The Presidency Analyzed

The Cold War was one of the most protracted conflicts in world history, especially in American history. For 44 years from 1947 to 1991, Soviet Leninists and American Lockeans glared at each other, accumulating more and more anger toward one another with each irritant in their already-torn and unstable relationship. With each new country to become a puppet state of Moscow and Beijing, Washington DC's rage gained additional scope. With every movement to single out and persecute American communists, Moscow's rhetoric against the policies of the West became more vicious and determined. There were a few moments of diplomatic growth, like Nikita Khrushchev's visit to the US in 1959 under Dwight D. Eisenhower , but they were generally usurped by new matches of geopolitical brawling soon after. Greece, Turkey, South Korea, Iran, Guatemala, Cuba, Chile, Afghanistan, Grenada, Libya, and many other nations were converted into arenas, where the respective soldiers of the United States,

Few events have changed American life and US history more than the civil war. Fought from 1861 to 1865 under the presidency of Abraham Lincoln , the civil war redefined the whole of American culture. States' rights, though still cherished as part of Constitutionally-ordained federalism, took a backseat to national authority, with local sovereignty having been painted by the treasonous racism of the Confederacy. Before the civil war, people referred to the United States as a plural entity, saying "the United States are" or "the United States was" instead of "the United States is" or "the United States was". That habit died alongside the 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers massacred by southern rebel Jefferson Davis. On a more positive note, racial equality became a real priority for the American government and people. Reconstruction set a precedent for Thomas Jefferson 's words in the Declaration of Independence applying to all people,

America's economic history has been defined more by financial crises rather than financial successes. Government involvement in trade, finance, and infrastructure generally wasn't accepted until the late 1810s, when the War of 1812 produced an economic calamity so severe it left the United States with no other choice but to embrace these policies. The New Deal, which has provided the American working class with some of its most important liberties and protections (social security, guaranteed unionization, mortgage insurance, minimum wage laws, etc.), was initiated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to catalyze an economic recovery from the Great Depression. The modern neoliberal economy, which supports decreased regulation, free trade, and reduced social safety net programs, was constructed by Ronald Reagan and then expanded upon by Bill Clinton in order to quell the stagflation crisis of the 1970s. Ever since Reagan's inauguration in 1981, neoliberalism has functioned as

In modern geopolitics, a startling development has defined the past decade. China and the United States, two countries once reasonably optimistic about a potential diplomatic recovery mending the losses and tears endured during the Cold War, have become bitter rivals. The fate of Taiwan, the prosecution of Uyghur Muslims, American opposition to China's authoritarian and oligarchic policies, and lingering anger over the COVID-19 pandemic have all fueled increased divisions between Washington DC and Beijing, amplifying tensions produced by the two nations' battle for dominance over the entire globe. This dramatic transformation has taken place over the course of merely 10 years, creating several questions regarding what has caused this startling shift: Why are China and the US so angry with one another? Is there any avenue toward the diplomatic recovery anticipated in the 1990s and 2000s? Have China and America always been so upset and tribalistic against one another? I doubt I c

For almost all of American history following the enactment of the Constitution in 1789, the country has been divided between 2 major political parties. From the presidencies of George Washington to James Madison , the United States was split between Democratic-Republicans and Federalists. Ever since the mid-1850s, the US has been composed of two factions, one populated by Democrats and the other by Republicans. In between these two eras, however, a separate party rivalry existed, pitting the Democrats (members of the same Democratic Party that exists today) against the Whigs. The Whig-Democrat rivalry was unique in American history. The Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists were founded on specific principles. Alexander Hamilton created the Federalist Party to promote right-wing policies favoring hierarchy, industry, protectionism, abolitionism, strict immigration laws, close ties with Britain, authoritarianism, and the preservation of education as a privilege rather than a right

One of the first major debates at the Constitutional Convention was an indignant argument between supporters of the New Jersey Plan - in which Congress would be composed of one house where each state received a single delegate - and the Virginia Plan, in which Congress would be composed of two houses where each state received a number of delegates proportionate to their population. Roger Sherman proposed the Connecticut Compromise, which advocated a bicameral legislature containing the population-based House of Representatives and the Senate, where each state would have only 2 delegates. On July 16, 1787, the Connecticut Compromise was approved, and the rest of the Constitution began to fall into place. With the formation of the House of Representatives, however, came a second debate: How would slaves factor into the census and thus the number of delegates each state had in Congress? In other words, would slaves be counted as citizens or not? Delegates from slave states like Georgia, N