全英文版 建造美國(guó)making American——美國(guó)的風(fēng)俗和社會(huì) （前言總章）

1、making americathe society and culture of the united staesprefacethis book has been written in response to the burgeoning study of the united states across the world both in formal academic settings and in homes, media offices, and government chambers. the scholarly contexts for american studies toda

2、y span a broad spectrum from long-established seminars in europe, backed by third-generation americanists and deep library collections, to fledgling courses taught in provincial universities of developing nations by isolated and overburdened lecturers. providing comprehensive and comprenensible supp

3、ort for this gamut of interests and needs is a vastly unmet challenge. the purpose of the present volume is twofold: to offer college and university-level audiences an inclusive and flexible text on the development, culture, society, and mind of america; and to confront the general reader with criti

4、ques of america in the late twentieth century that will both inform and provoke.making america is not a collection of essays but a collaboration by two dozen leading american scholars and critics to represent the character and culture of their nation. interationalist in experience and outlook, each

5、has brought his or her own discipline, authority, and topical expertise to a common effort to understand the american experience. within severely restricted space, the authors were asked to provide objective information on their subjects, to pursue developments through time, and to apply a critical

6、point of view.the organization of the volume reflects a concern for the processes by which character has been formed in the united states as well as for the specific institutions, modes of behavior, and faiths that have grown out of the american experience. following my introductory essay on the con

7、cept of american character, partcharts the imposition of human culture on the natural landscape of the country and the process of adaptation from which characteristically american phenomena in citizenship, frontier and urban life, and regional cultures have emerged. parttraces cultural expressions t

8、hrough manners, art, architecture, literature, sports, and the mass media, while part is concerned principally with the individual as a member of society and the impact of social forces on behavior and values. part explores the life of the mind in americain religion, philosophy, scientific discovery

9、, and social and political thought. the essays thus move generally from historical to cultural to sociological to critical-philosophical modes of discussion. all, however, share in a common search for both the roots and branches, the historical developments and the contemporary forms of american lif

10、e.the themes running throughout the chapterse.g., experimentation, the sense of uniqueness and historical purpose,the federalism of peoples and styles, national pride and self-criticism,the dilemmas of racial and social inequality, and especially what william chafe recently called “the unfinished jo

11、urney” were not imposed. these and other themes are revealed inevitably by the authors in the course of inquiry.omissions have been as unavoidable as they are regrettable, and each reader will make his or her own list of lacunae: agriculture, the social welfare system, work and the workplace, the or

12、ganization of business, political parties,american music, diet and the household. an early, still incomplete,table of contents projected no fewer than seventy essential topics. but where important subjects and themes have not been featured individually, it is hoped that the book will provide suffici

13、ent structure and starting points so that they can be more meaningfully addressed.the reader who chooses to move through the chapters in sequence should experience the dynamics of the still evolving character and deepening culture of the american people. most will use the book in a selective fashion

14、, pursuing personal interests and comparing their own knowledge and perspectives with, say, sam bass warner, jr., on“urban america”, norman corwin on “entertainment and the mass media”, tamara hareven on “ the american family”,or martin marty on “religion in america”.the work will serve as the basic

15、 course text in some curricular settings; in others instructors will cut and tailor modules suitable for their particular audiences in history, literature, society, politics, and american studies.i expect that the recommendations for further reading will prove a most valuable feature of the book. th

16、e authors have selected their bibliographies carefully with several objectives in mind. libratirans and directors of research and teaching centers will want to check their holdings for the key works identified here and set about filling in gaps. the further readings should suggest new course possibi

17、lities and assist instructors in preparing syllabi and lectures on a wide range of subjects. students can mine the bibliographies for research topics and can base papers and theses on the documentation and criticism that are described.preparing this volume has taken several years, interrupted by the

18、 other professional obligations of the scholars involved and my own tour as director of the american studies research centre in india. in the course of its development from idea to outline to publication, the book has benefited tremendously from the constructive criticism of a succession of observer

19、s. in addition to each of our authors, whose patience and dedication were unfailing, i want to express my special appreciation to daniel aaron, david axeen, ian bickerton, robert byer, roland davis, william ferris, winfried fluck, jay martin, richard l.merritt, kay mussell, martin ridge, arlene skol

20、nick, kermit vanderbilt, joan weibel-or-lando and, now posthumously, ray a.billington and linda keller brown. at the united states information agency merrill miller first embraced the need and significance of such a text and brought it into focus, c.william la salle, robert coonrod, and leslie high

21、gave the full support of the division for study of the united states. william bate provided great assistance in shaping the organization and content of the book, and perry frank saw the volume through the design and editing process. the volume was typeset in-house by eleanor noody and lynne miller.

