United States
Infobox Country
conventional_long_name=The United States of America
common_name = the United States
length = 1776–Present
symbol_type = Great Seal
national_motto = In God We Trustspaces|2(official)
_la. "
national_anthem = "The Star-Spangled Banner"
official_languages = None at federal levelsmallsup|1
languages_type = National language
languages = English ("de facto")smallsup|2
capital = Washington, D.C.
ethnic_groups = collapsible list |title=|73.94% White,(primarily German, Irish, English)
13.4% African,
5.1% Asian,
0.68% American Indian/Alaska Native,
0.14% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander,
6.5% Other race,
2.0% Two or more races
latd=38 |latm=53 |latNS=N |longd=77 |longm=01 |longEW=W
largest_city = New York City
government_type = Federal Constitutional Republic
leader_title1 = President
leader_name1 = George W. Bush (R)
leader_title2 = Vice President
leader_name2 = Dick Cheney (R)
leader_title3 = nowrap|Speaker of the House
leader_name3 = Nancy Pelosi (D)
leader_title4 = Chief Justice
leader_name4= John Roberts
sovereignty_type = Independence nobold|from the Kingdom of Great Britain
established_event1 = Declared
established_date1 = July 4, 1776
established_event2 = Recognized
established_date2 = September 3, 1783
established_event3 = Current constitution
established_date3 = June 21, 1788
area_footnote =[cite web|url = https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html | title = United States| publisher = CIA|work=The World Factbook | date = 2008-10-02| accessdate = 2008-10-04] ]
area_sq_mi = 3,794,066
area_km2 = 9,826,630
area_rank = 3rd/4thsmallsup|3
area_magnitude = 1 E12
percent_water = 6.76
population_estimate = uspop commas[cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|title=U.S. POPClock Projection Figure updated automatically.] ]
population_estimate_year = CURRENTYEAR
population_estimate_rank = 3rdsmallsup|4
population_census = 281,421,906 [cite web|url=http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFPopulation?_submenuId=population_0&_sse=on|title=Population Finder: United States|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|accessdate=2007-12-20]
population_census_year = 2000
population_density_km2 = 31
population_density_sq_mi = 80
population_density_rank = 180th
GDP_PPP_year = 2007
GDP_PPP = $13.543 trillion[cite web|url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2007/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?pr.x=30&pr.y=11&sy=2004&ey=2008&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=193%2C158%2C122%2C542%2C124%2C137%2C156%2C138%2C423%2C196%2C128%2C142%2C172%2C182%2C132%2C576%2C134%2C961%2C174%2C184%2C532%2C144%2C176%2C146%2C178%2C528%2C436%2C112%2C136%2C111&s=NGDP_RPCH%2CNGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC%2CPPPSH&grp=0&a=|publisher=International Monetary Fund|title=Report for Selected Countries and Subjects (30 advanced economies; 6 subjects)|work=World Economic Outlook Database|month=October | year=2007|accessdate = 2008-02-05] ]
GDP_PPP_rank = 1st
GDP_PPP_per_capita = $43,444
GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank = 4th
GDP_nominal = $13.794 trillion
GDP_nominal_rank = 1st
GDP_nominal_year = 2007
GDP_nominal_per_capita = $43,594
GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank = 11th
HDI_year = 2005
HDI = 0.951
HDI_rank = 12th
HDI_category = high [cite web|url=http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_USA.html|title=The Human Development Index—Going Beyond Income|publisher=United Nations Development Program|work=Human Development Report 2007|accessdate = 2007-11-27]
Gini = 47.0[cite web|author=DeNavas-Walt, Carmen, Bernadette D. Proctor, and Jessica Smith|url=http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p60-233.pdf|title=Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|month=August | year=2007|accessdate = 2008-02-05|format=PDF] ]
Gini_year = 2006
currency = United States dollar ($)
currency_code = USD "$"
country_code = USA
utc_offset = -5 to -10
utc_offset_DST = -4 to -10
cctld = .us .gov .mil .edu
calling_code = 1
demonym = American
footnote1 = English is the official language of at least 28 states—some sources give a higher figure, based on differing definitions of "official." English and Hawaiian are both official languages in the state of Hawaii.
footnote2 = English is the "de facto" language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 82% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language.
footnote3 = Whether the United States or the People's Republic of China is larger is disputed. The figure given is per the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's "World Factbook". Other sources give smaller figures. All authoritative calculations of the country's size include only the fifty states and the District of Columbia, not the territories.
footnote4 = The population estimate includes people whose usual residence is in the fifty states and the District of Columbia, including noncitizens. It does not include either those living in the territories, amounting to more than four million U.S. citizens (most in Puerto Rico), or U.S. citizens living outside the United States. The United States of America—commonly referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or colloquially America—is a constitutional federal republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories, or insular areas, scattered around the Caribbean and Pacific.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with more than 300 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and third largest by land area and by population. The United States is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[Adams, J.Q., and Pearlie Strother-Adams (2001). "Dealing with Diversity". Chicago: Kendall/Hunt. ISBN 078728145X.] The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with a nominal 2006 gross domestic product (GDP) of more than US$13 trillion (over 25% of the world total based on nominal GDP and almost 20% by purchasing power parity).]The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain located along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed their independence from Great Britain and their formation of a cooperative union. The rebellious states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence. [Dull, Jonathan R. (2003). "Diplomacy of the Revolution, to 1783," p. 352, chap. in "A Companion to the American Revolution", ed. Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole. Maiden, Mass.: Blackwell, pp. 352–361. ISBN 1405116749.] A federal convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791.
In the 19th century, the United States acquired land from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North over states' rights and the expansion of the institution of slavery provoked the American Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the nation's status as a military power. In 1945, the United States emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a founding member of NATO. The nation exited the Cold War as the world's sole superpower, [cite web|author=The Boston Globe|url=http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/10/04/lessons_for_the_next_war/|title=Lessons for the Next War|date=October 4, 2008|accessdate=2008-10-07 ] accounting for approximately 50% of global military spending, and a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world. [cite web|author=Cohen, Eliot A.|url=http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040701faessay83406/eliot-a-cohen/history-and-the-hyperpower.html |title=History and the Hyperpower|work=Foreign Affairs|date=July/August 2004|accessdate=2006-07-14 cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1217752.stm|title=Country Profile: United States of America|publisher=BBC News|date=2008-04-22|accessdate=2008-05-18 ]
Etymology
The term "America", for the lands of the western hemisphere, is believed to have been coined in 1507 after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer and cartographer. [cite web|url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-24-america-turns-500_N.htm?csp=34|title=Cartographer Put "America" on the Map 500 Years Ago|work=USA Today|date=2007-04-24|accessdate=2008-06-21] The full name of the country was first used officially in the Declaration of Independence, which was the "unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America" adopted by the "Representatives of the united States of America" on July 4, 1776. [cite web|url=http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters.html|title=The Charters of Freedom|publisher=National Archives|accessdate=2007-06-20] The current name was finalized on November 15, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first of which states, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America.'" The short form "United States" is also standard. Other common forms include the "U.S.", the "USA", and "America". Colloquial names include the "U.S. of A." and "the States". "Columbia", a once popular name for the Americas and the United States, was derived from Christopher Columbus. It appears in the name "District of Columbia".
The standard way to refer to a citizen of the United States is as an "American." Though "United States" is the formal adjective, "American" and "U.S." are the most common adjectives used to refer to the country ("American values," "U.S. forces"). "American" is rarely used in English to refer to people not connected to the United States. [Wilson, Kenneth G. (1993). "The Columbia Guide to Standard American English". New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 27–28. ISBN 0231069898.]
