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American Express Company ... Americanism

American Express Company U.S. credit card issuer and payments processor that also provides travel-related services worldwide. Headquarters are in New York City. American Farm Bureau Federation largest farmers' organization in the United States, a federation of 49 state farm bureaus and the Puerto Rico farm bureau. It was founded in 1919. American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations American federation of autonomous labour unions formed in 1955 by the merger of the AFL (founded 1886), which originally organized workers in craft unions, and the CIO (founded 1935), which organized workers by industries. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees American union representing a wide variety of public- and private-sector employees including local and state government workers, hospital workers, university employees, teachers, and other public school workers. Almost all levels of blue- and white-collar jobs are represented by AFSCME bargaining units. American Federation of Teachers U.S. trade union for classroom educators, school personnel, and public employees. It was formed in 1916 as an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor (see AFL-CIO). Through collective bargaining and teachers' strikes, it has obtained for its members better wages, pensions, sick leaves, academic freedom, and other benefits. Under ... American Folk Art Museum art museum in Manhattan, New York, U.S., dedicated to the collection and exhibition of American folk and outsider art. American Fork city, Utah county, north-central Utah, U.S., near Utah Lake, at the foot of the Wasatch Range. Settled by Mormons in 1850, it was incorporated in 1853 as Lake City but was renamed for the American Fork River in 1860 to avoid confusion with Salt Lake City. Once primarily a trading ... American Friends Service Committee organization to promote peace and reconciliation through programs of social service and public information, founded by American and Canadian Friends (Quakers) in 1917. In World War I, the AFSC helped conscientious objectors to find work in relief projects and ambulance units as an alternative to military service. In World War ... American Fur Company enterprise incorporated in New York state (April 6, 1808) by John Jacob Astor, which dominated the fur trade of the central and western United States during the first third of the 19th century. The company absorbed or crushed its rivals during its search for furs in the Great Lakes region, ... American Highland interior plateau region of eastern Antarctica. It extends from Enderby Land in the west to Wilkes Land in the east and inland from Ingrid Christensen Coast and Amery Ice Shelf. The ice-capped upland, which averages 7,000-10,000 feet (2,000-3,000 m) above sea level, was discovered and named in 1939 by the ... American Idol American reality television series in which aspiring singers competed for a recording contract and a shot at wealth and fame. Following its debut on the Fox network in 2002, American Idol became one of the most-watched shows in the United States and produced numerous imitations. American Indian member of any of the aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere. Eskimos (Inuit and Yupik/Yupiit) and Aleuts are often excluded from this category because their closest genetic and cultural relations were and are with other Arctic peoples rather than the groups to their south. (See also Sidebar: Tribal Nomenclature: American ... American Indian languages languages spoken by the original inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere and their modern descendants. The American Indian languages do not form a single historically interrelated stock (as do the Indo-European languages), nor are there any structural features (in phonetics, grammar, or vocabulary) whereby American Indian languages can be distinguished as ... American Indian Movement (AIM), militant American Indian civil rights organization, founded in Minneapolis, Minn., in 1968 by Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton Banai, and George Mitchell. Later, Russell Means became a prominent spokesman for the group. Its original purpose was to help Indians in urban ghettos who had been displaced by government ... American Labor Party (ALP), minor U.S. political party that was based in New York state. The ALP was organized in 1936 by the labour leaders Sidney Hillman and David Dubinsky and by liberal Democrats and old-line Socialists, and it had strong ties with labour unions. The party supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New ... American League one of the two associations in the United States and Canada of professional baseball teams designated as major leagues. It was founded as a minor league association in 1893 and was initially called the Western League. The Western League changed its name to the American League of Professional Baseball Clubs ... American Legion organization of U.S. war veterans. It was founded in Paris on March 15-17, 1919, by delegates from combat and service units of the American Expeditionary Force. A