AMERICAN SOCIETY AND VALUES

Л.Д.Акулич

СТРАНОВЕДЕНИЕ США

Планы семинарских занятий для студентов специальностей

Английский язык. Немецкий язык»

Английский язык. Французский язык»

SEMINAR 1

POPULATION OF THE USA

 

1. Patterns of immigration and assimilation

- general and particular causes of the massive influx of immigrants, political, economic and personal;

- American immigration history throughout the colonial period; an influx from northern Europe until the mid-19^th century, immigration mainly from southern and eastern Europe at the turn of the 20^th century, immigration mainly from Latin America post 1965, contemporary immigration;

- public attitudes towards immigration in the USA, US immigration policy, history of laws restricting immigration;

- Three dominant models of how immigrants are assimilated into U.S. culture: Anglo-conformity, the melting pot, cultural pluralism.

2. Demographics of the USA

- total population, population growth, ethnic composition, population density, age structure, median age, birth rate, mortality, sex ratio, life expectancy.

3. Patterns of settlement

- major internal migrations: east to west movement, movement from rural to urban areas, movement between metropolitan areas, sun-belt migration;

- regions of America: New England, the Middle Atlantic, the South, the Midwest, the Southwest, the West;

- urbanization, leading population centres.

4. Ethnic minorities

- African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics; civil rights’ movement, the struggle for social justice; Affirmative Action policies.

 

LITERATURE

1. About the USA

2. D.K.Stevenson.American Life and Institutions

3. Colombo, Cullen,Lisle. Rereading America.

4. An Outline of American History.

5. Portrait of the USA.

6. H.Brogan. American History.

7. J.A.Garraty.The Story of America.

8. Bragdon. History of a Free Nation.

 

SEMINAR 2

AMERICAN SOCIETY AND VALUES

 

1.Value system

- America’s traditional core values: an activist approach to life, emphasis on achievement and success, a moral character oriented to Puritan virtues of duty, industry, sobriety, rationality; equality, competitive individualism, self-reliance, efficiency and practicality, freedom, democracy, nationalism and patriotism, materialism, mobility and change;

- the concept of the American Dream which builds on the system of American values.

2. Status and social class

- standards of living, median income levels by household, sex, race, educational attainment, causes of inequality of income distribution;

- the stratification of American society, criteria of social class: occupation, education, income, manners, ownership, power, social prestige etc.; three categories of social class – upper, middle, lower/working; social/upward mobility.

3. American family

- changes and continuity in family structure, types of families traditional/nuclear, blended, one-parent, childless; greater tolerance of pre-marital sex, increase in cohabitation and temporary relationships, rise in non-marital births, increase in divorce rate;

- changing family values and functions.

4. Women and American society

- gender, sexism, history of women’s rights movement in the USA, the idea of equal opportunity.

 

LITERATURE

1.J.Patterson . The American Democracy.

2. An Outline of American History.

3. About the USA.

4. Portrait of the USA.

5.H.Brogan. American History.