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In the Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society, Revised and Enlarged Edition (W.W. Norton) Schlesinger provides deep insights into the crises of nationhood in America. A new chapter assessed the impact both of radical multiculturalism and radical monoculturalism on the Bill of Rights. Written with his usual clarity and force, the book brings a noted historian’s wisdom and perspective to bear on America’s “culture wars.”
Schlesinger addresses the questions: What holds a nation together? And what does it mean to be an American? Describing the emerging cult of ethnicity, Schlsinger praises its healthy effect on the campaign of multicultural advocates to divide the nation into separate ethnic and racial communities. From the start, he observes, the United States has been a multicultural nation, rich in its diversity but held together a shared commitment to the democratic process and by the freedom of intermarriage. It was this national talent for assimilation that impressed foreign visitors like Alexis de Tocqueville and James Bryce, and it is this historic goal that Schelsinger champions as the best hope for the future. Schlesinger analyses what he sees as grim consequences of identity politics: the widening of differences. Attacks on the First Amendment, he argues, threaten intellectual freedom and, ultimately, the future of the ethnic groups. His criticisms are not limited to the left. As a former target of McCarthyism, he understands that the radical right is even more willing than the radical left to restrict and weaken the Bill of Rights.
The author does not minimize the injustices concealed by the “melting pot” dream. The Disuniting Of America is both academic and personal, forceful in argument, balanced in judgment. It is a book that will no doubt anger some readers, but it will surely make all of them think again. The winner of Pulitzer prizes for history and for biography, an authoritative voice of American liberalism, Schlesinger is uniquely positioned to bring bold answers and healing wisdom to this passionate debate over who we are and what we should become.
57. According to Schlesinger, the United States is .
A) a melting pot
B) a nation with diverse cultures held together by the democratic process
C) a federation of ethnic and racial communities
D) a nation with one culture despite its various ethnic and racial groups
58. We can infer from the passage that Schlesinger .
A) advocates the assimilation of different cultures into one nationhood
B) holds that each racial group should keep its distinct identity
C) gives full support to the emerging cult of ethnicity
D) prefers multiculturalism to monoculturalism
59. We can infer form this passage that America .
A) is experiencing a crisis of nationhood
B) has ended its history of racial prejudice
C) is trying to restrict the Bill of Rights
D) has tried to obstruct intellectual freedom
60. According to the author, Schlesinger’s book will .
A) put an end to the culture wars in America.
B) cause anger among the radical right
C) cause anger among the radical left
D) provoke thinking among all readers
61. This passage is most probably taken from .
A) a history book
B) a new report
C) a book review
D) a journal of literary criticism.
