Description
Book SynopsisHuntington examines the persistent gap between the promise of American ideals and the performance of American politics. He shows how Americans have always been united by the democratic creed of liberty, equality, and hostility to authority, but how these ideals have been frustrated through institutions and hierarchies needed to govern a democracy.
Trade ReviewHuntington’s underappreciated 1981 masterpiece…Describes an ineradicable tension between America’s ideals and the actual practice of our politics…Offers insights about our own moment. -- Yuval Levin * New York Times *
More than his famous ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis of the 1990s, it is this lesser-known 1981 work that most clearly speaks to our time. Huntington points to the gap between the values of the American creed (liberty, equality, individualism, constitutionalism) and the government’s efforts to live up to those values as the central tension of national life. -- Carlos Lozada * Washington Post *
[A] brilliant book… [Huntington addresses] contemporary concerns with a masterly command of theory and history which will ensure his book an enduring place as a work of scholarship. * The New Republic *
An illuminating book, ambitious in range and ingenious in analysis… Filled with imaginative insights. * New York Times Book Review *
An exceptional book, combining political theory with American history and contemporary policy analysis in a fashion that will challenge and inform any reader interested in the American experience. * Boston Globe *
[Huntington] squarely confronts the problem of legitimating American power at home and abroad and argues persuasively…for his exceptionalist political vision. Few have the courage—fewer the talent—to pose and systematically answer the critical questions that Huntington raises. * American Political Science Review *
Professor Huntington has brilliantly set forth the persisting conflict between American ideals and American institutions which can energize our society or paralyze it, depending on whether it is understood for what it is. A liberating insight; a brilliant book. -- Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
This controversial book will spark considerable debate about American values, the origins and meaning of reform, and foreign policy. It will influence current discussions of the United States, and it will change the way we think about American political and social behavior. -- Seymour Martin Lipset, Stanford University
Samuel Huntington is not only a preeminent scholar of modern governing institutions and their underlying ideas, democratic and otherwise; he has also often served as adviser to policymakers in several nations, including our own. His book should be read by everyone who is concerned with the capacity of our institutions to meet the fearful challenges they now face. -- Austin Ranney, American Enterprise Institute
Table of Contents1. The Disharmonic Polity "Our Practice of Your Principles" The One, the Two, and the Many: Structural Paradigms of American Politics Ideals versus Institutions 2. The American Creed and National Identity Political Thought in America Sources, Scope, and Stability of the Creed Political Ideas and National Identity 3. The Gap: The American Creed versus Political Authority Consensus and Instability The Gap in Comparative Perspective 4. Coping with the Gap The American Case of Cognitive Dissonance Patterns of Response The Gap and American Political Style 5. The Politics of Creedal Passion Creedal Passion Periods in American History The Climate of Creedal Passion Creedal Conflict: The Movement and the Establishment Reform and its Limits Political Earthquakes and Realignment 6. The Sources of Creedal Passion Why Creedal Passion Periods? General Sources: Comparable Phenomena in Other Societies Specific Sources: The Timing of Creedal Passion Periods Original Sources: The Roots of It All in the English Revolution The Protestantism of American Politics 7. The S&S Years, 1960-1975 From the Fifties to the Seventies: The Changing Pattern of Response Complacency and the End(?) of Ideology Interlude of Hypocrisy, Surge of Moralism The Mobilization of Protest The Dynamics of Exposure The Legacies Reform and the IvI Gap Institutional Realignment The Misuse and Erosion of Authority Cynicism and the Restoration of Authority 8. The Viability of American Ideals and Institutions The Future of the Gap History versus Progress? America versus the World? Power and Liberty: The Myth of American Repression The Promise of Disappointment Notes Index
