One nation, after all

the long version

What does it mean to be an American today? What does it mean to be middle class? Public opinion polls tell us that the nation is deeply divided between the Right, which is religious, traditional, as well as distressed by the belief that the nation has gone seriously downhill, and the Left, which is pro-choice, pro-welfare, as well as sympathetic to multiculturalism and gay rights. After spending two years speaking with middle-class Americans of many religious and ethnic backgrounds in eight different communities around the country, leading sociologist Alan Wolfe comes to the surprising conclusion that we are in fact one nation, after all. In this work, Wolfe presents a new picture of who the typical middle-class American is, and what he or she thinks about the most important issues of our day, including religion, family, work, immigration, welfare, racism, and our ability to trust one another. What One Nation, After All shows is that Americans really are in the center. Wolfe also shows us that we have become the nation our founding fathers said we ought to be, that the greatest political experiment in the world has not only succeeded, but succeeded brilliantly. And yet our politicians have no idea what Americans think, and the media polls and social critics are consistently off the mark, raising disturbing questions about the future of our country.