ciowych)
supplier – provider (dostawca)
(to) surpass – go beyond (przewy sza )
workforce – the force of workers available (si a robocza)

The private sector

The private sector includes those business entities that are owned and run by
independent private individuals or corporations. A business set up to make profits may be
organized in the U.S. in one of three basic legal forms: proprietorship, partnership or
corporation.
Proprietorship is the most common form of a business. There is no legal process
involved in starting a proprietorship. You simply start operating. You must, however, keep
records of revenues and costs, and pay personal income taxes on your profit. The U.S. Census
Bureau estimates that there are over 17 million sole proprietorships in the United States
(2007).

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 Partnership is a proprietorship with more than one proprietor and is based on a
contractual agreement between individuals and/or corporations in which profits and losses are
shared. It is similar to a sole proprietorship but it has more than one member, each called a
partner. Partners pay taxes on their personal share of earnings, but their businesses are not
taxed. About 7.5 percent of all firms in the United States are business partnerships.4
A corporation is a formally established legal entity that exists separately from those
who establish it and those who own it. In order to establish a corporation, a corporate charter
must be obtained from a state government. When a corporation is formed, shares of stock
(certificates of partial ownership) are issued and either sold or assigned. A corporation is
owned by its stockholders, who are in a sense partners in the firm’s success or failure. Each
share of stock entitles the holder to as portion of the corporation’s profits. Stockholders differ
from simple partners in two important ways. First, the liability of stockholders is limited to
the amount they paid for the stock. If the company goes out of business or bankrupt, the
stockholders may lose what they have invested, but no more than that. Second, the federal
government and all but four states levy special taxes on corporations.
Corporations are the predominant form of economic enterprise in the United States.
Each year Fortune magazine publishes a list of 500 largest corporations in the United States.

Fact file:
Ten largest U.S. corporations in 2008

1. Wal-Mart Stores
2. Exxon Mobil
3. Chevron
4. General Motors
5. ConocoPhillips
6. General Electric
7. Ford Motor
8. Citigroup
9. Bank of America
10. AT&T
Source: Fortune

Test your knowledge

1. What is the difference between proprietorship and partnership?
2. Who owns a corporation?
3. What is the difference between a partner and stockholder?

4
Time Almanach 2008, p. 559.

117
 Glossary
(to) assign – to transfer one’s right to (cedowa )
Census Bureau – the bureau of the Commerce Department which provides demographic
information and analyses about the population of the United States (Biuro Ewidencji
Ludno ci)
corporate charter – a document, filed with a U.S. state by a corporation’s founders, describing
the purpose, place of business, and other details of a corporation; also called articles of
incorporation or charter (akt za ycielski spó ki)
(to) levy taxes – to charge taxes (pobiera , nak ada podatki)
liability – obligation (zobowi zanie, obowi zek p atno ci)
proprietorship – a single member company (w asno indywidualna)
partnership – a business entity in which two or more individuals carry on a continuing
business for profit as co-owners (spó ka, partnerstwo)
revenue – income (dochód)
stock –a portion of the ownership of a corporation; also known as an equity or a share (akcje,
udzia y)
stockholder – one who owns shares of stock in a corporation; also shareholder (akcjonariusz,
udzia owiec)

Big business

Although the number of small individually-owned businesses used to be relatively

large in the United States, they have been increasingly absorbed by giant corporations.
Connecticut was the first state to pass a general act of incorporation in 1837, which gave rise
to the development of big corporations. The corporate form of business is now seen in all
types of national industry including agriculture. Big business helped America to grow
wealthy. Its history goes back to the late 1800s, which was called the Era of Big Business.
Some of the most important people who significantly contributed to the development
of big business in the U.S. include John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and John Pierpont
Morgan.
John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) was one of the first giants of big business in
America. He developed an oil refinery in Ohio. Eventually, he bought all the oil refineries he
could, and combined them into one giant company – Standard Oil. Rockefeller’s company
became America’s leader in producing and selling oil, but its business methods, which
brought immense wealth to the ownership, were widely and severely criticized. By 1901,
Rockefeller was worth about 900 million dollars and is believed to have been the world’s
richest man of his time. In later life Rockefeller became a philanthropist. He founded the
University of Chicago in 1892, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now
Rockefeller Center) in New York City in 1901, the General Education Board in 1902, the
Rockefeller Foundation in 1913.
Another giant of big business was Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), whose life was a
classic rags-to-riches story. In 1873, he built a steel mill near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the
next few years Carnegie built many more steel mills. In addition, he built ships and railroads.
His great innovation was the cheap and efficient mass production of steel rails for railroad
lines. In 1901, Carnegie sold his giant company to J. P. Morgan for 250 million dollars.

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Morgan believed that he had got a bargain. In 1902, Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie
Institution of Technology in Washington, D.C., with a 10 million dollars donation. (CIT is
now Carnegie Mellon University). Andrew Carnegie also funded almost 3,000 Carnegie
libraries, in the United States as well as Britain, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and the West
Indies.
John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) created one of the most powerful banking
houses in the world. His accomplishments were numerous. In 1895, he supplied the United
States government with 62 million dollars in gold to float a bond issue and restore the treasury
surplus of $100 million. In 1902, he purchased the Leyland line of Atlantic steamships and
other British lines, creating an Atlantic shipping cartel. He also reorganized a large number of
railroads between the years 1869 and 1899. Morgan was a devoted collector of books,
pictures and other art objects and the notable sponsor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the
American Museum of Natural History and Harvard University (especially its medical school).

Test your knowledge

1. What is big business?
2. What were the contributions of John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and J.P.
Morgan to the development of the American economy?

Glossary
accomplishment – achievement (dokonanie, osi gni cie)
bargain – an agreement between parties concerning the sale of property; a profitable
transaction
(transakcja, okazja)
bond issue – bonds sold by a corporation or government agency (emisja obligacji)
cartel – a combination of independent business organizations formed to regulate production,
pricing, and marketing of goods by the members (kartel)
(to) float) – to issue (pu ci w obieg )
incorporation – the act of creating a company or a corporation (zarejestrowanie spó ki;
nadanie
osobowo ci prawnej)
from rags to riches – from being extremely poor to being extremely wealthy (z biedy do
bogactwa)
(to) restore – to rebuild (odbudowa przywróci )
steel mill – a factory where iron ore is processed into steel (stalownia, huta stali)
surplus – an amount or a quantity in excess of what is needed (nadwy ka)

The public sector

Although the economic system in the United States relies basically on private
ownership and decentralized decision-making by households, and privately owned
businesses, it also has a public sector which is financed, controlled and operated by the
federal, state or local government.

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The public sector is part of the economy concerned with providing basic government services.
In the United States, the public sector includes services such as national defense, homeland
security, police protection, fire fighting, urban planning, taxation, public roads, public
transport, primary education, and public assistance to some members of society coping with
economic hardships.
The public sector provides services (such as street lighting) for the benefit of all
members society rather than just the individuals who can pay for them, and also services that
encourage equal opportunity (such as public education).

Fact file:
Federal expenditures, 2007
Amounts in $ billion
Pensions 636.1
Health care 641.8
Education 102.0
Defense 653.9
Welfare 254.2
General Government 17.5
Other spending 73.4

Source: usgovernmentspending.com

Test your knowledge

1. Why is the public sector important for the national economy?
2. What are the typical services of the public sector?

The international sector

The international sector, which involves trade and industrial cooperation with other
nations, has rapidly grown in recent decades. The United States is also the largest trading
nation in the world, exporting and importing more goods and services than any other country.
In 1947, the United States and many other countries signed the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was especially successful in reducing tariffs over the next
five decades. In 1995, the member nations of the GATT founded the World Trade
Organization (WTO), which set even greater obligations on member countries to follow the
rules established under GATT. In 1992, the United States also signed the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with its closest neighbors and major trading partners,
Canada and Mexico.
While the United States is the largest trading nation in the world, it has a very large
and prosperous domestic economy; therefore, international trade is a much smaller percentage
of the U.S. economy than it is in many countries with much smaller domestic economies.
An increasing role in the international sector is played by multinational corporations
which have offices and/or factories in different countries. Many U.S. companies have become
multinationals, e.g. IBM, Microsoft or McDonald’s.

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Test your knowledge

1. Explain the following abbreviations: GATT, WTO, NAFTA.

2. What are multinational corporations?

Glossary
domestic economy – the economy of a specific country
(gospodarka krajowa)
prosperous – well-to-do, profitable (kwitn cy, dobrze
prosperuj cy)
tariff – a duty levied on goods transported from one
customs area to another either for protective or
revenue purposes (taryfa, c o)
trade – commerce (handel)

Taxes

Taxes in the United States may be paid to at least three different levels of government:
the local, state and the federal government. The main source of revenue for the federal
government and many states is income tax based on earned income. Income tax was created
in 1913 by the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Depending on individual income, it
ranges from 10 percent (for the first $6,000 of income only) to 35 percent of income. Federal
payroll taxes in the United States are primarily collected by employers for the U.S. Internal
Revenue Service (IRS), a division of the U.S. Treasury Department, established in 1862.
The next largest tax is social security tax. Since its creation in 1935, the Social
Security System has provided millions of Americans with a dependable retirement income,
disability help, medical assistance, and other benefits. This tax is 6.2 percent of an employee’s
income paid by the employer, and another 6.2 percent paid by the employee. Self-employed
people are responsible for both halves of the social security tax. This tax is paid only on the
employee’s first $94,200 of annual income (2006), but the threshold increases every year, and
has been increasing faster than inflation. There is also Medicare tax, 1.45 percent of the
employee’s income paid by the employer, and 1.45 percent by the employee. This is used to
pay for medical care for qualifying persons, usually people over the age of sixty-five.
Most states tax on real estate, and there may be additional income taxes, sales taxes,
and excise taxes. The U.S. maintains federal excise taxes on gasoline and other fuels used by
vehicles. Higher excise taxes exist on distilled spirits, tobacco products, and some firearms.

Test your knowledge

1. How big is income tax in the U.S.?
2. How is social security tax paid?

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 Glossary
dependable – reliable (niezawodny)
earned income – wages, salary (dochód wypracowany)
employee – a person who is hired to provide services to a company
on a regular basis (pracownik)
employer – someone who hires and pays wages (pracodawca)
excise tax – a tax imposed on the manufacture and distribution of
certain non-essential consumer goods (op ata akcyzowa)
income tax – annual tax levied by government on an individual’s or
corporation’s net profit (podatek dochodowy)
Internal Revenue Service – the U.S. federal agency responsible for
administering and enforcing the Treasury Department’s revenue
laws, through the assessment and collection of taxes (urz d
skarbowy)
payroll tax – a tax based on wages or salary (podatek od
wynagrodze )
real estate – a piece of land, including any buildings or structures on
it; also called realty or real property (nieruchomo )
social security – a government program that provides economic
assistance to persons faced with unemployment, disability, or
agedness (ubezpieczenie spo eczne)
threshold – an entrance or a doorway; the place or point of beginning
(próg)
Treasury Department – the federal department (created in 1789) that
collects revenue and administers federal finances (Ministerstwo
Skarbu)

Banking and finance

Banks play a central role in the U.S. economy. The first American commercial banks
appeared in the 1780s. From 1863 the U.S. had a uniform national banking system with a
standard paper currency. There are about 14,000 banks in the United States, of which over
8,000 belong to the system operated by the Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve
issues currency, acts as a financial clearinghouse and establishes the required cash reserves
that banks must maintain. By increasing or decreasing these reserve requirements, and by
changing the interest rate for loans to banks. The Federal Reserve Board can regulate the
money supply and thereby attempt to control the rate of inflation in the economy. The most
important instrument of monetary policy is the purchase and sale of government securities.
An important element of the Federal Reserve System is the United States Mint,
created in 1792. The Mint manufactures all U.S. coins and distributes them through the
Federal Reserve banks and branches. The Mint also maintains custody of the treasury’s
monetary stocks of gold and silver.
New York City is the financial and banking capital of the United States. Wall Street,
in Lower Manhattan, is the financial heart of the nation. There is a great concentration of
business institutions in the area, including the New York Stock Exchange, stock-brokerage
companies, banks, trusts, insurance corporations, commodity exchanges (e.g. coffee, cotton,

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metal, corn, etc.). An important feature of the New York Stock Exchange is the Dow Jones
Average, which shows the average price of stocks and bonds traded on the Exchange.
The major banks in the U.S. include Citibank and J.P. Morgan & Chase Co.,
headquartered in New York City; Bank of America, and Wachowia/First Union,
headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina; and Wells Fargo, headquartered in San Francisco,
California.

The History of the U.S. dollar

The US dollar, which ranks as one of the world’s most stable currencies, has a long
history. The word dollar is probably derived from the Thaler, the name of a silver coin first
struck in Bohemia in 1518. Before the Revolution and shortly after it, Americans used
English, Spanish and French money. Particularly, a Spanish silver coin, known as peso duro
was widely used in Mexico and the English colonies.
In 1785, the Continental Congress decided that the official monetary system would be
based on the dollar. The federal monetary system was established in 1792, with the creation of
the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. The first American coins were minted in 1793. The Coinage
Act of 1792 provided for two standard types of dollar: a silver dollar, which first contained
371.25 grains of pure silver, and a gold dollar containing 24.75 grains of pure gold. The
amount of silver in coins changed over the years. Silver dollars were in circulation until 1965.
In 1900, a gold standard was formally adopted and survived until 1974.
In 1861, Congress authorized the United States Treasury to issue paper money for the
first time in American history. Treasury Notes were called Demand Notes. In 1862, Demand
Notes were replaced by United States Notes, commonly called “greenbacks”. In 1910, the
Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing assumed all currency
production, including engraving, printing and pressing. In 1913, the Federal Reserve System
as the U.S. central bank was created in order to regulate the flow of money and issue Federal
Reserve Notes (dollars), the only U.S. currency.
In 1929 the paper currency was reduced in size by 25 percent and standardized with
uniform portraits on the faces and emblems and monuments on the backs. In 1957, paper
currency was first issued with the inscription “In God We Trust”. This inscription appears on
all currency series from 1963 onwards. In 1990, a security thread and microprinting were
introduced, first in $50 and $100 notes, to deter counterfeiting by advanced copiers and
printers. In 2003, the $20 bill got a new design with new colors and new number
arrangements, a new background.
The U.S. dollar has undergone devaluation several times since 1934, when the Gold
Reserve Act reduced the content of gold in the dollar to 13,71 gr. During the last decade, the
U.S. dollar’s real effective exchange rate relative to the seven major world currencies
continued to weaken.

Test your knowledge

1. What is the role of the Federal Reserve Board?

2. What does Wall Street symbolize?
3. What is the Dow Jones Average?

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 Glossary
cash – ready money (gotówka)
clearinghouse – an agency for settling trading accounts (izba
rozrachunkowa)
commodity – goods (towar)
commodity exchange – an exchange for buying and selling commodities
for future delivery; commodities exchange, commodities market
(gie da towarowa)
(to) deter – to prevent or discourage (odstraszy , pohamowa )
(to) counterfeit – to make a copy of bank notes with the intent to deceive
(fa szowa banknoty)
currency – money (waluta)
Exchange – a place where things are exchanged, especially a center
where securities or commodities are bought and sold, e.g. a stock
exchange (gie da)
Federal Reserve Board – the seven-member board governing the U.S.
Federal Reserve System (Rada Rezerwy Federalnej)
government securities – securities issued by a government to raise the
funds necessary to pay for its expenses (pa stwowe papiery
warto ciowe)
greenbacks – a slang term for U. S. paper currency (banknoty dolarowe,
„zielone”)
headquarters – main office (centrala; kwatera g ówna)
insurance – a promise of compensation for specific potential future losses
in exchange for a periodic payment (ubezpieczenie)
interest rate – a yearly price charged by a lender to a borrower in order for
the borrower to obtain a loan (stopa procentowa)
loan – money lent for a specified period of time at a specific interest rate
(po yczka)
mint – a plant where money is coined by authority of the government
(mennica)
stock broker – an individual or firm which acts as an intermediary
between a buyer and seller, usually charging a commission
(makler)
trust – a corporation (trust; powiernictwo)

Primary industries

The sector of primary industries is based on the conversion of natural resources into
primary products (raw materials or commodities). It consists of agriculture, forestry,
fishing, mining, and quarrying. The United States has considerable natural resources, which
include iron ore, lead and copper, as well as energy resources such as coal, crude oil, and
natural gas.

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 Almost 50 per cent of the land area of the United States is farmland. The U.S. is the
largest producer of corn in the world. American farmers produce much more food and
agricultural products than the nation needs. Since World War II agricultural output has
increased significantly. Technology has always played a key role in the rapid growth of
agricultural output in the United States.
American agriculture became efficient thanks to new technology, and paradoxically,
overproduction became its major problem. With production increasing faster than
consumption, prices for farm products began to decline between 1870 and 1900. Farmers
campaigned for a wide variety of government policies aimed directly at helping them to
survive on their farms. Prices rose steadily after 1900 until 1920, but in the 1920s and 1930s
they sharply declined. This resulted in a dramatic deterioration in the financial condition of
many farmers. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal succeeded in addressing these
problems by means of government intervention and subsidy. Many of his agricultural
policies, such as price support and subsidies, continue up to the present time.
At present, thanks to the effective use of modern machinery, fertilizers, and chemicals,
American agriculture is a world leader. It is proudly claimed that one American farmer feeds
seventy-five people.
The U.S. waters off the coast of North America and inland lakes and rivers provide
enormous opportunities for fishery. The United States ranks fifth among the nations of the
world in weight of total catch, behind China, Peru, Chile, and Japan. It is estimated that the
seafood industry creates jobs for more than 250,000 Americans. However, in recent years
American fishing industry has been threatened by increasing imports. Better air transportation
has allowed fish retailers to purchase fresh fish from almost anywhere on the planet. The
spread of fish farming in Asia has increased the supply of the most popular seafood. Over
80% of the seafood eaten in the U.S. was imported in 2004, much of it from shrimp farms in
Thailand, Vietnam, and China, and salmon farms in Norway and Chile.5
The United States has enormous mineral resources Bituminous coal is plentiful, with
deposits under the whole Appalachian Region. This is the largest coal field in the world. The
largest deposits of anthracite are found in eastern Pennsylvania. Coal deposits extend into
Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama. Most coal is now mined in Kentucky and
West Virginia.
The leading oil states are Texas and Oklahoma. Texas and Louisiana are also the
leading states in the production of natural gas. Oil and natural gas fields also lie in the
Appalachian Region, Kentucky, West Virginia, and the Gulf coastal areas. Some oil is
pumped from off-shore deposits in the Gulf.
However, the United States is increasingly dependent on foreign sources of supply.
Less than a hundred years ago the U.S. produced within its own borders practically all of the
basic materials required by its industries. Since 1950 some raw material consumption has
increase by over 200 percent. Raw materials used for construction has risen over 400 percent
in the same time period. Today, the U.S. uses between 35 and 40 percent of the world’s
output of raw materials.

Test your knowledge

1. What are typical primary industries?
2. What factors increased progress in American agriculture?
3. Where are the greatest oil deposits in the U.S.A?

5
Source: Business Week online, September 4, 2006.

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 Did you know that

- though accounting for only 5 percent of the world’s population, Americans

consume 26 percent of the world’s energy?
- the United States is the world’s largest single emitter of carbon dioxide, accounting
for 23 percent of energy-related carbon emissions worldwide?
- the United States consumes about 17 million barrels of oil per day, of which nearly
two-thirds is used for transportation?
- nuclear plants produce about 19 percent of U.S. energy?

Glossary
barrel – a cylindrical container that holds liquids (bary ka)
carbon dioxide – a heavy odorless colorless gas; CO,
(dwutlenek w gla)
deposit – matter deposited by water or ice or wind (z e)
off-shore – at some distance from the shore (przybrze ny)
primary industry – the industries that produce raw materials
(przemys surowcowy)
raw materials – materials suitable for manufacture (surowce)
seafood – any sea animal or seaweed that is served
as food, particularly fish and shellfish (owoce morza)
shrimp – any of various crustaceans (krewetka)

Manufacturing industries and power generation

This sector includes manufacturing and the generation of electricity, which are the key
components of the U.S. economy. The U.S. manufacturing industries can be broadly
categorized into engineering industries, construction industries, electronics industries,
chemical industries, energy industries, textile industries, food and beverage industries,
metalworking industries, plastic industries, transport and telecommunications industries.
The Industrial Revolution in England, at the end of the 18th century, contributed to a
rapid transformation of American industry in the years 1776-1860. The United States
developed a system of mass production, which had its origins in the firearms industry, about
the year 1800.
Manufacturing has been the leading industry in New England. The chief products are
made from cloth, metal, leather, and timber. In the past most American manufacturing
industries were located in the eastern states. Recently, many industries have moved south and
southwest. About 13.5 million Americans are employed in manufacturing industries.6
The Midwest is the industrial heart of the United States. The Northeast is the home of
new industries, particularly computer manufacturers. One of the most important

6
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics online, 2008.

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developments in recent decades has been the growth of manufacturing in regions outside the
Northeast and Midwest regions. Since the 1950s manufacturing industries in the Southeast
and the Southwest increased by 50 percent, and the Northwest share by 25 percent. In the
1990s, California became the leading manufacturing state in the U.S.
The United States manufactures chemicals, industrial machinery, electronic
equipment, processed food, transportation equipment, textiles, clothing, precision instruments,
lumber, furniture, tobacco products, leather goods, paper, stone, clay, glass, and various other
products.
The housing industry accounts for about one-fifth of U.S. industrial output. However,
in the 1980s housing suffered its worst decline since World War II. In the early Nineties it
showed signs of recovery. Demand for houses was higher in the West and the South than in
the Northeast. At the beginning of the 21st century, new home construction dropped again,
mainly due to a sharp mortgage rise. In some areas sales of new homes fell by 40 percent in
2008.
The automobile manufacturing industry has gone through a difficult time in the past
15 years. Nevertheless, the U.S. industry is still home to the two largest vehicle manufacturers
in the world, General Motors and Ford, and has been responsible for 20 to 25 percent of world
vehicle production in several years since 1980. The motor vehicle industry is the largest
manufacturing industry in the United States. Automobiles are mostly manufactured in Detroit
and other cities of Michigan. General Motors, whose headquarters are Detroit, Michigan, is
the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer with worldwide operations and brands including
Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GM Daewoo, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Oldsmobile, Opel,
Pontiac, Saturn, Saab, and Vauxhall. The Ford Motor Company is another major U.S.
automobile manufacturer. Ford has manufacturing operations in Canada, Mexico, the United
Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and several other countries, including
Poland.
Electronics is one of the largest industries in the U.S. and plays an important role in
almost every aspect of the national economy. The U.S. is the world’s largest producer of
electronic products, accounting for around 21% of the world total. It is also represents the
world’s largest market with around 29% of the total (2008). American companies are world
leaders in several important segments of the Integrated Circuit [IC] market. However,
globalization is a major factor in the electronics industry, which often makes it difficult to
distinguish between American and foreign products. Many American companies have opened
plants overseas and overseas companies have done the same in the U.S. Many products are
being designed in one country, manufactured in another, and assembled in a third. The U.S.
electronics industry tends to be focused on high-end products, such as computers and
microchips. Even so, many components of final products manufactured in the U.S. are
produced elsewhere and shipped to an American plant for final assembly.
High-tech industries are highly automated. The center of the computer industry in the
U.S. is Silicon Valley in northern California. Electronic equipment is also produced in New
England, Texas, and many other areas. Microsoft, with its headquarters in Redmond,
Washington, s suburb of Seattle, is the largest computer software manufacturer in the U.S.
The Company’s most famous product is the Windows operating system, produced in many
versions, including Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
The textile industry used to flourish in New England and the Middle Atlantic Region
but is now mostly concentrated in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Levi-Strauss is
still one of the largest clothing manufacturers in the U.S. The Eastman Kodak Company
produces photographic equipment and materials.

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 Food processing is an important industry in many eastern and Midwest states. Food
products are manufactured in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, the Midwest, and other
areas. The Coca-Cola Company and Pepsico produce world-famous soft drinks. Levi-Strauss
is still one of the largest clothing manufacturers in the U.S. The Eastman Kodak Company
produces photographic equipment and materials.
Power generation is vital to every sector of the U.S. economy but in recent
years the U.S. has experienced serious energy problems. As the U.S. economy grows, the
demand for energy rises. The recent forecasts by the Energy Information Administration
(EIA) show that the demand for energy of all forms is likely to increase significantly over the
next twenty years. By 2020, total energy consumption is expected to increase by 32 percent.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the new manufacturing regions in the U.S.A?
2. Where are automobiles manufactured in the U.S.?
3. What is Silicon Valley famous for?

Glossary
assembly – fitting together of parts to make a whole,
as in manufacturing automobiles (monta )
(to) focus – to concentrate (skupia si )
(to) flourish – to bossom, to develop (kwitn ,
rozwija si )
food processing – transformation of raw ingredients
into food products (przetwórstwo ywno ci)
high-end product – produkt of a very high quality
(produkt wy szej klasy)
high-tech – highly specialized, complex
technology, as in electronics
(supernowoczesny)
operation – action (dzia anie)
power generation – electricity generation
(wytwarzanie energii)
suburb – a district, especially a residential one, on
the edge of a city (przedmie cie)

Commerce and services

Commerce and services constitute now the largest part of the U.S. economy. They
include retail and wholesale sales, financial services, government services, transportation,
entertainment and tourism.
The retail trade employs over 23 million Americans and generates more than $3
trillion in retail sales annually. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer and the world’s largest
company with approximately $245 billion in sales annually. Wal-Mart employs more than 1.4
million people in the United States and more than 600,000 internationally. Single-store
businesses account for over 95 percent of all U.S. retailers, but generate less than 50 percent
of all retail store sales.

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 The service sector is more than just fast food restaurants. It ranges from the provision
of meals in restaurants and laundry services in hotels to banking and telecommunications
services. The internet service industry has also considerably enlarged this sector of the
economy. The U.S. is gradually moving into a “post-industrial age”, which means that the
service sector will grow faster than manufacturing industries.
The service sector grew rapidly during the last part of the 20th century, creating many
new jobs. Most of these jobs are classified as white collar, and many require advanced
education. They include many high-paying jobs in financing, banking, education, and health
services, as well as lower-paying positions that require little educational background, such as
retail store clerks, janitors, and fast-food restaurant workers.

Test your knowledge

1. What is Walt-Mart?
2. Are service industries expanding or decreasing in the U.S.? Why?

Glossary
janitor – someone employed to clean and
maintain a building (dozorca)
white collar job–a job typically associated
with office, sales or managerial
occupations (zawód nierobotniczy)
position – a job (posada, stanowisko)
retail – the sale of goods or commodities in
small quantities directly to consumers
(handel detaliczny)
wholesale – the sale of goods in large
quantities for resale (sprzeda hurtowa,
hurt)

Employment

Total employment in the U.S.A. was over 145 million in 2008.7 Although
unemployment was about 5.7 percent in July 2008, there has been plenty of job growth in
small business and in the health-care field. Transformation of the employment structure began
in the 1980s when temporary layoffs gave way to permanent job cuts. Big companies
eliminated some 5 million jobs, but 20 million new jobs were created elsewhere. In the 1990s,
the big corporations continued to shrink, while small-business jobs were still being created
everywhere. Many companies in the defense and aerospace industries have been closed or
reduced production due to federal defense cuts. One of the reasons for the relative decline of
U.S. industry is the globalization of the economy, i.e. free mobility of capital. As in the UK,
U.S. companies are transferring their operations to lower wage/lower cost production sites
such as Mexico, Malaysia and elsewhere.

7
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics online, August 2008.

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 Fact file:
2007
Unemployment: 5.0%
National debt: $9.5 trillion
Average salary: $16.75 per hour
Average computer systems analysts’ annual salary: $75,890
Average teacher’s annual salary: elementary: $50,040; secondary: $52,450
Minimum wage: $6.55

Source: Internet

Test your knowledge

1. What transformations in the employment structure are now occurring in the U.S.A.?
2. Why do U.S. companies prefer to transfer their capital to other countries?

Glossary
annual – yearly (roczny)
average – mean (przeci tny)
cut – reduction (ci cie, zmniejszenie)
decline – fall (upadek, spadek)
mobility – movement (zmienno , ruchliwo )
national debt – debt owed by the federal government (d ug
publiczny, d ug pa stwa)
site – place (miejsce, siedziba)
unemployment – the percentage of people who cannot find
employment (bezrobocie)

2. Welfare
Historical outline

Until the third decade of the 20th century the U.S. did not have public welfare programs, such
as those which were developed in Europe in the late 19th century. In the 1930s, during the
administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Congress established many public
welfare programs including the Social Security Program, which ensured that retired people
had a small regular pension each month. Other welfare schemes included disability insurance,
public assistance to the needy, and child welfare.
However, half a century later, in the 1980s President Ronald Reagan claimed that too
much federal money was being spent on social welfare programs, which caused rising prices,
inflation and growing unemployment. President Reagan’s administration endeavored to
decrease the scope of the welfare programs. The next administration did little to improve the
welfare system. In recent years there has been a decrease in cash grants to the unemployed
and underemployed who do not qualify for unemployment insurance.

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 The debate on the aims and limits of the welfare system still continues in the United
States. The federal government finances nationwide programs of assistance for the elderly,
sick or disabled, such as Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Medicare and
Medicaid, Food Stamps Programs, etc. The most common form of welfare payment for poor
families with children is a program called Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC).

Test your knowledge

1. When were the first welfare programs established in the U.S. and what did they ensure?
2. What was the attitude of the Reagan administration to welfare?

Glossary

administration – the activity of a government or state in the exercise of its powers and duties
(administracja, sprawowanie w adzy)
assistance – (pomoc)
pension – a sum of money paid regularly as a retirement benefit (emerytura)
scope – range (zakres)
welfare – financial or other aid provided, especially by the government, to people in need
(opieka spo eczna)

Social security

Social security was created during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. It
is administered by the Social Security Administration.
Social security is a federal program which provides various benefits, the most
common being retirement insurance. It provides monthly payments to individuals who have
reached a retirement age (minimum 62 years) and have the required number of work credits,
based on the number of years they have worked. Social Security also provides disability
benefits to workers who have become severely disabled before age sixty-five. Survivors
insurance is another benefit provided by Social Security, providing payments to qualified
widows and children of workers who accumulated enough work credits under Social Security
before they died.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) provides a minimum income for aged, blind and
disabled people not eligible for regular Social Security benefits. No Social Security work
credits are needed to be eligible.
Food Stamps are available through the state Department of Public Aid. They enable
the elderly and the poor to increase their food purchasing power by supplementing cash
payments for groceries. Eligibility for food stamps is based on income and is determined by
the Department of Public Aid.
Senior Centers are community focal points where older persons come together for
services and activities which support their independence and encourage their involvement in
the community. Each center offers a variety of programs which may include education,
recreation, employment, health, nutrition and other supportive services.
It is interesting to note that a side effect of the Social Security program in the United
States has been the near-universal adaptation of the program’s identification number, the
Social Security number, as a form of unique identification in the U.S. A multitude of U.S.

131
institutions use the Social Security number as a personal identifier. These include government
agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, as well as private agencies such as banks,
creditors, health insurance companies, and employers.

Did you know that

there is no national identity card in the United States of America? Therefore,
a Social Security number is important because you need it to get a job, collect
Social Security benefits and receive some other government services. Many
other businesses, such as banks and credit companies, also ask for your Social
Security number.

Test your knowledge

1. What benefits does social security provide?
2. What is Supplemental Security Income?
3. Who is eligible for Food Stamps?

Glossary
benefit – a payment made or an entitlement available in accordance with a wage agreement,
an insurance policy, or a public assistance program ( wiadczenie, zasi ek)
eligibility – suitability (uprawnienia)
multitude – a large number (mnóstwo)
nutrition – provision of food (od ywianie si )
survivors insurance – a benefit to widow, widower or orphan of a deceased who was insured
(renta rodzinna )

Poverty

The poverty level is an official measure set by the federal government in order to
determine earned income sufficient for a decent standard of living. The poverty rate is the
proportion of the population whose income falls below the government’s official poverty
level, which is adjusted each year for inflation. Certain minority groups live well below the
poverty level. On average, blacks and Hispanics earn less than whites. Although America is a
very prosperous nation, there are some social, ethnic or racial groups which are
disadvantaged. In 1947, 33 per cent of Americans lived under the poverty line. In 1973 the
number was down to 11 per cent, the lowest in recent history, and in the 1980s it rose to
around 15 percent, but in 1999 it dropped to 11.8 percent and rose to 13% in 2002. The 2006
data showed that 12.3 percent of U.S. residents lived in poverty. In 2006, a family of four
with a yearly income of $20,614 or less was considered poor by American standards.8 These

8
U.S. Census Bureau News, August 28, 2007.

132
numbers cannot be directly compared with official figures in other countries, as each country
uses different measures.

Test your knowledge

1. What is the poverty level?
2. What percent of Americans lived under the poverty level in the 2006?

Glossary

disadvantaged – deprived (pokrzywdzony, upo ledzony)

minority group – a part of a population differing from others in some characteristics (grupa
mniejszo ciowa)
powerty level – (granica ubóstwa)
rate – a quantity measured with respect to another measured quantity (wska nik)

Health care

The United States has a mixed system of private and public health care. The great
majority of Americans pay some portion of their medical bills through insurance obtained at
work. Another form of health care plan available to many workers is the health maintenance
organization (HMO). Under the HMO plan a group of physicians provide all of a person’s
medical care for a set fee paid in advance.
Americans who cannot afford insurance get medical assistance through two
governmental health programs, Medicaid and Medicare, established in 1965.
Medicaid funds medical care for the poor. It is a federal-state matching program, in
which both the federal and state governments must contribute a specified percentage of total
expenditures. Medicaid was intended to ensure access to health care for low income
Americans. However, the expense of the program and the number of Americans served have
grown beyond original expectations. It has been established recently that Medicaid does not
work effectively; it is too costly and has been exploited illegally by some physicians.
Medicare is a federal program financed by the Social Security Administration,
providing a national system of retirement and other benefits. It is available to people aged 65
or older and is made up of two parts. Part A (Hospital Insurance) helps pay in-patient hospital
and follow-up costs, as well as skilled nursing facility expenses. Part A is free to Social
Security recipients. Part B (Medical Insurance) helps pay for doctor’s fees, out-patient
hospital expenses and in-home care costs. Part B is voluntary and has a yearly premium
charge. The federal government pays the rest of the cost.
About 45 million low-income Americans receive benefits under Medicaid and 40
million elderly and disabled people under Medicare.
The U.S. spends more per capita on health care than any other developed nation. Yet,
despite huge expenditure, health care does not provide adequate medical treatment for all
citizens. It is estimated that between 9 and 15 percent of the population have no health
insurance during at least part of the year. These are the short-term unemployed, families close
to the poverty level or those living in remote rural areas.

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 The present American system of health care has been strongly criticized because
hundreds of competing firms push up the administrative costs to 20 per cent. (The British
NHS, before restructuring, spent only 5% of its budget on administration.) The American
insurance companies have preferred to insure the young and fit and avoid the middle-aged
and sick; as a result they have left 37 million people uninsured and 20 million under-insured;
and they have helped push health care costs to 14 per cent of GDP and yet left America with
higher infant mortality and lower life expectancy than most developed countries.
About two-thirds of the population, i.e. some 170 million Americans, are covered by
employment-based health plans and over one-third benefit from occupational pensions.

Test your knowledge

1. What is Medicaid?
2. What is Medicare?
3. Why is the American system of health care criticized?

Glossary
expenditure – cost (wydatek, koszt, nak ad)
fit – physically and mentally sound or healthy (w dobrej kondycji fizycznej i psychicznej)
infant mortality – the death rate during the first year of life ( miertelno noworodków)
life expectancy –an expected time to live as calculated on the basis of
statistical probabilities( rednia d ugo ycia)
occupational pension – a pension paid to a former employee from a program set up by an
employer, not the state (emerytura z zak adowego funduszu emerytalnego)
(to) push up – to raise (podnosi )

Web sites:
www.bls.gov (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
www.socialsecurity.gov
www.usa.gov
www.factfinder.census.gov (American FactFinder)

Further Reading:

Beatty, Jack. Colossus: How the Corporation Changed America, 2001.

Brenner, Robert. The Boom and the Bubble: The US in the World Economy, 2003.
Galbraith, John, K. The Affluent Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Society 1984.
Harris, Seymour E., ed. American Economic History,1961.
Jansson, Bruce S. The Reluctant Welfare State: American Social Welfare Policies, Past,
Present, and Future, 2008.
Lewis, Daniel L. and Laurence Goldstein, eds. The Automobile and American Culture,
1980.

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Porter, Gleen, ed. Encyclopedia of American Economic History. New York: Scribner,
1980.
Sawinski, Diane M. United States Industry Profiles (Us Industry Profiles), 1998.
Stevenson, D.K., American Life And Institutions. Stuttgard: Ernst Klett Verlag, 1996.
Sultz, Harry A. Sultz, Kristina M. Young. Health Care USA: Understanding Its
Organization
and Delivery, 2008.
Walker, John, F. and Harold G.Vatter. History of US Economy Since World War II, 1995.

135
 MORE TESTS AND TASKS

TRUE OR FALSE
Carefully read each statement. If the statement is true according to information in the book,
write T after it, if it is false, write F. Try to give reasons why a statement is false.

1. The U.S. economy is the first largest economy in the world.

2. The U.S. economy is based mostly a system of state ownership.
3. The U.S. trade deficit is very small.
4. Corporations are the most characteristic forms of business activity in the U.S.
5. John D. Rockefeller developed automobile industry in the United States.
6. McDonald’s is no longer a U.S. company.
7. Self-employed people do not have to pay taxes in the United States.
8. J.P. Morgan & Chase is a major U.S. bank.
9. Texas and Oklahoma are centers of U.S. domestic oil production.
10. General Motors is the largest U.S. automobile manufacturer.

MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST

Circle the letter a), b) or c) with the correct answer.

1. The leading manufacturing state is …..

a) California b) Nevada c) New York

2. The third Industrial Revolution began in the ….. .

a) 1950s b) 1980s c) 1990s

3. The largest U.S. corporation in 2008 was ….

a) Ford Motor b) General Motors c) Wal-Mart Stores

4. The financial capital of the United States is …..

a) Washington, D.C. b) New York c) San Francisco

5. Automobiles are mostly manufactured in ….. area

a) Michigan b) Texas c) California

6. Silicon Valley is in ……….

a) Florida b) California c) New Mexico
7. Unemployment in the U.S. in 2008 was ….
a) a little less than 5 percent b) a little more than 5 percent c) 20 percent

8. The earliest possible retirement age in the United States is …. years.

a) 60 b) 62 c) 65

9. The United States has a system of ………. health care.

a) private b) public c) private and public

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 10. Medicare is a federal program that pays for certain health care expenses for people
aged …. or older.
a) 60 b) 62 c) 65

FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION

Prepare yourself for a class discussion on one of the following topics:
1. How fast can the U.S. economy grow in the 21st question?
2. The role of the United States in the global economy.

PROJECT
Prepare a presentation on one of the following topics:

1. The history of the U.S. automobile industry.

2. The U.S. welfare system.

EXPRESS YOUR OPINION:

Will the American dollar continue to decrease in value in the coming years? Give reasons.

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 Chapter Five

Science and Technology

An overview

Science and technology have always played an important role in the history of the United
States. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain in the 18th century, spread
to North America during the early 19th century.
From its early history as an independent nation, the United States has supported
science and invention. The United States Constitution gives Congress the power “to
promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors
and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”
The U.S. has always spent more on industrial research and development than any
other industrialized country and has also been the home of the most advanced market in the
world for consumer goods. In scientific and technological terms the 20th century was the
American century. The U.S. was the first country to begin the mass production of
automobiles and domestic appliances. The U.S. has also been a leader in aircraft
technology, telecommunications, information technology, laser and optical electronics,
digital electronics, and microwave electronics. Advances in the field of electronics have
played a key role in the development of American space technology and satellite
communications.
At the beginning of the 21st century science and technology are increasingly
viewed in America, and elsewhere, as important tools to promote the social, economic, and
political goals. The United States still remains the dominant leader in science and
technology worldwide. The U.S. invests 40 percent of the total world’s spending on
scientific research and development, employs 70 percent of the world’s Nobel Prize
winners and is home to three-quarters of the world’s top 40 universities.

Some of significant inventions made in the United States

1793 cotton gin Eli Whitney

1831 horse-drawn
mechanical reaper Cyrus McCormick
1844 telegraph Samuel Morse
1846 sewing machine Elias Howe
1852 elevator brake Elisha Otis
1867 typewriter Christopher Sholes
1868 railroad airbrake George Westinghouse
1873 barbed wire Joseph Glidden
1876 telephone Alexander G. Bell
1880 light bulb Thomas Edison
1889 dishwasher Mrs. W.A. Cockran
1899 vacuum cleaner John Thurman
1902 air conditioning Willis H. Carrier
1903 airplane Wright brothers
1906 cornflakes William Kellogg

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1908 Model T automobile Henry Ford
1910 talking motion picture Thomas Edison
1923 traffic signal Garrett A. Morgan
1937 photocopier Chester F. Carlson
1938 nylon a team of researchers at E.I. du Pont de
Nemours
& Company
1939 helicopter Russian-born Igor Sikorsky
1946 microwave oven Percy Spencer
1947 transistor John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and Wiliam
Shockley
1950 credit card (Diners) Ralph Schneider
1958 integrated circuit Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce
1960 laser Theodore H. Maiman
1965 compact disc James Russell.
1970 floppy disc Alan Shugart
1971 microprocessor Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, and Stan Mazor
1981 a personal computer using
DOS - Disk Operating System IBM
1985 Windows program Microsoft

Glossary
airbrake – a brake operated by a piston driven by compressed air (hamulec pneumatyczny)
air conditioning – a system for controlling the temperature and humidity of the air in a
building (klimatyzacja)
barbed wire – twisted wires armed with barbs or sharp points (drut kolczasty)
cotton gin – a machine that separates the seeds from raw cotton fibers (odziarniarka
bawe ny)
floppy disc – diskette (dyskietka)
integrated circuit – a tiny complex of electronic components and their connections that is
produced in or on a small slice of material, such as silicon (uk ad scalony)
microwave oven – a kitchen appliance that cooks food by passing an electromagnetic wave
through it (kuchenka mikrofalowa)
reaper – a farm machine that gathers a food crop from the fields; a harvester ( niwiarka)
sewing machine – a textile machine used as a home appliance for sewing (maszyna do
szycia)

Brain drain
After the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, a number of outstanding scientists,
many of them of Jewish descent, emigrated to the United States. This process of
emigration of scientists and highly-skilled specialists was later called brain drain.
One of the most famous was Albert Einstein, who had developed his famous
special theory of relativity. Einstein was the guest of the Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, California, and next, until his death in 1955, of the Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton, New Jersey.

