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At the center of all that Americans value is freedom.
Americans commonly regard their society as the freest and best in the world. They like to think of their country as a welcoming haven for those longing for freedom and oppor tunity.
They are proud to point out that even today America's immigration offices are flooded with hopeful applicants who expect the chance for a better life. New World for a better life.
The Bill of Rights
The U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791, assures individual rights, including provisions for freedom of speech, press, and religion.Amendment ICongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
http://billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/bill-of-rights/
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm
Americans' notion of freedom focuses on the individual, and individualism has strong philosophical roots in America. Thomas Jefferson, philosopher, third president of the nation and author of the Declaration of Independence, believed that a free individual's identity should be held sacred and that his or her dignity and integrity should not be violated.
The context of the frontier experience. Survival in the wilderness was best achieved by robust individualists. S Survival experiences also explain the American tendency to idealize whatever
is prac tical.
Many historians believe that most of the beliefs and values which are charac teristically American emerged within the context of the frontier experience. Survival in the wilderness was best achieved by robust individualists. Survival experiences also explain the American tendency to idealize whatever is prac tical.
This "can-do" spirit is something Americans are proud of today. They like to think they are natural-born do-it-yourselfers. In which country does one find such a variety of "how-to" books and self-service opportunities?
Americans' preference for what ever is quick and practical.
The do-it-yourself spirit is known as volunteerism in American community and political life. Volunteerism means people helping people through privately-initiated, rather than government-sponsored, agencies. Volunteers, usually unpaid, are highly motivated workers who organize themselves and others to solve a particular community problem or meet an immediate social need, rather than waiting for someone else—usually the government—to do it
Psychological Abundance
Historically, Americans have regarded their country as a land of limitless wealth. The first colonists of the New World wrote letters back home, contrasting the riches of America with the scarcity of the lands from which they came.
Still America is rich in natural resources. But attitudes toward wastefulness are changing. While some Americans still believe in the inexhaustibility of the nation's resources, others reluctantly recognize that the era of cheap and plentiful resources is over. They realize that America must adopt new values to cope with a shrinking world.
American habit of mobility. As a nation of immigrants, Americans have from the beginning shared the assumption that the practical solution to a problem is to move elsewhere and make a fresh start. After all, this is the attitude that settled the West.
Mobility in America is not a sign of aimlessness but optimism. Pioneers made the arduous journey westward because they believed they could establish a better life for themselves and their children.
Americans hate to feel that buying a house might immobilize them forever, thereby inhibiting their chances of bettering their lives.
"I'm proud to be American," the national anthem is played at every sporting event. National holidays such as Thanksgiving and Independence Day intensify the sense of national identity.
In America, however, this specific sense of place, this identification with a particular geographical region as the homeland
The term American Dream, used in widely different contexts from political speeches to Broadway musicals, eludes precise definition. J. T. Adams in The Epic of America (1931) expressed it as "the dream of a land in which life should be better, richer, and fuller for every man with opportunities for each according to his abilities and achievement."
The American Dream is popularized in countless rags-to-riches stories and in the portrayal of the good life in adver tising and on TV shows.
Questioning of Values
Events in the late 1960s and early 1970s, most obviously the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, jolted the country with doubts and insecurities and created fundamental divisions among Americans about their country's goals.
The mainstream Protestant values which had held society together seemed to be collapsing, and no coherent, unifying system of belief emerged as an alternative. The 1980s saw a return to conservative family values and morals, as well as a renewal of national pride.
The ultimate significance, however, of this conservative revival is uncertain. Some critics observe that with the break down of consensus on beliefs and values which began around 1970, there has been increasing disparity of opinion about Americans' values and national goals.
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