Contents of this book include discussions of the following topics: (1) issues for the 1970s (redefining American pluralism); (2) historic pattern of change (rise and fall of repressive movements); (3) unity in the post-war era; (4) breakdown in consensus (racial equality and black militancy; demand for group rights; anti-war and other protests; white ethnicity revitalized; failure of backlash politics; and attitudes toward political and social institutions); (5) the urban crisis; (6) decline of WASP provincial; (7) the democratic coalition: stable or broken (national coalitions; municipal and state coalitions; shifts in the Roosevelt-New Deal coalition; anti-Catholicism of upper class liberals); (8) crisis of liberalism and political situation of American Jewry (declining Jewish political influence?; Jews and blacks; Jews and conservatives; cleavages in the Jewish community); (9) economic issues and group tensions (income distribution in the U.S.; recomposing the GNP: changing national priorities; welfare reform); (10) education (intellectuals and social protest of the left; education, integration, and black upward mobility; "the culture of poverty": attack on the slums; busing; community control of schools; public support for parochial education; financing higher education); and, (11) meritocracy versus quotas (guidelines for affirmative action). (JM)