měi guó United States   shǒudōu:huá shèng dùn lún   guógūdàimǎ: us   
  cháozhèng
  guó míng
   měi jiān zhòng guó( TheUnitedStatesofAmerica)。 united: lián , States: zhōu, America: měi zhōusuō xiě: USA( huò US)
   bié míng: America, huò zhě UnitedStates。
  
   chuò hào
   měi guó de chuò hào jiàoshān shū chuán shuō 1812 nián yīng měi zhàn zhēng jiānniǔ yuē luó chéng shāng rén shān · wēi 'ěr xùn( 1766.9.13--1854.7.31) zài gōng yìng jūn duì niú ròu de tǒng shàng xiě yòu“ u.s.”, biǎo shì zhè shì měi guó cái chǎnzhè qià de chēngshān shū” ("UncleSam") de suō xiě ("u.s.") xiāng tóng shì rén men biàn chēng zhè xiē dài yòu "u.s." biāo de dōushìshān shūdehòu lái,“ shān shūjiù zhú jiàn chéng liǎo měi guó de chuò hàoshí jiǔ shì sān shí nián dàiměi guó de màn huà jiā yòu jiāngshān shūhuà chéng tóu dài xīng tiáo gāo mào zhe shān yáng de báifà shòu gāo lǎo rén。 1961 nián měi guó guó huì tōng guò jué zhèng shì chéng rènshān shūwéi měi guó de xiàng zhēng
  
   guó
   měi guó guó wéi xīng tiáo chéng héng cháng fāng xíngcháng kuān zhī wéi 19:10。 zhù yóu 13 dào hóngbái xiāngjiàn de kuān tiáo chéng, 7 dào hóng tiáo, 6 dào bái tiáo miàn zuǒ shàng jiǎo wéi lán cháng fāng xíng zhōng fēn 9 pái héng liè zhe 50 bái jiǎo xīnghóng xiàng zhēng qiáng yǒng bái dài biǎo chún jié qīng báilán xiàng zhēng jǐng jiān rèn zhèng 。 13 dào kuān tiáo dài biǎo zuì zǎo dòng zhàn zhēng bìng shèng de 13 zhōu, 50 jiǎo xīng dài biǎo měi jiān zhòng guó de zhōu shù。 1818 nián měi guó guó huì tōng guò 'ànguó shàng de hóng bái kuān tiáo dìng wéi 13 dào jiǎo xīng shù yìng zhòng guó zhōu shù zhìměi zēng jiā zhōuguó shàng jiù zēng jiā xīng bān zài xīn zhōu jiā hòu de 'èr nián 7 yuè 4 zhí xíngzhì jīn guó shàng zēng zhì 50 xīngdài biǎo měi guó de 50 zhōuměi nián 6 yuè 14 wéiměi guó guó zhì dìng niàn ”。
  
   guó huī
   měi guó guó huī zhù wéi zhǐ xiōng qián dài yòu dùn xíng 'àn de bái tóu hǎi diāo yīng), měi guó de guó niǎo shì liàngyǒng yóu xiǔ de xiàng zhēngdùn miàn shàng bàn wéi lán héng cháng fāng xíngxià bàn wéi hóngbái xiāngjiàn de shù tiáo tóng guó yīng zhī shàng de dǐng guān xiàng zhēng zài shì jiè de zhù quán guó jiā zhōng yòu dàn shēng xīn de guó jiā héng héng měi jiān zhòng guódǐng guān nèi yòu 13 bái jiǎo xīngdài biǎo měi guó zuì chū de 13 zhōuyīng de liǎng zhǎo fēn bié zhuā zhe gǎn lǎn zhī jiànxiàng zhēng píng yīng zuǐ diāo zhe de huáng shòu dài shàng yòng dīng wén xiě zhe zhòng wéi ”, wéi měi jiān zhòng guó yóu hěn duō zhōu chéngshì wán zhěng de guó jiā
  
   guó
  《 xīng tiáo yǒng luò》( TheStar-SpangledBanner)。 céng xīng tiáo zhī 》, dàn shēng zài měi guó 'ěr de shì wèi míng jiào lǎng · · de měi guó shī zài yīng měi zhàn zhēng shítòu guò zhàn chǎng shàng de xiāo yān kàn dào xīng tiáo jīng guò yīng jūn pào hōng hòu réng zài yào sài shàng kōng gāo gāo piāo yáng shí gǎn kǎi wàn fēn 'ér jǐng xiě xià deqǔpǔ shìjìn xíng zhī wáng de zhù míng dài biǎo zuò。 1931 nián bèi měi guó guó huì zhèng shì dìng wéi guó
  
   guó huā
   méi guī huāxiàng zhēng zhe měi fēn fāng chén 'ài qíng。 1985 nián jīng cān yuàn tōng guò dìng wéi guó huā
  
   guó shí
   lán bǎo shí
  
   guó niǎo
   bái tóu hǎi diāo yīng)。 měi guó shì shì jiè shàng zuì xiān què dìng guó niǎo de guó jiābái tóu diāo zuì zǎo chū xiàn měi guó de zhì shàng shì zài zhàn zhēng jiān。 1776 nián 7 yuè 4 'èr huì biǎo liǎo xuān yánbìng jué dìng xīn shēng de měi guó yòu shū de guó huī。 1782 nián 6 yuè 20 měi guó guó huì tōng guò jué běi měi zhōu yòu de bái tóu hǎi diāo zuò wéi měi guó de guó niǎobìng zhè zhǒng niǎo zuò wéi guó huī 'àn de zhù bái tóu diāo wài guān měi xìng qíng xiōng měngtóu shàng yòu fēng mǎn de máo de zuì diǎn shì liǎng tóu bái bái tóu bái wěi dài biǎo zhe yǒng měng liàng shèng
  
  
  1776 nián 7 yuè 4 。 1783 nián 9 yuè 3 chéng rèn
  
   guó qìng
  7 yuè 4
  
   guó miàn
  9,826,630 píng fāng gōng zhōng miàn 915.8960 wàn píng fāng gōng ), běn dōng cháng 4500 gōng nán běi kuān 2700 gōng hǎi 'àn xiàn cháng 22680 gōng
  
   rén kǒu
  3 líng 315 wàn( 2008 nián 1 yuè 1 shì jiè 3)。 rén kǒu 31 rén měi píng fāng gōng shì jiè 144 míng)。 bái rén zhàn 75%, měi zhàn 12.5%, hēi rén zhàn 12.3%, zhàn 3.6%, huá rén yuē 243 wànzhàn 0.9%, duō měi guó ( 2000 nián měi rén kǒu chá shù )。 měi guó hēi rén měi děng shǎo shù zǒng rén kǒu dào 1.007 rénjié zhì 2006 nián 7 yuè)。 tōng yòng yīng 。 56% de mín xìn fèng jiào xīn jiào, 28% xìn fèng tiān zhù jiào, 2% xìn fèng yóu tài jiàoxìn fèng zōng jiào de zhàn 4%, shǔ rèn jiào pài de zhàn 10%。
  
   yán
   méi yòu dìng guān fāng yányīng shì shì shí shàng de guó jiā yányòu 27 zhōu jīng tōng guò fāng què bǎo yīng de guān fāng wèiyòu 3 zhōu chéng rèn yán yīng yòu píng xíng wèi 'ān zhōu de xià wēi zhōu de xià wēi xīn zhōu de bān shǐ yòng rén kǒu chāo guò 100 wàn rén de yán bāo kuò yīng ( 2 1480 wàn)、 bān ( 2970 wàn)、 hàn ( 220 wàn)、 ( 140 wàn)、 jiā luò ( 130 wàn)、 yuè nán ( 110 wàn)、 ( 110 wàn)。 chú liǎo zhè xiē zhù yào yán wàihái yòu 336 zhǒng yán zài měi guó bèi shǐ yòng zhōng yòu 176 zhǒng shì dāng chǎn de yán
  
   zōng jiào
   měi guó bǎo zhàng zōng jiào yóu de quán zhèng shí xíng zhèng jiào fēn zhì zhī chí fǎn duì rèn zhǒng zōng jiàodàn zōng jiào zài měi guó zhèng zhì zhōng xiāng dāng huó yuè duō shù měi guó zǒng tǒng xuān chēng shì jiào xīn jiào xìn zhǐ yòu jiàn guó chū de wèi zǒng tǒng shì rán shén lùn zhělìng yòu rén shì tiān zhù jiào
  
   yán
  EPluribusUnum( FromMany, One, dīng wén zhòng wéi , 1776 nián -)
  InGodWeTrust( yīng wén men xìn yǎng shàng , 1956 nián -)
  
   shǒu
   huá shèng dùn lún ( WashingtonD.C.)。 rén kǒu 581,530( 2006 nián)。
  
   chéng shì
   měi guó yòu zhù shù shí zhù yào chéng shì duō shù de rén kǒu zhù zài zhè xiē chéng shì zhè xiē chéng shì xíng liǎo měi guó de wén huàchuán tǒng jīng zài 2004 niánquán měi yòu 251 chāo guò liǎo shí wàn rén kǒu dedōu shì, 9 chāo guò bǎi wàn rén kǒu de shì, 50 chāo guò liǎo bǎi wàn rén kǒu de huì
  
   zuì chéng shì niǔ yuē( NewYorkCity), měi guó shì shāng gǎngquán shì jiè jīn róng zhōng xīn zhī niǔ yuē huì rén kǒu 18,976,457。
  
   zhù yào chéng shì yòu luò shān ( LosAngeles)、 zhī jiā ( Chicago)、 xiū dūn( Houston)、 fèi chéng( Philadelphia)、 jiù jīn shān( SanFrancisco)、 ( Detroit)、 lán ( Atlanta)、 shì dùn( Boston)、 ( Dallas)、 'ěr de ( baltimore)、 fěi ( Phoenix)、 lán( Cleveland)、 xīn 'ào 'ěr liáng( NewOrleans)、 ( Seattle)、 dān
  ( Denver)、 shèng ( St.Louis)、 míng 'ā ( Minneapolis)、 huǒ ( Honolulu)、 luó( Buffalo)、 yán chéng( SaltLakeCity)、 zhū nuò( Juneau)。
  
   xíng zhèng huá
   quán guó fēn shí xīn yīng lán zhōng yāng zhōng yáng nán ā shān gāo shān dōng nán tài píng yáng yán 'àn 'ā jiā xià wēi
   quán guó gòng fēn 50 zhōu 1 huá shèng dùn lún ), yòu 3042 xiàn huò jùn( county, 'ān zhōu de jùn shì parish);
   lián bāng lǐng bāo kuò duō yóu lián bāng běi
   hǎi wài lǐng zhōng yòu rén zhù de wéiměi shǔ guān dǎozhōng dǎoměi shǔ wéi 'ěr jīng qún dǎo
   rén zhù de wéibèi dǎoháo lán dǎojiǎ wéi dǎoyuē hàn dùn dǎojīn màn jiāo shā dǎo 'ěr 'ěr dǎowēi dǎo
  50 zhōu fēn bié wéi zhōuā jiā zhōu sāng zhōuā kěn zhōujiā zhōu luó duō zhōukāng niè zhōu huá zhōu luó zhōuzuǒ zhì zhōuxià wēi zhōuài zhōu nuò zhōuyìn 'ān zhōuài 'ào zhōukān zhōukěn zhōu 'ān zhōumiǎn yīn zhōu lán zhōu zhū sài zhōu xiē gēn zhōumíng zhōu zhōu zhōuméng zhōunèi jiā zhōunèi huá zhōuxīn hǎn shí 'ěr zhōuxīn zhōuxīn zhōuniǔ yuē zhōuběi luó lái zhōuběi zhōué hài 'é zhōué zhōué gāng zhōubīn zhōuluó dǎo zhōunán luó lái zhōunán zhōutián zhōu zhōuyóu zhōu méng zhōu zhōuhuá shèng dùn zhōu zhōuwēi kāng xīng zhōuhuái 'é míng zhōu
  
   guó jiā zhèng yào
   měi guó 43 rèn 55 jièzǒng tǒng qiáo zhì · · shí( GeorgeWalkerBush), 2001 nián 1 yuè 20 xuān shì jiù zhí, 2004 nián 11 yuè zài dāng xuǎn zǒng tǒng · qiē ( DickCheney), 2004 nián 11 yuè zài dāng xuǎnguó qīng kāng duō zhā · lài ( CondoleezzaRice), 2005 nián 1 yuè xuān shì jiù zhíguó fáng cháng luó · gài ( RobertGates), 2006 nián 12 yuè rèn zhízhòng yuàn cháng nán · pèi luò ( NancyPelosi), 2007 nián 1 yuè zhèng shì jiù zhícái zhèng cháng hēng · bǎo 'ěr sēn( HenryPaulson), 2006 nián 7 yuè jiù zhíshǒu guān yuē hàn · luó ( JohnG.RobertsJr), 2005 nián 9 yuè xuān shì jiù zhí
  
   huò
   měi yuán( UnitedStatesDollar, USD)。 měi yuán“ $”, měi fēn”。
  
   shí jiān
   měi guó dōng hǎi 'àn zhì hǎi 'àn 4517 gōng de běn duàn liǎng hǎi wài zhōu gòng huàfēn wéi liù shí UTC-5 zhì -10, xià shí zhì wéi UTC-4 zhì -10。
  1、 dōng shí EasternTime( EST), UTC-5
  2、 zhōng shí CentralTime( CST), liù UTC-6
  3、 shān shí MountainTime( MST), UTC-7
  4、 tài píng yáng shí PacificTime( PST), UTC-8
  5、 ā jiā shí AlaskaTime( AKST), jiǔ UTC-9
  6、 xià wēi shí HawaiiTime( HST), shí UTC-10
  
   xīn wén chū bǎn
   měi guó bào tǒng páng , 2004 nián quán guó xíng liàng zuì de shí jiā yīng wén bào xià:《 jīn měi guó》、《 huá 'ěr jiē bào》、《 niǔ yuē shí bào》、《 luò shān shí bào》、《 huá shèng dùn yóu bào》、《 niǔ yuē měi xīn wén》、《 niǔ yuē yóu bào》、《 zhī jiā lùn tán bào》、《 měi xīn wénxiū dūn shì》。 měi guó zuì yòu yǐng xiǎng de sān bào zhǐ wéiniǔ yuē shí bào》、《 luò shān shí bàohuá shèng dùn yóu bào》。 měi lián shè shì měi guó zuì de tōng xùn shè zhòng guó shè shì měi guó 'èr tōng xùn shèměi guó yòu diàn shì tái 1000 duō jiā zhōng shāng diàn shì tái yuē 960 jiājiào diàn shì tái yuē 320 jiāyòu xiàn diàn shì wǎng 7900 jiāquán guó gòng yòu guǎng diàn tái 8807 jiāduì wài guǎng diàn tái 19 jiāzuì de liǎng jiā duì wài guǎng gòu wéi měi guó zhī yīn měi guó guǎng diàn shì wǎngjūn shǔ guān fāng diàn táiměi guó zuì de jiā quán guó xìng guǎng wǎng shì quán guó guǎng gōng ( NBC)、 lún guǎng gōng ( CBS)、 měi guó guǎng gōng ( ABC)、 yòu xiàn xīn wén guǎng gōng ( CNN) ( FOX) děng
  
