This new edition of Norgren and Nanda's classic updates their examination of the intersection of American cultural pluralism and law. They document and... analyze legal challenges to the existing social order raised by many cultural groups, among them, Native Americans and Native Hawaiians, homeless persons, immigrants, disabled persons, and Rastafarians. In addition, they examine such current controversies as the culture wars in American schools and the impact of post-9/11 security measures on Arab and Muslim individuals and communities. The book also discusses more traditional challenges to the American legal system by women, homosexuals, African Americans, Latinos, Japanese Americans, and the Mormons and the Amish.The new chapters and updated analyses in this Third Edition reflect recent, relevant court cases dealing with culture, race, gender, religion, and personal status. Drawing on court materials, state and federal legislation, and legal ethnographies, the text analyzes the ongoing tension between, on the one hand, the need of different groups for cultural autonomy and equal rights, and on the other, the necessity of national unity and security. The text integrates the authors' commentary with case descriptions set in historical, cultural, political, and economic context. While the authors' thesis is that law is an instrument of social policy that has generally furthered an assimilationist agenda in American society, they also point out how in different periods, under different circumstances, and with regard to different groups, law has also some opportunity for cultural autonomy.

This much-needed update of American Cultural Studies provides an introduction to the central themes in modern American culture and exploring how these... themes can be interpreted. Neil Campbell and Alasdair Kean discuss the various aspects of American cultural life such as religion, gender and sexuality and regionalism. Updates and revisions include: a new introduction engaging with current debates in the field an all-new chapter on foreign policy thorough discussion of globalization and Americanization new case studies updated list of further reading. A refreshing and contemporary update of a staple text on American Studies reading lists.

Praise for previous editions:'Something of a godsend ... as a teaching resource this book is second to none ... achieves levels of multiplicity rarely,... if ever, reached by others.' - Borderlines: Studies in American Culture This third edition of American Cultural Studies has been updated throughout to take into account the developments of the last six years, providing an introduction to the central themes in modern American culture and explores how these themes can be interpreted. Chapters in the book discuss the various aspects of American cultural life such as religion, gender and sexuality, and regionalism. Updates and revisions include: discussion of Barack Obama’s rise to power and the end of the ‘Bush Years’ consideration of ‘Hemispheric American Studies’ and the increasing debates about globalisation and the role of the USA up-to-date case-studies, such as The Wire and Nurse Jackie, more on suburbia, the Mexican-border crossing, the Twilight phenomena etc updated further-reading lists.Accompanying website. American Cultural Studies is a core text and an accessible introduction to the interdisciplinary study of American culture.

In American Culture, American Tastes, Michael Kammen leads us on an entertaining, thought-provoking tour of America's changing tastes, uses of leisure,... and the shifting perceptions that have accompanied them throughout our nation's history. Starting at the point in time that late-nineteenth-century popular culture began to evolve into post-WWII mass culture, Kammen charts the influence of advertising and opinion polling; the development of standardized products, shopping centers, and mass marketing; the separation of youth and adult culture; the relationship between "high" and "low" art; the commercialization of organized entertainment; and the ways in which television has shaped mass culture and consumerism has reconfigured it. In doing so, he draws from sources as varied and rich as the work of esteemed cultural theorists, "The Simpsons," jigsaw puzzles, Walter Winchell's gossip columns, Whitman's poetry, Warhol's art, "Sesame Street," and the Book-of-the-Month Club.With wit and ingenuity Kammen traces the emergence of American mass culture and the contested meanings of leisure, taste, consumer culture, and social divisions that it has spawned.

America, like other modern nations, is characterized by its diversity and can be seen as a complex and fragmented nation-state. Yet an American culture... defined by those beliefs, and behaviors that all Americans do share, irrespective of their other cultural affiliations, does exist. This book presents an innovative approach to the issues and aspects in the study of America's unique culture.The real diversity of America is lost in the practice of categorizing people into social (racial or ethnic) groups and then attributing culture to them. While not an exhaustive treatment of the culture, this volume serves as a point of departure for discussions of American culture in a variety of courses both within and outside the discipline of anthropology. Each chapter is accompanied by suggested readings to enable the student to pursue a more in-depth study of any individual topic.