22、finally, i am indebted to the teachers, scholars, journalists,and citizens of the world who have shown me what america means to them. luther s.luedtke los angeles, 1987introductionthe search for american character by luther s.luedtke i speak of the american in the singular,as if there were not milli

23、ons of them, north and south, east and west, of both sexes,of all ages, and of various races, professions, and religions. of course the one american i speak of is mythical; but to speak in parables is inevitable in such a subject, and it is perhaps as well to do so franklyas it happens, the symbolic

24、 american can be made largely adequate to the facts; because, if there are immense differences between individual americansyet there is a great uniformity in their environment, customs, temper, and thoughts. they have all been uprooted from their several soils and ancestries and plunged together int

25、o one vortex, whirling irresistibly in a space otherwise quite empty. to be an american is of itself almost a moral condition, an education, nd a career.george santayana, charater and opinion in the united states it is a commonplace to state. that whatever one may come to consider a truly american t

26、rait can be shown to have its equally characteristic opposite. this, one suspects, is true of all“national characters,”or(as i would prefer to call them)national identities so true, in fact, that one may begin rather than end with the proposition that a nations identity is derived from the ways in w

27、hich history has, as it were, counterpointed certain opposite personalities; the ways in which it lifts this counterpoint to a unique style of civilization, or lets it disintegrate in mere contradiction.erik h.erikson, childhood and societyan article headlined “6,000 line up for u.s. citizen oath” w

28、as given only a picture and three short columns in an interior section of the los angeles times on june 29, 1984. the immigrants gathered at the shrine auditorium to swear allegiance to the united states and pick up citizenship documents. as in recent years, the largest group of new citizens came fr

29、om the philippinesnearly a thousand of them. they were followed closely by groups from mexico(890)and vietnam(704). there were 110from lebanon, 126 from the united kingdom, 62 from israel. smallest representations were from lithuania, zimbabwe and tanzanie.in the auditorium foyer, where league of wo

30、men voters members handed out voter registration forms, one new citizen asked rosemary fitzpatrick if she were a democrat or a republican. “i want to do it right,” the man said. fitzpatrick explained that he would have to make up his own mind. this event, so common and inevitable as to be scarcely n

31、ewsworthy, nevertheless holds the keys to an ongoing process by which american character has been formed for over three hundred years. it typifies the american experience in at least three ways.first is the continual ingathering of the enormous diversity of races and peoplesdriven or drawn by religi

32、ous, political, and economic forcesthat have chosen to make the united states their permanent home. whether perceived through the metaphor of the melting pot or, more fashionable today, through ethnic pluralism, america has assimilated and taken its character from an extraordinary variety of peoples

33、. struggling to define the essence of the new land at the time of american revolution， the french immigrant j. hector st. john( michel-guillaume jean de crvecoeur) posed the classic question of american nationality in his letters from an american farmer (1982):what then is the american, this new man

34、? he is either an european, or the descendent of an european, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. i could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an englishman, whose wife was dutch, whose son married a french woman, and whose present four sons have

35、now four wives of different nations. he is a american, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. he becomes an american by being received in the broad lap of our

36、great alma mater. here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and prosperity will one day cause great changes in the world. after two hundred years the sources and compositon of the “new race of men”have expanded far beyond europe, but the process of constant upr

37、ooting, transplantation, adaptatation, and renewal continues. although the massive waves of migration that added some 37 million foreign born to the population of the united states from the 1820s to the 1920s are unlikely to recur, in the last decades the united states has reopened its doors to an u

38、ncounted number of latin americans(both legal and undocumented aliens)and to hundreds of thousands of refugees from southeast asia. results of the 1980 census indicated a total national population of 226.5 million, of which 26.5 million(11.7 percent) were black, 14.6 million(6.4 percent)hispanic, 1.

