Is the making of a national identity a clear-cut, well-defined task that happens once and for all? In seeking to understand the complex genealogy of 'America', one has to consider how amazingly diverse the make-up of American society has come to be over time; how extraordinary the different presences, in terms of colour, religion, and ethnicity, are and have been; the incredible contributions of the marginalised - such as the gospel music, blues and jazz, developed by the African-Americans, or the Tex-Mex cuisine, the pizzas and pastas, the medical and computer wizardry, and the alternative medical and spiritual therapies offered by other 'immigrants'. But alongside the space for these unusual new cultural achievements, there has been an insistence on one way of being, one road to progress, and one manner of being 'civilised'.
