A Young Reader's Edition of Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story (Volume 2)

The United States has evolved from a nation of large new cities populated by immigrants to the world's greatest industrial power, taking an increasingly active role on the world stage. The Progressive movement and its successors believed it was time to replace the Constitution with laws permitting a larger and more powerful government, while others insisted on the permanent validity of the Constitution's ideal of limited government. With the end of the Cold War, America faced a decision on whether to shed its world responsibilities or treat them as a permanent obligation.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 08 September 2022
Publisher: Encounter Books,USA

From 1877 to 2020, the America that emerged after the Civil War would have been difficult for the Founders of the American nation to recognize. By the century's end, we had rapidly evolved into the world's greatest industrial power. A nation of vast new cities populated by immigrants from all over the world had emerged. And it was a nation that was taking an increasingly active role on the world stage, even to the point of acquiring its empire. Many Americans began to wonder whether this modern nation had outgrown its original Constitution, written in the eighteenth century. The main goal of that document was to limit the size and scope of government. But did that goal make sense in the dynamic new America of the twentieth century? This became a central question.

The Progressive movement and its successors believed it was time to replace the Constitution with laws permitting a larger and more powerful government. Others firmly rejected such changes and insisted on the permanent validity of the Constitution's ideal of limited government. In addition, with the two great world wars of the twentieth century and the Cold War that followed them, America found itself thrust into a position of overwhelming world leadership—something else that the Founders never imagined or wanted. Such leadership required the development of a large and permanent military establishment, whose very existence ran up against the nation's founding traditions.

With the end of the Cold War, America faced a decision. Should it shed the world responsibilities it had taken on during the twentieth century? Or should it treat those responsibilities as a permanent obligation? That debate, which has deep roots in American history, continues to this day.

Dimension: 228 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781641772709