american pronunciation for essay

• Pronunciation
• Try to pronounce
• Collections
• Translation

Learn how to pronounce essay

• Very difficult

Show more fewer Voices

IPA : ˈeseɪ

Have you finished your recording?

Learn essay pronunciation with video

Phonetic spelling of essay

noun es-ey for 1 0 rating rating ratings Adelia Cronin es-say 0 rating rating ratings Private

Thanks for contributing

You are not logged in..

Please Log in or Register or post as a guest

Meanings for essay

A piece of content that is written from the perception of the writer. 0 rating rating ratings Erwin Considine

Synonyms for essay

Show more fewer Synonyms

Learn more about the word "essay" , its origin, alternative forms, and usage from Wiktionary.

Quiz on essay

{{ quiz.name }}

{{ quiz.questions_count }} Questions

Show more fewer Quiz

Collections on essay

-{{collection.uname}}

Show more fewer Collections

Wiki content for essay

Show more fewer Wiki

Examples of in a sentence

Show more fewer Sentence

essay should be in sentence

Translations of essay

Show more fewer Translation

Trending news on essay

Show more fewer News

Add essay details

essay pronunciation with meanings, synonyms, antonyms, translations, sentences and more

The correct way to pronounce maple ridge is, popular collections, bayern munich squad / player list 2020-21, useful german travel phrases audio pronunciation, french words, world's most dangerous viruses, popular quizzes.

Trending on HowToPronounce

• sacabambaspis [en]
• red wings [en]
• Arman Tsarukyan [en]
• Caiaphas [en]
• Skechers [en]
• Leverkusen [en]
• max holloway [en]
• ac milan [en]
• Chongqing [en]
• Alicia Clausi [en]
• NGuyen [en]
• parasyte [en]
• zaneta [en]

Word of the day

Latest word submissions, recently viewed words, flag word/pronunciation, create a quiz.

how to pronounce essay

audio example by a male speaker

audio example by a female speaker

the above transcription of essay is a detailed (narrow) transcription according to the rules of the International Phonetic Association; you can find a description of each symbol by clicking the phoneme buttons in the secction below.

essay is pronounced in two syllables

press buttons with phonetic symbols to learn how to precisely pronounce each sound of essay

example pitch curve for pronunciation of essay

Test your pronunciation of essay.

press the "test" button to check how closely you can replicate the pitch of a native speaker in your pronunciation of essay

video examples of essay pronunciation

An example use of essay in a speech by a native speaker of american english:

“… an essay in 1904 by black activist fanny …”

meaning of essay

An essay is a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument or perspective on a topic.

essay frequency in english - B2 level of CEFR

the word essay occurs in english on average 17.4 times per one million words; this frequency warrants it to be in the study list for B2 level of language mastery according to CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference.

topics essay can be related to

it is hard to perfectly classify words into specific topics since each word can have many context of its use, but our machine-learning models believe that essay can be often used in the following areas:

1) communication, information, and media;

2) education, science, and technology;

words with pronunciation similar to essay

Words that rhyme with essay, did this page help you.

How to pronounce essay

Listened to: 40K times

• less commonly a verb

User information

6 votes Good Bad

Add to favorites

Download MP3

2 votes Good Bad

essay example in a phrase

I need an extension to the deadline as I'm not going to finish this essay on time

I need to finish this essay before anything else

Definition of essay

• an analytic or interpretive literary composition
• a tentative attempt
• make an effort or attempt

Synonyms of essay

• effort pronunciation effort [ en ]
• trial pronunciation trial [ en ]
• endeavour pronunciation endeavour [ en ]
• attempt pronunciation attempt [ en ]
• composition pronunciation composition [ en ]
• article pronunciation article [ en ]
• dissertation pronunciation dissertation [ en ]
• tract pronunciation tract [ en ]
• thesis pronunciation thesis [ en ]
• exposition pronunciation exposition [ en ]

World Poetry Day 2019

Learn to pronounce words related to poetry and the names of famous poets

Can you pronounce it better? Or with a different accent? Pronounce essay in English

0 votes Good Bad

Translation of essay

Can you pronounce it better? Or with a different accent? Pronounce essay in German

Can you pronounce it better? Or with a different accent? Pronounce essay in Dutch

Can you pronounce it better? Or with a different accent? Pronounce essay in Swedish

Can you pronounce it better? Or with a different accent? Pronounce essay in Norwegian

Can you pronounce it better? Or with a different accent? Pronounce essay in Danish

Accents & languages on maps

• Record pronunciation for essay essay   [ da ]
• Record pronunciation for essay essay   [ en - uk ]
• Record pronunciation for essay essay   [ en - usa ]
• Record pronunciation for essay essay   [ en - other ]
• Record pronunciation for essay essay   [ no ]
• Record pronunciation for essay essay   [ sv ]

Random words: shit ,  computer ,  Canada ,  Texas ,  pen

How to pronounce

• Worcestershire
• Charcuterie
• General Tso
• Saoirse Ronan

Definition of 'essay'

Video: pronunciation of essay

essay in American English

Essay in british english, examples of 'essay' in a sentence essay, related word partners essay, trends of essay.

View usage over: Since Exist Last 10 years Last 50 years Last 100 years Last 300 years

Browse alphabetically essay

• essay competition
• essay contest
• essay discusses
• All ENGLISH words that begin with 'E'

Related terms of essay

• essay topic
• photo essay
• short essay
• View more related words

Quick word challenge

Quiz Review

Score: 0 / 5

Wordle Helper

Scrabble Tools

• Dictionaries home
• American English
• Collocations
• German-English
• Grammar home
• Practical English Usage
• Learn & Practise Grammar (Beta)
• Word Lists home
• My Word Lists
• Recent additions
• Resources home
• Text Checker

Pronunciation Guide (American English Dictionary)

All pronunciations in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary are American pronunciations.

