Too Short for a Blog Post, Too Long for a Tweet 323

 

 

Here are a few excerpts from a book I recently read, "10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America," by Steven Gillon.

But the pattern of brutal repression established in New England became the model for how whites would treat natives across the country. The Pequot War set up the tragic irony of American history: a nation founded on the highest ideals of individual liberty and freedom was built on slaughter and destruction of epic proportions.



The balance of power in the nation was fundamentally altered as a result of the war. Before 1861, the slave states had achieved an extraordinary degree of power in the national government. In 1861 the United States had lived under the Constitution for 72 years. During 49 of those years, the country's president has been a southerner - and a slaveholder. After the Civil War, a century passed before another resident of the Deep South was elected president.



During the 1950's, California opened one school every week.



In 1946, about one of every eighteen thousand people owned a TV set. BY 1960, nine out of every ten American homes had a TV.