   guó míng suō xiě
  .us.gov.mil.edu
  
   cháng diàn huà dài
  +1
  
   èr
   měi guó wèi běi měi zhōu zhōng lǐng hái bāo kuò běi měi zhōu běi de 'ā jiā tài píng yáng zhōng de xià wēi qún dǎoběi jiā jiē rǎngnán kào wān lín tài píng yángdōng bīn yánghǎi 'àn xiàn 22680 gōng fēn shǔ xìng hòunán shǔ dài hòuzhōng běi píng yuán wēn chā hěn zhī jiā 1 yuè píng jūn wēn 3 , 7 yuè 24℃; wān yán 'àn 1 yuè píng jūn wēn 11℃, 7 yuè 28℃。
  
   hòu
   měi guó jīhū yòu zhe shì jiè shàng suǒ yòu de hòu lèi xíngzài zhù yào nóng dài shǎo yòu yán zhòng de gān hàn shēnghóng shuǐ fàn làn bìng cháng jiànbìng qiě yòu zhe wēn 'ér yòu néng gòu jiàng liàng de wēn
  
   yǐng xiǎng měi guó hòu de zhù yào shì běi liúměi nián cóng tài píng yáng dài lái liǎo guī de zhè xiē zài tōng guò nèi huá shān màiluò shān mài shān mài shí jiā dài liǎo liàng shuǐfèndāng zhè xiē dào zhōng píng yuán shí biàn néng jìn xíng zhòng dǎo zhì zhù yào de tuán xiāng 'ér dài lái liè de léi yóu shì zài chūn xià yòu shí zhè xiē bào néng de huì qián wǎng dōng hǎi 'àn yángbìng huì yǎn biàn wéi gèng liè de dōng běi fēng bào( Nor'easter), zài měi guó dōng běi de zhōng yáng xīn yīng lán xíng chéng guǎng fàn 'ér chén zhòng de jiàng xuě píng yuán guǎng kuò de cǎo yuán xíng chéng liǎo duō shì jiè shàng zuì duān de hòu zhuǎn biàn xiàn xiàng
  
   liǎn pén lún gāo yuán shì gān hàn 'ér shǎo jiàng de zuì gān hàn shí píng jūn jiàng liàng shǎo 15 yīng cùn( 38 )。 měi guó nán shì gān hàn de shā xià shí zuì de shù bài wēn chāo guò huá shì 100 shè shì 38 )。 nán liǎn pén huì shòu dào lái jiā wān de fēng yǐng xiǎngǒu 'ěr huì dài lái shǎo jiàn de jiā zhōu duō shù shǔ zhōng hǎi shì hòuyòu shí huì zài měi nián de 10 yuè zhì nián de 4 yuè yǐn qiáng liè bào ér yuè fèn jīhū quán jiàng bīn lín tài píng yáng de běi fāng zhōng nián háo duàndàn zài dōng chūn jiàng liàng zuì shān mài shōu liǎo chōng de shī jiàng liàng jiàng xuě xiāng dāng chén zhòng shān mài shì shì jiè shàng jiàng xuě liàng zuì duō de fāng zhī dàn hǎi jiào de yán hǎi jiàng xuě duō
  
   shuǐ
   cóng zǒng shàng fēn wéi sān shuǐ fán wèi luò shān dōng de zhù yáng de liú chēng wéi yáng shuǐ zhù yào yòu kāng niè sēn zhōng quán cháng 6020 gōng shì jiè sān wèifán zhù tài píng yáng de liú chēng tài píng yáng shuǐ zhù yào yòu luó duō lún kōng děngběi měi zhōu zhōng dōng de qúnbāo kuò 'ěr xiē gēn xiū lún 'ān lüè zǒng miàn 24.5 wàn píng fāng gōng wéi shì jiè zuì de dàn shuǐ shuǐ yòuběi měi zhōng hǎizhī chēng zhōng xiē gēn shǔ měi guó 4 wéi měi guó jiā gòng yòu 'ěr wéi shì jiè zuì de dàn shuǐ miàn zài shì jiè húpō zhōng jǐn hǎi 'ér shì jiè 'èr wèi
  
   shēng
   měi guó yòu chāo guò 17,000 zhǒng běn de zhí shù zhǒngguāng shì jiā zhōu jiù yòu 5,000 zhǒngcóng dài zhì běi dōuyòu zhí fēn měi guó de zhí shì shì jiè shàng zuì duō yàng huà detóng shíshù qiān zhǒng fēi běn de wài lái zhǒng yòu shí huì yǐng xiǎng dào běn de dòng zhí měi guó běn yòu chāo guò 400 zhǒng lèi、 700 zhǒng niǎo lèi、 500 zhǒng chóng lèi liǎng lèi 90,000 zhǒng jīng bèi xiàn de kūn chóng duō zhí dòng jǐn xiàn men de fēn yòu xiē bīn lín jué zhǒng de wēi xiǎn
  
   sān shǐ
   zhí mín shí qián( 1607 qián
   zài liǎng wàn duō nián qiányòu lái zhōu de liú làng zhějīng yóu běi měi dào zhōng nán měi zhōuzhè xiē rén jiù shì yìn 'ān rén de xiāndāng lún xiàn xīn shí zhù zài měi zhōu de yìn 'ān rényuē yòu 2,000 wàn zhōng yòu yuē 100 wàn rén zhù zài xiàn zài de jiā měi guó zhōng běi jué fēn zhù zài xiàn zài de měi guó nán yuē 1 wàn nián qiányòu yòu lìng zhōu rén dào běi měi běi zhè shì hòu lái de 'ài rénér zuì zǎo dào měi zhōu de bái zhǒng rén gài shì wéi jīng rén men shì qún hǎo mào xiǎn de rényòu rén rèn wéi men zài 1,000 nián qiáncéng dào guò běi měi dōng hǎi 'àn
  
   zhí mín shí ( 1607-1753)
  1607 nián yuē bǎi rén de zhí mín tuán zài shā hǎi tān jiàn liǎo zhān shì zhènzhè shì yīng guó zài běi měi suǒ jiàn de yǒng jiǔ xìng zhí mín zài hòu 150 nián zhōng yǒng lái liǎo duō de zhí mín zhědìng yán 'àn zhōng fēn lái yīng guó yòu fēn lái guó guó lánài 'ěr lán guó jiā。 18 shì zhōng , 13 yīng guó zhí mín zhú jiàn xíng chéng men zài yīng guó de zuì gāo zhù quán xià yòu de zhèng huìzhè 13 zhí mín yīn hòu huán jìng de chā zào chéng liǎo jīng xíng tàizhèng zhì zhì guān niàn shàng de chā bié
  
   yùn dòng( 1754-1783)
  18 shì zhōng yīng guó zài měi zhōu de zhí mín yīng guó zhī jiān yòu liǎo liè hénzhí mín de kuò zhāngshǐ men chǎn shēng mǒu zhǒng jué jué dào yīng guó de hàiér méng shēng de niàn tóu。 1774 niánlái 12 zhōu de dài biǎo zài fèi chéngzhào kāi suǒ wèi huì wàng néng xún chū tiáo de jìng yīng guó píng jiě jué wèn rán 'ér yīng wáng què jiān chí zhí mín tiáo jiàn chén yīng wángbìng jiē shòu chǔfèn。 1775 niánzài zhōu diǎn rán zhàn huǒ, 5 yuèzhào kāi 'èr huì jiān dìng liǎo zhàn zhēng de jué xīnbìng biǎo yòu míng de xuān yán chū chōng fēn de yóu lái zhè chǎng zhàngzhè shì zuì hòu zhì shèng de yào 。 1781 niánměi jūn yíng jué dìng xìng de shèng , 1783 niánměi yīng qiān dìng tiáo yuējié shù liǎo zhàn zhēng
  
   chéng xīn zhèng ( 1784-1819)
   mìng de chéng gōngshǐ měi guó rén mín yòu liǎo xíng shì biǎo men zhèng zhì guān niàn de huì。 1787 niánzài fèi chéng xíng lián bāng huì huì zhōng huá shèng dùn bèi tuī wéi zhù men cǎi xiàng yuán zhōng yāng de quán shì bān xìng dedàn yòu shěn shèn de guī dìng shuō míngtóng shí men jiē shòu xiàng shì shí jiù shì quán guó xìng zhèng yòu shuì shōuzhù zào huò tiáozhěng shāng xuān zhàn jié tiáo yuē de quán wàiwèile fáng zhǐ zhōng yāng quán guò ér cǎi mèng jiū de jūn quán zhèng zhì xué shuō zhèng zhōng shè zhì sān píng děng zuò zhì héng de mén xíng zhèng sān zhǒng quán xiāng tiáohézhì héng 'ér shǐ rèn quán zhàn kòng zhì wèi
  
   xiàng kuò zhāng( 1820-1849)
  19 shì chū shù qiān de rényuè guò 'ā shānxiàng dòngyòu xiē kāi tuò zhě dào měi guó de biān jièshèn zhì shēn shǔ de lǐng jiè 'ā jiā jiā de 'é gāngkāi tuò zhě yǒng gǎnqín fèn xiàng xún qiú gèng hǎo de shēng huó
  
   nán běi chōng ( 1850-1869)
   yǐn nèi zhàn de yuán yīn dān shì jīng shàngzhèng zhì shàngjūn shì shàng de wèn hái bāo kuò liǎo xiǎng shàng de chōng nèi zhàn bào liǎo měi guó de ruò diǎnduì zhè guó jiā de cún zàizuò liǎo fān kǎo yànjīng guò liǎo zhè kǎo yànměi guó cái xiàng zhōng yāng quán huà zhī xiàn dài guó jiā de tǎn nán běi zhī jiānwéi wèn 'ér zhēng zhínán fāng zài quán guó zhèng zhì shàng de zhù yào fāng zhēnjiù zài bǎo kuò " mián huā " zhì suǒ dài biǎo de ér běi zhōuzhù yào shì zhì zào shāng jīn róng de zhōng xīnzhè xiē shēng chǎn lài zhè zhǒng jīng shàng zhèng zhì shàng de chōng dōushì yóu lái jiǔ de。 1860 nián dài chū , 11 nán fāng de zhōu tuō lián bānglìng zhèng běi fāng biǎo shìwèile tǒng jiāng chū rèn dài jià。 1861 niánnèi zhàn bào liǎozhè chǎng měi guó rén miàn duì miàn de liú xuè zhàn liǎo niánnán fāng zāo dào yán zhòng de huàiér qiě liú xià shēn shēn de shāng hén。 1865 niánběi fāng zhàn shèng liǎozhè xiàng shèng dàn xiǎn shì měi guó huī tǒng ér qiěcóng quán guó zài shī xíng zhì
  
   gōng huà gǎi ( 1870-1929)
  19 shì chū měi guó kāi shǐ gōng huàér nèi zhàn zhī hòu chéng shú jiē duànzài cóng nèi zhàn zhì shì jiè zhàn de dào 50 nián shí jiān nèi cóng nóng cūn huà de gòng guó biàn chéng liǎo chéng shì huà de guó jiā dài liǎo shǒu gōngchǎn pǐn liàng zēng jiāquán guó xìng de tiě dào wǎngzēng jìn liǎo huò pǐn liú tōngyìng zhòng de yào duō xīn míng yìng shì liǎoyínháng gōng dài kuǎn chéng gōng shāng jīng yíng de kuò cóng 1890 dào 1917 nián de jìn 30 nián jiān bèi chēng wéi suǒ wèi " jìn shí ", 1914 niánshì jiè zhàn bào , 1917 niánměi guó zhōng bèi juàn zhàn xuán zhōngbìng qiě zài shì jiè shàng cháng shì bàn yǎn xīn de juésè
  
   'èr shì jiè zhàn( 1930-1959)
   jīng kǒng huāngyǐng xiǎng de zhǐ shì měi guóshì jiè guó shòu dào de jīng kǒng huāngshǐ shàng bǎi wàn de gōng rén shī de nóng rén bèi fàng gēng gōng chǎng shāng diàn guān ményínháng dǎo piàn xiāo tiáo。 1932 niánluó dāng xuǎn zǒng tǒng zhù zhāng zhèng yìng chū xíng dòng lái jié shù jīng kǒng huāngxīn zhèng suī rán jiě jué liǎo duō de kùn nándàn měi guó de jīng hái shì yào dào 'èr zhàncái xǐng lái 'èr shì jiè zhàn zhī hòuměi liǎng guóguān 'è huàfēn bié zài jūn shìzhèng zhìjīng xuān chuán fāng miànjiā jǐn zhǔn bèi zhàn shízhè zhǒng zhuàng tàibèi chēng wéilěng zhàn”。
  
