Giáo trình văn hóa mỹ (dùng cho sinh viên cao đẳng tiếng anh)

UNIT 2: THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA Americans, or American people, are citizens, or natives, of the United States of America.. Census Bureau for statistical purposes: White, American Indian an

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUẢNG BÌNH

KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ

GIÁO TRÌNH (Lưu hành nội bộ)

VĂN HÓA MỸ (Dành cho sinh viên cao đẳng tiếng Anh)

Tác giả: Nguyễn Thị Hồng Thắm

Năm 2013

LỜI NÓI ĐẦU

Văn hóa Mỹ là giáo trình được biên soạn theo khung chương trình giáo dục cao

đẳng tiếng Anh Giáo trình được biên soạn theo hướng cung cấp cho sinh viên kiến thức cơ bản về đất nước và con người nước Mỹ; hệ thống giá trị, phong tục tập quán, xã hội, hệ thống chính trị, giáo dục của Mỹ làm nền tảng để tìm hiểu và vận dụng những kiến thức đó trong tiếp thu ngôn ngữ Anh, trong hoạt động giao tiếp liên văn hoá Ngoài ra, học phần còn rèn luyện cho sinh viên kĩ năng đọc hiểu, phân tích, tổng hợp, nghiên cứu các vấn đề văn hóa – xã hội Bên cạnh đó, sinh viên có thể rèn luyện kĩ năng nói thông qua các buổi trình bày nhóm và các buổi thảo luận

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Unit 1: THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY Page 3-7 Unit 2: THE PEOPLE……… Page 8-14 Unit 3: THE POLITICAL SYSTEM…… Page 15-20 Unit 4: EDUCATION Page 21-29 Unit 5: FAMILY LIFE Page 30-34 FURTHER READING: FOOD AND DRINK Page 35-36 FURTHER READING: TRANSPORT Page 37-39 Unit 6: HOLIDAYS AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS ……… Page 40-42 REFERENCES Page 43

UNIT 1: THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and a territorial water border with Russia in the northwest, and two territorial water borders in the southeast between Florida and Cuba, and Florida and the Bahamas The contiguous forty-eight states are otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast Alaska borders the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Strait to the west, and the Arctic Ocean to the north, while Hawaii lies far to the southwest of the mainland in the Pacific Ocean

Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is

referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, and as the Lower 48 Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada

The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia, is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland (Virginia had also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization

The continental United States contains two harbor indented coasts of several thousand miles from which well watered coastal plains rise to two mountain ranges between which is an arable plain overlaid by thousands of miles of interconnected and navigable rivers The Texas continental crossroads, the southerly deserts, and the basin and range country of Utah and Nevada complete the picture The combination of rivers navigable thousands of miles inland, running throughout virtually all of the largest contiguous area of farm land in the world, has helped to make the United States the world's breadbasket and wealthiest nation by far Considering both the natural features and the political unity of the states of the region of the Great Plains, contrasted with the river systems and political disunity of Europe as an example, nothing quite like it exists anywhere else in the world New Orleans—purchased along with the French territory of Louisiana in 1803—is the key to the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Red river system of North America In turn, Texas, with its own, unnavigable rivers, but productive land, acts as a buffer to protect New Orleans from the south and west

Physiographic division

The eastern United States has a varied topography A broad, flat coastal plain lines the Atlantic and Gulf shores from the Texas-Mexico border to New York City, and includes the Florida peninsula Areas further inland feature rolling hills and temperate forests The Appalachian Mountains form a line of low mountains separating the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Basin The five Great Lakes are located in the north-central portion of the country, four of them forming part of the border with Canada The southeast United States contain subtropical forests and, near the gulf coast, mangrove wet lands, especially in Florida West of the Appalachians lies the Mississippi River basin and two

large eastern tributaries, the Ohio River and the Tennessee River The Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and the Midwest consist largely of rolling hills and productive farmland, stretching south to the Gulf Coast

The Great Plains lie west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains A large portion of the country's agricultural products are grown in the Great Plains Before their general conversion to farmland, the Great Plains were noted for their extensive grasslands, from tall grass prairie in the eastern plains to short grass steppe in the western High Plains Elevation rises gradually from less than a few hundred feet near the Mississippi River to more than a mile high in the High Plains The generally low relief of the plains is broken in several places, most notably in the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, which form the U.S Interior Highlands, the only major mountainous region between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains.[8][9] The Great Plains come to an abrupt end at the Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains form a large portion of the Western U.S., entering from Canada and stretching nearly to Mexico The Rocky Mountain region is the highest region of the United States by average elevation The Rocky Mountains generally contain fairly mild slopes and wider peaks compared to some of the other great mountain ranges, with a few exceptions (such as the Teton Mountains in Wyoming and the Sawatch Range in Colorado) The highest peaks of the Rockies are found in Colorado, the tallest peak being Mount Elbert at 14,440 ft (4,400 m) The Rocky Mountains contain some of the most spectacular and well known scenery in the world In addition, instead of being one generally continuous and solid mountain range, it is broken up into a number of smaller, intermittent mountain ranges, forming a large series of basins and valleys