In the written pronunciations, the following symbols are used:

If more than one written pronunciation is given for a word, they are all acceptable, but the first form given is the most common. Not all possible American pronunciations are shown in this dictionary. For example, some speakers only use the sound / ɔ / when it is followed by / r / (as in horse / hɔrs /) and use / ɑ / in all other words that are shown with / ɔ / in this dictionary, so that they pronounce both caught and cot as / kɑt /.

/ ˈ / shows the strong stress in a word or group of words. It is in front of the part (or syllable ) that you say most strongly. For example, any / ˈɛni / has a stress on the first syllable; depend / dɪˈpɛnd / has a stress on the second syllable.

/ ˌ / shows a weaker (or secondary ) stress. Many longer words have a syllable that is pronounced with a secondary stress as well as a syllable with strong (or main ) stress. So in the word pronunciation / prəˌnʌn siˈeɪʃ n /, the main stress is on the syllable / ˈeɪ /, and the secondary stress is on the syllable / ˌnʌn /.

American speakers use the sound / t̮ /, which is like a quick / d /, in many words spelled with -t- or -tt- . It is used in words after a vowel or / r /, and before an unstressed vowel or syllablic / l /: city / ˈsɪ t̮ ɪ /; parting / ˈ p ɑr t̮ ɪŋ /; little / ˈ lɪ t̮ l /.

The sounds / l / and / n / can often be “syllabic” – that is, they can form a syllable by themselves with an extremely reduced vowel. This is shown by the symbols / l̩ / and / n̩ /, for example in the words botany / ˈbɑtn̩i / and finalist / ˈfainl̩ɪst /.

Strong and Weak Forms

Some very common words, for example an , for , of , and that , have two or more pronunciations: a strong form and one or more weak forms. For example, for is pronounced / fər / in the sentence It’s for you . The strong form occurs when the word comes at the end of a sentence or when it is given special emphasis. For example, for is pronounced / fɔr / in Who’s it for? and The present isn’t from Anna, it’s for her .

American English Pronunciation Trainer

p b t ɾ ʔ d k ɡ f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h m m̩ n n̩ ŋ l ɫ ɫ̩ ɹ j w tʃ dʒ i ɪ e ɛ æ u ʊ o ɑ ə ʌ ɝ ɚ ɑr ɛr ɪr ɔr ʊr aɪ aʊ eɪ oʊ ɔɪ

Choose one or more frequency intervals

This American English pronunciation trainer has high-definition audio recordings of 20,000 American English words.

In order to get access to all the words you need to buy a subscription .

Check the advanced options and discover all the available settings:

• set the playback speed: x1, x0.75 or 0.5,
• see the spelling and/or phonetic transcription of each word,
• set the number of times each word will be repeated,
• choose the word frequency interval,
• practice with audio or video recordings (available for some native speakers and some languages),
• set the pause length after each word,
• search by word spelling or phonetic transcription.

When you make a search by word spelling, you have the following options (please, omit quotes in your search query):

• Letter combination anywhere in a word . Example: "ou" will find any word containing this letter combination.
• Letter combination at the beginning of a word . Add an asterisk at the end of your query. Example: "ou*" will find all words containing more than two letters that start with "ou".
• Letter combination at the end of a word . Add an asterisk at the beginning of your query. Example: "*ir" will find all words containing more than two letters that end with "ir".
• Letter combination in the middle of a word . Add one asterisk at the beginning and one at the end of your query. Example: "*vr*" will find all words containing more than three letters that have "vr" in the middle.

You can also use asterisk when you make a search by phonetic transcription.

Add the word to a word list

Edit transcription, save text and transcription in a note, we invite you to sign up, check subscription options.

Sign up for a trial and get a free access to this feature!

Please buy a subscription to get access to this feature!

In order to get access to all lessons, you need to buy the subscription Premium .

• Expressions
• Musical terms
• Nationality
• Swear words
• Common Phrases
• Text to Speech

Auto Sound ---

• Common phrases

Instantly hear a word pronounced on enter. One word per entry.

Browse and Improve Your English Pronunciation of "essay" related Words with Howjsay

7 nearest result(s) for 'essay'.

essay - transcription, translation and pronunciation online

Transcription and pronunciation of the word " essay " in British and American variants. Detailed translation and examples.

The American T Sound

The American T sound is one of the common letter pronounced wrongly by ESL learns. Indeed, The American T is made by intonation and its position in a word or phrase. It can be a little tricky if you try to base your pronunciation on spelling alone. In this lesson you will learn thoroughly how to pronounce the letter T.

T’s with a non-t sound:

TH-/θ/ or /ð/ (no rules to know the difference)

• Thing /θɪŋ/

-TION- /ʃn/ (sh-n) words ending in –tion

• Station /steɪʃn/
• Creation /kri:eɪʃn/

Silent T- The letter T is not pronounced in some words (you need a dictionary to learn which words):

• mustn’t
• mistletoe…

(In the cluster TCH)

Final T in many modern words with a French origin:

• debut… (the final French -et is pronounced /eɪ/ )

American T Rule 1

Official T /t/ == at the beginning of a word, at the beginning of a stressed syllable, etc.

A. If the T is at the beginning of a word, it is a strong, clear T sound.

• Tom, table, take, tomorrow, teach, ten, turn.
• Thomas tried two times.
• It took Tim ten times to try the telephone.

