America in close-up

285 Pages·2.385 MB·English

by  Fiedler E., Jansen R.

America

IN CLOSE-UP
America

IN CLOSE-UP

ECKHARD FIEDLER
REIMER JANSEN MIL
NORMAN-RISCH
Pearson Education Limited
Edinburgh Gate, Harlow,
Essex CM20 2]E, England
and Associated Companies throughout the world.
www.longman-elt.com
© Longman Group UK Limited 1990
All rights reserved; no part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
expect in those cases explicity allowed by local law,
without the prior written permission of the Publishers.
ISBN 0582 74929 8
First published 1990
Tenth impression 2001
British Library Cataloging in Publication Data
Fiedler, Eckhard
America in close-up.
1. United States. Social life
I. Title II. Jansen, Reimer III. Norman-Risch, Mill 973.927
Set in 10/12 pt. Palatino
Printed in China
EPC/10
Contents

Index of Part В Texts 8

Introduction 10

UNIT 1 The Making of a Nation 13

UNIT 2 American Beliefs and Values 25

UNIT 3 Regionalism vs. Americanization 43

UNIT 4 The U.S. Economy 59

UNI 5 The Urbanization of America 81

UNIT 6 Law, Crime, and Justice 97

UNIT 7 Minorities 112

UNI 8 The Changing Role of Women 127

T
UNI 9 The Political System 142

UNI 10 America's Global Role 170

UNI 11 Education 188

UNI 12 Religion 205

T
UNIT 13 The Arts 225

UNI 14 Sports 245

T
UNI 15 The Media 261

Some Facts about the States 278

Presidents and Vice-Presidents

of the United States 279

Index 280
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в Texts
PART

UNIT 1 The Making of a Nation 5. Economics vs. Ecology: Problems with
Solutions to Pollution by Robert W.
1. "America". Lyrics from the musical West Side
Haseltine. From USA Today.
Story by Stephen Sondheim and Leonard
Bernstein
2. New York - A Melting Pot. The text is taken UNIT 5 The Urbanization of America
from the back cover of MAYOR by Edward
1. Small Town Life by Berton Roueche. From
Koch.
Special Places, In Search of Small Town
3. Immigration Today: A Case Study. From
America.
Newsweek.
2. Revival of a City's Virtues — Why a young
4. A Newsweek Poll on Immigration.
single woman moves to the city by Mildred
Norman-Risch.
UNIT 2 American Beliefs and Values 3. Neighborhoods. From A Raisin in the Sun by
1. The American Idea by Theodore H. White. Lorraine Hansberry.
From The New York Times magazine. 4. Children of Poverty - Crisis in New York by
2. American Dreams: Arnold Schwarzenegger Andrew Stein. From The New York Times
and Florence Scala. From American Dreams: magazine.
Lost and Found by Studs Terkel. 5. Pittsburgh - A New City. From Dialogue.
3. A Discussion of American Beliefs and Values.
An interview with four young Americans. UNIT 6 Law, Crime, and Justice
4. Put Out No Flags by Matthew Rothschild.
From The Progressive. 1. A Brother's Murder by Brent Staples. From
The New York Times magazine.
UNIT 3 Regionalism vs. 2. Arming Citizens to Fight Crime by Frank
Borzellieri. From USA Today.
Americanization
3. The Death Penalty: Legal Cruelty? by Donald
1. The Cooling of the South by Raymond B. Walker. From USA Today.
Arsenault. From the Wilson Quarterly. 4. Thoughts on the Supreme Court — excerpts
2. Southern Women - Still Ladies? by Cora from an interview with Tom Clark. From
McKinney Perspectives.
3. The Nation's Most Strongly Defined Region. 5. How a Case Reaches the Supreme Court.
From "New England's Regionalism and From Perspectives.
Recovery" by W. Street and H. Gimlin in
American Regionalism edited by Hoyt Gimlin. UNIT 7 Minorities
4. What is a Middle Westerner? From "The
Middle West" by John Fraser Hart in Annals 1. I Am the Redman/My Lodge by Duke
of the Association of American Geographers. Redbird.
5. "Just Like the Rest of Us, Only More So." 2. Brothers by Sylvester Monroe. From
From "California: Living Out the Golden Newsweek
Dream" by R. Kipling and W. Thomas in 3. Jessie de la Cruz. From American Dreams: Lost
American Regionalism edited by Hoyt Gimlin. and Found by Studs Terkel.
4. Lucky ОГ Sundowners by Peter Black. From
The Observer.
UNIT 4 The U.S. Economy
5. Where There's Smoke. From Time.
1. Peter Drucker on Entrepreneurs. From U.S.
News & World Report.
