The American Century - We the People Have Arrived

The 1900's are often appropriately referred to as the "American Century." This also is where the emphasis in our study of US history shifts from an inward focus to an outward one. If we consider the timeline from the colonial period until roughly 1900, we see a series of stages punctuated by a flurry of settlement, expansion, commerce and conflict.  The focus over this time period from 1607-1900 is, by necessity, inward as the people deal with each other and their zeitgeist.

But instead of constructing a nation purely out of their prevailing reality, they resist their natural pragmatism and instead seek to "...form a more perfect Union..." They constitute and codify their idealism in terms of what they ultimately wish to become, exhorting "Americans" to, "... establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..." At each juncture, they seem keenly aware of both the substance and significance of their ambitions.  

In 1630, en route to the New World, John Winthrop said, "For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us." Winthrop's use of the biblical "city upon a hill" simile would not have been lost on those colonists  aboard the Arbella. Matthew 5:14-16 challenges us with the responsibility to be the "light" for others by living God's will and being true to it. Winthrop's choice of Matthew is eminently appropriate for its practical logic -- a light is not hidden, but put up high in order to help all see.

And Winthrop's idealism is unmistakable,"We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, 'may the Lord make it like that of New England.' "

In the opening sentence of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson conveys at once an appreciation of the importance of what the colonists commit themselves to...

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Most of his second paragraph serves as a treatise of the American nation's ideals.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

At every turn from the colonial era through the birth of the nation and its rapid development through to 1900 we are witness to a people who discover, absorb, wrestle with, contest, determine, and realize the core of who and what they are. 
Validated through the general fulfillment of Manifest Destiny, reconciled after a bloody civil war as one nation under God, driven aggressively forward by its exceptionalism, America is uniquely made to embrace industrialism and the paradigm shift that will accompany it. 

Indeed, America's growth in wealth and power which lead to the 20th century often being referred to as "the American Century" was tied directly to the explosion of the Industrial Revolution. However, it can also be said that America itself maginified the might of the Industrial Age. With its smaller government, limited regulation, and reliance on pure free market principles, the United States was a comfortable home from which entrepreneurs could take their ideas and try to sell them to a public that was willing to embrace consumerism. People largely trusted that industrialism was improving their lives by increasing wages, creating great wealth, making goods cheaper and easier to afford, providing employment, shortening the work week, and affording the average person time to pursue a life of leisure, hobbies, and other interests previously reserved for the rich.

The Industrial Revolution was characterized by

• breakthrough inventions (steam engine, cotton gin, railroads, etc.)


• technical innovation leading to rapid economic growth as new inventions and their spinoffs become more widely used and new uses emerge


• shift in production from small-scale, local production based on individual skills and craftsmanship by artisans to large-scale, centralized production incorporating heavy, mechanized machinery and mass numbers of wage workers


• shift from rural to urban to suburban living (As production is centralized, the metropolis becomes the economic and social center. Then the car and highways open the possibility of the suburb.)


• shift from agriculture to manufacturing as the dominant activity


• domination of science-based technologies, specifically those related to steel, chemicals, the internal combustion engine, and electricity, such as automotive technologies and petroleum-based industries.


• a production process in which individual workers were relatively "de-skilled" compared to their predecessors, and had only to perform minute functions requiring little training and with little overall understanding of the production process as a whole.


• expectation of economic growth and expansion (about 2% annually, doubling the standard of living every 36 years)


• booms and busts as the marketplace and society adjusted to changing needs and expectations


• more production leads to more profit which leads to global production and sales

Three Major Phases of the Industrial Revolution

1. Development of textiles, coal, and iron into modern industries (late 18th and early 19th centuries)


2. Opening of new territories to economic development and overhauling of transportation via large-scale implementation of railroad systems, aided by developments such as the steam engine (middle 19th century)


3. Development of the mass-factory and industrial machinery (first half of 20th century)

Matthew 5:14-16

American Standard Version (ASV)

14 Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house.
16 Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.