  70 nián dài zhōng jīng dàn dào 70 nián dài wèi yòu chū xiàn tōng huò péng zhàng。 1976 niánměi guó jiàn guó 200 zhōu niánquán guó xíng xiàng qìng zhù huó dòng。 1981 nián 4 yuè 12 měi guó chéng gōng shè lún hàoháng tiān fēi jiāng rén lèi yòu dài lìng tài kōng xīn yuán。 1985 nián gēn lián rèn zǒng tǒngzài xīn yuè de rén lèi zhǎn shǐ zhōngměi guó jiāng zhǎn kāi xīn de
  
   zhèng zhì
   zhèng
   zǒng tǒng nèi zhìzǒng tǒng shì guó jiā yuán shǒuzhèng shǒu nǎo jiān zhuāng duì zǒng lìngzǒng tǒng de xíng zhèng mìng lìng yòu tóng děng xiào zǒng tǒng tōng guò jiànjiē xuǎn chǎn shēngrèn niánzhèng nèi yóu cháng zǒng tǒng zhǐ dìng de chéng yuán chéngnèi shí shàng zhǐ zǒng tǒng zhù shǒu wèn tuán de zuò yòngméi yòu jué de quán 。 2001 nián 1 yuè 20 qiáo zhì · · shí xuān shì jiù rèn zǒng tǒng, 2005 nián 1 yuè 20 kāi shǐ 'èr rèn zǒng tǒng chá · · qiē ( RichardBruceCheney), guó qīng kāng duō zhā · lài ( CondoleezzaRice)。
  
   xiàn
  1776 nián 7 yuè 4 zhì dìng liǎo xiàn xìng wén jiànlián bāng tiáo 》。 1787 nián 5 yuè zhì dìng liǎo xiàn cǎo 'àn, 1789 nián 3 yuè jiè guó huì xuān shēng xiào shì shì jiè shàng zuò wéi tǒng guó jiā de chéng wén xiàn liǎng shì láigòng zhì dìng liǎo 27 tiáo xiàn xiū zhèng 'ànzhòng yào de xiū gǎi yòu: 1791 nián 9 yuè yóu guó huì tōng guò de bāo kuò bǎo zhèng xìn yǎngyán lùnchū bǎn yóu píng huì quán zài nèi de xiàn qián 10 tiáo xiū zhèng 'ànhòu tōng chēngmín quán 'àn”( huòquán 'àn”); 1865 nián 1870 nián tōng guò de guān fèi chú zhì chéng rèn hēi rén gōng mín quán de 13 tiáo 15 tiáo xiū zhèng 'àn; 1951 nián tōng guò de guī dìng zǒng tǒng néng xíng shǐ zhí quán yóu zǒng tǒng shēng rèn zǒng tǒng de 25 tiáo xiū zhèng 'ànxiàn de zhù yào nèi róng shì jiàn lián bāng zhì de guó jiā zhōu yōng yòu jiào de zhù quánbāo kuò quánshí xíng sān quán fēn de zhèng zhì zhì xíng zhèng sān mén dǐng bìng xiāng zhì yuē
  
   guó huì
   guó huì shì zuì gāo gòuyóu cānzhòng liǎng yuàn chéngliǎng yuàn yuán yóu zhōu xuǎn mín zhí jiē xuǎn chǎn shēngcān yuán měi zhōu 2 mínggòng 100 míngrèn 6 niánměi liǎng nián gǎi xuǎn 1/3。 zhòng yuán 'àn zhōu de rén kǒu fēn pèi míng 'é xuǎn chūgòng 435 míngrèn liǎng nián mǎn quán gǎi xuǎnliǎng yuàn yuán jūn lián rènrèn xiàncān zhòng yuán jūn zhuān zhí jiān rèn zhèng zhí běn jiè guó huì 107 jiè 2000 nián 11 yuè 7 zǒng tǒng xuǎn tóng shí tōng guò xuǎn chǎn shēngcān yuàn sān fēn zhī wèi( 34 zhòng yuàn quán 435 wèi jīng guò gǎi xuǎngòng dǎng mín zhù dǎng zài xīn jiè guó huì cānzhòng liǎng yuàn de wèi duì fēn bié biàn chéng 50: 50 221: 212( zhòng yuàn zhōng lìng liǎng wéi rén shì)。 yóu zǒng tǒng qiē jiān rèn cān chángzài cān yuàn yōng yòu píng héng de tóu piào quányīn gòng dǎng réng zhǎng duì liǎng yuàn de kòng zhì quáncān yuàn lín shí cháng luó · méng ( StromThurmond), duō shù dǎnggòng dǎnglǐng xiù lún · luò ( TrentLott), shǎo shù dǎngmín zhù dǎnglǐng xiù tuō · shī ( ThomasDaschle)。 zhòng yuàn cháng dān · ( DennisHastert), duō shù dǎnggòng dǎnglǐng xiù chá · ā ( RichardArmey), shǎo shù dǎngmín zhù dǎnglǐng xiù chá · ( RichardGephardt)。
  
   gòu
   shè lián bāng zuì gāo yuànlián bāng yuànzhōu yuàn xiē bié yuànlián bāng zuì gāo yuàn yóu shǒu guān 8 míng guān chéngzhōng shēn rèn zhílián bāng zuì gāo yuàn yòu quán xuān lián bāng zhōu de rèn xiàoxiàn rèn shǒu guān wēi lián · lún kuí ( WilliamRehnquist)。
  
   zhèng dǎng
   měi guó yòu duō dǎng pàidàn zài guó nèi zhèng zhì shè huì shēng huó zhōng zhòng zuò yòng de zhǐ yòu gòng dǎng mín zhù dǎng。 
  ( 1) gòng dǎng( RepublicanParty) : chéng 1854 nián。 1861 nián lín kěn jiù rèn zǒng tǒnggòng dǎng shǒu zhí zhèng hòu zhì 1933 nián de 70 duō nián zhōngchú 16 nián wàigòng dǎng zhí zhù zhèng bái gōng。 1933 nián zhì 2001 nián zhī jiāncéng yòu 'ài sēn háo wēi 'ěr( 1953 nián 1 yuè zhì 1961 nián 1 yuè), sōng ( 1969 nián 1 yuè zhì 1977 nián 1 yuè), gēn( 1981 nián 1 yuè zhì 1989 nián 1 yuè), shí( 1989 nián 1 yuè zhì 1993 nián 1 yuèzhí zhènggāi dǎng lǐng xiù wéi zǒng tǒng huò luò xuǎn zǒng tǒng hòu xuǎn rénzhù xiàn wéi · 'ěr ( JimGilmore)。 bān 'ér yánzài zǒng tǒng xuǎn zhōng tóu piào gěi gāi dǎng hòu xuǎn rén de xuǎn mín wéi dǎng yuán。  ( 2) mín zhù dǎng( DemocraticParty): 1791 nián chéng dāng shí chēng gòng dǎng。 1794 nián gǎi chēng mín zhù gòng dǎng, 1828 nián gǎi wéi mín zhù dǎng。 1861 nián nán běi zhàn zhēng qián mín zhù dǎng nèi fēn liègāi dǎng de nán fāng zhù cèhuà pàn luànnán běi zhàn zhēng jié shù hòumín zhù dǎng zài 24 nián。 1885 nián lán dāng xuǎn zǒng tǒng hòu gāi dǎng yòu fēn shí jiān zài 。 1933 nián kāi shǐmín zhù dǎng rén luó ménkěn yuē hàn xùn lín dùn xiān hòu dāng xuǎn zǒng tǒng zhí zhènggāi dǎng lǐng xiù wéi zǒng tǒng huò luò xuǎn zǒng tǒng hòu xuǎn rénzhù xiàn wéi · mài kǎo ( TerryMcAuliffe)。 bān 'ér yán dǎng yuán shì xuǎn zhōng tóu mín zhù dǎng hòu xuǎn rén piào de xuǎn mín。 
  ( 3) sān dǎng yòu dǎng( GreenParty) gǎi dǎng( ReformParty) děng
  
   jūn shì
   zǒng tǒng jiān rèn zhuāng duì zǒng lìngzhǎng zuì gāo zhǐ huī quánjìn gōng xìng zhàn lüè de shǐ yòng quán zhōng kòng zhì zài zǒng tǒng shǒu zhōngguó jiā jūn shì zhǐ huī tǒng yóu guó jiā 'ān quán wěi yuán huìguó fáng cān móu cháng lián huì chéngguó jiā 'ān quán wěi yuán huì shì zuì gāo jué gòuyóu zǒng tǒng lǐng dǎochéng yuán yòu zǒng tǒngguó qīngcái zhèng chángguó fáng cháng zǒng tǒng guó jiā 'ān quán shì zhù cān lián huì zhù zuò wéi jūn shì wènzhōng qíng cháng zuò wéi qíng bào wèn liè guó fáng shì zǒng tǒng zhǐ huī quán jūn de bàn shì gòucān lián huì shì zǒng tǒngguó fáng cháng guó jiā 'ān quán wěi yuán huì de jūn shì xún gòuyòu shì xiàng lián lìng zǒng tǒng guó fáng cháng mìng lìng de jūn shì zhǐ huī guāncān lián huì sān jūn cān móu dìng zuò zhàn jìhuà bìng shí shī zuò zhàn zhǐ huī。 2001 nián“ 9·11” shì jiàn hòuměi guó jìn tiáozhěng jūn shì zhàn lüèjiā kuài jiàn yóu fēi jìn gōng xìng tǒngdǎo dàn fáng tǒng néng xùn yìng kǒng wēi xié de guó fáng chǔ shè shī gòu chéng dexīn sān wèi zhàn lüè liàng měi jūn céng zài nán běi zhàn zhēngliǎng shì jiè zhàn 1948 nián zhì 1973 nián jiān shí xíng guò bīng zhì。 1973 niánshí rèn zǒng tǒng sōng fèi chú bīng zhì hòuměi jūn zhí shí xíng zhì yuàn bīng zhì zhì jīn
  
   měi guó shì shì jiè jūn shì guóměi jūn xiàn duì rén shù yuē 140 wàn rén zhōng jūn 50 wàn rénhǎi jūn kōng jūn 35 wàn rénhǎi jūn zhàn duì 18 wàn rén jūn fēn wéi 10 zhàn dǒu shī 4 zhuāng jiá bīng tuánhǎi jūn biān zhì wéi 5 jiàn duìgòng 12 háng zhàn dǒu qún、 12 liǎng jiè bèi duì、 57 sōu gōng qián tǐng、 116 sōu zhàn jiàn 10 jiàn zài lián duìkōng jūn biān zhì wéi 20 fēi xíng lián duìměi lián duì yuē 72 jià zhàn ); hǎi jūn zhàn duì biān zhì wéi 3 shī 3 qín zhī yuán duìzhuāng bèi 3 fēi xíng lián duìyuē 21 zhōng duì)。 měi guó zài shì jiè shù shí guó jiā shè yòu shù bǎi chù jūn shì hǎi wài zhù jūn yuē wéi 28.78 wàn rénměi guó de hǎi wài de jūn shì zhì huàfēn wéi 'ōu zhōu tài yìn yángzhōng dōng běi fēi měi zhōu zhàn lüè 。 2004 nián 8 yuè shí zǒng tǒng xuān měi guó jiāng zài wèi lái de 10 nián nèi zhù 'ōu zhōu zhōu de jūn duì xuē jiǎn 6 wàn zhì 7 wàn rén。 2007 nián 1 yuèměi guó guó fáng cháng luó · gài shuōwèilefǎn kǒng zhàn zhēngde yào jìhuà zài wèi lái 5 nián nèi jiāng měi jūn xiàn duì de rén shù zēng jiā 9.2 wàn rénměi jūn zài quán qiú shè yòu zhàn lìng fēn bié shì běi fāng lìng tài píng yáng lìng zhōng yāng lìng ōu zhōu lìng nán fāng lìng fēn bié quán qiú de shì 。 2007 nián 2 yuè shí zǒng tǒng zhǔn jūn fāng guān jiàn zhuān mén fēi zhōu shì de lìng de jìhuà
  
   liùjīng
  GDP: 132216.85 měi yuánliè shì jiè wèi
   rén jūn GDP: 43995 měi yuán( 2007 nián tǒng zhí
  
   měi guó yòu gāo de xiàn dài shì chǎng jīng guó nèi shēng chǎn zǒng zhí duì wài mào 'é jūn shì jiè shǒu wèi。 20 shì 90 nián dài xìn shēng shù chǎn wéi dài biǎo de xīn jīng péng zhǎnshòu tuī dòngměi jīng jīng liǎo cháng shí nián de zēngzhǎng 。 2001 nián měi jīng xiàn duǎn zàn shuāi tuìzhī hòu zhú 。 2004 nián měi guó jīng jiā kuài, GDP quán nián zēngzhǎng 4.4%。 2004 cái nián měi guó lián bāng cái zhèng chì kuò 4123 měi yuán。 2004 nián wài mào chā wéi 6171 měi yuánchuàng shǐ zuì gāo
  
   měi guó de jīng jiān yòu běn zhù hùn jīng de zhēngzài zhè nèi yíng gòu zuò zhù yào de wēi guān jīng jué zhèng zài guó nèi jīng shēng huó zhōng de juésè jiào wéi yàorán 'ér zhèng de zǒng què zhàn GDP de 36%; zài guó jiā zhōngměi guó de shè huì wǎng xiāng duì jiào xiǎozhèng duì shāng de guǎn zhì guó jiā
  
   zài quán guó jīng huó dòng zhòng xīn niǔ yuē shì shì jīn róngchū bǎnguǎng guǎng gào děng hángyè de zhōng xīnluò shān shì diàn yǐng diàn shì jié zhì zuò zhōng xīnjiù jīn shān wān tài píng yáng yán 'àn běi shì shù kāi zhōng xīnzhōng shì zhì zào zhòng gōng zhōng xīn shì zhù míng de chē chéngzhī jiā shì gāi de jīn róng shāng zhōng xīndōng nán yào yán jiū yóu jiàn cái wéi zhù yào chǎn bìng qiě yóu xīn chéng běn yīn chí de yǐn zhì zào de tóu
  
   měi guó de zhàn zuì zhòngquán guó fēn zhī sān de láo cóng shì měi guó yōng yòu fēng de kuàng chǎn yuánbāo kuò liǎo huáng jīnshí yóu yóurán 'ér duō néng yuán de gōng yìng lài wài guó jìn kǒuměi guó shì quán qiú zuì de nóng chū kǒu guó zhī zhù yào nóng chǎn pǐn bāo kuò liǎo xiǎo màitáng yān cǎozhōng píng yuán jīng rén de nóng chǎn liàng shǐ bèi wéishì jiè liáng cāng”。 měi guó gōng chǎn pǐn zhù yào bāo kuò liǎo chēfēi diàn chǎn pǐnměi guó yòu de yóu pái míng shì jiè sānměi guó shì fēi gāng tiějūn huǒ diàn cái de zhù yào shū chū guó
  
   měi guó zuì de mào huǒ bàn shì lín de jiā ( 19%), zhōng guó( 12%)、 ( 11%) běn( 8%) jǐn suí hòuměi tiān yuē yòu jià zhí gāo 11 měi yuán de chǎn pǐn liú jīng měi jiā de guó jièměi guó jīng bèi rèn wéi shì shì jiè shàng zuì shì zuì zhòng yào de jīng měi guó jīng gāo quán qiú duō guó jiā de huò měi yuán guà gōuér měi guó de zhèng quàn shì chǎng bèi rèn wéi shì shì jiè jīng de qíng biǎo
  
   cóng 1980 nián dài lóng · gēn de zǒng tǒng rèn láiměi guó zēng jiā liǎo duì xīn yóu zhù jīng zhèng de yùn yòngjiǎn shǎo zhèng duì jīng de gān bìng jiǎn shǎo zhì de guī pāo liǎo jīng kǒng huāng lái cháng shí xíng depiān xiàng gān shè zhù de kǎi 'ēn pài jīng zhèng yīn měi guó zhèng zài shè huì fāng miàn gōng de gōng huà guó jiādōu yào shǎojiàng guó nèi de shuì bìng gèng lài yóu shì chǎng yíng de shàn gòu shàng
  
   yuán
   rán yuán fēng méishí yóutiān rán tiě kuàng shíjiǎ yánlín suān yánliú huáng děng kuàng chǔ liàng jūn shì jiè qián liè kuàng yòu tóngqiānyóu fán jīngǒngniètàn suān jiǎyínxīn děngzhàn lüè kuàng yuán tàiměng děng zhù yào kào jìn kǒutàn míng méi chǔ liàng 35,966 dūntàn míng yuán yóu chǔ liàng 270 tǒngtàn míng tiān rán chǔ liàng 56,034 fāng sēn lín miàn yuē 44 gài shuài 33
    
   jiāo tōng yùn shū
   měi guó yōng yòu wán zhěng 'ér biàn jié de jiāo tōng yùn shū wǎng luòyùn shū gōng shǒu duàn duō zhǒng duō yàng。 2000 zhì 2003 nián chǎn zhí fēn bié wéi 3137 、 3061 、 3104 3178 měi yuán yùn shū xiāng guān de chǎn pǐn yuē zhàn měi jīng zǒng liàng de 3%, liǎo 1/8 de jiù
  
