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Is the United States a nation of materialistic loners whose politics are dictated by ethnic, racial, religious, or sexual identities? This is what America has become in the eyes of many commentators. Americans seem to fear that their society is breaking apart, but how accurate is this portrayal and how justified is the fear? Introducing another viewpoint into this debate, John Hall and Charles Lindholm argue that such alarm is unfounded. Here they explore the institutional structures of American society, emphasizing its ability to accommodate difference and diffuse conflict. The culture, too, comes under scrutiny: influenced by Calvinistic beliefs, Americans place faith in the individual but demand high moral commitment to the community. By combining history, sociology and anthropology, the authors cover a wide range of past and recent challenges to the stability of American society: from the history of unions to affirmative action, from McCarthyism to militant distrust of government, from an early prejudice toward Irish and Italian immigrants to current treatment of American Americans at the end of the 20th century.