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Individualism, Civic Virtue, and Gender in America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Mark E. Kann
Mark E. Kann
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
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Extract

Individualism is a powerful symbol of American life. We treasure individual rights to speak our minds, choose our values, seek our goals, and achieve self-fulfillment. We believe individual self-interest is the foundation of economic growth and prosperity. We treat individual suffrage as the definitive characteristic of democratic government. In a sense, individualism is the lifeblood of an American dream that flows to our children, circulates among immigrants, and courses through the rhetoric of public policy. American historians record its genealogy and sociologists diagnose its effects while business leaders prescribe more of it and politicians praise it. Even critics are obsessed with it. They tell us that individualism has infected the habits of our hearts and forced the closing of our minds.

Type
Articles
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Studies in American Political Development , Volume 4 , Spring 1990 , pp. 46 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

The author wishes to thank the following people for their comments and suggestions: Elinor Accampo, Joyce Appleby, Steven Baxter, Peter Breiner, Harry Brod, Matthew Cahn, Robert Booth Fowler, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, Earl Klee, Stven Ross, and Judith Hicks Stiehm.

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