CHAPTER I : NEW ENGLAND
YANKEES – may mean a Northerner, American. It refers to people who live in New England. Yankees comes from the Puritans who settled in the 1600s New England. They wanted to “purify” the religion, making it stricter and simpler. They were strict about the way how the people lived. Yankees are known for being honest but shrewd(sprytny, bystry); realistic and to-the-point; practical rather than romantic; untalkative, thrifty, principled and independent.
Calvin Coolidge the 30th president of the United States was a Yankee. He was called “Silent Cal” as he was extremely untalkative.
Frederick Tudor, a Bostonian who is an example of the business shrewdness of the Yankees.
New England Yankees led the movement to end slavery in America.
TWO NEW ENGLAND WRITERS
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1800s)– he wrote his novels and lived in town of Salem, Massachusetts. Going back to 1600s, the puritans then were very strict and punished people who did not conform. In 1692 20 people were hanged as witches and many more were imprisoned. Finally, the governor of Massachusetts ended the trials when his own wife was accused of being a witch. In his writing The House of the Seven Gables tells of the Pyncheon family, who live under the curse of a man their ancestor condemned to death for witchcraft. One day love destroys the curse.
Concord, Massachusetts – was home to many American writers of the 1800s including Hawnthorne. It was actually only a cabin, not a house. Henry David Thoreau lived in it and wrote there his greatest book, Walden. The cabin at Walden Pond was Thoreau’s experiment in living alone close to nature. His ideas and concerns are very relevant to our own times. Thoreau practiced what he preached. In protest against the Mexican War, he refused to pay his taxes and consequently went to jail.
THE SEA
The sea played major role in the region’s ( new England) economy. In colonial times, New England prospered from fishing and trade.
One kind of trade was the “triangular trade” : New Englanders brought sugar up from the islands of the West Indies, used the sugar to make rum, took the rum to West Africa and traded it for slaves in the West Indies.
COD - was the main fish export. It’s importance was reflected everywhere.
The American Revolution disrupted trade with England, and New Englanders had to find new trading Partners. They started to trade with Russia, Sweden and even China. Whaling became an important activity.
Yankee clipper ships – Era of the Yankee clipper ships was in the mid-1800s. These elegant wooden ships, built in New England, were designed for speed and broke many records. The goods were taken to California thanks to them. The trip around Cape Horn at the tip of South America was dangerous but worth it. The mariners had gold and not much else. In California, goods were worth twenty times what they were worth in the East. Since then many captains took their wives along for company. Often, in New England sea towns, women knew about sailing as much as man. The discovery in the 1850s of underground sources of oil marked the decline of the whaling era in New England. Later on, clippers couldn’t compete with metal steamships so they were no longer used in 1860s.
By the 1800s, the sea no longer played such an important role in New England’s economy but money earned from the sea was used to build factories.
THE MAINE VACATION
It can be a seaside vacation along the state’s rocky and winding coast. Thousand of island lie off the coast of Maine. Most are uninhabited and are visited only by fisherman. The most important is Mount Desert Island Examples of names :
Wreck island,
The Hypocrites
Junk of Pork
Pope’s folly
If you want to explore the coast and islands, you can hire a boat and a captain.
Mount Desert Island – well-known island of Maine. Here you’ll find the town of Bar Harbour – summer resort. You can go there and visit Norheast Harbor, Southewst Harbor nad Somesville, the islands smaller towns. You can go for a swim but water is very cold.
Maine is famous for its lobster(homar). You can eat there some lobster or even a clambake – a traditional meal that New Englanders adopted from the Indians.
Maine is also famous from its woods which are perfect for a hiking and camping vacation. Eg. Baxter State Park in the north.
Maine has hundreds of lakes and rivers for boating. You can hunt there as well because its full of deer, bears, squirrels, and rabbits. The fall is very colorful, and in winter there are skiers rushing off the mountains.
THE FREEDOM TRIAL
Boston Massacre – the event where England wanted to limit the colonists rights. The angry crowd in Boston threw the snowballs filled with stones into the soldiers. The soldiers then killed five man.
The Boston Tea Party - In 1773, to protest a new tax, Bostonians, dressed as Indians, threw 400 crates of British tea into the Boston Harbour. The British closed the harbor which was severe decision, since Boston depended on trade. The independence first, was marked in 1775 for some of a colonies in Lexington, and on july 4, 1776 the 12 other colonies joined.
The Freedom trial – place where you can see landmarks of the revolution.
