Important to be seen

The culture in America has been a continuing and evolving idea since the founding of this country and even before. This continuous evolving idea is the identity of the country making what it is today. “As many native people have observed, to be American is to be unfinished.”[1] The identity of the nation and the individuals in it is the most important component of our culture. Being unfinished leaves the opportunity for the nation as a people and idea to change and grow.       

The overall culture of the United States is made of many smaller subcultures based on the ethnicity and traditions of a race. This gives the country an advantage to have the different cultures mold into a national culture of many differing viewpoints compared to many other countries that do not. While many groups have blended into the overall culture of the nation over time these groups still hold onto the traditions that give them their individual identity. “Although the American Indian has resigned himself to wearing the Whiteman clothing, working in the Whiteman factories, and attending the Whiteman schools, he has not forgotten the traditions of his forefathers.”[2] Many people might not have an identity like many of the groups that makeup this country, but there are other things that many people can identify with overwhelmingly.

One of the biggest things in our culture that a majority of people identify with is the automobile. The automobile has been one of the major ways people have shared their identity due to the freedom that is associated with owning a car. The car has been a large part of the American culture by influencing art, music and films. Due to the rise of the car, the creation of the interstate system was made possible. The building of the interstate system helped expand the freedom that people were experiencing by allowing cross country travel to be shorter.

The interstates also benefited the people, the local and the state governments that it was built in. “Its benefits for some were enormous, with a dramatic rise in property values and the development of new tourist sites, numerous new motels, truck stops, and fast food restaurants.”[3] Those new developments helped add to the identity of America with the help of the automobile. The creation of these developments, lead to people being identified as business owner or employee with new jobs creation giving people more opportunities to expand themselves in this country. “Americans are wedded to the road, and their freedom to move is one of the most important characteristics of what they have been and who they are now.”[4]

This link shows a way a band had incorporated a car into their music video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MejbOFk7H6c[5]

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[1] Philip J. Deloria, Playing Indian. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 191.

[2] Deloria, 140

[3] John Heitmann, The Automobile and American Life. (Jefferson: McFarland and Co., 2009), 163.

[4] Heitmann, 207.

[5]OKGO, Needing/Getting, www.youtube.com accessed 6-28-2012.

cars more than a cartoon

America and the culture of the country were created largely by the immigrants that came to these shores. The automobile quickly became a symbol of American culture. Like other the automobile came to American shores as an immigrant. “An apt but worn-out cliché concerning the early history of the automobile is that the automobile was European by birth, American by adoption.”[1] While the key group that began to use the automobile was the wealthy, they wielded a large influence on the rest of the country.  Such an influence led to the acceptance of the word automobile as a universal term.
“In sum, while the beginnings of the automobile are often attributed to a group of visionary tinkerers, engineers, inventors, and mechanical geniuses, the upper classes were the consumers of this product, and they cast a lasting imprint on its place in culture in ways perhaps more complex than just the choice of a term.”[2] The automobile’s appeal to Americans was almost instantly but was deeply ingrained with the first races of the automobile. “Racing resulted in considerable publicity and this fact did not elude many of the manufacturers, including Alexander Winton, Henry Ford, and Ransom Olds.”[3] Not only did racing help promote the different brands of cars that were built but also lead to the fascination with speed. “And while road racing’s popularity would decline somewhat by 1910, the construction of large wood plank circular racetracks across the country beginning in 1913 ensured that automobile racing was here to stay as an important spectator sport in America.”[4] As the country prospered in the 1920s the demands of production placed on the manufacturers by the consumers greatly increased. “With more wealth and disposable income, consumers wanted more—more horsepower, more size more colors and style, and more conveniences. The automobile was now an object of desire among all classes of Americans, and as such it transformed our personal and social habits, as well as the road and roadside.”[5] As road conditions improved, travel increased in the country. The use of the automobile to travel the country added many new types of businesses to help serve the new travelers. These new side businesses also impacted the country along with the automobile. “The most discernible social impact of the automobile on American life took place along the highway, because it was there that the gas stations, restaurants, auto camps, tourist cabins, and eventually motels were erected to serve ever-restless drivers and passengers.”[6] The automobile has been a major component of the American culture and is not showing any signs of stopping. As the country continues to use and rely on the automobile to move around the country.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KygM7VL3iV4[7]

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[1]  John Heitmann, The Automobile and American Life. (Jefferson: McFarland and Co., 2009), 9.

