One Nation, After All : What Americans Really Think About God, Country, Family, Racism, Welfare, Immigration, Homosexuality, Work, The Right, The Left and Each Other

by Alan Wolfe

Concluding that all cultural divides are exaggerated, this monumental critique of American culture finds a remarkable uniformity of opinion among middle class Americans on a wide variety of supposedly divisive issues. Reprint.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1998

About the author

Alan Wolfe is professor of political science and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. The author and editor of more than twenty books, he is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Harper's, and the Atlantic. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Joelle Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in the mid - 90's, it was interesting to see how things have changed, and stayed the same. At the end, he applies the principles of Middle Class Morality to politics, and in that sense, nothing has changed. He made the point that the left argues for complete personal liberty, but yet economic oversight. These principles cannot be separated: you have to have the same amount of freedom in both. (This is something the conservative camp also struggles with, though at the other end.)

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the dubious data and suspect results, this is an interesting read. It will give you something to think about, even if that something is "this guy is a douchebag!"

[Frederick Bingham · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a sociological study of moral values of middle class Americans. The author interviewed hundreds of people from suburbs in Massachusetts, San Diego CA and Oklahoma. It discusses their attitudes towards abortion, racism, immigration, welfare, politics, etc. It was a little too technical for my taste.

[thad.miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of interviews with middle-class Americans. Wolfe gives the reader a penetrating (and relatively unbiased) look into the moral life of Americans and what they think about key issues of the day.