1. The Freedom trial begins in the Boston Common. Today a public park, in the past was a cow pasture, a public execution site, and drilling field for soldiers
2. In times leading up to the Revolution the Old South Meeting House was a church and an important meeting place for the people from Boston. Here leaders such as Samuel Adams and James Otis gave speeches that stirred up the colonists’ emotions.
3. The Old State House was the building from which the British had ruled Massachusetts. In 1776 the Declaration of Independence was read from its balcony. The statues of lion and a unicorn, symbols of the British Government were then thrown down into the streets.
4. Faneuil Hall, sometimes called “the Cradle of liberty” functioned as both a market and meeting place.
5. Paul Revere was a well-known silversmith and a hero of the revolution. You can visit the Paul Revere’s House in North Boston. There’s a statue in honor of Revere’s famous ride to Lexington.
6. Old North Church, a place where the lanterns were hang to give a sign whether the british had left by land or ( two lanterns) by the sea.
7.Bunker Hill place which was defended agains the British force.
CAMBRIDGE
America’s most famous student town. Cambridge is sometinmes called the birthplace fo American intellectual life: It has the nation’s oldest university, Harvard University, founded in 1636. There’s also MIT – the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It’s a leader in science and technology. Students attending at both Harvard and MIT are from around the world. The city of Cambridge has many bookstores, shops, restaurants, coffee houses and clubs.
A common sight in Cambridge is Harvards oarsmen(wioślarz) rowing(wioślarstwo) on the Charles Race.
BOSTON BRAHMINS
BOSTON BRAHMINS – an elite that was wealthy, well educated, and exlusive. They were always Protestants and belonged to old Yankee families. Leading families : Cabots, Lowells, Peabodys, and Endicotts. They often lived in Beacon Hill, an elegant part of Boston. They married among themselves and gave their sons Brahmin names ( Cabot Lowell, Lowell Cabot etc.) Their sons always went to Harvard. They looked down on the irish Catholic immigrants.
SUGARING TIME
Each spring in Vermont there’s a sugaring time. They are collecting maple syrup from a trees.
CHAPTER II : NEW YORK
MANHATTAN GEOGRAPHY
Manhattan is divided into the East side and the West Side. The dividing line is Fifth Avenue. It’s also divided into Lower(downtown), Midtown, and Upper (uptown) Manhattan. As you go uptown the numbers get higher. Lower Manhattan generally refers to streets below 14th Street, Midtwon to the area between 14th street and Central Park, and Upper Manhattan to the remaining, northern part of the island.
THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT
The Wall street is named after the sturdy wooden wall built by the Dutch who first settled Manhattan. The “wall street” means capitalism because both The New York Stock Exchange and the American stock Exchange are located in the Wall Street area. So are many stockbrokers, investment banks and other banks, and headquarters of many large corporations. There’s also the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The New York Stock Exchange is a place where exchange has over 1,350 members where you can observe how the trading goes. It’s very frantic and crowded during the day.
To escape from the Wall Street you can visit South Street Seaport, on the East River. The seaport has many shops and restaurants and a museum where you can visit old houses, ships and shipyards. Fulton Fish Market is a place where city restaurants buy their fish.
THE LOWER EAST SIDE
The Lower East Side was originally and elegant neighborhood but by the mid-1800s it changed greatly.
Old Brewery – had two wings, nicknamed Murderers’ Alley and the Den of Thieves. Police estimate that for many years there was an average of one murder per night in this building alone. The Lower East Side was characterized less by crime than by the poverty and hopes of its residents. By the mid-1800s it had become an area in which immigrants settled prominently the irish, then came many Jews from Eastern Europe. The immigrants lived in crowded tenements. The level of redundancy was high. They worked in “sweatshops” for long hours, sometimes 7 days a week and brought home as little as four dollars. Lower east side had it’s pleasures like food – the egg cream was a mysterious New York invention, or fish like herring, sour pickles and knishes.
In recent years, many Jews have moved elsewhere, and the Lower East Side has become home to a newer immigrant group – Purto Ricans and other Hispanics.
GREENWICH VILLAGE AND THE EAST VILLAGE
Greenwich Village and the East Village have always been at the center of New York’s excitement. They’ve been places for people with different and creative ideas.
Greenwich Village is more often called “the Village” and in many ways is a residential area. The rents there were cheap, and the artists, writers, and political radical spent hours and hours in the cafes. Sex and revolution were openly discussed. Nowadays, the rent is much more expensive and most of artist can’t afford it – but tourists are still visiting the village. The village has students attending New York University; an active jazz scenel and in Washington Square – its center – street performers, police, drug dealers, joggers, roller skaters, and just about everyone else. The gay community is an especially important part of Village Life. In the East Village there live an Ukrainians and the plase feels very city-like.
