U.S. Culture

U.S. Culture

THE U.S. CULTURE

American culture is rich, complex, and unique. It emerged from the short

and rapid European conquest of an enormous landmass sparsely settled by

diverse indigenous peoples. Although European cultural patterns

predominated, especially in language, the arts, and political

institutions, peoples from Africa, Asia, and North America also

contributed to American culture. All of these groups influenced popular

tastes in music, dress, entertainment, and cuisine. As a result, American

culture possesses an unusual mixture of patterns and forms forged from

among its diverse peoples. The many melodies of American culture have not

always been harmonious, but its complexity has created a society that

struggles to achieve tolerance and produces a uniquely casual personal

style that identifies Americans everywhere. The country is strongly

committed to democracy, in which views of the majority prevail, and

strives for equality in law and institutions.

Characteristics such as democracy and equality flourished in the American

environment long before taking firm root in European societies, where the

ideals originated. As early as the 1780s, Michel Guillaume Jean de

Crиvecoeur, a French writer living in Pennsylvania who wrote under the

pseudonym J. Hector St. John, was impressed by the democratic nature of

early American society. It was not until the 19th century that these

tendencies in America were most fully expressed. When French political

writer Alexis de Tocqueville, an acute social observer, traveled through

the United States in the 1830s, he provided an unusually penetrating

portrait of the nature of democracy in America and its cultural

consequences. He commented that in all areas of culture—family life, law,

arts, philosophy, and dress—Americans were inclined to emphasize the

ordinary and easily accessible, rather than the unique and complex. His

insight is as relevant today as it was when de Tocqueville visited the

United States. As a result, American culture is more often defined by its

popular and democratically inclusive features, such as blockbuster movies,

television comedies, sports stars, and fast food, than by its more

cultivated aspects as performed in theaters, published in books, or viewed

in museums and galleries. Even the fine arts in modern America often

partake of the energy and forms of popular culture, and modern arts are

often a product of the fusion of fine and popular arts.

While America is probably most well known for its popular arts, Americans

partake in an enormous range of cultural activities. Besides being avid

readers of a great variety of books and magazines catering to differing

tastes and interests, Americans also attend museums, operas, and ballets

in large numbers. They listen to country and classical music, jazz and

folk music, as well as classic rock-and-roll and new wave. Americans

attend and participate in basketball, football, baseball, and soccer

games. They enjoy food from a wide range of foreign cuisines, such as

Chinese, Thai, Greek, French, Indian, Mexican, Italian, Ethiopian, and

Cuban. They have also developed their own regional foods, such as

California cuisine and Southwestern, Creole, and Southern cooking. Still

evolving and drawing upon its ever more diverse population, American

culture has come to symbolize what is most up-to-date and modern. American

culture has also become increasingly international and is imported by

countries around the world.

FORCES THAT SHAPED AMERICAN CULTURE

Imported Traditions

Today American culture often sets the pace in modern style. For much of

its early history, however, the United States was considered culturally

provincial and its arts second-rate, especially in painting and

literature, where European artists defined quality and form. American

artists often took their cues from European literary salons and art

schools, and cultured Americans traveled to Europe to become educated. In

the late 18th century, some American artists produced high-quality art,

such as the paintings of John Singleton Copley and Gilbert Charles Stuart

and the silver work of Paul Revere. However, wealthy Americans who

collected art in the 19th century still bought works by European masters

and acquired European decorative arts—porcelain, silver, and antique

furniture—. They then ventured further afield seeking more exotic decor,

especially items from China and Japan. By acquiring foreign works, wealthy

Americans were able to obtain the status inherent in a long historical

tradition, which the United States lacked. Americans such as Isabella

Stewart Gardner and Henry Clay Frick amassed extensive personal

collections, which overwhelmingly emphasized non-American arts.

In literature, some 19th-century American writers believed that only the

refined manners and perceptions associated with the European upper classes

could produce truly great literary themes. These writers, notably Henry

James and Edith Wharton, often set their novels in the crosswinds of

European and American cultural contact. Britain especially served as the

touchstone for culture and quality because of its role in America's

history and the links of language and political institutions. Throughout

the 19th century, Americans read and imitated British poetry and novels,

such as those written by Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens.

