American Political Cultures [Paperback]

This work challenges the thesis first formulated by de Tocqueville and later systematically developed by Louis Hartz, that American political culture is characterized by a consensus on liberal capitalist values. Ranging over three hundred years of history and drawing upon the seminal work anthropologist Mary Douglas, Richard Ellis demonstrates that American history is best understood as a contest between five rival political cultures: egalitarian community, competitive individualism, hierarchical collectivism, atomized fatalism, and autonomous hermitude.

A useful and clear map of a road well traveled by those who have tried to come to terms with the complexity of American political life. --American Political Science Review

A valuable critical survey of the latest scholarship on the history of America's troublesome political culture. --American Historical Review

American Political Culturesis a thoughtful and intellectually ambitious reading of our past. --Contemporary Sociology