The Temperance Movement arose in America as a backlash against the widespread use and abuse of alcohol among American men. It was most consistently supported by women and religious leaders. The movement culminated with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, which legally prohibited the sale of alcohol in all US territories. The passage of the Volstead Act wrote the amendment into law. 

The Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco was the spiritual home of the hippie movement that swept through American popular culture in the 1960s. It was the sight of rampant drug use and rock-music culture. The significance of the hippie movement in creating a fractured America cannot be overstated; the next couple of decades would be culturally dominated by the radicals on one side and the reactionaries on the other. 

The term “Lost Generation” was coined by Ernest Hemmingway in his novel The Sun Also Rises. The term refers to the generation of young Americans (and Europeans) who fought in World War One and lost a large proportion of their youth and optimism. Upon returning to America, many of these individuals became disillusioned with the over-commercialized lifestyle for which they had fought. Jack London died during World War One, and he is generally remembered, through his literature, as an avid advocate of unionization and socialism.

Black nationalism is a broad term that helps describe figures ranging from Nat Turner to Marcus Garvey to Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan. At its heart, Black nationalism set itself apart by advocating for African-Americans to empower themselves through creating their own organizations and institutions. Black nationalism has given rise to groups like the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers. Frequently, more mainstream African-American organizations would fight with Black nationalists over most issues.

The Feminine Mystique was written in 1963 by Betty Friedan, a notable member of the women’s rights movement. Friedan’s work focused on interviews with contemporary female housewives and found that many of them were dissatisfied with their lives.

In her book, Friedan concludes that a number of cultural forces have conspired to encourage women to seek fulfillment in domestic life. She contends that if women are to control their own happiness, they must resist these cultural forces and find fulfillment in work that brings out the full capacity of their minds. The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking a new wave of feminism.

In the lead up to the 1980 Presidential Election, a variety of conservative Christians, most notably Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority organization, began to coalesce behind Republican politicians. Many right-wing Christians became animated by a number of issues in domestic politics that they saw as threatening to traditional Christianity, especially the legalization of abortion after Roe v. Wade, the burgeoning gay rights movement, the sexual revolution, and the changing nature of women's roles as exemplified in the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment.

The First Great Awakening (1730-1740) was a period of intense religious revivalism in the colonies that helped foster an independent religious spirit, encourage the creation of new Christian denominations and lead to the creation of many Christian schools across the colonies. Disdain for Catholicism was already rampant amongst the (vast) Protestant majority in the colonies and, as such, was not caused by the First Great Awakening. 

Prior to King Phillip’s War there had been little existence of an American identity, one distinct from British. In the early seventeenth century, colonies had been established primarily as a means of shipping religious dissidents three thousand miles away, where they could not affect English heterodoxy. The colonists tended to see themselves as religiously separate, but culturally and nationally identical to the British; however, in King Phillip’s War the colonists were provided with very little assistance by the British Empire. Forced to fight and die together, the war fostered a new identity, an American identity that would continue to build, particularly in New England, for the next hundred years. 

“Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer” was, in fact, written by a lawyer in opposition to the British imposition of the Townshend Acts. The tract argued that the British government did have ultimate authority over the external affairs of the colonies, but that the colonies had the right to internal government. It declared that taxes made solely for the purpose of raising revenue for the Empire were abhorrent and against the British legal system. The tract was widely read and encouraged anti-British feeling throughout the colonies. 

In early 1692, many town in the northern part of Massachusetts colony underwent a mass hysteria where various townspeople accused others of being practicing witches. Such accusations had a long history in European culture, and were well established in the colonists' own deeply held Calvinism. Witchcraft was a capital offense, and the ensuing trials became more convoluted by recent changes and disputes over Royal authority in the colony. In all, hundreds were accused and convicted, with dozens being executed in a variety of manners. This was also the last instance of a widespread witch trial, and made royal authority finally preeminent in Massachusetts.