of these and many other similar historical accounts demonstrates the significance of
the individualin U.S. culture.
In addition to discussing the historical foundations of U.S. culture, this chapter
will provide insight on the historical events that shaped several other nations and
give you a broad appreciation of Islamic civilization. This will include the following:- How centuries of authoritarian rule molded the Russian national character
- How China’s pride in historical achievements can produce ethnocentric feelings
- How early Japanese agricultural practices contributed to a preference for group
activity - The eleventh-century event that initiated Hindu–Muslim animosity long before
the 1947 Partition of India - How the Spanish conquest contributed to the Mexican sense of fatalism
- How a simple question of leadership resulted in the Sunni–Shia schism
U.S. History
This examination of U.S. history will cover selected events with the objective of
demonstrating how cultural traits emerging from those events ultimately formed
what is considered contemporary U.S. national character. Those cultural traits are pri-
marily a product of the peoples who created the United States, especially the early
immigrants who set the pattern for what was to follow from 1607, when English set-
tlers began arriving on the East Coast, to the present. McElroy maintains that the
“primary American cultural beliefs derive from”the initial settlers and that they
“began the process of distinguishing American behavior from European behavior,
which over the next eight generations led to the formation of a new American
culture.”McElroy is suggesting that much of what is considered U.S. national charac-
ter can be traced to the European immigrants who arrived in the early years of the
nation’s formation—a population that came holding many of the values that continue
to characterize the United States, such as hard work, self-improvement, practicality,
freedom, responsibility, equality, and individuality.^9
The initial settlers were predominantly Anglo-Saxons who brought with them
selected English values, the English system of law, and the basic organization for
commerce used during the sixteenth century. As they were beginning to establish
their norms and ideals, these first immigrants were confronted with a wave of
non–Anglo-Saxon newcomers, a development that grew and continues even today
with the arrival of new immigrants. This continuing influx of immigrants, both legal
and illegal, has produced what is sometimes referred to as the first multicultural
nation in the world. Remarkably, the later-arriving immigrants adapted to the U.S.
culture that had been formed and evolved by earlier immigrants. In his examination
of U.S. history Fischer is struck by“the extent to which the American mainstream
has overflowed and washed away that [ethnic] diversity, leaving behind little but
food variety and self-conscious celebrations of multiculturalism.”^10 Fischerisrefer-
ring to the many immigrant ethnic cultures being subsumed by and incorporated
into the dominant U.S. culture.
While cultural integration does not come easily, then or now, the shared desire of
the first immigrants to be free from the oppressive dictates of such English institutions
as“the Crown,”“divine right,”and the Church of England motivated them to seek
unity. This impetus ultimately led, in part, to the integration of the early English164 CHAPTER 5•Cultural History: Precursor to the Present and Future
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