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This chapter provides an overview of societal growth and decline. How long will our current civilization live? By historical comparative standards, European–American civilization is middle aged. One can get a sense of the lifespans of civilizations by seeing how long other civilizations survived. If one looks at the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the various dynasties of China, and the Old, Middle, and New kingdoms of Egypt, these empires lasted an average of a little over 550 years. Where do we stand in all of this? The modern world system dates from 1350, making us 650–700 years old. That would give us the average length of age of an empire when it falls — although many empires last much longer. The chapter then outlines things which have occurred during feudal chaotic periods: standards of living collapse; technology disappears; and crime, warfare, and violence increase.

This concluding chapter returns to the apparent mismatch of Burke's political philosophy, which represented a past-oriented culture of tradition, to that of America as a whole, which represented a future-oriented culture of innovation. Inherent in such a dichotomy were competing preferences for either progress or stability. The chapter further elaborates on Burke's role (or lack thereof) in the American political consciousness—noting that the reception of Burke in America has been tied to the subordinate nature of conservatism itself. Furthermore, the chapter also explores a different side to Burke—beyond the conservative stereotype, history often overlooks his nascent liberalism—thus the chapter more broadly implicates the ignorance of history in contemporary American society. To conclude, the chapter offers some closing thoughts on the relevance of the past in the present exercise of nation-building, and of Burke's own thoughts on the matter.

This chapter explores the proliferation of studies programs that promote Americanism among European elites. At the turn of the Cold War period, the Carnegie Corporation, which was particularly concerned with the lack of conviction among students in America's heritage, promoted the study of “American Civilization” and values in colleges and universities across the United States. In 1954, the Ford Foundation began its sponsorship of the Harvard University International Summer Seminar. The Harvard Seminar aimed at persuading young Europeans that Americans were more genuinely concerned with “abstract problems” than “material prosperity.” More importantly, this was a program designed to empower strategic elites to challenge the status quo of reflexive anti-Americanism. Between years 1952 and 1955, the Rockefeller Foundation funded initial conferences that evolved into the British Association for American Studies (BAAS)—which aimed for the reestablishment of British–American relations.

This chapter examines the meaning of America, which is present as much in the great books written about the American experiment as in the most practical elements of its politics and economic life. It considers Alexis de Tocqueville's theory of the American experiment and looks at how the image of America as a representative of European civilization was built over two centuries by thinkers and writers for whom no alternative was yet conceivable or for whom a transatlantic community offered a distinct promise of happiness. Wealth and power will not be enough to provide Americans with a new understanding of their place in the history of civilization. Only a new-—equally full and vast—-system of thought can do that, and this new system cannot be imported from outside. It must be built from the actual experience of American life, even and especially when that experience seems most random and unintelligible.

During the 1880s the narrative of female players became distorted as professional players and boosters like John Montgomery Ward and Sporting Life editor, Francis C. Richter, sought to discredit and “disappear” them. Baseball’s popularity was reflected in myriad cultural forms (books, poems, games, songs, etc.) and many believed that the sport was protecting American “civilization” from fracturing as waves of new immigrants poured into the country. Newspapers joked about inept female players while illustrations and baseball cards sexualized them or lampooned their physical appearance. Nonetheless, girls and women kept playing on amateur/professional and scholastic/collegiate teams. Unscrupulous male entrepreneurs like Sylvester F. Wilson harmed the reputation of female professional players by fielding incompetent teams.

Chapter one introduces The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in terms of its three-fold mission—to proclaim the gospel …; to perfect the Saints …; and to redeem the dead.” This chapter also describes the passing of several of the presidents of the LDS Church, also recognized as prophets, seers, and revelators, and whose passing was marked by a ritual known as a “solemn assembly.” The tools for this study are participant-observation-interview ethnographic methods. Further background information describes the graduate group faculty in the program in American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania as the academic setting for the commencement of this research.