The Emergence of an American Voice

American culture first developed a unique American voice during the 19th

century. This voice included a cultural identity that was strongly

connected to nature and to a divine mission. The new American voice had

liberating effects on how the culture was perceived, by Americans and by

others. Writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau proposed that

the American character was deeply individualistic and connected to natural

and spiritual sources rather than to the conventions of social life. Many

of the 19th century’s most notable figures of American literature—Herman

Melville, Emily Dickinson, and Mark Twain—also influenced this tradition.

The poetry of Walt Whitman, perhaps above all, spoke in a distinctly

American voice about people’s relation to one another, and described

American freedom, diversity, and equality with fervor.

Landscape painting in the United States during the 19th century vividly

captured the unique American cultural identity with its emphasis on the

natural environment. This was evident in the huge canvases set in the West

by Albert Bierstadt and the more intimate paintings of Thomas Cole. These

paintings, which were part of the Hudson River School, were often

enveloped in a radiant light suggesting a special connection to spiritual

sources. But very little of this American culture moved beyond the United

States to influence art trends elsewhere. American popular culture,

including craft traditions such as quilting or local folk music forged by

Appalachian farmers or former African slaves, remained largely local.

This sense of the special importance of nature for American identity led

Americans in the late 19th century to become increasingly concerned that

urban life and industrial products were overwhelming the natural

environment. Their concern led for calls to preserve areas that had not

been developed. Naturalists such as John Muir were pivotal in establishing

the first national parks and preserving scenic areas of the American West.

By the early 20th century, many Americans supported the drive to preserve

wilderness and the desire to make the great outdoors available to

everyone.

Immigration and Diversity

By the early 20th century, as the United States became an international

power, its cultural self-identity became more complex. The United States

was becoming more diverse as immigrants streamed into the country,

settling especially in America’s growing urban areas. At this time,

America's social diversity began to find significant expression in the

arts and culture. American writers of German, Irish, Jewish, and

Scandinavian ancestry began to find an audience, although some of the

cultural elite resisted the works, considering them crude and unrefined.

Many of these writers focused on 20th-century city life and themes, such

as poverty, efforts to assimilate into the United States, and family life

in the new country. These ethnically diverse writers included Theodore

Dreiser, of German ancestry; Henry Roth, a Jewish writer; and Eugene

O'Neill and James Farrell, of Irish background. European influence now

meant something very different than it once had: Artists changed the core

of American experience by incorporating their various immigrant origins

into its cultural vision. During the 1920s and 1930s, a host of African

American poets and novelists added their voices to this new American

vision. Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Countee Cullen, among

others, gathered in New York City’s Harlem district. They began to write

about their unique experiences, creating a movement called the Harlem

Renaissance.

Visual artists of the early 20th century also began incorporating the many

new sights and colors of the multiethnic America visible in these new city

settings. Painters associated with a group known as The Eight (also called

the Ashcan school), such as Robert Henri and John Sloan, portrayed the

picturesque sights of the city. Later painters and photographers focused

on the city’s squalid and seamier aspects. Although nature remained a

significant dimension of American cultural self-expression, as the

paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe demonstrated, it was no longer at the heart

of American culture. By the 1920s and 1930s few artists or writers

considered nature the singular basis of American cultural identity.

In popular music too, the songs of many nations became American songs. Tin

Pan Alley (Union Square in New York City, the center of music publishing

at the turn of the 20th century) was full of immigrant talents who helped

define American music, especially in the form of the Broadway musical.

Some songwriters, such as Irving Berlin and George M. Cohan, used their

music to help define American patriotic songs and holiday traditions.

During the 1920s musical forms such as the blues and jazz began to

dominate the rhythms of American popular music. These forms had their

roots in Africa as adapted in the American South and then in cities such

as New Orleans, Louisiana; Kansas City, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; and

Chicago, Illinois. Black artists and musicians such as Louis Armstrong,

Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Count Basie became the instruments of

a classic American sound. White composers such as George Gershwin and

performers such as Bix Beiderbecke also incorporated jazz rhythms into

their music, while instrumentalists such as Benny Goodman adopted jazz’s

improvisational style to forge a racially blended American form called

swing music.

