why is america great essay

Why America can't ignore its past - but also not fear the future

Opinion: what makes america great is our ability to embrace the future, even if we don't know what it means for us..

To be American is to be oriented toward the future, not deterred by uncertainty. We are willing to work hard today for a pay-off tomorrow.

Our national history and the history of most American families bears the legacy of individuals who took risks and embraced the possibility of the future, focusing on what lay ahead rather than looking exclusively to the past.

Waves of immigrants came to this country fleeing poverty, hardship and war. They were trying to get to a land of opportunity without knowing exactly how they were going to take advantage but confident they could make it work.

Others emerged from generations of bondage determined to take the ideals articulated as the foundation of this country and finally give them meaning in their own lives and those of their children.

Confidence, both in the possibilities of the future and our ability to realize them, was required to embark on such journeys. That confidence has come to typify the American personality – some would characterize it as arrogance – and it has been essential to the development of the United States.

We do best to overcome fear of the future

This does not mean ignoring the past. Our culture, economy, laws and other achievements are rooted in the lands from which Americans come. And we have been hindered at times by a failure to grapple with the long shadows of our history. 

Still, viewing the past as critical context rather than a limitation on what is possible or justification for the way things are has served the United States best.

America’s founders explicitly decided their declaration of independence was the start of something new rather than a continuation of the past under a different flag. In many ways, our country’s greatest travails have been rooted in the inability to embrace this tradition.

Although resistance to change is undeniably part of our history, a function of inertia and nostalgia, success has come when we have overcome fear of the future: Integrating new technologies like automobiles and the internet into our lives, for example, or recognizing the rights of African Americans, women and other marginalized people, thus unlocking vast human potential.

Realizing our visions for the future also required a willingness to invest, to defer gratification sometimes even across generations. The tale of immigrants working hard, investing in their children’s education and seeing success come generationally is part of our national lore.

Why it's important to invest for later

Like those families, our country was built by collective investment in a foundation: physical infrastructure, legal systems, educational institutions – all were required to provide for the explosive growth of the United States, a truly remarkable transformation in a short period of time.

In the same period, many other countries, whose self-worth was rooted in the glories in the past, failed to make such sacrifices and were left behind. A dangerous role reversal is now evident, underscoring the importance of America’s future orientation and the foresight it compels.

Along the way, we realized something else: building a future by consuming every resource around you is self-defeating. Theodore Roosevelt, who championed boldness and fearlessness as defining national characteristics, recognized this trap. He offered a balance between growth and preserving the environmental resources that will be required for future generations to enjoy the better tomorrows we are working for today.

Taking American greatness seriously means returning to this sophisticated understanding of what it takes to build a better future. Don’t fear uncertainty. Invest in our improvement. Integrate an understanding of the past and its implications without being in limited in our aspirations by what came before.

Jonathan Koppell is professor and dean of the Watts College for Public Service and Community Service at Arizona State University.

About the series: American greatness 

The phrase "Make America Great Again" is now part of American political discourse, but it remains unclear exactly what “American Greatness” means. This series of short essays and accompanying videos by Jonathan Koppell of Arizona State University explores the underlying principles of American democracy and society, and the defining characteristics that need to be preserved, protected and amplified to ensure American greatness through the 21st century and beyond.

• Identity and Integration
• Opportunity over Outcome 
• Individual and Community
• Pragmatism over Purity
• Strength and Cooperation
• Limited Power over Absolute
• Market and State
• Idealism over Ideology
• Future-oriented and Unafraid
• Aspiration over Satisfaction

Fillmore County Journal

"Where Fillmore County News Comes First"

Essay winners explain what makes America great

May 25, 2020 by Fillmore County Journal 8 Comments

Voice of Democracy and Patriot’s Pen essay competitions were recently sponsored by theVFW Post and Auxilliary of Preston, Minn. The following essays were chosen for first and second place, with winners each receiving a plaque, certificate and cash award for their effort.

– Voice of Democracy –

What makes America great

Oliver Hoelztle, 1st Place

In general terms, the United States of America has many different facets that make it a great country. From how our government handles the power it is given, to how the people abide by the laws the government set, America is quite the place to be. With very little power corruption, the basic rights, and high standards of living, these are just a few examples of what makes America great. These are just some things that I think make America great.

To begin, America has one of the highest standards of living out of any other country on Earth. The amazing medical services we have let us live healthier lives, with doctors and professionals that I can trust my health to. Houses and property are cheap in America as well, along with groceries and basic necessities. Additionally, crime rates are lower than those in other countries, which, in turn, lets many businesses thrive. It is all linked together and in the end, contributes to our greatness.

Civil stability is also a very important factor. I can go to bed every night and wake up without danger waiting right outside my door. The concept of the American people working together and behaving is a great facet that some other countries sadly don’t have. In case civil stability is disturbed, our police force is there to take care of it soundly, as to continue protecting us. I don’t ever go a day without appreciating how I can safely go to school and return home. It makes America great.

The economy of the United States is among the largest in the world. Our gross domestic product is the highest in the world, with a current measure of 19.3 trillion dollars. Part of what gives us the best economy in the world is how we have the freedoms to contribute to it. Starting your own business or finding a placement job has never been easier, and I am lucky to live in a time where economic activity is at its best.

Perhaps the best thing that defines America and makes it great are human rights. The bill of rights is a basic list rights given to citizens. We can protest against things we disagree. We can follow our own religions and ideologies. We can meet on our own terms to discuss any topic. Many of the rights in America are not universal, and lots of countries don’t even have access to the basic rights all humans should have. Lucky for me, I live in a country that has such rights.

There is also a military that protects all of these great things. From the Coast Guard to the Marines, there are people out there that protect all of my freedoms and rights. They know that when they serve their country they help everyone in it, which makes them great people. America is very safe from international threats because of these great people.

America is defined by its greatness. With the balanced and ethical law system, civil stability, and a powerful economy, The United States of America certainly is the country to behold. I can observe the greatness of America through all of these facets. After all, greatness is a very broad term, but America does its best to fit in to the highest standards of life. America is a great country. There is no other country where I would want to be.

Pailey Gordon, 2nd Place

I’m going to let you in on a little personal story. I have been growing up in a rural, small town in the great state of Minnesota. I live with my two siblings and my parents. And let me tell you, even with my generally small household, there are an infinite amount of differences between all of us. From the movies that nobody can ever agree on watching, to what we want for dinner, it’s endless. Another thing we all generally disagree on is, you guessed it, politics!

Politics take up a majority of our morning, afternoon, and evening conversations. Nevertheless, when someone’s views are displayed, fair debate is always open. We all get a chance to say our views and thoughts. That is what I truly think makes America great, not just because I love debates (even though I do!) I think America is great because of our differences.

All the time on the news, we see all sorts of quarrels between two ideals, we groan and turn the channel because we don’t want to hear the bickering. Now, let’s take a moment to think about this; what if we never had any differences in opinions? What if we all just conformed to one belief system? Would we be as advanced as we are as a society?

Former President, John F. Kennedy, once said, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” If we all conformed to one ideal I- like former president Kennedy- strongly believe that we would not have the advancements that we do in our country today if we were all identical. Acceptance is at an all-time-high for different religions, identities, and many other things. How boring would our country be if we Americans all were the same, had the same ideals, and all agreed on every single topic? I think we would be a very bland country and probably not as accepting as we are today to others who may be from other regions of the world.

Open dialogue opens us up to new ideas, such as learning about new religions, cultures, and ways of life. In America, we are a literal melting pot. We have so many different lifestyles right here in our own country that it would be devastating to not learn about any of them.

As a country, if we were to not have open dialogue we would literally be at war with ourselves. We have so many different views that if we were to not talk, there would be endless amounts of suppression to people who we would see as “different”. We would not be willing to learn and accept all these different ways of life and we would hate most people in our own country just because we would lack the understanding that we have today, but since we have open dialogue, we see different ways people live their lives that we don’t even take a second look.

We get to choose who we want to be because of our freedom, we aren’t limited on how we express ourselves. Choosing what you want to be like, dress like, and act like are solely based on what you want to become and I think that is really amazing.

So, next time you turn on the TV and you see people debating, just sit and listen. Maybe you will understand where both sides are coming from, and why they believe what they believe. Listening to both sides of an argument can open your eyes to a bunch of new opportunities. Maybe you will be lucky enough to learn a new fact about another culture or religion! Overall, America is full of opportunity and diversity and that is what I think makes our country great.

– Patriot’s Pen –

Siri Corson, 1st Place

What makes America great is not only found in the development of our technology, but in the citizens who reside here, bound by the bond of passion for their country and a love for the people. Our country has endless opportunities, and it is home to many who find our country a sanctuary of peace and a new beginning.

The backbone of our country is the people. When the preamble of The United States Constitution states “We the people of the United States,” it’s not about one person, but all the people of our country as a whole. In school we learn about the people who came together in the 1700s to support our country. It’s no different now. We work together to learn new things, create solutions, and make a future for the children. The good citizens hold others’ values in their hearts and work to make others’ dreams realities. We all play a part in our country, and we all have the power to impact a nation

America is known as a land of new beginnings. Everyone has his/her own different hopes of a new beginning. While some dream of a new job and a nice house to raise a family, others hope for a safe home, free of war and fear. People come to America because it’s the place they feel will provide safety and stability for their families. I am lucky to live in a land of peace and freedom!

Our greatness lies in the knowledge of our teachers, the words of our parents, the simple song of a child. Every day we work towards a better world. Every day we learn new things. Our country has new opportunities for everyone. In our country we don’t just have a passion for our citizens but also for the other people of the world. You can feel our love for others in the aid we send to countries in need, in the money we donate for those facing poverty, in the help we bring to those in devastation.

Our country is a place where people can live free, and it’s such a blessing to live here. Every day is something new, we all learn new things and develop as a community. As a country we have a passion for our nation, and it’s that same spirit that makes me proud to be an American.

