American Studies in Britain
Encyclopedia
American Studies as an academic discipline
is taught at some British
universities and incorporated in several school subjects, such as history
, politics
and literature
. While the United States of America is the focus of most study, American Studies can also include the study of all the Americas, including South America
and Canada
. The methods of study are interdisciplinary, and students and researchers come from many fields, including anthropology
, cultural studies
, history
, literature
, film studies
, gender studies
and economics
. Because of Britain's long association with the Americas, there is also a history of comment and analysis of the geography, culture and peoples of America, from Sir Walter Raleigh
and Charles Dickens
to Rudyard Kipling
and Alistair Cooke
.
American Studies in Britain is closely related to the discipline in America, and many degree programmes also involve a period of study in the U.S. or Canada, ranging in time from a month to an academic year. However, an 'outsider's' view of a foreign culture, a variety of intellectual trends, such as the Birmingham school of cultural studies, and institutional arrangements often lead to a different approach to that pursued in the U.S. The support of the U.S. Embassy and other official U.S. bodies and awards also shows that American Studies has also been used to promote closer ties and greater understanding between the two countries.
has a long history as an activity in British Higher Education. This history has given American Studies in Britain a different flavour to that pursued in the U.S. The earliest accounts of the British colonisation and exploration of North America may be considered as the first contributions to this field, which now incorporates the output of the work of many university departments, scholarly journals and independent scholar
s. Many libraries, museums and archives in the United Kingdom also support such work.
, the British government encouraged the study of America and the American government began to see the need to support American Studies abroad during the Cold War
, in the belief that "the more people knew about the United States, the more they would come to admire its political and economic values, and its foreign policy". In the early 1950s, the Rockefeller Foundation
and the United States Education Commission (USEC) organised a series of Anglo-American conferences, which became known as the 'Fulbright Conferences' after the Fulbright Act of 1946. The British Association for American Studies
(BAAS) was founded at the fourth conference in 1955; many of its members were influenced by the experiences of exchange programmes with the United States, such as the Commonwealth Fellowships, and contacts with Rhodes Scholars, and realised that much American culture and literature was unknown or misunderstood. The impetus to form the Association came from the Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in London, Dick Taylor, who wrote to the members of the eventual founding committee that he knew of "concrete interest" from an unnamed American foundation that wished to support the founding of an American Studies association. Taylor also proposed the founding of a centre for American Studies at Ditchley Park, with an American school and conference centre along the lines of the British School at Athens
. The fledging Association was unable to support this venture and, concerned with their independence from the U.S. State Department, unsuccessfully sought funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. Taylor's successor at the Embassy, Myron Koenig, offered a $20,000 grant to survey British library resources and $100,000 to establish the society. Membership fees provided a small income, and although BAAS accepted the grant for the library survey, they were able to decline the larger sum in the interests of intellectual and political independence. In 1956, the society received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. BAAS has continued to provide a focus for American Studies in Britain, organising a series of conferences and administrating various awards and funds for research.
between the two countries has contributed to a long tradition of scholarly exchange and support from U.S. organisations, such as the United States Department of State
for the study of America in Britain. During World War II, The British Government also sought to "counter the Hollywood image of America as a land of violence and corruption by a vigorous campaign to develop American studies". As noted above, the development of the British university system and interest in the U.S. as a result of the Cold War and increasingly dominant U.S. popular culture lead to the development of several American Studies courses at institutions including the universities of Keele and East Anglia.
More recently, in 2004 the Guardian columnist, Polly Toynbee
suggested in an article revealingly called "A degree in bullying and self-interest? No thanks" that the Iraq war and the so-called "War on Terror" had led to a positive resistance to American Studies. Others, such as Shelley Fisher Fishkin argued that American Studies needs more transnational perspectives and that the U.S.'s engagement with the world demands more, not less, study.
and the newer fields of Cultural and Gender Studies. Americanists also became to seek the 'meaning of America' outside of the traditional areas of political institutions and dominant social class, but in marginalized groups. During the 1980s, as Pells comments, the canon became 'contemporary, ethnic, and feminist'. The decade also witnessed a tranche of retirements from the profession, which, because of financial constraints on universities, were not replaced. Several key figures, such as Marcus Cunliffe, left Britain for American university posts. By the early 1990s, some American Studies departments were closed.