[2] Heitmann, 10.

[3] Heitmann, 30.

[4] Heitmann, 31.

[5] Heitmann, 71.

[6] Heitmann, 73.

[7] History of Transportation, www.youtube.com accessed 6/21/12. 

A Museum is a Terrible Thing to Waste

The Gilded Age of America saw the continuation of westward expansion. As the country continued to expand, the pressures on the Indians were heavy. The Indians in this country faced the choice of assimilation into the white man’s world or face extinction. “By articulating assimilation as official American policy, the government insisted that real Indians were now to exist within American national boundaries—they were to disappear as discrete social groups and exist only as individuals”.[1] The Indians were not the only group in the country to face a fight based on culture. Society continued to divide the country into classes and find ways to keep them divided along cultural lines. “Theaters, opera houses, museums, auditoriums that had once housed mixed crowds of people experiencing an eclectic blend of expressive culture were increasingly filtering their clientele…”.[2] This filtering was to keep the people that the upper class felt were not capable of enjoying the arts out. The same people that were working to exclude ha a very bad view of people that was in the different classes. “As society of ignoramuses who know they are ignoramuses, might lead to a tolerable happy and useful existence,” Godkin wrote, “but a society of ignoramuses each whom thinks he is a Solon, would be an approach to Bedlam let loose… The result is a kind of mental and moral chaos”.[3] Godkin believed that it was ok for a society of people with lower intelligence to exist as long as they stayed within their own class of people and not try to move up. The country needed to have these people to work and line the pockets of the affluent, which was their place not the opera or theater houses of the day. This view of exclusivity was very successful in many areas of the country. In some areas the government on different levels, local, state or federal, tried to correct this inequality. A museum in Massachusetts received such a treatment from the state level. “Incorporated by an act of the Massachusetts legislature in 1870, and fully opened to the public in 1876, the museum’s first purpose was educational; the act of incorporation stipulating that the museum “ought to be a popular institution, in the widest sense of the term,” and be open free to the public as many days a week as feasible”.[4] At the same time the governments also enacted laws that helped the operators of the cultural places. “In some places, such as Ohio where the state legislature adopted a law banning large hats from theaters, the offending apparel was legally proscribed”.[5] The governments seemed to play both sides of the fence when it came to this issue. Each side had victories on the issue when the governments were involved. While this was being played out the United States government became a founder of these types of institutions.  “In 1846 Congress utilized the more than half a million dollars left to the United States by Englishman James Smithson to found the Smithsonian Institution for—here Congress used the exact wording of Smithson’s will—“the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men”.[6]

According to the Smithsonian’s website www.si.edu[7] Smithson died in 1829 having bequeathed his fortune to the United States without ever stepping foot in this country. “During the Smithsonian’s formative years, officials of the Institution collected bits of biographical information and objects related to Smithson’s life. However, no one at the time could have predicted that the Smithsonian would eventually “collect” Smithson himself”.[8] His remains now rest in the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall. It is a very odd but yet dignified place to see his crypt. I was able to see it on my trip to Washington.

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[1]Philip J. Deloria, Playing Indian. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 104.

[2] Lawrence W. Levine, Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), 208.

[3]Levine, 160.

[4]Levine, 151.

[5]Levine, 191.

[6]Levine, 156.

