Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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national identity and has cut across racial,

gender

and

class

differences. In the nineteenth

century, for example, many white Southerners sublimated class, gender and regional

consciousness in order to declare their loyalty to the Confederacy. Obviously, blacks

relate differently to this heritage.

A strong interest in the study of regionalism permeates scholarship. Regionalism in

American literature emerged in the nineteenth century and was manifest in the “local

color” movement of the 1880s. In the twentieth century, notions of regionalism were

influenced by anthropological, historical and sociological perspectives in works by

William Faulkner, Willa Cather and Robert Penn Warren. Toni

Morrison,

Alice

Walker,

Louise

Erdrich

and Wallace Stegner invoke region more critically in their discussion o

race,

class, gender and multiple, changing identities in the late twentieth century.

Historians have “discovered” region in a cyclical fashion throughout the past two

hundred years. Recently, studies in the “New Western History”

uilding on earlier work

in Southern history have rekindled the regionalist impulse. Scholars attribute this to

heightened localism related to

environmentalism,

preservation of historical monuments,

ournals and publications, and commemorative occasions. A resurgence in studies o

local communities,

family

history and autobiography contributes as well. Scholars also

argue that the resurgence of regionalism is linked to a late twentieth-century

disillusionment with national identity. This turning inward towards region is seen as

related to larger sociological and political shifts to a more conservative, locally based

sense of self amidst great mobility and change.

Further reading

Ayers, E., Nelson Limerick, P, Nissenbaum, S. and Onuf, P. (1996)

All Over the Map:

Rethinking American Regions,

Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University (introduces

contemporary debates, while individual regions and subregions have entries).

Garreau, J. (1991)

The Nïne Nations of North America,

Boston: Houghton Mifflin

(underpinned by intriguing proposals).

STACILEE FORD

Rehnquist Court

William Hubbs Rehnquist (1924–) was appointed an associate justice of the

Supreme

Court

by President

Nixon

in 1972, largely because of his impeccable conservative

record. He used his years in the Court before he was elevated to chief justice by President

Reagan

in 1986 to demonstrate his conservative views, extraordinary intellect and

collegiality. Throughout his tenure at the Court he has maintained his commitment to

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supporting state sovereignty over federal power, interpreting state authority to regulate

individuals expansively constraining the power of the federal courts to review state

criminal-law convictions, curtailing the constitutional protections granted criminal

defendants by the

Warren Court,

limiting

affirmative action

and eliminating the

privacy

right of women to choose

abortion

Rehnquist’s judicial philosophy took hold on the Court in the 1980s, when a

conservative majority emerged following Reagan and

Bush

appointments. Rather than

exercising judicial restraint, as many conservative justices profess, the Rehnquist Court

has practiced a conservative-oriented

judicial activism

that has successfully continued

the process, begun in the Court under Warren Burger, of limiting the impact o

recedents from the more liberal era of the Warren Court while not explicitly overruling

most of them. The Rehnquist Court welcomes cases brought by groups seeking to

romote conservative agendas, such as the Washington Legal Foundation, while those

pursuing progressive causes are increasingly relegated to state courts where they often

find more receptive judicial audiences.

Further reading

Davis, S. (1989)

Justice Rehnquist and the Constitution,

Princeton: Princeton University

Press.

JAMES KRAUS

religion

Americans have long been committed to the ideal of religious diversity. Though several

of the early European settlements in their beginnings experimented with theocracy—

Massachusetts with Congregationalism, Pennsylvania with

Quakerism,

Maryland and

Louisiana with

Roman Catholicism

—

y the end of the seventeenth century the energy

for religious uniformity had all but drained away. Many European settlers (e.g. the

Puritans

and Quakers), who had relocated across an ocean specifically to escape

theological conformity were already in a mindset of religious rebellion, and the

atmosphere of theological independence inspired new communities (e.g. Rhode Island

and Delaware) to break away from original settlements, partly in pursuit of this ideal o

consummate religious freedom. White settlers who drifted off to Native American

settlements, or who dabbled in the religious beliefs and practices introduced by Africans,

also contributed to the widely diverse mixture of religious cultures that had taken root by

the time the American Revolution set the United States off on its own course, defined by

a 1791 constitutional amendment requiring that the government “make no law respecting

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an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The first century of American religion

In the decades following the Revolution, the development of religious institutions

increasingly followed—and created—social cleavages, along lines of culture,

class,

region and

ethnicity

. Though various versions of Christianity were—and remain—the

dominant religion in the United States, important Jewish communities developed, and a

few Americans, particularly those of North African origin, worshipped in the Islamic

tradition as well. Hence, early on, the United States became unique in its conscious and

constitutionalized commitment to segregate church from state, to de-

oliticize religion, to

de-religionize politics and to provide “tolerance” for a wide range of religious expression.