Audra Otto, 2nd Place

There are many reasons that make our country such a great one. However, three reasons that contribute to this really stand out to me. The first reason is our many freedoms. Second, the endless opportunities for anyone and everyone. The last reason is simply put: our determination and grit.

It’s a well-known fact that Americans enjoy many rights and freedoms that are given to them because it is their right to have them. Some of these rights include freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. I feel such a sense of pride to know that I live in a country where I am entitled to these rights. Here, we can say whatever we want to whomever we want; our voices are heard. These freedoms are a   important part of our great nation.

Another reason that America is great is because there are endless opportunities for anyone and everyone, no matter their race, gender or nationality. Many people have come to America looking for a second chance and they have found that and more. Here, you can choose to follow whatever path you wish. You can chase your dreams, no matter how outlandish they might seem. In America, nothing will hold you back once you set your mind to accomplishing something great.

Now, our country wasn’t born with these rights. There were men and women who had to fight, sacrifice their time, sacrifice their lives, for us to have these rights today. That brings me to the third reason that our country is great: the pure grit and determination of the people who live here. All of the brave men and women who have or who are serving in the armed forces show the highest imaginable amount of grit and determination. They know it’s going to be tough; the training, the heartbreak, leaving home. Still, they soldier on for us.

Even the people who aren’t in the armed forces show plenty of determination: when we Americans put our mind to something, nothing can hold us back. We are able to chase our dreams because of our freedoms and rights that everybody is given. So, if you asked me why America is great, I’d answer that America is great because of the rights and freedoms we are given, as well as the courageous men and women who suffered and fought valiantly for us to have those rights and opportunities.

April 29, 2023 at 5:45 am

Siri Corson has the best overall essay here. Other students mentioned good points but if you want to consider every English Writing component then Siri Corson is by far first.

January 27, 2022 at 3:54 pm

I love this I hope I can get a better essay

Joe, an unabashed American says

June 22, 2021 at 8:28 pm

Jefferson wrote that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Of course the USA has its problems. But it has also had a tremendous record of achievement. Tell me what other country, having spilled its blood out in conquering a land such as the Philipines and Japan, would supervise the re-writing of their constitution and give the country back to its people? What happened at the end of WWII is unprecedented in the annals of history. Look at the trajectory of the areas the USA had won back and what happened in the areas that China or the USSR had won. That is enough is proof of the superior view of how to govern. Because we have problems at home at the moment does not negate that proof. We will come out of it. The best achievements of the USA and its view of the world, not in the order of importance: (1) creed. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were born of English law – the grandchildren of the Magna Carta – but they were incredible steps forward. (2) our centuries-long self-improvement to live up that creed, beginning first and foremost with the freeing of slaves. We were not first in doing that – England predated us. But they did not have the problems we had with our reliance on slave labor for half of the country. (3) technological progress ranging from the internet, cell phones, modern manufacturing, nuclear power, space travel, sky scrapers interstate highways. New York City is arguably the first modern city. We lag in some things like rail service but excel in air service. (4) National Parks.. The first National Park was in the USA and our propensity to set aside land and pay attention to the environment has led the world. We have much to be proud of. We also have much to be ashamed of (slavery, the indian “problem” and its resolution, environmental degradation, exploitation of other countries). It is a testament to our greatness that we can look these problems in the eye, acknowledge them and ask how we can be better.

Frederic MBA Ango says

February 25, 2021 at 1:31 pm

I say I agree with most of everything except for the crime rate. America is truly one of the best countries. Our cultural influence, economic might, and beacon of freedom all over the world, along with our huge diverse society and opportunities. Thank you for a great essay. To those who disagree I advise them to stop obsessing over America. (When you’re popular people are going to want to hate you)

not named polish guy says

January 20, 2021 at 9:17 am

you say free right and military and stuff, and yes America does have that. BUT 1. America is corrupt in government 2. they don’t use their power wisely 3. we don’t have the best economy in the world, China does 4. literally very country uses their military for defending themselves 5. other than the half dozen or so countries in the world that have slavery every other country has free right/Independence 6. America has never been this unstable since the civil war. 7. we have extremely high crime is the world actually. 7. I am a European and we really don’t think you guys are that great, your self-absorbed and arrogant.

Anonymous says

January 27, 2021 at 7:48 pm

Don’t worry, we could tell you’re European after reading that slop.

Dan Schneider says

March 10, 2021 at 8:32 am

Nobody said that we are the best of all countries however, we are a great nation for numerous reasons. Personally, I think that if you can’t put aside our “arrogant and self-absorbed tendencies” and see what we’ve accomplished, then you’re yet another non-American critic who is delusional. Also since when do you speak for all Europeans? Not all of you hate us especially sense tons of you desperately save your money to visit our cities, funny though… must be out of hate or something.

November 9, 2021 at 6:00 pm

Bro. It’s a bunch of middle schoolers. Why are you being so serious? smh

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What Makes a Great American Essay?

Talking to phillip lopate about thwarted expectations, emerson, and the 21st-century essay boom.

Phillip Lopate spoke to Literary Hub about the new anthology he has edited, The Glorious American Essay . He recounts his own development from an “unpatriotic” young man to someone, later in life, who would embrace such writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, who personified the simultaneous darkness and optimism underlying the history of the United States. Lopate looks back to the Puritans and forward to writers like Wesley Yang and Jia Tolentino. What is the next face of the essay form?

Literary Hub: We’re at a point, politically speaking, when disagreements about the meaning of the word “American” are particularly vehement. What does the term mean to you in 2020? How has your understanding of the word evolved?

Phillip Lopate : First of all, I am fully aware that even using the word “American” to refer only to the United States is something of an insult to Latin American countries, and if I had said “North American” to signify the US, that might have offended Canadians. Still, I went ahead and put “American” in the title as a synonym for the United States, because I wanted to invoke that powerful positive myth of America as an idea, a democratic aspiration for the world, as well as an imperialist juggernaut replete with many unresolved social inequities, in negative terms.

I will admit that when I was younger, I tended to be very unpatriotic and critical of my country, although once I started to travel abroad and witness authoritarian regimes like Spain under Franco, I could never sign on to the fear that a fascist US was just around the corner.  I came to the conclusion that we have our faults, but our virtues as well.

The more I’ve become interested in American history, the more I’ve seen how today’s problems and possible solutions are nothing new, but keep returning in cycles: economic booms and recessions, anti-immigrant sentiment, regional competition, racist Jim Crow policies followed by human rights advances, vigorous federal regulations and pendulum swings away from governmental intervention.

Part of the thrill in putting together this anthology was to see it operating simultaneously on two tracks: first, it would record the development of a literary form that I loved, the essay, as it evolved over 400 years in this country. At the same time, it would be a running account of the history of the United States, in the hands of these essayists who were contending, directly or indirectly, with the pressing problems of their day. The promise of America was always being weighed against its failure to live up to that standard.

For instance, we have the educator John Dewey arguing for a more democratic schoolhouse, the founder of the settlement house movement Jane Addams analyzing the alienation of young people in big cities, the progressive writer Randolph Bourne describing his own harsh experiences as a disabled person, the feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton advocating for women’s rights, and W. E. B. Dubois and James Weldon Johnson eloquently addressing racial injustice.

Issues of identity, gender and intersectionality were explored by writers such as Richard Rodriguez, Audre Lorde, Leonard Michaels and N. Scott Momaday, sometimes with touches of irony and self-scrutiny, which have always been assets of the essay form.

LH : If a publisher had asked us to compile an anthology of 100 representative American essays, we wouldn’t know where to start. How did you? What were your criteria?

PL : I thought I knew the field fairly well to begin with, having edited the best-selling Art of the Personal Essay in 1994, taught the form for decades, served on book award juries and so on. But once I started researching and collecting material, I discovered that I had lots of gaps, partly because the mandate I had set for myself was so sweeping.

This time I would not restrict myself to personal essays but would include critical essays, impersonal essays, speeches that were in essence essays (such as George Washington’s Farewell Address or Martin Luther King, Jr’s sermon on Vietnam), letters that functioned as essays (Frederick Douglass’s Letter to His Master).

I wanted to expand the notion of what is  an essay, to include, for instance, polemics such as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense , or one of the Federalist Papers; newspaper columnists (Fanny Fern, Christopher Morley); humorists (James Thurber, Finley Peter Dunne, Dorothy Parker).

But it also occurred to me that fine essayists must exist in every discipline, not only literature, which sent me on a hunt that took me to cultural criticism (Clement Greenberg, Kenneth Burke), theology (Paul Tillich), food writing (M.F. K. Fisher), geography (John Brinkerhoff Jackson), nature writing (John Muir, John Burroughs, Edward Abbey), science writing (Loren Eiseley, Lewis Thomas), philosophy (George Santayana). My one consistent criterion was that the essay be lively, engaging and intelligently written. In short, I had to like it myself.

Of course I would need to include the best-known practitioners of the American essay—Emerson, Thoreau, Mencken, Baldwin, Sontag, etc.—and was happy to do so.  As it turned out, most of the masters of American fiction and poetry also tried their hand successfully at essay-writing, which meant including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Theodore Dreiser, Willa Cather, Flannery O’Connor, Ralph Ellison. . .

But I was also eager to uncover powerful if almost forgotten voices such as John Jay Chapman, Agnes Repplier, Randolph Bourne, Mary Austin, or buried treasures such as William Dean Howells’ memoir essay of his days working in his father’s printing shop.

Finally, I wanted to show a wide variety of formal approaches, since the essay is by its very nature and nomenclature an experiment, which brought me to Gertrude Stein and Wayne Koestenbaum. Equally important, I was aided in all these searches by colleagues and friends who kept suggesting other names. For every fertile lead, probably four resulted in dead ends.  Meanwhile, I was having a real learning adventure.