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 On August 2, 1939, Einstein and three other emigrant scientists wrote a letter to
President Franklin D. Roosevelt informing him that scientists in Nazi Germany were
working on the use of uranium to produce nuclear weapons. Roosevelt responded quickly
by setting up a scientific advisory committee to investigate the matter. He also had talks
with the British government about ways of sabotaging the German efforts to produce
nuclear weapons. Three years later, in 1942, the United States started its own research that
would produce an operational atomic bomb.
Born in America, Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) is known as “the father of the
atomic bomb”. During World War II he was the director of the Manhattan Project, whose
goal was to develop the first nuclear weapons at the secret Los Alamos National
Laboratory in New Mexico.

The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was the largest military-civilian program undertaken in World War
II, and its goal was the building of an atomic bomb. In 1942, a team of scientists, including
the physicist Enrico Fermi, made nuclear experiments and obtained the first controlled
energy release from the nucleus of the atom. On September 23, 1942, an ultra-secret
project, later called the Manhattan Project, was begun. The location for the laboratory was
chosen in the area near Los Alamos, New Mexico. Oppenheimer, the Project research
director, selected outstanding scientists and engineers from various universities and invited
them to work in Los Alamos. At the end of the war their number reached 5,000. The
scientists working on the Manhattan Project finally developed atom bombs using uranium
and plutonium. The first three bombs were successfully tested at Alamogordo, New
Mexico on July 16, 1945. The laboratory produced two atomic bombs, “Little Boy” and
“Fat Man”, which were used in the nuclear attacks of two Japanese cities on August 6 and
9, 1945, killing 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki.

Test your knowledge

1. How does the U.S. Constitution support science and creativity?
2. In what areas of technology is the U.S. a leader?
3. What was the goal of the Manhattan Project?

Glossary
advisory committee – a group that advises (komisja konsultatywna)
brain drain – depletion of the intellectual or professional resources of a country through
emigration (drena mózgów)
goal – object, aim (cel)
(to) investigate) – to search into; to inquire into (bada )
release – setting free (uwolnienie)
theory of relativity – the theory that space and time are relative concepts rather than
absolute
concepts (teoria wzgl dno ci)

Major American inventors

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), a printer, statesman, scientist, philosopher and

inventor, has become a widely respected symbol of American ingenuity and industry.

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While some of Franklin’s inventions are now little known, many, such as the lightning rod,
bi-focal glasses, the Franklin stove, along with his common-sense aphorisms, are still in
use today. Franklin conducted research on static electricity. His theory that electricity is a
fluid may have been misguided, but other ideas were on the right track: for example, he
proposed that all matter was made up of electric particles, and he suspected that lightning
is electric in nature. Like Thomas Jefferson and many other Founding Fathers of the
United States, Franklin was also an educational reformer.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), the third President of the United States, was an
accomplished politician, philosopher, educational reformer, scientist, scholar, attorney, and
horticulturist. He is perhaps most famous for his role as one of America’s Founding
Fathers, but he was also an inventor. In the course of his work, he invented several
practical objects, among them the swivel chair and a copying device. He also introduced
various types of rice, olive trees and grasses into the New World.
Robert Fulton (1765–1815) is the inventor of the steamboat. By using America’s
interior waterways and improving transportation, Fulton’s steamboats, introduced in 1807,
provided the first commercially successful steamboat service in America and had a
powerful impact on trade, industry and western settlement.
Eli Whitney (1765–1825) invented the cotton gin in 1793, which completely
changed agriculture in the South. By automatically separating the seeds from cotton fibers,
the cotton gin greatly reduced the time and labor needed to process cotton.
Samuel F. Morse (1791–1872) invented a magnetic telegraph based on Hans
Christian Oersted’s discovery in 1820 of the relationship between electricity and
magnetism. In 1844 he sent the telegraph message “What hath God wrought?” from
Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. The ability to communicate instantly over long
distances announced the beginning of an information revolution. The first public telegraph
office opened in Washington, DC, in 1845. America’s first transcontinental telegraph was
built in 1861.
Elias Howe (1819–1867) and Isaac Merritt Singer (1811–1875) invented a
continuous-stitch sewing machine. Howe’s machine was difficult to use because the
operator had to frequently re-pin the cloth vertically onto a short plate. Singer’s model,
with its flat working surface and continuous operation, was easier to operate than Howe’s
and soon it was produced on a mass scale.
Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) demonstrated the telephone at the 1876
Centennial Exposition. For most viewers, witnessing the instant transmission of voice was
an amazing and futuristic experience. However, few spectators fully realized how Bell’s
invention would revolutionize world communications. Most people scoffed at the idea of a
telephone in every home, and even Bell viewed his invention primarily as an office tool.
Thomas Edison (1847–1931) was one of the most prolific inventors of the late
19th century. He did not do well in school partly because of his increasing deafness, and he
attended school only for fewer than four years. He was largely self taught beginning with
the lessons his mother taught him at home.
By the time he was ten years old, Edison spent much of his time doing chemical
experiments and selling vegetables and newspapers. During the Civil War and later, from
1863-1868, he became a telegraph operator in various parts of the United States. During
that time he became interested in electricity. He established his research and development
laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where he made his greatest inventions.
His most important achievements include the invention of the first commercially
practical incandescent lamp (1880) and the development of the world’s first central electric

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light-power station which was installed on Pearl Street in New York City in 1882. Its
steam-driven generators of 900 horsepower provided enough power for 7,200 lamps. The
success of this station led to the construction of many other central stations. Soon Edison
founded the Edison Electric Light Company (1878), which eventually merged with other
companies into the General Electric Company (1892), one of the largest U.S.
manufacturers. Edison also invented the phonograph and the movie projector. His other
inventions include the alkaline storage battery, a magnetic process to separate iron ore, and
the carbon microphone. Edison patented over 1,000 inventions.
In 1896 Wilbur Wright (1867–1912) together with his brother Orville (1871–
1948) began to discuss the subject of man’s flying. Wilbur built a five-foot model biplane
in 1899, which he flew like a kite. This led to a full-scale glider in 1900, which the
brothers tested at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. A second glider followed two years later.
Based on the experience of thousands of glider runs and experiments in a homemade wind
tunnel, the brothers compiled new, more accurate data on the effects of wing design on lift,
air drag, and center of pressure. Using a system of rudders and wing deformation, they
created a balanced aircraft that could be controlled by the pilot on all three axes of rotation.
In practical terms, it was the first airplane that could safely and predictably move up or
down, left or right. The only thing left to do was to add an engine.
On December 17, 1903, after waiting nearly three months for suitable weather, the
Wright brothers were ready to test their first powered aircraft. The first flight, with Orville
as pilot, traveled 36 meters in twelve seconds. Later, Wilbur extended the flight time to
fifty-nine seconds before a gust of wind flipped the aircraft and made it inoperable.

Did you know that …

1. the first U.S. coast-to-coast telephone line was established in 1914?

2. Ford Motor Company paid its auto workers $5 per day in 1914?
3. 150 residences in New York City got the first televisions as early as 1936?
4. a Boeing 767 airliner is made of 3,100,000 separate parts?
5. VHS stands for Video Home System?
6. the United States has 5,400 public airports?

Test your knowledge

1. What was Franklin’s hypothesis about lightning?
2. Whose invention improved water transportation?
3. List Edison’s major inventions.
4. Who was the pilot of the first aircraft in air?

Glossary
air drag – air resistance (opór powietrza)
alkaline storage battery – a storage battery in which the electrolyte consists of an alkaline
solution, usually potassium hydroxide. (akumulator zasadowy)
axis (pl axes) of rotation – an imaginary line perpendicular to the plane of rotation and
passing through the centre of rotation about which a given system rotates (o obrotu)
biplane – an airplane having two pairs of wings fixed at different levels, especially one
above

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 and one below the fuselage (dwup atowiec)
carbon microphone – a microphone whose operation depends on pressure variation in
carbon granules causing a change in resistance (mikrofon w glowy)
(to) flip – to turn over (wywróci )
glider – a light engineless aircraft (szybowiec)
gust of wind – a strong rush of wind (podmuch wiatru)
incandescent lamp – an electric lamp in which a filament is heated to incandescence by an
electric current ( arówka, lampa arowa)
kite – a light framework covered with cloth, plastic, or paper, designed to be flown in the
wind at the end of a long string (latawiec)
lightning rod – a grounded metal rod placed high on a structure to prevent damage by
conducting lightning to the ground (piorunochron)
swivel chair – a chair that swivels on its base (fotel obrotowy)
stitch – a single loop of yarn around an implement such as a knitting needle (szew)
wind tunnel – a chamber through which air is forced at controlled velocities (tunel
aerodynamiczny)

U.S. space program

Space exploration was begun in 1957 by the launch of the Soviet Sputnik 1 on
October 4, 1957. It was also the beginning of the Space Race between the United States
and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. On July 29, 1958, the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) was established. It was responsible for developing the
American space program. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced some details of
the American space exploration program. The President said that U.S. astronauts would
land on the moon within the next ten years. The U.S. space program included the Projects:
Mercury, Gemini and Project Apollo (advanced space travel and manned moon landing
missions).
On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, Edwin
Aldrin was the second. They were members of Apollo 11, and landed in the Sea of
Tranquility. The Lunar Excursion Module was named the “Eagle”.

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
Neil Armstrong’s comment upon stepping onto the moon.

NASA launched a number of spacecraft to other planets. In the 1970s and 1980s
NASA built and operated several spaces shuttles, such as Columbia, Challenger,
Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch in
1986.

The Apollo 11 plaque left on the Moon says, Here men

from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July
1969, A.D. / WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND.

143
Test your knowledge
1. What was the Space Race?
2. What does the abbreviation NASA stand for?
3. What famous words did Neil Armstrong say when he walked on the moon?

Glossary
(to) disintegrate – to become reduced to components, fragments (rozpa si )
Gemini – a constellation in the Northern Hemisphere containing the stars Castor and
Pollux;
Twins. (Bli ni ta)
(to) launch – to send forth with some force (wystrzeli )
shuttle – a manned, airplanelike spacecraft designed for transporting humans and cargo to
and from orbit around Earth (wahad owiec)

Information Technology

Information technology (IT) is the result of a convergence between modern digital

computing and communication technologies. The importance of IT is as the core of an
‘Information System’ which consists of a series of interactions between people, data,
hardware and software, organizations and their social environment.
The computer and Internet industries are the biggest and most profitable in the
United States. In 1946, John W. Mauchly, a physicist at the Moore School of Engineering
of the University of Pennsylvania, and John P. Eckert, Jr., built a computer called ENIAC
(Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator). Although ENIAC was not the first
computer invented, it opened the door for everything that would follow. Weighing over 30
tons with 18,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 relays and hundreds of thousands of resistors,
capacitors and inductors, ENIAC was the first multipurpose computer developed in the
1940s. It could add 5,000 numbers or do fourteen ten-digit multiplications in a second.
While this is slow by modern standards it was incredible sixty years ago. Another
multipurpose computer, UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was developed in
1951.
When the era of computers began in the 1950s, they were used primarily in
academic and industrial research to perform calculations that were impractical or
impossible to do manually. In 1964, the IBM Company introduced an enormously
successful family of computers called System/360. The invention of the integrated circuit
led to the development of relatively inexpensive minicomputers which could be installed
almost anywhere.
In 1969, M. E. Hoff, Jr., an engineer at the Intel Corporation from Silicon Valley,
California, invented the microprocessor. This invention started a significant stage in the
development of personal computers. The first widely used personal computer (PC) was
introduced in 1975. The development of personal computers has contributed significantly
to the technological revolution of the 1980s and 1990s.
Microsoft, founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975, has been selling
computer software to millions of individual users. In the late 1980s, Microsoft introduced
Microsoft Office, a set of interrelated desktop applications, servers and services for the
Microsoft Windows operating system, extending easy-to-use features to practically all
desktop computing applications. By 1995 the Windows system was installed on the

144
majority of personal computers in the U.S. and abroad. In 2001, Microsoft released
Windows XP, the first version that included the features of both its business and home
products. XP introduced a new graphical user interface, the first such change since
Windows 95.

Bill Gates
Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, on October 28, 1955. He was educated at
Lakeside School in Seattle, where he was very good at mathematics. His IQ test was over
160. While still at school Bill became interested in computers, and together with another
young computer enthusiast, Paul Allen they set up their first computer company.
Computers in the early 1970s were large, slow and expensive. Few people knew how to
use them. However, Gates and Allen, were among those who believed that computers
would become the most popular technology of the future.
Bill attended Harvard University for a short time to study law. After giving up
university, he devoted himself to developing computer technology. In 1975 Gates and
Allen founded the Microsoft Corp., a computer software firm. In 1980 they created the
operating system for the personal computers being developed by International Business
Machines (IBM). That system, MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), and
subsequent programs (including the Windows operating systems) made Microsoft the
world’s largest and most successful producer of software for microcomputers.
Gates is now the wealthiest person in the world, and a 21st-century philanthropist in
the grand American style. In 2000, he and his wife formed the largest charitable foundation
in the world. He has spent almost a third of his total income on this foundation which
supports initiatives in education and world health.

The dynamic growth of the Internet has become the most important development in
computer industry, communication, education, etc. The spread of the Internet has
revolutionized the computer and communications. The Internet allows for unprecedented
information dissemination world-wide. It is also an effective medium for collaboration and
interaction between individuals and their computers without regard to geographic location.
The World Wide Web, developed in America, has changed the way people
communicate (e-mail), spend money (online stores) and do business (e-commerce).
The Internet grew out of the pioneering development in computer networking in the
late 1960s and early 1970s. It began as ARPAnet, developed by the U.S. Defense. The
1990s saw the rise of the Internet for commercial, scientific and private applications.
Initially, it was variously described as the Information Highway, the Net, the Matrix, or the
Web), mostly due to the establishment of the World Wide Web (WWW). The Web was
designed in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, who worked in Geneva, Switzerland. Later Marc
Andreessen developed a simple point-and-click system called Mosaic that subsequently
evolved into the Netscape Web browser, which made possible for millions of users to
easily navigate through the Internet.

Test your knowledge

1. What was ENIAC?

2. What was the significance of the invention of the microprocessor?
3. Why has Windows become Microsoft’s most successful operating system?
4. What was the origin of the Internet?

145
 Glossary
capacitor – a device consisting of two or more conducting plates separated from one
another
by a dielectric nonconductor, used for storing an electric charge; condenser
(kondensator)
codebase – code written by a programmer in a high-level language and readable by people
but not computers (baza kodu)
computer network – an interconnected group of computers (sie komputerowa)
convergence – union (konwergencja, czenie si )
core – the central or innermost part (rdze , j dro)
e-commerce – commerce that is transacted electronically, as over the Internet (handel
elektroniczny; e-handel)
relay – a device that responds to a small current or voltage change by activating switches
or other devices in an electric circuit (przeka nik)
user interface – a program that controls that allows the user to interact with the system
(interfejs u ytkownika)
vacuum tube – an electron tube from which all or most of the gas has been removed,
permitting electrons to move with low interaction with any remaining gas molecules.
(lampa pró niowa, lampa elekronowa)

Useful web sites

www.sciencenetlinks.com
www.usinfo.pl

Further reading
Baldwin, Neil. Edison: Inventing the Century, 1995.
Brush, Stephen G. The History of Modern Science: A Guide to the Second Scientific
Revolution, 1800–1950, 1988.
Cohen, H. Floris. The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry, 1994.
Cortada, J. The Computer in the United States. New York: ME Sharpe, 1993.
Elliot, Clark A. History of Science in the United States: A Chronology and Research Guide,
1996.
Israel, Paul. Edison, A Life of Invention , 1998.
Marcus, A. I., and H. P. Segal. Technology in America: A Brief History, 1989.
Pugh, Emerson W. Building IBM. Shaping an Industry and its Technology, 1995.
Pursell, C. W., Jr., (ed.). Technology in America. A History of Individuals and Ideas, 1990.
Seidel, Robert W. Los Alamos and the Development of the Atomic Bomb, 1995.

146
 MORE TESTS AND TASKS

TRUE OR FALSE
Carefully read each statement. If the statement is true according to information in the book,
write T after it, if it is false, write F. Try to give reasons why a statement is false.

1. Benjamin Franklin lived in the 19th century.

2. George Washington invented a swivel chair and a copying device.
3. Robert Fulton invented a motor boat.
4. Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, which reduced the time and labor to process
cotton.
5. The first public telegraph was opened in America in 1845.
6. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telegraph.
7. ENIAC was the first computer.
8. System/360 computers were introduced by IMB.
9. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on Mars.
10. Bill Gates never studied at university.

MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST

Complete the sentences below, choosing one of three possibilities: a, b, or c.

1. The telephone was invented by …..

a) Alexander Graham Bell b) Benjamin Franklin c) Thomas Edison

2. The airplane was invented by

a) Wilbur Wright b) Orville Wright c) Wilbur and Orville Wright

3. Elias Howe and Isaac Merritt Singer invented a ……….

a) sewing machine b) singing machine c) radio

4. Thomas Edison patented about …… inventions.

a) 100 b) 500 c) 1,000

5. The microprocessor was invented by

a) Bill Gates b) M. E. Hoff c) Samuel Morse

6. Discovery, Challenger, and Columbia are the names of American

a) satellites b) space missions c) space shuttles

7. The personal computer (PC) was introduced in ….

a) 1945 b) 1975 c) 1985

8. The Microsoft Company was established in …..

a) 1965 b) 1975 c) 1985

9. The Internet has become a worldwide accessible communication tool since the ……

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 a) 1960s b) 1980s c) 1990s

10. Marc Andreessen contributed significantly to the development of ……….

a) Netscape Web browser b) personal computers c) Internet games

FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION

Prepare yourself for a class discussion on one of the following topics:

1. America’s contribution to the development of science and technology.

2. The importance of science and technology for the welfare of society.

PROJECT
Prepare a presentation on one of the following topics:
1. Space exploration.
2. The origin and development of the Internet.

DEBATE
How far do you agree with this statement?

The United States has been able to maintain its worldwide leadership in science and
technology because of a continuous inflow of foreign scientists and engineers.

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 Chapter Six

Education
Historical Outline

Americans have always put a great emphasis on education. In the 17th century, free public
schools were opened in a number of new settlements. Local legislation required that all
communities should hire a schoolmaster to teach children reading, writing, arithmetic and
religion. Large towns were required to establish grammar schools. Soon the first colleges
were established: Harvard College in 1636; the College of William and Mary in
Williamsburg in 1693; Yale in 1701. In 1789 the University of North Carolina, founded at
Chapel Hill, became the first U.S. state university.
Since the early 19th century, the United States has led the world in the proportion
of its population completing elementary, secondary and tertiary education. In 1825,
England still had only universities at Oxford and Cambridge, while the U.S. already had
over fifty colleges for a smaller population. The state of Massachusetts, under the direction
of Secretary of Education, Horace Mann (1796–1859) introduced many changes in public
education that later became models for public schools all over the country. State
legislatures became more aware of the need for efficient public education. Mann believed
that public education was the key to the nation’s progress. By 1850 every state had
developed a system of free public schools paid for by public taxes. In 1862, Congress
passed an act which allowed the grant of public land to states as the sites for educational
institutions, particularly those teaching agriculture and mechanics. In consequence,
vocational and technical education grew more rapidly than traditional liberal arts
education. By the end of the Civil War in 1865 education had become available to all white
children.
Although some blacks were able to attend college before 1850, most colleges for
black people were started after the Civil War. In order to make sure every child received an
education, including immigrants and blacks, the federal government began to subsidize
schools in the late 1800s, creating the public school system. However, due to racial
segregation upheld by the decision of the Supreme Court in 1896 under the doctrine of
“separate but equal”, African American students could not go to school or college together
with white students. In 1954, the Supreme Court, in Brown versus Board of Education of
Topeka, Kansas, ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The
desegregation of American schools was the result of more than half a century of struggle
by the black community.

An Overview

The United States does not have a national system of education like Poland, for example.
The educational system in the U.S.A. is based on a strong tradition of local control. It is
considered to be a matter for the people of each state to decide what criteria of education
they wish to adopt. In consequence, the U.S. education system is highly decentralized and
diversified. Each state has its own laws regulating education. The compulsory age of
education may vary from state to state, but typically begins at age five or six and ends at

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age sixteen. The United States spends proportionally much more money on public
education than any European nation.
Education system in the United States consists of three basic levels: elementary,
secondary and higher education. Additionally, states carry out vocational training programs
or adult education. There are state-supported (public) and private schools. The latter are
usually run by churches, and religious instruction is an obligatory part of their curriculum.
Religious instruction is not provided in public schools. However, the curricula in both
types of schools are similar. The vast majority of students go to public schools. There are
also “charter schools,” which are publicly funded but privately administered. Some private
schools called preparatory schools, or prep schools, prepare students for admission to
highly selective colleges.
Public education is supervised within each state by a State Board of Education.
General requirements established by the State Board of Education are implemented by
school districts. The State Board of Education determines educational policy, particularly
allocation of school funds, certification of teachers, textbooks and library services. The
superintendent of public instruction supervises the state school system and implements
policies adopted by the State Board of Education. There are some 16,000 school districts in
the United States run by citizens elected to boards. The boards are responsible for the
collection of taxes, construction of new schools, employment of teachers and school
administration. The U.S. Department of Education oversees the structure of education
within the United States.
The school year usually starts in early September and ends in mid-May. The
common pattern of elementary and secondary instruction is referred to as the 6-3-3 plan. It
includes elementary education in grades one to six, junior high school in grades seven to
nine and senior high school in grades ten to twelve. In some areas, the old system of eight
grades of elementary school and four grades of secondary school (8-4) is continued. A
third plan of schooling involves six grades of elementary school followed by two years of
middle or junior high school and four years of senior high school (6-2-4).
The American system of education is based on the idea that as many people as
possible should have access to as much education as possible. This idea is based on the
principle of equal opportunities. However, admission to highly competitive universities,
such as Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley or Yale, is restricted to the most academically able.

One of the most important issues in American education is now curriculum reform.
Americans realized that there had been an alarming decline of educational efficiency in
many public elementary and high schools due to the lack of qualified teachers, changes in
curricula and lowering of educational standards, e.g. there were reports about students who
were graduated from high schools although they were functionally illiterate and could not
read and write well enough to complete an application for employment.9
Growing functional and cultural illiteracy is becoming a problem in the U.S. The
2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy by the National Center for Education
Statistics revealed that 29% of the American population has only basic literacy skills, and
14% has below-basic skills.10 As Bill Gates has said, “our high schools – even when
they’re working exactly as designed – cannot teach our kids what they need to know
today.”11 Recent surveys indicate that America has one of the highest dropout rates in the

9 ”Illiteracy Global Facts”, http//www.Rehydrate.org/facto/global_illiteracy.com.

10 Source: USA Today online edition, March 26, 2007.
11 Michael Smith, “Public Education Isn’t Preparing Teens.” Washington Times, March 21, 2005.

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industrialized world. Only 70 percent of U.S. high school students graduate with a
diploma. African American and Latino students are significantly less likely to graduate
than white students. American 15 year olds rank 28th out of 40 countries in mathematics
and 19th out of 40 countries in science. Almost 30 percent of students in their first year of
college are forced to take remedial science and math classes because they are not prepared.
Although it is not a federal responsibility, education was an issue in the 2008
presidential campaign. The Presidential candidate, Barak Obama, expressed a dramatic
opinion about the present state of American education: “I don’t want to send another
generation of American children to failing schools. I don’t want that future for my
daughters. I don’t want that future for your sons. I do not want that future for America.”12
The deterioration of educational performance in the last few decades was
accompanied by growing school violence. Each year 3 million young people in the United
States fall victim to crimes at school. Almost 2 million of these incidents involve violence.
Elementary school teachers say they are seeing more violence and aggression than ever
even among their youngest students, pointing to what they see as an alarming rise in
assaults and threats to classmates and teachers. The tragedy at Columbine High School in
Colorado in April 1999, where two teenage students shot dead twelve schoolmates and a
teacher before committing suicide, has been the worst tragedy of its kind in the history of
American public schools.

Test your knowledge

1. When were the first free public schools opened in America?
2. What was the contribution of Horace Mann to the development of public education
in the U.S.?
3. What is the structure of the education system in the U.S.?
4. What is cultural illiteracy?
5. What happened at Columbine High School in April 1999?

Glossary
admission – the right, ability or permission to enter a place or institution; entry (przyj cie)
adult education – (kszta cenie doros ych)
allocation – distribution of funds or resources (przydzia , alokowanie, dotacja)
assault – an act which puts someone in fear of immediate unlawful harm/violence (napad)
board of education – an elected or appointed body at the local or state level that supervises
a given school system or systems (ministerstwo o wiaty; kuratorium o wiaty; komitet
szkolny)
cultural illiteracy – (analfabetyzm kulturalny – dotyczy osób, które umiej czyta , ale nie
zdolne zinterpretowa tre ci, które czytaj )
curriculum – all the courses of study offered by an educational institution (program
nauczania)
dropout rate – a percentage of persons who have not finished school or a course of study
(wska nik nieuko czenia szko y)
educational performance – educational efficiency (efektywno nauczania)
functional illiteracy – inability of an individual to use reading, writing, and computational

12 Barack Obama, Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, Des Moines, Iowa, November 10, 2007;
www.barackobama.com/issues/education/.

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skills efficiently in everyday life situations (analfabetyzm funkcjonalny dotyczy osób
niezdolnych do czytania i pisania s ów, które s w powszechnym u ytku oraz do
wykonywania oblicze w sytuacjach codziennych)
liberal arts – studies intended to provide general knowledge and
intellectual skills rather than vocational; humanities (nauki humanistyczne)
schoolmate – a pupil who goes to the same school (kolega szkolny, kole anka szkolna)
school violence – interpersonal violence: between students or by students toward their
teachers (przemoc w szkole)
Secretary of Education – head of the Department of Education (minister edukacji)
superintendent of public instruction – a chief school administrator (kurator o wiaty)
tertiary education – post-secondary education (wy sze wykszta cenie)
vocational education – training for a specific occupation in industry, agriculture or trade
(wykszta cenie zawodowe)

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Table 1. Diagram of the education system in the U.S.A.

Pre-school education
Introduction to formal education usually begins in kindergarten classes which are
available in most public school systems. Children begin instruction at the age of four or
five. The preschool program emphasizes the development of a child’s self-reliance and
community integration. Attempts are made to integrate children with varying abilities and
back-grounds into one educational system which gives equal opportunities to all. Programs
in pre-school classes are very flexible and adapted to local requirements. Children learn a
number of basic skills which will be useful when they go to school. For example, they
learn the letters of the alphabet, basic colors, shapes, etc.

Elementary education
Elementary school lasts between six and eight years. It targets the general
intellectual and social development of children from six to twelve or fourteen years of age.
Children are taught the basic skills, sometimes humorously referred to as the Three R’s:
Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Pupils who do not do well may have to repeat classes or
receive special tutoring. The emphasis is on co-operation rather than competition
throughout elementary school. In many schools children who have failed courses can make
them up during summer classes. Children who are slow learners are often allowed to go on
to the next grade. The subjects include English, mathematics, science (the basics of
chemistry, physics, and biology), social studies (geography, history, sociology and civics,
i.e. knowledge about the workings of federal state, and local governments), music, and
physical education (called gym). A foreign language is often introduced towards the end of
elementary school or in middle/junior high school.
A broad program of extracurricular activities is also offered by most schools. There
is a policy, which is not very popular with some parents, known as busing, which ensures
that public schools are racially mixed by transferring pupils to neighboring schools by bus.
Officially, authorities explain that this is mainly done to evenly regulate enrollment
numbers and not for racial mix. Most schools start at around eight o’clock every morning
except Saturdays and Sundays and finish at three or four o’clock.

Test your knowledge

1. When does pre-school education start?
2. What skills are taught in pre-school education?
3. What is the main feature of elementary education?
4. What subjects are taught in elementary school?

Glossary
busing – the transportation of schoolchildren by bus to
schools outside their neighborhoods, especially as a
means of achieving racial integration (dowo enie
uczniów autobusami do szkó w odleg ych dzielnicach w
celu osi gni cia integracji rasowej w szkolnictwie)
civics – a social science dealing with the rights and duties
of citizens (wychowanie obywatelskie)
enrollment – the body of students who are registered or

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 enrolled at university or college (rejestracja)
extracurricular activities – activities which are outside the
regular curriculum of a school or college but under the
supervision of school or college (zaj cia
nadobowi zkowe, pozaszkolne)
kindergarten – a form of education for four-year-old to
five-year-old children that serves as an introduction to
school (przedszkole)
slow learner – a person who wants to learn, but he/she is
slow (ucze z trudno ciami w uczeniu si )
science – (nauki cis e, przyrodnicze)
skills – abilities (umiej tno ci)
social studies – a study including geography, history,
government, and sociology, taught in secondary and
elementary schools (nauka o spo ecze stwie)
tutoring – (korepetycje; dodatkowe zaj cia lekcyjne)

Secondary education

Nearly all Americans who receive secondary education do so in one of the nation’s
more than 36,000 public and private high schools. In the 2007, most high-school students
(grades nine to twelve) were enrolled in public secondary education, with about 10 percent
enrolled in private high schools.
From the age of about twelve to fourteen pupils enter secondary education. They
may attend a six-year high school which is sometimes divided into junior high and senior
high. Some students who have completed the eighth grade in elementary or middle school
continue their education in a four-year high school. In high school pupils do not specialize
in any particular field, and they take classes in all kinds of subjects. Courses include
English, science, social studies, mathematics and physical education.
Elective (optional) subjects include foreign languages, advanced English literature,
composition or social sciences, arts, or vocational training in such fields as agriculture,
business, home economics, child care and care of the sick. Students interested in business
or industry may take typing, shorthand, bookkeeping, business machines.
Students who want to attend college or university choose courses with a special
emphasis within their interests, e.g. science courses (biology, chemistry or physics), more
advanced mathematics (algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus), foreign languages.
Students are usually graded from A (excellent) to F (fail) in each course. High
school students are also involved in many extracurricular activities such as orchestras,
bands, choirs, drama groups, debating clubs, computer clubs, flying, swimming, diving and
many sports activities. Students receive report cards at least twice a year which indicate
their progress in their studies. On completing high school students receive a diploma which
does not, however, entitle them to enter a university. The U.S. education system has no
equivalent of Polish matura examination.
There are two widely used and nationally-administered standardized tests for high
school students who wish to attend a college or university: SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test)
and ACT (American College Testing). Both tests can be taken at specific dates and

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locations throughout the United States. The SAT, which has sections on English language
skills and mathematics, is taken by approximately 40 percent of high school graduates. The
ACT, composed of a series of tests in English, mathematics, reading, and science, is taken
by approximately 35 percent of high school graduates. Though widely applied, both tests
have been strongly criticized for their lack of connection to any school curriculum. As a
matter of fact, neither test measures what students have learnt at school, but instead they
attempt to test academic aptitude in general. A school transcript is usually given to students
to apply for admission to colleges or universities. It summarizes the courses taken and
grades obtained in high school and must be scrutinized by the admissions committee of the
prospective college.

Did you know that

1. 100% of American public schools had access to the Internet by 2003?
2. over 55 million American children are enrolled in primary or secondary education?
3. 85% of students graduate from high school?
4. 29% of Americans over 18 years old have a Bachelor’s degree?
5. nearly three out of four American high school graduates go to college or
university?

Test your knowledge

1. What is the structure of secondary education?
2. What courses are taught in high school?
3. What grades do high school students receive?
4. What extracurricular activities can high school students pursue?
5. What are SAT and ACT?

Glossary
admissions committee – recruitment committee (komisja rekrutacyjna)
aptitude – natural or acquired talent or ability (uzdonienia, zdolno ci)
course – education passed on in a series of lessons or class meetings (kurs)
excellent (E) – the highest grade in school (stopie celuj cy)
fail (F) – the insufficient grade (stopie niedostateczny)
home economics – the science and art of home management (wiedza o
gospodarstwie domowym)
junior high school – a lower secondary school; a school in the U.S. system
generally including the seventh, eighth, and sometimes ninth grades
(ni sza szko a rednia; gimnazjum)
middle school – a school at a level between elementary and high school,
typically including grades five through eight (ni sza szko a rednia;
gimnazjum)
school transript – (wykaz ocen szkolnych wraz ze skal ocen; wiadectwo
szkolne)
(to) scrutinize – to examine with great care (bada szczegó owo; ocenia )
senior high school – a public secondary school usually including grades 9
through 12 (wy sza szko a rednia; liceum)

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Higher education

The United States has the largest and most diverse post-secondary education system
in the world. Higher education in the United States admits students who have undertaken
twelve years of instruction in both elementary and high schools. The American system of
higher education is highly competitive and selective. Each university or college sets its
own admission standards and it is not easy to enroll in a recognized graduate program.
Admission to law or medical schools has always been selective.
U.S. institutions of higher education include two-year colleges (known as
community or junior colleges), four-year colleges, universities, institutes of technology,
vocational and technical schools, and professional schools such as law and medical
schools. Higher education is available in public (government support) and private (no
government support) institutions, schools affiliated with religious groups, and profit-
making establishments – truly a wide variety. Size varies too. Some excellent colleges
enroll fewer than a thousand students;
some large universities enroll 50,000 or more students.
By 1900 there were over 1,000 institutions of higher education in the U.S.A.,
including law and medical schools. Oberlin College, Ohio, was the first to admit women
on an equal basis with men in 1837. During the 20th century the United States greatly
expanded the number of the institutions of higher learning. In 2005 there were 4,140 two-
year and four-year colleges and universities serving approximately 17 million students.13
The most famous universities include the so-called “Ivy League”, a group of eight
long-established and distinguished colleges and universities in the Northeast, such as
Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island), Columbia University (New York), Cornell
University (Ithaca, New York), Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire), Harvard
University (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Princeton University (Princeton, New Jersey),
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut).
Other famous universities include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge,
Massachusetts), the University of California in nine various campuses around the state,
Stanford University in California, Boston University, University of Texas in eight
campuses around the state, Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.), and the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
An American college usually offers a combination of natural and social sciences
and humanistic studies. Students follow a course for approximately four years in order to
receive
a bachelor’s degree in arts or science. A university offers undergraduate programs and also
graduate programs in arts or science. An American university may contain several colleges
for undergraduate students and one or more graduate schools. The early American
universities were modeled upon the English system. However, the U.S. developed the idea
of state university which allowed greater liberty in the choice of studies than the old
English universities did. In the second half of the 19th century a number of wealthy
individuals founded or endowed universities.
The modern university in America is distinguished by two features which date back
to the late 19th century: an elective curriculum for undergraduates after fulfilling a set of
core requirements, and a school for graduates, who sometimes do some of the
undergraduate teaching too. American universities aim to fulfill three educational

13 Source: www.infoplease.com/ipa.

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functions: vocational, scholarly and teaching liberal arts. The vocational function is the
most utilitarian (training students for various occupations), the scholarly function involves
research, and the liberal arts function exposes students to the influence of general
knowledge and high culture.
American students are not required, as a rule, to take advanced subject-specific
entrance examinations. There are no uniform college or university admission standards
based on student performance. Many colleges and universities have “open admission”
policies. Contemporary American students tend to be career-focused and therefore often
neglect philosophy, history or languages.
Most universities have either two or three terms a year, with final examinations at
the end of each term. Classes are usually five days a week. The grading system in the U.S.
differs from university to university; however, the most popular grading scale is A to F,
with A+ (plus) being the highest possible grade, and F being the lowest and failing grade.
Applicants at colleges are usually chosen on the basis of their SAT/ACT results, high
school diploma, recommendations from their high school teachers, the impression they
made during admission interviews at the university. After four years of college most
American students receive a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) degree or a B.S. (Bachelor of
Science) degree. Many students continue their study for an MA (Master of Arts), an MS
(Master of Science) an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) or an MBA (Master of Business
Administration) degree. These degrees usually take another year or two of study. Some
students also continue to study for a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) degree, the most
advanced, which usually requires another three to four years of study.
The costs of four-year college education are increasing, but there is a series of
federal and state loan agencies which provide low interest long-term loans for higher
education, enabling more equal access to courses. There are grants for some students and
scholarships for others, although not everyone who wants to attend a university will be
able to attend.

Undergraduate education
The undergraduate bachelor’s degree typically takes four years to complete. At
most institutions those years are known as the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior
years of undergraduate study. Many students complete their first two years at a junior or
community college, earning an associate degree, which is awarded upon completion of a
course of study equivalent to the first two years in a four-year college or university. It is
the lowest in the hierarchy of academic degrees offered in the U.S. Graduates of a junior or
community college may transfer to a four-year college or university to complete two more
years to get a bachelor’s degree. There are two main types of bachelor’s degree, the BA
(Bachelor of Arts) and BS (Bachelor of Science), awarded in subjects that fall into the
general categories of arts and science respectively.
The curriculum of many undergraduate programs is based on “liberal arts
philosophy” that requires students to take courses from a range of subjects to form a broad
educational foundation. During the first two years, students have the opportunity to explore
various fields of study such as social sciences, humanities, and natural or physical sciences.
These courses are often called a “core curriculum” or “distribution requirements”. By the
end of the second year, students at many institutions are asked to choose a specific field of
study, known as the major, on which they will focus for the remainder of the

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undergraduate program. Students then spend the next two years taking more courses
directly related to their major.
Students who major in certain fields such as business, engineering, or science find
that the curriculum is more tightly structured than it is in the humanities or social sciences.
Business, science, and engineering majors may have to take more courses related to their
major field of study and have fewer “electives”, i.e. optional courses.

Community colleges
Community colleges, sometimes called junior colleges, meet the educational and
vocational needs of local communities. Frequently they are funded by a state government.
They offer associate degrees that usually require two years of study and certificate
programs that usually require one year of study. The benefits of attending a Community
college are lower cost and easier admission. Community colleges have “open admission”,
i.e. anyone with a high school diploma may be admitted. Community college students can
range from teenagers who have just graduated from high school to working adults taking
classes at night to complete a degree. Community colleges also offer a number of services
to the local community, such as adult continuing-education classes and developmental
classes for children.

Grades and courses

The word grade has two meanings in American English. It describes a year of
education. Americans call the first year of school first grade. The word grade also means a
mark or rank, such as a grade of B, or a good grade on an exam. Thus an American could
say, “In the ninth grade, my grades were average”.
The word course usually means “subject”. For example, a student would take a
course in accounting for one term or semester. A “course of study” is a full program
consisting of several courses. Business Administration is a course of study, and accounting
would be one of the courses in that program.
The “junior” and “senior”, or third and fourth years, are the “upper classes”.
Students in these years are known as “juniors” and “seniors”, that is “upperclassmen”.
When they enter their junior year, they must choose a “major” field of study. They are
obliged to take a certain number of courses in a department, or field. In some schools,
students also choose a “minor” field. There is usually time for students to choose several
other “elective” courses in other subjects. Each student is assigned a “faculty advisor” who
teaches courses in the student’s major field. This advisor helps the student select a program
of study. Good selection takes planning and experienced advice to avoid pitfalls.
Classroom learning: classes range from large lectures for several hundred students
to smaller classes and seminars (discussion classes) with only a few students. Students
enrolled in lecture courses are often divided into smaller groups, or “sections”. The
sections meet separately to discuss the lecture topics and other material and are usually
guided by a graduate student.
Professors usually assign textbook and other readings each week. They also require
several written reports each semester (term). Science students are also expected to spend
time in the laboratory. There is frequent testing; this aspect is called “continuous
evaluation”.
Academic year: The school calendar usually begins in August or September and
continues until May or June. The academic year at many schools is composed of two
terms or semesters. Other schools use a three-term calendar known as the “trimester”

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system. Still others divide the year into the “quarter” system of four terms, including a
summer session which is optional.
Credits: Each course is considered to be worth a number of “credits” or “credit
hours”. This number is roughly the same as the number of hours a student spends in class
for that course each week. A course is typically worth three to five credits. A full program
at most schools is twelve or fifteen credit-hours (four or five courses per term).
Transfers: If a student enrolls in a new university before finishing a degree, usually
only after having been evaluated by the admission committee, most credits earned at the
first school can be used to complete a degree at the new university. This means a student
can transfer to another university and still graduate within a reasonable time.
Some colleges and universities give college credit to students for work they have
done in high school. Some schools also give advanced standing to students who prove that
they have achieved college level proficiency in a certain subject outside of a classroom.
This means that a student who is just entering college, as a freshman, can take courses
normally only open to sophomores by virtue of his/her experience.
The school will probably ask the student to take a test to prove that he or she can do
sophomore-level work, or the school will give advanced placement to a student who has
scored exceptionally high on college admission exams .
Marks: Professors give each student a mark or “grade” for each course. The marks
are based upon: classroom participation, discussion, questions, conversation and tests.
Students are expected to participate in class discussions, especially in seminar classes. This
is often a very important factor in determining a student’s grade. A midterm examination is
usually given during class time. Apart from that, students are expected to prepare one or
more research or term papers, or laboratory reports. Sometimes the professor will give an
unannounced “surprise quiz”. This does not count heavily towards the grade but is
intended to inspire and motivate students to keep up with their reading assignments and
attendance. Final examinations are held some time after the final class meeting.
It should be noted that unlike in Poland, where school cheating is rampant, in an
American university of college, plagiarism and cheat sheets are strictly forbidden and
penalized. Such attempts can even result in expulsion.

Graduate (postgraduate) education

In order to find a professional job, a college graduate with a bachelor’s degree
today usually will want to consider graduate study.
Master’s degree: This degree is usually required in fields such as library science,
engineering, or social work. The MBA, or Master of Business Administration, is an
extremely popular degree that usually takes two years. Some master’s programs, such as
journalism, take only one year.
In an academic master’s program, students study such fields as history and
philosophy. These degrees are considered stepping-stones towards a doctorate (PhD). Most
time in a master’s program is spent in classroom study. A master’s degree candidate
usually must prepare a long research paper called a “master’s thesis”.
Doctorate (PhD): Many graduate schools consider the Master’s Degree as the first
step towards attaining the PhD (doctorate). But at other schools students may prepare
directly for the doctorate without also earning a master’s degree. It usually takes four years
or more to earn the PhD degree.
For the first two years, most doctoral candidates enroll in classes and seminars. For
at least another year, students will conduct firsthand original research and write a thesis or

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dissertation. This paper must contain views, designs, or research that has not been
previously published. A doctoral dissertation is a discussion and summary of the current
scholarship on a given topic. Most universities awarding doctorates also require their
candidates to have a reading knowledge of two foreign languages, to spend some required
length of time “in residence” attending class regularly, to pass a qualifying examination
that officially admits candidates to the PhD program, and to pass an oral examination on
the same topic as the dissertation. This examination is called the doctoral defense.

