Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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Scouting programs are service and recreation organizations that nurture character

development, respect, self-esteem and

patriotism

in young people. Both the Boy Scouts

of America (BSA), organized in 1909, and the Girl Scouts of the United States (initially

American Girl Guides), organized in 1912, replicated English programs created by Boer

War hero Lord Robert Baden-Powell. An amalgamation of Christianity, Kipling’s

Just So

Stories,

military culture and Native American

folklore,

scouting developed in tandem

with other youth and social-reform movements.

Membership figures soared during the first half of the twentieth century when scouts

were involved in wartime projects. During the Second World War scouts sold war bonds,

distributed defense housing surveys, kept victory gardens and worked with the Red

Cross. Since the 1960s both groups have tried to keep pace with societal changes while

preserving founding ideals. Seen as exemplars of

white

middle-class

American values,

oth organizations have worked to adapt their programs to different geographical areas

and time periods. Both have been celebrated and lampooned in media representations o

scouts and scout leaders.

Recent controversies concerning references to God in the BSA oath, accusations o

homophobia in both organizations and ongoing debates about single-gender groups are

the subject of discussion in the media. However, both groups boast healthy membership

numbers (5 million Boy Scouts and 3.5 million Girl Scouts as of 1990) and have

launched national campaigns against child and drug abuse,

crime

and illiteracy in

addition to more conventional scouting activities such as hiking,

camping

and

environmental conservation.

STACILEE FORD

screenwriters

Ambivalent category of

Hollywood

creators, whose role took shape with the feature film

(especially sound). Over the years, Hollywood has hired top writers from William

Faulkner to Ben Hecht to John Irving to adapt their own and other works. It also has

roduced notable talents within the industry. Yet, the role of the screenwriter competes

unsuccessfully in public acclaim and auteur theory with that of the

director

(which some

screenwriters have also become). Moreover, Hollywood productions may also call on

multiple writers and script doctors, especially in expensive and problematic projects,

undercutting the vision of a single author.

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1006

Seattle, WA

Entering Seattle one is immediately struck by an all-

ervasive vibrancy and sense o

youthful optimism. Construction activity, whether related to fixing potholes, the elegant

Symphony Hall, sports stadiums, or the Jimi

Hendrix

museum, suggests a city on the

move. Before long, however, traffic, among the worst in the country is sure to ensnarl

you. While stuck in traffic look east and stunning views of the snow-capped Cascade

Mountains or sailboat-studded Lake Washington present themselves. Look west and the

agged peaks of the Olympic Mountains and Lake Union stare back. A glance south and

majestic Mount Rainier mesmerizes. Winding one’s way through Seattle’s intentionally

individual

neighborhoods

—staid, trendy or funky—one is sure to spot an expresso

stand.

Named after Chief Seattle of the Duwamish tribe, Seattle’s beginnings as a white

settlement date back to 1851. From log cabins at Alki Beach it grew as a sawmill town on

a series of hills between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, soon becoming an important

seaport, which it still is today. Despite its rainy reputation, Seattle’s 32 inch annual

rainfall, less than that of many US cities, explains its picturesque, verdant landscapes.

The city’s population is just over half a million, with a sprawling metropolis of some 2

million. The residents generally pride themselves on being politically progressive,

culturally tolerant, environmentally sensitive and global in outlook. In 1989 Seattle’s

overwhelmingly white majority elected an

African American

mayor.

The city’s changing image emerges in comparing the 1937 movie

Stage Door,

which Lucille

Ball

complains: “Am I supposed to apologize for being born in Seattle?”,

Sleepless in Seattle

(1993) and

Frasier

(NBC, 1993–), in which single

yuppies

give

the city an image envied by millions around the world.

Seattle’s rich cultural amenities reflect the eclectic, experimental tastes of its

population, which encompass classical Western ballet,

Asian American

theater, African

American

poetry,

Native American dance, Mexican American music, gay choirs, fringe

theater

and

grunge

music made internationally famous by several local celebrities,

including Seattle bands Nirvana and Pearl Jam. While forward-looking, its active

citizenry has fought vigorously to preserve historical landmarks such as the Pike Place

Market, Pioneer Square, the Space Needle and the Chittenden Locks.

Seattle’s postwar, Boeing-

ased economy was deliberately diversified to prevent the

previously devastating boom-

ust cycles. The economy now includes global giants like

Microsoft, numerous spin-off high-technology companies, outdoor recreation stores like

REI and

Eddie Bauer,

Starbucks

coffee,

Nordstrom

department stores

and

biotechnology companies like Immunex.

An offshoot of the enormous success of these home-grown businesses is the emergence

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of uncharacteristically young millionaires and billionaires like Bill

Gates

and Paul Allen,

and an unprecedented wave of philanthropy and civicminded activism that will

undoubtedly leave a lasting imprint on the city.