B. If the T is at the beginning of a stressed syllable in the word it is a strong T sound.

• Pretend, fourteen, itinerary, particular, attend

C. If the T is part of a consonant cluster (two or more consonants together in the same syllable) wherever the cluster comes in the word, the T will have an official T sound.

• Stop, train, street, star, connect, left, tilt, first, kept.

Exception:  If the word ends in “nt” we often find the Stop T (see below) in American English:

• elephant, rampant, saint, (but an official T is also common)

Note: grammatical words with a weak/reduced pronunciation (often pronounced with a schwa /ə/) may behave like just a new syllable instead of a new word, so in the sentence:

• “I go to work.”

The preposition “to” can often be pronounced with a flap T (see below) because it sounds “goto”, so the T goes between vowels, not at the beginning of a stressed syllable (grammatical words have no stress), so it may sound “go-da”/goʊdə/ .

For the same reason, the phrase “I want to go” may sound “I wanna go” because the rule N+T=N applies here (“wantto” > “wanto” >”wanna”). A similar phenomenon gave us “gonna” (going to > goin’ to > gon’ to > gonto > gonna).

American T Rule 2

Flap/Tap T /d/ == between vowels (v+T+v) or R and a vowel (vr+T+v), etc. (This is a strong and quick version of D). The proper phonetic name for the flap T sound is alveolar tap.

A. If the T is in the middle of the word, intonation changes the sound to a soft D.

• “Letter” sounds like [ledder].
• Water, daughter, bought a, caught a, lot of, got a, later, meeting,  better

B. If the T is between vowels, (v+T+v), the same soft D sound is made:

• Peter, better, waiting, mutter

C. If the T is between an R and a vowel (vR+T+v) the soft D sound is made.

• sorting, quarter

D. If the T is followed by a vowel in the next word, the soft D sound is often made.

• “what about it?” = “wadaboudit?”
• “part of me” = “pardov me”.

Exception: When the sequence is vowel + T + schwa + N, the T is pronounced as a Stop T (see below) for example:

• “written” = /rɪt|ən/ (that is because the schwa disappears in that position so the real pronunciation is in fact /rɪt|n/, and the T doesn’t go between vowels anymore.

Important fact about American T sounds:

Rule 1 is more powerful than rule 2, so if we have a T between vowels but it begins a stressed syllable, the pronunciation is the official/t/, for example:

• “atone” /ətoʊn/ (a-TONE) 
• “between” /bətwi:n/ (be-TWEEN)
• “beating” sounds like “beedding” /bi:dɪŋ/ (BEA-ding) because the T begins an unstressed syllable.

Practice these sentences:

• What a good idea. [w’d’ güdäi deey’]
• Put it in a bottle. [pü di di n’ bäd’l]
• Get a better water heater. [gedda bedder wäder heeder]
• Put all the data in the computer. [püdall the dayd’ in the k’mpyuder]
• Patty ought to write a better letter. [pædy äd’ ride a bedder ledder]

American T Rule 3

N+T=N (T is Silent)

This rule is not part of the American or English accent, but you can hear it very often in American English, especially in some parts of the country, when people have a careless and/or quick pronunciation. This basically means that the T may disappear in American English (not BrE) after an  N, so the word “wanted” may sound “wanned”/wɑnɪd/ and “interesting” may sound “inneresting”.

T and N are so close in the mouth that the [t] can disappear.

• interview [innerview]
• international [innernational]
• advantage [ædvæn’j]
• percentage [percen’j]

American T Rule 4

Stop T /t|/ == used at the end of a word, etc. (we suddenly close our throat to stop the air flow, but make no sound; IPA symbol /ʔ/, called glottal stop)

glottal stop: noun phrase : a speech sound made by briefly stopping the flow of air through the vocal cords. “The ending sound of the word ‘didn’t’ is pronounced with a glottal stop after the n.”

A. When a T is followed by an N sound (usually with an unpronounced vowel in between), the T is held, creating a “Stop T”. The “held T” is, strictly speaking, not really a T at all. Remember, [t] and [n] are very close in the mouth. If you have [n] immediately after [t], you don’t pop the [t]—the tongue is in the [t] position, but your release the air for the [n] not the [t]. Make sure you don’t put a schwa before the [n]. An important  point to remember is that you need a sharp upward sliding intonation up to the “Stop T,” then a quick drop for the N.

• Written, certain, forgotten, sentence
• He’s forgotten the carton of satin mittens.
• She’s certain that he has written it.
• Martin has gotten a kitten

B. If the T is at the end of a word, you almost don’t hear it at all.

• Put, what, lot, set, hot, sit, shot, brought.
• That’s quite right, isn’t it?

In the exceptions we have seen, we already commented two cases:

Exception to rule 1:  T he ending cluster NT (sent, paint, environment)

Exception to rule 2: v+T+schwa+N = v+T+N =/t|n/ (tighten, written) But most of all, we find this pronunciation at the end of words or syllables (about, fitness) There are two exceptions (because rules 1 and 2 are stronger than rule 3)

Rule 1:  Consonants clusters have the official T except NT, which may also have stop T in American English.

Rule 2:  If a final T is followed by a vowel (example: “but I don’t”) then it’s pronounced with the flap T (/d/: “bud-eye don’t”).

When “T” has a “Ch” sound (tʃ) 

The sound [ch] is represented by the combination TU in two common suffixes: “-ture” and “-tual”. It can also happen colloquially in the non-standard phrase “what you” when the verbs “are” or “do” are dropped: “What (are) you doing?” becomes “Whatchu doing?” and “What (do) you want?” becomes “Whachu want?” More standard examples follow.

