Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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immigrants,

trade

or transnational corporations). It does not encompass other North

American states—

Canada, Mexico,

Central America (see

Latin America

) and the

Caribbean

—although their images and relations are dealt with. The entries comment on

US citizenry products, politico-cultural connections, and involvements abroad as well

(whether by the military as in the

Gulf War

or by

expatriates

). We do realize that the

equation of “America” and the “United States of the North” has been a sensitive issue for

Latin Americans; we beg the indulgence of readers in following vernacular usage in the

US, while recognizing its limitations and connotations.

The meaning of “contemporary” is shaped in large part by the historical experience and

definition of “American.” Contemporary America requires a historical understanding o

what many have called the “American Century,” the period since the Second World War.

While the world dominance that the United States gained after that war is now contested,

much of modern American life emerged out of or in response to its new-found position in

the world. In the historically focused longer entries and even in other smaller sections we

seek to provide a sense of this background—e.g.

African American literature, dance

food,

among others.

This does not mean we homogenize the decades since 1945; rather we try to elucidate

rocesses as well as points of change. At one point, for example, we discussed an article

on “the 1960s” as an emblematic decade dividing an old and new America, including

changes in civil and gender rights, foreign policy, lifestyle and the image of

Kennedy,

Johnson

and

Nixon

presidents

. Yet for both events and people of this decade, the

groundwork for fundamental changes and involvement had been laid earlier. Moreover,

the cultural imagery of the 1960s often fails to include one of the transformations which

we have explored at length here—the re-emergence of immigration as a fundamental

feature of American life. One may look for the 1960s, then, under Kennedy,

Vietnam

War, Civil Rights movement, Stonewall Riot,

immigration,

cities

and many other

topics to appreciate continuities and changes in contemporary life. Where possible, we

have asked authors to suggest future potential developments and problems; these issues

are also treated in further readings suggested in the articles.

Our use of “culture” focuses on beliefs, representation and praxis, from the

anthropologist’s perspective, and “everyday life,” from the social historian’s vantage

oint. For a society as variegated as the United States it has been essential for us to deal

with a wide range of topics, from

economics

and aspects of mass consumption to

religion

and entertainment, while relating these to one another as much as possible.

Chinese food in America, for example, was formed over the period of a century within a

particular labor

migration

and construction of

race

and difference: the American story o

chop suey

as a

creolized

menu. Yet recent immigrations and successes of new urban and

suburban

Chinatowns

have produced an elite and varied cuisine to rival any Chinese

metropolis, serving an immigrant clientele, new American audiences (themselves o

extraordinarily diverse backgrounds) and transient

tourists

and business people. To set

this out in a clear and simple fashion requires a consistent set of linkages through which

articles not only provide concise information, but also teach generative principles about

the many conflicts within American society today.

We recognize, however, that there are expectations concerning “culture” that must also

be met. Certainly, we have tried for a balanced vision of facets of “high culture,”

including the arts, sciences and academic studies, “mass culture,” associated with

mass

media

and consumption, and the more difficult question of

“popular culture

”

In all

these areas, we have been concerned to discuss not only the phenomena themselves, but

questions of ideology and imagery What do

museums,

fashion

comics

mean in terms

of their context of

class, race

and

gender

? What do the portrayals of issues or groups in

mass media (especially films as an international medium) tell us about the construction o

culture—and alternative viewpoints? Where are the contradictions and the ambiguities

between envisioning the American dream and living it?

At the same time, we have been selective in mapping out broad topics rather than

seeking to detail all possible examples and meanings. US higher

education,

for example,

encompasses over 3,000

colleges and universities

. To provide only 100 words on each

would nearly fill the entire volume. Instead, we have provided synthetic articles within a

clear general framework of education which will encompass basic structural divisions

(colleges and universities,

community colleges

), differences exemplified in associations

(

Ivy League, California

and

state systems

), social and cultural choices (traditionally

black colleges

) and features of the American collegiate experience that may differ from

those of Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa or Australia (the college

campus,

commencement,

NCAA

college

sports,

etc.). While individual entries have thus been

limited to a few cases of high international saliency, these broader entries provide

contexts (and references) for those considering an American higher education as it might

also help other readers to make sense of the college settings which play their own roles in

Ralph

Ellison’s

The Invisible Man,

Spike

Lee’s

School Daze,

or ongoing debates over

affirmative action

in the California state system.

In order to provide a coherent and yet manageable volume we have decided that

diversity—

race,

gender, class

and space—should constitute our organizing template

throughout the volume. These underpin articles that employ interdisciplinary and

comparative approaches. Rather than segregating or ghettoizing groups by providing each

one with its own section, individual authors (where possible) have framed their essays

around our organizing concepts. Hence, while there are specific entries on

Jews,

homophobia, Vietnamese Americans

and

homelessness,

we have endeavored to ensure

that these citizens and topics are addressed, where relevant, in articles ranging from cities

to aspects of discrimination to the media. We have also allowed disagreements to remain

between authors tackling different perspectives on these issues.

