Discussion on American History, Essay Example

What is your impression of the American Experience? What do you think was positive or negative? What stood out in your mind about this period that you did not know before.

In many ways the nature of the American experience is predicated on events and circumstances that long predated the American Revolution. The highly-polarized political environment that currently plagues the United States is tooted in the fundamentally contradictory ideals about “freedom” and “liberty” that took hold in the colonies; the contradiction lies in the fact that slave labor served as the foundation that established the colonies as viably independent states. While the ideals about individual liberty and democracy that fueled the revolutionary fervor clearly set the stage for sweeping political change, these ideals were able to flourish largely on the economic strength afforded by slave labor. It is this fundamental contradiction that is at the heart of the American experience. This nation has always been divided over social, political, and economic issues. In reading about the early history of the United States, I have gained greater insight not just into that historical era, but also into how and why the events and circumstances of that era still continue to reverberate today.