Colonial America presented a new world of natural curiosities for settlers as well as the London-based scientific community. In American Curiosity,... Susan Scott Parrish examines how various peoples in the British colonies understood and represented the natural world around them from the late sixteenth century through the eighteenth. Rather than flowing strictly from metropole to colony, scientific knowledge about America emerged from a horizontal exchange of information across the Atlantic.Delving into an understudied archive of letters, Parrish uncovers early descriptions of American natural phenomena as well as clues to how people in the colonies construed their own identities through the natural world. Although hierarchies of gender, class, institutional learning, place of birth or residence, and race persisted within the natural history community, the contributions of any participant were considered valuable as long as they supplied novel data or specimens from the American side of the Atlantic. Thus Anglo-American nonelites, women, Indians, and enslaved Africans all played crucial roles in gathering and relaying new information to Europe.Recognizing a significant tradition of nature writing and representation in North America well before the Transcendentalists, American Curiosity also enlarges our notions of the scientific Enlightenment by looking beyond European centers to find a socially inclusive American base to a true transatlantic expansion of knowledge.

Winnie Smith was a 21-year-old student nurse when she joined the Army "to see the world" and was sent to Vietnam. American Daughter Gone to War is the... extraordinary story of how she was transformed from a romantic young nurse into a thoughtful, battle-scarred adult. It is a mirror for how our country dealt with the shattering experience and aftermath of the war.

American Defense Policy has been a mainstay for instructors of courses in political science, international relations, military affairs, and American... national security for over 25 years. The updated and thoroughly revised eighth edition considers questions of continuity and change in America's defense policy in the face of a global climate beset by geopolitical tensions, rapid technological change, and terrorist violence. On September 11, 2001, the seemingly impervious United States was handed a very sharp reality check. In this new atmosphere of fear and vulnerability, policy makers were forced to make national security their highest priority, implementing laws and military spending initiatives to combat the threat of international terrorism. In this volume, experts examine the many factors that shape today's security landscape—America's values, the preparation of future defense leaders, the efforts to apply what we have learned from Afghanistan and Iraq to the transformation of America's military, reflection on America's nuclear weapons programs and missile defense, the threat of terrorism, and the challenges of homeland security—which are applied to widely varied approaches to national defense strategy.This invaluable and prudent text remains a classic introduction to the vital security issues facing the United States throughout its history and breaks new ground as a thoughtful and comprehensive starting point in understanding American defense policy and its role in the world today.

Most would agree that American democracy thrives when citizens are informed and responsive. So how best to teach today s students not only how... government works, but also why it works and maybe, more importantly, why it doesn t always work? Hudson provides the perfect supplement for those who want to elicit a more critical look at the functioning of our political system. He outlines eight major challenges facing America as a new president takes office, ranging from the strength of the judiciary to the trade-offs between national security and personal privacy. Challenging students to respond robustly to these challenges, he also offers possible solutions to each. The end result is to provide a sound conceptual framework for evaluating the American political system one that stimulates analytical thinking and discussion. Timely updates examine elections and voting specifically primaries and how they work, machine politics, and voting restrictions and the national security state, with a focus on the Bush administration s expansion of presidential power, as well as questions of spreading democracy abroad and the rationale for international intervention.

With the economic crisis, intense partisan gridlock, and social movements like the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, "American Democracy in Peril"... encapsulates the tumultuous state of American politics more than ever. Hudson's provocative book offers a structured, yet critical look at the functioning of the American political system. This new edition incorporates the far-ranging impact of the Obama presidency and the polarization that has accompanied it along with these key updates: new discussion of the barriers of the separation of powers system, including the tortured politics of health care reform, the threats of government shutdown over deficit reform, and the use of institutional vetoes to prevent economic stimulus measures. New developments from the last election cycles, including changes in party politics, campaign funding, campaign media technologies and social media, and efforts at voter suppression. Fresh examination of the financial deregulation that led to the crisis, the massive financial bailout, and rising economic inequality. New insight regarding Obama's continuity with Bush-era national security practices from the use of secrecy to centralized executive control of policy.