ABSTRACT
Americans have lost interest in each other, as well as their nation. Maybe we never really liked one another that much to begin with, given the stark divisions by race, gender, and class that have permeated our society since day 1. Still, cleavages notwithstanding, historically, most Americans have cherished the value of being part of this nation. But whatever bond that held us together in the past is no more-at least for many of us. Our great “melting pot,” as sociologists Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Moynihan once put it,1 may have been much more a wishful fairy tale than political reality. Instead, these days it seems that the melting pot has boiled over, leaving many Americans scalded as a result.
