TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Foreign Languages

Division of Linguistics, Culture and Literature

UNIT 2

AMERICANS
001175 - American Culture

Designed by Vu Cong Danh

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FAMOUS PRESIDENTS

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FAMOUS PRESIDENTS:
GEORGE WASHINGTON

• Farmer in Virginia
• Military leader in the
Revolutionary War
• First president of the
U.S. (1789-1796)

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FAMOUS PRESIDENTS:
THOMAS JEFFERSON

• Could do many things

• Gave ideas to principles of the
U.S. government
• Helped develop democracy
• Was the 3rd president of the U.S.
• Bought huge Louisiana Territory

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FAMOUS PRESIDENTS:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
• Self-educated lawyer
• Illinois Congressman
• 16th president of the U.S.
• American Civil War
• Slavery Emancipation Proclamation
• Victim of 1865 assasination

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FAMOUS PRESIDENTS:
JOHN F. KENNEDY
• Youngest president ever
• First Roman Catholic president
• Supporter of Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Fighter for civil rights, better
education, medical care, etc.
• Victim of 1963 assassination

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- Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a
sculpture carved in the Black Hills in Keystone,
South Dakota.
- Sculptor Gutzon Borglum created the sculpture’s
design and oversaw the project’s execution from
1927 to 1941 with the help of his son, Lincoln
Borglum.
- Mount Rushmore has become an iconic symbol
of the United States.
THE HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION

Period Immigration
1600’s Flood of immigrants from England

1700’s Immigrants from European countries

The Spanish mainly in the Southwest
1600’s to Black slaves from Africa working on
1800’s plantations

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THE HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION

Period Immigration
1820 to Immigrants from Ireland who were poor
1880 Catholics
1850 to 100,000 Poor Chinese working in mining
1870 camps and on the railroad (the Gold Rush)
1880 to 25 mil. immigrants from Europe
1930 (Great Immigration)

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THE HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION

Period Immigration
1940’s to Thousands of refugees after WWII
1950’s
1960’s to Quotas on immigration from non-European
1970’s countries abolished

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HISTORICAL FIGURES

Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)

• One of the Founding Fathers
• Writer, printer, publisher, inventor,
diplomat

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HISTORICAL FIGURES

Susan B. Anthony (1820 – 1906)

• Feminist
• Fighter for women’s right to vote, &
Black rights

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HISTORICAL FIGURES

Clara Barton (1821 – 1912)

• “Angle of the battlefield”
• Founder of American Red Cross

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HISTORICAL FIGURES

Samuel Clemens (1835 – 1910)

• Writer – “Mark Twain”
• Newspaperman
• Believer of that whites should not
try to have power over others

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HISTORICAL FIGURES

Thomas A. Edison (1847 – 1937)

• Inventor of light bulb, movie
projector, and phonograph

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HISTORICAL FIGURES

Henry Ford (1863 – 1947)

• Businessman
• Automobile manufacturer who
introduced assembly-line
methods

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SOME IMMIGRATION STORIES

• Many Irish people left their country because of poor

economy, religious discrimination
• Immigrants from Ireland used to be cruelly discriminated

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SOME IMMIGRATION STORIES

• Before 1880, the U.S. welcomed all immigrants

• But then Americans worried about influence of large
groups of immigrants
 Many immigration acts passed
 Immigration limited, especially from non-Europe
• After WW II, new acts made it easier for immigrants

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HOMEWORK

Read the assigned materials :

[3] Pages: 51 – 89
[4] Pages: 177 – 188
[5] Pages: 28 – 30; 52 – 54; 82 – 84

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