“T sounds like a CH — I’m not sure I’ve come up with a specific rule here yet. But I know it often happens in words like ‘actually’ and ‘puncture’ but not every CTU case, like ‘cactus’. It also happens a lot, though not a part of the official pronunciation, in the phrase ‘what you’ when reducing by dropping the ‘are’: whachu doing?”- According to Rachel from Rachel’s English.com

2-syllable words 

• capture              nature 
• creature             pasture 
• culture               posture
• feature               puncture 
• fracture              sculpture 
• fixture                structure
• future                 texture
• lecture                torture
• mixture              vulture

3-syllable words

4-syllable words

• agriculture
• horticulture
• manufacture
• temperature

Make your own examples and sentences with words having the “tu” pronounced like “ch” sound. Please feel free to leave your feedback about the article in the comment box below.

Share this:

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Related posts

Doctors’ day 2022: background knowledge, quotes, and celebrations ideas, english vocabulary relating to trade and business, comparing script for independence day of mexico.

Betty Botter bought a bit of butter to put it in her batter. “But,” she said, “this butter’s bitter, if I put it in my batter it’ll make my batter bitter. But if I had a bit of better butter, it’d make my batter better.” So Betty Botter bought a bit of better batter butter. Beddy Bodder boughd a bid a budder to pud id in her badder. “But,” she said, “this budder’s bidder, if I pud id in my badder id’ll make my badder bidder. Bud if I had a bid a bedder budder, id’d make my badder bedder.” So Beddy Bodder boughd a bid a bedder badder budder.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

English pronunciation of American

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

(English pronunciations of American from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus and from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary , both sources © Cambridge University Press)

Word of the Day

balancing act

a difficult situation in which someone has to try to give equal amounts of importance, time, attention, etc. to two or more different things at the same time

Binding, nailing, and gluing: talking about fastening things together

Learn more with +Plus

• Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
• Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
• Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
• Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
• English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
• English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
• English–Dutch Dutch–English
• English–French French–English
• English–German German–English
• English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
• English–Italian Italian–English
• English–Japanese Japanese–English
• English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
• English–Polish Polish–English
• English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
• English–Spanish Spanish–English
• English–Swedish Swedish–English
• Dictionary +Plus Word Lists
• All translations

Add ${headword} to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

{{message}}

Something went wrong.

There was a problem sending your report.

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

3 Abu Ghraib prison detainees finally get their day in a U.S. court

Twenty years after images of American soldiers abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were published, three men are getting their day in a U.S. court.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

More than 20 years after they were tortured at a U.S. military prison in Iraq, three survivors of Abu Ghraib get their day in court today. They are suing a U.S.-based military contractor, CACI, accusing it of enabling and participating in their abuse. That torture was made public in disturbing images released two decades ago this month. They include male prisoners stacked in naked pyramids and U.S. soldiers smiling as prisoners were being abused. Matthew Barakat is a reporter with the Associated Press who is covering the lawsuit, and he joins us now. Good morning.

MATTHEW BARAKAT: Good morning.

FADEL: So who are the three men who filed these lawsuits?

BARAKAT: Well, they were all detainees at Abu Ghraib, at what they called the hard site. One of them was a farmer. One of them was a former Al-Jazeera reporter. And they were all at that prison from anywhere from two months to a year. And they say that they endured some of that sort of shocking treatment that we saw in the photos that you were just describing.

FADEL: So what exactly do they say happened to them at Abu Ghraib? And how do they say CACI was involved?

BARAKAT: What they - it's sort of a list of horribles. They're talking about sexual assaults, beatings, being dragged around on a rope naked, stress positions, being forced to wear women's underwear, threatened with dogs, all those sorts of things. And then the second part of your question.

FADEL: How do they say CACI was involved?

BARAKAT: You know, they say that CACI was a contractor that supplied interrogators that questioned the detainees at this prison, and they don't allege that the CACI interrogators were directly inflicting this abuse. But they say that they set up the conditions, that some of those interrogators asked the military police to soften up detainees for interrogations. And so they say that CACI filled that role.

FADEL: Now, this was abuse by U.S. soldiers. So why are they suing a military contractor rather than the U.S. government?

BARAKAT: Well, there's questions about whether or not the U.S. government would have immunity from a lawsuit. And that may have been an assumption. And as this has been bouncing around for 16 years, CACI had claimed that it would also have what it called derivative immunity. And so in one of the times this was bouncing around through the case, the judge in this case was Leonie Brinkema, and she wrote a long sort of first of its kind ruling about immunity in this case. And what she said is that the U.S. government actually doesn't have immunity when you're talking about these kind of violations of international norms like torture. She said the government doesn't have immunity, therefore CACI doesn't have immunity. But, initially, one of the assumptions would be that the government enjoys immunity from these kind of lawsuits.

FADEL: Now, this torture came to light 20 years ago, and this case was filed in 2008. So why has it taken so long to get to court?

BARAKAT: A lot of appeals - CACI has filed, I think, more than 20 motions to have the case dismissed. In the early years, the judge that was hearing the case did have it dismissed, said that it couldn't be dealt with. It should be - if there was a suit, it should be filed in Iraq. He later ruled that it was what they call a political question and that, you know, courts can't decide that.

FADEL: Matthew Barakat is a reporter with the Associated Press. Thank you so much for your time.

BARAKAT: Sure.

