Music Case

American Grace: A brilliantly written piece by Putnam and Campbell, talks in a great detail about religion and how it affects the American culture. Religion and ethnicity are closely linked and religion has a substantial amount of power to amplify tensions between race and ethnicity. America is divided into two sets of people, people who are religious to an extreme and on the other hand people who are secular and don't have extreme beliefs in god like the religious people do. However, the seculars may believe in god a little but they don't follow the rules of religion to run the daily aspects of their lives. Most Americans, even the ones that don't believe religion at some point endorse a moral code based on God. Statements about how a child grows up in a religious environment differ from the ones born in a more secular surrounding. The children of religion are usually more educated on the subject on God from early on in their lives whereas Secular are more of the type that learn things the natural way and not through the books about god. Political views of these two kinds of people are also different, the religious one's mostly vote for the republicans while their counterparts mostly vote for the democrats. Politics, development and things related to them have quite a few differences when they are seen through different eyes. Various surveys conducted questions things such as how if they there were clear guidelines regarding good and evil? To this question 58% of the people who took the poll voted in favor of the existence of such guidelines. America is known to be open to various types of religions and different ethnic backgrounds which puts emphasis on America as a more open world to religion.

American Jeremiad: Talking about accounts that involve the formation of America and who has helped in the evolution of a country and how they did it and what concepts were taken from them that has helped in making this country such a modern civilized world. People who moved into America from the bay brought along their virtues. The differences between New England and Old England and in England capitalism was an economic system that had evolved rapidly. Puritanism has laid basis for the formation of America, however the 'process of Americanization' did not start with Puritanism but with the Great migration and the Jeremiad played a rather significant role in the development of a new class of economy and a middle class American culture. From the emergence of New England, it was known as the light house of the modern world shedding light on different cultures by rising from its own origins as it were into a world class culture that was economically oriented by the decline of the European Feudalism.

Analysis: Both the readings make excellent points, but I think they are trying to emphasize on different subject matters. In American Jeremiad, I don't see much of a reference to religion when compared to American Grace. Puntam and Campbell base all their facts and surveys on perspectives of really religious people and the perspectives of secular people. They bring about a variety of issues that come about because of religion, to be more precise they try and tell us how religion affects the people in a way since they are born and that is if they are born into a religious family as compared to the children born into a secular family. Ethnicity is also brought into thought and how America is a very diverse country accepting a plethora of people from different ethnic backgrounds following different religions.

American Jeremiad takes a more economical approach on the formation of American and colonization. It refers to New England a lot and how it has helped boost up the economic morale and giving birth to a new kind of middle class lifestyle and stating that the shut down of European feudalism gave rise to this more promising world class American culture. Another aspect, that is referred to a lot and based around is Puritanism. It is claimed