《美国社会文化》旨在为中国的英语学习者和美国文化爱好者提供一幅以美国文化理念和价值观为主线、以美国人民族特性和行为方式为内容、以美国社会结构和地区特色为衬托的“美国社会文化全景图。。众所周知，语言的背后是文化，文化的背后是良知，良知的背后是人性。因此，无论是从现实主义或者实用主义，还是从道德良知或者人文精神的角度来说，知晓和领悟美国文化不仅有助于我们对英语的切实掌握和灵活运用，而且有助于我们人文素养的提升和思想情操的修炼。

The city had many faces.Slums，criminals，beggars，and grafters displayed one side of urban life.Beautiful parks broad avenues lined with smart stores and find mansions，great churches，theaters，museums，and libraries showed another.The best hospitals and the best schools were to be found in the cities，as were also the intellectual nerve centers of the country the offices of the leading magazines，newspapers，and book publishers.It was part of the centralization of American life that the mores ophisticated manners and morals of the city should exert a steadily widening influence over the country as a whole.The city was the home of the rich no less than of the poor。but the rich were enjoying their golden hour in the city as the poor could not.For women，however，the city gave them new opportunities for indepen dencethat were nerve dreamed of.The narrow alternatives of earlier davs school-teaching，domestic service，factory work now broadened to offer employment to women doctors，lawyers，typists，telephone operators，librarians，journalists，and social workers.Particularly interesting were the opportunities in nursing.Excerpt in a few Catholic hospitals，femalenurses before the Civil War were an untrained and little-respected group.But by 1883，with the radical alteration of public attitudes，there were twenty-two training schools in the country.Urban conditions，the growing independence of women，and many other economic and social factors exerted their influence on American family life.Between 1860 and 1910，the birth rate declined from about 41per thousand to about 27.Smaller families were particularly characteristic of the urban professional and business classes，who found it increasinglyexpensive to give children the educational and other advantages that were considered necessary.Even more alarming to many moralists was the steady increase in divorce.In 1867，fewer than 10，000 divorces were granted in the whole country 0.3 divorce per thousand of population.In1914，there were over 100，000 divorces and the rate had risen to 1.0 perthousand inhabitants.

Chapter One Out of the Past
Learning Objectives
1.1 The Birth of a New Nation
1.2 The Growth of the-New Republic
1.3 The Civil War and the Reconstruction
1.4 Growth and Transformation
1.5 The Progressive Thrust
1.6 War, Prosperity, and Depression
1.7 World War II and Its Impact
1.8 Decades of Change: 1960-1980
1.9 America at the Turn of the Century
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Two The American Identity
Learning Objectives
2.1 The Anglo-Saxons
2.2 White Ethnic Americans
2.3 African Americans
2.4 Latinos/Hispanies
2.5 Asian Americans
2.6 Native Americans
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Three Religion in America
Learning Objectives
3.1 Religion in America: A Brief History
3.2 "In God We Trust"
3.3 Church, State and Polities
3.4 Popular Religion
3.5 Civil Religion and Beyond
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Four American Beliefs
Learning Objectives
4.1 Primary Beliefs of American Culture
4.2 Immigrant Beliefs
4.3 Frontier Beliefs
4.4 Religious and Moral Beliefs
4.5 Social Beliefs
4.6 Political Beliefs
4.7 Beliefs on Human Nature
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Five American Values and Assumptions
Learning Objeetives
5.1 Individualism and Privacy
5.2 Equality
5.3 Informality
5.4 Achievement, Action, Work, and Materialism
5.5 Directness and Assertiveness
5.6 Cooperation and "Fair Play"
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Six Cultural Regions in America
Learning Objectives
6.1 New England
6.2 The South
6.3 The Midland
6.4 The Midwest
6.5 The Far West
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Seven Education in America
Learning Objectives
7.1 Initial Efforts in Promoting Education
7.2 Education as Philanthropy
7.3 The Birth of Public Schools
7.4 The Emergence of the Academies
7.5 Colleges: Private and Public
7.6 The Arrival of the University
7.7 Progressivism in Education
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Eight The American Family
Learning Objectives
8.1 European Origins of the American Family
8.2 Separate Spheres and the Birth of the Modern American Family
8.3 Private Lives and Paradoxes of Perfection
8.4 The Contemporary American Family
8.5 Upper, Middle, and Working-Class Families
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Nine Mass Media
Learning Objectives
9.1 Books
9.2 Newspapers
9.3 Magazines
9.4 Films
9.5 Radio and Sound Recording
9.6 Television
9.7 The Internet and the World Wide Web
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Ten Popular Culture
Learning Objectives
10.1 Comic Art
10.2 Advertising
10.3 Automobile Culture
10.4 Dance
10.5 Music
10.6 Sports
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Eleven Capitalist Economy and Business Civilization
Learning Objectives
11.1 American Capitalism
11.2 The Cult of the Businessman
11.3 The Corporate Empire
11.4 Business and Its Satellites
11.5 Capital and Labor
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Twelve Social Services
Learning Objectives
12.1 American Values in Social Welfare
12.2 Social Services: A Brief History
12.3 Public Social Services
12.4 Health Care Services
12.5 Housing
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Thirteen Law and Legal System
Learning Objectives
13.1 The Sources of the Law
13.2 The Federal Judicial System
13.3 The State Judicial System
13.4 The Criminal Court Process
13.5 The Civil Court Process
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Fourteen American Women
Learning Objectives
14.1 Founding Mothers
14.2 Women in the New Republic
14.3 Women's Rights Movement
14.4 The Cult of Domesticity and New Women
14.5 Housewifery and Domesticity
14.6 A New Wave of Feminism
14.7 Gains and Uncertainties
Summary
Essay Questions

Chapter Fifteen Who Is an American?
Learning Objectives
15.1 The Puritan Thesis
15.2 The Frontier Thesis
15.3 The Melting-Pot Thesis
15.4 The Salad Bowl Thesis
15.5 Multiculturalism
Summary
Essay Questions
Bibliography