WHEN America was young a traveler in the West could never tell what he might of humor, a 'national American humour', as one English reviewer. * This essay was presented before the Historical Society of the University of. Auckland, 14 aspects of culture, and we share many of our favorite jokes and stories with savage.
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- Culture of the United States - Wikipedia
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- Periods of American Literature
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This trend can be mostly attributed to rising living costs that are more expensive compared to those in decades past. Thus, many young adults now remain with their parents well past their mid-twenties. This topic was a cover article of TIME magazine in Historically, Americans mainly lived in a rural environment, with a few important cities of moderate size. Following World War II, however, increasing numbers of Americans began living in the suburbs, belts around major cities with higher density than rural areas, but much lower than urban areas.
This move has been attributed to many factors such as the automobile, the availability of large tracts of land, the convenience of more and longer paved roads, increasing violence in urban centers see white flight , and the lower expense of housing. These new single-family houses were usually one or two stories tall, and often were part of large contracts of homes built by a single developer and often with little variation sometimes referred to as cookie cutter houses or homes.
The resulting low-density development was given the pejorative label urban sprawl. This has changed; [ how? The result has been the displacement of many poorer, inner-city residents. Here, the more affluent members of the middle-class, who are also often referred to as being professional or upper middle-class, have left in search of larger homes in more exclusive suburbs. This trend is largely attributed to the Middle-class squeeze , which has caused a starker distinction between the statistical middle class and the more privileged members of the middle class.
The population of rural areas has been declining over time as more and more people migrate to cities for work and entertainment. Electricity and telephones, and sometimes cable and Internet services are available to all but the most remote regions. About half of Americans now live in what is known as the suburbs.
Culture of the United States - Wikipedia
The suburban nuclear family has been identified as part of the " American Dream ": This archetype is reinforced by mass media, religious practices, and government policies and is based on traditions from Anglo-Saxon cultures. One of the biggest differences in suburban living as compared to urban living; is the housing occupied by the families. The suburbs are filled with single-family homes separated from retail districts, industrial areas, and sometimes even public schools.
However, many American suburbs are incorporating these districts on smaller scales, attracting more people to these communities. Housing in urban areas may include more apartments and semi-attached homes than in the suburbs or small towns. Aside from housing, the major differences from suburban living are the density and diversity of many different subcultures, and retail and manufacturing buildings mixed with housing in urban areas.
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Due to the low overall population density and urban sprawl , the United States is one of the few developed nations where most people commute by car. The rise of suburbs and the need for workers to commute to cities brought about the popularity of automobiles. The culture in the s and s often catered to the automobile with motels and drive-in restaurants. Outside of the relatively few urban areas, it is considered a necessity for most Americans to own and drive cars.
New York City is the only locality in the United States where more than half of all households do not own a car. In the s and s subcultures began to arise around the modification and racing of American automobiles and converting them into hot rods. Later, in the lates and earlys Detroit manufacturers began making muscle cars and pony cars to cater to the needs of wealthier Americans seeking hot rod style, performance and appeal.
Though most Americans in the 21st century identify themselves as middle class , American society and its culture are considerably fragmented. Distinct lifestyles, consumption patterns and values are associated with different classes. Early sociologist-economist Thorstein Veblen , for example, said that those at the very top of the social ladder engage in conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption. Upper-middle-class persons commonly identify education and being cultured as prime values. Persons in this particular social class tend to speak in a more direct manner that projects authority, knowledge and thus credibility.
They often tend to engage in the consumption of so-called mass luxuries, such as designer label clothing. A strong preference for natural materials and organic foods and a strong health consciousness tend to be prominent features of the upper middle class. American middle-class individuals in general value expanding one's horizon, partially because they are more educated and can afford greater leisure and travels. Working-class individuals take great pride in doing what they consider to be "real work" and keep very close-knit kin networks that serve as a safeguard against frequent economic instability.
Working-class Americans and many of those in the middle class may also face occupation alienation. In contrast to upper-middle-class professionals who are mostly hired to conceptualize, supervise, and share their thoughts, many Americans have little autonomy or creative latitude in the workplace.
Political behavior is affected by class; more affluent individuals are more likely to vote, and education and income affect whether individuals tend to vote for the Democratic or Republican party. Income also had a significant impact on health as those with higher incomes had better access to health care facilities, higher life expectancy , lower infant mortality rate and increased health consciousness. In the United States occupation is one of the prime factors of social class and is closely linked to an individual's identity. The average work week in the U.
Periods of American Literature
While the average worker in Denmark enjoyed 30 days of vacation annually, the average American had 16 annual vacation days. In the average American worked 1, hours per year, hours more than the average German, yet hours less than the average Czech. During the U. Census, Whites made up African Americans made up The northern states had outlawed slavery in their territory in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century, though their industrial economies relied on raw materials produced by slaves.
