Charles Murray The New American Divide Summary

In the article by Charles Murray called “The New American Divide,” the author quickly educates the reader about the American culture of the 1960s so that he can present the “problem of cultural inequality” (Murray, “The New American Divide”). Murray then compares the upper-middle class and working class on aspects such as marriage, religion, crime, workforce numbers, and single parenthood by using statistical evidence from two cities in the northeast. The evidence shows how the cities have changed from the 1960s to 2010, therefore displaying the why behind the emergence of a gap in culture between two classes. However, the author then states that the formation of the gap is not necessarily the most important aspect of the cultural dissociation,

Both Alfred Bester and Andre Norton make impassioned claims about the nature of American Exceptionalism, but these claims are very hard to assess objectively. Clearly the excerpt from Bester’s book comes from the Introduction, just as the excerpt from Norton’s article comes from the Conclusion. In both cases we are presented with general statements and are left to wonder if the evidence presented in the body of each work actually supports the claims being asserted.1

Seymour M. Lipset2 contends that negative traits that plague the American landscape, such as “high crime and economic inequality”, are fundamental characteristics of and are inherently linked to a capitalistic and openly admirable democratic society. Not only does American history reside in the nature for “disdain of authority”, but current American norms signal that everyone must elevate their own status and rise above the ranks, both economically and socially. In analyzing the trends of high crime, acts such as theft, narcotics production and distribution, fraud, etc. are a means to

Bageant illustrates with statistics on American’s illiteracy. In Bageant view he believes that a majority of white working-class and poor Americans voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 because they were stupid. Many books such as Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, and Jim Goad’s The Redneck Manifesto all clarify the position of an overlooked cultural group. If someone reads the book and they or their family belongs to the social class or cultural group described by Bagenal, they will recognize the values and experiences that he describes. They will understand his explanation of the sources of values and his defense of the people who live these lives. If someone reads this book and they don’t belong in the group that Bageant describes, they will learn about the people they know little to nothing about. Bageant explains the stereotypes and their basis in reality, he also explains why people behave and think this way, what in their history na present experiences lead them to these beliefs and behaviors, and what they gain from continuing in these habits. Bageant has a way with words and with humor. Although he states the struggles of many Americans he doesn't provide everyone practical suggestion for improving the lives of working men and women. Since he is from Winchester, VA and this book is about the

The United States was full of prosperity in the 1950s. The standard of living was higher that it had been in years, and many people were living in luxury. Although there were many who were enjoying the lives they lived, there were also many Americans who were trapped living well below the standard of living. Michael Harrington shed light on this situation when he published The Other America in 1962. In his expose’, Harrington exposed how 40 to 50 million American citizens were living in poverty, and that to most Americans these people were invisible. He expressed how the lifestyle of people living in poverty was so different from those who were not that it created a “culture” of poverty. Harrington believed

Taking a tour of any historical or famous American’s home provides a sobering window to the past in several ways. While some give off a sense of luxury of a bygone period of their past, it doesn’t take long to realize these dwellings lacked the basic amenities – hot water, plumbing, and electricity. To ponder the vast and incredible improvements that America has achieved over the last century would easily amaze these historic figures. Today it is possible for the poor in America to live at a standard that previous generations of similar means simply could not afford. The level of comfort poor Americans experience in today’s society far exceeds that of prior generations, creating a class that have no clear incentive to improve their

Class is another theme of the text. Those in higher economic classes seemed to cling to the "Darwinism Axioms (165)" of the 19th century that encourage only survival of the "fittest" and other elitist ideas that supported the not-so-proper/nice things that were done in the name of innovation. There was also an elitist class bias when it came to the Native Americans. If the Native Americans did not utilize their land the way the

The ‘American way’ does not offer the commonly liked idea of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. The ecosystem aches the same sad fortune. Post-World War II government delays in handling foreign policy and the Civil Rights movement are exposed as glowing government accomplishments, while Vietnam and other near-current events slip into oblivion so the story can end with uplifting, super-patriotic prophecies of ongoing American progress. The result is that history, as a subject, appears extraneous. Having a skewed view of facts has left each of us with conflicting conclusions and behaviors, one against another.