Glossary
accounting – (ksi gowo )
associate degree – an academic degree conferred by a two-year college after the prescribed
course of study has been successfully completed (licencjat)
advanced standing – a credit granted towards a degree program for study already
undertaken
(uwzgl dnienie ocen otrzymanych na innej uczelni; zaliczenie zewn trzne)
(to) award – to give legally (przyznawa )
bachelor’s degree – an academic degree conferred by a college or university upon those
who complete the undergraduate curriculum (stopie baka arza)
cheatsheet – a document, especially a sheet of paper, containing information, such as test
answers, used for cheating at the examination ( ci gawka)
core curriculum – a curriculum, or course of study, which is central and usually
obligatory for all students of a school or school system (podstawa programowa)
doctoral defense – public presentation of doctoral dissertation (obrona pracy doktorskiej)
entrance examination – an examination to determine a candidate’s preparation for a course
of studies (egzamin wst pny)
expulsion – the full-time withdrawal of a student’s right to attend a particular school
(wydalenie, wylanie ze szko y)
(to) endow – to provide with property, income, or a source of income (obdarzy )
freshman – a first-year student (student pierwszego roku, nowicjusz)
Ivy League – an association of eight elite universities and colleges in the northeast United
States (Liga Bluszczowa – stowarzyszenie o miu elitarnych uniwersytetów
ameryka skich znajduj cych si w pó nocnowschodniej cz ci USA)
major – of or relating to the field of academic study in which a student specializes (g ówny
przedmiot studiów)
master degree – an academic degree conferred by a college or university upon those who
complete at least one year of prescribed study beyond the bachelor’s degree (stopie
magistra)
master’s thesis – a dissertation that presents the author’s research and findings and is
submitted in support of candidature for a master degree (praca magisterska)
minor – of or relating to a secondary area of academic specialization (drugi, uzpe niaj cy
przedmiot studiów)
PhD – (Latin) Philosophiae Doctor, Doctor of Philosophy (doktor, doktorat)
rampant – occurring without restraint and frequently, widely, or menacingly (bujny,
niepohamowany, panosz czy si )
research – scholarly or scientific investigation (badanie naukowe)
sophomore – a student in the second year of college (student/studentka drugiego roku)
stepping-stone – a stone that provides a place to step, as in crossing a stream; an

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 advantageous position for advancement toward a goal (kamie pozwalaj cy przej
przez rzek ; odskocznia)

Famous American universities

Harvard University
Established in 1636, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the oldest
institution of higher education in the United States. It is a major world centre of research
and education in many fields of science and scholarship. Harvard University is made up of
Harvard and Radcliffe colleges, as well as ten professional and graduate schools. The
university library is one of the most comprehensive in the world, with many special
collections, including incunabula, papers, and manuscripts. The University is famous for
its faculties of law and business.

Yale University
Yale University, established in 1701, is a private liberal arts institution of higher
learning in New Haven, Connecticut. It is a member of the Ivy League. In addition to the
undergraduate Yale College there are graduate schools of medicine, divinity, law, art,
architecture, music, forestry and environmental studies, nursing, organization and
management, and a graduate school of arts and sciences. Undergraduate students live in
twelve residential colleges, each with its own living, dining, and library facilities. It is
famous for its large library, the Yale Art Gallery and the Peabody Museum of Natural
History.

Princeton University
Established in 1746 as the College of New Jersey, Princeton University is a private,
liberal arts institution in Princeton, New Jersey. A member of the Ivy League, it has a
graduate school, schools of engineering and applied sciences and of architecture and urban
planning, and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (since
1930). Research in plasma physics, aerospace and mechanical sciences, meteorology, and
oceanography is carried out at the James Forrestal campus. The library’s special
collections include the John Foster Dulles Library of Diplomatic History. The Art Museum
and the Guyot Hall’s Natural History Museum have, respectively, art and archaeological,
and geological and biological collections. It is famous for its studies in international
affairs.

How to get into an American university

International students can apply for admission to an American university as
undergraduates if they have completed the equivalent of an upper American secondary
school education and have the appropriate diplomas or satisfactory results on leaving
examinations. Most universities accept both online and hard copy applications. You can
apply to more than one university. Remember that American universities require an official
copy of your academic records, sent directly from the school you attended. All documents
written in a foreign language must be accompanied by a notarized English translation.
Deadlines for your applications are usually in the middle of January. You should be aware
that university tuition in the U.S. is quite expensive. Scholarships are quite competitive,
and state universities or colleges do not often offer financial support to foreign students.

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However, some scholarships are available to foreign students from both the Soros
Foundation and Rotary International. Fulbright offers a foreign student program only to
graduate students.
Applicants whose native language is not English must provide evidence of English
language proficiency (IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge certificate.). All international
applicants must provide a Financial Guarantee to show evidence of sufficient funds
available for their studies before the application can be processed. In order to enter the
United States to study, an international student will need a visa, usually either an F-1
Student Visa or a J-1 Exchange Visitor’s Visa.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the different types of U.S. institutions of higher education?
2. What are the main features of an American university?
3. What degrees can be earned at a university?

Glossary

applied sciences – disciplines, such as engineering, dealing with application of scientific

knowledge to practical problems (nauki stosowane)
available – accessible; ready for use (dost pny)
campus – the grounds of a school, college, university (campus, miasteczko uniwersyteckie)
comprehensive – large in scope or content (ca ciowy, wszechstronny)
deadline – a time limit (ostateczny termin)
diverse – differing one from another. (urozmaicony)
divinity – theology (teologia, wydzia teologiczny)
environmental studies – a study of human interaction with their environment (studia
ochrony rodowiska)
facilities – objects and equipment (obiekty, urz dzenia)
forestry – the science and art of cultivating, maintaining, and developing forests
(le nictwo)
fund – a sum of money or other resources set aside for a specific purpose (fundusz)
graduate student – a student who continues studies after graduation (absolwent studiów
pierwszego stopnia)
incunabula (Latin) – books printed before 1501 (inkunabu )
international affairs – affairs between nations (sprawy mi dzynarodowe)
language proficiency – ability of an individual to speak or perform in an acquired language
(znajomo j zyka)
(to) notarize – to certify or attest to the validity of a signature on a document by a notary
public (uwierzytelni notarialnie )
nursing – the work of caring for the sick or injured or infirm (piel gniarstwo)
records – documentation (dokumentacja)
state university – a university supported and controlled by a U.S. state as part of its public
educational system (uniwersytet stanowy)
tutition – the charge for instruction, esp. at a college or private school (op ata za nauk ,
czesne)
urban planning – the study or profession dealing with the growth and functioning of cities
and towns (planowanie miast)

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Adult and Continuing Education

Adult and continuing (or lifelong) education has become more popular in recent years.
Over 44 percent of adult Americans participate in part-time instruction in community
colleges, junior colleges, universities, and work-related courses or training every year.14
Their goal is to update and upgrade their knowledge and skills. The most popular courses
are business administration, health care, engineering and education. Other forms of adult or
continuing education include correspondence courses, industrial training programs and
television educational programs which earn credit.

Test your knowledge

1. Is adult (or lifelong) education popular in the United States?
2. Name some other forms of adult or continuing education.

Glossary
adult education – (o wiata dla doros ych, kszta cenie doros ych)
continuing (lifelong) education – (edukacja ustawiczna)
(to) earn credit – (uzyska zaliczenie kursu)
goal – aim, purpose (cel)
industrial training – training aimed to improve employees’
skills and their industrial knowledge by keeping
them updated with the latest developments (szkolenie
pracowników)
(to) update – to bring up to date (uaktualnia )
(to) upgrade – to improve quality (ulepsza )

Useful websites
www.studyusa.com
www.usastudyguide.com
www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/hs/hsfacts.html
www.educationusa.state.gov
www.usinfo.state.gov/infousa/education/overview/

Further reading
Eckel, Peter D. Eckel and Jacqueline E. King. An Overview of Higher Education in the
United States. Diversity, Access. American Council on Education.
www.acenet.edu/bookstore/pdf/2004_higher_ed_overview.pdf
Sowell, T. Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas. New
York:
Macmillan, 1993.

14 The National Center for Education Statistics. U.S. Department of Education.

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/adulted/b1.asp

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Urban, Wayne J., Jennings L. Wagoner Jr. American Education. A History. New York:
Routledge, 2008.
USIA: The United States System of Education. Washington, D.C., 1985.

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 MORE TESTS AND TASKS

TRUE OR FALSE
Carefully read each statement. If the statement is true according to information in the book,
write T after it, if it is false, write F. Try to give reasons why a statement is false.

1. The United States has a uniform system of education.

2. There are no state-subsidized schools in the U.S.A.
3. School education is a federal responsibility.
4. Children start school in the U.S.A. at the age of four or five.
5. School violence is a growing problem in the U.S.A.
6. A high school diploma entitles students to enter a university.
7. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) are standardized tests taken by U.S. high school
students applying to colleges or universities.
8. Study at a community colleges usually lasts four years.
9. Yale is the oldest university in the U.S.A.
10. An increasing number of Americans participate in adult or lifelong education.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. The first free public schools were opened in America in the …. century.
a) 17th) b) 18th c) 19th)
2. The Supreme Court’s verdict in Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka,
Kansas, was ruled in …… .
a) 1854 b) 1954 c) 2004
3. Elementary school lasts ….. years.
a) three to four b) four to five c) six to eight
4. In the U.S.A. school usually begins at eight o’clock a.m. and finishes about ….
o’clock.
a) twelve or one b) one or two c) three or four
5. Secondary school is usually called ….. in the U.S.A.
a) junior school b) high school c) college
6. According to recent statistic the U.S. has …………. dropout rates among the
developed countries.
a) the highest b) one of the highest c) lowest
7. There are over …… universities and colleges in the U.S.A.
a) 2,000 b) 4,000 c) 6,000
8. A bachelor’s degree can be obtained after ….. years of study.
a) 2 b) 3 c) 4
9. A community college offers a(n) ….. degree.
a) associate b) bachelor’s c) master’s
10. The highest grade in American colleges and universities is …..
a) A+ b) E+ c) D+

FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION

Prepare yourself for a class discussion on one of the following topics:

1. Educational opportunities in the U.S.

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2. Compare SAT and ACT with the Polish Matura.

PROJECT
Prepare a presentation on one of the following topics:
1. Discuss similarities and differences between the American and Polish systems of
education.
2. Find some information about a well-known American university.

EXPRESS YOUR OPINION

Would you like to study in the U.S.A? Why?/Why not?

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 Chapter 7

American Culture and Arts

The United States has developed from a diverse cultural background. Europeans,
particularly the early English Puritan settlers have made important contributions to the
national culture. The African Americans have made a significant contribution to many
aspects of American culture, especially music. A distinctive cultural region has developed
in the Southwest, with a mixture of Hispanic Americans, American Indians and European
immigrants. The Chinese and other Asian Americans have contributed to the life of such
cities as New York, San Francisco and Seattle. This cultural diversity is an important
element in the multiethnic and multicultural character of the country.

1. An Overview of American Literature

The Colonial or Early American Period (1607–1776)

Colonial American literature begins in the 17th century with an impressive body of travel
accounts, diaries, journals, sermons, religious and meditative poems. Most of these
writings are of little artistic merit, but they are valuable chiefly as a mirror of early
American experience. Although it is difficult to make a clear distinction between
“colonial” and “Puritan” literature, the former term usually refers to accounts written by
the English explorers and adventurers who described the American colonies from the
English imperial point of view; the latter refers to both nonfictional and fictional writings
of Puritan settlers for whom America became their chosen homeland.
For example, Captain John Smith (1580–1631), who led the Jamestown colony in
Virginia, produced literature of the colonial kind (A Description of New England, 1616;
and The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles, 1624). Smith
and other contemporary chroniclers often described the relationship between the settlers
and local nature, and the differences between European and Native American cultures. In
turn, Puritan settlers wrote mostly about their spiritual and religious feelings.
The main currents of early American literature originated in the Puritan offspring of
the Reformation. They reflect the Puritan mind and its consciousness of sin. The American
Puritans believed that they were a new Chosen People of God destined to found a new
Jerusalem – a New City of God. They were best-educated of all the English colonists in
America. The Puritan tradition had a great influence on the development of American
literature and culture.
William Bradford (1590–1657) represents both themes in the literature of the
period. One of the leaders of the Mayflower pilgrims and the governor of Plymouth colony,
he wrote an account entitled History of Plymouth Plantation, the first chronicle written on
American soil and a masterpiece of New England Puritan literature.
John Winthrop (1587/8–1649), the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
wrote a famous sermon “City on a Hill”, in which he declared that the Puritan colonists
emigrating to the New World were members of a special pact with God to create a holy

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community. His Journal (1630–1649) is the major source of knowledge of the colony’s
early years.

Puritan poetry

Anne Bradstreet (c.1612–1672) is regarded as North America’s first published

poet. Her poetry reflects both her Puritan moral and religious outlook and her love for
nature and the physical world. Although she finds great hope in the promises of religion,
she is also fond of describing her earthly existence, especially the realities of her family
and home. One of her most popular poems containing rich metaphors is “To My Dear and
Loving Husband”, which reveals her strong feelings of physical and spiritual love for her
husband.

Anne Bradstreet

To My Dear and Loving Husband

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife were happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor aught but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persevere
That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Michael Wigglesworth (1631–1705) wrote an enormously popular long narrative

poem, The Day of Doom (1662), which depicts the terrors of the wicked on the Day of
Judgment. In another poem titled God’s Controversy with New England (1662), the author
suggests that God punished the colonists of New England with the great draught for their
insufficient dedication. Wigglesworth’s verse reflects his severe Puritan faith.
Edward Taylor (c. 1642–1729), regarded as the “best writer of the Puritan times”,
studied at Harvard, where he acquired Latin, Greek and Hebrew. His major poetic
achievement is a collection of poems entitled Preparatory Meditations, which reflects his
intense religious devotion. Although Taylor was mainly preoccupied with the Puritan
issues of sin and salvation, his verses are more personal, expressing his individual doubts
and fears.

Early journals, histories and letters

Samuel Sewall (1652–1730) was one of the most famous New England’s diarists.
His Diary, a fascinating piece of Puritan literature, records the transition in social and

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economic life in Puritan New England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He
described certain aspects of everyday Puritan life which cannot be found in the diaries of
his contemporaries.
The Diary is valuable not only for its picture of public life between 1680 and 1730,
but also for its picture of the author himself in the privacy of his confessional, his relations
with his wife and their fifteen children, his journeys to towns outside of Boston, and his
business observations.

Early essayists and orators

Cotton Mather (1663–1728) was the author of some 500 treatises, pamphlets,
sermons, dissertations and biographies. His greatest work is the seven-volume Magnalia
Christi Americana (1702), a compendium of ecclesiastical history. Mather was one of the
chief supporters of Puritan faith which began to lose its fervor at the end of the 17th
century. He urged the second and third generations of New England’s colonists to return to
the theological roots of Puritanism.
Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) was a religious leader and theologian in
Massachusetts who wrote numerous treatises and sermons, of which “Sinners in the Hands
of an Angry God” (1737) is best remembered. Edwards’ sermons contributed to the
religious revival in New England called the “Great Awakening” (the 1730s and 1740s).
Like Mather, Edwards called for a return to strict Calvinism, but he used arguments based
on contemporary ideas derived from the English Enlightenment philosopher, John Locke
(1632–1704).

Test your knowledge

1. Name some of the Puritan authors of the Early American Period.
2. Discuss the religious and secular aspects of Anne Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear
and Loving Husband”.
3. What are the features of Puritan writing?

Glossary

account – a narrative or record of events. (relacja, sprawozdanie)

(to) acquire – to get possession of (nabywa )
consciousness – the quality or state of being aware of something ( wiadomo )
(to) depict – to picture in words; describe (opisywa , przedstawia )
diversity (rozmaito , ró norodno )
ecclesiastical – of or relating to a church (ko cielny)
offspring – the product of the reproductive processes (potomstwo; wynik)
sermon – a religious discourse delivered as part of a church service (kazanie)
treatise – a formal written work that deals with a subject systematically and usually
extensively (rozprawa, praca naukowa)
wicked – very bad (nikczemny, grzeszny)

1.2. The Revolutionary Period (1776–1790) and the Early National Period (1790–
1820)

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The early development of national literature in America coincides with the spread of the
ideas of the Enlightenment, which were strongly influential in the Constitution of the
United States. The Enlightenment introduced new political theories to the American
colonies, such as John Locke’s (1632-1704) notions of government with the consent of the
governed and the natural rights of man (life, liberty and property). These ideas had an
enormous influence on political writings which begin with the first agitations by patriots in
the early 1760s, the adoption of the Constitution in 1787 and extend throughout the whole
of the Revolutionary Period.
The early development of political literature in America can be divided into two
stages: the struggle with England for independence and the consolidation of the Union. The
most significant writers of the Revolutionary Period include Benjamin Franklin, Thomas
Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Philip Freneau, Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur.

Essayists and orators: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) made a great contribution to the development of

American culture and science. His unfinished Autobiography (1771–1788) is an excellent
piece of prose. It was originally devised as a book of advice for his son. Although it still
reflects some Puritan influence, generally it is a specimen of Enlightenment literature.
Franklin acknowledges reason as his chief guide in life. He lists thirteen virtues which are
necessary for self-improvement. They are: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality
[prudence], industry [diligence], sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility,
chastity and humility.
Expressing his rational and scientific temperament, Franklin is one of the most
outstanding representatives of the American Enlightenment.
The most popular form of political literature in 18th-century America were
pamphlets advocating the need for independence from the United Kingdom. One of the
supporters of the American cause was Thomas Paine (1737–1809), a political
philosopher and pamphleteer, whose Common Sense is the most outstanding pamphlet of
the American Revolution. Paine wrote that “The cause of America is in a great measure the
cause of all mankind”. He called for complete political independence of the American
colonies, and he saw the emerging United States as an experiment in democracy.
Common Sense made a profound effect on the development of the American
Revolution. Published in January 1776 and distributed throughout the colonies in an
edition of well over 100,000 copies, Common Sense placed blame for the suffering of the
colonies directly on the reigning British monarch, George III. The arguments presented in
Common Sense found reflection in the American Declaration of Independence.
Its large part was written by Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826). Jefferson had an
idea that the United States should be an agricultural nation, which was in opposition to the
vision of Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804), who saw America as a nation of commerce
and industry. In his writings Jefferson emphasized the uniqueness and the potential of the
United States, and thus he contributed to the development of the American Dream, which
has remained a major element of American national identity until now.
It is interesting to note that Jefferson was influenced by the ideas of Polish Brethren
or Arians from the 16th century. The Polish Brethren advocated, among other things,
separation of church from state, equality and brotherhood of all people. After expulsion
they emigrated to England and Netherlands, where their works were published and
probably had an influence on the political ideas of Enlightenment philosophers.

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 Another writer who contributed significantly to the development of American
writing was Hector St. John De Crèvecoeur (1735–1813). He was a Frenchman but he
considered himself an American, although he opposed the Revolution. In his Letters from
an American Farmer (1782), he gave a detailed description of life in colonial America and
during the early years of the United States. He wrote that America is a place where
“individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men”. Crèvecoeur was the first
European to describe the new American character. His considerations concerning the
transformation of European psyche into American contributed to the myth of America as a
land of unlimited opportunities and vistas.
In 1787, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay published The Federalist
Papers, a collection of eighty-five letters, which is the most important work in political
science in the United States and the classic defense of the American Constitution.

Poetry

Philip Freneau (1752–1832) was the best poet of the Revolutionary Period. His
short lyrical poem “The Wild Honeysuckle” has a major place in early American poetry.
Freneau’s poetry anticipated American Romanticism in its awareness of nature. Freneau
was also a popular political journalist and the editor of the National Gazette, a newspaper
which supported the ideals of Jeffersonian democracy.

Test your knowledge

1. What was the influence of the Enlightenment on early American literature?
2. What was Benjamin Franklin’s contribution to American literature?
3. Which virtues Benjamin Franklin listed are still necessary for self-improvement?
4. What was the significance of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense?
5. What did Crèvecoeur write about America?

Glossary
(to) coincide – to happen at the same time or during the same period (zbiega si –
okoliczno ciach)
(to) advocate – to support or promote something (zaleca , by zwolennikiem)
virtue – goodness (cnota)

1.3. American Romanticism (1820–1865)

The years 1820–1865 in American literature are called the Romantic Period, but they are
also referred to as the American Renaissance, New England Renaissance or the Age of
Transcendentalism. This period is important for the development of American literature
because it sees the establishment of many literary forms, such as the romance, the novel
and the short story, as well as the emergence of such themes as the frontier, nature and
individualism.
American Romanticism was a significant shift in sensibility which manifested itself
by a reaction against the Enlightenment. Nature became the source of spiritual inspiration.
The wilderness and Indians were a constant fascination for the Romantic writers in
America. An important theme of American Romanticism was the unity between the self

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and nature. The idea of “self” was completely redefined. Self was given a positive meaning
and it was associated with “self-expression”, “self-realization” and “self-reliance”.
American Romanticism stressed individualism and the importance of the common
person. The most outstanding writers of the American Romantic Period include
Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryant, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman
Melville, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman, Emily
Dickinson.
Washington Irving (1783–1859), the son of a Presbyterian merchant, was the first
American man of letters who became internationally famous for his collections of tales
which were modeled on folklore and contained a humorous and typically American (and
Romantic) fascination with the exotic, the ancient, and the odd. The Sketch Book (1819–
1820) contains one of his most famous tales, “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow”. Irving is considered to be the first professional writer in America who
also won recognition in Europe.

“Rip Van Winkle”, based on a German folktale, is set in the pre-Revolutionary America.
Rip, a lazy, good-natured Dutch-American, lives with his shrewish [violent] wife in a
village on the Hudson during the years before the Revolution. One day, while hunting in
the Catskills with his dog Wolf, he meets a dwarflike stranger dressed in ancient Dutch
fashion. He helps him to carry a keg of liquor, and with him joins a party silently engaged
in a game of ninepins. After drinking the liquor they disappear and he falls into a sleep
which lasts twenty years, during which the Revolutionary War takes place. He awakes as
an old man, returns to his altered village, is greeted by his old dog, who dies of the
excitement, and finds that his wife has long been dead. Rip and his associates are almost
forgotten, but he goes to live with his daughter, now grown up and the mother of a family,
and soon wins new friends by his generosity and cheerfulness. The story had an immediate
popular appeal. The writer warned that there might really be some people in America who
had been “asleep” and had not seen the changes.

James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) was the son of a prosperous Quaker

landowner, Judge William Cooper, who founded Cooperstown on Lake Otsego in New
York state. He studied at Yale, but was expelled because of a prank. In the years 1806–
1811 Cooper served in the US Navy. After he married into the distinguished family of the
De Lanceys, he lived comfortably as a country gentleman.
Like Walter Scott in England, Cooper was a Romantic writer who dealt with
historical or legendary characters of the recent past. He had the pictorial imagination to
describe the beauty of American nature. In his books he explored the struggle between
civilization and wilderness as symbolized by the Indians. He suggested that understanding
and coexistence between the white colonists and the Indians was possible.
The first book in Cooper’s “Leatherstocking” series was The Pioneers published in
1823. The series, which depicts the early frontier period of American history, continued
with The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The Pathfinder (1840) and The
Deerslayer (1841). The novels tell the story of a frontiersman, Natty Bumppo, also called
Leatherstocking, and his Indian friend – chief Chingachgook. Natty Bumppo embodies the
American frontiersman as a natural gentleman. He was the forerunner of the good cowboy
of all the American westerns.

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 The Transcendentalists

American literature acquired its new identity through the works of such writers as
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) and Henry Thoreau(1817–1862), who were known
as Transcendentalists. American Transcendentalism was a philosophical, religious and a
literary movement. Like Romanticism, it was also a reaction against the Enlightenment.
Transcendentalism began as a reform movement in the Unitarian church, which denied the
Trinity. Transcendental philosophy was based on monism, a belief in the unity of the world
and God, i.e. the presence of God in the world. Transcendentalists believed that the soul of
each individual is identical with the soul of the world. They attempted to revive some of
the mystical aspects of New England Calvinism and rejected the rationalist idea of God as
the “divine watchmaker”. Transcendentalists believed that human nature is essentially
good, but organized society makes it corrupt. Therefore, they developed the concept of
self-reliance which was to protect individuals from the destructive impact of social
institutions and materialism. Many Transcendentalists advocated a new way of life in
utopian communities. They emphasized the importance of personal experience.
The doctrine of Transcendentalism was best presented in Emerson’s essays,
especially “Nature” and “Self-Reliance”. Emerson was an enlightened anarchist: he
believed in individuality and progress and wrote that each individual must primarily rely
on himself and not on society. “The less government we have the better”, he declared. His
essay, “The American Scholar” is an important text that develops the Transcendental
theory of art.
His close companion, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), opposed institutional
restrictions on the individual. He tried to prove that, if necessary, an individual could
survive without the help of civilization. For two years he lived alone in a cabin at Walden
Pond which he had built for himself. The fruit of his reflection was an extraordinary
entitled Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854), which was also an attack on social
conformity and a celebration of individualism.
In 1848, Thoreau chose to go to prison rather than pay toll tax to the state
government. In his famous essay, “On Civil Disobedience”, he explained his reasons for
going to prison: he wanted to protest against government control over individual lives.
Thoreau is regarded as the voice of American individualism.

The short story

The modern short story is to a great degree an American creation. The pioneer of the genre
who gained a worldwide reputation for his own short stories was Edgar Allan Poe (1809–
1849). Poe was born to itinerant actors in Boston. His mother Elizabeth Arnold Poe died
when Edgar was two. His father, David Poe, disappeared when he was several months old.
Edgar was brought up partly in England by his foster parents, Frances Allan and her
husband John Allan, a tobacco exporter from Richmond.
Poe wrote both prose and poetry. His short stories can be divided into two
categories, those of horror, set in a dark world, and those of ratiocination [logical
reasoning], which set the standard for the modern detective story. The first category
includes such stories as: “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “Ligeia”, “Masque of the Red

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Death”, “The Black Cat”, “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Ligeia”, while the second
group includes “The Gold Bug” and “Murders in the Rue Morgue”.

Poetry

Apart from writing short stories, Poe also wrote some of the best poetry in the
English language. His poem “The Raven”, which commemorates the death of a girl named
Lenore, belongs among the greatest masterpieces of American poetry. Many of his poems
deal with the theme of grief after the death of a young woman.
The works of Edgar Allan Poe influenced French Symbolist poets, particularly
Charles Baudelaire.

Symbolic fiction

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville were the most outstanding imaginative
prose writers who represented the symbolic movement in American literature.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864), a descendant of the Puritan tradition, was
concerned chiefly with moral themes of sin, guilt and the Puritan conscience. His most
famous novel is The Scarlet Letter (1850). Others are The House of the Seven Gables,
(1851) The Blithedale Romance (1852) and The Marble Faun (1860). His novels show
deep psychological insight and probe into complex ethical problems.

The Scarlet Letter is a story about sin, morality, human nature and the rules which govern
the Puritan community. The setting of this romance is Puritan Boston in the 17th century.
Hester Prynne, a young bride awaiting her husband, is severely punished for her sin of
adultery; she gives birth to a child named Pearl. Hester does not want to disclose the
identity of Pearl’s father and is sentenced to wear the red letter “A” meaning “Adultery” on
her left breast as a symbol of her guilt. Hester’s aged husband is thought to have died in
Europe, but in fact he is alive and returns to Salem in disguise.
Assuming a false name of Roger Chillingworth, he settles in town and soon discovers
Hester’s former lover, a young and highly respected clergyman, Arthur Dimmesdale, who
is tortured by his sin and falls seriously ill. Chillingworth, who claims to be a physician,
visits him very often and eventually he even moves into his house in order to provide him
with medical assistance, but actually he deliberately increases Arthur’s suffering.
Dimmesdale believes that self-inflicted suffering will absolve him from his sin and so later
he will be able to go to Heaven. Meanwhile, Dimmesdale denies Hester’s love and
suffering, and warns her that she will be damned because she does not regret her
misconduct [improper behavior].
Hawthorne does not tell the reader whether the act between two lovers was really
sinful, although he depicts Hester and her daughter with sympathy. He clearly condemns
Chillingworth as a malevolent man.
The Scarlet Letter deals with the consequences of breaking the moral code (moral
law). It is also about failing to be true to human nature. Furthermore, the novel reveals the
hypocrisy of members of a Puritan community who refuse to acknowledge that each of
them is as human as the woman they have labeled an adulterer.

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 Another great imaginative writer of the 19th century was Herman Melville (1819–
1891). After relatively little schooling Melville went to sea. “A whale ship,” as he put it,
“was my Yale College and my Harvard”. His major work, Moby Dick (1851), tells the
story of the voyage of the whaling ship Pequod and is partially drawn from Melville’s
experiences as a sailor and a harpooner on whaling ships in the South Seas. Although it
was a complete failure when published, the book is now justly considered one of the
world’s masterpieces.
Moby Dick mixed a number of literary styles including fictional adventure story,
historical detail and even scientific discussion. At the same time it is a richly allegorical
work. Within a realistic account of a whaling voyage the author dramatizes the conflict
between man and his fate.

The main hero of the novel, Captain Ahab, lives with one purpose to capture the fierce and
cunning white whale, Moby Dick, which earlier deprived him of his leg. The characters of
the other sailors on the ship are revealed by their reactions. Whales are captured during the
pursuit, but circumstances seem to conspire against Ahab: storms, lightning, loss of the
compass, the drowning of a man and the insanity of Ahab’s favorite sailor, Pip. The white
whale is finally sighted, and in the first day’s chase he smashes a whaleboat. On the second
day another boat is flooded, and the captain’s ivory leg is snapped off. On the third day the
whale is harpooned, but Ahab is pulled out by Moby Dick, who attacks the Pequod. The
ship is sunk. Ishmael, an outcast youth and the narrator of the story, who had signed up for
a voyage on this whaler, is the only survivor.
Moby Dick Moby-Dick can be read as a romance, tragedy, and an allegory, with
numerous psychological, ethical, and theological remarks, intended to illustrate the
mystery of human life. Major themes of the novel include pathological obsession, religion,
idealism versus pragmatism, revenge, human relationships and racism.

Fireside poets

The Fireside poets comprised William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John
Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. They were popular
both in the United States and in Europe. They wrote poetry suitable for memorization and
recitation, particularly in schools and at home, hence they were also called Schoolroom or
Household poets. Their poetry dealt with nature, domestic life, and myths of the American
past.
William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) was one of the earliest American poets who
exhibited Romantic imagination in his poetry. One of his best-known poems is
“Thanatopsis” (1811), in which he celebrates nature as a source of joy and escape for
people.

Go forth, under the open sky, and list

To Nature’s teachings, while from all around –
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air –

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 Comes a still voice.

Bryant’s natural landscapes are authentically American. Although His poetry, focused on
the contemplation of nature, established a central pattern in the American literary tradition.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) was the most popular poet of his
time. He became known for his greatest work in verse The Song of Hiawatha (1855), a
long epic poem dealing with the life of a young Indian warrior. In his other poetry
Longfellow presented myths of the American past. He made a translation of Dante’s
Divine Comedy (1867). After his death, he was the first American whose bust was placed
in the Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey.
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807 – 1892) was a Quaker poet, who advocated the
abolition of slavery in the United States. He is now largely remembered for his patriotic
poems and hymns. James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) was also an abolitionist like
Whittier. He wrote poetry, satires and antislavery essays. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-
1894) was a physician, medical-school professor, and man of letters. Among his best
poems are “Old Ironsides” (1830), about an 18th century ship which was saved as a
historic monument; and “The Last Leaf” (1830), which Abraham Lincoln memorized.

Abolitionism and antislavery fiction

Abolitionists were members of the movement that agitated for the compulsory
emancipation of the slaves in the three decades before the Civil War. The uncompromising
agitation of the abolitionists made the slavery issue the prime concern of American politics
and brought about the end of slavery in the United States.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) was an abolitionist and an author of more
than ten books; the most famous of them is Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which describes
sentimentally life in slavery. The story was enormously popular. When Abraham Lincoln
met Stowe, he joked, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great
war”. For years critics used the term “Uncle Tom” pejoratively. They accused the author of
white paternalism and black characters of passivity and servility. However, recently Uncle
Tom’s passive behavior was compared to Gandhi’s strategy of peaceful resistance.

Between Transcendentalism and realism (free verse poetry)

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) was perhaps the most distinctly American poet of the
19th century. Born on Long Island, New York, Whitman was self-taught having left school
at the age of eleven. His most important book is Leaves of Grass (1855), which he rewrote
and revised several times. In Leaves of Grass, written in unrhymed free verse, Whitman
celebrates his native country as a land of great promise and enormous potential. He wrote
that “The United States is essentially the greatest poem”. Whitman is a great prophet of
American democracy.
Leaves of Grass contains some of Whitman’s most memorable poems, e.g. “Song
of Myself”, the most characteristic poem in the book, “I Hear America Singing”, “Crossing
Brooklyn Ferry”, “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” and two famous elegies on
Lincoln’s death: “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” and “O Captain, My
Captain”. Most of his poems deal with man and nature.
Whitman was fascinated by the idea of American democracy, individualism and
pluralism. He believed that America needed a new form of literature which would raise its

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hidden potential. Leaves of Grass was written under the inspiration of Emerson’s essays,
especially the one entitled “The Poet”. Whitman had a great impact on the future
development of American poetry.
In “Song of Myself” Whitman celebrates individualism and his identity as an
American. His Romantic self is the main theme of the poem. Whitman’s vision of
America was idealized by memory of its great past: the individualism of Jefferson, the
transcendental humanitarianism of Emerson and the apotheosis of the common man of the
Jacksonian age. His poetry was completely different from any other poetry of the day.

Walt Whitman
O Captain! My Captain

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize
we sought is won.
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel
grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red.
Where on the deck my Captain lies.
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up – for you the flag is flung –
for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’s wreaths –
for you the shores a-crowding.
For you they call, the swaying mass,
their eager faces turning:
Here Captain! dear father!
The arm beneath your head!
It is some dream upon the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm: he has no pulse nor will.
The ship is anchored safe and sound,
its voyage closed and done.
From fearful trip, the victor ship,
comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

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Free verse is a term describing various styles of poetry. Its chief characteristic is that that
no strict meter or rhyme or rhyme patterns are used. Whitman is often called the father of
free verse. Various poets used free verse, particularly Modernist poets, including T. S.
Eliot, Hart Crane, and W. H. Auden.
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886), recognized as one of America’s finest and most
original poets, also used free verse in some of her poems. She wrote over 1,700 short
poems which were published only after her death. Contrary to Whitman, she wrote mostly
short poems in a “free-rhyming” verse that rhymes irregularly, with no regular meter or
rhyme-scheme.
In revealing her inner experience Dickinson anticipated the style of twentieth-
century poetry, particularly in her use of ellipsis and ambiguity. At the same time her
poetry is astonishingly frank and direct.
Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, a small Calvinist village in Massachusetts.
Her father was a successful lawyer. Except for a brief stay in a college and a trip to
Washington, D.C., with her sister, she lived all her life in seclusion in her parents’ home.
Only seven of Dickinson’s poems were published during her lifetime and none with her
consent. Puritanism and Transcendentalism were major influences in Dickinson’s life. Her
poetry reveals deep inspiration in nature, and a compressed style (as opposed to Whitman’s
style).

Emily Dickinson
Fame is a bee

Fame is a bee.
It has a song --
It has a sting --
Ah, too, it has a wing.

Test your knowledge

1. Describe the features of American Romanticism.
2. Who were the leading Transcendentalist writers and what did they propagate?
3. What kind of fiction did Edgar Allan Poe write?
4. What is the most important novel of Herman Melville?
5. How did Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson anticipate the poetry of the 20th
Century?

Glossary
ambiguity - doubtfulness of meaning (wieloznaczno )
ellipsis - the omission of a word or phrase necessary for a complete syntactical
construction but not necessary for understanding (elipsa)
malevolent – having an evil or harmful influence; malicious ()
sensibility – ability to receive sensations (wra liwo )

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1.4. The Realistic Period (1865–1900)

Following the Civil War, American literature entered the Realistic Period. Mark Twain,
William Dean Howells, Henry James and Edith Wharton contributed significantly to the
shift from romance to realism in prose. The Realistic Period was a reaction to
Romanticism. It also included the so-called “local color” writers: Bret Harte and Kate
Chopin.
Mark Twain (1835–1910), whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is
well-known as a splendid comic realist. Twain had unusual inventive powers and a genius
for creating character. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) is considered by some
to be the greatest American novel. Ernest Hemingway once said that all of modern
American literature comes from this one book. The journey of Huck along the Mississippi
River is a voyage into the American past. Together with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(1876), the two novels provide nostalgic recollections of Twain’s youth spent in Hannibal,
Missouri. His other books include Life on the Mississippi (1883), The Prince and the
Pauper (1882), The Innocents Abroad (1869) and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s
Court (1889). He also wrote short stories. The most memorable are “The Man That
Corrupted Hadleyburg” (1898) and “The Mysterious Stranger” (published posthumously).
Twain exerted a significant influence on the American literature of the 20th century.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn may be interpreted in several ways. At first
glance it is a picaresque novel in which young Huck Finn relates his adventures as he
travels down the Mississippi River on a raft with a runaway slave named Jim. It is also a
satire on American society and the constraints of civilization.

The beginning of the novel is set in the Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg. Huck, the
main character and narrator, introduces himself at the beginning of the novel: he is an
abandoned boy, and the son of the town drunkard. He had lived wild and free until certain
adventures with his friend Tom Sawyer led him to the discovery of a small fortune in gold.
He is now living with Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson. He dislikes his new
way of life and feels sad and lonely. Huck’s father has learned of his son’s money and has
come to take it from him. Soon he finds out that the money is with Judge Thatcher and he
cannot have it. He catches Huck and takes him away. For some time Huck likes the return
to his old way of life, but finally he decides to escape. While he is making preparations, his
father gets drunk and tries to kill him in drunken madness. Huck fakes his own death by
leaving a bloody axe in the house and escapes in a canoe. He finds Jim, the runaway slave
and then they together continue the journey down the Mississippi River on a raft. On their
way they help two strange tramps who claim to be a king and a duke. They sell Jim into
captivity, but in the end of the book Tom reappears in time to help Huck to rescue Jim,
although this help turns out to be unnecessary because Jim has been given freedom.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a highly symbolic novel on the nature of

“American experience” and a contribution to the American myth of the frontier. A

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significant aspect of the novel is Twain’s use of local dialect. Twain’s style is realistic,
humorous and colloquial.
A friend of Twain’s, William Dean Howells (1837–1920) wrote works of realistic
fiction which have become classics in American literature. His best novels include A
Modern Instance (1882) and The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885). The first deals with the
subject of divorce which was not talked about openly at that time. In his next novel
Howells attacked popular romantic fiction. As a realist, he described the history of an
ordinary, uneducated man who becomes rich and wants to join “high society” in Boston.
Later Howells wrote the “utopian” novel about an ideal society, A Traveler from Altruria
(1894). Howells was also a most influential American literary critic in the late 19th century
and the champion of literary realism.
Henry James (1843–1916) developed a new subgenre – the psychological novel, in
which he attempted to present an objective approach to the description of human behaviour
and concrete reality (faithful representation of life). James, who travelled frequently to
Europe and in 1875 settled permanently in England, became a British citizen in 1915. His
fiction is concentrated on the contrast and conflict between a young, uncorrupted and naive
America and an old, civilized but corrupt Europe. In James’s “European” novels and
stories, his American protagonists win a moral victory over the more cultivated, but
morally ambiguous Europeans. Europe is often represented as a museum-world.
James’s literary output is usually divided into three phases: early realism,
psychological realism and the “major phase” which was characterized by experiments in
narrative techniques. James was interested in psychology. In his fiction he described the
complex inner lives of his characters. He described the impact of European civilization on
the American mind. James’s American characters are usually victims of their European
counterparts. However, they achieve freedom through perception and understanding of
their situation.
The theme of the American abroad was explored successfully by James in his
novelette, Daisy Miller (1879), which is one of the most interesting studies of a female
character in American fiction. The tragic fate of the title character, young Daisy,
symbolizes the clash of American innocence and spontaneity with European propriety and
custom. Daisy, a young, pretty, honest and free-spirited American woman, who travels to
Europe with her rather simple mother, dies of malaria in Rome after spending an evening
with a man named Giovanelli at the Colosseum. She is innocent and naive although her
behaviour is sometimes shocking to Europeans.
James’s best novels include The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Wings of the Dove
(1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904). Much of his fiction has to
do with the predicament of the expatriate.
The Portrait of a Lady (1881) is perhaps James’s best-known novel. It continues the
theme of an American quest in Europe. Isabel Archer is a pretty, intelligent and attractive
young lady who comes to Europe. She refuses the proposal of marriage made by a typical
English aristocrat Lord Warburton and she marries Gilbert Osmond, who takes her for her
money. She remains loyal to him although she soon realizes his vicious nature and
worthlessness.
James prepared the foundations for a new theory of fiction in his famous essay The
Art of Fiction (1884). He believed that the novel is the best form of art for expressing the
truth of life. He attacked Victorian sentimentality and naive didacticism. His prose is
difficult to read as it consists of long and complex sentences. James modified narrative

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technique; the key elements in his novels are the invisible narrator and different points of
view. James’s narrator reveals the characters’ subjective consciousness.
Like Henry James, Edith Wharton (1862–1937) contrasted America and Europe
and portrayed the changing American society in such novels as The House of Mirth (1905),
The Age of Innocence (1920) and Ethan Frome (1911), her most famous novel. In her
fiction the natural instincts of the individual tend to be suppresed by a hypocritical society.

Local color

Local color is fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs,
specific to a particular region and its inhabitants. Local colorists included a group of
writers, such as Bret Harte and Kate Chopin, who dealt in their fiction particularly with
one region. They described in detail local speech, customs, and dress.
Bret Harte (1836–1902) wrote a number of adventure stories, of which “The
Outcasts of Poker Flat” (1870) is best remembered. They are set in the western mining
area. Harte realistically presented such characters as miners, gamblers and prostitutes.
Harte’s stories mark the beginning of the myth of the West in American literature.
Kate Chopin (1851–1904) was a 19th century feminist (she smoked and walked
alone in public without a companion). When she married Oscar Chopin, a cotton
businessman, she spent ten years in New Orleans and then returned to St. Louis after the
sudden death of her husband. Chopin, who was impressed by the French writers Zola and
de Maupassant, wrote two novels At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899) and over 150
short stories; many of them in local color, e.g. “Bayou Folk” (1894). The Awakening, a
psychological story of a young woman looking for sexual and artistic fulfilment, was not
fully appreciated until the 1960s and the emergence of the feminist movement in America.

Test your knowledge

1. Which is the most significant novel of Mark Twain ?
2. What is the predominant theme in the fiction of Henry James?
3. Who are local color writers?