Development of Mass Media

In the late 19th century, Americans who enjoyed the arts usually lived in

big cities or had the money to attend live performances. People who were

poor or distant from cultural centers settled for second-rate productions

mounted by local theater troupes or touring groups. New technologies, such

as the motion-picture camera and the phonograph, revolutionized the arts

by making them available to the masses. The movies, the phonograph, and,

somewhat later, the radio made entertainment available daily and allowed

Americans to experience elaborately produced dramas and all types of

music.

While mass media made entertainment available to more people, it also

began to homogenize tastes, styles, and points of view among different

groups in the United States. Class and ethnic distinctions in American

culture began to fade as mass media transmitted movies and music to people

throughout the United States. Some people criticized the growing

uniformity of mass culture for lowering the general standard of taste,

since mass media sought to please the largest number of people by

appealing to simpler rather than more complex tastes. However, culture

became more democratic as modern technology and mass media allowed it to

reach more people.

During the 20th century, mass entertainment extended the reach of American

culture, reversing the direction of influence as Europe and the world

became consumers of American popular culture. America became the dominant

cultural source for entertainment and popular fashion, from the jeans and

T-shirts young people wear to the music groups and rock stars they listen

to and the movies they see. People all over the world view American

television programs, often years after the program’s popularity has

declined in the United States. American television has become such an

international fixture that American news broadcasts help define what

people in other countries know about current events and politics. American

entertainment is probably one of the strongest means by which American

culture influences the world, although some countries, such as France,

resist this influence because they see it as a threat to their unique

national culture.

The Impact of Consumerism

Popular culture is linked to the growth of consumerism, the repeated

acquisition of an increasing variety of goods and services. The American

lifestyle is often associated with clothing, houses, electronic gadgets,

and other products, as well as with leisure time. As advertising

stimulates the desire for updated or improved products, people

increasingly equate their well-being with owning certain things and

acquiring the latest model. Television and other mass media broadcast a

portrayal of a privileged American lifestyle that many Americans hope to

imitate.

Americans often seek self-fulfillment and status through gaining material

items. Indeed, products consumed and owned, rather than professional

accomplishments or personal ideals, are often the standard of success in

American society. The media exemplify this success with the most glamorous

models of consumption: Hollywood actors, sports figures, or music

celebrities. This dependence on products and on constant consumption

defines modern consumer society everywhere. Americans have set the pace

for this consumer ideal, especially young people, who have helped fuel

this consumer culture in the United States and the world. Like the mass

media with which it is so closely linked, consumption has been extensively

criticized. Portrayed as a dizzy cycle of induced desire, consumerism

seems to erode older values of personal taste and economy. Despite this,

the mass production of goods has also allowed more people to live more

comfortably and made it possible for anyone to attain a sense of style,

blurring the most obvious forms of class distinction.

WAYS OF LIFE

Living Patterns

A fundamental element in the life of the American people was the enormous

expanse of land available. During the colonial period, the access to open

land helped scatter settlements. One effect was to make it difficult to

enforce traditional European social conventions, such as primogeniture, in

which the eldest son inherited the parents’ estate. Because the United

States had so much land, sons became less dependent on inheriting the

family estate. Religious institutions were also affected, as the widely

spread settlements created space for newer religious sects and revivalist

practices.

In the 19th century, Americans used their land to grow crops, which helped

create the dynamic agricultural economy that defined American society.

Many Americans were lured westward to obtain more land. Immigrants sought

land to settle, cattle ranchers wanted land for their herds, Southerners

looked to expand their slave economy into Western lands, and railroad

companies acquired huge tracts of land as they bound a loose society into

a coherent economic union. Although Native Americans had inhabited most of

the continent, Europeans and American settlers often viewed it as empty,

virgin land that they were destined to occupy. Even before the late 19th

century, when the last bloody battles between U.S. troops and Native

Americans completed the white conquest of the West, the idea of possessing

land was deeply etched into American cultural patterns and national

consciousness.

