In this updated version of a modern classic, acclaimed historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. strikes a blow against radical multiculturalism. The rising cult of ethnicity, he argues, threatens a common American identity, imperiling the civic ideals that traditionally have bonded immigrants into a nation. Various chapters criticize bilingual education, Afrocentrism, and the use of history as group therapy for minorities. Schlesinger raised eyebrows when he first published this book in 1992 because of his impeccable liberal credentials as a one-time assistant to President Kennedy and long-standing academic champion of FDR's New Deal. This new version contains all of the original volume's edge, plus a few extras, including an appendix containing "Schlesinger's Syllabus," 13 books "indispensable to an understanding of America." Titles from this eclectic list include The Federalist Papers, Tocqueville's Democracy in America, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Mencken's American Language. The Disuniting of America remains an essential book for readers interested in the American character as it enters the 21st century.


From Publishers Weekly
In this forcefully argued essay, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Schlesinger contends that America as melting pot has given way to an "eruption of ethnicity . " Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Wall Street Journal
One of the most devastating and articulate attacks on multiculturalism yet to appear.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Setting 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.

SYNOPSIS

"One of the most devastating and articulate attacks on multiculturalism yet to appear.... Mr. Schlesinger's criticism of Afrocentrism and other manifestations of radical multiculturalism is sober, relentless, and utterly convincing." -The Wall Street Journal

"A courageous, important, forcefully argued essay." --Publishers Weekly

The bestseller that reminded us what it means to be American is now more timely than ever in this updated and expanded edition, now including "Schlesinger's Syllabus," an annotated reading list of core books on the American experience.

What does it mean to be an American? asks Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. The classic image of America -- a melting pot in which differences of race, wealth, religion, and nationality are submerged in democracy -- is now being replaced with a new orthodoxy. America is becoming a collection of self-interest groups, celebrating difference and now abandoning the idea of assimilation.

The upsurge in ethnic awareness has had some healthy consequences, including long-overdue recognition of the achievements of women, black Americans, Indians, Latinos, and Asians, among others. But Schlesinger argues that the cult of ethnicity has its price, and pressed too far, poses danger.

Using a broader canvas in this updated and expanded edition, Schlesinger examines the international dimension and the lessons of one polyglot country after another tearing itself apart or on the brink of doing so: the former Yugoslavia, Nigeria, and even Canada among them. Focusing inward, he finds troubling new evidence that efforts to preserve a plurality of cultures here in the United States threatens to do the same.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly