Culture and customs of the United States

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Title:

Culture and customs of the United States

Author:

Shearer, Benjamin F.

ISBN:

9780313338755

9780313338762

9780313338779

Publication Information:

Westport, Conn : Greenwood Press, 2008.

Physical Description:

2 volumes (xxi, 408 pages) : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Series:

Culture and customs of North America

Culture and customs of North America.

Abstract:

Depicts the full montage of American contemporary life by not only studying the past, but by also visiting the cultures of European, Middle Eastern, African, and Asian countries as well.

Contents:

Volume 1. Customs and Society -- 1. Context :The Land, the People, the Past, the Present / Benjamin F. Shearer -- 2. Religion and Thought / Benjamin F. Shearer -- 3. Gender, Marriage, Family and Education / Ellen Baier -- 4. Holidays and Leisure / Wende Vyborney Feller -- Volume 2. Culture -- 5. Cuisine and Fashion / Benjamin F. Shearer -- 6. Literature / William P. Toth -- 7. Media and Cinema / Agnes Hooper Gottlieb -- 8. Performing Arts / Pamela Lee Gray -- 9. Art, Architecture and Housing / Benjamin F. Shearer.

Subject Term:

Civilization. (OCoLC)fst00862898

Manners and customs. (OCoLC)fst01007815

Social conditions (OCoLC)fst01919811

Added Author:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Sugar Grove - Todd Library	Reference Book	E169.1 .C843 2008 V. 1	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable
Searching... Sugar Grove - Todd Library	Reference Book	E169.1 .C843 2008 V. 2	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

American life and culture is truly unique in that it was born from many other cultures around the world. When immigrants migrated to the Land of Opportunity, they brought with them pieces of their own heritage: foods, religions, holidays, festivals, music, and art, just to name a few. Through time, these customs have developed into what we now know as American life. Explore how even within the US, various cultures and customs differ from New England to the Midwest to the Pacific. Discover how many religions are practiced all over the country, and how each sect differs in its celebration. Learn how gender plays an important role in American society, and how things have changed and progressed in the past century. Readers will learn about American holidays-religious, federal, and even those fabricated by Hallmark and television! Sports, leisure activities, and fashion also play a major role in American culture, as discussed in this all-encompassing work. Discover how American cuisine has evolved from other cultures, such as Italian, Greek, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, and West Africa, and how each region has its own indigenous dishes, including New England clam chowder, Southern jambalaya, and Mid-western lutefisk. Contemporary and classic literature is also discussed, along with the evolution of poetry. Readers will learn about the development of mass media, as well as the growth of cinema and films from the first silent film to today's popular blockbuster trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean. Music and dance are also discussed in detail, covering the New York Philharmonic to Woodstock. Contemporary art and architecture is discussed as well as types of housing across all the regions of the U.S. This unique two-volume addition to the Culture and Customs of the World series gives high school students, both national and international, the chance to examine the United States from the outside in. The mosaic of American culture comes to life in this expansive yet detailed study of what makes the United States a complex blend of customs and traditions.

Each volume in this comprehensive two-volume study offers chapters that detail how American life was born and how it has grown, covering the history of customs as well as how traditions are now celebrated in New England, the South, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and the Southwest, as well as Alaska and Hawaii. Narrative chapters include the following:

Reviews (3)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up-This wide-ranging, clearly written work covers religion, sociology, sports, domestic life, language arts, technology, architecture, and history. Each thematic chapter is further divided into topical areas, many of a geographical nature (performing arts in the Northwest, for example). This subdivision, along with the comprehensive index, will assist researchers. The facts and context provided are illuminating. In "Cuisine and Fashion," for example, the amount of food Americans eat is explained in concrete terms (we eat roughly 100 acres of pizza daily). The growth of U.S. fashion is partially explained by the Nazi occupation of France during the years 1940-1944, when the New York industry was able to gain at the expense of Paris, and the American concept of ready-to-wear clothing is detailed. Black-and-white pictures accompany the text throughout. While most students will initially use this set strictly for reports, it is likely that they will be intrigued enough to continue reading.-Beth McGuire, Fannett-Metal School District, Willow Hill, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Choice Review

Professional historian Shearer (editor of Home Front Heroes, 2006, and The Uniting States, 2004) edits this brief, readable, impartial, yet celebratory two-volume reference. Part of the "Culture and Customs of North America" series, it could easily fit into the circulating collection. It "provides a glimpse into ... contemporary U.S. culture and the context through which to understand it." Volume 1 starts with a sparse chronology and "Context: The Land, the People, the Past, the Present," which includes the cultural regions of the US and a concise contemporary history. Chapters titled "Religion and Thought," "Gender, Marriage, Family, and Education," and "Holidays and Leisure" follow. Volume 2 features chapters titled "Cuisine and Fashion," "Literature," "Media and Cinema," "Performing Arts," and "Art, Architecture, and Housing." Chapters are approximately 40 pages long and include citations and short bibliographies. Illustrative is chapter 2, a statistically heavy, yet brisk overview of religion's political and social impact coupled with descriptions of the country's large denominations (e.g., Catholic, Baptist, Methodist) and a number of smaller denominations (e.g., Amish, Mennonite). Libraries subscribing to Greenwood's Daily Life through History Premium need not purchase. Summing Up: Recommended. School, public and undergraduate libraries; lower-level undergraduates and general readers. C. H. Becker Jr. Pima Community College

Library Journal Review

The author of several reference works about the United States, including Greenwood's The Uniting States: The Story of Statehood for the Fifty United States (LJ 12/04), with a doctorate in the history of ideas, Shearer oversaw a handful of U.S. history scholars to compile this concise two-volume set on American cultures and customs. The set is made up of nine chapters distributed across two volumes. Volume 1, "Customs and Society," begins with a chronology that allows the reader to get a glimpse of the spread of U.S. history, then proceeds into an overview chapter, the longest in the work. The remaining chapters in this volume-"Religion and Thought," "Gender, Marriage, Family and Education," and "Holidays and Leisure"-are by necessity tersely written but packed with facts, statistics, and the occasional illustration. Volume 2, "Culture," focuses on cultural issues like cuisine, fashion, literature, and the performing arts. Each chapter has a "Notes" section with works cited. BOTTOM LINE This engaging set covers well-trodden ground, but its quick and factual manner sets it apart from other works. It is an excellent addition to high school and community college libraries supporting lower-level classes in U.S. history. It could also be used to support international student programs at higher-level institutions. [Ebk. ISBN 978-0-313-08337-1. $104.50; this volume will become part of Greenwood's Daily Life Through History Premium online resource later in the spring; it will also be available through the Greenwood Digital Collection.]-Samantha Schmehl Hines, Univ. of Montana Lib., Missoula (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.