Analysis Of What Every American Should Know

“What Every American Should Know” by Eric Liu thoroughly examines the issue of cultural literacy and its place in modern America. It presents a convincing argument against E.D. Hirsch’s book on the same topic which included some 5000 things that he thought defined cultural literacy and every American should know. Liu argues that America has changed over time, becoming more multicultural, and to capture the cultural literacy of the country, no one person should sit down and propose what they think everyone else should know. Instead he suggests that in order to capture a contemporary view of the nation, every American should be involved in the making of the list. The most engaging part of this article is Liu’s idea that this new crowd-sourced

When he raises the point about Hirsch’s list being outdated and irrelevant to the times, he provides us with words and phrases that “seem pulled from the nineteenth-century McGuffey’s Readers” (Liu 9). This example gives credibility to his claim and helps the audience to believe what he is saying. It tells them that Hirsch’s list is outdated because they are not familiar with the words and phrases on it. This is crucial because Liu wants his audience to know that when they make the list, the information on it should be relevant to current times. Some of these phrases include; Shoot, if you must, this old gray head…, Sic transit gloria mundi and soft answer turneth away wrath. This is in sharp contrast with Liu’s list that contains phrases such as the American dream, organized labor and the almighty dollar which are very relevant to the time and will continue to be throughout the course of American

Liu uses this strategy to explain to us why Americans have a hard time pulling away from traditional culture and embracing multiculturalism. This stems from the fact that in the past, politics and media coverage during the beginning of the culture wars put the two in contention. He acknowledges in the article that “The assumption was that multiculturalism sits in polar opposition to a traditional common culture” (Liu 10), in contrast, Liu wants his readers to understand that this is not the case. He also negates the mentality people hold that non whites didn’t play a role in shaping America. He uses Ronald Takaki’s argument that says, “Since well before the formation of the United States, the United States has been shaped by non whites (Liu 11)”. He also borrows from Albert Murray to support the positive impact that multiculturalism has had on the country as a whole. Murray in his book says, “American culture takes segments of DNA -genetic and cultural- from around the planet and re-splices them into something previously unimagined (Liu 11)”. This helps the audience to get rid of the wrong perceptions that they had about the role played by non-whites in the shaping of multiculturalism in America. Cause and effect lets the audience know that every deed has a consequence no matter how small they seem. When they get down