The Founding of New Societies

The pioneering political scientist presents his “fragment theory” of class, culture and ideology in post-colonial societies around the world.

In his groundbreaking work, The Liberal Tradition in America, Louis Hartz demonstrated that beneath America’s history of political conflict was an enduring consensus around Lockean liberal principles. In The Founding of New Societies, Hartz continues his examination of ideology and national identity with a study of five societies established by European migration and colonization.

The diverse political and cultural traditions of the United States, Latin America, South Africa, Canada, and Australia share little in common. Yet, as Hartz demonstrates, they each represent a cultural fragment of the European countries from which they sprang. Each new society retains the ideology that had been dominant at home at the time of their founding.

Extraordinarily influential when it was first published in 1964, The Founding of New Societies is a classic work of political science. Hartz’s fragment theory continues to offer powerful insight into today’s political landscape.