America the Unusual
In this brief and accessible book, Kingdon (political science, Univ. of Michigan) tackles several basic, important questions often left unasked by the average American: What makes the American people different from people of other nations, and how and why did we become different? Essentially, the answers lie in what we believe about ourselves and our government. Kingdon argues that the basic components of "American ideology"?individualism and equality?coupled with a deep-seated mistrust of government growing out of the experience of the earliest American immigrants created the conditions from which our government, one of limited powers, was designed. Once started down the path of limited government, Americans rarely looked to government as the solution to societal problems. Hence, Kingdon suggests the center of politics in the United States, even today, is to the right of most of the industrialized nations of Europe. While Kingdon's book presents no new research on this subject, it is a refreshing and engaging review of what constitutes our political culture and its consequences for contemporary public policy.?Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, PACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.