THE U.S. CULTURE
American culture is rich, complex, and unique. It emerged from the short
and rapid European conquest of an enormous landmass sparsely settled by
diverse indigenous peoples. Although European cultural patterns
predominated, especially in language, the arts, and political
institutions, peoples from Africa, Asia, and North America also
contributed to American culture. All of these groups influenced popular
tastes in music, dress, entertainment, and cuisine. As a result, American
culture possesses an unusual mixture of patterns and forms forged from
among its diverse peoples. The many melodies of American culture have not
always been harmonious, but its complexity has created a society that
struggles to achieve tolerance and produces a uniquely casual personal
style that identifies Americans everywhere. The country is strongly
committed to democracy, in which views of the majority prevail, and
strives for equality in law and institutions.
Characteristics such as democracy and equality flourished in the American
environment long before taking firm root in European societies, where the
ideals originated. As early as the 1780s, Michel Guillaume Jean de
Crиvecoeur, a French writer living in Pennsylvania who wrote under the
pseudonym J. Hector St. John, was impressed by the democratic nature of
early American society. It was not until the 19th century that these
tendencies in America were most fully expressed. When French political
writer Alexis de Tocqueville, an acute social observer, traveled through
the United States in the 1830s, he provided an unusually penetrating
portrait of the nature of democracy in America and its cultural
consequences. He commented that in all areas of culture—family life, law,
arts, philosophy, and dress—Americans were inclined to emphasize the
ordinary and easily accessible, rather than the unique and complex. His
insight is as relevant today as it was when de Tocqueville visited the
United States. As a result, American culture is more often defined by its
popular and democratically inclusive features, such as blockbuster movies,
television comedies, sports stars, and fast food, than by its more
cultivated aspects as performed in theaters, published in books, or viewed
in museums and galleries. Even the fine arts in modern America often
partake of the energy and forms of popular culture, and modern arts are
often a product of the fusion of fine and popular arts.
While America is probably most well known for its popular arts, Americans
partake in an enormous range of cultural activities. Besides being avid
readers of a great variety of books and magazines catering to differing
tastes and interests, Americans also attend museums, operas, and ballets
in large numbers. They listen to country and classical music, jazz and
folk music, as well as classic rock-and-roll and new wave. Americans
attend and participate in basketball, football, baseball, and soccer
games. They enjoy food from a wide range of foreign cuisines, such as
Chinese, Thai, Greek, French, Indian, Mexican, Italian, Ethiopian, and
Cuban. They have also developed their own regional foods, such as
California cuisine and Southwestern, Creole, and Southern cooking. Still
evolving and drawing upon its ever more diverse population, American
culture has come to symbolize what is most up-to-date and modern. American
culture has also become increasingly international and is imported by
countries around the world.
FORCES THAT SHAPED AMERICAN CULTURE
Imported Traditions
Today American culture often sets the pace in modern style. For much of
its early history, however, the United States was considered culturally
provincial and its arts second-rate, especially in painting and
literature, where European artists defined quality and form. American
artists often took their cues from European literary salons and art
schools, and cultured Americans traveled to Europe to become educated. In
the late 18th century, some American artists produced high-quality art,
such as the paintings of John Singleton Copley and Gilbert Charles Stuart
and the silver work of Paul Revere. However, wealthy Americans who
collected art in the 19th century still bought works by European masters
and acquired European decorative arts—porcelain, silver, and antique
furniture—. They then ventured further afield seeking more exotic decor,
especially items from China and Japan. By acquiring foreign works, wealthy
Americans were able to obtain the status inherent in a long historical
tradition, which the United States lacked. Americans such as Isabella
Stewart Gardner and Henry Clay Frick amassed extensive personal
collections, which overwhelmingly emphasized non-American arts.