Further reading

Dorpat, P. (1994)

Seattle Now and Then,

Seattle: Tartu.

Sale, R. (1976)

Seattle Past to Present,

Seattle: University of Washington.

Seattle-King County Tourism Bureau (1996)

MultiEthnic Guide to Seattle and Kïng

County,

Seattle: Seattle-King County Tourism Bureau.

BERYL FERNANDES

Secretary of State

The Secretary of State is the

Cabinet

member responsible for US foreign policy. As

such, the office is one of the most important posts in the United States government. The

Secretary of State is one of the senior members of the Cabinet, along with the Secretaries

of Defense and the Treasury. The Secretary is nominated by the president along with

other Cabinet members, usually at the start of an incoming administration; the

appointment must be confirmed by both houses of

Congress

. Should a Secretary of State

resign or be replaced in mid term, the same nomination and confirmation process is

observed.

The Secretary of State was one of the four posts in George Washington’s original

Cabinet. Early Secretaries of State were powerful political figures; Thomas Jefferson and

James Madison, both Secretaries of State, went on to become presidents. More recently,

Secretaries of State have tended to be less overtly political, and have been picked by

presidents on the basis of their loyalty to the latter.

To most people overseas, the Secretary of State is, after the president, the most visible

figure in the US administration, and much of American prestige abroad depends on the

character and effectiveness of the incumbent. Among the most high-

rofile Secretaries o

State in recent years is the controversial Henry

Kissinger,

who served in Richard

Nixon’s

administration. Kissinger negotiated with the Vietnamese foreign minister, Li

Duc Tho, in Paris to bring about the end of the

Vietnam War,

and was later jointly

awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The award caused outcry both within the US and abroad

as Kissinger was widely seen as one of the architects of US war policy including the

ombing of Cambodia. Kissinger was also largely responsible for the US rapprochement

with

China

in the early 1970s.

Another controversial Secretary of State was the former general Alexander Haig,

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1008

appointed by President

Reagan

in 1980. In the confusion following the assassination

attempt of 1981, Haig famously declared, “I’m in charge at the White House,” thus

appearing to usurp the authority of the

vice-president,

to whom control ordinarily passes

when the president is incapacitated. Haig was dismissed soon after.

Haig’s successor, George Schultz, had a demanding role as Secretary of State during

the last years of the

Cold War

and then the thawing of relations with the Eastern bloc.

However, he was able to exercise little or no influence over the warring parties in the

Middle East. Schultz was often at odds with other members of the administration, and

was hampered by the fact that Reagan ran what amounted to a parallel foreign policy

through the National Security Council and his own private office, employing officials

such as Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver

North

James Baker, Secretary of State under George

Bush,

was widely hailed as a success—

his tenure included the revolutions in Eastern Europe of 1989–90 and the beginnings of a

peace process in the Middle East. Warren Christopher held the post during Bill

Clinton’s

first term of office; perceived as a compromise candidate, his influence was limited. He

was replaced in the second term by Madeleine

Albright,

former US ambassador to the

United Nations, the first woman ever to hold the post.

MORGEN WITZEL

segregation

Segregation, which kept blacks and whites separate in their social relations, developed in

the aftermath of Reconstruction as a system of race control and oppression. Its

constitutionality was questioned and then affirmed in the infamous

Plessy

Ferguson

decision of 1896, in which the

Supreme Court

made “separate but equal” legal—

lacks

and whites could be segregated, so long as separate facilities were provided. Until the

1950s, therefore, segregation on streetcars and railroad carriages, and at movie theaters

grew throughout the

South

despite intermittent protests. Under the regime commonly

referred to as “Jim Crow” in the South, separate

public schools,

washrooms, water

fountains and park benches were established for blacks and whites, while churches, clubs

and neighborhoods echoed this division.

In the North

de facto

segregation also existed, with blacks commonly required to sit in

balconies at neighborhood movie theaters in cities like

Chicago, IL,

or excluded from

downtown hotels and restaurants.

Restrictive covenants

kept blacks out of white

neighborhoods,

while

unions

and employers also enforced divisions of

race

and

class

Challenges to segregation came early nonetheless. Even

Plessy

Ferguson

was itsel

a challenge, while individuals like Ida B.Wells endeavored to fight discrimination

through the legal system. In a climate of pervasive

lynching,

however, such challenges

faced a veritable reign of terror. However, the establishment of the

NAACP

in 1911, and

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its strong legal department, brought more systematic challenges in the courts. By the

1930s and 1940s, the NAACP had numerous incremental successes, generally

challenging instances of segregation where southern states were clearly not providing

equal facilities for blacks (e.g.