39、4 million(0.6 percent) native american, and 3.5 million (1.5 percent) asian-american. to speak of these as minority populations is misleading, for the nation has no clear ethnic majority. the largest specifically identifiable ethnic groupthat of british ancestryaccounts for only 15 percent of the po

40、pulation, as compared to 13 percent of german ancestry, and 8 percent irish. the united states already has the fourth-largest spanish-speaking population in the world, and it is probable that the 1990 census will show the hispanics to be the largest single ethnic group in the united states. in the c

41、ity of los angeles non-hispanic whites already comprise less than half the population, with hipanics providing 28 percent, blacks 13 percent, and asians 6 percent. a quarter of los angeles county residents today are foreign born. in the state of california as a whole, in the ten-year period 1970-80

42、the number of non-hispanic whites grew by only 5 percent and blacks by 33 percent, while the number of hispanics increased by 60 percent and asians by 140 percent. a similar phenomenon is occurring from texas and new mexico to missouri, illinois, and new york.a second key to the american experience

43、that can be read from the los angeles times news item concerns the intentionality of american citizenship. the concept of national citizenship took its modern significance from the american and french revolutions,which repudiated rule by monarchy and over time established the right of the individual

44、 to choose his own citizenship. following the adoption of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution in 1868, congress formally declared the right of the citizen to change his allegiance at will. american citizenship is conferred not indelibly by blood or culture, but by place of birth or by free

45、choice. u.s.citizenship stands as a matter of covenant and achievement. the persons taken into citizenship at the ceremony in los angeles had satisfied residence requirements, been found morally fit, passed simple english literacy requirements, and demonstrated evidence of a basic understanding of u

46、nited states government. each had declared:on oath, that i absolutely and entirely renounce and abjur all allegiance and fidelity to any foreigh prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which i have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that iwill support and defend the constitution and l

47、aws of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that i will bear arms on behalf of the united states when required by lawso help me god.thus six thousand more aliens were made americans. the majority of americans will never

48、attend citizenship training classes or pass through the ritual of citizenship with such self-consciousness as the quarter million immigrants who are “naturalized” annually, but the civics instruction and the pledges of allegiance that suffuse our educational system and public observances habituate a

49、mericans to consider their citizenship, like their religion, a matter of personal responsibility.the third key is closely related to the second, namely, the politicalideological core of the american commitment. in undertaking to “support and defend the constitution and laws of the united states,” th

50、e new americans gave their personal allegiance to a national polity rooted in concepts of justice, equality, the inalienable rights of the individual, and government by and for the people. “natural and subconscious forces have generally contributed to the process of a nations coming into being more

51、than free human decisions,” noted hans kohn. “not so with the anglo-americans. they established themselves as a nation without the support of any of those elements that are generally supposed to constitute a separte nation”such as common descent, a common religion, an historically defined territory,

52、 cultural uniqueness, or a distinctive language, law, or literature. the european origins of the american colonists, the newness of their culture, and their constant mobility precluded any such organic solidarty. the tie that united the colonies, and at the same time separated them from all other na

53、tions, was founded “on an idea which singled out the new nation among the nations of the earth.” this idea, expressed in the american; it is the english tradition of liberty, which could develop in north america unhampered by feudalism or monarchy, encouraged by a favorable geography and abundant na

54、tural resources. all a person had to do to become an american was commit himself to universal ideas of liberty, equality, and republicanism. “the english colonies in north america,” according to kohn, “seemed predestined, by nature and by the philosophy of the age, to a great experiment.”these doctr

55、ines, like the resulting institutions,have shown a remarkable vitality and immutability for over two hundred years in what has been called “the first new nation.” while americans may hyphenate their identities for particular or communal reasonsas irish-americans, afro-americans,asian-americansthey u

56、nite under higher principles to endorse their common citizenship. merely to remind ourselves of its ideological core, of course, hardly does justice to the colorful skein of american life today or the complex and manifold ways in which an american identity has evolved. the skeptic, indeed, might wel

57、l ask whether it is not futile to seek a palpable commonality among a population so large and ethnically diverse as that of the united states, spread across fifty states, seven times zones, and tens of thousands of local communities, with a decentralized educational system, undirected by any ministr

58、y of culture. weighing the relative diversities or unity of the united states in the 1880s, however, lord bryce remarked:scotchmen and irishmen are more unlike englishmen, the native of nnrmandy more unlike the native of provence, the pomeranian more unlike the wurtemberger, the piedmontese more unl

59、ike the neapolitan, the basque more unlike the andulasian, than the american from any part of the country is to the american from any other.it is rather more difficult to take any assemblage of attributes in any of these european countries and call it the national type than it is to do the like in the united states.in our own time gunnar myrdal has reiter