Reinventing the American People: Unity and Diversity Today.

As I imagine it, one afternoon at lunch or over a cup of coffee, Robert Royal and his colleagues at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., were engaged in a lively discussion about some pressing issues of the day and suddenly realized that no single volume addressed the relationship between perhaps the two hottest themes in politics and academia today: communitarianism and multiculturalism. Inspired, Royal asked an impressive group of intellectuals, academics, and journalists to explore the connection between current theories of community--which at base assume a certain kind of unity--and multiculturalism, which alternatively celebrates the differences among peoples and cultures.

The volume's premise is entirely warranted, yet despite the book's stated intentions, the connection between community and "multiculture" remains elusive. That result is an inevitable consequence of collecting essays from a variety of sources: edited volumes are often strong on individual essays, but weak on a common vision. Indeed, the book itself is an ironic reflection on the difficulties of creating a multicultural community: if the stated theme comprised a sort of community, the various participants' differing perspectives and understanding of the topics resulted in a multicultural stew--a very interesting and tasty stew, but one whose individual ingredients don't quite add up to a culinary masterpiece.

Still, Reinventing the American People does show how interesting a collection of divergent viewpoints can be, and how an unwitting internal debate forces the reader into the position of "shadow editor," in effect attempting to define the parameters of the argument. In particular, there seem to be two conceptions of multiculturalism at play. The first centers on multiculturalism as it is currently understood in academia, reflected by the rise of new disciplines such as women's studies. The second approach defines multiculturalism as the de facto ethnic and cultural diversity of America's population. Debate around this latter understanding tends to focus on the issue of immigration, specifically whether the continued influx of different ethnic groups threatens the cultural unity of America. Of course, there are interesting connections to be drawn between these two understandings of multiculturalism, but the essayists are content to treat them as separate phenomena.

The academic version of multiculturalism is put in proper perspective by many of the essayists, but most notably by Gertrude Himmelfarb, who views it as yet another in an interminable line of temporary intellectual fads. Other authors express a similar skepticism by emphasizing multiculturalism's inconsistencies. As Robert Royal points out, supporters of multicultural studies insist on two contradictory positions: first, that the white, male, Protestant class of the United States has throughout history systematically repressed minority groups, women, and homosexuals; and second, that these groups somehow, in spite of their repression, have managed to make significant contributions to the history and culture of the United States, a fact that has been ignored by the dominant culture. Either one of these propositions is worthy of debate, but they are not logically compatible. Challenging the intellectual consistency of multiculturalism in more profound ways is Harvey Mansfield, Jr. In a masterly essay, Mansfield contends that the philosophical heritage of multiculturalism rests on the very classical liberal thought against which it purports to rebel. By denying its heritage in the literature of toleration--inasmuch as this tradition was dominated by white male authors--supporters of multicultural studies are unable to defend the proposition that different cultures deserve universal respect and attention. Given the intellectual contradictions inherent in academic multiculturalism, the essayists in this volume have little difficulty or compunction dismissing it.

The second conception of multiculturalism, emphasizing the cultural diversity of the United States resulting from immigration, proves to be a more difficult subject and ultimately more interesting. Peter Skerry, in his essay "The New Politics of Immigration," is the only author who, in accordance with the stated intention of the book, explores the relationship between community and multiculturalism. Skerry recognizes that the United States has always been a multicultural society: indeed, proportional levels of immigration at the turn of the century exceeded today's rates. Previous immigrants were thought no less "unassimilable" than today's main immigrant groups of Asians and Hispanics. Though the dominant American culture treated insular Irish, Italian, and other ethnic communities with distrust, these groups melted into the larger American culture, adding the spice of their ethnic traditions to the mix, but accepting the dominant culture as their own.

The problem with assimilating today's immigrant groups is not based--as some contend--on their non-European background. Rather, Skerry points out, previous immigrant groups were drawn out of their insular communities and into the mainstream of American culture by strong mediating institutions: local political parties, churches, civic organizations, neighborhood institutions. For a multitude of economic and political reasons, these institutions have been severely weakened to the point of irrelevance today. He astutely asks whether we can assume that assimilation can succeed given the decline of these mediating institutions. Skerry is careful to distinguish between causes and effects. Unfortunately, he appears to conclude that reducing levels of immigration is the best solution, rather than attempting to strengthen those institutions that once so ably created Americans out of "any old nation that comes along," in G.K. Chesterton's words.

A few of the authors in the volume are explicitly concerned with the challenges facing America's civic institutions. George Weigel persuasively argues that America's Christian tradition has strongly undergirded its democratic character, particularly inasmuch as the Christian virtue of charity "displaces naked ambition as the motive for public service." However, a subsequent essay by Thomas C. Reeves notes that the mainline churches, which served as major sources of the civic virtue Weigel celebrates, have been in serious decline. According to Reeves, as the mainline churches have become more accommodating to multicultural demands for representation, their memberships have significantly decreased. Given the weakness of these churches, Reeves concludes that "it seems highly unlikely that our churches can contribute significantly to a much-needed sense of oneness among the American people."

Alternatively, Reeves notes that participation in new conservative churches has risen. However, a recent series of articles about fundamentalist Christians in The Wall Street Journal, raises questions about the extent to which these groups embrace democratic virtues. The Christians described demonstrate a vehement distrust and even rabid hatred of government and public institutions; they educate their children at home; they retreat from civic life to secure their personal salvation. The essayists of Reinventing the American People remind us that civic institutions can combat the worst effects of multiculturalism. Still, any reinvigoration of those institutions faces daunting, perhaps insurmountable difficulties.