Reinventing the American People

Many of our old public expectations - our shared assumptions and experiences, respect for the rule of law and limited government, and, ultimately, a common morality and basic religious outlook - seem shaken or ineffective. Furthermore, in the competition between interest groups and the pursuit of individual rights claims, the American ideal E pluribus unum, "Out of many, one," no longer appears to express our sense of ourselves as a people both diverse and one, pluralistic and united. This volume puts current questions of unity and diversity into a proper historical perspective, explores the causes and consequences of our present predicament, and offers some solutions. It examines a wide array of subjects, from recent court decisions and interpretations of the Constitution to religious questions, educational breakdown, racial and ethnic issues, and immigration. Michael Barone, Harvey Mansfield, Stanley Crouch, Terry Eastland, Robert Wuthnow, George Weigel, Martha Bayles, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Glenn Loury, Peter Skerry, John O'Sullivan, and many others present diverse viewpoints on these important topics. - Back cover.