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Even when sharing the same language and symbols, Americans have always divided sharply over the meaning of terms like equality, freedom, and democracy. This book challenges the traditional thesis that America's political culture is characterized by a consensus on liberal capitalist values. At the same time, Ellis rejects theories that an infinite variety of political cultures exists in the United States. Instead, Ellis uses over three hundred years of history to argue that political conflict in America reveals five specific rival political cultures: egalitarian community, competitive individualism, hierarchical collectivism, atomized fatalism, and autonomous hermitude. The book thus stakes out a middle ground between an unintelligible cultural diversity and an untenable cultural consensus.