Abstract

This book examines the historic trend to individualism and shows why it is both irreversible and unthreatening to our sense of community. As people become free to choose the multiple components of their identity---religion, nationality, profession, sexuality-they take advantage of their new freedom, and the communications revolution, to form a freely chosen affiliations. While these may no longer be based primarily on geography and genetics, they nevertheless generate powerful new imagined communities that will affect the way we live, work, and love.