Throughout the 19th century, agricultural settlements existed on large,

separate plots of land, often occupying hundreds of acres. The Homestead

Act of 1862 promised up to 65 hectares (160 acres) of free land to anyone

with enough fortitude and vision to live on or cultivate the land. As a

result, many settlements in the West contained vast areas of sparsely

settled land, where neighbors lived great distances from one another. The

desire for residential privacy has remained a significant feature of

American culture.

This heritage continues to define patterns of life in the United States.

More than any other Western society, Americans are committed to living in

private dwellings set apart from neighbors. Despite the rapid urbanization

that began in the late 19th century, Americans insisted that each nuclear

family (parents and their children) be privately housed and that as many

families as possible own their own homes. This strong cultural standard

sometimes seemed unusual to new immigrants who were used to the more

crowded living conditions of Europe, but they quickly adopted this aspect

of American culture.

As cities became more densely populated, Americans moved to the suburbs.

Streetcars, first used during the 1830s, opened suburban rings around city

centers, where congestion was greatest. Banks offered long-term loans that

allowed individuals to invest in a home. Above all, the automobile in the

1920s was instrumental in furthering the move to the suburbs.

After World War II (1939-1945), developers carved out rural tracts to

build millions of single-family homes, and more Americans than ever before

moved to large suburban areas that were zoned to prevent commercial and

industrial activities. The federal government directly fueled this process

by providing loans to war veterans as part of the Servicemen’s

Readjustment Act of 1944, known as the GI Bill of Rights, which provided a

wide range of benefits to U.S. military personnel. In many of the new

housing developments, builders constructed homes according to a single

model, a process first established in Levittown, New York. These

identical, partially prefabricated units were rapidly assembled, making

suburban life and private land ownership available to millions of

returning soldiers in search of housing for their families.

American families still choose to live in either suburbs or the sprawling

suburban cities that have grown up in newer regions of the country. Vast

areas of the West, such as the Los Angeles metropolitan region in

California, the area around Phoenix, Arizona, and the Puget Sound area of

Washington state, became rapidly populated with new housing because of the

American desire to own a home on a private plot of land. In much of this

suburban sprawl, the central city has become largely indistinct. These

suburban areas almost invariably reflect Americans’ dependence on

automobiles and on government-supported highway systems.

As a result of Americans choosing to live in the suburbs, a distinctly

American phenomenon developed in the form of the shopping mall. The

shopping mall has increasingly replaced the old-fashioned urban downtown,

where local shops, restaurants, and cultural attractions were located.

Modern malls emphasize consumption as an exclusive activity. The shopping

mall, filled with department stores, specialty shops, fast-food

franchises, and movie multiplexes, has come to dominate retailing, making

suburban areas across America more and more alike. In malls, Americans

purchase food, clothing, and entertainment in an isolated environment

surrounded by parking lots.

The American preference for living in the suburbs has also affected other

living experiences. Because suburbs emphasize family life, suburban areas

also place a greater emphasis on school and other family-oriented

political issues than more demographically diverse cities. At their most

intense levels, desire for privacy and fear of crime have led to the

development of gated suburban communities that keep out those who are not

wanted.

Despite the growth of suburbs, American cities have maintained their

status as cultural centers for theaters, museums, concert halls, art

galleries, and more upscale restaurants, shops, and bookstores. In the

past several decades, city populations grew as young and trendy

professionals with few or no children sought out the cultural

possibilities and the diversity not available in the suburbs. Housing can

be expensive and difficult to find in older cities such as New York;

Boston, Massachusetts; and San Francisco, California. To cope, many city

dwellers restored older apartment buildings and houses. This process,

called gentrification, combines the American desire for the latest

technology with a newer appreciation for the classic and vintage.

Many poorer Americans cannot afford homes in the suburbs or apartments in

the gentrified areas of cities. They often rely upon federal housing

subsidies to pay for apartments in less-desirable areas of the city or in

public housing projects. Poorer people often live crowded together in

large apartment complexes in congested inner-city areas. Federal public

housing began when President Franklin Roosevelt sought to relieve the

worst conditions associated with poverty in the 1930s. It accelerated

during the 1950s and 1960s, as the government subsidized the renewal of

urban areas by replacing slums with either new or refurbished housing. In

the late 20th century, many people criticized public housing because it

was often the site for crime, drug deals, gangs, and other social ills.