The phrase "the United States" was originally treated as plural—e.g, "the United States are"—including in the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1865. It became common to treat it as singular—"e.g.", "the United States is"—after the end of the Civil War. The singular form is now standard; the plural form is retained in the idiom "these United States." [cite web|url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002663.html|author=Zimmer, Benjamin|date=2005-11-24|title=Life in These, Uh, This United States|publisher=University of Pennsylvania—Language Log|accessdate=2008-02-22]
Geography and environment
The United States is situated almost entirely in the western hemisphere: the contiguous U.S. stretches from the Pacific Ocean on the west to the Atlantic Ocean on the east, with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast; it is bordered by Canada on the north and Mexico on the south. Alaska is the largest state in area; separated from the contiguous U.S. by Canada, it touches the Pacific on the south and the Arctic Ocean on the north. Hawaii occupies an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America. After Russia and Canada, the U.S. is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area, ranking just above or below China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and how the total size of the U.S. is calculated: the CIA "World Factbook" gives convert|3794083|sqmi|km2|0|abbr=on,
The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi–Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north–south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast. The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Mojave. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast. At 20,320 feet (6,194 m), Alaska's Mount McKinley is the country's tallest peak. Active volcanoes are common throughout Alaska's Alexander and Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii consists of volcanic islands. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's largest volcanic feature. [cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/supervolcano/under/under.html|title=Supervolcano: What's Under Yellowstone?| author=O'Hanlon, Larry|publisher=Discovery Channel|accessdate=2007-06-13] The U.S., with its large size and geographic variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii. The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid. Much of the Western mountains are alpine. The climate is arid in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Extreme weather is not uncommon—the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur within the country, mainly in the Midwest's Tornado Alley.[cite web|author=Perkins, Sid|url=http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020511/bob9.asp| archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070701131631/http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020511/bob9.asp| archivedate=2007-07-01| title=Tornado Alley, USA| accessdate=2006-09-20|date=2002-05-11|work=Science News] ]The U.S. ecology is very diverse, with more than 17,000 native species of flora, [cite web|author=Morse, Larry E., et al.| url=http://biology.usgs.gov/error.html | title=Native Vascular Plants | publisher = U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Biological Service|work=Our Living Resources| accessdate=2006-06-14Citation broken|date=December 2007] and more than 400 mammal, 700 bird, 500 reptile and amphibian, and 90,000 insect species. [cite web| url=http://biology.usgs.gov/error.html | title=Our Living Resources | publisher = U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Biological Service| accessdate=2006-06-14Citation broken|date=December 2007] The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. There are fifty-eight national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas. [cite web| url=http://home.nps.gov/applications/release/Detail.cfm?ID=639 | title=National Park Service Announces Addition of Two New Units | publisher = National Park Service|date=2006-02-28| accessdate=2006-06-13] Altogether, the government regulates 28.8% of the country's land area. [cite web| url=http://johnshadegg.house.gov/rsc/Federal%20Land%20Ownership--May%202005.pdf | title=Federal Land and Buildings Ownership | publisher = Republican Study Committee|date=2005-05-19| accessdate=2006-06-13|format=PDF] Most of this is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, [cite web| url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/27/bloomberg/bxbeer.php | title=Abuse of Trust: A Brief History of the Bush Administration’s Disastrous Oil and Gas Development Policies in the Rocky Mountain West | publisher = Wilderness Society | date=2007-05-28| accessdate=2007-06-11] mining, or cattle ranching.
History
Native Americans and European settlers
The indigenous peoples of the U.S. mainland, including Alaska Natives, migrated from Asia. They began arriving at least 12,000 and as many as 40,000 years ago. [cite web|url=http://anthropology.si.edu/HumanOrigins/faq/americas.htm|title=Peopling of Americas |publisher=Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History|month=June | year=2004|accessdate=2007-06-19] Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached several Caribbean islands, making first contact with the indigenous people. Millions of indigenous Americans subsequently died from epidemics of Eurasian diseases. [citation |author=Meltzer, D.J. |year=1992 |title=How Columbus Sickened the New World: Why Were Native Americans So Vulnerable to the Diseases European settlers Brought With Them? |journal=New Scientist |pages=38–38 |url=http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13618424.700-how-columbus-sickened-the-new-world-why-were-nativeamericans-so-vulnerable-to-the-diseases-european-settlers-brought-with-them.html]
On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "La Florida"—the first documented European arrival on what would become the U.S. mainland. Of Spain's settlements in the region, only St. Augustine, founded in 1565, remains. Later Spanish settlements in the present-day southwestern United States drew thousands through Mexico. French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior, down to the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the Virginia Colony in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of migration; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain's American colonies. [cite web|work=Butler, James Davie|url=http://www.dinsdoc.com/butler-1.htm|title=British Convicts Shipped to American Colonies | publisher = Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History|work=American Historical Review 2|month=October | year=1896| accessdate=2007-06-21] Beginning in 1614, the Dutch settled along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.
In 1674, the Dutch ceded their American territory to England; the province of New Netherland was renamed New York. Many new immigrants, especially to the South, were indentured servants—some two-thirds of all Virginia immigrants between 1630 and 1680. [Russell, David Lee (2005). "The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies". Jefferson, N.C., and London: McFarland, p. 12. ISBN 0786407832.] By the turn of the century, African slaves were becoming the primary source of bonded labor. With the 1729 division of the Carolinas and the 1732 colonization of Georgia, the thirteen British colonies that would become the United States of America were established. All had local governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self-government stimulating support for republicanism. All legalized the African slave trade. With high birth rates, low death rates, and steady immigration, these colonies doubled in population every twenty-five years. The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty. In the French and Indian War, British forces seized Canada from the French, but the francophone population remained politically isolated from the southern colonies. By 1770, those thirteen colonies had an increasingly Anglicized population of three million, approximately half that of Britain. Though subject to British taxation, they had no representation in the Parliament of Great Britain.
Independence and expansion
Tensions between American colonials and the British during the revolutionary period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 through 1781. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress, convening in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. Proclaiming that "all men are created equal" and endowed with "certain unalienable Rights," the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson, on July 4, 1776. That date is now celebrated annually as America's Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak federal government that operated until 1789.
After the defeat of the British army by American forces who were assisted by the French, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and the states' sovereignty over American territory west to the Mississippi River. A constitutional convention was organized in 1787 by those wishing to establish a strong national government, with powers of taxation. The United States Constitution was ratified in 1788, and the new republic's first Senate, House of Representatives, and president—George Washington—took office in 1789. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.
Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; a protected the African slave trade only until 1808. The Northern states abolished slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the "peculiar institution." The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, made evangelicalism a force behind various social reform movements, including abolitionism.
Americans' eagerness to expand westward prompted a long series of Indian Wars and an Indian removal policy that stripped Native Americans (popularly known as "American Indians") of their land. The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed territory under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size. The War of 1812, declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism. A series of U.S. military incursions into Florida led Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The U.S. annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845. The concept of Manifest Destiny was popularized during this time. [Morrison, Michael A. (1999). "Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War". Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, pp. 13–21. ISBN 0807847968.] The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the Mexican-American War resulted in the 1848 cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest. The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 further spurred western migration. New railways made relocation easier for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans. Over a half-century, up to 40 million American bison, or buffalo, were slaughtered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the buffalo, a primary resource for the plains Indians, was an existential blow to many native cultures.
