America

 "America" is an American history book by Victor Kiernan first published in 1978. The book analyzes how this country was formed and how it became one of the greatest empires of the twentieth century. An epilogue is added to the 2015 edition by John Trumpbour that updates events between these two dates.

The book begins with a preface and an introduction, which is a quick review of the country's historical past. There is a quotation in the introduction about fourth of July celebration, by one of the greatest American intellectuals who was born to a slave household, and luckily had an opportunity to educate himself and become an American intellectual and a great thinker. This exceptionally talented American is Frederick Douglass, who has tremendously contributed to American literature, narrates about The Independence Day from the perspective of an African American, which is copied here:

"a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United State, at this very hour."

After the introduction, the book begins with a chapter titled "The Birth of a Nation", and it discusses how early explorers reached the land and how they were treated by the natives. This is discussed in detail in this and the following chapter. The reaction of the new arrivals to the natives is also explored in detail. On page 31 we read:

"In 1637 they surrounded and set fire to the Pequod stronghold in Connecticut, with four hundred people in it who were burned alive or killed as they tried to escape... In 1675 a Narraganser village was burned down by the colonists, with all those in it, mostly old men, women and children; some even of the assailants found it 'a most horrible and appalling scene'."

Above quotation is a small sample of the brutalities rendered against natives, which is described in the book in several chapters. Next, slavery is discussed, and the plight of those kept as slaves. The civil war, with the victory of northern states did not put a stop in slavery, which continues as of today in different forms and shapes, but it changed the direct form the system enslaved people of African origin. On page 76 we read about the events following the conclusion of civil war and its achievements:

"In general the feeling of Latin America was of renewed hope an faith in the United States. This did not last long. It soon appeared that the policy of aggression had been scotched, not killed, by the South's defeat. It is true that attempts in America to push the government into intervention in Cuban troubles in 1868 petered out, and in 1869 President Grant failed to get the Senate to ratify his scheme to annex San Domingo in collusion with the local boss. Though they came to nothing at the time, these plottings were perturbing to all in the vicinity of the republic. They obscured the underlying fact that a millocracy was in the saddle now instead of a plantocracy, and would seek financial suzerainty rather than outright annexations."

When all the land is conquered, one would look for acquiring lands overseas, as it is explained on page 149:

"But an economic system, like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous. And there are always vested interests to keep them alive. Growth of the home market, through swelling population and rising standards of living, was much more genuinely important than anything that could be scraped out of the backward corners of the earth. But in the mood of the time it was necessary to believe that American enterprise must be free to overflow into them. By 1915 there was an impressive total of dollars invested abroad, but very few of these had traveled further afield than Canada, Central America and Europe."

One of the worst Iranian royal dynasties was called Qajars, who was replaced by the last dynasty in power before the revolution. That dynasty began with a brutal and aggressive king who expanded the land under his kingdom and ruled with an iron force. However, his predecessors were not as ambitious and warrior as he was, and they lost more than half of his kingdom through the last emperor in that dynasty. In early 20th century, United States began paying attention to the Middle East, and tried to establish some presence there. One of the ways to do this, since Europeans had already imperialistic and dominating presence, was to assist the government in order to have a foothold in those lands. Since the finances of the Iranian government, due to their incapability, was in chaos, American government sent Richard Shuster to help Iranian government with their finances, explained on page 177:

"In Persia, this was being done by agreement, from 1907, between the Russians working in the north and the British in the south. W. M. Shuster was the head of a group of American experts employed by the Persian government to try to bring order into its chaotic finances. He was backed for the post by President Taft, as part of the policy of extending American influence to new realms. He found himself in a situation something like the Yankee's at the court of King Arthur. Treasury guards had to be sent round to compel grandees to pay their taxes. But his great lament was about the way Britain and Russia were ' strangling' the country."