LH: Do you have a personal favorite among American essayists? If so, what appeals to you the most about them?

PL : I do. It’s Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was the one who cleared the ground for US essayists, in his famous piece, “The American Scholar,” which called on us to free ourselves from slavish imitation of European models and to think for ourselves.  So much American thought grows out of Emerson, or is in contention with Emerson, even if that debt is sometimes unacknowledged or unconscious.

What I love about Emerson is his density of thought, and the surprising twists and turns that result from it. I can read an essay of his like “Experience” (the one I included in this anthology) a hundred times and never know where it’s going next.  If it was said of Emily Dickenson that her poems made you feel like the top of your head was spinning, that’s what I feel in reading Emerson. He has a playful skepticism, a knack for thinking against himself.  Each sentence starts a new rabbit of thought scampering off. He’s difficult but worth the trouble.

I once asked Susan Sontag who her favorite American essayist was, and she replied “Emerson, of course.” It’s no surprise that Nietzsche revered Emerson, as did Carlyle, and in our own time, Harold Bloom, Stanley Cavell, Richard Poirier. But here’s a confession: it took me awhile to come around to him.

I found his preacher’s manner and abstractions initially off-putting, I wasn’t sure about the character of the man who was speaking to me. Then I read his Notebooks and the mystery was cracked: suddenly I was able to follow essays such as “Circles” with pure pleasure, seeing as I could the darkness and complexity underneath the optimism.

LH: You make the interesting decision to open the anthology with an essay written in 1726, 50 years before the founding of the republic. Why?

PL : I wanted to start the anthology with the first fully-formed essayistic voices in this land, which turned out to belong to the Puritans. Regardless of the negative associations of zealous prudishness that have come to attach to the adjective “puritanical,” those American colonies founded as religious settlements were spearheaded by some remarkably learned and articulate spokespersons, whose robust prose enriched the American literary canon.

Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards were highly cultivated readers, familiar with the traditions of essay-writing, Montaigne and the English, and with the latest science, even as they inveighed against witchcraft. I will admit that it also amused me to open the book with Cotton Mather, a prescriptive, strait-is-the-gate character, and end it with Zadie Smith, who is not only bi-racial but bi-national, dividing her year between London and New York, and whose openness to self-doubt is signaled by her essay collection title, Changing My Mind .

The next group of writers I focused on were the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, and a foundational feminist, Judith Sargent Murray, who wrote the 1790 essay “On the Equality of the Sexes.” These authors, whose essays preceded, occurred during or immediately followed the founding of the republic, were in some ways the opposite of the Puritans, being for the most part Deists or secular followers of the Enlightenment.

Their attraction to reasoned argument and willingness to entertain possible objections to their points of view inspired a vigorous strand of American essay-writing. So, while we may fix the founding of the United States to a specific year, the actual culture and literature of the country book-ended that date.

LH: You end with Zadie Smith’s “Speaking in Tongues,” published in 2008. Which essay in the last 12 years would be your 101st selection?

PL : Funny you should ask. As it happens, I am currently putting the finishing touches on another anthology, this one entirely devoted to the Contemporary (i.e., 21st century) American Essay. I have been immersed in reading younger, up-and-coming writers, established mid-career writers, and some oldsters who are still going strong (Janet Malcolm, Vivian Gornick, Barry Lopez, John McPhee, for example).

It would be impossible for me to single out any one contemporary essayist, as they are all in different ways contributing to the stew, but just to name some I’ve been tracking recently: Meghan Daum, Maggie Nelson, Sloane Crosley, Eula Biss, Charles D’Ambrosio, Teju Cole, Lia Purpura, John D’Agata, Samantha Irby, Anne Carson, Alexander Chee, Aleksander Hemon, Hilton Als, Mary Cappello, Bernard Cooper, Leslie Jamison, Laura Kipnis, Rivka Galchen, Emily Fox Gordon, Darryl Pinckney, Yiyun Li, David Lazar, Lynn Freed, Ander Monson, David Shields, Rebecca Solnit, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Eileen Myles, Amy Tan, Jonathan Lethem, Chelsea Hodson, Ross Gay, Jia Tolentino, Jenny Boully, Durga Chew-Bose, Brian Blanchfield, Thomas Beller, Terry Castle, Wesley Yang, Floyd Skloot, David Sedaris. . .

Such a banquet of names speaks to the intergenerational appeal of the form. We’re going through a particularly rich time for American essays: especially compared to, 20 years ago, when editors wouldn’t even dare put the word “essays” on the cover, but kept trying to package these variegated assortments as single-theme discourses, we’ve seen many collections that have been commercially successful and attracted considerable critical attention.

It has something to do with the current moment, which has everyone more than a little confused and therefore trusting more than ever those strong individual voices that are willing to cop to their subjective fears, anxieties, doubts and ecstasies.

__________________________________

The Glorious American Essay , edited by Phillip Lopate, is available now.

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What Makes America Great?

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Though the idea of American exceptionalism isn’t a recent invention, we’ve heard a lot lately from President Trump and his supporters about “making America great again.” But what, exactly, do people believe makes America great? It depends who you ask—and, in light of Independence Day, a brand new study from Barna did just that. Here’s what U.S. adults say about why they take pride in being an American.

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The main thing Americans love most about their homeland is the opportunity to live the “American Dream.” Almost one quarter (24%) chose “the opportunity to become who you want to be / ‘the American dream,'” followed by four pillars of the American political apparatus: the Constitution (21%), free speech and a free press (21%), freedom of religion (20%) and democracy (20%).

1 in 4 say “the American dream” is what makes the country great.

Generationally, the Constitution and Bill of Rights are more revered among  Boomers (29% and 22% respectively) and Elders (34% and 16%) than Millennials (16% and 8%) or Gen-Xers (16% and 12%).  Freedom of religion is almost twice as likely to be a source of pride among Elders than any other generation (33% compared to 19%-20%) , while a “melting pot society” is almost four times less valuable for Elders (3% compared to 12%-16%) . Millennials see the greatness of U.S. technology and innovation at a percentage almost three times higher than any of the other groups (12% compared to 4%-7%) , and the younger generations (Millennials: 8% and Gen-Xers: 6%)  are also more likely to take pride in arts and culture than older citizens  (Boomers: 1% and Elders: 0%).

Ethnically, white Americans are almost twice as likely as any other ethnic group to say the Constitution is foundational to the nation’s greatness (25% compared to around 16%), but are less likely than any other ethnic group to feel this way about diversity (11% compared to 15%-21%), freedom of religion (19% compared to 23%-25%), and American arts and culture (3% compared to 7%-9%).

Evangelicals have a low view of the Bill of Rights (2%) and freedom of speech / freedom of the press (6%), but they do esteem freedom of religion (53% compared to 20% average) and America’s Christian roots (40% compared to 11% average) at a significantly higher rate than any other group. Practicing Christians similarly value religious freedom (34%) and Christian heritage (23%), but share more in the rest of the country’s level of pride about the Bill of Rights (10%) and freedom of speech / free press (13%).

Finally, notable divides exist between political ideologies. Conservatives value the Constitution (30% compared to 15% of liberals), military strength (12% compared to 3%) and the Christian values of America (21% compared to 3%) more than liberals, who are more inclined to value free speech / free press (27% compared to 15% of conservatives) and diversity (22% compared to 4%).

Evangelicals esteem freedom of religion and America’s Christian roots more than any other group.

Comment on this research and follow our work: Twitter:  @davidkinnaman  |  @roxyleestone  |  @barnagroup Facebook:  Barna Group

About the Research Interviews with U.S. adults included 1015 web-based surveys conducted among a representative sample of adults over the age of 18 in each of the 50 United States. The survey was conducted between June 5-9 of 2017. The sampling error for this study is plus or minus 3 percentage points, at the 95% confidence level. Minimal statistical weighting was used to calibrate the sample to known population percentages in relation to demographic variables.

About Barna

Since 1984, Barna Group has conducted more than two million interviews over the course of thousands of studies and has become a go-to source for insights about faith, culture, leadership, vocation and generations. Barna is a private, non-partisan, for-profit organization.

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• World Politics

How America became the most powerful country on Earth, in 11 maps

by Max Fisher

We take it for granted that the United States is the most powerful country on Earth today, and perhaps in human history. The story of how that came to be is long, fascinating, complex — and often misunderstood. Here, excerpted in part from "70 maps that explain America," are maps that help show some of the key moments and forces that contributed to the US's rise as sole global superpower.

Because of a war that left North America vulnerable to British conquest — and thus ready for the US's expansion

So much of America's power comes from its size: it is one the largest countries on Earth by population and area, and is rich in natural resources and human capital. It is also in many ways an island nation; because it faces no major threats on its borders, it is freer to project power globally.

There was no reason that North America's borders had to become what they are. A key moment in how that happened came with the French and Indian War, at the time just a sideshow in the larger Seven Years' War in Europe. The war ended with France giving up its vast territory on the continent to Britain and Spain. Napoleon would seize back Louisiana and sell it to the US in 1803, but New France was lost forever. With the Spanish Empire already declining, the continent was left open to conquest from the British Empire and its successor, the United States.

Image credit: University of Maine

By stealing Native Americans' land for an entire century

Of course, North America was not empty when European explorers and settlers arrived — it was filled with diverse, long-established societies. They may well have become sovereign nation-states had the US not sought to purge them from their lands, deny them self-rule, and, once they had been reduced to a tiny minority, forcibly assimilate them and their land. These acts are the foundation upon which American dominance of North America, and thus American global power, was built.

This map begins by showing Native Americans' land in 1794, demarcated by tribe and marked in green. In 1795, the US and Spain signed the Treaty of San Lorenzo, carving up much of the continent between them. What followed was a century of catastrophes for Native Americans as their land was taken piece by piece. By the time the US passed the Dawes Act in 1887, effectively abolishing tribal self-governance and forcing assimilation, there was very little left.

