U.S. Culture

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

and have allowed sports heroes to gain prominence in the national

imagination and to become fixtures of the consumer culture. As well-known

faces and bodies, sports celebrities such as basketball player Michael

Jordan and baseball player Mark McGwire are hired to endorse products.

Although televised games remove the viewing public from direct contact

with events, they have neither diminished the fervor of team

identification nor dampened the enthusiasm for athletic participation.

Americans watch more sports on television than ever, and they personally

participate in more varied sporting activities and athletic clubs.

Millions of young girls and boys across the country play soccer, baseball,

tennis, and field hockey.

At the end of the 20th century, Americans were taking part in individual

sports of all kinds—jogging, bicycling, swimming, skiing, rock climbing,

playing tennis, as well as more unusual sports such as bungee jumping,

hang gliding, and wind surfing. As Americans enjoy more leisure time, and

as Hollywood and advertising emphasize trim, well-developed bodies, sports

have become a significant component of many people's lives. Many Americans

now invest significant amounts of money in sports equipment, clothing, and

gym memberships. As a result, more people are dressing in sporty styles of

clothing. Sports logos and athletic fashions have become common aspects of

people’s wardrobes, as people need to look as though they participate in

sports to be in style. Sports have even influenced the cars Americans

drive, as sport utility vehicles accommodate the rugged terrain, elaborate

equipment, and sporty lifestyles of their owners.

Probably the most significant long-term development in 20th-century sports

has been the increased participation of minorities and women. Throughout

the early 20th century, African Americans made outstanding contributions

to sports, despite being excluded from organized white teams. The

exclusion of black players from white baseball led to the creation of a

separate Negro National League in 1920. On the world stage, track-and-

field star Jessie Owens became a national hero when he won four gold

medals and set world and Olympic records at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

The racial segregation that prevented African Americans from playing

baseball in the National League until 1947 has been replaced by the

enormous successes of African Americans in all fields of sport.

Before the 20th century women could not play in most organized sports.

Soon, however, they began to enter the sports arena. Helen Wills Moody, a

tennis champion during the 1920s, and Babe Didrikson Zaharias, one of the

20th century’s greatest women athletes, were examples of physical grace

and agility. In 1972 Title IX of the Education Amendments Act outlawed

discrimination based on gender in education, including school sports.

Schools then spent additional funding on women's athletics, which provided

an enormous boost to women’s sports of all kinds, especially basketball,

which became very popular. Women's college basketball, part of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), is a popular focus of

interest. By the end of the 20th century, this enthusiasm led to the

creation of a major professional women’s basketball league. Women have

become a large part of athletics, making their mark in a wide range of

sports.

Sports have become one of the most visible expressions of the vast

extension of democracy in 20th-century America. They have become more

inclusive, with many Americans both personally participating and enjoying

sports as spectators. Once readily available only to the well-to-do,

sports and recreation attract many people, aided by the mass media, the

schools and colleges, the federal and state highway and park systems, and

increased leisure time.

Celebrations and Holidays

Americans celebrate an enormous variety of festivals and holidays because

they come from around the globe and practice many religions. They also

celebrate holidays specific to the United States that commemorate

historical events or encourage a common national memory. Holidays in

America are often family or community events. Many Americans travel long

distances for family gatherings or take vacations during holidays. In

fact, by the end of the 20th century, many national holidays in the United

States had become three-day weekends, which many people used as mini

vacations. Except for the Fourth of July and Veterans Day, most

commemorative federal holidays, including Memorial Day, Labor Day,

Columbus Day, and Presidents’ Day, are celebrated on Mondays so that

Americans can enjoy a long weekend. Because many Americans tend to create

vacations out of these holiday weekends rather than celebrate a particular

event, some people believe the original significance of many of these

occasions has been eroded.

Because the United States is a secular society founded on the separation

of church and state, many of the most meaningful religiously based

festivals and rituals, such as Easter, Rosh Hashanah, and Ramadan, are not

enshrined as national events, with one major exception. Christmas, and the

holiday season surrounding it, is an enormous commercial enterprise, a

fixture of the American social calendar, and deeply embedded in the

popular imagination. Not until the 19th century did Christmas in the

United States begin to take on aspects of the modern holiday celebration,

such as exchanging gifts, cooking and eating traditional foods, and

putting up often-elaborate Christmas decorations. The holiday has grown in

popularity and significance ever since. Santa Claus; brightly decorated

Christmas trees; and plenty of wreathes, holly, and ribbons help define

the season for most children. Indeed, because some religious faiths do not

celebrate Christmas, the Christmas season has expanded in recent years to

become the “holiday season,” embracing Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of

Lights, and Kwanzaa, a celebration of African heritage. Thus, the

Christmas season has become the closest thing to a true national festival

in the United States.

