Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper argues that the United States possessed a dominant ethnic group or 'core ethnie' (Smith 1986; 1991) like most European and Asian nations. This ethnie was intimately linked to the nation's identity. This WASP (or Anglo-Protestant) ethnic group went into decline largely because it failed to continue processes of Anglo-conformity and immigration restriction which were integral to the maintenance of its hegemony. Reform originated largely within the WASP community among religious and secular liberals in the first half of the 20th c., which facilitated external challenges from subaltern groups.