Horizons in Theory and American Culture : Facing the Other : Ethical Disruption and the American Mind" by Linda Bolton, published in March 2010. The old, classic, unforgotten articles have a lot to say about freedom and individuality, some through the stories of others. These ideas from long ago explain how our country runs today. The author’s thesis is to reflect ethical dialogues that revisit six important moments in the archive of American letters, as well as interrogate existing articles and it’s interpretations to inform our culture of American history. She bases her book on the idea that the most crucial concerns of ideals in the United States starts and concludes with individuality.

‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had’” . A nation that founded itself on the idea of equal opportunity is disproven within the first sentences of, arguably, one of the greatest American novels. Further on in the novel, Nick Carraway comments “I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth” . This further highlights the great inequalities that have been created within American society since it was founded. The rise of inequality was particularly evident after the Panic of 1873; this lasted over five years and greatly changed the way Americans viewed the stability of their economy; the Panic of 1910 – closer in date to the publication of ‘The Great Gatsby’ – had a similar effect on the general publics view towards the economy.

The original drive of American’s to excel in their places of work and overcome hardships has lost its sheen as hardship continues to become more and more familiar to the American people. This hardship includes a struggle to break the poverty cycle, a struggle to get hired for a job during a recession, even a struggle to keep families fed and children educated. Many American’s feel that the American government should take care of it’s own people first; yet, still there are many who believe that the “American Dream” is alive and well. The moral compass of American’s often shifts from a humanitarian perspective to a legalistic perspective depending in part on one’s interpretation of data and knowledge of political and socioeconomic

American exceptionalism is the informal ideology that America is exceptional. That it exceeds, excels and is unique compared to other nations, and does not conform to a pattern or a norm. Americans believe their nation is unique and superior because of the country’s founding liberal principles, with the conviction that the United States has a special destiny among nations (Patman 2007, p. 964). Although the vast majority of Americans will not utter the words American exceptionalism, it is synonymous with the “American way of life” (Patman 2007, p. 964) otherwise known as the “American dream”. This paper will examine whether America is genuinely unique and thus exceptional, and argue that American exceptionalism is indeed a reality. To demonstrate

In this story, some real American issues were depicted (economic inequality, drug addict, attempted suicide and doctrine that victory is everything). In this report, I take up two of them. The first one is the serious economic inequality. In this story, the Hoover family was not so rich. This is showing what real American society is like. Although America is one of the most industrially and economically advanced nations in the world, it is said to be the most unequal country in the developing world. There is a large gap between rich and poor. The people who can be said to be truly rich are a small minority, and most people are suffering poverty. According to the survey by AFL-CEO, in 1965, the ratio of the average worker’s income to CEO’s income

Cedric Johnson examines and rejects the concept of extraordinary, myth under the class that was pivotal to the defeat of the welfare state in the United States, particularly influential in shaping a market-oriented reconstruction of New Orleans. Moynihan believes that black poverty is rooted in culture rather than economic structures that affect the working class in general and has cast a long shadow over the number of Americans who think of inequality. Johnson examines how the spread of conservative ideology has affected the working lives of the new Europeans. In addition, he briefly reviews the Cold War origins of the lower-class myth, the belief that chronic urban poverty is the result of a distinct and different culture of the poor. Despite

The myth of an “ideal lifestyle” is not realistic when it comes to America. David Brooks dissects the two different types of class in the United States in which there is a Red America and a Blue America. Blue America are the big cities on the coast, while people who live in Red America reside on farms or in small towns far away from the coast. Brooks pin points many differences between two Counties, which are included in the two different types of America. Franklin County is labeled as Red America, while Brooks puts Montgomery County under Blue America. Although we are called the United Nations, there is nothing united about the distinctly different lifestyles that people in these two Counties’ live.