   yóu chē chǎn zài měi guó de zhǎn xiāng dāng zǎo jiào fāng guó jiā), měi guó duō chéng shì de zhǎn qián dào liǎo jiāng chéng shì zhù zhái pèi dào wǎng luò de shè wèile lián jié guǎng kuò de guó měi guó shè bìng jiàn zào liǎo gāo tōng xíng liànggāo de gāo gōng měi guó de guó jiā jiāo tōng tǒng zhù yào biàn shì lài zhè xiē gāo gōng wǎngdāng zhōng zuì zhòng yào de shì zhōu gāo gōng tǒng de jiàn shèzhè xiē gāo gōng zài 1950 nián dài jīng yóu dāng shí de zǒng tǒng huái · ài sēn háo wēi 'ěr shòu quán jiàn zàogēn 2004 nián de shù měi guó de gōng zǒng cháng wéi 6,407,637 gōng míng liè shì jiè
  
   chéng shì yòu jiàn shè gōng gòng jiāo tōng de tǒngniǔ yuē shì de tiě wǎng luò shì dāng zhōng zuì de shì shì jiè shàng zài liàng zuì wéi chén zhòng de jié yùn wǎng luò zhī ér tiě gōng gòng chē wǎng luò yán shēn zhì cháng dǎoniǔ yuē shàng zhōuxīn zhōu kāng nǎi zhōudōuchéng wèile shì jiè shàng zài liàng zuì de jiāo tōng wǎng zhī dàn shì biàn 'ér yánměi guó chéng shì de gōng gòng jiāo tōng xiāng duì guó jiā jiào wéi ruòrén men chū xíng gèng duō de shǐ yòng rén chē
  
   měi guó jiàn zào liǎo héng guàn de tiě wǎng luòyòng zài 48 zhōu zhī jiān yùn zài huò měi guó tiě gōng ( Amtrak) suǒ jiàn zào de tiě wǎng héng guàn liǎo 48 zhōu zhōng de 46 zhuān mén yòng yùn yòng měi guó de tiě huò yùn tǒng shì shì jiè zuì fán máng xiān jìn deqiě měi guó de tiě zǒng cháng wèi shì jiè rán 'ér měi guó tiě de yùn bìng 'ōu běn bān fēn yuán yīn shì chū měi guó guó de liáo kuòruò yào dào shù qiān yīng wài de chéng shì chéng fēi huì chéng tiě hái yào shěng shíměi guó zhèng de fēn biàn rèn wéi kōng zhōng yùn shì dǎo zhì yùn tiě gōng zài 1970 nián dài jiē lián dǎo de zhù yīn
  
   kōng zhōng yùn shū shì cháng xíng de gèng hǎo xuǎn chéng liàng 'ér yánzài 2004 nián quán shì jiè qián 30 zuì fán máng de chǎng zhōng jiù yòu 17 wèi měi guóbāo kuò liǎo pái míng de lán fěi 'ěr - jié xùn guó chǎng yùn huò liàng 'ér yánzài tóng nián quán shì jiè qián 30 zuì fán máng de huò yùn chǎng jiù yòu 12 zài měi guóbāo kuò liǎo pái míng de mèng fěi guó chǎng( MEM)。
  
   duō shì jiè shàng zhù yào de gǎng kǒu wèi měi guózuì fán máng de shì jiā zhōu de luò shān gǎng cháng gǎng niǔ yuē gǎng men quándōu shì shì jiè shàng zuì fán máng de gǎng kǒu yòu duō chuán yùn jiāo tōngměi de wǎng luò guǎng fàn lián jiē de zuì xià yóu zhí tōng yángér lián jiē yáng de yùn ( ErieCanal) chéng liǎo měi guó zhōng de kuài nóng gōng zhǎnbìng shǐ niǔ yuē shì chéng wéi měi guó de jīng zhōng xīn
   
   cái zhèng jīn róng
  20 shì 60 zhì 70 nián dàiměi guó zhèng fèng xíngkǎi 'ēn zhù de chì cái zhèng zhèng zēng jiā shè huì jūn shì zhī chū。 80 nián dài gēn zhèng fāng miàn jiǎn miǎn shuì shōulìng fāng miàn kuò zhèng zhī chū bié shì jūn fèi kāi zhīdǎo zhì měi guó lián bāng cái zhèng chì kuò zhāng。 1992 niánměi lián bāng cái zhèng chì dào 2904 měi yuán de shǐ zuì gāo fēngzhàn dāng nián měi guó guó nèi shēng chǎn zǒng zhí zhòng gāo 4.9%。 1993 nián lín dùn zhèng shàng tái hòu jiāngjiǎn chìzuò wéi shī zhèng zhòng diǎn zhī 。 90 nián dài měi jīng chí zēng cháng shǐ shuì shōu shōu zēng jiātóng shí lín dùn zhèng jiā qiáng liǎo shuì shōu zhēng guǎnměi lián bāng cái zhèng 1998 nián cái nián zhuǎn kuī wéi yíngchū xiàn 692 měi yuán de yíng shí zhèng 2001 nián 1 yuè shàng tái hòumiàn duì jīng tuí shì zhù tōng guò jiǎn shuì jīng jiā zhī fǎn kǒng jūn fèi kāi zhī zēng jiā, 2002 cái nián měi lián bāng cái zhèng chóngxiàn chì 1578 měi yuán。 2004 cái nián měi cái zhèng chì 4123 měi yuánchuàng shǐ xīn gāo。 2004 nián měi guó gōng zhài zǒng 'é wéi 75962 měi yuángōng zhòng chí yòu 'é wéi 44084 měi yuán。( shù lái yuánměi guó cái zhèng
  
   yínháng
   jìn nián láiměi guó zhèng zhú fàng kuān duì jīn róng de guǎn zhìjīn róng jiān bìng zhòng jiā shāng yínháng zǒng shù cóng 1985 nián 14000 duō jiā jiǎn shǎo dào 2002 nián de 7887 jiā。 1999 nián 11 yuèměi guó guó huì tōng guòjīn róng xiàn dài 'ànjìn xiāo liǎo zhèng quànbǎo xiǎn shāng yínháng hùn jīng yíng de xiàn zhìměi zhù yào shāng yínháng yòu
   huā tuán( Citigroup)
  1955 nián niǔ yuē huā yín xíng niǔ yuē yínháng bìnggǎi míng wéi niǔ yuē huā yínháng, 1962 nián gǎi wéi huā yínháng, 1967 nián gǎi wéi huā gōng zǒng shè zài niǔ yuē。 1998 nián xíng zhě tuán bìng jiàn huā tuánchéng wéi shì jiè shàng zuì de jīn róng gōng
   gēn tōng gōng ( J.P.MorganChase&Co)
  2000 nián 12 yuè yóu J P. gēn gōng tōng - màn dùn gōng bìng 'ér chéngzǒng shè zài niǔ yuē
   bèi 'ěr dēng gōng
   chéng 1923 niánzǒng wèi niǔ yuēshì měi guó huá 'ěr jiē liù tóu yínháng quán qiú 500 qiáng zhī
   měi zhōu yínháng gōng ( BankofAmericaCorp)
   měi zhōu yínháng 1904 nián chéng zǒng zài jiù jīn shān。 1998 nián guó mín yínháng bìng wéi měi zhōu yínháng gōng chéng wéi héng kuà dōng liǎng 'àn de quán guó xìng yínháng
   yínháng gōng ( BankOneCorporation)
  1957 nián chéng 。 1998 nián zhī jiā guó mín yínháng bìngzǒng zài zhī jiā
   wài zhù yào shāng yínháng hái yòu lián yínhángměi lín yínhángwēi 'ěr · yínhángměi guó yínhángměi guó guó mín chéng shì yínhángměi yínháng děng
  
   duì wài tóu wài guó běn
  2004 nián měi guó duì wài zhí jiē tóu wéi 2258 měi yuángāo 2003 nián de 1518 měi yuánjié zhì 2004 nián měi guó duì wài zhí jiē tóu zǒng 'é yuē wéi 23674 měi yuán 2004 nián jià suàn)。 2004 nián wài guó duì měi guó zhí jiē tóu wéi 1049 měi yuányuǎn gāo shàng nián de 298 měi yuánjié zhì 2004 nián wài guó duì měi guó zhí jiē tóu zǒng 'é yuē wéi 17088 měi yuán 2004 nián jià suàn)。
  
   duì wài yuán zhù
   měi guó huì 2005 cái nián zhǔn yòng zhǎn yuán zhù de jīnbāo kuò jiǎn zhài chóngjiàn jìhuàgòng yuē 170 měi yuán zhōngqiān nián tiǎo zhàn zhàng ”( MCA) zhàn 15 měi yuán;“ guān jiàn zhǎn yuán zhù”( CoreDevelopment, hán zhǎn yuán zhù jīn、“ zhuǎn xíng jìhuà 'ér tóng jiàn kāng xiàng děngzhàn 30 duō měi yuán
  
   liè 'āi réng wéi měi zuì shòu yuán guó, 2005 cái nián měi duì āi yuán zhù 'é fēn bié wéi 25.6 měi yuán 18 měi yuán wài, 2005 cái nián měi duì 'ā hàn yuán zhù 'é wéi 26.8 měi yuánhán yóu guó fáng zhī pèi de 17.24 měi yuán de jǐn kuǎn), duì tǎn yuán zhù 'é wéi 2.7 měi yuán。( shù lái yuán: 2004 nián měi guó huì yán jiū ( CongressionalResearchService))
  
   rén mín shēng huó
  2004 nián rén shōu zǒng 'é wéi 94185 měi yuán rén shōu zhù yào gòu chénggōng xīn jīn shōu 51086 měi yuán láo shōu 11034 měi yuán chǎn shōu 8541 měi yuán jīn shōu 1686 měi yuán shōu 4321 měi yuán shōu 9687 měi yuánzhuǎn zhī jìng 'élǎo rénér tóngcán rénshī wèi shēng bǎo jiàn děng shè huì jiǎn rén shè huì bǎo xiǎn 'é) 13845 měi yuán rén zhī pèi shōu 83276 měi yuánměi rén chǔ shuài rén chǔ 'é / zhī pèi shōu jìn nián chéng duàn xià jiàng shì, 1997 nián 1998 nián fēn bié wéi 4.2%、 4.7%, 2002 nián jiàng zhì 2.3%, 2004 nián wéi 2.0%。
    
   měi guó pín chā jìn jiā , 20% zuì gāo shōu jiā tíng zhàn quán guó shōu zhòng cóng 1980 nián de 41.1% shàng shēng dào 2002 nián de 50%。 2002 nián pín kùn shuài lián 'èr nián shàng shēngyóu shàng nián de 11.7% shēng zhì 12.1%, pín kùn rén kǒu zēng jiā 1663 wàn 3457 wàn
    
   měi guó de shè huì fēn wéi shè huì bǎo xiǎn fēi shè huì bǎo xiǎn liǎng zhǒngshǔ shè huì bǎo xiǎn xiàng mùdì yòulǎo cán bǎo xiǎnshī bǎo xiǎn jiù bǎo xiǎnshǔ fēi shè huì bǎo xiǎn xiàng mùdì yòuduì yǎng 'ér tóng kùn nán jiā tíng de zhùshè huì bǎo zhàng shōu shí pǐn quàn liáo zhùzhù fáng zhù néng yuán zhù
    
  2002 nián měi rén jūn shòu mìng 77.4 suì zhōng nán xìng 74.5 suì xìng 80.2 suì。 2004 nián měi chū shēng shuài wéi 14 wáng shuài wéi 8.2‰。
  
  
  
   wén huà
   yīnyuè
   měi guó yīnyuè de shǐ zhuī zhì zǎo měi guó yuán zhù mín de chuán tǒng zōng jiào yīnyuèsuí zhù liàng 'ōu zhōu guó jiā mín de dào lái měi guó yīnyuè zēng tiān liǎo jiào chàngyīnyuè yuèpǔ dídí cǎizhī hòu de měi mín cháo dài lái liǎo tóng tóng wén huà de yīnyuè liàng de fēi měi guó rén dài lái liǎo yòu fēi zhōu de chuán tǒng yīnyuè, 19 shì hòu kāi shǐ xiàn de měi guó liú xíng yīnyuè hěn fēn dōushì yuán zhè xiē fēi měi guó rén de 1920 nián dài kāi shǐ zhǎn de yīn yīnyuèfēi měi guó rén yīnyuè chéng wèile měi guó liú xíng yīnyuè de gēn hùn liǎo 'ōu zhōu zhù de yīnyuè chéngfènměi guó yòu liàng de mín jiān yīnyuè lái lánài 'ěr lán lán lán yóu tài rén děng mín de yīnyuè duō měi guó chéng shì xiāng zhèn yědōu zhǎn chū de yīnyuè niǔ yuēzhī jiā luò shān děng chéng shì shǔbù jìn de xiǎo chéng shì zhǎn chū de yīnyuè fēng
  
   wén xué
   zài zuì zǎo de zhí mín shí měi guó wén xué zhù yào de cái shì zàn yáng xīn zhí mín zhě 'ōu zhōu guó suǒ dài lái de zōng jiào xìn yǎng shàng de zhēng shì cái zhī suí zhù mìng zhàn zhēng de bào měi guó de běn jié míng · lán lín tuō · pān 'ēn děng rén xiě xià de zhèng zhì zhù zuò zài wén xué zhèng zhì shàng dōuyòu yǐng xiǎng cuī shēng liǎo xīn guó jiā de shíxiě xià liǎo xuān yán bìng zài hòu lái chéng wéi měi guó zǒng tǒng de tuō · jié xùn bèi rèn wéi shì měi guó zǎo zuì tiān fèn de zuò jiā zhī suí zhe 1812 nián zhàn zhēng duì wén xué de wànggèng duō xīn de yòu měi guó de zuò jiā 'ài lún · děng rén zhú jiàn zhǎn lòutóu jiǎo zhì de chōng jiē zhǒng 'ér lái de nèi zhàn duì měi guó wén xué yòu shēn yǐng xiǎngdào liǎo 19 shì yóu gōng huà de jìn zhǎn guó kāi tuò shí de jié shùměi guó wén xué tuō liǎo yuán xiān de biān jìng wén xué · wēn chéng wéi zài dōng hǎi 'àn chū shēng de zhù yào zuò jiākāi měi guó běn wén xué zhī xiān yīng guó zuò jiā máo rèn wéi 'ěr màn · méi 'ěr wéi 'ěr debái jīng shì shì jiè shí wén xué míng zhù zhī wèi gèng zài wēn děng rén zhī shàng
  