The end of the Cold War in the late 1980s marked a revival in interest in the remaining superpower, and student numbers rose, along with numbers of professors. Most notable was the Rothermere Centre at Oxford (established 2001.) This revival was generally maintained until the controversial election of Bush in 2000, then 9/11, the subsequent "War on Terror" and the invasion of Iraq which put together encouraged a critical attitude to the United States in the public sphere which eventually had a negative effect on recruitment and caused a number of programmes to close (for instance at Reading) or amalgamate with English, History or other Departments (see above reference to Polly Toynbee.)
, William Cobbett
, Charles Dickens
, Anthony Trollope
, Rudyard Kipling
, Alistair Cooke
and Christopher Hitchens
, have written about the political and cultural differences between Britain and America.
, which began in 1948, has been the backbone of many scholarly exchanges between Britain and the United States
have strongly influenced research. Although these approaches can be seen in [American Studies] in the U.S. and elsewhere, there have been distinctive British contributions.
was a research centre at the University of Birmingham. It was founded in 1964 by Richard Hoggart, its first director. Its object of study was the then new field of Cultural Studies
and it soon became known as the Birmingham School. Although no clear method emerged, the influence of Marxism
and other theories, such as post-structuralism
informed a politically engaged, sophisticated analysis of contemporary society. Its members included Jorge Larrain, the Chilean sociologist and cultural historian, author of Identity and Modernity in Latin America. The School has influenced many Area Studies scholars, including American Studies specialists.
, politics and literature, American Studies are now informed by Film theory
, Gender studies
and Cultural anthropology
as well as many other disciplines.
. American newspapers often contain reports of events in Britain and details of the state of trans-atlantic relations. A database can be found on the
BAAS newspaper database.
A digital collection of Historical American Newspapers is held by the British Library
, which complements the extensive paper and microform collections; important collections are also held by the National Library of Scotland
.
and the University of Oxford
. The University of Sussex holds the full set of the Archive of Americana.
Academic discipline
An academic discipline, or field of study, is a branch of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined , and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties to...
is taught at some British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
universities and incorporated in several school subjects, such as history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
. While the United States of America is the focus of most study, American Studies can also include the study of all the Americas, including South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The methods of study are interdisciplinary, and students and researchers come from many fields, including anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, cultural studies
Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
, history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, film studies
Film studies
Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various theoretical, historical, and critical approaches to films. It is sometimes subsumed within media studies and is often compared to television studies...
, gender studies
Gender studies
Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyses race, ethnicity, sexuality and location.Gender study has many different forms. One view exposed by the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one"...
and economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
. Because of Britain's long association with the Americas, there is also a history of comment and analysis of the geography, culture and peoples of America, from Sir Walter Raleigh
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....
and Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
to Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
and Alistair Cooke
Alistair Cooke
Alfred Alistair Cooke KBE was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cooke's America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theater from 1971 to 1992...
.
American Studies in Britain is closely related to the discipline in America, and many degree programmes also involve a period of study in the U.S. or Canada, ranging in time from a month to an academic year. However, an 'outsider's' view of a foreign culture, a variety of intellectual trends, such as the Birmingham school of cultural studies, and institutional arrangements often lead to a different approach to that pursued in the U.S. The support of the U.S. Embassy and other official U.S. bodies and awards also shows that American Studies has also been used to promote closer ties and greater understanding between the two countries.
History of American Studies in Britain
Because of Britain involvement in North America, American StudiesAmerican studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It traditionally incorporates the study of history, literature, and critical theory, but also includes fields as diverse as law, art, the media, film, religious studies, urban...
has a long history as an activity in British Higher Education. This history has given American Studies in Britain a different flavour to that pursued in the U.S. The earliest accounts of the British colonisation and exploration of North America may be considered as the first contributions to this field, which now incorporates the output of the work of many university departments, scholarly journals and independent scholar
Independent scholar
An independent scholar is anyone who conducts scholarly research outside universities and traditional academia. Independent scholars play an especially important role in areas such as art history and other humanities fields...
s. Many libraries, museums and archives in the United Kingdom also support such work.