MIDTOWN MANHATTAN
Many of New York’s offices and jobs are in Midtown. So are many of its famous scyscrapers. The first skyscraper was the Flat-iron Building built in 1902. The scycrapers were done in ART DECO style. The most beautiful is Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. You can go only on the top of the Empire State Building to admire the view. The king kong clung to it in the 1933 movie.
Rockefeller Center, build in the 1930s is the world’s largest privately owned business and entertainment center. It’s nineteen Building include the momumental RCA Building and Radio City Music Hall, where the famous Rockettes perform. Radio City is so luxurious and interesting that murals from its bathrooms now hang in the Museum of Modern Art.
In 1950s there was a second building boom, featuring a new style – The United Nations Secretariat building was the first GLASS CURTAIN WALL skyscraper. The Seagram Building, with its meal and its smoky glass, is another early example.
THE THEATER DISTRICT
TIMES SQUARE – Beneath the bright neaon sighns of Times Square, you’ll find some fo New York’s most elegant theaters and some of its sleazies “adult” shows and shops. The large number of police patrol Times Square at night is because its dangerous and pickpockets happen very often. Time square is named after the New York Times, which for years had its headquarters there. The New York Times is one of the best newspapers in the country. Other New York’s main papers :
The New York Daily News,
The New York Post,
New York Newsday
The Village Voice – is more liberal than other.
On Broadway and Off
Times Square is the beginning of the theatres districts – the area where Broadway plays are performed. Most “ Broadway “ are located east or west of Brodway. There are also Off-Brodway and Off-Off-Broadway theaters. Most of these theatres are in the Village and the East village. The tickiets are expensive but you can get half-price tickiet if you go to the TKTS booth in Times Square on the day of the play.
CENTRAL PARK
This huge park in the middle of the city was designed in 1850s by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. You can take a horse and buggy ride through Central Park. You can also explore the park even better by renting a bicycle. Attractions : gardens, a zoo, a skating rink, an old-fashioned carousel, a lake, and the outdoor theater.
East side
The Frick is a delightful museum to wander through since it’s set up, not like museum. This part of Fifth Avenue along Central Park has so many musems that is’ called “Museum Mile.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art with huge collections of art from around the world is the most important in the united states.
West Side
There are large and unusual apartment buildings. The Dakota has had many famous desidents, including actress Lauren Becall and conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein. Also John lennon, who lived there and was killed right outside in 1980.
HARLEM
Firstly, the new building stayed empty. Then the black man approached the building owners with an ide: Why not a rent to the black families, who wanted to move from the rundown housing they lived in downtown? It’s now because of that a largely black neighborhood. In 1920s were Harlem’s great years, especially in arts. Top jazz musicans were hear reguralsy – Duke Ellington, Cab calloway, Fletcher Henderson, Art Tatum, Fats Waller. Harlem had a very active club scene. Whites from downtown came to Harlem and partied until the early hours of the morning. In 1930s the depression hit the harlem and many of black were unable to earn a living. The neighborhood became poorer and many middle-class blacks left. It has never really recovered. You can visit also the churches with gospel music etc.
Chapter 3. The Mid-Atlantic Region
States :
New York
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
Delaware
West Virginia
Washington D.C
The Hudson River – in 1825 became the main link between the east of the United States and the growing Midwest. This made New York City, at the mouth of the Hudson, the nation's most important port. It's beauty inspired not onlu writers like Irving, but also America's first group of painters, who became known as the Hudson River School.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame – is located in Cooperstown; New York. A museum where you can see exhibits connected with Babe Ruth and other famous players. You can check there how fast you hit the balls. Babe Ruth was one of the best players and he was earning more money that the President Hoover.
Niagara Falls – popular with two kinds of visitors : thrill-seekers and honeymooners.
In 1859 Frenchman Jean Francous Gravelet known as "the Great Blondin" became the first person to cross teh falls on a tightrope. In 1901 Mrs. Annie Edson Taylor becae firs perosn to go over the falls in a barrel. In 1678 Father Lous Hennepin, a French Missionaru became the ffirst european to sight the falls. There are the american falls and the canadian falls :)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the city where the two most imprtat decisions in American history were made. In May 1775, representatives of the thirteen coolnies met in Philadelphia to decide wheter to remain with Britiain or fight for independence. In 1776 the decleration was signed. The colonies came together but not as a nation but as a confederation, or group of states. They were almost like separate countries. In 1787, the representatives met in Philadelpia and decided that the cofederation could not work so they introduced new system of government and wrote the United States Constitution.
