American Studies originated at some point before the Second World War. Vernon Louis Parrington’s Main Currents in American Thought which won the Pulitzer in 1928 and combines literary and historical techniques is considered one of the foundational texts. Parrington also continues to be a timely reminder of what used to be possible in the age before television: He not only helped organize the English Department at the University of Oklahoma, he was also on their baseball team, coached the football team, and edited the college newspapers.
In the 1960s and 1970s, after being closed to the white, male representatives of the conservative order for a long time, American Studies began opening up not only conceptually but also geographically which is why it now encompasses the whole world (yes, you can literally study American phenomena around the globe). It is truly interdisciplinary and maybe that is why I chose it. Recently, it has combined those two trends and has become transnational. That’s the buzzword of the 21st century – not only in American Studies by the way.
Today, American Studies is mainly known as an interdisciplinary area of study dealing entirely with aspects of U.S. society, such as its history, culture, politics, law, literature and art. There has also been a rise in popularity in the study of American Studies at many European Universities, with prominent centres in Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark. Germany in particular has many prominent centres for American studies at Universities in Berlin, Heidelberg, Frankfurt and Leipzig all offering aspect of America to study. This aspect of American Studies is very closely linked to ethnic studies, a completely different discipline. In this way American Studies offers students a very broad taste of academic life giving them opportunities to sample aspects from many disciplines.