West of the Rocky Mountains lies the Intermontane Plateaus (also known as the Intermountain West), a large, arid desert lying between the Rockies and the Cascades and Sierra Nevada ranges The large southern portion, known as the Great Basin, consists of salt flats, drainage basins, and many small north-south mountain ranges The Southwest is predominantly a low-lying desert region A portion known as the Colorado Plateau, centered around the Four Corners region, is considered to have some of the most spectacular scenery in the world It is accentuated in such national parks as Grand Canyon, Arches, Mesa Verde National Park and Bryce Canyon, among others

The Intermontane Plateaus come to an end at the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada The Cascades consist of largely intermittent, volcanic mountains, many rising prominently from the surrounding landscape The Sierra Nevada, further south, is a high, rugged, and dense mountain range It contains the highest point in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney (14,505 ft or 4,421 m)[1] It is located at the boundary between California's Inyo and Tulare counties, just 84.6 mi or 136.2 km west-northwest of the lowest point in North America at Badwater in Death Valley National Park, at 282 ft or 86 m below sea level These areas contain some spectacular scenery as well, as evidenced by such national parks as Yosemite and Mount Rainier West of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada is a series of valleys,

such as the Central Valley in California and the Willamette Valley in Oregon Along the coast

is a series of low mountain ranges known as the Pacific Coast Ranges Much of the Pacific Northwest coast is inhabited by some of the densest vegetation outside of the Tropics, and also the tallest trees in the world (the Redwoods)

Alaska contains some of the most dramatic and untapped scenery in the country Tall, prominent mountain ranges rise up sharply from broad, flat tundra plains On the islands off the south and southwest coast are many volcanoes Hawaii, far to the south of Alaska in the Pacific Ocean, is a chain of tropical, volcanic islands, popular as a tourist destination for many from East Asia and the mainland United States

The geography of the United States varies across their immense area Within the continental U.S., eight distinct physiographic divisions exist, though each is composed of several smaller physiographic subdivisions These major divisions are:

 Laurentian Upland - part of the Canadian Shield that extends into the northern United States Great Lakes area

 Atlantic Plain - the coastal regions of the eastern and southern parts includes the continental shelf, the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf Coast

 Appalachian Highlands - lying on the eastern side of the United States, it includes the Appalachian Mountains, the Watchung Mountains, the Adirondacks and New England province originally containing the Great Eastern Forest

 Interior Plains - part of the interior contentintal United States, it includes much of what

is called the Great Plains

 Interior Highlands - also part of the interior contentintal United States, this division includes the Ozark Plateau

 Rocky Mountain System - one branch of the Cordilleran system lying far inland in the western states

 Intermontane Plateaus - also divided into the Columbia Plateau, the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range Province, it is a system of plateaus, basins, ranges and gorges between the Rocky and Pacific Mountain Systems It is the setting for the Grand Canyon, the Great Basin and Death Valley

 Pacific Mountain System - the coastal mountain ranges and features in the west coast

of the United States

The Atlantic coast of the United States is, with minor exceptions, low The Appalachian Highland owes its oblique northeast-southwest trend to crustal deformations which in very early geological time gave a beginning to what later came to be the Appalachian mountain system This system had its climax of deformation so long ago (probably in Permian time) that it has since then been very generally reduced to moderate or low relief It owes its present day altitude either to renewed elevations along the earlier lines or to the survival of the most resistant rocks as residual mountains The oblique trend of this coast would be even more

pronounced but for a comparatively modern crustal movement, causing a depression in the northeast resulting in an encroachment of the sea upon the land Additionally, the southeastern section has undergone an elevation resulting in the advance of the land upon the sea

While the Atlantic coast is relatively low, the Pacific coast is, with few exceptions, hilly or mountainous This coast has been defined chiefly by geologically recent crustal deformations, and hence still preserves a greater relief than that of the Atlantic The low Atlantic coast and the hilly or mountainous Pacific coast foreshadow the leading features in the distribution of mountains within the United States The east coast Appalachian system, originally forest covered, is relatively low and narrow and is bordered on the southeast and south by an important coastal plain The Cordilleran systemon the western side of the continent is lofty, broad and complicated having two branches, the Rocky Mountain System and the Pacific Mountain System In between these mountain systems lie the Intermontaine Plateaus Both the Columbia River and Colorado River rise far inland near the easternmost members of the Cordilleran system, and flow through plateaus and intermontaine basins to the ocean Heavy forests cover the northwest coast, but elsewhere trees are found only on the higher ranges below the Alpine region The intermontane valleys, plateaus and basins range from treeless to desert with the most arid region being in the southwest

The Laurentian Highlands, the Interior Plains and the Interior Highlands lie between the two coasts, stretching from the Gulf of Mexiconorthward, far beyond the national boundary, to the Arctic Ocean The central plains are divided by a hardly perceptible height of land into

a Canadian and a United States portion It is from the United States side, that the great Mississippi system discharges southward to the Gulf of Mexico The upper Mississippi and some of the Ohio basin is the semi-arid prairie region, with trees originally only along the watercourses The uplands towards the Appalachians were included in the great eastern forested area, while the western part of the plains has so dry a climate that its native plant life

is scanty, and in the south it is practically barren

Elevation extremes:

