In this chapter, the emergence, history, and the importance of identity in America is explored. A nation’s identity is not permanent or fixed as it often changes, for example, this can be seen with the United States as its identity evolved due to various reasons and events, such as colonies, immigration, war, and other historical events. A major focus in this chapter is about America creating its own identity, and an important moment for this was the signing of the Declaration of Independence, where many people, including Benjamin Franklin, “transformed himself from a Briton into an American.” (109) This was certainly a major turning point for a collective identity in America, however, other key events to help American identity included the Great Awakening and various wars.
Another major point was the victory of the American Revolution. This was very important because settlers no longer identified with the British and it removed the enemy the nation was fighting. While colonists did become Americans, there was still not a united nation as nationwide identities was split between states and sections. Additionally, before the Civil War, there was still conflict between the North and South as well as American enemies did not really threaten the nation so there was still a focus on sectional differences between the states. Some believe these problems were due to the lack of national history of the United States.
Many people believed that the Civil War created more nationalism, as Huntington explains, “The American nation was born in the war and came into its full being in the decades after the war. So also did American nationalism, patriotism, and the unqualified identification of Americans with their country.” (119) Following the war, industrialization, economic growth, improvements in transportation and communication, and organizations helped the nation. Also, the national government had a more important role within the nation as well as worldwide. Ultimately, many events helped create a national history which helped in creating an identity, this included some events previously mentioned, the different presidents, and brave soldiers. This led to more patriotic symbols and traditions throughout the nation. Other important factors to unifying the nation included assimilation, Americanizing immigrants, and World War I and II. However, some of this American nationalism faded during the 1960s. How would you describe the importance of American identity today?