Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture
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Congress first met in 1789. In 1979, during O’Neill’s tenure as Speaker, the House began
live telecasts of its floor debates.
JAMES DEVITT
opera
Opera is the most opulent and expensive of the performing arts and has historically been
the province of social elites in America. In the first decades following the Second World
War, opera continued to appeal to wealthy artistic patrons in the large urban centers, but,
by the century’s end, it achieved a level of popularity and broad-
b
ased appeal few could
have predicted in the early 1960s.
At mid-century, opera in America was dominated by a handful of companies: first and
foremost of which was the Metropolitan Opera Company of
New York
City (the Met),
followed by the San Francisco Opera Company (CA) and the New York City Opera.
Other companies of note in the early postwar era included the Lyric Opera of Chicago,
IL, the Houston, Grand Opera (TX) and the Greater Miami Opera (FL). The repertoire o
f
these companies was conservative, emphasizing the Italian, German and French canon,
though new works by American composers were occasionally commissioned.
Predictably, the American contributions to the operatic repertoire during this period
mimicked the canon in tone, if not always in subject. Samuel
Barber,
perhaps the most
favored of American composers of his generation, received prestigious Met
performances, including
Vanessa
(1957) and
Antony and Cleopatra
(1958). The latter, a
Met commission, had a lavish production directed by Franco Zefferelli, but was a critical
and popular failure. However, composers who sought to emphasize American themes
achieved somewhat greater success. Aaron
Copland’s
The Tender Land
(1954), Carlisle
Floyd’s
Susannah
(1956) and Douglas Moore’s
The Ballad of Baby Doe
(1966) received
numerous productions by major American companies, yet none found a secure place in
the repertoire of European companies.
If the principal opera companies of America proved inhospitable to new and
experimental currents in music, there were alternative venues. Two professional
companies that regularly featured modernist repertoire were the
Santa Fe
Opera
Company (New Mexico) and the
Boston
Opera Company (Massachusetts). The latter,
under the direction of Sarah Caldwell, performed such demanding works as Luigi Nono’s
I
ntolleranza
(1961), Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s
Die Soldaten
(1965) and Roger
Session’s monumental
Montezuma
(American premiere, 1976). The opera programs at
universities and conservatories such as the Juilliard School and Indiana University also
p
rovided alternative support for composers and helped to build audiences, furthering the
careers of composers such as Dominick Argento and John Eaton.
The turning point in contemporary American opera can perhaps be traced to the New
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York premiere of
Einstein on the Beach
by Philip
Glass
(1976). Created in collaboration
with director Robert
Wilson,
the work broke new ground in several ways. First, in
keeping with Wilson’s emphasis on
theater
as spectacle, the work was not based on a
conventional narrative. Instead, it took the form of a pageant in which loose references to
Einstein were clearly subordinated to abstract structures of music and
dance
. Second, the
work was the first full-length opera composed using
minimalist
procedures: the music
substituted extensive repetition and subtle variation for tonal hierarchy and thus
reinforced the opera’s lack of narrative structure. Third, the score called for electronic
instruments, especially synthesizers, and largely eschewed solo vocal writing in favor o
f
a chorus. (Ironically this performance was not sponsored by the Met; the House had been
rented for the occasion.)
Einstein on the Beach
enjoyed international success, and was
followed by
Satya-graha
(1980),
Akhnaten
(1983) and
The Civil Wars: A Tree is Bes
t
M
easured when it is Down
(1985). Glass’ stature as an operatic composer was confirmed
by a Met commission on the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage to the New World
(
The Voyage,
1992).
Glass was not the only composer associated with minimalism who achieved success in
opera. John Adams achieved international acclaim for
Nixon in China
(1987) and
The
D
eath of Klinghoffer
(1991), proving that the art form of opera could not only
accommodate a radically new musical style, but also could address contemporary
p
olitical issues at the same time. By attracting a new, younger audience to opera, Glass
and Adams created a more positive climate in American opera houses for young
American composers. In recent years, new operas have achieved surprising popularity
Among the most significant are Anthony Davis’
X: The Life and Times of Malcom
X
(1986),
John Corigliano’s
The Ghosts of Versailles
(1991), Tobias Picker’s
Emmeline
(1996) and Tan Dun’s
Marco Polo
(1996). Dun’s work is especially notable for
seamlessly blending contemporary Western vocabulary with music of Dun’s native
China.
