Question 52: us Family. Stereotypes

Plan:

During the 1950s several American television shows portrayed an idealized middle-class family consisting of a wise breadwinner father, a cheerful and attractive wife, and socially and academically successful children.

Women-breadwinners vs women-housewife

The diversity of patterns because of ethnic background, immigration, date of their forebears, social background, religion…

Marriage

-marriages between blacks and whites are rare.

Dating.

-"New morality

Upbringing

Parents want to bring up their children to respect freedom, initiative. The parents are rather permissive. The urge their children to make their own decisions.

Family structure

-"nuclear family" vs "extended family"

-re-marriage

-changing roles within the family

A car in American Life

Public transportation is not developed.

Routes are scarce and life is hectic.

Glossary

1. American dream – idea that every person if he is decent, industrious, ambitious can have a well paid job, warm house, respect.

2. American flight – desire to escape from the civilization “into the woods”, to live natural life.

3. Beringia – land bridge which BC connected North America and Asia, later was covered by water and the Bering Strait appeared.

4. Berliner – newspaper format between broadsheet and tabloid.

5. Bill of Rights - the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, added in 1791, which guarantee the liberty of the individual.

6. Black Death – epidemic of bubonic plague, brought to the islands from France during the Hundred Years’ War.

7. Black Country - the formerly heavily industrialized region of central England, northwest of Birmingham.

8. Confederate States of America - the 11 Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi) that seceded from the Union in 1861, precipitating a civil war with the North. The Confederacy was defeated in 1865 and the South reincorporated into the US.

9. Daneslaw – part of the country North from the Thames granted to the Danes by Alfred the Great.

10. Doomsday Book – register with the population census data carried out by William the Conqueror in 1086.

11. Double-decker - a red bus with two passenger decks, used for excursions in London.

12. 11+ Exam – earlier exam, results of which, defined type of secondary school a pupil could attend.

13. Frontier – western border which separated civilization of Indians and White Americans.

14. GCSE - General Certificate of Secondary Education: a public examination in specified subjects for 16-year-old schoolchildren. It replaced the GCE O-level and CSE.

15. Ghetto - an area of land set aside, esp (in the US) for American Negros.

16. Great Fire of London – took place in 1666, destroyed half of the wooden city including St.Paul’s Cathedral.

17. Homestead Act - an act passed by the US Congress in 1862 making available to settlers 160-acre tracts of public land for cultivation (after 5 years of cultivation it became property).

18. Magna Carta – agreement between Barons and John Lackland restricting king’s privileges and providing nobility with liberties.

19. New Deal – program aimed at stopping Great Depression: domestic policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt for economic and social reform.

20. Ph.D. – Doctor of Philosophy: highest scientific degree awarded in the UK and the USA.

21. Reconstruction – in US restoration of democratic regime after the Civil War and reunion of the country.

22. Reservation - an area of land set aside, esp (in the US) for American Indian peoples.

23. Sons of Liberty – mass patriotic organization protested against British government, organized Boston Tea Party.

24. Tube – London underground.

25. Witan (witanagemout) – royal anglo-saxon council, consisted of druids, warriors, nobility. Developed into modern parliament.

26. Workhouse - an institution maintained at public expense where able-bodied paupers did unpaid work in return for food and accommodation.