Nevertheless, given the expensive nature of rental housing in cities,

public housing is often the only option available to those who cannot

afford to buy their own home. Private efforts, such as Habitat for

Humanity, have been organized to help the urban poor move from crowded,

high-rise apartments. These organizations help construct low-cost homes in

places such as the South Bronx in New York City, and they emphasize the

pride and autonomy of home ownership.

In recent years, the importance of home ownership has increased as higher

real estate prices have made the house a valuable investment. The newest

home construction has made standard the comforts of large kitchens,

luxurious bathrooms, and small gardens. In line with the rising cost of

land, these houses often stand on smaller lots than those constructed in

the period following World War II, when one-story ranch houses and large

lawns were the predominant style. At the same time, many suburban areas

have added other kinds of housing in response to the needs of single

people and people without children. As a result, apartments and

townhouses—available as rentals and as condominiums—have become familiar

parts of suburban life. For more information on urbanization and

suburbanization.

Food and Cuisine

The United States has rich and productive land that has provided Americans

with plentiful resources for a healthy diet. Despite this, Americans did

not begin to pay close attention to the variety and quality of the food

they ate until the 20th century, when they became concerned about eating

too much and becoming overweight. American food also grew more similar

around the country as American malls and fast-food outlets tended to

standardize eating patterns throughout the nation, especially among young

people. Nevertheless, American food has become more complex as it draws

from the diverse cuisines that immigrants have brought with them.

Historically, the rest of the world has envied the good, wholesome food

available in the United States. In the 18th and 19th centuries, fertile

soil and widespread land ownership made grains, meats, and vegetables

widely available, and famine that was common elsewhere was unknown in the

United States. Some immigrants, such as the Irish, moved to the United

States to escape famine, while others saw the bounty of food as one of the

advantages of immigration. By the late 19th century, America’s food

surplus was beginning to feed the world. After World War I (1914-1918) and

World War II, the United States distributed food in Europe to help

countries severely damaged by the wars. Throughout the 20th century,

American food exports have helped compensate for inadequate harvests in

other parts of the world. Although hunger does exist in the United States,

it results more from food being poorly distributed rather than from food

being unavailable.

Traditional American cuisine has included conventional European foodstuffs

such as wheat, dairy products, pork, beef, and poultry. It has also

incorporated products that were either known only in the New World or that

were grown there first and then introduced to Europe. Such foods include

potatoes, corn, codfish, molasses, pumpkin and other squashes, sweet

potatoes, and peanuts. American cuisine also varies by region. Southern

cooking was often different from cooking in New England and its upper

Midwest offshoots. Doughnuts, for example, were a New England staple,

while Southerners preferred corn bread. The availability of foods also

affected regional diets, such as the different kinds of fish eaten in New

England and the Gulf Coast. For instance, Boston clam chowder and

Louisiana gumbo are widely different versions of fish soup. Other

variations often depended on the contributions of indigenous peoples. In

the Southwest, for example, Mexican and Native Americans made hot peppers

a staple and helped define the spicy hot barbecues and chili dishes of the

area. In Louisiana, Cajun influence similarly created spicy dishes as a

local variation of Southern cuisine, and African slaves throughout the

South introduced foods such as okra and yams

By the late 19th century, immigrants from Europe and Asia were introducing

even more variations into the American diet. American cuisine began to

reflect these foreign cuisines, not only in their original forms but in

Americanized versions as well. Immigrants from Japan and Italy introduced

a range of fresh vegetables that added important nutrients as well as

variety to the protein-heavy American diet. Germans and Italians

contributed new skills and refinements to the production of alcoholic

beverages, especially beer and wine, which supplemented the more customary

hard cider and indigenous corn-mash whiskeys. Some imports became

distinctly American products, such as hot dogs, which are descended from

German wurst, or sausage. Spaghetti and pizza from Italy, especially, grew

increasingly more American and developed many regional spin-offs.

Americans even adapted chow mein from China into a simple American dish.

