I would also like to know is there a link to beginner's guide to American culture. I would like to study it so that my screenplays comeclose to the authenticity of American culture.
Ace, studying an entire culture takes YEARS. No shortcuts. But if you REALLY want to start, I have some suggestions.
I'd like to suggest you start with some children's lit (that's the school teacher in me talking ). American children's lit is heavilly skewed toward English chidlren's lit. And I'm going to assume (and I could be wrong) that since you're in India, getting your hands on English children's stories shouldn't be too much of a stretch for you.
Here's some classic kid's fiction for you to read
Mother Goose (English)
The Brothers Grimm (German)
Aesop's Fables (Greek)
Some classic adolescent-aged fiction
Greek mythology
Norse mythology
The story of Beowulf
The tale of St. George the Dragonslayer
The stories of Camelot and King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table
The story of Robin Hood
Key historical reading (this can take many years)
The rise of Greece and the creation of democracy
The rise of Rome
The fall of Rome
The Dark Ages
The rise of Christianity and the power weilded by the new Rome as controlled by the Church
The Rennaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Age of Reason
The discovery of the New World and the various early attempts at comercial exploitation of it
The Protestant Reformation
The Puritan colonization of Massachusetts (This is perhaps a very key component of the American identity. We proudly claim that our ancestors were the Puritans who came to America in search of religious freedom. This allows us Americans to make very noble assumptions about our origins, our intentions, and we even sometimes lay claim to some sort of divine destiny ordained by Heaven. We have a major holiday --Thanksgiving-- devoted to this aspect of our history. I had an Australian tell me that many of his countrymen quietly carry a dark shame in their national identities because Australia started out as a penal colony, so that means there are quite a few Australians who are the descedents of murders. So he feels we Americans have a much easier time with our heritage.)
The Thirteen Colonies
The American War for Independence (Another VERY key component to the American identity. Again we have a major holiday devoted to that part of our history -- Independence Day, and YES! the Will Smith movie of the same name is centered around that holiday.)
The Constitution (We decided to embark upon an entirely new form of government and we called "The Great Experiment" because we knew it MIGHT fail since it had never been done before. We tried it. And here wwe are today.)
The construction of the planned city of Washington D.C. as our capital. (The architecture of Washington D.C. is one of the grandest collections of Palladian architecture on the world. Palladian architecture is now deeply ingrained in our national identity. The very stately and grand design of THOSE buildings became the inspiration for the designs of the governmental buildings found in almost every other major downtown district in the USA.)
The beginnings of Industrial America (this includes the simbiotic relationship between the cotton fields of the South and the textiles mills of the North)
Lewis and Clark
The Louisiana Purchase
Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny
The rise of the railroads
The American Civil War (Most scholars of American history divide the study of it into two halves: everything BEFORE the American Civil War, and then everything AFTER the American Civil War. This is an important division to keep in mind. That war is seen as a crucial turning point for this nation.)
The Industrial Revolution gets into full swing
Huge waves of immigrants begin arriving in America from Europe and Asia
I have to stop here now, Ace. I could keep on writing out more historical stuff for you to read, but this is just SOOOOOO much material for anyone to read. But start with the chidlren's reading.
If you can get your hands on three or four American History text books from a local scool, that MIGHT be a good way to start learning American history.