Glossary
constraint – something that restricts, limits (ograniczenie)
picaresque novel - a genre of prose fiction originating in Spain and depicting in realistic,
often humorous detail the adventures of a young rascal (powie
otrzykowska)
posthumous - after one’s death (po mierty)
subgenre – a subcategory within a particular genre (podgatunek)

1.5. The Naturalistic Period (1900–1914)

American Naturalism emerged during an intensive industrialization and urbanization of

the country. In literature was a literary expression of the philosophical idea of determinism,
a doctrine which claims that people have no free will but are governed by some unknown
forces. In literature, naturalism was associated with the French writer, Émile Zola (1840–
1902), who emphasized particularly the effect of heredity and environment on human
nature and action. American naturalists were influenced by Charles Darwin’s biological

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determinism and Karl Marx’s economic determinism. They believed that literary
composition should be based on an objective, empirical presentation of human beings. In
their writings they attempted to apply methods of scientific observation to the description
of pathological human character. They perceived human behavior in terms of the interplay
between instinctual drives and environmental conditions. Human behavior is controlled by
instinct, emotion, or social and economic conditions
The most outstanding American Naturalists were Stephen Crane, Jack London and
Theodore Dreiser. Some elements of the naturalist narrative technique can also be found in
the novels of Sinclair Lewis and Upton Sinclair.
Stephen Crane (1871–1900) wrote a naturalistic novel about the brutality and
degradation of the New York slums, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893). The book talks
of the role of the environment in the shaping of individual lives, and the causes of
prostitution. The Red Badge of Courage written in 1895, which made Crane famous, was
written in an impressionistic technique.
It shows the atrocity of the Civil War. The story is told from the point of view of a
common soldier, Henry Fleming, who perceives war as dreadful and absurd. Crane shows
that the world is an incomprehensible chaos and the only consolation is fellowship between
men.
Jack London (1876–1916) grew up in poverty and as a youth led an itinerant and
adventurous life. He had a passion for the sea and worked as a merchant sailor for some
time. A self-educated man, influenced by Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer, London
came to believe in the survival of the fittest, i.e. that only the best-adapted or the “fittest” in
Darwin’s terms, win in life. His early stories, such as The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea-
Wolf (1904), and White Fang (1906) show that the laws of nature determine not only the
life of animals but also the human fate. London’s outlook was a mixture of Darwinian
determinism and Marxian socialism. His later writings include a semi-autobiographical
novel, Martin Eden (1909), which can be read as a metaphor of individual failure and a
critique of the American Dream. The protagonist is a self-taught sailor and worker who
becomes a successful writer. However, he is soon disillusioned by the new world he has
entered and drowns himself during a voyage to the South Seas.

The American Dream

The American Dream is an ideal or belief according to which
any residents of the United States can aspire to achieve their
goals and material success in life through hard work. The
United States is treated thus as a land of opportunity. A number
of works of American literature deal critically with the
American Dream.

Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945) was called the Zola of American fiction although
he was much closer to the English writer Thomas Hardy in his combination of naturalism
and tragedy. Dreiser was interested in social problems. His major fiction includes Sister
Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925). The first novel is a study of crime and the
dangers of the American Dream, the effects of urbanization, modernization and alienation.
The heroine, Carrie Meeber, is a poor but pretty country girl who comes to Chicago to look
for work. She is seduced first by a commercial traveler and then by a restaurant manager.

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Carrie moves from one relationship to another, but eventually she achieves success as an
actress. The novel shows the destructive impact of a modern city on human personality.
The hero of An American Tragedy, Clyde Griffith, is a poor, selfish worker who is
deceived by the American Dream which promises success in life. He decides to get rid of
his fiancée, Roberta, whom he has made pregnant and who stands in his way. She is
drowned partly by accident. Clyde is tried and executed for murder. The novel is an
examination of sexual hypocrisy, financial pressures, and dishonesty. Dreiser indicates that
the American Dream of success and wealth is an illusion. Each person’s fate is decided
before he or she is born. Attempts to move beyond one’s social status lead to disaster.
Dreiser’s style is sometimes clumsy, but his fiction gives a realistic picture of
America in the first decades of the 20th century.
Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951), born in Sauk Center, Minnesota, used this town as the
setting for his most famous novel Main Street (1920), which he wrote in a style known as
photographic realism. The novel presents a satirical portrait of Gopher Prairie, a dull and
conservative mid-western small town. His next novel, Babbitt (1922), set in a fictional
small town called Zenith and nicknamed Zip City by its residents, is a story about an
average American. George F. Babbitt, a middle-aged real-estate broker, is a typical
conformist whose life is mechanical and repetitive. This novel gave rise to the term
“babbitry” which denotes uncritical conformity to prevailing middle-class standards. Lewis
was the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930.
Some American writers in the early 20th century practised investigative journalism
and wrote novels based on real events in order to expose corruption in business and
politics. They were called the muckrakers. An example of muckraking narrative is Upton
Sinclair’s novel The Jungle about the scandal in the meat-packing industry in Chicago.
Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) was an outstanding writer and social reformer who
denounced iniquities of the capitalist system. In his first successful novel, The Jungle
(1906), he described immigrant workers in the Chicago stockyards who undergo a series of
horrors and tragedies. Sinclair exposed the terrible conditions in Chicago’s meat-packing
industry which led to the introduction of the Meat Inspection Act by Congress. Sinclair
used his fiction as a form of propaganda. His characters are less important than his
message of the need for reform.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the features of American Naturalism?
2. Who were the muckrakers?

Glossary
atrocity - the quality of being shockingly cruel and inhumane (okropno )
clumsy – without grace (nizgrabny, niezdarny
denounce – accuse (zdemaskowa )
drive - (pop d)
fellowship - the companionship of individuals (wspó nota, kole stwo)
itinerant - traveling from place to place (w drowny)
impressionistic – based on impression as opposed to reason or fact, e.g. “impressionistic
memories of early childhood” (impresjonistyczny)
iniquity – injustice or wickedness (niesprawiedliwo )
interplay - reciprocal action and reaction; interaction (oddzia ywanie wzajemne )

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investigative journalism – (dziennikarstwo ledcze))
(to) prevail - to be predominant (przewa )
survival of the fittest – natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms
best adapted to the environment (prze ycie najlepiej
przystosowanych, dobór naturalny)

1.6. American Modernism (1914–1945)

Modernism can be described as an innovative trend of twentieth-century literature in its

first few decades. Modernist writers rejected the traditional literary forms and values of the
previous century, and some of them were profoundly influenced by the psychology of
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and Carl Jung (1875–1861). Both art and literature
emphasized the central role of the subconscious mind, the importance of the irrational and
the use of myth. Modernist writers often replaced the traditional narrative technique with
the so-called stream of consciousness technique or internal monologue. Inner experience
rather than “outward reality” was explored.
As a period in the history of American literature, Modernism refers to the years
1914–1945, although this division is arbitrary. It represented a vigorous attack on literary
tradition. The universal, harmonious vision of the Romantic world was replaced by a
vision of a pluralistic and chaotic reality. Subjectivity, lack of distinctions between literary
genres, emphasis on discontinuous narratives, fragmentation, reflexivity and self-
consciousness are some of the key features of American Modernist literature. Other
features include stylistic innovations, such as disruption of traditional syntax and form.
The short story revived in America in the period after World War I. It tended to be
particularly concerned with the problems of the day. Many short stories of the 1920s and
1930s voiced a distrust of society, and revealed the disillusionment and moral
disintegration of post World War I America. The short story was the favorite literary form
of such writers as Sherwood Anderson, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.

The “Lost Generation” and other pre-war writers (1920–1939)

American Modernism can be subdivided into several shorter periods or distinct

trends. Thus the period following the end of World War I is often called the decade of the
“Lost Generation”. Many talented young American writers and intellectuals lived and
wrote books for some time in Europe, particularly in France. In the 1920s and 1930s, Paris
was a fascinating place boasting of such renowned artists and writers as James Joyce, Jean
Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and numerous others. Many of them were in the
circle of influence of Gertrude Stein (1874–1946), an American avant-garde author.
Disillusioned by the war as well as by the social and political situation in the U.S., they
wrote about loneliness, alienation and failure. They felt alienated both from traditional pre-
war values and from their own roots in the United States. “You are all a lost generation”,
Gertrude Stein said to one of those expatriates, Ernest Hemingway, who used this phrase as
the motto of his novel The Sun Also Rises (1926).
The most significant writers of the “Lost Generation” were Sherwood Anderson, F.
Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and John Dos Passos. These
writers were mostly influenced by the experience of World War I and self-imposed exile.

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 Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941) had a great influence on many American writers
of the next generation. He won recognition with his collection of excellent short stories,
Winesburg, Ohio (1919), complex psychological studies of lonely and disillusioned
residents of a small Midwestern town, a setting that an increasingly urban America had
begun to regard nostalgically as an American ideal. The collected stories deal with the
themes of alienation, isolation, and self-revelation. All of them are connected by the
character of George Willard, a young reporter to whom the town’s inhabitants confide their
hopes, their dreams, and their fears.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) is regarded as a prominent representative of
the “Lost Generation” and a symbol of the Jazz Age (1920s), when jazz became an
expression of spontaneity and freedom. His novels include The Great Gatsby (1925),
Tender Is the Night (1934) and an unfinished study of Hollywood, The Last Tycoon (1941).
Besides novels, Fitzgerald wrote more than 150 short stories; many of them belong among
masterpieces of the genre.
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s best novel, revives the atmosphere of the Twenties
with its Prohibition laws, wealth, jazz, extravagance and optimism. Fitzgerald shows the
intellectual and moral emptiness of American society. The novel has a circular, not linear,
narration structure. The narrator, Nick Carraway, begins his story after Gatsby has died.
The mysterious Jay Gatsby is a romantic self-made man who gets rich by illegal dealings.
He tries to belong to “high society” in order to regain his old love, Daisy. She is beautiful
and rich but heartless and egoistic. The novel, revealing the influence of Henry James,
Joseph Conrad and T. S. Eliot, presents in a symbolic way a critique of the American
Dream; it shows the conflict between materialism and idealism that is at the core of the
American character. Gatsby’s American Dream is shattered by a corrupt reality.
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was born and grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. After
graduation from high school he began working as a reporter for the Kansas City Star.
Hemingway was a novelist and short-story writer whose concise style had a powerful
influence on many American and European writers. Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923)
followed his World War I experiences in Europe. His first notable success came in 1926
with The Sun Also Rises, a fictional reminiscence of “Lost Generation” expatriates in Paris
and Spain in the 1920s. The main character of the novel is Jake Barnes, who is actively
engaged in a search for a meaning for his life in a world seemingly empty and without
substance.
Two short story collections, Men Without Women (1927) and Winner Take Nothing
(1933) advanced Hemingway’s reputation in this genre. His fame as a novelist was
consolidated by an excellent novel, A Farewell to Arms (1929), based on his Italian
experience during World War I. It reflects his hatred of war through the tragic story of an
American officer and a British nurse in wartime Italy and Switzerland. To Have and Have
Not (1937) is a novel about a Caribbean desperado, set against a background of lower-class
violence and upper-class decadence in Key West, Florida.
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), his greatest masterpiece, relates an episode of the
Spanish Civil War involving a U.S. volunteer who joins a guerrilla band behind the rebel
lines in the Guadarrama mountains. The novel presents Hemingway’s sense of the tragic
betrayal of the Spanish people and the theme of individual responsibility.
Ernest Hemingway drew upon his experiences as a war correspondent during the
Spanish Civil War. Many of the characters, events and places described in the novel are
based on historical fact and people Hemingway knew. The protagonist, an American
volunteer named Robert Jordan, who is fatally wounded while blowing up a bridge, is

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based on the life and adventures of a young American from California named Robert
Merriman. He became one of American volunteers in the International Brigades and
eventually achieved the rank of Major in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion; in 1937 he met
and became a casual acquaintance of Hemingway. 15
For Whom the Bell Tolls is a great novel that effectively conveys Jordan’s personal
experience and his moving love story. The primary topics of the novel include love, war,
the prospect of death, brotherhood of people, sense of duty and sacrifice, bigotry and
political ideology. In the following passage Robert Jordan explains the background of the
Spanish civil war.

A man fights for what he believes in, Fernando. It’s not only Spain fighting here, is it? It’s
Germany and Italy on one side, and Russia on the other, and the Spanish people right in the
middle of it all. The Nazis and fascists are just as much against democracy as they are
against the communists. And they’re using your country as a proving ground for their new
war machinery, their tanks and dive bombers, and stuff like that, so they can get the jump
on the democracies and knock off England and France and my country before we get
armed and ready to fight.

There was a strong feeling among many people around the world at that time that it
was a moral duty to fight fascism, which they feared might spread in other countries if not
suppressed.
Hemingway’s short novella, The Old Man and the Sea (1952) is the allegorical
heroic story of an aged Cuban fisherman’s lone chase of a great marlin in the Gulf north of
the island. Santiago captured a gigantic marlin but he could not bring it to the shore
because it was devoured by sharks. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for 1953
and helped Hemingway to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.
Another significant writer of the “Lost Generation” was John Dos Passos (1896–
1970), who appeared on the literary scene in 1921 with the publication of his antiwar
novel, The Three Soldiers. His subsequent works are focused on the critique of modern
American society and urban alienation. Dos Passos was a writer of great originality. His
narratives have a kaleidoscopic structure and the author’s method of writing resembled that
of a “newsreel” camera. Manhattan Transfer (1925) and the panoramic trilogy U.S.A. (The
42nd Parallel, Nineteen Nineteen, and The Big Money, 1930–1936) portray American
society between 1900 and 1930. Dos Passos attempted to create a ‘collective novel’
without a hero. He was inspired by the writing techniques and ideas of Flaubert, Zola,
Balzac, Joyce, and T.S. Eliot.
William Faulkner (1897–1962) is considered by some a representative of the
“Lost Generation”, although he lived in Paris only briefly in 1925. He mainly wrote
“sagas” (his own word) about the American South. His first important novel, Sartoris
(1929), set in the fictitious Yoknapatawpha country (Lafayette County) of northern
Missouri, belongs to a cycle of narratives which includes: The Sound and the Fury (1929),
Absalom, Absalom! (1936), Go Down Moses and other Stories (1942), Sanctuary (1931),
and Intruder in the Dust (1948), which are studies of old southern families, relating their
past, present and future.

15
Robert A. Martin, “Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls: Fact into Fiction”, in Blowing the
Bridge: Essays on Hemingway and for Whom the Bell Tolls by Rena Sanderson, ed. New York: Greenwood
Press, 1992, 59.

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 Dealing with all levels of southern society, Faulkner saw the South as doomed by
its sinful exploitation of land and man. The aristocratic Sartoris family, the Snopes and
others are some of the most memorable characters in American fiction. Faulkner
successfully utilized the technique of interior monologue and pushed the American novel
to the limits of fictional convention. American readers at first found Faulkner’s
experimental style obscure and his characters excessively brutal. The nightmare world as a
symbol for personal and social disintegration impressed European readers more readily.
Emphasizing the presence of the past in people’s awareness, the power of fate, and the
value of personal endurance, Faulkner transcended his region and his country to speak to a
wider circle of readers throughout the world. In 1949 he received the Nobel Prize “for his
powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.”
Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938), not affected by World War I, is not considered a
representative of the “Lost Generation”, although he made several trips to Europe, where
his self-consciousness as an American was intensified. However, he has some affinity with
the “Lost Generation”. Wolfe wrote four novels, several plays and a number of short
stories. His most important novel is Look Homeward, Angel (1929), which describes the
adolescence of Eugene Gant. The book is regarded as a chronicle of American sensibility.
His other novels are Of Time and the River (1935), The Web and the Rock (1939) and You
Can’t Go Home Again (1940). Although Wolfe’s novels and short stories do not depart
significantly from the mainstream tradition of American realism, their style, particularly
the use of interior monologue, resembles that of James Joyce. A predominant theme of
Wolfe’s fiction is the story of a hyperconscious individual lost in the swarm of modern life.
In the 1930s, when a depression brought the U.S. to its knees, a number of writers
began to write the so-called socially committed literature, i.e. novels, short stories, dramas
and poems which dealt with the problems of poverty, social injustice and degradation of
common people. John Steinbeck and Erskine Caldwell were perhaps the most outstanding
social novelists of the Thirties and Forties.
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) enjoyed success after the publication of Tortilla Flat
(1935). The succeeding works, In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and
especially The Grapes of Wrath (1939), placed him among the best American fiction
writers. The Grapes of Wrath described the fate of an Oklahoma farming family driven by
drought and the Depression to leave their land and move to California as migratory
laborers. His later books include Cannery Row (1945), The Wayward Bus (1947), East of
Eden (1952), Travels With Charlie (1962), and a short story entitled The Pearl. In 1962,
Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize “for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining
sympathetic humor and keen social perception.”
Erskine Caldwell (1903–1987) was one of most widely read writers, with a literary
output of more than sixty titles. He described human degradation and rural poverty in the
South with irony and sympathy in such works as Tobacco Road (1932), God’s Little Acre
(1933) or Georgia Boy (1943).

Glossary
affinity – relationship (pokrewie stwo)
depression - period of low general economic activity marked especially by rising levels of
unemployment (depresja)
disillusionment – the act of freeing from an illusion (rozczarowanie, brak z udze )
endurance – the ability to withstand prolonged hardship (wytrzyma , cierpliwo )

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hyperconscious – more conscious than usual; extremely aware
obscure – not readily understood or clearly expressed (niejasny, niezrozumia y)
swarm – turmoil (gor czka wspó czesnego ycia)
(to) transcend – to pass beyond the limits (przekracza )

Poetry in transition (1900–1918)

Early in the 20th century American poetry began to change its traditional form and
content although some poets followed the Whitman tradition of loose versification and the
celebration of America. Edgar Lee Masters, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Carl Sandburg and
Vachel Lindsay are the most prominent poets of the period of transition between the
traditional post-Romantic poetry and Modernism.
Edgar Lee Masters (1868–1950) achieved success with the publication of Spoon
River Anthology (1915), which is a sequence of some 200 poems written in the form of
confessions of men and women buried in the cemetery of a small Midwest town. These
unusual epitaphs reveal the secret lives of common people, their joys, sins and griefs. Each
poem has a dramatic story to tell.
Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935) wrote ironic poetic portraits of American
small towns, characterizing various residents of “Tilbury Town”, which was based on his
hometown, Gardiner, Maine. He also wrote long psychological narrative poems, such as
Avon’s Harvest (1921), and The Man Who Died Twice (1924; Pulitzer Prize). The poems
from his earlier period, especially the Tilbury Town cycle, show men who failed to achieve
financial success in life but instead were successful on a moral or spiritual level. The
frequent themes of his poetry include: loss of love, suicide, individualism and
responsibility. His later poetry reveals an interest in social issues, an experimentation with
symbolism, and an increasingly optimistic view of human destiny.
Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) wrote about industrial America in Chicago Poems
(1916). Later he traveled about the U.S. and collected folk songs which he published in
The American Songbag (1927), containing 280 songs and ballads which he collected from
convicts, cowboys and farmers.
Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931), was a mystical poet, self-fashioned troubadour and
tramp. He walked through America giving recitals and lectures and selling his poetry for
food and lodging. Lindsay’s original recitations were the source of his fame. He shouted
and sang his poems.

Glossary
celebration – a joyful occasion for special festivities to mark some happy event (obchód
np. wi ta)
destiny – fate (przeznaczenie, los)
loose versification (swobodna wersyfikacja)

Modernist poetry (1914–1945)

American Modernist poetry is associated with such leading exponents as Ezra

Pound and T. S. Eliot, who changed the traditional form and content of poetry by technical

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innovations, such as free verse. Modernist poetry is anti-Romantic and impersonal. It
shows glimpses which the reader must put together. Image is the most important element
of a poem.
Imagism was a brief but characteristic movement of early 20th century poets in
America and Europe who rebelled against Romantic poetic diction. The Imagists followed
three principles in their poetry: a direct treatment of the subject, omission of any word that
was not essential to the presentation and maintaining the musicality of phrase rather than
strict regularity of poetic rhythm. The most notable American Imagist poets were Hilda
Doolittle, Amy Lowell, Marianne Moore and William Carlos Williams. The Imagists wrote
short concise poems influenced by Japanese haiku and Greek lyric poetry.
T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound became leading poets of the century. Eliot spent most of
his life in England and Pound lived in London, Paris and various Italian cities. They
exerted a great influence on the development of Modernist poetry in Europe and America.

Ezra Pound (1885–1972), was regarded as a “poets’ poet” (a teacher of poets).

From 1908 until 1920, he lived in London, where he wrote for the American magazines
Poetry and The Little Review. His literary reputation was established with the publication
of a verse collection Personae in 1909. In 1920 Pound moved to Paris, where he became a
leader of the American expatriate literary circle. Pound translated from Italian, Chinese and
Japanese literature. In 1924 he settled in Italy, where he wrote his major work The Cantos,
which was inspired, among others, by Confucian ethics and Greek mythology.
“In a Station of a Metro”, first published in 1913, is a key poem for understanding
Imagism. Written in only two lines, the poem imitates the Japanese haiku poetry. There is
some separation between the Speaker and the crowd in the Paris Metro, who are presented
as an apparition. The image of “petals on a wet, black bough” may suggest the totality of
human beings.

Ezra Pound
In a Station of the Metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965), the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
(1948) “for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry”, was born in the
U.S.A., but he went to Europe to study and remained in London where he worked as a
teacher, banker, and eventually, writer. Eliot was the major innovator in modern English
and American poetry. He looked for inspiration in French Symbolist poetry, Dante,
Shakespeare and English metaphysical poetry of the 17th century. He published his first
book of poetry Prufrock and Other Observations in 1917. He also edited literary
magazines The Egoist and The Criterion and published literary criticism. In his essay,
“Tradition and the Individual Talent” (1919), Eliot defined poetry as “an escape from
emotion and personality”. Eliot’s notion of poetry and his ideas of the “objective
correlative” and the “dissociation of sensibility” exerted a great influence on Modernist
poetry and literary criticism.
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915) reflects a total break with the
conventions of Romantic poetry. The poem is written in the form of an interior monologue

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(the stream of consciousness technique), which is in a way related to Robert Browning’s
dramatic monologue. It shows the fragments of thoughts of an average man, Mr Prufrock.
The poem is ironic in its message.
In 1922 Eliot published his most famous poem The Waste Land, which shows in a
series of visions the chaos, impotence and emptiness of the modern world. The poem
reflects Eliot’s belief in the collapse of the values of western civilization. The basis of the
poem is the legend of the Fisher King who ruled over the Waste Land. “The Hollow Men”
(1925) denounces the futility of man’s endeavors. The poem describes an age without
belief, value and meaning.
The main themes of Eliot’s work are separateness, isolation and alienation. His
poetry became a model for the Modernist poets. The rhythm of his poetry imitates ordinary
speech but also depends considerably on assonance, repetition and internal rhymes. Later
in life, Eliot wrote dramas, such as Murder in the Cathedral (1935), The Family Reunion
(1939) and The Cocktail Party (1950).
A number of American poets followed the Modernist revolution in poetry. They
were more or less influenced by European Modernism, and particularly, by the poetic and
the critical works of Pound and Eliot.
As a young woman, Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961) began a lifelong friendship with
Ezra Pound, who introduced her to London’s literary circles. Her poetry and fiction were
published on both sides of the Atlantic. Doolittle’s first published poems appeared in the
journal Poetry in January 1913. They revealed her interest in ancient myths. Her later
poems, such as Tribute to the Angels (1945), The Flowering of the Rod (1946) and By Avon
River (1949) followed some of the ideas of Imagism. Amy Lowell (1874–1925) was also
attracted by the Imagist movement under the influence of Ezra Pound and soon became
one of its leading poets. Marianne Moore (1887–1972) wrote impersonal poetry
influenced by Pound. In 1915 she published some of her imagist poems in The Egoist, a
London bimonthly edited by Hilda Doolittle. The themes of William Carlos Williams
(1883–1963) poetry include the degeneration and inadequacy of language and the
breakdown of interpersonal communication. He concentrated in his verse on concrete,
sensory experience and colloquial speech.

Glossary
diction – poetic diction: (styl poetycki)
exponent – someone who expounds and interprets or explains (wyraziciel, przedstawiciel)
immersed (zanurzony)
sensory – involving or derived from the senses (czuciowy, zmys owy, sensoryczny)

Robert Frost (1874–1963) is regarded as the most universal of all American poets.
His poetry is closely identified with New England. He has been called the most penetrating
interpreter of New England landscapes. Most of Frost’s poetry is dedicated to the beauty of
nature, described in simple, everyday language. He was a pioneer in the interplay of
rhythm and meter and in the poetic use of the vocabulary and inflections of everyday
speech. His poetry is thus both traditional and experimental, regional and universal. Like
Pound and Eliot, Frost went to England before World War I to become acquainted with
new developments in poetry. He met the Georgian poets Walter de la Mare, W. H. Davies,
Rupert Lascelles Abercrombie, Rupert Brooke and others, whose rural subjects and style

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were more in keeping with his own. Prior to the outbreak of World War I Frost published
his first two volumes of poetry, a selection of lyrics entitled A Boy’s Will and a series of
dramatic monologues, North of Boston. When Frost returned to the United States, he was
praised as a leading voice of the “new poetry” although he did not achieve remarkable
success. While living on farms in Vermont and New Hampshire and teaching literature at
Amherst College, the University of Michigan, Harvard University and Dartmouth College,
Frost continued to write poetry which was mostly devoted to New England’s themes. At
this time he wrote some of his finest poems, such as “Birches”, “Out, Out”, “The Hill
Wife” and “An Old Man’s Winter Night”. His short lyrics entitled New Hampshire (1923)
include such famous poems as “Fire and Ice” or “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening”. Towards the end of his life Frost was the most highly esteemed American poet
of the century. His poetry is rooted in the life and scenery of rural New England and
expresses traditional American individualism with an outlook varying from agnosticism to
religious affirmation.
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) wrote highly intellectual and imaginative poetry
which shows some influence of Imagism, but also possesses its own distinctive character.
His first volume of poetry Harmonium (1923, enlarged edition 1931) explores the relations
between reality and imagination and contains many of his most famous verses, e.g.
“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”.
Hart Crane (1899–1832) lived a life of a self-imposed exiled artist. He tried to
combine Pound’s and Eliot’s conception of poetry with the tradition of Walt Whitman,
which finds reflection in the composition of his best-known epic, The Bridge (1930). The
poem celebrates American life, history, culture and technology, and the vibrant life of New
York streets.
Another remarkable poet, who carried out a revolution in literary expression in the
20th century, was E. E. Cummings (1894–1962). Influenced by Amy Lowell’s imagistic
experiments, Cummings is famous for his lyrical and typographically eccentric poetry. He
played games with language and lyric form to produce innovative verse containing original
humor. Cummings wrote a variety of free verse poems about city life, drunks, prostitutes,
gangsters and bums as well as tender love poems, erotic epigrams, sonnets and harsh
satires directed at national leaders.
Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) wrote prophetic and pantheistic poetry in the
tradition of Walt Whitman. He was fascinated by Nature and criticized the destructive
power of civilization, whose harmful technologies pollute the Earth and its life.

African American literature and Harlem Renaissance (1920s and 1930s)

African American literature is literature produced by American writers of African

descent. The history of Afro-American Writing is usually divided into six periods: slavery,
emancipation, Modernism including Harlem Renaissance, postwar Realism, the Black Arts
Movement (1960s), and the period since the 1970s. Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) was the
first published African American poet, who started the genre of African American
literature.
One of the most influential figures in the African American community was Booker
T. Washington (1856-1915), a black leader, educator and political writer. Up From
Slavery: An Autobiography (1901) is Washington’s account of his rise from poverty and
slavery in the days before the Civil War to his successful work as an educator.

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 An important movement among black Americans in the 1920s and 1930s was the
so-called Harlem Renaissance or Black Renaissance, which emphasized the African
heritage of American Blacks and the need of new Black identity. Harlem, a Black quarter
in New York, became a symbol of Black urbanity and Black militancy. The most
prominent representatives of the movement were the poets: Claude Mc Kay (1889–1948),
Countee Cullen (1903–1946), Langston Hughes (1902–1967); novelists Jessie Redmont
Fauset (1884–1961), Nelly Larsen (1893–1964), Zora Neale Hurston (1891?–1960); and
the social reformer W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963). Characteristic themes of the Harlem
writers were alienation, marginality, the use of folk material as well as the blues and jazz
tradition.
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1875-1906) was a notable African American poet of the
late 19th and early 20th centuries. His Lyrics of a Lowly Life (1896) gained him national
recognition.
A central figure among the Harlem Renaissance was Langston Hughes, who wrote
poetry, novels, plays and essays about race, African-American identity and social justice.
In 1926 he published a volume of jazz poems, The Weary Blues, written for performance
with music. Hughes’ other collections of poetry include The Negro Mother and other
Dramatic Recitations (1931), Shakespeare In Harlem (1942), Fields of Wonder (1947),
One Way Ticket (1947). He also edited several anthologies in an attempt to popularize
black authors and their works.

Test your knowledge

1. Who were the “Lost Generation” writers?
2. What are the primary characteristics of modernist poetry?
2. Discuss the contribution of Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot to Modernist poetry.
3. What was the Harlem Renaissance?

Glossary
emphasize (podkre la )
marginality (marginesowo )
outbreak – a sudden eruption or increase (wybuch)
vibrant (dynamiczny)

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1.7. The Contemporary Period (1945–to date)

In the post-war period the United States attained an unprecedented level of

political, economic, and military power on a global scale. Americans were increasingly
committed to creating an affluent consumer society.
The Contemporary Period, which started after World War II, includes numerous
writers representing various and often overlapping trends in American literature. Between
1945 and the 1960s, many writers and the reading public still felt that literature represents
a “common national essence”.
Since the end of World War II, however, a number of new trends and phenomena
have occurred in the United States. The most characteristic of them are the proliferation of
television, emergence of youth culture and consumer society, development of information
technology and blurring of differences between high and popular (low) culture. Since the
1960s, it seems, imaginative literature ceased to be a significant document of culture. The
postmodern debate over the condition of the nation could be increasingly heard not in
works of literature but in popular magazines, on television and recently on the Internet.
Written literature has been replaced successfully by TV dramas or even by rock music.
The Vietnam War and social unrest in America in the 1960s gave rise to committed
new journalism practiced by Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag and Frances Fitzgerald. Some
of journalistic techniques were used in nonfiction novels, such as Truman Capote’s In Cold
Blood (1965), and Norman Mailer’s Armies of the Night (1968) and The Executioner’s
Song (1980).

Prose

After World War II a significant regional literature emerged, such as that from the
American South. A number of southern writers came to prominence. They were, among
others, Robert Penn Warren, Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Truman Capote, William
Styron, and Flannery O’Connor.
Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989) wrote a successful novel, All the King’s Men
(1946), a study of a corrupt Southern politician. Carson McCullers (1917–1967) wrote
highly imaginative fiction. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) and The Ballad of the Sad
Cafe (1943) are novels which depict strange or irrational behavior. The central theme of
Carson McCullers’ novels is the meaning of love.
Truman Capote (1924–1984) wrote excellent short stories, such as Breakfast at
Tiffany’s (1958). In Cold Blood (1966), a non-fiction novel, is a naturalistic study of the
brutal murder of a farmer family in Kansas, the trial, and eventual execution of the
perpetrators. The following year a successful film adaptation was made. Capote
contributed to the development of “New Journalism,” a style of writing that was a fusion of
journalism and literature.
Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) wrote moral fiction. Her short stories, published
in two collections, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories (1955) and Everything
That Rises Must Converge (1965), are referred to as Southern Gothic because they
combine elements of the macabre with humor in a setting pervaded by fundamentalist
religion. They examine such enduring aspects of humanity as greed, selfishness, and hate.
William Styron’s (b. 1925) novels are reflections on human institutions and human
unhappiness. His first novel, Lie Down in Darkness (1951), deals with the tragic life and
suicide of a young woman whose rich Southern family is unable to provide love and

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security. The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967) is a “meditation on American history”, as
the author described it. Sophie’s Choice (1979) describes the life of a woman who survived
Auschwitz.
Eudora Welty (1909–2001) was often called a regionalist writer because her
characters are deeply rooted in the South. She described with ironic or grotesque humor
half-witted, elderly, or handicapped people. Her best works include Delta Wedding (1946),
The Golden Apples (1949), Losing Battles (1970) and the autobiography One Writer’s
Beginnings (1984).
A number of novelists wrote about the experience of the last world war. The
significant war novels include Norman Mailer’s (1923-2007) The Naked and the Dead
(1948), James Jones’s (1921–1977) From Here To Eternity (1951), Irvin Shaw’s (1913–
1984) The Young Lions (1948), Herman Wouk’s (b. 1915) The Caine Mutiny (1951),
Joseph Heller’s (1923–1999) Catch 22 (1961) and Kurt Vonnegut’s (1922-2007)
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). The first four novels give a realistic account of the
complexities of wartime life, whereas Heller’s and Vonnegut’s novels are absurdist satires
on war.
The tradition of black fiction extends from Richard Wright’s (1980–1960) Native
Son, and Ralph Ellison’s (1914–1994) Invisible Man (1952) to the prophetic fiction of
James Baldwin (1924–1987), who wrote Go Tell It On the Mountain (1953), Another
Country (1962), Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone (1968) and If Beale Street
Could Talk (1974). Baldwin’s fiction deals with the problems of race in modern American
society. Other important black writers include Alex Haley (1921–1992), who is best
known for his novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976). The book was
extremely popular among both black and white readers. Under the inspiration of the book
many blacks began to trace their roots back to the African tribes from which their ancestors
were torn in the days of slavery.
Toni Morrison (b. 1931) has recently become the preeminent African-American
novelist. From her first novels, The Bluest Eye (1970) and Sula (1973), Morrison has
portrayed complex black lives. Song of Solomon (1977) won the National Book Critics
Circle Award. Beloved (1987) was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Her other novels include Tar
Baby (1981) and Jazz (1992). In 1993, Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for
literature.
Alice Walker (b. 1944) presents black experience from the female perspective. Her
novels, written in the convention of lyrical realism, show the dreams and failures of
common people, their quest for dignity in life. The Color Purple (1982) depicts the
relationship between two poor black sisters.
Jewish postwar writers include Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, E. L.
Doctorow, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Jerzy Kosi ski.
The 1976 Nobel Prize winner, Saul Bellow (1915–2005) wrote existentialist novels
such as Dangling Man (1944), The Adventures of Augie March (1953), and Henderson the
Rain King (1959) – a millionaire’s tragicomic adventures in Africa in a symbolic search for
the meaning of life. His later novels, which include Seize the Day (1956) and Herzog
(1964), deal with the theme of failure and alienation from society. Bernard Malamud
(1914–1986) wrote of Jewish experience in America in such works as The Assistant (1957)
and The Fixer (1966). Philip Roth (b. 1933) is the author of a book of short stories
Goodbye, Columbus (1959) and full-length novels, such as Letting Go (1962), When She
Was Good (1967) and the immensely popular and scandalous Portnoy’s Complaint (1969),

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which show characters alienated from their Jewish roots. E. L. Doctorow (b. 1931) wrote
Ragtime (1975), a view of early 20th-century America.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904–1991), who was born in Poland, but emigrated to the
United States in 1935, wrote fiction in Yiddish which was translated into English. He is
best known for his short stories published in collections which include Gimpel the Fool
(1957) and The Death of Methuselah and Other Stories (1988). His novels include The
Family Moskat (1950), The Magician of Lublin (1958?) and Shosha (1978). Singer
received the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature. The Polish-born Jerzy Kosi ski (1933–
1991) wrote the controversial novel The Painted Bird (1965) and Being There (1971). The
Painted Bird is about a young homeless Jewish boy who wanders through the villages of
eastern Europe during the Nazi occupation. Being There is a story about a simple gardener
who can talk only about his plants. Quite unexpectedly, his talks are interpreted as
metaphors about life in the United States.
The Russian-born aristocrat Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Nabokov had written
his first nine novels in Russian before he began to write in English. He was the author of
the scandalous novel Lolita (1955), which shocked many readers but its humor and literary
style were praised by critics.
Lolita is one of the most controversial novels of the 20th-century, written as a
combination of pastiches of various literary styles, analysis of passion, word games, puns,
and all kinds of verbal play. The story deals with the desire of a disgusting middle-aged
expatriate professor of literature, Humbert Humbert, for a 12-year-old girl. On one level of
interpretation Lolita can be read as a remake of Henry James’s theme of “old corrupt
Europe” in contact with “Young innocent America”; on another level Humbert is a
metaphor for the writer and his art.
J. D. Salinger’s (b. 1919) The Catcher in the Rye (1951) was recognized as the
voice of the young generation of contemporary Americans. Holden Caulfield, the
protagonist and narrator of this novel is a sixteen-year-old boy of superior sensitivity who
finds it hard to live in a world full of “phonies”. Holden escapes his elite boarding school
to the outside world of adults, but soon he is disappointed by its materialism and
“phoniness” (hypocrisy). Holden is a modern knight errant who preserves his innocence
and sensitivity.
Jack Kerouac (1922–1969), the prototypical Beatnik, is the best-known author of
the Beat Generation, whose novel On the Road (1957) inspired a number of younger
writers.
Ken Kesey (1935–2001) represents a transition from the bohemian beatnik
movement in the 1950s to the counterculture of the Hippies in the 1960s. His most
acclaimed and important novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962) describes a
modern psychiatric ward which becomes a metaphor for oppressive American society.
John Updike (b. 1932) has written contemporary novels of manners set in a
suburban setting; Rabbit, Run (1960), which is a sexual and political fiction set in postwar
America in the 1950s; Rabbit Redux (1971), in the counterculture of the 1960s; Rabbit Is
Rich (1981), in the post-Vietnam era; the series ends with Rabbit at Rest (1990).

Glossary
(to) acclaim (oklaskiwa , obwo ywa )
cease (przesta )
knight errant – (b dny rycerz)
prominence – popularity (rozg os)

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(to) pervade – to pass or spread through (przenika , szerzy )

American postmodernism, new realism and ethnic writing (1960–to date)

Changes in American literature, which can be traced back to the 1960s, were caused
by a radical shift in aesthetics. As a result a number of new subgenres of fiction appeared
on the literary scene. They included metafiction, i.e. self-reflexive fiction. Generally, all
these subgenres were referred to as “postmodernism” or “postmodern” literature. However,
few terms are so ambiguous as postmodernism. Initially, postmodernism was a movement
in architecture that rejected the modernist ideas of avant-garde experimentation.
Subsequently, the term was used in art, philosophy, literature and even economics. In
literature, postmodernism refers to non-realistic and non-traditional literature written since
the 1960s.
American postmodern writing has been strongly influenced by French thinkers such
as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes. It should be remembered,
however, that not all contemporary American literature fits the “postmodern” category.
The major American writers identified as postmodern include John Barth, Thomas
Pynchon, Donald Barthelme and Don DeLillo. Typical features of postmodern fiction
include eclecticism, play-fulness, parody, ironical use of quotations, textual games,
multiple codes and ambiguity.
Postmodern writers usually treat literature as merely a game. They question the
authority which literature enjoyed previously. Postmodern fiction often blurs the boundary
between fiction and nonfiction or between prose and poetry. It is often fragmented and
lacks a traditional ending. Critics have noticed that some postmodern narratives retell or
extend earlier works of literature from a different viewpoint. For example, in one of
Woody Allen’s short stories appears Madame Bovary, a character from the 19th-century
French novel by Gustave Flaubert. Another frequently used technique is pastiche, which
mixes different genres or contradictory voices within one work.
In his famous essay “The Literature of Exhaustion” (1967), John Barth (b. 1930)
wrote that the traditional literary genres had lost much of their significance to the modern
reader.
A good example of postmodernist experimentation with form and content is John
Barth’s short story “Lost in the Funhouse” (1967). The narrator constantly breaks the
illusion of realism in the story by making frequent references to traditional literary
techniques or conventions. The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), Barth’s major novel, is a
postmodern parody of 18th century English novels, which presents a fictitious history of
17th-century Maryland. The extremely complex and allegorical plot is full of adventures
and confusions of identity. On with the Story: Stories (1996) is a collection of short stories
which tell a story within a story, a favorite postmodern literary game.
Thomas Pynchon’s (b. 1937) “Entropy” (1960), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) and
Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) also challenge the traditional form and content of fiction. These
narratives are deliberately chaotic and complex. The early classic of postmodern American
fiction, The Crying of Lot 49, is an unusual detective novel. The main character of the book
travels all over northern California in order to find clues to a mysterious symbol that keeps
appearing in place after place. Finally, when she seems to have uncovered the symbol’s
meaning, the novel ends unexpectedly without a solution.

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 Donald Barthelme (1931–1989) described an absurd reality in such novels as
Snow White (1967) and The Dead Father (1985). Don DeLillo (b. 1936) is best known for
his novels, White Noise (1985), Mao II (1991) and Underworld (1997) which depict
American life in the late 20th century.
Another recent development in contemporary American fiction is called “new
realism”, “super market realism” or “minimalism”. It is represented by such writers as
Raymond Carver (1939–1988), Jay McInerney (b. 1955), Tobias Wolff (b. 1945), Ann
Beattie (b. 1947), Bobbie Ann Mason (b. 1942) and others, who have returned to real life
themes. Minimalist fiction, usually narrated in the first person, shows slices of
contemporary American life focusing on human failure. Their characters are unheroic
average people, unemployed or losers. Written in colloquial language and lacking
didacticism, minimalism is characterized by spare use of detail, minimal setting, economy
of time frame and simple plots.
Minimalist writers rarely provide descriptions or excessive psychological
introspection. The most notable works of minimalist fiction include Carver’s What We
Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981), McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City (1984),
Wolff’s The Barracks Thief (1984) and Distortions (1976) or Mason’s Love Life (1989).
Ethnic writing encompasses the literature by writers who perceive themselves as
belonging to an ethnic minority, particularly in the United States and Canada, and write
from this perspective (usually in English); and works that deal with immigrant or ethnic
experience but are not necessarily written by a member of the group portrayed. The term
“ethnic writing” or “ethnic literature” usually refers to works by contemporary Native
American, Asian American and Latino authors, in which a sense of ethnicity is a central
element. Literary works classified as ethnic writing may be regarded as windows into and
out of respective subcultures.
Leslie Marmon Silko (b. 1948) is of mixed heritage, white, Mexican and Native
American. In 1977 Silko published a novel Ceremony, in which she explores gender roles
and mixed ancestry, half white and half Native American.
Maxine Hong Kingston (b. 1940) is one of the best-known Chinese American
ethnic writers. In her novel The Woman Warrior (1976), which won the National Book
Critics Award, Kingston talks of her growing up as a Chinese American. She describes her
family’s way of life and recalls her mother’s Chinese stories. China Men, a sequel to The
Woman Warrior, was published in 1980. Another Chinese American writer Shawn Wong
(b. 1949), a Chinese has written a novel American Knees (1995), which deals with the
dilemmas of his Asian American identity.
Sandra Cisneros (b. 1954) is Chicano (American with Mexican heritage). She
writes poetry and short stories. Her first novel The House on Mango Street (1984),
describes the experience of a girl living in a Latino section of Chicago through a series of
scenes about her family, neighborhood and secret dreams.
At the beginning of the 21st century American writers continue to reflect the
complex patterns of human relationships and sensibility using varied and often mixed
genres and referring to a rich American literary tradition.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the features of postmodernist writing?
2. What are the features of “new realism”?

