Preface<br >Whether or not written history is， as Charles Beard once<br >said， "an act of faith，" it most assuredly is an act of<br >choice. To make sense of American histoly during the<br >forty years from 1938 to 1978， I have chosen to focus<br >on patterns of class， race， and ethnicity. I have done so<br >partly out of personal interest but primarily out of a<br >conviction that developments in those areas have been<br >of central importance in the lives of the American peo-<br >ple. Since I am concerned， moreover， with why and how<br >change has occurred， I begin by evaluating class， racial，<br >and ethnic patterns as they stood in the late 193os;<br >proceed by examining the impact on them of the Second<br >World War， the anticommunist impulse， suburbaniza-<br >tion， social reform， and the war in Vietnam; and con-<br >clude by analyzing those patterns as they appeared in<br >the late ~97os. Where I discuss political， economic， con-<br >stitutional， social， and cultural issues it is through the<br >three-way prism of class， race， and ethnicity.<br > I do not mean to give the impression that hard-and-<br >fast lines can be drawn between class， racial， and ethnic<br >groups. No such clear distinction is possible， for the<br >relationships among the three are subtle and complex.<br >If all Americans can somehow be ranked according to<br >class， most can also be defined in ethnic or racial terms.<br >Some can be viewed on any or all levels: a Japanese<br >American businessman， for example， simultaneously be-<br >longs to a particular social class， racial minority， and<br >etlmic comnmnity. Ahhough I treat immigrants primar-<br >ily as members of ethnic groups and blacks primarily as<br >