Benjamin Franklin – Philadelphia was one of the most important countries then ( while the constitution was written ) and connected with one man : Benjamin Franklin – writer, philosopher, scientist and inventor. In 1723, when he was 17 he ran away to the Philadelphia looking for work as an apprentice printer. Few yeasr later he had his own print shioop and was publishing the most widely read newspaper in the colonies. He started a library, a fire department, a city hospital, and a school that is now the Iniversity of Pennsylvania. He helped write the Declaration of Independence. He also proved that lightining is electricity ( in experiment with a kite and a key).
In the nineteenth century, Philadelphia lost its early importance. Washington D.C replaced it as the center of goverment and New York as a place of finance and trade.
W.C.Fields – comedian, who considered his hometown a truly boring place.
Mummers – are members of special string bands, and the parade is an all-day party. For the parade, mummers wear costumes covered with feathers and sequins. While they play and parade, they do a special dance called strutting.
The first boardwalks were build in the Atlantic City. The Atlantic city honoured the boardwalk by making it an offical street. Now many beach towns in the United States have boardwalks. Board walks has usually rides and games. They have shops that sell cheap souvenirs and junk food. They have benches that are perfect places to sit and watch the world go by. If you;re in Atlantic city, be sure to get some saltwater taffy ( a sticky, chewy candy), If your'e on the boardwalk inm Coney Island, in Brooklum, New York, try a foot-long got dog instead.
Washington D.C – founded in 1791 located on Maryland on the Potomac River. Wth neoclassical buildings and it's tree-lined avenues, Washington, D.c. Strikes the visitors as a loveluy and formal city. French engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfaft created a design based on Versailles, a palace built for King Louis XIV in the 17th century. The capiutal city would be crisscrossed by broad avenues, which would meet in spacious squares and circles. Creating Versailles wasn't easy. Building went slowly, and people were reluctant to move to the new capital. For years, pigs roamed through unpaved streets.
White house is white because when in 1812, the British burned parts of washington it has been repainted to the white colour.
The Smithsonian began in the 1850s, with a fift from Englishman James Smithson. All of the Smithsonian museums, the most visited – indeed, one of the most visited musesims in the world – is the National Air and Space museum./ The museum has aircraft and spacecraft that were important in aviation history. It has the craft in which Orville Wright made the first manned flight and the plane in which Charles Lindbergh made the firs solo flight across the Arlantic. IT has the command module that returned the Apollo 11 astroinauts to earth after their moon landing, and it even has rocks that the astronauts brought back. The Smithsonian buildings are built on or near the Mall, a large open space. The Mall also has monuments honoring George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Washington was the first president, Lincoln was president during the Civil war and ended slavery. Third important president, Thomas Jefferson, who was also the main author of the Decleration of Independence, is honoured by a monument overlooking the nearby Tidal Basin. The Tidal Basin is especially beuriful in spring.
Washington ha one major business, and that business is government. The executive deparments ( Treasury, Agriculture, Education, etc. ) are located in Washington. Many of people who live in Washingotn work for the federal government. While being there you can tour the White House, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. If you visit Capitol Hill, you might be able to see some important members of the other two branches of government: The Supreme Court has a public gallery, as do the Senate and the House of Representatives. To go TO the Senate or House galerry, top in at any confessperson's office for a pass.
The Appalachian region is among the most rural – and beautiful – areas in the United States. It includes of thirteen states from New York to Georgia. West Virginia is the only state that falls entirely within the Appalachian region. That region is mountainous. Settlers who came mainly from the Great Britain and Germany, found themselves isolated by the mountains. Many appalachian traditions center on handicrafts, as people had to make the items they needed Appalachian are knonw for their independence and their self-sufficiency. The motto fo West Virginia is "Mountaineers are always free". The McCoys who lived in the West Virginia killed the Hatfield family probably becauise they wanted to own oone of the pigs. That's why that place sometimes is associated with violence. Later on the Hatfield are killing some of the McCoys.
Coal mining has been an importand activiti in West Virginia. It contributes about 10 percent of the state's income. Mining brought some prosperity but at a cost.
Handcrafting and tradition -quilting is a well known Appalachian handicraft. A quilt is a bed cover made of two layers of fabric, Appalachian women sewed squares and them sewed two squares together to make the two sides of the quilt. There were made a big parties called "quilting bee" where all friends were seqing.
CHAPTER IV : THE SOUTH
The south has a warm climate and a long grwonig season for crops. South’s economy came to depend on agriculture. By the 1820s, the South produced and exported rice, sugar, and especially, cotton. New Oreland was its only large city.