Civil War and industrialization
Tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments over the relationship between the state and federal governments, as well as violent conflicts over the spread of slavery into new states. Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the largely antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven slave states declared their secession—which the federal government maintained was illegal—and formed the Confederate States of America. With the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, the American Civil War began and four more slave states joined the Confederacy. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation committed the Union to ending slavery. Following the Union victory in 1865, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution ensured freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves, [ cite web | url = http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1860a-02.pdf | title = 1860 Census | publisher = U.S. Census Bureau | accessdate = 2007-06-10|format=PDF Page 7 lists a total slave population of 3,953,760.] made them citizens, and gave them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a substantial increase in federal power. [De Rosa, Marshall L. (1997). "The Politics of Dissolution: The Quest for a National Identity and the American Civil War". Edison, NJ: Transaction, p. 266. ISBN 1560003499.]
After the war, the assassination of Lincoln radicalized Republican Reconstruction policies aimed at reintegrating and rebuilding the Southern states while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves. The resolution of the disputed 1876 presidential election by the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction; Jim Crow laws soon disenfranchised many African Americans. In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants hastened the country's industrialization. The wave of immigration, lasting until 1929, provided labor and transformed American culture. High tariff protections, national infrastructure building, and new banking regulations encouraged growth. The 1867 Alaska purchase from Russia completed the country's mainland expansion. The Wounded Knee massacre in 1890 was the last major armed conflict of the Indian Wars. In 1893, the indigenous monarchy of the Pacific Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in a coup led by American residents; the U.S. annexed the archipelago in 1898. Victory in the Spanish-American War the same year demonstrated that the U.S. was a major world power and led to the annexation of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Philippines gained independence a half-century later; Puerto Rico and Guam remain U.S. territories.
World War I, Great Depression, and World War II
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States remained neutral. Most Americans sympathized with the British and French, although many opposed intervention. [Foner, Eric, and John A. Garraty (1991). "The Reader's Companion to American History." New York: Houghton Mifflin, p. 576. ISBN 0395513723.] In 1917, the U.S. joined the Allies, turning the tide against the Central Powers. After the war, the Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations. The country pursued a policy of unilateralism, verging on isolationism. [McDuffie, Jerome, Gary Wayne Piggrem, and Steven E. Woodworth (2005). "U.S. History Super Review". Piscataway, NJ: Research & Education Association, p. 418. ISBN 0738600709.] In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage. The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that triggered the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, a range of policies increasing government intervention in the economy. The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration.
The U.S., effectively neutral during World War II's early stages after the Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939, began supplying materiel to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the U.S. joined the Allies against the Axis powers after a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan. World War II cost far more money than any other war in American history, [cite web |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0829/p15s01-cogn.html|author=Francis, David R. |title=More Costly than "The War to End All Wars"|date=2005-08-29|accessdate = 2006-10-24 |work=Christian Science Monitor] but it boosted the economy by providing capital investment and jobs. Among the major combatants, the U.S. was the only nation to become richer—indeed, far richer—instead of poorer because of the war. [Kennedy, Paul (1989). "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers". New York: Vintage, p. 358. ISBN 0670728197.] Allied conferences at Bretton Woods and Yalta outlined a new system of international organizations that placed the U.S. and Soviet Union at the center of world affairs. As victory was achieved in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war. [cite web |url=http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/pubs/fs/55407.htm |title=The United States and the Founding of the United Nations, August 1941–October 1945|month=October | year=2005 |accessdate = 2007-06-11 |publisher=U.S. Dept. of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, Office of the Historian] The U.S., having developed the first nuclear weapons, used them on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. Japan surrendered on September 2, ending the war. [Pacific War Research Society (2006). "Japan's Longest Day". New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 4770028873.]
Cold War and civil rights
The United States and Soviet Union jockeyed for power after World War II during the Cold War, dominating the military affairs of Europe through NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The U.S. promoted liberal democracy and capitalism, while the Soviet Union promoted communism and a centrally planned economy. Both supported dictatorships and engaged in proxy wars. American troops fought Communist Chinese forces in the Korean War of 1950–53. The House Un-American Activities Committee pursued a series of investigations into suspected leftist subversion, while Senator Joseph McCarthy became the figurehead of anticommunist sentiment.
The 1961 Soviet launch of the first manned spaceflight prompted President John F. Kennedy's call for the U.S. to be first to land "a man on the moon," achieved in 1969. Kennedy also faced a tense nuclear showdown with Soviet forces in Cuba. Meanwhile, the U.S. experienced sustained economic expansion. A growing civil rights movement, led by African Americans such as Martin Luther King, Jr., fought segregation and discrimination. Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964[ [http://finduslaw.com/civil_rights_act_of_1964_cra_title_vii_equal_employment_opportunities_42_us_code_chapter_21 Civil Rights Act of 1964] ] and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, expanded a proxy war in Southeast Asia into the unsuccessful Vietnam War. A widespread countercultural movement grew, fueled by opposition to the war, the sexual revolution, and a new wave of feminism.]As a result of the Watergate scandal, in 1974 Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign, rather than be impeached on charges including obstruction of justice and abuse of power; he was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford. During the Jimmy Carter administration in the late 1970s, the U.S. economy experienced stagflation. The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 marked a significant rightward shift in American politics, reflected in major changes in taxation and spending priorities. [cite web |url=http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Reaganomics.html|title=Reaganomics|accessdate= 2007-10-21|author=Niskanen, William A.|publisher= The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Soviet Union collapsed, effectively ending the Cold War.
Contemporary era
The leadership role taken by the United States and its allies in the UN–sanctioned Gulf War and the Yugoslav wars helped to preserve its position as a superpower. The longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history—from March 1991 to March 2001—encompassed the Clinton administration and the dot-com bubble. [cite web|author=Voyce, Bill |url=http://iwin.iwd.state.ia.us/iowa/ArticleReader?itemid=00003700&print=1|title=Why the Expansion of the 1990s Lasted So Long|publisher=Iowa Workforce Information Network|date=2006-08-21|accessdate=2007-08-16] In 1998, Clinton was impeached by the House on charges relating to a civil lawsuit and a sexual scandal, but was acquitted by the Senate and remained in office. The presidential election of 2000, one of the closest in U.S. history, was ultimately resolved by a U.S. Supreme Court decision—George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, became president.
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City and The Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly three thousand people. In response, President Bush launched the War on Terrorism. In late 2001, U.S. forces led a NATO invasion of Afghanistan, removing the Taliban government and al-Qaeda training camps. Taliban insurgents continue to fight a guerrilla war. In 2002, the Bush administration began to press for regime change in Iraq on controversial grounds. [cite web| title = Many Europeans Oppose War in Iraq|work=USA Today| url = http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-02-14-eu-survey.htm|date=2003-02-14| accessdate = 2008-09-01cite web|author=Springford, John| title = 'Old’ and ‘New’ Europeans United: Public Attitudes Towards the Iraq War and US Foreign Policy|publisher=Centre for European Reform| url = http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/back_brief_springford_dec03.pdf|month=December | year=2003| accessdate = 2008-09-01|format=PDF] Lacking the support of NATO or an explicit UN mandate for military intervention, Bush organized a Coalition of the Willing; coalition forces preemptively invaded Iraq in 2003, removing President Saddam Hussein from power. Though most Americans now view the invasion as a mistake, the U.S.-led coalition maintains a presence in Iraq. [cite web| title = Iraq [poll] |publisher=PollingReport.com| url = http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm| accessdate = 2008-09-25] The U.S. has been criticized for human rights violations in its pursuit of the War on Terrorism and the Iraq War. [cite web |author=|url=http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Americas |title=Amnesty International Report 2007|publisher=Amnesty International|accessdate=2008-01-18]
The collapse of the U.S. housing bubble and the related subprime mortgage crisis led to a broader economic crisis in late summer/early fall 2008. In the upcoming 2008 presidential election, the Republican Party candidate, Senator John McCain of Arizona, a Vietnam War veteran and former prisoner of war, will face the Democratic Party candidate, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the first African American to head a major political party's presidential ticket.
