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United States History Quotes

Browse 10 quotes about United States History.

United States History Quotes

“[...] torture has been routine practice from the early days of the conquest of the national territory, and then beyond, as the imperial ventures of the infant empire—as George Washington called the new Republic—extended to the Philippines, Haiti, and elsewhere. Furthermore, torture was the least of the many crimes of aggression, terror, subversion, and economic strangulation that have darkened US history, much as in the case of other great powers. Accordingly, it is surprising to see the reactions even by some of the most eloquent and forthright critics of Bush malfeasance: for example, that we used to be a nation of moral ideals and never before Bush have our leaders so utterly betrayed everything our nation stands for. To say the least, that common view reflects a rather slanted version of history.”

CapitalismTortureAmerican HistoryImperialismAmerican PoliticsUsUnited States HistoryGeorge BushAmerican Aggression
Book:Hopes and Prospects
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“Here in the United States, very little effort has been made to voice formal apologies, make reparations, or pass political mandates about education. Yet this country was founded in part by genocidal policies directed at Native Americans and the enslavement of Black people. Both of these things are morally repugnant. Still I love my country. In fact, it is because I love my country that I want to make sure the mistakes of our past do not get repeated. We cannot afford to cover over the dark chapters of our history, as we have for decades upon decades. It is time for that to stop.”

HistorySlaveryAmerican HistoryColumbusNative AmericansSlavery In The United StatesSlavery In AmericaAmerican IndiansNative American GenocideUnited States History
Book:Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: Young Readers Edition
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“[Trump] and his ideas are not exceptional. He and the people who support him are just the latest examples of the country's ongoing betrayal. . .When we make Trump exceptional, we let ourselves off the hook. For he is us, just as surely as the slave-owning Founding Fathers were us, as surely as Lincoln with his talk of sending Black people to Liberia was us, as surely as Reagan was us with his welfare queens. When we are surprised to see the reemergence of Klansman, Neo-Nazis and other White Nationalists, we reveal our willful ignorance about how our own choices make them possible.”

RacismTrumpismUnited States History
Book:Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own
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“The older America, until the 1890s and in some respects until 1914, was wrapped in the security of continental isolation, village society, the Protestant denominations, and a flourishing industrial capitalism. But reluctantly, year by year, over several decades, it has been drawn into the twentieth century and forced to cope with its unpleasant realities: first the incursions of cosmopolitanism and skepticism, then the disappearance of American isolation and easy military security, the collapse of traditional capitalism and its supplementation by a centralized welfare state, finally the unrelenting costs and stringencies of the Second World War, the Korean War, and the cold war. As a consequence, the heartland of America, filled with people who are often fundamentalist in religion, nativist in prejudice, isolationist in foreign policy, and conservative in economics, has constantly rumbled with an underground revolt against all these tormenting manifestations of our modern predicament.”

PoliticsHistoryIntellectualIntellectualismPolitics Of The United StatesAnti IntellectualismUnited States History
Author:Richard Hofstadter
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“We are told that in the course of this interview Stephens, seeing Lincoln not willing to grant the terms he asked, urged that even Charles I made certain concessions. To this...Lincoln answered: "I am not strong history; I depend mainly on Secretary Seward for that. All I remember of Charles is that he lost his head.”

InspirationalFunnyInterestingCleverCivil WarAmerican HistoryUnited States History
Book:The Story of the Americans
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“We are told that in the course of this interview Stephens, seeing Lincoln not willing to grant the terms he asked, urged that even Charles I made certain concessions. To this...Lincoln answered: "I am not strong on history; I depend mainly on Secretary Seward for that. All I remember of Charles is that he lost his head.”

InspirationalFunnyInterestingCleverCivil WarAmerican HistoryUnited States History
Book:The Story of the Americans
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“After a few minutes Truman went back inside the White House, so he could call his mother and personally deliver the news: World War II was over. ("That was Harry," ninety-two-year-old Mamma Truman said after hanging up. "Harry's such a wonderful man... I knew he'd call.")”

HumorPresidencyHarry TrumanUnited States History
Book:The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World
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