Founding Principles Of American Culture

American society today has been shaped by years past. After the Second World War, U.S. inhabitants dedicated their lives and time to shape and improve America’s culture to the way it is today. Through the decades of the 1950s and today, the society has changed through scientific and technological advances. On the other hand, aspects of the culture have not changed because its citizens have yet to advance in those areas.

Over the past few weeks of class, we have covered the first five chapters of our textbook, written by George Brown Tindell and David Emory Shi called, “America, A Narrative History.” Each chapter told the reader a narration of the history of America, as opposed to an expository version of America’s history. Each chapter had its own main idea over a portion of history, along with many details that cover the importance of the main idea. As a reader, one may obtain a deeper appreciation for the country 's history, prior to entering the class on the first day. The most important aspect of history, besides the battles that are fought, is the different cultures that make up today’s modern America.

This book seeks to explore the ideals that birthed our nation-All men are created equal- and parallel that with the fact that so many founders owned slaves and also condoned the genocide of Native Americans. A contemplation on irony versus cultural norms. The time period discussed in this book is from 1800 to 1850. During this time America became a nation from “sea to shining sea”. It was a time of discovery, growth, and exploration for the United States. In 1800, the federal government moved from Philadelphia to our now nation’s capitol, Washington D.C. A year later, Thomas Jefferson becomes the third

America by far is the most diverse country on the face of the earth. America today is known for freedom, equality, democracy, and a defender against tyranny. The foundation of American values lay in a belief of independence, nationalism, capitalism, and religion. However, many conflicts have arisen over these values in the past. Capitalism and other characteristics have made America great, but they have brought about their own set of inequalities. Those inequalities have deep roots in race, culture, gender, and wealth. In the 1800s two of the biggest conflict lies with the issue of slavery and women’s rights.

Following the First World War, the United States went in search of a, “return to normalcy,” which many agreed was exactly what it needed. However, to the dismay of many, all the United States could find was a significant amount of tension that had developed between, “Old America,” and, “New America.” All in all, this tension that arose between old and new traditions and ideas did so in the form of religion, conflicts within society, and cultural values.

American beliefs and opinions give a great understanding of what an American values. The want and need for freedom is described in many different ways based on origin or social beliefs. The main backbone of America today is freedom. Through the building of an American empire everyone can’t come to an understanding of what it is to be equally free. By comparing and contrasting the perspectives of Patrick Henry’s speech to the “Virginia Convention,” to take up arms and fight for our freedom. Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” who feels it’s time to end slavery. It is clear that the struggles of the American story are still prevalent and America has not yet found a way for freedom for all.

When attempting to interpret the morality of an action in American society, it is nearly impossible to avoid reflecting on the Founding Fathers’ ideals and perspectives. Even

There is a group of men of legendary status who are dubbed the “founding fathers,” often referred to as the creators of our nation. Their faces are dispersed all across America, ranging from coast to coast, with the obelisk of the Washington Monument on the east coast to Mount Rushmore on the north border of the United States to our everyday money; the founding fathers are quite prevalent in our society. Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and John Adams have influenced American society immediately at the start and still continue to do so today. The book in which I have chosen to research goes into great depth of the lives of the founding fathers and how their flaws and quirks as regular people shaped America into what it is today.

When we think about American culture today, we usually think about the 4th of July, barbecuing, Donald Trump and football.We have centered our culture around ourselves and have not given much thought about the good of our country like our founders did when they wanted to avoid a tyrannical leader. In United States history, we have changed our culture due to given circumstances and becoming the “World’s Leading Power”, that we did not have to face the struggles that the colonists had to go through. Those struggles in the 1700’s had shaped American cultures and what they valued.

In The More Factor, by Laurence Shames, it is explained that the wholly American views of unending frontier, opportunity, and more have always been a part of who we are as a people. Over time these ideals and their growth have shifted from that of the physical world to that of economic expansion. Eventually society was faced with the realization that this growth is not sustainable, and that we must face this truth in order to reevaluate and shift our values to a more realistic view. I feel that this change in cultural values is something that must be dealt with in order for our society to continue to be relevant in today’s world.

A metanarrative is described by Professor Worthington as “a big story that causes a culture to survive, ties everything together, and gives us a universal truth”. Understanding America’s past is vital to understanding both the values of the nation and the country’s literature. James Faulconer defines the metanarrative as “a story we tell about ourselves, what we do, what is expected, its is a story that links our smaller stories together and gives us unity, social, psychological, and intellectual…”. The values and ideals that The United States of America was founded on are the small stories that make up the bigger picture of this nation. These founding values, though sometimes in different form, are still prominent in today’s society. Four

This paper will discuss what I believe America’s founding fathers tried to accomplish with the “American Experience”. This experience gives an understanding of America in the 20th century and the accomplishments in the 21st century.

When the people list out the fundamental values of their country on top of their head, they will most likely think of equality, innovation, the government system, and all the values that are prominent. In the past, some of the values were different than they are today. If the Americans value traditional ideas in American history, does that mean innovation and progressive ideas are not significant values? One of the contradictory values is that America is known to be a friendly and welcoming country. Many presidents before the current one welcomed immigrants from different countries.

American values are among the attributes which make a person who they are. Many fail to understand them, there are the standards used to define these ‘values.’ American values are an individual’s belief system set over time, the decisions they make in their life, their morals and what it means to be an American citizen. Few of these notable values that Americans have stayed true to are present in the Disney film, The Lion King. The film itself may dismiss to be nothing more than a childhood fairy tale; however, it reflects much of how American Values are seen in the arts today.

Throughout history; civilization has progressed to attain prominent achievements despite hindering barriers. Today, many countless individuals appreciate an overabundance of rights and freedoms that had not ever existed in the past. Change is something that is essential since it raises new opportunities. Our acceptance of change in society is much different than those who had existed prior to the industrial revolution. Tradition and modernity are two opposing philosophies, which continue to manifest in North American society. Throughout the world, there have been societies, which have remembered these traditional values and not to mention many others, which have transferred either moderately or completely near a modern society. There are overabundances of opinions in regard to this occurrence, and this essay distinguishes each perspective.