The Fractious Nation: Unity and Division in Contemporary American Life - Hardcover

Less than a year before two planes slammed into the World Trade Center, the 2000 presidential election produced not just the blue-and-red electoral map but also revealed the fractured nation that those totemic colors represent. And from the cultural wars to immigration restriction, from the Christian right to political correctness, recent decades have witnessed much hand-wringing on the left and the right about the fragmentation of American life. The Fractious Nation? enlists the critical intelligence of fourteen distinguished contributors who illuminate the schisms in American life and the often volatile debates they have inspired in the realms of culture, ethnic and racial pluralism, and political life.

"This collection of essays offers a bracing challenge to widely held beliefs about cultural and political fragmentation in the United States today. The Fractious Nation? may well change the debate on issues ranging from multiculturalism and race relations to governance and public philosophy."—William A. Galston, author of Liberal Purposes: Goods, Virtues, and Diversity on the Liberal State

"The virtue of this stunning collection of essays is the shrewd moderation of its authors, who explain that while we in the United States have serious social conflict, we also have the intellectual resources to address it. Most of all, The Fractious Nation, whose contributors embrace very different political approaches, reminds us that we must struggle to understand what constitutes nationhood in this difficult century."—Stanley N. Katz, professor, Woodrow Wilson School, and director of Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Princeton University

"With an all-star team of contributors, this volume explores the many ways that fear of fragmentation plagues the American psyche today and provides the kind of understanding that allows us to overcome such fears. The breadth of talent assembled between the covers of this book is simply awesome."—Robert Suro, author of Strangers among Us: Latino Lives in a Changing America

"This is an accessibly written and valuable collection by outstanding social scientists addressed to the broad question of whether the United States is experiencing or headed for a 'culture war.'"—R. Stephen Warner, author of New Wine in Old Wineskins: Evangelicals and Liberals in a Small-Town Church

"This is an exceptionally well-focused collection of up-to-date, analytical reflections on several of the most pressing issues in American political culture today, written by some of our most discerning scholars and journalists."—David A. Hollinger, author of Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism

Jonathan Rieder is Professor and Chair in the Department of Sociology at Barnard College, Columbia University. Stephen Steinlight is a former Director of National Affairs and Director of Publications for the American Jewish Committee.