by Bill Bryson
Many Americans see this as a threat. They note uneasily that already the most popular radio station in Los Angeles is a Spanish-language one, that Spanish is the mother tongue of about half of the two million inhabitants of greater Miami, that 11 per cent of Americans speak a language other than English at home. Some have even seen in this a kind of conspiracy. The late Senator S. I. Hayakawa expressed his belief in 1987 that ‘a very real move is afoot to split the US into a bilingual and bicultural society’.22 Though he never explained what sinister parties were behind this move, or what they could possibly hope to gain from it, his views found widespread support, and led to the formation of US English, a pressure group dedicated to the notion that English should be the sole official language of the United States.
In fact, there is no reason to suppose that America is any more threatened by immigration today than it was a century ago. To begin with, only 6 per cent of Americans are foreign born, a considerably smaller proportion than in Britain, France, Germany or most other developed countries. Immigration is for the most part concentrated in a few urban centres. Though some residents in those cities may find it vexing that their waitress or taxi-driver does not always speak colloquial English with the assurance of a native-born American, it is also no accident that those cities where immigration is most profound – Miami, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco – are almost always far more vibrant than those places like Detroit, St Louis and Philadelphia where it is not.
Nor is it any accident that immigrants are a disproportionate presence in many of those industries – pharmaceuticals, medical research, entertainment, the computer industry – that are most vital to America’s continued prosperity. A third of the engineers in California’s silicon valley, for instance, were born in Asia. As one observer has put it: ‘America will win because our Asians will beat their Asians.’23
Quite apart from the argument that foreign cultures introduce a welcome measure of diversity into American life, no evidence has ever been adduced to show that immigrants today, any more than in the past, persist with their native tongues. A study by the Rand Corporation in 1985 found that 95 per cent of the children of Mexican immigrants in America spoke English, and that half of these spoke only English. According to another survey, more than 90 per cent of Hispanics, citizens and non-citizens alike, believe that residents of the United States should learn English.24
If history is anything to go by, then three things about America’s immigrants are as certain today as they ever were: that they will learn English, that they will become Americans, and that the country will be richer for it. And if that is not a good thing, I don’t know what is.
Notes
1: The Mayflower and Before
1 American Heritage, October 1962, pp. 49–55.
2 Flexner, I Hear America Talking, p. 271
3 Heaton, The Mayflower, p. 80.
4 Wagenknecht, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, p. 105.
5 Caffrey, The Mayflower, p. 141.
6 Blow (ed.), Abroad in America, p. 79.
7 Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, p. 19
8 Enterline, Viking America, p. 10.
9 Morison, op. cit., p. 20.
10 National Geographic, November 1964, p. 721.
11 Enterline, op. cit., p. 136.
12 The Economist, 29 June 1991, p. 100.
13 Sydney Morning Herald, 16 September 1992, p. 8.
14 The Economist, 24 October 1991, p. 136.
15 National Geographic, June 1979, p. 744.
16 Stewart, Names on the Land, p. 23.
17 American Heritage, October 1962, p. 50.
18 Caffrey, op. cit., pp. 70–3.
2: Becoming Americans
1 Mencken, The American Language, 4th edn., p. 434.
2 Ibid., p. 431.
3 Vallins, Spelling, pp. 79–85
4 Krapp, The English Language in America, vol. 1, p. 201.
5 Baugh and Cable, A History of the English Language, p. 248.
6 Dohan, Our Own Words, p. 69.
7 Mencken, op. cit., p. 288.
8 Holt, Phrase and Word Origins, p. 55.
9 Fischer, Albion’s Seed, p. 261.
10 Flexner, I Hear America Talking, p. 63, and Mencken, op. cit., p.139.
11 American Heritage, February 1963, pp. 90–6.
12 Craigie, The Growth of American English, pp. 209–11.
13 Laird, Language in America, pp. 25–6.
14 R. Bailey, Images of English, pp. 68–9, and Mencken, op. cit., p.111.
15 Stewart, Names on the Land, p. 63.
16 Holt, op. cit., pp. 49–50.
17 Carver, A History of English in Its Own Words, p. 182.
18 R. Bailey, op. cit., p. 67.
19 Krapp, op. cit., p. 175.
20 Quoted in Marckwardt, American English, p. 28.
21 American Heritage, December 1983, p. 85.
22 Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, p. 15.