Government and elections
The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law." [Scheb, John M., and John M. Scheb II (2002). "An Introduction to the American Legal System". Florence, KY: Delmar, p. 6. ISBN 0766827593.] It is fundamentally structured as a representative democracy, though U.S. citizens residing in the territories are excluded from voting for federal officials. [Raskin, James B. (2003). "Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court Vs. the American People". London and New York: Routledge, pp. 36–38. ISBN 0415934397.] The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the U.S. Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document and as a social contract for the American people. In the American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government, federal, state, and local; the local government's duties are commonly split between county and municipal governments. In almost all cases, executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote of citizens by district. There is no proportional representation at the federal level, and it is very rare at lower levels. Federal and state judicial and cabinet officials are typically nominated by the executive branch and approved by the legislature, although some state judges and officials are elected by popular vote.
The federal government is composed of three branches:
* Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.
* Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law, and appoints the Cabinet and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.
* Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the president with Senate approval, interpret laws and can overturn laws they deem unconstitutional.
The House of Representatives has 435 members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population every tenth year. As of the 2000 census, seven states have the minimum of one representative, while California, the most populous state, has fifty-three. The Senate has 100 members with each state having two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one third of Senate seats are up for election every other year. The president serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice. The president is not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned by state. The Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life.
All laws and procedures of both state and federal governments are subject to review, and any law ruled in violation of the Constitution by the judiciary is voided. The original text of the Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states. Article One protects the right to the "great writ" of habeas corpus, and Article Three guarantees the right to a jury trial in all criminal cases. Amendments to the Constitution require the approval of three-fourths of the states. The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments, which make up the Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of Americans' individual rights.
Parties, ideology and politics
The United States has operated under a two-party system for virtually all of its history. For elective offices at all levels, state-administered primary elections choose the major party nominees for subsequent general elections. Since the general election of 1856, the major parties have been the Democratic Party, founded in 1824, and the Republican Party, founded in 1854. Since the Civil War, only one third-party presidential candidate—former president Theodore Roosevelt, running as a Progressive in 1912—has won as much as 20% of the popular vote.
Within American political culture, the Republican Party is considered "center-right" or conservative and the Democratic Party is considered "center-left" or liberal. The states of the Northeast and West Coast and some of the Great Lakes states, known as "blue states", are relatively liberal. The "red states" of the South and much of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains are relatively conservative. A plurality of Americans identify as Democrats, yet significantly more Americans identify as conservative than liberal. [citeweb|title=Associated Press–Yahoo Poll|date=2008-09-20|publisher=AP|url=http://surveys.ap.org/data/KnowledgeNetworks/AP_Election_Wave6_Topline_W6%20ALL%20weight5_091808.pdf|accessdate=2008-09-25|format=PDF]
The incumbent president, Republican George W. Bush, is the 43rd U.S. president. All presidents to date have been white men. If Democrat Barack Obama wins the 2008 election, he will be the first African American president; if Republican John McCain wins, he will be the oldest man to take the office, and his running mate, Sarah Palin, will be the first female vice president. Following the 2006 midterm elections, the Democratic Party controls both the House and the Senate. Every member of the U.S. Congress is a Democrat or a Republican except two independent members of the Senate. An overwhelming majority of state and local officials are also Democrats or Republicans.
Geographic divisions
The United States is a federal union of fifty states. The original thirteen states were the successors of the thirteen colonies that rebelled against British rule. Most of the rest have been carved from territory obtained through war or purchase by the U.S. government. The exceptions are Vermont, Texas, and Hawaii; each was an independent republic before joining the union. Early in the country's history, three states were created out of the territory of existing ones: Kentucky from Virginia; Tennessee from North Carolina; and Maine from Massachusetts. West Virginia broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War. The most recent state—Hawaii—achieved statehood on August 21, 1959. The states do not have the right to secede from the union.
The states compose the vast bulk of the U.S. land mass; the two other areas considered integral parts of the country are the District of Columbia, the federal district where the capital, Washington, is located; and Palmyra Atoll, an uninhabited but incorporated territory in the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. also possesses five major territories with indigenous populations: Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands in the Caribbean; and American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific. Those born in the territories (except for American Samoa) possess U.S. citizenship.
Foreign relations and military
The United States exercises global economic, political, and military influence. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and New York City hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many host consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, Sudan, and the Republic of China (Taiwan) do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.
The U.S. enjoys a special relationship with the United Kingdom and strong ties with Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel, and fellow NATO members. It also works closely with its neighbors through the Organization of American States and free trade agreements such as the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. In 2005, the U.S. spent $27 billion on official development assistance, the most in the world. However, as a share of gross national income (GNI), the U.S. contribution of 0.22% ranked twentieth of twenty-two donor states. Nongovernmental sources such as private foundations, corporations, and educational and religious institutions donated $96 billion. The combined total of $123 billion is also the most in the world and seventh as a percentage of GNI. [citeweb|title=Americans Favor Private Giving, People-to-People Contacts|date=2007-05-24|publisher=U.S. Dept. of State, International Information Programs|url=http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=May&x=20070524165115zjsredna0.2997553|accessdate=2007-06-17]
The president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces, including the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. The Coast Guard is run by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and the Department of the Navy in time of war. In 2005, the military had 1.38 million personnel on active duty, [cite web |url=http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/tables/2005/1231militarypersonnel.pdf |title=Department of Defense Active Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country (309A) |date=2005-12-31|publisher=Global Policy Forum|accessdate=2007-06-21|format=PDF] along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard for a total of 2.3 million troops. The Department of Defense also employs about 700,000 civilians, disregarding contractors. Military service is voluntary, though conscription may occur in wartime through the Selective Service System. American forces can be rapidly deployed by the Air Force's large fleet of transport aircraft and aerial refueling tankers, the Navy's fleet of eleven active aircraft carriers, and Marine Expeditionary Units at sea in the Navy's Atlantic and Pacific fleets. Outside of the U.S., the military is deployed to 770 bases and facilities, on every continent except Antarctica. [cite web |url= http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/intervention/2005/basestructurereport.pdf |title=Department of Defense Base Structure Report, Fiscal Year 2005 Baseline |publisher=Global Policy Forum|accessdate=2007-06-21|format=PDF] The extent of this global military presence has prompted scholars to describe the U.S. as maintaining an "empire of bases." [cite web|author=Ikenberry, G. John |url= http://people.cas.sc.edu/rosati/ttp.ikenberry.empirereviews.fa.march04.htm |title=Illusions of Empire: Defining the New American Order |work=Foreign Affairs|date=March/April 2004 cite web|author=Kreisler, Harry, and Chalmers Johnson |url= http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people4/CJohnson/cjohnson-con3.html |title=Conversations with History |publisher=University of California at Berkeley|date=2004-01-29|accessdate=2007-06-21]
Total U.S. military spending in 2006, over $528 billion, was 46% of global military spending and greater than the next fourteen largest national military expenditures combined. (In purchasing power parity terms, it was larger than the next six such expenditures combined.) The per capita spending of $1,756 was about ten times the world average. [cite web |url=http://www.sipri.org/contents/milap/milex/mex_major_spenders.pdf/download |title=The Fifteen Major Spender Countries in 2006 |publisher=Stockholm International Peace Research Institute |year= 2007|accessdate=2007-06-20] At 4.06% of GDP, U.S. military spending is ranked 27th out of 172 nations. [cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html |title=Rank Order—Military Expenditures—Percent of GDP |publisher=CIA |work=The World Factbook|date=2007-05-31|accessdate=2007-06-13] The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2009, $515.4 billion, is a 7% increase over 2008 and a nearly 74% increase over 2001. [cite web |url= http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/defense.html |title=Department of Defense |publisher=Office of Management and Budget |work=Budget of the United States Government, FY 2009|accessdate=2008-03-02] The estimated cost of the Iraq War to the U.S. through 2016 is $2.267 trillion. [cite web |url=http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1119646120070611 |title=Global Military Spending Hits $1.2 Trillion: Study |publisher=Reuters |date= 2007-06-11|accessdate=2007-06-21] As of September 22, 2008, the U.S. had suffered 4,169 military fatalities during the war and over 30,000 wounded. [cite web |url=http://icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx |title=Iraq Coalition Casualties |publisher=Iraq Coalition Casualty Count |date= 2008-09-22|accessdate=2008-09-22]
Economy
English is the de facto
national language. Although there is no
official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2003, about 215 million, or 82% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home.
