Over the course of the 20th century, there have been three primary narratives of American national identity: the melting pot, Anglo-Protestantism, and cultural pluralism/multi-culturalism. This book offers a social and historical perspective on what shaped each of these imaginings, when each came to the fore, and which appear especially relevant early in the 21st century. These issues are addressed by looking at the United States and elite notions of the meaning of America across the 20th century, centering on the work of Horace Kallen, Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Samuel P. Huntington. Four structural areas are examined in each period: the economy, involvement in foreign affairs, social movements, and immigration. What emerges is a narrative arc whereby immigration plays a clear and crucial role in shaping cultural stories of national identity as written by elite scholars. These stories are represented in writings throughout all three periods, and in such work we see the intellectual development and specification of the dominant narratives, along with challenges to each. Important conclusions include a keen reminder that identities are often formed along borders both external and internal, that structure and culture operate dialectically, and that national identity is hardly a monolithic, static formation.

Over the course of the 20th century, there have been three primary narratives of American national identity: the melting pot, Anglo-Protestantism, and cultural pluralism/multi-culturalism. This book offers a social and historical perspective on what shaped each of these imaginings, when each came to the fore, and which appear especially relevant early in the 21st century. These issues are addressed by looking at the United States and elite notions of the meaning of America across the 20th century, centering on the work of Horace Kallen, Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Samuel P. Huntington. Four structural areas are examined in each period: the economy, involvement in foreign affairs, social movements, and immigration. What emerges is a narrative arc whereby immigration plays a clear and crucial role in shaping cultural stories of national identity as written by elite scholars. These stories are represented in writings throughout all three periods, and in such work we see the intellectual development and specification of the dominant narratives, along with challenges to each. Important conclusions include a keen reminder that identities are often formed along borders both external and internal, that structure and culture operate dialectically, and that national identity is hardly a monolithic, static formation.

"This groundbreaking study examines the connection between what are arguably the two most distinguishing phenomena of the modern world: the unprecedented surges in global mobility and in the creation of politically bounded spaces and identities."--Jose C. Moya, author of Cousins and Strangers "An excellent collection of studies connecting transnational migration to the construction of national identities. Highly recommended."--Luis Roniger, author of Transnational Politics in Central America "The importance of this collection goes beyond the confines of one geographic region as it offers new insight into the role of migration in the definition and redefinition of nation states everywhere."--Fraser Ottanelli, coeditor of Letters from theSpanish Civil War "This volume has set the standard for future work to follow."--Daniel Masterson, author of The History of Peru Between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, an influx of Europeans, Asians, and Arabic speakers indelibly changed the face of Latin America. While many studies of this period focus on why the immigrants came to the region, this volume addresses how the newcomers helped construct national identities in the Caribbean, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. In these essays, some of the most respected scholars of migration history examine the range of responses--some welcoming, some xenophobic--to the newcomers. They also look at the lasting effects that Jewish, German, Chinese, Italian, and Syrian immigrants had on the economic, sociocultural, and political institutions. These explorations of assimilation, race formation, and transnationalism enrich our understanding not only of migration to Latin America but also of the impact of immigration on the construction of national identity throughout the world. Contributors: Jürgen Buchenau | Jeane DeLaney | Nicola Foote | Michael Goebel | Steven Hyland Jr. | Jeffrey Lesser | Kathleen López | Lara Putnam | Raanan Rein | Stefan Rinke | Frederik Schulze

