Talk:American studies in the United Kingdom

Purpose of the Page
The page on American Studies is largely focussed on the discipline in America; this page serves to provide a definition and history of the field in the UK and to bring together a description of hard-to-find sources in the UK --Mjs110 09:21, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Merging
Should this be merged with American Studies? Mjs110

Very few
A have phoned 45 high schoolsw within 25 miles of my home today and only found 1 that even knew what American studies was. "Snorkel | Talk" 15:53, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

American, or British, high schools? Mjs110 16:17, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Aha - I see the edit. As of 2005, at least 42 universities offer undergraduate programmes;24 offered post-graduate programmes, which may not be a majority, but is not 'very few'. And they include 'ivy league' Russell Group universities, as well as 'new' universities, so there's a good spread of courses. It is also an RAE category. Several thousand GCSE and A-level students also take American Studies (I'll try and dig out some sources nos); see The Eccles Centre for American Studies, American Studies in the United Kingdom, London, 2005.--Mjs110 16:25, 4 December 2006 (UT
 * 42 out of the hundreds of universities is not many, and very few high schools have it as an option. There are no Ivy league Universities in the UK, using that term will mean nothing to a large proportion of the UK population. "Snorkel | Talk" 19:44, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
 * 42 out of 89 universities in the UK (figures from Whitakers Alamanac 2005, p. 390, is surely 'many'; I used the term Ivy League as that is surely more commonly understood than the Russell Group - but you're right, it's not appropriate for the article; as far as schools go, things seem to have changed in my day and it's taught as part of History or Politics courses. Will amend text to reflect this.  Actually, this means that the subject needs more work to define it, so it really should have a separate page --Mjs110 12:33, 5 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Well there are 168 Institutions at University level (Uni's Instituions & HEI's) in the UK "Snorkel | Talk" 17:15, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
 * 168 Higher Education Institutions, but still only 89 universities;). Text changed in any case.  Thanks for the pointers.--Mjs110 17:35, 5 December 2006 (UTC)


 * In the UK, HEI, or Institutes count as Universities "Snorkel | Talk" 20:18, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Except when they don't, of course (depends what one means by 'count', I suppose): http://oxcheps.new.ox.ac.uk/casebook/definitionofhei.html --Mjs110 22:26, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

ISBN
ISBN as printed in the book. 0 7123 4442 X (X for pbk?)--Mjs110 17:41, 5 December 2006 (UTC) =References= —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Snozzer (talk • contribs) 17:04, 5 December 2006 (UTC).

New World, Boom in American Studies
"Because of the British Empires establishment of modern America, American Studies has a long history as an activity, in Britain. This history has given American Studies in Britain a different flavour to that pursued in the U.S. The earliest accounts of the Britians colonisation of North America" - needs apostrophes; although earliest accounts were of exploration, rather than colonisation. The first clause needs clarifying - one could argue that an attempt to hold together the British Empire formed modern America, but 'empire' didn't found modern america. Rather, it was a series of colonial and plantation adventures. I've altered this.

The 'Boom' in American studies (see Laville (1983) for an example): I've made it sound more neutral, and added an extra explanatory factor--Mjs110 10:58, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Overall Improvement in Article
Hi User_talk:Mjs110, I have removed the referencing and POV tags from the article. You deserve a "Thank You" for the work you have put in on the article, it has really come on in the last few days. I hope I did not frustrate you too much with my bold edits and frequent insertions. "Snorkel | Talk" 12:23, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Helpful to be pushed to make it better--Mjs110 14:07, 6 December 2006 (UTC)