The British Association for American Studies
American Studies as an academic course of study is generally considered to have begun in the U.S. in the late 1930s, at a time when little research or study was undertaken in Britain. During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the British government encouraged the study of America and the American government began to see the need to support American Studies abroad during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, in the belief that "the more people knew about the United States, the more they would come to admire its political and economic values, and its foreign policy". In the early 1950s, the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
and the United States Education Commission (USEC) organised a series of Anglo-American conferences, which became known as the 'Fulbright Conferences' after the Fulbright Act of 1946. The British Association for American Studies
British Association for American Studies
The British Association for American Studies is a learned society in the field of American studies. It was founded in 1955.The association produces the Journal of American Studies, American Studies in Britain, US Studies Online, BAAS Paperbacks, and Resources for American Studies.It has produced...
(BAAS) was founded at the fourth conference in 1955; many of its members were influenced by the experiences of exchange programmes with the United States, such as the Commonwealth Fellowships, and contacts with Rhodes Scholars, and realised that much American culture and literature was unknown or misunderstood. The impetus to form the Association came from the Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in London, Dick Taylor, who wrote to the members of the eventual founding committee that he knew of "concrete interest" from an unnamed American foundation that wished to support the founding of an American Studies association. Taylor also proposed the founding of a centre for American Studies at Ditchley Park, with an American school and conference centre along the lines of the British School at Athens
British School at Athens
The British School at Athens is one of the 17 Foreign Archaeological Institutes in Athens, Greece.-General information:The School was founded in 1886 as the fourth such institution in Greece...
. The fledging Association was unable to support this venture and, concerned with their independence from the U.S. State Department, unsuccessfully sought funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. Taylor's successor at the Embassy, Myron Koenig, offered a $20,000 grant to survey British library resources and $100,000 to establish the society. Membership fees provided a small income, and although BAAS accepted the grant for the library survey, they were able to decline the larger sum in the interests of intellectual and political independence. In 1956, the society received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. BAAS has continued to provide a focus for American Studies in Britain, organising a series of conferences and administrating various awards and funds for research.
Political Influence
American Studies has always been influenced to some degree by contemporary politics. For example, the purported Special relationshipSpecial relationship
The Special Relationship is a phrase used to describe the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural, economic, military and historical relations between the United Kingdom and the United States, following its use in a 1946 speech by British statesman Winston Churchill...
between the two countries has contributed to a long tradition of scholarly exchange and support from U.S. organisations, such as the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
for the study of America in Britain. During World War II, The British Government also sought to "counter the Hollywood image of America as a land of violence and corruption by a vigorous campaign to develop American studies". As noted above, the development of the British university system and interest in the U.S. as a result of the Cold War and increasingly dominant U.S. popular culture lead to the development of several American Studies courses at institutions including the universities of Keele and East Anglia.
More recently, in 2004 the Guardian columnist, Polly Toynbee
Polly Toynbee
Polly Toynbee is a British journalist and writer, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. She is a social democrat and broadly supports the Labour Party, while urging it in many areas to be more left-wing...
suggested in an article revealingly called "A degree in bullying and self-interest? No thanks" that the Iraq war and the so-called "War on Terror" had led to a positive resistance to American Studies. Others, such as Shelley Fisher Fishkin argued that American Studies needs more transnational perspectives and that the U.S.'s engagement with the world demands more, not less, study.
Expansion, Contraction and Consolidation
University growth allowed the expansion of American Studies in Britain during the 1960s and 1970s. By the 1980s, the European Association for American Studies estimated that there were at least two thousand Americanists employed in Britain and the Continent. Most major British universities could boast a historian of the U.S. or a literature specialist. American Studies also began to extend its range, incorporating Film StudiesFilm studies
Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various theoretical, historical, and critical approaches to films. It is sometimes subsumed within media studies and is often compared to television studies...
and the newer fields of Cultural and Gender Studies. Americanists also became to seek the 'meaning of America' outside of the traditional areas of political institutions and dominant social class, but in marginalized groups. During the 1980s, as Pells comments, the canon became 'contemporary, ethnic, and feminist'. The decade also witnessed a tranche of retirements from the profession, which, because of financial constraints on universities, were not replaced. Several key figures, such as Marcus Cunliffe, left Britain for American university posts. By the early 1990s, some American Studies departments were closed.
