num_pages: 272
description: This work challenges the thesis first formulated by de Tocqueville and later systematically developed by Louis Hartz, that American political culture is characterized by a consensus on liberal capitalist values. Ranging over three hundred years of history and drawing upon the seminal work anthropologist Mary Douglas, Richard Ellis demonstrates that American history is best understood as a contest between five rival political egalitarian community, competitive individualism, hierarchical collectivism, atomized fatalism, and autonomous hermitude.
language: English
title: American Political Cultures
titlecomplete: American Political Cultures
genres: Philosophy
ratings_count: 3
publisher: Oxford University Press