America: Two Directions - Part Two 1877-Present

Chess notation is a code. Unless you understand the code, you cannot read it. This book is written in a similar manner. The student does not need to learn a great many names or dates, because they do not help the student understand what is really going on. Realistically, names and dates are material that you will memorize and likely forget once this course is over. Instead, like chess notation, the way this book is written and the manner in which this course is taught is meant to aid you in actually understanding why events occurred and what might have happened had the course of events gone differently. One move in a chess game can change the direction of the game. So too with history, one event can change the course of the future. What if Lincoln had not been elected president? What if the Japanese had not bombed Pearl Harbor? What if women had stayed at home and not become active players in the American economy? Historians think in terms of these sorts of counterfactuals all the time. In this book and in my course, I want you to think, not about what actually happened exclusively, but also about what might have been if certain events had not occurred. America’s present is not by accident. It had been shaped by many well thought out ‘moves’ on the chessboard of history (and some not so well thought out…). The student should think in terms of what events mean rather than when they occurred. Learning how to think about historical events critically will enable the student to participate in and understand American history as it proceeds. Conservatives and liberals propose two very different directions for America’s future. Studying history in this manner will aid the student in deciding which direction makes the most logical sense to them. This is what the game of American history is all about. Your move.