Book Review:
In his book, famous sociologist Robert Wuthnow attempts to analyze American myths – the stories we tell ourselves about what is moral and immoral, what the American dream is and how to achieve it, about diverse American nation and how we appreciate and praise this diversity. Due to these stories, the way of how we perceive ourselves is quite biased. Another part of the story that Wuthnow tells, relates to the ways we, as a society, perceive these stories, interpret and understand them. As we fail to examine the deep meaning of these myths, we cannot see that sometimes they are invalid and false. Wuthnow argues that examination of these narratives will help us to become a better nation.
In order to achieve his goal and examine American myths, the author interviews recent immigrants from the Near East, precisely, the elite, who achieved success. However, Wuthnow highlights that these people had certain advantages, such as education and capital. Thanks to these advantages, they are more privileged than other immigrants who have to overcome a lot of difficulties and to work at low-paid jobs in order to bring home the groceries. Nevertheless, even those immigrants who have succeeded in the States, experience difficulties of social and cultural character. Certainly, they appreciate the chance to earn money and the fact that their previous life, for example, the social status, does not matter. It is not the baggage that predicts their future accomplishments in the USA. Moreover, the fact that pluralism, as in religion, so in culture and traditions, is valued in America makes them feel more freedom and safety. However, they also point out the rootlessness they feel in the States, detachment from community, and blame overemphasized individuality for it. Human relations lose meaning in the age of consumerism, and attachments to family, to community seem to be outdated.
The problems that immigrants emphasize appear to have a deeper meaning to Wuthnow. He believes that narratives that praise individuality should be transformed because they are false. Basically, his argument is “no man is an island”. Wuthnow claims that no one exists on his own, every person is “situated within communities and other social arrangements, such as the workplace, families, ethnic groups, and nations. “ (p. 54) it is not merely a geographical location, according to the author, an individual is morally committed to his community. One may argue that these constraints are only haphazard; after all, this commitment results from the simple fact of his birth in this location, instead of the other. But the author states that autonomy and good will of the free individual, his awareness of all the social capital and cultural resources he employs, are key factors that attribute to this commitment. For Wuthnow, this means to be an “embedded self” who lives into multi-layered community and morally chooses the layers which he or she will contribute to.
Another myth that Wuthnow discusses, is rooted into American consciousness is the one of hard work leading to success. This narrative has both positive and negative sides. First of all, if we believe in significance of hard work to achieve success, it means that once we succeed, we, as individuals and as society, believe, that this success is well deserved. We do not seriously consider a factor of luck as a determinant of success. Neither the role of background, of the social status of family, the economic conditions is taken into consideration. However, as interviews with immigrants make clear, this narrative is dangerous, as it says nothing about the cases when hard work has not led to success. When however hard one works, it is possible he will never succeed because other random factors that contribute to the result are not at play. As Wuthnow notes, “stories about self-made men and women fit well with how we believe, and how we want to believe, the world works.” (p. 119)
Another issue, which the author is focused on, concerns the privatization of the religion. American religious life is very diverse and greets pluralism. No religion, congregation, or denomination is privileges on expanse of the others. Egalitarianism is comprehensive. However, the fact that religion is supposed to be a private matter causes one problem: our perception about what is good or bad, moral or immoral, also becomes a subject of private opinion. As a result, people do not participate in the political life of the country to ensure the morality of the political course. Charisma becomes a key determinant of success in politics, not the principles or values. In these conditions, the most mobilized interest groups in politics are those believers who consider their own religion to be the only true one.
Wuthnow opposes the assimilation as a proper way to treat newcomers. It looks like he is a proponent of “the salad bowl” metaphor of the American society rather than “the melting pot”. However, as a matter of fact, Americans are often inconsistent when it comes to preserving cultural and ethnic traditions. They follow these traditions only if it is convenient. So, in this case, “symbolic ethnicity” takes place that gives birth to another problem. As Wuthnow puts it, “symbolic ethnicity reinforces cultural stereotypes without resulting in the sustained interethnic dialogue that pluralism requires”. (p. 184)
Even though I liked the book and found a lot of interesting arguments and narratives, there are some issues that, in my opinion, remain unclear or were not thoroughly thought through. Wuthnow argues that collective myths play a significant role in our lives and should be examined on the deeper level and reflected upon, as they are the assumptions that “govern our lives”. (p.3) However, speaking about venues for this “reflective democracy”, he merely recognizes any venue. How the reflective democracy is to be put into practice, stays undeclared.
Another point that I disagree with, is the issue of immigrants as one group. It is hard to think of people of different social, cultural, religious, economic, educational backgrounds as a one single group and not to distinguish other groups inside the one big group of immigrants. As their background differs, so do their methods of arrival and plans. Some arrive illegally, work at low-paid jobs and have low probability of success. Some arrive legally, well-educated, aware of American values and lifestyle, find a job with high salary and become members of American society, fully enjoying rights and freedoms. They have different fate and chances to succeed and should not be considered as one faceless group of recent immigrants.
Overall, instead of above mentioned criticism, I found this book to be a great guide in the issue of American identity. Observations of the author on how this identity is shaped and how narratives we tell and share, give a concrete form to our perceptions and attitudes towards others and ourselves, are invaluable source and can be employed in order to explore this topic further.
Work Cited:
Wuthnow, Robert. American Mythos: Why Our Best Efforts to Be a Better Nation Fall Short. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. Print.
