For almost 400 years America possessed a distinct culture, which bound its people tightly together.  At the heart of the culture was a public faith, best described as Anglo-Protestant in its spirit and tone, but not identical with Christianity.  Citizens communicated publicly with one another in the English language and shared numerous customs, mores, and habits. When in 1831, a twenty-five year old Frenchman, named Alexis de Tocqueville, visited America, he observed a remarkably homogeneous society.   He was  impressed by the fact that "one finds [in America] a vast multitude of people with roughly the same ideas about religion, history, science, political economy, legislation, and government."  So like-minded were Americans that Tocqueville could write that the resolution of problems between them was "almost always an easy matter." 

There are signs, for those who dare to look honestly at them, that the United States of America may be a social experiment gone awry.  Ominous stormclouds are looming large overhead and appear ready to burst into catastrophe and chaos.  The citizenry is now more profoundly divided on fundamental issues of right and wrong than at any time since the Civil War.  A host of religions as well as languages and  practices have, thanks to unrestrained immigration in concert with institutionalized multiculturalism, been imported into the country from the third world and threatens to fracture every vestige of political and social unity.  The middle class is, in addition, slowly disappearing and being supplanted by a small, privileged group of exceptionally wealthy people and a much larger group of abysmally impoverished ones. But the shakers and movers of the country, including elected officials, industrialists, educators, journalists, clergy, and other elites, continue to favor unrestrained immigration and to worship at the feet of the goddess of diversity.  Moreover, in response to the moral and religious question, "What is truth?", the prevailing answer among the preponderance of the American populace appears to be that "truth is whatever the individual thinks it is."  The philosophy known as "liberalism," by refusing to grade values, supports not only relativism, but also sets in motion a positive secularism in accordance with which the state strives to be a neutral bystander regarding "the good."  This means that any hint of the moral or religious in the political process cannot withstand a challenge to its constitutionality.  The way is thereby cleared for citizens to indulge the worst lights of their nature. 

These developments signal that American public faith and culture are in trouble.  How did all this happen?  What will be the inevitable consequences?  What, if anything, can the average citizen do to turn the situation around?  These are the concerns of a compelling new book by Dr. L. Scott Smith, entitled America Unraveling:  A Politically Incorrect Analysis of Public Faith and Culture.  Its scholarship and insight are uncompromising, and its manner of expression straightforward and hard-hitting.  The work is a "must read" for those concerned about the future of our country.