Word: americanization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...year after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, historian Richard Hofstadter published what is probably his most enduring essay, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics." Hofstadter contends there has been an angry, suspicious, apocalyptic strain in American political life going back to the very beginning of the Republic. From anxieties about the Illuminati in the 18th century to concerns about the Masons in the 19th century to the John Birch Society's assertion that President Dwight Eisenhower was an actual communist agent, Hofstadter suggests there has been a fear about hidden conspiracies that has animated those on the right...
...much of the toxicity of the current conversation stems from the fact that we have the first African-American President is unknowable. That racism exists is indisputable. Two more things we know: First, there is a deep sense of discontent among many Americans and a distrust of government and authority, which Time's recent poll showed. And second, a lack of respect and civility in our discourse undermines our ability as a nation to solve our problems--and we have quite a lot of them at the moment...
...broker who sorts through the accusations and says, This is fact, and this is fantasy. To do that, we asked editor-at-large David Von Drehle, based in Kansas City, Mo., to shed light on the Glenn Beck phenomenon as well as the larger idea of the anger of American politics today. "Clearly, Glenn Beck is extremely talented, and the man has struck a chord," Von Drehle says. "But the nature of politics right now rewards the people who play the least harmonious tunes...
...talked that way. Instead, policymakers in the U.S. and overseas agreed that the panic had to be stopped at any cost. And it was, through a bailout that placed trillions of taxpayer dollars at risk. It was expensive, messy and unfair. It struck many people as un-American. But it worked. "I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system" is how President George W. Bush described it last December...
...housing market may be showing signs of life, but it's mostly limited to modest homes. The 4,000-, 5,000- and 6,000-square-footers - the ones that dot the landscape of countless American suburbs, replete with vaulted foyers and Palladian windows - are still finding precious few takers...