[7] Smithsonian Institution, “Mr. Smithson Goes to Washington: and the Search for a Proper Memorial,” http://www.si.edu/oahp/Smithsons%20Crypt/Exhibit%20Start%20Page.html (accessed June 14, 2012).

[8] Smithsonian Institution, “Mr. Smithson Goes to Washington: and the Search for a Proper Memorial,” http://www.si.edu/oahp/Smithsons%20Crypt/Exhibit%20Start%20Page.html (accessed June 14, 2012).

Need someone to fight

American culture during the period of the revolution and the civil war had a heightened ego. The American win over the British made the new American nation very sure of itself. “Even before the revolution, literature and art had been critical venues for imagining American identity. In the 1760s, colonists began to prophesy an imminent outbreak of American greatness in high cultural pursuits”.[1] After defeating the biggest empire of in the world, it is understandable that the people viewed themselves in the light that they did. “It was philosophically grounded in the prevalent belief that artistic excellence and political empire traveled together through time on a journey from east to west”.[2] Like the Greek and Roman empires along with others that came before them the American people were sure that their time had come to take their place on the world stage.

            While the new nation was continued to grow; it experienced some growing pains along the way as well. These pains of the country would show themselves throughout the culture, even in the realm of entertainment in the theater. “The Astor Place riot, which in essence was a struggle for power and cultural authority within theatrical space, was simultaneously an indication of and a catalyst for the cultural changes that came to characterize the United States at the end of the century”.[3] The theater once had been a place where all classes of people would be seen enjoying an evening’s entertainment.  Eventually the outside pressures and conflicts would take a toll on the theater industry as well leading to theaters for separate classes of people. “This dramatic split in the American theater was part of more extensive bifurcations that were taking place in American culture and society”[4]  That splintering of people into groups and against each other helped lead the country into the civil war. The greatest struggle for the country would be that of slavery which also split the country against each other. The north and south seemed to be complete opposites. The southern economy was strongly held up by slavery while the north was more manufacturing oriented. The north having the manufacturing was able to make goods for trade and keep the military well supplied.

            Prior to the civil war, immigration continued to bring different ethnic groups to the country with a heavy influence from Germany and Ireland. Many people began to worry about the influx of immigrants that came to America and would push out the people that were natural citizens. As this country moves forward many of the same problems from the past, it is still trying to deal with even today. The link below is a scene from the movie Gangs of New York , it shows the type of welcome many of the Irish might find when coming off the boat from Ireland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s2d3kkP1rg&feature=related[5]

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[1] 74 indian

[2] 75 indian

[3] 68 Highbrow

[4] 60 highbrow

[5] www.youtube.com accessed 6/7/2012

power of food

The American culture revolved around food and freedom between the colonial times and the American Revolution. Food was a key commodity that helped formed the colonies into a major trading post for the British Empire. Perhaps one of the most influential items throughout all the colonies was rum. “Many historians believe that rum spearheaded intercolony trade in such foods as corn, rice, flour, bread, salt cod, oats, rye, loaf sugar, salt, and dozens of other foodstuffs”.[1] While the northern colonies were known for their fishing and the south for tobacco, rum was the product that was universal with all of them. Along with rum colonist imbibed in beer, hard cider and other spirits. “Benjamin Franklin said that there was no good living where there was not good drinking, and for colonial Americans, this proved true. Colonist drank twice as much as Americans do now”.[2] Unlike the European countries the colonies seemed to have an unlimited supply of food at their disposal. For example hunting was seen as being only for the gentlemen of the country in England. However, in the colonies the animals were so abundant that everyone was allowed to hunt without any recourse. “In the New World, however, the abundance of game made hunting democratic, allowing every man to imagine himself a patriarch in a gentry of egalitarianism”.[3] This helped the colonists to feeling an entitlement of freedom from the home countries of Europe.

