Type the phrase “United States” into the Google search engine and 3,370,000,000 listings come up on the computer screen. Clearly, there is no shortage of published content about this country. As we researched this issue of eJournal USA, however, we realized that a new publication, tailored to the current generation of young people from outside the United States, could fill a niche. Our title for this issue, “Snapshot USA,” conveys this approach. We offer some fundamental facts and build on these to describe a little of how Americans think about their country and the world, to provide a picture of who we are now.

 

Our goal is for international readers to become aware not just that California is the most populous state but also that U.S. democracy runs on a system of checks and balances, that the feelings young Americans have as they venture into adulthood may be similar to the readers’ own, and much more. In short, we do not see this issue as an academic tome but as an intriguing slice of America at a moment in time, a word-and-picture collage for June of 2006.

 

We open with a collection of short essays called “My America.” We asked five young writers to tell what they’d like people abroad to know about this country—aspects of America that, in the daily rush of headlines around the world, may have been overlooked. Their thoughts make for some surprising reading.

 

In “Some Things That Make Us American,” Northwestern University political scientist Kenneth Janda pinpoints pluralism as one key to American democracy. A scholar of international relations from American University in Washington, DC, Gary Weaver, explains further that the common metaphor of America as a melting pot where different ethnic groups lose their identities is not accurate. He prefers the symbol of a mosaic or a tapestry—a society that comprises a larger unity while at the same time valuing its distinct parts. We close this section with portraits of five contemporary Americans whose lives seem to embody some of the classic values associated with this country—self-reliance, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, second chances, and pursuing one’s dream.

 

In “American Icons,” we take a look at 32 statesmen, civil rights leaders, scientists, entrepreneurs, athletes, and entertainers whose achievements have also touched many around the world. To understand any nation, you need to understand something of its past, so we also include a listing of milestone events in U.S. history.

 

We follow with a brief tour of the country’s regions. This seems appropriate because one of the earliest and most enduring of American dreams has been about the vast land itself. Walt Whitman expressed the thought in his 1855 preface to his poetry collection, Leaves of Grass. The true poet of America, Whitman wrote, “incarnates its geography and natural life and rivers and lakes. … When the long Atlantic coast stretches longer and the Pacific coast stretches longer … He spans between them also from east to west and reflects what is between them.” «±