In literature, some 19th-century American writers believed that only the
refined manners and perceptions associated with the European upper classes
could produce truly great literary themes. These writers, notably Henry
James and Edith Wharton, often set their novels in the crosswinds of
European and American cultural contact. Britain especially served as the
touchstone for culture and quality because of its role in America's
history and the links of language and political institutions. Throughout
the 19th century, Americans read and imitated British poetry and novels,
such as those written by Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens.
The Emergence of an American Voice
American culture first developed a unique American voice during the 19th
century. This voice included a cultural identity that was strongly
connected to nature and to a divine mission. The new American voice had
liberating effects on how the culture was perceived, by Americans and by
others. Writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau proposed that
the American character was deeply individualistic and connected to natural
and spiritual sources rather than to the conventions of social life. Many
of the 19th century’s most notable figures of American literature—Herman
Melville, Emily Dickinson, and Mark Twain—also influenced this tradition.
The poetry of Walt Whitman, perhaps above all, spoke in a distinctly
American voice about people’s relation to one another, and described
American freedom, diversity, and equality with fervor.
Landscape painting in the United States during the 19th century vividly
captured the unique American cultural identity with its emphasis on the
natural environment. This was evident in the huge canvases set in the West
by Albert Bierstadt and the more intimate paintings of Thomas Cole. These
paintings, which were part of the Hudson River School, were often
enveloped in a radiant light suggesting a special connection to spiritual
sources. But very little of this American culture moved beyond the United
States to influence art trends elsewhere. American popular culture,
including craft traditions such as quilting or local folk music forged by
Appalachian farmers or former African slaves, remained largely local.
This sense of the special importance of nature for American identity led
Americans in the late 19th century to become increasingly concerned that
urban life and industrial products were overwhelming the natural
environment. Their concern led for calls to preserve areas that had not
been developed. Naturalists such as John Muir were pivotal in establishing
the first national parks and preserving scenic areas of the American West.
By the early 20th century, many Americans supported the drive to preserve
wilderness and the desire to make the great outdoors available to
everyone.
Immigration and Diversity
By the early 20th century, as the United States became an international
power, its cultural self-identity became more complex. The United States
was becoming more diverse as immigrants streamed into the country,
settling especially in America’s growing urban areas. At this time,
America's social diversity began to find significant expression in the
arts and culture. American writers of German, Irish, Jewish, and
Scandinavian ancestry began to find an audience, although some of the
cultural elite resisted the works, considering them crude and unrefined.
Many of these writers focused on 20th-century city life and themes, such
as poverty, efforts to assimilate into the United States, and family life
in the new country. These ethnically diverse writers included Theodore
Dreiser, of German ancestry; Henry Roth, a Jewish writer; and Eugene
O'Neill and James Farrell, of Irish background. European influence now
meant something very different than it once had: Artists changed the core
of American experience by incorporating their various immigrant origins
into its cultural vision. During the 1920s and 1930s, a host of African
American poets and novelists added their voices to this new American
vision. Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Countee Cullen, among
others, gathered in New York City’s Harlem district. They began to write
about their unique experiences, creating a movement called the Harlem
Renaissance.
Visual artists of the early 20th century also began incorporating the many
new sights and colors of the multiethnic America visible in these new city
settings. Painters associated with a group known as The Eight (also called
the Ashcan school), such as Robert Henri and John Sloan, portrayed the
picturesque sights of the city. Later painters and photographers focused
on the city’s squalid and seamier aspects. Although nature remained a
significant dimension of American cultural self-expression, as the
paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe demonstrated, it was no longer at the heart
of American culture. By the 1920s and 1930s few artists or writers
considered nature the singular basis of American cultural identity.
In popular music too, the songs of many nations became American songs. Tin
Pan Alley (Union Square in New York City, the center of music publishing
at the turn of the 20th century) was full of immigrant talents who helped
define American music, especially in the form of the Broadway musical.
Some songwriters, such as Irving Berlin and George M. Cohan, used their
music to help define American patriotic songs and holiday traditions.
