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During the semester, I shall post course material and students will comment on it. Students are also free to comment on any aspect of American politics, either current or historical. There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges. This blog is on the open Internet, so post nothing that you would not want a potential employer to see. Syllabus: http://gov20h.blogspot.com/2023/08/draft-introduction-to-american-politics.html

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Rise and Fall of Anglo-America

A commenter on my personal blog just pointed me to this book. Looks fascinating, related to Huntington's points.

The Rise and Fall of Anglo-America

Review
Financial Times : Illuminating...Mr. Kaufmann shows how the culture of 'white Anglo-Saxon protestants,' or Wasps, was constructed and, from the early 20th century, gradually dismantled.
--Christopher Caldwell

Times Higher Education Supplement : [A] compelling study...Kaufmann writes with admirable detachment and objectivity, and reveals the mechanism by which the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant founders of the U.S. lost their political and cultural dominance. Kaufmann shows how a longstanding cosmopolitan element within Wasp ideology shifted from a symbolic role to the core of national life, and the Wasp population recast their own role accordingly. In other words, they did it to themselves...It is so refreshing to read a generous, open and positive book on this subject--what a pity that it is Huntington who has attracted the attention.
--Nicholas Cull

Review
Eric Kaufmann's The Rise and Fall of Anglo-America will make an important contribution to the long-sustained debate over the nature and distinctiveness of American identity and American nationality. Kaufmann forcefully and effectively locates the significant moving power that has transformed the United States from a society with a single dominant ethnic group, into one that is clearly something else, in the powerful central ideas that were present at the origins of American society.
--Nathan Glazer, Harvard University

Many of Kaufmann's arguments and reinterpretations of historical periods are original. They will provoke discussion and criticism but in the process will advance our understanding of American national identity. He brings an original and fresh perspective to bear on the formation, content, and meaning of this identity.
--Desmond King, author of Making Americans: Immigration, Race, and the Origins of the Diverse Democracy

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