INTRODUCTION

            Many aspects of American life and history have come under attack by those who feel a deep alienation against the mainstream of American society. This hostile critique has been especially intense since the 1960s, but reflects a long-term phenomenon which has been one of the main facts about the United States since as long ago as the 1820s: the "alienation of the intellectual."

            The American people are not above criticism. It would be foolish to defend them categorically with regard to everything that has happened over their long history. And yet, I am persuaded that they are not and have not been, as a people, "befouled," as the critics from the Left have long wished us to believe.

            Several issues have been most salient as part of the Left's attack. As to them, the existing literature is overwhelmingly one-sided, presenting a hostile critique. Is there "another side"?

            In the essays that I wrote for the Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies and the Conservative Review in the early 1990s, I approached each of these issues with a simple question: "What would a scholar, seeking to be thorough and objective, and yet at the same time not bringing to the subject a deep animus against the United States, think about what happened?"

            The essays here provide the results of that inquiry on six of the issues. I hope that each essay will stimulate further thought and inquiry.
 

                                                                                                                Dwight D. Murphey

                                                                                                                May 1995

 

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