23 American Heritage, April 1963, p. 69.
24 National Geographic, June 1979, p. 735.
25 Ibid., p. 764.
26 Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, p. 41.
27 Lacey, Sir Walter Ralegh, p. 90.
28 Jones, American Immigration, p. 18.
29 Ibid., p. 22.
30 Morison, op. cit., p. 82.
3: A ‘Democratical Phrenzy’: America in the Age of Revolution
1 Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, p. 172.
2 Fischer, Albion’s Seed, p. 30.
3 American Heritage, June 1970, pp. 54–9.
4 Stephen T. Olsen, ‘Patrick Henry’s “Liberty or Death” Speech: A Study in Disputed Authorship’, in Benson (ed.), American Rhetoric, pp. 19–27.
5 Quoted in Cmiel, Democratic Eloquence, p. 56.
6 Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience, p. 374.
7 American Heritage, December 1973, p. 37.
8 Quoted in Cmiel, op. cit., p. 54.
9 P. Smith, A People’s History of the United States, vol. 1, p. 271.
10 Letter to William Randolph, June 1776, in Boy (ed.), The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1, p. 409.
11 P. Srnith, op. cit., p. 223.
12 Wills, Inventing America, p. 45.
13 Ibid., p. 35.
14 Brodie, Thomas Jefferson, p. 103.
15 Fischer, op. cit., p. 6.
16 Ibid., p. 471.
17 Ibid., p. 259.
18 Dillard, All-American English, p. 55.
19 Wills, op. cit., p. 36.
20 Quoted in Krapp, The English Language in America, vol. 1, p. 46.
21 Flexner, I Hear America Talking, p. 7.
22 Cmiel, op. cit., p. 45.
23 Krapp, op. cit., p. 44.
24 Mencken, The American Language, 4th edn., p. 539.
25 Dillard, op. cit., p. 53.
26 Hibbert, Redcoats and Rebels, pp. 31–5.
27 Stephen E. Lucas, ‘Justifying America: The Declaration of Independence as a Rhetorical Document’, in Benson (ed.), op. cit., p71.
28 Letter to Henry Lee, 8 May 1825.
29 Wills, op. cit., p. xxi.
30 Cmiel, op. cit., p. 83.
31 Boyd (ed.), op. cit., vol. 1, p. 423.
32 Lucas, op. cit., pp. 67–119.
33 Hibbert, op. cit., p. 117.
34 Ibid., p. 117.
35 Safire, Coming to Terms, p. 140.
36 Simpson, The Politics of American English, p. 23.
37 Boyd (ed.), op. cit., vol. 1, p. 404.
38 Mencken, op. cit., p. 502.
39 Flexner, op. cit., p. 7.
40 Flexner, Listening to America, p. 328.
41 Boorstin, op. cit, p. 381.
4: Making a Nation
1 Mee, The Genius of the People, p. 30.
2 P. Smith, A People’s History of the United States, vol. 3, p. ix.
3 Schwarz, George Washington, p. 47.
4 Mee, op. cit., p. 143.
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5 Flexner, Listening to America, p. 281.
6 P. Smith, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 78.
7 Aldridge, Benjamin Franklin and Nature’s God, p. 22.
8 P. Smith, op. cit., vol. 3, p. 397.
9 Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, pp. 308–9.
10 Seavey, Becoming Benjamin Franklin, p. 150.
11 E. Wright, Franklin of Philadelphia, p. 53.
12 Ibid., p. 54.
13 Granger, Benjamin Franklin, p. 66.
14 Willcox (ed.), The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 15, p. 174.
15 Carr, The Oldest Delegate, p. 16.
16 Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience, p. 357.
17 Mee, op. cit., p. 90.
18 P. Smith, op. cit., vol. 6, p. 376.
19 Cooke, Alistair Cooke’s America, p. 140.
20 Mee, op. cit., p. 120.
21 Ibid., p. 237.
22 Boorstin, Hidden History, p. 187.
23 Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience, p. 402.
