If you could describe the history of America in one word...
...what would it be? 
I'll go first: muddled.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Involved in some sort of "war" (by some definition) more or less continuously since the beginning...
"muddled" by ellisonz
Not hardly. American history has been witness to a surprising uniformity and a tendency (despite all our chatter about "E Pluribus Unam"
toward conformity. Tocqueville pointed this out in the 1830s with his observation. The land of Red Scares, McCarthyism, Levittown suburbs, cookie cutter reality shows, and zombified consumerism is more uniform in its popular culture and historical goals than any other large nation on Earth.
"Imaginary" by ZombieHorde
Alas, it is all too real.
"Fascinating" by ScreamingMeemie
In fact, it is quite boring. I have been told this by numerous high school students while I was teaching them US History.
"Experimental" by flamingdem
No, it is tried and true.
"Bigoted" by zipplewrath
I'm trying to think of another country with a better record on expanding the rights of minorities and historically disenfranchised groups. Sure, one of the biggest complaints among Bostonians rebelling against George III in the 1770s was that his step-father was Catholic. But this was also the country where the oppressed Catholics of Britain came to enjoy greater freedom. For every Jefferson Davis we have fighting for slavery, we have an Abraham Lincoln fighting on far stronger support against it--and please pay attention to who won that conflict.
For every anti-immigrant hysteria that swept the US, there was a city welcoming them and an open path to success enjoyed by their children and grandchildren. And who did the American people through their practice of politics and study of history remember: Lester Maddox or Martin Luther King Jr? Whose vision of America won out in the long run?
While there is a grain of truth that American history has included racists and bigots, there is a far greater reality that American history generally can be told as the triumph of Americans in overcoming and defeating their bigotry.
"evolving" by mrmpa
Okay, you have a point, but no one else does
"Spam" deleted by Morning Dew
No, spam actually was invented in Europe. We merely perfected it by crowning it with pineapple slices.
"Corruption" by bemildred
Your beef seems to be with human nature. All large countries, and in fact all small ones too, exhibit corruption. But in fact no nation has advanced the war against corruption in public affairs more than has the United States. It wasn't just the Revolutionary generation rejecting the cronyism of British rule, but also the obsession of the Framers of the Constitution who deliberately set about creating a form of government that could discover and oust corruption when it tried to take root. The principle purpose of the First Amendment, which re-set the ideal and norm for world politics every since 1791, was to expose corruption. Furthermore the Progressive Era, which stated in the US, expanded that war on corruption to the corporate powerhouses of industry. And the principal defenders of the Internet and the free flow of information today in world have their strongest base of supporters in the US, or in parts of the world where the Jeffersonian ideals have most taken root.
"war" by lutefisk
The world has, in fact, been far more peaceful on a per capita basis since the United States achieved geopolitical primacy in the world. We might have a big military, but its primary effect in world affairs has been to make Earth a less violent place than it has been at any other time in world history.
"Nachos" by RZM
Not many people know this, but in fact the nacho is of Mexican cultural origin. Perhaps you are thinking of the crunchy taco. That is American as apple pie. Ironically, the apple pie comes from Kazakhstan.
"Progress?" by limpyhobbler
Go home. You're drunk.
"chaotic" by Rowdyboy
Actually, it's surprisingly organized in comparison to other nations' histories. The defining characteristic of westward expansion was the deliberate brainchild of governmental policies--most notably by the Republicans of the 1860s designing the Homestead Act for the explicit purpose of people the "Great American Desert". But in the administrations of Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson there were plenty of precedents for that policy.
"Exploration" by XemaSab
Ironically, the greatest exploration of American history was carried out by non-Americans, from the French trappers who opened up the West for Lewis and Clark to the German rocket engineers who strapped Aldrin and Armstrong down into the Apollo capsule.
"forefathers" by johnsolaris
The real difference that America has made in the evolution of human affairs has come in fact in the progress that women have made in their place in civilization. There might have always been another Jefferson, another Franklin, another Edison to come along and shake up how people do stuff. But the inclusion of women into the halls of power, at least by indirect means, is a direct result of how the Enlightenment played out in English speaking parts of North America.
"Underachieving" by DrewFlorida
Beat the Nazis. Completed the Apollo Program. Built the Internet.
"Complex" by steve2470
No, you're wrong too.
"bloody" by robk6295sie
Well, no progress occurs without a human cost. But America's signal contributions to post-WW2 world history are all peaceful: (1) applying Keynesian economics to ending the Depression, (2) the more-peaceful-than-the-alternative Containment of Communism, and (3) the popularization of Civil Disobedience as explained by the philosophy and teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr (which finds its roots ultimately in the pacifistic and exemplararily American writings of Thoreau)
"byzantine" by Bucky
Shut up you fucktard
Exceptional post, by the way... 
Sad but true. 
