Revision for American Culture and Society

AN INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN STUDIES
REVISION FOR “AMERICAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” –The United States Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776

2009
Nguyen Nhung D07-K52 Hanoi University of Technology                                     nguyennhung912@gmail.com
Hewlett-Packard
12/13/2009

Revision for “American Culture and Society”

  1. The U.S cultural diversity.
What brought about the cultural diversity in the US?
"America is God's Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming... Germans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and Englishmen, Jews and Russians - into the Crucible with you all! God is making the American."—Israel Zangwill (1908)-
  * The US was described as a melting point by Zangwill.
  * The U.S is a society of immigrants. Since its early days, the country has admitted more than 50 million newcomers, a large number of immigrants than any country in history.
  * The first immigrants were the Spanish.
  * Then, French people came to the US for the prospects of wealth.
  * The British, who were the first to colonize (xam chiem thuoc dia) on a large scale, came for profit and also for religious freedom.
  * Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, the U.S was home to diverse cultures when the first Europeans & Africans arrived   added their own varying cultures to this diversity.
  * Between 1840 &b 1860, the US received the greatest influx of immigrants ever. During this period, 10 million people came to America. Most of them mainly came from the northern and western Europe.
  * During the years from 1860 to 1914, the new wave of immigration began. The new immigrants were Latin, Slavic, and Jewish peoples from the southern and Eastern Europe, some of them were brought to US to be slaves... [continues]

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