24 Ibid., p. 415.
25 Ernst and Schwartz, Censorship, p. 8.
26 Morison, op. cit., p. 311.
27 P. Smith, op. cit., vol. 3, pp. 122–3.
28 American Heritage, October 1969, pp. 84–5.
29 Verbatim, Summer 1991, p. 6.
30 Flexner, I Hear America Talking, p. 9.
31 Simpson, The Politics of American English, p. 41.
32 American Heritage, December 1963, p. 27.
33 Journal of American History, December 1992, pp. 939–40.
34 Quoted in Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience, p. 344.
35 National Geographic, July 1976, pp. 92–3.
36 Ibid., p. 97.
37 Mee, op. cit., pp. 33–40.
5: By the Dawn’s Early Light: Forging a National Identity
1 Holt, Phrase and Word Origins, p. 243.
2 O’Malley, Keeping Watch, p. 107.
3 American Heritage, October/November 1983, p. 104.
4 O’Malley, op. cit., p. 262.
5 P. Smith, A People’s History of the United States, vol. 3, p. 757.
6 Flexner, I Hear America Talking, p. 124.
7 Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, pp. 283–4.
8 Craigie and Hulbert, A Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles, vol. 2, p. 397.
9 Carver, A History of English in Its Own Words, p. 9.
10 New Yorker, 4 September 1989, p. 11.
11 Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience, p. 280.
12 Mencken, The American Language, 4th edn., p. 236.
13 Ibid., p. 135.
14 P. Smith, op. cit., vol. 4, p. 252.
15 Ibid., vol. 3, p. 47.
16 Commager, The American Mind, p. 16.
17 Cmiel, Democratic Eloquence, p. 159.
18 Dillard, American Talk, p. xiii.
19 Quoted in Mencken, op. cit., p. 29.
20 Ibid., p. 267.
21 Daniels, Famous Last Words, p. 43
22 Mencken, op. cit., p. 77.
23 Journal of American History, December 1992, p. 913.
24 Quoted in Mencken, op. cit., p. 87.
25 Marckwardt, American English, p. 70.
26 Journal of American History, December 1992, p. 928.
27 Quoted in Wortham, James Russell Lowell’s ‘The Biglow Papers’, p. xxii.
28 Dillard, All-American English, p. 73.
29 Quoted in Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience, p. 293.
30 Cmiel, op. cit., p. 66.
31 Letter to Lincoln, 25 November 1860, quoted in Harper Book of American Quotations, p. 121.
32 Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, p. 90.
33 Cmiel, op. cit., p. 137.
34 Ibid., p. 144.
35 Wills, Inventing America, p. xiv.
6: We’re in the Money: The Age of Invention
1 American Heritage, August 1964, p. 93.
2 Ibid., August/September 1984, p. 20.
3 Brogan, The Penguin History of the United States of America, p. 274.
4 Bursk, Clark and Hidy (eds.), The World of Business, vol. 2, p. 1251.
5 Commager, The American Mind, p. 5.
6 Daniels, Famous Last Words, p. 41.
7 Wylie, The Self-Made Man in America, p. 10.
8 Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience, p. 115.
9 Flexner, Listening to America, pp. 365–6.
10 American Heritage, December 1989, p. 108.
11 Holt, Phrase and Word Origins, p. 5.
12 Flexner, op. cit., p. 364.
13 Root and de Rochement, Eating in America, p. 321.
14 Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, p. 316.
15 American Heritage, October 1959, p. 38.
16 Zinn, op. cit., p. 327.
17 Flexner, op. cit., p. 452.
18 Burnam, The Dictionary of Misinformation, p. 37.
19 Ibid., p. 60.
20 Keeley, Making Inventions Pay, p. 10.
21 Gies and Gies, The Ingenious Yankees, pp. 208–10.
22 Barach, Famous American Trademarks, p. 75.
23 P. Smith, A People’s History of the United States, vol. 4, pp.822–3
24 Carver, A History of English in Its Own Words, p. 245.
25 P. Smith, op. cit., vol. 4, pp. 813–17.
26 American Heritage, September/October 1990, p. 58.
27 Ibid., April 1965, p. 95.
28 Ibid., p. 96.
29 Barnhart (ed.), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology, p. 1121.
30 New York Times, 26 July, 1992 p. E5.
31 The Economist, 13 April 1991, p. 83.
32 American Heritage, September/October 1990, p. 48.
33 Carver, op. cit., p. 242.
34 Gies and Gies, op. cit., p. 368.
35 Ibid., p. 311.
36 American Heritage, September/October 1990, pp. 48–59.
37 P. Smith, op. cit., vol. 7, p. 858.
38 Ibid.
39 Zinn, op. cit., p. 248.
40 Collins, The Story of Kodak, p. 72.
41 Flatow, They All Laughed, p. 31.
42 American Heritage, November 1979, p. 76.
43 P. Smith, op. cit., vol. 7, p. 858.
44 American Heritage, August/September 1978, p. 42.
45 Goldberger, The Skyscraper, p. 83.
7: Names
1 Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience, p. 305.
