American identity
Civic belonging sense
American identity is the shared sense of what it means to be American—a concept perpetually debated and redefined.
It draws on ideals like liberty, individualism, and opportunity, but also encompasses cultural touchstones, regional differences, and contested histories.
Unlike identities rooted in ethnicity or ancient tradition, American identity centers on civic ideals and the immigrant experience: The American identity has always been a work in progress.
What counts as authentically American remains a live question across political divides.
- land of the freeNickname for the U.S.
- 9/112001 terrorist attacks
- freedomAbsence of constraint
- patriotismDevotion to one's homeland
- national anthemOfficial patriotic composition
democracy · liberty · Civil War · regionalism · multiculturalism · religious pluralism · Founding Fathers · civil rights · generational differences · westward expansion · Constitution · folklore · Revolutionary War · ethnic diversity · LGBTQ+ rights · activism · immigration waves · cowboy
- AmericanaFourth of July, bald eagle, Thanksgiving, apple pie, baseball
- American Philosophypragmatism, William James, John Dewey, Ralph Waldo Emerson, transcendentalism
- European American heritageEuropean descent, ethnic heritage, ancestry
- Walt WhitmanLeaves of Grass, Song of Myself, en-masse, kosmos, Brooklyn
- American LiteratureThe Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, Moby Dick
- American EssaysThoreau, Emerson, self-reliance, Walden, civil disobedience
American identitystatelessness
Having no recognized citizenship
un-American · Chinese identity · global citizenship · British identity · cosmopolitanism
American identityforeignness
Quality of being unfamiliar
exile · statelessness · treason · disloyalty