The Disuniting of America: Reflections of a Multicultural Society by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr

In his book, The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society, the author, previous presidential advisor, Harvard professor, and Pulitzer Prize winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. asserts that our world has entered what he calls a "dangerous era of ethnic and racial animosity". He portends that this renewed multiculturalism in the United States has the potential to tear apart our nation. He further submits that America, with its unique history of successful assimilation of so many cultures into one united body, should provide the example for the rest of the world as to how to hold ethnically diverse populations together.

Mr. Schlesinger believes that "ethnicity is the cause of the breaking of nations," citing as examples racial conflicts in countries as diverse as the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, many African and Southeast Asian countries, and even parts of Western Europe and Canada. He notes that these nations have been unable to successfully unify their heterogeneous populations because they have failed to inspire a sense of national identity and thus provide a compelling reason to integrate. America, on the contrary, has been able to do so as its immigrants, while intentionally casting off, in the words of Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, "ancient prejudices and manners", chose to become part of the "new American race". Drawing upon the observations of De Tocqueville, Bryce, and Myrdal before him, Schlesinger submits that democracy, with its self-government and inherent encouragement for civic participation, and the ideals professed within the American credo of dignity, equality and the inalienable rights to freedom, justice and opportunity all contribute to the drawing of the divergent masses into the "smelting pot".