Bussey holds a master's degree in interdisciplinary studies and a bachelor's degree in English Literature. She is an independent writer specializing in literature. In the following essay, Bussey demonstrates that the characteristics of the American language, as described by H. L. Mencken, point to other important features of American culture.

The United States is unique in a number of ways, but to historians and cultural commentators, it is especially interesting for its relative newness. America is unlike any other nation in its beginnings because it grew not out of circumstance and geography but out of intention. The first American settlers deliberately left their native countries and traveled to a new land to start a new way of life in almost complete isolation from their traditional cultures. These circumstances allow historians to trace the development of American culture in a way that no other country's culture can be...