 Lowest point: Death Valley, Inyo County, California −282 ft (−86 m) below sea level

 Highest point: Mount McKinley, Denali Borough, Alaska +20,320 ft (6,194 m) above sea level

Major Rivers and Lakes

The United States has an extensive inland waterway system, much of which has been improved for navigation and flood control and developed to produce hydroelectricity and irrigation water by such agencies as the U.S Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, and the Tennessee Valley Authority Some of the world's larger dams, man-made lakes, and hydroelectric power plants are on U.S rivers The Mississippi-Missouri river system (c.3,890 mi/6,300 km long), is the longest in the United States and the second longest

in the world With its hundreds of tributaries, chief among which are the Red River, the Ohio,

and the Arkansas, the Mississippi basin drains more than half of the nation The Yukon, Columbia, Colorado, and Rio Grande also have huge drainage basins Other notable river systems include the Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac, James, Alabama, Trinity, San Joaquin, and Sacramento

The Great Salt Lake and Alaska's Iliamna are the largest U.S lakes outside the Great Lakes and Lake of the Woods, which are shared with Canada (Lake Michigan and Iliamna are the largest freshwater lakes entirely within the United States) The Illinois Waterway connects the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River, and the New York State Canal System links them with the Hudson The Intracoastal Waterway provides sheltered passage for shallow draft vessels along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts

The Great Basin and Columbia Plateau (the Intermontane Plateaus) are arid or semiarid regions that lie in the rain shadow of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada Precipitation averages less than 15 inches (38 cm) The Southwest is a hot desert, with temperatures exceeding 100

°F (37.8 °C) for several weeks at a time in summer The Southwest and the Great Basin are also affected by the monsoon from the Gulf of California from July–September, which brings localized but often severe thunderstorms to the region

Much of California consists of a Mediterranean climate, with sometimes excessive rainfall from October–April and nearly no rain the rest of the year In the Pacific Northwest rain falls year-round, but is much heavier during winter and spring The mountains of the west receive abundant precipitation and very heavy snowfall The Cascades are one of the snowiest places

in the world, with some places averaging over 600 inches (1,524 cm) of snow annually, but the lower elevations closer to the coast receive very little snow

Economics and Land Use in the United States

The U.S has the largest and most technologically advanced economy in the world It mainly consists of the industrial and service sectors The main industries include petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber and mining Agricultural production, though only a small part of the economy, includes: wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton, beef, pork, poultry, dairy products, fish and forest products

UNIT 2: THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA

Americans, or American people, are citizens, or natives, of the United States of America The country is home to people of different national origins As a result, Americans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizenship With the exception of the Native American population, all Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries

Despite its multi-ethnic composition, the culture held in common by most Americans is referred to as mainstream American culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Northern and Western European immigrants It also includes influences of African-American culture Westward expansion integrated the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest and brought close contact with the culture of Mexico Large-scale immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from Southern and Eastern Europe introduced a variety of elements Immigration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America has also had impact A cultural melting pot, or pluralistic salad bowl, describes the way in which generations of Americans have celebrated and exchanged distinctive cultural characteristics

Racial and ethnic groups

The United States is a diverse country, racially and ethnically Six races are officially recognized by the U.S Census Bureau for statistical purposes: White, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and people of two or more races; a race called "Some other race" is also used in the census and other surveys, but is not official The United States Census Bureau also classifies Americans as "Hispanic or Latino" and "Not Hispanic or Latino", which identifies Hispanic

and Latino Americans as a racially diverse ethnicity that composes the largest minority group

in the nation

White and European Americans

People of European descent or whites constitute the majority of the 308 million people living

in the United States, with 74.8% of the population in the 2010 United States Census They are people who trace their ancestry to the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa White Americans are the majority in forty-six of the fifty states, with the exception of Hawaii The largest continental ancestral group of Americans are Europeans who have origins

in any of the original peoples of Europe The Spanish were the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the United States

Overall, as the largest group, European Americans have the lowest poverty rate and the second highest educational attainment levels, median household income, and median personal income of any racial demographic in the nation

Hispanic and Latino Americans

Hispanic or Latino Americans make up the largest ethnic minority in the United States and form the second largest group after non-Hispanic Whites in the United States, making up 16.3% of the population, according to the 2010 United States Census

Black and African Americans

African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa According to the 2009 American Community Survey, there were 38,093,725 blacks in the United States, which represented 12.4% of the population African Americans make up the second largest race in the United States, but the third largest group after White Americans and Hispanic or Latino Americans; the majority of the population (55%) live in the South, while compared to 2000 Census there is a decrease of African Americans in the Northeast and Midwest

Most African Americans are the direct descendants of captive Africans who survived the slavery era within the boundaries of the present United States, although some are—or are descended from—immigrants from African, Caribbean, Central American or South American nations

Asian Americans

Another significant population is the Asian American population, comprising 17.3 million in

2010, or 5.6% of the U.S population California is home to 5.6 million Asian Americans, the greatest number in any state; in Hawaii, Asian Americans make up the highest proportion of the population (57 percent)

