U.S. Culture

family estate. Religious institutions were also affected, as the widely

spread settlements created space for newer religious sects and revivalist

practices.

In the 19th century, Americans used their land to grow crops, which helped

create the dynamic agricultural economy that defined American society.

Many Americans were lured westward to obtain more land. Immigrants sought

land to settle, cattle ranchers wanted land for their herds, Southerners

looked to expand their slave economy into Western lands, and railroad

companies acquired huge tracts of land as they bound a loose society into

a coherent economic union. Although Native Americans had inhabited most of

the continent, Europeans and American settlers often viewed it as empty,

virgin land that they were destined to occupy. Even before the late 19th

century, when the last bloody battles between U.S. troops and Native

Americans completed the white conquest of the West, the idea of possessing

land was deeply etched into American cultural patterns and national

consciousness.

Throughout the 19th century, agricultural settlements existed on large,

separate plots of land, often occupying hundreds of acres. The Homestead

Act of 1862 promised up to 65 hectares (160 acres) of free land to anyone

with enough fortitude and vision to live on or cultivate the land. As a

result, many settlements in the West contained vast areas of sparsely

settled land, where neighbors lived great distances from one another. The

desire for residential privacy has remained a significant feature of

American culture.

This heritage continues to define patterns of life in the United States.

More than any other Western society, Americans are committed to living in

private dwellings set apart from neighbors. Despite the rapid urbanization

that began in the late 19th century, Americans insisted that each nuclear

family (parents and their children) be privately housed and that as many

families as possible own their own homes. This strong cultural standard

sometimes seemed unusual to new immigrants who were used to the more

crowded living conditions of Europe, but they quickly adopted this aspect

of American culture.

As cities became more densely populated, Americans moved to the suburbs.

Streetcars, first used during the 1830s, opened suburban rings around city

centers, where congestion was greatest. Banks offered long-term loans that

allowed individuals to invest in a home. Above all, the automobile in the

1920s was instrumental in furthering the move to the suburbs.

After World War II (1939-1945), developers carved out rural tracts to

build millions of single-family homes, and more Americans than ever before

moved to large suburban areas that were zoned to prevent commercial and

industrial activities. The federal government directly fueled this process

by providing loans to war veterans as part of the Servicemen’s

Readjustment Act of 1944, known as the GI Bill of Rights, which provided a

wide range of benefits to U.S. military personnel. In many of the new

housing developments, builders constructed homes according to a single

model, a process first established in Levittown, New York. These

identical, partially prefabricated units were rapidly assembled, making

suburban life and private land ownership available to millions of

returning soldiers in search of housing for their families.

American families still choose to live in either suburbs or the sprawling

suburban cities that have grown up in newer regions of the country. Vast

areas of the West, such as the Los Angeles metropolitan region in

California, the area around Phoenix, Arizona, and the Puget Sound area of

Washington state, became rapidly populated with new housing because of the

American desire to own a home on a private plot of land. In much of this

suburban sprawl, the central city has become largely indistinct. These

suburban areas almost invariably reflect Americans’ dependence on

automobiles and on government-supported highway systems.

As a result of Americans choosing to live in the suburbs, a distinctly

American phenomenon developed in the form of the shopping mall. The

shopping mall has increasingly replaced the old-fashioned urban downtown,

where local shops, restaurants, and cultural attractions were located.

Modern malls emphasize consumption as an exclusive activity. The shopping

mall, filled with department stores, specialty shops, fast-food

franchises, and movie multiplexes, has come to dominate retailing, making

suburban areas across America more and more alike. In malls, Americans

purchase food, clothing, and entertainment in an isolated environment

surrounded by parking lots.

The American preference for living in the suburbs has also affected other

living experiences. Because suburbs emphasize family life, suburban areas

also place a greater emphasis on school and other family-oriented

political issues than more demographically diverse cities. At their most

intense levels, desire for privacy and fear of crime have led to the

development of gated suburban communities that keep out those who are not

wanted.

