Over the last century, the concept of what it meant to be an

Over the last century

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Over the last century

Hayden (1993 ) begins by describing the days when they were in school stating that the United States was not only the strongest country in the world , but also the wealthiest . It was the only country with an atomic bomb and not afraid of modern war . As they grew , however , their comfort was invaded by events too troubling to ignore . First , the permeating fact of human degradation , symbolized by the Southern struggle against racial prejudice , compelled most

Americans from silence to activism Second , the enclosing fact of the Cold War , which was symbolized by the presence of the Bomb , brought about an understanding that they themselves , and their friends , and millions others they knew more directly because of their common danger , might die at any time . They might have deliberately ignored , or failed to feel all other human problems , but not these two , for they were too immediate as much as they were crushing in their impact , too challenging in the demand that they as individuals take the responsibility for both resolution and encounter . American virtues were not only tarnished but what had initially been seen as the American Golden Age was in the real sense a decline of an era . The global outbreak of revolution against colonialism and imperialism , the effects of war , overpopulation , international dis , these trends were but testing the tenacity of the commitment of Americans to democracy and freedom and their abilities to visualize their...