FADEL: We reached out to CACI for comment and have not received a response.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

News | Biden vows to block US Steel acquisition by a…

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on X (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Restaurants, Food and Drink
• Entertainment
• Immigration
• Sports Betting

News | Biden vows to block US Steel acquisition by a Japanese company and promises tariffs on Chinese steel

President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event, Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in Scranton, Pa. Biden has begun three straight days of campaigning in Pennsylvania in his childhood hometown of Scranton. The Democratic president is using the working class city of roughly 75,000 as the backdrop for his pitch for higher taxes on the wealthy. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

PITTSBURGH — President Joe Biden promised cheering unionized steelworkers on Wednesday that his administration would block the acquisition of U.S. Steel by a Japanese company and he called for a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel, seeking to use trade policy to win over working-class votes in Pennsylvania, an election-year battleground.

Biden said during a visit to the headquarters of the United Steelworkers union that U.S. Steel “has been an iconic American company for more than a century and it should remain totally American.”

“American-owned, American operated by American union steelworkers — the best in the world — and that’s going to happen I promise you,” the Democratic president said.

His administration is reviewing the proposed acquisition by Japan’s Nippon Steel. Biden said last month he would oppose the deal, saying it was “vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.”

But in front of a pro-union audience, he went far further. “The backbone of America has a steel spine,” Biden said.

Northwest Indiana is home to U.S. Steel’s largest mill, Gary Works, which employs 4,300 workers, according to commercial directory service Data Axle. U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Highland, appreciated Biden’s remarks as he has been skeptical of Nippon Steel’s record and he has expressed national security concerns.

“I welcome the President joining myself, members of the Congressional Steel Caucus, and the United Steelworkers, who have been adamantly opposed to the foreign acquisition of U.S. Steel since the beginning,” Mrvan said in a statement. “I supported the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, with the strongest Buy America requirements in our nation’s history, to support the domestic manufacturing base, not set it up for sale. I urge the Administration to follow up this rhetoric with action to prevent this acquisition and defend the strength of the American worker, domestic steel industry, and our national security.”

In another move that his administration argues can protect domestic steelworkers, Biden is pushing for the higher tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum, aiming to insulate American producers from a flood of cheap imports.

While the announcements reflected the intersection of Biden’s international trade policy with his reelection effort, the White House insisted they were more about shielding American manufacturing from unfair trade practices overseas than firing up a union audience.

The current tariff rate is 7.5% for both steel and aluminum but could climb to 22.5%. Biden said he was asking his trade representative to raise the tariffs.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said the “U.S. is making the same mistake again and again” by seeking increased tariffs. In a statement, he also dismissed those levies already in place as “the embodiment of unilateralism and protectionism of the U.S.”

The administration also promised to pursue investigations against countries and importers that try to saturate existing markets with Chinese steel and said it was working with Mexico to ensure that Chinese companies cannot circumvent the tariffs by shipping steel there for subsequent export to the United States.

“The president understands we must invest in American manufacturing. But we also have to protect those investments and those workers from unfair exports associated with China’s industrial overcapacity,” White House national economic adviser Lael Brainard said.

As Biden was greeted by a small group of steelworkers upon his arrival, one said, “Keep U.S. Steel in America.” Biden responded: “Guaranteed.” And in his speech, the president told the crowd, “It ain’t labor, it’s unions.”

He was on a three-day Pennsylvania swing that began in his childhood hometown of Scranton on Tuesday and will include a visit to Philadelphia on Thursday.

In a brief exchange with reporters before leaving Scranton, Biden was asked about the escalating trade tensions with China and he responded, “No trade war.” Later, at Scranton’s war memorial, Biden crouched down and ran his fingers along the name of one of the fallen — uncle Ambrose J. Finnegan Jr., who died in World War II.

The announcement on steel tariffs was cheered by U.S. steelmakers. Kevin Dempsey, president of the American Iron and Steel Institute, accused China of disrupting “world markets both by subsidizing the production of steel and other products and by dumping those products in the U.S. and other markets.”

The tariff move, however, is largely symbolic.

The U.S. imported roughly $6.1 billion in steel products in the 12 months ending in February 2023, but just 3% of those imports came from China, according to Census Bureau figures. Citing already existing trade barriers, the American Iron and Steel Institute said China last year accounted for just 2.1% of U.S. steel imports, making it America’s seventh-biggest source of foreign steel.

To coincide with the announcement, Biden’s campaign released a 60-second ad that will air on Pennsylvania television for the next five days. It features a steelworker, who is also a small-town mayor, praising the president’s economic policies.

Meanwhile, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced that her office, acting on a petition from five national labor unions, was investigating China for “targeting the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors for dominance.”

“The allegations reflect what we have already seen across other sectors,” Tai said in a statement.

The administration has accused China of more broadly distorting markets and eroding competition by unfairly flooding the market with below-market-cost steel.

”China’s policy-driven overcapacity poses a serious risk to the future of the American steel and aluminum industry,” Brainard said. Referencing China’s economic downturn, she added that Beijing “cannot export its way to recovery.”

Higher tariffs can carry major economic risks, though. Steel and aluminum could become more expensive, possibly increasing the costs of cars, construction materials and other key goods for U.S. consumers.

Inflation has already been a drag on Biden’s political fortunes, and his turn toward protectionism echoes the playbook of his predecessor and opponent in this fall’s election, Republican Donald Trump.

The former president imposed broader tariffs on Chinese goods during his administration and has threatened to increase levies on Chinese goods unless they trade on his preferred terms as he campaigns for a second term. An outside analysis by the consultancy Oxford Economics has suggested that putting in place the tariffs Trump has proposed could hurt the overall U.S. economy.

China produces about half of the world’s steel and is making far more than its domestic market needs. It sells steel on the world market for less than half what U.S.-produced steel costs, administration officials said.