During the 1920s musical forms such as the blues and jazz began to
dominate the rhythms of American popular music. These forms had their
roots in Africa as adapted in the American South and then in cities such
as New Orleans, Louisiana; Kansas City, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; and
Chicago, Illinois. Black artists and musicians such as Louis Armstrong,
Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Count Basie became the instruments of
a classic American sound. White composers such as George Gershwin and
performers such as Bix Beiderbecke also incorporated jazz rhythms into
their music, while instrumentalists such as Benny Goodman adopted jazz’s
improvisational style to forge a racially blended American form called
swing music.
Development of Mass Media
In the late 19th century, Americans who enjoyed the arts usually lived in
big cities or had the money to attend live performances. People who were
poor or distant from cultural centers settled for second-rate productions
mounted by local theater troupes or touring groups. New technologies, such
as the motion-picture camera and the phonograph, revolutionized the arts
by making them available to the masses. The movies, the phonograph, and,
somewhat later, the radio made entertainment available daily and allowed
Americans to experience elaborately produced dramas and all types of
music.
While mass media made entertainment available to more people, it also
began to homogenize tastes, styles, and points of view among different
groups in the United States. Class and ethnic distinctions in American
culture began to fade as mass media transmitted movies and music to people
throughout the United States. Some people criticized the growing
uniformity of mass culture for lowering the general standard of taste,
since mass media sought to please the largest number of people by
appealing to simpler rather than more complex tastes. However, culture
became more democratic as modern technology and mass media allowed it to
reach more people.
During the 20th century, mass entertainment extended the reach of American
culture, reversing the direction of influence as Europe and the world
became consumers of American popular culture. America became the dominant
cultural source for entertainment and popular fashion, from the jeans and
T-shirts young people wear to the music groups and rock stars they listen
to and the movies they see. People all over the world view American
television programs, often years after the program’s popularity has
declined in the United States. American television has become such an
international fixture that American news broadcasts help define what
people in other countries know about current events and politics. American
entertainment is probably one of the strongest means by which American
culture influences the world, although some countries, such as France,
resist this influence because they see it as a threat to their unique
national culture.
The Impact of Consumerism
Popular culture is linked to the growth of consumerism, the repeated
acquisition of an increasing variety of goods and services. The American
lifestyle is often associated with clothing, houses, electronic gadgets,
and other products, as well as with leisure time. As advertising
stimulates the desire for updated or improved products, people
increasingly equate their well-being with owning certain things and
acquiring the latest model. Television and other mass media broadcast a
portrayal of a privileged American lifestyle that many Americans hope to
imitate.
Americans often seek self-fulfillment and status through gaining material
items. Indeed, products consumed and owned, rather than professional
accomplishments or personal ideals, are often the standard of success in
American society. The media exemplify this success with the most glamorous
models of consumption: Hollywood actors, sports figures, or music
celebrities. This dependence on products and on constant consumption
defines modern consumer society everywhere. Americans have set the pace
for this consumer ideal, especially young people, who have helped fuel
this consumer culture in the United States and the world. Like the mass
media with which it is so closely linked, consumption has been extensively
criticized. Portrayed as a dizzy cycle of induced desire, consumerism
seems to erode older values of personal taste and economy. Despite this,
the mass production of goods has also allowed more people to live more
comfortably and made it possible for anyone to attain a sense of style,
blurring the most obvious forms of class distinction.
WAYS OF LIFE
Living Patterns
A fundamental element in the life of the American people was the enormous
expanse of land available. During the colonial period, the access to open
land helped scatter settlements. One effect was to make it difficult to
enforce traditional European social conventions, such as primogeniture, in
which the eldest son inherited the parents’ estate. Because the United
States had so much land, sons became less dependent on inheriting the
family estate. Religious institutions were also affected, as the widely
spread settlements created space for newer religious sects and revivalist
practices.
