I have completed Part One of “American History Since 1900.” I am writing the series for my grandchildren, as an alternative to the standard history texts, which extol the virtues of big government and ooze political correctness.
Part One, which is about the Presidents of the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries, is organized chronologically. It discusses the major events during each President’s time in office. Part Two will give more details about major world events that have affected the United States, and will then focus on major political, social and economic trends in the United States. Part Three will discuss the major technological advances that enable Americans of today to live much better than Americans of 1900. Part Four will explain how the growth of government power since 1900 has made Americans much worse off than they should be.
A major theme of this history is the role of government in the lives of Americans. The increasing role of government has been the major development in American history since 1900. Many Americans today take for granted a degree of government involvement in their lives that would have shocked Americans of 1900. There are other important themes in this history, but the growth of government power overshadows everything else. Why is that? It is because the growth of government power means that Americans have less freedom than they used to have, which is far less freedom than envisioned by the founding generation that fought for America’s independence and wrote its Constitution.
