Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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One area which transcends both nations is the ecosystem they share. Since the 1960s,

devastating water, air and soil pollution has affected all living organisms in both

countries. The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras is one example of a

simultaneously grassroots and transnational organization formed to address shared

concerns, such as the environment. This type of relationship between the United States

and Mexico will necessarily increase as the number of Mexicans rises, both south and

north of the border. The

Chicano/Chicana

population is one of the fastest growing in the

United States. They have made

Los Angeles, CA

the second-largest Mexican city,

suggesting the complexity of United States-Mexican relations in the future.

ee also:

borderlands

Further reading

Griswold del Castillo, R. (1990)

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: A Legacy of Conflict,

Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma.

Meyer, M. and Sherman, W. (1995)

The Course of Mexican History,

New York: Oxford

University

Pastor, R. and Castañeda, J. (1988)

Limits to Friendship: The United States and Mexico,

New York: Vintage Books.

SUSAN MARIE GREEN

Miami, FL

While

Florida

has marketed sun and beaches for generations, no other area has distilled

this into the jazzy cosmopolitan styles of Miami, Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and

other nearby communities constituting a metropolitan population of 3.5 million. These

cities’ many roles and images as capitals of the new Caribbean, trendsetters for youth,

retirement havens for the elderly and glamorous

celebrity

resorts have nevertheless

clashed with ethnic and racial divisions as well as the fragility of the Everglades

ecosystem, which development continually threatens.

Miami’s 1920s boom was crushed by a hurricane and the Depression, but the city

rebounded after the Second World War as a resort for the urban

Northeast

. Among the

diverse communities which expanded its Southern

African American

and

white

populations were

Jews

from

New York

City, NY and underworld figures with links to

Cuba. In the winter season, entertainers as well as poorer “sun-birds” enlivened the

beaches and palm-lined streets of the city while elite enclaves took shape on exclusive

islands and northwards in Palm Beach.

astro’s

triumph in Cuba transformed Miami with the arrival of large numbers o

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Cuban Americans

in the 1960s and again in the 1980s. These Cubans and their

descendants have richly contributed to culture, music and politics while galvanizing other

Latin American communities. Haitians also arrived in great numbers, complicating the

racial panorama that trapped many native

African Americans

ghettos

and dead-end

obs beside the booming service-sector city

Miami style—combining the art-deco buildings of South Miami Beach, the luxuriant

foliage and tropical colors of

homes

and the cultural diversity of old and new

populations—was distilled in movies like

Scarface

(1983),

television’s

Miami Vice

(1984–9) and crime fiction from John D.McDonald to Carl Hiassen. Despite an emphasis

on problems of drugs, crime and ethnic tension, the fast-

aced, transnational style these

showcased underscored Miami’s continuing attractions for celebrities, tourists and new

migrants. With the popularity of Fort Lauderdale for

college

vacations and the continuing

elite renovation of areas like Palm Beach, Lake Worth and Miami’s Coral Gables, this

maps social and cultural complexity onto the still straining ecology of South Florida

development.

Further reading

Moore, D. (1994)

To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream in Miami

and Los Angeles,

New York: The Free Press.

Portes, A. and Stepich, A. (1993)

City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami,

Berkeley: University of California.

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

Michener, James A

b. 1907; d. 1997

Novelist whose first book,

Tales of the South Pacific

(1946), earned him a

Pulitzer

Prize

in 1948 at age forty.

Tales

drew on Michener’s experience during the Second

World War as a naval officer posted to the region. In 1949 the work was converted into

the Rogers and Hammerstein Broadway

musical,

South Pacific,

and ran for 1,925

erformances. After this first publication, Michener covered much of the world with his

stories—

Hawaii

(1959),

Iberia

(1967),

Chesapeake

(1978),

Alaska

(1985) and

Caribbean

(1989)—and even reached the final frontier,

Space

(1982). Part of Michener’s appeal lies

in the way he combines fact and fiction to condense complex and sometimes unsettling

histories into singular and monumental narratives.

