Jews, Confucians, and Protestants

Lawrence E. Harrison is the author of Undervelopment is a State of Mind (Madison Books), The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change a Culture and Save It from Itself (Oxford), and coeditor, with Samuel P. Huntington of Culture Matters—How Values Shape Human Progress (Perseus).

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Cultural Capital DefinedChapter 2: Why Jews, Confucians, and Protestants?Chapter 3: JewsChapter 4: ConfuciansChapter 5: ProtestantsChapter 6: Other High Achievers I: Basques and SikhsChapter 7: Other High Achievers II: Mormons and IsmailisChapter 8: Catholic Latin AmericaChapter 9: Latino Immigration into the United StatesChapter 10: African AmericansChapter 11: What to Do

Sailing into stiff headwinds, Harrison challenges the belief—foundational to multiculturalism—that all cultures are equally valuable. Some cultures, he argues, simply are better than others at fostering economic growth, democratic governance, and social justice. It is, he asserts, a culture of education, frugality, and intracommunity trust that makes Jews financial titans. Likewise, a culture of learning and personal moderation empowers Confucian entrepreneurs in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. And it is a culture of hard work coupled to personal responsibility that elevates Protestants to top positions in global business. Other cultures—tradition-bound Catholicism, fatalistic Islam, and irrational Voodoo—come in for censure as obstacles to progress. Likewise labeled as barriers to advancement are contemporary cultural patterns among African Americans and Latino immigrants. Clearly separating himself from conservatives, Harrison outlines a progressive agenda based on deliberate cultural engineering. Still, in trying to test this agenda, Harrison’s Cultural Change Institute has encountered considerable resistance. That resistance persists in sharp debates sure to bring readers, both partisans and critics, to this book.