Following the Reconstruction period in the s, racist legislation emerged in the Southern states named the Jim Crow laws that provided for legal segregation.
Lynching was practiced throughout the U. Chinese Americans were earlier marginalized as well during a significant proportion of U. Due to exclusion from or marginalization by earlier mainstream society, there emerged a unique subculture among the racial minorities in the United States.
Music styles such as jazz , blues , rap , rock and roll , and numerous folk-songs such as Blue Tail Fly Jimmy Crack Corn originated within the realms of African-American culture, and were later adopted by the mainstream. The Hispanic community has also had a dramatic impact on American culture. Today, Catholics are the largest religious denomination in the United States and outnumber Protestants in the Southwest and California. Economic variance and substantive segregation, is commonplace in the United States.
Asian Americans have median household income and educational attainment exceeding that of other races. After the attacks by Muslim terrorists on September 11, , discrimination against Arabs and Muslims in the U. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee ADC reported an increase in hate speech, cases of airline discrimination, hate crimes, police misconduct, and racial profiling. It is customary for Americans to hold a wake in a funeral home within a couple days of the death of a loved one. The body of the deceased may be embalmed and dressed in fine clothing if there will be an open-casket viewing.
Traditional Jewish and Muslim practice include a ritual bath and no embalming. Friends, relatives and acquaintances gather, often from distant parts of the country, to "pay their last respects" to the deceased. Flowers are brought to the coffin and sometimes eulogies , elegies , personal anecdotes or group prayers are recited.
Otherwise, the attendees sit, stand or kneel in quiet contemplation or prayer. Kissing the corpse on the forehead is typical among Italian Americans [97] and others. Condolences are also offered to the widow or widower and other close relatives. A funeral may be held immediately afterwards or the next day. The funeral ceremony varies according to religion and culture. American Catholics typically hold a funeral mass in a church, which sometimes takes the form of a Requiem mass.
Jewish Americans may hold a service in a synagogue or temple. Pallbearers carry the coffin of the deceased to the hearse , which then proceeds in a procession to the place of final repose, usually a cemetery. The unique Jazz funeral of New Orleans features joyous and raucous music and dancing during the procession. Mount Auburn Cemetery founded in is known as "America's first garden cemetery. Rows of graves are covered by lawns and are interspersed with trees and flowers. Headstones , mausoleums , statuary or simple plaques typically mark off the individual graves.
Cremation is another common practice in the United States, though it is frowned upon by various religions. The ashes of the deceased are usually placed in an urn , which may be kept in a private house, or they are interred. Sometimes the ashes are released into the atmosphere. The "sprinkling" or "scattering" of the ashes may be part of an informal ceremony, often taking place at a scenic natural feature a cliff, lake or mountain that was favored by the deceased. A so-called death industry has developed in the United States that has replaced earlier, more informal traditions.
Before the popularity of funeral homes, people usually held wakes in the Parlour rooms of private houses. Marriage laws are established by individual states. The typical wedding involves a couple proclaiming their commitment to one another in front of their close relatives and friends, often presided over by a religious figure such as a minister, priest, or rabbi, depending upon the faith of the couple.
In traditional Christian ceremonies, the bride's father will "give away" hand off the bride to the groom. Secular weddings are also common, often presided over by a judge, Justice of the Peace , or other municipal official. Same-sex marriage is legal in all states.
Polygamy is universally banned. Divorce is the province of state governments, so divorce law varies from state to state. Prior to the s, divorcing spouses had to allege that the other spouse was guilty of a crime or sin like abandonment or adultery; when spouses simply could not get along, lawyers were forced to manufacture "uncontested" divorces. The no-fault divorce revolution began in in California; New York and South Dakota were the last states to begin allowing no-fault divorce.
No-fault divorce on the grounds of "irreconcilable differences" is now available in all states. However, many states have recently required separation periods prior to a formal divorce decree. State law provides for child support where children are involved, and sometimes for alimony. Throughout most of the country's history following independence from Great Britain, the majority race in the United States has been Caucasian, and the largest racial minority has been African-Americans.
This relationship has historically been the most important one since the founding of the United States. Currently, most African-Americans are descendants of African slaves imported to the United States, though some are more recent immigrants or their descendants. Slavery existed in the United States at the time of the country's formation in the s.
Slavery was partially abolished by the Emancipation Proclamation issued by president Abraham Lincoln in for slaves in the Southeastern United States during the Civil War. Slavery was rendered illegal by the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Jim Crow Laws prevented full use of African American citizenship until the 20th century. The Civil Rights Movement in the s and the Civil Rights Act of outlawed official or legal segregation in public places or limited access to minorities. Relations between white Americans and other racial or ethnic groups have been a source of tension at various times in U.
