W1950s American automobile culture has had an enduring influence on the culture of the United States, as reflected in popular music, major trends from the 1950s and mainstream acceptance of the "hot rod" culture. The American manufacturing economy switched from producing war-related items to consumer goods at the end of World War II, and by the end of the 1950s, one in six working Americans were employed either directly or indirectly in the automotive industry. The United States became the world's largest manufacturer of automobiles, and Henry Ford's goal of 30 years earlier—that any man with a good job should be able to afford an automobile—was achieved. A new generation of service businesses focusing on customers with their automobiles came into being during the decade, including drive-through or drive-in restaurants and more drive-in theaters (cinemas).
WAmerican exceptionalism is the idea that the United States is inherently different from other nations. Its proponents argue that the values, political system, and historical development of the U.S. are unique in human history, often with the implication that the country "is both destined and entitled to play a distinct and positive role on the world stage."
WAnti-Americanism is prejudice, fear or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general.
WAppalachian studies is the area studies field concerned with the Appalachian region of the United States.
WCallaloo, A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1976 by Charles Rowell, who remains its editor-in-chief. It contains creative writing, visual art, and critical texts about literature and culture of the African diaspora, and is probably the longest continuously running African-American literary magazine. It has been published by the Johns Hopkins University Press since 1986.
WThe culture of the United States of America is primarily of Western origin, but its influences include European American, Asian American, African American, Latin American, Native American peoples and their cultures. The United States has its own distinct social and cultural characteristics, such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore, otherwise known as Americana.
WThe German Historical Institute Washington DC is an institute of historical study based in Washington, D.C. It has been part of the Max Weber Stiftung: Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland since 2002. The director is Simone Lässig.
WAlfred Whitney Griswold, who went by his second given name, was an American historian and educator. He served as 16th president of Yale University from 1951 to 1963, during which he built much of Yale's modern scientific research infrastructure, especially on Science Hill.
WThe Hapa Project is a multiracial identity art project created by American artist Kip Fulbeck. The project embodies a range of media, including a published book, traveling photographic exhibition, satellite community presentations, and online communities.
WUdo J. Hebel is a German professor of American studies. He has been president of the University of Regensburg since 1 April 2013. He was selected as one of the ten best university rectors in Germany by the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers.
WThe John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies (JFKI) is a central institute at Freie Universität Berlin. The JFKI was founded in 1963 by Ernst Fraenkel, a political scientist and was named in the honor of John F. Kennedy after his assassination.
WAmy Kaplan was an American academic working in the interdisciplinary field of American Studies, her work focused on the critical study of the culture of imperialism, prison writing, mourning, memory, and war. Kaplan was Edward W. Kane Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, and president of the American Studies Association in 2003.
WFrancis Otto Matthiessen was an educator, scholar and literary critic influential in the fields of American literature and American studies. His best known work, American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman, celebrated the achievements of several 19th-century American authors and had a profound impact on a generation of scholars. It also established American Renaissance as the common term to refer to American literature of the mid-nineteenth century. Matthiessen was known for his support of liberal causes and progressive politics. His contributions to the Harvard University community have been memorialized in several ways, including an endowed visiting professorship.
WVernon Louis Parrington was an American literary historian and scholar. His three-volume history of American letters, Main Currents in American Thought, won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1928 and was one of the most influential books for American historians of its time.
WMaarten van Rossem is a Dutch historian. He specializes in the history and politics of the United States. As an expert on America, he is a frequent guest on television political talk shows. His public career started when he was asked to comment on the 1984 vice presidential elections. He still makes regular TV appearances and gives frequent public lectures.
WThe Rothermere American Institute is a department of the University of Oxford dedicated to the interdisciplinary and comparative study of the United States of America and its place in the world. Named after the Harmsworth family, Viscounts Rothermere, the institute was opened in May 2001 by former US President Bill Clinton. It hosts conferences, lectures and seminars in the fields of American history, politics, foreign relations, and literature. Guests and speakers have included Queen Elizabeth, former US President Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Lord Patten of Barnes. The institute hosts four of the university's chairs and two visiting professorships.
WThe society of the United States is based on Western culture, and has been developing since long before the United States became a country with its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore. Today, the United States of America is an ethnically and racially diverse country as a result of large-scale immigration from many different countries throughout its history.
WThe Vere Harmsworth Library is a dependent library of the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.