ROBERT GREGG

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Mid-Atlantic region

This term includes at least part of New York, New Jersey Pennsylvania, Delaware,

Maryland and the District of Columbia. Generally this encompasses the coastal

subregion, the Delaware and Susquehanna River watersheds and Chesapeake Bay. While

it is clear that the Mid-Atlantic includes the northeast corridor of cities that Interstate 95

links from

Washington, DC

New York

City, inland boundaries are more diffuse and

vague: the

Appalachians

often seem to mark graded differentiation westward.

The Mid-Atlantic historically has been the center of economic and social power within

the US. Apart from its claims as colonial cradle to many seminal events of American

history from the Revolution onwards, the region also contains a great many shared

American cultural symbols: civic monuments in Washington,

Philadelphia, PA,

Baltimore, MD

and

New York

City, NY; world-class

museums,

major universities and

research centers in these and other cities; and the cultured landscapes of city town and

village. These are reflected in literature and

mass media

from colonial days to the early

twenty-first century, when rock music, art and movies continue to depict and explore the

region (

Philadelphia,

1995;

Twelve Monkeys,

1995; Barry

Levinson

and John

Waters’

films on Baltimore, Bruce Springsteen and many New York producers).

This cultural heritage reflects a long economic prosperity: until the mid-twentieth

century, the Mid-Atlantic states were hubs for the production and shipping of goods to

the nation and the world, made in and shipped from New York, Philadelphia, Trenton,

ew Jersey, Delaware, Wilmington and Baltimore. This combination of industrialization

and urbanization, fed by European

immigration

and the great migration of Southern

African Americans,

allowed the Mid-Atlantic to distinguish itself from new England

(“quaint and isolated”) or the Southeast (“rural and backward”). This also gave the region

political clout. Although the last Mid-Atlantic-

orn president was Franklin Delano

Roosevelt,

advisors, money and votes are consolidated

and

close to Washington.

As US manufacturing has moved overseas since the 1960s, there is a sense that the

Mid-Atlantic’s hegemony is being eclipsed by others. In a postindustrial economy the

region is now commonly associated with crumbling cities desperately attempting to

revive themselves, sprawling

suburbs

connected by aging

highways

and railroads, and

ever-present problems of pollution, drugs, crimes and poverty.

Tourism

still brings in

revenues, but urban populations plummet each year as citizens have opted for new

Sunbelt

and

Pacific Northwest

opportunities.

Despite these changes, the Mid-Atlantic continues to offer promise to citizens and

visitors alike. Its history and cultural, diversity has been renewed by migration from

Europe, Asia, Latin America and the

Caribbean

and Africa. Its landscapes include a

wide range of cityscapes, small towns and rural landscapes shaped by centuries of care,

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 728

as well as the rivers and bays of the coast. While

Southwestern

and

California

cuisine

have been fashionable, Mid-Atlantic cities claim the best cuisine among European and

other ethnic restaurants, while local specialties reflect the natural and cultivated resources

of the area, whether Maryland crabs,

Amish

pastries or urban street

food

. In all, the

region embodies the promises and dilemmas of America in the global century.

BRAD ROGERS

middle age

Middle age is a relative concept. Although the term literally means a mid-

oint between

birth

and

death,

most Americans consider it to fall in the years between forty and sixty.

During these years, health problems or a parent’s death remind us that life is finite.

Balancing the needs of

children

and aging parents, while assessing career goals, creates a

convergence of life events that is accompanied by a re-evaluation of the life lived, with

adjustments of expectations for the future.

People experience becoming middle aged at different points, depending on life

experiences. The early onset of chronic illness can evoke these feelings in the thirties.

Likewise, good health and an active lifestyle may postpone the perception of middle age

until the sixties or even seventies. For those starting families in their forties, the feeling o

middle age may occur later in life. During the 1960s, the youth culture motto was “

ever

trust anyone over thirty.” As those who chanted that slogan now enter middle age, they

are reassessing their lives and redefining aging.

