Special Providence_ American Foreign Policy and How It Changed World - Walter Russell Mead

228 SPECIALPROVIDENCE

identificationhavespreadbeyondtheiroriginalethniclimits. Inthe
1920Sandthe1930s,thehighland,bordertraditioninAmericanlife
waswidelyseentobedyingout,ethnically,culturally,andpolitically.
Partofthiswasduetotheeconomicanddemographiccollapseofthetra-
ditionalhomeofJacksonianAmerica,thefamilyfarm.Atthesametime,
massimmigrationfromeasternandsouthernEuropehadtiltedtheeth-
nicbalanceoftheAmericanpopulationeverfartherfromitscolonial
mix.NewEnglandYankeeswerea vanishingspecies,limitedtothehills
ofNewHampshireandVermont, whilethecitiesandplainsofCon-
necticut,Massachusetts,andRhodeIslandfilledwithIrishmen,Italians,
Portuguese,and Greeks.The great cities oftheUnited Stateswere
increasinglypeopledbyCatholics,membersoftheOrthodoxchurches,
andJews,allprofessinginonewayoranothercommunitariansocialval-
uesverymuchatoddswiththeindividualismoftraditionalAnglo-Saxon
andAnglo-Celticculture.
AsHiramW.Evans,thesurprisinglyarticulateimperialwizardof
theKuKluxKlan,wrotein1926,theold-stockAmericanofhistime
hadbecome"astrangerinlargepartsofthelandhisfathersgavehim.
Moreover,heis a mostunwelcomestranger,onemuchspitupon,andone
towhomeventherighttohavehisownopinionsandtoworkforhisown
interestsisnowdeniedwithjeersandrevilings.'WemustAmericanize
theAmericans,'a distinguishedimmigrantsaidrecently."I5
Protestantismitselfwaslosingitsedge.Themodernistcritiqueofthe
Biblefound acceptance inonemainlinedenominationafteranother;
Episcopal,Presbyterian,Methodist,andLutheranseminariesaccepted
critical,post-DarwinianreadingsofScripture;self-describedfundamen-
talistsfoughta slowbut,apparently,losingrearguardactionagainstthe
modernistforces.ThenewmainlineProtestantismwasa tolerant,evena
namby-pambyreligion;thewealthiestandmostinfluentialProtestant
familiesseemedtodriftfromorthodoxyintoevermoreetherealandulti-
matelyeverfainterreligiousideasandconvictions.
Theoldnativistspirit,anti-immigrant,anti-modernart,andappar-
entlyanti-twentiethcentury,stillhadsomebite-KKKcrossesflamed
across theMidwestas wellastheSouthduringthe1920s-butitall
lookedlikethedeaththroesofanoutdatedworldview.Thereweren't
manymourners;muchofH.1.Mencken'scareerwasbasedonexposing
andmockingthelimitationsofwhatwearecallingJacksonianAmerica.
Most progressive, right-thinking American intellectuals in mid-
centurybelievedthatthefutureofAmericanpopulismlayina social