In the 19th century, Americans used their land to grow crops, which helped
create the dynamic agricultural economy that defined American society.
Many Americans were lured westward to obtain more land. Immigrants sought
land to settle, cattle ranchers wanted land for their herds, Southerners
looked to expand their slave economy into Western lands, and railroad
companies acquired huge tracts of land as they bound a loose society into
a coherent economic union. Although Native Americans had inhabited most of
the continent, Europeans and American settlers often viewed it as empty,
virgin land that they were destined to occupy. Even before the late 19th
century, when the last bloody battles between U.S. troops and Native
Americans completed the white conquest of the West, the idea of possessing
land was deeply etched into American cultural patterns and national
consciousness.
Throughout the 19th century, agricultural settlements existed on large,
separate plots of land, often occupying hundreds of acres. The Homestead
Act of 1862 promised up to 65 hectares (160 acres) of free land to anyone
with enough fortitude and vision to live on or cultivate the land. As a
result, many settlements in the West contained vast areas of sparsely
settled land, where neighbors lived great distances from one another. The
desire for residential privacy has remained a significant feature of
American culture.
This heritage continues to define patterns of life in the United States.
More than any other Western society, Americans are committed to living in
private dwellings set apart from neighbors. Despite the rapid urbanization
that began in the late 19th century, Americans insisted that each nuclear
family (parents and their children) be privately housed and that as many
families as possible own their own homes. This strong cultural standard
sometimes seemed unusual to new immigrants who were used to the more
crowded living conditions of Europe, but they quickly adopted this aspect
of American culture.
As cities became more densely populated, Americans moved to the suburbs.
Streetcars, first used during the 1830s, opened suburban rings around city
centers, where congestion was greatest. Banks offered long-term loans that
allowed individuals to invest in a home. Above all, the automobile in the
1920s was instrumental in furthering the move to the suburbs.
After World War II (1939-1945), developers carved out rural tracts to
build millions of single-family homes, and more Americans than ever before
moved to large suburban areas that were zoned to prevent commercial and
industrial activities. The federal government directly fueled this process
by providing loans to war veterans as part of the Servicemen’s
Readjustment Act of 1944, known as the GI Bill of Rights, which provided a
wide range of benefits to U.S. military personnel. In many of the new
housing developments, builders constructed homes according to a single
model, a process first established in Levittown, New York. These
identical, partially prefabricated units were rapidly assembled, making
suburban life and private land ownership available to millions of
returning soldiers in search of housing for their families.
American families still choose to live in either suburbs or the sprawling
suburban cities that have grown up in newer regions of the country. Vast
areas of the West, such as the Los Angeles metropolitan region in
California, the area around Phoenix, Arizona, and the Puget Sound area of
Washington state, became rapidly populated with new housing because of the
American desire to own a home on a private plot of land. In much of this
suburban sprawl, the central city has become largely indistinct. These
suburban areas almost invariably reflect Americans’ dependence on
automobiles and on government-supported highway systems.
As a result of Americans choosing to live in the suburbs, a distinctly
American phenomenon developed in the form of the shopping mall. The
shopping mall has increasingly replaced the old-fashioned urban downtown,
where local shops, restaurants, and cultural attractions were located.
Modern malls emphasize consumption as an exclusive activity. The shopping
mall, filled with department stores, specialty shops, fast-food
franchises, and movie multiplexes, has come to dominate retailing, making
suburban areas across America more and more alike. In malls, Americans
purchase food, clothing, and entertainment in an isolated environment
surrounded by parking lots.
The American preference for living in the suburbs has also affected other
living experiences. Because suburbs emphasize family life, suburban areas
also place a greater emphasis on school and other family-oriented
political issues than more demographically diverse cities. At their most
intense levels, desire for privacy and fear of crime have led to the
development of gated suburban communities that keep out those who are not
wanted.
