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Society of the United States

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Title: Society of the United States  
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Subject: Culture of the United States, Economy of the United States, Stereotypes of East Asians in the United States, Vincent Harding, Aging in the American workforce
Collection: American Society, American Studies
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Society of the United States

A World Values Survey cultural world map, describing the United States as low in "Rational-Secular Values" and high in "Self-Expression values".

The society or culture of the United States is a Western culture, and has been developing since long before the United States became a country with its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, folklore, etc. Today the United States of America is an ethnically and racially diverse country as result of large-scale immigration from many different countries throughout its history.[1]

Its chief early influences came from English and Irish settlers of colonial America. British culture, due to colonial ties with Britain that spread the English language, legal system and other cultural inheritances, had a formative influence. Other important influences came from other parts of Europe.

The United States has often been thought of as a melting pot, but recent developments tend towards cultural diversity, pluralism and the image of a salad bowl rather than a melting pot.[2][3] Due to the extent of American culture there are many integrated but unique social subcultures within the United States. The cultural affiliations an individual in the United States may have commonly depend on social class, political orientation and a multitude of demographic characteristics such as religious background, occupation and ethnic group membership.[1] The strongest influences on American culture came from northern European cultures, most prominently from Britain, Ireland, and Germany.


  • Social class and work 1
  • Race and ancestry 2
  • Group affiliations 3
  • Technology, gadgets, and automobiles 4
  • Drugs, alcohol and smoking 5
  • Sports 6
  • Food 7
  • Clothing 8
  • Education 9
  • Language 10
  • Religion 11
  • Housing 12
  • Gender relations 13
    • Courtship, cohabitation, and adolescent sexuality 13.1
    • Marriage and divorce 13.2
    • Gender roles 13.3
  • Death rituals 14
  • Household arrangements 15
  • Regional variations 16
  • See also 17
  • References 18
  • Further reading 19
  • External links 20

Social class and work

Though most Americans today identify themselves as middle class, American society and its culture are considerably more fragmented.[1][4][5] Social class, generally described as a combination of educational attainment, income and occupational prestige, is one of the greatest cultural influences in America.[1] Nearly all cultural aspects of mundane interactions and consumer behavior in the US are guided by a person's location within the country's social structure.

Distinct lifestyles, consumption patterns and values are associated with different classes. Early sociologist-economist upper middle class. Middle-class individuals in general value expanding one's horizon, partially because they are more educated and can afford greater leisure and travels. Working-class individuals take great pride in doing what they consider to be "real work," and keep very close-knit kin networks that serve as a safeguard against frequent economic instability.[1][5][6]

Hours worked in different countries according to UN data in a CNN report.[7]

Working-class Americans as well as many of those in the middle class may also face occupation alienation. In contrast to upper-middle-class professionals who are mostly hired to conceptualize, supervise and share their thoughts, many Americans enjoy only little autonomy or creative latitude in the workplace.[8] As a result white collar professionals tend to be significantly more satisfied with their work.[1][8] More recently those in the center of the income strata, who may still identify as middle class, have faced increasing economic insecurity,[9] supporting the idea of a working-class majority.[6]


In the United States occupation is one of the prime factors of social class and is closely linked to an individual’s identity. The average work week in the US for those employed full-time was 42.9 hours long with 30% of the population working more than 40 hours a week.[10] It should be noted, however, that many of those in the top two earning quintiles often worked more than 50 hours a week. The Average American worker earned $16.64 an hour in the first two quarters of 2006.[11]

Overall Americans worked more than their counterparts in other developed post-industrial nations. While the average worker in Denmark enjoyed 30 days of vacation annually, the average American only had 16 annual vacation days.[12] In 2000 the average American worked 1,978 hours per year, 500 hours more than the average German, yet 100 hours less than the average Czech. Overall the US labor force was the most productive in the world (overall, not by hour worked), largely due to its workers working more than those in any other post-industrial country (excluding South Korea).[7] Americans generally hold working and being productive in high regard; being busy as and working extensively may also serve as the means to obtain esteem.[6]

Race and ancestry

Ethnicity according to the 2000 US Census.[13]
Median Household income along ethnic lines in the United States.

