Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: AMERICANIZATION ITS MEANING AND FUNCTION OUT of the evils of ancient ethnic nationalism has grown a new consciousness. Out of the the consciousness of kind born of blood bonds between races has come a consciousness of kind based upon well defined community of interests. The new democracy is taking root in the foundation of modern society and is abandoning the myth of race superiority which has for so many centuries been the touchstone of race antagonism, class privilege and economic exploitation. Out of old hates and jealousies and self-seeking trading in the destinies of peoples, so common under the influences of imperialistic ambition comes a new watchword, a new slogan—Democracy. Misconstrued, misunderstood and even misguided democracy is challenging not only our sincerity, our intelligence, our aspirations, our ideals, but its own very existence. In the near east, democracy may merely be turning the odds in favor of a new class and laying foundations for a new struggle. In America, the most stable of ' the democracies of the world, we may so eagerly and rapidly integrate our national life as to render democracy a lifeless, stagnant, cumbersome machine whose existence breeds its own destruction. The Americanization movement which has sprung into being not from any desire to develop democracy at home, but rather as an effort for national integration that would strengthen our hands in our effort to safeguard democracy abroad, is pregnant with clangers that threaten the very ideals upon which theUnited States built its foundation; while at the same time it opens up new vistas for the contemplation of an internationalism that would guarantee the peace of the world through the creation of a dynamic and social, rather than political or racial nationalism at home. I ha...