Spanish, spoken by over 10% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught foreign language.
[
cite web| url = http://www.adfl.org/resources/enrollments.pdf| title = Foreign Language Enrollments in United States Institutions of Higher Learning|date=fall 2002| publisher = MLA| accessdate = 2006-10-16|format=PDF] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states. [
cite web|author=Feder, Jody| url = http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/news/2007,0515-crs.pdf | title = English as the Official Language of the United States—Legal Background and Analysis of Legislation in the 110th Congress|date=2007-01-25| publisher = ILW.COM (Congressional Research Service)| accessdate = 2007-06-19|format=PDF] Both
Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law. [
cite web|url=http://www.hawaii.gov/lrb/con/conart15.html|title=The Constitution of the State of Hawaii, Article XV, Section 4| publisher=Hawaii Legislative Reference Bureau|date=1978-11-07|accessdate=2007-06-19] While neither has an official language,
New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as
Louisiana does for English and
French. [
cite book| author =Dicker, Susan J. | title = Languages in America: A Pluralist View |year=2003|pages=pp. 216, 220–25 | location =Clevedon, UK| publisher = Multilingual Matters|id=ISBN 1853596515] Other states, such as
California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms. [
cite web|url=http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=90544325063+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve|title=California Code of Civil Procedure, Section 412.20(6)| publisher=Legislative Counsel, State of California|accessdate=2007-12-17 cite web|url=http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/forms/allforms.htm|title=California Judicial Council Forms| publisher=Judicial Council, State of California|accessdate=2007-12-17] Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English:
Samoan and
Chamorro are recognized by Samoa and Guam, respectively;
Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico.
Religion
The United States is an officially secular nation; the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids the establishment of any religious governance. The government does not audit Americans' religious beliefs. [cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/prod/www/religion.htm|title=Religion| publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|accessdate=2007-06-17] In a private survey conducted in 2001, 76.5% of adults identified themselves as Christian, down from 86.4% in 1990. Protestant denominations accounted for 52%, while Roman Catholics, at 24.5%, were the largest individual denomination.[cite web|url=http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris/key_findings.htm|title=American Religious Identification Survey| publisher=CUNY Graduate Center|year=2001|accessdate=2007-06-17 citeweb|url=http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris.pdf|title=American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS)|author=Kosmin, Barry A., Egon Mayer, and Ariela Keysar|publisher=CUNY Graduate Center|date=2001|accessdate=2008-01-05|format=PDF]
The study is referenced in the U.S. Census Bureau's "Statistical Abstract of the United States" [http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/08s0074.xls Self-Described Religious Identification of Adult Population: 1990 and 2001] .] A different study describes white evangelicals, 26.3% of the population, as the country's largest religious cohort; [cite web|url=http://www.uakron.edu/bliss/docs/Religious_Landscape_2004.pdf|author=Green, John C|title=The American Religious Landscape and Political Attitudes: A Baseline for 2004| publisher=University of Akron|Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics|accessdate=2007-06-18|format=PDF] evangelicals of all races are estimated at 30–35%. [cite web|url=http://www.wheaton.edu/isae/defining_evangelicalism.html#How%20Many|author= Eskridge, Larry |title=How Many Evangelicals Are There?| publisher=Wheaton College, Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals|work=Defining Evangelicalism|year=2006|accessdate=2007-06-19] The total reporting non-Christian religions in 2001 was 3.7%, up from 3.3% in 1990. The leading non-Christian faiths were Judaism (1.4%), Islam (0.5%), Buddhism (0.5%), Hinduism (0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%). Between 1990 and 2001, the number of Muslims and Buddhists more than doubled. From 8.2% in 1990, 14.1% in 2001 described themselves as agnostic, atheist, or simply having no religion,Education
American public education is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. Children are required in most states to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through 12th grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen. [cite web |url=http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d02/dt150.asp |title=Ages for Compulsory School Attendance... |accessdate = 2007-06-10 |publisher=U.S. Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics] About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled. [cite web |url=http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/nonpublic/statistics.html |title=Statistics About Non-Public Education in the United States |accessdate = 2007-06-05 |publisher=U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Non-Public Education] The U.S. has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education, as well as local community colleges with open admission policies. Of Americans twenty-five and older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended some college, 27.2% earned a bachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees. [cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/p20-550.pdf|title=Educational Attainment in the United States: 2003|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|accessdate = 2006-08-01|format=PDF] The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%.
