George Washington served the country for many years before becoming President. He was a general during the American Revolution and served as president of the Constitutional Convention, where the Constitution was written. After all that, he was ready to retire. The electoral college had different plans for George Washington though. All 69 electors chose him to be the first President of the United States of America. George Washington was the only President to receive all of the electoral college’s votes. Americans supported the choice for President and celebrated Washington as he traveled from his home in Mount Vernon to New York City, then onto the nation’s capital. On April 30, 1789 George Washington, at age 57, took the first oath of office as President of the United States under the Constitution. John Adams was his vice president.

You recently learned that the 13 colonies did not form overnight. Instead, they started out as small settlements that expanded into colonies. In this Chapter, you will see exactly how those colonies developed into the states they are today.

President Jefferson’s style was very different from that of Adams and Washington; because of that, many Americans looked forward to his inauguration. As people from across the nation gathered in the new capital to listen to Jefferson’s inaugural address, many wondered if the less formal president did in fact, want to limit the powers of government. They didn’t have to wait long.

America’s involvement in WWI left most Americans exhausted--in more ways than one. Soldiers returning home had suffered huge emotional distress from the war itself as well as from the physical injuries that many had suffered. Americans at home were deeply divided over the issues at the forefront of the League of Nations debate and the impact that the war had on thousands of immigrants with relatives overseas, many suffering in war-torn lands. Many Americans wished to return to what President Harding described as “normalcy.” Because of this desire by the American public, three trends in American society began to develop, both in rural towns and in urban areas across the country

In the 1700s England fought several wars with France over control of Europe. Conflicts over land ownership caused the hostilities between these two dominant countries to spread to North America. In 1754 the French and Indian War began. It got its name from the people that the British colonists and their American Indian allies were fighting – the French and their American Indian allies. The French and Indian war lasted from 1754 to 1763. It was also called the Seven Years War.

Up to this point you have been studying the domestic issues that faced the new nation. In this chapter we’re going to study the same relative time period as the last chapter but focus more on foreign policy issues. By 1803, America was tangled in a war between Great Britain and France once again. Both countries were taking American ships that were trading with their enemy. President Jefferson tried hard to follow Washington and Adams lead and remain neutral.

Americans moving westward in the mid-1800s did so for a variety of reasons. Stories of rich farmland in the Oregon Territory interested many to sell everything they owned and head out for a new beginning. The flood of immigrants from Europe, along with a higher birth rate, fueled a push west as large-scale farming could help support growth in the East. The US population had grown from more than five million in 1800 to more than twenty-three million by the mid-1800s. Others looked to make it rich in the expanding fur trade and were up for the adventures of trapping. In 1849, the news of gold in California caused a mad dash for wealth. Some were curious about the mysterious West and felt that what lay across the Mississippi River might just be the change they were looking for. Whatever the reason, an estimated 4,000,000 Americans moved into the new frontier between 1820 and 1850 and in the process shaped a new identity in the American West built on ruggedness, new feelings of freedom, and a spirit of individualism.

Throughout this chapter, you will learn why the colonists felt that they had no choice but to fight the British! The Intolerable Acts from Parliament & King George were “the last straw!” As you read you will learn how the Patriots gained confidence by standing up to the largest army in the world.

Even though the 1920s were “roaring” in many respects, from an economic standpoint it became clear that serious problems threatened the nation’s economy. Important industries were in trouble and overproduction plagued the agricultural sector. As the decade came to a close, the slipping economy would soon crash, thus ending a decade of innovation, cultural advances, and individual prosperity.

The Declaration of Independence was just the beginning. The colonists kept this document in mind as they fought for independence and created their own government. This Declaration has inspired, and continues to inspire, the promise of freedom around the world.

The nation continued to grow in size and wealth, each region experiencing its own different kind of economic growth which caused them to develop differently. Citizens differed across regions in their ideas of political, economic, and social progress. For the success of the growing nation, Americans throughout the country tried to compromise on their disagreements. Unfortunately, no amount of compromise could minimize the harsh growing pains the nation was about to experience.

After four long and bitter years of a disastrous conflict that claimed the lives of over 620,000 soldiers, a haggard and worn president looked over the crowd and uttered the immortal words: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

During the last part of the eighteenth and the first part of the nineteenth centuries, there was a growing interest in social reform, or an organized movement to improve the quality of life for particular groups of people. The motivations behind these movements were both political and religious.

As Soviet and U.S. soldiers worked together to liberate Germany at the end of World War II in Europe, many on both sides hoped for continued friendship between the two countries. However, problems had been building between the two nations both before and during the war. Combined with the incompatibility of the economic and political systems that drove both countries, significant foreign policy clashes were imminent.

The Cold War had a significant impact on domestic life in the decade after the WWII; however, for most Americans, economic prosperity and social aspects such as pop culture and the building of suburban lifestyles by the middle class dominated thoughts of anti-Communist fear. Even though the 1950s were known as a time of unprecedented prosperity, not every subgroup of American society benefitted. The urban poor, Mexican Americans, and Native Americans were left untouched by the economic boom, living in poverty.

Just like the industrialization that took place in the North, the geographical features of the region played just as important a role in the agrarian way of life in the South. Because geography was responsible for almost every aspect of life in the South (as it was in the North as well), its significance cannot be understated.

The fourth grade social studies book for the MI Open Book Project introduces students to geography, economics, history, and civics all through their study of the United States of America. Explore the regions and physical geography of the united states, learn about important economic concepts, and delve into the history of Michigan post statehood. A PASST performance task has also been included as students study the problems associated with sharing the water in the Great Lakes.

In third grade you learned about the geography of the state of Michigan. You may have studied the geography of Michigan by learning about what makes Michigan special. This year, in studying the geography of the United States, you will explore a similar question. It is centered around what makes the country in which we live special.

In previous grades you’ve learned a little about economics and that economics deals with choices. We all make choices every day. We make choices about what to buy. We make choices about whether to save or spend money. You will learn in this chapter that economics is about more than just choices. Economics is the study of how individuals and societies use resources to produce goods and services. It is about competition and prices and trade. As you learn you will be working as an economist, someone who studies economics.

You have learned that there are different areas of social studies and different kinds of social scientists. You learned that geographers study geography and economists study economics. This chapter is about civics, another important area of social studies. Civics is the study of government and the role people play in government. But who studies civics??? Civicsers? Civicsists? It’s a little more complicated this time. Political scientists study civics! Politics is just another name for government. But wait, what is government? Government is a system that people use to provide order and make decisions. It is also a system for distributing power like the power to make laws and the power to enforce laws. It is also a system for regulating the conduct of people, or how people
behave.