[PDF] Who Is American A Definition Of American Identity eBook

Author : Amira Karam
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
Page : 23 pages
File Size : 33,1 MB
Release : 2019-04-11
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 3668921695

GET BOOK

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, University of Frankfurt (Main), language: English, abstract: This paper focuses on what it means to be an American and if it is possible for people and immigrants with different cultural backgrounds to acquire an American Identity. In want to find out if the American exceptionalism and its three dimensions give an impression of what it means to gain an American identity. Obviously, being American means to share the same values, but it is not clear if it means to also share the same citizenship. I take a close look at the idea of multiculturalism that challenges the current ideological solutions for equality and diversity in the United States, trying to answer the question whether multiculturalism is or is not a threat to the idea of an American Identity. The meaning and consequences of national identification have long been the subject of debate among philosophers, historian, and social scientist. The identification with the American country through national attachment, pride, and loyalty is self-evident for many Americans. A national identity shared by fellow citizen creates a sense of unity and a bond of solidarity. The question of what defines an identity or the American identity, to be specific, is not clarified. What is clear, however, is the important and vast difference between a patriot, who feels a sense of pride and love for his country, while the nationalist views his country as superior with a desire to dominate other countries. However, both are bond by their trust for the American values. Freedom, Truth, Justice and the American way of life.

Author : Elizabeth Theiss-Morse
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 32,7 MB
Release : 2009-07-27
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1139488910

GET BOOK

Why is national identity such a potent force in people's lives? And is the force positive or negative? In this thoughtful and provocative book, Elizabeth Theiss-Morse develops a social theory of national identity and uses a national survey, focus groups, and experiments to answer these important questions in the American context. Her results show that the combination of group commitment and the setting of exclusive boundaries on the national group affects how people behave toward their fellow Americans. Strong identifiers care a great deal about their national group. They want to help and to be loyal to their fellow Americans. By limiting who counts as an American, though, these strong identifiers place serious limits on who benefits from their pro-group behavior. Help and loyalty are offered only to 'true Americans,' not Americans who do not count and who are pushed to the periphery of the national group.

Author : Samuel P. Huntington
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 40,76 MB
Release : 2005
Category : Americanization
ISBN : 9780684866697

GET BOOK

America was founded by settlers who brought with them a distinct culture including the English language, Protestant values, individualism, religious commitment, and respect for law. The waves of later immigrants came gradually accepted these values and assimilated into America's Anglo-Protestant culture. More recently, however, national identity has been eroded by the problems of assimilating massive numbers of immigrants, bilingualism, multiculturalism, the devaluation of citizenship, and the "denationalization" of American élites. September 11 brought a revival of American patriotism, but already there are signs that this is fading. This book shows the need for us to reassert the core values that make us Americans.--From publisher description.

Author : U. S. Military
Publisher :
Page : 90 pages
File Size : 41,13 MB
Release : 2018-07-09
Category :
ISBN : 9781717703781

GET BOOK

Why are Americans' identity narratives important for national security? This thesis utilizes a qualitative approach to analyze American identity narratives in U.S. history and contemporary society. The historic disagreement over the distribution of the fundamental American value of liberty makes the possibility of a cohesive national identity challenging. Given the effects of globalization, advances in technology, and changes in traditional demographic and sociocultural trends, any form of a national-level, narrative-based identity is not a feasible means to unify Americans. Leaders must make domestic policy decisions that increase inclusiveness in American society and avoid valuing one identity over another. Policymakers must depart from divisive identity policies in favor of those that unify Americans. Any attempt to shape the existing conflict in terms of identity is contrary to a cohesive society and, more importantly, threatens national security. This research led to two policy recommendations. First, the United States must encourage separable identities and emphasize citizens as individuals rather than groups. Second, policymakers must promote "cross-cutting ties," since much of the division in the United States stems from the isolation from one another that many citizens experience. Revamped civic education and national service programs can serve to form those cross-cutting ties. I. INTRODUCTION * A. INTRODUCTION * B. WHY IDENTITY MATTERS * C. HOW AMERICANS DEFINE IDENTITY * D. RESEARCH APPROACH * E. THESIS ROADMAP * II. THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN IDENTITY * A. AMERICAN IDENTITY IN HISTORY: A COMPLEX TALE * B. THE IDENTITY DEBATE: A CRACK IN THE LIBERTY BELL * C. KEY MOMENTS IN THE EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN IDENTITY * 1. The Revolution * 2. The Civil War * 3. Women's Suffrage * 4. The Civil Rights Movement * D. CONCLUSION * III. AMERICA'S IDENTITY DYSPHORIA * A. GLOBALIZATION'S INFLUENCE * B. THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES * C. AMERICA'S PLACE IN THE WORLD * D. OTHER INFLUENCERS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY * 1. Nationalism * 2. Public Opinion * 3. Ethnicity * 4. Religion * 5. Class * 6. Political Division * 7. Culture Wars * 8. Identity Politics * E. CONCLUSION * IV. IDENTITY IN ROME AND THE U.S.S.R. * A. ROMAN IDENTITY * B. SOVIET IDENTITY * C. SUMMARY * V. THE WAY AHEAD * A. A COMMON PURPOSE: E PLURIBUS UNUM * B. THREE OBSTACLES TO UNITY * 1. Obstacle # 1: Assimilation and Acculturation * 2. Obstacle # 2: Subnational Identities * 3. Obstacle # 3: Subgroup Suppression * C. ONE SOLUTION: ONE NATIONAL IDENTITY-MANY INDIVIDUAL IDENTITIES * D. HOW TO GET THERE: PATRIOTIC BUILDING BLOCKS * 1. Civic Education * 2. National Service * VI. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS * A. TAKEAWAYS * B. AREAS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH * LIST OF REFERENCES * INITIAL DISTRIBUTION LIST

Author : Linda C. Noel
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 41,81 MB
Release : 2014-02-27
Category : History
ISBN : 0816530459

GET BOOK

Debating American Identity is an innovative look at four national debates over the inclusion of the Mexican-origin population in the United States in the early twentieth century. Linda C. Noel explores different conceptions of American identity through disputes over Arizona and New Mexico statehood, temporary workers, immigration, and repatriation.

