Patriotism in the United States

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1.3, University of Freiburg (Englisches Seminar), course: American Society Today, language: English, abstract: When on September 11th ruthless terrorists kidnapped civil airliners and steered them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing and injuring thousands of innocent people on the ground, it was for the first time after Pearl Harbor that Americans had been attacked on their home soil. The events caused all different kinds of feelings in U.S. citizens: anger, grief, anxiety, desperation. But first of all they resulted in patriotism. People wanted to show their loyalty to their country and demonstrate to foreign aggressors that their nation was strong. Many joined the armed forces in the wake of 9/11 and added to the chorus of voices that called for a war on terror, which was answered when in October 2001 American and British coalition troops invaded Afghanistan in search of Osama bin Laden and with an intention of destroying the al-Qaeda network. In this term paper I will give an overview of the special form of patriotism in the United States of America, highlighting only what I believe are the most pertinent aspects to support my thesis that patriotism was and still is an important factor in American society. I will try to elaborate on how U.S. patriotism developed through history and explain why it is practiced in a near-religious fashion even today.