ABSTRACT

Beyond the Melting Pot (BTMP) was written at a rather quiet point in the history of studies of American race and ethnicity. BTMP suggested what was at the time a somewhat original way of looking at ethnicity in the United States. The concerns of BTMP were analytical, rather than policy-oriented. In this respect, it reflected an earlier orientation in social science, rather than the one that was to become prominent in the 1970s. The Japanese-Americans had recovered from the World War II disaster on their own, without even thinking much of getting government compensation. It was a world in which it was expected that people and ethnic groups would advance on their own, without much in the way of solicitous concern from government. The chapter describes the moral outlook for Jews, Italians, and Irish. It is interesting that some issues most susceptible to moral responses have entered politics and have taken a much larger role since 1960–61.