The Drinking Water

Chapter 1 analyses the postwar body of political thought known as pluralism. It explores the work of key contributors to this body of thought such as David Riesman, Seymour Martin Lipset, and Daniel Bell, organizing the chapter by the different themes or memes they participated in and articulated. Chapter 1 presents the argument that pluralism deeply shaped postwar liberalism and infused it with the conviction that American political institutions were the best in the world and truly open to all who wanted to participate. However, pluralists also feared the poor, who they associated with ignorance and authoritarianism.