Despite the growth of suburbs, American cities have maintained their
status as cultural centers for theaters, museums, concert halls, art
galleries, and more upscale restaurants, shops, and bookstores. In the
past several decades, city populations grew as young and trendy
professionals with few or no children sought out the cultural
possibilities and the diversity not available in the suburbs. Housing can
be expensive and difficult to find in older cities such as New York;
Boston, Massachusetts; and San Francisco, California. To cope, many city
dwellers restored older apartment buildings and houses. This process,
called gentrification, combines the American desire for the latest
technology with a newer appreciation for the classic and vintage.
Many poorer Americans cannot afford homes in the suburbs or apartments in
the gentrified areas of cities. They often rely upon federal housing
subsidies to pay for apartments in less-desirable areas of the city or in
public housing projects. Poorer people often live crowded together in
large apartment complexes in congested inner-city areas. Federal public
housing began when President Franklin Roosevelt sought to relieve the
worst conditions associated with poverty in the 1930s. It accelerated
during the 1950s and 1960s, as the government subsidized the renewal of
urban areas by replacing slums with either new or refurbished housing. In
the late 20th century, many people criticized public housing because it
was often the site for crime, drug deals, gangs, and other social ills.
Nevertheless, given the expensive nature of rental housing in cities,
public housing is often the only option available to those who cannot
afford to buy their own home. Private efforts, such as Habitat for
Humanity, have been organized to help the urban poor move from crowded,
high-rise apartments. These organizations help construct low-cost homes in
places such as the South Bronx in New York City, and they emphasize the
pride and autonomy of home ownership.
In recent years, the importance of home ownership has increased as higher
real estate prices have made the house a valuable investment. The newest
home construction has made standard the comforts of large kitchens,
luxurious bathrooms, and small gardens. In line with the rising cost of
land, these houses often stand on smaller lots than those constructed in
the period following World War II, when one-story ranch houses and large
lawns were the predominant style. At the same time, many suburban areas
have added other kinds of housing in response to the needs of single
people and people without children. As a result, apartments and
townhouses—available as rentals and as condominiums—have become familiar
parts of suburban life. For more information on urbanization and
suburbanization.
Food and Cuisine
The United States has rich and productive land that has provided Americans
with plentiful resources for a healthy diet. Despite this, Americans did
not begin to pay close attention to the variety and quality of the food
they ate until the 20th century, when they became concerned about eating
too much and becoming overweight. American food also grew more similar
around the country as American malls and fast-food outlets tended to
standardize eating patterns throughout the nation, especially among young
people. Nevertheless, American food has become more complex as it draws
from the diverse cuisines that immigrants have brought with them.
Historically, the rest of the world has envied the good, wholesome food
available in the United States. In the 18th and 19th centuries, fertile
soil and widespread land ownership made grains, meats, and vegetables
widely available, and famine that was common elsewhere was unknown in the
United States. Some immigrants, such as the Irish, moved to the United
States to escape famine, while others saw the bounty of food as one of the
advantages of immigration. By the late 19th century, America’s food
surplus was beginning to feed the world. After World War I (1914-1918) and
World War II, the United States distributed food in Europe to help
countries severely damaged by the wars. Throughout the 20th century,
American food exports have helped compensate for inadequate harvests in
other parts of the world. Although hunger does exist in the United States,
it results more from food being poorly distributed rather than from food
being unavailable.
Traditional American cuisine has included conventional European foodstuffs
such as wheat, dairy products, pork, beef, and poultry. It has also
incorporated products that were either known only in the New World or that
were grown there first and then introduced to Europe. Such foods include
potatoes, corn, codfish, molasses, pumpkin and other squashes, sweet
potatoes, and peanuts. American cuisine also varies by region. Southern
cooking was often different from cooking in New England and its upper
Midwest offshoots. Doughnuts, for example, were a New England staple,
while Southerners preferred corn bread. The availability of foods also
affected regional diets, such as the different kinds of fish eaten in New
England and
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