Summary Of 1776 And All That Edward Hoagland

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America: The Beacon of Hope To many, America is considered the greatest country in the world; a place where anyone’s dreams can come true, a beacon of light in a world of oppression. Open doors give everyone the chance to enter, with a chance at a better life, with the mentality that working hard will let you succeed, building America up from the original 13 colonies to the 50 states we have today. However, in recent times there has been a change in people’s frame of mind, and as a result America has started to slip from its number one status. Western civilization zoomed ahead of the rest of the world in the 1500s due to what Niall Ferguson author of “Americas Oh Sh*t Moment” dubs the “Killer Applications.” He explains that early Europe was divided into various monarchies and republics, that were eventually divided into competing corporate entities, creating the competitive mentality that we are so familiar with. The scientific …show more content…

Brining all this past information to light it raises the question, Will America become one of these civilizations, or will a near death experience reawaken the American interest? Edward Hoagland also asks this question in his essay “1776 and All That.” Hoagland discusses how America has become a self-centered society, he states, “Our national self-absorption (of which the focus seems more on trying to stay young than helping the young) may give capitalism a bad name.” Hoagland feels that America would rather live in a fantasy world where it remains on top, rather than face the facts and acknowledge its falling from power. In a ranking of different countries stability the US was ranked 20th of 178 different countries (Hamburg Coplan). Which just goes to show that we are not the perfect place that we have been portrayed to be. America is one catastrophe from

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