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(The following are chapter summaries from the just-released
book, "The Destination of American History," by Tony Molinaro.)
THIRD DESTINATION: EQUALITY OF NATIONS
“Nations
of people own a sovereign voice equal to other nations.”
Part 10 - The ‘Social Gospel’ Awakening
- (1886 to 1910)
The nation’s Third Great Awakening launched a philosophy of Applied Christianity which reasoned
that the teachings of Christ contained the fundamental principles for the right-ordering of society and that their “application”
would solve current social problems. This idealist Social Gospel movement, coupled with growing unrest by the working poor,
helped to infuse society with new ideas about industrialization and justice in the workplace.
Part 11 - Self-Interest
and the Immigrant Wave - (1912 to 1928)
American society once again was fragmenting its large industrial, political
and civic institutions. New components start pulling the country into smaller and more divisive factions. These components
included the “tidal wave” of foreign immigration, rising labor unionism and political Socialism, and an increasing
passion for Nativism. Throughout this period, America was whipsawed by competing clusters - - rural poor vs. prosperous business
owners, patriotic Americans vs. dangerous foreigners, honest citizens vs. deceitful mobsters, long-time Protestants vs. newly-arrived
Catholics and Jews, blacks vs. whites, management vs. labor, Capitalists vs. Socialists, moral small-town dwellers vs. immoral
city-dwellers, etc., etc.
Part 12 - World Poor and World War - (1929 to 1944)
The approaching crisis hit
with a thud on Black Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1929, when panic overcame the New York Stock Market. The economic crisis hit U.S.
society forcefully and deeply, and forced Americans to set aside class and cultural divisions and look for solutions and collective
action to assist every citizen. As a result, the U.S. was a more unified nation when the second portion of the crisis period
unfolded as war broke out in Europe and when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. When America entered into war, our society brought
along its idealist Social Gospel concepts and defined itself as a liberator fighting for other nations of peoples and for
the equality of the nations’ sovereign voices within the world.
Part 13 - Power, Partnership and Progress
- (1945 to 1960)
When the war ended, Americans took on the new task of re-building the world around them, and focused
their energies on planning for and building a new future. The country turned its attention across its borders and based its
actions on the principle that nations, through cooperative effort, should have an equal voice in the world. Institutions
based on this new civic order included the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and NATO. During
this period of civic strengthening, the U.S. also developed the Marshall Plan to aid Europe; started the suburban tract-home
boom, the atomic energy industry, the national highway system and the commercial aviation system; began the U.S. space program;
and expanded its sovereignty in Alaska and Hawaii.
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