I argued here http://ocham.blogspot.com/2010/10/universi...-future_21.html that real history cannot be 'open source', and I cited the late Roy Rosenzweig, writing in the The Journal of American History June 2006 http://ecpdata.mdsa.net/sources_secondary/...eig-highres.pdf, who noted then that the article Cultural history of the United States was a stub, with the odd result that a Google search on 'cultural history of the United States' returns the article #1 on the search, even though there is nothing in it, apart from one banal sentence.

That was five years ago, but his observation is still true. There has only been one addition to the article since 2006, made in early February 2011 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=...oldid=407478480 . But this was not very useful: it merely serves to link to the Wikipedia article on American Imperialism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_impe...ral_Imperialism

And what a shitty crappy article that one is too. I have never read anything so rubbishy or biased. The irony is that Wikipedia itself is a form of American cultural imperialism.

[edit] some more shit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_..._foreign_policy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperpower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism

I have seen many shittier, crappier articles, but that one has obvious problems. First of all, the whole section on "American Exceptionalism" is WP:SYNTH; no sources are provided that link that concept to imperialism, but the article continues on as if there were. It is interesting that the article contains a reference to Alfred T. Mahan, but fails to connect him to the administration of Teddy Roosevelt, the first US President to embrace imperialism. Roosevelt is briefly mentioned in the article, without a first name ("Early in his career, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Roosevelt was instrumental in preparing the Navy for the Spanish–American War...") There is no direct mention of financial imperialism, which is the most significant kind. I think that with a bit of cleanup, this article could be every bit as good as the average WP piece of crap.

What about James Knox Polk and that incursion into Mexico?

A very good point. I'm a big fan of the Spot Resolutions.

The flip side of the "imperialism" of American Wiki authorship is the plethora of "my country has one too!" crap edits that clutter up dozens of articles. I look with dread at the railroad signalling articles for fear that they will eventually be populated with examples of the signals and rules of every little country in the world.