promise that all are equal, all are prevent unemployment—officially
free, and all deserve a chance to pur- estimated at 7 .7 percent of the labor
sue their full measure of happiness .” force when Obama took office—
He proclaimed an agenda of “remak- from increasing to a high of 10 .1 per-
ing America” by reviving and trans- cent, then receding just a bit . The
forming the economy in ways that loans to large investment and com-
would provide better and less-expen- mercial banks begun during the
sive health care for all, foster envi- Bush administration with the objec-
ronmentally friendly energy, and
tive of restoring a stable financial
develop an educational system better system were mostly repaid with a
suited to the needs of a new century . profit to the government, but a few
Speaking to the international remained outstanding as the presi-
community, he pledged U .S . coop- dent began his second year in office .
eration in facing the problem of In addition, the government invested
global warming . He also delivered heavily in two giant auto makers
a general message of international —General Motors and Chrysler—
engagement based on compassion shepherding them through bank-
for poorer, developing countries and ruptcy and attempting to reestablish
respect for other cultures . “To the them as major manufacturers .
Muslim world,” Obama said, “we
Obama’s other major objective—
seek a new way forward, based on the establishment of a national health
mutual interest and mutual respect .” care system—had long been a goal
The speech revealed the wide of American liberalism . With large
scope of Obama’s aspirations . His Democratic majorities in both houses
rhetoric and his strong personal
of Congress, it seemed achievable .
presence won wide approval—so However, developing a plan that had
much so that in October, he was to meet the medical needs of more
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in than 300 million Americans proved
recognition of his goals . But, as
extraordinarily difficult . The con-
always in the complex system of cerns of numerous interests had to be
American representative govern- dealt with—insurance companies,
ment, it was easier to state large hospitals, physicians, pharmaceuti-
ambitions than to realize them .
cal companies, and the large majori-
At home, the administration ad- ty of Americans who were already
dressed the mounting economic covered and reasonably satisfied . In
crisis with a $787 billion stimulus addition, a comprehensive national
act designed to bring growing un- plan had to find some way to control
employment down to manageable skyrocketing costs . In the spring of
levels . The legislation doubtless saved 2010, the president signed complex
or created many jobs, but it failed to legislation that mandated health in-
344
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
surance for every American, with
AFTERWORD
implementation to take place over
several years .
From its origins as a set of obscure
In foreign policy, Obama sought colonies hugging the Atlantic coast,
to reach out to the non-Western the United States has undergone a
world, and especially to Muslims remarkable transformation into
who might interpret the Ameri- what political analyst Ben Watten-
can military actions in Iraq and berg has called “the first universal
Afghanistan as part of a general nation,” a population of almost 300
war on Islam . “America and Islam million people representing virtu-
are not exclusive and need not be ally every nationality and ethnic
in competition,” he told an audi- group in the world . It is also a na-
ence at Cairo University . In Tokyo, tion where the pace and extent of
he reassured Asians that America change—economic, technological,
would remain engaged with the cultural, demographic, and social
world’s fastest-growing region . —is unceasing . The United States is
While hoping to distinguish itself often the harbinger of the modern-
in tone from the Bush administra- ization and change that inevitably
tion, the Obama government found sweep up other nations and societies
itself following the broad outlines in an increasingly interdependent,
of Bush’s War on Terror . It affirmed interconnected world .
the existing agreement to withdraw
Yet the United States also main-
American troops from Iraq in 2011 tains a sense of continuity, a set of
and reluctantly accepted military core values that can be traced to its
plans for a surge in Afghanistan . In founding . They include a faith in
his Nobel acceptance speech, Pres- individual freedom and democratic
ident Obama quoted the celebrat- government, and a commitment to
ed American theologian Reinhold economic opportunity and prog-
Niebuhr to the effect that evil ex- ress for all . The continuing task of
isted in the world and could be de- the United States will be to ensure
feated only by force .
that its values of freedom, democ-
At the conclusion of his first racy, and opportunity—the legacy
year in office, Obama remained, for of a rich and turbulent history—are
many Americans, a compelling per- protected and flourish as the nation,
sonification of their ideals of liberty and the world, move through the
and equal opportunity .
21st century .
9
345
B I B L I O G R A P H Y
RECENT PRIZE-WINNING
2008
BOOKS
The Cigarette Century: The Rise,
The Bancroft Prize for
Fal , and Deadly Persistence of the
American History
Product That Defined America
Awarded by the Trustees
By Allan M . Brandt
of Columbia University
Basic Books
2010
The Populist Vision
Dorothea Lange: A Life
By Charles Postel
Beyond Limits
Oxford University Press
By Linda Gordon
W .W . Norton & Company
Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian
War Transformed Early America
Abigail Adams
By Peter Silver
By Woody Holton
W .W . Norton & Company
Free Press
2007
White Mother to a Dark Race:
Mockingbird Song: Ecological
Settler Colonialism, Maternalism,
Landscapes of the South
and the Removal of Indigenous
By Jack Temple Kirby
Children in the American West
University of North Carolina Press
and Australia, 1880-1940.
By Margaret D . Jacobs
Wil iam James: In the Maelstrom
University of Nebraska Press
of American Modernism
By Robert D . Richardson
2009
Houghton Mifflin Company
Kil ing for Coal: America’s
Deadliest Labor War
2006
By Thomas G . Andrews
Dwel ing Place: A Plantation Epic
Harvard University Press
By Erskine Clarke
Yale University Press
This Republic of Suffering: Death
and the American Civil War
The Global Cold War: Third
By Drew Gilpin Faust
World Interventions and the
Alfred A . Knopf
Making of Our Times
By Odd Arne Westad
The Comanche Empire
Cambridge University Press
By Pekka Hämäläinen
Yale University Press
346
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
The Rise of American Democracy:
SELECTED INTERNET
Jefferson to Lincoln
RESOURCES
By Sean Wilentz
W .W . Norton & Company
American Historical Association
http:/ www .historians .org
Pulitzer Prize for a distinguished