   jìn liǎo 20 shì gōng huà dài lái de shè huì zhuǎn biàn shǐ měi guó wén xué zhǎn de gèng wéi duō yuán hǎi míng wēi fǎn yìng liǎo rén men duì shì jiè zhàn de yàn 'è qíng 。 1925 nián fèi jié luó chū bǎn hēng xiǎozhuàndài biǎo zhe 20 nián dài jīng kǒng huāng qián měi guó rén de mènghēi rén wén xuénán wén xué xiàn dài wén xué zài tóng shí xīng zài 'èr shì jiè zhàn hòuxīn de shì dài xīn de zhǒng shè huì zhēng zhī qián de shì dài xiāng tóng liàng de mín wén xué xīn xīng de xìng zhù wén xué chéng wéi měi guó wén xué de fēn liǎo
  
   yǐng shì
   bìng fēi suǒ yòu de měi guó wén huà dōushì yuán guó jiādiàn yǐng de dàn shēng zhǎn biàn dōushì yuán měi guó deyīng guó chū shēng de měi guó shè yǐng shī EadweardMuybridge pāi xià liǎo rén lèi shǐ shàng diàn yǐng bēn páo de cóng shí kāi shǐměi guó de diàn yǐng chǎn biàn kāi shǐ gāo zhǎnjiā zhōu de hǎo lāi chéng wéi rén lèi diàn yǐng zhǎn de zhòng zhènjué duō shù diàn yǐng shù de chuàng xīn zhǎn dōushì yuán hǎo lāi hǎo lāi diàn yǐng chéng wéi měi guó wén huà de zhù yào dài biǎo zhī zài 1920 nián dàiměi guó měi nián píng jūn chǎn chū gāo 800 zhèng guī diàn yǐngchá · zhuó bié lín de xiǎo shuō piāo gǎi biān de luàn shì jiā rén chāo rén děng diàn yǐng liú chuán zhì jīhū měi guó jiāchéng wéi jiā xiǎo de měi guó xiàng zhēngzhè xiē diàn yǐng de chū kǒu shǐ měi guó huò liǎo de jīng rùnchú liǎo diàn yǐng zhī wàiyóu shì kāi chuàng díkǎ tōng shù shì yuán měi guó
  
   měi guó shì shì jiè shàng diàn shì shù zhǎn zuì zǎo de guó jiā zhī zài jīn tiānměi guó yòu zhù shù qiān jiā diàn shì táidiàn shì shì měi guó rén wén huà shēng huó de fēn 'ài kàn diàn shì shì duō shù měi guó rén de shǎo shù gòng tóng zhēng zhī měi guó mín zhòng tòu guò diàn shì zhī guó nèi wài de xīn wén shí shìguān kàn diàn yǐng sài tōng féi zào 。 99% de měi guó jiā tíng zhì shǎo yòu diàn shì jué duō shù jiā tíng hái yōng yòu liǎng
  
   yùn dòng
   yùn dòng shì měi guó quán guó xìng de xiū xián huó dòng shòu huān yíng de chéng shì xiū xián huó dòng dōuwú xiāng dezhí yùn dòng zài měi guó shì shāng de lǐng xuǎn chéng wéi zhí yùn dòng yuán de rén huò gāo de bào chóushì jiè shàng shōu zuì gāo de yùn dòng tuán duì yùn dòng yuán jué duō shù dōushì zài měi guóbèi chēng wéi tóude yùn dòng lǐng bāo kuò liǎo bàng qiúměi shì qiúbīng shàng gùn qiú lán qiú shòu huān yíng de yùn dòng hái bāo kuò sài chē cháng gùn qiú héng shì yuán měi zhōu yuán zhù mín de yùn dòng shì měi guó zuì lǎo de yùn dòngsuī rán qiú shì xiāng dāng shòu huān yíng de yùn dòngdàn xiāng jiào guó jiā 'ér yán qiú zài měi guó de bìng gāo
  
   měi guó yòu duō yuán 'ōu zhōubìng zài měi guó guǎng fàn zhǎn de yùn dòng sài yīng shì gǎn lǎn qiú xiāng dāng shòu dào huān yíng de 'ōu zhōu yùn dòng shàng gùn qiú bǎn qiú suī rán bìng dàn yòu shǎo zhōng de guān zhòngměi guó shì zhǎn gāo 'ěr qiú wǎng qiú děng yùn dòng de zhù yào guó jiāměi guó shì fāng guó jiā quán zhí shuāi jiǎo de zhǎn zhōng xīn sài wǎng wǎng yǐn liàng qún zhòng guān zhàntóng shí yǐn zhǒng yùn dòng de huó dòngměi guó chǎn chū liǎo duō shì jiè zhī míng de quán guànjūn de dǒu yùn dòng yuán běn de kōng shǒu dàozài měi guó xiāng dāng shòu huān yíngbìng qiě jīng cháng jìn xíng sài
  
   xué yùn dòng zài měi guó xiāng dāng ér qiě jīhū zhí lǐng xiāng shàng xiàyóu shì zài qiú lán qiú lǐng duō xué xué yuàn péi yǎng liǎo yùn dòng tuán duìdìng xíng xiào jiān de jìng sài xué xué yuàn suǒ péi yǎng de yùn dòng lèi xíng xiāng dāng guǎng fàncóng tián jìng yùn dòng dào shuǐ qiú bāo hán zài nèitóng yàng deměi guó de gāo zhōng yòu shì yàng de huó dòngyòu shí hòu zhè xiē xiào jiān de sài hái huì chéng wéi dāng de tóu tiáo xīn wénxiǎn shì liǎo měi guó rén mín duì yùn dòng de 'ài zhòng shì
  
   měi guó mèng
   suǒ wèi de měi guó mèng( AmericanDream), shì zhǒng xiāng xìn zhǐ yào zài měi guó jīng guò xiè de fèn dǒu biàn néng huò zhì gèng hǎo shēng huó de xiǎng rén men tòu guò de gōng zuò qín fènyǒng chuàng jué xīn mài xiàng fán róngér fēi lài dìng de shè huì jiē rén de yuán zhùtōng cháng zhè dài biǎo liǎo rén men zài jīng shàng de chéng gōng huò shì jiā de jīng shén duō 'ōu zhōu mín dōushì bào chí zhù měi guó mèng de xiǎng qián wǎng měi guó dejìn guǎn yòu xiē rén píng měi guó mèng guò qiáng diào liǎo zhì cái zài héng liàng shèng kuài shàng bàn yǎn de juésèdàn duō měi guó rén díquè rèn wéizhè zhǒng huò zhì chéng gōng de huì zài shì jiè shàng guó jiā shì zhǎo dào bìng cún zài deyīn wéi duō shù guó jiā tóng de shìzài měi guó yōng yòu de jīng yóu xiāng dāng duōzhèng bàn yǎn de juésè xiāng dāng yòu xiànzhè shǐ měi guó de shè huì liú dòng xìng rèn réndōu yòu néng tòu guò de mài xiàng diān fēngcóng měi guó zhí zhì 19 shì guǎng de dōuwú rén zhù yōng yòurèn yòu xīn réndōu jiā zhàn bìng tóu kāi kěnér dào liǎo gōng mìng shí měi guó páng de rán yuán xiān jìn de gōng shù shǐ kuài de shè huì liú dòng biàn de néngér qiě zhè zhǒng shì réng zài tiān tiān de zēng jiā zhōng
  
   jiào
   zhōng xiǎo xué jiào zhù yào shì yóu zhōu jiào wěi yuán huì fāng zhèng guǎn xué xiào fēn gōng liǎng lèiduō shù zhōu shí xíng shí nián jiào zhōu xué zhì fēn wéi xiǎo xué liù niánchū zhōng sān niángāo zhōng sān niángāo děng jiào yòu liǎng nián zhì de chū xué yuàn shù xué yuàn nián zhì de xué běn 'èr zhì nián de yán jiū shēng yuàn。 2002 cái nián jiào suàn wéi 565 měi yuánzhù yào yòng shí zhèng chū de gāo xué shēng chéng ràng hái luò hòuděng jìhuàguó huì hái tōng guò liǎo jiào gǎi 'ànzhòng diǎn wéi jiā qiáng gōng xué xiào gāo jiào zhì liàng děng
   
   gāo děng xué
   xué shěng gōng xué yuàn lún xuéjiā xué fēn xiào tǎn xuézhī jiā xuéqiáo zhì · huá shèng dùn xué xuéjiā zhōu gōng xué yuànyuē hàn · huò jīn xué lín dùn xué xué děng
  
   jiǔwài jiāo
   měi guó yòu quán qiú xìng de jīng zhèng zhì jūn shì yǐng xiǎng wài jiāo zhèng zǒu xiàng zhí shì shì jiè guān zhù tǎo lùn de jiāo diǎnměi guó de wài jiāo guān guī shì quán shì jiè zuì wéi páng dejīhū suǒ yòu de guó jiā zài huá shèng dùn shè yòu shǐ guǎn pài zhù shǐ lièyīng guójiā běn bèi shì wéi shì měi guó zuì qīn de méng yǒuzhǐ yòu shǎo shù guó jiā méi yòu měi guó jiàn zhèng shì de wài jiāo guān bāo kuò lǎngběi cháo xiānsuǒ dān
  
   měi guó mìng jiānměi guó xiē 'ōu zhōu guó jiā jiàn liǎo wài jiāo guān shuō liǎo guó bān lán xié zhù duì kàng yīng guózài jiē xià lái de kāi kěn nián dài měi guó zhí zài qīn huò qīn yīng liǎng xuǎn jiān yáo bǎi dìngdāng shí měi guó duì 'ōu zhōu shì yuàn chā shǒuzhuān zhù běi měi de jiāng kāi tuòhòu lái mén luó zhù xuē ruò 'ōu zhōu zài dīng měi zhōu de yǐng xiǎng què bǎo zài měi zhōu shì de zhī pèi quánměi guó de kuò zhāng zhèng yǐn liǎo bān de zhàn zhēngliǎng zhàn jūn měi guó de shèng gào zhōngzài nán běi zhàn zhēng zhōngměi guó zhǐ yīng guó guó zhī yuán nán fēn liè de měi jiān lián méng guóbìng shì zhàn lǐng dàn zài nèi zhàn jié shù hòuměi guó zài běi měi zhōu de zhù dǎo wèi jiù zài wèi shòu guò tiǎo zhàn
  
   suí zhù guó jiàn zēngměi guó kāi shǐ jiāng zhù zhuànxiàng hǎi wàiyóu shì duì wài mào de kāi tuòwèicǐměi guó zhàn lǐng liǎo tài píng yáng de duō lǐng bāo kuò xià wēi fěi bīn shǐ běn kāi fàng mào bìng 'ōu zhōu liè qiáng jìng zhēng zài zhōng guó de yǐng xiǎng 'èr shì jiè zhàn hòuměi guó zài lián guó de chuàng jiàn shàng bàn yǎn liǎo zhòng yào juésèbìng qiě chéng wéi 'ān quán shì huì de míng yǒng jiǔ huì yuán zhī
  
   lěng zhàn jiānměi guó zuì chū shì xiàn zhì lián shì jiè de yǐng xiǎng wèile 'è zhì liánměi guójiā 10 'ōu guó jiā gòng tóng jiàn liǎo běi yáng gōng yuē zhì lián méng guó duì kàng rèn xiàng běi měi 'ōu zhōu de jūn shì qīnhòu lái yòu yòu 14 'ōu zhōu guó jiā jiā liǎo zhè gòng tóng fáng lián méngbāo kuò 'ěr xiē qián huá shā tiáo yuē chéng yuán guó fēn lián jiā méng gòng guóchū zhèng zhì shàng de xiàn shí kǎo liàngměi guó duì kàng lián de gòng chǎn zhù guó jiā jié méng zhōng fēn liè hòu de zhōng huá rén mín gòng guójìn nián láiměi guó zhuān zhù shēn de biān jiè 'ān quánfáng zhǐ fēi mín fēi fàn jìn guó nèi héng yóu shì zhēn duì jiā hǎi guó jiāměi guó zhì duì kàng kǒng zhù miǎn guī shā shāng xìng de kuò sàndàn zhù yào biāo réng wéi bǎo zài guó nèi wài de guó jiā gōng mín 'ān quán
  
  2004 niánměi duì wài zhèng fǎn kǒng fáng kuò sàn wéi xīndàn shòu guó nèi xuǎn zhèng zhì yǐng xiǎngzhòng zài qiú wěn fáng luàn shí zhèng xià tuī dòng zhàn hòu chóngjiànwěn dìng 'ān quán shìzhù dǎo jiàn lín shí zhèng bìng xiàng jiāo quántuī dòng guó shè huì wéi chóngjiàn chū qián chū jiǎn miǎn zhài guó tuán míng tuī chū zhōng dōng gǎi jìhuà”, shì mín zhù gǎi zào zhōng dōng”。 jiān chí tōng guò duō biān zhì jiě jué cháo wèn cān jiā 'èr sān lún běi jīng liù fāng huì tántōng guò guó yuán néng gòu yīng děng guó lǎng fàng jìhuàxuān shí shī cháo xiān zhàn zhēng lái zuì guǎng fàn de quán qiú jūn shǔ tiáozhěngtuī jìnfáng kuò sàn 'ān quán chàng ”。 jiào qián zhòng shì guó zuòqiáng diào kuà yáng lián méng de zhòng yào xìngbǎo chí 'é luó guān zǒng wěn dìngjiā duì tài de tóu shēn huà ào děng chuán tǒng méng guó de guān gǒng měi hán tóng méng tài guó tǎnfēi běi yuē zhù yào méng guó wèi yìn zhǎn zhàn lüè huǒ bàn guān
   guǒ nín rèn wéi běn tiáo hái yòu dài wán shàn yào chōng xīn nèi róng huò xiū gǎi cuò nèi róngqǐng biān ji tiáo
   cān kǎo liào
  1. měi guó guó yuàn guó xìn zhōng wén bǎn http://usinfo.state.gov/mgck/
  2. měi guó zhèng guān fāng wǎng zhàn www.usa.gov
  3. měi guó shāng www.commerce.gov
  4. shāng guó mào www.ita.doc.gov
  5. měi guó lián bāng mào wěi yuán huì www.ftc.gov
  6. měi guó mào zhǎn www.tda.gov
  7. měi guó rén kǒu chá www.census.gov
  8. měi guó xiǎo guǎn www.sba.gov
  9. měi guó shāng wèn www.business.gov
  10. měi guó guó shuì www.irs.gov
  11. měi guó huán bǎo shǔ www.epa.gov
  12. měi guó yān jiǔ guǎn www.atf.treas.gov
  13. měi guó nóng www.usda.gov
  14. měi guó jiāo tōng www.dot.gov
  15. měi guó xiāo fèi 'ān quán wěi yuán huì www.cpsc.gov
  16. měi guó shí pǐn yào guǎn www.fda.gov
  17. měi zhōng mào wěi yuán huì www.uschina.org
  18. měi guó hǎi guān www.customs.gov
  19. měi guó zhù huá shǐ guǎn
  20. sōu wǎng


  The United States of America is a constitutional federal republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait, and the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The United States also possesses several territories, or insular areas, scattered around the Caribbean and Pacific.
  
  At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with more than 300 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and third largest by land area and by population. The United States is one of the world's most ethnically diverse nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with a nominal 2006 gross domestic product (GDP) of more than US$13 trillion (over 19% of the world total based on purchasing power parity).
  
