What's So Great About America (27 page)

9
“Face of the Nation,”
U.S. News & World Report,
15 April 1996, 18.

10
Alan Ritter and Julia Bondanella, eds.,
Rousseau's Political Writings
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1988), 192.

11
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Emile
(New York: Basic Books, 1979), 255.

12
Charles Taylor,
The Ethics of Authenticity
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991), 29.

13
Cited by Roger Masters,
The Political Philosophy of Rousseau
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968), 212.

14
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Discourse on the Sciences and Arts,” in Roger Masters, ed.,
The First and Second Discourses
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1964), 64.

15
Rousseau,
Emile,
286.

16
Rousseau, “Discourse on the Sciences and Arts,” 51.

17
Taylor,
The Ethics of Authenticity,
27.

18
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
Confessions
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992), 1.

19
Irving Babbit,
Rousseau and Romanticism
(New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1991), 127.

20
St. Augustine,
Confessions
(New York: Penguin Books, 1961), 146.

21
“Transcendence,” the philosopher Leo Strauss reminds us, “is not a preserve of revealed religion.” See Leo Strauss, “Natural Right and the Historical Approach,” in Hilail Gildin, ed.,
An Introduction to Political Philosophy
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989), 105.

22
Charles Taylor,
Sources of the Self
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996), 16, 18, 27.

23
Clifford Orwin and Nathan Tarcov, eds., “Introduction,” in
The Legacy of Rousseau
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), xi.

24
Arthur Melzer, “Rousseau and the Modern Cult of Sincerity,” in ibid, 277.

25
Planned Parenthood v. Casey,
505 U.S. 833 (1992).

26
Babbit,
Rousseau and Romanticism,
5, 60, 63, 68, 128, 155.

27
Bork,
Slouching Towards Gomorrah,
140–53.

28
Buchanan,
The Death of the West
, 262.

1
Thucydides,
History of the Peloponnesian War,
401–5.

2
Henry Kissinger,
White House Years
(Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1979), 54–70.

3
Joe Loconte, “Rumsfeld's Just War,”
Weekly Standard,
24 December 2001.

4
Donald Brown,
Human Universals
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991).

5
Salman Rushdie, “One Thousand Days in a Balloon,” in Steve MacDonogh, ed.,
The Rushdie Letters
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), 122.

6
Sakuntala Narasimhan,
Sati: Widow Burning in India
(New York: Anchor Books, 1990).

7
Adam Smith,
The Wealth of Nations
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), Vol. I, 362–63.

8
Claude Lévi-Strauss, “Race and History,” in Leo Kuper, ed.,
Race, Science, and Society
(Paris: UNESCO Press, 1975), 116.

9
See, for example, Amy Waldman, “In Iran, an Angry Generation Longs for Jobs, More Freedom, and Power,”
New York Times,
7 December 2001.

10
See, for example, John Fetto and Rebecca Gardyn, “An All-American Melting Pot,”
American Demographics,
July 2001, 8. The survey was conducted by Maritz Marketing Research.

11
F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Great Gatsby
(New York: Scribner, 1995), 6, 189.

12
Diane McWhorter, “Terrorists Tasted Lusty Lifestyle They So Despised,”
USA Today,
26 September 2001, 11-A.

A
lthough I began research for this book several years ago, it discusses themes that have engaged me since the time I came to the United States as an exchange student from Bombay, India, in 1978. Thus I cannot even begin to enumerate all the people who have contributed to this book. But I do want to single out my wife, Dixie, with whom I discuss these issues all the time; Michael Vetti, my diligent and uncomplaining research assistant; and Bruce Schooley, my most avid and helpful reader. I am grateful to the American Enterprise Institute and to its president, Christopher DeMuth, for the happy and productive decade I spent there. I also wish to thank my new employer, the Hoover Institution, and its president, John Raisian, for providing me with a base of operations and the freedom to read, think,
and write. I am now the Rishwain Fellow at Hoover and appreciate the generosity of Robert and Karen Rishwain in supporting my current work. My thanks also go to the John M. Olin Foundation and its executive director, Jim Piereson, for vital support over the years. My agent, Rafe Sagalyn, was there for me, as always, and I have enjoyed working with my new editor at Regnery, Harry Crocker, who also happens to be an old friend. I also wish to acknowledge the advice and assistance of Sally Von Behren, T. Kenneth Cribb and the staff at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Philip Merrill, Doug and Pat Perry, Jason Pontin and the staff at
Red Herring
, Elizabeth Pungello and the W. H. Brady Foundation, Ron Robinson and the staff at the Young America's Foundation, Richard Schatz, Kenneth Simon, Mark Skousen and the staff at the Foundation for Economic Education, and Steven Wardell.