American culture is intensely youth oriented, thus middle age is rarely greeted with

enthusiasm. The

baby boomer

population has embraced the anti-aging industry with

gusto. Researchers are exploring options for delaying the aging process.

Plastic surgery,

hair transplants,

physical fitness,

New Age

cures and vitamin and hormonal supplements

may be sought to offset the effects of aging. Many of these remedies are expensive and

only available to the more affluent.

Middle age is marked by health-related changes that will continue into

old age,

although there is no clear dividing line between the two stages. Physical signs can occur

simultaneously with the development of chronic health problems. Loss of flexibility and

stamina are common. Hormones change, signaling the onset of

menopause

for women.

Male menopause—andropause—refers to the lethargy and depression that may

accompany middle age.

Midlife crises can occur and may involve upheavals in relationships and careers. Some

will recognize that the endless possibilities of youth are no longer available. Aware that

life is half over, they may rebel against day-to-day routines. A teacher supporting a

family

may realize he or she will not become a famous screenwriter as he or she once

dreamed. Others may suddenly regret a choice of partner and yearn for carefree youth.

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Men may marry younger women, cynically called “trophy wives,” and start a new family

Women may pursue

education

or a career that was postponed due to child rearing.

Although many find midlife to be a stressful time of transition and re-evaluation,

others find empowerment. New freedoms and opportunities become available as

responsibilities to children and aging parents are fulfilled. Careers and finances may be

more stable. Some will emerge from middle age feeling satisfied with their choices and

excited about their life ahead.

Further reading

Porcino, J. (1991)

Growing Older, Getting Better: A Handbook for Women in the Second

Half of Life,

New York: Crossroad.

Sheehy G. (1999)

Understanding Men’s Passages: Discovering the New Map of Men’s

Lives,

New York: Ballantine.

JENNIFER CAMPBELL

middle class

In his 2000 campaign, George W.

Bush

vowed to “tear down the tollbooths to the middle

class” and “let everyone get a piece of the American dream.” The middle class represents

the unmarked, “unbounded”

class

in postwar American society as earlier success stories

have expanded with new

mobility, migration

away from markers of class history like

urban

neighborhoods

and ethnicities and an economy of consumption in which workers,

ourgeoisie and elites may share commodities and institutions. Nonetheless, this class

remains ambiguous, divided in gender,

race

and interests and uncertain of its status and

future—“fear” and “anxiety”

rove surprisingly common words in contemporary reports

on the middle class.

Boundaries and definitions underscore ambiguous concepts and uses of class as well.

orbes

magazine, for example, labels $15,000–30,000 per annum lower middle class,

puts middle class into the $35,000–75,000 income bracket and starts upper-middle class

between $75,000 and $150,000 (D’Souza 1999), with concomitant differences in

accumulated assets. Yet the same article notes that even the new

millionaires

assume

“middle-class” behaviors, and the article omits a

working class

entirely (below $15,000

is considered poor).

Other divisions in American society also complicate the discussion. While the

white

middle class lies vaguely between the very wealthy and the working class, the African

American middle class historically has incorporated workers with steady employment,

not always skilled, because of the many blacks either under-employed or living below the

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 730

poverty line. Similarly women of the “middle class” have questioned their definition by

domesticity in entering the job market and defining the two-career family as a norm.

Katherine Newman (1999), however, has found that middle-class women face more

anxiety and loss in

divorce

than do working-class women.

As noted in the overview article on class, these categories are defined by social and

cultural characteristics as well. The middle class is strongly associated with business

ownership and executive status, professional and some intellectual work and higher ranks

of government service—“white-collar jobs.” Income is complicated by the role o

dualincome families, accumulated investments in homes, stocks and retirement funds and

indebtedness. Class is also demarcated by

education,

social capital, culture and

consumption. Middle-class choices in art,

fashion, tourism,

home and connections

distinguish the middle class from stereotypes of the working class, on the one hand,

while, on the other hand, resembling and confusing consumption patterns of the

upper

class

. Here, differences often appear in class reproduction: going to Harvard, the

opera,

museums

are highbrow behaviors open to middle and working classes; having a part

of the institution named after your family represents a different status. Ambiguities o

mobility and class permeate the image of 1990s high-tech millionaires from middle-class

backgrounds.

