ABSTRACT
Americanness refers to the basis of phenomena that draws attention to themselves as American. Americanness represents ways of thinking and acting shaped by history, society, politics, and geography connected to the United States, and is associated with people identifying as Americans. Americanness as a concept points to ways of thinking in and about America. Americanness produces symbols and metaphors meant to comfort or disturb and it directs awareness to shared ideas and ideals, and indeed worldview as an overarching outlook or belief system. The affirmation of Americanness is complicated by the fact that the people of the United States of America, many coming as immigrants and those who are indigenous, have struggled with the country’s balance of nationalism and localism, in addition to the composite picture of its mixed ethnicities, religions, and races.
