REVIEWSrnSomething Is Missingrnby Paul Gottfriedrn”If anyone wish to migrate to another village, and if one or more who live in that village do notrnwish to receive him, if there he only one who objects he shall not move there.”rn-The Salic Law, c. 490rnThe New Americans:rnHow the Melting Pot Can Work Againrnhy Michael BamnernWashington, D.C: Regnen’;rn33H pp.. $27.95rnI n this commentary on the Americanrnexperiment, Micliael Barone declaresrnthat the United States has been e<)Kingrninto a nuiUicidtural socieh’ for a ccnturrnor more. I he mass immigrahon of Hispanicsrnand of other ‘Ihird World popnlationsrnthat is now taking place is a reenaetmentrnof the tidal \ae that reached usrnfrom heland and f’.astern and SouthernrnKuropc in the late 19th and early ZOtlirncenturies. While latter-dav immigrantsrnand our isible minorihes are confrontedrnh- elites that hae come “to doubt tliernfundamental goodness and decenc ofrntlic socieh’ the nonetheless felt entitledrnto lead,” Barone is o]5tiuristic about thernprospects for integrahng die “new Auiericans”rninto some kind of national mainstream.rnFrom his perspecti’e, “strikingrnparallels” exist between toda’s hvphcnatcdrn.Americans and some of the older settlers.rnBlacks are follow ing the paths trodrnb the Irish-Americans seeral generationsrnago: going into politics, the policernlorce, and ciil serice as a wa’ of raisingrnthcmsches socioeconomicalK’. Asiansrnare behaing like European Jewish im-rnPaul Gottfried is a professor ofrnhumanities at Ehzahethtown Collegernin Klizahethtomi, Pennsylvania, andrnthe author, most recently, of MterrnLiberalism: Mass ]^emocrac in thernMauagcrial State {Princeton).rnmigrants by pracHcing entrepreneurshiprnand competing for academic and professionalrnsuccess. Meanwhile. Mexican-rn.mericans are following the example ofrnthe earlier immigrants from Southernrnhal- b- maintaining close familial andrnconunimal ties and using Hiem as assetsrnto advance individuallwrn’i’o be fair, Barone does pcrccie problemsrnwith the reenactment scenario hernoffers. Some of the behaioral patternsrndeveloping among immigrants arc notrnentirely to his liking; and, like I homasrnSowell in Ethnic America, he complainsrnabout the shared attitude he obseresrnamong the Irish in Hie past and the blacksrnof todaw who depend on expanding go-rnernnrcut to better thcmscKcs socialh’.rnE,ven urban jews, Baroue’s hiorite Americanrnsuccess story, come across in thisrnbook as being deepK’ alienated from thernsurrounding C-hristian socict. Baronernportras (perhaps in order to guard his leftrnflank) an antedihnian WASP Americarnthat recked with prejudice; this unpleasantrnsocieh, which limped along uuhl thern1960’s, helped “set Jews apart” bv practicingrndiscrimination against them. Still,rnBarone credits the WASP elite with Inningrnresponded to immigration by callingrnfor Amerieani/ahon and eschewing thernuah’ist bigotr- that might have led to immigrationrnrestriction. Citing immigrationrnadvocate John Miller. Barone praisesrnthe wisdom of earK’ 2()tli-ccntur “elite”rnpresidents who refused to restrict immigration.rn”Americanization, thev felt, wasrndie appropriate solution, and the sawrnthe process as a mutualK’ beneficial one.”rnI here are problems with these arguments.rnIf WASP America, in Barone’s account,rnwas a place where “ferocious big-rn<)tr ‘ was unleashed on immigrants andrnwhere European Jews “found a countryrnwhere their foith carried civic disabilitiesrnbut where it made them objects of prejudicernand discrimination,” wh- did thernsame country hesitate to restrict immigrationi’rnIn fact, it did restrict immigrationrnseeral times in tlie 1920’s, acts thatrnmight be ‘iewed from Barone’s perspcetirnc as aberrations caused b- nah’ist outburstsrn—though the restrichons were supportedrnby recent iuiuiigrants and SamuelrnGompers’ Amcricau Federation of Labor.rnAnd despite his complaints againstrnWASP bigotr, Barone rejDeatedk insistsrnthat “we’ve been here before” and thatrnwe are “forgetting our hi.story” when wernimagine that “America suddenK- and forrnthe first time has become a mulhenlturalrnnation.”rnPart of the reason for Barone’s insistencernthat the ancien regime created arnmulticultural socieh is that he confusesrn”multicultural” with “multiethnic.” Multi-rnNOVEMBEK 2001/25rnrnrn