Professor John Hall PHOTO: OWEN EGAN

Analyzing America:
Sturdy, but soiled

DANIEL McCABE | The way some scholars talk, you might think that the United States was on the verge of disintegrating, a victim of linguistic, racial, religious and ideological tensions that are snowballing out of control. Sociology professor John Hall doesn't have much patience for that sort of doom-saying. In his new book Is America Breaking Apart?, Hall's answer to the question raised by the work's title is a resounding no. Co-written with Boston University anthropology professor Charles Lindholm, Is America Breaking Apart? challenges the views of those who believe that the U.S. is in fragile shape. "Inside a lot of academic circles, people are talking a great deal about identity politics -- about how American society is becoming increasingly divisive. I find that [sort of talk] irritating. It's hot air. It's just not true. In most respects, the U.S. is remarkably homogenous," says Hall. He adds it is also dangerous to portray the country as hopelessly fragmented, because it distracts Americans from the one fault-line that desperately needs to be addressed -- the pervasive racism which limits the lives of millions of black Americans. The book has certainly been noticed south of the border. George Will recently wrote of it approvingly in his weekly column in Newsweek. Kirkus Reviews described the book as "a very thoughtful volume that is well worth reading;" The Washington Times lauded it as "stimulating;" and The Economist described the book as "soothing and convincing." "Books are funny things," says Hall. "I've written books that had all the signs of being successful, but weren't. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don't. You just hope for the best." While most of the reviews have been glowing, a few seem to paint Is America Breaking Apart? as a far more optimistic book than it is. The U.S. is sturdy, according to Hall and Lindholm, but it's flawed. "To say that [the book] is saying that everything is okay, well, that's not what we're saying at all," notes Hall. "We don't think the country is going to break apart. That doesn't mean it's perfect." For instance, the widely held notion in the U.S. that financial success is tightly connected to personal ability is often patently false. The ugly underside of that belief is the corresponding view that the poor are the authors of their own misfortune. Hall and Lindholm retrace American history to come up with a number of reasons why the United States is a remarkably stable place. The creation of the two-party electoral system early on in its history turned out to be a stroke of brilliance. It paved the way for smooth transitions of power and eradicated the threat of violent attempts to take over power. After all, if you lost one election, you had a reasonably good chance of winning the next time around. The seeds of religious tolerance were planted early on by the first Americans which came from various Protestant sects who, for the most part, got along peacefully with others who held different views. The bloody, turbulent Civil War was a turning point. For one thing, it was brought to a very decisive conclusion -- there haven't been any significant separatist rumblings from the South ever since. It was also a terribly painful time -- Americans are powerfully determined never to go through anything like that again. Class conflict hasn't been much of a factor in U.S. society -- compared to Europe, for instance. The creation of the American Federation of Labour in the 19th Century, a union that eschewed socialism and sought a less confrontational relationship with business, was one reason. Divisions within the labour movement, along bitter racial lines in some respects, also prevented the working class from mounting a powerful challenge to the powers that be. The bosses weren't hesitant about using brutal methods to end strikes, which also took its toll on working class solidarity. Another factor was the absorption of the workers, particularly the better-paid and more highly skilled, into the "culture of consumption." The creation of large department stores, designed to appeal to the rich and the not-so-rich alike, was a stroke of American marketing genius. As Hall and Lindholm note, "Hoping for success themselves, very few Americans have any desire to overthrow an enormously productive marketplace, which has filled palaces of consumption with the dreams that money can buy." In fact, in Hall and Lindholm's view, U.S. society actively frowns upon the class divisions that mark countries like Britain. Billionaires wear blue jeans and one of the worst insults you can hurl at an American is that he is a snob or stuck-up. Write the authors, "It is politically correct to be rich and powerful just so long as one does not make claims to be different and better." Looking at the civil rights movement, the authors conclude it was only a partial success. But the fact that it was a partial success robbed the battle of its vitality. For instance, many of the blacks who might have become leaders in the movement were able to join the ranks of the prosperous American middle class instead. The prospects for most black Americans remain daunting. Is America Breaking Apart? notes that "predominantly black ghettos have become centres of catastrophe; half the murder victims and half those arrested for murder are black, though blacks comprise only 12 percent of the population; black poverty remains intractable, and black educational performance continues to lag behind whites." Hall explains that part of the reason for the book was to focus attention on this "national sore" and away from a more general (and to his mind much less convincing) discussion of identity politics. "It's very important to get the right perception before you start making policy." What policy can America make? In the book, Hall and Lindholm lean towards an affirmative action approach, one which focuses much less on the black middle class and much more on the poor. The duo are reasonably optimistic that such bedrock American values as the importance of equal opportunity could be appealed to, to make the approach work. Hall says black Americans aren't isolated as a result of their own desires. "Black Americans' values are more American than you can possibly imagine. We're not talking about an alternative set of values." And he says other ethnic groups, Hispanics and Asians, for instance, have had a much easier time of joining the American mainstream. "Within a single generation, the out-marriage rate for Cuban-born Americans is about 50 per cent. Hispanics have the capacity to enter American society where blacks don't." The reason? "To a large extent, it is clearly discrimination." The British-born Hall says the success of the multicultural United States is unique among contemporary nations. "It's the only society in the world that has been absolutely successful at this. Ethnically diverse countries tend to fall apart. Here is a country that clearly hasn't fallen apart. Yugoslavia is gone. Czechoslovakia is gone. "The U.S. is different. People make the decision to come to the United States. They choose to be a part of the idea of America." The pervasive power of the American entertainment industry worldwide ensures that newcomers know a fair amount about the society they're joining. "They have a reasonably clear idea of what it's about." What about Canada? "Personally, I like a society that's a little more diverse than what you find in the U.S.," says Hall. "I adore Quebec. But there is no getting around the fact that Canada is a more difficult country to maintain as a result. "If Montreal ever became homogenous, it would be a great tragedy. I can see how difficult it is to make [Canada] work. But I prefer it."