American nationalism
American nationalism is a form of
All four forms of nationalism have found expression throughout the United States' history, depending on the historical period. The first
History
Colonial
The United States traces its origins to the Thirteen Colonies founded by Britain in the 17th and early 18th century. Residents identified with Britain until the mid-18th century when the first sense of being "American" emerged. The Albany Plan proposed a union between the colonies in 1754. Although unsuccessful, it served as a reference for future discussions of independence.
American Revolution
Soon afterward, the colonies faced
The new nation operated under the very weak national government set up by the
Westward Expansion
In an 1858 speech, future President
If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none, they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us, but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence they find that those old men say that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal", and then they feel that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote the Declaration, and so they are. That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.
— Abraham Lincoln, address to Chicagoan voters, July 10, 1858[12]
American Civil War
White Southerners increasingly felt alienated—they saw themselves as becoming second-class citizens as aggressive anti-slavery Northerners tried to end their ability to enslave people to the fast-growing western territories. They questioned whether their loyalty to the nation trumped their commitment to their state and their way of life since it was so intimately bound up with slavery and whether they could enslave people.
Reconstruction, Gilded Age and Progressive Era
The North's triumph in the American Civil War marked a significant transition in American national identity. The ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment settled the fundamental question of national identity, such as the criteria for becoming a citizen of the United States. Everyone born in the territorial boundaries of the United States or those areas and subject to its jurisdiction was an American citizen, regardless of ethnicity or social status (indigenous people on reservations became citizens in 1924, while indigenous people off reservations had always been citizens).[19]
In the early 20th century, one of the highest-profile advocates for American nationalism was Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt's policies both at home and abroad, which came to be known as the New Nationalism, included an element of a strong national identity. He insisted that one had to be 100% American, not a "hyphenated American" who juggled multiple loyalties.
With a fast-growing industrial economy, immigrants were welcome from Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Cuba, and millions came. Becoming a full citizen was easy, requiring the completion of paperwork over five years.[20] However, new Asian arrivals were not welcome. The U.S. imposed restrictions on most Chinese immigrants in the 1880s and informal restrictions on most Japanese in 1907. By 1924, it was difficult for any Asian to enter the United States, but children born in the United States to Asian parents were full citizens. The restrictions were ended on the Chinese in the 1940s and on other Asians in 1965.[21]
World Wars and interwar period
After the United States entered World War I, nationalism surged. Americans enlisted in the military en masse, motivated by propaganda and war films.[22] There was very little resistance to conscription.[23]
By the First World War, many native-born Protestants were skeptical of recent immigrants to the United States, who were often Catholic or Jewish and spoke languages other than English in their daily lives. There was a strong belief among many in favor of "one hundred percent Americanism", in contrast to "hyphenated Americanism". This was exemplified by the film The Birth of a Nation in 1915 and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1910s and 20s. In the early- to-mid 20th century, public school education became compulsory in many jurisdictions, with parochial schools being restricted or outlawed. The school day typically began with the Pledge of Allegiance. It was in this milieu that the Immigration Act of 1924 was passed to regulate immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. However, during this period, citizenship was also extended to Native Americans, both on- and off-reservation, for the first time.
World War II led to unprecedented nationalism in the United States. After the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans enlisted in the military.[24][25] During the war, much of American life centered on contributing to the war effort, mainly through volunteer efforts, entry into the labor force, rationing, price controls, and income saving. Citizens willingly accepted these sacrifices out of a sense of nationalism, feeling they were for the greater good.[26][27] Even members of anti-war groups like the pacifist churches, anti-war movement, and conscientious objectors abandoned their pacifism for the sake of the war, feeling that World War II was a just war.[28][29][24]
Cold War
Following World War II and beginning with the
Modern era
The September 11 attacks of 2001 led to a wave of nationalist expression in the United States. The start of the war on terror was accompanied by a rise in military enlistment that included not only lower-income Americans but also middle-class and upper-class citizens.[32] This nationalism continued long into the War in Afghanistan and Iraq War.[33]
Contemporary United States
Nationalism and Americanism remain topics in the modern United States. Political scientist Paul McCartney, for instance, argues that as a nation defined by a creed and sense of mission, Americans tend to equate their interests with those of humanity, which informs their global posture.[34] In some instances, it may be considered a form of ethnocentrism and American exceptionalism.
