Includes bibliographical references (p. 367-410) and index

The crisis of national identity -- Identities: national and other -- Components of American identity -- Anglo-Protestant culture -- Religion and Christianity -- Emergence, triumph, erosion -- Deconstructing America: the rise of subnational identities -- Assimilation: converts, ampersands, and the erosion of citizenship -- Mexican immigration and Hispanization -- Merging America with the world -- Fault lines old and new -- Twenty-first century America: vulnerability, religion, and national identity

Professor Huntington turns his attention to our domestic cultural rifts as he examines the impact other civilizations and their values are having on our own country. America was founded by British settlers who brought with them a distinct culture including the English language, Protestant values, individualism, religious commitment, and respect for law. The waves of immigrants that later came to the United States gradually accepted these values and assimilated into America's Anglo-Protestant culture. More recently, however, national identity has been eroded by the problems of assimilating massive numbers of primarily Hispanic immigrants, bilingualism, multiculturalism, the devaluation of citizenship, and the "denationalization" of American elites. --from publisher description