Food also became an influence with the people when politics were involved. In order to help lure potential voters, barbeques became famous for early political rallies. “Most campaign spending did not involve posting signs or door-to-door canvassing but buying votes with booze and barbecue”.[4]   

As the colonies emerged as excellent trading economies the British Parliament began to take notice. With the notice that Parliament was taking toward the economies of the growing colonies they wanted to be included with the preverbal slice of pie. Thus the British Parliament enacted the Navigation Act of 1663, created to place money in the treasury of the British Empire by making all goods destined for the colonies or Europe to go through England so that a tax would be applied. Over the years the colonists resisted this act which would lead to more such acts from Parliament to collect taxes on goods. “This resistance to the power of England led to repressive taxes such as the Molasses Act of 1733; the Sugar Act of 1760; the Stamp Act of 1765; the Townsend Act of 1767(taxes of lead, paper, paint, glass, and tea)…”.[5] These Acts pushed the colonists to the need and desire to be free.

Groups like the Sons of Liberty were stating the enactments of the taxes on the colonies as wrong since the colonies had no representation in Parliament. Food would be a part of the rebellion as well. In Boston in 1773 the food that would take to the forefront was tea. The people that took part in the Boston Tea Party dressed like Indians to protest the tax that had been imposed on the tea. “In the national iconography, the Tea Party is a catalytic moment, the first drumbeat in the long cadence of rebellion through which Americans redefined themselves as something other than British colonists”.[6]

The following link has a interesting video that describes the relationship between the colonies and England.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-9pDZMRCpQ[7]

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[1] Dave DeWitt. The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine. (Naperville: Sourcebooks, 2010), 38

[2] Dave DeWitt. The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine. (Naperville: Sourcebooks, 2010), 52

[3] Philip J Deloria.  Playing Indian. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998),19

[4] Dave DeWitt. The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine. (Naperville: Sourcebooks, 2010), 132

[5] Ibid,32

[6] Philip J Deloria.  Playing Indian. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998),2

[7] www.youtube.com accessed 05/30/2012

Bio of Jason, thoughts on American Culture

My name is Jason Weller; and I live outside of Chicago, IL. I am pursuing a BS in History.  While working full time and studying, in what little spare time I have I enjoy researching my ancestry, traveling, reading and I also practice photography on an amateur level as hobbies. Somewhere in there I am also planning my wedding with my fiancé for summer of next year.

American culture makes me think of the motto of the United States of America, e pluribus Unum. The motto states, out of many, one. American culture is just like that motto. People from all over the world have come to the United States and with them their cultures. Dictionary.com defines culture as, “the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.”^[1] The best way I could define the American culture today is diverse. The United States has a very diverse population and with that comes the different cultures from around the world that are placed into the melting pot that is this country.

The exposure of all the cultures to the country has brought different aspects to everything. The culture of America is a wide range of topics such as religion, food and technologies to name a few. This country has a tolerant view to religion. For the most part the country allows people to worship the religion of their choice or even not to worship at all.

Food brought from different cultures is enjoyed throughout the country and continues to evolve. People don’t just eat what their ancestors ate they have learned to expand their palate of taste.

Technologies have also changed the culture of America. As the country grows the technology available at the time shrinks the country. In the early years of the country letters were the only way to communicate across the country later to be replaced by the quicker telegraph invented by Samuel Morse. “In addition to helping invent the telegraph, Samuel Morse developed a code (bearing his name) that assigned a set of dots and dashes to each letter of the English alphabet and allowed for the simple transmission of complex messages across telegraph lines”.[2] This new technology was a faster way to receive information about what was happening to other parts of the country and to bring cultures from one side of the country known to the other and share ideas. Eventually the telegraph was replaced by the telephone. Today the telephone for the most part has been replaced by the internet with social media like Facebook, Twitter and texting being popular forms of communicating. Technology is just a small window into what is becoming a more digital way of life.

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[1] www.Dictionary.com accessed 5/24/2012

[2] www.History.com accessed 5/24/2012