The largest sub-groups are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Cambodia, Mainland China, India, Japan, Korea, Laos, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam Asians overall have higher income levels than all other racial groups in the United States, including whites, and the trend appears to be increasing in relation to those groups Additionally, Asians have a higher education attainment level than all other racial groups in the United States For better or worse, the group has been called a model minority

American Indians and Alaska Natives

According to the 2010 Census, there are 5.2 million people who are American Indian or Alaska Native alone, or in combination with one or more races; they make up 1.7% of the total population

Native Americans, whose ancestry are indigenous to the Americas, originally migrated to the two continents between 10,000-45,000 years ago These Paleoamericans spread throughout the two continents and evolved into hundreds of distinct cultures during the pre-Columbian era Following the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, the European colonization of the Americas began, with St Augustine, Florida becoming the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States From the 16th through the 19th centuries, the population of Native Americans declined in the following ways: epidemic diseases brought from Europe; genocide and warfare at the hands of European explorers and colonists, as well

as between tribes; displacement from their lands; internal warfare, enslavement; and intermarriage

Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders

Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are ―persons having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands‖ The largest concentration

of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, is Honolulu County in Hawaii, and Los Angeles County in the continental United States

Immigration and Diversity in the United States: Melting Pot or Salad Bowl

The population of the United Stales includes a large variety of ethnic groups coming from many races, nationalities, and religions The process by which these many groups have been made a part of a common cultural life with common shared value is called assimilation Scholars disagree as to the extent to which assimilation has occurred in the United States Some have described the United Slates as a ―melting pot‖ where various racial and ethnic groups have been combined into one culture Others are inclined to see the United Stales as a

―salad bowl‖ where the various groups have remained somewhat distinct and different from one another, creating a richly diverse country

The truth probably lies somewhere between these two views Since 1776, an enormous amount of racial and ethnic assimilation has taken place in the United Slates, yet some groups continue to feel a strong sense of separateness from the culture as a whole Many of these groups are really bicultural That is, they consider themselves Americans, but they also wish

to retain the language and the cultural traditions of their original culture

People of Hispanic origin were on the North American continent before settlers arrived from Europe in the early 1600s In Florida and the Southwest, there were Spanish and Latin American settlements established centuries before the thirteen colonies joined together to form the United States in the late 1700s Because of their long history and the continued influx of newcomers into the established communities, many Hispanics, or Latinos, have taken a special pride in maintaining their cultural traditions and the use of the Spanish language

Generally speaking, over the years whites from different national and religious backgrounds have been gradually assimilated into the larger American culture, with some exceptions For example, American Jews are one group of whites who have traditionally retained a strong sense of separateness from the larger culture This may be a result of the long history of persecution in the Christian countries in Europe, the weaker forms of discrimination and anti-Jewish feeling that exist in the United Stales, and their own strong feeling of ethnic pride Yet along with their sense of separateness, American Jews have a strong sense of being a part

of the larger American culture in which they have achieved competitive success in almost every field

The Establishment of the Dominant Culture

The first census of the new nation, conducted in 1790, counted about four million people, most of whom were white Of the white citizens, more than 8 out of 10 traced their ancestry back to England African-Americans made up a surprising 20 percent of the population, an all-time high There were close to 700,000 slaves and about 60,000 ―free Negroes‖ Only a few Native American Indians who paid taxes were included in the census count, but the total Native American population was probably about one million

It was the white population that had the greater numbers, the money, and the political power

in the new nation, and therefore, this majority soon defined what the dominant culture would

be At the time of the American Revolution, the white population was largely English in origin, Protestant, and middle class Such Americans are sometimes referred as WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) Their characteristics became the standard for judging other groups Those having a different religion (such as the Irish Catholics), or those speaking a different language (such as the Germans, Dutch, and Swedes), were in the minority and would

be disadvantaged unless they became assimilated In the late 1700s, this assimilation occurred without great difficulty According to historians Allan Nevins and Henry Steele Commager

―English, Irish, German,…Dutch, Swedish - mingled and intermarried with little thought of any difference

The dominant American culture that grew out of the nation’s early history, then, was speaking, Western European, Protestant, and middle class in character It was this dominant culture that established what became the traditional values, described by de Tocqueville in the early 1830s Immigrants with these characteristics were welcome, in part because Americans believed that these newcomers would probably give strong support to the basic values of the dominant culture such as freedom, equality of opportunity, and the desire to work hard for a higher material standard of living

English-The Assimilation of Non-Protestant and Non-Western Europeans

As in the case in many cultures, the degree to which a minority group was seen as defferent from the characteristics of the dominant majority determined the extent of that group’s acceptance Although immigrants who were like the earlier settlers were accepted, those with significantly different characteristics tended to be viewed as a threat to traditional American values and way of life

This was particularly true of the immigrants who arrived by the millions during the late 19thand early 20th centuries Most of them came from poverty-stricken nations of southern and eastern Europe They spoke languages other than English, and large numbers of them were Catholics or Jews

