How the American got His CharacterThe American People: A Study in National Character. Geoffrey Gorer

Abstract

MR. GORER'S book' is being roundly critiI~icized by experts his own field for its impressionism, lack of documentation, and inconsistencies interpretation. He is perhaps vulnerable to such criticism. It is curious, however, that the experts have not really scrutinized Mr. Gorer's explanation of American character. Since I believe this explanation is quite the style of contemporary social science, I should like to discuss it seriously an example of the recent attempts to elevate the notion of national character from the realm of folklore into science. Americans think that they make their own character, individual and national. Gorer thinks that it is made by their peculiar family pattern and by the and values which support that pattern. He is here applying one of the basic assumptions which some of his anthropological colleagues have been using the interpretation of primitive cultures, namely, that in societies where the raising of children is patterned and consistent, detailed scientific investigation has always shown a clear and significant correspondence between the vicissitudes undergone by the young child and the most striking shared aspects of the adult character and the form and emphasis of the main institutions (pp. 73-74). But he himself asks, What becomes of this theory if it is only by chance that two Americans have been brought up the same way? In view of the great variety and rapid changes the proper way to bring up children, he might well ask this question. His solution to the difficulty consists finding important regularities which are as determining the formation of adult character the patterned practices are other societies.