Just a few months earlier, the United Nations and the World Bank reported that 1.4 billion people live below the new poverty rate of US $1.25 per day. That news was accompanied by stories of severe famine in Africa, Asia, and even scattered through Europe and the Americas. The author knows that it's sometimes difficult to teach about contemporary…

Everyone under the age of 20 who has grown up in North America has lived in the common market created by NAFTA--the North American Free Trade Agreement. In a zone linking the United States, Canada, and Mexico, most goods and investments flow freely across borders to users, consumers, and investors. In 1994, NAFTA created the largest relatively…

Central banking in the United States has a long and controversial history dating back to the earliest days of the republic. One of the most widely presented arguments against a central bank has been that the U.S. Constitution does not expressly grant the federal government power to charter a bank. Recently, this issue has received new scrutiny in…

In recent years, there has been much talk in the media and the academic world about the "rise of China," as if China were a young country. Because the People's Republic of China (PRC) celebrated its sixtieth birthday only last October--and because the PRC was not admitted into the United Nations until 1971 and did not become a member of…

Different generations of Americans understand China quite differently. This, of course, is true of many topics. However, the turbulence of Chinese history and U.S.-China relations in the 60 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 has deepened the gaps in generational thinking about China. Those who came of age in…

In an effort to promote cultural literacy in children and young adults, the Racism and Social Justice Committee of the National Council for the Social Studies created the Carter G. Woodson Book Award. The purpose of the Woodson Award, given annually since 1974, is to promote the writing, publishing, and dissemination of sensitive and accurate…

The American economy has had the fastest and most dramatic development of all the world's major economies. Four hundred years ago, the economic output of the area that became the United States was negligible by world standards. Yet only 250 years later, the U.S. economy had become the largest in the world, surpassing all other countries, including…

Today, the Census Bureau compiles extensive information every year about the people and the economy of the United States. That is how the authors know that in 2006 the United States is going to reach an extraordinary milestone--300 million people. In this article, the authors discuss the "now and then" of the U.S. society. The authors…

Worldwide economic problems must not be allowed to disrupt international trade. Specifically discussed are the long-run trends in U.S. competitiveness, financial developments and their effects on trade and the international debt problem. (RM)

More than half a century has passed since the horrific events of the Holocaust took place, but images of the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany are no less shocking than they were 60 years ago. Any discussion of the Holocaust inevitably leads to questions not only of how and why this event…

In 1983, elementary and secondary teachers in West Germany were surveyed concerning the treatment of social themes in school curricula. As in a similar survey conducted in the United States, West German respondents indicated that every theme surveyed was important, with nuclear disarmament and environmental pollution clearly considered the most…