Americans at the lime were very fearful of this new flood of immigrants They were afraid that these people were so accustomed to lives of poverty and dependence that they would not understand such traditional American values as freedom, self-reliance, and competition There

were so many new immigrants that they might even change the basic values of the nation in undesirable ways

Americans tried to meet what they saw as a threat to their values by offering English instruction for the new immigrants and citizenship classes to teach them basic American beliefs The immigrants, however, often felt that their American teachers disapproved of the traditions of their homeland Moreover, learning about American values gave them little help

in meeting their most important needs such as employment, food, and a place to live Far more helpful to the new immigrants were the ―political bosses‖ of the larger cities of the northeastern United States, where most of the immigrants first arrived Those bosses saw to many of the practical needs of the immigrants and were more accepting of the different homeland traditions In exchange for their help, the political bosses to keep them in power by voting for them in elections

Many Americans strongly disapproved of the political bosses This was partly because the bosses were frequently corrupt; that is, they often stole money from the city governments they controlled and engaged in other illegal practices Perhaps more important to disapproving Americans, however, was the fact that the bosses seemed to be destroying such basic American values as self-reliance and competition

The bosses, it seemed, were teaching the immigrants to be dependent on them rather than to rely on themselves Moreover, the bosses were ―buying‖ the votes of the immigrants in order

to give themselves a monopoly of political power in many larger cities This practice destroyed competition for political office, which Americans viewed as an important tradition

in politics just as it was in other facets of American life

Despite these criticisms, many scholars believe that the political bosses performed an important function in the late 19th and early 20th centuries They helped to assimilate large numbers of new immigrants into the larger American culture by finding them jobs and housing, in return for their political support Later the bosses also helped the sons and daughters of these immigrants to find employment, but the second generation usually had the advantage of growing up speaking English

The fact that the United States had a rapidly expanding economy at the turn of the century made it possible for these new immigrants, often with the help of the bosses, to better their standard of living in the United Stales As a result of these new opportunities and new rewards, immigrants came to accept most of the values of the larger American culture and were in turn accepted by the great majority of Americans For white ethnic groups, therefore,

it is generally true that their feeling of being a part of the larger culture - that is, American - is usually stronger than their feeling of belonging to a separate ethnic group - Irish, Italian, and Polish, among many others

The African-American Experience

The process of assimilation in the United States has been much more successful for white ethnic groups than for nonwhite ethnic groups Of the nonwhite ethnic groups, Americans of

African descent have had the greatest difficulty in becoming assimilated into the larger culture African-Americans were brought to the United States against their will to be sold as slaves Except for the Native American Indian tribes who inhabited the United States before the first white settlers arrived, other ethnic groups came to America voluntarily - most as immigrants who wanted to better their living conditions

The enslavement of African-Americans in the United States was a complete contradiction of such traditional basic American values as freedom and equality of opportunity It divided the United States into two increasingly different sections: the southern states, in which black slavery became the basis of the economy, and the northern states, which chose to make slavery against the law

A minority of whites in the North insisted that slavery and freedom could not exist together in

a free country and demanded that slavery be abolished, even if this meant war with the South

A much larger number of northern whites believed that freedom and equality of opportunity needed to be protected for white people only, but they were afraid that black slavery would eventually take away their economic freedom If, for example, the slave system of the South were allowed to spread into the frontier regions of the West, poor and middle-income whites could no longer look to the western frontier as a land of equality and opportunity where people could better their position in life Rather, whites would have to compete with unpaid slave labor; a situation that they believed would degrade their work and lower their social status

Abraham Lincoln was able to become president of the United Slates by appealing to both the while idealists who saw slavery as an injustice to African- Americans and to the larger numbers of northern whites who saw slavery as a threat to themselves Lincoln's argument was that if black slavery continued to spread westward, while freedom and equality would be threatened Lincoln also believed that basic ideals such as freedom and equality of opportunity had to apply to all people, black and while, or they would not last as basic American values

When Lincoln won the presidency in 1860, the southern states left the Union and tried to form

a new nation of their own based on slavery A Civil War between the North and South resulted, which turned out to be the bloodiest and most destructive of all the nation’s wars When the North was finally victorious, black slavery ended in the United States

However, African-Americans were not readily assimilated into the larger American culture Most remained in the South, where they were not allowed to vote and were legally segregated from whites Black children were not allowed to attend white public schools, for example, and many received an inferior education that did not give them an equal opportunity to compete in the while-dominated society Many former slaves and their families became caught in a cycle

of poverty that continued for generations Although conditions were much worse in the segregated South, blacks continued to be the victims of strong racial prejudice in the North, as well as in the South

A Universal Nation

As we have noted, the dominant culture and its value system, established by the early settlers, had its roots in white, Protestant, Western Europe In the late 1800s and early 1900s, millions

of immigrants came from eastern and southern Europe, bringing cultural traditions perceived

by the dominant culture as quite different By the 1920s, Americans had decided that it was time to close the borders to mass immigration, and the number of new immigrants slowed to a trickle In spite of the worries of those in the dominant culture, the new immigrants did assimilate to life in the United States They greatly enriched the cultural diversity of the nation, and they ultimately did not cause major changes to its system of government, its free enterprise system, or its traditional values

In 1905, the United States made important changes in its immigration laws, allowing many more immigrants to conic and entirely eliminating the older laws’ bias in favor of while European immigrants As a result, the United States is now confronted with a new challenge-taking in large numbers of new immigrants who are nonwhite and non-European About 90 percent are from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean In addition to the large numbers of legal immigrants, for the first time the United States has significant numbers of illegal immigrants

Many worry about what the impact will be on the American society Can the American economy expand enough to offer these new immigrants the same opportunities that others have had? What will be the effect on the traditional value system that has defined the United States for over 200 years?