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 Popular literature

Popular literature refers mostly to fiction, i.e. novels and short stories which have a
wide readership. The term ‘popular literature’ may suggest that it has not much literary
merit, which is not always true. The list of popular literature genres is very long. Here we
can only mention a few characteristic subgenres of American popular literature: crime
fiction and sci-fi (science fiction).
Crime fiction is a subgenre of popular fiction that deals with crimes and their
detection. It includes the detective novel. Edgar Allan Poe is often credited as the forerunner
of the detective story. Other American authors who contributed to the development of the
genre are Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) who wrote crime fiction which was not only
extremely popular with readers but also attracted a serious attention of literary critics round
the world. Paul Auster (b. 1947) goes beyond the crime and mystery fiction genre in such
novels as The New York Trilogy (1987), Moon Palace (1989) and The Brooklyn Follies
(2005). Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville have had a strong influence on Auster’s
fiction. His novels contain a lot of symbols and literary allusions.
Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi) is a literary fantasy involving the imagined
impact of science and technology on society. One of the most popular American science
fiction writers is Ray Bradbury (b. 1920), who is best known for The Martian Chronicles
(1950) and Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Other notable American SF authors include Ursula Le
Guin (Planet of Exile, 1966) Samuel R. Delany (Babel-17, 1966).
Cyber punk fiction is a subgenre of SF which presents a modern world of advanced
technology, megacorporations and artificial intelligence. The most famous representative of
American cyberpunk fiction is perhaps William Gibson (b. 1948), whose most popular
cyberpunk novels are Neuromancer (1984), Count Zero (1986), Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988).
Gibson created the term, “cyberspace”, and his conception of virtual reality has had an
influence on the development of digital media.

Glossary
artificial intelligence – the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior
(sztuczna inteligencja)
(to) blur – to become or make indistinct (zamgli , zamaza )
clue – a slight indication; hint (trop, wskazówka, lad)
cyberspace – an imagined space where electronic information exists or is exchanged
(cyberprzestrze )

Poetry

In the decades following World War II, the form and content of American poetry
underwent significant changes. The most characteristic feature of postwar American poetry
is the departure from the Modernist dogma of “impersonal” poetry in the 1950s, and the
emergence of several trends or movements, such as the Beat Generation, the confessional
school of poetry, Deep Image Poetry, Black Mountain School of Poetry and the New York
poets. Other features are the decentralization of the poetic scene, multiplicity of standards
and diverse concepts of poetry.

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 The term Beat Generation refers to a group of San Francisco-based poets, such as
Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso and Richard Brautigan, who
rebelled against the conservative values of American society in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Beatniks were hostile to traditional culture and values; Jack Kerouac called the beatniks
“the children of the sad American paradise”.
The most outstanding representative of the “beatnik” poets was Allen Ginsberg
(1926–1997). His poem “Howl” (1956) attacked the American materialism and
conformity. The opening lines of “Howl” are a clear rejection of Eliot’s idea of poetry
devoid of emotions:

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by

madness, starving hysterical naked,

Among Ginsberg’s later works “Kaddish” is worth mentioning. It is a long poem on

his mother’s illness and death. Ginsberg seems to follow the poetic tradition of Walt
Whitman.
Robert Lowell (1917–1977) is considered by many to be the one of the most
important American poets of the second half of the 20th century. As a young poet, he was
associated with the Fugitives, a group of poets, writers and critics including John Crowe
Ransom, Allen Tate and Robert Penn Warren, who believed that poetry should avoid
sentimentality and be both intellectual and emotional. Later Lowell started the so-called
“confessional” school of poetry, which included such poets as John Berryman, Elizabeth
Bishop, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton. Lowell’s Life Studies (1959) significantly changed
the landscape of modern American poetry.
John Berryman (1914–1972) is regarded as the second major representative of
confessional poetry. explored his self. The Dream Songs is a sequence of poems composed
over more than a dozen years, in which the poet records the processes of his own mind and
his mental breakdowns, alcoholism, and failed marriages.
Sylvia Plath’s (1932–1963) books of poetry, The Colossus (1960), and,
posthumously, Ariel (1965), Crossing the Water (1971), Winter Trees (1971) along with
the partially autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar (1963), reflect the feeling of mental
instability. Plath expressed an obsession with death throughout her poetry. One of her most
controversial poems is “Daddy”, in which the persona addresses a brutal father-figure in
the frankest possible terms.
Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) and Anne Sexton (1928–1974) wrote highly
emotional and confessional poetry from the feminine point of view.
Another movement which was opposed to modernist aesthetics was Deep Image
Poetry focused on “depth” psychology with detailed image and authentic language. The
chief representative of Deep Image Poetry is Robert Bly (b. 1926), who is probably better
known as the author of the best-selling book Iron John: A Book About Men (1990,
reprinted 2001 as Iron John: Men and Masculinity), in which he discusses the crisis of
masculinity in modern society.
The New York School of Poetry, which included Kenneth Koch (1925-2002),
Frank O’Hara (1926–1966), and John Ashbery (b. 1927), was influenced by French Dada
and Surrealist writers as well as jazz and contemporary art.

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 The Black Mountain School of Poetry emerged in the Black Mountain College in
Asheville, North Carolina. Three of its members, Charles Olson (1910–1970), Robert
Creeley (1926–2005), and Robert Duncan (1919–1988), taught there in the early 1950s,
while Ed Dorn (1929–1999), Joel Oppenheimer (1930–1988) and Jonathan Williams
(1929–2008) studied there. Others like Denise Levertov (1923–1997) published their
poems in the college magazine. The Black Mountain poets promoted a non-traditional
poetics based on ordinary speech. They continued the tradition of Emerson and Whitman
and articulated deep feelings as an opposition to the values favored by modernist poets.
In the last decades of the 20th century many American poets were influenced by
poststructuralism and deconstruction, which emphasize plurality of meanings, and reject
the opinion that texts, including literary texts, can have a fixed, coherent meaning. They
adopted techniques from film and video technology to create new forms of poetic
expression.

Test your knowledge

1. What did the beatniks criticize?
2. What are the features of confessional poetry?

Glossary
frank –sincere (szczery)
fugitive – somebody who runs away, e.g. from justice, enemies, or brutal treatment; also
multiplicity (ró norodno , wielokrotno )

American drama

Although the first permanent American play-houses were the Southwark Theatre
erected in Philadelphia in 1766 and the John Street Theatre built in New York City in
1767, the American theatre came into prominence only after World War I. This was
connected with the Little Theatre movement which inspired small groups of amateurs
throughout America to stage new plays. American playwrights turned to Europe for
inspiration and ideas. The most unifying element in American drama is the allegorical
theme of twentieth-century man journeying through the confusion of the contemporary
world.
In 1915 a number of artists and writers established a group called the Provincetown
Players (Provincetown, Massachusetts was their seat). One of the leaders of their group
was the young Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953). He ignored the conventions of the well-made
play and changed the character of American drama by introducing the element of the
subconscious. By bringing psychological depth, poetic symbolism and expressionistic
technique to the American theatre, O’Neill raised its standards. His one-act plays marked
the beginning of a new era in the history of American theatre.
In his early plays, such as Bound East for Cardiff (1914) and The Moon of the
Caribbees (1917), O’Neill successfully combined realism with expressionist technique.
His early plays are disappointing to read but they were very impressive on the stage. After
the production of Beyond the Horizon (1920) he became acknowledged as America’s

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leading playwright. This play was written in naturalistic technique; O’Neill’s characters
speak authentic, everyday language.
O’Neill’s dramas showed a remarkable range of experimentation. Anna Christie
(1922), Desire Under the Elms (1924), and The Iceman Cometh (1939) were naturalistic.
In Emperor Jones (1921) and The Hairy Ape (1922), the expressionistic technique was
used.
One of his best plays, Mourning Becomes Electra (1932), is a profound
psychological study which re-interpreted Greek tragedy in a New England setting. The
play successfully depicts typically American characters: farmers, soldiers, sailors, ordinary
men and women.
O’Neill was strongly influenced by Strindberg, Ibsen and Gorky. However, his
plays are original in their treatment of the human condition. Before O’Neill, most
American drama was farce or melodrama. O’Neill treated the theater as a venue to work
out serious social issues and ideas. He transformed the American Theater into a serious and
important cultural institution. His experiments in dramatic technique influenced such
dramatists as Thornton Wilder, Elmer Rice, and others.
Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) is another important representative of modern
American drama. He achieved popularity as a playwright after the production of Our Town
(1938): a panorama of small-town life in America. His other plays include The Long
Christmas Dinner (1931) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942).
Elmer Rice (1892–1967) wrote an expressionistic play The Adding Machine
(1923), which satirized man in the machine age. His later plays, The People (1933) and
Between Two Worlds (1934), expressed his radical social and political views.
Clifford Odets (1906–1963) was the leading representative of socially committed
theatre in the United States during the 1930s. His play Waiting for Lefty (1935), dealing
with labour unionism, was a great stage success.
After World war II, America’s most widely discussed playwrights were Tennessee
Williams and Arthur Miller.
Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) became famous after the production of The
Glass Menagerie (1944), which is a play about frustration and alienation from society.
Tom, who is both the narrator and a character in the play, recollects the memory of his
mother Amanda Wingfield and sister Laura, a crippled young lady waiting for a suitor. All
three characters are lonely individuals living in an unreal world. The play has the static
quality of a dream. Williams’s plays shocked American audiences by showing the
maladies and obsessions of contemporary society. His characters are all psychologically
sick, trapped in a world that is both indifferent and incomprehensible. No hope can be
offered them because they cannot act, but only react. His other plays, A Streetcar Named
Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and Night of the Iguana (1962), show sexual
inhibition, frustration, neurotic behavior and the inability to come to terms with everyday
life.
Arthur Miller’s (1915–2005) best known plays – Death of a Salesman (1949), The
Crucible (1953), and After the Fall (1964) – are all deeply rooted in a realistically critical
view of American life. Death of a Salesman is concerned with the ruthless success ethics
of capitalism. The protagonist, Willy Loman, is an elderly commercial traveler. All his
professional life he has accepted the false values of American society, and when he
becomes older and less efficient, he is unable to overcome the self-delusion in which he
has lived. The Crucible is an indirect attack on McCarthyism. Miller uses the witchcraft
hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1690s as an allegory of the anti-Communist

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hysteria that broke out in America in the 1950s. In After the Fall the hero of the play,
Quentin, a New York lawyer, does not know how to live in a world from which love,
friendship and ideology are absent.
Contemporary American drama has absorbed in some measure the conventions of
the Theatre of the Absurd. Edward Albee (b. 1928) is considered to be the leading
representative of the Absurdist movement in America. The notion of the Absurd in his
plays springs from a feeling of deep disillusionment, a draining away of the sense of
meaning and purpose in life. In the United States disillusionment with the American
Dream was particularly strong in the 1960s. The assassinations of President Kennedy, his
brother Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, the rise in racial tension, and the war in
Vietnam destroyed the foundations of the American optimism. In his plays, The Zoo Story
(1959), The American Dream (1960) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962), Albee
attacked the ideals of progress, optimism and faith in a national mission, and poured scorn
on the sentimental ideals of family life, togetherness and physical fitness.
Other important contemporary playwrights include Lorraine Hansberry (1930–
1965), Jack Gelber (1932–2003), Sam Shepard (b. 1943), Amiri Baraka (b. 1934),
Arthur Kopit (b. 1937), and David Mamet (b. 1947). Their plays are about the
commercialization and depersonalization of contemporary American society. Hansberry’s
play A Raising in the Sun (1959) was immensely popular on Broadway. It is an epic story
of the Younger family struggling to realize their dream by escaping the ghetto of African-
American life during the 1950s. Gelber’s Off-Broadway award-winning The Connection
(1959) shows the world of drug addicts. Shephard’s most important dramatic achievement
is a trilogy, Curse of the Starving Class (1976), Buried Child (1978) and True West (1980),
all dealing with family conflicts. Baraka’s most significant play is The Dutchman (1964),
about racial conflict. Kopit wrote a farce, Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Momma’s Hung You in the
Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad (1960), which parodies the conventions of avant-garde
drama. Mamet, who is also an essayist, screenwriter and film director, explores in his plays
the bleak urban world, the myths of capitalism, and the loss of spiritual confidence in such
plays as American Buffalo (1975) and Speed-the-Plow (1988).

Test your knowledge

1. What is Eugene O’Neill’s contribution to American drama?
2. What are the most important plays by Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller?

Glossary
bleak (smutny, ponury)
disillusionment – being free from illusion ()
confusion – disorientation (dezorientacja, zam t)
(to) drain away – to disappear gradually (wycieka )
inhibition – something that restrains, blocks, or suppresses (inhibicja, zablokowanie)
malady – a disease, a disorder, or an ailment (choroba)
profound – deep (g boki)
ruthless – having no compassion or pity; merciless (bezlitosny)
scorn – contempt (pogarda)
self-delusion – the act of misleading one’s own person ( udzenie si )
togetherness – feeling of closeness to and affection for other people (poczucie wspó noty,
wi )

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 2. Music
Generally, music genres can be broadly classified into serious or art music, folk and
popular music. However, in modern times this distinction is not always valid. Genres often
overlap so a simple division into art and popular music is sometimes difficult to make. For
example, jazz can be classified as art music and popular music.
The early history of American music begins with psalms, hymns, religious and folk
songs brought by the colonists, who arrived from England, Ireland, and Scotland. Of the
several types of vocal music they brought to the New World was the ballad. Of the several
types of popular vocal music they brought to the New World, the oldest and most
distinctive was the ballad. Later American ballads often glorified cowboys, lumberjacks,
and other working-class people.
The first music which had a typically American character was popular song. “The
Liberty Song” is an one of the earliest patriotic songs composed during the American
Revolutionary War. Another famous patriotic song is “Yankee Doodle”. Its tune has
become one of the icons of the United States.
The traditional folk motifs were later adopted by genuine American composers,
such as Aaron Copland (1900–1990), who attempted to create “native” American music.
His Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942) and Appalachian Spring (1944) used familiar
American melodies, folk songs and cowboy tunes. He wrote scores for many motion
pictures, including Of Mice and Men, Our Town and The Red Pony.
The development

2.1. Art music

The early American composers of art music include William Billings (1746-1800),
regarded as the father of American choral music; Daniel Read (1757-1836), one of the
founders American classical music known as the First New England School; Anthony
Philip Heinrich (1781-1861), the first American composer to write for symphony
orchestra; John Knowles Paine (1839-1906), a composer of orchestral music; Arthur
Foote (1853-1937), the first American composer totally educated in America who won
international recognition; George Whitefield Chadwick (1854-1931) whose music is
rooted in the traditions of European Romanticism; Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-
1944), the first significant female composer in America and one of the leading composers
of the “New England School”; Charles Edward Ives (1874-1954), regarded as the first
great composer of American serious music.
Notable pioneers of avant-garde and experimental music in the U.S. were George
Antheil (1900-1959), Leo Ornstein (1892-2002), and John Cage (1912–1992).
Antheil composed ultra modern atonal music such as Le Ballet mécanique, scored for 16
player pianos playing four separate parts, for four bass drums, three xylophones, a tam-
tam, seven electric bells, a siren, and three different-sized airplane propellors (high wood,
low wood, and metal), as well as two human-played pianos player and automobile horns.
Compared to Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg, Ornstein appeared before the
musical audiences as the most original composer and pianist in America between about
1912 and 1922.
Cage was one of the most controversial composers of his time. He is best known for
his piece 4’33”, which he presented in 1952, at Black Mountain College. The composition

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consists of three movements which are performed without a single note being played. 33
is not, however, just four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence – while it is
performed the listeners hear the sounds of the environment. The piece has become one of
the most controversial compositions of the century and is considered by many to have been
the first happening, an improvised, often spontaneous spectacle or performance, especially
one involving audience participation.

2.2. Popular music

Popular music by definition is enjoyed by many ordinary people, young and old; and pop
music is a kind of modern popular music which mostly appeals to teenagers. Pop music is
designed purely with the aim of achieving immediate popularity and vast sales.

2.2.1. Early popular music

The first major composer of popular music with a uniquely American style was Stephen
Foster (1826–1864), who established a pattern that has shaped American music ever since
– combining elements of the European musical tradition with African-American rhythms
and themes. Foster’s best songs are still sung today: “Oh! Susanna”, “Ring the Banjo”, or
“Way down upon the Swanee River”.
Late in the 19th century, music publishing became a big business in the United
States, with many firms concentrated in New York City, on a street that became known as
Tin Pan Alley. Leading Tin Pan Alley composers and lyricists included Irving Berlin
(1888–1989), Jerome Kern (1885–1945) and Richard Rodgers (1902–1979), who wrote
popular music for Broadway shows and musicals. Berlin’s first popular hits were
“Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “Everybody’s Doin’ It”. His first musical comedy,
Watch Your Step (1914), included the famous tune “Play a Simple Melody”. In 1919 his
greatest hit was the song “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody”. Berlin’s other popular songs
included “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, “It’s a Lovely Day Today”. He
wrote music for many of the films of Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby (“Top Hat”, “Cheek
To Cheek”). However, Berlin’s greatest single success was the song “White Christmas”
which over the years has been reproduced in millions of recordings, including the famous
one by Bing Crosby. Kern and Rodgers often collaborated with Oscar Hammerstein.
Oscar Hammerstein (1895–1960) wrote the lyrics for popular Broadway and
Hollywood hits such as Kern’s Show Boat (“Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man”, “Why Don’t I
Love You?”, “Ol’ Man River”) staged on Broadway in 1927. Hammerstein also wrote the
lyrics for Rodgers’ later musicals Oklahoma (1943) (“Oh, What a Beautiful Morning”),
South Pacific (1949) (“Some Enchanted Evening”), and The Sound of Music (1959).
George Gershwin (1898–1937) wrote the great hit “Swanee” popularized by Al
Jolson. In 1924 he and his brother Ira wrote the successful musical comedy Lady Be Good
in which Fred and Adela Astaire appeared. George Gershwin’s other popular hits included
“I’ve Got a Crush On You”, “The Man I Love”, “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”.
In Rahpsody in Blue (1924) Gershwin pioneered a new musical form, symphonic jazz. This
piece combines art music with the popular kind: it is written in formal notation and
performed as contemporary classical music. However, its sound includes elements of jazz
and blues, and it became known in the mass market as a work of popular music. Gershwin

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also wrote An American in Paris and his greatest achievement, the folk opera Porgy and
Bess, with its unforgettable song “Summertime” about life and loves of blacks in the
South.
The greatest stars of American popular music in the 1950s and 1960s were, among
others, Harry Belafonte (“Calypso”), Pat Boone (“Don’ Forbid Me”, Bing Crosby
(“Swingin on a Star”, “Play a Simple Melody”, “White Christmas”), Perry Como (“Blue
Moon”), Doris Day (“Que Sera Sera” – “Whatever Will Be Will Be”), Connie Francis
(“Stupid Cupid”), Frankie Laine (“Do Not Forsake Me”), Roy Orbison (“Only the
Lonely”), Jim Reeves (“I Love You Because”), Frank Sinatra (“Strangers in the Night”),
Tony Bennett (“I Left My Heart in San Francisco”), and many others.
In the 1970s-1990s a number of new performers came to prominence, e.g. Roberta
Flack (“Killing Me Softly With His Song”), Barbra Streisand (“Woman in Love”),
Stevie Wonder (“I Just Called to Say I Love You”).

Test your knowledge

1. What kind of music did John Cage compose?
2. Is there a difference between popular music and pop music?
3. What is George Gershwin’s most famous song?
4. Name a few American “evergreens”.

Glossary
evergreen (szlagier)
(to) forsake, forsook, forsaken – to give up (something formerly held dear); leave
(porzuca ,
opuszcza )
lumberjack – one who fells trees and transports the timber to a mill; a logger (drwal)
performer (wykonawca)
propellor ( mig o)

2.2.2. Blues

Blues is a blending of African and European musical tradition. The word “blue”, meaning
“sad” in English, has been associated with melancholia or depression since the Elizabethan
era.
Blues is a musical and poetic form that seems to have developed in black
communities of the American South, sometime in the period between the end of the Civil
War and the first decade of the 20th century. Typically, the poetry expresses some form of
lament or complaint about existential difficulties, often expressed in terms of problems
between lovers.

Woke up this morning with the blues down in my soul

Woke up this morning with the blues down in my soul
My baby gone and left me, got a heart as black as coal

The blues form was first popularized about 1911-14 by the black composer W.C.
Handy (1873-1958), whose greatest compositions were “Memphis Blues”, “St. Louis

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Blues”, “Yellow Dog Blues”, and “Beale Street Blues”. The first blues song, “Crazy
Blues”, sung by Mamie Smith (1883-1946), was recorded in 1920. Ma Rainey (1886-
1939) was one of the earliest professional blues singers. She was often called as “The
Mother of the Blues”. However, it is singer Bessie Smith (1894–1937) who is recognized
as the “Empress of the Blues” and one of the greatest vocalists of her era.
In the 1930s and 1940s, with the migration of many blacks from the South, the
blues spread northward and entered into the repertoire of big-band jazz. The blues also
became electrified with the introduction of the amplified guitar. In some northern cities,
like Chicago and Detroit, during the late 1940s and early 1950s, Muddy Waters, Willie
Dixon, John Lee Hooker, among others, played what was basically Mississippi Delta
blues, backed by bass, drums, piano and occasionally harmonica, and began scoring
national hits with blues songs. At about the same time, T-Bone Walker in Houston and
B.B. King in Memphis were pioneering a style of guitar playing that combined jazz
technique with the blues tonality and repertoire.
Blues evolved into a number of genres. Some of the most characteristic are blues-
rock, boogie-woogie, Chicago blues, classic female blues, country blues, Memphis blues,
St. Louis blues, etc.
In the early 1960s, the urban bluesmen were “discovered” by young white
American and European musicians. Some rock guitarists, like Jimi Hendrix, and singer
Janis Joplin were inspired by blues. Blues music has influenced the development of
rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the origins of blues?
2. Describe characteristic features of blues.

Glossary
complaint (skarga)
recognize – to acknowledge (uznawa )
score (wygra )

2.2.3. Jazz
Jazz was invented by black musicians in the American Southeast, especially in New
Orleans, a city with a racially mixed culture. Black slaves were the first to play jazz tunes
on the streets and in restaurants. They combined elements of the music they had brought
with them from Africa with the music of the white people who had come from Europe.
Ragtime, which flourished from about 1890 until 1920, had a considerable influence on
jazz. Its main trait is its ragged (i.e. syncopated) rhythm. The piano was the principal
performing instrument of ragtime.
Black composers, such as Scott Joplin (1868–1917), drew on their own heritage to
compose songs, ragtime pieces for piano and operas. Joplin was forgotten after his death,
but his music made a comeback starting in the 1970s.
Jazz has always been considered the music of freedom. This sense of freedom is
best manifested in jazz improvisation. Tradition and innovation have always been the two
characteristics of jazz. Today jazz is a term which combines a loose collection of many

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styles and forms which constantly evolve. However, there are at least two traits which
characterize jazz: improvisation and swing (with a strong, regular beat).
It was in Chicago that the white musicians of New Orleans were first recorded,
beginning with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917. During the 1920s Chicago
became the centre for live performance and radio recording. Early jazz was identified by
many labels: the New Orleans, Chicago or Dixieland style.
The New Orleans-style players included, among others, such prominent black
performers in jazz history as Joe “King” Oliver, Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, Sidney
Bechet, Kid Ory and Jelly Roll Morton. The Chicago-style jazz musicians included many
white performers, such as Joe Sullivan, Eddie Condon, Gene Krupa and others. Dixieland
jazz was developed by white musicians.
One of the most influential figures in the history of jazz was Louis Armstrong
(1901–1971), the “Father of Jazz”, who began his career in New Orleans in the 1920s.
Later he moved to Chicago, then the center of American jazz, where he played with
Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. In 1927 and 1928, he made a series of recordings called “Louis
Armstrong and His Hot Five” (or “Hot Seven”) which revolutionized the jazz form by
encouraging solo improvisation over ensemble playing. Armstrong was the first singer to
swing, improvise and scat. However, his most outstanding recordings are from the 1940s
and 1950s. Armstrong, nicknamed “Satchmo”, was soon recognized as the most
outstanding jazz trumpet player. Besides being an excellent and innovative performer, he
was also a great singer and entertainer, famous especially for the rough sound of his voice.
His interpretation of “Hello Dolly” (1964) was for some weeks higher in the popularity
charts than the Beatles’ songs. Among his most famous recordings are “Ain’t Misbehavin”,
“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love”, “Wild Man Blues” and “What a Wonderful
World”.
The most popular style between the early 1930s and the late 1940s, was swing
associated with the “big bands” of Fletcher Henderson, Count Basie, Benny Goodman
(known as “King of Swing”), Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and Duke
Ellington. Several excellent soloists played with these bands, among them Ron Redman,
Gene Krupa, Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins.
Duke Ellington (1899–1974) was one of the most outstanding figures in jazz
history. His contribution to the development of jazz was enormous. He wrote thousands of
popular compositions, many of which became standards, e.g. “Sophisticated Lady”,
“Solitude”, “Mood Indigo”, “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”, “In a Sentimental
Mood”. His longer pieces include Creole Rhapsody (1931) and Reminiscing in Tempo
(1935). Ellington’s Orchestra played at the famous Cotton Club in New York in the 1930s.
Benny Goodman (1909-1986), known as the “King of Swing”, established a
standard of excellence that required technical virtuosity of professional jazz artists. He was
the first white bandleader (Benny Goodman Trio and Benny Goodman Orchestra) to adopt
and popularize swing as an original jazz style. His bands performed such great evergreens
as “Sweet Georgia Brown”, “In a Sentimental Mood”, “Sing, Sing, Sing”. Benny
Goodman was one of the greatest jazz clarinetists of all time.
Although the vocal jazz tradition extends back to the early decades of the 20th
century, Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996), known as the “First Lady of Song”, is regarded as
the greatest female jazz singer, a vocal jazz legend. Her first hit was a swinging version of
the children’s nursery rhyme, A-Tisket, A-Tasket (1938), sung with Chick Webb and his
orchestra. In 1947, she made one of her most famous recordings, “How High the Moon”.
Ella Fitzgerald often sang with Louis Armstrong. From 1956 to 1967 she recorded nineteen

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Songbooks with the evergreen tunes of Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, George Gershwin,
Jerome Kern, Duke Ellington and others.
The black vocalist Cassandra Wilson (b. 1955) is one of the finest singers of the
contemporary vocal jazz scene. She emerged in 1993 with her hit “Blue Light ‘til Dawn”, a
brew of blues, folk and jazz. Her albums range from pop to jazz. She has worked with
numerous musicians including Wynton Marsalis. Other outstanding contemporary vocal
jazz singers include Dianne Reeves and the Canadian born Diana Krall.
The jazz style that evolved after 1940 is often called “modern” jazz in distinction to
“early” jazz. The most outstanding modern jazz musicians include alto saxophonists
Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, pianists Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson, and tenor
saxophonist Stan Getz. Bebop, created during World War II, was very different in spirit
from early ballroom jazz. Played mostly in jazz clubs, it was characterized by
experimentation and rhythmic complexity. Hard bop, popular in the 1950s, was played,
among others, by an exceptionally talented tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins. “Cool” jazz,
which in turn arose as a reaction to bebop, refers to diverse styles of musicians influenced
by Miles Davis, Lester Young, Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz, Dave Brubeck, Gil Evans,
Gerry Mulligan and others.
“Free” jazz, which emerged in the late 1950s, is associated with alto saxophonists
Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. In free jazz musicians perform free, heavily dissonant
improvisations.
Miles Davis (1926–1991), who contributed to the formation of cool style and jazz-
rock, was a bandleader as well as an excellent trumpet player. The Birth of the Cool (1949)
was one of his first achievements. His later recordings include Seven Steps to Heaven,
Sorcerer and Miles Smiles. His record entitled Bitches Brew (1969) is a fusion of jazz and
rock which sold 500,000 copies, turning many rock fans to jazz. Davis’s most outstanding
alumni, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, developed the fusion style. It seems that the
rising complexity and dissonance of free jazz have resulted in the loss of its mass audience.
Attempts to create the fusion of jazz with other forms of music, such as rock-jazz of
the late 1960s and funk-jazz of the 1970s, have not always been successful because for
many people they meant abandoning the pure sound of mainstream jazz in favor of
commercial electronic music.
Quite unexpectedly the 1980s saw a new wave of talented musicians who are trying
to revive the popular jazz mainstream. One of them is the internationally renowned
trumpeter Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961), who has rejected fusion and stressed the durability
of the jazz tradition. He believes that jazz is the cornerstone of American music and it can
still be a popular art form, drawing on the mythology of Afro-Americans. Recently
Marsalis has been involved in teaching children about jazz because he believes that this
music form tells people something about their history and helps them to understand the
way they live.
In the 1990s, new attempts were made to integrate jazz with popular music. These
new trends included acid jazz and jazz rap. Acid jazz combines elements of jazz and
electronic dance music. Jazz rap is an interesting mix of traditional jazz music with hip hop
and rap.
Pat Metheny (born in 1954) is one of the most interesting American jazz guitarists
and composers, who try to incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz,
post-Bop, jazz-rock fusion, and folk-jazz.

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Test your knowledge
1. Where did jazz originate?
2. Where did jazz develop?
3. Who are the most outstanding representatives of traditional jazz?
4. Who are the most outstanding representatives of “modern” jazz?

Glossary
durability (trwa )
fusion (fuzja)
mainstream (g ówny nurt)
syncopated – in music a shift of accent in a passage or composition that occurs when a
normally weak beat is stressed. (synkopowa )

2.2.4. R&B and soul

Rhythm and blues (also known as R&B) was the urban popular black music of the 1940s
and 1950s. It combined elements of jazz, gospel, and blues. It grew out of black music, i.e.
music performed by black Americans. Although the birth date of R&B is disputed, it is
generally believed that In 1946 Muddy Waters (1913-1983), known as the “Father of
Chicago blues”, was a great influence for the new music style. The first major R&B
festival was held in Los Angeles in 1950. The most outstanding early R&B singer and
pianist was Fats Domino (born in 1928).
Soul music, which grew out of rhythm and blues and gospel during the late 1950s
and early 1960s, is usually associated with black singers who express their feelings
strongly and directly. Ray Charles (1930–2004) is regarded as the first successful soul
performer. His greatest hit was “Can’t Stop Loving You”. Other outstanding soul signers
include James Brown (1928-2006) known as “Soul Brother No. 1” or “Mr. Dynamite”,
Otis Redding (1941–1967), Wilson Pickett (b. 1942) and Aretha Franklin (b. 1942),
called “Lady Soul”.
In the mid 1960s soul music blended with jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable
new form of music called funk, characterized by a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass
and drums.
Contemporary soul, known as contemporary R&B, is represented by such vocalists
as Roberta Flack, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Natalie Cole, Mariah
Carry, Usher, Jennifer Lopez.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the features of R&B and soul music?
2. What is funk music?

2.2.5. Country

Country music has its origin in the Appalachian Mountains, a region isolated from the
industrial growth and urbanization of much of America. Local singers sang English and

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Scottish ballads brought to America by their ancestors. Later they added local motifs such
as their lives, relation to God, crops, families, etc. This music is now a mixture of early
English and Scottish traditional music, gospel (or church) music of the American South,
hillbilly music, bluegrass music and western songs.
Hillbilly music” or “mountain music” are different names that have been given to the
musical styles prevalent among the poor rural, backwoods people of the hill and mountain
country of the Southern Appalachians, running from southwestern Virginia down to
northern Alabama and Georgia. The term “hillbilly” was what the music came to be
referred to when it was first commercialized in the 1920s.
Bluegrass is a term that came to be associated with a modernized form of “old timey
country fiddle music” that developed in the 1930s and 1940s, and which is strongly
associated with the personality of Bill Monroe, the musician who is often credited with
inventing the genre. Monroe played the mandolin, and he perfected the bluegrass form
working with a small group of musicians playing on the fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and string
bass, and also featuring vocals. Bluegrass features very fast tempos, virtuoso playing on
the string instruments, a vocal style that has been characterized as the “high lonesome”
sound, as well as some rhythmic and harmonic influences from jazz and blues.
Until the 1950s country music was strictly regional. Today it has a vast audience in
rural areas and cities across the country and overseas. Often the theme of country music is
love, the loss of love, or the problems of being poor. The songs are very simple and direct.
Originally country music was played on acoustic stringed instruments such as the guitar,
banjo and fiddle. After World War II country music began to make use of electrically
amplified instruments.
The first recording of a country-music song, “Sally Gooding”, by a fiddle player
named Eck Robertson, appeared in 1922. In 1925, a radio station in Nashville, Tennessee,
started a weekly broadcast of live performances by country fiddlers. This show developed
in the 1940s into the famous Grand Ole Opry (i.e. grand old opera). Today the Grand Ole
Opry House is the home of country music and Nashville has become the centre of the
country music recording industry. Great names in country music include Patsy Cline, Hank
Williams, Roy Orbison, Kris Kristofferson (“Sunday Morning Going Down”, “Help Me
Make It Through the Night”), Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, Dolly
Parton, Hank Williams, Jr., Johny Cash and Kenny Rogers.
At present, country music has at least two streams: “commercial”, which produces
vast quantities of recordings every year, and “genuine”, associated with a group of younger
country artists known as the New Traditionalists. The aim of the New Traditionalists is to
keep their music true to its country roots. Its leading musicians are Emmylou Harris
(“Roses in the Snow”), Ricky Skaggs (“Waitin’ for the Sun to Shine”), Steve Earle and
Patty Loveless, Rodney Crowell and Randy Travis. The New Traditionalists were the
dominant figures in the country music of the 1970s and 1980s.
Like many other forms of American pop music, country lends itself easily to a
rock-and-roll beat, and country rock has been yet another successful American merger.
Overall, country music is second only to rock in popularity, and the country singer Garth
Brooks (b. 1962) has sold more albums than any other single artist in American musical
history, including Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.

Test your knowledge

1. What is country music?
2. Which city is the “home” of country music?

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3. What trends can be distinguished in country music?

Glossary
fiddle – a kind of violin (skrzypce)
genuine (prawdziwy, autentyczny)
string (struna)

2.2.6. Rock, metal and punk

Rock and Roll developed from African American musical forms, such as the blues and
gospel, as well as from white country and folk music. In the early years rock-and-roll
records were sold mainly to black customers. This practice started to change as rock-and-
roll became more popular with young people.
Chuck Berry (b. 1926) was one of the first black rock-and-roll performers who
appealed both to black and white audiences by combining the popular black rhythm and
blues sound with country music and hillbilly. Chuck’s powerful guitar playing and
energetic dancing thrilled audiences. “Roll Over Beethoven” became his great hit in 1956.
In 1958 he released another hit “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Johnny B Goode”.
Another great star of rock-and-roll was Little Richard (b. 1932). His wild
screaming voice, rebellious music and eccentric costumes made him popular with
teenagers of all colors. He helped define early rock-and-roll and greatly influenced other
groups who followed, including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
When Bill Haley’s (1925–1981) “Rock Around the Clock” appeared in 1954,
young Americans were fascinated by a whole new sound. “Rock Around the Clock” was
used in a popular movie named Blackboard Jungle. This movie gave rock-and-roll a huge
audience and made Bill Haley famous overnight.
Another pioneer of American rock and roll music was Buddy Holly (1936–1959).
His music had a profound influence on teenager Paul McCartney, and thus The Beatles.
Sadly, his incredible career was cut short by a plane crash.
In the late 1950s, the sexy and rebellious teenage rock star Elvis Presley (1935–
1977) became a role model for millions of youths. His unique singing style combined
country music, black rhythm and blues and early rock-and-roll. He had an emotional
singing voice and a characteristic way of shaking his hips that struck adults as obscene but
teenagers as natural to rock-and-roll. Presley has become one of the most popular idols in
modern American history. His greatest rock hits included “Jailhouse Rock”, “Love Me
Tender”, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”, “Heartbreak Hotel”, “I Can’t Help Falling in
Love”, “Blue Suede Shoes” and others.
In the mid-1960s British pop music became popular in the United States. The
phenomenon was called the British Invasion, which was a mass arrival of rock and roll
performers from Great Britain who became popular not only in the United States, but also
in Australia, Canada and elsewhere. The Beatles went to America in 1964. Their success
opened the gates for other British rock groups, such as The Animals, The Kinks, Manfred
Mann, Herman’s Hermits, the Rolling Stones, and The Shadows with Cliff Richard.
The American response to the British Invasion was the development of new
rock styles, such as psychedelic rock (Janis Joplin, Jimmi Hendrix, The Doors), which
was influenced by British progressive rock and folk rock; and smooth surf music, with the
Beach Boys as the most characteristic group. Janis Joplin (1943–1970) is regarded as the

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first female superstar of American rock music. She is remembered best for her powerful,
distinctive voice and the lyrical themes of her songs. Joplin’s greatest hit was “Me and
Bobby McGee”.
The songs of the Beach Boys, such as “Surfin’ USA” (1963), “Surfer Girl”() and
“Good Vibrations” (1966) reflected a California youth culture of surfing, glamour girls,
and cars.
The duet Simon & Garfunkel created many unforgettable songs in the 1960s, such
as “Mrs. Robinson”, “Sound of Silence”, “Bridge over Troubled Water”, and “Cecilia”.
The folk-rock tradition is best represented by Bob Dylan (b. 1941), who views
music as a socially relevant, redemptive force. The best of Dylan’s songs are from the
1960s, when he was associated with American civil rights unrest. “Blowin’ in the Wind”
was one of the most popular protest songs of the decade. His single “Like a Rolling Stone”
was another great hit. Dylan was often associated with the counterculture movement of the
1960s, which was a reaction against the social norms of the 1950s, segregation in the Deep
South, and the Vietnam War.
Another important representative of the folk-rock era was Joan Baez (b.1941),
famous for her highly individual vocal style. Many of her songs dealt with social issues
(“We Shall Overcome”, “Joe Hill”).
Beginning in the later 1970s, the rock singer and songwriter Bruce Springsteen (b.
1949) became a major star and American rock music’s most expressive performer with
songs and lyrics that celebrated the poor and working class. In 1984 his album, Born in the
U.S.A., sold 10 million copies. It described the frustrations of a Vietnam War veteran.
Another subgenre of rock music is heavy metal that developed in the late 1960s and
early 1970s. Its roots can be sought in psychedelic and blues rock. Its characteristic
features are loud and harsh sounding rock music with a strong beat and lyrics which
usually involve violent or fantastic imagery. The most commercially successful American
heavy-metal band in the 1970s was Grand Funk Railroad. Other American heavy metal
bands included Dust, Blue Öyster Cult, and Kiss. Heavy metal music fans are known as
“metalheads” or “headbangers”.
The American punk rock bands, who performed fast, hard music, included such
bands as the Ramones (“Judy Is a Punk”), Blondie (“Plastic Letters”), Inside Out
(“Burning Fight”), Talking Heads (“Burning Down The House”) and individual singers
like Patti Smith (“Horses”, “Easter”, “Radio Ethiopia”).
Pop rock in America is represented by a myriad of stars, such as Lionel Richie
(“Road to Heaven”), Madonna (“Like a Virgin”). In the 1980s Michael Jackson (“Bad”)
created a different kind of pop rock which includes swing, jazz and symphonic
orchestration. His Thriller became the best-selling album in rock history.
The late 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium have been dominated by
the “teen-queens” like Britney Spears (“Baby One More Time”), Christina Aguilera
(“Car Wash”), Mandy Moore (“I Wanna Be with You”) Jessica Simpson (“I Wanna Love
You Forever”), as well as the “clean boy bands”, such as NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, New
Kids on the Block and O-Town.
The 1990s also marked the beginning of alternative rock and grunge music (also
known as the Seattle Sound), represented by such bands as REM, Pearl Jam, Nirvana
(“Nevermind”).

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2.2.7. Hip hop and gangsta rap

Hip hop is a US pop-culture movement originating in the 1980s, comprising music,

fashion, graffiti and breakdancing (b-boying). Hip hop music developed in the 1970s and
was based around DJs who created rhythmic beats by moving (“scratching”) a vinyl record
back and forth on a turntable. The hip hop bands which emerged in the 1980s in America
include The Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest.
Gangsta rap, a subgenre of hip hop, originated among teenagers in New York
City’s black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the late 1970s. It had started in prisons twenty
years earlier among jailed black inmates who, in the absence of instruments, turned poetic
meter into musical rhythm. Rap performers or rappers improvise to a background of
prerecorded rhythm tracks played on a portable cassette player. Rap was new in the late
1970s. The early rap heard on ghetto streets was rough and critical about society. Important
performers are MC Hammer, Kool G Rap, KRS-One, D-Nice, Ice-T, Philadelphia MC
Schoolly D.

Test your knowledge

1. When did rock-and-roll begin?
2. What is folk rock?
3. Who developed “surf music”?
4. What was the origin of hip hop?

Glossary

inmate – prisoner (wi zie )

unrest – an uneasy or nervous state (zamieszki)
track ( cie ka d wi kowa)

3. Visual Arts

Painting

The history of American painting goes back to colonial times. When North
America was first explored, Europeans made pictures of the exotic wilderness and its
inhabitants. The majority of early American portraits have little artistic merit. One of the
best American portrait painters of the colonial period was John Singleton Copley (1738–
1815), who painted important public figures in New England. Copley also painted
narrative scenes from history and joined the Royal Academy of Art in London. Gilbert
Stuart (1755-1828) made an unfinished portrait of George Washington. The image of
Washington in Stuart’s painting appeared on the United States one-dollar bill one century
later.
In the 1820s, the Hudson River School of landscape painting was formed. One of
its most outstanding founders was Thomas Cole (1801–1848), who combined great
technical skill with a romantic treatment of American scenery as a pastoral setting, where
human beings and nature coexist peacefully. Winslow Homer (1836–1910) also portrayed
rural America, idyllic landscapes and seascapes. During the Civil War Homer painted

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realistic pictures such was “In Front of Yorktown”, “Playing Old Soldier”, “A Rainy Day
in Camp” and “Prisoners from the Front”.
Robert Henri [prononced ‘henrai] (1865–1929) was the leader of the movement
called the Ash Can School, which represented the often ugly realities of city life. The
realism promoted by Henri and the Ash Can School in the early 20th century had a lasting
effect on many later American painters.
An art movement called “Regionalism” arose in the 1930s. The members of
Regionalism or American Scene Painting captured scenes of everyday American life. The
“Regionalists”, such as Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975) and Grant Wood (1892–
1942) drew their artistic inspiration from the rural Midwest. Maynard Dixon (1875–1946)
painted the American Indians of the Southwest in order to preserve their culture.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), who was active mostly in England,
painted realistic portraits. Later he turned to abstract painting and is regarded as a
precursor of Abstract Expressionism.
Impressionism, which emerged in France in the 1860s was practiced among
American painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Theodore Robinson (1852-
1896) was one of the first American artists who painted impressionist landscapes. Another
notable American impressionist was Frank Weston Benson (1862 -1951), whose works
such as “Children in the Woods” and “The Sisters”, are among the most beautiful pictures
ever executed by an American artist.
Edward Hopper (1882 –1967) was one of the most outstanding representatives of
the realist tradition of American scene painting. Initially trained as an illustrator, Hopper
had studied at the New York School of Art. His interest centered on a psychological
investigation into the characteristics of American experience, in terms of both human life
and landscape. Hopper depicted the loneliness, isolation, and lack of variety of the daily
life of small-town America through his compositions of solitary figures in cold offices,
desolate houses or hotel rooms, or through his bare, unsentimental rural and city
landscapes. One of his best-known works is Nighthawks (1942), displayed in the Art
Institute of Chicago. Another significant member of American Scene Painting was John S.
Curry (1897–1946), who spent much of his life depicting his native Kansas.
Many outstanding European painters spent the war years in America. Artists such
as Leger, Chagall, Duchamp, Dali, Mondrian and others exerted a significant influence on
the development of American painting. New York City replaced Paris as the artistic centre
of the world. Young American artists no longer needed to go to Europe in order to meet the
masters.
After World War II, a group of young artists in New York formed a movement
known as Abstract Expressionism. It was a revolt against traditional graphic styles. One of
the leaders of the movement was Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), who established his
reputation by his revolutionary “drip paintings” of the late 1940s.
In the late 1950s and 1960s a reaction against Abstract Expressionism produced
works of “mixed” media in the making of which more than one medium was employed.
For example, artists used photos, newspaper and discarded objects in their paintings.
Robert Rauschenberg (b.1925) executed inventive collage paintings which incorporated
photographic images and everyday objects.
Pop art became famous in the early 1960s thanks to the work of Andy Warhol, Roy
Liechtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg and Jasper Johns, who reproduced
everyday objects and artifacts of popular culture. Pop art has been described as a breaking
away from abstract expressionism and a return to visual communication.

