The New Americans

Rating:
Summary: Roll like a big wheel thru a Georgia cottonfield
Review: Barone writes a good book with a simple thesis: that today's immigrants will assimilate into America as well as immigrants did a century and more ago. He compares and contrasts three pairs; Irish and Blacks - Latinos and Italians - and Jews and Asians. His treatment is a straight forward rendering where he describes the old country from whence they immigrated, the crisis that caused them to uproot and come here, there means of employment once here, their family life, their religious practices, their proclivity toward crime and social disruptiveness, their distinctive traits, their educational aspirations, their impact on sports and entertainment and their political associations. Barone does all this with a facile use of statistics and an economy of verbiage.

Because he's politically from the Right Barone sees the rule of law and private property rights as the magnet attracting those who would better the lives of they and their family. This is due to American exceptionalism and its system for diffusion of power that Balint Vazsonyi describes in his book, "America's 30 Years War: Who's Winning?". It's the chance to build wealth without having the local mafia chief steal it from you. Think Taliban.

These immigrants are often the best that a country has to offer up and the first wave or two are usually the most productive both for themselves and society. Barone's contention is that the differing "habits of mind (worldview)" these people bring with them is usually diffused after two or three generations into American idealism and its capacious opportunities.

Those who view the world through a lens of class struggle and minority grievances will find fault with Barone as he doesn't engage in the typical bleeding heart dogma of Left wing savants. He in fact excoriates those who claim the "Vision of the Anointed", the title of a book by Thomas Sowell depicting the Left in all its fatuousness. Wizened followers of this debate know that the curtain came down on 9-11-01 for the Blame America crowd as it signaled the end of the 1960's New Left, and its poisoness philosophy, as a viable movement.

Barone's book is very informative and a pleasure to read. Don't try to make more of it than what it is which is sufficient in and of itself.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Every American who wants to understand the hope for our future and the destructive attitudes and policies of our elites toward integration and assimilation needs to read this book. Everyone who wants to understand the difference between Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda and America should read this book.

This is a breathtaking tour of how American weaves a pattern of achievement and opportunity and how various ethnic groups have responded and are responding to it. The heart of Barone's thesis is that America has successfully integrated and assimilated people of different backgrounds, and that there are patterns to that assimilation that are working for 21st century new Americans just as they worked for the 19th and 20th century American immigrants. Barone asserts that the modern elite's attitude toward group identity, opposition to middle class society, and assertion of racial grievances actually retards the process of assimilation. He regards most bilingual education as a political spoils system for bilingual teachers, which actually hurts the very people it is designed to help. He notes that patterns of intermarriage and upward mobility in income and education are creating assimilative patterns even as university elites seek to divide young Americans by race and teach them to focus on historic grievances rather than future opportunities.

It is impossible in a short review to do justice to the brilliance of Barone's writing, the depth of his research, or the clarity of his examples. His parallels between Irish and African Americans, Italian and Latino immigrants and Jews and Asians are profound and extraordinarily thought provoking.

Rating:
Summary: America for all...........
Review: There are mixed book reviews and I am aware of this. What I would like to write has to do with an important point Mr. Barone makes: America is an important country and we should acknowledge and respect this as Americans.

Yes, I am fully aware of the history of past discrimination, racism, inequality, and how these unfortunate factors have negatively impacted people. But, in order to move forward in transforming this nation to a greater level, we need to stop beliving in "victimology"; in believing that one is a victim. And this is not so simple and I also know that people are going to disagree and yes, disagreement is also important.

What I would like to say, respectfullly, is that we live in a great nation. We should move forward, as citizens of this great nation, strengthen our country, and believe in it.

There are many persons of different ethnic background, religious affiilations, race, language, social economic status, and belief system who have made much progress in America. There are others who can also make progress in our great country. And, yes, it may at times feel like climbing a mountain or for that matter moving one, but we live in a great country. And we have made much progress; and we have more work to do. We should love this country, strengthen our nation, and move forward in progress.