Race in the United States is based on physical characteristics and skin color and has played an essential part in shaping American society even before the nation's conception.[1] Until the civil rights movement of the 1960s, racial minorities in the United States faced discrimination and social as well as economic marginalization.[14]


Approximately 62% of White Americans today are either wholly or partly of English, Welsh, Irish, or Scottish ancestry. Approximately 86% of White Americans are of northwestern European descent, and 14% are of southern and eastern European ancestry.

Until the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on December 6, 1865 the United States was a slave society. While the northern states had outlawed slavery in their territory in the late 18th and early 19th century their industrial economies relied on the raw materials produced by slave labor. Following the Reconstruction period in the 1870s, Southern states initialized an apartheid regulated by Jim Crow laws that provided for legal segregation. Lynching occurred throughout the US until the 1930s, continuing well into the civil rights movement in the South.[14]

Asian Americans were also marginalized during much of US history. Between 1882 and 1943 the United States government instituted the Chinese Exclusion Act which prohibited Chinese immigrants from entering the nation. During the second world war roughly 120,000 Japanese Americans, 62% of whom were U.S. citizens,[15] were imprisoned in Japanese internment camps. Hispanic Americans also faced segregation and other types of discrimination; they were regularly subject to second class citizen status, in practice if not by law.

Largely as a result of being de jure or de facto excluded and marginalized from so-called mainstream society, racial minorities in the United States developed their own unique sub-cultures. During the 1920s for example, Harlem, New York became home to the Harlem Renaissance. Music styles such as Jazz, Blues and Rap, Rock and roll as well as numerous folk-songs such as Blue Tail Fly (Jimmy Crack Corn) originated within the realms of African American culture.[14] Chinatowns can be found in many cities across the nation and Asian cuisine has become a common staple in America.

The Hispanic community has also had a dramatic impact on American culture. Today, Catholics are the largest religious denomination in the United States and out-number Protestants in the South-west and California.[16] Mariachi music and Mexican cuisine are commonly found throughout the Southwest, with some Latin dishes such burritos and tacos found anywhere in the nation. Economic discrepancies and de facto segregation, however, continue and is a prominent feature of mundane life in the United States.

While Asian Americans have prospered and have a median household income and educational attainment exceeding that of Whites, the same cannot be said for the other races. African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans have considerably lower income and education than do White Americans.[17][18] In 2005 the median household income of Whites was 62.5% higher than that of African American, nearly one-quarter of whom live below the poverty line.[17] Furthermore 46.9% of homicide victims in the United States are African American indicating the many severe socio-economic problems African Americans and minorities in general continue to face in the twenty-first century.[14][19]

Some aspects of American culture codify racism. For example, the prevailing idea in American culture, perpetuated by the media, has been that that black features are less attractive or desirable than white features. The idea that blackness was ugly was highly damaging to the psyche of African Americans, manifesting itself as internalized racism.[20] The Black is beautiful cultural movement sought to dispel this notion.[21]

In the years after the [22] Other sections also allow the government to conduct secret searches, seizures and surveillance, and to freely interpret the definition of 'terrorist activities'.

Group affiliations

The Knights of Columbus exhibiting their group identity.

As the United States is a diverse nation, it is home to numerous organization and social groups and individuals may derive their group affiliated identity from a variety of sources. Many Americans, especially white collar professionals belong to professional organizations such as the APA, ASA or ATFLC, although books like Bowling Alone indicate that Americans affiliate with these sorts of groups less often than they did in the 1950s and 1960s.