The renewed popularity of opera in America has been stimulated by other factors
b
esides the additions of new works. First, the repertoire has been expanded by the revival
of Baroque operas (most notably works of Monteverdi and Handel) at most major houses.
Second, the use of supertitles (the display of running translation above the proscenium),
has made opera accessible to a much larger audience. Finally, the artistic quality o
f
regional opera companies has improved dramatically thus spreading the operatic
experience far beyond traditional centers on the American coasts. Among the most
important of these companies are the Seattle Opera (Washington), the Minnesota Opera
Company and the Sarasota Opera Association (Florida).
Further reading
Dizikes, J. (1993)
Opera in America: A Cultural History,
New Haven: Yale University.
Kornick, R. (1991)
Recent American Opera: A Production Guide,
New York: Columbia
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University.
Parker, R. (ed.) (1994)
Oxford History of Opera,
New York: Oxford.
Richmond, E. (1992)
Opera Companies and American Opera: A Directory,
New York:
American Music Center.
STEPHEN MILES
orchestras
s
ee
classical music
organization man
Termed coined by William Whyte, in a 1956 book of that name, which suggested that
b
usiness culture and the attempt to make people work for the profit of the corporation
affected people’s social lives. Americans, Whyte argued, acted like cogs in a machine,
conforming to group values at the office and
home
. This lifestyle was represented in
many movies of the 1950s and early 1960s (e.g.
The Apartment,
1960, in which Jack
Lemmon lends his apartment to his bosses for their sexual liaisons), though Whyte
believed the organization man’s natural habitat was the
suburb
. The sameness and
impotence associated with the organization man is captured nicely in the character of Mr
Arnold in
The Wonder Years
(ABC, 1988–93). The organization man also resented his
wife for pushing him to succeed in this corporate world, resentment described in Philip
Roth’s
My Life as a Man
(1974). The beats resisted the siren call of the corporation, and
j
uvenile delinquents, like James
Dean’s
Rebel Without a Cause
(1955), resented their
fathers for their emasculation.
ROBERT GREGG
organized crime
The havoc wreaked by organized crime in the United States is usually thought to be
intramural. Gangland killings and the occasional internecine war seem remote from the
ordinary concerns of the public. This may account for the enormous entertainment value
Americans have found in the machinations of the
Italian American
Mafia (also called
L
a Cosa Nostra
—“our thing”) and other crime syndicates. Francis Ford
Coppola’s
screen adaptations of Mario
Puzo’s
stories of
family
life in the mob, beginning with
The
Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 838
Godfather
in 1971 became cultural icons. Not only did the first two films in Coppola’s
trilogy sweep the Academy Awards in 1971 and 1974, but they contributed to
constructing the myth and image of organized crime in the United States.
Tapes of telephone conversations and private conversations collected by informants
wearing “wires” revealed the extent to which
Hollywood
shaped the self-concepts o
f
mobsters like John Gotti, who was known in the
New York
media both as the Teflon
Don (though he was eventually brought down by the testimony of his associate, Sammy
“the Bull” Gravano) and the Dapper Don (
Newsday
sent a
fashion
reporter to the last o
f
Gotti’s three major trials). For instance, the use of “godfather” to refer to the leader of a
Mafia family was invented by Puzo, and adopted by real-life Mafia leaders, formerly
known as “capo” (head or chief). The paramount Mafia leader would be known as the
capo di tutti capi,
the chief of all chiefs.
But the entertainment value of the Mafia and other interstate criminal syndicates, like
the
Los Angeles
based
gangs
Crips and Bloods, is balanced by the heavy economic and
social costs of organized crime. The image of a brutal, but righteous mob leader, like the
fictional Don Vito Corleone protecting his family and friends, began disappearing after
the Second World War, when the old “mustache Petes” were swept aside by capos and
consiglieres using modern business techniques backed by
violence
. The old code o
f
silence in the Mafia, “omerta,” was broken first by Joe Valachi in 1963 before the
McClellan Committee in the United States Senate and a number of times since. Mafia
underlings looking for a good deal from prosecutors found little reason to protect what
was no longer a
family,
but a murderous corporate enterprise.
By 1975 the National Conference on Organized Crime estimated that the annual cost to
the American economy of organized criminal activity was in excess of $50 billion. Some
1990s estimates were double the 1975 figure. Even much higher dollar estimates do not
encompass the huge losses caused by mob commerce in illegal drugs, including designer
drugs like methamphetamine (“crystal meth”), or mob support of prostitution, illegal
gambling
and loan sharking.