The middle class is paradoxically characterized as a shared goal (even upper-class

scions identify with the middle class in public rhetoric, as George Bush and Steve Forbes

have shown), and uncomfortable situations. After the immense prosperity of the 1950s,

sections of the middle class often have seen themselves threatened in economic and

personal security (recessions,

crime,

health,

downsizing

). They have wondered how to

keep their status and transmit it to future generations who, in the 1960s at least,

sometimes claimed not to want this inheritance. This leads to political divisions between

middle-class liberals, who support at least limited social reform, environmental protection

and multicultural recognition, and conservatives, concerned with shoring up their position

by tax cuts,

family

support, mortgage deductions, etc. Hence, politicians as different as

Ronald

Reagan

and Bill

Clinton

have appealed to the middle-class vote.

ass-media

imagery of the middle class takes many of the perquisites of social class

for granted, unless the plot calls them into question as an individual or relationship crisis

(e.g.

Falling Down,

1993;

American Beauty,

1999). At the same time,

Hollywood

glamour and stereotypes of gender, race and beauty may reaffirm middle-class anxiety—

is the wedding in

Father of the Bride

(1950 and 1991) really what our daughter needs?

Are out houses as neat and ordered as those of many

sitcoms

or Martha Stewart? Can our

clothes compare with the fashions of

You’ve Got Mail

(1999) or our lives with the leisure

and

New York

City apartments of

television’s

Friends

(NBC, 1994–)?

The development of the African American middle class during and after the 1950s

rovides an important counterpoint. Mobility became possible in part through changes in

the United States job market in a number of employment areas: government civil service,

the armed forces, industrial labor and universities. Local and federal administrations were

forced, either through political pressure from minority communities or

civilrights

Entries A-Z 731

legislation, to begin combating discrimination in hiring and recruitment. Between 1960

and 1965 alone, 380,000

African Americans

acquired white-collar employment,

enlarging the black middle class to about 4 million, or one-fifth of the total African

American population. Later retrenchment in

affirmative action

as well as downsizing

and deregulation have affected this growth. The size of the black middle class continued

to increase during the 1980s—as many as a third of all black families now earn between

$25,000 and $50,000. Yet, the manner in which this increase occurred has not been very

romising. In many instances, it has reflected both adults in a family moving into the

lower-income levels of the middle class.

Members of the black middle class also face the problem of a polarizing American

economy. In this, they have not been alone: the overall proportion of the workforce

earning poverty-level wages rose from 25.7 percent to 31.5 percent during the 1980s,

while the proportion earning three or more times poverty level actually fell, from 14.2

percent to 12.7 percent. The emergence of other immigrant middle classes—

Asian

American

and

Latino

—has introduced new elements of competition for blacks and

whites.

Ironically, media attention to the black middle class has grown as its position becomes

more tenuous. Like other groups facing external pressures, threats have made members o

this class more vocal and self-conscious about their politics, accentuating a trend, already

detectable, towards black nationalism. The establishment of a more clearly defined class

also increased the visibility of institutions representing it, from the black churches,

colleges

and clubs to the

NAACP,

as well as segregated

suburbs

and other spaces.

Meanwhile, black middle-class conservatives have questioned both long-time

connections of African Americans to the

Democratic Party

and policies associated with

the welfare state. Nonetheless, continuing discrimination and harassment based on “guilt

by association” fuel continuing rage.

Further reading

Bartlett, D. and Steele, J. (1996)

America: Who Stole the Dream?,

Kansas City: Andrews

and McMeel.

Dent, D. (2000)

In Search of Black America,

New York: Simon & Schuster.

