“…This is a perennial question that goes to the heart of American society and that increasingly shapes public debates about the health of our body politic. To answer it, Robert Calvert, a political scientist, has collected original essays by six distinguished scholars who are among the most influential interpreters of the American scene today.The essays included in this book are united by the effort to understand America's identity in a way that does justice to the paradoxes and pluralities of its politics. …”