Author : Linda E. Smeins
Publisher : Rowman Altamira
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 30,18 MB
Release : 1999
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9780761989639

GET BOOK

This work follows the evolution of the pattern book houses and how they represented the notion of home and community in American historical memory. The book also includes illustrations of such communities.

Author : Peter J. Spiro
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 33,59 MB
Release : 2008-02-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0199722250

GET BOOK

American identity has always been capacious as a concept but narrow in its application. Citizenship has mostly been about being here, either through birth or residence. The territorial premises for citizenship have worked to resolve the peculiar challenges of American identity. But globalization is detaching identity from location. What used to define American was rooted in American space. Now one can be anywhere and be an American, politically or culturally. Against that backdrop, it becomes difficult to draw the boundaries of human community in a meaningful way. Longstanding notions of democratic citizenship are becoming obsolete, even as we cling to them. Beyond Citizenship charts the trajectory of American citizenship and shows how American identity is unsustainable in the face of globalization. Peter J. Spiro describes how citizenship law once reflected and shaped the American national character. Spiro explores the histories of birthright citizenship, naturalization, dual citizenship, and how those legal regimes helped reinforce an otherwise fragile national identity. But on a shifting global landscape, citizenship status has become increasingly divorced from any sense of actual community on the ground. As the bonds of citizenship dissipate, membership in the nation-state becomes less meaningful. The rights and obligations distinctive to citizenship are now trivial. Naturalization requirements have been relaxed, dual citizenship embraced, and territorial birthright citizenship entrenched--developments that are all irreversible. Loyalties, meanwhile, are moving to transnational communities defined in many different ways: by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, and sexual orientation. These communities, Spiro boldly argues, are replacing bonds that once connected people to the nation-state, with profound implications for the future of governance. Learned, incisive, and sweeping in scope, Beyond Citizenship offers a provocative look at how globalization is changing the very definition of who we are and where we belong.

Author : Daniel Walker Howe
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 354 pages
File Size : 42,77 MB
Release : 2009-09-22
Category : History
ISBN : 0199740798

GET BOOK

Originally published in 1997 and now back in print, Making the American Self by Daniel Walker Howe, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of What Hath God Wrought, charts the genesis and fascinating trajectory of a central idea in American history. One of the most precious liberties Americans have always cherished is the ability to "make something of themselves"--to choose not only an occupation but an identity. Examining works by Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and others, Howe investigates how Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries engaged in the process of "self-construction," "self-improvement," and the "pursuit of happiness." He explores as well how Americans understood individual identity in relation to the larger body politic, and argues that the conscious construction of the autonomous self was in fact essential to American democracy--that it both shaped and was in turn shaped by American democratic institutions. "The thinkers described in this book," Howe writes, "believed that, to the extent individuals exercised self-control, they were making free institutions--liberal, republican, and democratic--possible." And as the scope of American democracy widened so too did the practice of self-construction, moving beyond the preserve of elite white males to potentially all Americans. Howe concludes that the time has come to ground our democracy once again in habits of personal responsibility, civility, and self-discipline esteemed by some of America's most important thinkers. Erudite, beautifully written, and more pertinent than ever as we enter a new era of individual and governmental responsibility, Making the American Self illuminates an impulse at the very heart of the American experience.

Author : Jay Caspian Kang
Publisher : Crown
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 22,50 MB
Release : 2022-10-11
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0525576231

GET BOOK

A “provocative and sweeping” (Time) blend of family history and original reportage that explores—and reimagines—Asian American identity in a Black and white world “[Kang’s] exploration of class and identity among Asian Americans will be talked about for years to come.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, NPR, Mother Jones In 1965, a new immigration law lifted a century of restrictions against Asian immigrants to the United States. Nobody, including the lawmakers who passed the bill, expected it to transform the country’s demographics. But over the next four decades, millions arrived, including Jay Caspian Kang’s parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. They came with almost no understanding of their new home, much less the history of “Asian America” that was supposed to define them. The Loneliest Americans is the unforgettable story of Kang and his family as they move from a housing project in Cambridge to an idyllic college town in the South and eventually to the West Coast. Their story unfolds against the backdrop of a rapidly expanding Asian America, as millions more immigrants, many of them working-class or undocumented, stream into the country. At the same time, upwardly mobile urban professionals have struggled to reconcile their parents’ assimilationist goals with membership in a multicultural elite—all while trying to carve out a new kind of belonging for their own children, who are neither white nor truly “people of color.” Kang recognizes this existential loneliness in himself and in other Asian Americans who try to locate themselves in the country’s racial binary. There are the businessmen turning Flushing into a center of immigrant wealth; the casualties of the Los Angeles riots; the impoverished parents in New York City who believe that admission to the city’s exam schools is the only way out; the men’s right’s activists on Reddit ranting about intermarriage; and the handful of protesters who show up at Black Lives Matter rallies holding “Yellow Peril Supports Black Power” signs. Kang’s exquisitely crafted book brings these lonely parallel climbers together and calls for a new immigrant solidarity—one rooted not in bubble tea and elite college admissions but in the struggles of refugees and the working class.