Many Americans see wonderful benefits for their country Ben Wallenberg, a respected expert

on American culture, believes that the ―new immigration‖ will be of great help to the nation According to Wallenberg, something very important is happening to the United States: It is becoming the first universal nation in history Wallenberg believes that the United States will

be the first nation where large numbers of people from every region on earth live in freedom under one government This diversity, he says, will give the nation great influence and appeal

to the rest of the world during the 21st century

Perhaps, the United States will be described not as a ―melting pot‖ or ―salad bowl‖ but as a

―mosaic‖ - a picture made up of many tiny pieces of different colors If one looks closely at the nation, the individuals of different colors and ethnic groups are still distinct and recognizable, but together they create a picture that is uniquely American ―E Pluribus Unum‖ – the motto of the United States from its beginning - means one composed of many: ―Out of many, one‖

(Source: The American Ways An Introduction to American Culture by Maryanne Kearny Datesman, JoAnn Crandall and Edward N Kearny)

UNIT 3: THE POLITICAL SYSTEM

A Suspicion of Strong Government

The ideal of the free individual has had a profound effect on the way Americans view their government Traditionally, there has been a deep suspicion that government is the natural enemy of freedom, even if it is elected by the people The bigger and stronger the government becomes, the more dangerous many Americans believe it is to their individual freedom This suspicion of strong government goes back to the men who led the American Revolution

in 1776 These men believed the government of Great Britain wanted to discourage the freedom and economic opportunities of the American colonists by excessive taxes and other measures which would ultimately benefit the British aristocracy and monarchy Thomas Paine, the famous revolutionary writer, expressed the view of other American revolutionists when he said, ―Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one‖

The Organization of the American Government

The way in which the national government is organized in the U.S Constitution provides an excellent illustration of the American suspicion of governmental power The provisions of the Constitution are more concerned with keeping the government from doing evil than with enabling it to do good The national government, for example, is divided into three separate branches This division of governmental power is based on the belief that if any one part or branch of government has all, or even most of the power, it will become a threat to the freedom of individual citizens

The legislative or lawmaking branch of the government is called the Congress Congress has

two houses - the Senate, with two senators from each state regardless of the size of its population, and the House of Representatives, consisting of a total of 435 representatives

divided among the fifty states by population (In the House, states with large populations have more representatives than states with small populations, while in the Senate, each has equal

representation) The president, or chief executive, heads the executive branch, which has responsibility to carry out the laws The Supreme Court and lower national courts make up the

judicial branch The judicial branch settles disputes about the exact meaning of the law through court cases It both interprets the law and determines whether the law is constitutional

- that is, whether the law is permitted under the U.S Constitution

If any one of the three branches starts to abuse its power, the other two may join together to

stop it, through a system of checks and balances The Constitution is most careful in

balancing the powers of the legislative and executive branches of the government because these two (Congress and the president) are the most powerful of the three branches In almost every important area of governmental activity, such as the power to make laws, to declare war, or to conclude treaties with foreign countries, the Constitution gives each of these two branches enough power to prevent the other from acting on its own

Observers from other countries are often confused by the American system The national government may seem to speak with two conflicting voices, that of the president and that of Congress For example, a treaty with a foreign government signed by the president dies if the

Senate refuses to ratify it - that is, if the Senate doesn't vote to accept it The Senate has

certain powers over foreign treaties and military actions This requires the president to have

―the advice and consent of the Senate‖ before taking certain action on the international front

On the other hand, the president may prevent a bill passed by Congress from becoming law When both houses of Congress have agreed on a piece of legislation or

a resolution, it is sent to the president The president has ten days to act, not counting Sundays At that point, there are four possibilities:

1 The president agrees with the bill, signs it, and it becomes law

2 The president disagrees with the bill, vetoes it, and sends if back to the Congress

with his reasons for refusing to sign it If two-thirds of both the House and the Senate vote to override the presidents’ veto, the bill becomes law

3 The president may take no action and after ten days (not counting Sundays), the bill becomes law without his signature

4 If the Congress adjourns before the ten-day period is over, and the president

has neither signed nor vetoed the bill, it is defeated This is called a pocket veto

Presidents sometimes do this with bills they do not like but do not want to go on record as having vetoed

Although the American system of divided governmental power strikes many observers as inefficient and even disorganized, most Americans still strongly believe in it for two reasons: (1) It has been able to meet the challenges of the past, and (2) it gives strong protection to individual freedoms

In addition to dividing government powers into three branches, the Constitution includes a