Yet, of the diverse traditions which settlers brought to America, almost all have been

shaped by just the opposite commitment—

y a powerful and prescriptive relationship

between religion and the everyday lives of the populace. From Catholic, Anglican,

Greek

Orthodox,

Jewish and, recently

Buddhist

and

Hindu

cultures, and numerous smaller

groupings, the United States became a merging-

oint, and a flashpoint, for divergent

religious traditions. Religious values therefore remain a persistent, if somewhat

ambivalent and subterranean, part of American life in informal as well as formal

intersections with politics, education, economics and life choices. As one observer

phrased it, “freedom

religion is not freedom

from

religion.”

Over the course of the century following the Revolution, American religions became

fragmented as local cultural norms intertwined with religious values and as Americans

raised on Puritan traditions worried that religion was dying out in the United States. Early

nineteenth-century attempts to reinvigorate what some saw as fading religious energies

resulted in what became known as the Second Great Awakening, accompanied by “camp

meetings” or “revival meetings” in rural areas, by a phenomenal growth in evangelical

and vigorously participatory Protestant religious services and by an increasing alignment

etween religious affiliations and social, political and/or regional positions. For example,

the

Southern

Baptist denomination, separated from its Northern counterpart by its

redominantly rural population and its vigorous support of slavery became the backbone

of American slave society. By contrast, Unitarianism and Quakerism came to be

distinguished by their small numbers, their concentration in the Northern states and the

Ohio Valley and by their devotion to the abolitionist cause. Over time, other

denominations became associated with particular political and/or social causes. Northern

Baptists were strong in the temperance movement, Catholics sent missionaries among

Native Americans, Afri-can Methodist Episcopal (AME) churches supported black

schools, Jewish synagogues underwrote urban-settlement houses for new immigrants and

Northern Methodists encouraged the

Young Men’s Christian Association

movement to

encourage young men to remain strong in Christian faith.

Episcopalianism,

with its

strong roots in the Anglican church, maintained tradition for the dwindling number o

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Americans of British ancestry.

Religious practice in modern America

American national rituals are almost always nominally religious, broadened in recent

years from a vaguely “Christian” tradition to an equally ill-defined “Judaeo-Christian”

tradition. Politicians almost always profess a belief in a “higher power,”

ut are careful

not to sound too fundamentalist, too metaphysical, or too extreme. Political officials are

installed with a prayer and a Bible as part of the ceremonies, but in the most democratic

of institutions—the school—

rayer is prohibited lest it appear that there is official

proselytizing of any particular religious practice.

Instead of a shared religion, the United States is greatly influenced by what some

observers have called “civil religion”—a widespread acceptance of a unifying set o

values that bind Americans to a shared code of behavior. While trying to maintain a

osture of separation between church and state, Americans have attempted to balance that

osture with using amorphous religious rhetoric to legitimize certain standards of ethics

and behavior. One observer describes this balancing act as “an effort to find a faith

sufficiently encompassing and inspiring to envelop all of ‘God’s New Israel’ under one

snugly religious quilt.” Certainly a largely patriarchal Protestant and Puritan set of values

has shaped the American religious mainstream, informing everything from

marriage,

child-rearing and social relationships to politics and marketplace ethics. But Native

American influences can be seen in some of the religious-

olitical framework of the

Constitution, and Jews,

African Americans

and women have successfully invoked

religious rhetoric to highlight social injustice.

The American openness to religious diversity has had mixed results. There has been

lenty of opportunity for new denominations to flourish, such as the AME Church, which

was born in

Philadelphia

in the 1790s, but there has also been plenty of opportunity for

conflict and dissension. Despite the fact that unconventional forms of religious behavior

have brought angry and sometimes violent responses, Americans have, to date, not been

dislodged from the conviction that freedom of worship is important, even when this

conviction has sparked violence. In the 1830s, Illinois residents attacked

Mormon

settlers over their practice of polyandry and drove them from the state; in the 1980s the

Branch Davidian

group, which preached that David Koresh was the modern incarnation

of Jesus Christ, became involved in a shooting match with federal government officials.

