This site explores United States History from prehistory through Civil
War Reconstruction (1877).
Today the United States is a superpower that wields significant influence
throughout the world. The United States was formed only a little over 200
years ago, despite all the changes that have taken place, one thing has
remained constant. At the heart of the nation's experience has been- and
is -agreement over the basic principles of American society and the American
political system. Individual rights, government by consent of the governed,
and equality of opportunity- these are the basic tenets of the United States.
In order to understand the United States and what it stands for, students
must be aware of how the nation came about, evolved, and developed. In
other words, to comprehend the modern-day nation, students must have some
knowledge of the past, and of the history that led the nation to the point
at which it is today.
"I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds
of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stre[t]ching from every
battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone,
all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when
again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our
nature." Abraham Lincoln
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