Description
Book SynopsisWhat values do Americans hold dear? What happens when real-world situations cause those values to conflict? To better understand the intellectual map of how American society works, Arthur G. Neal and Helen Youngelson-Neal analyze values prominent in American word and deed. These values appear in our nation''s formal documentsrights and privileges prominently emphasized in the US Constitution and inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. They have shaped the historical destiny and, indeed, include those values most extensively propagated by the general population.
Using these criteria, the authors identify individualism, the pursuit of happiness, freedom, consumerism, materialism, equality of opportunity, technology, mastery of the environment, quality of marriage, and national unity as the core American values. Core values provide the raw materials for the construction of contemporary society as a moral community, wherever that community is located. Such values are clusters of ideas
Table of Contents
1 Introduction and Orientation
2 Individualism
3 The Pursuit of Happiness
4 Freedom
5 Having a Good Marriage
6 Consumerism
7 Materialism
8 Equality of Opportunity
9 Technology
10 Mastery of the Environment
11 National Unity
Author Index
Subject Index
