Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T22:32:01.086Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Contours of American National Identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2014

Jack Citrin  and
David O. Sears
Jack Citrin
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
David O. Sears
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access

Summary

All nationalist doctrines insist that allegiance to the nation should override affiliations to less inclusive groups, such as those based on race, religion, language, or class. Writing about the aftermath of colonialism in From Empire to Nation, Rupert Emerson wrote that the nation is “the largest community which, when the chips are down, effectively commands men’s loyalty, overriding the claims both of the lesser communities within it and those which cut across it or potentially enfold it within a still greater society.” Whether this claim about the strength and pervasiveness of identification with the nation and the unique importance of this identity still holds in the United States is the subject of this chapter.

Has the conflation of demographic change, due largely to immigration, and identity politics prompted an overall weakening of Americans’ national identity and a widening of ethnic fault lines in patriotic sentiment? Pessimistic observers highlight distinctive threats to national attachment in all the country’s main ethnic groups. Samuel Huntington singles out Hispanic immigration, arguing that the mass entry and geographic concentration of these newcomers close to their countries of origin may short-circuit the development of loyalty to the United States that occurred among earlier immigrant waves. If Huntington is correct about the future attitudes of American Latinos, then the fact that they are the fastest growing segment of a projected majority-minority society is a significant challenge to the traditional meaning of e pluribus unum.

Type
Chapter
Information
American Identity and the Politics of Multiculturalism , pp. 56 - 87
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Emerson, Rupert, From Empire to Nation: The Rise to Self-Assertion of Asian and African Peoples (Boston: Beacon Press, 1960)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sidanius, Jim, et al., “The Interface between Ethnic and National Attachment: Ethnic Pluralism or Ethnic Dominance?” Public Opinion Quarterly 61, no. 1 (1997): 102–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence and Tuan, Mia, Prejudice in Politics: Group Position, Public Opinion and the Wisconsin Treaty Rights Dispute (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 2006);Google Scholar
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo and Glover, Karen S., “We Are All Americans: The Latin Americanization of Race Relations in the United States,” in The Changing Terrain of Race and Ethnicity, ed. Krysan, Maria and Lewis, Amanda E. (New York: Russell Sage Foundation 2004);Google Scholar
Jost, John, Federico, Christopher M., and Napier, Jaime L., “Political Ideology: Its Structure, Function, and Electoral Affinities,” Annual Review of Psychology 60 (2009): 307–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karsten, Peter, Patriot-Heroes in England and America (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978)Google Scholar
Kateb, George, Patriotism and Other Mistakes (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006)Google Scholar
Staub, Ervin, “Blind versus Constructive Patriotism: Moving from Embeddedness in the Group to Critical Loyalty and Action,” in Patriotism in the Lives of Individuals and Nations, ed. Bar-Tal, Dani and Staub, Ervin (Chicago: Nelson-Hall and Schatz, 1997), 213–28;Google Scholar
Schatz, Robert T. et al., “On the Varieties of National Attachment: Blind vs. Constructive Patriotism,” Political Psychology 20, no. 1 (1999): 151–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuman, Howard and Presser, Stanley, Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys (San Diego: Academic Press, 1981)Google Scholar
Hyman, Herbert and Sheatsley, Paul, “The Authoritarian Personality: A Methodological Critique,” in Studies in the Scope and Method of the Authoritarian Personality, ed. Christie, Richard and Jahoda, Marie (Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1954)Google Scholar
Theiss-Morse, Elizabeth, Who Counts As an American? The Boundaries of National Identity (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, Randall, The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency (New York: Pantheon, 2011)Google Scholar
Schildkraut, Deborah J., “The More Things Change . . . American Identity and Mass and Elite Responses to 9/11,” Political Psychology 23, no. 3 (2009): 511–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Figuereido, Rui J. P. and Elkins, Zachary, “Are Patriots Bigots? An Inquiry into the Vices of In-Group Pride,” American Journal of Political Science 47, no. 1 (2003): 171–88;CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huddy, Leonie and Khatib, Nadia, “American Patriotism, National Identity, and Political Involvement,” American Journal of Political Science 51, no. 1 (2007): 63–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Tom W. and Jarkko, Lars, “National Pride: A Cross-National Analysis,” GSS Cross-National Report No. 19 (Chicago: NORC, 1998);Google Scholar
De la Garza, Rodolfo O., Falcon, Angelo, and Garcia, Chris F., “Will the Real Americans Please Stand Up: Anglo and Mexican-American Support of Core American Political Values,” American Journal of Political Science 40, no. 2 (1996): 335–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schildkraut, Deborah J., Americanization in the Twentieth Century: Public Opinion in the Age of Immigration (New York: Cambridge University Press 2011)Google Scholar
Kincheloe, Joe and Steinberg, Shirley, Changing Multiculturalism (London: Open University Press 1997)Google Scholar
Cheney, Lynne, “The End of History,” Wall Street Journal, October 20, 1994Google Scholar
Nash, Gary B., Crabtree, Charlotte, and Dunn, Ross E., History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997)Google Scholar
Chong, Dennis, “Free Speech and Multiculturalism In and Out of the Academy,” Political Psychology 27, no. 1 (2006): 29–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, “In Gay Marriage Debate, Both Supporters and Opponents See Legal Recognition as ‘Inevitable.’” June 6, 2013
Brubaker, Rogers, “The Manichean Myth: Rethinking the Distinction between ‘Civic’ and ‘Ethnic’ Nationalism,” in Nation and National Identity: The European Experience in Perspective, ed. Hanspeter, Kriesi et al. (Zurich: Ruegger, 1999), 55–71Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael, What It Means to Be an American (New York: Marsilio Publishers, 1992)Google Scholar
Citrin, Jack, Reingold, Beth, and Green, Donald P., “American Identity and the Politics of Ethnic Change,” Journal of Politics 52 (1990): 1124–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Citrin, Jack and Wright, Matthew, “Defining the Circle of We: American Identity and Immigration Policy,” The Forum 7, no. 3 (2009). Available online at CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuman, Howard, et al., Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretation, Revised Edition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997)Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×