The end of the Cold War in the late 1980s marked a revival in interest in the remaining superpower, and student numbers rose, along with numbers of professors. Most notable was the Rothermere Centre at Oxford (established 2001.) This revival was generally maintained until the controversial election of Bush in 2000, then 9/11, the subsequent "War on Terror" and the invasion of Iraq which put together encouraged a critical attitude to the United States in the public sphere which eventually had a negative effect on recruitment and caused a number of programmes to close (for instance at Reading) or amalgamate with English, History or other Departments (see above reference to Polly Toynbee.)
Historians and named chairs
- 1922, Harmsworth Chair in American history, University of Oxford, intended for visiting American scholars.
- 1930, Commonwealth Professorship in American history, University of London.
- Harold LaskiHarold LaskiHarold Joseph Laski was a British Marxist, political theorist, economist, author, and lecturer, who served as the chairman of the Labour Party during 1945-1946, and was a professor at the LSE from 1926 to 1950....
, historian and political scientist, published The American Democracy in 1948, which lamented Europe's 'absurd and willful ignorance of American institutions and culture' - D. W. Brogan, The American Character, 1944.
- Peter J. Parish
- Esmond WrightEsmond WrightEsmond Wright was an English historian of the United States, Director of the Institute of United States Studies at the University of London from 1971 to 1983, a television personality, and a Conservative politician.Wright had a grammar school education in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, before winning an open...
.
Literary critics
- Marcus CunliffeMarcus CunliffeMarcus Cunliffe was a British scholar who specialized in American Studies, especially military and cultural history. Cunliffe stressed the powerful influence of Americans' cultural beliefs about their own natural military capacity, reinforced by a latent dislike of military professionals, on the...
, The Literature of the United States (1954). - Professor Dennis Welland (1919–2002). Following a 12-month Rockefeller scholarship to the University of Minnesota, he began one of the first American Studies courses at the University of Nottingham in 1953. He helped to found the British Association of American Studies and acted as its first treasurer, secretary and chair (1980–83). Welland was the founder editor of the Journal of American Studies (1976). His publications include Arthur Miller (1961), Twain in England (1978) and The Life and Times of Mark Twain (1991).
- Malcolm BradburyMalcolm BradburySir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury CBE was an English author and academic.-Life:Bradbury was the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with his brother and mother...
, who suggested that America offered an escape from the 'constraining, class-oriented, provincial embrace' of Britain. - Eric Knowle William Mottram (1924–1995) (Professor of English and American Literature, Kings College, London).
Anthropologists
- Geoffrey Gorer, The American People (1948).
Journalists and writers
Thomas PaineThomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
, William Cobbett
William Cobbett
William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...
, Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
, Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
, Alistair Cooke
Alistair Cooke
Alfred Alistair Cooke KBE was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cooke's America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theater from 1971 to 1992...
and Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
, have written about the political and cultural differences between Britain and America.
Publishers
- Sheldon Meyer (1926–2006), Oxford University Press (New York). Meyer published influential American studies works such as C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (on segregation in the South), Robert Toll, Blacking Up (a study of blackface minstrelsy), Nathan Huggin's study of the Harlem RenaissanceHarlem RenaissanceThe Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
, Edmund Wilson, Patriotic Gore (American Civil War literature), James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 1988 (Civil War). He c0-edited, with C. Vann Woodward, the 'Oxford History of the United States'. Meyer also commissioned works on American jazzJazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
.
U.S. Institutional Support
The Fulbright ProgramFulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
, which began in 1948, has been the backbone of many scholarly exchanges between Britain and the United States
Schools and Movements
As a heterodox discipline, American Studies incorporates many fields, from literature to international relations. Various schools, such as that of the Myth and Symbol approachAmerican studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It traditionally incorporates the study of history, literature, and critical theory, but also includes fields as diverse as law, art, the media, film, religious studies, urban...
have strongly influenced research. Although these approaches can be seen in [American Studies] in the U.S. and elsewhere, there have been distinctive British contributions.