Image credit: Sam B. Hillard/Sunisup

By taking land from Mexico in another war

American expansionism could only go so far. Upon Mexico's independence in 1821, it gained vast but largely unincorporated and uncontrolled Spanish-claimed lands from present-day Texas to Northern California. American settler communities were growing in those areas; by 1829 they outnumbered Spanish speakers in Mexico's Texas territory. A minor uprising by those American settlers in 1835 eventually led to a full-fledged war of independence. The settlers won, establishing the Texas Republic, which they voluntarily merged with the United States in 1845.

But Mexico and the US still disputed the Texas borders, and President James K. Polk wanted even more westward land to expand slavery. He also had designs on Mexico's California territory, already home to a number of American settlers. War began in 1846 over the disputed Texas territory, but quickly expanded to much of Mexico. A hard-line Mexican general took power and fought to the bitter end, culminating in the US invading Mexico City and seizing a third of Mexico's territory, including what is now California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Had the war gone differently, or had Polk not sought these Mexican lands, the US would today be a much smaller country — and perhaps with no Pacific coast — making it less powerful globally, and particularly in the increasingly important Pacific region.

Image credit: Kaidor/Wikipedia

By choosing to become a European-style imperial power

If there was a single moment when the US became a global power, it was the war with Spain. The Spanish Empire had been crumbling for a century, and there was a ferocious debate within the US over whether America should become an imperial power to replace it. This centered on Cuba: pro-imperialists wanted to purchase or annex it from Spain (pre-1861, the plan was to turn it into a new slave state); anti-imperialists wanted to support Cuban independence.

In 1898, Cuban activists launched a war of independence from Spain, and the US intervened on their side. When the war ended in Spanish defeat, US anti-imperialists blocked the US from annexing Cuba, but pro-imperialists succeeded in placing it under a quasi-imperialist sphere of influence; the US base at Guantanamo Bay is a relic of this arrangement. The war also ended with the US taking three other Spanish possessions: Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, a massive and populous island nation in the Pacific. The US had become a European-style imperial power. While this experiment in colonialism was short-lived and controversial at home, it began America's role as a major global power.

Image credit: Anand Katakam

Through colonialism in the Pacific — and by stealing Hawaii

America's brief experiment with overt imperialism came late in the game, and mostly focused on one of the last parts of the world carved up by Europe: the Pacific. This began in Hawaii, then an independent nation. American businessmen seized power in an 1893 coup and asked the US to annex it. President Cleveland refused to conquer another nation, but when William McKinley took office he agreed, absorbing Hawaii, the first of several Pacific acquisitions. Japan soon entered the race for the Pacific and seized many European-held islands, culminating in this 1939 map, two years before America joined World War II.

Image credit: Emok

Because World War I devastated Europe — and not the US

For centuries, the world had been divided among several competing global powers. No one country had hope of becoming the sole global superpower in such a system. World War I was the beginning of the end of that era. These six dots represent not just the major participants in the first World War, but the countries that, at the time, were the world's great powers. A seventh great power, the Ottoman Empire, was dismantled outright as a result of the war. (China, perhaps another great power, had been declining for some time.) As you can see, the destruction of the war and the massive war debts absolutely devastated the economies of the great powers — except, that is, for the United States and the still-mighty British Empire.

Image credit: Stephen Broadberry/Mark Harrison

Because World War II devastated Europe and Asia

It is impossible to fully capture the toll of the second world war in any one metric, but this map of military deaths can serve as a telling shorthand. While the war was terribly costly for all involved, the human cost was disproportionately felt by the two primary Axis powers — Germany and Japan — and particularly by the Soviets and Chinese, as well as by other countries in Eastern Europe and East Asia caught in the war machines. These military deaths merely hint at the much larger death toll in both continents from war, famine, and genocide, as well as economic and ecological devastation. While Americans paid dearly, as well — enduring the deaths of 400,000 military personnel — the US came out of the war far more powerful by virtue of everyone else's decline.

Image credit: Tyson Whiting

Because European colonialism collapsed — but not the American or Russian empires

This animated map showing the rise and fall of European (as well as Japanese and Ottoman) imperialism is fascinating all the way through, but things get really interesting from 1914 through the end. In just a few years after World War II, the centuries-long project of European colonialism collapses almost entirely. The reasons for this were many: the rise of independence movements in Latin America, then in Africa and Asia; the collapse of European economies that drew them back home; and, with postwar colonial misadventures like the 1956 Suez Crisis, a sense that the new world order was not going to tolerate colonialism anymore. In any case, the world was left with two enormous land empires that happened to have European roots: the United States and the Soviet Union.

Image credit: Asuros

By dividing up the world in the Cold War

After the world wars and the end of colonialism, the global system went from many competing powers to exactly two: the US and the Soviet Union. Both had competing ideologies, competing interests in Europe and Asia, and deep mutual distrust. While that might have normally led to war, the horrifying power of nuclear weapons kept them from fighting outright. Instead, the US and Soviet Union competed for global influence.

American and Soviet fears of a global struggle became a self-fulfilling prophecy: both launched coups, supported rebellions, backed dictators, and participated in proxy wars in nearly every corner of the world. Both built up systems of alliances, offshore bases, and powerful militaries that allowed each to project power across the globe.

By 1971, the US and the Soviet Union had settled into a stalemate; this map shows the world as it had been utterly divided. In 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan; a year later, Ronald Reagan ran for president, promising to end the détente and defeat the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, along with many of its trappings of global power, disintegrated — leaving the United States with a vast global architecture of military and diplomatic power that was suddenly unchallenged.

Image credit: Minnesotan Confederacy

Because Europe unified under American-dominated NATO

In 1948, the Soviet Union blockaded Berlin from Western Germany. The next year, the powers of Western Europe joined with the US and Canada in signing a collective defense — the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — meant to deter Soviet aggression and counterbalance the Soviet Union in Europe. It expanded during the Cold War to include virtually every European country west of the Soviet bloc. This may have staved off another war in Europe by pledging that the US would defend any member as it would its own soil. It also left Western Europe, once full of independent powers that jostled against one another and against the United States, unified against a common threat — and led by its most powerful member, the United States.

That dynamic did not really change after the Cold War ended. NATO expanded, acquiring new members in Central and Eastern Europe that still feared Russia. NATO ensures the stability of Europe and the security of its members, but at a cost: Europe's nations are now reliant upon, and thus yoked to, American power. This dynamic has played out in several places across the globe — South Korea and Japan are similarly tied to the US through security agreements and American military bases, for example — but it is most clearly pronounced in Europe.

Image credit: Arz

By outspending the next dozen countries combined on defense

Another way to show America's status as the sole global superpower is its military budget: larger than the next 12 largest military budgets on Earth, combined. That's partly a legacy of the Cold War, but it's also a reflection of the role the US has taken on as the guarantor of global security and the international order. For example, since 1979, the US has made it official military policy to protect oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf — something from which the whole world benefits. At the same time, other powers are rapidly growing their militaries. China and Russia in particular are rapidly modernizing and expanding their armed forces, implicitly challenging global American dominance and the US-led order.

Image credit: International Institute for Strategic Studies/Agence France-Presse

By virtue of America's scientific edge — and its democracy, creativity, and draw for immigrants

The US is so powerful for reasons other than its size, its military might, and its global system of alliances and bases — although those are certainly important. There is also America's tremendous advantage in scientific research, which both furthers and is an expression of its technological and economic lead on much of the rest of the world; it's also an indicator of innovation more broadly. An imperfect but revealing shorthand for that is the US's tremendous lead in Nobel prizes from its 1901 inception through 2013, when I made this map (the US has not lost its Nobel lead since then). The US has won 371 Nobels, mostly in the sciences; the US thus accounts for 4 percent of the world population but 34 percent of its Nobel laureates. This is the result of many factors: wealth, a culture and economy that encourage innovation, education, vast state- and private-funded research programs, and a political culture that has long attracted highly educated migrants. All of those factors contribute to American wealth and thus power in more ways than just Nobel prizes, but the sheer number of US laureates is a sign of the American advantage there.

Image credit: Max Fisher

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What’s So Great about America

Former U.N. ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick was right: “Americans need to face the truth about themselves, no matter how pleasant it is.” By Hoover fellow Dinesh D’Souza.

A merica has become an empire, a fact that Americans are reluctant to admit and that critics of America regard with great alarm. Since the end of the Cold War, America has exercised an unparalleled and largely unrivaled influence throughout the world. No other nation has ever enjoyed such economic, political, cultural, and military superiority. Consequently the critics of America, both at home and abroad, are right to worry about how American power is being used.

The critics charge that America is no different from other large and rapacious empires that have trampled across the continents in previous centuries. Within the universities, intellectuals speak of American policies as “neo-imperialist” because they promote the goals of empire while eschewing the term. America talks about lofty ideals, the critics say, but in reality it pursues naked self-interest. In the Gulf War, for example, America’s leaders asserted that they were fighting for human rights but in truth they were fighting to protect American access to oil. The critics point to longtime American support for dictators such as Somoza in Nicaragua, Pinochet in Chile, the Shah in Iran, and Marcos in the Philippines as evidence that Americans don’t really care about the democratic ideals they give lip service to. Even now America supports unelected regimes in Pakistan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. No wonder, the critics say, that so many people around the world are anti-American and that some even resort to terrorism in order to lash out against the imperial exercise of American power.

Are the critics right? They are correct to note the extent of American influence but wrong to suggest that America is no different from colonial powers such as the British, the French, and the Spanish that once dominated the world. Those empires—like the Islamic empire, the Mongol empire, and the Chinese empire—were sustained primarily by force. The British, for example, ruled my native country of India with nearly 100,000 troops.

