Word: strains
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...this idealism has also been in constant tension with another deep-seated strain in our historical experience. Since Tocqueville, it has been frequently observed that we are a pragmatic people−commonsensical, undogmatic and undoctrinaire, a nation of practical energy, ingenuity and spirit. We have made tolerance and compromise the basis of our domestic political life. We have defined our fundamental goals−justice, liberty, equality and progress−in open and libertarian terms, enlarging opportunity and freedom rather than coercing a uniform standard of conduct...
...practical needs were served, so too was our idealistic strain. James Madison declared that "the free system of Government we have established is so congenial with reason, with common sense, and with a universal feeling, that it must produce approbation and a desire of imitation−Our country, if it does justice to itself, will be the workshop of liberty to the civilized world, and do more than any other for the uncivilized." The implications of this outlook would lead both to the advocacy of interventionism, as in Edward Everett's 1823 case for supporting the Greek revolution...
...toasts continue, and if couplets strain...
Although initially more strain on the neophytes' ankles, the loss in stability is more than compensated by the reduced weight and added speed once you have mastered cross-country skiing...
...trial-and-error nature of the experiments also makes it possible they will produce a strain of bacteria that could seriously infect man or other animals and for which no cure is known...