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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

Migration to the US

Pyong Min's Mass Migration to the United States reviews the vast influx of people from Mexico, Latin America, Asia, Russia and the Caribbean into the United States that has occurred since 1965.

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Patriotism Love of Country

Patriotism is essentially a bond among countrymen as expressed concisely by Oliver Wendell Holmes, when he wrote, "One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, One Nation evermore!"[footnoteRef:1] Love for America is…

Paper Doctorate

Cultural Change at Texaco

Texaco, Inc. is a multi-billion dollar corporation that produces petroleum, oil, gasoline and asphalt. Founded in 1901, Texaco's growth expanded into the automobile industry in the 20th century, at which time the…

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Report on Doing International Business Between 2 Countries in Given Industry

Recommendations for International Expansions

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Critical analysis of everyday use by Alice Walker

There have and are well-known authors that literature students are introduced to and discussed because of the intensity, reasons, persona, and literary devices that the authors add to works they publish.

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Federal Government Control Marijuana Legalization? Author\'s Note

¶ … Federal Government Control Marijuana Legalization?

Paper Undergraduate

Marketing forces and diversification strategies

Marketing Forces and Diversification Diversity and competition among caregivers are driving forces for defining major ethnic target groups in the community, targeting marketing to those groups and tailoring health care to the needs of those groups. An astute and successful example is given in Noonan's and Savolaine's article about a Midwestern community hospital. Aware of the community's increasing diversity and mindful of rigorous competition among health care providers, the community hospital was not content with service area analysis of ethnicities and cultures; rather, the hospital endeavored to garner specific data about the ethnicity of obstetric patients who were discharged and physician's specific information regarding the ethnicities of their patients. Using this data, the hospital defined 4 major ethnic target groups and proceeded to intelligently market to those groups while tailoring the health care experience to those groups. The result was continued quality of care above the national average and increased patient satisfaction, even as the obstetric patient population significantly increased. The intelligence and success of those marketing and health care measures to better attract and serve a diverse community should compel a hospital CEO to incorporate the same approach to better attract and service diverse ethnicities and cultures in his/her own community.

Paper High School

Sociology Racism What Is Obama\'s Race? Barrack

The practice of racism has been a controversial debate over the years. This was especially rooted in European nations and in the US where the practice has established substantial grounds amongst the whites and Black Americans (African Americans. In 2008, Barack Obama won the contested presidential elections, becoming the first Black American to win this seat. However, his appointment has been faced with criticism solely on race claims, as this document tries to exemplify.

Neo-Confucianism Is a Philosophy Which Was Born TEST1

Ronald Reagan's statement that, "I believe that government exists to protect us from each other not to protect us from ourselves." is still echoed in the Republican Party today. It is the same mentality that Mitt Romney employs—that people must be responsible for themselves and that the government is not there to pick up the slack for people who don't take care of themselves and prepare for their future. The most fundamental flaw in this thinking is that it assumes that everyone starts from an even playing field—or else, one is forced to conclude, that the GOP really doesn't care that fundamental inequalities exist which will prevent large swaths of American people from ever being able to "take care of themselves" and look out for their future.

Paper Doctorate

Thomas Jefferson as Author of the Declaration of Independence

This paper discusses Thomas Jefferson. Not only was he the 2nd Vice President and 3rd President of the United States, but he also wrote the original draft of the Declaration of Independence. With a committee of four others he also edited and revised the document until it was introduced to the 2nd Continental Congress. There is was voted on and adopted.

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