ABSTRACT
All good discussions of the national-character concept address’subcultural’ differences—e.g., differences of class or region. A number of cultural and intellectual histories give background to modern writing on American character and discuss some of that writing. In general, too, good discussions of the concept recognize its pitfalls, while dividing into those that essentially endorse it and those that find it false, useless, and/or pernicious. A recurring issue is whether national or social character has much continuity, a cultural momentum independent of immediate circumstances. In decades since the 1950s, some commentary on executive character that stresses a variety of other types besides William Whyte’s or claims it is disappearing concurs that it dominated at the time he wrote. Some of the statistical studies cited are of two countries; others are of a number of industrial democracies; others include a larger range of societies.