American domination is different in that it is not primarily sustained by force. This is not to deny that there are American bases in the Middle East and the Far East or that America has the military capacity to intervene just about anywhere in the world. The real power of America, however, extends far beyond its military capabilities. Walk into a hotel in Barbados or Bombay and the bellhop is whistling the theme song from Titanic . African boys in remote villages can be spotted wearing Yankees and Orioles baseball caps. Millions of people from all over the globe want to move to America. Countless people are drawn to American technology, American freedom, the American way of life. Some critics, especially from Europe, sneer that these aspirations are shortsighted, and perhaps they are right. People may be wrong to want the American lifestyle and may not foresee its disadvantages, but at least they are seeking it voluntarily.

What about the occasions, though, when America does exercise its military power? Here we can hardly deny the critics’ allegation that America acts to promote its self-interest. Even so, Americans can feel immensely proud of how often their country has served their interests while simultaneously promoting noble ideals and the welfare of others. Yes, America fought the Gulf War in part to protect its oil interests, but it also fought to liberate the Kuwaitis from Iraqi invasion.

But what about long-lasting U.S. backing for Latin American, Asian, and Middle Eastern dictators such as Somoza, Marcos, Pinochet, and the Shah? It should be noted that, in each of these cases, the United States eventually turned against the dictatorial regime and actively aided in its ouster. In Chile and the Philippines, the outcome was favorable: The Pinochet and Marcos regimes were replaced by democratic governments that have so far endured. In Nicaragua and Iran, however, one form of tyranny promptly gave way to another. Somoza was replaced by the Sandinistas, who suspended civil liberties and established a Marxist-style dictatorship, and the Shah of Iran was replaced by a harsh theocracy presided over by the Ayatollah Khomeini.

These outcomes help highlight a crucial principle of foreign policy: the principle of the lesser evil. This means that one should not pursue a thing that seems good if it is likely to result in something worse. A second implication of this doctrine is that one is usually justified in allying with a bad guy in order to oppose a regime that is even worse. The classic example of this occurred during World War II: The United States allied with a very bad man, Stalin, in order to defeat someone who posed a greater threat at the time, Hitler.

Once the principle of the lesser evil is taken into account, then many American actions in terms of supporting tin-pot dictators such as Marcos and Pinochet become defensible. These were measures taken to fight the Cold War. If one accepts what is today an almost universal consensus that the Soviet Union was indeed an “evil empire,” then the United States was right to attach more importance to the fact that Marcos and Pinochet were anti-Soviet than to the fact that they were autocratic thugs.

But now the Cold War is over, so why does America support despotic regimes such as those of Musharaff in Pakistan, Mubarak in Egypt, and the royal family in Saudi Arabia? Once again, we must apply the principle of the lesser evil and examine the practical alternative to those regimes. Unfortunately there do not seem to be viable liberal, democratic parties in the Middle East. The alternative to Mubarak and the Saudi royal family appears to be Islamic fundamentalists of the bin Laden stripe. Faced with the choice between “uncompromising medievals” and “corrupt moderns,” America has no choice but to side with the corrupt moderns.

Empires have to make hard choices, but even if one disagrees with American actions in a given case, one should not miss the larger context. America is the most magnanimous of all imperial powers that have ever existed. After leveling Japan and Germany during World War II, the United States rebuilt those countries. For the most part, America is an abstaining superpower: it shows no real interest in conquering and subjugating the rest of the world, even though it can. On occasion the United States intervenes in Grenada or Haiti or Bosnia, but it never stays to rule those countries. Moreover, when America does get into a war, it is supremely careful to avoid targeting civilians and to minimize collateral damage. Even as American bombs destroyed the infrastructure of the Taliban regime, American planes dropped rations of food to avert hardship and starvation of Afghan civilians. What other country does such things?

Jeane Kirkpatrick once said that “Americans need to face the truth about themselves, no matter how pleasant it is.” The reason that many Americans don’t feel this way is that they judge themselves by a higher standard than they judge anyone else. Thus if the Chinese, the Arabs, or the sub-Saharan Africans slaughter ten thousand of their own people, the world utters a collective sigh and resumes its normal business. By contrast, if America, in the middle of a war, accidentally bombs a school or a hospital and kills 200 civilians, there is an immediate uproar and an investigation is launched. What all this demonstrates, of course, is America’s evident moral superiority. If this be the workings of empire, let us have more of it.

Dinesh D’Souza’s latest book What’s So Great about America is published by Regnery.

New from the Hoover Press is Our Brave New World: Essays on the Impact of September 11 , edited by Wladyslaw Pleszczynski. To order, call 800-935-2882.

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America Insists It Is Great. It Should Work on Being Decent

F or as long as I can remember, I’ve felt a stifling expectation, an understood command to believe that America is great. If I could not see this nation as great, then I must be a disgruntled traitor. If I could not see America’s remarkable progress—how it eventually fixed its mistake of enslaving others; how it bent over backward to consider race in college admissions—I must be a spoiled cynic.

In The Fire Next Time , James Baldwin described the “chorus of the innocents,” those who’d respond to claims of racism by screaming, “How bitter you are!” and “You exaggerate!” My personal chorus, beginning in adolescence with some of my white peers and supported by whitewashed history books, exclaimed: Look how far we’ve come. At least you’re not in [insert a developing country]. There is no country like ours.

This Independence Day, it’s that last line I believe.

I have neither the space in this article nor energy in my soul to list every reason why we are exceptional, nor could I—for there will be new examples and reasons tomorrow or the next day. (This is the crux of the problem.) You cannot rank the reasons, either. There is no “most important” when you consider, in a country where “all men are created equal,” hate crimes against Asian-Americans , bans that erase words from our libraries and lexicons , and Black maternal mortality rates that will surely get worse now that five Supreme Court Justices have told us that bodily autonomy is not actually a right . There are only layers of injustice, folded into our systems of health care and housing , even into our Constitution, a document held in the highest regard, as though it never counted my people as fractions or had to be amended. You cannot prioritize the ways in which so many of us are rendered expendable. For, look, a new tragedy arises, and—whether it shocks you or not—threatens to sink your whole heart in one second.

As a nation, we are both unstoppable and too prideful to stop ourselves. We are slow to turn away from sin; refusing to trade in guns or privilege or freedom; unable to admit that perhaps we are not great and never have been.

In May, we were all given 10 days. After a white supremacist drove out of his way to target and gun down Black shoppers in Buffalo, N.Y ., I had 10 days to step into a grocery store, breathe deeply by the bins of watermelons and bell peppers, and tell myself, “I cannot avoid every store.” Ten days to selfishly wonder if living in a white college town would protect—or expose—my family. Those of us fortunate to still be alive could listen to podcasts on the great replacement theory and pretend that identifying its roots might help us root it out, or at least keep an eye on it. (Tragically, we’d soon learn too much about the difference between eliminating a threat versus monitoring it from outside.)

We had 10 days to imagine a church mother buying fresh rolls or apples and read that she fed others on Saturdays, our elder queen breaking bread in the middle of a food desert, much like her Lord. For 10 days, we could retroactively rewrite the victims’ stories , plan a day wherein they decided the Tops Friendly Markets grocery store was too far out of the way, not worth their time, the butter or potatoes on their shopping list could wait. What a terrible use of our imaginations.

Read More: ‘I’m Sorry. I’ve Got Your Sister.’ A Family Grieves After the Buffalo Shooting

As a nation, we may consider repair, but repentance means to “turn away.” And why would white conservatives turn away from their power and freedom and privilege? There is no rational reason for them to let go; it would have to be spiritual, moral, ethical—a space reserved for tired arguments about abortion or critical race theory , a concept none of them can accurately define.

So within 10 days of the tragedy in Buffalo, children on the edge of summer in Uvalde, Texas , hid and called 911 and waited and bled out, while law enforcement kept watch outside their classrooms. Two teachers who’d cared for them died as well.

What would it cost us to concede that we are not great?

As a mother , and as a mother of Black children, one statistic runs on a continual loop in my mind now: Guns are the leading cause of death for children in this country. It’s inconceivable that we haven’t stopped everything, made the sun and moon stand still, until this is untrue. Instead, we will temporarily lower flags to half-staff after mass shootings, while a man lowering his body to one knee in protest permanently loses his job. If we will not ban assault rifles, and if our song, penned by a slaveholder, is too precious to withstand a knee, then can we at least fly every flag at half-mast until the mass shootings stop ?

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. In fact, until the massacre in Uvalde, my brightest idea to protect my kids was to buy them each a phone. That is not rational; it is a mother’s tired plea.

You might tell me change is coming, and I won’t hold that against you. President Biden signed the first major federal gun-safety law in decades, and if that deal saves a life, Amen. But it’s clear this legislation is less than we need. It’s a small step forward that doesn’t really address the heart of the matter—that certain people’s freedom matters more than others’ in this country. If this weren’t so, the NRA would have spoken up after the police killing of Philando Castile, a Black man who had a permit to carry a gun . How do I teach my children to celebrate a small “victory” when so much more could be done right now to protect them? So much more has been done in other countries . Do we give thanks for the slim possibility that this deal will prevent future massacres?

Read More: ‘There Is an Emptiness.’ Uvalde Shooting Victim Lexi Rubio’s Great-Grandfather Remembers Her 10 Years of Life

Though he warned against it, I listen to Baldwin’s words. “Take no one’s word for anything, including mine—but trust your experience,” he wrote to his nephew. My experience tells me America, above all, is exceptional in its commitment to gaslighting. A country willing to violate or exploit those at the margins, cast some to the shadows, take away a long-established right and call others into question, all under the banner of equality and democracy. Any country with a record like ours should dream first of becoming decent, rather than insisting on its own greatness.