  The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain located along the Atlantic seaboard. Proclaiming themselves "states," they issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The rebellious states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence. A federal convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments, was ratified in 1791.
  
  In the nineteenth century, the United States acquired land from France, Spain, Great Britain, Mexico, and Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North over states' rights and the expansion of the institution of slavery provoked the American Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of slavery in the United States. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the nation's status as a military power. In 1945, the United States emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a founding member of NATO. In the post–Cold War era, the United States is the only remaining superpower—accounting for approximately 50% of global military spending—and a dominant economic, political, and cultural force in the world.
  
  Etymology
  The term America, for the lands of the western hemisphere, was coined in the early sixteenth century after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer and cartographer. The full name of the country was first used officially in the Declaration of Independence, which was the "unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America" adopted by the "Representatives of the united States of America" on July 4, 1776. The current name was finalized on November 15, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first of which states, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America.'" Common short forms and abbreviations of the United States of America include the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., and America. Colloquial names for the country include the U.S. of A. and the States. Columbia, a once popular name for the Americas and the United States, was derived from Christopher Columbus. It appears in the name "District of Columbia". A female personification of Columbia appears on some official documents, including certain prints of U.S. currency.
  
  The standard way to refer to a citizen of the United States is as an American. Though United States is the formal adjective, American and U.S. are the most common adjectives used to refer to the country ("American values," "U.S. forces"). American is rarely used in English to refer to people not connected to the United States.
  
  The phrase "the United States" was originally treated as plural—e.g, "the United States are"—including in the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1865. However, it became increasingly common to treat the name as singular—e.g., "the United States is"—after the end of the Civil War. The singular form is now standard, while the plural form is retained in the set idiom "these United States."
  
  Geography
  
  Topographic map of the contiguous United States
  Climate zones of the contiguous United StatesThe United States is situated almost entirely in the western hemisphere: the contiguous United States stretches from the Pacific on the west to the Atlantic on the east, with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast, and bordered by Canada on the north and Mexico on the south. Alaska is the largest state in area; separated from the contiguous U.S. by Canada, it touches the Pacific on the south and Arctic Ocean on the north. Hawaii occupies an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America. The United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area, before or after China. The ranking varies depending on (a) how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and (b) how the total size of the United States is calculated: the CIA World Factbook gives 9,826,630 km², the United Nations Statistics Division gives 9,629,091 km², and the Encyclopedia Britannica gives 9,522,055 km². Including only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada. The United States also possesses several insular territories scattered around the West Indies (e.g., the commonwealth of Puerto Rico) and the Pacific (e.g., Guam).
  
  The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi-Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north-south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie land of the Great Plains stretches to the west. The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the continental United States, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado. The area to the west of the Rocky Mountains is dominated by the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Mojave. The Sierra Nevada range runs parallel to the Rockies, relatively close to the Pacific coast. At 20,320 feet (6,194 m), Alaska's Mount McKinley is the country's tallest peak. Active volcanoes are common throughout the Alexander and Aleutian Islands, and the entire state of Hawaii is built upon tropical volcanic islands. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's largest volcanic feature.
  
  Because of the United States' large size and wide range of geographic features, nearly every type of climate is represented. The climate is temperate in most areas, tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida, polar in Alaska, semi-arid in the Great Plains west of the 100th meridian, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in Coastal California, and arid in the Great Basin. Extreme weather is not uncommon—the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur within the continental United States, primarily in the Midwest.
  
  Environment
  
  The bald eagle has been the national bird of the United States since 1782Main article: Environment of the United States
  U.S. plant life is very diverse; the country has more than 17,000 identified native species of flora. More than 400 mammal, 700 bird, 500 reptile and amphibian, and 90,000 insect species have been documented. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
  
  The U.S. has fifty-eight national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas. Altogether, the U.S. government regulates 28.8% of the country's total land area. Most such public land comprises protected parks and forestland, though some federal land is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, or cattle ranching.
  
  The energy policy of the United States is widely debated; many call on the country to take a leading role in fighting global warming. The United States is currently the second largest emitter, after the People's Republic of China, of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.
  
  History
  
  Native Americans and European settlers
  Main articles: Native Americans in the United States, European colonization of the Americas, and Thirteen Colonies
  The indigenous peoples of the U.S. mainland, including Alaska Natives, are thought to have migrated from Asia. They began arriving at least 12,000 and as many as 40,000 years ago. Several indigenous communities in the pre-Columbian era developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached several Caribbean islands, making first contact with the indigenous population. In the years that followed, the majority of the indigenous American peoples were killed by epidemics of Eurasian diseases.
  
  The Mayflower transported Pilgrims to the New World in 1620, as depicted in William Halsall's The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, 1882On April 2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León landed on what he called "La Florida"—the first documented European arrival on what would become the U.S. mainland. Of the colonies Spain established in the region, only St. Augustine, founded in 1565, remains. Later Spanish settlements in the present-day southwestern United States drew thousands through Mexico. French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the Virginia Colony in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of migration; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, an estimated 50,000 convicts were shipped to England's, and later Great Britain's, American colonies. Beginning in 1614, the Dutch established settlements along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. The small settlement of New Sweden, founded along the Delaware River in 1638, was taken over by the Dutch in 1655.
  
  By 1674, English forces had won the former Dutch colonies in the Anglo-Dutch Wars; the province of New Netherland was renamed New York. Many new immigrants, especially to the South, were indentured servants—some two-thirds of all Virginia immigrants between 1630 and 1680. By the turn of the century, African slaves were becoming the primary source of bonded labor. With the 1729 division of the Carolinas and the 1732 colonization of Georgia, the thirteen British colonies that would become the United States of America were established. All had active local and colonial governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self government that stimulated support for republicanism. All had legalized the African slave trade. With high birth rates, low death rates, and steady immigration, the colonies doubled in population every twenty-five years. The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty. In the French and Indian War, British forces seized Canada from the French, but the francophone population remained politically isolated from the southern colonies. By 1770, those thirteen colonies had an increasingly Anglicized population of three million, approximately half that of Britain. Though subject to British taxation, they were given no representation in the Parliament of Great Britain.
  
  Independence and expansion
  
  Declaration of Independence, by John Trumbull, 1817–18Tensions between American colonials and the British during the revolutionary period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 through 1781. On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress, convening in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. Proclaiming that "all men are created equal" and endowed with "certain unalienable Rights," the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The Declaration, drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson, pronounced the colonies sovereign "states." In 1777, the Articles of Confederation were adopted, uniting the states under a weak federal government that operated until 1788. Some 70,000–80,000 loyalists to the British Crown fled the rebellious states, many to Nova Scotia and the new British holdings in Canada. Native Americans, with divided allegiances, fought on both sides of the war's western front.
  
  After the defeat of the British army by American forces who were assisted by the French, Great Britain recognized the sovereignty of the thirteen states in 1783. A constitutional convention was organized in 1787 by those who wished to establish a strong national government with power over the states. By June 1788, nine states had ratified the United States Constitution, sufficient to establish the new government; the republic's first Senate, House of Representatives, and president—George Washington—took office in 1789. New York City was the federal capital for a year, before the government relocated to Philadelphia. In 1791, the states ratified the Bill of Rights, ten amendments to the Constitution forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections. Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; a clause in the Constitution protected the African slave trade only until 1808. The Northern states abolished slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the "peculiar institution." In 1800, the federal government moved to the newly founded Washington, D.C. The Second Great Awakening made evangelicalism a force behind various social reform movements.
  
  Territorial acquisitions by dateAmericans' eagerness to expand westward began a cycle of Indian Wars that stretched to the end of the nineteenth century, as Native Americans were stripped of their land. The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed territory under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 virtually doubled the nation's size. The War of 1812, declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened American nationalism. A series of U.S. military incursions into Florida led Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The country annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845. The concept of Manifest Destiny was popularized during this time. The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the Mexican-American War resulted in the 1848 cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest. The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 further spurred western migration. New railways made relocation much less arduous for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans. Over a half-century, up to 40 million American bison, commonly called buffalo, were slaughtered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the bison, a primary economic resource for the plains Indians, was an existential blow to many native cultures.
  
  Civil War and industrialization
  
  Battle of Gettysburg, lithograph by Currier & Ives, ca. 1863Tensions between slave and free states mounted with increasing disagreements over the relationship between the state and federal governments and violent conflicts over the expansion of slavery into new states. Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the largely antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven slave states declared their secession from the United States, forming the Confederate States of America. The federal government maintained secession was illegal, and with the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, the American Civil War began and four more slave states joined the Confederacy. The Union freed Confederate slaves as its army advanced through the South. Following the Union victory in 1865, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution ensured freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves, made them citizens, and gave them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a substantial increase in federal power.
  
  Immigrants landing at Ellis Island, New York, 1902After the war, the assassination of President Lincoln radicalized Republican Reconstruction policies aimed at reintegrating and rebuilding the Southern states while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves. The resolution of the disputed 1876 presidential election by the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction; Jim Crow laws soon disenfranchised many African Americans. In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants hastened the country's industrialization. The wave of immigration, which lasted until 1929, provided labor for U.S. businesses and transformed American culture. High tariff protections, national infrastructure building, and new banking regulations encouraged industrial growth. The 1867 Alaska purchase from Russia completed the country's mainland expansion. The Wounded Knee massacre in 1890 was the last major armed conflict of the Indian Wars. In 1893, the indigenous monarchy of the Pacific Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in a coup led by American residents; the archipelago was annexed by the United States in 1898. Victory in the Spanish-American War that same year demonstrated that the United States was a major world power and resulted in the annexation of Puerto Rico and the Philippines. The Philippines gained independence a half-century later; Puerto Rico remains a commonwealth of the United States.
  
  World War I, Great Depression, and World War II
  
  An abandoned farm in South Dakota during the Dust Bowl, 1936At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States remained neutral. Americans sympathized with the British and French, although many citizens, mostly Irish and German, opposed intervention. In 1917, the United States joined the Allies, turning the tide against the Central Powers. Reluctant to be involved in European affairs, the Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations. The country pursued a policy of unilateralism, verging on isolationism. In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage. Partly because of the service of many in the war, Native Americans gained U.S. citizenship in the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
  
  During most of the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a period of unbalanced prosperity as farm profits fell while industrial profits grew. A rise in debt and an inflated stock market culminated in the 1929 crash that triggered the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, a range of policies increasing government intervention in the economy. The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration. The nation would not fully recover from the economic depression until the industrial mobilization spurred by its entrance into World War II. The United States, effectively neutral during the war's early stages after the Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939, began supplying materiel to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program.
  
  On December 7, 1941, the United States joined the Allies against the Axis powers after a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan. World War II cost far more money than any other war in American history, but it boosted the economy by providing capital investment and jobs, while bringing many women into the labor market. Among the major combatants, the United States was the only nation to become richer—indeed, far richer—instead of poorer because of the war. Allied conferences at Bretton Woods and Yalta outlined a new system of international organizations that placed the United States and Soviet Union at the center of world affairs. As victory was achieved in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war. The United States, having developed the first nuclear weapons, used them on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. Japan surrendered on September 2, ending the war.
  
  Superpower
  
  Martin Luther King, Jr. delivering his "I Have a Dream" speech, 1963The United States and Soviet Union jockeyed for power after World War II during the Cold War, dominating the military affairs of Europe through NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The United States promoted liberal democracy and capitalism, while the Soviet Union promoted communism and a centrally planned economy. Both the United States and the Soviet Union supported dictatorships, and both engaged in proxy wars. United States troops fought Communist Chinese forces in the Korean War of 1950–53. The House Un-American Activities Committee pursued a series of investigations into suspected leftist subversion, while Senator Joseph McCarthy became the figurehead of anticommunist sentiment.
  
  The Soviet Union launched the first manned spacecraft in 1961, prompting U.S. efforts to raise proficiency in mathematics and science and President John F. Kennedy's call for the country to be first to land "a man on the moon," achieved in 1969. Kennedy also faced a tense nuclear showdown with Soviet forces in Cuba. Meanwhile, America experienced sustained economic expansion. A growing civil rights movement headed by prominent African Americans, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., fought segregation and discrimination, leading to the abolition of Jim Crow laws. Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, expanded a proxy war in Southeast Asia into the unsuccessful Vietnam War.
  
  President Ronald Reagan (1981–89) challenges Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, 1987As a result of the Watergate scandal, in 1974 Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign, rather than be impeached on charges including obstruction of justice and abuse of power; he was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford. During the Jimmy Carter administration in the late 1970s, the U.S. economy experienced stagflation. The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 marked a significant rightward shift in American politics, reflected in major changes in taxation and spending priorities. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the Soviet Union's power diminished, leading to its collapse. The leadership role taken by the United States and its allies in the United Nations–sanctioned Gulf War, under President George H. W. Bush, and later the Yugoslav wars helped to preserve its position as the world's last remaining superpower. The longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history—from March 1991 to March 2001—encompassed the administration of President Bill Clinton. In 1998, Clinton was impeached by the House on charges relating to a civil lawsuit and a sexual scandal, but he was acquitted by the Senate and remained in office.
  
  The controversial presidential election of 2000 was resolved by a Supreme Court decision that effectively awarded the presidency to Texas governor George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush. On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City and The Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly three thousand people. In the aftermath, President Bush launched the War on Terrorism under a military philosophy stressing preemptive war now known as the Bush Doctrine. In late 2001, U.S. forces led a NATO invasion of Afghanistan, removing the Taliban government and al-Qaeda training camps. Taliban insurgents continue to fight a guerrilla war against the NATO-led force. In 2002, the Bush administration began to press for regime change in Iraq on controversial grounds. Lacking the support of NATO or an explicit United Nations mandate for military intervention, Bush formed a Coalition of the Willing, and the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, removing President Saddam Hussein from power. Although facing both external and internal pressure to withdraw, the United States maintains its military presence in Iraq. The United States has been criticized for human rights violations in its pursuit of the War on Terrorism, including holding so-called enemy combatants at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp for years without trial and for its alleged use of torture.
  
  Government and politics
  
  The west front of the United States Capitol, which houses the United States CongressThe United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law." It is fundamentally structured as a representative democracy, though U.S. citizens residing in the territories are excluded from voting for federal officials. The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the United States Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document and as a social contract for the people of the United States. In the American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government, federal, state, and local; the local government's duties are commonly split between county and municipal governments. In almost all cases, executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote of citizens by district. There is no proportional representation at the federal level, and it is very rare at lower levels. Federal and state judicial and cabinet officials are typically nominated by the executive branch and approved by the legislature, although some state judges and officials are elected by popular vote.
  
  The north side of the White House, home and work place of the U.S. presidentThe federal government is composed of three branches:
  
  Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.
  Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law, and appoints the Cabinet and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.
  Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the president with Senate approval, interpret laws and can overturn laws they deem unconstitutional.
  The House of Representatives has 435 members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the fifty states by population every tenth year. As of the 2000 census, seven states have the minimum of one representative, while California, the most populous state, has fifty-three. Each state has two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one third of Senate seats are up for election every second year. The president serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice. The president is not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned by state. The Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life.
  
