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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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Research Paper Doctorate

Racial Profiling Enforcement of Law and Order

Enforcement of law and order in the most efficient manner is one of the crucial and most challenging tasks. In order to keep the social environment peaceful and progressive, it is important for the law enforcement…

Research Paper Doctorate

I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou

¶ … Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, she illustrated her coming of age as an intelligent but unconfident black girl in the American South during the 1930s and afterwards in California during the 1940s.

Research Paper Doctorate

Political Parties and Bilingual Education Politics, Throughout

Political Parties and Bilingual Education

Essay Doctorate

Federal taxation and itemized deductions research

This essay examines the significance of itemized deductions and how they factor in with the United States Tax codes. The history of this idea is examined in the article as advice is presented to taxpayers on how to fully take advantage of these rules. The essay concludes with real-world examples of triggers associated with these deductions that increase your chances of an audit.

Thesis High School

Food as a Public Good and Obesity as an Externality

This paper deals with the increasing obesity rates that can be found in the U.S and many other industrial nations. The United States has one of the lowest cost food options available to its consumers in the world. For an extended period, people assumed that this was a benefit of capitalism and that competition had helped push down the prices and made food available at lower costs through the market. However, many externalities have arisen in these circumstances that are now pointing researchers to question the consequences of having mass processed food available to consumers.

Essay Doctorate

Cultural immersion through community participation and observation

This paper is on culture. Surely, before I went to the festival, I had a slight idea about the mess I was getting into. I wasn't really eager to participate and was going to be a quiet observer as people crazily went on to throws color at each other. However, as I was there around different people having the time of their likes, I could not help myself. It was very nice to see people of different ages and different backgrounds act the same way and just enjoy themselves. There was no class or sect division. People were playing around and throwing color even if they were ten or sixty. This showed me the importance of culture and tradition in this group of people.

Paper Doctorate

Deductive and Inductive Theory Construction

Poverty is often a significant element influencing individuals to take on a life of crime, taking into account that organized crime leaders tend to recruit their subordinates from underprivileged environments. Poor persons have lesser options in comparison to others and gradually come to consider that committing criminal acts is the only solution they have in order to survive. From the perspective of organized crime leaders poor areas are thus perfect recruitment spots. There is a complex relationship between poverty and organized crime and by analyzing a series of organized crime communities from around the world one is likely to observe that many tend to focus on recruiting underprivileged individuals. The Mara Salvatrucha criminal organization has expanded throughout the American continent and it appears that borders are not necessarily an impediment when considering its presence in countries other than its home. It is currently present in a series of areas and on several continents, as it appears that the principles it promotes have influenced a great deal of individuals to express interest in joining the gang. While the organized crime group has initially been present in Los Angeles only, a number of deportations involving high-ranking officers and the fact that these respective individuals have taken the gang's name further made it possible for them to recruit individuals in a series of other areas.

Research Paper Doctorate

Message to the Nation Mr.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of Congress, Justices of the Supreme Court, distinguished guests, and my fellow Americans, welcome. I come here tonight with hope and promise for America.

Paper Doctorate

Western expansion, mythology, and impact on Native populations in the Gilded Age

The United States went through a surplus of superficial changes from 1865 to the present day. Although many issues in the American way of life were addressed, many of these issues were dealt with in only a marginally effective way at best. Many such changes were introduced in the political systems, yet political posturing was slow or inept to bring social change to the American system of government has many which has strengths and weakness. Although most Americans are the freest people on the planet, this paradigm is only true with many reservations. In fact, one way to look at freedom would be to consider that opposite of freedom – incarceration. Currently the United States dominates the world in number of prisoners both per capita as well as the total population.

Research Paper Doctorate

Racial Profiling in Airports

¶ … Racial profiling in airports [...] how terrorist attacks in America call for increasing racial profiling in airports, similar to Israel's El Al Airlines racial profiling tactics.

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