Cold War, Satellite, Space Shuttle, Nuclear Plant...
More change and more progress than in the last 400 years put together.
Its economy turbocharge. The greatest generation is ready for peace time.
Their ambition know no limits.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
11.Superpower
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The " Rivers " were the first highways. Like the " Railroads " a century before.
Interstate Highway
Good roads means more cars, bigger, faster, better.
1946
2 million cars are manufactured in America. It's the age of the automobile.
1955
Americans spending 65 million on cars, buying 8 million cars in a year.
By now, the USA is making 80% of the world's automobile.
The Interstate Highway takes them where they have never been before meaning some places
get left behind.
Interstate Highway bypassing the towns.
Suburbs
The biggest houses building project.
1946
" Baby Boom ". 330 new babies delivery every hour.
" White Flight "
Building the houses outside the cities.
The icons of 50s : Domestic, Suburban cultures.
A family home for less than 8,000. That's 71,000 in today's money.
Down to the eve of World War II, down to 40s only about 40% of Americans owned their owned
homes.
By 1960, one short generation later, 60% of Americans owned their houses.
Air Conditioner, Washing Machine, Refrigerator, TV.
1967
Detroit Riot
July 1969
That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Apollo
1963
" Martin Luther King, Jr ". At Lincoln Memorial.
" I had a dream "
America is telling the world that blacks and whites have come together to say we
are ready to make the next step toward equality and the young, black preacher talked
about a dream that connected back to the American dream.
T-90 main battle tanks. Soviet Union. Communism.
Stalin. Cold War.
1962
Cuban Missile Crisis
If the communists are atheists, Americans are religious.
If the communist are acting collectively, we are true individuals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
12.Millennium
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Innovation and invention will define a new era of prosperity and technical wonder.
1970.
Communism and capitalism clash in ideological battle for supremacy. It's the era of fear and
uncertainty.
Space Race, Television
Vietnam War
America fears communism will sweep the region and want to stop its influence.
But the U.S military and all its technologies comes up hard against determined guerrilla movements.
The generation of fighting the Vietnam War was the Baby Boomers.
The 1960s were inevitable. The greatest came home with fixed idea of what life should be about.
They are not paying attention to the changing sensibilities of their children.
But the " Baby Boomers " are not just rebelling against their parents' value.
This generation shaped America, the movement of equality for women in workplace.
1973
Oil Crisis
1974
Watergate Scandal.
Big boom times before.
Cheap oil leads to cheap gasoline and cars for the masses.
Cheap steel leads to a construction boom. Cities.
1980
Cheap credit create a boom in consumers.
The " Credit Card " is the symbol of the decade.
The credit card invented in 1958.
Once reserved for the wealthy, now it's democratized.
Space Race.
But many consumers technologies advances are developed direct from the biggest spending spree
of all.
** WWII : Atomic Bomb --> Nuclear Power Plant
Cold War : Satellite --> GPS
Silicon Valley : Radar --> High Tech Town
The " Cold War " with Soviet Union is still strong going. By the end of the Cold War,
7 trillions dollars has been spent keeping America ahead out of her communist rival.
Space Shuttle
One of his primary function is to launch communications satellites, for entertainment,
communications, telephones, and GPS.
The technology goes into the " Space Shuttle " also come back to the earth.
Cell Phones, Water Purification, Airplane Landing Gear, Fire Fighting Equipment.
All benefited from the shuttle program.
3 years after " Challenger ", the Cold War is over.
Cyberspace. Semiconductor.
1850
The Lowell cotton mills are automated with paper punch card. The holes in the cards instruct the loom
to use different colored threads, switch one color on, one color off. Binary Code
1960
Computers are used by universities to achieve previously unthinkable calculations.
1970
Corporations used computers to replace thousands of manual clerks.
SR-71, Black Bird. Strategic Reconnaissance Aircraft.
" Cold War super-spending helps fund computer development ".
Helping companies like " IBM " to become massive corporations.
** War is the mother of invention or Invention is the mother of war ??
Nuclear Bomb, Satellites...
Can they survive without the fight ??
1976.
A garage in Northern California.
" Steve Jobs " and " Steve Wozniak "
World's first practical personal computer.
Macintosh
Apple II. It is more powerful than used in the entire Apollo moon landing program.
1980
Just 300,000 PCs.
1990
Over 67 millions. " Microsoft " sales alone topped 1 million dollars.
But true power of computers is yet to be realized. Only computers start to talk to each other,
will computing revolution be complete.
1969
A communication revolution begins. Four computers start to talk each other down a telephone line.
It's the birth of Internet.
By the mid 19th century, the continent's vast distances shrink, the horse and wagon give way to
the railroad. Along with the railroad spreads the telegraph, the internet of its era.
1900 1980
Sears Catalog (Richard Sears ) : Railroad = Microsoft (Bill Gates) : Internet
Silicon Valley
Dot-com bubble.