  • A Quick Guide for Living in the US
  • Customs & Culture in the US
  • Social institutions in the United States
  • Portrait of the USA
  • Guide to American culture and customs for foreign students (US Army Intelligence)
  • Culture, Hedonism & Lifestyle
  • CommonCensus Map Project - Identifying geographic spheres of influence

External links


Further reading

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thompson, William; Joseph Hickey (2005). Society in Focus. Boston, MA: Pearson.  
  3. ^ a b c Adams, J.Q.; Pearlie Strother-Adams (2001). Dealing with Diversity. Chicago, IL: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.  
  5. ^ a b Fussel, Paul (1983). Class: A Guide through the American Status System. New York, NY: Touchstone.  
  6. ^ a b c Ehrenreich, Barbara (1989). Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class. New York, NY: HarperCollins.  
  10. ^ "US Bureau of Labor, hours worked, 2005". Retrieved 2006-12-15. 
  11. ^ "US Department of Labor, employment in 2006". Retrieved 2006-12-15. 
  12. ^ "International vacation comparison". Retrieved 2006-12-15. 
  13. ^ a b bm=y&-geo id=01000US&-qr name=DEC 2000 SF1 U QTP3&-ds name=DEC 2000 SF1 U "US Census Bureau, Race and Hispanic or Latino during the 2000 Census". Retrieved 2006-12-15. 
  14. ^ a b c d e f Hine, Darlene; William C. Hine; Stanley Harrold (2006). The African American Odyssey. Boston, MA: Pearson.  
  16. ^ "Religion in the US by state". USA Today. Retrieved 2006-12-14. 
  17. ^ a b "US Census Bureau, Income newsbrief 2004". Archived from the original on 2006-12-11. Retrieved 2006-12-15. 
  18. ^ "US Census Bureau, educational attainment in the U.S. 2003" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-12-15. 
  19. ^ "US Department of Justice, Crime and Race". Archived from the original on 2006-12-12. Retrieved 2006-12-15. 
  20. ^ Key Issues in Postcolonial Feminism: A Western Perspective by Chris Weedon, Cardiff University
    In her novel The Bluest Eye (1981), Toni Morrison depicts the effects of the legacy of 19th century racism for poor black people in the United States. The novel tells of how the daughter of a poor black family, Pecola Breedlove, internalizes white standards of beauty to the point where she goes mad. Her fervent wish for blue eyes comes to stand for her wish to escape the poor, unloving, racist environment in which she lives.
  21. ^ Some notes on the BLACK CULTURAL MOVEMENT
  22. ^ a b
  26. ^ "History of the Hamburger". Retrieved 2006-11-13. 
  29. ^ "Beginning Too Soon: Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Pregnancy And Parenthood". US Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved 2007-03-11. 
  30. ^ Wendy D. Manning, Peggy C. Giordano, Monica A. Longmore (2006). "Hooking Up: The Relationship Contexts of "Nonrelationship" Sex". Journal of Adolescent Research 21 (5): 459.  
  31. ^ Katie Couric (2005). "'"Nearly 3 in 10 young teens 'sexually active. MSNBC. Archived from the original on 2007-01-20. Retrieved 2007-01-21. 
  32. ^ Anna Mulrine. "Risky Business". U.S. News & World Report (May 27, 2002). 
  33. ^ "U.S. Teen Sexual Activity" (pdf). Kaiser Family Foundation. January 2005. Retrieved 2007-03-11. 
  34. ^ "Core Health Indicators". 
  35. ^
  37. ^ "The Italian Way of Death". Retrieved 2009-10-08. 


See also

This settlement resulted in the formation of what is today considered the "General American" culture, although, according to Fischer, it is really just a regional American culture, even if it does today encompass most of the U.S. from the mid-Atlantic states to the Pacific Coast. Finally, Irish, Scottish and English settlers from the borderlands of Britain and Ireland migrated to Appalachia between 1717 and 1775. They formed the regional culture of the Upland South, which has since spread west to such areas as West Texas and parts of the U.S. Southwest. Fischer says that the modern U.S. is composed only of regional cultures, with characteristics determined by the place of departure and time of arrival of these four distinct founding populations.