  The front of the United States Supreme Court buildingAll laws and procedures of both state and federal governments are subject to review, and any law ruled in violation of the Constitution by the judicial branch is overturned. The original text of the Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government, the relationship between it and the individual states, and essential matters of military and economic authority. Article One protects the right to the "great writ" of habeas corpus, and Article Three guarantees the right to a jury trial in all criminal cases. Amendments to the Constitution require the approval of three-fourths of the states. The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments, which make up the Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of individual rights in the United States.
  
  Parties and elections
  
  Politics in the United States have operated under a two-party system for virtually all of the country's history. For elective offices at all levels, state-administered primary elections are held to choose the major party nominees for subsequent general elections. Since the general election of 1856, the two dominant parties have been the Democratic Party, founded in 1824 (though its roots trace back to 1792), and the Republican Party, founded in 1854. Since the Civil War, only one third-party presidential candidate—former president Theodore Roosevelt, running as a Progressive in 1912—has won as much as 20% of the popular vote.
  
  The incumbent president, Republican George W. Bush, is the 43rd president in the country's history. All U.S. presidents to date have been white men. If the Democrats win the next presidential election in, November 2008, either an African-American, Barack Obama, or a woman, Hillary Rodham Clinton, will become president. Following the 2006 midterm elections, the Democratic Party controls both the House and the Senate. Every member of the U.S. Congress is a Democrat or a Republican except two independent members of the Senate—one a former Democratic incumbent, the other a self-described socialist. An overwhelming majority of state and local officials are also either Democrats or Republicans.
  
  Within American political culture, the Republican Party is considered "center-right" or conservative and the Democratic Party is considered "center-left" or liberal, but members of both parties have a wide range of views. In a January 2008 poll, 39% of Americans described themselves as "conservative," 33% as "moderate," and 20% as "liberal." On the other hand, a plurality of adults, 35.9%, identify as Democrats, 32.9% as independents, and 31.3% as Republicans. The states of the Northeast and West Coast and some of the Great Lakes states are relatively liberal-leaning—they are known in political parlance as "blue states." The "red states" of the South and the Rocky Mountains lean conservative.
  
  States
  
  The United States is a federal union of fifty states. The original thirteen states were the successors of the thirteen colonies that rebelled against British rule. Most of the rest have been carved from territory obtained through war or purchase by the U.S. government. The exceptions are Vermont, Texas, and Hawaii; each was an independent republic before joining the union. Early in the country's history, three states were created out of the territory of existing ones: Kentucky from Virginia; Tennessee from North Carolina; and Maine from Massachusetts. West Virginia broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War. The most recent state—Hawaii—achieved statehood on August 21, 1959. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the states do not have the right to secede from the union.
  
  The states compose the vast bulk of the U.S. land mass; the only other areas considered integral parts of the country are the District of Columbia, the federal district where the capital, Washington, is located; and Palmyra Atoll, an uninhabited but incorporated territory in the Pacific Ocean. The United States possesses five major territories with indigenous populations: Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands in the Caribbean; and American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific. Those born in the territories (except for American Samoa) possess U.S. citizenship.
  
  Foreign relations and military
  
  President George W. Bush (right) with UK prime minister Gordon BrownThe United States has vast economic, political, and military influence on a global scale, which makes its foreign policy a subject of great interest around the world. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many host consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, Sudan, and the Republic of China (Taiwan) do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.
  
  American isolationists have often been at odds with internationalists, as anti-imperialists have been with promoters of Manifest Destiny and American Empire. American imperialism in the Philippines drew sharp rebukes from Mark Twain, philosopher William James, and many others. Later, President Woodrow Wilson played a key role in creating the League of Nations, but the Senate prohibited American membership in it. Isolationism became a thing of the past when the United States took a lead role in founding the United Nations, becoming a permanent member of the Security Council and host to the United Nations Headquarters. The United States enjoys a special relationship with the United Kingdom and strong ties with Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Israel, and fellow NATO members. It also works closely with its neighbors through the Organization of American States and free trade agreements such as the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. In 2005, the United States spent $27.3 billion on official development assistance, the most in the world; however, as a share of gross national income (GNI), the U.S. contribution of 0.22% ranked twentieth of twenty-two donor states. On the other hand, nongovernmental sources such as private foundations, corporations, and educational and religious institutions donated $95.5 billion. The total of $122.8 billion is again the most in the world and seventh in terms of GNI percentage.
  
  The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrierThe president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces, including the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and the Department of the Navy in times of war. In 2005, the military had 1.38 million personnel on active duty, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard for a total of 2.3 million troops. The Department of Defense also employs approximately 700,000 civilians, disregarding contractors. Military service is voluntary, though conscription may occur in wartime through the _Select_ive Service System. The rapid deployment of American forces is facilitated by the Air Force's large fleet of transportation aircraft and aerial refueling tankers, the Navy's fleet of eleven active aircraft carriers, and Marine Expeditionary Units at sea in the Navy's Atlantic and Pacific fleets. Outside of the American homeland, the U.S. military is deployed to 770 bases and facilities, on every continent except Antarctica. Because of the extent of its global military presence, scholars describe the United States as maintaining an "empire of bases."
  
  Total U.S. military spending in 2006, over $528 billion, was 46% of the entire military spending in the world and greater than the next fourteen largest national military expenditures combined. (In purchasing power parity terms, it was larger than the next six such expenditures combined.) The per capita spending of $1,756 was approximately ten times the world average. At 4.06% of GDP, U.S. military spending is ranked 27th out of 172 nations. The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2009, $515.4 billion, is a 7% increase over 2008 and a nearly 74% increase over 2001. The estimated total cost of the Iraq War to the United States through 2016 is $2.267 trillion. As of March 25, 2008, the United States had suffered 4,001 military fatalities during the war and over 29,300 wounded.
  
  Economy
  
  National economic indicators
  Unemployment 5.0% April 2008
  GDP growth 2.9% 2005–2006
  CPI inflation 4.0% March 2007–March 2008
  National debt $9.365 trillion May 8, 2008
  Poverty 12.3% or 13.3% 2006
  The United States has a capitalist mixed economy, which is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity. According to the International Monetary Fund, the United States GDP of more than $13 trillion constitutes over 25.5% of the gross world product at market exchange rates and over 19% of the gross world product at purchasing power parity (PPP). The largest national GDP in the world, it was slightly less than the combined GDP of the European Union at PPP in 2006. The country ranks eighth in the world in nominal GDP per capita and fourth in GDP per capita at PPP. The United States is the largest importer of goods and third largest exporter. Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany are its top trading partners. The leading export commodity is electrical machinery, while vehicles constitute the leading import. The national debt is the world's largest; in 2005, it was 23% of the global total. As a percentage of GDP, U.S. debt ranked thirtieth out of 120 countries for which data is available.
  
  The private sector constitutes the bulk of the economy, with government activity accounting for 12.4% of GDP. The economy is postindustrial, with the service sector contributing 67.8% of GDP. The leading business field by gross business receipts is wholesale and retail trade; by net income it is finance and insurance. The United States remains an industrial power, with chemical products the leading manufacturing field. The United States is the third largest producer of oil in the world, and its largest consumer. It is the world's number one producer of electrical and nuclear energy, as well as liquid natural gas, aluminum, sulfur, phosphates, and salt. While agriculture accounts for just under 1% of GDP, the United States is the world's top producer of corn and soybeans. The country's leading cash crop is marijuana, despite federal laws making its cultivation and sale illegal. Coca-Cola and McDonald's are the two most recognized brands in the world.
  
  Wall Street is home to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)Three quarters of U.S. business firms have no payroll, but they account for only a small fraction of business receipts. Firms with payrolls of 500 or more employ 49.1% of all paid workers; in 2002, they accounted for 59.1% of business receipts. The United States ranks third in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index. Compared to Europe, U.S. property and corporate income taxes are generally higher, while labor and, particularly, consumption taxes are lower. The New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest by dollar volume; the exchange's parent company, NYSE Euronext, represents over $29 trillion in total market capitalization of listed securities.
  
  In 2005, 155 million persons were employed with earnings, of whom 80% worked in full-time jobs. The majority, 79%, were employed in the service sector. With approximately 15.5 million people, health care and social assistance is the leading field of employment. About 12% of American workers are unionized, compared to 30% in Western Europe. The U.S. ranks number one in the ease of hiring and firing workers, according to the World Bank. Americans tend to work considerably more hours annually than workers in other developed nations, taking fewer and shorter vacations. Between 1973 and 2003, a year's work for the average American grew by 199 hours. Partly as a result, the United States maintains the highest labor productivity in the world. However, it no longer leads the world in productivity per hour as it did from the 1950s through the early 1990s; workers in Norway, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg are now more productive per hour. Spending on the social safety net is relatively low: the United States redistributes between 8 and 9% of GDP through social protection programs, slightly under the Japanese rate and less than half the estimated 19% of the European Union.
  
  Income, human development, and social class
  
  According to the Census Bureau, the pretax median household income in 2006 was $48,201. The two-year average ranged from $66,752 in New Jersey to $34,343 in Mississippi. Using purchasing power parity exchange rates, these income levels are similar to those found in other postindustrial nations. Depending on the method of analysis, 12.3% or 13.3% of Americans were below the federally designated poverty line. The number of poor Americans, at least 36.5 million, was actually 3.5 million more than in 2001, the bottom year of the most recent U.S. recession. The United States was ranked twelfth in the world in the UNDP's 2008 Human Development Report. A 2007 UNICEF study of children's well-being in twenty-one industrialized nations, covering a broad range of factors, ranked the U.S. next to last.
  
  Between 1967 and 2006, median household income rose 30.8% in constant dollars, largely because of the growing number of dual-earner households. Though the standard of living has improved for nearly all classes since the late 1970s, income inequality has grown substantially. The share of income received by the top 1% has risen considerably while the share of income of the bottom 90% has fallen, with the gap between the two groups being roughly as large in 2005 as in 1928. According to the standard Gini index, income inequality in the United States is higher than in any European nation. Some economists, such as Alan Greenspan, see rising income inequality as a cause for concern.
  
  While American social classes lack defined boundaries, sociologists point to social class as a crucial societal variable. Occupation, educational attainment, and income are used as the main indicators of socioeconomic status. Dennis Gilbert of Hamilton College has proposed a system, adapted by other sociologists, with six social classes: an upper, or capitalist, class consisting of the wealthy and powerful (1%), an upper middle class consisting of highly educated professionals (15%), a middle class consisting of semiprofessionals and craftsmen (33%), a working class consisting of clerical and blue-collar workers who conduct highly routinized tasks (33%), and two lower classes—the working poor (13%) and a largely unemployed underclass (12%). Where it was once common for middle-class households to employ domestic servants, many domestic tasks are now outsourced to the service industry. Wealth is highly concentrated: The richest 10% of the adult population possesses 69.8% of the country's household wealth, the second-highest share of any democratic developed nation. The top 1% possesses 33.4% of net wealth, including more than half of the total value in publicly traded stocks. Though the American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, played a key role in attracting immigrants to the United States, particularly in the late 1800s, some analysts find that the United States has relatively low social mobility compared to Western Europe and Canada.
  
  Science and technology
  
  Astronaut Buzz Aldrin during the first human landing on the Moon, 1969The United States has been a leader in scientific research and technological innovation since the late nineteenth century. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone. The laboratory of Thomas Edison developed the phonograph, the first long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable movie camera. In the early twentieth century, the automobile companies of Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford pioneered assembly line manufacturing. The Wright brothers, in 1903, made what is recognized as the "first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight." The rise of Nazism in the 1930s led many important European scientists, including Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, to immigrate to the United States. During World War II, the U.S.-based Manhattan Project developed nuclear weapons, ushering in the Atomic Age. The Space Race produced rapid advances in rocketry, materials science, computers, and many other areas. The United States largely developed the ARPANET and its successor, the Internet. Today, the bulk of research and development funding, 64%, comes from the private sector. The United States leads the world in scientific research papers and impact factor. Americans enjoy high levels of access to technological consumer goods. Almost half of U.S. households have broadband Internet service. The country is the primary developer and grower of genetically modified food; more than half of the world's land planted with biotech crops is in the United States.
  
  Transportation
  
  Interstate 80, the second-longest U.S. Interstate highway, runs from California to New JerseyAs of 2003, there were 759 automobiles per 1,000 Americans, compared to 472 per 1,000 inhabitants of the European Union the following year. Approximately 39% of personal vehicles are vans, SUVs, or light trucks. The average American adult (accounting for all drivers and nondrivers) spends 55 minutes behind the wheel every day, driving 29 miles (47 km). The U.S. intercity passenger rail system is relatively weak. Only 9% of total U.S. work trips employ mass transit, compared to 38.8% in Europe. Bicycle usage is minimal, well below European levels. The civil airline industry is entirely privatized, while most major airports are publicly owned. The five largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are all American; American Airlines is number one. Of the world's thirty busiest passenger airports, sixteen are in the United States, including the busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL).
  
  Demographics
  
  Largest ancestry groups by county, 2000On October 17, 2006, the United States population was estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 300,000,000. The U.S. population included an estimated 12 million unauthorized migrants, of whom an estimated 1 million were uncounted by the Census Bureau. The overall growth rate is 0.89%, compared to 0.16% in the European Union. The birth rate of 14.16 per 1,000 is 30% below the world average, while higher than any European country except for Albania and Ireland. In 2006, 1.27 million immigrants were granted legal residence. Mexico has been the leading source of new U.S. residents for over two decades; since 1998, China, India, and the Philippines have been in the top four sending countries every year. The United States is the only industrialized nation in which large population increases are projected.
  
  The United States has a very diverse population—thirty-one ancestry groups have more than a million members. Whites are the largest racial group, with German Americans, Irish Americans, and English Americans constituting three of the country's four largest ancestry groups. African Americans, mostly descendants of former slaves, constitute the nation's largest racial minority and third largest ancestry group. Asian Americans are the country's second largest racial minority; the two largest Asian American ancestry groups are Chinese and Filipino. In 2005, the U.S. population included an estimated 4.5 million people with some American Indian or Alaskan native ancestry (2.4 million exclusively of such ancestry) and nearly 1 million with some native Hawaiian or Pacific island ancestry (0.4 million exclusively).
  
  Race/Ethnicity (2005)
  White 73.9%
  African American 12.4%
  Asian 4.4%
  Native American and Alaskan Native 0.8%
  Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander 0.1%
  Other/multiracial 8.3%
  Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 14.8%
  Hispanic American population growth is a major demographic trend. The approximately 44 million Americans of Hispanic descent constitute the largest ethnic minority in the country. About 64% of Hispanic Americans are of Mexican descent. Between 2000 and 2004, the country's Hispanic population increased 14% while the non-Hispanic population rose just 2%.[dead link – history] Much of this growth is from immigration; as of 2004, 12% of the U.S. population was foreign-born, over half that number from Latin America. Fertility is also a factor; the average Hispanic woman gives birth to three children in her lifetime. The comparable fertility rate is 2.2 for non-Hispanic black women and 1.8 for non-Hispanic white women (below the replacement rate of 2.1). Hispanics accounted for nearly half of the national population growth of 2.9 million between July 2005 and July 2006. It is estimated on the basis of current trends that by 2050 whites of non-Hispanic origin will be 50.1% of the U.S. population, compared to 69.4% in 2000. They are currently less than half the population in four "minority-majority states"—California, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Texas—as well as the District of Columbia.
  