national charter was granted to it by the U.S. Congress on September 16, 1919; the charter was later amended to admit veterans of ... American literature the body of written works produced in the English language in the United States. American Lutheran Church Lutheran church in North America that in 1988 merged with two other Lutheran churches to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The ALC had resulted from the merger of three Lutheran synods in 1960: the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (Danish), the American Lutheran Church (German), and the Evangelical Lutheran ... American Medical Association organization of American physicians, the objective of which is "to promote the science and art of medicine and the betterment of public health." It was founded in Philadelphia in 1847 by 250 delegates representing more than 40 medical societies and 28 colleges. The AMA includes 54 state or other medical ... American Mercury monthly literary magazine known for its often satiric commentary on American life, politics, and customs. It was founded in 1924 by H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan. American Missionary Association nondenominational society that worked to develop educational opportunities for blacks and other minorities in the United States. The society originally grew out of a committee organized in 1839 to defend a group of African slaves who had mutinied against their Spanish owners and had brought their slave ship (Amistad) into ... American Museum of Natural History institute established in New York City in 1869. It is a major centre of research and education on the natural sciences. It pioneered in mounting field expeditions and in creating dioramas and other lifelike exhibits showing natural habitats and their plant and animal life. The museum's collections of research specimens ... American Museum of the Moving Image museum dedicated to educating the public about the history of film and television arts and about the impact those media have on popular culture. Established in 1988 in Astoria, New York, the museum is a rebuilt portion of what was once Paramount Pictures' Astoria film studio. American Notes nonfiction book written by Charles Dickens, published in 1842. It is an account of his first visit to the United States, a five-month tour (January-June 1842) that led him to criticize the vulgarity and meanness he found there. Although he was a vocal critic of Britain's institutions, he had expected ... American Philosophical Society oldest extant learned society in the United States, founded under the impetus of Benjamin Franklin in 1743. At the beginning of the 21st century, it had more than 850 members, elected for their scholarly and scientific accomplishments in any of five areas-the mathematical and physical sciences; the biological sciences; the ... American Professional Football All-Time Records Gridiron football originated in the United States and Canada in the late 19th century, evolving from English rugby and soccer (association football). American Protective Association in U.S. history, an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant group that briefly acquired a membership greater than 2,000,000 during the 1890s. A successor in spirit and outlook to the pre-Civil War Know-Nothing Party, the American Protective Association was founded by Henry F. Bowers at Clinton, Iowa, in 1887. It was a secret society ... American Quarter Horse one of the oldest recognized breeds of horses in the United States. The breed originated about the 1660s as a cross between native horses of Spanish origin used by the earliest colonists and English horses imported to Virginia from about 1610. By the late 17th century, these horses were being ... American Recovery and Reinvestment Act legislation, enacted by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by Pres. Barack Obama in 2009, that was designed to stimulate the U.S. economy by saving jobs jeopardized by the Great Recession of 2008-09 and creating new jobs. American Renaissance period from the 1830s roughly until the end of the American Civil War in which American literature, in the wake of the Romantic movement, came of age as an expression of a national spirit. American Revolution (1775-83), insurrection by which 13 of Great Britain's North American colonies won political independence and went on to form the United States of America. The war followed more than a decade of growing estrangement between the British crown and a large and influential segment of its North American colonies that ... American round in archery, a target-shooting event consisting of five ends (six arrows each), shot from distances of 60, 50, and 40 yards (55, 46, and 37 m). Two American rounds and two York rounds, consisting of 12 ends of 6 arrows each, constituted the U.S. men's championship until 1968, when other ... American Saddlebred horse breed of riding horse possessing several easy riding gaits and great vigour and style. It is the prevailing riding horse of horse shows in the United States. The Thoroughbred, Morgan, Standardbred, Arabian, pacers, and easy riding horses of a mixed background contributed