In his One Nation Divisible, Richard Polenberg exposes the United States as a nation which continues to be divided along the lines of class, race, and ethnic identity, despite the long- standing myth that the United States is a melting pot which assimilates all equally. He demonstrates that the greater political rights and economic benefits enjoyed by the majority of Americans today are not expressions of government benevolence, but rather the result of enduring political struggle. In the end, the government has done little, and perhaps should do little, toward promoting a nation "indivisible."
The national government has actively promoted and enforced economic and social legislation to influence class relations in the U.S., but the long-term effects of such policies have been minimal. Despite Kennedy's assault on poverty in 1963, more than three decades later, poverty still poses a national threat to America. Comprehensive, across-the-board governmental programs did not work in the mid-1960s, and their legacy is a nation still divided by poverty, class, and racial distinctions.
In efforts toward affirmative action, in 1969, the Census Bureau did something it had never done before--it asked Americans to identify themselves by ethnic origin. Self-identification replaced inference as a means of distinguishing racial or ethnic groups. Concurrently, however, governmental attempts at affirmative action went hand-in-hand with governmental attempts at watering down, or subverting, such legislation. Polenberg maintains that federal policies designed to guarantee fair employment practices underwent a transmutation in the area of education. The point of departure was a clause affixed to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII): "Nothing contained in this title shall be interpreted to require any employer . . . to grant preferential treatment to any individual or to any group . . . on account of an imbalance which may exist" (240...