  About 83% of the population lives in one of the country's 363 metropolitan areas. In 2006, 254 incorporated places in the United States had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than 1 million residents, and four global cities had over 2 million (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston). The United States has fifty metropolitan areas with populations greater than 1 million. Of the fifty fastest-growing metro areas, twenty-three are in the West and twenty-five in the South. Among the country's twenty most populous metro areas, those of Dallas (the fourth largest), Houston (sixth), and Atlanta (ninth) saw the largest numerical gains between 2000 and 2006, while that of Phoenix (thirteenth) grew the largest in percentage terms.
  
  Leading population centers
  
  New York City
  
  Los Angeles
  1 New York City New York 8,250,567 1 18,818,536 Northeast
  2 Los Angeles California 3,849,378 2 12,950,129 West
  3 Chicago Illinois 2,833,321 3 9,505,748 Midwest
  4 Houston Texas 2,169,248 6 5,539,949 South
  5 Phoenix Arizona 1,512,986 13 4,039,182 West
  6 Philadelphia Pennsylvania 1,448,394 5 5,826,742 Northeast
  7 San Antonio Texas 1,296,682 29 1,942,217 South
  8 San Diego California 1,256,951 17 2,941,454 West
  9 Dallas Texas 1,232,940 4 6,003,967 South
  10 San Jose California 929,936 30 1,787,123 West
  2006 U.S. Census Bureau estimates
  
  Language
  Languages (2003)
  English (only) 214.8 million
  Spanish, incl. Creole 29.7 million
  Chinese 2.2 million
  French, incl. Creole 1.9 million
  Tagalog 1.3 million
  Vietnamese 1.1 million
  German 1.1 million
  English is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2003, about 215 million, or 82% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by over 10% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught foreign language. Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states. Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law. While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French. Other states, such as California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms. Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico.
  
  Religion
  
  A church in the largely Protestant Bible BeltThe United States government does not audit Americans' religious beliefs. In a private survey conducted in 2001, 76.5% of American adults identified themselves as Christian, down from 86.4% in 1990. Protestant denominations accounted for 52% of adult Americans, while Roman Catholics, at 24.5%, were the largest individual denomination. A different study describes white evangelicals, 26.3% of the population, as the country's largest religious cohort; evangelicals of all races are estimated at 30–35%. The total reporting non-Christian religions in 2001 was 3.7%, up from 3.3% in 1990. The leading non-Christian faiths were Judaism (1.4%), Islam (0.5%), Buddhism (0.5%), Hinduism (0.4%), and Unitarian Universalism (0.3%). Between 1990 and 2001, the number of Muslims and Buddhists more than doubled. From 8.2% in 1990, 14.1% in 2001 described themselves as agnostic, atheist, or simply having no religion, still significantly less than in other postindustrial countries such as Britain (2005:44%) and Sweden (2001:69%, 2005:85%).
  
  
  Education
  
  The University of Virginia, designed by Thomas Jefferson, is one of 19 American UNESCO World Heritage SitesAmerican public education is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. Children are obliged in most states to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through 12th grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen. About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled. The United States has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education, as well as local community colleges of varying quality with open admission policies. Of Americans twenty-five and older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended some college, 27.2% earned a bachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees. The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%. The United Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying it for twelfth-best in the world.
  
  Health
  
  The American life expectancy of 77.8 years at birth is a year shorter than the overall figure in Western Europe, and three to four years lower than that of Norway and Switzerland. Over the past two decades, the country's rank in life expectancy has dropped from 11th to 42nd place in the world. The infant mortality rate of 6.37 per thousand likewise places the United States 42nd out of 221 countries, behind all of Western Europe. U.S. cancer survival rates are the highest in the world. Approximately one-third of the adult population is obese and an additional third is overweight; the obesity rate, the highest in the industrialized world, has more than doubled in the last quarter-century. Obesity-related type 2 diabetes is considered epidemic by healthcare professionals. The U.S. adolescent pregnancy rate, 79.8 per 1,000 women, is nearly four times that of France and five times that of Germany. Abortion in the United States, legal on demand, is a source of great political controversy. Many states ban public funding of the procedure and have laws to restrict late-term abortions, require parental notification for minors, and mandate a waiting period prior to treatment. While the incidence of abortion is in decline, the U.S. abortion ratio of 241 per 1,000 live births and abortion rate of 15 per 1,000 women aged 15–44 remain higher than those of most Western nations.
  
  The United States healthcare system far outspends any other nation's, measured in both per capita spending and percentage of GDP. Unlike most developed countries, the U.S. healthcare system is not universal, and relies on a higher proportion of private funding. In 2004, private insurance paid for 36% of personal health expenditure, private out-of-pocket payments covered 15%, and federal, state, and local governments paid for 44%. The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. healthcare system in 2000 as first in responsiveness, but 37th in overall performance. The United States is a leader in medical innovation. In 2004, the U.S. nonindustrial sector spent three times as much as Europe per capita on biomedical research. Medical bills are the most common reason for personal bankruptcy in the United States. In 2005, 46.6 million Americans, or 15.9% of the population, were uninsured, 5.4 million more than in 2001. The primary cause of the decline in coverage is the drop in the number of Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance, which fell from 62.6% in 2001 to 59.5% in 2005. Approximately one third of the uninsured lived in households with annual incomes greater than $50,000, with half of those having an income over $75,000. Another third were eligible but not registered for public health insurance. In 2006, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate health insurance; California is considering similar legislation.
  
  Crime and punishment
  
  Homicide rates in _select_ed countries, 2004 (2000 for Russia)Law enforcement in the United States is primarily the responsibility of local police and sheriff's departments, with state police providing broader services. Federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Marshals Service have specialized duties. At the federal level and in almost every state, jurisprudence operates on a common law system. State courts conduct most criminal trials; federal courts handle certain designated crimes as well as appeals from state systems.
  
  Among developed nations, the United States has above-average levels of violent crime and particularly high levels of gun violence and homicide.[update needed] In 2006, there were 5.7 murders per 100,000 persons, three times the rate in neighboring Canada. The U.S. homicide rate, which decreased by 42% between 1991 and 1999, has been roughly steady since. Some scholars have associated the high rate of homicide with the country's high rates of gun ownership, in turn associated with U.S. gun laws which are very permissive compared to those of other developed countries.
  
  The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate and total prison population in the world and by far the highest figures among democratic, developed nations. At the start of 2008, more than 2.3 million people were held in American prisons or jails, more than one in every 100 adults. The current rate is almost seven times the 1980 figure. African American males are jailed at over six times the rate of white males and three times the rate of Hispanic males. In the latest comparable data, from 2006, the U.S. incarceration rate was more than three times the figure in Poland, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country with the next highest rate. The country's extraordinary rate of incarceration is largely caused by changes in sentencing and drug policies. Though it has been abolished in most Western nations, capital punishment is sanctioned in the United States for certain federal and military crimes, and in thirty-seven states. Since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty after a four-year moratorium, there have been over 1,000 executions in the United States. In 2006, the country had the sixth highest number of executions in the world, following China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and Sudan. In December 2007, New Jersey became the first state to abolish the death penalty since the 1976 Supreme Court decision.
  
  Culture
  
  The United States is a culturally diverse nation, home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values. There is no "American" ethnicity, as nearly all Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past four centuries. The culture held in common by the majority of Americans is referred to as mainstream American culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Western European migrants, beginning with the early English and Dutch settlers. German, Irish, and Scottish cultures have also been very influential. Certain Native American traditions and many cultural characteristics of enslaved West Africans were absorbed into the American mainstream. Westward expansion integrated the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest and brought close contact with the culture of Mexico. Large-scale immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from Southern and Eastern Europe introduced many new cultural elements. More recent immigration from Asia and especially Latin America has had broad impact. The resulting mix of cultures may be characterized as a homogeneous melting pot or as a pluralistic salad bowl in which immigrants and their descendants retain distinctive cultural characteristics.
  
  While American culture maintains that the United States is a classless society, economists and sociologists have identified cultural differences between the country's social classes, affecting socialization, language, and values. The American middle and professional class has been the source of many contemporary social trends such as feminism, environmentalism, and multiculturalism. Americans' self-images, social viewpoints, and cultural expectations are associated with their occupations to an unusually close degree. While Americans tend to greatly value socioeconomic achievement, being ordinary or average is generally seen as a positive attribute. Women, formerly limited to domestic roles, now mostly work outside the home and receive a majority of bachelor's degrees. The changing role of women has also changed the American family. In 2005, no household arrangement defined more than 30% of households; married childless couples were most common, at 28%. The extension of marital rights to homosexual persons is an issue of debate, with more liberal states permitting civil unions and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court having ruled that state's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional in 2003. Forty-four states still legally restrict marriage to the traditional man-and-woman model.
  
  Popular media
  
  The famous Hollywood signIn 1878, Eadweard Muybridge demonstrated the power of photography to capture motion. In 1894, the world's first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York City, using Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope. The next year saw the first commercial screening of a projected film, also in New York, and the United States was in the forefront of sound film's development in the following decades. Since the early twentieth century, the U.S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, California. Director D. W. Griffith was central to the development of film grammar and Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) is frequently cited in critics' polls as the greatest film of all time. American screen actors like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe have become iconic figures, while producer/entrepreneur Walt Disney was a leader in both animated film and movie merchandising. The major film studios of Hollywood are the primary source of the most commercially successful movies in the world, such as Star Wars (1977) and Titanic (1997), and the products of Hollywood today dominate the global film industry.
  
  Americans are the heaviest television viewers in the world, and the average time spent in front of the screen continues to rise, hitting five hours a day in 2006. The four major broadcast networks are all commercial entities. Americans listen to radio programming, also largely commercialized, on average just over two-and-a-half hours a day. Aside from web portals and web search engines, the most popular websites are eBay, MySpace, Amazon.com, The New York Times, and Apple. Twelve million Americans keep a blog.
  
  The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African American music have deeply influenced American music at large, distinguishing it from European traditions. Elements from folk idioms such as the blues and what is now known as old-time music were adopted and transformed into popular genres with global audiences. Jazz was developed by innovators such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington early in the twentieth century. Country music, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll emerged between the 1920s and 1950s. In the 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged from the folk revival to become one of America's greatest songwriters and James Brown led the development of funk. More recent American creations include hip hop and house music. American pop stars such as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Madonna have become global celebrities.
  
  Literature, philosophy, and the arts
  
  Mount Rushmore, a massive sculpture of four prominent American presidentsIn the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, American art and literature took most of its cues from Europe. Writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau established a distinctive American literary voice by the middle of the nineteenth century. Mark Twain and poet Walt Whitman were major figures in the century's second half; Emily Dickinson, virtually unknown during her lifetime, is recognized as America's other essential poet. Eleven U.S. citizens have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recently Toni Morrison in 1993. Ernest Hemingway, the 1954 Nobel laureate, is often named as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. A work seen as capturing fundamental aspects of the national experience and character—such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925)—may be dubbed the "Great American Novel." Popular literary genres such as the Western and hardboiled crime fiction developed in the United States.
  
  The transcendentalists, led by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thoreau, established the first major American philosophical movement. After the Civil War, Charles Peirce and then William James and John Dewey were leaders in the development of pragmatism. In the twentieth century, the work of W.V.O. Quine and Richard Rorty helped bring analytic philosophy to the fore in U.S. academic circles.
  
  In the visual arts, the Hudson River School was an important mid-nineteenth-century movement in the tradition of European naturalism. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of European modernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene. Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with new styles, displaying a highly individualistic sensibility. Major artistic movements such as the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein have developed largely in the United States. The tide of modernism and then postmodernism has also brought American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry to the top of their field.
  
  One of the first notable promoters of the nascent American theater was impresario P. T. Barnum, who began operating a lower Manhattan entertainment complex in 1841. The team of Harrigan and Hart produced a series of popular musical comedies in New York starting in the late 1870s. In the twentieth century, the modern musical form emerged on Broadway; the songs of musical theater composers such as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Stephen Sondheim have become pop standards. Playwright Eugene O'Neill won the Nobel literature prize in 1936; other acclaimed U.S. dramatists include multiple Pulitzer Prize winners Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and August Wilson.
  
  Though largely overlooked at the time, Charles Ives' work of the 1910s established him as the first major U.S. composer in the classical tradition; other experimentalists such as Henry Cowell and John Cage created an identifiably American approach to classical composition. Aaron Copland and George Gershwin developed a unique American synthesis of popular and classical music. Choreographers Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham were central figures in the creation of modern dance; George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins were leaders in twentieth-century ballet. The United States has long been at the fore in the relatively modern artistic medium of photography, with major practitioners such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Ansel Adams, and many others. The newspaper comic strip and the comic book are both U.S. innovations. Superman, the quintessential comic book superhero, has become an American icon.
  
  Food
  
  American cultural icons: apple pie, baseball, and the American flagMainstream American culinary arts are similar to those in other Western countries. Wheat is the primary cereal grain. Traditional American cuisine uses ingredients such as turkey, white-tailed deer venison, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup, indigenous foods employed by Native Americans and early European settlers. Slow-cooked pork and beef barbecue, crab cakes, potato chips, and chocolate chip cookies are distinctively American styles. Soul food, developed by African slaves, is popular around the South and among many African Americans elsewhere. Syncretic cuisines such as Louisiana creole, Cajun, and Tex-Mex are regionally important. Characteristic dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs derive from the recipes of various immigrants. French fries, Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos, and pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are widely consumed. Americans generally prefer coffee to tea. Marketing by U.S. industries is largely responsible for making orange juice and milk ubiquitous breakfast beverages. During the 1980s and 1990s, Americans' caloric intake rose 24%; frequent dining at fast food outlets is associated with what health officials call the American "obesity epidemic." Highly sweetened soft drinks are widely popular; sugared beverages account for 9% of the average American's caloric intake.
  
  Sports
  
  The Pro Bowl (2006), American football's annual all-star gameSince the late nineteenth century, baseball has been regarded as the national sport; football, basketball, and ice hockey are the country's three other leading professional team sports. College football and basketball also attract large audiences. Football is now by several measures the most popular spectator sport in the United States. Boxing and horse racing were once the most watched individual sports, but they have been eclipsed by golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR. Soccer, though not a leading professional sport in the country, is played widely at the youth and amateur levels. Tennis and many outdoor sports are also popular.
  
  While most major U.S. sports have evolved out of European practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, and snowboarding are American inventions. Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate Western contact. Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States. The United States has won 2,191 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, more than any other country, and 216 in the Winter Olympic Games, the second most.
 

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