As I have shown throughout this website, the turn to “cultural history” or “multiculturalism” marked a sea change in the writing of American history. But few have traced the intellectual history of multiculturalism. I attribute this to an upper-class “moderate” response to movements from below. Here are a few of the blogs I have written that trace this widespread social pedagogy to its origins in the reaction of German Romantics to the “mechanical materialists” of the earlier 18th century French Enlightenment, though tribalism (ethnic ties) has a long history in human history.
https://clarespark.com/2019/01/23/are-we-already-fascist/?
https://clarespark.com/2010/07/04/pacifica-radio-and-the-progressive-movement/
https://clarespark.com/2009/07/04/unfinished-revolutions-and-contested-notions-of-identity/
https://clarespark.com/2009/10/31/the-offing-of-martin-luther-king-jr-and-ralph-bunche/
https://clarespark.com/2009/09/06/the-hebraic-american-landscape-sublime-or-despotic/ (quotes Herman Melville’s White-Jacket)
https://clarespark.com/2010/04/08/racism-modernity-modernism/.
https://clarespark.com/2010/07/18/white-elite-enabling-of-black-power/
https://clarespark.com/2010/07/20/german-romantic-predecessors-to-multiculturalism/
https://clarespark.com/2010/10/18/the-dialectic-of-multiculturalism-helvetius-herder-fichte/.
https://clarespark.com/2010/04/12/multiculturalismethnopluralism-in-the-mid-20th-century/.
https://clarespark.com/2010/05/13/the-new-gay-flappers/
https://clarespark.com/2010/09/23/woodrow-wilsons-internationalism-vs-obamas/
https://clarespark.com/2011/03/06/groupiness/.
https://clarespark.com/2011/09/08/getting-down-with-tom-wolfe/.
https://clarespark.com/2011/03/26/race-class-and-gender/.
https://clarespark.com/2011/02/11/undoing-multiculturalism/
https://clarespark.com/2011/12/15/gingrich-and-the-socially-constructed-nation-state/ (on Gemeinschaft vs. Gesellschaft as defined by Toennies)
https://clarespark.com/2012/02/09/glee-goes-la-raza/
https://clarespark.com/2012/03/31/nell-painters-history-of-white-people/.
https://clarespark.com/2013/02/27/american-exceptionalism-retold/ (Read this first!)
https://clarespark.com/2013/09/26/cultural-pluralism-vs-multiculturalism/
https://clarespark.com/2013/11/05/kerry-washington-scandal-and-miscegenation/
https://clarespark.com/2015/04/24/multiculturalism-vs-yid-red-spies-which-agitates-the-right/
https://clarespark.com/2015/05/05/what-is-context-and-how-is-it-relevant-to-the-pamela-geller-flap/
The Clare Spark Blog 
[…] As I discovered when first conducting my Melville research, finding the relevant context for artists and their critics (or for our own cherished beliefs) is a challenge. For instance, Freudians will focus on Melville’s family situation; Marxists will scrutinize him for class, racial, and gender prejudices; “progressives” attempting to co-opt both Freud and Marx will, and have, looked at his family very selectively, and then will praise him to the extent that they believe that he generally reflects their own “moderation.” If they have to suppress documents that contradict progressive notions, they will do that too. (See https://clarespark.com/2010/06/10/herman-melville-dead-white-male/.) And the preferred “moderate” position is “multiculturalism” for it keeps us divided and racism and collective categories are intact,. (See https://clarespark.com/2011/03/28/index-to-multiculturalism-blogs/.) […]
Pingback by What is “context” and how is it relevant to the Pamela Geller flap? | YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — May 5, 2015 @ 9:15 pm |
[…] https://clarespark.com/2011/03/28/index-to-multiculturalism-blogs/ (index to German Romantic sources for multiculturalism and related issues, such as identity politics) […]
Pingback by Index to blogs on antisemitism | YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — October 18, 2013 @ 3:19 pm |
[…] https://clarespark.com/2013/07/02/groupiness-group-think-and-race/, https://clarespark.com/2011/02/27/remembering-ralph-bunche-american/ https://clarespark.com/2011/03/28/index-to-multiculturalism-blogs/ […]
Pingback by Obama’s intervention 7-19-13 | YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — July 20, 2013 @ 6:06 pm |
[…] https://clarespark.com/2011/03/28/index-to-multiculturalism-blogs/ […]
Pingback by The origins of political correctness | YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — June 23, 2013 @ 10:34 pm |
[…] https://clarespark.com/2011/03/28/index-to-multiculturalism-blogs/ (On German Romantic predecessors to political correctness) […]
Pingback by Hating finance capital | YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — June 18, 2013 @ 3:54 pm |
[…] https://clarespark.com/2011/03/28/index-to-multiculturalism-blogs/ […]
Pingback by Divide et impera | YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — May 16, 2013 @ 8:22 pm |
[…] in my work on the German Romantic predecessors to what is now called “multiculturalism.” [See https://clarespark.com/2011/03/28/index-to-multiculturalism-blogs/. The lengthy quotes from Mordecai Grossman’s article are followed by a comment of […]
Pingback by A bit of history about revisionism in American schools « Churchmouse Campanologist — December 6, 2012 @ 10:02 pm |
[…] 2. “Identity politics” (the Social Democrat/progressive policy) that class ties were pre-empted by ethnic or racial ties. All my blogs on German Romanticism and the progressives are about this issue. (See https://clarespark.com/2011/03/28/index-to-multiculturalism-blogs/.) […]
Pingback by “Reality” and the “Left” « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — October 15, 2012 @ 10:34 pm |
[…] https://clarespark.com/2011/03/28/index-to-multiculturalism-blogs/ […]
Pingback by Index to blogs on populist demagoguery « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — September 10, 2012 @ 6:29 pm |
[…] logic or in primitivism/exoticism. (For the racism inherent in “multiculturalism” see https://clarespark.com/2011/03/28/index-to-multiculturalism-blogs/. Briefly, it is believed that there are no universal ethics or universal facts, for diverse […]
Pingback by The subtle racism of Edna Ferber and Oscar Hammerstein II « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — April 24, 2012 @ 10:03 pm |
[…] in my work on the German Romantic predecessors to what is now called “multiculturalism.” [See https://clarespark.com/2011/03/28/index-to-multiculturalism-blogs/. The quote from Mordecai Grossman’s article is followed by a comment of […]
Pingback by The antiquated “melting pot” « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — June 16, 2011 @ 7:57 pm |