Crossings to Adulthood: How Diverse Young Americans Understand and Navigate Their Lives assembles chapters written by members and affiliates of the Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood on pressing issues facing young, coming-of-age Americans in an increasingly diverse, globalizing world. Based on over 400 interviews with young adults from different racial, class and regional backgrounds, the chapters provide an in-depth look at how young Americans understand their lives and the challenges, risks, and opportunities they experience as they move into adulthood during changing and uncertain times. Chapters focus on how these young adults understand markers of adulthood such as leaving home, launching careers, and forming relationships, as well as issues particularly salient to them including politics, diversity, identity, and acculturation. Contributors are: Pamela Aronson, Arturo Baiocchi, Erika Busse, Patrick J. Carr, Laura Fischer, Constance A. Flanagan, Frank F. Furstenberg Jr., Douglas Hartmann, Maria Kefalas, Vivian Louie, Charlie V. Morgan, Jeylan Mortimer, Laura Napolitano, Lisa Anh Nguyen, Wayne Osgood, Rubén G. Rumbaut, Sarah Shannon, Teresa Toguchi Swartz, and Christopher Uggen. Crossings to Adulthood: How Diverse Young Americans Understand and Navigate Their Lives is now available in paperback for individual customers.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Already the most discussed and most important religious book of the decade." —David Brooks In this controversial bestseller, Rod Dreher calls on American Christians to prepare for the coming Dark Age by embracing an ancient Christian way of life. From the inside, American churches have been hollowed out by the departure of young people and by an insipid pseudo–Christianity. From the outside, they are beset by challenges to religious liberty in a rapidly secularizing culture. Keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House may have bought a brief reprieve from the state’s assault, but it will not stop the West’s slide into decadence and dissolution. Rod Dreher argues that the way forward is actu­ally the way back—all the way to St. Benedict of Nur­sia. This sixth-century monk, horrified by the moral chaos following Rome’s fall, retreated to the forest and created a new way of life for Christians. He built enduring communities based on principles of order, hospitality, stability, and prayer. His spiritual centers of hope were strongholds of light throughout the Dark Ages, and saved not just Christianity but Western civilization. Today, a new form of barbarism reigns. Many believers are blind to it, and their churches are too weak to resist. Politics offers little help in this spiritual crisis. What is needed is the Benedict Option, a strategy that draws on the authority of Scripture and the wisdom of the ancient church. The goal: to embrace exile from mainstream culture and construct a resilient counterculture. The Benedict Option is both manifesto and rallying cry for Christians who, if they are not to be conquered, must learn how to fight on culture war battlefields like none the West has seen for fifteen hundred years. It's for all mere Chris­tians—Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox—who can read the signs of the times. Neither false optimism nor fatalistic despair will do. Only faith, hope, and love, embodied in a renewed church, can sustain believers in the dark age that has overtaken us. These are the days for building strong arks for the long journey across a sea of night.

Multiculturalism is a prevalent worldwide societal phenomenon. Aspects of our modern life, such as migration, economic globalization, multicultural policies, and cross-border travel and communication have made intercultural contacts inevitable. High numbers of multicultural individuals (23-43% of the population by some estimates) can be found in many nations where migration has been strong (e.g., Australia, U.S., Western Europe, Singapore) or where there is a history of colonization (e.g., Hong Kong). Many multicultural individuals are also ethnic and cultural minorities who are descendants of immigrants, majority individuals with extensive multicultural experiences, or people with culturally mixed families; all people for whom identification and/or involvement with multiple cultures is the norm. Despite the prevalence of multicultural identity and experiences, until the publication of this volume, there has not yet been a comprehensive review of scholarly research on the psychological underpinning of multiculturalism. The Oxford Handbook of Multicultural Identity fills this void. It reviews cutting-edge empirical and theoretical work on the psychology of multicultural identities and experiences. As a whole, the volume addresses some important basic issues, such as measurement of multicultural identity, links between multilingualism and multiculturalism, the social psychology of multiculturalism and globalization, as well as applied issues such as multiculturalism in counseling, education, policy, marketing and organizational science, to mention a few. This handbook will be useful for students, researchers, and teachers in cultural, social, personality, developmental, acculturation, and ethnic psychology. It can also be used as a source book in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on identity and multiculturalism, and a reference for applied psychologists and researchers in the domains of education, management, and marketing.

In Immigrant Acts, Lisa Lowe argues that understanding Asian immigration to the United States is fundamental to understanding the racialized economic and political foundations of the nation. Lowe discusses the contradictions whereby Asians have been included in the workplaces and markets of the U.S. nation-state, yet, through exclusion laws and bars from citizenship, have been distanced from the terrain of national culture. Lowe argues that a national memory haunts the conception of Asian American, persisting beyond the repeal of individual laws and sustained by U.S. wars in Asia, in which the Asian is seen as the perpetual immigrant, as the "foreigner-within." In Immigrant Acts, she argues that rather than attesting to the absorption of cultural difference into the universality of the national political sphere, the Asian immigrant--at odds with the cultural, racial, and linguistic forms of the nation--displaces the temporality of assimilation. Distance from the American national culture constitutes Asian American culture as an alternative site that produces cultural forms materially and aesthetically in contradiction with the institutions of citizenship and national identity. Rather than a sign of a "failed" integration of Asians into the American cultural sphere, this critique preserves and opens up different possibilities for political practice and coalition across racial and national borders. In this uniquely interdisciplinary study, Lowe examines the historical, political, cultural, and aesthetic meanings of immigration in relation to Asian Americans. Extending the range of Asian American critique, Immigrant Acts will interest readers concerned with race and ethnicity in the United States, American cultures, immigration, and transnationalism.