Vintage American Ways

Sharing The Six Basic American Values Of Our Forefathers, With America's Future

Understanding American Culture

We believe there is more that unites us as Americans—our deep, fundamental, core cultural values—than what divides us.

Main Content

Our Mission:

Spreading Understanding Of American Culture

Leading this mission:

Maryanne Datesman taught English as a Second Language (ESL), primarily at the university level, which led to her writing the textbook, American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture.

Teachers

Maryanne envisions this website providing support to teachers using American Ways to help their learners understand American cultural values and how they impact life in America.

Learners

Maryanne envisions this website providing support to learners using American Ways and Maryanne’s primary source materials to understand American cultural values and how they impact life in America.

We’re deep into a fascinating journey through The Youth’s Companions

They’re from more than 100 years ago, and we’re finding a treasure trove of Americana that has never been digitized, categorized, or made available to the general public.

Yet.

As we scour the material

Front cover of the Youth's Companion - February 1917
Front cover of The Youth’s Companion – February 1917

We are repeatedly struck by consistent parallels between The Youth’s Companion and challenges our country faces today. We believe there’s much to be learned from studying our shared history.

Our discussion of the six basic American values pulls from two sources:

4th Edition

Our conversation tends to draw from the 4th edition of Maryanne’s textbook.

Primary Source Materials

Our discussion also looks at The Youth’s Companion for examples of how American values were presented and discussed over 100 years ago.

Youth's Companion cover from 1914, Panama Canal.
Youth’s Companion cover from 1914, Panama Canal.