Certain central topics, in fact,

demand

multiple perspectives if they are to cross

effectively the cultural and political boundaries evident in contemporary America. The

Vietnam War,

abortion,

race,

censorship

and other topics remain divisive issues in

American society. To understand the meaning of these issues requires that a reader

appreciate the reasons why Americans divide. In general, then, the authors dealing with

such topics have provided a reasoned statement of the divergent viewpoints—not

necessarily a safe or homogenous one. At the same time, we have tried to provide

linkages and alternative perspectives. When discussing the

body,

for example, we

provide different perspectives on race and

privacy,

and recognize the ways in which

media representations of the body reflect and change American attitudes in order to

complement discussions of gender,

abortion,

stars and race among other issues. Other

entries like

freedom,

privacy and class talk about shared albeit debated values. Again,

rather than closing off the American century by defining it neatly and efficiently, we wish

to address it and interrogate it with our contributors and our readers with a view to

revealing its complexity and dynamism, and thereby, perhaps, to change it for the future.

Acknowledgements

Over the course of the last five years, many people have helped us on this project and

deserve our acknowledgement here. This certainly includes our consulting editors—

oth

those who helped us in the initial phase of the project and those who became mainstays as

the work reached its conclusion. An equal debt of gratitude goes to our contributors, who

not only produced thoughtful essays, but also provided commentary on the project, our

entry list and our own writings. This long conversation about what it is to be American,

in fact, has drawn in students, friends and colleagues over the years from Bryn Mawr

College, the University of Pennsylvania, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, the

College of Staten Island, University of Hong Kong, Princeton University and Haverford

College, with results that permeate the finished and ongoing work of this volume. The list

is too long to thank individually here, but we trust that they will know on looking at the

finished work.

We have also worked with a cadre of supportive colleagues at Routledge, including

Fiona Cairns, who first suggested this project to us and later brought it to its conclusion,

and Denise Rea, who worked with us in its maturing years. Among those with whom we

have worked there, we also want to acknowledge the assistance of Dominic Shryane,

Colville Wemyss, Matthew Gale and Ruth Graham.

This project has, over the years, taken time from our families who have nonetheless

encouraged, cajoled and pushed us onwards. Here we would certainly like to

acknowledge once again the support they have always given us, whether in

conversations, moral support, food or diversion, or calls to brothers to ask about hot rods.

Madhavi Kale, Chit Leung, Yuen Wong and Allen McDonogh have all shared their

America with us. With this in mind, we especially dedicate this volume to our next

generations of Americans: Nikhil Kale Gregg, Nadia Gregg Kale and Larissa Jiit-Wai

McDonogh-Wong.

How to use this book

Structure

As we noted earlier, we consider this a primary resource and guide to more extensive

work on issues relating to contemporary American culture. Thus, all longer articles

rovide a Further Reading section with other reference sources, current works and

diverse approaches which we hope will be accessible through research libraries in the US

and abroad and through the Internet. We have also categorized articles by length and

readth, reflecting topical complexity as well as a rough gauge of their importance to an

understanding of American culture.

Hence, 2,000-word articles are designed to provide comprehensive overviews o

fundamental issues. These include basic analytic categories like

class, race and

ethnicity,

and

gender and sexuality

. They also include fundamental spaces and issues o

American culture—the

city,

religion, food, colleges and universities,

popular music

and

life cycles

. Some article clusters reach this length, although they have been broken

into parts (

theater

as text and theater as performance). Finally we include

New York

and its boroughs

as a 2,000-word article because it is impossible to say less, given its

role as a capital and crucible for contemporary culture on a global scale.

Articles of 1,000–1,500 words cover both issues in the study of America and primary

topics. These include problem-oriented pieces like

popular culture, homelessness,

masculinity,

or the

body

. These are intended to be open-ended and provocative, raising

questions as well as answering them. Other articles—we hope equally provocative—deal

with central institutions, issues and topics. These include regions like

New England,

Hawai’i

or the

South,

institutions of government,

education

and culture, religions and

discussions of more specific intersections of categories like

ethnicity

and

literature,

minorities and

television

More than 200 articles between 500 and 1,000 words provide critical tools for the

reader in making sense of events, processes, periods and personages of the American

century. These detail many cities, regions, ethnic groups, sports, businesses, patterns o

recognition and interaction, while people, laws and events are explained and evaluated.

