American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century.

Historians and social scientists have been longing for ambitious syntheses that take into account recent contributions to social history and studies of culture while reinvigorating key themes in political history. This books rich and learned assessment of the complexities of twentieth-century America and its appraisal of change provide just such a powerful diagnostic and temporal framework. Showing how civic and racial ideals have entwined to produce both expansive and restrictive results, American Crucible is thoughtfully instructive and lovely to read.--Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University.<P>Fifty years ago, prominent historians celebrated the virtues of the American Creed thirty years ago, their successors deplored the evils of Amerikka. The best contemporary historians transcend these stereotypes by analyzing the many facets of Americanism, and American Crucible now sets the standard for the others. Its demonstration of how civicnationalism and racial nationalism change and how they change each other, its smooth movement from high diplomacy to comic strips, its refusal to settle for easy condemnation or celebration-together they add up to a terrific achievement.--Jennifer Hochschild, Harvard University<P>In American Crucible, Gary Gerstle traces the fundamental tension between the American belief in equality and the deeply rooted tradition of racial nationalism-the most significant and most sustained conflict throughout the history of the United States. Gerstles angle of vision allows him to illuminate and place in larger context such seemingly diverse events and developments as World War I andmulticulturalism, immigration policy and the Christian right, Teddy Roosevelts reform agenda and the social upheavals of the 1960s. American Crucible provides invaluable insight into the shape and structure of contemporary American society t

Author: Professor Gary Gerstle

Language: English

Binding: Hardcover

Pages: 382

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Publication Date: 2001-04-01