Abstract: In the late 1930s, the phrase “American Way” exploded into popular use. The proliferation of the term attested to Americans’ profound sense of anxiety about the proper parameters of U.S. political culture and the basis for national unity in a threatening world. This chapter outlines the domestic and international pressures that converged to give the search for a unifying “American Way” unusual saliency. The Depression threatened longstanding power structures and called into question long-held assumptions about the stability and course of U.S. capitalism. The maturation of “new immigrant” communities, and the northward migration of southern blacks, raised questions about the terms on which ethnic, religious, and racial outsiders would be incorporated into a society long defined by elites as Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. Above all, the political triumphs of fascism and communism abroad—combined with fears that those ideologies were gaining ground in the U.S.—intensified concerns about America’s core values.

Keywords: American Way, national unity, capitalism, new immigrant, fascism, communism,