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What is American?

The concept of "American" as a subject of study spans disciplines ranging from history and sociology to literature and cultural studies. It invites students to examine what defines American identity, society, and values — questions that resist simple answers. Courses in world studies, American history, and cultural analysis regularly ask students to interrogate the idea of America as both a geographic place and an evolving set of ideals. Works like J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur's 1782 letter posing the question "What Is an American?" and figures such as Benjamin Franklin and Amiri Baraka serve as anchors for exploring how American identity has been constructed, contested, and redefined across centuries.

Student papers on this topic take a wide range of approaches. Comparative essays examine American values alongside European or Asian counterparts, or place historical periods like the Progressive Era and the New Deal in direct contrast. Other papers use case studies to analyze specific social and political developments — the Abolition Movement, the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the influence of Latin migration on American life. Cultural and media analysis appears as well, with papers exploring pop music in the 1980s, advertising's effect on dietary choices, and the evolution of the cell phone as a lens into American society.

A strong essay on an American studies topic works best when it anchors a broad theme in a specific argument. Effective evidence draws on policy documents, literary texts, historical events, or cultural artifacts rather than vague generalizations about national character. The most common pitfall is treating "America" as a monolith — successful essays acknowledge the diversity of voices, regions, and experiences that shape any aspect of American life.

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Paper Doctorate

Controversial Art and Politics

A comedian named Tommy Smothers, member of the Smother's Brothers comedy team and target of a battle over censorship, once said "The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen." (Smothers) This…

Paper Doctorate

Compare the U.S. Justice System Ti India\'s Justice System

U.S. Justice System vs. India's Justice System This paper compares the system of justice in India with the system of justice in the United States. Although they are both democracies – in fact India is the biggest democratic country in the world – the two countries are quite different in their approach to formal justice. Moreover, the system of justice in India has been the subject of a great deal of criticism in recent years due to the corruption that has been found in the system. Comparing the U.S. and Indian Justice Systems The legal system in India is backed by the Indian Constitution and is a mix of "adversarial and accusatorial," according to the Loyola University in Chicago (LU). There is an attempt to respect both Hindu and Muslim jurisprudence and to "preserve the timeworn tenets of both" (LU). In rural areas of India, an informal system of justice (including distributive justice) is in place. The criminal justice system is an offshoot of the British system (England colonized India until Indian obtained independence in 1947 and became a sovereign democratic republic in 1950). The criminal justice system has four subsystems: corrections (prisons, jails), the Legislature (Parliament), enforcement (police), and adjudication (the courts).

Paper Doctorate

Reflection on copyright law violations from downloading media through Vuze

This is a six page paper about copyright law and violation of a university's terms of service on their network. The paper is divided into several sections, in accordance with specific instructions on what to write. The majority of the paper is personal reflection on breaking a university's copyright laws by using file sharing. The file sharing application Vuze is mentioned in the paper, and a progressive stance is taken.

Paper Undergraduate

Department of Social Services

This paper is a quality and effectiveness audit of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency in charge of protecting the health of Americans. It defines critical terms for success in terms of a government agency's ability to provide for a target population and evaluates the actions of HHS in light of these standards, stating what HHS does well and where it is lacking.

Essay Doctorate

Advertising Children Advertising to Children a Brief

This is an introduction to the effects that advertising can have on children. The introduction uses the marketing of food to children as the primary example of these influences. Obesity in children has reach epidemic proportions and is likely to grow. Come countries have enacted regulations that prevent marketers from playing on the vulnerabilities of children while others value personal freedoms.

Paper Undergraduate

Immelt Et Al. (2009). Becht

The paper provides the case analysis of an article written by Becht (2010) and an article written by Immelt et al. (2009).Immelt et al. (2009) reveal how General Electric (GE) has used reverse innovation to develop low cost products for the emerging economies and later bring them back to wealthy countries such as the United States.Becht (2010) also discusses how RB (Reckitt Benckiser) has developed the global entrepreneurship skills of its top managers using global mobility strategy.

Research Paper Doctorate

History of Polish immigrants in Chicago

Polish immigrants have always been an integral part of the melting pot of America. Indeed, a Polish War Hero named Casimir Pulaski was granted a legion of men during the Revolutionary War.

Research Paper Doctorate

Late Tokugawa Reform and Foreign Policy

¶ … honored one, I offer this comment with grave regret that it shall even be received, for in his Excellency's well intentioned attempt to seek the advice of the more sagacious residents of Kyoto and Edo, he is playing…

Essay Doctorate

Multicultural Marketing to a Multicultural Audience --

This research paper is the final, cumulative effort of a semester-long project studying the effects of marketing to a multicultural audience. The need for multicultural marketing is assessed on a domestic and on an international level. McDonald's and Starbucks are used as examples of successful multicultural marketing and the paper concludes with speculation about how multicultural marketing will evolve in the future.

Paper Undergraduate

Blackface: The Use of Whites

This paper focuses on the use of blackface in popular culture. It covers the history of blackface and how it developed as part of minstrel shows in the antebellum South, and was then used as a means of perpetuating racial stereotypes after the Civil War. Then it looks at how blackface fell out of favor, but recurs in popular culture.

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