For those of us who've lived and studied outside the US, the decidely American propensity towards war and violent crime is "common knowledge", verified by not only history and crime statistics but also the content of American TV, movies and music.

However, when I've mentioned this on Mudcat I've been puzzled at the response from American Catters (and GUESTS) - often, they either deny it outright or display large gaps of knowledge concerning their own 'national character', at least as it's seen by other nations.

I wondered why this was so ... have non-American historians and sociologists doctored statistics and taught lies about the US then? ... until I found this article yesterday - Violence is the American Way.

It claims, among other things that "The reality untaught in American schools and textbooks is that war – whether on a large or small scale – and domestic violence have been pervasive in American life and culture from this country's earliest days almost 400 years ago. Violence, in varying forms, according to the leading historian of the subject, Richard Maxwell Brown, "has accompanied virtually every stage and aspect of our national experience," and is "part of our unacknowledged (underground) value structure." Indeed, "repeated episodes of violence going far back into our colonial past, have imprinted upon our citizens a propensity to violence."

Thus, America demonstrated a national predilection for war and domestic violence long before the 9/11 attacks, but its leaders and intellectuals through most of the last century cultivated the national self-image, a myth, of America as a moral, "peace-loving" nation which the American population seems unquestioningly to have embraced."

The article contains some very interesting statistics and analysis. Please note - I'm not posting it here to point the finger at anyone, but to hopefully generate some peaceful - and eye-opening - discussion about the claims it makes.

Thanks all - daylia (hoping to deepen my understanding of my neighbours).