U.S. Culture

America’s foods began to affect the rest of the world—not only raw staples

such as wheat and corn, but a new American cuisine that spread throughout

the world. American emphasis on convenience and rapid consumption is best

represented in fast foods such as hamburgers, french fries, and soft

drinks, which almost all Americans have eaten. By the 1960s and 1970s fast

foods became one of America's strongest exports as franchises for

McDonald’s and Burger King spread through Europe and other parts of the

world, including the former Soviet Union and Communist China. Traditional

meals cooked at home and consumed at a leisurely pace—common in the rest

of the world, and once common in the United States—gave way to quick

lunches and dinners eaten on the run as other countries mimicked American

cultural patterns.

By the late 20th century, Americans had become more conscious of their

diets, eating more poultry, fish, and fresh fruits and vegetables and

fewer eggs and less beef. They also began appreciating fresh ingredients

and livelier flavors, and cooks began to rediscover many world cuisines in

forms closer to their original. In California, chefs combined the fresh

fruits and vegetables available year-round with ingredients and spices

sometimes borrowed from immigrant kitchens to create an innovative cooking

style that was lighter than traditional French, but more interesting and

varied than typical American cuisine. Along with the state’s wines,

California cuisine eventually took its place among the acknowledged forms

of fine dining.

As Americans became more concerned about their diets, they also became

more ecologically conscious. This consciousness often included an

antitechnology aspect that led some Americans to switch to a partially or

wholly vegetarian diet, or to emphasize products produced organically

(without chemical fertilizers and pesticides). Many considered these foods

more wholesome and socially responsible because their production was less

taxing to the environment. In the latter 20th century, Americans also

worried about the effects of newly introduced genetically altered foods

and irradiation processes for killing bacteria. They feared that these new

processes made their food less natural and therefore harmful.

These concerns and the emphasis on variety were by no means universal,

since food habits in the late 20th century often reflected society’s

ethnic and class differences. Not all Americans appreciated California

cuisine or vegetarian food, and many recent immigrants, like their

immigrant predecessors, often continued eating the foods they knew best.

At the end of the 20th century, American eating habits and food production

were increasingly taking place outside the home. Many people relied on

restaurants and on new types of fully prepared meals to help busy families

in which both adults worked full-time. Another sign of the public’s

changing food habits was the microwave oven, probably the most widely used

new kitchen appliance, since it can quickly cook foods and reheat prepared

foods and leftovers. Since Americans are generally cooking less of their

own food, they are more aware than at any time since the early 20th

century of the quality and health standards applied to food. Recent

attention to cases in which children have died from contaminated and

poorly prepared food has once again directed the public’s attention to the

government's role in monitoring food safety.

In some ways, American food developments are contradictory. Americans are

more aware of food quality despite, and maybe because of, their increasing

dependence on convenience. They eat a more varied diet, drawing on the

cuisines of immigrant groups (Thai, Vietnamese, Greek, Indian, Cuban,

Mexican, and Ethiopian), but they also regularly eat fast foods found in

every shopping mall and along every highway. They are more suspicious of

technology, although they rely heavily on it for their daily meals. In

many ways, these contradictions reflect the many influences on American

life in the late 20th century—immigration, double-income households,

genetic technologies, domestic and foreign travel—and food has become an

even deeper expression of the complex culture of which it is part.

Dress

In many regions of the world, people wear traditional costumes at

festivals or holidays, and sometimes more regularly. Americans, however,

do not have distinctive folk attire with a long tradition. Except for the

varied and characteristic clothing of Native American peoples, dress in

the United States has rarely been specific to a certain region or based on

the careful preservation of decorative patterns and crafts. American dress

is derived from the fabrics and fashions of the Europeans who began

colonizing the country in the 17th century. Early settlers incorporated

some of the forms worn by indigenous peoples, such as moccasins and

garments made from animal skins (Benjamin Franklin is famous for flaunting

a raccoon cap when he traveled to Europe), but in general, fashion in the

United States adapted and modified European styles. Despite the number and

variety of immigrants in the United States, American clothing has tended

to be homogeneous, and attire from an immigrant’s homeland was often

rapidly exchanged for American apparel.

American dress is distinctive because of its casualness. American style in

the 20th century is recognizably more informal than in Europe, and for its

fashion sources it is more dependent on what people on the streets are

wearing. European fashions take their cues from the top of the fashion

hierarchy, dictated by the world-famous haute couture (high fashion)

houses of Paris, France, and recently those of Milan, Italy, and London,

England. Paris designers, both today and in the past, have also dressed

wealthy and fashionable Americans, who copied French styles. Although

European designs remain a significant influence on American tastes,

American fashions more often come from popular sources, such as the school

and the street, as well as television and movies. In the last quarter of

the 20th century, American designers often found inspiration in the

imaginative attire worn by young people in cities and ballparks, and that

worn by workers in factories and fields.

Blue jeans are probably the single most representative article of American

clothing. They were originally invented by tailor Jacob Davis, who

together with dry-goods salesman Levi Strauss patented the idea in 1873 as

durable clothing for miners. Blue jeans (also known as dungarees) spread

among workers of all kinds in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,

especially among cowboys, farmers, loggers, and railroad workers. During

the 1950s, actors Marlon Brando and James Dean made blue jeans fashionable

by wearing them in movies, and jeans became part of the image of teenage

rebelliousness. This fashion statement exploded in the 1960s and 1970s as

Levi's became a fundamental part of the youth culture focused on civil

rights and antiwar protests. By the late 1970s, almost everyone in the

United States wore blue jeans, and youths around the world sought them. As

designers began to create more sophisticated styles of blue jeans and to

adjust their fit, jeans began to express the American emphasis on

informality and the importance of subtlety of detail. By highlighting the

right label and achieving the right look, blue jeans, despite their worker

origins, ironically embodied the status consciousness of American fashion

and the eagerness to approximate the latest fad.

