American Ethnic Culture What is an American? It is clear that Progressive era Americans from different backgrounds differentially defined precisely what being an American actually meant. Stephen Meyer wrote in the work entitled "Efforts at Americanization in the Industrial Workplace 1914-1921 that Americanization "…involved the social and cultural assimilation of immigrants into the mainstream of American life…" but that the process was of the nature that was comprised of "a unique and distinctly

The United States of America's foreign policy has mirrored its influence and power within the international community. As a small and weak nation, America was forced to employ a regional foreign policy, limited to the North American continent. But as the U.S. grew into a powerful industrialized nation, its foreign policy began to change to include more international issues. Finally, as a result of the need for the United States

In this way the American Dream became even less accessible to poor persons, who in the past may have expected help from the more fortunate sectors of society. Instead they were forced to see the rich grow increasingly richer without any chance for access to prosperity. Unemployment and disparate income rates exacerbate the problem. Those employed in the most worthy of caring professions are often at the lowest end

As Margaret Atwood points out, Americans have as much to be ashamed of as to be proud of. When Barbara Kingsolver claims "The values we fought for and won there are best understood, I think, by oil companies," she refers to the way the American flag has been distorted. The issues the flag symbolizes, such as freedom and liberty, are myths for many people. As Kingsolver points out, the American

Thus, the latest influxes of immigrants from Europe prior to the war may have been the worst off. The Revolution shifted the social realities for all indentured servants in the colonies, and only less so for Blacks. Only war could undermine the social structure that enabled the restrictive hierarchies to exist. The war led to forced migrations of people, the disruption of established avenues and systems of trade, and political

American Civil War transformed the country's policies and culture, and its wide-ranging ramifications are still being felt to this day, offering an ideal case study in the multi-faceted phenomenon of war. Although the ostensible reasons for the war are generally clear to anyone with a grade school education in American history, assigning the outbreak of the war to any one factor unnecessarily disguises the myriad political, economic, and social forces