This volume illustrates Melford Spiro's explorations of key relationships among culture, society, and human nature. He addresses such fundamental issues as the limitations of cultural relativism, the problem of explanation in the social sciences, and the importance of a comparative approach to the study of social and cultural systems. Spiro believes that deep motivational and cognitive structures underlie human behavior. He argues that these structures can be explained by the evolutionary history of our species and by social experience.

In his new introduction, Whitfield sets the scene of the early twentieth century to show what inspired Horace Kallen to write this book. He delves deeply into his background, discussing the influences on Kallen's life and work. Whitfield also examines the many changes that have occurred since Culture and Democracy in the United States was first written, and reveals that many of the ideas espoused by Kallen have become reality.

This is a recognized classic in the psychology of the American peoples. It brings together a series of reflections upon the nature of culture and of democracy, upon their bearing to one another in the United States, and upon their underlying dynamics in the nationalities, the cultural traditions, the political forms, the economic pursuits, and the social and spiritual endeavors of its many peoples. In his new introduction, Whitfield sets the scene of the early twentieth century to show what inspired Horace Kallen to write this book. He delves deeply into his background, discussing the influences on Kallen's life and work. Whitfield also examines the many changes that have occurred since Culture and Democracy in the United States was first written, and reveals that many of the ideas espoused by Kallen have become reality.