On Mead on American National Character

Abstract

Mead’s (1930/2001) essay on national character must be assessed in several ways. First, its reliance on evidence from intellectuals, without carefully checking for representativeness and resonance, is questionable by today’s scholarly standards; and key omissions, such as race, in the reliance on essentially middle-class standards are a serious weakness as well. Mead’s assumptions about social homogeneity and about key continuities from the past, as in the area of capitalist commercialism, are overdone. But three aspects of Mead’s presentation do deserve exploration in national character terms: American hesitancy about formal culture and highbrow education; American attitudes to the state; and the national propensity to religious moralism. Finally, however, current changes, such as the apparent decline in political civility and voluntary associations, raise inevitable questions about whether the national character, to the extent it exists, is holding still.