The First New Nation: The United States in Historical and Comparative Perspective

“One of the few most important books by an American sociologist to appear in a long time. . . .An impressive and very challenging book.” —Talcott Parsons, Journal of Sociology The United States was the first major colony successfully to revolt against colonial rule. In this sense, it was the first “new nation.” Two broad themes occupy Seymour Martin Lipset’s attention here: the social conditions that make a stable democracy possible, and the extent to which the American experience was repre...