According to Fischer, the foundation of American culture was formed from four mass migrations from four different regions of the British Isles by four distinct socio-religious groups. New England's earliest settlement period occurred between 1629 and 1640 when Puritans, mostly from East Anglia in England, settled there, forming the New England regional culture. The next mass migration was of southern English cavaliers and their Irish and Scottish domestic servants to the Chesapeake Bay region between 1640 and 1675, producing the Southern American culture. Then, between 1675 and 1725, thousands of Irish, English and German Quakers, led by William Penn, settled in the Delaware Valley.

In his 1989 book, Albion's Seed (ISBN 0195069056), David Hackett Fischer suggests that the United States is made up today of four distinct regional cultures. The book's focus is on the folkways of four groups of settlers from the British Isles that emigrated from distinct regions of Britain and Ireland to the British American colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. Fischer's thesis is that the culture and folkways of each of these groups persisted, with some modification over time, providing the basis for the four modern regional cultures of the United States.

Strong cultural differences have a long history in the US with the southern slave society in the antebellum period serving as a prime example. Not only social, but also economic tensions between the Northern and Southern states were so severe that they eventually caused the South to declare itself an independent nation, the Confederate States of America; thus provoking the American civil war.[14] One example of regional variations is the attitude towards the discussion of sex, often sexual discussions would have less restrictions in the Northeastern United States, but yet is seen as taboo in the Southern United States.

Cultural differences in the various regions of the United States are explored in New England, Mid-Atlantic States, Southern United States, Midwestern United States, Southwest United States, Western United States and Pacific Northwestern United States pages. The western coast of the continental US consisting of California, Oregon, and the state of Washington is also sometimes referred to as the Left Coast, indicating its Left leaning political orientation and tendency towards liberal norms, folkways and values.

Regional variations


Nuclear family Without children Male Female

Exceptions to the custom of leaving home in one's mid-20s can occur especially among Italian and Hispanic Americans, and in expensive urban real estate markets such as New York City [1], California [2], and Honolulu [3], where monthly rents commonly exceed $1000 a month.


Other changes to the landscape of American family arrangements include dual-income earner households and delayed independence among American youths. Whereas most families in the 1950s and 1960s relied on one income earner, more commonly the husband, the vast majority of family households now have two-income earners.


Most Americans will marry and get divorced at least once during their life; thus, most individuals will live in a variety of family arrangements. A person may grow up in a single-parent family, go on to marry and live in childless couple arrangement, then get divorced, live as a single for a couple of years, remarry, have children and live in a nuclear family arrangement.[1][39]

Today, family arrangements in the United States reflect the diverse and dynamic nature of contemporary American society. Although for a relatively brief period of time in the 20th century most families adhered to the nuclear family concept (two-married adults with a biological child), single-parent families, childless/childfree couples, and fused families now constitute the majority of families.

US family structure has no particular household arrangement being prevalent enough to be identified as the average.[39]

Household arrangements

A so-called death industry has developed in the United States that has replaced earlier, more informal traditions. Before the popularity of funeral homes, a wake would be held in an ordinary, private house. Often the most elegant room was reserved for this purpose.




Death rituals

Most social roles are not gender-restricted by law, though there are still cultural inhibitions surrounding certain roles. More and more women have entered the workplace, and in the year 2000 made up 46.6% of the labor force, up from 18.3% in 1900. Most men, however, have not taken up the traditional full-time homemaker role; likewise, few men have taken traditionally feminine jobs such as receptionist or nurse (although nursing was traditionally a male role before the American Civil War).

Since the 1970s, traditional gender roles of male and female have been increasingly challenged by both legal and social means. Today, there are far fewer roles that are legally restricted by one's sex. The military remains a notable exception, where women may not be put into direct combat by law. Asymmetrical warfare, however, has put women into situations which are direct combat operations in all but name.