UNIT 8 The Changing Role of Women
2. Inside Bell Labs by Gene Bylinsky. From
Dialogue. 1. Second Thoughts on Having It All by Tony
3. A French Fry Diary: From Idaho Furrow to Schwartz. From New York.
Golden Arches by Meg Cox. From American 2. The Choices That Brought Me Here by
Character: Views of America from the Wall Amanda Spake. From Ms.
Street journal. 3. How to Have a Successful Christian Family
4. The Forgotten Farmer by Danny Collum. by Jerry Falwell. From a Moral Majority
From Sojourners. Publication
INDEX OF PART В TEXTS 9
4. Families. Statistics from the National 6. Universities in Transition by David Riesman.
Education Association. From the Wilson Quarterly.
5. Husband's Hazard - For Middle-Aged Man,
A Wife's New Career Upsets Old Balances UNIT 12 Religion
by Mary Bralove. From American Character:
1. Sunday in Hope by Berton Roueche. From
Views of America from the Wall Street Journal.
Special Places — In Search of Small Town
America.
UNIT 9 The Political System 2. I Have a Dream - an extract from Martin
Luther King's speech at the Lincoln Memorial
1. Perspective of a Public Man - excerpts from
on August 28 1963.
an interview with Hubert Humphrey. From
3. Breaking New Ground on War and Peace by
Perspectives.
Paul Bock. From USA Today.
2. A President's Mission — extracts from George
4. Power, Glory - And Politics. From Time.
Bush's nomination acceptance speech.
5. School Prayer - excerpts from President
3. The Human Side of Congress -
Reagan's remarks to the Annual Convention
Representative Jim Wright. From Perspectives.
of National Religious Broadcasters.
4. Lobbyists and Their Issues a) American Israel
Public Affairs Committee by Thomas Dine b)
UNIT 13 The Arts
The Wilderness Society by Rebecca Leet.
From Perspectives. 1. Toward a National Theater by Howard Stein.
5. "If Conservatives Cannot Do it Now ..." — From Dialogue.
an interview with Irving Kristol. From U.S. 2. A Dozen Outstanding Plays of the Past
News & World Report. Quarter Century. From Dialogue.
6. Reagan/Bush '84. The text is taken from the 3. An Interview with Jack Nicholson by Beverly
Reagan/Bush campaign leaflet for the 1984 Walker, From Film Comment.
presidential election. 4. Literary Hollywood by Stanley Kauffman.
7. Keynote Address by Governor Cuomo to the From The New Republic.
Democratic National Convention July 1984 5. The Chairman and the Boss by Jay Cocks.
(excerpts). From Time.
8. Americans Vote for Divided Government.
From the Washington Post. UNIT 14 Sports
1. Interview: High School Sports - Steve Peter,
UNIT 10 America's Global Role an American exchange student who spent a
year in a German school, talks about high
1. America and the World: Principle and
school sports.
Pragmatism by Henry Kissinger. From Time.
2. Sports in America: Colleges and Universities.
2. American Policy in Vietnam; Peace Without
From Sports in America by James A.
Conquest. From a speech by Lyndon B.
Michener.
Johnson.
3. Baseball. From The Oxford Companion to
3. Top Dogs and Underdogs by J. William
Sports and Games.
Fulbright. From /. William Fulbright.
4. Running for Your Life by Matt Clark and
4. Exporting American Culture. From Public
Karen Springen. From Newsweek.
Opinion.
5. Lousy at Sports by Mark Goodson. From The
New York Times magazine.
UNIT 11 Education
UNIT 15 The Media
1. American Educational Philosophies by Diane
Ravitch. From "American Education: Has the 1. The Case for Television Journalism by Eric
Pendulum Swung Once Too Often?" in Sevareid. From Saturday Review.
Humanities. 2. The Nature of TV in America by Richard
2. What Makes Great Schools Great? From US Burke.
News & World Report. 3. Television. The text is the television column
3. An American Senior High School — an from The Herald-Telephone.
American student talks about his high 4. This Is Not Your Life: Television as the Third
school. Parent by Benjamin Stein. From Public
4. Attendance Policy and Procedures - Quincy Opinion.
Senior High Attendance Policy for 1984 to 5. The Likability Sweepstakes by Richard
1985. Stengel. From Time.
5. What Students Think About Their Schools. 6. Dilemmas. From Public Opinion.
Introduction