D’Souza, D. (1999) “The Billionaires Next Door,”

Forbes,

October 11.

Ehrenreich, B. (1989)

Fear of Falling,

New York: Pantheon.

Frazier, E. (1966)

Black Bourgeoisie,

New York: The Free Press.

Fusell, P. (1992)

Class,

New York: Simon & Schuster.

Newman, K. (1999)

Falling from Grace,

Berkeley: University of California.

Rubin, J (1992)

The Making of Middle/brow Culture,

Chapel Hill: University of North

Carolina.

GARY McDONOGH

ROBERT GREGG

CINDY WONG

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 732

Middle East

American foreign and domestic policy are often tied to two primary issues of this

turbulent region:

religion

and

oil

. Religious ties have focused on the status of Israel (and

Palestine) as a Holy Land for Christianity, Judaism and

Islam,

with special questions

about Jerusalem. Since the birth of Israel as a state, the US has often acted as a guarantor

of its sovereignty through military aid and diplomatic support. While this affiliation has

rested on various ideological foundations, it also incorporates strong linkages between

Jews

in the United States and the Zionist commitment to Israel. This does not imply a

monolithic Jewish lobby: there have been both tremendous economic, spiritual and

olitical support for Israel among American Jews and severe criticism. Yet it means that

issues of Israel must be addressed in local politics, especially in areas like

New Yor

City, NY.

Christian attitudes range from those who regard Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other

centers as holy monuments divorced from their local/political history to those who would

hasten the Apocalypse there. Some

Arab Americans

also see this area as both religious

center and homeland, especially in the case of Americans of Palestinian descent,

Christians and Muslims.

These linkages have led to intense American involvement in fostering regional peace

with guarantees for Israel’s security American involvement in Lebanon grew out of these

ongoing conflicts, while Presidents

Carter

and

Clinton

have hosted lengthy summits at

Camp David in search of peace.

At the same time, the Middle East holds oil, often in Arab states towards which the US

once adopted neo-colonial relationships. Here, alliance with Israel has been read as

opposition to Arab claims. Ongoing difficulties with

Iran,

Iraq and Libya, as well as

complex alliances with the conservative Islamic regimes of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait,

have complicated American foreign policy while ensuring—even by war—the supply o

relatively cheap fuel. The

Gulf War

underscored the complexity of power and

dependency that binds the US to the past and future of this region.

GARY McDONOGH

Midwest

The Midwest is the most ambiguous and least welldefined of major American regions. In

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contrast to the

South

the

West,

New England the

Midwest has neither a sharp, clear

historical identity nor a strong presence in contemporary popular culture. There are no

music or movie genres called “midwesterns” and no traditions of Midwest literature or

history comparable to that of the South or West. Even the geographic referent is

uncertain. For some, the Midwest refers to the “Old Northwest,” the states north of the

Ohio River, between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River. But for others

the heart of the Midwest lies in the plains states of Kansas and Nebraska, well to the west

of the Mississippi. While an inclusive twelve-state definition centered on the Upper

Mississippi-Missouri watershed—Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin,

Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and the two Dakotas—is becoming

somewhat standard, there is no real consensus even on this most basic issue.

Another way of envisioning the Midwest is as the hinterland of

Chicago, IL

. The

Midwest is encompassed by a large semi-circle or arc of economic influence stretching

for some 500 miles around the great metropolis of the central US. But the strongest and

most common identifying characteristic of the Midwest is

agriculture

. The Midwest is

rural and agrarian, in contrast with the urban and industrial coasts. Because of this

identification of farming and region, the encroachment of urbanization and

industrialization from the east and the growth of cities like

Detroit, MI

and

Cleveland,

have gradually shifted perceptions of the region more to the west. Michigan and

Ohio have lost some of their credentials as Midwestern states, and are more associated

with the industrial northeast. Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska are now the most typical

Midwest states.

