Includes bibliographical references and index.

pt. I. The issues of identity -- 1. The crisis of national identity -- Salience : are the flags still there? -- Substance : who are we? -- The global identity crisis -- Prospects for American identity -- 2. Identities : national and other -- The concept of identity -- Others and enemies -- Sources of identity -- The false dichotomy -- pt. II. American identity -- 3. Components of American identity -- Change, continuity, and partial truths -- Settlers before immigrants -- More than the creed -- "No attachment to place" -- Race and ethnicity -- 4. Anglo-Protestant culture -- The cultural core -- "The dissidence of dissent" -- The American creed -- Individualism and the work ethic -- Moralism and the reform ethic -- 5. Religion and Christianity -- God, the cross, and America -- A religious people -- Protestant America and Catholicism -- A Christian people -- Civil religion -- 6. Emergence, triumph, erosion -- The fragility of nations -- Creating an American identity -- National vs. other identities -- Nation and patriotism triumphant -- Fading nationalism -- pt. III. Challenges to American identity -- 7. Deconstructing America : the rise of subnational identities -- The deconstructionist movement -- The challenge to the creed -- The challenge to English -- The challenge to the core culture -- 8. Assimilation : converts, ampersands, and the erosion of citizenship -- Immigration with or without assimilation -- Assimilation : still a success? -- Sources of assimilation -- The immigrants -- The immigration process -- American society : Americanization is un-American -- Ampersands and dual citizenship -- Citizens and noncitizens -- Alternatives to Americanization -- 9. Mexican immigration and Hispanization -- The Mexican/Hispanic challenge -- Why Mexican immigration differs -- How Mexican assimilation lags -- Individual assimilation and enclave consolidation -- The Hispanization of Miami -- The Hispanization of the Southwest -- 10. Merging America with the world -- The changing environment -- The search for an enemy -- Dead souls : the denationalization of elites -- The patriotic public -- Diasporas, foreign governments, and American politics -- pt. IV. Renewing American identity -- 11. Fault lines old and new -- The shaping trends -- The ending of ethnicity -- Race : constant, blurring, fading -- White nativism -- Bifurcation : two languages and two cultures? -- Unrepresentative democracy : elites vs. the public -- 12. Twenty-first century America : vulnerability, religion, and national identity -- The creed in an age of vulnerability -- Americans turn to religion -- The global resurgence of religion -- Militant Islam vs. America -- America in the world : cosmopolitan, imperial, and/or national?

America was founded by settlers who brought with them a distinct culture including the English language, Protestant values, individualism, religious commitment, and respect for law. The waves of later immigrants came 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 immigrants, bilingualism, multiculturalism, the devaluation of citizenship, and the "denationalization" of American �elites. September 11 brought a revival of American patriotism, but already there are signs that this is fading. This book shows the need for us to reassert the core values that make us Americans.--From publisher description.