The first step to the higher tariffs is the completion of a review of Chinese trade practices. Once Biden gives the official authorization, there will be a public notice and a comment period.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, during a recent visit to China, warned against oversaturating the market with cheap goods, and said low-cost steel had “decimated industries across the world and in the United States.” The Chinese expressed grave concern over American trade and economic measures that restrict China, according to China’s official news agency. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also has an upcoming visit to China.

Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

The Post-Tribune contributed.

More in News

Politics | Cook County Health Foundation expansion dropped amid spending questions

Politics | Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $1.25 billion bond plan delayed in City Council — but could resurface

National News | Senate dismisses two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security secretary, ending trial

Politics | Illinois House OKs measure to give mental health workers called to emergencies the same benefits as other first responders

Trending nationally.

• Former Augusta National Golf Club worker charged with stealing millions in Masters memorabilia
• Geese in this Connecticut city are out of control. A vote comes today on whether to kill them
• Hospital agrees to pay $32.5 million in birth injury case
• Orlando dancer finds social media stardom fusing Irish and hip-hop styles
• How much for a jar of Meghan Markle’s limited edition strawberry jam?

Jump to navigation

DEADLINE EXTENDED! CALL FOR PAPERS: 2024 Southwest Popular/American Culture Conference Association (SWPACA) Summer Salon

DEADLINE EXTENDED!

Call for Papers

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

SWPACA Summer Salon

June 20-22, 2024

Virtual Conference

https://www.southwestpca.org

Proposal submission deadline: EXTENDED to April 22, 2024

Proposals for papers are now being accepted for the SWPACA Summer Salon. SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas in a variety of categories encompassing the following: Film, Television, Music, & Visual Media; Historic & Contemporary Cultures; Identities & Cultures; Language & Literature; Science Fiction & Fantasy; and Pedagogy & Popular Culture. For a full list of subject areas, area descriptions, and Area Chairs, please visit https://southwestpca.org/conference/call-for-papers/

All proposals must be submitted through the conference’s database at https://register.southwestpca.org/southwestpca

For details on using the submission database and on the application process in general, please see the Proposal Submission FAQs and Tips page at https://southwestpca.org/conference/faqs-and-tips/ Registration information for the conference will be available at https://southwestpca.org/conference/conference-registration-information/

Individual proposals for 15-minute papers must include an abstract of approximately 200-500 words. Including a brief bio in the body of the proposal form is encouraged, but not required. 

If you have any questions about the area you’d like to submit to, please contact us at [email protected] , and a member of the executive team will get back to you.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

• climate change

America’s Young Farmers Are Burning Out. I Quit, Too

I n 2023, Scott Chang-Fleeman—a young farmer like me—put down his shovel. A post on his Instagram read, “Shao Shan Farm, in its current form, is going on indefinite hiatus.” From the outside, the burgeoning farm had the makeup of one that could stand the test of time. In reality, his experience of farm ownership was wrought with challenges.

A farmer in his late 20s, Chang-Fleeman started Shao Shan Farm in 2019 to reconnect with his roots and provide a source of locally grown heritage Asian vegetables to the Bay Area. He quickly secured a clientele and fan base—two of the greatest hurdles of starting a farm—and became the go-to for San Francisco’s high-end Asian eateries.

But after four years of creative pivots to withstand unexpected hurdles that included financial stress, severe drought, and a global pandemic, Chang-Fleeman made a choice that many young farmers are considering: to leave farming behind. Why he left and what could have kept him on the land are critical questions we must address if we are to have a sustainable and food-secure future.

The USDA Census of Agriculture reported that in 2017, nearly 1 in 4 of the 3.4 million agricultural producers in the US were new and beginning farmers. Many of these new farmers are doing exactly what it seems American agriculture needs: starting small farms. According to the most recent data from the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) in 2019 , farms with annual sales of less than $100,000 accounted for about 85% of all U.S. farms. And though not all of these small-scale farms are necessarily organic, small farms are more likely to grow a diversity of crop types, use methods that reduce negative impacts on the climate, increase carbon sequestration, and tend to be more resilient in the face of climate change.

Read More: How Extreme Weather Is Affecting Small Farmers Across the U.S.

There has been a growing interest among younger people in recent years in sustainable and organic farming practices, as well as in local food systems. This interest has led people in their 20s and 30s to enter into small-scale farming, particularly in niche markets such as organic produce, specialty crops, and direct-to-consumer sales.

As a result, both congressional Democrats and Republicans have maintained that encouraging young people to farm is of utmost importance in ensuring the stability of our food system. But getting young people into farming may not be the problem. Keeping them on the farm may be the hardest part.

I should know. I quit too.

Chang-Fleeman got his start in agriculture right out of college, where he spent several years working at the on-campus farm. As a third-generation Chinese American, he noticed a distinct lack of Asian vegetables at local farmers markets, particularly those that were grown organically, and suspected there would be a demand should a supply exist. He started trialing some varieties, and his suspicions were quickly affirmed when samples of his choy sum caught the attention of chef Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s, a contemporary Chinese eatery with a Michelin star in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Jew provided some seed funds for what was to become Shao Shan Farm in 2019.

During the first year running his farm, Chang-Fleeman focused his sales on his relationships with local restaurants, while attending some farmers' markets sales to supplement income. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, he lost all of his restaurant accounts overnight.

Like many farmers at that time, he pivoted to a CSA model, offering farm boxes that provide a household with an assortment of vegetables for the week.

“So literally over a night, I reworked my crop plan” he told me. “Just to get through that year, or through that season, not knowing how long [the pandemic was going to] last.”