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 Andy Warhol (1928–1987) showed the monotony of contemporary life in
paintings which show a series of enlarged images of such common objects as Campbell
Soup ads, the Coca Cola bottle or images of Marilyn Monroe. Roy Lichtenstein’s (1923–
1997) brightly colored graphics were inspired by popular comics and cartoons.
In recent decades the “new image” painters turned from abstraction to figurative
painting. New Image Painting (or New Image Art) refers to the work of a group of avant-
garde artists who often paint with cartoon-like imagery. The great inspiration of the New
Imagists was Philip Guston (1913-80), who abandoned the Abstract Expressionist style
and began to create cartoon-like paintings.

Sculpture

American sculpture is less known than American painting. In the late 19th century
the majority of American sculptors followed the academic sculptural styles introduced by
the French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). One of the earliest successful American
sculptors of the Neoclassical style was Harriet Hosmer (1830 - 1908), who proved that a
woman could make a sculpture. One of the pioneers of modern American sculpture was
French-born Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935), whose work includes portrait busts,
remarkable for their psychological insight (his sitters included the poet E. E. Cummings).
Another notable sculptor was Paul Manship (1885-1966 ), who was inspired by pre-
classical Greek and Egyptian sculpture, as well as by the art of India and Southeast Asia.
Modern American sculpture has been influenced by advances in science and
technology, changes in social structure and lifestyles. Polish-born Elie Nadelman (1882-
1946) developed a personal cubist sculptural style.
Constructivism, which is characterized by the use of industrial materials, such as
glass, plastic, and standardized metal parts, first emerged in Soviet Russia after the
Revolution, and spread to the U.S.A. in the 1940s and 1950s. The leading force of this
movement was David Smith (1906-65), one of the most original and influential American
artists of his generation.
Kinetic art, which incorporated real or apparent movement (from the Greek kinesis,
“movement”), is associated with Alexander Calder (1898–1976), who was one of
America’s best-known sculptors, painters and book illustrators. In 1926 he exhibited “Le
Cirque Calder” in Paris, which won the admiration of such outstanding European artists as
Joan Miró and Jean Cocteau. In 1931, Calder invented mobiles, abstract, brightly colored
sculptures. Some of them were constantly in motion, initially propelled by motors but later
moving spontaneously at the touch of a fingertip or the slightest movement of air.
In the 1960s Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929) and Allan Kaprow (b. 1927) were
exponents of environment art. Large sculptural or spatial works created environments
which the spectator might enter and become absorbed in. Environments frequently
incorporated sensory stimuli, such as sound or movement, to capture the observer’s
attention. In 1962, Oldenburg exhibited a giant hamburger made of plaster and bright shiny
enamel. On other occasions, he produced “soft sculptures” such as a baked potato, made of
white plaster encased in a zippered canvas jacket; a soft electronic fan of black vinyl; soft
scissors; and a colossal red lipstick.

Test your knowledge

1. Who are the best-known early American painters?

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2. What was Abstract Expressionism?
3. What is pop art?
4. What is the difference between kinetic art and environment art?

Glossary
(to) capture – to gain possession or control of (chwyta , opanowa )
seascape – a view or picture of the sea (pejza morski)

4. Architecture

The history of American architecture goes back to the colonial period. Settlers from
various European countries brought with them the building techniques and prevailing
forms of their respective homelands.
In New England the early dwellings of American colonists included probably no
more than a single room, perhaps with a sleeping loft above. Later a typical colonial house
had two major rooms on the main floor, on either side of a massive central chimney, with
an entrance into a stair hall leading to a second storey which had five windows.
In the 18th century a genuinely American architecture was developed. A notable
example of aristocratic country house is the home of George Washington at Mount
Vernon, Virginia. A common urban form is the Georgian16 row house, three bays wide,
with restrained ornamental details. Windowpanes are large, and the facade is flat. Over the
door is a decorative arch.
Although English architecture had a major influence on the development of early
American architecture, examples of non-English architecture can be found in many places
of the United States. The Dutch influence on American colonial architecture can be found
in New York City, in New Jersey, on Long Island and along the Hudson River. In the
South the plantation houses were timber framed structures featuring tall and steep roofs
characteristic of rural French manor houses. French influences can be particularly seen in
the Old City of New Orleans, where houses have long windows opening on iron balconies.
Spanish influences in architecture can be seen in California, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and
New Mexico. The Spanish built a network of missions in the Southwest. One of the most
interesting Mission Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
The next style in American architecture is known as Federal (1790–1820). Houses
in this style are characterized by balance and symmetry in design, lightness and elegance.
In the years 1820–1860 American architecture was dominated by a style known as the
Greek Revival. The most outstanding examples of this style are the Charles Clapp House
of Portland, Maine (1833); The Bank of the United States in Philadelphia; Whittelsey
House of Rochester, New York (1835–1836); and the James Lanier House of Madison,
Indiana (1844). The Victorian style (1840–1900) revived interest in the Gothic,
Romanesque and Colonial styles. A number of multi-colored Victorian residential houses
can be seen in San Francisco.

16
Georgian architecture is the name given in English-speaking countries to the architectural style
which developed during the reign of the British monarchs George I-IV 1714 to 1830.

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 Neoclassical revival in American architecture was an expression of the American
Renaissance movement, ca 1880-1917. A number of federal buildings in Washington D.C.
were built in the neoclassical style. The greatest concentration of Gothic Revival houses is
in New England, but numerous examples neo-Gothic buildings can be found all over the
Northeast, particularly neo-Gothic churches.
The 20th century brought with it a great number of different architectural styles, the
most outstanding being the Prairie School, Bungalows, American Modern (or International
Style) and Art Deco, etc.
Modern architecture in the U.S.A. begins with the Chicago School of architects,
and is associated predominantly with the development of a new form of building, the
skyscraper or high-rise office building. The first skyscraper, designed by William Le
Baron Jenney (1832–1907), was built in Chicago in 1884. Louis Henry Sullivan (1856–
1924) is regarded as America’s first great modern architect. His student and successor was
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959), who is considered the most original and influential
modern architect in the United States. Wright designed private homes that made much use
of open space. He personified the Prairie School, whose design was influenced by the open
prairie of mid-western America. The houses featured open plans with a low, horizontal
emphasis. One of Wright’s best-known designs is the Guggenheim Museum in New York
City (1959) and Fallingwater house in Pennsylvania (1963).
I. M. Pei (b. 1917) is regarded as the “last great master” of high modernist
architecture. He prefers materials such as stone, concrete, glass and steel. He designed such
structures as John Hancock Center in Chicago, Illinois, East Wing extension of the
National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Hancock Place in Boston, Massachusetts,
and the Louvre Pyramid in Paris.
Post-modern American architecture mixes architectural styles in innovative, non-
traditional combinations. Postmodernism was initially a reaction against the high-rise
blocks, and the use of concrete that is associated with modernism in the 1960s.
The architectural designs of Philip Johnson (1906–2005) incorporated diverse
influences such as neoclassicism, modernism and, finally, postmodernism. His most
famous work is the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, a transparent frame
structure initially designed as his own home. His later works include the State Theater at
Lincoln Center and the Neuberger Museum of Art at SUNY Purchase College, as well as
the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. Michael Graves (b. 1934) is a leading
American postmodern architect who has turned away from austere modernist glass-and-
stone structures to design houses which are rich in detail and decoration. Another
postmodern architect is Canadian-born Frank Gehry, (b. 1929), whose best known works
include the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, Experience Music
project in Seattle, Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, Dancing House in Prague, and
his private residence in Santa Monica, California.

Test your knowledge

1. What styles can be distinguished in American architecture?
2. Who are the best known modern and postmodern architects in the United States?

Glossary
austere – strict or severe; ascetic (surowy, skromny)

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prairie – an extensive area of flat or rolling, predominantly treeless grassland, especially in
central North America (preria)
predominant – most common (dominuj cy, wyró niaj cy si )

5. Performing Arts

5.1. Broadway

American theatre is usually associated with Broadway in New York, which provides most
of the city’s popular entertainment in some forty major professional theatres. Together
with London’s West End Broadway is considered to represent the highest level of
commercial theater in the English-speaking world. Apart from Broadway there are about
350 off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway experimental theatres in New York City. The
theatre in the USA is not state-supported. Many theatres or arts centers, such as the Lincoln
Center for the Performing Arts, depend on gifts and donations from different foundations,
corporations and private sponsors.
A particular category of performing arts which are closely associated with
Broadway is the musical which combines music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The
most outstanding musicals in Broadway’s history include Oklahoma, West Side Story,
Hair, and Fiddler on the Roof. Recently, the genuine American musical has been replaced
by mega-shows from overseas such as Evita, Cats, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the
Opera, etc. Broadway professional theaters present a variety of performances including
classical and modern dramas, musicals, and shows.

5.2. Off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway and performance art (happening)

During the 1950s and 1960s, many young avant-garde authors and actors moved
away from the big business of commercial theaters to “off-Broadway” and then “off-off-
Broadway” theaters. At the same time, many regional theaters offered opportunities for
acting “the repertoire”, the established body of great dramatic literature. University
theaters provided extensive training programs and facilities.
Off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theaters were the descendants of the Little
Theater movement before World War I which produced the most outstanding American
playwright Eugene O’Neill and the Provincetown Playhouse in New York. Inspired by
European theatre visionaries such as Antonin Artaud and Jerzy Grotowski, these small
theaters created new performance styles. New developments in acting continued to emerge
from the work of individuals and small groups operating outside the commercial theatre.
From 1963 until the mid-1970s, the off-off-Broadway Open Theatre directed by Joseph
Chaikin was active. This group developed scripts collectively and set a standard for
collaboration in acting.
One of the most outstanding was the Living Theatre directed by Julian Beck and
Judith Malina. As a result of changes in the political and social situation in the 1970s and

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1980s these off-Broadway and off-off Broadway theatres gradually vanished. The best off-
off-Broadway survives in Ellen Stewart’s La Mama Experimental Theatre Club.
A happening is a specific performance art form, developed in the United States
after World War II, which frequently seeks to involve the audience to act in some way.
Happenings can take place anywhere. The term was coined by Allan Kaprow (1927–
2006), who produced a piece 18 Happenings in 6 Parts at the Reuben Gallery in New York
in 1959. The audience witnessed, among other events, a girl squeezing oranges, an artist
lighting matches and painting, and an orchestra of toy instruments.

Test your knowledge

1. What is the difference between Broadway and off-Broadway theatres?
2. Name some of the most popular Broadway musicals.

Glossary

facility – something created to serve a particular function (obiekt)

(to) squeeze – to press (wyciska )

6. Cinema

Cinema as a medium of popular culture in the United States began to develop at the
beginning of the 20th century. The first narrative films were made by Edwin S. Porter
(1870–1941). His silent movies, Life of an American Fireman (1903) and a western The
Great Train Robbery (1903), met with immediate success. However, the true pioneer of
American cinema was D.W. Griffith (1875–1948), the author of the greatest film of the
time, The Birth of a Nation (1915), which was both an artistic and a commercial success.
The film was, however, controversial, because it promoted racism and glorified the Ku
Klux Klan. Griffith’s next film, Intolerance (1916), the most spectacular and ambitious
silent film ever made, was equally successful. In making his films, Griffith was the first
director to use new filming techniques such as altering camera angles, using close-ups in a
dramatic way or breaking scenes up into multiple shots. Previously, filmmakers had kept
the camera in one position, which was generally twelve feet away from the actors and at a
right angle to the set.
After World War I Hollywood became the world capital of the film industry and the
seat of the major companies Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia, and Warner Brothers. The
1920s marked the golden age of American comedy, forever associated with Charlie
Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon.
Hollywood created a number of great movie stars known as celebrities. Some of
them are presented below.
Rudolf Valentino (1895–1926) was regarded as the male sex symbol of the silent
cinema. After the release of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and The Sheik
(1921), he was called “the world’s greatest lover”. When he died unexpectedly from
peritonitis, a number of women committed suicide and over 100,000 fans attended his
funeral.

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 Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) was perhaps the greatest silent film comedian. He
was a master of pantomime which he had learned in the London music halls. One of his
most impressive early comedies is Easy Street which shows Charlie as a policeman pitted
against a giant brute. This film contains a string of “gags” that provoke incessant laughter.
Chaplin’s greatest silent movies include The Kid (1921), and The Gold Rush (1925).
Chaplin could evoke both laughter and tears. He is remembered not only for his great talent
but also for his unforgettable costume, consisting of baggy trousers, outsize shoes, tight
frock coat, bowler hat, cane, and false moustache. The audience not only laughed but also
felt sorry for the Little Tramp. Chaplin’s “talkies” (sound movies) included such
masterpieces as Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), and Monsieur Verdoux
(1947). The Great Dictator is a parody of Adolf Hitler.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s Chaplin was criticized for his political views. As a
result, he left the United States in 1952 and lived in Switzerland. In 1972 he briefly
returned to the United States to receive several awards, among them a special Academy
Award for his contributions to the film industry.
Other popular comedians were Harold Lloyd (1893–1971), who made his name in
Safety Last (1923) and The Freshman (1925); and Buster Keaton’s (1895–1966), whose
most successful film was The General, a story of a railroad train engineer who dreams of
becoming a soldier in the Civil War.
The most outstanding directors of silent movies included Cecil B. DeMille (1881–
1959), who made the controversial film Male and Female (1919) and was famous for his
production of spectacular historical epics and biblical films, such as The Ten
Commandments (1923) and The King of Kings (1927); Josef von Sternberg (1894–1969),
who paid extraordinary attention to the visual style of his films; Ernst Lubitsch (1892–
1947), whose name is associated mainly with witty comedies; David O. Selznick (1902–
1965), who later discovered such talents as actress Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003), and
directors George Cukor (1899-1983) and King Vidor (1894–1982) honored in 1979 with
a special Academy Award for “his incomparable achievements as a cinematic creator and
innovator.”
The period from the end of the silent era in American cinema in the late 1920s to
the late 1950s is often referred to as the Golden Era of Hollywood
The era of sound films was heralded by The Jazz Singer (1927), the first important
motion picture with synchronized sound. The first sound movies were clumsy in
comparison with the old silent films, but they brought with them a new type of verbal
comedy. Many silent film stars’ voices were not well suited to sound films and their film
careers therefore quickly ended. But other stars, such as Greta Garbo (1905-1990),
successfully adapted to the sound era in cinema. Two silent movie stars, Stan Laurel
(1890-1965) and Oliver Hardy (1892-1957), made a successful transition to the talkies,
but the greatest practitioners of quick-fire “gags” were the Marx Brothers who came to
Hollywood from New York City.
Their successful comedies include Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers
(1932), Duck Soup (1933), A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937).
These films established the images of the four brothers: Zeppo, young, handsome and
subordinate; Harpo, romantic, a thief and mischief-maker; Chico, the brains; and Groucho,
an outrageously witty charlatan and disrupter.
A new genre of sentimental melodramas became popular in the 1930s, typified by
Sternberg’s films starring Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992), The Blue Angel and Blonde
Venus. The latter is a drama of a woman wronged, who wants to regain love and happiness.

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The theme became popular and soon other actresses appeared in similar melodramas, e.g.
Jean Harlow (1911-1937) in Red Dust (1932) and Irene Dunn (1898-1990) in Back Street
(1932). Horror movies, such as Dracula, Frankenstein, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Old
Dark House, and the first monster film King Kong also enjoyed popularity in the early
sound period.
The names of actors Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart are
associated with the gangster films of the 1930s and 1940s. The classics of the genre
include Little Caesar (1931), with Edward G. Robinson as “Rico” Bandello, the boss of a
big city gang; The Public Enemy (1931), with James Cagney as a young man who starts his
career as a petty thief and ends in larceny, bootlegging and murder; and The Petrified
Forest (1936), with Bogart, whose unsmiling face is one of the most memorable images of
the American cinema.
Humphrey Bogart (1899–1957) still remains a great legend in the Hollywood
pantheon. He always played “tough guy” roles in such films as: a gangster film Angels
With Dirty Faces (1938), the classic film noir The Maltese Falcon (1941), the most
romantic of all, Casablanca (1942), and To Have and Have Not (1944). In 1951, for The
African Queen Bogart received his only Oscar. He appeared in seventy-five feature films.
In 1999, the American Film Institute named Bogart the Greatest Male Star of All Times.
Between the 1930s and 1950s the American Hollywood Studio system produced a
new film subgenre: the so-called “screwball” comedy. It was a kind of situation comedy
which usually showed couples who had a difficult time getting together. The plots revolved
around the theme of divorce and remarriage. The most characteristic films, starring
include It Happened One Night (1934), Nothing Sacred (1937), My Man Godfrey (1936),
The Philadelphia Story (1940), The Palm Beach Story (1942). Various later films contain
features of the screwball comedy, e.g. Some Like It Hot (1959). Actors and actresses
frequently featured in or associated with screwball comedy include Clark Gable, Cary
Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, James Stewart or Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Another genre made popular by Hollywood was melodrama. Perhaps the most
famous pre-war melodrama was Gone With the Wind (1939), directed by Victor Fleming,
with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. The epic film, adapted from a novel by Margaret
Mitchell, is set during the American Civil War and Reconstruction and tells a story of the
war and its aftermath from a white Southern point of view.
During the late 1940s and into the 1950s Hollywood changed the formula of old-
fashioned musical films to something new. One of the best musical actors was the dancer
and singer Fred Astaire (1899-1987), who partnered Ginger Rogers (1911-1995) in ten
box-office successes. Some of the most popular and well-known musicals include An
American In Paris (1951) directed by Vincent Minnelli, with the famous dancer, Gene
Kelly; Singing in the Rain (1952), directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen; Fred
Zinneman’s Oklahoma (1955), Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music (1965) and Milos
Forman’s Hair (1979).
The earliest cinema animation was composed of frame-by-frame, hand-drawn
images.
The predecessor of early animation was the newspaper comic strips of the 1890s. The first
animated film was Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) by newspaper cartoonist J.
Stuart Blackton. The first animated character that achieved a celebrity status during the
silent era was the mischievous Felix the Cat which appeared first in The Adventures of
Felix (1919).

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 A classic animator was Walt Disney, Walt Disney (1901–1966), who is
remembered as a film director, producer as well as an innovator in animation and theme
park design. After producing the Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto cartoons, he
went on to plan the first full-length animated feature film – Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs (1937). The film was soon followed by other similar productions: Bambi (1942),
Cinderella (1950) and Peter Pan (1953). Disney also pioneered images set to music – his
Fantasia (1940) was the prototype to music videos.
No film genre is more associated with America than the western, inspired by novels
such as James Fenimore Cooper’s The Leatherstocking Tales. The early westerns with
Bronco Billy as the main hero drew on melodrama and the rodeos. American westerns of
the 1940s and 1950s, associated with the names of such actors as Gary Cooper, James
Stewart, Burt Lancaster, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Steve McQueen and
Clint Eastwood, emphasize the values of honor and sacrifice and give fine portrayals of
lonely individuals caught between good and evil. They offer generalized reflections on
most fundamental moral issues. The films often depict conflicts with Native Americans.
The most outstanding westerns include Stagecoach (1939), Fort Apache (1948), Rio
Grande (1950), Winchester ‘73 (1950), High Noon (1952), The Man From Laramie
(1955), Man of the West (1958), Rio Bravo (1959). Westerns from the 1960s and 1970s,
like The Magnificent Seven (1960) or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), often
have more pessimistic view, showing the cynicism, brutality and inequality of the
American West. Some ignore the traditional conventions and seem to glorify anti-heroes
(McCabe and Mrs. Miller, 1971; The Missouri Breaks, 1976), while others directly make
fun of the western code (Blazing Saddles, 1974). 1990s, however, saw the revival of the
genre with such films as Dances with Wolves (1990), Unforgiven (1992) and The Last of
the Mohicans (1992).
The most outstanding American film directors of the Classic Hollywood Era
(1930s–1950s) include John Ford, Howard Hawks and Frank Capra.
John Ford (1894–1973) turned the western film into a moral allegory. His
Stagecoach (1939) is a microcosm of society. The drunken doctor, the outlaw, the woman
from the dance hall, and the gambler all travel in one coach, which is a metaphor of the
human condition. Ford’s greatest achievement was the adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The
Grapes of Wrath (1940), with Henry Fonda. He also made such popular films as: Fort
Apache, Rio Grande and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, with Lee Marvin. Howard
Hawks’s (1896–1977) films did not moralize or sentimentalize. They were excellent
psychological portrayals of heroic individuals, such as Humphrey Bogart and Lauren
Bacall in The Big Sleep (1946) and John Wayne in Red River (1948). Frank Capra (1897–
1991) provided entertainment for adult audiences. He started in Hollywood by writing
silent comedies for Mack Sennett. Later, as an independent director, he made melodramas,
romances and comedies. Capra made a number of films on contemporary social themes,
e.g. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), in which a naive man (played by James
Stewart) is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. His plans collide with political
corruption, but he doesn’t back down. The film was probably one of the earliest pictures to
suggest the government as corrupt. James Stewart’s performance made him a major movie
star.
The greatest classic of American cinema during the war period was Citizen Kane
(1941), with Orson Welles (1915–1985) as both director and actor. The movie
revolutionized the art of cinematic narration. Welles used startling camera angles and
dramatic lighting. For the first time, the movie used accompanying music to reflect the

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shifting moods of the main character. The film shows alienation, degradation and death of
the powerful press magnate, Charles Foster Kane (played by Welles) and is a critique of
the American myth of success.
The American cinema made images of beautiful people popular around the world and
in this way played an important part in the rise of sex symbols. The outstanding actresses
who attained the status of sex symbols in the 1930s were Jean Harlow, Marlene Dietrich
and Greta Garbo. The icons of the 1940s and 50s were Rita Hayworth, Jane Mansfield and
Elizabeth Taylor.
Perhaps the most famous Hollywood star of all time is Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962),
whose real name was Norma Jean Mortensen. During the World War II she worked in a
factory as a parachute packer. She was first photographed at work for a magazine article
about women contributing to the war effort. She soon became a photographer’s model and
started taking drama and singing classes. In 1946 she signed a short-term contract with
Twentieth Century Fox. Four years later she played a small but significant role in The
Asphalt Jungle but it was All About Eve (1950) that made her popular among fans.
Gradually, she achieved the status of a star, appearing in such films as Let’s Make It Legal
(1951), Monkey Business (1952) and Don’t Bother To Knock (1952). In 1953 she played
one of the leads in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How To Marry a Millionaire. Soon she
became internationally famous as an American “love goddess”. She married several times
(the playwright Arthur Miller was her last husband). Her other successful films were film
musical There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954), a rather dramatic piece Bus Stop
(1956), a romantic comedy The Prince and the Show Girl (1957), a comedy Some Like It
Hot (1959), a musical Let’s Make Love (1960) and The Misfits (1961) which combined
elements of comedy, western and psychological drama.
Marilyn Monroe died of an apparent sleeping pills overdose aged 36 at her home in
Beverly Hills. However, revelations that she had an affair with President John Kennedy
and his brother Robert sparked rumors that it was murder, not suicide.
After the war the Golden Age of Hollywood was slowly coming to an end, mostly
because of the television. Hollywood’s glorious past is shown, rather nostalgically, in
Sunset Boulevard directed by Billy Wilder in 1950. The film tells the story of an ageing
star, played by Gloria Swanson, who had lost her celebrity and fame.
The New Hollywood of the late 1950s and 1960s chose to use new methods of
storytelling: scrambled chronology, storylines with surprising, unexpected endings, unclear
distinction between the hero and the villain. One of the most famous films of the 1950s and
a good example of the new direction in Hollywood was a dark film about teenage
violence, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), with James Dean and Natalie Wood.
A new American cinema emerged with the release in 1967 of Arthur Penn’s Bonnie
and Clyde with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Although this film, which was a blend
of comedy, violence, romance, and politics, was attacked by the critics, it became the most
popular film of the year.
The film tells the story of two young and attractive criminals from the Midwest
who during the Depression fall in love, commit robberies and killings, and become
national folk heroes. Their targets are not the common people but the avaricious banks and
the armies of police that protect them.
Other films which were highly rated in the 1960s included The Graduate (1967)
and Midnight Cowboy (1969), both with Dustin Hoffman, and Dennis Hopper’s Easy
Rider (1969), with Peter Fonda.

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 A number of science fiction films caught the imagination of the young generations
between the late 1960a and 1980s. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) dealt
with human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial life. In the
1970s the big box-office hit was another science fiction movie Star Wars (1977), directed
by George Lucas. This film combined sophisticated computerized effects, Dolby stereo
sound, and a fantasy-adventure plot. The science fiction genre continued to be a box-office
success thanks to The Empire Strikes Back (1980) directed by Irvin Kershner, and Richard
Marquand’s The Return of the Jedi (1983).
Terminator (1984), directed by the Canadian James Cameron, begins a new wave
of science fiction films. A seemingly indestructible cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is
sent from the year 2029 on a deadly mission into the past to kill the yet to be born leader of
the future human uprising against the computers’ rule.
A wave of action/adventure films were made particularly for younger audiences in
the 1980s. Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, released in 1982, soon became a
real blockbuster. His other films included Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom (1984), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
The gangster film tradition was continued in the 1970s by Francis Ford Coppola’s
The Godfather (1972), with Marlon Brando, portraying the American mafia; and Roman
Polanski’s Chinatown (1974), with Jack Nicholson. The best gangster film of the 1980s
was perhaps Prizzi’s Honor (1985) directed by John Huston, with Jack Nicholson.
A number of films made during the late 1970s and the 1980s discussed the issues
connected with the war in Vietnam. Michael Cimino’s Deer Hunter (1978), with Robert
De Niro, is a genuine antiwar epic, which presents the lives of three different men who
fought in Vietnam. Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) is loosely based on
Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness and shows horrors of the war. It tells the story
of an American officer sent to the Cambodian jungle to assassinate an American colonel,
played by Marlon Brando, who has turned to cannibalism and murder. The movie is more
concerned with visually representing an idea of war than actually presenting the Vietnam
war itself. In Platoon (1986), Oliver Stone shows the circumstances under which young
American boys become murderers of civilians by fear, confusion or inability to
discriminate between friend and foe. Lionel Chetwynd’s Hanoi Hilton (1987) describes the
situation of American prisoners of war in Vietnam. Barry Levinson’s Good Morning
Vietnam! reveals the complexities of the war. The film shows Robin Williams as an airman
disc jockey who is brought to Saigon in 1965 to boost troop morale. His morning program
on the Armed Forces Network is a mix of jokes, controversial political humor and rock
music, which is loved by the soldiers, but disapproved by his superiors. After experiencing
the horrors of war first-hand, the DJ insists on telling his listeners the truth instead of the
official government line. He is instantly replaced and must struggle to get back on the air.
The 1980s had a number of interesting films of human concern, such as James L.
Brooks’s romantic comedy Terms of Endearment (1983), with Shirley MacLaine and Jack
Nicholson; Sydney Pollack’s romantic epic Out of Africa (1985); and Randa Haines’
Children of a Lesser God (1986), a moving melodrama about a high school teacher who
falls in love with one of his deaf students.
Apart from science fiction and gangster films, comedy has always been one of the
most popular genres in American cinema. The most popular comedy films in the last three
decades of the 20th century were made by Mel Brooks and Woody Allen.
Mel Brook (born in 1927 as Maxilimian Kaminsky of Polish-Jewish parents) is
famous as a creator of film farces and comedy parodies. His comedies, which mix satire

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with slapstick, include Blazing Saddles (1974), a spoof of Western movies; Young
Frankenstein (1975), a parody of the horror genre, and High Anxiety (1977), a comic
version of Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller.
Although Woody Allen’s (b. 1935) films are situated on the margins of mainstream
Hollywood comedy, but they find a dedicated audience both in America and Europe. The
greatest Woody Allen comedies include Take the Money and Run (1969), Annie Hall
(1977), Manhattan (1979), Zelig (1983), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1984). Allen’s
comedies generally reflect the anxieties of affluent and educated urban residents, mostly
artists, would-be artists and yuppies living in New York.
Some of the best Hollywood comedies in the 1980s included films with Eddie
Murphy, e.g. Trading Places (1983), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), and Coming to America
(1988). Tootsie (1982), directed by Sidney Pollack, features Michael Dorsey (Dustin
Hoffman), an unemployed actor, who dresses as a woman, Dorothy Michaels, and receives
the part in a soap opera. The 1990s saw re-emergence of the romantic comedies, such as
When Harry Met Sally (1989), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Pretty Woman (1990), and
American Pie (1999).
A characteristic genre in American cinema is the music film. One of the earliest
musical films was Lights of New York (1928), the first all-talking feature film. The classic
American music films include Top Hat (1935), Swing Time (1936) and Carefree (1938),
with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers; and The Wizard of Oz (1939), with Judy Garland; An
American in Paris (1951) and Singin' in the Rain (1952), with Gene Kelly.
The Blues Brothers, a 1980 music and action comedy directed by John Landis and
starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, has become a cult movie remembered for its wild
car chases and songs from such great guest stars as James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray
Charles and Aretha Franklin. The Blues Brothers themselves sing such hits as “Rawhide”,
“Stand by Your Man”, “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”, and “Sweet Home
Chicago”.
In 1990, Kevin Costner’s directing debut, Dances with Wolves was a huge success
with audiences, critics, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It won
seven Oscars. Other productions from the last decades of the 20th century included such
outstanding movies as Rain Man (1988) with Dustin Hoffman, Forrest Gump (1994) with
Tom Hanks, The English Patient (1996), and the most expensive film ever made, Titanic
(1997), directed by James Cameron, with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
In 1993, Schindler’s List, an extremely well-received biographical film about the
World War II Holocaust, won Steven Spielberg his first Oscars for Best Picture and Best
Director. The film presents Oscar Schindler, a Nazi businessman, who managed to save
1,200 Jews from the extermination by the Nazis between 1941 and 1943.
Regrettably, contemporary American cinema, with a few exceptions, has been
damaged by the concept of the blockbuster, like the box-office hits Robocop, Terminator,
Die Hard, or the Alien series, which can be defined as disposable fireworks displays for the
enjoyment of large and uncritical audiences in multiplex cinemas. These cyberpunk
movies, although technically excellent, have no character development and no complex
storytelling; they mostly show scenes of explosions and car crashes.
An exception to what has been written above is for many viewers the 1999
cyberepic The Matrix and its sequels. The Matrix series are a combination of science
fiction, philosophy, cyberpunk and classical American action movies. The cultural impact
of The Matrix is “near phenomenal”. The critical viewers have found in the Wachowski
brothers’ movies numerous allusions to the Bible and Buddha, William Gibson’s novel

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Neuromancer, cybernetics and higher mathematics, Hong Kong action films and Japanese
anime. The Matrix released the adrenaline of millions of moviegoers, but it also caught the
angry attention of the moral watchdogs when the fatal shootings at Columbine High
School occurred a few weeks after the movie’s opening, and it appeared that the two
teenage perpetrators had seen the film and were even wearing trench coats like the
protagonists of the movie.
Very few contemporary films, however, have the cultural importance of the past
masterpieces. Cyberpunk movies usually deal with the life of people in a world dominated
by high-tech. They usually show a system in which an oppressive government, a
corporation or some fundamentalist religion destroys the lives of ordinary people.
Some of the best-made and thought-provoking American films at the turn of the
20th century were Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994), with John Travolta, a sort of
gangster comedy consisting of three interconnected stories that take place in the present-
day Los Angeles. Sam Mendes’ American Beauty (1999), with Kevin Spacey, is a social
satire on a modern version of the American Dream – a happy suburban life, which turns
into a nightmare. Rob Marshall’s Chicago (2002), with Richard Gere and Catherine Zeta-
Jones, is a movie musical with a sensational plot set in the roaring 1920s. Stephen Daldry’s
The Hours (2002) describes three women living in three different decades of the 20th
century whose lives are connected by Virginia Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway. The first of
the stories begins with Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman), who fights a severe depression
while working on her famous novel. The second story shows Laura Brown (Julianne
Moore) in Los Angeles shortly after World War II, who unsuccessfully tries to find some
meaning to her life, and while she reads Mrs. Dalloway she feels empathy with its main
character. The final story takes place in modern day New York City and shows Clarissa
Vaughan (Meryl Streep), who resembles in a way Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.
The most popular American movie stars at the beginning of the new millennium
included many actresses and actors of the older generation, e.g. Meryl Streep, Jack
Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Harrison Ford, and an increasing number of
younger actresses and actors, such as Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Jodie Foster,
Nicole Kidman, Kevin Spacey or Leonardo DiCaprio.

The Academy Awards, known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence in the film industry, including
directors, actors, and writers.
The following are Best Picture Awards in the last 10 years.

1998 Titanic
1999 Shakespeare in Love
2000 American Beauty 4
2001 Gladiator
2002 A Beautiful Mind
2003 Chicago
2004 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2005 Million Dollar Baby
2006 Crash
2007 The Departed 3
2008 No Country for Old Men

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Test your knowledge
1. What are the most popular comedies with Charlie Chaplin?
2. Who were the most famous actors in gangster films?
3. What are the best films starring Marilyn Monroe?
4. Name some of the most popular characters in Walt Disney’s films.
5. Name a few most outstanding recent American films.

Glossary

assassinate – kill
blockbuster (przebój)
(to) bootleg – to sell alcoholic liquor illegally (handlowa nielegalnie alkoholem)
(to) boost – to increase; raise (podwy sza , podnosi , reklamowa )
celebrity – a famous person (s awa, znakomito )
dystopia – an imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as
from deprivation, oppression, or terror; a work describing such a place or state
(dystopia)
larceny – the unlawful taking and removing of another’s personal property with the intent
of permanently depriving the owner; theft (kradzie , zabór, zagarni cie)
peritonitis – inflammation of the peritoneal cavity (zapalenie otrzewnej).

Useful websites

Greatest Films – specializing in US film, greatest movie lists.

Hollywood.com - movie news, trailers, reviews, promos & celebrity info.
Internet Movie Database - huge movie database, photo galleries & movie news.

Further reading
Ashton, Dave. American Art. Since 1945, 1982.
Bigsby, C. W. E. Modern American Drama, 1945-2000, 2000.
Bode, Carl. Highlights of American Literature, 1985.
Bradley, Sculley, ed. The American Tradition in Literature, 1981.
Conn, Peter. Literature in America. An Illustrated History, 1989.
Gottesman, Ronald, et al. (eds.). The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 2000
Gridley, Mac, C. Jazz Styles. History and Analysis, 1988.
Hugh, Peter, B. An Outline of American Literature, 1991.
Kopcewicz, Zbigniew and Marta Sienicka. Historia literatury Stanów Zjednoczonych w
zarysie, 1982.
Lomax, Alan. The Land Where the Blues Began, 1993.
Myers, Jack and David Wojahn, eds. A Profile of Twentieth-Century American Poetry, 1991.
Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey, ed. The Oxford History of World Cinema,1997.
Priestly, Brian. Jazz On Record: A History, 1991.
Salska, Agnieszka (ed.), Historia literatury ameryka skiej XX wieku, 2004.
Shuker, Roy. Popular Music: The Key Concepts, 2002
Sklar, Robert. Movie-Made America. A Cultural History of American Movies, 1976.

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Staples, Donald, ed. The American Cinema, 1991.
Tirro, Frank. Jazz: A History, 1993.
USIA: American Theater,1990.
Weissman, Dick. Blues: The Basics,2004.
Williams, Linda Ruth. Contemporary American Cinema (Open University Press,
Maidenhead,
2006.

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 MORE TESTS AND TASKS

TRUE OR FALSE
Carefully read each statement. If the statement is true according to information in the book,
write T after it, if it is false, write F. Try to give reasons why a statement is false.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE TEST

Identify the occupation of the following notable Americans

Name Writer Painter/ Film Composer Architect

sculptor director
Herman Melville
Henry James
George Gershwin
Bob Dylan
Edward Hopper
Andy Warhol
Humphrey Bogart
Ella Fitzgerald
Duke Ellington
Frank Lloyd Wright
T.S. Eliot
Francis Ford Coppola
John Cage
R. Frost
William Gibson
I.M. Pei
Woody Allen
Truman Capote
John Dos Passos
Jackson Pollock

MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST (AMERICAN LITERATURE)

Complete the sentences below, choosing one of three possibilities: a, b, or c.

1. Who wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry ?

a) James Fenimore Cooper b) Herman Melville c) Mark Twain

2. A nineteenth-century writer known for his Romantic poetry and macabre stories is
a) Washington Irving b) James Fenimore Cooper c) Edgar Allan Poe

3. Who was Emily Dickinson?

a) a nineteenth-century novelist who explored her inner experience
b) a nineteenth-century poet who celebrated his native country as a land of great promise
and

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 enormous potential
c) a twentieth-century poet who experimented with unusual stanza forms

4. What is transcendentalism?
a) movement led by Benjamin Franklin that stressed the importance of reason in human
life
b) a movement led by Jonathan Edwards that called for a return to strict Calvinism
c) a movement led by Ralph Waldo Emerson that stressed the divinity of man

5. Eugene O’Neill is the author of

a) Mourning Becomes Electra b) The Catch 22 c) Slaughterhouse-Five

6. What is the major theme of Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town?

a) life of Native Americans
b) life in an American small town
c) life of blacks in the South

7. One of the major themes of The Great Gatsby is

a) the corruption of American innocence through the pursuit of wealth
b) the prejudices and injustices of Americans toward American Blacks
c) the loss of religious faith

8. Who wrote the lines:

“The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.”

a) Ezra Pound b) T.S. Eliot c) Robert Frost

9. Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, and Carson McCullers are all

a) poets who focused on the struggle for female autonmy

b) novelists who wrote on life in New York
c) novelists who wrote about the American South

10. What do Ray Bradbury, Ursula Le Guin, Samuel R. Delaney and William Gibson have in
common?

a) They are American modernist poets.

b) They are all writers of science fiction.
c) They all write about animals.

11. The following novel was NOT written by Henry James

a) The Portrait of a Lady b) The Ambassadors c) The Age of Innocence

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12.The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald evokes the atmosphere of
a) The Twenties b) The Thirties c) The Gold Rush

13. For Whom the Bell Tolls was written by

a) Truman Capote b) John Steinbeck c) Ernest Hemingway

14. Walt Whitman’s poem “O Captain, My Captain” is an elegy on the death of

a) George Washington b) Abraham Lincoln c) Franklin D. Roosevelt

15. The following poet did NOT write Imagist poetry

a) Ezra Pound b) Hilda Doolittle c) Allen Ginsberg

AMERICAN CINEMA TEST

Match the names of popular American actors and actresses with films in which they
appeared.

1. Charlie Chaplin 1. The Deer Hunter

2. Al Jonson 2. The Gold Rush
3. Robert de Niro 3. The Jazz Singer
4. Marx Brothers 4. The Grapes of Wrath
5. Marlene Dietrich 5. Gone With the Wind
6. Humphrey Bogart 6. Rebel Without a Cause
7. Henry Fonda 7. Bonnie and Clyde
8.Gloria Swanson 8. The Graduate
9. Clark Gable 9. Citizen Kane
10. Marilyn Monroe 10. Easy Rider
11. James Dean 11. A Night at Opera
12. Orson Welles 12. The Titanic
13. Dustin Hoffman 13. Casablanca
14. Marlon Brando 14. Sunset Boulevard
15. Peter Fonda 15. Terminator]
16. Arnold Schwarzenegger 16. The Blue Angel
17. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty 17. Forrest Gump
18. Eddie Murphy 18. Beverly Hills Cop
19. Tom Hanks 19. The Godfather
20. Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio 20. Some Like It Hot.

AMERICAN POP MUSIC TEST

Match the names of popular American singers with songs they sang.

1. Chuck Berry 1. “We Shall Overcome”

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2. Bill Haley 2. “Bad”
3. Janis Joplin 3. Simon & Garfunkel
4. Bob Dylan 4. “Baby One More Time”
5. Joan Baez 5. “Mrs. Robinson”
6. Bruce Springsteen 6. “Me and Bobby McGee
7. Michael Jackson 7. “Blowin’ in the Wind”
8. Madonna 8. “Born in the U.S.A”
9. Jessica Simpson 9. “Roll Over Beethoven”
10. Britney Spears 9. “I Wanna Love You Forever”

FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION

Search the Internet and available books and prepare yourself for a class discussion on one
of the following topics:
1. Speak about a notable American writer and his work.
2. Speak about a well-known American film director and his work.
3. Speak about a well-known American performer (singer).

PROJECT
Prepare a presentation on one of the following topics:
1. Some of the recent developments on the U.S. pop scene.
2. Hollywood.
3. American musical

EXPRESS YOUR OPINION

Which areas of American culture are interested in and why?

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 Chapter 8

Lifestyles, sports and recreation

1. Lifestyles

1.1. Individualism, competition and privacy

Although the United States is diversified geographically, ethnically and culturally, it seems
that most Americans share a number of common characteristics, such as an activist
approach to life, emphasis on achievement and success, love of freedom and democracy, a
high esteem of individual rights, self-reliance, an egalitarian view of social relations,
patriotism, nationalism, enthusiasm and vigor in undertaking new ventures. There are a
number of stereotypes about the average American which are neither totally true nor false
but may throw some light on the opinions and beliefs held by foreigners about Americans.
For example, many foreigners would say that Americans have a passion for large sizes
reflected in their cars, homes, offices, long cigars, etc.
Americans seem to be devoted to the idea of freedom and individuality. They see
themselves as separate individuals responsible for their situation in life. Family and school
emphasize self-reliance and initiative. This means that people must be prepared to make
their own way in life. Self-control, self-confidence, self-fulfillment and self-improvement
seem to be central to the American way of life. Unrelenting competition affects almost
every aspect of life. Americans generally believe that the ideal person is an autonomous,
self-reliant individual.
One of the most striking features of the American way of life is a high degree of
informality. Foreigners usually see Americans as open, frank and friendly. America never
had a hereditary aristocracy and many traditional class barriers do not exist in the U.S.
Still, it would be untrue to claim that America is a classless society, and the lack of pre-
determined status gives rise to excessive competitiveness.
Americans address one another by their first names more readily than any other
nation. Another feature is casual behavior in everyday situations. Americans tend to be
friendly and have a strong sense of community and neighborliness. However, like the
British, they have a high regard for privacy. Privacy is viewed as a certain area of personal
life in which the state as well as individual people should not have right to intrude. The
concept of privacy reflects a fundamental human right of the individual to be protected
against unlawful intrusion into his or her personal life or affairs, or those of his or her
family. It is interesting to note that this term does not exist in many other languages. It
denotes not only the state of being alone but also the right to keep one’s personal matters to
oneself.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the most characteristic values shared by Americans?
2. Why do think Americans have a high regard for privacy?