But if some must continue with parades and flag-waving, with understanding AR-15s as the “full armor of God,” then perhaps we can at least agree to answer one question directly, before we light the grill and stock the coolers. Can we agree, whether kneeling or standing with hand over heart, to consider: Who among us is safe? And if we grasp, even for a moment, the true horror or depth of that answer, the way it exposes a darkness we’d rather unsee, let us remember what Scripture says about the man who looked in the mirror and then walked away, immediately forgetting the shape of his face. That man was called neither blessed nor great. He appears in the text as a warning, a stark reminder of what happens when we know the truth and do nothing about it.

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Majority of Americans say U.S. is one of the greatest countries in the world

The share of Americans who say the United States stands above all other nations in the world has declined modestly over the past four years, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. There has also been an increase in the share who say other countries are better than the U.S.

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand the American public’s view of the United States’ standing in the world. For this analysis, we surveyed 8,480 U.S. adults from July 10 to 16, 2023. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. Recruiting our panelists by phone or mail ensures that nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. This gives us confidence that any sample can represent the whole population (see our Methods 101 explainer on random sampling).

To further ensure that each survey reflects a balanced cross-section of the nation, the data is weighted to match the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology and the methodology for this report .

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its methodology .

Today, two-in-ten Americans say the U.S. “stands above all other countries in the world.” About half (52%) say the U.S. is “one of the greatest countries, along with some others,” while 27% say “there are other countries that are better than the U.S.”

Opinions about the nation’s global standing have changed slightly since 2019. That year, 24% said the U.S. is the single greatest nation, 55% said it is one of the best countries, and 21% said other countries are better than the U.S.

Much of this recent change in attitudes has come from Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. Four years ago, 40% of Republicans said the U.S. stands above all other nations, compared with 31% today. And the share of Republicans saying other countries are better has nearly doubled, from 9% to 17%.

At the same time, Democrats and Democratic leaners have grown slightly more likely to say there are other countries that are better than the U.S.: In 2019, 31% said this, compared with 36% today.

Age divides in attitudes about U.S. persist

As has been the case for more than a decade, views of how America compares with other countries differ by age. Roughly four-in-ten adults ages 18 to 29 (43%) say other countries are better than the U.S. – the highest share of any age group.

Age differences are evident within both partisan coalitions. Half of Democrats under age 30 say other countries are better than the U.S., as do 40% of those 30 to 49. By comparison, just 25% of Democrats 50 and older say this.

Among Republicans, 28% of adults under 30 say other countries are superior to the U.S., compared with 12% of those 50 and older. And younger Republicans are considerably less likely than older Republicans to say the U.S. is the greatest nation: 16% of those ages 18 to 29 say this, compared with 26% of those 30 to 49, 36% of those 50 to 64 and 41% of those 65 and older.

How partisans’ views of U.S. standing have changed over time

Republicans have long been more likely than Democrats to see the U.S. as the single greatest nation, while Democrats have been more likely to say there are other countries that are better. Still, the most frequent response among both Republicans and Democrats continues to be that the U.S. is one of the world’s greatest countries, along with others.

The share of adults saying the U.S. stands above all other countries dropped significantly in telephone surveys conducted between 2011 and 2019. While the decline in views of the United States’ global standing was concentrated among Democrats during these years, the decline over the past four years is concentrated among Republicans.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its methodology .

• National Conditions
• Partisanship & Issues
• Politics & Policy
• U.S. Global Image

Hannah Hartig is a senior researcher focusing on U.S. politics and policy research at Pew Research Center .

Public’s Positive Economic Ratings Slip; Inflation Still Widely Viewed as Major Problem

Americans are less likely than others around the world to feel close to people in their country or community, americans’ dismal views of the nation’s politics, americans are more pessimistic than optimistic about many aspects of the country’s future, how americans’ views of the u.s. compare with international views of the u.s., most popular.

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25 Reasons Why America Is the Greatest Country in the World Despite Its Problems

America has a lot of amazing things – its beautiful natural scenery, vibrant cities, unique culture, and some of the world’s most iconic landmarks — it’s no wonder many choose to make America their home. We have compiled a list of 25 things we adore about America that may inspire you to consider living in this great country.

Freedom of Speech, Religion, and Expression

One of the most amazing things about America is its commitment to protecting freedom of speech. Everyone in the US is free to speak their mind and express themselves without fear of censorship or punishment. Americans are also guaranteed the right to practice any religion they choose.

Diverse and Inclusive Communities

America is home to people from all walks of life. The country’s diverse communities offer various cultures, languages, lifestyles, and traditions for individuals to explore. America is also a leader in representing and advocating for marginalized communities. The nation is committed to building an inclusive society where all citizens feel safe and respected.

Amazing Cuisine

America’s culinary landscape is diverse and delicious — from regional specialties like New Orleans’ beignets to national favorites like Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. You’ll find classic southern diner dishes and high-end fusion cuisine, allowing you to explore the rich flavors of America.

A Rich Arts and Music Scene

America is home to some of the world’s most talented visual artists, musicians, and performers. The country has an incredible music scene with genres like rock, hip-hop, folk, blues, jazz, and more. It also boasts a national theater circuit that showcases talent from Broadway to off-Broadway shows.

World-Class Universities

America has some of the world’s best universities and colleges, offering educational opportunities to students from all backgrounds. These universities provide various academic and research opportunities for students to explore. Here you can find top-notch professors and access cutting-edge facilities.

A Strong Economy

The US economy is one of the strongest in the world. It is known for its low unemployment rates, high per capita income, and strong consumer spending. The country has led the world in technology, finance, manufacturing, and much more. It also provides security in times of need with various social programs designed to help citizens.

Vibrant Cities

Some of the most vibrant cities in the world are in the US. From New York’s iconic skyline to Los Angeles’ bright lights, these cities offer unique energy. They have diverse neighborhoods of culture, life, and popular attractions like museums, shopping, and restaurants.

A Welcoming Atmosphere

People from all over the world come to America for a better life, and the country welcomes them with open arms. The US embraces and celebrates different cultures, allowing newcomers to make their mark in society.

The Parks and Outdoor Spaces

America has abundant natural beauty that you can explore in its national parks, beaches, forests, and other outdoor spaces. Visitors and residents alike can explore some of the most stunning public lands in the world. Whether you prefer hiking or camping, America’s parks have something for everyone.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a national holiday in the US to celebrate the harvest and share a meal with friends and family on the fourth Thursday of November. It often includes delicious traditional dishes like turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. This holiday symbolizes unity, gratitude, and joy — something everyone can enjoy.

Black Friday Shopping

If you love shopping, then the US is definitely for you. Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days in America and occurs every year after Thanksgiving. On the day, shoppers can find amazing deals on various products, from electronics to clothes and everything in between.

A Strong Military

The US military is one of the strongest in the world, with a long history of defending freedom and protecting America from its enemies. The country also has an active national guard, which provides training, support, and deployment assistance for those who serve.

If you’re looking for a timeless American pastime, look no further than road trips. America is a great place to explore with its expansive highways and well-maintained roads, and road trips are an excellent way to discover amazing places in the country at your own pace and create memories that will last a lifetime.

Friendly People

Another great thing about America is its people. Americans are known for their friendly attitude, making meeting new people easy and forming meaningful relationships. Whether it’s a stranger on the street or a long-time friend, Americans are willing to lend a helping hand and strike up conversations with ease.

The American Dream

The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States and involves achieving success and fortune through hard work, determination, and innovation. It has inspired generations to come to America to pursue their dreams and helped shape the values that make this country so great.

July 4th and Fireworks

July 4th celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and is seen as America’s birthday. People across the country celebrate with parades, barbecues, and fireworks displays. It’s a beautiful time to be in America and experience its patriotism and love for freedom.

Sports Culture

America has a vibrant sports culture with different professional teams and fanbases. They also have some of the world’s most popular and beloved teams. Whether you watch football, basketball, baseball, or hockey, you can find them in the niches of American sports.

High School Experiences

High school in America is a unique experience that allows students to pursue their passions and hobbies while getting an education. From sports teams to clubs and activities, high school is a time for students to explore their interests and meet lifelong friends.

Stand-up Comedy

Stand-up comedy is an American tradition that has existed since the mid-20th century. Comedians from all over the world come to America to perform, and it’s easy to find a great show in almost any city. Comedy is a fun way to experience American culture and enjoy some laughs simultaneously!

Drive-Through Everything

Drive-throughs are an American specialty and can be found all over the country. Drive-throughs make it convenient for people to get what they need from fast food, coffee shops, banks, pharmacies, and more without leaving the comfort of their cars.

Superbowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday is one of the biggest events in America. The annual championship game for the National Football League draws millions of viewers worldwide. People from all over the country come together to watch the big game and enjoy good food and drinks with friends and family.

Craft Beers and Microbreweries

In recent years, craft beers and microbreweries have become increasingly popular in America. There is a wide variety of unique flavors for everyone, and many states even host beer festivals throughout the year. Beer lovers will feel right at home in America!

Wild Flowers and Wild Berries

America is home to some of the most beautiful wildflowers and wild berries, like lavender fields in California and blueberry bushes in Maine; these natural wonders make for a colorful landscape. You can explore the natural beauty of America!

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is one of America’s most iconic landmarks and a must-see for anyone visiting the US. It’s an awe-inspiring force of nature that will leave you speechless from its sheer size and grandeur. Whether you hike, raft, or take in the views by air, it’s an experience you will remember!

Fast Internet Connections

Who doesn’t love fast internet connections? America is a leader in broadband technology, which means you can find fast and reliable internet connections in almost every city. With high-speed internet, you don’t have to worry about waiting for pages to load or streaming movies of low quality.

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Did Alexis de Tocqueville Say 'America Is Great Because She Is Good'?

The statement has been frequently cited (in whole or in part) across the years by politicians, newspapers, books, and websites., david mikkelson, published dec. 5, 2019.