As if a global pandemic wasn’t enough, in 2021, California entered a drought, and he lost the ability to irrigate his crops come mid-summer, which meant a hard stop for production.

“I was hoping to hit some sort of a rhythm, and every year felt a bit like starting from scratch,” Chang-Fleeman reflected.

Throughout farm ownership, he worked side jobs to compensate for the slow build of business income and the fact that he could only afford to pay himself a monthly salary of $2,000. He regularly worked 90 hours a week. At the same time, farm expenses were on the rise.

“The cost of our packaging went up like three times in one year and the cost of the produce didn't change,” he explained. “Our operating expenses went up like 30%, after COVID.”

In four short years, Chang-Fleeman experienced an avalanche of extenuating circumstances that would bring most farm businesses to their knees. But the thing that finally catalyzed the closing of his business was burnout. He relayed the experience of the exhaustion and stress building over time until he reached a breaking point. “If I don’t stop now, it’s going to kill me,” he recalled thinking.

Chang-Fleeman’s burnout reminded me of my own story. In the fall of 2018, I took what ended up being a two-month medical leave from an organic farm I managed in Northern California in order to try to try to resolve a set of weird symptoms that included dizzy spells and heart palpitations. If you know anything about farming, fall is not the time to be absent. It’s peak harvest time and the culmination of all of your work is underway. But as my medical anomaly continued to worsen, I came no closer to getting back to work. After many doctor visits, several trips to the specialist, a flurry of blood tests, and a week of heart monitoring, it took one Xanax to solve the mystery.

Read More: ‘ They’re Trying to Wipe Us Off the Map.’ Small American Farmers Are Nearing Extinction

The prolonged physical stress that I had been harboring at work had triggered the onset of panic disorder, a nervous system affliction that had led me into a near-chronic state of fight or flight mode, causing a swath of physical symptoms not typically associated with “anxiety.”

For me, this was a wake-up call. I turned to a slew of Western and naturopathic remedies to alleviate my symptoms, but ultimately, removing the stressors of farm management was the thing that allowed me to, mostly, reach a nervous system balance. Even still, six years later, I’m constantly navigating the ‘new normal’ of this diagnosis.

A pilot study conducted by agriculture researcher Josie Rudolphi and her colleagues in 2020 found that of 170 participants, approximately 71% met the criteria for Generalized Anxiety Disorder. By comparison, in the US, an estimated 18% of adults experience an anxiety disorder. Rudolphi’s work indicates that these disorders maybe three times more prevalent in young farmer and rancher populations.

This rang true as I went from farm to farm trying to figure out what so often goes wrong in a new farm operation. Again and again mental health was a through-line. Collette Walsh, owner of a cut-flower operation in Braddock, PA, put it to me bluntly: "I usually get to a point in late August or early September, where there’s a week where I just cry.”

How can we build a farming economy that helps young farmers not only stay, but also thrive on the land? The Farm Bill , a federal package of legislation that provides funding for agricultural programs, is one route. As the reboot of the Farm Bill approaches, it’s a critical time to ask these questions and advocate for policies that support young farmers and the barriers they’re facing in maintaining a long-lasting career in agriculture.

Take for instance, Jac Wypler, Farmer Mental Health Director at the National Young Farmer Coalition (Young Farmers), who oversees the Northeast region’s Farmer and Rancher Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN). The organization was established by the Farm Bill in 2018 to develop a service provider network for farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural workers that was dedicated to mental well-being. Through the network of service providers she directs, called “Cultivemos,” Wypler and her colleagues utilize a multi-tiered approach to address mental health in farming spaces. Cultivemos partners provide direct support in moments of stress and crisis as well as peer-to-peer support spaces.

An expanded (and subsidized) program that scales efforts like Cultivemos to a size commensurate with the young work force is clearly needed. But it’s only part of the picture.

“While we believe that it is important to make sure that farms, farmers, and farmworkers are getting direct support around their mental health,” Wypler explained. “We need to alleviate what is causing them stress.” 

Cultivemos works to address the structural root causes of stress which can include climate change, land prices, and systemic racism, to name a few. They focus on communities that are disproportionately harmed by these structural root causes, specifically Black, Indigenous, and other farmers of color. Finally, they seek to make this impact by regranting funding directly into the hands of these farmers.

“The way I think of regranting is that the USDA and these large institutions are the Mississippi River of funding.” Wypler says. “We’re trying to get the funding into these smaller rivers and tributaries to disperse these funds and shift that power dynamic and leadership dynamic.”

The next Farm Bill cycle will be critical in ensuring this work is continued. In November of 2023, lawmakers signed a stopgap funding bill that allows for a one-year extension on the 2018 Farm Bill. Lawmakers are currently in deliberations over the bill until September when it will be up for a vote. Young Farmers underscores the importance of the appropriations process, which is when program areas that are authorized in the farm bill are allocated funding.

Back-to-the-landism has waxed and waned throughout the last hundred years, booming in the pre-Depression years of the 1930s, dying in the war years and then storming back in the 60s and 70s. When my generation’s own farming revolution came along in the early 2000s, I was similarly swept up. I imagined when I chose to farm that the path would be lifelong. What I hadn’t accounted for, as a determined, starry-eyed changemaker, was the toll that a decade of farming through wildfires, evacuations, floods, power outages, and a global pandemic would take on my mental health.

Don’t get me wrong:  I was happy working hard with my two feet planted firmly on the land. In a better world I and people like Scott Chang-Fleeman would have kept getting our hands dirty, making an honest, if modest, living providing good and wholesome food in synch with the rhythms of the planet.

