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In the beginning all knowledge of American history was [Galaxy in space]

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formless and empty and then shmoop created a US history course and there

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was lightning except that's not actually hell went down most Americans have been [Young boy walks up to woman reading book]

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absorbing versions of American history since they could walk unfortunately a

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lot of those versions get pretty darn mangled despite what Disney tells us

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Pocahontas did not fall in love with the John Smith she married a dude named [Pocahontas appears outside castle]

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crawl and died of an unknown disease in England not exactly a Disney ending no

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is it so let's put Disney aside and start with the broad strokes of what [Paint brush brushes]

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American history actually is basically we can break American identity into the

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three Mo's no money mol per mol right the three modes are like The Three

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Stooges but likely wrong oh okay so we're not created analogies here bear [Three stooges appear]

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with us first up no money americans love their dolla dolla bills so it's no

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surprise that a big chance of american history is about economic growth even

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that whole throwing off the yoke of british imperialism thing was cleaner [Man yoking large containers]

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about smashing economic freedom to pursue rampant capitalism without those

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pesky brits taxing us and you know get in the way from its revolution onward

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the u.s. combined several magical ingredients to achieve crazy economic [Money appears from cooking pot]

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growth capitalism of course industrialization and lots of natural

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resources which were free and ready to exploit well the story of the US economy

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has its upside like the turn of the century millionaires who built the

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American infrastructure and the rise of a strong middle class in the 1940s and [Millionaire man appears in a golden robe]

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50s but there are also some downsides not everybody got a share of all that

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cash like working class families trapped in cycles of poverty or you know slave

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okay time for the second mode low-power American history since the Civil War is [Soldiers firing rifles]

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also a story about becoming a global power like how the US has political

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influence all around the world and how we have an enormous economy rivaled only

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by China and how we have at least six hundred military bases overseas in over

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a hundred foreign countries well none of that happened overnight or by accident [Boy sleeping on a desk]

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America went from a socially fragmented mess in Civil War time

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to the most powerful nation in the world today on the one hand it's a good story

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about overcoming our internal challenges and rewarding innovation on the other

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hand it's a depressing tale of how imperialism and conquest made the u.s. [Man with head in his hand]

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the world's most kind of over controlling dad well it looks like the

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third Mo's up mo right when our forefathers wrote the Constitution

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standing in a grand be wicked circle around the sacred parchment they ended

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inequality forever they declared that all men that were created equal and had

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the same rights to Liberty justice and the pursuit of happiness except they

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wrote it in the 18th century and in the 18th century all men meant all white [Man appears outside house holding arms up]

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land owning males with full citizenship which was kind of disappointing to

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everyone in the country who was not like female or an immigrant so the third

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theme in US history is the battle for truly equal rights for all unfortunately

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this battle was filmed in slow motion now that it took a long time and it's [Soldiers marching into battle]

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still going on the Civil War saw the end of slavery in the 1860s suffragist got Man jumps over fence]

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women the right to vote in 1920 and a hundred years later the civil rights

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movement finally ended legal racial segregation in the 1960s the labor [Women voting]

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movements and unions uh also did their part for better and for worse they

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helped ensure working-class rights like the eight-hour work day laborer safety [Construction workers appear]

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minimum wage and the end of child labor with story still being written so well

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you know stay tuned mo TV how about that that's our fourth one mo TV yippee [Girl watching TV]

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