About this rating

Alexis de Tocqueville was a 19th century French diplomat, political scientist, and historian who is best known for his two-volume work "Democracy in America" (published in 1835 and 1840), in which he offered his observations on American politics, society, and culture gleaned from his travels across the U.S. in 1831-32.

One of the most oft-quoted passages purportedly from "Democracy in America" is the following, which has been frequently cited (in whole or in part) across the years by politicians, newspapers, books, and websites as a testament to the moral virtuousness of Christianity and/or American democratic institutions:

I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her public school system and her institutions of learning, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.

However, these words do not appear in the pages of "Democracy in America," nor do they appear in any other writing or recorded utterance contemporaneously traceable to de Tocqueville. Numerous sources have been debunking the de Tocqueville attribution for over 25 years, as seen in the following excerpt from a 1995 article by John J. Pitney, Jr., associate professor of government at Claremont McKenna College:

These lines are uplifting and poetic. They are also spurious. Nowhere do they appear in Democracy in America , or anywhere else in Tocqueville. The authenticity of the passage came into question when first-year government students at Claremont McKenna College received an assignment: Find a contemporary speech quoting Tocqueville, and determine how accurately the speaker used the quotation. A student soon uncovered a recent Senate floor speech that cited the "America is great" line. He scoured Democracy in America , but could not find the passage. The professor looked, too -- and it was not there. Further research led to reference books that cautiously referred to the quotation as "unverified" and "attributed to de Tocqueville but not found in his works." These references, in turn, pointed to the apparent source: a 1941 book on religion and the American dream. The book quoted the last two lines of the passage as coming from Democracy in America but supplied no documentation. (The author may have mistaken his own notes for a verbatim quotation, a common problem in the days before photocopiers.) The full version of the quotation appeared 11 years later, in an Eisenhower campaign speech. Ike, however, attributed it not directly to Tocqueville but to "a wise philosopher [who] came to this country ..." One may conjecture that Eisenhower's speechwriter embellished the lines from the 1941 book and avoided a direct reference to Tocqueville as a way of covering himself. Speechwriters do such things from time to time.

Similarly, Ralph Keyes wrote in his 2006 "Quote Verifier" book that no definitive documentation has turned up that traces the origins of these words to de Tocqueville himself:

Like presidents Eisenhower and Reagan before him, Bill Clinton was fond of attributing these words to Alexis de Tocqueville. Many another political figure, news commentator, and patriotic orator has cited this observation, said to have been made by American's most famous tourist. Library of Congress researchers call the attribution "unverified." They did find the complete quotation, attributed to de Tocqueville's Democracy in America , in a 1941 book called The Kingdom of God and the American Dream by evangelist Sherwood Eddy (1871-1963) ... Who actually wrote these words remains a mystery. Sherwood Eddy gave no source for his de Tocqueville attribution. According to biographer Rick L. Nutt, Eddy tended to work from memory. Perhaps he'd read the 1908 copy of The Methodist Review in which de Tocqueville was quoted as saying he'd searched in vain for the sources of America's distinction until he entered a church: "It was there, as I listened to the soul-equalizing and soul-elevating principles of the Gospel of Christ as they fell from Sabbath to Sabbath upon the masses of the people, that I learned why America is great and free, and why France is a slave." These uncharacteristic words are not de Tocqueville's either.

Attributions of this passage to de Tocqueville have so far been documented as far back as 1887 , and researcher Barry Popik uncovered an unattributed variant published in 1886:

I went at your bidding, and passed along their thoroughfares of trade. I ascended their mountains and went down their valleys. I visited their manufactories, their commercial markets, and emporiums of trade. I entered their judicial courts and legislative halls. But I sought everywhere in vain for the secret of their success, until I entered the church. It was there, as I listened to the soul-equalizing and soul-elevating principles of the Gospel of Christ, as they fell from Sabbath to Sabbath upon the masses of the people, that I learned why America was great and free, and why France was a slave.

A book published in 1835 by Andrew Reed and James Matheson, two British ministers who visited sister churches in the United States in 1834 to promote peace and friendship and then wrote about their travels, contains what may be the seed from which this quotation germinated: "America will be great if America is good. If not, her greatness will vanish away like a morning cloud."

Whatever the ultimate source, it appears this statement about how "America is great because she is good" evolved over a long period of time independently of anything de Tocqueville actually wrote, and as part of that evolutionary process it retroactively (and falsely) became attributed to him.

Reed, Andrew and James Matheson.   A Narrative of the Visit to the American Churches: By the Deputation from the Congregation Union of England and Wales   (Vol. II).     Harper & Brothers, 1835.

Keyes, Ralph.   The Quote Verifier .     St. Martin's Griffin, 2006   (p. 4).   ISBN 0-312-34004-4.

Popik, Barry.   “America Is Great Because She Is Good.”     barrypopik.com .   24 May 2009.

Pitney Jr., John J.   "As the Great Tocqueville Never Said."     Los Angeles Times .   15 September 1996.

By David Mikkelson

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Immigration to America — Benefits of Living in America

Benefits of Living in America

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Published: Jun 6, 2024

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Economic opportunities, cultural diversity, freedom of expression, innovation and technological advancement.

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What's Great About America

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Why the Post Office Makes America Great

By Zeynep Tufekci

• Jan. 1, 2016

I WAS transported recently to a place that is as enchanting to me as any winter wonderland: my local post office.

In line, I thought fondly of the year I came to this country from Turkey as an adult and discovered the magic of reliable mail service. Dependable infrastructure is magical not simply because it works, but also because it allows innovation to thrive, including much of the Internet-based economy that has grown in the past decade. You can’t have Amazon or eBay without a reliable way to get things to people’s homes.

Of course, infrastructure is also boring, so we get used to it and forget what a gift it truly is. I never do, maybe because I discovered it so late.

My first year in the United States was full of surprises. I remember trying to figure out if the 24-ounce glass of ice water the waitress placed in front of me was a pitcher, to be shared by the whole table. But where was the spout? I had expected some of what I encountered — I had seen enough movies, and came to this country expecting big cars and big houses and wide open spaces. I got used to gigantic glasses.

But I didn’t expect the post office.

The first time I needed to mail something, I trekked over to my campus’s post office, looking for the line to get my envelope weighed. The staff was used to befuddled international students like me, I suppose, and one clerk took my envelope without fuss, said “first class letter,” and took my change.

Then I discovered some vending machines outside the office. People came and bought stamps. “So many people must be into stamp collecting,” I thought to myself. Was that another weird American quirk? Otherwise, why would people waste money buying stamps in advance, without having their letters weighed?

Something I take for granted now just didn’t occur to me: There were standardized rates, and you could just slap a stamp on your letter, drop it in a mailbox, and it would go to its destination.

I then encountered a visa service that asked me to mail in my passport. My precious, precious passport. With a self-addressed, stamped envelope for its return. I laughed at the audacity of the request. Despite being a broke student, I booked a plane trip. I couldn’t envision putting my passport in the mail. I’ve since learned that this is a common practice, and I’ve even done it once or twice myself. But it still does not come easy to me.

I noticed that Americans were a particularly patriotic bunch: So many of them had red flags on their mailboxes. Sometimes they would put those flags up. I presumed it was to celebrate national holidays I did not yet know about. But why did some people have their flags up while others did not? And why weren’t they American flags anyway? As in Istanbul, where I grew up, I assumed patriotism had different interpretations and expressions.

The mystery was solved when I noticed a letter carrier emptying a mailbox. I was slightly unnerved: Was the mail being stolen? He then went over to another mailbox with the flag up, and emptied that box, too. I got my hint when he skipped the mailbox with the flag down.

Yes, I was told, in the United States, mail gets picked up from your house, six days a week, free of charge.

I told my friends in Turkey about all this. They shook their heads in disbelief, wondering how easily I had been recruited as a C.I.A. agent, saying implausibly flattering things about my new country. The United States in the world’s imagination is a place of risk taking and ruthless competition, not one of reliable public services.

I bit my tongue and did not tell my already suspicious friends that the country was also dotted with libraries that provided books to all patrons free of charge. They wouldn’t believe me anyway since I hadn’t believed it myself. My first time in a library in the United States was very brief: I walked in, looked around, and ran right back out in a panic, certain that I had accidentally used the wrong entrance. Surely, these open stacks full of books were reserved for staff only. I was used to libraries being rare, and their few books inaccessible. To this day, my heart races a bit in a library.

Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate the link between infrastructure, innovation — and even ruthless competition. Much of our modern economy thrives here because you can order things online and expect them to be delivered. There are major private delivery services, too, but the United States Postal Service is often better equipped to make it to certain destinations. In fact, Internet sellers, and even private carriers, often use the U.S.P.S. as their delivery mechanism to addresses outside densely populated cities.

Almost every aspect of the most innovative parts of the United States, from cutting-edge medical research to its technology scene, thrives on publicly funded infrastructure. The post office is struggling these days, in some ways because of how much people rely on the web to do much of what they used to turn to the post office for. But the Internet is a testament to infrastructure, too: It exists partly because the National Science Foundation funded much of the research that makes it possible. Even some of the Internet’s biggest companies, like Google, got a start from N.S.F.-funded research .

Infrastructure is often the least-appreciated part of what makes a country strong, and what makes innovation take flight. From my spot in line at the post office, I see a country that does both well; not a country that emphasizes one at the expense of the other.

Zeynep Tufekci is an assistant professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina and a contributing opinion writer. She invites you to visit her blog , follow her on Twitter and join her on Facebook .

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter , and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter .

Why are America's youth so deeply unhappy? | The Excerpt

On Sunday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: With the world’s largest economy and its highest GDP, you might think the United States would have the world’s happiest citizens. But you’d be wrong. This year, when the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network released its annual World Happiness Report, the U.S. had dropped out of the top 20, landing at 23rd on the list. The reason? America's youth are deeply unhappy. What societal and cultural factors are at play here? Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre and a professor of economics and behavioral science, joins The Excerpt to share his insights into what truly makes people happy.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Dana Taylor:

Hello, and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Sunday, June 2nd, 2024.