Glossary
competition – rivarly (konkurencja, rywalizacja)

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competitiveness – willingness to compete (konkurencyjno )
hereditary – transmitted from parent to child (dziedziczny)
pre-determined – to determine or decide something in advance (okre lony z góry)
self-confidence – confidence in oneself (wiara w siebie)
self-fulfillment – self-realization (samorealizacja; spe nienie swoich zamierze )
self-reliance – reliance on one’s own capabilities (poleganie na sobie samym;
niezale no ;
samodzielno )
unreleting – uncompromising, unyielding (nieub agany, nieustaj cy)
venture – undertaking (przedsi wzi cie)

1.2. Work and family life

The lives of most Americans usually center around work and home. The average American
changes his/her job about ten times during his/her working life. People are constantly
seeking better opportunities as well as professional advancement. The average working
week is about forty hours, but many people work extra hours or overtime. Therefore, a
family usually meets late in the evening for dinner. In the United States, the term “family”
usually refers to the “nuclear” family, i.e. father, mother and children; grandparents, aunts,
uncles and aunts are usually called “relatives”. The most common type of family now in
the U.S. is one with both parents working outside the home. More and more American
women with young children work professionally. Of course, there are also other types of
family, such as an unmarried woman living with her children (single parent family) or
“blended family”, composed of a man, a woman and their children from previous
marriages. The majority of families prefer to live in a single house.
There is usually very little time for an American family just to sit and do nothing at
home. Americans, especially young ones, spend more time exercising. A little over one out
of five adults exercise on a regular basis. They also spend more time grooming. The
average American male takes fifty-one minutes to get showered, dressed and groomed.
Surprisingly, the average American woman takes only slightly longer: fifty-five minutes.
Americans spend more time on activities that they enjoy. On average, they spend nearly
three hours per day on entertainment at home or away from home. Both men and women
spend less time in the cooking business. In the late 1990s, the average woman spent forty-
five minutes per day preparing meals. By contrast, the average man spent only thirteen
minutes per day in the kitchen. Likewise, they spend less time on household chores.
Grocery shopping is usually done only once a week at the local supermarket. Food
and other commodities are paid for by check or credit card, so Americans need to carry
very little cash. Many teenagers work in their free time in order to earn extra money and
gain work experience of use in their future life.

Test your knowledge

1. How often does the average American change his or her job in a lifetime?
2. What does the term “family” usually refer to in the U.S.?
3. How much time does it take for the average American man and woman to get
showered, dressed and groomed?

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 Glossary
advancement – an improvement, progress (rozwój, awans)
cash – money in the form of bills or coins; currency (gotówka)
chores – daily or routine domestic tasks (domowe porz dki)
(to) groom – to care for the appearance of; to make neat (piel gnacja cia a)
likewise – in the same way; similarly (podobnie, ponadto)

2. Social customs and conventions

2.1. Greetings

American greetings are generally quite informal and lack hierarchical distinctions.
This informality is not intended to show lack of respect, but rather is a manifestation of the
American belief that everyone is equal. Although it is expected in business situations,
some Americans do not shake hands at social events. Instead, they may greet you with a
casual Hello or How are you? or even just Hi. In larger groups, many may not greet you at
all. In social situations, Americans rarely shake hands upon leaving.
The only proper answers to the standard greetings of How do you do? How are
you? or How are you doing? are the standardized responses of Fine, Great, or Very well,
thank you. The greeting query is not a request for information about your well-being; it is
simply a pleasantry. Similarly, See you later is just an expression; people say this even if
they never plan to see you again. When saying good-bye, Americans may say We’ll have
to get together or Let’s have lunch. Again, this is simply a friendly gesture; unless your
American colleague specifies a time and date, do not expect an invitation. Handshakes are
usually brief. Eye contact and smile is important when shaking someone’s hand .

2.2. Social conversations

Social conversation in the United States is light. There is a standard format for
small talk. People ask brief questions and expect brief answers. Usual topics can be the
weather, sports and other non controversy-causing topics. What do you do? is a typical
question on meeting. Americans become uncomfortable when one person talks for any
length of time in a social situation. If you feel uncomfortable with a question asked of you,
simply smile and say: In my country, that would be a strange question.
You should be careful when expressing ideas about race, religion or other sensitive
topics. The United States is a multi-cultural society. Talking about sensitive topics is often
avoided in order to be sure not to offend someone of a different belief system. This attitude
is often referred to as being “politically correct”.

2.3. Friendships, socializing and dating

Friendships among Americans tend to be shorter and less intense than those among
people from many other cultures. Americans tend to compartmentalize their friendships,
having one set of friends at work, another set of friends at school, and so on. The result of
this is sometimes viewed by foreigners as an inability of Americans to make friends. Other
times it is seen by outsiders as the only practical way to retain happiness in a mobile, ever-
changing society. Basically, honesty about what you feel towards a friend promotes open

235
communication between the two of you, leading to a better understanding of the two of
you, leading to a better understanding of your relationship.
Foreign visitors are often surprised at the informality between couples in the United
States. It is common for couples go out for an evening to a bar, movie, play, concert, etc.
Whether a man or woman offers the invitation, each may pay his or her own way, or one
may pay for both. It is always important that who is paying is clearly spelled out
beforehand to avoid confusion or resentment.
Dating relationships in the United States may be Platonic friendships, strong
emotional and physical commitments, or something between the two extremes. Again, the
important thing is to be open and honest about your feelings and intentions, in order to
avoid unnecessary misunderstandings or discomfort.
Dating does not presume a sexual involvement or a long-term emotional
commitment. In practical terms, a date implies nothing more than an agreement to meet at
a specified time and place for a specified purpose. On the other hand, dating can often lead
to a lasting relationship.
It should be remembered that American women are leaders in all aspects of
American life from business to education and government, which means that they are
independent. They will not appreciate any “special help” offered because of their gender.
Do not assume that a woman needs more time or more help than a man doing the same job.
When addressing a woman in a letter, use the neutral title “Ms” unless you know that she
prefers “Mrs” or “Miss”. Many women keep their maiden names after marriage. Some use
both their maiden and married names.
When going to dinner or lunch, the person who invites pays, whether it is a man or
a woman. Do not touch a woman in a business setting except to shake her hand. Hugging
and kissing, even of people you know very well, is best left for social occasions. Polish
style handkissing is seen as rather strange.

2.4. Culture shock

Culture shock is the feeling of disorientation or confusion that can occur when a
person leaves a familiar place and moves to an unfamiliar one. You may experience such a
culture shock when staying in the USA for the first time. Take into consideration a few
helpful hints how you should behave in a new cultural environment.
1. It is considered rude to stare at a person for a prolonged time, to ask questions
about or to otherwise bring attention to someone’s appearance, financial status,
private life or disability.
2. Smoking is very unpopular in the United States. Restaurants have separate smoking
and nonsmoking sections. Public and private buildings may ban smoking except in
designated areas. Some people do not allow smoking in their homes and will ask
you to go outside if you want to have a cigarette. Never smoke anywhere without
asking permission from everyone present.
3. Please and thank you are very important formulas of politeness in the United States.
Say please and thank you to everyone for even the smallest kindness. Americans
say them regardless of rank or how much they are paying for something, and they
expect others to do the same.
4. Say Pardon me or Excuse me if you touch someone or even get close to someone.
Americans also say this if they sneeze (they often say the German Gesundheit) or
cough or do not understand something someone has said.

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 5. Keep your distance when talking to someone. If an American feels you are standing
too close, he or she may step back without even thinking about it.
6. Remember that Americans smile a great deal, even at strangers. They expect to
have their smiles returned.
7. Americans prefer directness in communication. When Americans say yes or no,
they mean precisely that. Maybe really does mean it might happen; it does not
mean no. A polite way of saying no is I don’t think so.
8. It is always proper to ask questions if you do not understand something. Americans
like to ask questions, and they are not ashamed to admit what they do not know.
Americans will assume you understand something if you do not tell them
otherwise.
9. Americans place considerable value on punctuality. Since Americans are so time-
conscious, the pace of life may seem very rushed. In the United States, people
make great effort to arrive on time. It is often considered impolite to arrive even a
few minutes late. If you are unable to keep an appointment, it is expected that you
call the person you are meeting.
10. Social contact is not usually spontaneous. Showing up at someone’s door to
socialize without first having called to make an appointment is a big social mistake.

Excerpted and modified from Put Your Best Foot Forward, USA:
A Fearless Guide to Understanding the United States of America by Mary Murray
Bosrock, 2001.

Test your knowledge

1. What is culture shock?
2. How do Americans behave conventionally in social situations (greetings, getting
acquainted, going to a restaurant)?

Glossary
beforehand – in advance (najpierw; uprzednio)
casual – occasional (przypadkowy, dora ny)
commitment – the state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to something or
somebody (zaanga owanie)
(to) compartmentalize – to separate into distinct parts, (dzieli na kawa ki)
politically correct – one who deliberately avoids giving offense, e.g. on the basis of ethnic
origin or sexual orientation (politycznie poprawny)
(to) presume – to suppose (zak ada , mniema )
sensitive topic – controversial topic (delikatny temat)
relationship – an emotional involvement with another person (zwi zek)

2.5. American holidays

Officially, there are no national holidays in the United States, except for 4 July
(Independence Day). Each state has its own public holidays. Generally, the following
holidays are observed by most of the states: New Year’s Day (1 January); Martin Luther

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King’s Birthday (third Monday in January); Washington’s Birthday or President’s Day
(third Monday in February); Memorial Day (last Monday in May); Labor Day (first
Monday in September); Columbus Day (second Monday in October); Veteran’s Day (11
November); Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November); Christmas Day (25
December); New Year’s Eve (31 December).
There are also many traditional holidays observed by a large number of Americans
which are unofficial, e.g. Groundhog Day (2 February); St Valentine’s Day (14 February);
Easter Sunday; Arbor Day (tree-planting day on the last Friday in April); St. Patrick’s Day
(17 March); Mother’s Day (14 May); General Pulaski Memorial Day (11 October);
Halloween (the last day of October).
As in Britain, on the Valentine’s Day Americans send cards with hearts on them or
give symbolic gifts to people they love.
President’s Day is celebrated in schools, colleges and private homes. Talks are
given about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other great American presidents.
Easter is a day of worship and family gatherings. Many people follow the old
tradition of dyeing hard-boiled eggs.
Memorial Day is devoted particularly to those who lost their lives in wars.
Independence Day is a big national holiday. Most cities have parades with bands,
flags and fireworks. Many people have outdoor parties with hot dogs, barbecued meats and
hamburgers, and they play volleyball or softball.
Halloween has a special significance for children, who dress in funny or ghostly
costumes and knock at neighborhood doors. After shouting “Trick or Treat!” they are
given gifts of candy or money. American Halloween follows Celtic pagan rather than
Christian traditions of All the Hallow’s Eve.
Veterans’ Day is celebrated by special memorial services, dinners and speeches in
honor of surviving servicemen and women.
Thanksgiving Day is a family holiday. The tradition goes back to the 17th century
when the Pilgrims, the first English settlers, thanked God for a bountiful harvest, and they
seemed to have imitated the Green Corn ceremony of thanksgiving of the Northeast
Indians. Today, traditional foods are prepared, e.g. roast turkey with chestnut stuffing,
cranberry sauce and corn dishes, peas and carrots, hot corn bread, pumpkin pie, apple
cider, etc. Charitable organizations provide food or serve dinners for the poor.
Thanksgiving parades are held in many cities. Attendance at religious services is common.
Christmas Day is the most important religious holiday for Christians. Most shops
are closed on this day. Many businesses give their employees a special Christmas “bonus”
(extra money) to show appreciation for their work. Christmas shopping is a major activity
after Thanksgiving is over. On Christmas Eve many people go to church and sing carols.
Children are told that Santa Claus will come to their house with presents for them. They
usually hang a big sock on the mantle of the fireplace. Gifts on Christmas Day are given to
children, members of the family and friends. Most Americans send greeting cards to their
friends and relatives who live far away. Most families who observe the festival have a
Christmas tree in their homes. The tree – a real or artificial one – is decorated with small
electric lights and colorful ornaments. Other decorations such as lights and wreaths of
holly or evergreen and signs wishing a “Merry Christmas” can be found inside and outside
many homes. Christmas dinner traditionally consists of roast turkey or ham, with
vegetables, salad and desserts, especially fruitcake.
New Year’s Day has a secular tradition. On New Year’s Eve Americans usually
gather in homes or restaurants in order to enjoy good food and drink, and to wish each

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other a happy and prosperous new year. In New York City, a lot of people traditionally
gather in Times Square. At midnight people sing the old Scottish song “Auld Lang Syne”.
On New Year’s Day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, people wearing unusual costumes
parade through the city with musical bands. It should be noted that Americans do not
celebrate New Year’s Eve until dawn, as it often happens in Poland. They head home
about 2 or 3 am at the latest.

Test your knowledge

1. Are there any official national holidays in the U.S.A.?
2. Which holidays are generally observed in most states?
3. How is Thanksgiving Day celebrated?
4. How is Christmas celebrated?
5. What ethnic holidays are observed in the U.S.A.?

Glossary
appreciation – a judgment or opinion, especially a favorable one (uznanie, ocena)
(to) dye – to color (a material), especially by soaking in a coloring solution (farbowa ,
barwi )
bountiful – plentiful (obfity, hojny)
holly – a small tree or shrub with stiff, glossy, sharp-pointed leaves and clusters of bright-
red
berries (ostrokrzew)
thanksgiving – an act of giving thanks; an expression of gratitude, especially to God
(dzi kczynienie)
wreath – a ring of flowers (wieniec, wianek)

2.6. Picnics and outings

Americans love picnics and outings. A picnic is usually a family outing to the
woods or picnic grove. However, it may also be an organized event attended by several
hundred people, who go to a lake or river to have lunch there. Picnic meals include
barbecued ribs or chicken, grilled steaks, hamburgers, frankfurters (hot dogs) and roast
corn, salad, chips, fruit and juice. Children like to roast marshmallows (a spongy white
confection) over a fire. Usually games and sporting competitions are held for people of all
ages. Children take part in watermelon-eating contests holding their hands behind their
backs. A pie-eating contest is similar. The contestants look pretty messy by the time the
game is over. Adults prefer softball games or the beer tent.

Test your knowledge

1. What is a picnic?
2. What messy games are played by children during picnic parties?
3. What meals are eaten at picnics?

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2.7. Ethnic festivals
The United States is a multiethnic nation and therefore a number of ethnic festivals
are held throughout the country. The most popular include Mexican fiestas, Italian festas,
Afro-American nights, Irish and Scottish parades, Polish, Ukrainian, Slovak and Hungarian
festivals, German Fests and many others. Of course, as cultures blend, you should not be
surprised to see Italian pizza and Mexican tacos being served along with kielbasa and
kishka at an annual Polish festival in Chicago or New York City.
One of the most popular ethnic festivals in the United States is Mardi Gras which
takes place before Lent in New Orleans, Louisiana, with a huge parade and feast. It lasts
almost two weeks and is known as the “biggest free show on earth”. The participants dress
up in costumes for these events and enjoy this celebration by going to public parades. They
also have private celebrations or masquerade balls held by clubs called krewes. The official
colours of Carnival are purple, green and gold, chosen in 1872 by that year’s Rex. The
colors have meaning: purple stands for justice, green for faith and gold for power. King
Cakes are eaten during this holiday. Fiesta San Antonio is a joyful nine-day citywide
celebration, which includes exciting carnivals, spectacular sports, fantastic fire-works,
lively entertainment, ethnic feasts, art exhibits and sparkling parades that glide down San
Antonio’s River Walk and streets. St. Patrick’s Day (17 March) is a holiday for people of
Irish descent. San Gennaro’s Day and St. Paulinus’ Day are celebrated by the Italian
community in New York City. The traditional Chinese New Year’s Day is celebrated in
the Chinatown districts of New York City and San Francisco. Polish Americans celebrate
Pulaski’s Day on 11 October and czki Day before Lent.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the most popular ethnic festivals?
2. Why is it possible to eat pizza or tacos at a Polish ethnic festival?
3. Mention a few ethnic festivals in the U.S.

Glossary
confection – sweets (s odycze)
Lent – the 40 weekdays from Ash Wednesday until Easter observed by Christians as a
season
of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter (Post)
marshmallow – a light, spongy, very sweet confection made of corn syrup, gelatin, sugar,
and starch and dusted with powdered sugar (s odkie pianki do jedzenia)
ribs – a cut of meat having one or more ribs ( eberka)

2.8. High school ceremonies

One of the most popular traditions of the autumn is Homecoming which takes place
in many schools and colleges, bringing together old graduates (“alumni”) and present
students as well as their parents for parties, dances and dinners.
In the spring, junior and senior high school students organize a special dance called
a prom. It is an expensive affair with formal clothes, rented cars, etc. The prom is an iconic
event in American schools. Along with high school graduation, the prom is often heralded
as one of the most important experiences in high school. Young people’s parents spend an

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unreasonably high amount of money on their child’s prom. One prom website estimated
that an average of $800 per person is spent in going to the prom.
At the end of the school year a graduation day ceremony is held at which each
student wears a traditional cap and gown. After speeches, students are presented with their
high school diplomas.

Test your knowledge

1. What does “Homecoming” mean?
2. Compare a “prom” with a similar Polish high school ceremony.

2.9. Birthdays
In the US, birthdays are important celebrations for both children and adults. For
adults, the special birthdays are the eighteen, then the twenty-first, the thirtieth and fortieth.
Birthday cards are often sent to friends or relatives on these occasions. At birthday parties
a cake is usually served with the same number of candles as the person’s age. The birthday
“boy” or “girl” makes a wish and then blows out all the candles. If a person blows out all
the candles in one breath, the wish they make is supposed to come true. There is no such
practice as “Name Day” of “Saint’s Day” in Poland. The birthday person does not prepare
food or prepare the party – in fact, it is often a surprise party.

Test your knowledge

1. Which birthdays have a particular significance?
2. Who is the birthday “boy” or “girl”?

For study and discussion

1. List a few customs and habits which are particularly characteristic of American
culture.

Glossary
graduation day ceremony – a ceremony at which high school diplomas are conferred
(ceremonia rozdania wiadectw maturalnych )
high school diploma – a diploma awarded for the completion of high school in the United
States and Canada ( wiadectwo maturalne)
homecoming – an annual event at schools, colleges, and universities for visiting graduates
(zjazd absolwentów)
prom – a formal dance held for a high-school or college class typically at or near the end of
the academic year (bal uczniowki na zako czenie roku szkolnego)

3. Food and Meals

Most Americans have breakfast between 7.00 and 9.00 am, lunch at noon or
thereabouts, and dinner between 6.00 and 7.00 pm. On Sundays many people have
“brunch”, a leisurely combination of breakfast and lunch. The popular opinion outside the
United States is that most Americans live on cheeseburgers, French fries (chips in BrE)

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and cola. This is not true, of course, although it was the Americans who invented fast food,
now more often called “junk food”. American food is a mixture of many national traditions
– British, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, etc. In America you can eat food from all over the
world. “Tex-Mex” food is popular in the Southwest. In Texas, New Mexico or California,
apart from the traditional American brunch, you can have Mexican enchiladas, Japanese
sushi or Italian lasagna.
For breakfast Americans often eat simple hot or cold cereal served with milk and
then have a cup of coffee or tea to go with it. A brunch may include eggs and bacon or
ham, pancakes, or omelet, toasted bread or sweet rolls, tea or coffee, and/or juice.
American lunch is not like Polish obiad, which is the main meal of the day for Poles and is
usually a hot “sit-down” meal. Instead American lunch is far more casual and incidental. It
could be fast food from a chain, or any sort of food that might be served at dinner, or it is
often a “brown bag” lunch eaten at work or school with ingredients such as a simple
sandwich and a bit of fruit, for instance.
It is hard to typify an American dinner as it could be just about anything depending
on the region one lives in, the ethnic background of the diners, their socio-economic level,
religion, etc. Traditionally, an American dinner was considered to be the same as what was
typical in Anglo-Saxon times, specifically a roasted meat served hot and salted, a
vegetable, some bread, a cold beverage with the meal and a hot beverage after the meal. In
some respects this classification still applies in the US, although rather much less than it
used to.
A dip is one of several dishes served before a party. Cheese, sour cream, yoghurt,
pureed vegetables, and crab meat are used to make dips accompanied by crackers, potato
or corn chips and vegetables. Two popular dips in the US are Mexican in origin:
guacamole (made from avocados) and salsa (made from tomatoes). The most popular,
onion dip, is made of dried onion soup and sour cream, and is often served with potato
chips to scoop up the dip.
Apple pie has been a favorite dessert in America for centuries. It is not to be
confused with Polish szarlotka which is drier and less sweet. Apples and apple seeds were
brought to America by European settlers in the 17th century. The first apple orchard is
believed to have been planted by William Blaxton in Massachusetts. Apple pie with cheese
or garnished with vanilla ice-cream is a popular dish.
Another popular American snack is popcorn served with salt and melted butter.
Frankfurters (thin sausages) were introduced to America by Antoine Feuchtwanger,
an immigrant from Frankfurt, Germany in the 1880s. Frankfurters grilled and served on a
warmed roll with mustard and/or ketchup are a popular fast food not only in America but
all over the world. In 1906, frankfurters were nicknamed hot dogs by a cartoonist named
Tad Dorgan who thought that they looked like dachshunds.
Hamburgers have been eaten in America since the 1890s. They are broiled chopped
beef patties served with onions, mustard, ketchup, pickles or tomatoes and placed on a bun
to facilitate eating by hand. The famous “golden arches” of the McDonald’s hamburger
restaurant chain can now be seen in every city in the US and overseas.

Amazing facts
1. At fast food restaurants, you would be asked if the food is for “Here” or
“To Go”. “Here” means to have it on the premises, and “To Go” means
packed/parceled.
2. When you want a drink without ice, say “No Ice”, and not “Without

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 Ice”.

Fast-food “eateries”, or restaurants, have been popular in the United States for
about forty years. McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Wendy’s, Hardee’s, TGI Friday’s
and Planet Hollywood specialize in fast food: hamburgers, hot dogs, pizzas, colas and
cokes. Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola are now the most popular non-alcoholic drinks in the
U.S. and elsewhere. Other famous fast-food restaurant chains include Colonel Sander’s
Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell (Mexican food), Dunkin Donuts (doughnuts) and
Arby’s (a delicious roast-beef sandwich laced with creamy horseradish sauce). There is
also a growing number of self-service salad bars in many fast-food restaurants, where
customers can design their own salad mixture with various toppings and sauces.
Americans eat a lot of ethnic food, e.g. Chinese, Korean, Greek, Mexican, Italian,
Polish, etc. Greek food is represented by moussaka (a dish of eggplant, meat and cheese),
and baklava (a dessert of thin, flaky layers of pastry, honey and nuts). Italian food includes
pizza and spaghetti; Mexican – tacos, i.e. thin, flat, round cakes of cornmeal (tortillas)
filled with meat, cheese, sauce and lettuce. New Orleans is famous for its Cajun cooking.
Gulf shrimp and fresh oysters are popular seafoods. Shrimp, spices and rice are used to
make jambalaya.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the most popular fast-food dishes?
2. What ethnic foods are popular in the United States?
3. What is Tex-Mex?
4. What is a dip?
5. What is a frankfurter?
6. What are the most popular fast-food restaurants and what do they serve?

Glossary
dip – tasty mixture or liquid into which bite-sized foods are
dipped (rodzaj sosu)
flaky – made of or resembling flakes (p atkowy)
garnish – (ozdabia , garnirowa )
ingredient – an element in a mixture (sk adnik)
jambalaya (potrawa z ry u z krewetkami lub drobiem)
(to) scoop – to take up (czerpa )

4. Entertainment
When it comes to the diffusion of entertainment, Americans are unbeatable and
have thereby projected their popular culture all over the world. It can be considered by
some a form of cultural imperialism. American movies dominate cinema and television
screens all over the world. Some American people watch TV for as much as twenty-five
hours a week or even more. This passive recreation and fast food combined with the use of

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cars instead of feet have made every second American overweight and every tenth person
obese.
There are plenty of opportunities for people seeking entertainment in the big cities.
The theatres on Broadway offer popular musicals and shows. In California, Disneyland is a
magnificent entertainment park for children. In Florida, Disney World is the biggest
amusement park in the world, larger than Manhattan Island. Its main attractions are the
Magic Kingdom, where you can meet characters from Disney’s films; Cinderella’s Castle;
Main Street, a faithful replica of a 19th-century street; Space Mountain in Tomorrowland;
Adventureland; Frontierland; Liberty Square and Fantasyland.
County fairs are the oldest types of popular entertainment which usually take place
once a year in a county town. Fiddle music usually accompanies square dancing, a
traditional form of American dance. Another form of entertainment is the outdoor concert.
Each summer, the New York Philharmonic performs free outdoor concerts in New York
City’s Central Park. Traditional folk music can be heard live in the Grand Ole Opry in
Nashville, Tennessee. Grand Ole Opry is the oldest continuing radio program in the United
States devoted to country music. It has been broadcast on WSM radio in Nashville,
Tennessee, since 28 November, 1925.

Test your knowledge

1. What entertainment does Broadway offer?
2. Where is Disneyland?
3. Where is Disney World?
4. What can be heard in the Grand Ole Opry?

Glossary
fiddle – a violin (skrzypce)
obese – excessively fat (oty y)
overweight – more weight than is normal (maj cy nadwag ; nadwaga)
square dance – a dance performed by sets of four couples facing one another in a square. It
evolved in the U.S.A. from popular ballroom dances of French origin such as the
quadrille
(kadryl)

Amazing facts

1. On average, Americans spend about 6 months of their lives waiting at red

traffic lights.
2. An average American spends 2 years of his/her life talking on the phone.
3. Everyday, almost 1 in 2 Americans are on a diet.

5. Recreation and Sports

5.1. Recreation and leisure activities

There are plenty of opportunities for recreation and leisure activities in the United
States. Many public service organizations help organize a host of activities such as
festivals, sports and outdoor competitions. Americans have much more leisure time now

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than ever before even though they are supposedly a nation of workaholics. Jogging and
walking are popular outdoor activities. About 40 million Americans jog or walk to keep fit.
Skiing is becoming increasingly popular in mountain regions. Outdoor activities depend on
season and region. You will find horseback riding in Texas, surfing in Florida or
California, snowshoeing, skiing or snowmobiling in winter in Montana or Michigan.
Boating has become a very popular outdoor activity in recent years. Other popular outdoor
recreation activities include camping, picnicking, and wildlife viewing.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the most popular forms of outdoor recreation in the U.S.?

5.2. Sports
Most Americans love sports and many people practice different kinds of sports or at
least are dedicated fans. Baseball and American football have become the most popular
sports in America, though basketball and volleyball are the sports which originated in the
US.
Baseball was created by Abner Doubleday in 1839. The object of the game is to
score runs by hitting the ball and then touching the four bases before the other team catches
the ball. If the other team does catch the ball and touches the player with it, then the player
is out (unless he is standing on a base). A baseball game has nine innings during which
each team can score runs. In each inning, the team players take turns trying to hit the ball.
If a batter misses three good chances, he strikes out. After three players strike out, then the
other team gets a turn. After both teams strike out, the inning is over. At the end of nine
innings, the team with the most runs wins.
American football is different from European rugby or soccer. It has a set of
special rules and those spectators who do not understand them miss most of the game.
American football developed from British rugby. Soccer is now becoming more and more
popular in the United States.
Basketball, America’s native game, was invented and first played in America in
1891 although its creator was a Canadian, James Naismith (1861–1936). His idea was
quite simple; he wanted to create a team game that could also be played in winter when the
football season was over, so he took a soccer ball and two baskets previously used by
gardeners and hung them up in a school gymnasium. Thus basketball was born. In 1936
basketball was officially included in the Olympic Games. It is played by both male and
female teams. Professional basketball is one of the most popular sports in the U.S.
Hockey (ice hockey) is another major sport.
Other popular sports include golf, swimming, tennis, skiing, skating, squash,
badminton, bicycling, fishing, jogging and calisthenics or gymnastics. Some sports have
recently gained popularity, e.g. skate-boarding, hang-gliding, wind-surfing and scuba-
diving.

Test your knowledge

1. What are the most popular team sports in the U.S.A.?
2. How is baseball played?
3. Is American football similar to soccer?
4. What are the most popular professional sports in the U.S.A?
5. Who invented the game of basketball?

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5.3. Leisure, vacations and traveling
Average Americans think of themselves that they are overworked and vacation-
starved. US vacations are the shortest in the industrialized world: 8.1 days after a year on
the job (Bureau of Labor Statistics), compared to three weeks for Europeans. The United
States has no minimum paid-leave law and the US employee only takes 10.2 days off per
year. Many Americans feel that they have become a country of isolated “slave-to-the-
machine” workaholics. Americans work more than any industrialized country, with
approximately thirty-nine hours per week. Nearly 70 per cent of interviewed employees
say their vacation time is insufficient.
Nowadays, Americans are taking less vacation time than ever. And when they take
it, it is most likely to be in two- or three-day portions. In a recent poll (2003), a tired 51 per
cent of Americans said they planned to take no vacation time. Americans have the shortest
average vacation time in the developed world, just two weeks a year instead of four to six
weeks enjoyed by Europeans.
Some workplaces, understanding that employees may need to take care of personal
issues during the week, have started giving “personal” or “free” days to use on such things
as religious holidays and court appearances.
Although American holidays are shorter, Americans travel a lot for special
occasions like a wedding ceremony or honeymoon in an exciting destination. The “echo
boom” generation, i.e. baby boomers’ children, is entering prime marrying age, and that
means an increased demand for long, expensive romantic trips. The average honeymoon
costs about 3,000–4,000 dollars.
Americans love their time off and like to be on the move. Old favorite domestic
holiday destinations are Honolulu, Las Vegas and Miami. Overseas trip destinations
include Mexico, South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Fiji and Vietnam.
Before cars, trains used to be the most popular means of travel in the United States.
The National Railroad Company , which today controls most inter-city passenger trains is
called Amtrak. Since the 1950s the car, the coach and the airplane have replaced the train
as the most popular form of travel.
The automobile has long been the most popular means of travel. There are more
than 150 million cars and about 6.2 million kilometers of public roads in the U.S. In the
1970s a modern Interstate Highway System was completed. The cheapest means of travel
is the Greyhound bus network which covers the whole country. A lot of people, however,
prefer to travel in “homes on wheels”, i.e. self-driven trailer vehicles, some of which
contain every facility including bedroom, bathroom, lounge and kitchen with a microwave
oven and deep freeze. Air travel is very popular. There are some 10,000 planes flying over
the U.S. at any moment of day or night.

Test your knowledge

1. What do Americans think about their work load and holiday time?
2. What are favorite domestic holiday destinations?
3. What is Amtrak?
4. Why is driving the most popular means of travel now?

Glossary

approximately – about, almost, nearly, roughly (w przybli eniu)

baby boom – a sudden large increase in the birthrate, especially the one in the United

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States
from the later 1940s through the early 1960s (wy demograficzny)
destination – the place to which one is going or directed (miejsce przeznaczenia)
facility – something created to serve a particular function: e.g. home facilities (urz dzenie)
leisure – free time (wolny czas)
lounge – a room (salonik)
trailer – a furnished vehicle drawn by an automobile and used when parked as a dwelling
(przyczepa)

Useful websites:

Further reading
Althen, Gary. American Ways. A Guide for Foreigners in the United States, 1988.
Bosrock, Mary Murray. Put Your Best Foot Forward, USA: A Fearless Guide to
Understanding the United States of America. [also available in Polish: Stany
Zjednoczone
Ameryki Pó nocnej. Warszawa: WIG-PRESS, 2001.]
Cambell, Jeff et al. USA (Lonely Planet Country Guide), 2008.
Kittler, P. and K. Schuer. Food and Culture in America, 1989.
Ward, Greg, Jeff Dickey and Sam Cook. The Rough Guide to USA (Rough Guide Travel
Guides), 2007.

247
 American humor
(from the diary of a flight attendant)

A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost
info, she asked, “Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to
Hawaii?”

A man called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with
the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain
that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, “Don’t lie to me.
I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state”.

I got a call from a man who asked, “Is it possible to see England from Canada?” I
said, “No”. He said, “But they look so close together on the map”.

Another man called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the
reservation, I noticed he had a one-hour lay-over in Dallas. When I asked him why he
wanted to rent a car, he said, “I heard that Dallas was a big airport, and I’ll need a car to
drive between the gates to save time”.

A nice lady just called. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from
Detroit left at 8.20 am and got into Chicago at 8.33 am. I tried to explain that Michigan
was an hour ahead, but she simply could not understand the concept of time zones. Finally
I told her the plane went very fast, and she bought that!

A woman called and asked, “Do airlines put your physical description on your bag
so they know who’s luggage belongs to who?” I said, “No, why do you ask?” She replied,
“Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said FAT, and
I’m overweight, is there any connection?” After putting her on hold for a minute while I
“looked into it” (I was actually laughing) I came back and explained the city code for
Fresno is FAT, and that the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.

I just got off the phone with an elderly client calling from the airport who asked,
“How do I know which plane to get on?” I asked him what exactly he meant, which he
replied, “I was told my flight number is 23, but none of these damn planes have numbers
on them”.

A woman called and said, “I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola on one of those computer
planes. “I asked if she meant to fly to Pensacola on a commuter plane. She said, “Yeah,
whatever”.

A woman called to make reservations: “I want to go from Chicago to

Hippopotamus, New York”. The agent was at a loss for words. Finally, the agent said:
“Are you sure that’s the name of the town?” “Yes, what flights do you have?” replied the
customer. After some searching, the agent came back with, “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’ve looked
up every airport code the country and can’t find a Hippopotamus anywhere”. The customer

248
retorted, “Oh don’t be silly. Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!” The agent
scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, “You don’t mean Buffalo, do
you?” “That’s it! I knew it was a big animal!”

Source: Internet

249
 MORE TESTS AND TASKS
TRUE OR FALSE
Carefully read each statement. If the statement is true according to information in the book,
write T after it, if it is false, write F. Try to give reasons why a statement is false.

1. Americans strongly believe in individualism and personal freedom.

2. Competition is a characteristic part of American life.
3. Americans rarely address one another by their first name.
4. In America people rarely change their place or work.
5. Americans spend a lot of time cooking.
6. Americans never shake hands.
7. American women are very fond of handkissing.
8. The 4th of July is the only official national holiday in the U.S.A.
9. The prom is a ceremony of awarding a high school diploma.
10. American football and baseball are the most popular sports in the United States.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. The average working week in the U.S. is about ….. hours

a) 30 b) 40 c) 50

2. The majority of American families prefer live in …..

a) a single house b) a block of apartments c) wooden houses

3. When addressing a woman in a letter, you should use the title ….

a) Mrs b) Miss c) Ms

4. Memorial Days is particularly devoted to

a) those who lost their lives in wars b) all those who died c) to those members
of family who died

5. The traditional dish on Christmas Day is ….

a) roast chicken b) b roastbeef c) roast turkey

6. The ethnic holiday Mardi Gras is celebrated in ….

a) New York b) New Orleans c) Alaska

7. Baseball was invented in ….

a) England b) the United States c) Canada

8. The prom ceremony may cost …

a) 100 dollars b) 1000 dollars c) 10000 dollars

9. The most popular means of travel in the United States is ….

a) the Greyhound bus b) the airplane c) the trailer

250
 10. Amtrak is ……
a) the National Railroad Company b) the National Air Travel Company
c) the National Automobile Company

For study and discussion

Prepare yourself for a class discussion on one of the following topics:

1. Based on a film you have watched, a book you have read or on your own experience,
discuss some lifestyles and ways of spending free time in the United States.
2. American customs and traditions.
3. Describe some cultural similarities and differences between Poland and the U.S.A.

PROJECT
Prepare a presentation on one of the following topics:

1. American homes.
2. American meals.
3. American sports.

EXPRESS YOUR OPINION

What are the most characteristic features of American lifestyles?

251
 ANNEX

GENERAL QUIZ

1. Multiple Choice Quiz

Choose the correct answer.

1. How many U.S. states are there?

A 48
B 50
C 51
D 52

2. Which region of the U.S. is Oregon in?

A The Southwest
B The Midwest
C The South
D The Pacific Northwest

3. Which is the capital of New York?

A Albany
B Buffalo
C New York City
D Manhattan

4. What is the approximate population of New York City?

A 8.5 million
B 10.5 million
C 15.5 million
D 20.5. million

5. Which is the biggest city in Massachusetts?

A San Francisco
B New York City
C Chicago
D Boston

6. Which state is Yellowstone National Park located in?

252
 A Iowa
B California
C Wyoming
D New Mexico

7. Which is the capital of Florida?

A Tallahassee
B Miami
C Orlando
D St. Petersburg

8. Which region of the US is New Mexico in?

A The Southwest
B The Midwest
C The Southeast
D The Northwest
9. Which of the following is NOT a borough of New York City?

A Manhattan
B Queens
C Rhode Island
D Brooklyn

10. Which state legalized gambling in 1932?

A California
B New Jersey
C Nevada
D Utah

11. Which is the smallest US state?

A Hawaii
B Rhode Island
C Washington, DC
D Texas

12. Which is the capital of California?

A Los Angeles
B Sacramento

253
 C San Francisco
D San Diego

13. In which city did jazz music originate?

A New Orleans
B Atlanta
C New York City
D Nashville

14. Which of the following rights is NOT guaranteed by the US Constitution?

A the right to bear arms (guns)

B the right to free speech
C the right to a free press
D the right to free education

15. When was the American Constitution written?

A 1787
B 1776
C 1492
D 1812

2. True or False Quiz

Read carefully the statements below and mark them T (True) or F (False). Explain why a
statement is false.

Geography and population

1. The population of the USA is about 180 million.

2. The US is a federation of forty-eight states and two overseas territories.
3. McKinley is the highest mountain in the USA.
4. Death Valley is in California.
5. The US is divided into four Standard Time Zones.
6. The US flag has fifty stripes and thirteen stars.
7. The Apaches are the largest group of Indians in the US.
8. New England is in the Northeast region.
9. San Francisco is California’s largest city.
10. Austin is the capital of Texas.
11. Idaho is a Rocky Mountain state.
12. Mt. St. Helens in the state of Washington is an active volcano.
13. Kennedy Space Center is in California.
14. The Midwest is an industrial heart of the US.

254
15. The Mississippi is longer than the Missouri River.
16. Boston is in Massachusetts.
17. The District of Columbia is not a state but part of the state Washington.
18. Little Rock is in Texas.
19. Nashville is in Tennessee.
20. Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie are in the Southeast.
21. Chicago is the most populous city in the United States.
22. The Golden Gate Bridge is in San Francisco.
23. Before 1836 Texas was a Spanish colony.
24. The Grand Canyon is in Montana.
25. Utah is a Mormon state.

History

1. The first English colony on the American continent was founded in Plymouth in
1620.
2. Kazimierz Pu aski was Colonel of Engineers in the Continental Army.
3. The draft of the Declaration of Independence was prepared by George Washington.
4. Gold was discovered in California in 1848.
5. During the Civil War the twenty-three states of the Union fought against ten
Confederate states.
6. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.
7. The territory of Alaska was purchased from Canada in 1867.
8. General John Pershing was the commander of U.S. forces in Europe during World
War I.
9. The Big Crash on the New York Stock Exchange occurred in 1939.
10. The Japanese attacked the US naval base in Pearl Harbor in 1941.
11. The US dropped an atomic bomb on Tokyo in 1945.
12. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., was the leader of the civil rights movement.
13. American troops started withdrawing from South Vietnam in 1973.
14. President Ronald Reagan was a Democrat.
15. The first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center occurred in 1993.

The political system

1. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the country.
2. The Constitution has twenty-seven amendments.
3. The Bill of Rights includes the first five amendments.
4. The U.S. government is divided into two main separate branches: The executive
branch and the legislative branch.
5. The President of the United States is elected every six years.
6. The Vice-president is not elected from the same party as the President.
7. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the US.
8. Federal judges are appointed by the President for a term of four years.
9. Every US citizen aged twenty-one and over may vote.
10. The CIA co-ordinates the work of federal and state police.
11. Each state in the US has its own police and its own criminal laws.
12. The leading political parties in the US are the Republican and Democratic parties.

255
13. George W. Bush is a Republican.
14. A US senator must be at least fifty years old.
15. There are over 100 senators in the US Senate.

3. Recall Quiz

The following is a list of people, places, events and concepts related to the United States
with which you should be familiar after reading the relevant sections in this book. How
many of them can you recognize and discuss without consulting the book?

2. Bill of Rights
3. American Civil War
4. Broadway
5. Medicare and Medicaid
6. CIA
7. FBI
8. Nashville
9. Supreme Court
10. jury
11. Federal Reserve
12. Puritans
13. Halloween
14. Mayflower
15. NAFTA
16. “melting pot” and “salad bowl”
17. Wall Street
18. Congress
19. Declaration of Independence
20. Dow Jones Average
21. Thanksgiving Day
22. Watergate
23. Greenwich Village
24. Harlem
25. New Deal
26. Martin Luther King
27. Pearl Harbor
28. The Gettysburg Address
29. Articles of Confederation
30. Monroe Doctrine
31. Gulf War
32. impeachment
33. UPI
34. CNN
35. civil rights

256
4. General Knowledge Quiz

How many of the questions below can you answer without consulting the book?

1. Can you name any outstanding geographical features of the US?

2. What are the climatic zones of the US?
3. What are the principal natural resources of the US?
4. What was the influence of immigration on the growth of the US population?
5. What do you know about Native Americans (Indians)?
6. What are the main differences between American English and British English?
7. What are the main cultural regions of the US?
8. What were the causes of the American Revolution?
9. What were the causes of the Civil War?
10. What do you know about New York City?
11. What are the distinctive features of the South?
12. What do you know about California?
13. What do you know about Alaska?
14. What are the main provisions of the American Constitution?
15. What is the structure of the US government?
16. What is the structure of the American legal system?
17. What are the main political parties in the US and what are the differences between
them?
18. What are the largest religious creeds in the US?
19. What are the largest television networks in the US?
20. What are the most popular American newspapers and magazines?
21. What is the structure of the US education and why is it so varied?
22. Can you name some of the most outstanding American writers?
23. Who are the greatest American composers of popular music?
24. Who are the most outstanding American jazz performers?
25. What are the most popular sports in the US?
26. What percentage of Americans live below the poverty level?
27. What is the ideological heritage inherited from the Mayflower Pilgrims?
28. When and how did slavery end?
29. Who are the most popular American movie stars at present?
30. Do you know any famous Polish Americans?

