Includes bibliographical references (pages 325-373) and index

The egalitarian creed in America -- The Fourth Great Awakening, the political realignment of the 1990s, and the potential for egalitarian reform -- Technological change, cultural transformations, and political crises -- The triumph of the modern egalitarian ethic -- The egalitarian revolution of the twentieth century -- The emergence of a postmodern egilitarian agenda -- Whither goes our world?

"Fogel contends that the ethical and political crises that currently beset the nation are the most recent manifestations of the recurring effort to bring human institutions into balance with the massive technological changes that drastically transform the economy and periodically destabilize the prevailing culture. Today, as in the past, that process of adjustment involves the rise of powerful religious/political movements which historians refer to as "Great Awakenings.""--Jacket