Abstract: This chapter gives a brief overview of the book’s argument, beginning with the premise that America’s mid-century consensus can best be understood, not as a “natural” development, but as a political project. From the mid-1930s through the early 1960s, efforts to define a unifying “American Way” often reflected struggles over three key issues: the shape and place of capitalism in American life; the place of ethnic, religious and racial outsiders in a nation long defined as white and Protestant; and the precise nature of America’s external foe. Moreover, while some Americans used the language of consensus to promote civility across class, racial, ethnic and religious lines, others put equality at the center of their consensual visions. This book also suggests that the politics of consensus helps explain two other key shifts in U.S. political culture during the mid-20^th century: the movement from class-based concerns to a preoccupation with pluralism and individual rights, and the emergence of the notion that the U.S. was a Judeo-Christian or broadly “God-fearing” nation.

Keywords: consensus, American Way, civility, pluralism, individual rights, Judeo-Christian,