With the advent of European colonization, and continuing into the early years of the republic, relations between whites and Native American was a significant issue. In , in response to Chinese immigration due to the Gold Rush and the labor needed for the Transcontinental Railroad, the U. In the late 19th century, the growth of the Hispanic population in the U. A huge majority of Americans of all races disapprove of racism.
Professor Imani Perry, of Princeton University , has argued that contemporary racism in the United States "is frequently unintentional or unacknowledged on the part of the actor", [] believing that racism mostly stems unconsciously from below the level of cognition. American attitudes towards drugs and alcoholic beverages have evolved considerably throughout the country's history. In the 19th century, alcohol was readily available and consumed, and no laws restricted the use of other drugs. Attitudes on drug addiction started to change, resulting in the Harrison Act , which eventually became proscriptive.
A movement to ban alcoholic beverages, called the Temperance movement, emerged in the late 19th century. Several American Protestant religious groups and women's groups, such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union , supported the movement. In , Prohibitionists succeeded in amending the Constitution to prohibit the sale of alcohol. Although the Prohibition period did result in lowering alcohol consumption overall, [ citation needed ] banning alcohol outright proved to be unworkable, as the previously legitimate distillery industry was replaced by criminal gangs that trafficked in alcohol.
Prohibition was repealed in States and localities retained the right to remain "dry", and to this day, a handful still do. During the Vietnam War era, attitudes swung well away from prohibition. Commentators noted that an year-old could be drafted to war but could not buy a beer. Since , the trend has been toward greater restrictions on alcohol and drug use. The focus this time, however, has been to criminalize behaviors associated with alcohol, rather than attempt to prohibit consumption outright.
New York was the first state to enact tough drunk-driving laws in ; since then all other states have followed suit. All states have also banned the purchase of alcoholic beverages by individuals under A " Just Say No to Drugs" movement replaced the more liberal ethos of the s. This led to stricter drug laws and greater police latitude in drug cases. Since the s, marijuana use has become increasingly tolerated in America, and a number of states allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes. In most states marijuana is still illegal without medical prescription. Since the general election, voters in the District of Columbia and the states of Alaska , California , Colorado , Maine , Massachusetts , Nevada , Oregon , and Washington approved the legalization of marijuana for recreational use.
Marijuana is classified as illegal under federal law. De Tocqueville first noted, in , the American attitude towards helping others in need. Many low-level crimes are punished by assigning hours of " community service ", a requirement that the offender perform volunteer work; [] some high schools also require community service to graduate.
Since US citizens are required to attend jury duty , they can be jurors in legal proceedings. From the time of its inception the military played a decisive role in the history of the United States. Even so, the Founders were suspicious of a permanent military force and not until the outbreak of World War II did a large standing army become officially established. It draws its manpower from a large pool of paid volunteers ; although conscription has been used in the past in various times of both war and peace, it has not been used since Put together, the United States constitutes roughly 43 percent of the world's military expenditures.
In sharp contrast to most other developed nations , firearms laws in the United States are permissive and private gun ownership is common; almost half of American households contain at least one firearm. Gun ownership tends to be more common in rural than in urban areas. Hunting, plinking and target shooting are popular pastimes, although ownership of firearms for purely utilitarian purposes such as personal protection is common as well.
Gun ownership is considerably more prevalent among men than among women; men are approximately four times more likely than women to report owning guns. In the federal government of the United States , responsibilities that are usually in a cultural minister 's portfolio elsewhere are divided among the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities , the Federal Communications Commission , the Corporation for Public Broadcasting , the U.
Department of Commerce , the U. Department of the Interior , the U. However, many state and city governments have a department dedicated to cultural affairs. The Hollywood cinema industry has been very influential on American culture, and to some extent in global culture through transmission of American movies overseas and as other film cultures like Bollywood have striven to emulate the American model. The United States has influenced the cultures of many other countries, but as countries around the world become more inter-connected and inter-dependent, the general cultural trends of the US and other countries head towards multiculturalism and sociocultural globalization.
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Columbia reaching out to viewer. Original design for the "Be Patriotic" poster by Paul Stahr, c. Languages of the United States. Architecture of the United States. This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. Theater of the United States. List of American composers. Dance in the United States.
Cinema of the United States. This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. July Learn how and when to remove this template message. Science and technology in the United States. Religion in the United States. Folklore of the United States. Naming in the United States and African-American names.
Fashion in the United States. Sports in the United States. Cuisine of the United States. A meatloaf with a tomato sauce topping. Family structure in the United States. This section needs expansion with: Technological and industrial history of the United States and Passenger vehicles in the United States.
