American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony [Paperback]

Samuel P. Huntington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1983

This stunningly persuasive book examines the persistent, radical gap between the promise of American ideals and the performance of American politics. Samuel P. Huntington shows how Americans, throughout their history as a nation, have been united by the democratic creed of liberty, equality, and hostility to authority. At the same time he reveals how, inevitably, these ideals have been perennially frustrated through the institutions and hierarchies required to carry on the essential functions of governing a democratic society.

From this antagonism between the ideals of democracy and the realities of power have risen four great political upheavals in American history. Every third generation, Huntington argues, Americans have tried to reconstruct their institutions to make them more truly reflect deeply rooted national ideals. Moving from the clenched fists and mass demonstrations of the 1960s, to the moral outrage of the Progressive and Jacksonian Eras, back to the creative ideological fervor of the American Revolution, he incisively analyzes the dissenters' objectives. All, he pungently writes, sought to remove the fundamental disharmony between the reality of government in America and the ideals on which the American nation was founded.

Huntington predicts that the tension between ideals and institutions is likely to increase in this country in the future. And he reminds us that the fate of liberty and democracy abroad is intrinsically linked to the strength of our power in world affairs.

This brilliant and controversial analysis deserves to rank alongside the works of Tocqueville, Bryce, and Hofstadter and will become a classic commentary on the meaning of America.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Professor Huntington has brilliantly set forth the persisting conflict between American ideals and American institutions which can energize our society or paralyze it, depending on whether it is understood for what it is. A liberating insight; a brilliant book.
--Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Samuel Huntington is not only a preeminent scholar of modern governing institutions and their underlying ideas, democratic and otherwise; he has also often served as adviser to policymakers in several nations, including our own. His book should be read by everyone who is concerned with the capacity of our institutions to meet the fearful challenges they now face.
--Austin Ranney, American Enterprise Institute

This controversial book will spark considerable debate about American values, the origins and meaning of reform, and foreign policy. It will influence current discussions of the United States, and it will change the way we think about American political and social behavior.
--Seymour Martin Lipset, Stanford University

Review

Professor Huntington has brilliantly set forth the persisting conflict between American ideals and American institutions which can energize our society or paralyze it, depending on whether it is understood for what it is. A liberating insight; a brilliant book.
--Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (August 15, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674030214
• ISBN-13: 978-0674030213
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Samuel P. Huntington (1927-2008) was the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard and former chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. He authored and edited more than dozen books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite books dealing with US politics...., September 26, 2000

By 

J. Michael Showalter (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony (Paperback)

In this book, Samuel Huntington, who, whether one likes him or hates him has been one of the most commented upon political scientists of the last generation takes on American politics: their realities versus their illusions, promise versus practicalities. And on the whole, he is successful at raising issues: although the book is almost twenty years old, it has managed to stay surprisingly current and valid and still remains though provoking.

I'd reccomend this book to anyone interested in US politics or current affairs but especially to people on the liberal/Huntington-hating typically side of the spectrum, because after reading this book, one might become much more pro- this author. It's striking at times how much he seems like Howard Zinn, etc. in this particular book.....

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars incomparable study of American Politics, December 10, 2010

By 

Frank Bunyard (Elk Grove, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony (Paperback)

This is an enduring and classic study of American politics. Professor Samuel Huntington (April 18, 1927 - December 24, 2008) had a gift for formulating concepts that clarify political history, and his Curriculum Vitae is replete with distinguished honors. He was a lifetime Political Science professor at Harvard, co-founder of Foreign Affairs, and had hands-on experience as a government advisor in numerous capacities over a period of many years.

Huntington held no "pendulum" theory of American politics. He does not expound the simplistic idea that political swings to the right will be balanced by swings to the left so that American politics will stabilize in the long run. There is, instead, a constant tension in American political life between the "ideal" and the "real." The ideal of egalitarian populism must co-exist with the real hierarchies necessary to manage systems of power in the business world as well in the national and international world.

A central theme that runs throughout this study is Huntington`s notion of "The American Creed." He avers that since the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries there has been a cultural consensus that may be described as "The American Creed:" "liberty, equality, individualism, democracy, and the rule of law under a constitution." In this rigorous study Huntington shows how the Founding Fathers accepted the conflict inherent in human nature, and built their system on it.

This review will not attempt to convey the many, many insights that Huntington brings to light in this highly readable analysis. Of note is his description of what happens when the "ideal" clashes with the hierarchies of the "real," and America goes through a period of "Creedal Passion." The bulk of the book is given over to an exposition of the history of such periods in America, what they mean, and how they are resolved within the dynamic of the American Creed.

In apt conclusion, Professor Huntington writes: "critics say that America is a lie because its reality falls so far short of its ideals. They are wrong. America is not a lie; it is a disappointment. But it can be a disappointment only because it is also a hope."

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The truth about american politics, April 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony (Paperback)

In his work American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony, Samuel Huntington shows the existence of a gap between the political ideal and the political reality in American politics. The scope the gap covers is, that a broad consensus exists in the United States on basic political values and beliefs. There also exists a changing intensity of these basic ideals, which varies from time to time, and from group to group. Huntington examines various paradigms within the political system, and focuses of the pros and cons of the "American Creed." Although the book was originally published in 1981, it is still relevant and thought provoking in today's political climate. A solid read, and highly recommended for those interested in political science or political culture.