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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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Essay Doctorate
Houston's air quality bureau's communication with minority communities
This paper is about public technical communications strategy. It focuses on a case where an air quality bureau of a major city needs to communicate its new strategies to the minority communities of the city. There is an overview of the relevant literature and theories to explain the different strategies that were used.
Paper Doctorate
The Cold War as the most pivotal event in world history
¶ … world's nations and citizens was the Cold War. Indeed, slave trade was important, and the formation of American colonies in the 17th century has had an enormous impact on the history of the planet.
Paper Doctorate
Class stereotypes subverted in Paul Haggis's Crash
It is argued that race and ethnicity often determine a persons social class. Crash, a film by director, Paul Haggis [2004] is an interesting study of how this may or may not be true. Pay close attention to the behavior of certain characters and their respective social class. Crash was awarded 'Best Picture' in 2005. Writing Prompt: Rent and view the film Crash. In the essay, a€˜Class and Virtue’, Michael Parenti believes Hollywood films always attach virtue to the well off middle and upper classes only.
Research Paper Doctorate
The individual mandate and pre-existing conditions in the Affordable Care Act
This paper is about the affordable care act (ACA), aka Obamacare. This plan is discussed in terms of how it expands coverage, what the individual mandate is, whether the act affects seniors over 65 or not, and how, and also the paper goes into detail on if the act expands coverage or not.
Paper Doctorate
United States global involvement from the Spanish American War through the Marshall Plan
Since the Spanish American War, the United States move from relative isolation into an active international role motivated by strategic interests, by the need to protect and open new markets for its products, services and capital, and to defend and promote American values, including human rights, democratic values and market economies. The consequences are that the American society becomes more open to the outside world and that this openness implies important changes for the US society, such as the changes following the war in Vietnam.
Essay Undergraduate
Drone surveillance as security at the Democratic National Convention
Security during a large political setting is paramount to establishing a safe forum in which opinions can be expressed. As evidenced by the case, security, particularly during election years can become a very contentious issue. This is particularly true during the DRNC as the current political environment is notoriously quarrelsome. Aspects such as unprecedented government shutdowns, looming budget debates, rising inequality, and other issues are all very combative subjects. As such, individual groups or factions tend to be very aggressive in these views or opinions
Paper Undergraduate
Racial exclusion and barrio culture in Sarah Deutsch's Southwest frontier study
For four books, the following are fulfilled:. How race has excluded people of color/ethnic groups in the U.S. for each book? (100 words) 2. Summarize theme or thesis on people of color/ethnic groups in the U.S. for each book? (100 words) 3. Summarize the arguments for each book. (100 words) Discuss each books main points and objectives of each book. (100 words) Analyze strengths and weaknesses for each book. (50 words)
Essay Doctorate
Robert Kagan's neoconservative foreign policy ideology and influence
The purpose of this three page paper is to familiarize the audience with the ideas that are central in the contemporary debates over statecraft, strategy, and the utility of force. Provides an overview of the ideas central to that individual’s body of published work. The focus is less on the individual and more on the ideas or cluster of ideas the individual’s publications represent in U.S. public discourse regarding foreign and security policy. Robert Kagan is the subject.
Research Paper Undergraduate
Westinghouse's organizational structure: bureaucratic and divisional analysis
Westinghouse is one of the most relevant companies in the nuclear industry. As a part of Toshiba, the company has a very diverse and multicultural environment, developed in a hierarchical and bureaucratic structure that is encouraged by the particular sector in which the company operates and by its links with the military. This paper looks at many issues such as organizational structure and culture, the management team and cultural diversity.
Paper High School
Effectiveness of school-based anti-bullying programs
In recent years, there has been a resurgence of efforts to deal with the problem of bullying in schools, specifically encouraging schools to adopt formal anti-bullying programs that educate students on the subjects of…