America in Close-up

America in close-up

The making of a nation

The United States is a society of immigrants. Since its early days, the country has admitted a larger number of immigrants than any other country in history. The first immigrants were Spanish, attracted by the New World's history of gold. Prospects of wealth also motivated French fur traders. Then the British came for profit and also religious freedom. The first English successful colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia. English Puritans, Protestants who disagreed with the teachings of the Church of England, established settlements in the north-eastern region.

Throughout the 1600 and the 1700, permanent settlements were rapidly established all along the east coast. Most of the early settlers were British; then came the German and the Dutch. The African provided slave labour in the southern colonies. Immigrants also came from Spain, France, and Switzerland. When they settled in the New World, many immigrants tried to preserve the traditions, religion, and language of their particular culture. The language and culture of the more numerous English colonists, however, had the overriding influence.

European settlement changed the fate of the Native American Indians. Europeans arrived in great numbers and needed land and game for their survival. They seized Indian land through war, threats; they cut forests, hunted game, and built big cities. To the Indians, the white men were unwanted trespassers. They did not want the white man's civilization. The clash of cultures led to many battles. Those that remained tried to resist the US government’s effort. The Plains Indian’s final defeat in 1890 at the Battle of Wounded Knee symbolized the end of the Indians’ traditional way of life.

In the mid-1800s, thousands of Chinese emigrated to California. Up until 1880, the overwhelming majority of immigrants came from northern or western Europe. Between 1845 and 1860, a serious blight on the potato crop in Ireland sent hundreds of thousands of Irish people to the U.S. to escape starvation. The new immigration were Latin, Slavic, and Jewish people from southern and western Europe. Among these new arrivals were Italians, Hungarians, Poles, Russians, Rumanians, and Greek. The flood of immigration affected American cities. In 1890, New York was a city of foreigners.

The assimilation of these new southern and eastern peoples was a source of conflict. Many Americans treated them with prejudice and hostility, claiming racial superiority of the Nordic peoples of the old immigration over the Slavic and Latin peoples of the new immigration. Religious prejudice against Catholics and Jews was another factor underlying much of the resentment towards immigrants. Many old stock Americans feared that America was losing its established character and identity. Growing industrialization in the late nineteenth century led industries to favour an open-door immigration policy to expand the labour force. Americans feared the immigrants were taking away their jobs. The Congress of the 1920s drastically limited the number of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe.

The descendants were gradually assimilated into American society. By the second generation, these families spoke mostly English, and they practiced fewer ethnic traditions. Although immigration dropped after the 1920s, the number has again risen dramatically. America is again faced with an assimilation problem. The majority of the newest immigrants come from Mexico, Latin America, or Asia. The Asians seem most willing to assimilate. Many are Cambodian and Vietnam refugees.

Under the 1980 Refuge Act, the United States has admitted some 50,000 refugees per year who are fleeing their country because of persecution on the basis of race, religion, or nationality. American society, they point out, has always given people the opportunity to help themselves. The nation’s resources could not accommodate a sudden influx of the world’s poor and provide them with jobs and assistance.

In addition, hundreds of thousands of persons entered the country illegally, most of them fleeing poverty or war in Mexico or Latin America. Up to 1986, the law forbade illegal immigrants to work in the U.S. but did not penalize employers for hiring them. These circumstances encourage many people to risk illegal employment. An immigration law, however, imposes strict penalties on businesses hiring illegal aliens. In addition, this law provided the opportunity for aliens who had lived and worked in the U.S. since 1981 to apply for status as permanent residents.

Based on current rates, U.S. population could double in only 40 years. Restricting immigration would curb the rate of growth. Many Americans fear that immigrants may lower the quality of life in America by taking away American’s jobs and by importing the same social and economic ills. Furthermore, they argue that restrictions are a necessary measure to preserve American’s national identity. On the other hand, many Americans more optimistically emphasize the cultural wealth and diversity.

Newcomers were expected to assimilate and live on the majority’s terms. The mass migration at the turn of the century brought a new heterogeneity to American society. Before John F. Kennedy became the first Catholic to be elected President of the United States in 1960, all other presidents were Protestant. Since 1960, pressure on immigrants to Americanize and altogether forget their background has relaxed.

Americans are aware that the national ethnic, religious identity which once unified the country has disappeared. The well-known picture of America as a melting pot where all groups come together, creating a new, distinct American type, is not an adequate metaphor. On the whole, a more accurate picture of American society today, one that conveys its astonishing variety of cultures, each preserving its own distinctiveness, is vegetable soup.

American beliefs and values

At the center of all that Americans value is freedom. Americans commonly regard their society as the freest and best in the world. They like to think of their country as a welcoming heaven for those longing for freedom and opportunity.