Yet the Mormons, who eventually found a home—and legal protection for their

practices—in Utah, are now hosts to one of the most respected genealogy centers and

religious choirs. The Branch Davidians have largely disbanded, but similar groups

repared to launch violent resistance in pursuit of extreme forms of religious freedom

continue to flourish. One such group, the World Church of the Creator, which advocates

deportation of non-whites, was brought to public attention when a former member,

Benjamin Smith, went on a shooting spree in the suburbs surrounding

Chicago, IL

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Since the Second World War, as Americans have grown increasingly sensitive to

curbing any form of intolerance, the widespread recognition of rituals such as Jewish

Chanukah, African American Kwanzaa and Muslim Ramadan has challenged everything

from traditional bank

holidays

to national foodways to school curricula. As one observer

phrased it: “the growing diversity of religious and ethnic populations in the United States

[has] drawn our attention to the need to accommodate pluralism everywhere.” Such post-

war tolerance, however, has not staunched Americans’ anxiety that excessive

commitment to particular religious beliefs will lead to behaviors and loyalties that are at

odds with mainstream American civil norms (e.g. Catholic loyalties to the Pope, Quaker

commitments to pacifism, Muslim adherence to abstinence from alcohol, Christian

Science resistance to modern medicine, shamanic invocations of other-worldly spirits,

Wicca celebrations of feminist religions, etc.). The delicate boundary between religious

freedom and civil authority continues to occasion dozens of legal confrontations each

year. As immigration restrictions have been relaxed, Buddhist, Hindu and various smaller

groupings of Old-World religions also have taken a significant place in the modern

religious landscape, and these, too, sometimes are accompanied by rites and traditions

that are disturbing to their neighbors.

In twenty-first century America it seems likely that the tightrope comprising civil

religious impulses, commitment to religious freedom, increasing diversity among the

opulation and tensions between conflicting religious requirements and rites will

continue a dynamic relationship that defines Americans’ religious experience.

Further reading

Williams, P. (1990)

America’s Religions: Traditions and Cultures,

London: Macmillan.

EMMA LAPSANSKY

Reno, Janet

b. 1938

Attorney-General

(1993–). Nominated by President

Clinton,

Reno was the first

woman ever appointed to the highest-ranking law-enforcement post in the nation. She has

received mixed reviews from both sides of the political aisle. Some critics have accused

her of being too deferential to both Clinton and

Republican

law-makers, while others say

she has been too zealous in appointing special prosecutors to investigate the Clinton

administration. Reno’s handling of armed stand-offs between government agents and

religious and political extremists in the earlier part of her tenure, namely the 1993

Waco

siege, also received criticism.

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SARAH SMITH

Republican Party

The more conservative of the two major political

parties,

the Republican Party is

generally identi fied with small government and laissez-faire economics. Republicans

usually support tax cuts, reduction or elimination of

welfare

for the poor and

privatization of many government programs, such as

Social Security

. They also take

positions on a variety of social, as well as fiscal, issues, usually opposing

abortion,

gun

control, and extending to protection against prejudice for gays and lesbians and

advocating the adoption of prayer in

public schools

The Republican Party has not always been considered the more conservative of the two

arties. Formed in 1854 around a diverse group of opponents of slavery it elected

Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860. Its reputation as the more conservative party

in America was cemented during the 1930s, when the party’s failure to deal with the

severe economic depression led to the election of Franklin D.

Roosevelt,

a Democrat, and

consequently to the creation of the American welfare state.

Lincoln’s opposition to slavery and his actions to keep the

South

from seceding from

the nation have meant that until recently Republicans have not enjoyed much support in

this region of the country, even though Southern voters are considered rather

conservative. This has changed in the aftermath of the

Civil Rights movement,

with

which the

Democratic Party

was identified. In addition, the emergence since the late

1980s of the

Christian Right

and the Christian Coalition as serious political forces has

been a major factor in the party’s ability to attract Southern voters; the involvement o

these groups has also moved the Republican Party to a more conservative position

ideologically. The Christian Right has focused its energy on supporting socially

conservative causes, such as opposition to abortion and support for school prayer.

