The creed’s key elements-the English language, Christianity, religious commitment, English concepts of the rule of law, the responsibility of rulers, and the rights of individuals-he said were derived from the "distinct Anglo-Protestant culture of the founding settlers of America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries."Ĭritics who branded the book as a work of undisguised nativism missed an essential point. He wrote in that book of the "American creed" and of its erosion among the elites. Who Are We? had the signature of this great scholar-the bold, sweeping assertions sustained by exacting details and the engagement with the issues of the time. "As a patriot, I am deeply concerned about the unity and strength of my country as a society based on liberty, equality, law, and individual rights." Huntington lived the life of his choice, neither seeking controversies nor ducking them. "This book is shaped by my own identities as a patriot and a scholar," he wrote. He was a man of diffidence and reserve, yet he was always caught up in the political storms of recent decades. It was like that with the celebrated Harvard political scientist, who died in December at eighty-one. The last of Samuel Huntington’s books- Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity, published five years ago-may have been his most passionate work.
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