It has been said by historians about the US leadership in the world arena that America was the real winner in WWII. This is true that after the war the whole Europe was in a heap of rubble, and United States was already prosperous by selling Europeans ammunition in order to destroy their achievement and kill each other. Now, America had the benefit of selling them tools for reconstruction. This is fully discussed, along with racial priority clearly paid attention to, in the book on page 219:

"On 16 July 1921, the London cabinet discussed the matter in a gloomy vein which would greatly have amused any agent of Moscow at the keyhole. It was complained that 'the United States was continually suggesting that the American navy was available for the protection of civilization and the white races of the world'. For many years Britannia had prided herself on 'policing the seas', now a stronger ival was getting ready to take over the task. The racialist note in American thinking was again clear."

The US spy agency, CIA, is a subject briefly discussed in the book. It is the power of this agency which is interesting to learn, when it is explained in a short paragraph on page 268:

"Judging by the glimpses into murky depths that recent years have given us, it has often functioned as a parallel government, less closely linked to its nominal superiors than to business interests."

On page 309, the book talks about one of the darkest moments in Iranian history, when a popular government was toppled by an American sponsored military intervention, which was almost reversed by another revolution over forty years later, however being managed again by the United States, by helping a take over of the most brutal and backward government which is still in power:

"From the Second World War the U.S. merged 'an oil-hungry power', with a predictability keen appetite for the Middle East. By 1950 its investments in oil-fields there amount to 596 million dollars, and it controlled about 40% of production; Britain was still in the lead with nearly 50%. In 1951 British insistence on clinging to old 'rights' in Iran led to the government headed by Mosaddeq nationalizing the oil industry. He was of course accused by the British, largely with the aim of inciting America against him, of acting under communist tutoring. An American had been nearer the truth when he wrote, not long before these events: 'Britain fear of the Soviets is making progress synonymous with Communism, and making Communism attractive to the exploited peoples of the Middle East.' But by this time his words were equally true of America; a transmigration of soul was taking place, of Toryism from its old carcass into a vigorous young body. General Zahedi was plotting against his government, with the Shah's sanction, and the army had close ties with America, its purveyor of advisers and equipment. in August 1953 it struck: Mosaddeq was arrested, massive repression launched, the Shah installed in full power."

Clearly, United States benefited from the second war and instantly replaced Britain as the world power. However, in order to secure this advantage, those in power realized that having military presence in friendly territories is essential. What Eisenhower called "military industrial complex" became the most extensive (and expensive) American governments' undertaking. Number of military presence kept increasing through time, as it is mentioned on page 364:

"In 1938, the United States possessed fourteen military bases outside its national boundaries. By 2014, there were approximately 800 U.S. military bases abroad, despite the Pentagon recently closing a vast Melange of 1,300 military installations in Afghanistan and Iraq."

 Clearly, United States had been one of the two superpowers in the second half of the twentieth century, along with the Soviet Union. In the last decade of that century, when Soviet Union lost its title as a superpower, United States became the only power in the world, and in order to keep this power, it was necessary to institute new policies:

"In the late 1990s, the Project for the New American Century (P.N.A.C.) called for the removal of Saddam Hussein from the reins of power in Iraq, and intervention that would provide the platform for the democratization of the Middle East. P.N.A.C. asserted in a document entitled Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century (September 2000) that the U.S. had taken a 'procurement holiday' since the Age of Reagan, and it might possibly take 'some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor' to wake the nation from the slumber induced by liberal treachery and Clintonian complacency. As 767 and 757 jets plunged into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, the P.N.A.C. faithful, who shortly before assuming power treated this 'catalyzing event' as an unlikely scenario, had their 'new Pearl Harbor'."

Above words were small and brief quotations from this vast book, which goes through many other aspects of this great nation, with governments exploiting other nations for the benefit of those who are in charge, multi-national businesses, which in turn produces small benefits the population as well. The book is written prior to the decline of the United States and growth of other countries such as China and Russia as great global powers. However, chapters are added (as it was quoted above) by John Trumpbour to update the history into the 21st century. The policies of American governments may explain why this rich country has the wealthiest individuals in the world, as well as the largest number of homeless and poor. Walking in the poor neighborhoods and homeless encampments in some large cities of the United States, one can see the same picture that US governments created in some third world nations, in order to extract their resources freely. The book explains how and why.