The American Mosaic
Preface
Daniel J. Elazar
This is a book about location. We usually think about
location as referring to spatial location only. Geographers study
and map spatial location, adding system to the structure which
humans give space. Less frequently do we think of the other two
dimension of location -- time and culture. In truth, both are
integral to location as space. It is the thesis of this book that
location in time and culture have structure no less than location
in space, that their structures can be understood to be
systematic or at least sufficiently systematic to be mapped.
This book looks at the people of the United States of America
in their changing spatial-temporal-cultural location and as a
paradigm for understanding the three dimensions of human
location. In the following pages we will discuss the systematic
structures of the three dimension of location and how they have
shaped and continue to shape the lives of the American people. In
the process we will do more than a little mapping, though the
intention of the book is not mapping per se.
Most people have no difficulty in perceiving differences in
location in space. Especially in our rapidly changing times, many
people have come to understand how location in time changes
meaningfully as well. In principle, differences in cultural
location are also becoming more easily perceived, though for
Americans, living as they do in a vast land, sharing a common
culture in which subcultures are differentiated in relatively
subtle ways, recognition of cultural location is sometimes
difficult in two ways -- first of all, understanding that there
are such differences, and second, even if achieving an
intellectual understanding that such differences exist,
understanding what they mean in real life. Thus Americans are
notoriously "American" in believing that "deep down all people
are really alike," even if they speak different languages or wear
"exotic" dress, meaning that they are really like other
Americans. This optimistic note is touching in its hopefulness,
but it has led to some drastic mistakes in American foreign
policy, especially in misassessing evil and deviousness among
others.
Why should we bother with location, especially with such a
complex understanding of it? From time immemorial people have
puzzled over causes and effects of human events. The problem of
establishing cause and effect is an extraordinarily difficult one
to which a substantial literature attests. What is clear is that
what we here refer to as location has a major impact on what
happens and why. Without suggesting that understanding location
is a solution to the problem of understanding cause and effect,
we submit that it is a necessary ingredient in trying to achieve
causal explanation. At the same time it is worth significant
study in its own right. What follows should be considered as an
introduction to and guidelines for such a study.
This book is the outgrowth of over 30 years of exploration of
the themes dealt with therein. I first formulated the basic
questions addressed in this volume and the theses that I present
in answer to them in 1954-56 while a graduate student at the
University of Chicago. Since then I have undertaken several
major projects to explore them. The first was a major study of
the workings of the American federal system in which I joined
with the late Morton Grodzins, my mentor, to explore the practice
of American federalism, past and present, which led to the
publication of The American Partnership: Federal-State
Cooperation in the Nineteenth Century United States, American
Federalism: A View from the States, The American System: A New
View of Government in the United States, and Cooperation and
Conflict: A Reader in American Federalism.
A second major project was the study of medium-sized
metropolitan areas in Illinois and other states of the
Mississippi Valley in the context of American political,
economic, social, and cultural development. I began this, the
"Cities of the Prairie" project, in 1959, at the Institute of
Government and Public Affairs of the University of Illinois. In
the first book to emerge from that project I developed and
applied the themes applied in this book. When I inaugurated the
project I promised myself that I would conduct several rounds of
studies of the selected metropolitan areas over a period of a
generation. The project is now in its 31st year and third round
of research. From it have emerged Cities of the Prairie: The
Metropolitan Frontier and American Politics, Cities of the
Prairie Revisited, The Politics of Bellville, and Building Cities
in America.
Growing out of these two projects was what became a separate
effort to explore American political culture and the three
subcultures which I identified early on in my research. The
principal statements of that thesis are found in American
Federalism: A View from the States and Cities of the Prairie.
This project, too, has led to several books including The Ecology
of American Political Culture.
Most recently, I and my colleagues at the Center for the
Study of Federalism have inaugurated a series of books on state
politics and government, cosponsored with the University of
Nebraska Press. In these volumes we are exploring the themes
presented in this book state by state.
In an enterprise of so many years, it is impossible to
properly acknowledge all the assistance I have received and
everyone from whom I have benefited. Many of them are
acknowledged in the various books that I have published on
aspects of this subject in the past. Hence I will confine my
thanks to those who were immediately involved in the gestation
and completion of this book.
As always, I must begin by thanking my colleagues and staff
at the Center for the Study of Federalism who provided the
intellectual and work environment needed to undertake the various
projects associated with this effort. I would particularly like
to mention Benjamin Schuster and John Kincaid, both originally
doctoral students of mine, who have since gone on to pursue their
own careers, for their studies of the locational and cultural
factors. Along with Dr. Kincaid, Ellis Katz, Donald Lutz and
Steven L. Schechter have been invaluable as colleagues and
partners for nearly two decades. Aaron Wildavsky and Joel Lieske
two close colleagues in the elusive pursuit of political culture,
were particularly helpful as this manuscript developed.
I am particularly grateful to the Earhart Foundation and its
leadership, David Kennedy, Antony Sullivan, and Richard Ware, for
providing the support I needed for this project. Their
friendship and assistance over the years has been of immeasurable
benefit.
Preparation of this manuscript involved the work of people
who are vital to all my projects, including Mark Ami-El of the
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Jeff Morenoff and Rina
Edelstein, my research assistants at the JCPA, and Pam Scher, my
faithful secretary there. Joe Marbach and Marian Pulaski Wolfe
at the Center for the Study of Federalism played a very important
role as always, as did Mary Duffy, her predecessor.
I would also like to thank the people at Westview Press, Dean
Birkenkamp, Executive Editor, Sally Ferguson and Jennifer Knerr
for their encouragement in this project.
Daniel J. Elazar
Estes Park, Colorado
November 1989
