The Devils We Know

"Morone's lively essays complicate the monolithic view that Americans fear government, celebrate markets, and act as individualists. Yes, they do resist government's meddling in their lives; but given their puritanical bent, they readily exhort the government to ensure that their neighbors don't drink, smoke, take drugs, or have sex with the wrong kind of person. They are also communitarians who go the extra mile for one another. Yet they are always nervous about the many outsiders banging on their democratic door--Blacks, women, immigrants. Rather than a static culture, then, Morone gives the reader a dynamic one that is constantly being remade by those who pass through that door. Morone's readers will come away with a fresh look at America's vibrant and often contentious political culture"-- "Is there an American culture? Certainly, says James Morone. Americans are fighting over it now. They have been fighting over it since the first Puritan stepped ashore. Americans hate government (no national health insurance!) and call for more of it (lock 'em up!). They prize democracy (power to the people) and scramble to restrict it (the electoral college in the 21st century?). They celebr