America: A Work in Progress, Volume 2

New Publication Coming Soon!

J. Edward Lee and Susan B. Autry's America: A Work In Progress series provides a fresh glimpse of a nation which continues to evolve, shaped by a multitude of themes and issues.

This volume explores the Gilded Age with its use of monopolies and the Captains of Industry who built the cities of America, with their skyscrapers and bridges. This emphasis on “bigness” continued until the 1901 assassination of William McKinley and the rise of Theodore Roosevelt, who declared war on “bigness.”

Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson were champions of the Progressive Era. They created economic competition and various reforms, such as the 1906 Food and Drug Act. At the end of the Progressive Era, 1920, women received the right to vote in federal elections, perhaps the most progressive act of the time.

The Great War established America as a world power. The horrors of the war and the 1918-1919 Influenza turned the nation inward beginning a time of normalcy. The Roaring 20s was the Jazz Age, a period of looseness economically, politically, and socially. Flappers danced the night away at “speakeasies” as the gin flowed and the music played.  In 1929, the hangover commenced. It was the Great Depression, engulfing the Greatest Generation, men and women who survived an economic catastrophe and international demons such as Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and the brutal Japanese military.

The world changed in 1945 with President Harry Truman’s decision to “detonate when ready.” The Atomic Bomb ended World War II, but a Cold War followed immediately. The United States and the Soviet Union fought proxy wars around the globe in places like Korea and Vietnam. Society shook with a new form of music, Rock and Roll, and Elvis shocked some and excited others. A modern civil rights movement took to the streets with non-violent marches for justice and equality.

There was division in the 1960s-and deaths in Vietnam and among prominent figures like John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy. Young anti-war protestors demonstrated against the conflict in Southeast Asia, calling for rights for African Americans, women, and gays. This volume closely explores these years of change.

By the 1970s, political scandals, the White House Horrors, brought down the Nixon administration. The economy suffered from “malaise” with high inflation, unemployment, and shortages. Hostages were taken in Iran, and Ronald Reagan vowed that America would not be held hostage if he were elected president in 1980. The Cold War dramatically ended at the conclusion of that decade.

Bill Clinton, a gifted politician, presided over the White House in the 1990s, but became mired in an embarrassing scandal of his own in 1998. His relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky led to his impeachment that year, but he was spared removal from office.

Volume 2 concludes with a review of the first two decades of the 21st century, with the tragedy of 9/11, the economic collapse of 2008, and the Coronavirus which claimed over 1,000,000 American lives. The United States, indeed, is a work in progress. We ventured to the moon in 1969 and demolished the Berlin Wall twenty years later, but we have wrestled with a myriad of social and economic challenges closer to home. It is a story which is far from over.