592 ConClusion/Consilium
increased arms sales to various African countries, have not increased American
power but made it more vulnerable and economically weaker than at any
point since World War II. At home, the housing bubble of 2008 confirmed
that the economy was already losing steam and trends since like a massive
budget deficit, stagnant wages, rising education costs, an immigration crisis,
increasing personal debt, student debt that now tops $1 trillion, fewer jobs at
lower wages, and tax cuts for the wealthiest have widened the gap between
the few “haves” and hundreds of millions of “have nots.” Not surprisingly, such
conditions have given rise to a new era of social dissent, best demonstrated
by protests in Wisconsin against cuts in pay and funding for public employees
and, even more, the Occupy Wall Street movement attacking the top 1 percent
of the rich with the mantra, “we are the 99 percent.” Still, “the people” con-
front “the power.”
As this history of America from the end of the Civil War to the present
concludes, the most important aspects of U.S. society have been examined, the
most illuminating stories told, many of the most important people and epi-
sodes discussed, the pivotal issues explained. Much has been omitted because
the history of America in that period is so immense, but instead of simply
giving a chronological overview of “everything” that happened, those aspects
that had vital impact—that transformed America from a small, agrarian coun-
try before the Civil War to an industrial power in the late 1800s to a global
superpower in the 20th Century—and the way they affected first millions and
ultimately over 300 million people have been emphasized. This is not to sug-
gest that Butch Cassidy, Edward Bernays, Babe Ruth, Clara Bow, Paul
Robeson, Rosie the Riveter, or Allen Ginsberg, to name a handful, were the
most important figures in this period of U.S. history, but that they were part
of, and at time represented, much larger social changes. Ultimately, Carnegie,
Rockefeller, Herbert Hoover, FDR, the “dollar-a-year-mean,” Eisenhower,
Nixon, and untold numbers of corporate leaders and bankers had the power
to make the decisions that created “modern” America.
But they did not do easily or without conflict. At every major pivot
point—industrialization, the turn toward imperialism, Progressivism, the cre-
ation of labor unions and workers uprisings, the crisis of the Depression,
World Wars, Cold Wars, the fight for Civil Rights or Women’s Liberation, the
desire for a clean environment, seeking a “participatory” democracy, hoping
for a culture that was open to all points of view, not just those that conformed