VOLUME TWO: THE MAKING OF MODERN AMERICA
From 1877 to 2020
The Founders of the American nation would have had trouble recognizing
the America that emerged after the Civil War. By century's end we had
rapidly evolved into the world's greatest industrial power. It was a
nation of large new cities populated by immigrants from all over the
world. And it was a nation that was taking an increasingly active role
on the world stage, even to the point of acquiring an empire of its own.
Many Americans began to wonder whether this modern nation had outgrown
its original Constitution. That document had been written back in the
eighteenth century, after all, and one of its main goals was limiting
the size and scope of government. But did that goal make sense in the
dynamic new America of the twentieth century?
That became a central question. The Progressive movement and its
successors believed it was time to replace the Constitution with laws
permitting a larger and more powerful government. Others firmly rejected
such changes and insisted on the permanent validity of the
Constitution's ideal of limited government. In addition, with the two
great world wars of the twentieth century, and the Cold War that came
after them, America found itself thrust into a position of overwhelming
world leadership--something else that the Founders never imagined or
wanted. Such leadership required the development of a large and
permanent military establishment whose very existence ran up against the
nation's founding traditions. With the end of the Cold War, America
faced a decision. Should it shed the world responsibilities it had taken
on during the twentieth century? Or should it treat those
responsibilities as a permanent obligation? That debate, which has deep
roots in American history, continues to this day.