Not until the late 20th century did Americans rediscover these cuisines,

and many others, paying far more attention to their original forms and

cooking styles.

Until the early 20th century, the federal government did not regulate food

for consumers, and food was sometimes dangerous and impure. During the

Progressive period in the early 20th century, the federal government

intervened to protect consumers against the worst kinds of food

adulterations and diseases by passing legislation such as the Pure Food

and Drug Acts. As a result, American food became safer. By the early 20th

century, Americans began to consume convenient, packaged foods such as

breads and cookies, preserved fruits, and pickles. By the mid-20th

century, packaged products had expanded greatly to include canned soups,

noodles, processed breakfast cereals, preserved meats, frozen vegetables,

instant puddings, and gelatins. These prepackaged foods became staples

used in recipes contained in popular cookbooks, while peanut butter

sandwiches and packaged cupcakes became standard lunchbox fare. As a

result, the American diet became noteworthy for its blandness rather than

its flavors, and for its wholesomeness rather than its subtlety.

Americans were proud of their technology in food production and

processing. They used fertilizers, hybridization (genetically combining

two varieties), and other technologies to increase crop yields and

consumer selection, making foods cheaper if not always better tasting.

Additionally, by the 1950s, the refrigerator had replaced the old-

fashioned icebox and the cold cellar as a place to store food.

Refrigeration, because it allowed food to last longer, made the American

kitchen a convenient place to maintain readily available food stocks.

However, plentiful wholesome food, when combined with the sedentary 20th-

century lifestyle and work habits, brought its own unpleasant

consequences—overeating and excess weight. During the 1970s, 25 percent of

Americans were overweight; by the 1990s that had increased to 35 percent.

America’s foods began to affect the rest of the world—not only raw staples

such as wheat and corn, but a new American cuisine that spread throughout

the world. American emphasis on convenience and rapid consumption is best

represented in fast foods such as hamburgers, french fries, and soft

drinks, which almost all Americans have eaten. By the 1960s and 1970s fast

foods became one of America's strongest exports as franchises for

McDonald’s and Burger King spread through Europe and other parts of the

world, including the former Soviet Union and Communist China. Traditional

meals cooked at home and consumed at a leisurely pace—common in the rest

of the world, and once common in the United States—gave way to quick

lunches and dinners eaten on the run as other countries mimicked American

cultural patterns.

By the late 20th century, Americans had become more conscious of their

diets, eating more poultry, fish, and fresh fruits and vegetables and

fewer eggs and less beef. They also began appreciating fresh ingredients

and livelier flavors, and cooks began to rediscover many world cuisines in

forms closer to their original. In California, chefs combined the fresh

fruits and vegetables available year-round with ingredients and spices

sometimes borrowed from immigrant kitchens to create an innovative cooking

style that was lighter than traditional French, but more interesting and

varied than typical American cuisine. Along with the state’s wines,

California cuisine eventually took its place among the acknowledged forms

of fine dining.

As Americans became more concerned about their diets, they also became

more ecologically conscious. This consciousness often included an

antitechnology aspect that led some Americans to switch to a partially or

wholly vegetarian diet, or to emphasize products produced organically

(without chemical fertilizers and pesticides). Many considered these foods

more wholesome and socially responsible because their production was less

taxing to the environment. In the latter 20th century, Americans also

worried about the effects of newly introduced genetically altered foods

and irradiation processes for killing bacteria. They feared that these new

processes made their food less natural and therefore harmful.

These concerns and the emphasis on variety were by no means universal,

since food habits in the late 20th century often reflected society’s

ethnic and class differences. Not all Americans appreciated California

cuisine or vegetarian food, and many recent immigrants, like their

immigrant predecessors, often continued eating the foods they knew best.

At the end of the 20th century, American eating habits and food production

were increasingly taking place outside the home. Many people relied on

restaurants and on new types of fully prepared meals to help busy families

in which both adults worked full-time. Another sign of the public’s

changing food habits was the microwave oven, probably the most widely used

new kitchen appliance, since it can quickly cook foods and reheat prepared

foods and leftovers. Since Americans are generally cooking less of their

own food, they are more aware than at any time since the early 20th

century of the quality and health standards applied to food. Recent

attention to cases in which children have died from contaminated and

poorly prepared food has once again directed the public’s attention to the

government's role in monitoring food safety.