Despite the growth of suburbs, American cities have maintained their

status as cultural centers for theaters, museums, concert halls, art

galleries, and more upscale restaurants, shops, and bookstores. In the

past several decades, city populations grew as young and trendy

professionals with few or no children sought out the cultural

possibilities and the diversity not available in the suburbs. Housing can

be expensive and difficult to find in older cities such as New York;

Boston, Massachusetts; and San Francisco, California. To cope, many city

dwellers restored older apartment buildings and houses. This process,

called gentrification, combines the American desire for the latest

technology with a newer appreciation for the classic and vintage.

Many poorer Americans cannot afford homes in the suburbs or apartments in

the gentrified areas of cities. They often rely upon federal housing

subsidies to pay for apartments in less-desirable areas of the city or in

public housing projects. Poorer people often live crowded together in

large apartment complexes in congested inner-city areas. Federal public

housing began when President Franklin Roosevelt sought to relieve the

worst conditions associated with poverty in the 1930s. It accelerated

during the 1950s and 1960s, as the government subsidized the renewal of

urban areas by replacing slums with either new or refurbished housing. In

the late 20th century, many people criticized public housing because it

was often the site for crime, drug deals, gangs, and other social ills.

Nevertheless, given the expensive nature of rental housing in cities,

public housing is often the only option available to those who cannot

afford to buy their own home. Private efforts, such as Habitat for

Humanity, have been organized to help the urban poor move from crowded,

high-rise apartments. These organizations help construct low-cost homes in

places such as the South Bronx in New York City, and they emphasize the

pride and autonomy of home ownership.

In recent years, the importance of home ownership has increased as higher

real estate prices have made the house a valuable investment. The newest

home construction has made standard the comforts of large kitchens,

luxurious bathrooms, and small gardens. In line with the rising cost of

land, these houses often stand on smaller lots than those constructed in

the period following World War II, when one-story ranch houses and large

lawns were the predominant style. At the same time, many suburban areas

have added other kinds of housing in response to the needs of single

people and people without children. As a result, apartments and

townhouses—available as rentals and as condominiums—have become familiar

parts of suburban life. For more information on urbanization and

suburbanization.

Food and Cuisine

The United States has rich and productive land that has provided Americans

with plentiful resources for a healthy diet. Despite this, Americans did

not begin to pay close attention to the variety and quality of the food

they ate until the 20th century, when they became concerned about eating

too much and becoming overweight. American food also grew more similar

around the country as American malls and fast-food outlets tended to

standardize eating patterns throughout the nation, especially among young

people. Nevertheless, American food has become more complex as it draws

from the diverse cuisines that immigrants have brought with them.

Historically, the rest of the world has envied the good, wholesome food

available in the United States. In the 18th and 19th centuries, fertile

soil and widespread land ownership made grains, meats, and vegetables

widely available, and famine that was common elsewhere was unknown in the

United States. Some immigrants, such as the Irish, moved to the United

States to escape famine, while others saw the bounty of food as one of the

advantages of immigration. By the late 19th century, America’s food

surplus was beginning to feed the world. After World War I (1914-1918) and

World War II, the United States distributed food in Europe to help

countries severely damaged by the wars. Throughout the 20th century,

American food exports have helped compensate for inadequate harvests in

other parts of the world. Although hunger does exist in the United States,

it results more from food being poorly distributed rather than from food

being unavailable.

