Anglo-Saxon, meaning in effect the whole Anglosphere, remains a term favored by the French, used disapprovingly in contexts such as criticism of the Special Relationship of close diplomatic relations between the U.S. The negative connotation was especially common among Irish Americans and writers in France. Like the newer term WASP, the older term Anglo-Saxon was used derisively by writers hostile to an informal alliance between Britain and the U.S. īefore WASP came into use in the 1960s, the term Anglo-Saxon served some of the same purposes. ![]() The political, cultural, religious, and intellectual leaders of the nation were largely of a Northern European Protestant stock, and they propagated public morals compatible with their background. American values bore the stamp of this Anglo-Saxon Protestant ascendancy. Of great importance, evangelical Protestantism still dominated the cultural scene. Protestantism had not yet split into two mutually hostile camps – the liberals and fundamentalists. The concept of Anglo-Saxonism, and especially Anglo-Saxon Protestantism, evolved in the late 19th century, especially among American Protestant missionaries eager to transform the world. WASPs traditionally have been associated with Episcopal (or Anglican), Presbyterian, United Methodist, Congregationalist, and other mainline Protestant denominations however, the term has expanded to include other Protestant denominations as well. WASP is also used in Australia and Canada for similar elites. The stereotype of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) finds its fullest expression in the Episcopal Church." Baltzell stressed the closed or caste-like characteristic of the group by arguing that "There is a crisis in American leadership in the middle of the twentieth century that is partly due, I think, to the declining authority of an establishment which is now based on an increasingly castelike White-Anglo Saxon-Protestant (WASP) upper class." Ĭiting Gallup polling data from 1976, Kit and Frederica Konolige wrote in their 1978 book The Power of Their Glory, "As befits a church that belongs to the worldwide Anglican Communion, Episcopalianism has the United Kingdom to thank for the ancestors of fully 49 percent of its members. Digby Baltzell, himself a WASP, in his 1964 book The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America. The term was later popularized by sociologist and University of Pennsylvania professor E. In America, we find the WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) ganging up to take their frustrations out on whatever minority group happens to be handy - whether Negro, Catholic, Jewish, Japanese or whatnot. Īn earlier usage appeared in the African-American newspaper The New York Amsterdam News in 1948, when author Stetson Kennedy wrote: That is, they are wealthy, they are Anglo-Saxon in origin, and they are Protestants (and disproportionately Episcopalian). First of all, they are 'WASPs'-in the cocktail party jargon of the sociologists. These 'old' Americans possess, for the most part, some common characteristics. Describing the class of Americans that held "national power in its economic, political, and social aspects", Hacker wrote: The P formed a humorous epithet to imply " waspishness" or someone likely to make sharp, slightly cruel remarks. Political scientist Andrew Hacker used the term WASP in 1957, with W standing for 'wealthy' rather than ' white'. After the Norman conquest in 1066, Anglo-Saxon refers to the pre-invasion English people. In the early Middle Ages Anglian and Saxon kingdoms were established over most of England, ('land of the Angles'). The 1998 Random House Unabridged Dictionary says the term is "sometimes disparaging and offensive". ![]() WASP is also used for similar elites in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. ![]() Īnglo-Saxon refers to people of English ancestry however, some sociologists and commentators use WASP more broadly to include all White Protestant Americans of Northwestern European and Northern European ancestry. Although the social influence of wealthy WASPs has declined since the 1960s, the group continues to play a central role in American finance, politics and philanthropy. Critics have disparaged them as " The Establishment". WASPs have dominated American society, culture, and politics for most of the history of the United States. Historically or most consistently, WASPS are of British descent, though the definition of WASP varies in this respect. In the United States, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or WASPs is a sociological term which is often used to describe white Protestant Americans who are generally part of the white upper-class, historically often the Mainline Protestant elite. Trinity Church in Manhattan has been seen as embodying the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture in the United States. ![]() For other uses, see WASP (disambiguation).
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