In some ways, American food developments are contradictory. Americans are

more aware of food quality despite, and maybe because of, their increasing

dependence on convenience. They eat a more varied diet, drawing on the

cuisines of immigrant groups (Thai, Vietnamese, Greek, Indian, Cuban,

Mexican, and Ethiopian), but they also regularly eat fast foods found in

every shopping mall and along every highway. They are more suspicious of

technology, although they rely heavily on it for their daily meals. In

many ways, these contradictions reflect the many influences on American

life in the late 20th century—immigration, double-income households,

genetic technologies, domestic and foreign travel—and food has become an

even deeper expression of the complex culture of which it is part.

Dress

In many regions of the world, people wear traditional costumes at

festivals or holidays, and sometimes more regularly. Americans, however,

do not have distinctive folk attire with a long tradition. Except for the

varied and characteristic clothing of Native American peoples, dress in

the United States has rarely been specific to a certain region or based on

the careful preservation of decorative patterns and crafts. American dress

is derived from the fabrics and fashions of the Europeans who began

colonizing the country in the 17th century. Early settlers incorporated

some of the forms worn by indigenous peoples, such as moccasins and

garments made from animal skins (Benjamin Franklin is famous for flaunting

a raccoon cap when he traveled to Europe), but in general, fashion in the

United States adapted and modified European styles. Despite the number and

variety of immigrants in the United States, American clothing has tended

to be homogeneous, and attire from an immigrant’s homeland was often

rapidly exchanged for American apparel.

American dress is distinctive because of its casualness. American style in

the 20th century is recognizably more informal than in Europe, and for its

fashion sources it is more dependent on what people on the streets are

wearing. European fashions take their cues from the top of the fashion

hierarchy, dictated by the world-famous haute couture (high fashion)

houses of Paris, France, and recently those of Milan, Italy, and London,

England. Paris designers, both today and in the past, have also dressed

wealthy and fashionable Americans, who copied French styles. Although

European designs remain a significant influence on American tastes,

American fashions more often come from popular sources, such as the school

and the street, as well as television and movies. In the last quarter of

the 20th century, American designers often found inspiration in the

imaginative attire worn by young people in cities and ballparks, and that

worn by workers in factories and fields.

Blue jeans are probably the single most representative article of American

clothing. They were originally invented by tailor Jacob Davis, who

together with dry-goods salesman Levi Strauss patented the idea in 1873 as

durable clothing for miners. Blue jeans (also known as dungarees) spread

among workers of all kinds in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,

especially among cowboys, farmers, loggers, and railroad workers. During

the 1950s, actors Marlon Brando and James Dean made blue jeans fashionable

by wearing them in movies, and jeans became part of the image of teenage

rebelliousness. This fashion statement exploded in the 1960s and 1970s as

Levi's became a fundamental part of the youth culture focused on civil

rights and antiwar protests. By the late 1970s, almost everyone in the

United States wore blue jeans, and youths around the world sought them. As

designers began to create more sophisticated styles of blue jeans and to

adjust their fit, jeans began to express the American emphasis on

informality and the importance of subtlety of detail. By highlighting the

right label and achieving the right look, blue jeans, despite their worker

origins, ironically embodied the status consciousness of American fashion

and the eagerness to approximate the latest fad.

American informality in dress is such a strong part of American culture

that many workplaces have adopted the idea of “casual Friday,” a day when

workers are encouraged to dress down from their usual professional attire.

For many high-tech industries located along the West Coast, as well as

among faculty at colleges and universities, this emphasis on casual attire

is a daily occurrence, not just reserved for Fridays.

The fashion industry in the United States, along with its companion

cosmetics industry, grew enormously in the second half of the 20th century

and became a major source of competition for French fashion. Especially

notable during the late 20th century was the incorporation of sports logos

and styles, from athletic shoes to tennis shirts and baseball caps, into

standard American wardrobes. American informality is enshrined in the

wardrobes created by world-famous U.S. designers such as Calvin Klein, Liz

Claiborne, and Ralph Lauren. Lauren especially adopted the American look,

based in part on the tradition of the old West (cowboy hats, boots, and

jeans) and in part on the clean-cut sportiness of suburban style (blazers,

loafers, and khakis).