What makes a people happy? With the world's largest economy and its highest GDP, you might think the United States would have the world's happiest citizens, but you'd be wrong. This year when the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network released its annual World Happiness Report, the US dropped out of the top 20, landing at 23rd on the list. Meanwhile, guess who held onto the top spot for its seventh consecutive year? Finland.

What societal and cultural factors have led to Finland consistently coming out on top? To talk more about the latest Happiness Report, I'm now joined by Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Director of Oxford University's Wellbeing Research Centre, and Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science. Jan, thanks for being on The Excerpt.

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve:

Thank you, Dana, for having me.

Social media sites are often blamed for so much unhappiness, especially in young people, but social media is definitely here to stay. There's no putting that genie back in the bottle. How can young people, or any of us really, continue to engage on social without the negative side effects, or is that even possible?

Dana, you dive right into it, didn't you? So we did, in the World Happiness Report, track the historical data around well-being, and for the first time in this year's World Happiness Report we split it by age groups. And this is where really we found that disconcerting drop in youth well-being particularly so in North America and particularly so in the United States of America.

And so for example, you mentioned the drop of the United States in our ranking from the mid-teens to 23rd in the space of just one year. As we found out, that is purely driven by youth. So if you look at youth alone, which in this case we'd consider, say, below thirties, then the US would rank 63rd in the world. And so that's whereas the above sixties in the United States would rank 10th in the world.

And so a huge intergenerational divide has kind of opened up in terms of well-being in the United States. And we've picked up that trend actually starting with the introduction more or less of smartphones and social media. And so there is definitely something to discuss around social media, what we can do about putting, if you will, the social back into social media and putting guardrails in place in terms of the way that adolescents are using social media, especially in the United States these days.

Jan, we've recently put out a poll to our audiences on social asking them why they think younger Americans are so deeply unhappy, and the choices were money stress, social media, political polarization, or other where you could write in something else if you wanted to.

And overwhelmingly, they chose money stress as their number one reason for being unhappy. There were a lot of comments about inflation, the high cost of living. But those aren't things that most of us have the ability to control, so how do you recommend people reconcile that desire for happiness with an inability to afford the kind of lifestyles that perhaps they'd been told to expect when they were younger?

You're right, the economy, there is inflation, cost of living, but I would add into the mix, which I think is driving a bit of this, especially for youth, is the uncertainty about the future.

So there's lots of excitement about AI and machine learning and large language models and computers and automation, but it also introduced a lot of insecurity and uncertainty for people in their future sort of job market outcomes. So they don't have a relatively, if you will, simple pathway or vision or future to look forward to in the way that I think my generation and the older generations had.

And it also puts in question this sort of natural notion of we will always do better than the previous generation. And that is I think also a question mark at this point, materially maybe, but at what costs? And who will benefit the most from these new sort of technologies? These are real deep questions that youth are actually struggling with and thinking about, and that uncertainty is definitely weighing on their well-being as well.

Okay. So number two on that list for most people as to why American youth are unhappy with political polarization. Can you talk about how that plays into a country's happiness? And also, what would you recommend for people to do to lessen that polarization?

It's a good point, and I think the World Happiness Report actually does have insights on this particular front, because the US is particularly polarized, and increasingly so.

And then when we look at countries that are doing really well where life satisfaction, the way we measure well-being is very high, say, the Scandinavian countries, then you find that there's much more social support. People help strangers in need. People trust the institutions, they support each other, they volunteer, they donate, et cetera. So we have data on all these kind of elements that would give you that picture of a more holistic community that trusts and supports each other.

Now, with political polarization of both the media and the politicians trying to drive a wedge between people in all kinds of ways and mostly driving on the negative news, that puts a lot of pressure on that normally quite natural human support that we have, that we care about our neighbors and try and help strangers in need. But with all the negative news and the polarization, the default now almost comes to everybody to him or herself.

And so that social support is unwinding or weakening in the context of the United States. And I think that's for us a large chunk to blame when looking at the drop in life evaluations and life satisfaction in the United States and the drop concurrently in the ranking for the United States.

Well, I do want to talk about young Americans in comparison with, say, young Lithuanians whose ranking is number one in terms of happiness. What, if anything, sets these two groups apart in terms of lifestyle, wealth, social connection or values?

Now, I think what's going on in Lithuania is they've come from a relatively lower place than the US has traditionally been at. And there's more hope, economic opportunities. You should obviously remember Eastern Europe joined the European Union and then benefited from a lot of subsidies and transfers from Western Europe to Eastern Europe, starting in the 2000s.

And the labor market, if you will, for youth in Lithuania is one that's wide open to all of the European Union, whereas before, their parents' generation was much more closed. And so you see that there's also a positive economic dynamic. There's opportunities, there's hope, there's a future in terms of work for them.

But also, it's important to point out these central and Eastern European nations typically have a socialist background. They were in sort of the hemisphere of the Eastern Bloc, if you will, around the Soviet Union. And I think they're really pleased to have left the sphere of influence of Russia.

However, they still have that DNA around sort of sharing, so redistribution. So whatever wealth they're now generating, there is much more of a welfare state, a healthcare system, free education in place still. So those are elements of the social system, if you will, that they're keeping a hold of while benefiting from more economic opportunities of the Western world.

So they're sort of keeping the best of both worlds. They're keeping the healthcare and the school, state and educational systems while also benefiting from an upward positive trend, thanks to the more liberal market economies that have helped bring them on board.

Well, as you mentioned earlier, US adults age 60 and older ranked 10th for happiness. What do you think accounts for this huge discrepancy in happiness across generations? Why are the boomers so happy?

Well, I think, Dana, you've put it well, and you immediately said the boomers. So they have, I think, benefited from precisely that optimism, the economic dynamics that really put a lot of wind in their sails as they were going through the same period in the late teen when they were in their late adolescence and their thirties and their forties.

They also benefited from essentially pretty much free schooling in a lot of cases, and university tuition fees that were well, well, well below what it is today. We should remind ourselves that university tuition fees, especially in the United States, have outpaced inflation rates by a lot.

So they've benefited from a lot of subsidies frankly, and a state system that was more operational. And I think that still suits them really well. Future generations have a bit tougher in a number of ways.

So turning back to the Happiness Report, Finland's sauna culture helps with relaxation and strengthens social connections. Break down that part of Finnish culture for us, Jan. Are saunas really a part of the secret sauce that's making Finns happy?

Well, it's interesting. I think the saunas as such, maybe not, but they are an example, an illustration of society. So they will come together a lot in nature. And the Finns really, really, really show lots of social support for each other.

They help strangers in need, huge range of volunteering and donating, and they also trust their institutions hugely. And they get a lot from the institutions in return, including of course welfare, healthcare, pretty much free education, also the basis of relatively high wealth just like the United States.

But the Finns, and I have to say also the Danes and the Swedes and the Swiss and the Dutch do punch above their weight in terms of well-being for the same amount of wealth.

So really, this is also a bit of a challenge for all of our US aspiring political leaders or political leaders, is to say, "What can we do to improve the quality of life of people as they experience it," which is the measure we use, life satisfaction, "with all the wealth that's going around the United States? Are there ways of using that to better effect?"

Okay, so as we've established, all Nordic countries fared well on the World Happiness Report. Some of that was attributed to their natural environment, lots of trees, beautiful fjords, a quiet countryside.

But for Finland, they also share a lengthy border with Russia where there have seen significant tensions recently. Wouldn't you expect Finland's happiness rating to drop given that it's now sharing a border with a nation at war, especially given Finland's recent joining of NATO?

Yes, thank you for that question. It's a very subtle one and a complex one, needless to say. It goes without saying that major security concerns, national security, where people's physical and mental well-being or health is potentially at risk from invasion or other major security risks, that will have a negative impact on people's well-being.

So for example, when we actually study places that are undergoing civil war or of wars of, say, of invasion, as we see for example in the case of the Ukraine, we find huge drops in people's well-being.

Now, interestingly, what we also find is that the way that people respond to that national security threat can buffer to some extent the original drop in well-being. So the negative effect of the national security risk can be mitigated to some extent by a coming together element.

So in England, they call this fellow feeling, or in America be more like rallying around the flag type of approach. So the way that communities and societies respond to that external threat can also bring them together to some extent and provide identity, sense of belonging and sense of community.

So a good example here is of course Ukraine. What we found in the case of Ukraine is a huge negative impact of the war through the Russian invasion. But at the same time, the Ukrainians have come together, they fought this together, they now believe in their leaders taking the right course of action. At the individual level we saw outsized statistics around helping strangers in need, donating, volunteering. And so you saw that it created essentially an identity for Ukraine. So in this war was also forged, if you will, Ukrainian identity.

Now, going back to the Finns and using that to some extent, their response to that long border with Russia has been really a strong one. First of all, they've now joined NATO as a result of this, which is a huge step, and also forges ties between them and between them and the rest of essentially the Western Alliance, the North American Treaty Organization, NATO. And so that's a powerful step that they've come together about.

So yes, while there's heightened security risk, it has also brought the community of Finns together, and so that's typically what we underestimate. The importance of social capital in driving population well-being or your own social ties, the quality of the relationships that you have, actual social relations, mostly in person, might also be virtual, but will mostly have to translate to in-person relationships, they matter a lot more than people think. Having that sense of belonging and friends to rely on in case of trouble is incredibly important.

A lot to digest here. Thank you so much for joining us, Jan.

You're welcome. Thank you for having us and putting a spotlight on this really important topic.

Thanks to our senior producers, Shannon Rae Green and Bradley Glanzrock for their production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to [email protected]. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.