The expansion of Christmas has even begun to encroach on the most

indigenous of American festivals, Thanksgiving. Celebrated on the last

Thursday in November, Thanksgiving has largely shed its original religious

meaning (as a feast of giving thanks to God) to become a celebration of

the bounty of food and the warmth of family life in America. American

children usually commemorate the holiday’s origins at school, where they

re-create the original event: Pilgrims sharing a harvest feast with Native

Americans. Both the historical and the religious origins of the event have

largely given way to a secular celebration centered on the traditional

Thanksgiving meal: turkey—an indigenous American bird—accompanied by foods

common in early New England settlements, such as pumpkins, squashes, and

cranberries. Since many Americans enjoy a four-day holiday at

Thanksgiving, the occasion encourages family reunions and travel. Some

Americans also contribute time and food to the needy and the homeless

during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Another holiday that has lost its older, religious meaning in the United

States is Halloween, the eve of All Saints’ Day. Halloween has become a

celebration of witches, ghosts, goblins, and candy that is especially

attractive to children. On this day and night, October 31, many homes are

decorated and lit by jack-o'-lanterns, pumpkins that have been hollowed

out and carved. Children dress up and go trick-or-treating, during which

they receive treats from neighbors. An array of orange-colored candies has

evolved from this event, and most trick-or-treat bags usually brim with

chocolate bars and other confections.

The Fourth of July, or Independence Day, is the premier American national

celebration because it commemorates the day the United States proclaimed

its freedom from Britain with the Declaration of Independence. Very early

in its development, the holiday was an occasion for fanfare, parades, and

speeches celebrating American freedom and the uniqueness of American life.

Since at least the 19th century, Americans have commemorated their

independence with fireworks and patriotic music. Because the holiday marks

the founding of the republic in 1776, flying the flag of the United States

(sometimes with the original 13 stars) is common, as are festive

barbecues, picnics, fireworks, and summer outings.

Most other national holidays have become less significant over time and

receded in importance as ways in which Americans define themselves and

their history. For example, Columbus Day was formerly celebrated on

October 12, the day explorer Christopher Columbus first landed in the West

Indies, but it is now celebrated on the second Monday of October to allow

for a three-day weekend. The holiday originally served as a traditional

reminder of the "discovery" of America in 1492, but as Americans became

more sensitive to their multicultural population, celebrating the conquest

of Native Americans became more controversial.

Holidays honoring wars have also lost much of their original significance.

Memorial Day, first called Decoration Day and celebrated on May 30, was

established to honor those who died during the American Civil War (1861-

1865), then subsequently those who died in all American wars. Similarly,

Veterans Day was first named Armistice Day and marked the end of World War

I (1914-1918). During the 1950s the name of the holiday was changed in the

United States, and its significance expanded to honor armed forces

personnel who served in any American war.

The memory of America's first president, George Washington, was once

celebrated on his birthday, February 22nd. The date was changed to the

third Monday in February to create a three-day weekend, as well as to

incorporate the birthday of another president, Abraham Lincoln, who was

born on February 12th. The holiday is now popularly called Presidents’ Day

and is less likely to be remembered as honoring the first and 16th

American presidents than as a school and work holiday. Americans also

memorialize Martin Luther King, Jr., the great African American civil

rights leader who was assassinated in 1968. King’s birthday is celebrated

as a national holiday in mid-January. The celebration of King's birthday

has become a sign of greater inclusiveness in 20th-century American

society.

EDUCATION

Role of Education

The United States has one of the most extensive and diverse educational

systems in the world. Educational institutions exist at all learning

levels, from nursery schools for the very young to higher education for

older youths and adults of all ages. Education in the United States is

notable for the many goals it aspires to accomplish—promoting democracy,

assimilation, nationalism, equality of opportunity, and personal

development. Because Americans have historically insisted that their

schools work toward these sometimes conflicting goals, education has often

been the focus of social conflict.

While schools are expected to achieve many social objectives, education in

America is neither centrally administered nor supported directly by the

federal government, unlike education in other industrialized countries. In

the United States, each state is responsible for providing schooling,

which is funded through local taxes and governed by local school boards.

In addition to these government-funded public schools, the United States

has many schools that are privately financed and maintained. More than 10

percent of all elementary and secondary students in the United States

attend private schools. Religious groups, especially the Roman Catholic

Church, run many of these. Many of America's most renowned universities

and colleges are also privately endowed and run. As a result, although

American education is expected to provide equality of opportunity, it is

not easily directed toward these goals. This complex enterprise, once one

of the proudest achievements of American democracy because of its

diversity and inclusiveness, became the subject of intense debate and

criticism during the second half of the 20th century. People debated the

goals of schools as well as whether schools were educating students well

enough.

History of Education in America

Until the 1830s, most American children attended school irregularly, and

most schools were either run privately or by charities. This irregular

system was replaced in the Northeast and Midwest by publicly financed

elementary schools, known as common schools. Common schools provided

rudimentary instruction in literacy and trained students in citizenship.

This democratic ideal expanded after the Civil War to all parts of the

nation. By the 1880s and 1890s, schools began to expand attendance

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