第二篇：美国历史文化

　　"America， to endure， must change…… Change to preserve America's ideals—— life， liberty， the pursu

　　"america， to endure， must change……

　　change to preserve america's ideals—— life， liberty， the pursuit of happiness. though we march to the music of our time，our mission is timeless."

　　—— president bill clinton， 1993

　　a society in transition

　　shifts in the structure of american society， begun years or even decades earlier， had become apparent by the time the 1980s arrived. the composition of the population and the most important jobs and skills in american society had undergone major changes.

　　the dominance of service jobs in the economy became undeniable. by the mid-1980s， capping a trend under way for more than half a century， three-fourths of all employees worked in the service sector —— for instance， as retail clerks， office workers， teachers， physicians and other health care professionals， government employees， lawyers， and legal and financial specialists.

　　service-sector activity benefited from the availability and increased use of the computer. this was the information age， with hardware and software that could aggregate previously unimagined amounts of data about economic and social trends. the federal government had made significant investments in computer technology in the 1950s and 1960s as part of its military and space programs. in the late 1970s， two young california entrepreneurs， working out of a garage， assembled the first widely marketed computer for home use， named it the apple —— and ignited a

　　revolution. by the early 1980s， millions of microcomputers had found their way into u.s. businesses and homes， and in 1982， time magazine dubbed the computer its "machine of the year."

　　meanwhile， america's "smokestack industries，" such as steel and textiles， were in decline. the u.s. automobile industry reeled under competition from such highly efficient japanese car makers as toyota， honda and nissan —— many of which opened their own factories in the united states. by 1980 japanese automobile manufacturers controlled a quarter of the american market. only by the late 1980s and early 1990s did u.s. manufacturers begin to match the

　　cost efficiencies and engineering standards of their japanese rivals， and start winning back the share of the domestic car market they had ceded to imports over the previous two decades. although consumers were the beneficiaries of this ferocious competition —— and in other highly competitive industries， as well， such as computers —— the painful struggle to cut costs meant the permanent loss of thousands of jobs in the u.s. auto industry.

　　population patterns shifted as well. after the end of the postwar "baby boom，" which lasted from approximately 1946 to 1964， the overall rate of population growth declined and the population grew older. household composition also changed. in 1980 the percentage of family households dropped; a quarter of all groups were now classified as "nonfamily households，" in which two or more uelated persons lived together.

　　new immigrants changed the character of american society in other ways. the 1965 reform in immigration policy shifted the focus away from western europe， and the number of new arrivals from asia and latin america increased

　　dramatically. vietnamese refugees， for example， poured into the united states in the aftermath of the war. in 1980， 808，000 immigrants arrived， the highest number in 60 years， as the country once more became a haven for people from around the world......