The American nation is considered to be a unique nations in terms of its origin and culture and traditions, namely because of absence of such in comparison to other countries, for instance to European ones. However nowadays it’s one of the most developed countries, it has reached economic success and prevalence over other countries and even continents. Many people contribute this to the peculiarities of American national character which was formed under the pressure of colonization and in the process of restless tossing of future Americans. Namely these and other circumstances influenced greatly the lifestyle and hierarchy of values of modern Americans, and according to the opinion of the author, James M. Jasper, these difficulties and constant obstacles on the way to happiness and prosperity made the Americans who they are today.
One of the particular features analyzed by the author is restlessness. Indeed, those of us who has spent a considerable amount of time among the citizens of the US can confirm that Americans are very active in all spheres of life, if they play football – they are passionate sportsmen, if they raise money or do some social work – they are all into it. Judging from my personal experience I can also add that Americans are very strong and they don’t give up the ideas they believe in. Thus, for me this book was truly interesting and informative.
A lot of scientists in different times tried to connect the psychological peculiarities of people with the history of country they live in. As it turned out, there exists a collective memory which allows keeping in genetic memory certain abilities and achievements and thus pass this information from one generation to another. This book is a must-read for those who want to understand better what influence the formation of American nation, and of course, it’s valuable information for an average American citizen which will allow him to study the past of his nation and get benefit from such knowledge.
The writer also concentrates his attention on another factor which continues contributing into the development of the USA – the immigration. When I got to that particular part, I asked myself if the American character is already formed or it is in a continuous process of changing do to the processes of globalization and continuous immigration? I came to the conclusion that the typical American feature of restlessness became contaminating, at least this can explain the rates of immigration. More and more people move to the USA, following the paths of Europeans in 17th and 18th centuries, in the search of better life and opportunities. Immigrants can literally “start over in America” because the USA gives them such opportunity, a chance to realize the hackneyed American dream which now embraces a lot of notions apart from equality and freedom of rights.
Needless to say, I enjoyed reading this book as it opened a whole new world to me. It gives a brand new angle of view of different problems and issues connected with the USA and American nation, and it allows us to investigate the impressive depth of historical background of the country and how it continues influencing the worldwide community at present.