Although 500 words seems to leave little room for complexity, our authors have shown

ingenuity and craft in synthesizing debates and extending them through further readings.

We have also considered here some issues of American values like

individualism,

community, ethnic slurs

and

small-town ideals

Taken as networks or clusters (cross-references are indicated by bold typeface), these

articles also allow for multiple perspectives.

Children,

for example, as creators and

objects of culture are explored through babyhood and childhood as cultural categories

and through

children’s literature, magazines, music, museums, education

and

television

(as well as appearing as subjects within other articles). While the idea and

experience of childhood is complex, these allow readers to make sense of images

exported (or read at home).

Articles of 500–1,000-word categories have also dealt with genres. While we cannot

list every television

sitcom

of the past fifty years, we provide articles on this and other

genres of television, literature, music and movies.

Finally, short pieces offer identification, providing basic biographical, historical and

spatial information. Here, difficult choices have been made—retaining Jimmy

Stewart

an American icon, while perhaps not yet being sure of including Leonardo DiCaprio or

Jennifer Lopez who might well hold a similar position someday. Some of these

identifications have arisen from our knowledge of the production of cultural difference in

the US.

Milk, barbeque, suicide

and

reunions,

among others, are not unique to the US,

yet their cultural meanings merit special attention here anyway. Some issues have been

clarified because we needed to learn about them, in becoming American, or because

others who were not American simply asked what they were—

tipping, racial profiling,

hot rods

and

referenda

have all been added in this way.

This is, we understand, a necessarily incomplete portrait of a nation-state and its

multifaceted culture. Yet this is also the experience of America we have studied and lived

on a daily basis. Through intersections, cross-referencing and the index, and through our

sense of the encyclopedia as a clearinghouse guiding readers towards more specialized

works, we hope readers will appreciate this complexity and respond to it.

We have also brought to this task the complexity of many authors with a diverse range

of perspectives. Our authors include both Americans and non-Americans living in the US

and those living abroad, representing many experiences of race, class, gender, age and

sexuality as well as politics and beliefs. Professionally, while they have academic

affiliation and experiences, not all are professionals in academics—we think it important

that business people, doctors, clergy, planners, workers, journalists, students, architects

and poets have all contributed. At the same time, we have tried to balance expertise and

witness: these are not pronouncements of what it is like to be something, but explorations

of shared and divisive meaning.

Certainly, the readers of this work may have questions—why not this, rather than that?

Is this the most important work or representation of that topic? Why is my favorite film,

or moment, or hero not here? To these readers we repeat: America, at its best, is not a

canon or museum or cemetery but a living, debated, contested and changing culture in a

global context. We offer guidance and information, but America remains a culture we are

all creating.

The Encyclopedia has taken shape over five years. During that time many events have

occurred and been noted: two presidential elections, each producing its own political

discourses; major foreign policy initiatives, including military engagements and trade

negotiations; the

impeachment

of a president, the further entrenchment of the

Internet

and related economic expansion; increasing violence in schools, with growing debates

over

guns;

and thousands of films and television shows/events, both reproducing and

reinventing American cultural landscapes. All of these events and trends represent

America, and as many as possible have been incorporated into the Encyclopedia as

entries. All have influenced and shaped its development.

This has been a time of personal milestones as well. Two of the editors became citizens

of the US during this time. Our vision of what needs to be said has been shaped by

interactions with students in Hong Kong and across the Eastern United States, research

outside and inside the US and hours of discussions with colleagues, friends and students

worldwide. Our perspectives on America, its meanings and events have changed through

life passages, changes in our cities and schools, political and economic issues, etc. They

will change again, as will those of our contributors, after this encyclopedia is published.

That, too, is culture, American or otherwise.

General Editors

Thematic entry list

As stated in the introduction, the articles in this volume have been arranged to give both

overviews and more specific information, from different perspectives, concerning major

discourses and experiences of contemporary American culture. In many cases, a longer

thematic article (1,000 or 2,000 words) provides an overview and comprehensive

bibliography, noting cross-references to more concise articles. Some of these shorter

ieces refer to people or places; others deal with institutions, values and practices. In

articles longer than 500 words, a selection of further readings encompasses both

ibliographic references and additional research sources for investigation. In general, we

have selected sources readily available in English, although drawing on a global range o

scholars and viewpoints.

In addition, readers may wish to look at thematic sections which provide multiple

erspectives and examples of cultural phenomena and interpretations. These themes

include the following (with major articles marked by an asterisk):

Age groups and generations

American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)

babies

baby boom/boomers

children

children and television

children’s literature

children’s museums

children’s music

child stars

games

Generation X

*life cycles/rites of passage

middle age

old age

retirement

slackers

teenagers

teen fiction

toys