Health
The United States life expectancy of 77.8 years at birth [cite web|url=http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus06.pdf#027|title=Health, United States, 2006|month=November | year=2006|publisher=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics|accessdate = 2007-08-15] is a year shorter than the overall figure in Western Europe, and three to four years lower than that of Norway, Switzerland, and Canada. [cite web |author=Eberstadt, Nicholas, and Hans Groth|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/19/opinion/edeber.php |title=Healthy Old Europe|date=2007-04-19|work=International Herald Tribune|accessdate = 2007-06-19 ] Over the past two decades, the country's rank in life expectancy has dropped from 11th to 42nd in the world. [cite web|author=MacAskill, Ewen|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/aug/13/usa.ewenmacaskill |title=US Tumbles Down the World Ratings List for Life Expectancy|date=2007-08-13 |work= Guardian|accessdate = 2007-08-15] The infant mortality rate of 6.37 per thousand likewise places the U.S. 42nd out of 221 countries, behind all of Western Europe. [cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html |title=Rank Order—Infant Mortality Rate|date=2007-06-14|publisher =CIA|work=The World Factbook|accessdate = 2007-06-19] U.S. cancer survival rates are the highest in the world. [cite news| first = Nicole| last = Martin| title = UK Cancer Survival Rate Lowest in Europe| url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1560849/UK-cancer-survival-rate-lowest-in-Europe.html | work = The Daily Telegraph| date = 2007-08-24 cite journal| last = Gatta| first = Gemma | year = 2006| month = February| title = Survival from Rare Cancer in Adults: A Population-Based Study| journal = The Lancet Oncology| volume = 7| issue = 2| pages = 132–140| doi = 10.1016/S1470-2045(05)70471-X] Approximately one-third of the adult population is obese and an additional third is overweight; [cite web |url=http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/overweight/overwght_adult_03.htm |title=Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among Adults: United States, 2003–2004 |accessdate = 2007-06-05 |publisher=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics] the obesity rate, the highest in the industrialized world, has more than doubled in the last quarter-century. [cite book | author= Schlosser, Eric | year = 2002 | title = Fast Food Nation | publisher = Perennial | location = New York |pages = p. 240| id = ISBN 0060938455 ] Obesity-related type 2 diabetes is considered epidemic by healthcare professionals. [cite web |url=http://atvb.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/25/12/2451#R3-101329 |title=Fast Food, Central Nervous System Insulin Resistance, and Obesity|year=2005 |accessdate = 2007-06-17|work= Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology|publisher=American Heart Association] The U.S. adolescent pregnancy rate, 79.8 per 1,000 women, is nearly four times that of France and five times that of Germany. [cite web |url=http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/PUBLICATIONS/factsheet/fsest.htm |title=Adolescent Sexual Health in Europe and the U.S.—Why the Difference?|month=October | year=2001 |accessdate = 2007-06-17 |publisher=Advocates for Youth] Abortion, legal on demand, is highly controversial. Many states ban public funding of the procedure and restrict late-term abortions, require parental notification for minors, and mandate a waiting period. While the abortion rate is falling, the abortion ratio of 241 per 1,000 live births and abortion rate of 15 per 1,000 women aged 15–44 remain higher than those of most Western nations. [cite web |url=http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5511a1.htm|author=Strauss, Lilo T., et al.|title=Abortion Surveillance—United States, 2003|accessdate = 2007-06-17 |publisher=Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Reproductive Health|work=MMWR|date=2006-11-24]
The U.S. healthcare system far outspends any other nation's, measured in both per capita spending and percentage of GDP. ["OECD Health Data 2000: A Comparative Analysis of 29 Countries" (Paris: OECD, 2000). See also cite web |url=http://dll.umaine.edu/ble/U.S.%20HCweb.pdf|title=The U.S. Healthcare System: The Best in the World or Just the Most Expensive?|year=2001|accessdate = 2006-11-29 |publisher=University of Maine|format=PDF] Unlike most developed countries, the healthcare system is not universal, and largely relies on private funding. In 2004, private insurance paid for 36% of personal health expenditure, private out-of-pocket payments covered 15%, and federal, state, and local governments paid for 44%.[cite web |url=http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus06.pdf|title=Health, United States, 2006|accessdate = 2006-11-24 |publisher=Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics|format=PDF] The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. healthcare system in 2000 as first in responsiveness, but 37th in overall performance. The U.S. is a leader in medical innovation. In 2004, the nonindustrial sector spent three times as much as Europe per capita on biomedical research. [cite journal |author=Groves, Trish| year=2008|month=Feb |title=Stronger European medical research |journal=British Medical Journal |volume=336 |pages=341–342| doi=10.1136/bmj.39489.505208.80] Medical bills are the most common reason for personal bankruptcy. [cite web |url=http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.w5.63/DC1|author=Himmelstein, David U., et al.|title=Illness and Injury as Contributors to Bankruptcy|accessdate = 2006-10-05|work=Health Affairs|year=2005] In 2005, 46.6 million Americans, 15.9% of the population, were uninsured, 5.4 million more than in 2001. The main cause of this decline is the drop in the number of Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance.][cite web|url=http://www.cbpp.org/8-29-06pov.htm|title=Poverty Remains Higher, and Median Income for Non-Elderly Is Lower, Than When Recession Hit Bottom: Poor Performance Unprecedented for Four-Year Recovery Period|publisher=Center for Budget and Policy Priorities|date =2006-09-01|accessdate = 2007-06-24] In 2006, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate universal health insurance; [cite web|author=Fahrenthold, David A.|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/04/AR2006040401937.html|title= Mass. Bill Requires Health Coverage|date= 2006-04-05|work=Washington Post|accessdate=2007-06-19] California is considering similar legislation. [cite web|author=Gledhill, Lynda|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/08/29/MNGBSKR3RA1.DTL|title= Assembly Approves Universal Health Care|date=2006-08-29|work=San Francisco Chronicle|accessdate=2007-06-19] ]Crime and punishment
Law enforcement in the United States is primarily the responsibility of local police and sheriff's departments, with state police providing broader services. Federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Marshals Service have specialized duties. At the federal level and in almost every state, jurisprudence operates on a common law system. State courts conduct most criminal trials; federal courts handle certain designated crimes as well as appeals from state systems.
Among developed nations, the U.S. has above-average levels of violent crime and particularly high levels of gun violence and homicide. [cite web |url=http://www.unodc.org/pdf/crime/eighthsurvey/8sv.pdf|title=Eighth United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2001–2002) |publisher=United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) |date = 2005-03-31|accessdate=2008-05-18|format=PDF cite journal |author=Krug, E.G, K.E. Powell, and L.L. Dahlberg |year=1998 |title=Firearm-Related Deaths in the United States and 35 Other High- and Upper-Middle Income Countries |journal=International Journal of Epidemiology |volume=7 |pages=pp. 214–21 |url=http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/2/214 |doi=10.1093/ije/27.2.214] In 2006, there were 5.7 murders per 100,000 persons,[cite web|url=http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_01.html|title=Crime in the United States by Volume and Rate per 100,000 Inhabitants, 1987–2006|work=Crime in the United States 2006|publisher=FBI|month=September | year=2007|accessdate=2008-03-03] three times the rate in neighboring Canada. [cite web|url=http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/legal02.htm?sdi=crimes|title=Crimes by Type of Offence|publisher=Statistics Canada|date=2007-08-08|accessdate=2008-03-03] The U.S. homicide rate, which decreased by 42% between 1991 and 1999, has been roughly steady since.]The U.S. has the highest documented incarceration rate[cite web |url=http://www.sentencingproject.org/Admin/Documents/publications/inc_newfigures.pdf |title=New Incarceration Figures: Thirty-Three Consecutive Years of Growth |month=December | year=2006 |accessdate = 2007-06-10 |publisher=Sentencing Project|format=PDF] and total prison population [cite web| author=Walmsley, Roy |url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/world-prison-population-list-2005.pdf |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070628215935/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/world-prison-population-list-2005.pdf |archivedate=2007-06-28|title=World Prison Population List |year=2005|accessdate = 2007-10-19|publisher=King's College London, International Centre for Prison Studies|format=PDF For the latest data, see cite web|url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/worldbrief/north_america_records.php?code=190|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070804061423/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/worldbrief/north_america_records.php?code=190|archivedate=2007-08-04|title=Prison Brief for United States of America|date=2006-06-21|accessdate = 2007-10-19|publisher=King's College London, International Centre for Prison Studies For other estimates of the incarceration rate in China and North Korea see cite web|author=Adams, Cecil|url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040206.html |title=Does the United States Lead the World in Prison Population? |date=2004-02-06|accessdate = 2007-10-11 |publisher=The Straight Dope] in the world. At the start of 2008, more than 2.3 million people were incarcerated, more than one in every 100 adults. [cite web |url=http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=35912 |title=Pew Report Finds More than One in 100 Adults are Behind Bars|date=2008-02-28|accessdate = 2008-03-02|publisher=Pew Center on the States] The current rate is about seven times the 1980 figure. [cite web |url=http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/incrttab.htm |title=Incarceration Rate, 1980–2005 |year=2006|accessdate = 2007-06-10 |publisher=U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics] African American males are jailed at about six times the rate of white males and three times the rate of Hispanic males.][cite web |url=http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/usa/Rcedrg00-05.htm |title=The Impact of the War on Drugs on U.S. Incarceration |month=May | year=2000 |accessdate = 2007-06-10 |publisher=Human Rights Watch] Though it has been abolished in most Western nations, capital punishment is sanctioned in the U.S. for certain federal and military crimes, and in thirty-seven states. Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty after a four-year moratorium, there have been over 1,000 executions. [cite web |url=http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=1666 |title=Executions in the United States in 2007|accessdate = 2007-06-15 |publisher=Death Penalty Information Center] In 2006, the country had the sixth highest number of executions in the world, following China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and Sudan. [cite web |url=http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=127&scid=30#interexec |title=Executions Around the World|accessdate = 2007-06-15|year=2007 |publisher=Death Penalty Information Center] In December 2007, New Jersey became the first state to abolish the death penalty since the 1976 Supreme Court decision.]Culture