Bill of Rights which is designed to protect specific individual rights and freedoms from

government interference Some of the guarantees in the Bill of Rights concern the freedom of expression The government may not interfere with an individual’s freedom of speech or freedom of religious worship The Bill of Rights also guarantees the right of a fair criminal procedure for those accused of breaking laws Thus, the Bill of Rights is another statement of the American belief in the importance of individual freedom

The Election of the President and the Congress

The president and both houses of Congress have almost complete political independence from each other because they are all chosen in separate elections For example, the election of the Congress does not determine who will be elected, and the presidential election does not determine who will be elected to either house of Congress It is quite possible in the American system to have the leader of one political party win the presidency while the other major political party wins most of the seats in Congress It is also important to remember that the elections of the members of the two houses of Congress are separate from each other Thus,

the Republicans may control one house, while the Democrats may control the other During the late 1900s, while most of the presidents were Republican, the Democrats often controlled one or both of the houses of Congress In 1994, the reverse happened: While Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was president, the Republicans won control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate Then in the early 2000s, for a time the Republican Party controlled the presidency (George W Bush) and both houses of Congress

In order to understand what is happening in Washington, it is important to know not only the party of the president, but also which parties control the House and the Senate Because both the House of Representatives and the Senate must agree on all legislation before it goes to the president, legislation may pass one house but be blocked in the other Furthermore, the party

in control of the House or Senate has the potential of changing every two years Members of the House of Representatives are elected for two-year terms, while senators serve six-year terms The Senate terms are staggered so that only one-third of the senators run for re-election each time the House elections are held, every two years

Presidential elections are held every four years, on the first Tuesday in November When the Constitution was written, the founding fathers had a disagreement about how the president should be elected Some did not want the members of Congress to choose the president, and others were afraid to leave the choice entirely to the voters The result was a compromise - the electoral college, a system for indirectly electing the president The system persists today In

presidential elections, people are actually voting for representatives called electors, and it is

these electors who officially choose the president With the electoral college system, the winner of the plurality (the highest number) of each state's popular votes gets all of that state’s electoral votes The number of each states electoral votes is equal to the total number of their representatives in the House and the Senate Though the number of electoral votes varies according to each state’s population, it is still possible for a person to be elected president without getting the highest number of the popular, or individual, votes

Although Americans were aware of the electoral college system, the average voter did not give it much thought until the election of 2000 There had been only three previous instances

of presidents ever losing the popular vote but winning the electoral vote, and it seemed a remote possibility The last time it had happened was in 1888, when Benjamin Harrison won the presidency even though Grover Cleveland had the majority of popular votes All through the 1900s the presidents who were elected had won at least a plurality, the highest number of the popular votes, in addition to winning the electoral votes However, in the election of 2000,

Al Gore, the Democratic candidate, won more popular votes than George W Bush, the Republican candidate, but Bush won the most electoral votes and became president In the

2004 election between George W Bush and John Kerry, the electoral college was not an issue, because Bush won both the popular vote and the electoral vote

The result sent shock waves through the American political system One reason was that the vote was incredibly close, and several states had to count their votes a second time The state with the most controversial results was Florida, where the governor of the state was Jeb Bush,

George W Bush’s brother Although Gore had won the popular vote nationwide, whoever won the twenty-five Florida electoral votes would win the election The first count of the votes showed a difference of less than one-half of 1 percent, so there was a recount by machine This found an even smaller margin, fewer than 1,000 votes separating the two candidates

There were many questions about the voting procedures in Florida, especially about certain ballots marked by punching a hole next to the name of the candidate Some of the holes were not punched all the way through, leaving what’s called a ―hanging chad‖ Therefore, a number of the ballots had to be recounted and examined by hand The results were extremely close The recount showed Bush winning by 537 votes out of the almost 6 million votes cast The Florida government declared Bush the winner, but the Gore campaign wanted more ballots recounted because the numbers were so close After a series of legal challenges, the U.S Supreme Court decided about a month after the election that the Florida state legislature had the right to stop recounting the ballots and certify the electoral votes The Supreme Court ruled that a state has the ultimate right to determine how its electors are chosen

The Ideal of the Free Individual

In the late 1700s, most Americans expected the new national government created by the Constitution to leave them alone to pursue their individual goals They believed the central purpose of government was to create the conditions most favorable to the development of the free individual

Before the Civil War of the 1860s, the American ideal of the free individual was the frontier settler and the small farmer President Thomas Jefferson expressed this ideal when he said,

―Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people…‖ Jefferson glorified farmers for being free individuals who relied on no one but themselves for their daily needs Being dependent on none but themselves, farmers, he believed, were the most honest of citizens Throughout his life Jefferson favored a small, weak form of government, which he believed would encourage the development of a nation of free, self-reliant farmer citizens

From the end or the Civil War until the Great repression of the 1930s, the successful businessperson replaced the farmer and the frontier settler as the ideal expression of the free individual The prevailing view of Americans was that government should not interfere in business If it were to do so, it would threaten the development of free individuals whose competitive spirit, self-reliance, and hard work were developing the United States into a land

of greater and greater material prosperity

Government, therefore, remained small and inactive in relation to the great size of the nation and the amount of power held by business corporations Some government regulations were

in place during this period, but these had only a small impact on business practices From the 1870s until the 1930s, business organizations and ideas dominated American government and politics During much of this time, the Republican Party was in power, and it strongly supported these polices