March, 2003.
But not every dot-com entrepreneur makes a fortune.
911 Attacks
New York Yankees Stadium
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Comments ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following paragraph come from comments of " Very CD " , I thought it is very pertinent and
relevant to ruminate the history. I translated the paragraph into the English.
No matter how extravagant the civilization was, it would be rotten in every aspect of the history
due to the verbose period of time. But at that time, North America totally discarded all of burden,
everything was about to be constructed. There was the land without the history, without the
authoritative records of the history, just only uncountable daily transactions about people.
Probably this may be the first time, the history was so close to the public leading the backbone of this programs is " We ", " Our ", " Us ". The title of " The Story of US " is about the pun.
Us of history is about the public history. Those who forged the America was not George Washington, not Abraham Lincoln, they were about hundreds of thousands of people. The pith
of this program concerned about the public history spiritually, contrast to our history, the documents were about the empire, you never find any information about the public. What
caused the public to be afraid of the history ??
That is why they emphasize individual, so they can emanate the America spirit of
Declaration of Independence and read it articulately :
We hold these truth to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness.
This was totally different from our government, which corresponded with the personal characteristic deeply. But there is a great metaphorical distinctness, that is about to believe either person or truth. They establish hopes on the truth not on the government. Because of
the description of the above words is not an abstract concept of the state or government, it is about the Right of every individual.
Retrospect the Puritan who left Europe life and came to America, the frontiers who abandoned the east in search of the better life (Gold Rush ) in the west. They all have the same dreams and spirit of adventure. From American Revolutionary War to the Westward, the living condition is not tough enough to endure, instead the sacrifice of adventure is tremendous. In other words, the state built by the adventure whose blood filled with uncompromising spirit at that moment.
The spirit of adventure is indispensable for the vivid nation, but nowadays the standard operation procedure which was the exact system eradicated the soul of adventure. As we are accustomed to set our life into the " Henry Ford Assembly Line ". We perceive the standard education and implement identical jobs. Everything depended on the standard system like the machine, we marry, buy the house, and raise our children. It would be precious for the spirit of adventure, as we still fight to change the tenacious standard system.
By the time of unknown era, those who arrived at America that desperately wanted to do something completely different from European. They established the unprecedented nation as well as standard. They still think that the descendant should continue and extend the spirit of adventure.
But for us, we always think the descendant not to try something disparate, just do the same as the ancestor.
End.
The comparison of the French Revolution and American Revolution.
-->
Similarity : Both revolutionary wars were about the " Taxation".
American Revolutionary War was very successful achievement, as we can knew from the movie,
at that time, North America belonged to United Kingdom. The strategy of American Revolutionary War was to divide the United Kingdom into fourteen states, 13 states in North America, 1 state in United Kingdom. (Note that: American Revolutionary War didn't consolidate nation together, instead North America was consisted of 13 governments.) This stratagem which upheld by the enemy of United Kingdom " French " , not only refused the king of French to collaborate with the United Kingdom to suppress North America, but also bolstered the division of 13 governments.
My own comment:
Geography:
1.Area, 2. Latitude 3. Adjacent countries
1.Area:
US is the fourth largest nation in the world, it had plenty of natural resources in the country.
The resources for a nation is very critical, as we can see in the WWII, no other countries can
produce as much the weapon, food, clothe... as America in the world.
Compare to Russia and China. Both Russia and China have plenty of natural resources, so
in this term, it can compete with US. It is hard to measure which countries can get advantage.
2.Latitude:
The latitude of US is well-suited for the crop to grow and people to live.
Compare to Russia and China:
The latitude of Russia is too high to grow the crop and the swamp is everywhere, even today
there are large ares which didn't have pavement, so we can observe the tire of the Russia
vehicles to speculate. If Russia can modify the gene of the crop that could improve the living
condition and attract the world elite to come.
The latitude of China is better than Russia, not as high as Russia. It could be easier to grow
the crop for the public.
3.Adjacent countries.
In a conclusion, compare the different countries together, it is notoriously difficult to measure
and unfair, due to there are too many factors involved in there. As we know some countries
in Europe which have the beautiful landscape and well-suited living condition, such as
Netherland, Swiss... Despite those countries which haven't as much natural resources and
land as America, Russia, China.
So.....
There is a song called " Learn to be Still " by the greatest band Eagles.
I excerpted some lyrics from it:
You thought you could find happiness
Just over that green hills
You thought you could be satisfied
But you never will learn to be still...
Now the flowers in your garden
They don't smell so sweet
Maybe you've forgotten
the heaven lying at your feet
There are so many contractions
In all this message we send
We keep asking...
How do I get out of here ??
Where do I fit in ??
Though the world is torn and shaken
Even if your heart is breaking
It's waiting for you to awake
Someday you'll learn to be still
Just keep on running ...... running ...... running ......
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