Sports and Recreation

Large numbers of Americans watch and participate in sports activities,

which are a deeply ingrained part of American life. Americans use sports

to express interest in health and fitness and to occupy their leisure

time. Sports also allow Americans to connect and identify with mass

culture. Americans pour billions of dollars into sports and their related

enterprises, affecting the economy, family habits, school life, and

clothing styles. Americans of all classes, races, sexes, and ages

participate in sports activities—from toddlers in infant swimming groups

and teenagers participating in school athletics to middle-aged adults

bowling or golfing and older persons practicing t’ai chi.

Public subsidies and private sponsorships support the immense network of

outdoor and indoor sports, recreation, and athletic competitions. Except

for those sponsored by public schools, most sports activities are

privately funded, and even American Olympic athletes receive no direct

national sponsorship. Little League baseball teams, for example, are

usually sponsored by local businesses. Many commercial football,

basketball, baseball, and hockey teams reflect large private investments.

Although sports teams are privately owned, they play in stadiums that are

usually financed by taxpayer-provided subsidies such as bond measures.

State taxes provide some money for state university sporting events.

Taxpayer dollars also support state parks, the National Park Service, and

the Forest Service, which provide places for Americans to enjoy camping,

fishing, hiking, and rafting. Public money also funds the Coast Guard,

whose crews protect those enjoying boating around the nation's shores.

Sports in North America go back to the Native Americans, who played forms

of lacrosse and field hockey. During colonial times, early Dutch settlers

bowled on New York City's Bowling Green, still a small park in southern

Manhattan. However, organized sports competitions and local participatory

sports on a substantial scale go back only to the late 19th century.

Schools and colleges began to encourage athletics as part of a balanced

program emphasizing physical as well as mental vigor, and churches began

to loosen strictures against leisure and physical pleasures. As work

became more mechanized, more clerical, and less physical during the late

19th century, Americans became concerned with diet and exercise. With

sedentary urban activities replacing rural life, Americans used sports and

outdoor relaxation to balance lives that had become hurried and confined.

Biking, tennis, and golf became popular for those who could afford them,

while sandlot baseball and an early version of basketball became popular

city activities. At the same time, organizations such as the Boy Scouts

and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) began to sponsor sports

as part of their efforts to counteract unruly behavior among young people.

Baseball teams developed in Eastern cities during the 1850s and spread to

the rest of the nation during the Civil War in the 1860s. Baseball quickly

became the national pastime and began to produce sports heroes such as Cy

Young, Ty Cobb, and Babe Ruth in the first half of the 20th century. With

its city-based loyalties and all-American aura, baseball appealed to many

immigrants, who as players and fans used the game as a way to fit into

American culture.

Starting in the latter part of the 19th century, football was played on

college campuses, and intercollegiate games quickly followed. By the early

20th century, football had become a feature of college life across the

nation. In the 1920s football pep rallies were commonly held on college

campuses, and football players were among the most admired campus leaders.

That enthusiasm has now spilled way beyond college to Americans throughout

the country. Spectators also watch the professional football teams of the

National Football League (NFL) with enthusiasm.

Basketball is another sport that is very popular as both a spectator and

participant sport. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

hosts championships for men’s and women’s collegiate teams. Held annually

in March, the men’s NCAA national championship is one of the most popular

sporting events in the United States. The top men’s professional

basketball league in the United States is the National Basketball

Association; the top women’s is Women’s National Basketball Association.

In addition, many people play basketball in amateur leagues and

organizations. It is also common to see people playing basketball in parks

and local gymnasiums around the country.

Another major sport played in the United States is ice hockey. Ice hockey

began as an amateur sport played primarily in the Northeast. The first

U.S. professional ice hockey team was founded in Boston in 1924. Ice

hockey’s popularity has spread throughout the country since the 1960s. The

NCAA holds a national collegiate ice hockey championship in April of each

year. The country’s top professional league is the National Hockey League

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