Gaines

University of Missouri,

1938).

The 1940s also witnessed two other important milestones in changing American

apartheid. One was President

Truman’s

1948 decision (urged by A.Philip

Randolph)

desegregate the armed forces. The other was Branch Rickey’s 1945 signing of Jackie

Robinson

for the Brooklyn Dodgers, beginning the desegregation of

baseball

. Both, in

turn, profoundly influenced the South. Desegregating army bases increased pressure to

integrate areas surrounding US army bases. Similarly northern teams with black players

put pressure on the towns hosting their spring training to change.

By the mid-1950s, other challenges to segregation emerged through the Supreme Court

and black consumer power. The NAACP made a fullfrontal assault on segregation,

persuading the Supreme Court to declare in

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

(1954) that segregation was “inherently unequal.” Other decisions attacked segregation

on interstate travel. But such decisions were meaningless unless they were enforced. It

fell to

African Americans

to test the decisions and make federal and local authorities

enforce them. In 1957, at

Little Rock,

Arkansas, black school children enrolled at

Central High School, pushing President

Eisenhower

to send in troops and federalize the

national guard to protect them. In 1960

CORE

and

SNCC

volunteers embarked on

freedom rides

on interstate buses through the South, forcing

Attorney-General

Robert

Kennedy

to intervene.

Meanwhile, attempts were made to pressure businesses and communities. In 1956, in

Montgomery AL, E.D.Nixon, the regional representative of the NAACP, orchestrated a

bus boycott following the arrest of Rosa

Parks

. The rise of Martin Luther

King,

Jr.

during this boycott and its successful conclusion led to the creation of

SCLC

and further

attempts to dismantle segregation. Students, first in North Carolina and then throughout

the South, developed the strategy of

sit-ins

employed at the lunch-counters in stores like

Krell’s and Woolworth’s.

The

Civil Rights movement

successfully destroyed the southern system o

segregation. It was not as effective at breaking down less concrete racial barriers in the

orth, or creating equal and integrated societies. Further, integration was not without its

own negative side effects. While some commentators have overly romanticized the

segregated communities that existed around schools, colleges and baseball leagues, it is

nevertheless true that the black

middle class

of these segregated communities was greatly

disrupted by desegregation. Though members of the segregated elite parlayed their talents

into successful positions in previously all-white schools and sporting leagues, the effect

also severed the black middle class from the rest of the black community in ways not

seen by immigrants who had “escaped” earlier ghettos.

Further reading

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1010

Chafe, W.H. (1980)

Civilities and Civil Rights,

New York: Oxford.

Gregg, R. (1993)

Sparks from the Anvil of Oppression,

Philadelphia: Temple University

Press.

Kluger, R. (1976)

Simple Justice,

New York: Knopf.

ROBERT GREGG

Seinfeld

NBC

situation comedy

(1989–98). Dubbed the “show about nothing” for its obsessive

focus on everyday minutiae of New York life, it won consistent top ratings and multiple

awards,

becoming the most successful 1990s TV

comedy

. Star Jerry Seinfeld (1954–)

combined his actual stand-up

comic

activities with his urban character, working

alongside a talented ensemble cast to show four friends somewhat adrift in the city. Many

critics have remarked that despite the show’s undeniable humor, its main characters (all

thirty-somethings and white) are essentially selfish and immature—themes the show

itself brought home in its final episode.

ICOLE MARIE KEATING

selective service

draft

self-help/self-esteem

American

individualism

stresses individual responsibility for actions and advancement,

whether getting a job and getting off

welfare,

learning

math

or surviving illness.

Government programs and cultural changes have sought to even the playing field through

compensatory support, regulation of opportunities and specific interventions associated

with civil rights or later rights movements. Yet, for many the responsibility for success

rests with the person as autonomous agent who must learn to correct him- or herself and

develop survival skills. This has created a massive market for those who offer self-help,

from religious institutions to

physical fitness

movements to Martha

Stewart

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Many self-help strategies aim at concrete “improvement,” whether in vocabulary

appearance (weight, hair, etc.) or social skills. Dale Carnegie’s early

How to Win Friends

and Influence People

(15 million copies sold since 1936) grew out of public speaking

classes. Self-improvements also pervade

Reader’s Digest

and women and men’s

magazines

(which may concentrate on appearance or relationships), as well as popular

financial journals. Other strategies focus on making individuals feel better about

themselves and problem situations (self-esteem). Self-help programs may be packaged

through organizations, like

Alcoholics Anonymous,

through books and videos and

through self-help “gurus” who market their programs via mass media.