Abduh, Muhammad

al-Afghani, Jamal

Afghanistan

Africa: American ideas and; civilization of; Islamic civilization and; liberation movements and; Western civilization and

African-Americans: America and; patriotism and; racism and; slavery and

Alexander the Great

Ali, Muhammad

Allah

al Qaeda group

America: appeal of; Athens vs.; characteristics of; Christianity and; enemies of; foreign opposition to; foreign policy of; internal critique of; Islam vs.; morality and; multiculturalism and; pre-September 11 attacks and; “pursuit of happiness” and; racism in; religion and; social ethic of; superiority of; technology and;
terrorism and; uniqueness of.
See also
Western civilization

American exceptionalism

American founding: freedom and; slavery and

American Revolution

American universalism

Amin, Samir

Analects
(Confucius)

Anglicans

Annan, Kofi

anti-Americanism: Asian; French; Islamic; multiculturalism and.
See also
America

Anti-Defamation League

Aristotle

Artist Formerly Known as Prince

Asia: American foreign policy and; American ideas and; Islamic civilization and; liberation movements and; Western civilization and

Asian-Americans

assimilation

Athens

Atta, Muhammad

Attila the Hun

Augustine, Saint

authenticity, ethic of

Averroes

Avicenna

Aztecs

Babbit, Irving

Baghdad

Bandung conference

Banfield, Edward

Bauer, Gary

Bauer, Peter

Beamer, Todd

Bell, Derrick

The Bell Curve
(Herrnstein and Murray)

Belloc, Hilaire

Bellow, Saul

Benedict, Ruth

Bennett, Bill

Berlin Wall

bin Laden, Osama; Islam and; terrorism and; wealth of

Blair, Tony

Bloom, Allan

Bork, Robert

Bosnia

Bové, José

Boyle

Brideshead Revisited
(Waugh)

Brown, Donald

Buchanan, Patrick

Buddhism

Burke, Edmund

Burnham, James

Bury, J. B.

Bush, George

Cairo

Camp David

capitalism: morality and; September 11 attacks and; socialism and; as Western institution

Catholics

Cheng Ho.
See
Zheng He

Chile

China; civilization of; ethnocentrism and; invention and

Chinweizu

Chomsky, Noam

Christendom.
See
Western civilization

Christianity: America and; Islam vs.; Jerusalem and; progress and

Civil Rights Act of 1964

civil rights movements

Civil War

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
(Huntington)

Clausewitz, Karl

Clinton, Bill

CNN

Cochran, Johnnie

Cold War

colonialism: Europe and; Western civilization and

Columbus

Condit, Gary

Confessions
(Rousseau)

Confucianism

Confucius

Congressional Black Caucus

conservatism

Constitution

Copernicus

Crusades

cultural equality, multiculturalism and

Culture and Imperialism
(Said)

Cuomo, Mario

D'Souza, Dinesh: American appeal and; background of

Damascus

Dark Ages

Darwin, Charles

The Death of the West
(Buchanan)

Declaration of Independence

democracy: Plato and; as Western institution

Democratic National Convention

The De-Moralization of Society
(Himmelfarb)

Denny's

Diamond, Jared

Dickens, Charles

Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
(Rousseau)

diversity

Dornbusch, Sanford

Douglass, Frederick

Dred Scott
decision

DuBois, W. E. B.

Dukakis, Michael

Eastern Europe

“economy class syndrome,”

Education of Cyrus
(Xenophon)

Egypt

Ehrenreich, Barbara

El Sawy, Nada

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Emile
(Rousseau)

The End of History and the Last Man
(Fukuyama)

England: India and; religion and

Enlightenment

equality: Athens and; cultural; law and; terrorism and

ethic of authenticity

ethnocentrism: China and; Western civilization and

Euphrates River

Eurocentrism

Eurocentrism
(Amin)

Europe: colonialism and; Islamic civilization and; per capita income of

Fair Housing Bill

Falwell, Jerry

Family Research Council

Fanon, Frantz

al-Farabi

FBI.
See
Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

feminism

Fertile Crescent

Fish, Stanley

Fitzgerald, F. Scott

Foreman, George

Franklin, John Hope

freedom: abuses of; American founding and; language of; law and; Rousseau and; sacrifice and; slavery vs.; types of

French, anti-Americanism and

Freud, Sigmund

Friedman, Milton

Fuhrman, Mark

Fukuyama, Francis

Gandhi, Mahatma

Gates, Bill

Gatsby, Jay

Gatz, James

Gaza

Genghis Khan

Germany

Ghana

al-Ghazali

Gibson, Mel

Gingrich, Newt

Ginsberg, Allen

Glazer, Nathan

Gore, Al

government, religion and

Granada

Great Depression

The Great Gatsby
(Fitzgerald)

Great Satan.
See
America

Great Society

Greeks

Grenada

group differences, racism and

Gulf War

gunboat diplomacy

Guns, Germs, and Steel
(Diamond)

Hacker, Andrew

Haiti

Hamilton, Alexander

Havel, Vaclav

Hawaii

Hemingway, Ernest

Henry, Patrick

Herodotus

Herrnstein, Richard

Himmelfarb, Gertrude