But to borrow a word from the world of ecology, being a young farmer in today’s economy is “unsustainable.” The numbers don’t work economically and, eventually, any mind trying to square this un-squarable circle is going to break. The economic, physical and mental challenges are all interconnected.

It’s hard to find an American, Republican or Democrat, red or blue state resident that doesn’t want more young hands on the land. We all rightly see agriculture as a pathway to personal fulfillment and a way to make our food supply healthier and more secure. But words and intentions can only do so much. We must answer these very real problems with very real subsidy.

If we don’t, my generation might be the last to think of going “back-to-the-land” as something actually worth doing.

More Must-Reads From TIME

• The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
• The Revolution of Yulia Navalnaya
• 6 Compliments That Land Every Time
• Stop Looking for Your Forever Home
• If You're Dating Right Now , You're Brave: Column
• The AI That Could Heal a Divided Internet
• Fallout Is a Brilliant Model for the Future of Video Game Adaptations
• Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Contact us at [email protected]

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

The New Movie ‘Civil War’ Matters for Reasons Different Than You Think

By Stephen Marche

Mr. Marche is the author of “The Next Civil War.”

“Not one man in America wanted the Civil War, or expected or intended it,” Henry Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams, declared at the beginning of the 20th century. What may seem inevitable to us in hindsight — the horrifying consequences of a country in political turmoil, given to violence and rived by slavery — came as a shock to many of the people living through it. Even those who anticipated it hardly seemed prepared for its violent magnitude. In this respect at least, the current division that afflicts the United States seems different from the Civil War. If there ever is a second civil war, it won’t be for lack of imagining it.

The most prominent example arrives this week in the form of an action blockbuster titled “Civil War.” The film, written and directed by Alex Garland, presents a scenario in which the government is at war with breakaway states and the president has been, in the eyes of part of the country, delegitimized. Some critics have denounced the project, arguing that releasing the film in this particular election year is downright dangerous. They assume that even just talking about a future national conflict could make it a reality, and that the film risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is wrong.

Not only does this criticism vastly overrate the power of the written word or the moving image, but it looks past the real forces sending the United States toward ever-deeper division: inequality; a hyperpartisan duopoly; and an antiquated and increasingly dysfunctional Constitution. Mere stories are not powerful enough to change those realities. But these stories can wake us up to the threats we are facing. The greatest political danger in America isn’t fascism, and it isn’t wokeness. It’s inertia. America needs a warning.

The reason for a surge in anxiety over a civil war is obvious. The Republican National Committee, now under the control of the presumptive nominee, has asked job candidates if they believe the 2020 election was stolen — an obvious litmus test. Extremism has migrated into mainstream politics, and certain fanciful fictions have migrated with it. In 1997, a group of Texas separatists were largely considered terrorist thugs and their movement, if it deserved that title, fizzled out after a weeklong standoff with the police. Just a few months ago, Texas took the federal government to court over control of the border. Armed militias have camped out along the border. That’s not a movie trailer. That’s happening.

But politicians, pundits and many voters seem not to be taking the risk of violence seriously enough. There is an ingrained assumption, resulting from the country’s recent history of global dominance coupled with a kind of organic national optimism, that in the United States everything ultimately works out. While right-wing journalists and fiction writers have been predicting a violent end to the Republic for generations — one of the foundational documents of neo-Nazism and white supremacy is “The Turner Diaries” from 1978, a novel that imagines an American revolution that leads to a race war — their writings seem more like wish fulfillment than like warnings.

When I attended prepper conventions as research for my book, I found their visions of a collapsed American Republic suspiciously attractive: It’s a world where everybody grows his own food, gathers with family by candlelight, defends his property against various unpredictable threats and relies on his wits. Their preferred scenario resembled, more than anything, a sort of postapocalyptic “Little House on the Prairie.”

We’ve seen more recent attempts to grapple with the possibility of domestic conflict in the form of sober-minded political analysis. Now the vision of a civil war has come to movie screens. We’re no longer just contemplating a political collapse, we’re seeing its consequences unfold in IMAX.

“Civil War” doesn’t dwell on the causes of the schism. Its central characters are journalists and the plot dramatizes the reality of the conflict they’re covering: the fear, violence and instability that a civil war would inflict on the lives of everyday Americans.

That’s a good thing. Early on when I was promoting my book, I remember an interviewer asking me whether a civil war wouldn’t be that terrible an option; whether it would help clear the air. The naïveté was shocking and, to me, sickening. America lost roughly 2 percent of its population in the Civil War. Contemplating the horrors of a civil war — whether as a thought experiment or in a theatrical blockbuster — helps counteract a reflexive sense of American exceptionalism. It can happen here. In fact, it already has.

One of the first people to predict the collapse of the Republic was none other than George Washington. “I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations,” he warned in his Farewell Address. “This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature.” This founder of the country devoted much of one of his most important addresses, at the apex of his popularity, to warning about the exact situation the United States today finds itself in: a hyper-partisanship that puts party over country and risks political collapse. Washington knew what civil war looked like.

For those Americans of the 1850s who couldn’t imagine a protracted, bloody civil war, the reason is simple enough: They couldn’t bear to. They refused to see the future they were part of building. The future came anyway.

The Americans of 2024 can easily imagine a civil war. The populace faces a different question and a different crisis: Can we forestall the future we have foreseen? No matter the likelihood of that future, the first step in its prevention is imagining how it might come to pass, and agreeing that it would be a catastrophe.

Stephen Marche is the author of “The Next Civil War.”

Source photographs by Yasuhide Fumoto, Richard Nowitz and stilllifephotographer, via Getty Images.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .