Outskirts Press, INC.

The Essential Field Guide to Understanding Today’s United States of America

Everyone in today’s globalized world needs to understand at least two countries, their own—and the United States. This comprehensive, easy-to-read, objective and cutting-edge survey reveals what you have to know about the world’s superpower—from what Americans think about the most pressing issues to insights about the nation’s problematic future. Discover new thinking on topics that will challenge preconceived notions about the U.S., including: The current status of minority relations and the issues facing women; The truth about violence in America—and how a wave of reform has led to a sharp decline in the country’s murder rate; What Americans really believe about abortion, gay rights, and other hot-button issues, and what trends are affecting current sentiment; How much power religion actually wields over American cultural and political life, including an in-depth discussion of contemporary Christian fundamentalism; The state of the U.S. Constitution and the continuing battles following controversial anti-terror legislation passed after 9/11; Much, much more. Perfect for anyone studying the United States, The American Panorama goes beyond the usual syllabus to celebrate movies and musicals, baseball and books, offering up a rich picture of why countless millions around the world still admire America. Meticulously researched, The American Panorama is enriched with factfiles, case studies, study questions, and ample pointers to further sources.

The founding of the United States is the most important event in modern history. Millions have been attracted to study in the US and millions more to immigrate. But is America now over-extending itself, and beginning to decline like previous empires? The US, despite current and coming challenges, is and will remain for the foreseeable future the world’s leading economic, military, political and cultural power. America has a unique ability to innovate, integrate and renew – to generate solutions to problems, to produce what people want and enjoy, and hire any passing talent to do it. This has made, and will sustain the US as the world’s economic superpower, although it will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures unrivaled or unchallenged. Although it has lost the capacity to determine the direction of the global economy, the US still leads the world in many critical services and goods sectors. Yet it faces unprecedented challenges to its creativity and flexibility, and world economic power will have to be shared with the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China. The framers of the US Constitution, which has been adopted as a model around the world, were one of the most brilliant galaxies of political talent in Western history. How well will their modern successors safeguard their heritage? The values of Protestant Christianity have been decisive in the success of the American experiment. This is not to say that the settlers marched into the wilderness towards the frontier waving their Bibles in one hand and copies of the Constitution in the other. The record is far too flawed and ambiguous for that, as Americans are the first to admit. But religion in its American forms was and remains a potent factor in American society and politics, far more than in many other countries. How successfully will America resolve its cultural debates as its population becomes increasingly multicultural and white Protestants become the minority? Americans, more than any other people, are distinctly suspicious of government and adhere to a complex system of legal and cultural checks and balances to avert the abuse of power. But has the Executive become too strong, or is it not strong enough? What is its role as the forces of globalization reshape Americans’ lives and cast doubt on their dreams? Americans also tolerate far wider disparities in wealth than other developed countries, even when they could narrow them. Yet the federal government plays a much greater part in the economy and society than is often realized. The past two generations, conveniently dated to the reform of the immigration laws in 1965, but by no means solely because of changing patterns of immigration, have seen unique challenges to the traditional model of American culture. So far these have led to tensions and traumas, but not to a transformation. Americans remain tenaciously conservative despite economic and social upheavals. Americans have traditionally veered between two opposed conceptions of the United States’ place in the world, from an isolationism that avoids "foreign entanglements", to the fervent promotion of democracy abroad, even by military means. In today’s world, America is dominant but cannot dominate. By 2020 China will be the largest world economy and seven of the ten biggest economies will lie in Asia. The book, however, does not include detailed treatment of the "war on terror", the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, or the instability in the Middle East and elsewhere. Meanwhile, until the women’s movement and the Civil Rights movement demanded the extension to women and to African Americans of the American promise of rights, the American view of history persistently dwelt on the unity of the country, ignoring its diversities and inequalities; and American history writing remains persistently present-minded. These issues inform and unify the book. Yet it is not a history, nor is it an exercise in boosterism or futurology, but assumes the more modest role as a guide to American culture which readers may refer to in order to engage in debate and draw their own conclusions. Although the author’s viewpoint and opinions will be evident, the book attempts to give a balanced picture of the American panorama, making clear what America’s heritage is and what its current internal and external debates are about, and referring to further sources of information and analysis for the reader who wishes to study topics further. Many will disagree with the author’s selections, omissions and emphases, and specialists will deplore the frequent simplifications and generalizations. Even so, the book contains within one cover a breadth of treatment that will, the author is bold to believe, rarely be found elsewhere.