Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie & more: How many of these cultural signifiers are really American?

September 26, 2023

Few people today can pinpoint with much accuracy when it was decided that “baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie” were the holy trinity of that which is most American. Still, the cement dried on the saying long ago, and many people accept it without further thought.

As it turns out, none of those things originated in the United States, and some pre-date George Washington’s birth by hundreds of years. Meanwhile, other things are as American as it gets, which is news to many of our fellow countrymen. We’re here to list 10 presumably American things and see which ones belong and which don’t.

Image Credit: LightFieldStudios / istockphoto.

Baseball

It brings us great pain to say this, but baseball was not invented in the United States. In fact, some have traced its origins back to rounders, a game involving a bat and a ball played in England during the Tudor period, which started in the 15th century.

Image Credit: LightFieldStudios / istockphoto.

Hot dogs

Minimal research will reveal nothing particularly American about the hot dog except the practice of putting the sausage in a bun. The sausage itself, however, is commonly known as a frankfurter, or Frankfurter Würstchen, and it takes its name from the German city of Frankfurt, where the sausage has been eaten since medieval times.

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

Apple pie

It seems almost cruel to revoke apple pie’s status as an American comfort food, as so many residents of the United States have warm memories of said food cooling on their grandma’s windowsill somewhere in the lower 48. Sadly, revoke it we must, as the first record of this food dates back to 1381 in England.

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Jeans

Although Russian immigrant Jacob Davis invented them, he created them here in America. These pants were designed in the 19th century, and even though pairing them with a jean jacket will get you accused of wearing a “Canadian tuxedo,” the pants themselves are American.

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Jazz

Jazz is a modern enough musical form that its history can be easily traced, and the overwhelming consensus of musical historians is that it had its genesis in New Orleans in the early 20th century. Piano player Eubie Blake, who was born in 1887 and was therefore old enough to know, remembered when the spelling was changed from “jass” to “jazz” because the original spelling implied something “dirty” that you wouldn’t say “in front of ladies.”

Image Credit: Wikipedia.

Football

In the rest of the world, football is a game Americans insist on calling “soccer.” Football, as it’s known in the United States, is its own beast, and the first recorded instance was in 1869 when a game was played between teams from Princeton College and Rutgers University, both of which are in the very American state of New Jersey.

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Motown

Nobody has ever disputed the American pedigree of Motown Records, but since it’s more American than baseball, hot dogs, or apple pie, its status as an American institution is worthy of mention. Founded in Detroit in 1959, the record label boasted such artists as Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, and the Supremes, without whom American music would sound very different today.

Image Credit: Wikipedia.

The Statue of Liberty

It’s hard to remember a movie about people emigrating to the United States that didn’t feature a shot of downtrodden yet hopeful foreigners looking up at the Statue of Liberty on their way to Ellis Island. Ironically enough, the statue that welcomes your tired and your poor to America was made in France, and its metal framework was designed by one Gustave Eiffel, whose name is on a tower in Paris that you may have heard of.

Image Credit: travelview/iStock.

Bald Eagle

The bald eagle was chosen as the national bird of the United States in the late 18th century, and saying it comes from the United States is 33% true! The bird is also native to Canada and Mexico, so it may be more accurate to call it the national bird of North America, even though that’s a continent and not a nation.

Image Credit: Depositphotos.com.

Skyscrapers

The skyscraper may be a hideous blight on the skyline of our cities, but it’s a hideous blight made right here in the U.S. of A. The Home Insurance Building, built in Chicago in 1885, is widely considered the world’s first skyscraper, although at 10 stories, it seems downright modest today.

This article was produced and syndicated by MediaFeed.

Image Credit: rmbarricarte/istockphoto.