The Electorial College

KINGS ARE BORN; presidents are elected. But how? In Philadelphia in 1787, James Wilson explained, the delegates had been “perplexed with no part of this plan so much as with the mode of choosing the President.” At the convention, Wilson had proposed that the people elect the president directly. But James Madison had pointed out that since “the right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States . . . the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of the Negroes.” That is, in a direct election, the North, which had more voters, would have more

Hamilton's Economic Plan

THE DIVIDE over slavery, which had nearly prevented the forming of the Union, would eventually split the nation in two. There were other fractures, too, deep and lasting. The divide between Federalists and Anti-Federalists didn’t end with the ratification of the Constitution. Nor did it end with the ratification of the Bill of Rights. On December 15, 1791, ten of the twelve amendments drafted by Madison were approved by the necessary three-quarters of the states; these became the Bill of Rights. They would become the subject of ceaseless contention.

(pg 137)

With the ratification of the Bill of

Drafting the Constitution

From These Truths:

The Constitution drafted in Philadelphia acted as a check on the Revolution, a halt to its radicalism; if the Revolution had tilted the balance between government and liberty toward liberty, the Constitution shifted it toward government. But in very many ways the Constitution also realized the promise of the Revolution, and particularly the promise of representation. In devising the new national government, the delegates adamantly rejected a proposal that the state legislators, rather than the people, elect members of Congress. “Under the existing Confederacy, Congress

Henry Ford and the Assembly Line

A common myth is that Henry Ford invented the automobile. This is not true. While he may not have invented the automobile, he did offer a new way of manufacturing a large number of vehicles. This method of production was the moving assembly line.
The most common feature of this assembly line was the conveyer belt. The belts were in use within other industries, including slaughterhouses. Moving the product to the worker seemed like a better use of time and resources. The Ford Motor Company team decided to try to implement the moving assembly line in the automobile manufacturing process.

After

American Independence from Britain

From These Truths, pages 91-108

THE CONTINENTAL Congress neither suffered the disunion and chaos of the Albany Congress nor undertook the deferential pleading of the Stamp Act Congress. Preparing for the worst, this new, more ambitious, and more expansive—continental—Congress urged colonists to muster their militias and stockpile weapons. It also agreed to boycott all British imports and to ban all trade with the West Indies, a severing of ties with the islands.

...

The Declaration that Congress did adopt was a stunning rhetorical feat, an act of extraordinary political courage. It also marked a

Taxation Without Representation

Excerpts from These Truths, pages 80-91:

But the [Seven Years] war had left Britain nearly bankrupt. The fighting had nearly doubled Britain's debt, ...  the king’s ministers determined that defending the empire’s new North American borders would require ten thousand troops or more, especially after a confederation of Indians led by an Ottawa chief named Pontiac captured British forts in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley. 

Fearing the cost of suppressing more Indian uprisings, George III issued a proclamation decreeing that no colonists could settle west of the Appalachian Mountains, a line that

An Outline of the Revolutionary War

This is from Wikipedia:

American Revolutionary War, April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783

  • Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775
  • The Province of New Hampshire adopts a constitution for an independent State of New Hampshire, January 5, 1776
  • The Province of South Carolina adopts a constitution for an independent State of South Carolina on March 15, 1776
  • The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations declares its independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain on May 4, 1776
  • The Colony of Connecticut declares its independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain on June 18, 1776
  • The Colony

From Ronald Reagan

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See the Reagan Era, from Wikipedia:

The Reagan era or the Age of Reagan is a periodization of recent American history used by historians and political observers to emphasize that the conservative "Reagan Revolution" led by President Ronald Reagan in domestic and foreign policy had a lasting impact. It overlaps with what political scientists call the Sixth Party System. Definitions of the Reagan era universally include the 1980s, while more extensive definitions may also include the late 1970s, the 1990s, and even the 2000s. In his 2008 book, The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974–2008, historian

The American Century

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The American Century is a characterization of the period since the middle of the 20th century as being largely dominated by the United States in political, economic, and cultural terms. It is comparable to the description of the period 1815–1914 as Britain's Imperial Century. The United States' influence grew throughout the 20th century, but became especially dominant after the end of World War II, when only two superpowers remained; the United States and the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States remained the world's only superpower, and became the

Delaware Colony

The Delaware Colony, officially known as the three "Lower Counties on the Delaware", was a semiautonomous region of the proprietary Province of Pennsylvania and a de facto British colony in North America.