The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural SocietySetting the American experience against a global backdrop in which one nation after another is tearing itself apart, Schlesinger emphasizes the question: What is it that holds nations together? The classic American image was of the "melting pot", in which differences of race, religion, and nationality were reduced, however unevenly, by common adherence to unifying civic principles. Today that image is challenged by an identity politics that magnifies differences and abandons goals of integration and assimilation. Must we surrender national identity to ethnic lobbies? Is hypersensitivity on the question of language handicapping minority children? Is the purpose of teaching history to make minorities feel good about themselves? Or is it rather to teach an accurate understanding of the world and to protect unifying ideals of tolerance, democracy, and human rights? Strident multiculturalism, Schlesinger contends, is an ill-judged and wrong-headed response to the real problem: the persistence, despite many gains, of racism in the white majority. In a world scarred by ethnic conflict, he writes, it is all the more urgent that the United States set an example of how a highly differentiated society holds itself together. In this new and enlarged edition, more timely than ever, Schlesinger updates the discussion, assesses recent developments, points to factors that promise to defeat the disuniting of America, points also to the dangers of strident monoculturalism on the right, and adds "Schlesinger's syllabus" - an annotated list of a baker's dozen of book essential for understanding the American experience. |
Contents
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION | 9 |
A New Race? | 29 |
History the Weapon | 51 |
The Battle of the Schools | 79 |
The Decomposition of America | 105 |
E Pluribus Unum? | 125 |
Other editions - View all
Disuniting of America Revised and Enlarged: Reflections On A Multicultural ... Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. No preview available - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
African African-American Afro Afrocentric Afrocentrists Amendment Amer Ameri American Creed American culture American history Anglo Anglocentric Arthur Asian assimilation Baseline Essay bilingual Bill of Rights black Americans black children black history black students Bryce canon century civilization color common Constitution Crèvecoeur cult of ethnicity cultural pluralism curriculum democracy Diane Ravitch diversity English ethnic and racial Euro Eurocentric Europe European experience freedom German groups Gunnar Myrdal Henry Louis Gates Hispanic historian ican idea ideals identity politics immigrants Indians individual Irish Jews John language Latino Leonard Jeffries liberty Library of America melting pot ment minority multiculturalism Myrdal national identity Negro nonwhite oppression origins past percent political correctness Professor public schools quotation race racism Ravitch republic Schlesinger self-esteem slave slavery speech taught teach tion Tocqueville tradition tribal unifying United University W. E. B. Du Bois Washington West Western William Raspberry writes wrote York