As the mob has diversified into a variety of illegal businesses by providing cash and
p
rotection for illegal entrepreneurs, it continues infiltrating legitimate businesses as well.
Intergenerational control of materials and solid-waste hauling—later including the illegal
disposal of toxic wastes—several construction trades and related
unions
and construction
companies themselves have been carefully documented in New York City and other
metropolitan areas. The New York State Organized Crime Task Force found mob control
so pervasive in New York City’s construction industry in the 1980s that not a single yard
of concrete was poured in the city without the mob taking a cut of the profit. The result,
as in so many other mobinfluenced businesses, was an extortionate price for concrete,
often twice as high as it was in other places.
The reaction to the ascendancy of organized crime in legitimate and illegal businesses
was a new federal law, the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
Long recommended by legal scholars and prosecutors,
Congress
passed RICO in 1970 as
part of the Organized Crime Control Act. A number of
states
followed RICO with
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similar statutes that allowed them to reach conduct that was not covered by the extremely
b
road definition of interstate commercial impact that was required to trigger federal
penalties.
Law-makers had learned what everyone else in American society had absorbed from
the entertainment and publishing industries: organized crime had become an integral part
of the American economy. It was providing goods that people wanted and protecting
illicit businesses that had huge
markets
. It would take extraordinary measures to unravel
mob involvement in American life. RICO was such a measure. By defining a criminal
enterprise as any individual or organization responsible for a “
p
attern of racketeering
activity” and then defining that pattern as two or more acts of racketeering within ten
years, RICO enabled federal prosecutors like Rudolph Giuliani to attack the Mafia head
on. Since the passage of RICO, the leadership of all five Mafia families based in New
York has been indicted, convicted and jailed, including the Teflon Don.
The reaction to the pervasive influence of the Mafia has produced such a broad law
that a number of conventionally respectable enterprises may now be labeled criminal
enterprises. Prosecutors in
Florida
have used RICO against
tobacco
companies, and its
civil provisions have been upheld in suits against anti
-abortion
protesters who block
access to clinics.
While RICO has been effective against organized crime, mob influence has expanded
as a variety of ethnic groups break the hold of the old Italian American families. Recent
cases involved criminal syndicates among Mexican, Vietnamese, Colombian and Chinese
immigrant groups in the United States.
S
ee also:
immigration
Further reading
Huston, P. (1995)
Tongs, Gangs, and Triads: Chinese Crime Groups in North America,
Boulder: Paladin Press.
Jacobs, J.B. (1994)
Busting the Mob: United States v. Cosa Nostra,
New York: New
York University Press.
National Conference on Organized Crime (1975)
Report of the National Conference on
Organized Crime,
Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
Peterson, V (1983)
The Mob,
Ottowa: Green-Hill Press.
FRANK ANECHIARIGO
Orthodox religions
s
ee
Arab Americans; Armenian Americans; Greek Americans; Greek Orthodox
Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 840
outing
According to Larry Gross in
Contested Closets
(1993), “outing” actually coincides with
the nineteenthcentury introduction of the homosexual and, thus, the homosexual closet.
Since then, impulses to make public that which is private (especially sexuality) are
confounded by paradoxical impulses to protect those very same issues. Journalism
complicates this: where is the line in issues of public and private when discussing a
public figure?
Reporting on a public figure’s private sexual affairs has always stirred a controversial,
yet prurient, response. Throw in gay and lesbian life and either the strong arm of the
closet protects the figure from scandal or, unlike his or her heterosexual counterpart, the
figure’s reputation is ruined. This imbalance prompted journalist/activist Michelangelo
Signorile to query the favored newsworthiness and biased protection of heterosexual
affairs. Although others had “outed” previously, Signorile articulated “outing” as a
complicated political gesture, making it a political tool and an art form in the gay
magazine
Outweek
(1989–91). Signorile contends that “outing critiques and corrects the
double standard in journalism on reporting on homosexuals and heterosexuals.”
Furthermore, “in cases where a closeted politician is voting anti-gay in order to protect
his closet, outing displays the political hypocrisy” (interview, 11/22/98).
DAVID GERSTNER
outsourcing
Movement of operations out of the main plant/ production process to subsidiary
companies and contractors who offer flexible workforces and cheaper and more efficient
delivery (especially when outsourcing becomes global). A profitmaking strategy within
the corporate world since the 1970s, both smaller and larger corporations farm out
communications, computer/systems management and even planning rather than doing
them in-house. Governments have used outsourcing to meet new service needs since the
1960s, including mundane tasks like waste collection and towing, as well as
administrative functions like printing and even social services including ambulances or
drug treatment. Its human costs in career and corporate community underscore the
transformation of the US economy towards services and consumption.
GARY McDONOGH
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Owens, Jesse
s
ee
Olympians; track and field
P
Pacific Northwest
While
state
and local boundaries are clearly defined and embodied in law, those of the
region
called the Pacific Northwest are not. Cohesion derives from the region’s early
geographic isolation and resulting history. In this article, “Pacific Northwest” refers to
Washington, Oregon and Idaho (Schwantes), although the term is sometimes used also to
include British Columbia, western Montana and/or northern
California
.
This variegated, 250,000 square mile, parallelogram-shaped region spans 480 miles
north to south and 680 miles east to west. It is bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west,
the Canadian border to the north, the Klamath (Siskiyou) Mountains and Great Basin
desert to the south, and the
Rocky Mountains
to the east. Its vegetative diversity reflects
its climatic diversity, with three major vegetation provinces—
forest,
shrub-steppe and
alpine. Unifying the region is the Columbia River, with its many tributaries,
transportation and communication networks, trade and commerce patterns and a special
sense of place derived from its history and geography.
What gives Pacific Northwesterners a different sense of place from others? The
environment. The region’s spectacular landscape offers a plethora of contrasts, from
b
reathtaking views of jagged mountains to alpine meadows; from the glistening waters o
f
the coast to the vast, dry, sagebrush interior; from wide sandy beaches to rugged
headlands; from lush forested valleys to bare rock faces; and from placid estuaries to
turbulent mountain streams.
The region’s geography provides the basis for understanding its history and economy.
The Pacific Northwest remained isolated from the main centers of economic and political
p
ower through the early part of the twentieth century. Because of its separateness and the
Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 842
fact that it supplied the country with raw materials such as furs, logs, lumber, agricultural
products, seafood and metals it came to be thought of as a colonial hinterland.
The region was home to two contrasting
American Indian
cultures. The coastal and
p
lateau peoples located in a rich natural environment produced a stable economy and
sedentary culture. In contrast, the desert peoples adapted to its dry climate and scarcity o
f
food with a seminomadic lifestyle.
The region’s environment is an outcome not merely of geologic history but also o
f
values about
nature
deeply embedded in the local psyche. Pacific Northwest literature is
replete with images of human interaction with the natural
environment
. It is often
suggested that the environment itself determined who settled here—that the rugged
mountains and gigantic forests attracted strongwilled, self-reliant people.
In all three states of the Pacific Northwest,
tourism
is one of the top three revenue
generators. The area’s many recreational resources not only benefit the regional economy
but are also an important contributor to Pacific Northwesterners’ high quality of life. The
terrain seduces worldclass mountain climbers, skiiers and other outdoor enthusiasts.
Hikers escape to the untrammeled wilderness areas, combers and surfers to the beaches,
fishing
enthusiasts to the streams, lakes and
rivers
and hunters to the wildlife of the
forests and shrub steppes.
Bucking one of the strongest traditions of the American
West
—an individual’s right to
develop his or her own land—the Pacific Northwest led the country in several areas o
f
environmental protection through growth management, as well as forest and salmon
protection legislation. This was not, however, achieved without controversy—the battle
lines were clearly visible from bumper stickers declaring: “I Like Spotted Owls—Fried”
versus “Save an Owl, Educate a Logger.”
The 1990 census showed the Pacific Northwest outpacing the national rate o
f
p
opulation growth, with newcomers arriving from all over the United States as well as
from overseas. Washington has five times the population of Idaho, while Oregon’s
population lies between the two. The average population density was thirty-five people
p
er square mile in 1990, significantly lower than the national average of seventy. The
Pacific Northwest’s population has always been overwhelmingly Caucasian, but now
includes rapidly growing Spanish-speaking, Asian and
African American
populations.
Over time, the Pacific Northwest’s attitudes towards its minority populations have
shifted dramatically but differently in each state. Idaho’s image is often associated with
that of the white supremacists. Contrast the late nineteenth-century banner seen in Seattle
proclaiming “The Chinese must go!” with the 1996 election of Washington Governor
Gary Locke, the first
Chinese American
governor in US history. While discriminatory
signs once excluded blacks from public places in Washington State,
African Americans
have recently been elected as County Executive (Ron Sims) and Seattle
mayor
(Norm
Rice).
Although the Second World War expanded the region’s economy to include
manufacturing (due to Puget Sound-based Boeing’s defense contracts), forestry
mining,
fishing and agricultural industries continued to be important. In Washington’s Puget
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Sound region in particular, the economy has taken wild rollercoaster rides as Boeing’s
defense and commercial contracts have alternately expanded and shriveled.
Following a dramatic downturn in manufacturing in the early 1970s, the region made a
concerted effort to diversify its economy. This resulted in marked expansions in
international trade, service and high-technology industries—most notably Microsoft,
which catapulted the region onto the world’s radar screen. The Pacific Northwest
continues to dominate the high-tech industry worldwide, while spawning numerous spin-
off businesses here at home.
Images of Northwest scenery in TV series such as
Twin Peaks
(ABC, 1990–1) and
N
orthern Exposure
(CBS, 1990–5), and Gus Van Sant’s
My Own Private Idaho
(1991)
have introduced millions around the globe to this region.
“Northwest cuisine” not only reflects variations in the area’s landscape and ethnic
p
opulations, but captures its adventurous spirit through four subregional cuisines. Coastal
waters cuisine dares us with dishes such as matsutake mushrooms in seaweed broth and
creamy sea-urchin bisque. Farmland cuisine tempts us with Walla Walla onion frittata
and Fraser Valley pheasant. Cities cuisine features microbrew steamers and cappuccino
cheesecake. Finally, mountains and forests cuisine includes tasty delicacies like morels
on toast and vegetable pâté with watercress and fiddlehead ferns. With Northwest wines
and microbrews winning international awards, a locally made beverage is a must to
accompany the region’s culinary delights.
Further reading
Egan, T. (1990)
The Good Rain,
New York: Vintage Books.
Jackson, P. and Kimerling, A. (eds) (1993)
Atlas of the Pacific Northwest,
Corvallis:
Oregon State University
Schwantes, C. (1996)
The Pacific Northwest,
Lincoln: University of Nebraska.
BERYL FERNANDES
Pacific Rim
The West Coast has not only received the bulk of
Asian American
migration, but also
has established increasingly strong commercial ties in the postwar era with sometimes
burgeoning Asian states. The “Pacific Rim” incorporates
California
, Oregon,
Washington (the
Pacific Northwest
),
Alaska
and
Hawai’i
into a broader global vision o
f
business and culture for the twenty-first century. The title is also applied to fusion cuisine
and design styles mixing Asian elements with a jazzy California style as well as local
ingredients. By contrast, “Atlantic culture and society” is generally confined to academic
Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 844
studies of the interchanges constituted by colonialism and slavery and their aftermath
(although
NATO
—the
North Atlantic
Treaty Organization—evokes other historic ties).
Meanwhile,
Texas
may be called the “third coast” while
Miami
is sometimes recognized
as the capital of the
Caribbean
. All of these terms project ideological expectations that
may not affect the consciousness of local, non-immigrant populations.
GARY McDONOGH
CINDY WONG
Paglia, Camille
b. 1947
Cultural analyst, writer and professor known for her flamboyant style and provocative
theories concerning American culture and sexuality. Her books include
Sexual Personae
(1990),
Sex, Art, and American Culture
(1992) and
Vamps and Tramps
(1994). She is
generally considered a conservative anti-feminist, though she describes herself as a
“radical 1960s libertarian” and is a vocal critic of what has been termed
“political
correctness
.
”
Her supporters argue that she is a courageous independent thinker, while
her critics claim that she is concerned primarily with self-
p
romotion and that her work
has been harmful to liberal causes.
NICOLE MARIE KEATING
Panama/Panama Canal
American involvement in Panama has been long and checkered since Theodore
Roosevelt, unwilling to pay the Columbian government’s price for access across the
isthmus, fomented a nationalist uprising among Panamanians. Roosevelt backed
Panama’s independence and then forced the new government to cede the canal zone to
the US for a price well below what Panamanians thought reasonable. Finished in 1914,
the canal became a source of tension throughout the century as Panamanians protested
the US’ despotic control of the region and other infringements on their sovereignty
including military intervention. By the 1970s, President Jimmy
Carter,
hoping to
stabilize the canal zone, felt it prudent, even against significant
Republican
opposition,
to sign a treaty returning the canal to Panamanians in 2000.
Strains have not only been related to the canal, but also to Panamanian policies and
leadership. In the 1980s, President Manuel Noriega acquired dictatorial powers, partly
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