God's Country and Mine
"God's Country and Mine: A Declaration of Love Spiced with a Few Harsh Words" is a notable work by Jacques Barzun, a French American writer and philosopher who significantly influenced cultural history. Published in 1954, the book explores various facets of American culture, touching on topics such as science, entertainment, advertising, and social issues like marriage and child-rearing. Barzun presents the United States as a unique experiment in multicultural coexistence, contrasting it with Europe's history of conflict and warfare. He praises America's economy for promoting equality and fairness, highlighting the benefits of competition and consumer empowerment while defending against criticisms of American greed and materialism.
Though Barzun acknowledges the materialism present in American society, he emphasizes the underlying moral fabric and commitment to social welfare that defines the nation. His writing reflects a balance between celebrating individualism and promoting teamwork, suggesting that the overall character of the country leans toward the positive. In a period marked by intense scrutiny of American identity, Barzun's work served as a counterpoint to critiques from contemporary intellectuals, fostering a broader conversation about national character in a manner that resonated with everyday Americans.
God's Country and Mine
Identification Book exploring American culture that pays particular attention to domestic and foreign expressions of anti-Americanism
Date Published in 1954
Author Jacques Barzun
Written during an era of intense preoccupation with defining a national “self,” God’s Country and Mine commented on American national character and furthered the formal study of cultural history.
Key Figures
Jacques Barzun (1907- ), author and cultural critic
French American writer and philosopher Jacques Barzun became one of the founders of the discipline of cultural history with the publication of several books during his long tenure as a professor and administrator at Columbia University. In 1954, he published God’s Country and Mine: A Declaration of Love Spiced with a Few Harsh Words, a book that addressed many aspects of American culture, including science, entertainment, advertising, medical facilities, marriage, and child rearing. The book celebrated the fact that the United States was “peopled by underdogs, refugees, nobodies, and . . . it keeps on being run by them.” Barzun considered the United States a testing ground for the possibility of diverse people living together and contrasted this U.S. situation with that of Europe and the endemic warfare that historically has ravaged the European continent.
Barzun also wrote that the U.S. economy was more or less aligned to promote equality and fair treatment. He praised competition, supermarkets, and installment credit for consumers and argued that “the world’s work is going to be done by organized self-interest.” He denied that Americans were greedier and more materialistic than the rest of the world—one of many criticisms emanating from Europe that the author attempted to debunk. Rather, he noted, the U.S. society displays a moral core with wide acceptance of the “social gospel,” a stance reflected in private philanthropy and government welfare-state programs. Furthermore, while deploring racial injustice, Barzun rejected the view that Americans should “give every group its orbit and be very tender of peculiarities and touchiness.”
Impact
A preoccupation with national character and social psyche, as well as a struggle to define the national self, were paramount during the intense postwar years, and God’s Country and Mine fit well into this climate. Barzun’s views overall served as an antidote to the attacks on American culture that emerged from many intellectuals during the later years of this decade. Books such as William H. Whyte’s The Organization Man (1956), John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Affluent Society (1958), and Rudolf Flesh’s Why Johnny Can’t Read (1955) critiqued American conformity and the inadequacies of American economic policies and education. While Barzun acknowledges the materialism of American culture, he also celebrates Americans’ simultaneous individualism and teamwork, social mobility and friendliness; he claims the good of the United States predominates. Ultimately, with his accessible writing, Barzun helped extend discussions about national character and culture from the realm of academia into the homes of average Americans.
Bibliography
Barzun, Jacques. God’s Country and Mine. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1973. Barzun’s exploration of mid-century national character.
Murray, Michael, ed. A Jacques Reader: Selections from His Works. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. Provides essays from several of Barzun’s important works, including God’s Country and Mine.
Weiner, Dora B., and William R. Keylor. From Parnassus: Essays in Honor of Jacques Barzun. New York: Harper and Row, 1976. Includes biographical and bibliographic information on Barzun.