Things America gave the world
The A-Bomb.
sharePotato chips
updated: not Peanut butter
Gospel music
Rap
Liberal Democracy
Blockbuster movies
Telephone
updated: Automobile Mass Production
Western Movies
TV reruns
McDonald's
Internet
Traffic Light
Airplane
Surfing
A Canadian actually had the first patent for a method of producing peanut butter from roasted peanuts using heated surfaces in 1884. The American peanut butter came out in 1894.
I think food is always a difficult one to claim as although someone gets a patent or starts to manufacture it doesn't mean that someone's grandma hadn't been making it for years.
Yes, I also think the Germans would like to have a word about the automobile -- although, again, tricky one to nail down because lots of people all over the place were working on different but overlapping ideas that ultimately all fed into each other.
And I'm not even going to get started on 'liberal democracy'. That's a whole book-length conversation.
Credit for mass produced autos go to Ford.
Concept of liberal democracy - not execution - created by U.S.?
Well, that's credit for factory production techniques rather than credit for cars themselves, isn't it?
Concept of liberal democracy - not execution - created by U.S.?
I'd have thought it was an idea of European Enlightenment thinkers myself, but that one's soooo complicated and with such a deep history, I'm not even going to attempt to debate it on a film forum. share
To clarify, I'm replacing auto with auto mass production.
But, European Enlightenment wouldn't include women, poorer classes and POC? True liberal democracy is a relatively recent concept?
To clarify, I'm replacing auto with auto mass production
That's fair.
But, European Enlightenment wouldn't include women, poorer classes and POC? True liberal democracy is a relatively recent concept?
That's also fair. But points to the complications. I mean, if you were doing a lecture series on it you might start with Magna Carta. A very imperfect document, but the start of a long journey...
And, y'know, America laboured under Jim Crow laws at a time the rest of the world did not, and the first country to give women the vote was New Zealand and.... all sorts of complications.
I'm certainly not suggesting the USA isn't part of the narrative. The Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights are important Enlightenment documents.... but I'd say the USA was created out of those ideas rather than the other way around and that it certainly hasn't always been the leader in further liberalisation or democratisation. I mean: it certainly isn't right now, is it?
Complex. Too complex. share
That's why I didn't credit U.S. with execution. History can be distorted by the narrative of its writers, too.
Wasn't the U.S. the first to rebel against its monarchy and attempt to realize a (flawed) Liberal Democracy nation? Maybe credit the U.S. for that first step.
Wasn't the U.S. the first to rebel against its monarchy and attempt to realize a (flawed) Liberal Democracy nation?
I'd probably give that one to France. share
American Revolution was before France and inspired them.
The Statue of Liberty was a gift celebrating both the end of slavery in the U.S. and the principle of American-inspired democracy. Zip to do with immigration except a woman wrote a poem for a poem contest to raise funds for its base and won.
The American Revolution was absolutely before France's. Although that version of France's democracy did end up failing, France did have universal suffrage (for men of course) in 1798 and then re-established in 1848, around the same time that the US did. I just hold off on the US as from what I understand it was a few more years before some of the men with "lower incomes" were allowed the vote.
shareThe third and final reason for the Statue of Liberty was to send a message of support for democracy in the face of Napoleon's authoritarian government.
The "concept" of American democracy inspired other nations. Initially, democracy was only for aristocrats. The U.S. continues to struggle with expanding which groups experience democracy and the Bill of Rights. I believe other countries do democracy much better than the U.S..
I'm just going by dates. I don't dispute why the statue of liberty was sent. I'm just saying that it was 100 after France first established a democracy, which then failed, and then they had to try again.
shareThere's a very good show free now on Amazon Prime, "Years That Changed History: 1215"
https://www.amazon.com/Watch-Trailer/dp/B09PW99GPQ/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+year+1215&qid=1692319405&s=instant-video&sr=1-1
There are some really important things in the Magna Carta, but a lot of it is silly petty stuff. They didn't have a Thomas Jefferson... "We will not allow anyone to be arrested without a warrant..." oh yeah there are too many fish traps in the Thames...
After quick google, credit goes to Ancient Incas and Aztecs for peanut butter so I'll remove that one.
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