What was the greatest era of American history?

[Zynx]

I'm going to split this up a little arbitrarily, but bare with me. These are approximate and random cut offs constrained by the number of spaces and also by me trying to cram certain spaces into one generation.

I personally look back on the period between 1932 with the election of FDR and 1965 following the passages of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts as the greatest era of American history. We came together, more or less, with common goals, though we disagreed often on the means to achieve those goals, and we changed this country for the better.

[Zynx]

1. I wonder how many will vote for the period between 1848 and the start of the Gilded Age.

Not our best days...

[Jack Rabbit]

2. I don't really like the way you divided it up, but I'll go with 1932-65

Only because that contains the years 1946-65, which I believe to be more accurately our best years. The years 1932-45 encompass part of the Great Depression and World War II. FDR was a great leader, but those were not good times.

[Zynx]

5. I disagree.

Our efforts to alleviate the Depression and fight WWII were some of the most constructive in terms of the role of government and the furthering of the American ideal that I have ever read about.

[flvegan]

3. If and When we ever got along, shared, supported etc with Native Americans.

THAT would be our greatest era. We've kinda gone downhill since.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. 1609 or thereabouts to 1972

I'll extend your 1965 by a few years to include the space program and landing on the moon, which also brought the country together and was a great national project.

I'd thought of taking it all the way to 1980 to say it was all great right up until Reagan, but then I remembered what a shitty decade the 70s were, with recession and oil problems and shit-ridiculous clothing styles and disco and shit-ridiculous decorating styles and ugly fucking dumb TV making and movie making in general, plus the whole Nixon crap and stupid ugly-ass hair styles and the beginning of the celebration of a dumbed down, uninvolved, clueless ignorant citizenry.

[izquierdista]

6. I'll make it more exact for you

The "great" period ended on January 20, 1969.

[Thothmes]

11. I would push the date back to

the date the Congress of the United States approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

[NashVegas]

15. 70s Were Awesome for Movie Making

The Godfather
Network
Silent Running
Star Wars


Just to name a few.

[Hardrada]

7. Great Period ended around noon CST 11/22/63.

[spoony]

8. I cast a hopeful vote for "still to come" nt

[tom_paine]

9. Caveat for the people who voted for 1932-1965: Jim Crow

I understand why people voted for it, though. Minus Jim Crow and the terrorism of the Confederate Bushies against African-Americans, it was indeed the greatest period in our history.

One might also argue that our assistance in WWII, without which Hitler's defeat would likely not have been possible, ultimately paved the way to making what progress we did for social justice, flawed and partial as it was.

It also paved the way for the culmination of the Civil Rights, Environmental, and Voting Rights movements...at least until our Aristocrats decided to take it all back in the mid 70s, which has now shifted into obvious overdrive as our Aristocrats and Rulers race against time to secure a totalitarian lockdown before the collapse.

But to say "minus Jim Crow and Bushie terrorism" is quite an insult to dismiss all that pain and suffering we caused African-Americans, which continues to this day.

I don't know the answer, because I, too, voted for 1932-1965 (though I would probably say it was 1945-1980 was the more appropriate time period). But we cannot forget that all those good things and the American greatness we are celebrating with our votes on this poll are disregarding a tremendous boil just beneath the surface, of the pain and suffering of millions of people denied their basic humanity.

As we all are now, under the reign of Bushler and CheneyHimmler.

[Thothmes]

14. 1932 to 1965

Those were Democrates in the South, not Republicans. These Democrates not only supported Jim Crow, but the supportd FDR's New Deal. They became Republicans with the signing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

[tom_paine]

10. 18% voted our best days are yet to come?!?

:wtf:

Where have you people been...on an island?

What sunshiny optimism that flys in the face of all established fact across theentire spectrum, economic, ecological, sociological, common sense-wise, simple human decency-wise, global-geoploitically (as BushPutinism becomes the dominant form of government on Earth, already encompasing America, Russia, China, and most ofthe Third World in it's harsher, more primitive form).

Or belies the fact that in retrospect, and I am not saying Bill Clinton was a bad President, at least half of these things that are destroying America from within did not TURN AROUND, but merely SLOWED DOWN during his reign.

If America's best days truly are ahead of us, we need to TURN AROUND not just SLOW DOWN these trends.

Does anyone here really believe that can happen without a tremendous upheaval which the Imperial Subjects of Amerika are too apathetic, frightened, misinformed, and disnformed (not to mention not even having the communties nor the memory of how to take collective action to right injustice?) to make happen?

Apologies if I am not being sufficiently pollyanish or having that good-old "can-do" spirit that kept the bvand playing on the Titantic, and I certainly hope I am wrong...but the chances of that are VERY small indeed.

Our best days are ahead of us.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :puke:

[pampango]

20. Yeah, the country is in bad shape, but we have been there before.

Slavery, Civil War, Women's Suffrage, Depression (several of them actually), World Wars, Vietnam, etc. All of these were TURNED AROUND, not quickly, not easily, but it happened. I imagine that if DU had been around in those days, most of us would have expressed hopelessness at the prospect of the country ever dealing with these problems and emerging with a brighter future.

I don't believe that it is automatic that our best days are ahead of us, just that we have a chance to make that happen as we have in past historical crises. You could be right that our citizens are too apathetic and afraid now to make the necessary changes, but some may have said the same thing during other historic periods. We shall see.

[Echo In Light]

12. The civil movements/women's rights/general dissent of the Counter Culture

[L. Coyote]

13. I'm guessing "America" refers to just the USA here, not the Americas??

Because " the greatest era of American history" is before Columbus sailed.

[GTurck]

16. I love our history...

in some respects but we have only been "great" by self-definition. So busy patting ourselves on the back for the truly extraordinary Constitution we have not followed through as well on making it a living breathing principle of being. We need some humility before we can begin to become great.

[raccoon]

17. About 1941-1965. nt

[AP]

18. 1932-1972. '72 really was the beginning of the end. That's when the pot got big enough so that the

corps really got organized about taking it.

[NewJeffCT]

19. I would say 1946 through 1980

After WW2, the middle class expanded rapidly with soldiers returning from the war and the GI Bill; the interstate highway system was one of the greastest public works projects in the history of the world and the car was mass produced and affordable; we put a man on the moon; television forever changed our way of life.

The Marshall Plan was implemented and we helped to rebuild Europe & Japan. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.

Of course, that ended with the election of Reagan.

[ThomWV]

21. Pre-1492

[harun]

22. 1865 to Nov. 22nd 1963

I picked 1776-1812 but after further thought I would go with 1865 to 1963. Emancipation Declaration to the end of JFK.

[Iktomiwicasa]

23. Before

the foreigners invaded my lands....

[Iktomiwicasa]

24. just a reminder....

that the history of this land didn't start with the invasion of white people.

[Zynx]

26. I mean the history of the United States.

I thought that was pretty clear when I used 1776 as the starting point.

[Ezlivin]

25. Do I really have to "bare with" you?

I mean, I'm not into that whole getting naked with strangers thing.