Aims

America in Close-up is a refreshingly different type of book for use by advanced
students of English in the upper grades of secondary schools and on the more
basic courses in colleges and universities. By combining the two functions of
reader and reference book it aims to offer students the most complete possible
introduction to American life and institutions, and because of its design is
unusually flexible both in the classroom and as a self-study aid.
Content and Organization

Each unit of America in Close-up is divided into three sections:
Part A: factual background information
Part B: authentic texts
Part C: exercises
The texts in Part В form the reader and the focus is on contemporary America.
Taken from individual writers with lively and divergent views, the texts
explore a wide range of issues and accumulatively paint an authentic picture
of current trends and debates.
It is the factual information in the Part A sections which provides the
historical and cultural context necessary for the students to understand these
issues. Taken together, these build into a comprehensive work of reference
that covers almost all major areas of American life.
The Part С exercises—linked to the texts in Part B —are designed to provoke
discussion and to develop language skills such as comprehension and text
analysis. Some exercises reflect explicitly the important cross-cultural objective
which underlies this book. It is our belief that by studying American life,
students will become not only more sensitive to their own environment but
also better able to understand and accept cultural differences wherever they
meet them.
How to Use the Book

America in Close-up can be used in a number of different ways. Some of these
are listed below.
• Because of the breadth of historical and contemporary information that it
contains, America in Close-up is the ideal basic coursebook for an American
Studies program. It is suitable both for classroom use and for self-study and
individual research.
INTRODUCTION 11
The authentic reading material and the wide variety of exercises in America
in Close-up make it a stimulating textbook for use in advanced English
language classes where the U.S. is the topic under consideration. Teachers
will decide for themselves how much of the background information in the
Part A sections to draw in; indeed, some may prefer to concentrate on these
for a more systematic and factual approach.
America in Close-up can be used equally well as a general companion to the
study of other fictional (and non-fictional) texts —for example, to provide
the socio-economic background to a poem, drama, short story or complete
novel. Again the option is there for classroom use or individual study. Used
selectively, America in Close-up offers teachers and students information and
reading material on a given aspect of America as and when this is
appropriate.
The Making of a
Nation

PART A Background Information

NATION OF The United States is a society of immigrants. Since its early days, the country
IMMIGRANTS has admitted more than 50 million newcomers, a larger number of immigrants
than any country in history. Most people came, and still come today, for
wealth, land, and freedom.
FIRST Stories of the New World's gold attracted the first Spanish explorers, who in
IMMIGRANTS the 1500s established outposts in what is now Florida. Prospects of wealth also
motivated French fur traders, who set up trading posts from the St. Lawrence
River to the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River. The British, who
were the first to colonize on a large scale, came for profit and also for religious
freedom. The first successful English colony founded at Jamestown, Virginia,
was financed by a London company that expected to make money from the
settlement. English Puritans, Protestants who disagreed with the teachings of
the Church of England, established settlements in the northeastern region. In
the New World they could worship as they pleased.
Throughout the 1600s and 1700s permanent settlements were rapidly estab-
lished all along the east coast. Most of the early settlers were British. These
early immigrants were soon joined by people of other nationalities. German
farmers settled in Pennsylvania, Swedes founded the colony of Delaware, and
the Dutch settled in New York. Africans, America's unwilling immigrants,
provided slave labor in the southern colonies. Immigrants also came from
France, Spain, and Switzerland.
When they settled in the New World, many immigrants tried to preserve
the traditions, religion, and language of their particular culture. The language
and culture of the more numerous English colonists, however, had the over-
riding influence. American society was predominantly English—white Anglo-
Saxon Protestant (WASP). Those immigrants who did not want to feel separate
from the dominant WASP culture learned English and adopted English customs.
Puritan: a member of an English sect of Protestants, who, in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, advocated simplification of the creeds and ceremonies of the
Church of England and demanded strict religious discipline.
WASP: W(hite) A(nglo)-S(axon) P(rotestant); an American of British or northern
European ancestry who is a member of the Protestant church. WASPs are frequently
considered to form the most privileged and influential group which formerly
dominated U.S. society.