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178:'s 1999 Annual Report, National Archivist John W. Carlin writes, "We are different because our government and our way of life are not based on the divine right of kings, the hereditary privileges of elites, or the enforcement of deference to dictators. They are based on pieces of paper, the Charters of Freedom - the Declaration that asserted our independence, the Constitution that created our government, and the Bill of Rights that established our liberties."
91:, dynamic, and pragmatic. It affirms the supreme value and dignity of the individual; it stresses incessant activity on his part, for he is never to rest but is always to be striving to "get ahead"; it defines an ethic of self-reliance, merit, and character, and judges by achievement: "deeds, not creeds" are what count. The "American Way of Life" is humanitarian, "forward-looking", optimistic.
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One commentator notes, "The first half of
Herberg's statement still holds true nearly half a century after he first formulated it", even though "Herberg's latter claims have been severely if not completely undermined... materialism no longer needs to be justified in high-sounding terms".
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must, in the
American mind, be justified in "higher" terms, in terms of "service" or "stewardship" or "general welfare"... And because they are so idealistic, Americans tend to be
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are easily the most generous and philanthropic people in the world, in terms of their ready and unstinting response to suffering anywhere on the globe. The
American believes in
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that is claimed to be achievable by any
American through hard work. This concept is intertwined with the concept of
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107:. Americans cannot go on making money or achieving worldly success simply on its own merits; such
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306:. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. August 15, 2016.
304:"The National Archives and Records Administration Annual Report 1999"
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Protestant, Catholic, Jew: an Essay in
American religious sociology
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Protestant, Catholic, Jew: An Essay in
American Religious Sociology
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offers the following definition of the
American way of life:
44:. At the center of the American way is the belief in an
52:, the belief in the unique culture of the nation.
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99:, in self-improvement, and quite fanatically in
290:Flannery O'Connor and the Christ-haunted South
176:National Archives and Records Administration
42:life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
292:. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 21.
72:citing the American way as the source of
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16:Lifestyle of people in the United States
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103:. But above all, the American is
79:American writer and intellectual
74:American effectiveness in the war
40:that adheres to the principle of
199:American System (economic plan)
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255:. University of Chicago Press.
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21:American way (disambiguation)
324:Culture of the United States
232:Inventing the "American Way"
221:Culture of the United States
87:The American Way of life is
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226:People for the American Way
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70:American propaganda poster
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251:Herberg, William (1955).
166:black and white thinking
339:American exceptionalism
334:Socio-economic mobility
50:American exceptionalism
288:Wood, Ralph C (2004).
216:Americanism (ideology)
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109:"materialistic" things
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278:Herberg (1955), p. 79
238:Protestant work ethic
132:Further information:
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211:American imperialism
189:American nationalism
154:economic materialism
30:American way of life
19:For other uses, see
194:American Revolution
205:American Theocracy
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38:nationalist ethos
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150:self-improvement
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329:English phrases
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260:William Herberg
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158:general welfare
142:humanitarianism
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121:William Herberg
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89:individualistic
81:William Herberg
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66:World War II
36:is the U.S.
34:American way
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318:Categories
266:References
113:moralistic
105:idealistic
56:Definition
101:education
93:Americans
182:See also
162:moralism
118:—
97:progress
245:Sources
174:In the
138:dignity
32:or the
164:, and
127:(1955)
68:-era
28:The
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64:A
23:.
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