The character of Americans. A book of readings

This provocative collection meets the demand for readings in a field of study which has attracted intense interest among historians and social scientists. The Character of Americans, now fully revised in a second edition, brings together in convenient form many of the basic documents, both historical and contemporary, in the investigation of American national character. Among them the reader will find materials from which to fashion or refashion an understanding of what it has meant and what it means to be an American. Particular attention is paid in this new edition to present issues and problems in American life, and to the relevance of the concept of American character to those problems. Foreword to the first edition ......Page 8 I. INTRODUCTION ......Page 18 Introduction I ......Page 19 The Dispraising of America, John A. Kouwenhoven ......Page 21 The Idea of American Civilization, Max Lerner ......Page 27 The Quest for the National Character, David M. Potter ......Page 38 II. AS OTHERS HAVE SEEN US ......Page 54 Introduction II ......Page 55 What Is an American? J. Hector St. John de Crévecour ......Page 58 Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville ......Page 64 The American Character in the 1880s, James Bryce ......Page 88 III. PERSPECTIVES. PAST AND PRESENT ......Page 100 Introduction III ......Page 101 The Shaping of National Character, Henry Adams ......Page 106 The Frontier Experience, Frederick Jackson Turner ......Page 113 What Then Is the American, This New Man? Arthur M. Schlesinger ......Page 119 The M-Factor in American History, George W. Pierson ......Page 135 We Are All Third Generation, Margaret Mead ......Page 148 IV. AS THE TWIG IS BENT ......Page 160 Introduction IV ......Page 161 Americans and Chinese: The Beginnings of Contrast, Francis L. K. Hsu ......Page 174 The American Child as Seen by British Travelers, 1845—1935, Richard L. Rapson ......Page 187 Baby and Child Care, Benjamin Spock ......Page 200 V. AMERICAN VALUES ......Page 208 Introduction V ......Page 209 Conflict and Change in American Values, Ethel M. Albert ......Page 213 Changing Value Orientations and Beliefs on the American Scene, Robin M. Williams, Jr ......Page 229 American Core Value and National Character, Francis L. K. Hsu ......Page 248 From Morality to Morale, David Riesman ......Page 267 The Saving Remnant, David Riesman ......Page 272 A Changing American Character? Seymour Martin Lipset ......Page 286 New Light on Changing American Values, Fred I. Greenstein ......Page 311 The American Character in the 1950s, Thomas L. Hartshorne ......Page 324 VI. THE ONGOING INQUIRY ......Page 332 Introduction VI ......Page 333 American Women and the American Character, David M. Potter ......Page 335 The Search for Southern Identity, C. Vann Woodward ......Page 352 Black Rage, William H. Grier and Price M. Cobbs ......Page 364 The Forgotten American, Peter Schrag ......Page 382 What Generation Gap? Joseph Adelson ......Page 395 Is America by Nature a Violent Society? Hanna Arendt, St. Clair Drake, Clifibrd Geertz, Paul Goodman, Michael Harrington, Richard Hofstadter, Thomas F. Pettigrew, David Riesman, and C. Vann Woodward ......Page 406 American Character and Foreign Policy, Gabriel A. Almond ......Page 422 Readings on American National Character ......Page 433