A Cultural History of The United States - Ep. 5

LECTURE 3 - AMERICAN INDIVIDUALISM:

Is it really better to be suckled by wolves than to inherit a farm? This lecture explores the evolution of the American conception of the individual and why it has become so dominant within American culture. Devoid of a deep history and often in strange surroundings with strange people, many Americans have, for generations, felt thrust out on their own. What for most societies was considered a severe punishment - banishment - became, in America, a common and perhaps necessary mode of life. Over time, a virtue was created from this necessity and the peculiar form of American individualism became cemented as a core element of American values. 

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