GPA Publications

  • Explore by topic
    • About America
    • Democracy
    • Development
    • Education
    • English Learning
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Human Rights
    • Science & Technology
    • Women & Girls
Pop Culture vs. Real America

Pop Culture vs. Real America

Each essay in Pop Culture vs. Real Americans contains a surprise. Especially for readers who envision U.S. culture by the pop icons it has produced. American pop icons are sometimes for good but more often for ill.

Through our pop icons, the world sees a very different sort of American—vain and oversexed, miserly and self-obsessed, prone to violence, a bit nutty. This publication debunks that imaginary America of pop culture.

Instead real-life portraits drawn from life lack the caricatures inflated from conjecture, misjudgment, and distorted anecdote. They present a less sensational, more prosaic, and, in the end, more moving and more human view of Americans. One sees a nation of real people, at once big-hearted, hard working, painstaking, imaginative, stirred by fellow feeling, and on the whole quite admirable.

Book (80 pgs)

PDF - web
English (50 MB)
PDF - print
English (216 MB)

Suggested for you

Handbook of Independent Journalism—Handbook Series

Handbook of Independent Journalism—Handbook Series

Format: Book
The Electoral College: 270 Votes to Win_eJournal USA

The Electoral College: 270 Votes to Win_eJournal USA

Format: Book
Pride 2020—The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Pride 2020—The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Format: Book
Join with the United States in celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Pride Month during June of 2020. Download this colorful free poster.
DisAbility: Empowering People with Disabilities

DisAbility: Empowering People with Disabilities

Format: Book
Faith + Freedom: Religion in the USA

Faith + Freedom: Religion in the USA

Format: Book

Comments? Suggestions? Contact Us

This site is managed by the Bureau of Global Public Affairs within the U.S. Department of State. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.