A work of serious intent that is certain to arouse controversy.
Scholarly analysis of the American national identity as it has evolved over the centuries, the challenges it now faces, and the choices that lie ahead.
Huntington (History/Harvard; The Clash of Civilizations, 1996, etc.) argues that Anglo-Protestant culture, traditions, and values and the principles of the American Creed—liberty, equality, law, individual rights—have made this country what it is. In recent decades he sees doctrines of multiculturalism and diversity elevating racial, ethnic, and gender over national identity, and an increased tendency of immigrants, especially Hispanics, to maintain dual identities rather than to assimilate. The result is an emerging bilingual, bicultural society fundamentally different from the one of the three previous centuries with its Anglo-Protestant, English-language core. Controversies over racial preferences, immigration, and an official language are, he notes, battles in a single war over national identity, with substantial elements of the country’s elites in academia (himself not included), the professions, and the media on one side and the general public on the other. Huntington bolsters his analysis with impressive statistics, and he assembles persuasive examples to illustrate the changes he sees taking place. To the question of whether a nation lacking a cultural core can define itself by ideology alone—that is, can America be a coherent nation if the American Creed is its sole source of national identity?—his answer is a firm no. A nation’s soul, he states, is determined by a common history, traditions, and culture. As to where we go from here, he sees the world entering a new age of religion, one in which the nation’s ideological war with militant communism has been replaced by a religious and cultural war with militant Islam. He outlines three possible approaches to the country’s role in the world: cosmopolitanism, in which the US welcomes the world, its ideas, its goods, and its people; imperialism, in which the US is the dominant component of a supranational empire reshapes the world; and nationalism, in which the US does not try to eliminate the social, political, and cultural differences between itself and other societies but seeks to preserve and strengthen its own defining qualities. Elites may favor cosmopolitanism or imperialism, but most Americans, Huntington says, are, like him, patriots committed to nationalism.
A work of serious intent that is certain to arouse controversy.Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-684-87053-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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