- Huntington, Samuel P. Who Are We? New York: Simon &
Schuster, 2004. ISBN 0-684-87053-3.
- The author, whose 1996 The Clash of Civilisations
anticipated the conflicts of the early 21st century, here turns his
attention inward toward the national identity of his own society.
Huntington (who is, justifiably, accorded such respect by his
colleagues that you might think his full name is “Eminent Scholar
Samuel P. Huntington”) has written a book few others could have gotten
away with without being villified in academia. His scholarship,
lack of partisan agenda, thoroughness, and meticulous documentation
make his argument here, that the United States were founded as what
he calls an “Anglo-Protestant” culture by their overwhelmingly
English Protestant settlers, difficult to refute. In his view,
the U.S. were not a “melting pot” of immigrants, but rather a nation
where successive waves of immigrants accepted and were assimilated into
the pre-existing Anglo-Protestant culture, regardless of, and without
renouncing, their ethnic origin and religion. The essentials of this
culture—individualism, the work ethic, the English language, English
common law, high moral standards, and individual responsibility—are
not universals but were what immigrants had to buy into in order to
“make it in America”. In fact, as Huntington points out, in the
great waves of immigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries,
many of those who came to America were self-selected for those
qualities before they boarded the boat. All of this has changed, he
argues, with the mass immigration which began in the 1960s. For the
first time, a large percentage of immigrants share a common language
(Spanish) and hail from a common culture (Mexico), with which it is
easy to retain contact. At the same time, U.S. national identity
has been eroded among the elite (but not the population as a whole)
in favour of transnational (U.N., multinational corporation, NGO) and
subnational (race, gender) identities. So wise is Huntington that I
found myself exclaiming every few pages at some throw-away insight
I'd never otherwise have had, such as that most of the examples
offered up of successful multi-cultural societies (Belgium, Canada,
Switzerland) owe their stability to fear of powerful neighbours
(p. 159). This book is long on analysis but almost devoid of
policy prescriptions. Fair enough: the list of viable options with
any probability of being implemented may well be the null set, but
even so, it's worthwhile knowing what's coming. While the focus of
this book is almost entirely on the U.S., Europeans whose countries
are admitting large numbers of difficult to assimilate immigrants
will find much to ponder here. One stylistic point—Huntington
is as fond of enumerations as even the most fanatic of the French
encyclopédistes: on page 27 he indulges in
one with forty-eight items and two levels of hierarchy!
The enumerations form kind of a basso continuo
to the main text.
September 2004 