Birmingham School
The Centre for Contemporary Cultural StudiesCentre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies was a research centre at the University of Birmingham, England. It was founded in 1964 by Richard Hoggart, its first director...
was a research centre at the University of Birmingham. It was founded in 1964 by Richard Hoggart, its first director. Its object of study was the then new field of Cultural Studies
Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
and it soon became known as the Birmingham School. Although no clear method emerged, the influence of Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
and other theories, such as post-structuralism
Post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a label formulated by American academics to denote the heterogeneous works of a series of French intellectuals who came to international prominence in the 1960s and '70s...
informed a politically engaged, sophisticated analysis of contemporary society. Its members included Jorge Larrain, the Chilean sociologist and cultural historian, author of Identity and Modernity in Latin America. The School has influenced many Area Studies scholars, including American Studies specialists.
Interdisciplinary Approaches
Traditionally focused on historyHistory
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, politics and literature, American Studies are now informed by Film theory
Film theory
Film theory is an academic discipline that aims to explore the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large...
, Gender studies
Gender studies
Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyses race, ethnicity, sexuality and location.Gender study has many different forms. One view exposed by the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one"...
and Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
as well as many other disciplines.
American Studies at GCSE and A-Level
O-levels and A-levels (AS/A2) in American studies have not been offered since the introduction of GCSEs and the UK National Curriculum however, American Studies is a component of history and politics A-level curricula whilst, the civil rights movement is studied as a unit as part of GCSE History.American Studies Programmes at UK Universities and Higher Education Institutions
A list of institutions can be found at the Eccles Centre for American Studies website. Currently (2008) 37 institutions offer an American Studies degree.American Studies Societies and Centres in the UK
- British Association for American Studies
- Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British LibraryBritish LibraryThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
- Cunliffe Centre for the Study of the American South at University of SussexUniversity of SussexThe University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
- "Based in the American Studies Department at the University of Sussex, the Cunliffe Centre offers a concentration of scholars of the history of the South unparalleled anywhere outside the United States. The principal purpose of the Cunliffe Centre is to build upon this strength by enhancing research networks between scholars in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and to provide channels for the transfer of knowledge in the field to the broader public."
- Centre for American Studies at University of LeicesterUniversity of LeicesterThe University of Leicester is a research-led university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is a mile south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College....
- "Voted in the "Top 2" by The Times, The Guardian and The Independent in 2008, the Centre for American Studies at Leicester is firmly established as one of the UK's most important providers of American Studies degrees."
- Institute for the Study of the Americas at the School of Advanced StudySchool of Advanced StudyThe School of Advanced Study, a postgraduate institution of the University of London, is the UK's national centre for the promotion and facilitation of research in the humanities and social sciences...
, University of London- "The Institute for the Study of the Americas promotes, coordinates and provides a focus for research and postgraduate teaching on the Americas – Canada, the US, Latin America and the Caribbean – in the University of London"
- School of American & Canadian Studies at University of NottinghamUniversity of NottinghamThe University of Nottingham is a public research university based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, with further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...
- "The School of American and Canadian Studies – which includes the Institute of Film and Television Studies – is the only Five Star Research School in its subject area and is the largest undergraduate and postgraduate centre for American Studies in the country. It has a thriving programme at all levels, and a teaching and research culture of the highest quality."
- American Studies Centre at Liverpool John Moores UniversityLiverpool John Moores UniversityLiverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...
- Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford
- "The Rothermere American Institute, which was opened on 25 May 2001 by former US President Bill Clinton, is an international centre of excellence dedicated to the interdisciplinary and comparative study of the United States. Bringing together scholars, intellectuals, policy-makers and public figures from around the world, the Rothermere American Institute will promote a greater public and academic understanding of the history, culture and politics of the United States. The newly built institute also hosts the finest library of AmericanaAmericanaAmericana refers to artifacts, or a collection of artifacts, related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States. Many kinds of material fall within the definition of Americana: paintings, prints and drawings; license plates or entire vehicles, household objects,...
to be found outside the USA."
