What is American Culture?

[Lauren]

While I was driving to work this morning I had a thought that pops into my head every now and again.

What is American Culture?

The french have cheese and wine, art, achitectecture. Italy has amazing food and fountains, Moscow has it's ballet...

where has America left it's mark? What is our national contribution to the world?

I think it's teen or pop culure (drive-ins, roadside attractions, theme parks) and westerns. What do you think?

 

[Tin Pan Sally]

Rock'n'roll, swing dancing, cowpokes, tiki lounges, baseball, apple pie

 

[scotrace]

Jazz, Country-Western music, Shrimp Po Boy and Nike.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

-- Our political/judicial system. (No one else has one quite like it, and no one can: each country must adapt a system to its own demands.)

-- Our literature. Could Huckleberry Finn have come from anywhere but American?

-- Jazz music, R & B, Country music, Rock n' Roll.

-- Automobile culture.

-- The celebrity industry.

-- Philanthropy.

-- Nation/region-policing.

-- National park enjoyment.


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[BillTyre]

Its a good question!

I asked this same question of my students the other day as part of their test. I didn't get one answer that was the same. Some said music, some said food (McDonalds, or the Cocacolonization of the world), and some said militarism. Well, they're not the high culture crowd I suppose. Its a really good question though. If you ever find the answer let me know.

- Bill

 

[Story]

some said militarism.
- Bill

Uh huh. Put a book on European history in front of those spawn. [huh]

baseball

'cept the Canadians actually came up with that game. Not to disqualify baseball, just to point out that it's typically American to absorb something from another culture and make it our own.

 

[RedPop4]

Jazz, Country-Western music, Shrimp Po Boy and Nike.

From Ohio?????? Whatchoo know 'bout shrimp poor boy????

I agree with you all, "pop culture" and "car culture" are American phenomena. I think we've assimilated many cultures and kept the best they have to offer. Well, until now where the immigrants want to have their country in ours.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

... some said militarism.

Uh huh. Put a book on European history in front of those spawn. [huh]

Yes. And add that Germany was the winner at exporting militarism all over the world. In the late 19th-early 20th century, German officers trained foreign armies ... then bribed, wheedled, and cajoled them to buy all munitions, firearms, uniforms, and even military band instruments from Germany. At inflated prices, of course -- and if the country happened to be non-European, it probably received flawed, second-rate goods.

Read about the House of Krupp, if you haven't already. Krupp put Lucifer to shame.


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[Marc Chevalier]

Well, until now where the immigrants want to have their country in ours.

The same immigrants who eat at McDonald's, listen to rap music, and wear Nike? (And whose home country, Mexico, has Starbucks, Hooters, and giant malls filled with Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren shops?)

Think about it. Maybe it's we who want to have our country in theirs, eh?

 

[Story]

Yes. And add that Germany was the winner at exporting militarism all over the world. In the late 19th-early 20th century, German officers trained foreign armies ... then bribed, wheedled, and cajoled them to buy all munitions, firearms, uniforms, and even military band instruments from Germany. At inflated prices, of course -- and if the country happened to be non-European, it probably received flawed, second-rate goods.

Read about the House of Krupp, if you haven't already. Krupp put Lucifer to shame.

.

German military exports were an end-run around French and English colonialism. Although I'll have to dispute your comment about second-rate goods, since I can show you items shipped to South America that were diverted and happily accepted into Imperial Service in 1914. Inferior exports would have been self-defeating to the German economic strategy.

 

[MK]

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Don't forget motion pictures. Other people do it.....but it IS America's art form.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

It sure is. Europeans got a head start on us, but World War I put an end to that. IMO, we've been far ahead ever since.

 

[Story]

Skyscrapers.
http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521624215

 

[Story]

Think about it. Maybe it's we who want to have our country in theirs, eh?

Or they want our country in theirs, at least the part of it they know from the movies. If others didn't want a slice of America in their countries, there'd be no Euro-Disney.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Inferior exports would have been self-defeating to the German economic strategy.

Krupp sent rifles to Chile that exploded in the users' faces. Krupp fixed firearms and munitions trials there, bribing whoever needed to be bribed. Even the boots didn't fit, and fell apart in a flash.

By 1914, Chile had weaned itself from German military goods and was buying them from the French and British. Perhaps the items diverted for Imperial Service were destined for Argentina or Brazil. I don't know.

As for your contention that selling inferior exports would have been self-defeating, well ... you've got to take into account that bribery and show, not quality, were what opened doors in Latin America (and other "developing regions" of that era). Krupp, at least, knew this.



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[VintageJess]

Maybe I'm An Idealist, but...

I like to believe that our culture is about freedom and the American Dream. The idea that people make their own destiny--the pioneer spirit that anyone can become anything that they want to be. The idea that a poor, self taught man who was born in a log cabin grew up to be one of our greatest presidents. The sky is the limit in America.

Jessica

 

[Matt Deckard]

From Ohio?????? Whatchoo know 'bout shrimp poor boy????

I agree with you all, "pop culture" and "car culture" are American phenomena. I think we've assimilated many cultures and kept the best they have to offer. Well, until now where the immigrants want to have their country in ours.

I think the problem with finding an answer for this question is the fact that American Culture is world culture shoved into a land that was seen by the old world as new and open and ready to be exploited. Most all here are transplants from the other continents. Some sent to colonize, some came to escape. I think one of the biggest cultural contributions on th epart of the US is tolerance in one form or another. I have been to the countries where if you aren't making fun of the person with the differences, like everyone else, you are seen as the weird one.. We like to bring things together and make them work. The American way is just to get it done.

Cowboys and Coca-Cola and McDonald's can be sighted as America.
Blue Jeans and T-Shirts and bubble gum chewing teens with skateboards... I think The US is the site where the risk takers landed. I think that is our culture for now. The country is still young and vast.

Right now we are the wild younger sibling of the world who can either do more great thngs (which we've done) or burn out and become nostagiac and jaded.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

... a land that was seen by the old world as new and open and ready to be exploited.

I disagree about the "expoited" word. I believe that the people who came here invested in the land and invested themselves in their institutions. Most of them didn't want to take without giving something back and making that something grow. They saw America as theirs.


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[Matt Deckard]

The New world was the investment that the old world made -- and it paid off.

 

[mysterygal]

rock and roll, cheese burgers and french fries