One cannot help relating these forms to the longer spiritual traditions of revival and

conversion that have shaped American evangelical

religion

since colonial days. By the

twentieth century these great awakenings had become Pentecostal meetings and tent

revivals and then radio and television programs promising salvation in return for

commitment and belief. Indeed,

Christian media

met self-help in Rev. Norman Vincent

Peale’s

Power of Positive Thinking

(1952). In the 1960s, psychologically based groups

like Esalen Institute were accused of neo-religious dimensions as well. Cultish overtones

are not distant from the fervent witness of self-help infomercials and rallies. Advice

columnists, magazines and etiquette books also have offered continuing guidance on self-

improvement and manipulation of images, whether to early immigrants or to upwardly

mobile suburbanites after the Second World War. These betray American status anxiety

when about the hidden issues of

class

—self-improvement can be extremely other-

directed in terms of standards or competition for resources.

Since the 1980s, self-help/self-esteem has represented a major industry, starting in the

classroom and continuing through adulthood, while identifying widespread areas o

change and uncertainty Many books are directed towards women and women’s

assertions—cf. John Gray’s bestseller

Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus

(1993)—as well as love and romance; others deal also with image and health. Writing

tends to mix vaguely Christian platitudes with pep talks and psychologistic data. Wit and

nostalgia are also selling points in series like Canfield and Hansen’s

Chicken Soup for the

Soul/Child,

etc., which became a television feature, or Robert Fulghum’s works. Still

other works, like Stephen Covey’s

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

(1989), deal

with organizational and workplace issues. Some prove much more blunt in their

promises, like Gray’s

How to Get What You Want and Want What You Have

(1992).

Series and authors as celebrities are linked, in turn, to counseling, rallies and conventions.

Catchy titles, while effective in marketing, also make these works easy targets for

satire;

Saturday Night Live

has continually taunted “feel-good” stylemakers, while the

sitcom

Frasier

has raised many questions about “pop”

sychology. Yet mass media also

promise better lives, thus creating anxiety and appealing to self-help solutions. In fact,

stars

also become caught up in crossover promotions of couples therapy (John Tesh),

psychic friends (Dionne Warwick) and other self-help strategies. Hence, the outlines o

the American dream and nightmares of failure become blurred and disquieting.

ee also:

advice columnists

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 1012

GARY McDONOGH

Senate

Congress

Serling, Rod

science fiction, television

service sector

The service sector has provided a cushion to millions of Americans who have lost

manufacturing jobs since the 1970s. The service sector includes firms whose final outputs

are intangible. The value of a service depends primarily on the skills or knowledge used

in its creation, not in any physical good provided to consumers. In most cases, workers

facilitate the process by dealing directly with customers in selling or providing services.

When Americans think of the service sector, they often think of young, low-paid, part-

time, unskilled workers. Visions of

McDonald’s

employees flipping hamburgers or

GAP

salespeople hawking the latest

fashion

trends dominate contemporary thought. In reality,

lawyers,

doctors, entertainers and athletes are all employees of the service sector. The

residual nature of the sector’s definition groups individuals who have little in common.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies wholesale and retail trade, finance,

entertainment and recreation, professional services, public administration and many other

categories as service industries.

Regardless, the stereotypical unskilled worker is the most vulnerable in the service

economy The growth of “McJobs” has struck fear in the minds of young Americans

embarking on uncertain careers. Businesses have commoditized work, treating employees

as interchangeable and accepting the accompanying high turnover and low commitment.

Part-time employment is widespread in the United States. While convenient for young

workers and working parents, the growth limitations and lack of benefits inherent in

unskilled service professions (sometimes called “dead-end jobs”) are worrisome.

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The ephemeral nature of service goods creates a fear that the US economy relies on

non-productive activities for economic growth. Nonetheless, the prosperity of the post-

Second World War period created consumer markets for a vast array of services.

Specialization led Americans to rely on others for dry cleaning, food preparation and

professional advice.

Service industries now represent over three-quarters of the American labor force.

Manufacturing employment has fallen 10 percent to 19.7 million between 1979 and 1996,

while employment in the services has risen 44 percent to 83.8 million. The Walmart

department store chain is the fourthlargest US corporation, employing 720,000 primarily

in low-skilled retail sales positions. Many such jobs are located in remote

suburban

settings, creating difficulties for struggling

inner

cities

and their inhabitants.

As Jeremy Rifkin argues in

The End of Work

(1998), however, the rash of downsizings

and consolidation in the service industry has yet to reach its peak. While services will

always require human assistance (if only to program computers), innovation in voice-

recognition technology threatens phone operators,

Internet

commerce threatens

salespeople and just-in-time inventory threatens warehousing jobs. As jobs are eliminated

through automation, the social safety net of extended families, government

welfare

and

low employment may not be as guaranteed as it appeared in the past.