8.2.2 Video 在线视频

8.2. The American Revolution

Hi, everybody. This is the second part of Chapter 8—the American Revolution.

1. The United States of America often called the United States, America, and the States. In the US most of times "American" only means the people of their own country not including people of other North, Central, or South America. To them they are the only American, and "America" means their country alone. You may call this is a kind of American arrogance.

The Encyclopædia Britannica lists the United States as the fourth biggest country at 9,525,067 square kilometers, but figure from the US Statistics Division and the CIA World Factbook is 9,833,517. Thus most people say China is number 3 but Americans think they are number 3. With a population of over 327 million, the U.S. is the third most populous country after China and India. It has 50 states including 48 contiguous States, and Alaska between Canada and Russia, Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The US capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city is New York.

2. The national flag and national anthem both called "The Star-Spangled Banner"

The lyric was written by Francis Scott Key during War of 1812, a war of Americans fighting against the British invasion. On September 3, 1814, Key, a lawyer on behalf of government, was on a British Royal Navy ship outside Baltimore negotiating the exchange of war prisoners. He had witnessed the British ship bombarded the Fort McHenry during the whole night, the fort's smaller flag continued to fly. By the dawn the flag had been lowered but a larger flag had been raised. Inspired by this he wrote this poem.

O say can you see by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

let’s listen to the anthem.

3. Five symbols of American culture? The answer is: Statue of Liberty, Barbie Doll, American Gothic, the Buffalo nickel and Uncle Sam. Ironically Americans are completely unfamiliar with the question, because this idea of "five symbols" only appeared and taught in some Chinese text books.

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial

A sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota sculpted by Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and his son. They are 18 meters high, the heads of four presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

4. Statue of Liberty

Also called Liberty Enlightening the World, It is a huge neoclassical copper statue on the Liberty Island in Upper New York Bay. It was a gift from France to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the US. The sculptor was Bartholdi and the steel framework was built by Gustave Eiffel, the man designed the Eiffel Tower. The Statue is 93 meters high, her right hand holds a torch above her head, and her right hand carries a tablet bearing the adoption date of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

Uncle Sam is the nickname of the United States. During the War of 1812 Samuel Wilson, a meatpacker from Troy, New York supplied meat for American army. Wilson's packages were labeled “E.A – U.S.” “U.S.” stood for United States. One day somebody joked “U.S.” means Uncle Sam referring to Samuel Wilson. In 1917 artist James Flagg created a very famous poster. Uncle Sam pointing at the viewer with the caption "I Want YOU for U.S. Army". You can see this poster in any army recruiting stations along the streets across the America today.

5. Thirteen British colonies

As part of the British Empire, the Thirteen Colonies were a group of British colonies on the east coast of North America founded in the 17th and 18th centuries. They had very similar political, constitutional, and legal systems, and were dominated by Protestant English-speakers. Their culture eventually provided the language and the political and economic system that developed the future independent country, the United States of America. Let’s look at the map—In New England, we can see New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and in the Middle there were New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. In the South there were Virginia, North-Carolina, south-Carolina and Georgia.

6. American Revolution

From the 1770s the British parliament passed laws ordering the Thirteen British colonies pay more taxes. "No taxation without representation" soon became a slogan of the colonists in America against Great Britain. They believed that as they were not directly represented in the British Parliament, any laws to levy taxes it passed affecting the colonists were illegal.

Thomas Paine (1737 -1809) was one of the Founding Fathers. His pamphlet Common Sense spread the ideas of revolution. "There is something very absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island". John Adams, the second president of America said, "Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.”

The American Revolution took place between 1765 and 1783. The Thirteen Colonies defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) in alliance with France, won their independence.

7. United States Declaration of Independence

On July 4, 1776, at the Independence Hall in Philadelphia, The United States Declaration of Independence was declared. Every American can recite this sentence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". From this map you can see the signing of the document.

8. Five figures. You can see there were five figures standing in front were members of the Committee of Five who drafted the document. You can see John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and this old one, Benjamin Franklin.

9. The signing of the United States Constitution on September 17, 1787. It came into force in 1789.

10. This is the Preamble, a brief introduction of the Constitution

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Separation of powers

French political philosopher Montesquieu (1689 – 1755) was one of the foremost supporters of separating the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. His opinions influenced the Founding Fathers in drafting the United States Constitution. According to the US Constitution, the federal government is divided into three branches.

11. Legislative branch. Congress has the sole power to make laws. The Congress has two chambers: the lower chamber House of Representatives and the upper chamber Senate. Seats in the House of Representatives are appointed among the states by population, as determined by the census conducted every ten years. Today’s Congress has 435 members called Congressman, and there are 100 senators, two from each state.

Executive branch. This branch carries out laws. The President is the head of state and head of government who directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The current president Donald John Trump is the 45th president of the country.

Judicial branch. The Supreme Court and inferior courts have the power to evaluate laws by deciding cases. The judges must be appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate.

12. Since 1789 the Constitution has been amended 27 times; The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments

The First Amendment protect the religious right and freedom of speech, often called "the first right": Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

People against the gun control always say they have the "second right". The Second Amendment protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

13. Most people agree that the four greatest U.S. presidents are Washington, Jefferson Lincoln and Roosevelt.

George Washington was the "Father of His Country", the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. He was commander in chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and led them to victory over the British. Washington also presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which established the new federal government.

Thomas Jefferson was the third president from 1801 to 1809, an icon of individual liberty, democracy, and republicanism. He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. In 1803 he organized the Louisiana Purchase, a huge territory bought from Napoleon, almost doubling the country's territory. In the Jefferson Memorial today we can see some engravings of Jefferson’ quotes. The most important one: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

14. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president from 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln was a Republican; he led the Union through the Civil War, preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. Lincoln's House Divided Speech: A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free.

His Gettysburg Address: that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt often referred to by his initials FDR. He was the 32nd president from 1933 until his death in 1945. He was a Democrat, won a record of four presidential elections and died before the end of the third term. He led the country get out from the Great Depression, and during the World War II he led America allied with Britain, France, Soviet Union and China defeated the fascism. He proposed four fundamental freedoms that people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy: Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Freedom from want and Freedom from fear. His best quote: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

15.I am t Washington, Jefferson Lincoln and Roosevelt.eaching a class American Culture in my university, and I’m writing a book American Culture: Dream and Reality. The history of the United States is full of glories but it also has a dark even bloody side. American dream is beautiful but the reality may be not. China and US don’t need only look at the bad side of the coin and point fingers at each other. We better be friends and partners instead of enemies. In Chinese cities you never live far away from McDonald’s or KFC and in any American supermarket you were always surrounded by a lots of things made in China. China and the US are the number 1 and number 2 biggest economies in the world. The globalization has already made the two countries closer and more interdependent. President Xi Jinping said: “The vast Pacific Ocean has enough space to accommodate the two big nations of China and the US.”

16. Key Word: Let’s look at the key words from this part.

The key words:

The Star-Spangled Banner, Declaration of Independence, Separation of powers, Bill of Rights, Thomas Jefferson, FDR.

Now we finish the second part of Chapter 8.