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Title: The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society by Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr., Arthur Meier Schlesinger ISBN: 0-393-04580-3 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: March, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: It's sad that this book is probably controversial
Comment: I found Arthur Schlesinger's survey of multiculturalism in America to be a welcome and refreshing monograph. The Disuniting of America ' aptly titled ' is a clear headed and straightforward account of how and why the country is are genuinely threatened by the intellectual descendents of the cultural sensitivities that allowed us to shake off (mostly) generations of intolerance and bigotry.
Half cheerleading for American history, Schlesinger shows that America is indeed become fractured along whatever lines ' ethnic, racial, religious to some extent ' people can dream up. This is not, repeat not, the logical consequence of our national awakening of the sixties. More and more we find in America groups choosing isolation and the politics of mass attack.
As a distinguished historian, Schlesinger has countless examples of how the national ideology was formed very early in our history. Citing de Tocqueville and others less famous, he shows how wild and revolutionary was the idea then, and quite a bit now, that a nation could form basing personal identity not on religion, or tribe, or language, but on the 'melting pot' as it came to be known. E pluribus unum, from many one, is changed today so often to just pluribus.
In more concrete terms, we get a review of how multiculturalism's worst self satire has become the norm in, for example, education, a subject discussed at great length. We see how history, an old and distinguished practice, is becoming polluted by charlatans who consider it more important to promote myths that to report on reality. When self-esteem becomes the motivating goal behind primary school history lessons, and the past itself becomes something of an obstacle, we can be sure that something is seriously wrong.
Of course, what makes Disuniting special is the author. Besides being a noted liberal, something the reader is never tempted to forget, he is also a clear-headed thinker and writer. This is not just a collection of anecdotes, indistinguishable from a Rush Limbaugh rant or off-the-cuff blog from the National Review. This is a warning from someone smart enough to realize, and articulate enough to express, that the answer to white on black racism is not black on white racism. That maximum tolerance for new ways of thinking and living does not mean minimal tolerance for old ways. And to return to the original and dominant theme, lest we Balkanize (or even Rwanda-ize) our own country, and turn into a land where crackpot religious leaders can condemn authors to death for writing the wrong books, let us remember that we as a country have held together now for more than two centuries by, to put it succinctly, holding together. It was a strength even in the bad old days, and should be our crowning glory now.
Rating: 5
Summary: Courageous
Comment: Schlesinger served the Kennedy administration, heavily involved in advancing Civil Rights. Any memory of pre-1960s America justifies his passion. Even lynching of Blacks was not illegal until Truman made it so in 1948 and images of fire hose and German Shepard attacks on peaceful Black protestors or their White supporters remains a stark memory. His book, however, is an alert to those of reason regardless of affiliation that the movement has run off its tracks. But that hasn't stopped its wreckage from continuing to plow a path of ruin through its original intent. As Schlesinger puts it, "A culture of ethnicity has arisen to denounce the idea of a melting pot, to protect and perpetuate separate ethnic and racial communities." Its underlying philosophy is that America is not a nation of individuals but a nation of groups, he says; ethnicity is the defining experience; division into ethnic communities establishes the structure of American society and the fundamental meaning of American history. "Multiethnic dogma abandons historic purposes, replacing assimilation by fragmentation, integration by separation." Our modern movements succeed where the Klan failed.
Referencing multiculturalism he asks if it is the school's function to teach racial pride? When does obsession with difference threaten identity? Since this 1993 book this obsession has become an educational standard. Our calendar is split into months for one race pride or another (except white and European). It starts early - believing the purpose of history is therapeutic. He notes, "Once ethnic pride and self-esteem become the criterion for teaching history then certain things cannot be taught." Schlesinger asks the question, "Why does anyone suppose that pride and inspiration are available only from people of the same ethnicity?" One wonders.
Schlesinger's core warning is the same as that of the Founders, that "the virus of tribalism lies dormant, flaring up to destroy entire nations." But that has not stopped the derailment of Civil Rights. As Schlesinger notes, Black America's valid leaders - like so much from the Left that began for the right reasons - have been hijacked for the benefits of opposition, not unification.
Rating: 5
Summary: Clear and to the point
Comment: Mr. Schlesinger has written an marvellous book, looked at from a German perspective. A typical German phenomenon -or so I thought- are the "Gutmenschen", these are German politically correct citizens. I am pleased to read, that this category of people also exist in the USA, doing just as much well intended damage there than here.
I thought, Schlesinger was a "Gutmensch" himself, but he surely convinced me otherwise.
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Title: We Are All Multiculturalists Now by Nathan Glazer ISBN: 067494836X Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Dictatorship of Virtue : How the Battle Over Multiculturalism Is Reshaping Our Schools, Our Country, andOur Lives by Richard Bernstein ISBN: 0679763988 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 29 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The UNMAKING OF AMERICANS : HOW MULTICULTURALISM HAS UNDERMINED THE ASSIMILATION ETHIC by John J. Miller ISBN: 068483622X Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 06 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Afrocentric Idea by Molefi Kete Asante ISBN: 156639595X Publisher: Temple Univ Press Pub. Date: January, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.25 |
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Title: Always in Pursuit : Fresh American Perspectives by Stanley Crouch ISBN: 0375701680 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 16 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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