2 Flexner, I Hear America Talking, p. 312.
3 Krapp, The English Language in America, vol. 1, p. 175.
4 Stewart, Names on the Land, p. 64.
5 Ibid., p. 33.
6 Ibid., p. 258.
7 Fischer, Albion’s Seed, p. 420.
8 Stewart, op. cit., p. 58.
9 Ibid., p. 10.
10 American Demographics, February 1992, p. 21.
11 Stewart, op. cit., p. 70.
12 Ibid., p. 223.
13 Atlantic Monthly, November 1992, p. 149.
14 Mencken, The American Language, 4th edn., p. 649.
15 Dillard, American Talk, p. 59.
16 Mencken, The American Language, suppl. 2., p. 533.
17 Stewart, op. cit., p. 327.
18 P. Smith, A People’s History of the United States, vol. 4, pp. 473–4.
19 Fischer, op. cit., p. 654.
20 Rodgers, Chagrin ... Whence the Name?, pp. 1–13.
21 New Republic, 29 July 1991, p.8.
22 Mencken, The American Language, 4th edn., p. 656.
23 Atlantic Monthly, September 1990, p. 20.
24 Stewart, op. cit., p. 344.
25 Ibid., pp. 166–7.
26 Ibid., p. 189.
27 Mencken, The American Language, 4th edn., p. 686.
28 Lacey, Sir Walter Ralegh, p. 11.
29 Fischer, op. cit., p. 59.
30 Ibid., p. 94.
31 Ibid.
32 Levin, Cotton Mather, p. 1.
33 Mencken, The American Language, suppl. 2., pp. 577–8.
34 Forbes, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In, p. 5.
35 Mencken, The American Language, suppl. 2, pp. 579–81.
36 Ibid., p. 585.
37 Sullivan, Our Times, vol. 1, p. 250.
38 Mencken, The American Language, suppl. 2, p. 597.
8: ‘Manifest Destiny’: Taming the West
1 Dillon, Meriwether Lewis, p. 336.
2 Hart, The Story of American Roads, p. 24.
3 Root and de Rochement, Eating in America, pp. 110–11.
4 P. Smith, A People’s History of the United States, vol. 3, p. 534.
5 Moulton, The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, pp. 181–227.
6 Ibid., p. 141.
7 Cutright, Lewis and Clark, pp. viii–ix.
8 Brogan, The Penguin History of the United States of America, p. 263.
9 Tocqueville, Journey to America, p. 185.
10 Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience, pp. 91–3
11 Ibid., p. 93.
12 Boorstin, Hidden History, p. 200.
13 Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience, p. 121
14 Gies and Gies, The Ingenious Yankees, p. 255.
15 Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, p. 149.
16 American Heritage, February 1962., p. 5.
17 Atlantic Monthly, November 1992., p. 152.
18 Dillard, American Talk, p. xix.
19 Zinn, op. cit., p. 260.
20 P. Smith, op. cit., vol. 3, p. 32.
21 Fischer, Albion’s Seed, p. 62.
22 Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience, pp. 22–3.
23 Ibid., p. 24.
24 Weston, The Real American Cowboy, p. 136.
25 Dillard, op. cit., p. 114.
26 Weston, op. cit., p. 210.
27 Savage, Cowboy Life, p. 6
28 American Heritage, February 1971, p. 68.
29 Boorstin, The Americans: The National Experience, p. 83.
30 Holt, Phrase and Word Origins, p. 80.
31 Washington Post, 8 December 1989, p. C5.
32 Boorstin, Hidden History, p. 288; and Flexner, I Hear America Talking, pp. 111–12.
33 Carver, A History of English in Its Own Words, p. 199.
34 Harris, Good to Eat, p. 117.
35 The Economist, 10 August 1991, p. 29.
36 Ibid., 8 June 1991, p. 49.
37 Quoted in Atlanta Journal, 17 March 1991, p. A12.
9: The Melting-Pot: Immigration in America
1 Jones, American Immigration, pp. 104–5.
2 Ibid., pp. 114, 290.
3 Ibid., p. 107.