- "The Rothermere American Institute, which was opened on 25 May 2001 by former US President Bill Clinton, is an international centre of excellence dedicated to the interdisciplinary and comparative study of the United States. Bringing together scholars, intellectuals, policy-makers and public figures from around the world, the Rothermere American Institute will promote a greater public and academic understanding of the history, culture and politics of the United States. The newly built institute also hosts the finest library of Americana
- The Department of American Studies at King's College London
- "The Department of American Studies at King's College London offers versatile and diverse academic programmes for the study of the cultures, societies and arts of the United States and the Americas at both undergraduate and graduate levels. It is the only Department of its kind at the University of London and one of the leading centres in its field in the country. Established as an independent Department in 2000, American Studies in fact draws upon a long tradition of the teaching of American culture and literature at King's, a tradition that goes back to the early-sixties when the College appointed the very first full-time lecturer in American Literature in the country."
- The Institute for the Study of the Americas, School of Advanced Study, arranges a series of events and conferences in London
Hard to Find Sources for American Studies in the UK
Although many collections of materials can be located through the online or automated catalogues of archives and libraries, many resources are not listed in this fashion and may be difficult to locate.Microform Collections
- Early American ImprintsEarly American ImprintsEarly American Imprints is a microopaque card collection produced by Readex Microprint. It is based on Evan's American Bibliography and on Shaw-Shoemaker's American Bibliography and contains the full text of all known existing books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in the United States from...
is held by several libraries, including the British LibraryBritish LibraryThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, the National Library of ScotlandNational Library of ScotlandThe National Library of Scotland is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. It is based in a collection of buildings in Edinburgh city centre. The headquarters is on George IV Bridge, between the Old Town and the university quarter...
, the University of Cambridge Library and the Vere Harmsworth Library in Oxford. Its contents are now listed through COPAC.
- A large body of BAAS material has been selected and microfilmed in the series British Records relating to America, sponsored by BAAS and published by Microform Ltd
Manuscript Collections
- The British LibraryBritish LibraryThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
's Department of Manuscripts holds many collections related to the early history of America and the American RevolutionAmerican RevolutionThe American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, as does the National Archives (UK) - Records of the British Association for American Studies at Birmingham University Information Services. A handlist is available online.
Newspaper Collections
Many American newspapers are available in the United Kingdom, either in their original format or in microformMicroform
Microforms are any forms, either films or paper, containing microreproductions of documents for transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about one twenty-fifth of the original document size...
. American newspapers often contain reports of events in Britain and details of the state of trans-atlantic relations. A database can be found on the
BAAS newspaper database.
A digital collection of Historical American Newspapers is held by the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, which complements the extensive paper and microform collections; important collections are also held by the National Library of Scotland
National Library of Scotland
The National Library of Scotland is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. It is based in a collection of buildings in Edinburgh city centre. The headquarters is on George IV Bridge, between the Old Town and the university quarter...
.
Digital Collections
United States Congressional Serial Set is part of Readex's Archive of Americana. It is held at the British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
and the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. The University of Sussex holds the full set of the Archive of Americana.
See also
- Advanced Level (UK)
- American StudiesAmerican studiesAmerican studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It traditionally incorporates the study of history, literature, and critical theory, but also includes fields as diverse as law, art, the media, film, religious studies, urban...
- Area StudiesArea studiesArea studies are interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what are, in the practice of scholarship, many heterogeneous fields of research, encompassing...
- Cultural StudiesCultural studiesCultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
External links
- American Studies Today.
- American Studies in Britain the Newsletter of the British Association for American Studies.
- American Studies Electronic Resources at the British Library.
- Intute: Arts and Humanities American Studies resources.
- Resources for American Studies - the journal of the BAAS Library and Resources Sub-Committee.
- Toynbee, P, "A degree in bullying and self-interest? No thanks", Guardian, 25 August 2004 (Accessed 2006-12-06).
Sources
- L. Billington, "Pioneering American Studies: Ten Years of the Bulletin, 1956-1966", Journal of American Studies, 42 (2008) 2, 167-185.
- "American History in Schools", BAAS Newsletter, 81, Winter, 1999
- P. Thompson, Cassell's Dictionary of American History, Cassell, 2000.