Due to the distinctive circumstances involved throughout history in
Varieties of American nationalism
In a 2016 paper in the American Sociological Review, "Varieties of American Popular Nationalism", sociologists Bart Bonikowski and Paul DiMaggio report on research findings supporting the existence of at least four kinds of American nationalists, including, groups which range from the smallest to the largest: (1) the disengaged, (2) creedal or civic nationalists, (3) ardent nationalists, and (4) restrictive nationalists.[36]
Bonikowski and Dimaggio's analysis of these four groups found that ardent nationalists made up about 24% of their study, and they comprised the largest of the two groups Bonikowski and Dimaggio consider "extreme". Members of this group closely identified with the United States, were very proud of their country and strongly associated themselves with factors of national hubris. They felt that a "true American" must speak English and live in the U.S. for most of their life. Fewer, but 75%, believe that a "true American" must be a Christian, and 86% believe a "true American" must be born in the country. Further, ardent nationalists thought that
The two remaining classes were less homogeneous in their responses than the ardent nationalists and disengaged were. Restrictive nationalists had low levels of pride in America and its institutions, but they defined a "true American" in ways that were markedly "exclusionary". This group was the largest of the four because its members comprised 38% of the study's respondents. While their levels of national identification and pride were moderate, they espoused beliefs that caused them to hold restrictive definitions of "true Americans"; for instance, their definitions excluded non-Christians."
The final group to be identified was creedal nationalists (also known as civic nationalists), whose members made up 22% of the study's respondents who were studied. This group believed in liberal values, was proud of the United States, and its members held the fewest restrictions on who could be considered a true American. They closely identified with their country, which they felt "very close" to, and were proud of its achievements. Bonikowski and Dimaggio dubbed the group "creedal" because their beliefs most closely approximated the precepts of what is widely considered the
As part of their findings, the authors report that the connection between big money, religious belief, and national identity is significant. The belief that being a Christian is an integral part of what it means to be a "true American" is the most significant factor which separates the creedal nationalists and the disengaged from the restrictive and ardent nationalists. They also determined that their groupings cut across partisan boundaries, and they also help to explain what they perceive is the recent success of
According to a 2021 American Journal of Sociology study by Bart Bonikowski, Yuval Feinstein, and Sean Bock, competing understandings of American nationhood had emerged in the United States in the prior two decades. They find, "nationalism has become sorted by party, as Republican identifiers have come to define America in more exclusionary and critical terms and Democrats have increasingly endorsed inclusive and positive conceptions of nationhood."[38]
Cultural nationalism
Cultural nationalism has historically been an integral element of American nationalism. Such cultural nationalists form group allegiances based on a common cultural heritage rather than race or political party. This heritage may include culture (Culture of the United States), language (English language), religion (Christianity), history (History of the United States), ideology (Democracy), and symbols (National symbols of the United States). Cultural nationalism is distinct from ethnic nationalism, in which race and ethnicity are emphasized over culture and language.[39][40]
Nationalism gained a cultural character beginning in the late 18th century. Multiple historical ideas have shaped modern cultural nationalism in the U.S., including the concept of the nation state, the fusion of nationalism and religion into religious nationalism, and identity politics.[40]
Civic nationalism
American nationalism sometimes takes the form of
Trumpism
President
In a February 2017 article in The Atlantic, journalist Uri Friedman described "populist economic nationalist" as a new nationalist movement "modeled on the 'populism' of the 19th-century U.S. President Andrew Jackson" which was introduced in Trump's remarks to the Republican National Convention in a speech written by Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. Miller had adopted Senator Jeff Sessions' form of "nation-state populism" while working as his aide.[56] By September 2017, The Washington Post journalist Greg Sargent observed that "Trump's nationalism" as "defined" by Bannon, Breitbart, Miller and "the rest of the 'populist economic nationalist' contingent around Trump" was beginning to have wavering support among Trump voters.[57] Some Republican members of Congress were also described as nationalists during the Trump era, such as Representative Steve King,[58] Representative Matt Gaetz,[59] Senator Tom Cotton[60] and Senator Josh Hawley.[61]
During the Trump era, commonly identified American nationalist political commentators included Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter,[62] Michelle Malkin,[63] Lou Dobbs,[64] Alex Jones,[65] Charlie Kirk,[66] Laura Ingraham,[62] Candace Owens,[67] Michael Savage,[68] Tucker Carlson,[69] and Mike Cernovich.[70]
See also
- American ancestry
- American conservatism
- American exceptionalism
- American literary nationalism
- American nativism
- American neo-nationalism
- American patriotism
- Americanism
- Americanization
- Americentrism
- Christian Patriot
- Emergency Quota Act
- Immigration Act of 1924
- Liberal nationalism
- Manifest Destiny
- Melting Pot
- National symbols of the United States
- New Nationalism (Theodore Roosevelt)
- Paleoconservatism
- Patriot movement
- Propaganda in the United States
- Pax Americana
- Salad bowl (cultural idea)
- White nationalism
References
Notes
- ^
- Barbour, Christine & Wright, Gerald C. (January 15, 2013). Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in American Politics, 6th Edition The Essentials. CQ Press. pp. 31–33. ISBN 978-1-4522-4003-9. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
Who Is An American? Native-born and naturalized citizens
- Shklar, Judith N. (1991). American Citizenship: The Quest for Inclusion. The Tanner Lectures on Human Values. Harvard University Press. pp. 3–4. ISBN 9780674022164. Retrieved December 17, 2012.