Farming and pastoralism identify the Midwest with one of the abiding positive themes

of American culture, going back to Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Thus, the

Midwest is often seen as the best and most typical part of America, still resembling a

small town and rural “golden age,” before ‘America grew up and moved to the city,”

ringing all of the problems that have beset the urbanized nation. Americans think of the

Midwest as the safest, most honest, hard-working, friendly middle-class, egalitarian

center of American culture. The Midwest is Lawrence

Welk,

Harry

Truman

and Dwight

Eisenhower,

Dorothy and Auntie Em and Toto in

The Wizard of Oz,

and

Main Street

Disneyland

(made to resemble Walt Disney’s childhood hometown of Marcelline,

Missouri). Above all it is farmers and small towns—to test wide acceptability one asks

“How does it play in Peoria?” Hence, commentator George Will opined that if God were

an American, he would surely be a Midwesterner.

Nonetheless, the 1920s and 1930s were the apogee of Midwest pride and self-

confidence. Since the Second World War, the Midwest’s image has been somewhat

tarnished. It has seemed to many an increasingly old-fashioned and out of touch

ackwater in a cosmopolitan, modernizing and multicultural society Isolationism before

the Second World War and

McCarthyism

afterwards hurt the region’s reputation, in

spite of

Truman

and

Eisenhower’s

political roles as native sons. Subsequent

Midwesterners have led majority and minority parties in

Congress,

but Robert

Dole

lost

to a Southern incumbent in 1996.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 734

A prolonged farming crisis and economic problems in the 1970s and 1980s

recipitated a drastic decline in the number of farms and farmers; disasters like floods,

tornadoes and droughts recur as themes in news and fictional media. Many Midwest

states began to lose population. People fled south and west in droves, leaving behind

pejorative labels like

rustbelt

and snowbelt. A famous albeit controversial proposal

envisioned returning much of the Great Plains to its early nineteenth-century state as a

“Buffalo Commons.” Some thought a notorious error in which the state of North Dakota

was left out of the 1989 Rand McNally atlas was symbolic of the region’s status.

Economic hard times helped foster violent, terrorist individuals and organizations such as

the

posse commitatus

and various “freemen”

militias

But there has also been a more positive side to the picture. Much of this has to do with

things rural or “country.”

Midwest Living

became a commercial success, touting the

region’s “clean air, genuine friendships, appreciation for the land, and

family

oriented

values,” in contrast to urban blight and decay. The

Mary Tyler Moore Show

(CBS, 1970–

7), a long-running newsroom

sitcom

set in

Minneapolis,

and Garrison

Keillor’s

fictional

Lake Woebegone, where “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all

the children are above average,” reinforced more positive images of the region. The

farming crisis of the 1980s elicited sympathetic literary and cinematic portrayals of the

Midwest. While fictional accounts of the region, from Truman Capote’s

In Cold Blood

Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning

A Thousand Acres,

Robert

Waller’s

phenomenally

popular

Bridges of Madison County,

or the

Coen

brother’s quirky movie

Fargo,

have not

ignored the darker side of the contemporary Midwest, elements of idealism and

admiration are also evident in these works.

In short, despite vicissitudes, the Midwest seems likely to remain an important and

evolving region, image and concept in contemporary American culture. An influx o

Asian Americans

and

Hispanic Americans

is altering the once homogeneously

European population. Industrialization and urbanization are on the increase. But the

Midwest also retains much of its earlier character. One indication is the increasing

tendency of both Midwesterners and outsiders to refer to the region with an openly

adulatory and congratulatory label as the nation’s “heartland.” Indeed, it sometimes

seems possible that “heartland” may replace the more traditional but problematic

“Midwest” as the primary label for this large and vital interior section of the nation. It is

hard not to feel optimistic about any region that considers itself and is considered by

others to be the “heartland” of a nation.

Further reading

Madison, J.H. (ed.) (1988)

Heartland: Comparative Histories of the Midwestern States,

Bloomington: Indiana University.

Shortridge, J.R. (1989)

The Middle West: Its Meaning in American Culture,

Lawrence:

University of Kansas.

KENT BLASER

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