托福阅读背景材料：THE FAITH OF A MERICANS
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THE FAITH OF A MERICANS
Americans toasted the arrival of the new century in 1900 with speeches, articles, and books
declaring a firm faith in the nation’s future. The pride and determined optimism that had long
characterized Ameri-cans seemed more strident than ever. In only a few decades, after all, much
of the nation’s rural landscape had given way to a welter of factories and cities, providing
jobs and promising a degree of prosperity only dreamed of in the past. New inventions were improving
everyday living. Immigrants were pouring into the country, and population was booming. The West,
free of
Indian resistance, seemed more inviting than ever. Farm income was better than it had been
in years. Educational opportunities were expanding. New professional organizations were emerging,
raising the standards in such vital fields as medicine and law. The nation was now a world power.
There were loud voices stressing the unhappy features of the departing era: monopolies,
the gap between rich and poor, recurrent recessions and depressions, wretched factory conditions,
urban blight, and political corrup- tion. Several farseeing observers complained about racial
and sexual dis- crimination and the ravaging of our natural resources. But few thought these
problems permanent. Most Americans seemed eager to express their belief in progress. As in Thomas
Jefferson’s administration, when the nineteenth century began, they were confident that the
future was bright and that they lived in a nation uniquely blessed by the Creator.
The great majority of Americans assumed they lived in a Christian, Protes- tant country;
the faith was an integral part of everyday life. For example, not only was Bible reading in
the public schools routine, but in 1890 twenty-two of twenty-four state universities surveyed
conducted chapel services, twelve required attendance, and four mandated church attendance as
well. In 1892 United States Supreme Court Justice David Brewer declared, “This is a reli- Chapter
Onegious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present
hour there is a single voice making this affirmation . . . this is a Christian nation.” Economic
abundance, religion, patriotism, and optimism were intertwined and everywhere in evidence in
the United States at the dawn of the twentieth century.
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