Made in America (The University of Chicago Press)

Our nation began with the simple phrase "We the People." But who were and are "We"? Who were we in 1776, in 1865, or in 1968, and is there any continuity in character between the we of those years and the nearly 300 million people living in the radically different America of today? With "Made in America", Claude S. Fischer draws on decades of historical, psychological, and social research to answer that question aby tracking the evolution of American character and culture over three centuries. He explodes myths - such as that contemporary Americans are more mobile and less religious than their ancestors, or that they are more focused on money and consumption - and reveals instead how greater security and wealth have only reinforced the independence, egalitarianism, and commitment to community that characterized our people from the earliest years.