5. American Literature Quiz

Complete the sentences below, choosing one of the three possibilities: A, B or C.

1. Anne Bradstreet is regarded as

A North America’s first published poet.

B North America’s greatest poet.
C North America’s first Puritan preacher.

2. The author of Common Sense is

257
 A Thomas Jefferson
B Thomas Paine
C J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur

3. James Fenimore Cooper’s literary worksexplore

A American urban culture

B American Wild West
C American wilderness

4. The Transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson is the author of

A “Self-Reliance”
B Walden Pond, or Life in the Woods
C “Rip Van Winkle”

5. Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven”commemorates the death of a girl named

A Lenore
B Ligeia
C Madelaine

6. The following novel was NOT written by Nathaniel Hawthorne:

A Wuthering Heights
B The Scarlet Letter
C The House of Seven Gables

7. Walt Whitman’s poem “O Captain, My Captain” is an elegy on the death on

A Abraham Lincoln
B George Washington
C Franklin D. Roosevelt

8. The poem “I am Nobody” was written by

A Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

B Walt Whitman
C Emily Dickinson

9. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain describes the journey along

A the Mississippi River

B the Missouri River
C the Colorado River

10. The following novel was NOT written by Henry James:

258
 A The Portrait of a Lady

B The Ambassadors
C The Age of Innocence

11. Kate Chopin was a 19th-century feminist, who wrote

A The Awakening
B Maggie, A Girl of the Streets
C Sister Carrie

12. The Red Badge of Courage was written by

A Jack London
B Stephen Crane
C Theodore Dreiser

13. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson is

A a novel
B a collection of short stories
C a comedy

14. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald evokes the atmosphere of

A the Twenties
B the Thirties
C the Gold Rush

15. The following writer did NOT receive the Nobel Prize for Literature:

A F. Scott Fitzgerald
B Ernest Hemingway
C William Faulkner

16. The following poet did NOT write Imagist poetry:

A Ezra Pound
B Hilda Doolittle
C Allen Ginsberg

17. The title of J. D. Salinger’s most famous novel is

A From Here to Eternity

259
 B An American Tragedy
C The Catcher in the Rye

18. For Whom the Bell Tolls was written by

A Truman Capote
B John Steinbeck
C Ernest Hemingway

19. The famous Beat Generation writer who wrote On the Road is

A Lawrence Ferlinghetti
B Jack Kerouac
C William Burroughs

20. A Streetcar Named Desire was written by

A Eugene O’Neill
B Tennessee Williams
C Arthur Miller

6. American Cinema Quiz

Match the names of popular American actors and actresses with films in which they
appeared.

1. Charlie Chaplin
2. Al Jolson
3. Robert de Niro
4. Marx Brothers
5. Marlene Dietrich
6. Humphrey Bogart
7. Henry Fonda
8. Gloria Swanson
9. Clark Gable
10. Marilyn Monroe
11. James Dean
12. Orson Welles
13. Dustin Hoffman
14. Marlon Brando
15. Peter Fonda
16. Arnold Schwarzenegger
17. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty
18. Eddie Murphy
19. Tom Hanks
20. Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio

The Deer Hunter

260
The Gold Rush
The Jazz Singer
The Grapes of Wrath

Gone With the Wind

Rebel Without a Cause
Bonnie and Clyde
The Graduate
Citizen Kane
Easy Rider
A Night at the Opera
The Titanic
Casablanca
Sunset Boulevard
Terminator
The Blue Angel
Forrest Gump
Beverly Hills Cop
The Godfather
Some Like It Hot

261
 Index
[Note: page numbers correspond to pages in the paper book edition ]

A
Abstract Expressionism 145-146
Adams, John 21, 48, 69
Adams, John Quincy 69
Adams, Samuel 18
Adams-Onis Treaty 22
African Americans 7, 12, 13, 111, 141-142, 160
agriculture 89-90
Aidid, General 34
Alabama 7, 22-23, 43, 49, 50, 90, 140
Alabama-Coosa 8
Alaska 5, 7, 8 (il.), 9, 11, 36, 43, 54, 60, 62, 63, 72, 87
Albany 43
Albee, Edward 135 (il.)
Albuquerque 56
Aleutian Islands 62
Algonquin Indians 14, 41, 45, 54
Allen, Paul 100
Al-Qaeda 34
Amendments to the Constitution 65, 67-68
American Broadcasting Company (ABC) 76
American College Testing (ACT) 104-105
American English 41-42
American Expeditionary Force 27
American Federation of Labor (AFL) 25-26, 36, 93
American Indians 7, 12, 16, 45, 50, 54, 115, 159
American Renaissance 111, 114
American Revolution 15, 17-18, 35-36, 44-45, 91, 113, 115
American Samoa 10
Amish Church 52, 80 (il.)
Amtrak 164
Anchorage 62
Anderson, Sherwood 126-127
Annapolis 43, 78
Anti-Federalists 21, 64
Apaches 14, 56
Appalachian Mountains 7, 9, 21, 30, 51, 90, 140
Appomattox 36
Arizona 8-10, 13-14, 36-37, 54, 56, 59
Arkansas 8, 43, 90
Arlington National Cemetery 47
Armed forces 78-79
Armstrong, Louis 141, 142
Articles of Confederation 19, 50, 64

262
Arthur, Chester A. 69
Ashcan School 145
Asian population 5, 7, 12
Associated Press (AP) 75
Astaire, Fred 139, 148, 151
Atlanta 43, 50-51 (il.)
atomic bomb 15, 56
Attorney General 68, 71-73
Augusta 43
Austin 43, 55
Axis of Evil 34

Baldwin, James 136

Baltimore 36
Baltimore, Lord 17
Baptists 51, 80
Baraka, Amiri 135
Barth, John 138
Barthelme, Donald 138
baseball 15, 163 (il.)
basketball 163
Basie, Count 141
Baton Rouge 43
Beach Boys, the 144
Beat Generation 59, 111, 132-133
Beattie, Ann 138
bebop 142
Beatty, Warren 151
Bechet, Sidney 141
Benton Thomas, Hart 145
Bekker, Mieczys aw 15
Belafonte, Harry 140
Bell, Alexander Graham 26, 97, 98 (il.)
Bellow, Saul 136-137 (il.)
Bering Strait 14
Berkeley, University of 30, 57
Berlin, Irving 139-140
Berry, Chuck 143
Berryman, John 133
Beverly Hills 58
Bill of Rights 20, 36, 65
Billy the Kid 56
bin Laden, Osama 34, 40
Birth of a Nation 148
Bishop, Elizabeth 133
Bismarck 43

263
Black Americans 25, 31, 49, 52, 76, 101, 131-132, 141-144
Black English 41
Blackfoot 14, 60
Black Mountain School of poetry 133
Black Tuesday 28, 37
blues 143
Bly, Robert 133
Bogart, Humphrey 148, 150 (il.)
Boeing 91 (il.)
Boise 43
Booth, John Wilkes 24
Boston 10, 18, 43, 44-45, 75, 116, 119, 123, 147
Boston Brahmins 120
Boston Latin School 44
Boston Massacre 17, 18 (il.)
Boston Tea Party 18
Bradford, William 111 (il.)
Bradstreet, Anne 111, 112
Brandon, Marlon 148, 152 (il.)
Brautigan, Richard 132
Brezhnev, General Secretary 38
Broadway 135, 139, 147, 162
Bronx 46
Brooklyn 46
Brooks, Garth 141
Brown, James 143
Brown University 101
Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 101
Bryant, William Cullen 114, 115
Brzezi ski, Zbigniew 15, 32
Buchanan, James 69
Buddhism 81
Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody) 61
Buren, Martin Van 69
Burgoyne, John 36
Bush, George H. 33, 35, 38, 69, 102
Bush, George W. 5, 34-35 (il.), 38-40, 69, 78-79
bussing 104

Cage, John 148

Cagney, James 150
California 7-12, 23, 27, 36, 43, 54-56, 57-59, 71, 87-88, 91, 100, 103, 129, 138, 147,
154, 161-163
Calder, Alexander 146
Caldwell, Erskine 129
Cambridge 36, 44, 108

264
Cameron, James 152
Cape Cod 16
Capitol 48, 64 (il.), 66-67
Capone, Al 27, 52
Capote, Truman 132, 135
Carnegie, Andrew 84 (il.), 85
Carson City 43
Carter, Jimmy 15, 32, 38, 69
Carver, Raymond 138
Cash, Johnny 140
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 68
Central Lowland 7
Central Pacific Railroad Company 25
Central Park 46
Chaplin, Charlie 148-149 (il.), 153
Charleston 10, 43
Cheney, Dick 5
Charley, Johnny 140
Charlotte 50, 88
checks and balances system 65-66
Cheyenne (city) 43
Cheyenne (tribe) 14
Chicago 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 27, 37, 51, 52 (il.), 54, 73-74, 84, 126, 139, 141, 143, 145-
147, 160
Chief Justice 70
Chinatown 12, 46 (il.), 58, 160
Chopin, Kate 122, 124
Christmas 159
Chrysler 84
CIA (see Central Intelligence Agency)
Cincinnati 52
cinema 148-153
Cisneros, Sandra 139
Citizen Kane 151
civil rights movement 13, 31, 35, 37
Civil War 23-25, 26, 30, 35-36, 47, 49-51, 82, 101, 125, 149
Clemens, Samuel Langhorne (see Twain, Mark)
Cleveland 52
Cleveland Grover 69
Cline, Patsy 140
Clinton, William Jefferson 33-34 (il.), 35, 38, 69, 95-96, 102
Cable News Network (CNN) 76-77
Coca-Cola 91
Cody, William F. (see Buffalo Bill)
Cole, Thomas 145
Colorado (state) 7-8, 43, 54, 55-56, 72, 78, 103
Colorado (river) 8, 54-55
Colorado Springs 78

265
Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) 76
Columbia (city) 43
Columbia, District of 5, 35, 43, 48-49
Columbia (river) 8
Columbia University 101
Columbine High School tragedy 103, 153
Columbus (city) 43, 52
Columbus, Christopher 16
Comanche 14
Commerce 92
Concord 43
Confederate States of America 23
confessional school of poetry 132-133
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) 93
Connecticut 19-20, 43, 44, 83-84, 101, 109, 147
Constitution 19-20, 21, 27-28, 47, 64-65, 66-68, 70, 78, 113
Constitutional Convention 19, 36, 64
Continental Army 18
Continental Congress 36, 88
Contras 33
Cook, James 62
Coolidge, Calvin 27, 32, 37, 69
Cooper, Gary 151
Cooper, James Fenimore 114, 115 (il.), 151
Congress 5, 13, 18-19, 26, 28, 30-31, 33, 37, 53, 65, 66-67, 70-71, 78-79, 88, 93, 96, 101
Copland, Aaron 139
Copley, John Singleton 145
Coral Sea 28
Cornwallis, Lord 10 (il.) 19, 36
Corn Belt 9
Cornell University 101
corporations 82-84, 87
Corso, Gregory 132
Costner, Kevin 152
Cotton Club 46, 141
counties 72, 74, 87
country music 140-141
Courts of Appeals 70
Crane, Hart 131
Crane, Stephen 124, 125 (il.)
Crazy Horse Monument 53
Crèvecoeur, J. Hector St. John 113
Creeley, Robert 133
Crosby, Bing 139-140
Crow (tribe) 14, 60
Cullen, Countee 131
Cummings, E.E. 131
Curry, John S. 145

266
D

Dallas 5, 7, 55, 103

Dartmouth College 101
Davis, Miles 142, 143
Dean, James 149, 151
Death Valley 5, 9, 11, 59
Declaration of Independence 18-19, 21, 36, 46-47, 64, 113
Deep Image Poetry 132, 133
Delaware 20, 43, 47, 84, 91, 143
De La Warr, Lord 47
DeLillo, Don 138
Democratic party 22, 24, 31, 38, 69, 74-75
Democratic-Republican party 22, 69
De Niro, Robert 152-153
Denver 43
Des Moines 43, 52
Detroit 53-54, 76, 91
departments (in US government) 68
Dickinson, Emily 114, 122 (il.)
Dietrich, Marlene 148, 149-150 (il.)
Disneyland 162
Disney, Walt 151, 153
Disney World 51, 163
Dixieland 141
Dixon, Maynard 145
Dixon, Willie 143
Doctorow, E. L. 136, 137
Dodge City 53-54
dollar (history) 88
Doolittle, Hilda 130
Dorn, Ed 133
Dos Passos, John 126, 128
Dover 43
Dow Jones Industrial Average 88-89
Dreiser, Theodore 124, 125
Du Bois, W.E.B. 132
Duncan, Robert 133
Dylan, Bob 144

E pluribus unum 19
Easter 158
Eastern New England dialect 41
Eastman Kodak 91
Eastwood, Clint 151

267
Eckert, John Presper, Jr. 100
Edison, Thomas Alva 26, 36, 97, 98-99 (il.), 100
education 101-109
Edwards, Jonathan 111, 112
Eighteenth Amendment 27-28, 37
Eisenhower, Dwight D. 28-29, 37, 69
Electoral College 21, 71
Ellington, Duke 46, 141-142
Ellis Island 11 (il.), 36, 46, 48
Ellison, Ralph 136
Eliot, T(homas) S(tearns) 129, 130-131 (il.), 132-133
Emancipation Proclamation (1862) 13
Emerson, Ralph Waldo 114-115, 116 (il.), 121, 129, 133
Empire State Building 46
ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator) 100
Enola Gay 29
Enron 83
entertainment 162
Episcopalians 80
Era of Good Feeling 21, 23
Erie, Lake 8-9, 51, 54
Eskimos 62
ethnic food 160, 162
ethnic writing 111, 138-139
Everglades National Park 51
Evil Empire 33
Excalibur (hotel) 57
Executive Branch 21
Exxon 84

Faulkner, William 126, 128 (il.)

Fauset, Jessie Redmont 132
FBI (see Federal Bureau of Investigation)
Federalists 21
Federalist Papers 20, 36
Federalist party 22
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 73
Federal Reserve Board 88-89
Federal Reserve System 68, 88
Ferlinghetti, Lawrence 132
Fillmore, Millard 69
First Continental Congress 18
fishing 90
Fitzgerald, Ella 141-142 (il.)
Fitzgerald, Frances 132
Fitzgerald, F. Scott 126, 127 (il.)

268
Flack, Roberta 140
Florida 7, 11, 13, 16, 22, 36, 43, 49, 51, 56, 87, 90, 128, 162-163
Fonda, Henry 150-151
Fonda, Peter 151
food and meals 161
Food Stamps 30, 94
football (American) 163
For Whom the Bell Tolls 128
Ford Motor Co. 84, 91
Ford, Gerald, 31-32 (il.), 38, 69
Ford, Henry 27
Ford, John 150
Form 1040 87
Forman, Milos 150
Foster, Stephen 139
Founding Fathers 64
Fourteenth Amendment 36
Fox Broadcasting Company 76
Frankfort 43
Franklin, Aretha 143
Franklin, Benjamin 18, 20, 64, 97 (il.), 113
Free-Soilers 23
French and Indian War 36, 50
Freneau, Philip 113, 114
Frost, Robert 131
Fuller, Margaret 120
Fulton, Robert 97 (il.)

Gable, Clark 148, 150

Gabreski, Francis S. (Franciszek Gabryszewski) 15
Garbo, Greta 148, 149
Garfield, James A. 69
Garland, Judy 148
Gates, Bill 100
Gelber, Jack 135
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 86
General Electric 84, 98
General Motors 83-84, 91
George III, King 18
Georgia 7, 17, 20, 31, 43, 49, 50-51, 90, 140, 146
Geronimo 14
Gershwin, George 139-140 (il.), 142
Gettysburg, Battle of 24, 47
Gettysburg Address 23, 36
Getz, Stan 142-143
Gillespie, Dizzy 142 (il.), 143

269
Ginsberg, Allen 59, 132-133 (il.)
Giuliani, Robert 39
Glacier National Park 9, 60 (il.)
Glidden, Joseph 97
Gold Rush 23, 35, 57
Golden Gate 58 (il.)
Gone With the Wind 150
Goodman, Benny 141-143
Gorbachev, General Secretary 38
Gore, Albert 38
government (US) 65-70
Grand Canyon 7 (il.) 8-9, 54, 56
Grand Ole Opry 140-141, 162
Grant, Cary 150
Grant, Ulysses, S. 25, 36, 69
Graves, Michael 147
Great Awakening 112
Great Compromise 19
Great Depression 27-28, 50, 82
Great Lakes 36
Great Plains 7-9, 54, 60
Great Salt Lake 8-9, 56
Greek Revival 146
Green Corn Ceremony 14
Green Mountains 45
Greenwich Village 46, 48
Griffith, D. W. 148, 153
Guam 10, 26, 29
Guantanamo Bay 34
Gulf War 36, 78
Guggenheim Museum 46, 147

Haley, Alex 136

Haight-Ashbury District 59
Haiti 34, 78
Haley, Bill 144
Halloween 158
Hamilton, Alexander 20-21, 64, 113
Hammerstein, Oscar 139-140
Hancock, John 18
Hansberry, Lorraine 135
Harding, Warren G. 27, 37, 69
Harlem 12, 46, 131-132
Harlem Renaissance 111, 131-132
Harlow, Jean 148, 151
Harrisburg 43

270
Harrison, Benjamin 69
Harrison, William Henry 69
Harte, Bret 122, 124
Hartford 43
Harvard 36, 44, 84, 101-102, 108-109 (il.), 112, 119
Hatch Act (1887) 22
Hatteras, Cape 50
Hawaii 7-8, 11, 28, 37, 43, 62-63 (il.)
Hawkins, Coleman 141, 143
Hawks, Howard 150
Hawthorne, Nathaniel 45, 114, 119 (il.)
Hayes, Rutherford B 69
Hayworth, Rita 149, 151
Hemingway, Ernest 123, 126, 127-128 (il.)
Helena 43
Heller, Joseph 136
Henderson, Fletcher 141
Hendrix, Jimi 143
Henri, Robert 145
Hiroshima 29, 37
Hispanic population 5, 7, 12, 13, 51, 76, 111, 144
Hoff, M. E., Jr. 100
Hoffman, Dustin 147, 151-152
Hollywood 15, 27, 139, 148-154 (il.)
Holmes, Oliver Wendell 120
Holly, Buddy 144
Homecoming 160
Homer, Winslow 145
Homestead Act (1862) 25-26, 54, 89
Honolulu 43, 63, 164
Hoover, Herbert 37, 69
Hopper, Edward 145
House of Representatives 5, 10, 20, 22, 35, 38, 65, 66, 67, 76, 96
Houston 5, 7, 10, 55
Howe, Elias 97, 98
Howells, William Dean 122, 123
Houston, Whitney 140, 144
Hudson River 45, 146
Hughes, Langston 132
Humboldt Park 13
Huron, Lake 8-9, 51, 54
Hurston, Zora Neale 132
Hussein, Saddam 33, 35, 40

IBM 84, 100

Ice Cube 144

271
Idaho 9, 43, 59, 128
industry 90-92
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 87
Illinois 20, 22, 37, 43, 51, 52, 127, 147
Imagism 130-132
immigration 11-16, 22, 30, 36, 46
Immigration Act 12
Immigration Reform and Control Act 12
impeachment 34, 38, 68
Independence Day 158
Indiana 20, 22, 43, 51, 52, 146
Indianapolis 43
Indian Territory 55, 59
Inland Northern dialect 41
Interstate Highway System 29, 164
Interior Lowlands 7
Iowa 10, 43, 51, 52
Iran-Contra 33
Iraqi Freedom, Operation 35
Irish population 11
Irving, Washington 113, 114-115 (il.)
Ivy League 101, 103, 109
Iwo Yima 29

Jackowo 15
Jackson, Andrew 21-22, 36, 69
Jackson (city) 43
Jackson, Michael 141, 144
Jacksonian Democracy 22-23
James, Henry 122, 123-124 (il.)
Jamestown 16-17, 35, 47
Japan
Jay, John 64
jazz 141-142
Jeffers, Robinson 131
Jefferson City 43
Jefferson, Thomas 18, 20-21, 36, 53, 64-65, 69, 97, 113, 121
Jenney, William Le Baron 146
Jewish religion 5, 80
Jews 11-12, 80-81
Job Corps 30
John Street Theatre 133
Johns, Jasper 145-146
Johnson, Andrew 24
Johnson, Lyndon B. 30 (il.), 37, 69, 95
Johnson, Philip 147

272
Jolson, Al 139, 149
Jones, James 136
Joplin, Janis 143, 144
Joplin, Scott 140
Juneau 43

Kamehameha I 62
Kansas 11, 43, 51, 53, 55, 145
Kaprow, Allan 148
Keaton, Buster 148, 149
Kelly, Gene 149, 150
Kennedy, John F. 30, 35, 37, 69, 135
Kennedy, Robert F. 37, 135
Kennedy Space Center 51
Kent State shooting (1970) 74
Kentucky 43, 49, 50, 90
Kern, Jerome 139-140, 142
Kerouac, Jack 133, 137
Kerry, John 35 (il)
Kesey, Ken 137
Kidman, Nicole 153
King, B.B. 143
King, Martin Luther, Jr. 31, 32, 35, 37, 135, 158
Kingston, Maxine Hong 138
Kitty Hawk 99
Khomeini, Ayatollah 32
Koch, Kenneth 133
Kopit, Arthur 135
Korean War 15, 29 (il.), 37, 47, 78
Kosovo 34
Kosi ski, Jerzy 136, 137
Ko ciuszko, Tadeusz 15, 18
Kristofferson, Kris 140
Krzy anowski, W odzimierz 15

Lancaster, Burt 149, 151

Langdon, Harry 148
Land Rush (1889) 55
Lansing 43
Larsen, Nelly 132
Las Vegas 57 (il.), 59, 164
League of Nations 27
Leaves of Grass 121

273
Lee, Robert E. 24, 36
Leigh, Vivien 150
Lexington Green 45
Lewis, Sinclair 124, 125-126
Lewinsky, Monica 34, 38
Levertov, Denise 133
Liechtenstein, Roy 145-146
Lincoln, Abraham 13, 23-24, 25 (il.), 36, 53, 69, 120-121, 158
Lincoln (city) 43
Lindberg, Charles 37
Lindsay, Vachel 129
Little Italies 12
Little Rock 43
Little Theatre movement 133, 148
Little Village (district) 13
Lloyd, Harold 148, 149
local colourists 124
Locke, John 18
Logan Square (district) 13
London, Jack 124, 125 (il.)
Lone Star Republic 36
long grass prairie 9
Long March 14
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth 114, 120
Lopez, Antonio de Santa Anna 55
Los Alamos 56
Los Angeles 5, 7, 12, 37, 58, 73-74, 144, 154
Lost Generation 111, 126-128, 132
Louisiana 43, 72, 90, 160
Louisiana Purchase 21, 36, 52
Lowell, Amy 130, 131
Lowell, James Russell 120
Lowell, Robert 133
Lower East Side 15
Lusitania 27
Lutheran Church 80
Lynn, Loretta 140

Madison, James 20-21, 64, 69

Madison (city) 43, 146
Madonna 140, 144
Mailer, Norman 132, 136
Maine 22, 36, 43, 44, 146
Malamud, Bernard 136, 137
Manhattan 45-46 (il.)
Manhattan Project 29

274
Mann, Horace 101, 103
Mansfield, Jane 151
Marx Brothers 149, 153
Marsalis, Wynton 142-143
Marshall, aid programme 37
Marshall, George C. 28
Maryland 17, 20, 36, 43, 45, 47, 48, 78, 98, 102
Mason, Bobbie Ann 138
Massachusetts 14, 17-18, 20-21, 36, 43, 44-45, 62, 101, 108, 122, 135, 147, 161
Massachusetts Bay Colony 17, 36, 112
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 44, 101
Masters, Edgar Lee 129
Mather, Cotton 111, 112 (il.)
Mauchly, John W. 100
Maui 62
Mauna Loa 62-63 (il.)
Mayflower 16, 36, 111
Mayflower Compact 17
McCarthy, Joseph 29, 37
McCarthy, Mary 132
McCarthyism 29, 135
McCormick, Cyrus 26, 97
McCullers, Carson 135
McDonald’s (restaurants) 57, 85, 161
MC Hammer 144
Mc Inerney, Jay 138
Mc Kay, Claude 131
McKinley (mountain) 5, 8, 11, 62 (il.)
McKinley Tariff 26
McKinley, William 26, 69
Meat Inspection Act 26, 126
media 75-77
Medicaid 94, 95, 96
Medicare 30, 94, 95-96
melting pot, the metaphor of 12, 16
Memorial Day 158
Melville, Herman 114, 119-120 (il.)
Memphis 37, 143
Methodists 51, 80
Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer (MGM)
Mexican War 36
Mexico 11, 23, 27
Michigan, Lake 8, 51, 54
Michigan (state) 7, 20, 43, 51, 53-54, 84, 91, 163
Micronesia, the Federated States of 10
Microsoft 84, 91-92, 100
Midland dialect 41
Middle Atlantic Region 44, 45-47, 48

275
Middle Colonies 17
Midway 10, 28, 37
Midwest 9, 13, 44, 51-54, 91, 129, 145
militia 74
Miller, Arthur 134, 135, 147, 151
Miller, Glenn 141
Milwaukee 53
mineral resources 90
Minnesota 8, 43, 51, 53, 54, 125
Mississippi Delta blues 143
Mississippi (river) 8, 10, 19, 36, 53, 89, 123
Mississippi (state) 12, 22, 43, 49, 50
Missouri Compromise 36
Missouri (river) 8, 53, 89
Missouri (state) 9, 22, 36, 43, 51, 53, 123, 128
Mobile 10
Moby Dick 119-120 (il.), 122
Model T 27
Modernism 111, 126-131, 132
Modjeski, Ralph 15
Modrzejewska (Modjeska), Helena 15
Mohawk Indians 14
Monroe Doctrine 22, 36
Monroe, James 69
Monroe, Marilyn 146, 149, 151 (il.)
Montana 10, 43, 59-60, 87, 163
Montgomery 43, 50
Montpelier 43
Morgan, John Pierpont 84 (il.), 85
Mormons 56, 80-81 (il.)
Moore, Marianne 130
Morrison, Toni 136 (il.)
Morse, Samuel, 26, 36, 97, 98 (il.)
Mount Elbert 7
Mount Rainier 7, 60
Mount Rushmore National Memorial 53 (il.)
Mount Vernon 47, 146
Mt Mitchell 7
Mt St. Helens 7, 60
muckrakers 126
Mujahaddin, the 33
Murdoch, Rupert 76
Musial, Stanley 15
Muslims 5
Myrdal, Gunnar 13

276
Nabokov, Vladimir 137
NAFTA (see North American Free Trade Agreement)
Nagasaki 29, 37
Naismith, James 163
NASDAQ 88-89
Nashville 43, 49, 140, 162
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 68
National Broadcasting Company (NBC) 76
National Guard 31, 74
National Park Service 10
National Security Council 78
Native American population 5, 14, 55
Native Hawaiian population 5
Naturalistic Period 111, 124-126
Navajo Indians 14, 56
Navigation Acts 17
Nebraska 43, 51, 52, 55, 71
Nebraska Territory 52
Negri, Pola (Apolonia Cha upiec) 15
Nevada 8, 10, 43, 54, 56-57, 87
Newark 47
New England 8, 17, 41, 44-45, 103, 111-112, 131, 146
New Amsterdam 17, 36, 45
New Deal 28, 30, 37, 82-83, 89
New Foundland 16
New Hampshire 20, 43-44, 45, 87, 101, 131
New Haven 44, 108-109
New Mexico 8-10, 14, 29, 36-37, 43, 53, 54, 56, 161
New Jersey 7, 18, 20, 43, 45, 47, 91, 101, 109, 146
New Orleans 10, 124, 141, 160, 162
New Orleans, Battle of 21
new realism 111, 138-139
New Traditionalists 140-141
New Year’s Day 159
New York (state) 7, 9, 17-18, 20, 43, 45, 46, 78, 84, 91, 101, 115, 146
New York City 5, 7, 10, 12-15, 17, 36, 45-46, 48, 66, 73-74, 84, 88, 111, 119, 121, 131,
133, 144-145, 147, 149, 153, 160
Niagara Falls 9
Nicholson, Jack 152-153
Nineteenth Amendment 37
Nixon, Richard 31, 32, 35, 37-38, 69
No Child Left Behind Act (2003) 35, 102
Norfolk 47
Normandy 28
Norris, Frank 124, 125
Norse 16, 36
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 33, 38, 86
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 37

277
Northeast 10, 13, 21-22, 44-47, 48, 82, 91, 101, 159
North 20, 22, 23-25, 49, 82
North Carolina 7, 17, 20, 43, 49-50, 88, 99, 133
North Cascades National Park 60
North Dakota 8, 43, 51, 52-53
Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of 10, 44, 59-61
Northwest 9-10, 91
Northwest Ordinance 20, 52
Northwest Territory 20, 51-53

O’Connor, Flannery 135

Odets, Clifford 134
off-Broadway 147-148
off-off-Broadway 147-148
O’Hara, Frank 133
Ohio (state) 7, 20, 43, 51-52, 74, 84, 101
Ohio (river) 8, 20, 51
Okinawa 29
Oklahoma 43, 50, 54, 55, 90
Oklahoma City 43
Oldenburg, Claes 145, 146
Olson, Charles 133
Olympia 43
Omaha 52
Ontario, Lake 8-9
O’Neill, Eugene 133-134 (il.), 147-148
Oppenheimer, Joel 133
Orbison, Roy 140
Oregon 10, 23, 43, 59, 60, 87
Oregon Trial 60-61
Otis, Elisha 97
Overlord, Operation 28
Ozark Plateau 7

Pacific Islanders population 5, 7

Pacific Islands 10
Paderewski, Ignacy Jan 15
Padgett, Ron 133
Paine, Thomas 113 (il.)
Palau (Republic of) 10
Parker, Charlie 142
Parton, Dolly 140
Pataki, George 39
Patton, George S. 28

278
Peace Corps 30, 68
Pearl Harbor 28, 37
Pei, I. M. 147
Pendleton Civil Service Act (1882) 22
Penn, William 17
Pennsylvania 7, 17-18, 20, 24, 36, 43, 45, 47, 74, 84, 90, 147
Pentagon 34, 38-40, 47
Pepsico 91
periods of American literature 111
Pershing, John 27
Phoenix 5, 7, 43, 56
Philadelphia 5, 7, 10, 19, 36, 47, 64, 101, 119, 133, 159
Pickett, Wilson 143
Piedmont 7
Pierce, Franklin 69
Pierre 43
Pilgrims 14, 16-17, 36, 44
Pilsen 13
Pittsburgh 76, 84
pizza, metaphor of 12, 16
Plath, Sylvia 133
Platte River 8, 52
Plymouth Plantation 17, 36, 44, 111
Poe, Edgar Allan 114, 116-119 (il.), 122
Polish American Congress (PAC) 15
Polish Americans 15-16, 160
Polish immigration 11, 15
Political Action Committee (PAC) 75
political parties 74-75
Polk, James K. 69
Pollock, Jackson 145
Ponce de Leon, Juan 16
pop art 145-146
Porter, Edwin S. 148
postmodernism 111, 138-139
Potomac 8, 48
poverty 95
Pound, Ezra 129-130, 131, 132
Prairie School 146-147
Presbyterians 51, 80
Presley, Elvis 50, 141, 144 (il.)
press 75
Princeton University 47
Prohibition (1919–1933) 52
prom 160
Providence 43, 45, 101
Privy Council 17
Progressive Era 26-27

279
Prohibition 27, 37, 127
Promontory Point 25 (il.)
Protestants 5, 12, 44, 80
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) 76
Pueblo Indians 14
Puerto Rico 10, 26
Pu aski, Kazimierz 15, 18
Pure Food and Drug Act 26
Puritans 17, 111-113, 119
Pynchon, Thomas 138

Quakers 47-48, 80, 81

Queens 46

radio 76
Radio Free Europe (RFE) 76
Raleigh 43
rap 144-145
Rauschenbeng, Robert 145-146
Reagan, Ronald 32-33 (il.), 35, 38, 69, 93-94, 102
Realistic Period (in literature) 111, 114-122
Redding, Otis 143
Red River 8
Red Rock 8
Regionalism 145
religious denominations 80-81
Reno 57
Republican party 23-24, 33, 35-36, 69, 74-75
Revolutionary War 15, 20, 36, 115
Rhode Island 7, 17, 20, 43-44, 45, 64, 91, 101
Richard, Little 144
Richie, Lionel 144
Richmond 43
Rice, Elmer 134
Rio Grande River 8, 23
“Rip Van Winkle” 113, 114
Roanoke 50
Roaring Twenties 27
Robertson, Eck 140
Robinson, Edward G. 150
Robinson, Edwin Arlington 129
rock-and-roll 143-144
Rockefeller, John D. 84-85
Rocky Mountains 7, 36, 44, 51, 54-55, 59

280
Rodgers, Richard 139-140
Roethke, Theodore 133
Rogers, Kenny 140
Roman Catholic Church 5
Romantic Period (in literature) 111, 114-122
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano 28-29, 37, 69, 76, 82, 89, 93-94
Roosevelt, Theodore 26, 37, 48, 53, 69
Roth, Philip 136, 137
Rothenberg, Jerome 133
Rush-Begot Agreement (1817) 22
Russia 11, 15, 36, 62

Sacramento 8, 43, 59
Sainte Genevieve 53
Saki 41
salad bowl, metaphor of 12, 16
Salem 43-45, 135
Salinger, J. D. 137
Salt Lake City 43, 56, 81 (il.)
San Antonio 5, 7, 55, 58, 160
Sandburg, Carl 129
San Diego 5, 7
San Francisco 10, 12, 58, 88, 111, 132, 160
Sanger, Margaret 27
San Joaquin River 8
San Joaquin Valley 58
Santa Fe 43, 53, 56
Saratoga, Battle of 18, 36
Savannah, Battle of 18
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) 104-105
Schwarzenegger, Arnold 152
Sears Tower 52
Seattle 10, 60 (il.), 91 (il.), 111
Secretary of Defense 78
self-reliance 116
Selznick, David O. 149
Senate 5, 22, 35, 65, 66, 67, 76, 96
services 92
Sewall, Samuel 111, 112
Sexton, Anne 133
Shapiro, David 133
Shaw, George Bernard 41
Shaw, Irwin 136
Siegel, Bugsy 57
Shephard, Sam 135
sheriffs 74

281
Sherman, Roger 19
Sholes, Christopher 97
Sierra Nevada Range 7, 54, 61
Silicon Valley 58, 91, 100
Silko, Leslie Marmon 138
Sinatra, Frank 140
Sinclair, Upton 124, 126
Singer, Isaac Bashevis 136, 137 (il.)
Singer, Isaac Merritt 98
Sioux 14, 60-61
slavery 13, 22-23, 36, 49, 82
Smith, Bessie 143
Smith, John 111
Smoky Mountains 50
Snake River 8
Social Security 93-95
Social Security Program 93-94
Social Security Act 37, 93
Solidarity 33
Sontag, Susan 132
soul music 143
South 13, 20, 22, 23-25, 82, 140, 143, 146
South Dakota 11, 43, 51, 52-53, 87
Southeast 9, 90-91, 141
Southern Colonies 17
Southern Dialect 41
Southern Democratic Unionists 23
Southwark Theatre 133
Southwest 13, 44, 49-51, 91, 145
South Carolina 17, 20, 23, 43, 49, 50
Southwest 111, 161
Soviet Union 29, 31-33, 37-38, 78
Spanish-American War 26, 37
Spielberg, Steven 152
spoils system 22
sports 163
Springfield 43
Springsteen, Bruce 144
Stamp Act 17
Standard Oil Company 25, 84
“Star Wars” programme 32
Starr, Kenneth 34
state goverment 71-72
State of the Union Address 34
Staten Island 46
Statue of Liberty 46, 48
Stein, Gertrude 126
Steinbeck, John 129 (il.), 150

282
Sternberg, Joseph von 149-150
Stewart, James 149, 151
St. Louis 53
Stone, Oliver 152
Stowe, Harriet Beecher 114, 120
St. Paul 43
St. Patrick’s Day 160
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) 31, 38
Stevens, Wallace 131
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) 32, 38
Styron, William 136
Swanson, Gloria 151
Sullivan, Louis 146
Sumter, Fort 23, 50
Sun Belt (states) 13
Superior, Lake 8-9, 51, 54
Supreme Court 21, 31, 37, 49, 65-66, 70, 101

Tallahassee 43, 51
Taft, William 26, 69
Taliban 34, 40
Tarantino, Quentin 153
Tax Court 70
taxes 87
Taylor, Edward 111, 112
Taylor, Elizabeth 147, 151
Taylor, Zachary 69
Telephone and Telegraph Company 26
television 76-77
Tennessee (state) 9, 37, 43, 49, 50, 87, 90, 140, 162
Tennessee (river) 8
terrorism 34-35, 46, 78, 82
Texaco 84
Texas 7, 13, 22-23, 36, 43, 54, 55, 62, 74, 87, 90-91, 161, 163
Texas Rangers 74
Thanksgiving Day 14, 158-159 (il.)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 122-123
The Great Gatsby 127
The Portrait of a Lady 124
The Raven 117-118, 119
The Scarlet Letter 119
The Waste Land 130
Thoreau, Henry David 114-115, 116 (il.)
Thurman, John 97
Ticonderoga 18
time zones 10

283
Tocqueville, Alexis de 13
Topeka 43
Townshend Acts 17
Treaty of Paris (1763) 36, 50
Treaty of Paris (1783) 19, 36
Trenton 43
Truman, Harry S. 29, 37, 48, 69
Turner, Nat 47
Turner, Tina 144
Twain, Mark 53, 122-123 (il.), 124
Twenty-First Amendment 37
Twenty-Sixth Amendment 37
Tyler, John 69

Ulam, Stanis aw 15
Union Pacific Railroad Company 25
University of California 57, 101
United Nations 35, 39
United Press International (UPI) 75
United States Air Force 78, 79, 85
United States Army 78, 79
United States Marine Corps 78, 79
United States Navy 78, 79
United States Information Agency (USIA) 68, 76
United States Steel Corporation 25, 43, 54, 56
UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) 100
universities 105-109
University of Pennsylvania 101
Updike, John 137
US Army and Air Force insignia 79
Utah 8-10, 14, 25, 81

Valentino, Rudolph 148, 149

Vermont 43-44, 45, 62, 131
Veteran’s Day 158
Vietnam War 30-31 (il.), 35, 37, 78, 132, 135, 144, 152
Vietnam Veterans Memorial 49
Vikings 16, 36
Vineland 16
Virginia 16-17, 20, 36, 43, 45, 47, 48, 140, 146
Voice of America (VOA) 76
Vonnegut, Kurt 136

284
Wake 10
Wal-Mart 92
Walker, Alice 136
Wall Street 46, 83 (il.), 88-89
War of 1812 21, 36
Warhol, Andy 145-146
Warner Brothers 148
Warren, Robert Penn 133, 135
Washington (state) 7, 9-10, 43, 59, 60, 87, 89 (il.), 91
Washington, DC 5, 7-8, 12, 21, 31, 36-41, 43, 48-49, 66-67, 84, 98, 122, 147
Washington, George 18 (il.), 19-21, 36, 48, 53, 64, 69, 146, 158
WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) 11
Watergate 31, 38
Waters, Muddy 143
Wayne, John 149, 150
Webster, Noah, 41
Welles, Orson 151
Welty, Eudora 135, 136
western 151
West Point 78
West 13, 16, 22-23,
Western Front 28
Westinghouse, George 97
West Virginia 43, 45, 47, 90
Wharton, Edith 122, 124
Whig party 22-23, 36, 69
Whistler, James Abbot McNeill 145 (il.)
White House, the 21, 34, 38, 48 (il.), 49, 66
White Mountain National Forest 44
Whitman, Walt 114, 121 (il.), 122, 129, 131
Whitney, Eli 97, 98 (il.)
Whittier, John Greenleaf 120
Wigglesworth, Michael 111, 112
Wilder, Billy 151
Wilder, Thornton 134
Williams, Hank 140
Williams, Jonathan 133
Williams, William Carlos 130
Williams, Roger 17
Williams, Tennessee 134 (il.)
Wilmington 47
Wilson, Cassandra 142
Wilson, Woodrow 26-27, 37, 69
Winnipesaukee 45
Winthrop, John 44, 111, 112
Wisconsin 20, 29, 43, 51, 53, 54
Wolfe, Thomas 128-129

285
Wolff, Tobias 138
Wonder, Stevie 144
Wong, Shawn 138
Wood, Grant 145
World Trade Center 34-35 (il.), 38-40, 46, 78
World Trade Organization (WTO) 86
World War I 15, 26, 27, 35, 37, 126-128
World War II 15, 28-29, 35, 78-79, 152
Wouk, Herman 136
Wright brothers 27, 97, 99 (il.)
Wright, Frank Lloyd 146-147 (il.)
Wright, Richard
Wyoming 8-9, 12, 43, 59, 60-61, 87

Yale University 101-102, 108-109, 115, 119

Yellowstone National Park 9-10, 60-61 (il.)
Yellowstone (river) 8
Yorktown 19, 36
Yosemite Falls 59 (il.)
Yosemite National Park 9, 59
Young, Brigham 56
Young, Lester 141-142
Yugoslavia 34
yuppies 33

Z
Ziolkowski, Korczak 15

286
 Bibliography
This Bibliography comprises a list of selected sources directly useful in writing this book,
and more generally, of writings on the geography, history, public life and institutions,
language, literature, culture, and lifestyles of the United States.

Abramovitz, Jack. American History. Chicago: Follett Education Group Corp.,

1971.
Althen, Gary. American Ways. A Guide for Foreigners in the United States.
Yarmouth: Intercultural Press, 1988.
American Studies Newsletter. Anniversary Edition (1983–1993).
Baker, Richard A. The Senate of the United States: A Bicentennial History.
Melbourne: Krieger, 1988.
Bode, Carl. Highlights of American Literature. Washington, DC, USIA, 1985.
Boorstin, Daniel, J. The Americans. New York: Vintage Books, 1965.
Boorstin, Daniel, J. Amerykanie. Fenomen demokracji. Warszawa 1995.
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Major US information websites

General information

http://usinfo.state.gov./usa/infousa/facts/factover/homepage.htm
http://usinfo.state.gov./usa/infousa
http://www.ed.gov

American culture websites

American Cultural History – The 20th Century

American Photographs: The First Century
American Popular Music before 1900
American Popular Music 1900-1950
American Women’s History: A Research Guide
American Labor History: An Online Study Guide
Civil Rights: A Status Report
The African-American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide
Southwestern Humor 1830-60
Baseball History at About.com
The Blues at About.com
Jazz at About.com
Divining America: Religion and the National Culture

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