| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
It is often said that being an American
means sharing a commitment to a set
of values and ideals.1Writing about the
relationship of ethnicity and American
identity, the historian Philip Gleason put
it this way:
To be or to become an American, a person
did not have to be any particular national,
linguistic, religious, or ethnic background.
All he had to do was to commit himself to
the political ideology centered on the abstract
ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism.
Thus the universalist ideological
character of American nationality meant
that it was open to anyone who willed to
become an American.2
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