Americans’ understanding of freedom is shaped by the Founding Fathers’ belief that all people are equal and that the role of government is to protect each person’s basic rights. The U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791, assures individual rights, including provisions for freedom of speech, press, and religion.

Yet this ideal has not always corresponded to reality. The inconsistency of black slavery in a society supposedly dedicated to freedom and equality plagued the nation. Reality continues to demonstrate that some social groups and individuals are not as free as others. Because of religious, racial, sex, or age discrimination, some Americans have not enjoyed the same rights and opportunities as others.

Americans’ notion of freedom focuses on the individual. Thomas Jefferson, philosopher, third president of the nation, and author of the Declaration of Independence, believed that a free individual’s identity should be held sacred and that his or her dignity and integrity should not be violated. Transcendentalists encouraged individuals to trust in themselves and their own consciences and to revolt against routine and habitual paths of conduct.

Individualism, understood not only as self-reliance but also as economic self-sufficiency, has been a central theme in American history. In the early days, most Americans were farmers whose success depended not on cooperation with others, but on their ability to confront the hardships of land and climate on their own. Even in today’s society, individualism persists.

Survival in the wilderness was best achieved by robust individualists. Survival experiences also explain the American tendency to idealize whatever is practical. In America, what works is what counts. Inventiveness was necessary for survival.

This can-do spirit is something Americans are proud of today. They like to think they are natural-born do-it-yourselfers. The do-it-yourself spirit is known as volunteerism in American community and political life. Volunteerism means people helping people through privately-initiated, rather than government-sponsored, agencies. Volunteers, usually unpaid, are highly motivated workers who organize themselves and others to solve a particular community problem or meet an immediate social need.

Where there are gaps in federal social programs, volunteers provide services such as adult education, psychological counseling, and legal aid. It is easy to be an optimistic do-it-yourselfer in so many spheres when one takes for granted an abundance of resources. Historically, Americans have regarded their country as a land of limitless wealth. Fertile land was cheap and available to anyone who wanted to farm. A country where everyone could take what he wanted was indeed alluring. Some tobacco lands began to be exhausted and abandoned before the end of the 18^th century.

The abundance of untapped natural resources attracted not only farmers, but also game hunters, fur trappers, gold and silver miners, lumberjacks, and cattle ranchers. Still, America is rich in natural resources. While some Americans still believe in the inexhaustibility of the nation’s resources, others reluctantly recognize that the era of cheap and plentiful resources is over. They realize that America must adopt new values to cope with a shrinking world.

As a nation of immigrants, Americans have from the beginning shared the assumption that the practical solution to a problem is to move elsewhere and make a fresh start. Mobility in America is not a sign of aimlessness but optimism. Moving about from place to place is such a common and accepted practice. Americans have to feel that buying a house might immobilize them forever.

The American habit of mobility has been important in contributing a degree of homogeneity to a society of such extreme cultural diversity. Cultural differences still exist from region to region, but they are becoming increasingly less distinct as mutual exchange occurs.

In this century, national pride has become generally stronger than regional pride. Foreign visitors to America are quick to observe the prevalence of patriotic symbols: flags fly in suburban neighborhoods, bumper stickers announce “I’m proud to be American”. National holidays such as Thanksgiving and Independence Day intensify the sense of national identity.

Yet patriotism in America is in some ways distinct from patriotism in other countries. Directly associated with the value of freedom is the ideal of progress. The desire to progress by making use of opportunities is important to Americans. In this immigrant society, progress is personally measured as family progress over generations.

The classic American family saga is all about progress. The term American Dream eludes precise definition. J. T. Adams in the Epic of America expressed it as “the dream of a land in which life should be better, richer, and fuller for every man with opportunities for each according to his abilities and achievement.”

However, the American Dream is not open to everyone. Segregation and discrimination are effective tools that have barred minorities from equal opportunities in all spheres. Even in the late 1960s and 70s, most obviously the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, jolted the country with doubts and insecurities and created fundamental divisions among Americans about their country’s goals.

The mainstream Protestant values which had held society together seemed to be collapsing. The 1980s saw a return to conservative family values and morals, as well as a renewal of national pride. Some critics observe that with the breakdown of consensus on beliefs and values which began around 1970, there has been increasing disparity of opinion about Americans’ values and national goals.

Regionalism vs. Americanization

The United States is a spacious country of varying terrains and climates. Between the coasts, there are forested mountains, fertile plains, arid deserts, canyon lands, and wide plateaus. Much of the land is uninhabited. The population is concentrated in the Northeast, the South, around the Great Lakes, on the Pacific Coast, and in metropolitan areas.

