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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

Walter Lee's psychological limitations in "A Raisin in the Sun"

¶ … Raisin in the Sun: Walter Lee's Dream Deferred

Paper Doctorate

The individual mandate's financial inadequacy in the Affordable Care Act

In January of 2014 Obamacare mandates that every American either purchase healthcare insurance or pay a tax. However, the tax is much less than the price of an insurance plan and many believe that healthy young people will forgo buying insurance in favor of paying a small tax. But if this is the case it undermines the financial basis of the entire system. Young healthy people were supposed to finance the healthcare of the older and sick by paying premiums and not using the coverage. But giving them a way to avoid buying insurance will leave the system woefully underfunded.

Paper High School

The importance of business ethics in corporate responsibility

This essay deals with the ethical approach to business law. The role of corporations and their demands placed on society are discussed in this essay. The idea of corporate personhood and corporate responsibility are discussed as important factors of creating an ethical baseline to understand the topic. The essay concludes with some real world examples on how business ethics are applicable.

Religion and political organization as sources of social order

Anthropology looks at the complex relationships between individuals in a society, how they interact, how order is defined etc. This paper aims to analyze political and religious order as an instrument that societies use to self-regulate and discusses a trip to Disneyland as an example of rite of passage or even as an example of pilgrimage.

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 Virtueâ€™, 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

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