Talk:History of the United States

Outline for Expansion

Brand-New Intro

1. Pre-Columbian America
2. Colonial America
   • Settlement by England
   • Settlement by Other Countries
   • Cultural Issues
     • Salem Witch Trials
     • First Great Awakening
   • French and Indian War (seealso|French and Indian War)
3. The American Revolution (main|American Revolution)
   • Pre-Revolutionary Problems
     • Proclamation Line of 1763
     • Taxation without Representation
     • Boston Massacre
     • Boston Tea Party
   • Declaration of Independence (main|Declaration of Independence)
   • Revolutionary War
4. The Federal Period, 1783-1815
   • Articles of Confederation
   • The Constitution
   • Washington and Adams
   • Louisiana Purchase
   • War of 1812
5. Expansion and Slavery, 1815-1861
   • American System
   • Growth of Industry
   • Second Great Awakening
   • Jacksonian Era
   • Opposition to Slavery
   • Mexican-American War
   • "Standing on a Volcano"
6. Civil War (main|American Civil War)
7. Reconstruction and the Gilded Age
   • Reconstruction
   • Politics in the Gilded Age
   • Immigration
   • Big Business
   • Populism
8. The Progressive Era
   • Spanish-American War
   • Roosevelt's
   • Muckrakers
   • Trust-Busting
   • Wilsonian Progressivism
9. World War I (main|World War I)
10. Boom and Bust: 1919-1939
    • Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover
    • Rise of a Consumer Culture
    • Prohibition
    • The Jazz Age
      • Culture
      • Arts and Literature
    • The Great Depression
    • The New Deal
    • Foreign Policy in the 1920s and 1930s
11. World War II (main|World II)
12. The Cold War, 1945-1991
    • Marshall Plan
    • Arms and Space Races
    • Cold-War Prosperity
    • Civil Rights
    • Vietnam War
    • The Counterculture
    • Foreign Policy in the 1970s
      • "Detente"
      • Latin America
    • Reagan's Domestic
13. The Post-Cold War Era
    • The United States and the Middle East
    • Clinton
    • The War on Terror
    • Bush's Domestic Policy
14. Current Issues in America

Debt ceiling?

Should the debt ceiling crisis be added now, or should we wait awhile until we get a handle on its legacy? Purplebackpack89≈≈≈≈ 17:24, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

Added more about debt ceiling, Wall Street protests, bailouts

If you don't mind... Purplebackpack89≈≈≈≈ 15:11, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Referencing

Somebody said this needs more distinct references, i.e. more books. Here are three reasons why I think it's fine to have 50-60% of articles sourced from 5-6 textbooks:

1. That means the other 40-50% are sourced from more than three score of different academic texts
2. A great many GAs (Goblin's railroad ones, for example) are referenced from ten sources or less. You might say, "Uh, well this is different..." Not really...say so is hypocritical
3. A Simple English reader would be much better getting one textbook than 4 or 5 academic works (I say 1:4 or 5 because a text costs 4-5x what a regular book does). Getting 4 or 5 of the books mentioned would only cover a fraction of American history; a textbook would cover all of it. Many of the academic works take for granted that you know the general outline of American history; you can't do that with a simple english speaker. And furthermore, there are textbooks written in simple english; an academic work might as well be in Ancient Greek to a simple english learner.

Purplebackpack89≈≈≈≈ 15:11, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

21st century

The length and detail of this section is quite out of proportion. The aim of the article is to underline important historical events and trends. Current affairs and recent news items are precisely what should not be in the article, unless sources suggest they are of lasting significance. Macdonald-ross (talk) 20:16, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Yes, that's the worst section. All parts are too long. Should we start reverting additions that are not closely followed or preceded by at least as much subtraction? Jim.henderson (talk) 02:05, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

At over 100,000 bytes, the page is too long for comfortable reading and editing. For users who are struggling with English, the sheer volume makes their task much harder. The main cause has been a series of enthusiastic editors, all of whom have put material in without thinking about the overall balance.

Ideally, we should only talk about events which sources suggest are of major importance. It's clear to me that some events of great significance (such as the war with Mexico) are underweight compared to events of the last 30 years.

The section 1815 to 1861 seems too long, and everything after WWII needs pruning. 'Recency' is everywhere on the web, which is overwhelmingly a young person's playground. Personally, I would not have a 21st century section, except to say "for modern USA see..."

New material needs to be well justified, not simply a link to a news source, but a source which indicates the event's significance. Macdonald-ross (talk) 10:49, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Once again an editor has expanded the modern era. It is now totally out of proportion with the article as a whole. I believe it is time to hive off the modern period (20th and 21st century USA) to a separate page, leaving a short summary on this page. Or to have a page dealing with post-WWII USA. The present page is again over 100,000 bytes long, and that also presents a problem for less able readers. Macdonald-ross (talk) 07:30, 17 January 2015 (UTC)

The section "A changing country" needs to be rewritten, as it's clearly written from a 2000s/early 2010s perspective and the issues discussed today are different. I'll consider doing this later if nobody else has done anything. Batrachoseps (talk) 02:00, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

I definitely agree that the 21st century section is too long. It has far too many minor details. Batrachoseps (talk) 02:01, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

Why new article for history of usa?

History of USA is already on this wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States. Why is there another wiki page for it? Vedant76 (talk) 17:02, 3 June 2020 (UTC)