Seymour Martin Lipset

The traditional problems of philosophy take on new meaning and different color in the light of each generation's unique character. It is not only the history of philosophy that must be reexamined; the same is true for our understanding of any philosophical problem or topic. Dimensions of Philosophy is dedicated to the next generation of philosophers and their students. It will present some of our most distinguished philosophers interpreting the traditional issues of philosophy for the 1990s.

Will American Jews survive their success? Or will the United States' uniquely hospitable environment lead inexorably to their assimilation and loss of cultural identity? This is the conundrum that Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab explore in their wise and learned book about the American Jewish experience. Jews, perhaps more than any ethnic or religious minority that has migrated to these shores, have benefited from the country's openness, egalitarianism and social heterogeneity. This unusually good fit, the authors argue, has as much to do with the exceptionalism of the Jewish people as with that of America. But acceptance for all ancestral groups has its downside: integration into the mainstream erodes their defining features, diluting the loyalties that sustain their members. The authors vividly illustrate this paradox as it is experienced by American Jews today - in their high rates of intermarriage, their waning observance of religious rites, their extraordinary academic and professional success, their commitment to liberalism in domestic politics, and their steadfast defense of Israel. Yet Jews view these trends with a sense of foreboding: "We feel very comfortable in America - but anti-Semitism is a serious problem"; "We would be desolate if Israel were lost - but we don't feel as close to that country as we used to"; "More of our youth are seeking some serious form of Jewish affirmation and involvement but more of them are slipping away from Jewish life." These are the contradictions tormenting American Jews as they struggle anew with the never-dying problem of Jewish continuity. A graceful and immensely readable work, Jews and the New American Scene provides a remarkable range of scholarship, anecdote, and statistical research - the clearest, most up-to-date account available of the dilemma facing American Jews in their third century of citizenship.

"Analyzes the role of right-wing extremist politics in American life from 1790 until the present ... ranging from the Anti-Masonic Party, the Know-Nothings, and the American Protective Association ... to the Ku Klux Klan, the John Birch Society, the George Wallace campaigns of recent times, and assorted proto-fascist movements"--Back cover.

Most of the essays in this volume were first published in the winter, 1968, issue of Dædalus.