American informality in dress is such a strong part of American culture

that many workplaces have adopted the idea of “casual Friday,” a day when

workers are encouraged to dress down from their usual professional attire.

For many high-tech industries located along the West Coast, as well as

among faculty at colleges and universities, this emphasis on casual attire

is a daily occurrence, not just reserved for Fridays.

The fashion industry in the United States, along with its companion

cosmetics industry, grew enormously in the second half of the 20th century

and became a major source of competition for French fashion. Especially

notable during the late 20th century was the incorporation of sports logos

and styles, from athletic shoes to tennis shirts and baseball caps, into

standard American wardrobes. American informality is enshrined in the

wardrobes created by world-famous U.S. designers such as Calvin Klein, Liz

Claiborne, and Ralph Lauren. Lauren especially adopted the American look,

based in part on the tradition of the old West (cowboy hats, boots, and

jeans) and in part on the clean-cut sportiness of suburban style (blazers,

loafers, and khakis).

Sports and Recreation

Large numbers of Americans watch and participate in sports activities,

which are a deeply ingrained part of American life. Americans use sports

to express interest in health and fitness and to occupy their leisure

time. Sports also allow Americans to connect and identify with mass

culture. Americans pour billions of dollars into sports and their related

enterprises, affecting the economy, family habits, school life, and

clothing styles. Americans of all classes, races, sexes, and ages

participate in sports activities—from toddlers in infant swimming groups

and teenagers participating in school athletics to middle-aged adults

bowling or golfing and older persons practicing t’ai chi.

Public subsidies and private sponsorships support the immense network of

outdoor and indoor sports, recreation, and athletic competitions. Except

for those sponsored by public schools, most sports activities are

privately funded, and even American Olympic athletes receive no direct

national sponsorship. Little League baseball teams, for example, are

usually sponsored by local businesses. Many commercial football,

basketball, baseball, and hockey teams reflect large private investments.

Although sports teams are privately owned, they play in stadiums that are

usually financed by taxpayer-provided subsidies such as bond measures.

State taxes provide some money for state university sporting events.

Taxpayer dollars also support state parks, the National Park Service, and

the Forest Service, which provide places for Americans to enjoy camping,

fishing, hiking, and rafting. Public money also funds the Coast Guard,

whose crews protect those enjoying boating around the nation's shores.

Sports in North America go back to the Native Americans, who played forms

of lacrosse and field hockey. During colonial times, early Dutch settlers

bowled on New York City's Bowling Green, still a small park in southern

Manhattan. However, organized sports competitions and local participatory

sports on a substantial scale go back only to the late 19th century.

Schools and colleges began to encourage athletics as part of a balanced

program emphasizing physical as well as mental vigor, and churches began

to loosen strictures against leisure and physical pleasures. As work

became more mechanized, more clerical, and less physical during the late

19th century, Americans became concerned with diet and exercise. With

sedentary urban activities replacing rural life, Americans used sports and

outdoor relaxation to balance lives that had become hurried and confined.

Biking, tennis, and golf became popular for those who could afford them,

while sandlot baseball and an early version of basketball became popular

city activities. At the same time, organizations such as the Boy Scouts

and the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) began to sponsor sports

as part of their efforts to counteract unruly behavior among young people.

Baseball teams developed in Eastern cities during the 1850s and spread to

the rest of the nation during the Civil War in the 1860s. Baseball quickly

became the national pastime and began to produce sports heroes such as Cy

Young, Ty Cobb, and Babe Ruth in the first half of the 20th century. With

its city-based loyalties and all-American aura, baseball appealed to many

immigrants, who as players and fans used the game as a way to fit into

American culture.

Starting in the latter part of the 19th century, football was played on

college campuses, and intercollegiate games quickly followed. By the early

20th century, football had become a feature of college life across the

nation. In the 1920s football pep rallies were commonly held on college

campuses, and football players were among the most admired campus leaders.

That enthusiasm has now spilled way beyond college to Americans throughout

the country. Spectators also watch the professional football teams of the

National Football League (NFL) with enthusiasm.

Basketball is another sport that is very popular as both a spectator and

participant sport. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

hosts championships for men’s and women’s collegiate teams. Held annually

in March, the men’s NCAA national championship is one of the most popular

sporting events in the United States. The top men’s professional

basketball league in the United States is the National Basketball

Association; the top women’s is Women’s National Basketball Association.

In addition, many people play basketball in amateur leagues and

organizations. It is also common to see people playing basketball in parks

and local gymnasiums around the country.

Another major sport played in the United States is ice hockey. Ice hockey

began as an amateur sport played primarily in the Northeast. The first

U.S. professional ice hockey team was founded in Boston in 1924. Ice

hockey’s popularity has spread throughout the country since the 1960s. The

NCAA holds a national collegiate ice hockey championship in April of each

year. The country’s top professional league is the National Hockey League

(NHL). NHL teams play a regular schedule that culminates in the

championship series. The winner is awarded the Stanley Cup, the league’s

top prize.

Television transformed sports in the second half of the 20th century. As

more Americans watched sports on television, the sports industry grew into

an enormous business, and sports events became widely viewed among

Americans as cultural experiences. Many Americans shared televised moments

of exaltation and triumph throughout the year: baseball during the spring

and summer and its World Series in the early fall, football throughout the

fall crowned by the Super Bowl in January, and the National Basketball

Association (NBA) championships in the spring. The Olympic Games, watched

by millions of people worldwide, similarly rivet Americans to their

televisions as they watch outstanding athletes compete on behalf of their

nations. Commercial sports are part of practically every home in America

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