Gender roles


As with other Western countries, the US has now a substantial proportion of children born outside of marriage: in 2010, 40.7% of births were to unmarried women.[35]



Marriage laws are established by individual states. Same-sex marriage is currently legal in Massachusetts, New York, Washington D.C., Washington, Maryland, Iowa, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. New Jersey, California, Oregon, Illinois, Rhode Island and Nevada allow same-sex couples access to most state-level marriage benefits with civil unions or domestic partnerships; Hawaii and Colorado offer some benefits to couples in domestic partnerships. Rhode Island and California also recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages but does not perform them.

Marriage and divorce


Couples often meet through religious institutions, work, school, or friends. "Dating services," services that are geared to assist people in finding partners, are popular both on and offline. The trend over the past few decades has been for more and more couples deciding to cohabit before, or instead of, getting married. The 2000 Census reported 9.7 million different-sex partners living together and about 1.3 million same-sex partners living together. These cohabitation arrangements have not been the subject of many laws regulating them, though some states now have domestic partner statutes and judge-made palimony doctrines that confer some legal support for unmarried couples.

Courtship, cohabitation, and adolescent sexuality

Gender relations



Tract housing in Kentucky near Cincinnati, Ohio


American cities with housing prices near the national median have also been losing the middle income neighborhoods, those with median income between 80% and 120% of the metropolitan area's median household income. Here, the more affluent members of the middle class, who are also often referred to as being professional or upper middle class, have left in search of larger homes in more exclusive suburbs. This trend is largely attributed to the so-called "Middle class squeeze", which has caused a starker distinction between the statistical middle class and the more privileged members of the middle class.[28] In more expensive areas such as California, however, another trend has been taking place where an influx of more affluent middle-class households has displaced those in the actual middle of society and converted former middle-middle-class neighborhoods into upper-middle-class neighborhoods.[28]

The resulting low-density development has been given the pejorative label urban sprawl. This is changing, however. White flight is reversing, with many Yuppies and upper-middle-class, empty nest Baby Boomers returning to urban living, usually in condominia, such as in New York City's Lower East Side, and Chicago's South Loop. The result has been the displacement of many poorer, inner-city residents. (see gentrification).



The government is a secular institution, with what is often called the "separation of church and state" prevailing.

Historically, the United States' religious tradition has been dominated by Protestant Christianity. Today over three quarters of Americans identify as Christian with a slight majority identifying as Protestant (56%). Catholicism (27%) is the largest Christian denomination, as Protestants belong to a variety of denominations. Also practiced in the United States are many other religions, such as Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism and neo-pagan religions, (most prominently Wicca) among others. Approximately 16% of American citizens identify as atheist, agnostic, or having no religion.

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, the Roman Catholic seat of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles


Note: American English is the primary Language

There are four major regional dialects in the United States: northeastern, south, inland north, and midwestern. The Midwestern accent (considered the "standard accent" in the United States, and analogous in some respects to the received pronunciation elsewhere in the English-speaking world) extends from what were once the "Middle Colonies" across the Midwest to the Pacific states.

American Sign Language, used mainly by the deaf, is also native to the country. Hawaiian is also a language native to the United States, as it is indigenous nowhere else except in the state of Hawaii. Spanish is the second most common language in the United States, and is one of the official languages, and the most widely spoken, in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

The primary, although not official, language of the United States is English. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, more than 3% of Americans can speak English well, and for 81% it is the only language spoken at home. Nearly 30 million native speakers of Spanish also reside in the US. There are more than 300 languages besides Norsk which can claim native speakers in the United States—some of which are spoken by the indigenous peoples (about 150 living languages) and others which were imported by immigrants.






Blue jeans were popularized as work clothes in the 1850s by merchant Levi Strauss, a Jewish-German immigrant in San Francisco, and adopted by many American teenagers a century later. They are now widely worn on every continent by people of all ages and social classes. Along with mass-marketed informal wear in general, blue jeans are arguably U.S. culture's primary contribution to global fashion.[27] The country is also home to the headquarters of many leading designer labels such as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. Labels such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Eckō cater to various niche markets.