The involvement of these new organizations and the party’s new attractiveness to

Southern voters helped the Republicans gain control of the House and Senate in 1994, the

first time in forty years they had controlled both branches of

Congress

. This election

rought a number of new, more conservative Republicans to the House. The House

Freshman of 1994 were known for their energy, inexperience and their strong attachment

Speaker of the House

Newt

Gingrich,

whom they felt was responsible for their

collective victory This has created some tension within the party as older, less socially

conservative Republicans have responded to the influx of new blood.

There has been a considerable debate about the Republicans’ ability to retain their

newfound dominance. The Republicans’ new source of strength in the South looks as

though it may endure, but outside this region and in presidential races the party has faced

difficulties attracting less socially conservative voters.

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Further reading

Balz, D. and Brownstein, R. (1996)

Storming the Gates,

New York: Little, Brown & Co.

Rutland, R. (1996)

The Republicans,

Columbia: University of Missouri Press.

EMILY CLOUGH

restrictive covenants

Privately negotiated written agreements, which are binding on succeeding property

owners, imposing limitations on the use and ownership of real property. Pre-dating

governmental zoning and land-use controls, they created privately enforceable rights

involving such benign matters as offensive businesses and design aesthetics. Racially

restrictive covenants, limiting property ownership to Caucasians, were widespread,

including their use in the original

Levittown

. In

Shelley

Kraemer

(1948) the

Supreme

Court

held the enforcement of racially restrictive covenants by state courts

unconstitutional. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 further prohibited racial discrimination in

the sale, rental and advertisement of housing.

JAMES KRAUS

retirement

The term “retirement” typically refers to the partial or full separation of a person from

occupational life. Most often, advancing years are the impetus for retirement, however

there is no universal retirement age. Separation from the workforce prior to the age o

sixty-two or sixty- five (the ages at which reduced and full

Social Security

benefits may

e collected respectively) is often referred to as early retirement, however this is not an

official designation. The timing of retirement may be changed by variations in

employersponsored pension-

rogram policies, although mandatory retirement policies are

no longer legal for almost all occupations. Some individuals may choose to retire from

the workplace whereas others may be compelled to step down. There are numerous

factors that may contribute to the decision to retire. Separation from the workplace may

e desirable for the well aged who yearn for the freedom to pursue personal interests or

merely to enjoy the release from occupational structures and demands. Others may base

their decision on factors relating to adequacy of pension, health benefits and overall

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financial security. Some find that declining physical or mental capacity or the expectation

that they fill a larger role within the family necessitates withdrawal from employment.

Regardless of whether retirement is a choice or necessity the event is typically

momentous and signifies, for better or worse, disengagement from decades o

remunerated productivity. For many identity is closely linked with one’s title, field and

employer, and is depreciated by the act of retirement. When retirement results in reduced

income, perceived status may be altered simultaneously. Successful retirement, therefore,

is in part related to the ability to acquire new and meaningful roles such as volunteer,

participant in social and recreational activities, care-giver or activist, particularly in

American culture which values remaining productive or at least busy. Personal

maladjustment, marital strain and stress related to a new budget do occur, but only in the

minority of retirees at any given time.

The concept of retirement in the United States has evolved over the years and its

significance has been altered concurrently. In pre-industrial times, it was expected that

eople would continue to work until no longer able to do so. With the advent o

automation, productivity increased reducing the number of workers needed for national

economic output. Retirement came to be seen as a way to limit the number of workforce

articipants and those seeking employment and to provide support for those less able to

work, such as the old and disabled. The association between retirement and

old age

and

incapacity further promoted negative attitudes. The establishment of Social Security in

1935 ushered in a new understanding of retirement. Workers were “rewarded” for their

years of productivity and additionally given the opportunity to defer income for their later

years. Although the evolution of attitudes took many years, retirement ultimately came to

e seen as a right reserved for those who have served an adequate amount of time in the

workforce. Today the vast majority of workers intend to retire, although the timing varies

greatly.

LENARD W.KAYE

reunions

Assemblies viewed with nostalgia and trepidation, as continuous media presentations

underscore. Many reunions are generational, marking rites of passage in education or

military service. The 25th reunion establishes a milestone for adult change with regard to

high school

and

college,

and provides a retrospective framing for many

films

and

television

shows. Other reunions deal with localities, assembling former residents o

changing areas to recall “the old

neighborhood

.”

Family

reunions unite space and time,

whether small-scale events associated with

holidays,

more emotional coming together at

marriage

and funerals or massive assemblies that may cross race and class lines in

search of history and unity. These may be associated with famous figures (descendants o

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Thomas Jefferson), but more often mark tradition and separation in black and white

families.

