Analysis Of Made In America By Claude S. Fischer

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The author of the article is Claude S. Fischer. He received both M.A and Ph.D in

Sociology from Harvard University. Now, he is working for Made In America which is a

Social History of American Culture and Character. First of all, Claude pointed out “Locality

is following the family, the premier locus for “community”, in the fullest sense of solidarity,

commitment, and intimacy”. Afterwards, he stated 4 different ways can prove Americans have

become more committed in localism. He also stated that the changes between families and

nations. In my point of view, localism could be a good thing but with many questions which need

to be answered.

An interesting phenomenon in contrasting vision of community is American history and

ideology …show more content…

However, when they find reasonable

excuse like better jobs, larger houses or convenient facilities, they will leave without guilt. From

my perspective, I can’t understand American’s behavior because it is against my country’s

culture. In China, people live in a three people family and have connection with other family

members closely. For example, my home and the other two aunts’ home are in the same

community and the elder aunt is taking care of my grandma. On the other hand, the parents in

China don’t let their children live alone whether they are over eighteen because they concern

that it is too dangerous for their children to leave their parents around eighteen. At least their

children can find a job first. For the children's side, they have responsibilities to take care of their

parents when their parents get old. Furthermore, they will be criticized if they abandon their

parents. In spite , because of different culture, people’s actions are different. The society would

also envelop people’s thoughts and behavior.

I got confused when I read the second understanding talks about “Americans have …show more content…

The second reason is that

the local commitment is increased by diffusing the urban population. The supporting example

that the author gave is low density housing and suburban governments help to generate local

commitments. The third reason is the homogenous neighborhoods have occurred. Claude has

mentioned that greater local homogeneity also reinforces neighboring and attachment to the

neighborhood. The fourth trend is increasing home ownership, Americans live different areas

to show noble value by income level. These four reasons actually support that American have

developed their local community. For instance, I have been attending learning community at

school. Actually, everything dorm hall has one to two learning communities for students to join

so that the students can have the connection with each other. This fact tells me that the society is

encouraging American to accept more local commitments and they are working on it.

However, in another perspective, Americans are somehow mobilizing. Due to the

development of modern technologies such as telephone and transportation method, Americans

do not only network and socialize in the area they live. Only a small portion of

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