Brandon Marcus
@brandonjmarc
Brandon Marcus
@brandonjmarc
We live “after nationalism,” in the sense that our public discourse is characterized by appeals to various and potentially incompatible conceptions of the nation…The decision of the future is between acceptance, however grudging, of messy, frustrating plurality and pursuit of a unity that continues to elude us. After Nationalism
... See moreNo modern society has escaped the phenomenon that sociologist Peter L. Berger called “pluralization.” In other words, its members do not merely embrace different moral, religious, and political perspectives—a condition that was thoroughly familiar to the ancient world. We also recognize that we face choices among a range of viable (if not equally
... See moreChastising the academic community for its indulgence in debunking and provocation, McNeill defended “public myth.” “A people without a full quiver of relevant agreed-upon statements,” he wrote, “accepted in advance through education or less formalized acculturation, soon finds itself in deep trouble, for, in the absence of believable myths,
... See moreAs historian Andrew Hartman has documented in his study A War for the Soul of America, which takes Buchanan’s speech as its point of departure, the culture war was fought on fronts including crime, sexual morality, and environmental policy. To a striking degree, however, it revolved around education. For culture warriors on the right and left,
... See moreCreedal nationalism was an attempt to explain the continuity of American institutions despite the transformation of its population. The nation could absorb so much immigration, liberal theorists reasoned, because its essence lay in ideas rather than in blood, soil, or religious confession. Unlike European nations, argued philosopher John Dewey,