Social class in the United States. This section needs to be updated. Wilson became the first black women to publish fiction in the United States. Emily Dickinson lived a life quite unlike other writers of the Romantic period: They are sharp-edged and emotionally intense. Five of her notable poems are. The human cost of the Civil War in the United States was immense: This was the essence of realism. Naturalism was an intensified form of realism. Samuel Clemens was a typesetter, a journalist, a riverboat captain, and an itinerant laborer before he became, in at age 27, Mark Twain.
He first used that name while reporting on politics in the Nevada Territory. Twain deployed this combination of humor and realism throughout his writing. Some of his notable works include. Naturalism, like realism, was a literary movement that drew inspiration from French authors of the 19th century who sought to document, through fiction, the reality that they saw around them, particularly among the middle and working classes living in cities.
Theodore Dreiser was foremost among American writers who embraced naturalism. His Sister Carrie is the most important American naturalist novel. Henry James shared the view of the realists and naturalists that literature ought to present reality, but his writing style and use of literary form sought to also create an aesthetic experience, not simply document truth. He was preoccupied with the clash in values between the United States and Europe.
His writing shows features of both 19th-century realism and naturalism and 20th-century modernism. Some of his notable novels are. Advances in science and technology in Western countries rapidly intensified at the start of the 20th century and brought about a sense of unprecedented progress. These contradictory impulses can be found swirling within modernism , a movement in the arts defined first and foremost as a radical break from the past.
But this break was often an act of destruction, and it caused a loss of faith in traditional structures and beliefs. Despite, or perhaps because of, these contradictory impulses, the modernist period proved to be one of the richest and most productive in American literature. A sense of disillusionment and loss pervades much American modernist fiction. That sense may be centered on specific individuals, or it may be directed toward American society or toward civilization generally.
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It may generate a nihilistic, destructive impulse, or it may express hope at the prospect of change. Richard Wright exposed and attacked American racism in Native Son William Faulkner used stream-of-consciousness monologues and other formal techniques to break from past literary practice in The Sound and the Fury Eliot was an American by birth and, as of , a British subject by choice.
His fragmentary, multivoiced The Waste Land is the quintessential modernist poem, but his was not the dominant voice among American modernist poets. Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg evocatively described the regions—New England and the Midwest, respectively—in which they lived. Harriet Monroe founded Poetry magazine in Chicago in and made it the most important organ for poetry not just in the United States but for the English-speaking world.
During the s Edna St. Vincent Millay , Marianne Moore , and E. Cummings expressed a spirit of revolution and experimentation in their poetry. Drama came to prominence for the first time in the United States in the early 20th century. Playwrights drew inspiration from European theater but created plays that were uniquely and enduringly American. Join the "putter-offers" for success and happiness. In "The Holy Bible: This iconic on-air veteran examines the deeply rooted beliefs of the world's many religions.
The primary purpose is to explore and offer material leading to better understanding concerning the myriad religions, thereby decreasing rancor regarding the differences. Among many topics the text questions whether Moses and other prominent Bible figures were actual persons or perhaps inventions of theological ideas.
The content is historical, probing and speculative with acknowledgment that translations and interpretation can play major roles in misunderstanding. One of religion's major arguments concerns creationism and evolution and that, too, is discussed. The author is an award winning veteran broadcaster who reports negative and positive aspects concerning both the Old and New Testaments. It may be harmful to your tender psyche. In an effort to be more or less specific, let's say you'll be exposed to garbled grammar, mangled metaphors, agitated anomalies, scrambled syntax and occasional onomatopoeia.
Proceed at your own risk! You may deny knowledge of spoonerisms but you know what they are even if you don't know you know it. The author is the world's foremost practitioner of this somewhat archaic aimlessness of more normal speech patterns. He issues a promissory note that you will be entertained After all, the mice of adprission is a beer magatelle! Having written his own broadcast material over the years, he has now branched out into fiction with four examples, an adventure novel, "Conspiracy: Rick O'Shea Adventure 1," with two sequels, "Duplicity: Rick O'Shea Adventure 2 and "Intrigue: Rick O'Shea Adventure 3.
There are encounters with hi-jackers, meth makers, drug dealers, rattlesnakes and a mountain lion. Is it a reprise of the fictional Dracula or a struggle to gain control of what may be a multi-billion dollar invention or both? Rick O'Shea is a different kind of detective, more aptly defined as a "seeker" and "finder. They venture forth into unknown Romanian territory and England where Bram Stoker was inspired to write about the renowned Count of vampire fame.
Their search is like trying to solve a big jigsaw puzzle. Eventually, "treasures" are sought in the Channel Islands and Iceland before robbery of an armored truck reaches a climax in Canada. Award winning newsman John Rayburn brings exciting reality to the people, places and things involved in this second of a series featuring a scintillating trio of adventurers. Rick, Helga and Lute are commissioned to find the truth.
Other puzzles confront them; theft of rough diamonds from a Canadian mine, a radical threat to plant bombs in the U. The trio uses a seaplane, helicopter and U.