various qualities to this American breed. Selection for ... American Samoa unincorporated territory of the United States consisting of the eastern part of the Samoan archipelago, located in the south-central Pacific Ocean. It lies about 1,600 miles (2,600 km) northeast of New Zealand and 2,200 miles (3,500 km) southwest of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The territory, which is part of ... American Samoa, flag of U.S. territorial flag consisting of a blue field (background) and a white isosceles triangle with its base at the fly end and its apex touching the centre of the hoist, and which is bordered in red on its longest sides and bears an American bald eagle. The flag's width-to-length ratio ... American Samoa, National Park of tropical preserve of rainforest and coral reef in the south-central Pacific Ocean islands of the U.S. territory of American Samoa. The park was established in 1988 and covers 14 square miles (36 square km) in three separate sections: the north-central part of the main island of Tutuila, a large section ... American spiny rat any of at least 80 nocturnal species of medium-sized Central and South American rodents that have a bristly coat of flat flexible spines, although a few have soft fur. Like "true" rats and mice (family Muridae), spiny rats are slender and have short limbs, small hairless ears, large eyes, and ... American Staffordshire terrier breed of dog, originally called Staffordshire terrier when registered with American Kennel Club in 1936, that was developed in the United States and based on the smaller British Staffordshire bull terrier. Its ancestry includes the breeds used for bullbaiting and dog fighting. Authorities differ on whether the American Staffordshire terrier ... American Subarctic peoples Native American peoples whose traditional area of residence is the subarctic region of Alaska and Canada. Those from Alaska are often referred to in aggregate as Native Alaskans, while in Canada they are known as First Nations peoples (see Sidebar: Tribal Nomenclature: American Indian, Native American, and First Nation). Although ... American System production of many identical parts and their assembly into finished products. Though Eli Whitney has been credited with this development, the ideas had appeared earlier in Europe and were being practiced in arms factories in the United States. (See armoury practice.) Marc Brunel, while working for the British Admiralty (1802-08), ... American Tobacco Company American industrial conglomerate that was once the world's largest cigarette maker. American Tragedy, An novel by Theodore Dreiser, published in 1925. It is a complex and compassionate account of the life and death of a young antihero named Clyde Griffiths. The novel begins with Clyde's blighted background, recounts his path to success, and culminates in his apprehension, trial, and execution for murder. The book ... American University private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Washington, D.C. The American University was incorporated in 1891 as a graduate school and research centre with ties to the Methodist church. It was chartered by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1893 but did not begin to function until 1914, when ... American Visionary Art Museum landmark museum in Baltimore, Md., displaying works by self-taught artists whose aesthetic sensibilities are personal rather than developed from an existing cultural tradition. American water spaniel breed of sporting dog originating in the United States in the late 1800s, bred to retrieve on land or to leap into the water from a boat to retrieve birds. Its ancestors are unknown, but the breed likely was developed from other spaniels and the Irish water spaniel or the ... American Woman Suffrage Association American political organization that worked from 1869 to 1890 to gain for women the right to vote. American yew (Taxus canadensis), a prostrate, straggling evergreen shrub of the family Taxaceae, found in northeastern North America. American yew also is a lumber trade name for the Pacific yew. The American yew, the hardiest of the yew species, provides excellent ground cover in forested areas. Usually growing about 1 metre (3 ... American, The novel by Henry James, published serially in 1876 in The Atlantic Monthly and in book form a year later and produced as a four-act play in 1891. The American is the story of a self-made American millionaire, Christopher Newman, whose guilelessness and forthrightness are set in contrast to the arrogance ... Americana city, in the highlands of east-central Sao Paulo estado (state), Brazil. Americana lies near the Piracicaba River at 1,732 feet (528 metres) above sea level. It was settled in 1868 by immigrants from the former Confederate States of America. The settlement was made a seat of a municipality in 1924. ... Americanism in Roman Catholic church history, a certain set of doctrinal proposals concerning the adaptation of the church to modern civilization that was reprobated by Pope Leo XIII in his apostolic letter Testem Benevolentiae of Jan. 22, 1899. The letter was written in response to a controversy in France following the ...