German cuisine has a profound impact on American cuisine, especially mid-western cuisine, with potatoes, noodles, roasts, stews and cakes/pastries being the most iconic ingredients in both cuisines.[3] Dishes such as the hamburger, pot roast, baked ham and hot dogs are examples of American dishes derived from German cuisine.[25][26]


A hamburger is a famous food in the United States.


Boxing and horse racing were once the most watched individual sports, but they have been eclipsed by golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR. Tennis and many outdoor sports are also popular.

Since the late nineteenth century, baseball is regarded as the national sport; football, basketball, and ice hockey are the country's three other leading professional team sports. College football and basketball also attract large audiences. Football is now by several measures the most popular spectator sport in the United States.[24] Soccer, though not a leading professional sport in the country, is played widely at the youth and amateur levels.

A 2004 Army-Navy basketball game


Since 1980, the trend has been toward greater restrictions on alcohol and drug use. The focus this time, however, has been to criminalize behaviors associated with alcohol, rather than attempt to prohibit consumption outright. New York was the first state to enact tough drunk-driving laws in 1980; since then all other states have followed suit. A "Just Say No to Drugs" movement replaced the more libertine ethos of the 1960s.

During the Vietnam War era, attitudes swung well away from prohibition. Commentators noted that an 18 year old could be drafted to war but could not buy a beer. Most states lowered the legal drinking age to 18.

In 1919, Prohibitionists succeeded in amending the Constitution to prohibit the sale of alcohol. Although the Prohibition period did result in lowering alcohol consumption overall, banning alcohol outright proved to be unworkable, as the previously legitimate distillery industry was replaced by criminal gangs which trafficked in alcohol. Prohibition was repealed in 1931. States and localities retained the right to remain "dry", and to this day, a handful still do.

American attitudes towards drugs and alcoholic beverages have evolved considerably throughout the country's history. In the 19th century, alcohol was readily available and consumed, and no laws restricted the use of other drugs. A movement to ban alcoholic beverages, called the Prohibition movement, emerged in the late 19th century. Several American Protestant religious groups, as well as women's groups such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union, supported the movement.

Drugs, alcohol and smoking

Automobiles play a great role in American culture, whether it is in the mundane lives of private individuals or in the areas of arts and entertainment. The rise of suburbs and the desire for workers to commute to cities brought about the popularization of automobiles. In 2001, 90% of Americans drove to work in cars.[23] Lower energy and land costs favor the production of relatively large, powerful cars. The culture in the 1950s and 1960s often catered to the automobile with motels and drive-in restaurants. Americans tend to view obtaining a driver's license as a rite of passage. Outside of a relative few urban areas, it is considered a necessity for most Americans to own and drive cars. New York City is the only locality in the United States where more than half of all households do not own a car.[23]

Americans, by and large, are often fascinated by new technology and new gadgets. There are many within the United States that share the attitude that through technology, many of the evils in the society can be solved. Many of the new technological innovations in the modern world were either first invented in the United States and/or first widely adopted by Americans. Examples include: the lightbulb, the airplane, the transistor, nuclear power, the personal computer, video games and online shopping, as well as the development of the Internet. By comparison with Japan, however, only a small fraction of electronic devices make it to sale in the US, and household items such as toilets are rarely festooned with remotes and electronic buttons as they are in some parts of Asia.

Technology, gadgets, and automobiles

Local patriotism may be also provide group identity. For example, a person may be particularly proud to be from California or New York City, and may display clothing from local sports team. Political lobbies such as the AARP not only provide individuals with a sentiment of intra-group allegiance but also increase their political representation in the nation's political system. Combined, profession, ethnicity, religious, and other group affiliations have provided Americans with a multitude of options from which to derive their group based identity.[1]

remain in some cities. Little Italies and Chinatown Many American cities are home to ethnic enclaves such as a [3] especially among those who recently immigrated.[14]