The Development of Big Government

Traditionally, Republicans have favored letting businesses compete with little or no government regulation: Let the free enterprise system regulate itself in the marketplace On the other hand, Democrats have traditionally favored using government to regulate businesses, protect consumers and workers, and also to solve social problems Not surprisingly, it was a Democratic president who presided over the creation of ―big government‖

The Great Depression of the 1930s greatly weakened the businessperson’s position as the American ideal of the free individual, and big business lost respect The Depression also created the need for emergency government action to help the needy on a scale never before seen in the United States in peacetime As a result, the idea that government should be small and inactive was largely abandoned Moreover, the ideal of the free individual underwent some very important changes

The widespread unemployment and other economic hardships of the Depression gave rise to the new assumption that individuals could not be expected to rely solely on themselves in providing for their economic security This new assumption, in turn, led to a large and active role for the national government in helping individuals, meet their daily needs The Democratic Party, led by President Franklin Roosevelt, brought about a number of changes in the 1930s, which he referred to as a ―New Deal‖ for Americans

Even with the return of prosperity after the Depression and World War II (1941-1945), the growth of government’s role in helping to provide economic security for individuals did not end It continued in the prosperous postwar years, and it was greatly expanded during the presidency of another Democrat, Lyndon Johnson, in the 1960s Roosevelt’s New Deal grew into what some saw as a permanent ―welfare state‖ that provided payments for retired persons, government checks for the unemployed, support for families with dependent children and no father to provide income, health care for the poor and the elderly, and other benefits for needy persons

Some Americans fear that economic security provided by the government will weaken reliance, an ideal that is closely associated in the minds of Americans with individual freedom At worst, it presents a danger to individual freedom by making an increasing number of Americans dependent on the government instead of on themselves In this way, the strong traditions of individualism and self-reliance have made Americans less accepting of welfare programs than the citizens of other democracies such as those in Western Europe, which have more extensive welfare programs than those of the United States Those fears led

self-to the passing of major reforms in the welfare system in 1996, under President Clinself-ton, a Democrat with a Republican-controlled Congress Limits were set on the number of years a person could receive welfare payments, and the states were given more responsibility for deciding who is eligible for support

On the other hand, most Americans would certainly not consider their government retirement benefits under Social Security or Medicare (health care for the retired) as welfare payments Americans see these programs as true ―entitlements‖ They have paid a portion of their

salaries into the system, and they feel that they are entitled to this government support after they retire However, the future of Social Security is in question As the population ages, there are fewer younger workers and their employers paying Social Security taxes into the system, and more reared workers taking money out Americans are living longer in retirement and their medical expenses are rising Because older Americans are more likely than young people

to vote, politicians pay attention to their needs They want the older Americans’ votes

UNIT 4: EDUCATION

The establishment of Public Schools in America

As might be expected, educational institutions in the United Slates reflect the nation's basic values, especially the ideal of opportunity From elementary school through college, Americans believe that everyone deserves an equal opportunity to get a good education From the beginning, when Americans established their basic system of public schools in

1825, they reaffirmed the principle of equality by (1) making school open to all classes of Americans, and (2) financing the schools with tax money collected from all citizens Those who favored these public schools believed that these institutions would help reduce social class distinctions in the United Stales by educating children of all social classes in the same

―common schools‖, as they were known at the time

When Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in the United States in 1831, he found a great deal of enthusiasm about the new and growing public elementary schools The mayor of New York City gave a special dinner for de Tocqueville, during which a toast was offered in honor of

―Education - the extension of our public schools - a national blessing‖

Because he was a French aristocrat, de Tocqueville at first shared the fears of some wealthy Americans who believed that universal education would be a danger rather than a national blessing He eventually decided, however, that the tendency of public education to encourage people to seek a higher status in life was in harmony with, not in conflict with, the customs of American society The ideal of equal opportunity for all regardless of family background was much stronger in the United Stales than in France

De Tocqueville also noted that American public education had a strong practical content that included the teaching of vocational skills and the duties of citizenship Thus, public education not only gave Americans the desire to better themselves, but it also gave them the practical tools to do so Moreover, the material abundance of the United Stales provided material rewards for those who took full advantage of the opportunity for a public education

During the next century and a half, public schools in the United Stales were expanded to include secondary or high schools (grades 9-12) and colleges and universities, with both undergraduate and graduate studies

The Education Ladder

Americans view their public school system as an educational ladder, rising from elementary school to high school and finally college undergraduate and kindergarten, or even at age three

or four by attending pre-school programs Then there are six years of elementary school and usually two years of middle school (or junior high school), and four years of high school Not all school systems have kindergarten, but all do have twelve years of elementary, middle school, and senior high school School systems may divide the twelve years up differently - grouping sixth, seventh, and eighth graders into middle school, for example After high school, the majority of students go on to college Undergraduate studies lead to a bachelor’s