Who Are We: The Challenges to America's National Identity: Amazon.ca: Samuel P. Huntington: Books

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From Publishers Weekly

In his seminal The Clash of Civilizations, Huntington anticipated the United States' battle with militant Islam. Here he turns his laser on America-or, rather, America as he thinks it ought to be. Despite its clinical tone, this book is an aggressive polemic whose central argument-that America, at heart, has been and in many ways should remain a Christian, Anglocentric country-wouldn't be out of place on many a conservative radio station. The author seeks at length to prove that the American Creed, which he defines as a Protestant-influenced ideology modeled on the British system, was the founders' original intent and remains America's best course. He then turns to many of the usual subjects-the imperiled primacy of English, the dangers of immigration and multiculturalism-to make his case. He argues that a growing divide between the patriotic working class and "denationalized elites" will lead to internal fissures. Where those findings can lead is another question. For instance, he predicts a movement of white nativism. This movement while not "advocating white racist supremacy" would still believe that the "mixing of races and hence culture is the road to national degeneration." The book is also marred by a number of self-contradictions; for example, Huntington draws heavily on the founders to make a nationalist case even as he acknowledges that notions of Americanism (as opposed to allegiances to individual states) became popular only after the Civil War. Exhaustively researched and occasionally inspired, this polemic remains more often filled with colorless and ineffectual writing that will provide evidence for the converted but do little to persuade the doubters.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Perhaps best known for The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996), the us-against-them polemic that inspired many international relations dissertations, prolific political scientist Huntington aims his latest book at domestic affairs. America, he argues, is in the midst of an identity crisis. Immigration, multiculturalism, secularism, and the end of the cold war have led to a watering down of what it means to be American, and at an especially crucial time, when Americanism is under attack worldwide. The solution? Americans need to get in touch with their English-speaking Anglo-Protestant roots, defined in what he calls the "American Creed" and demonstrated through 300 years of cultural salience. September 11 marks, for the author, an opportunity for Americans to come together in reinvigorated nationalism and reinvented American culture. Armed with statistics and historical analyses, Huntington performs significant contortions to successfully avoid seeming racist or intolerant. He remains, however, highly polemic, with sharp jabs at multiculturalism and bilingualism sure to alienate many readers. Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Charles Street, the principal thoroughfare on Boston's Beacon Hill, is a comfortable street bordered by four-story brick buildings with apartments above antique stores and other shops on the ground level. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index

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26 Reviews

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3.6 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Attack is Underway, July 12 2004

By

Steven Larsen (Philadelphia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Are We: The Challenges to America's National Identity (Hardcover)

With this book, Mr. Huntington joins the growing line of establishment figures who recognise our growing immigration problem as an outright attack. In Who Are We, Huntington makes a clear case for ending our insane immigration policies. Huntington's case is so well made that the opponents of America and American values have turned their hysterical attacks on the book and Huntington himself into high gear.

Having grown up on the east coast, I was unprepared for what I encountered when I packed up and headed to the western states. Besides the hordes of illegal and legal immigrants and the crime that goes with them, I was also shocked to hear our "guests" from south of the border casually state that this land was part of Mexico. The invasion is well under way.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Nearly Drowned My Uvula, July 19 2004

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Dipper Lips "DIP" (Medusa, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Are We: The Challenges to America's National Identity (Hardcover)

This book has so greatly increased my appreciation for truly good beer. The more I read, the more my taste buds danced with giddy delight on my happy tongue. A pale ale, an IPA, another IPA (hops truly are tops!), a dark ale, Chapter Two, a wassail, a porter, two more porters (I spilled most of another), Chapter Three, ahhh sweet stout how I love thee though I don't recall how many times, a skip through Chapter Four on Anglo-Protestant Culture trying to find any mention of beer (none, sad), and finally, a foolish attempt (successful) at chugging an imperial stout while I read the ending cross-eyed.

This book opened my eyes before I fell asleep.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece!, July 15 2004

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Athar S Siddiqui (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Are We: The Challenges to America's National Identity (Hardcover)

A Masterpiece!

I have read some of Mr. Huntington's other books and the last one spurred two papers that I wrote and got published. His works create the greatest amount of intellectual debate and thought. It is as if he brings us face to face with phenomenon we were seeing around us but did not know how to comprehend them.

I wish I could one day write a book that comes even close to a chapter written by Mr. Huntington! May all creation give him strength and good fortune; I would pick up arms for a republic that has men like him.

As for the book, you saw the rage of the Islamic fundamentalist from his previous tome and now see the rage of the Hispanic racists. Both have a lot in common and both are sub standard civilizations who are can get very nasty.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Sad to Say, Just Another Anti-Immigrant Polemic
I cannot recommend this book. It's surprising weak in intellectual rigor and mostly ill-informed, substituting pages of shrill polemic for scholarly insight and analysis. Read more

Published on July 14 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars Who is to say WHAT is authentic Americanism?
The problem at the heart of Samuel Huntington's call for panic at the "unassimilited" hordes is that he is putting forward a definition of Americanism on which to measure up the... Read more

Published on July 12 2004