GARY McDONOGH

revivals (evangelical religious gatherings

associated with tents and charismatic

preaching as well as pentecostal events)

religion

rhythm and blues (R&B)

African Americans

developed rhythm and blues in the early 1940s as a hybrid o

country blues and big-

and swing. In the coming decades R&B evolved in one direction

into

rock ’n’ roll,

and in another direction into

soul

While

“race”

records sold well in the 1920s (Mamie Smith recorded the first

blues

record in 1920), their sales plummeted during the Great Depression. The major labels lost

interest in black-oriented music, but after the Second World War small, independent

labels began to take advantage of the lower cost of recording technology and the

untapped market. At the same time, black music began to change as big bands were

forced to pare down for lack of work and rural blues artists moved to cities. Possibly the

est way to describe R&B in the early era is as a hybrid of the blues with bigband

swing—a typical R&B song of the period mixing swinging horn riffs with a rolling

boogie rhythm—what Louis Jordan called the Jump Blues. By the 1950s

Billboard

’s

Jerry Wexler had renamed “race” music “rhythm and blues.”

In Southern

California,

artists like Lowell Fulson, T-Bone Walker and Johnny Otis

played to packed houses at the Barrel House in the Watts section of

Los Angeles,

while

their music reached larger audiences through local labels like Aladdin, Excelsior and

Specialty. In

New York,

the Erteguns started Atlantic Records, and the Chess brothers

opened Aristocrat and then Chess Records (recording the transplanted Delta blues o

Muddy

Waters

and Howlin’ Wolf). New Orleans R&B took its boogie rhythm from the

iano, with honking saxes laid over the top. Producer Dave Bartholomew was responsible

for many classic early R&B sessions, including those by Fats Domino and Little Richard.

Always a melange, R&B became difficult to distinguish from rock ’n’ roll by the mid-

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1950s, and in many ways there was no difference—the term “rock ’n’ roll” gaining

revalence only when white performers and audiences took over. Still, while Fats

Domino, Little Richard and Chuck Berry may have moved seamlessly into rock ’n’ roll,

other important black artists of the 1950s continued in a distinctly R&B vein—Big Mama

Thornton, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Ike Turner only occasionally crossed over.

R&B also developed into what came to be called soul music in the 1960s with the

additional influence of the church. Artists such as Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson and James

Brown

effected a transformation in black music from R&B to soul when they began to

add the emotional expressiveness of gospel music. R&B survives today as a general

category of black music, though without any formal accuracy. The influence of R&B,

however, can be felt in nearly all

popular music

forms, from rock ’n’ roll to disco to

rap

DEWAR MACLEOD

Right, the

When one refers to the Right, or right wing, in the cuts across currents associated with

Jeffersonian United States, one begins with a tradition which and Jacksonian democracy.

One must initially note that confusions between conservatives and reactionaries muddy

the waters. A conservative tradition, resting on aspects of

Puritanism,

a more sober view

of human nature and behavior, the elitism of the Federalists and, in part, the Whigs, and,

importantly the

Southern

traditionalism associated with John C.Calhoun, must be

distinguished from reactionary and characteristically xenophobic movements and

moments, ranging from the Alien and Sedition Acts of the 1790s to the anti-Catholic

Know-Nothings to the antiReconstruction

Ku Klux Klan

In the twentieth century, the Right stood against the emergence of the welfare state

most identified with the New Deal and against the secular trends towards moral

relativism, which have engendered what many call “the culture wars.” As such, the Right,

in the 1930s through the Liberty League and neo-fascist voices like Father Charles

Coughlin, and in the early Cold-War years in the form of

McCarthyism,

was, for the

most part, a reactive force, able to scare and sometimes slow, but never able to halt the

tides of modernization and modernity

During the 1950s, the contemporary Right began to take form under the leadership o

William F.Buckley, Jr. and his

National Review,

which produced a “fusion” of

Cold War

anti-communism, economic free-market laissez-faire and cultural traditionalism. When

liberalism faltered during the 1960s, battered by failures in Vietnam, racial and

generational tensions and the beginnings of economic stagnation, the Right responded

with impressive success. The

Goldwater

campaign of 1964, despite its defeat, formed

the cadre and organizational base for the

Reagan

Revolution of the 1980s. George

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