ABSTRACT
In 2004, Samuel Huntington described what he perceived as the mounting crisis of American national identity. He argued that America’s “core” culture, Anglo-Protestant culture, has been dangerously eroded by decades of globalization, immigration, multiculturalism, identity politics, and programs such as afrmative action and bilingual education.1 He warned of the dire consequences of this weakened national identity: collapse and breakup of the nation; a divide between English-speaking Protestants and Spanishspeaking Others; or descent into a kind of white supremacist nationalism leading to mass expulsions and isolationism. But Huntington, urging against despair, then offered a clear solution: Americans must recognize Anglo-Protestant culture as the true and natural culture of the land and insist that all ethnoracial Others assimilate to the Anglo-Protestant model.