Each of the country’s four main regions—the Northeast, the South, the West, and the Midwest—maintains a degree of cultural identity. People within a region generally share common values, economic concerns, and a certain relationship to the land. Today, regional identities are not as clear as they once were. The mobility of people and the diffusion of culture through television and other mass media have greatly advanced the process of Americanization.

• The Northeast has traditionally been at the helm of the nation’s economic and social progress. The New Englanders often describe themselves as thrifty, reserved, and dedicated to hard work. New England colleges and universities are known all over the country for their high academic standards.
• Regional identity has been most pronounced in the South, where the peculiarities of the Southern history have played an important role in shaping the region’s character. The South was originally settled by English Protestants who came for profitable farming opportunities. Many of them established large plantations. African slaves supplied labour for these plantations. Southern slave-owners defended it as an economic necessity. Even after the North began to industrialize after 1800, the South remained agricultural. Economic and political tensions began to divide the nation and eventually led to the Civil War (1861-65). Most Northerners opposed slavery. Eleven Southern states left the federal union and proclaimed themselves an independent nation. With the South's surrender in 1865, Southerners were forced to accept many changes. During the post-war period of reconstruction which lasted until 1877, slavery was not only abolished, but blacks were given a voice in Southern government. For the next century, white Southerners consistently voted for Democrats. The Civil War experience helps explain why Southerners have developed a reverence for the past and a resistance to change, and why the South is different from the rest of the country. Southerners are more conservative, more religious, and more violent than the rest of the country. Southerners are the most native of this region. Most black and white Southerners can trace their ancestry in this country back to before 1800. Southerners tend to be more mindful of social rank and have strong ties to hometown and family. Even today, Southerners tend to have less schooling and higher illiteracy rates. Americans of other regions are quick to recognize a Southerner by his dialect. Southern speech tends to be much slower and more musical. The South is also known for its music. In the time of slavery, black Americans created a new folk music, the negro spiritual. Later forms of black music which began in the South are blues and jazz. The South has been one of the most outstanding literacy regions.
• Wide regional diversity makes the West hard to typify. While most of the Mountain West is arid wilderness interrupted by a few urban oases, California has some of the richest farmland in the country. The narrow band along its southern Pacific coast is densely populated and highly industrial. By combining the nation’s highest concentration of high-tech industries with the greatest percentage of service industries, California’s progressive economy is a trend-setter. The rest of the West is marked by cultural diversity and competing interests. Mormon-settled Utah has little in common with Mexican-influenced Arizona and New Mexico. Montana ranchers have different needs and different outlooks from the senior citizens clustered in a retirement community near Phoenix. Westerners are united in their long-standing hostility toward Washington and Eastern federal bureaucrats. Westerners feel alienated by government policies. Western states’ troubles with water scarcity and government-owned land seem to matter little to the rest of the country. Western life is dominated by resources. Although water is scarce in the Mountain West, the region is rich in uranium, coal, crude oil, oil shale, and other mineral deposits. Trying to support growing populations with limited supplies of water while at the same time preserving the land is nearly impossible.
• The Midwest has long been regarded as typically American. The fertile farmland and abundant resources have allowed agriculture and industry. Class divisions are felt less strongly here than in other regions; the middle class rules. Midwesterners are seen as commercially-minded, self-sufficient, unsophisticated, and pragmatic. Farmers are no longer isolationist or opposed to big government. The Midwest is known as a region of small towns and huge tracks of farmland.

The distinctiveness of these regions is disappearing. They are all becoming evermore alike due to the homogenizing influence of mass media. Since the Second World War, interstate highways and communication lines have connected isolated rural areas to urban centers. Television has conveyed mainstream American culture to everyone.

Americans have always been on the move in pursuit of opportunity. This process of Americanization has been accelerated by new migration trends. The new migration has brought economic prosperity to the warm “Sunbelt” while economic stagnation has occurred in the “Frostbelt”.

The attractions of the Sunbelt are numerous. Many older couples have moved to the South in order to enjoy retirement in a less harsh environment. Others have moved to escape problems of urban crime and overcrowding. Most people move for better employment opportunities. Wage scales are lower, and unions are weak. The increase in numbers moving to the Sunbelt has brought an increase in power. The political and social status of the South and West is on the rise.

The cultural dominance of the Northeast and Midwest is diminishing as cities in the South and West, such as Atlanta, Santa Fe, and Los Angeles, are gaining reputations as important cultural centers. The shift in economic strength and status to the Sunbelt does not mean that the Northeast and Midwest are drained of power and promise. The most significant trend is not the decline of the Frostbelt. In this process...