Crops like cotton were best grown on plantations. They also required a large labor force. The old south depended on slaves, who were originally brought from Africa.
Slaves lives differed greatly, depending on their masters. But the basic fact was that slaves had no real control over what happened to them. Husband and wife could be sold and separated forever. Slaves developed strong culture of their own.
THE CIVIL WAR
The War
The American Civil War lasted for 4 years. More American died in this war than in all other wars combined. Before the war, there had been great advances in weapons but few advances in medicine. Soldiers would die of their own wounds.
The North had certain great advantages over the South. It had a larger population and most of the country’s factories and banks.
Effects of the war.
War ended in 1865, the South had been devastated. The most important long-term effect of the war was END OF SLAVERY. Black were made citizens and given a right to vote. The North became much more industrialized than before, the way of life transformed.
CIVIL RIGHT IN THE SOUTH
THE RISE OF SEGREGATION
After the amendments added to the U.S constitution between 1865 – 1870 which ended slavery, gave the blacks right to vote etc. the whites demanded the segregation of black and whites. In result, blacks and whites were separated in schools, parks, trains and other public places.
THE CIVIL RIGHT MOVEMENT
Buses in Montgomery, Alabama were segregated – whites sat In the front and black sat in the back. Once bus was crowded and black woman was told to give the seat to the white. She refused, so she was arrested and fined. Montgomery’s blacks had enough, they decided to boycott the buses. The boycott was organized by Dr. Martin Luther King. By the mid 1960s the civil rights movement had gotten the attention of the nation and of Congress. The segregation was then made illegal. They were also fighting with poverty.
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
Indians called it the Father of Waters. Sometimes its called the Big ditch. It runs 2.300 miles from Minesota to the Gulf of Mexico. It drains all or part of 31 states.
United states bought the land between Mississippi and The Rocky Mountains from Napoleon. It was called The Louisiana Purchase and gave the US control of Mississippi and ability to expand west. Many boats soon traveled down the Mississippi bringing cotton, and other goods to New Orleans. But currents made the way back impossible so the boats were either tied to the trees or destroyed by their owners.
Steamboats were introduced in 1811 and were able to go back and fight with currents. They were luxurious and had ballrooms inside etc.
At the end of 19th century, Mississippi lost out with railroads for a while. But now is more important than ever. Boats powered with diesel carry bulk cargo, like oil, steel and coal.
Mark Twain was a writer who captured the Mississippi in the best way. No one has ever done it better.
ELVIS
Elvis Presley was born in 1935 East Tupelo, Mississippi. His family was poor so they moved to Mephis, Tennessee in search of better opportunities. Once he wanted to get the rifle but his mother, Gladys convinced him to get a guitar. Elvis later attended to some of the religious meetings where they were singing and he was influenced with the gospel music. There was also a radio station which he was constantly listening to.
Presley became a truck driver. One day in 1954 he stopped in the Memphis Recording Studio and just for fun recorded a song. The head of the studio, Sam Phillips heard the song and recognized Elvis’s potential. He called Elvis back for a real recording session, but this time wasn’t impressed at all. Later he heard Elvis and the band fooling around with some blues song. Before long, his first record was made and he was instant hit on the radio. By 1955 Elvis had three songs on the national charts and had signed a contract with RCA.
Teenagers loved Elvis. The critics didn’t. They considered him as untalented and vulgar. His music was called atheistic and was blamed for nation’s problem.
Elvis career was interrupted in the late 1950s when he went into the Army. When he came out he tried to be an actor. In 1968 he returned to live performances. But it wasn’t as good as before. He started to have a lot of problems, like drugs and divorce. He died in 1977.
NEW ORLEANS
New Orleans is unsual. It’s a city whose business is above all pleasure. The French Quarter was the original city of New Orleans. New Orleans is a place where jazz and blues music really started. They have famous festival called Mardi Gras.
FLORIDA:AMERICA’S VACATIONLAND
There’s a Walt Disney World, near Orlando, Florida. At Cape Canaveral, you can go to Kenedy Space Center and tour building where vehicles are assembled and astronauts are trained. Venice is home to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Palm Beach is the place for the wealthy where you can play or watch polo. St.Augustine, the oldest city in the United States. Miami reflects a more Hispanic influence. You can find there stores with cigarettes rolled by hand. The Florida Keys are series of coral and limestone islands. Key Largo, one of the islands has a huge underwater park.
OKEFONOKEE SWAMP
It has islands made of peat – decayed plant matter.