- Slotkin, Richard (2001). "Unit Pride: Ethnic Platoons and the Myths of American Nationality". American Literary History. 13 (3): 469–498. S2CID 143996198. Retrieved December 17, 2012., hospitable to differences but united by a common sense of national belonging.
But it also expresses a myth of American nationality that remains vital in our political and cultural life: the idealized self-image of a multiethnic, multiracial democracy
- Eder, Klaus & Giesen, Bernhard (2001). European Citizenship: Between National Legacies and Postnational Projects. Oxford University Press. pp. 25–26. ISBN 9780199241200. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
In inter-state relations, the American nation state presents its members as a monistic political body-despite ethnic and national groups in the interior.
- Petersen, William; Novak, Michael & Gleason, Philip (1982). Concepts of Ethnicity. Harvard University Press. p. 62. ISBN 9780674157262. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
To be or to become an American, a person did not have to be of any particular national, linguistic, religious, or ethnic background. All he had to do was to commit himself to the political ideology centered on the abstract ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism. Thus the universalist ideological character of American nationality meant that it was open to anyone who willed to become an American.
- Hirschman, Charles; Kasinitz, Philip & Dewind, Josh (November 4, 1999). The Handbook of International Migration: The American Experience. Russell Sage Foundation. p. 300. ISBN 978-1-61044-289-3.
- Halle, David (July 15, 1987). America's Working Man: Work, Home, and Politics Among Blue Collar Property Owners. University of Chicago Press. p. 233. ISBN 978-0-226-31366-5.
The first, and central, way involves the view that Americans are all those persons born within the boundaries of the United States or admitted to citizenship by the government.
- Barbour, Christine & Wright, Gerald C. (January 15, 2013). Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in American Politics, 6th Edition The Essentials. CQ Press. pp. 31–33.
- ^ a b Motyl 2001, p. 16.
- ^ Miscevic, Nenad (March 31, 2018). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved March 31, 2018 – via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
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- ^ Markoff, John. "Where and When Was Democracy Invented?" Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 41, No. 4. (Oct. 1999), pp. 660-690. "Comparative Studies in Society and History" (PDF). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Gascoigne, Bamber. "History of Democracy". 2001. "History of Democracy: Modern Democracy".
- ^ Larson, Edward J. (2016) George Washington, Nationalist. University of Virginia Press
- ^ Address to Chicagoan voters (July 10, 1858); quoted in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953), vol 2 p. 501.
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- ^ Quigley, Paul (2012) Shifting Grounds: Nationalism and the American South, 1848–1865
- ^ Foster, Gaines M. (1988) Ghosts of the Confederacy: Defeat, the Lost Cause and the Emergence of the New South, 1865–1913
- ^ Kennedy, Robert C. (November 2001). "Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner, Artist: Thomas Nast". On This Day: HarpWeek. The New York Times Company. Archived from the original on November 23, 2001. Retrieved November 23, 2001.
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- ^ Archdeacon, Thomas J. (2000) European Immigration from the Colonial Era to the 1920s: A Historical Perspective
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- ^ Kennedy, David M. Over Here: The First World War and American Society (2004)
- ^ John Whiteclay Chambers II, To Raise an Army: The Draft Comes to Modern America (1987)
- ^ a b David Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (2001)
- ^ Prange, Gordon W.; Goldstein, Donald M.; Dillon, Katherine V. (1982). At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor.
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- ^ Harold G. Vatter, The U.S. Economy in World War II (1988)
- ^ Mitchell K. Hall, 'A Withdrawal from Peace: The Historical Response to War of the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana),' Journal of Church and State (1985) 27#2
- ^ Scott H. Bennett, " American Pacifism, the 'Greatest Generation,' and World War II" in G. Kurt Piehler and Sidney Pash, The United States and the Second World War: New Perspectives on Diplomacy, War, and the Home Front (2010) Online Archived 2020-01-13 at the Wayback Machine
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- ^ McCartney, Paul (August 28, 2002). The Bush Doctrine and American Nationalism. Annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. American Political Science Association. McCartney-2002. Archived from the original on August 12, 2007. Retrieved February 6, 2011.
- ^ Monten, Jonathan (2005) "The Roots of the Bush Doctrine: Power, Nationalism, and Democracy Promotion in U.S. Strategy" International Security v.29 n.4 pp.112-156
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- ^ Anna Stilz. "Civic Nationalism and Language Policy". Philosophy & Public Affairs. 37 (3).
- ^ "Trump visits Poland and not everyone is happy about it". USA Today. July 3, 2017.
