Overview

"""Eliminate the pressure of immigration, and we may be headed for a caste system based on ethnic diversity and mitigated to only a negligible degree by economic differences."" --Horace Kallen, in Democracy versus the Melting Pot, 1915 Democracy versus the Melting Pot was published in The Nation magazine by Horace Kallen in 1915, at a time when the United States were receiving the largest influx of immigrants in history. The government tried to enable the assimilation of those diverse peoples into ""American"" culture through ""Americanization"" programs, but Kallen saw these programs as being mostly in the interest of Anglo-Saxon business classes and against the spirit of democracy. Kallen rejected the ""melting pot"" concept, and supported ""cultural pluralism,"" a term he coined. Democracy versus the Melting Pot also strongly influenced Randolph Bourne, another progressive writer. Just as Kallen, Bourne was also against forcing immigrants to assimilate to the dominant Anglo-Saxon culture as he described in his famous article Trans-national America in 1916. Kallen's work is relevant as ever for students of history, political scientists, and others interested in the current discussion about immigration in America."

Full Product Details

9781646790012

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

HORACE M. KALLEN (1882-1974) was a Polish-born American philosopher, who was the first Jew to teach at Princeton University. Later he lectured at Harvard, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and in 1918 became a professor at The New School in New York City as a founding member.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available