US History, Life & Values

A big part of working for a demilitarized & more viable, humane & sustainable American society, culture & economy is to get a clear picture of who we are & who we have been. The US is not a monolith. It is & always was a diverse nation of immigrant peoples, & many cultures & subcultures.

A similar challenge to self-understanding is faced today by Europeans, Israelis, Australians, Japanese & the citizens of many other countries that rely heavily on an immigrant labor force.

American society is not & has never been uniformly White, Protestant, English-speaking, patriarchal, heterosexual, militarist or imperialist. Nor will it ever be, despite the narrow-minded appeals to ethnocentrism, nativism & xenophobia that are sometimes still heard from irresponsible politicians & publicists.

This section invites users to read & learn more about the histories, lifeways & values of a wide variety of American ethnic, regional & self-identified groups. These groups are or often have been denied in practice the dignity & respect due to fellow-citizens. Many have in addition been victimized by active hostility, discrimination or hate crimes.

Where possible, & sometimes on separate pages in the "countries" section, we include material on the "diaspora" to other parts of the world of US immigrant groups, for purposes of comparison.