The United States is a multicultural nation, home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values.[Thompson, William, and Joseph Hickey (2005). "Society in Focus". Boston: Pearson. ISBN 020541365X.] There is no "American" ethnicity; aside from the now relatively small Native American population, nearly all Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries. [Fiorina, Morris P., and Paul E. Peterson (2000). "The New American Democracy". London: Longman, p. 97. ISBN 0321070585.] The culture held in common by most Americans is referred to as mainstream American culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Western European migrants, beginning with the early English and Dutch settlers. German, Irish, and Scottish cultures have also been very influential.]While the mainstream culture holds that the U.S. is a classless society, [cite book |last=Gutfield |first=Amon |year=2002 |title=American Exceptionalism: The Effects of Plenty on the American Experience |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |location=Brighton and Portland |page=65 |id=ISBN 1903900085] scholars identify significant differences between the country's social classes, affecting socialization, language, and values. [cite book |last=Zweig |first=Michael |year=2004 |title=What's Class Got To Do With It, American Society in the Twenty-First Century |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, NY |id=ISBN 0801488990 cite web |url=http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED309843&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&objectId=0900000b800472a5 |title=Effects of Social Class and Interactive Setting on Maternal Speech |publisher=Education Resource Information Center |accessdate=2007-01-27] The American middle and professional class has initiated many contemporary social trends such as feminism, environmentalism, and multiculturalism. [cite book |last=Ehrenreich |first=Barbara |year=1989 |title=Fear of Falling, The Inner Life of the Middle Class |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York |id=ISBN 0060973331] Americans' self-images, social viewpoints, and cultural expectations are associated with their occupations to an unusually close degree. [cite book |last=Eichar |first=Douglas |year=1989 |title=Occupation and Class Consciousness in America |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, CT |id=ISBN 0313261113] While Americans tend greatly to value socioeconomic achievement, being ordinary or average is generally seen as a positive attribute. [cite book |last=O'Keefe |first=Kevin |year=2005 |title=The Average American |publisher=PublicAffairs |location=New York |id=ISBN 158648270X] Though the American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, plays a key role in attracting immigrants, some analysts find that the U.S. has less social mobility than Western Europe and Canada. [cite web|url=http://www.economist.com/world/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3518560|title=Ever Higher Society, Ever Harder to Ascend: Whatever Happened to the Belief That Any American Could Get to the Top| work = Economist|date=2004-12-29 |accessdate=2006-08-21 cite web|url=http://www.suttontrust.com/reports/IntergenerationalMobility.pdf|title=Intergenerational Mobility in Europe and North America|author=Blanden, Jo, Paul Gregg, and Stephen Malchin| publisher = Centre for Economic Performance|month=April | year=2005 |accessdate=2006-08-21|format=PDF]
Women now mostly work outside the home and receive a majority of bachelor's degrees. [cite web |url=http://www.iserp.columbia.edu/news/articles/female_college.html |title=Women's Advances in Education |publisher=Columbia University, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy |year=2006 |accessdate=2007-06-06] In 2005, 28% of households were married childless couples, the most common arrangement. [Williams, Brian, Stacey C. Sawyer, and Carl M. Wahlstrom (2005). "Marriages, Families and Intimate Relationships". Boston: Pearson. ISBN 0205366740.] The extension of marital rights to homosexuals is contentious—several states permit civil unions in lieu of marriage. In 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that state's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional; [cite web |url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2003/11/18/sjc_gay_marriage_legal_in_mass/ |author=Burge, Kathleen |title=SJC: Gay Marriage Legal in Mass. |work=Boston Globe |date=2003-11-18|accessdate=2007-07-14] the Supreme Court of California ruled similarly in 2008. [cite web | author=Liptak, Adam | date =2008-05-16 | title =California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban | work=New York Times| url =http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/us/16marriage.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=%22california+supreme+court%22+%22gay+marriage%22|accessdate =2008-07-04] Forty-three states still restrict marriages to heterosexual couples. [cite web |url=http://www.heritage.org/Research/Family/Marriage50/ |title=Marriage in the Fifty States |publisher=Heritage Foundation |accessdate=2008-02-22 The source does not reflect the recent court ruling in California and thus indicates forty-four states.]
Popular media
The world's first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York City in 1894, using Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope. The next year saw the first commercial screening of a projected film, also in New York, and the United States was in the forefront of sound film's development in the following decades. Since the early 20th century, the U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, California. Director D. W. Griffith was central to the development of film grammar and Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane" (1941) is frequently cited as the greatest film of all time. [ [http://www.filmsite.org/villvoice.html "Village Voice": 100 Best Films of the 20th century (2001)] . Filmsite.org; [http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/critics-long.html "Sight and Sound" Top Ten Poll 2002] . BFI. Retrieved on June 19, 2007.] American screen actors like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe have become iconic figures, while producer/entrepreneur Walt Disney was a leader in both animated film and movie merchandising. The major film studios of Hollywood have produced the most commercially successful movies in history, such as "" (1977) and "Titanic" (1997), and the products of Hollywood today dominate the global film industry. [cite web |url=http://www.unesco.org/bpi/eng/unescopress/2000/00-120e.shtml |title=World Culture Report 2000 Calls for Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage |date=2000-11-17 |publisher=UNESCO |accessdate=2007-09-14 cite web |url=http://www1.worldbank.org/economicpolicy/globalization/thwart.html |title=Summary: Does Globalization Thwart Cultural Diversity? |publisher=World Bank Group |accessdate=2007-09-14]
Americans are the heaviest television viewers in the world, [cite web |url=http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/med_tel_vie-media-television-viewing |title=Media Statistics > Television Viewing by Country |publisher=NationMaster |accessdate=2007-06-03] and the average viewing time continues to rise, reaching five hours a day in 2006. [cite web |url=http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005003&src=article_head_sitesearch |title=Broadband and Media Consumption |date=2007-06-07|publisher=eMarketer |accessdate=2007-06-10] The four major broadcast networks are all commercial entities. Americans listen to radio programming, also largely commercialized, on average just over two-and-a-half hours a day. [cite web |url=http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1004830 |title=TV Fans Spill into Web Sites |date=2007-06-07|publisher=eMarketer |accessdate = 2007-06-10] Aside from web portals and web search engines, the most popular websites are eBay, MySpace, Amazon.com, The New York Times, and Apple. [cite web |url=http://adage.com/images/random/digitalfactpack2007.pdf |title=Digital Fact Pack 2007 (pp. 18–20) |date=2007-04-23|work=Advertising Age |accessdate=2007-06-10|format=PDF] Twelve million Americans keep a blog. [cite web |url=http://adage.com/images/random/digitalfactpack2007.pdf |title=Digital Fact Pack 2007 (pp. 21) |date=2007-04-23|work=Advertising Age |accessdate=2007-06-10|format=PDF]
The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African American music have deeply influenced American music at large, distinguishing it from European traditions. Elements from folk idioms such as the blues and what is now known as old-time music were adopted and transformed into popular genres with global audiences. Jazz was developed by innovators such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington early in the 20th century. Country music, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll emerged between the 1920s and 1950s. In the 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged from the folk revival to become one of America's greatest songwriters and James Brown led the development of funk. More recent American creations include hip hop and house music. American pop stars such as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Madonna have become global celebrities.
