As America enters the twentyfirst century, Americans are locked in an agonizing debate about what it means to be an
"American". What common political values, if any, bind our nation together? Will these values change as our population becomes more diverse and we move towards a "majority
minority" future? This course will examine these issues and discuss the construction and emergence of a new national
identity--as well as evaluate the arguments of those who believe that nation-states are a thing of the past and see regional and global associations as the wave of the future.
America is changing in many dramatic ways. Perhaps the biggest change is a demographic one as America makes the transition from the Euro-America of yesterday to the multicultural nation of today. According to a recent National Research Council Report current population trends suggest that within 50 years there will be no single ethnic majority in the United States.
What forces have led to this dramatic demographic transformation? More importantly, what impact will this shift have--if any-- on the core American values and attitudes defining our unique political culture? What impact will the size and diversity of ethnic populations have on race related issues in the America of Tomorrow?
James Davison Hunter, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America (Basic Books, 1992)
Arthur Schlesinger Jr., The Disuniting of America (W.W. Norton 1998)
John Hall and Charles Lindblom,Is America Breaking Apart? (Princeton University Press, 1999)
Gertrude Himmelfarb, One Nation, Two Cultures (2000)
David Shipler, A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America (Vintage,1998)
California today best illustrates the demographics of the America of tomorrow, according to the Year 2000 Census:
White : 49%
Hispanic: 28%
Asian: 11%
Black : 8%
EXCERPT FROM GEORGE W. BUSH INAUGURAL SPEECH:
"Sometimes our differences run so deep,it seems we share a continent, but not a country...We do not accept this,and will not allow it. Our unity, our union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens in every generation"
January 20th., 2001
Before we try to predict the America of Tomorrow, it is important to take note of the fact that America today
(post World-War Two America) is already very different from the America of Yesterday ( Pre-World War Two).
Already, in the America of Today, many informed observers have been hinting at a number of cultural divides that separate Americans from each other --and suggest that these divisions may worsen in the America of Tomorrow. In addition to racial and ethnic divisions, there are economic (the haves vs. the have nots); digital ( the knows vs the know-nots) and even moral divisions (stricter vs. looser cultures). Below are some examples of books which reflect these current concerns.