- ^ "Trump: I Am A Nationalist In A True Sense". RealClearPolitics. February 27, 2017.
- ^ a b c "Trump pressured to dump nationalist wing". The Hill. August 15, 2017.
- ^ Sherman, Gabriel (December 21, 2017). ""I Have Power": Is Steve Bannon Running for President?". vanityfair.com. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
- ^ "Breitbart writer expected to join White House staff". Politico. January 22, 2017.
- ^ "The Populist Nationalist on Trump's National Security Council". The Atlantic. March 24, 2017.
- Marketwatch. March 13, 2018.
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- ^ "Grenell to join Trump campaign". Politico. May 26, 2020.
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- ^ "The Alt-Right and Glenn Greenwald Versus H.R. McMaster". New York. August 8, 2017.
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- ^ Friedman, Uri (February 27, 2017). "What is a populist? And is Donald Trump one?". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
- ^ Sargent, Greg (September 15, 2017). "Trump's top supporters are in a full-blown panic. They're right to be afraid". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
- ^ "Steve King ingests the poison of nationalist ideology". Washington Examiner. March 13, 2017.
- ^ "'It's a horror film': Matt Gaetz warns of Democratic rule at Republican convention". Tampa Bay Times. August 25, 2020.
- ^ "How Sen. Tom Cotton emerged as one of Trumpism's leading voices - The Washington Post". The Washington Post.
- ^ "Polishing the Nationalist Brand in the Trump Era". The New York Times. July 19, 2019.
- ^ a b Brownstein, Ronald (April 16, 2017). "Why Trump's Agenda Is Tilting in a More Conventional Direction". The Atlantic.
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Atlanta. January 16, 2020.
- ^ "Donald Trump 'Cherishes' Lou Dobbs So Much He Puts Him on Speakerphone for Oval Office Meetings". The Daily Beast. October 26, 2019.
- ^ "Donald Trump still calls Alex Jones for advice, claims the InfoWars founder and far right conspiracy theorist". The Independent. February 23, 2017.
- ^ Stone, Peter (October 23, 2021). "Money and misinformation: how Turning Point USA became a formidable pro-Trump force". The Guardian. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
- ^ https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/08/candace-owens-clarifies-hitler-nationalism-remark-after-backlash/2818679002/
- ^ "Misunderstood Nationalist — Understanding Michael Savage". National Summary. Archived from the original on January 22, 2008. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
- ^ Coppins, McKay (February 23, 2017). "Tucker Carlson: The Bow-Tied Bard of Populism". The Atlantic.
- ^ Stack, Liam (April 5, 2017). "Who Is Mike Cernovich? A Guide". The New York Times.
Further reading
- Arieli, Yehoshua (1964) Individualism and Nationalism in American Ideology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
- Birkin, Carol (2017) A Sovereign People: The Crises of the 1790s and the Birth of American Nationalism. Basic Books, ISBN 978-0-465-06088-7.
- Faust, Drew G. (1988) The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press.
- Kramer, Lloyd S. (2011) Nationalism in Europe and America: Politics, Cultures, and Identities Since 1775. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807872000
- Lawson, Melinda (2002) Patriot Fires: Forging a New American Nationalism in the Civil War North. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
- Li, Qiong, and Marilynn Brewer (2004) "What Does It Mean to Be an American? Patriotism, Nationalism, and American Identity After September 11." Political Psychology. v.25 n.5 pp. 727–39.
- ISBN 978-0-12-227230-1.
- Maguire, Susan E. (2016) "Brother Jonathan and John Bull build a nation: the transactional nature of American nationalism in the early nineteenth century." National Identities v.18 n.2 pp. 179–98.
- Mitchell, Lincoln A. (2016) The Democracy Promotion Paradox. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution. ISBN 9780815727026
- Quigley, Paul (2012) Shifting Grounds: Nationalism and the American South, 1848-1865. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199735488
- Schildkraut, Deborah J. 2014. "Boundaries of American Identity: Evolving Understandings of “Us”." Annual Review of Political Science
- Staff (December 13, 2016) "How similar is America in 2016 to Germany in 1933". Boston Public Radio
- Staff (December 20, 2005). "French anti-Americanism: Spot the difference". The Economist.
- Trautsch, Jasper M. (September 2016) "The origins and nature of American nationalism," National Identities v.18 n.3 pp. 289–312.
- Trautsch, Jasper M. (2018) The Genesis of America; U.S. Foreign Policy and the Formation of National Identity, 1793 - 1815. Cambridge
- Waldstreicher, David (1997) In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776–1820. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press
- Zelinsky, Wilbur (1988) Nation into State: The Shifting Symbolic Foundations of American Nationalism. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
External links
- Media related to American nationalism at Wikimedia Commons