What does it means to be an American during this period of American history.​

Dædalus

SPRING 2009

What does it mean to be an American?

AUTHOR Sarah Song

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It is often said that being an American means sharing a commitment to a set of values and ideals.1 Writing about the relationship of ethnicity and American identity, the historian Philip Gleason put it this way:

To be or to become an American, a person did not have to be any particular national, linguistic, religious, or ethnic background. All he had to do was to commit himself to the political ideology centered on the abstract ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism. Thus the universalist ideological character of American nationality meant that it was open to anyone who willed to become an American.

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