Traditional American cuisine has included conventional European foodstuffs

such as wheat, dairy products, pork, beef, and poultry. It has also

incorporated products that were either known only in the New World or that

were grown there first and then introduced to Europe. Such foods include

potatoes, corn, codfish, molasses, pumpkin and other squashes, sweet

potatoes, and peanuts. American cuisine also varies by region. Southern

cooking was often different from cooking in New England and its upper

Midwest offshoots. Doughnuts, for example, were a New England staple,

while Southerners preferred corn bread. The availability of foods also

affected regional diets, such as the different kinds of fish eaten in New

England and the Gulf Coast. For instance, Boston clam chowder and

Louisiana gumbo are widely different versions of fish soup. Other

variations often depended on the contributions of indigenous peoples. In

the Southwest, for example, Mexican and Native Americans made hot peppers

a staple and helped define the spicy hot barbecues and chili dishes of the

area. In Louisiana, Cajun influence similarly created spicy dishes as a

local variation of Southern cuisine, and African slaves throughout the

South introduced foods such as okra and yams

By the late 19th century, immigrants from Europe and Asia were introducing

even more variations into the American diet. American cuisine began to

reflect these foreign cuisines, not only in their original forms but in

Americanized versions as well. Immigrants from Japan and Italy introduced

a range of fresh vegetables that added important nutrients as well as

variety to the protein-heavy American diet. Germans and Italians

contributed new skills and refinements to the production of alcoholic

beverages, especially beer and wine, which supplemented the more customary

hard cider and indigenous corn-mash whiskeys. Some imports became

distinctly American products, such as hot dogs, which are descended from

German wurst, or sausage. Spaghetti and pizza from Italy, especially, grew

increasingly more American and developed many regional spin-offs.

Americans even adapted chow mein from China into a simple American dish.

Not until the late 20th century did Americans rediscover these cuisines,

and many others, paying far more attention to their original forms and

cooking styles.

Until the early 20th century, the federal government did not regulate food

for consumers, and food was sometimes dangerous and impure. During the

Progressive period in the early 20th century, the federal government

intervened to protect consumers against the worst kinds of food

adulterations and diseases by passing legislation such as the Pure Food

and Drug Acts. As a result, American food became safer. By the early 20th

century, Americans began to consume convenient, packaged foods such as

breads and cookies, preserved fruits, and pickles. By the mid-20th

century, packaged products had expanded greatly to include canned soups,

noodles, processed breakfast cereals, preserved meats, frozen vegetables,

instant puddings, and gelatins. These prepackaged foods became staples

used in recipes contained in popular cookbooks, while peanut butter

sandwiches and packaged cupcakes became standard lunchbox fare. As a

result, the American diet became noteworthy for its blandness rather than

its flavors, and for its wholesomeness rather than its subtlety.

Americans were proud of their technology in food production and

processing. They used fertilizers, hybridization (genetically combining

two varieties), and other technologies to increase crop yields and

consumer selection, making foods cheaper if not always better tasting.

Additionally, by the 1950s, the refrigerator had replaced the old-

fashioned icebox and the cold cellar as a place to store food.

Refrigeration, because it allowed food to last longer, made the American

kitchen a convenient place to maintain readily available food stocks.

However, plentiful wholesome food, when combined with the sedentary 20th-

century lifestyle and work habits, brought its own unpleasant

consequences—overeating and excess weight. During the 1970s, 25 percent of

Americans were overweight; by the 1990s that had increased to 35 percent.

America’s foods began to affect the rest of the world—not only raw staples

such as wheat and corn, but a new American cuisine that spread throughout

the world. American emphasis on convenience and rapid consumption is best

represented in fast foods such as hamburgers, french fries, and soft

drinks, which almost all Americans have eaten. By the 1960s and 1970s fast

foods became one of America's strongest exports as franchises for

McDonald’s and Burger King spread through Europe and other parts of the

world, including the former Soviet Union and Communist China. Traditional

meals cooked at home and consumed at a leisurely pace—common in the rest

of the world, and once common in the United States—gave way to quick

lunches and dinners eaten on the run as other countries mimicked American

cultural patterns.

By the late 20th century, Americans had become more conscious of their

diets, eating more poultry, fish, and fresh fruits and vegetables and

fewer eggs and less beef. They also began appreciating fresh ingredients

and livelier flavors, and cooks began to rediscover many world cuisines in

forms closer to their original. In California, chefs combined the fresh

fruits and vegetables available year-round with ingredients and spices

sometimes borrowed from immigrant kitchens to create an innovative cooking

style that was lighter than traditional French, but more interesting and

varied than typical American cuisine. Along with the state’s wines,

California cuisine eventually took its place among the acknowledged forms

of fine dining.

As Americans became more concerned about their diets, they also became

more ecologically conscious. This consciousness often included an

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