Literature, philosophy, and the arts
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, American art and literature took most of its cues from Europe. Writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the 19th century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, is now recognized as an essential American poet. A work seen as capturing fundamental aspects of the national experience and character—such as Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" (1851), Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1885), and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" (1925)—may be dubbed the "Great American Novel." Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Toni Morrison in 1993. Ernest Hemingway, the 1954 Nobel laureate, is often named as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. [Meyers, Jeffrey (1999). "Hemingway: A Biography". New York: Da Capo, p. 139. ISBN 0306808900.] Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fiction developed in the United States. The Beat Generation writers opened up new literary approaches, as have postmodernist authors such as John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo.
The transcendentalists, led by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thoreau, established the first major American philosophical movement. After the Civil War, Charles Peirce and then William James and John Dewey were leaders in the development of pragmatism. In the 20th century, the work of W. V. Quine and Richard Rorty helped popularize analytic philosophy among U.S. academics.
In the visual arts, the Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century movement in the tradition of European naturalism. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of European modernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene. [Brown, Milton W. (1988 1963). "The Story of the Armory Show". New York: Abbeville. ISBN 0896597954.] Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with new styles, displaying a highly individualistic sensibility. Major artistic movements such as the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein developed largely in the United States. The tide of modernism and then postmodernism has also brought fame to American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry.
One of the first major promoters of American theater was impresario P. T. Barnum, who began operating a lower Manhattan entertainment complex in 1841. The team of Harrigan and Hart produced a series of popular musical comedies in New York starting in the late 1870s. In the 20th century, the modern musical form emerged on Broadway; the songs of musical theater composers such as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Stephen Sondheim have become pop standards. Playwright Eugene O'Neill won the Nobel literature prize in 1936; other acclaimed U.S. dramatists include multiple Pulitzer Prize winners Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and August Wilson.
Though largely overlooked at the time, Charles Ives's work of the 1910s established him as the first major U.S. composer in the classical tradition; other experimentalists such as Henry Cowell and John Cage created an American approach to classical composition. Aaron Copland and George Gershwin developed a unique synthesis of popular and classical music. Choreographers Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham helped create modern dance, while George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins were leaders in 20th-century ballet. Americans have long been important in the modern artistic medium of photography, with major photographers including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen and Ansel Adams. The newspaper comic strip and the comic book are both U.S. innovations. Superman, the quintessential comic book superhero, has become an American icon.
Food
Mainstream American culinary arts are similar to those in other Western countries. Wheat is the primary cereal grain. Traditional American cuisine uses ingredients such as turkey, white-tailed deer venison, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup, indigenous foods employed by Native Americans and early European settlers. Slow-cooked pork and beef barbecue, crab cakes, potato chips, and chocolate chip cookies are distinctively American styles. Soul food, developed by African slaves, is popular around the South and among many African Americans elsewhere. Syncretic cuisines such as Louisiana creole, Cajun, and Tex-Mex are regionally important. Characteristic dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various immigrants. French fries, Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos, and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed.[cite web |url=http://www.ift.org/cms/?pid=1000496 |author=Klapthor, James N. |title=What, When, and Where Americans Eat in 2003 |publisher=Institute of Food Technologists |date=2003-08-23|accessdate=2007-06-19] Americans generally prefer coffee to tea. Marketing by U.S. industries is largely responsible for making orange juice and milk ubiquitous breakfast beverages. [Smith, Andrew F. (2004). "The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America". New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 131–32. ISBN 0195154371. Levenstein, Harvey (2003). "Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet". Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, pp. 154–55. ISBN 0520234391.] During the 1980s and 1990s, Americans' caloric intake rose 24%;]ports
Since the late 19th century, baseball has been regarded as the national sport; American football, basketball, and ice hockey are the country's three other leading professional team sports. College football and basketball also attract large audiences. Football is now by several measures the most popular spectator sport. [cite web |author=Krane, David K. |title=Professional Football Widens Its Lead Over Baseball as Nation's Favorite Sport |url=http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=337 |publisher=Harris Interactive |date=2002-10-30|accessdate=2007-09-14 Maccambridge, Michael (2004). "America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation". New York: Random House. ISBN 0375504540.] Boxing and horse racing were once the most watched individual sports, but they have been eclipsed by golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR. Soccer is played widely at the youth and amateur levels and is growing in popularity as a professional spectator sport. Tennis and many outdoor sports are also popular.
While most major U.S. sports have evolved out of European practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, and snowboarding are American inventions. Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate Western contact. Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the U.S. The U.S. has won 2,301 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, more than any other country, [cite web|title=All-Time Medal Standings, 1896–2004 | publisher = Information Please|url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0115108.html | accessdate=2007-06-14 cite web|title=Distribution of Medals—2008 Summer Games| publisher = Fact Monster|url=http://www.factmonster.com/sports/olympics/2008/distribution-medals-summer-games.html| accessdate=2008-09-02] and 216 in the Winter Olympic Games, the second most. [cite web |title=All-Time Medal Standings, 1924–2006 |publisher=Information Please |url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0115207.html |accessdate=2007-06-14 Norway is first; the Soviet Union is third, and would be second if its medal count was combined with Russia's.]
ee also
*List of basic United States topics
*International rankings of the United States
References
External links
; Government
* [http://www.usa.gov/ Official U.S. Government Web Portal] Gateway to governmental sites
* [http://www.house.gov/ House] Official site of the United States House of Representatives
* [http://www.loc.gov/index.html Library of Congress] Official site of the Library of Congress
* [http://www.senate.gov/ Senate] Official site of the United States Senate
* [http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ Supreme Court] Official site of the Supreme Court of the United States
* [http://www.whitehouse.gov/ White House] Official site of the President of the United States
; Overviews and Data
* [http://usinfo.state.gov/infousa/index.html InfoUSA] Portal to U.S. Information Agency resources
* [http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/state/ State Energy Profiles] Economic, environmental, and energy data for each state
* [http://www.ers.usda.gov/statefacts/ State Fact Sheets] Population, employment, income, and farm data from the U.S. Economic Research Service
* [http://www.teacheroz.com/states.htm The 50 States of the U.S.A.] Collected informational links for each state
* [http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/ U.S. Census Housing and Economic Statistics] Wide-ranging data from the U.S. Census Bureau
* [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html United States] CIA "World Factbook" entry
* [http://www.britannica.com/nations/United-States United States] "Encyclopaedia Britannica" entry
; History
* [http://www.nationalcenter.org/HistoricalDocuments.html Historical Documents] Collected by the National Center for Public Policy Research
* [http://www.religioustolerance.org/nat_mott.htm U.S. National Mottos: History and Constitutionality] Analysis by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
* [http://www.historicalstatistics.org/index2.html USA] Collected links to historical data
; Maps
* [http://nationalatlas.gov/ National Atlas of the United States] Official maps from the U.S. Department of the Interior
* [http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=41771312&x=-99492187&z=4&l=0&m=a United States] Satellite view at WikiMapia (not affiliated with Wikipedia/Wikimedia Foundation)
; Other
* [http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] Official government site
* [http://wikitravel.org/en/United_States United States] Travel guide and tourist information from Wikitravel (not affiliated with Wikipedia/Wikimedia Foundation)
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