Out of the Melting Pot, into the Fire: Multiculturalism in the World's Past and America's Future

The melting pot has been the prevailing ideal for integrating new citizens through most of America's history, yet contemporary elites often reject it as antiquated and racist. Instead, they advocate multiculturalism, which promotes ethnic boundaries and distinct group identities. Both models have precedents across the centuries, as Jens Heycke demonstrates in a contribution to the debate that incorporates an international, historical perspective. Heycke surveys multiethnic polities in history, focusing on societies that have shifted between the melting pot and multicultural models. Beginning with ancient Rome, he demonstrates the appeal of a unifying, syncretic identity that diverse individuals can join, regardless of their ethnic or racial origins. He details how early Islam, with its ideal of an inclusiveummah, integrated diverse groups, and even different faiths, into a cohesive and flourishing society. Both civilizations eventually abandoned their integrative ideals in favor of a multicultural paradigm. The consequences of that paradigm shift are instructive for societies that seek to emulate it. In the modern era, many nations have implemented multicultural policies like group preferences to compensate for past injustices or current disparities. Heycke examines some notable examples: Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka. These nations were on a rough trajectory toward ethnic tolerance and comity, a trajectory that multicultural policies altered dramatically. They contrast with Botswana, a country that opposes group distinctions so resolutely that it prohibits the collection of racial and ethnic statistics. Since World War II, ethnic conflicts have killed over ten million people. But the consequences of ethnic division go far beyond that. Heycke analyzes those consequences in an international statistical survey of ethnic fractionalization. This survey, combined with the extensive historical record of multiethnic societies, illustrates the staggering costs of accentuating group differences and the benefits of a unifying identity that transcends those differences.

About the Author :
JENS KURT HEYCKE was educated in Economics and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago, the London School of Economics, and Princeton University. He worked as an early employee and executive in several successful technology startups, including one that pioneered the mobile Internet and produced software installed in more than a billion mobile phones. Since retiring from high tech, he has worked as a writer and independent researcher, conducting field research around the world, from Bosnia to Rwanda. He is an internationally competitive masters cyclist, winning a bronze medal at the World Masters Games and top-ten places in other world championship events.

Review :
"Heycke's contribution stands out from other critiques of multiculturalism...He is an engaging storyteller, one whose prose is highly accessible. And, in avoiding the cantankerous posture that marks much of the literature critical of multiculturalism, his book has the potential to reach readers in a way that other similarly-themed books cannot." —Prof. Arjun Tremblay, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development ​ "Heycke's book should be on college reading lists for journalism, sociology, and economics courses that focus on ethnic diversity...His personal, almost intimate prose style pulled this reader into his world in a way that social science nonfiction rarely does. I'm so glad I read his book...It's an excellent text of applied cultural studies, but much more than that, it's a riveting, even haunting book of synthesis."  —Garett Jones, Professor of Economics, George Mason University, The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy ​​​​​ ​​​​"Heycke has visited 40 different countries as part of his research. The book is a product of thorough on-the-ground reporting. Heycke spent a year writing a nine-page chapter on the Aztecs in present-day Mexico because he wanted to get to the bottom of the primary sources."  —Flemming Rose, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute, Frihedsbrevet ​​ "Heycke provides a much-needed, meticulously researched—and courageous—defense of the melting pot from classical antiquity to 21st-century America. "  —Victor Davis Hanson, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University "No one who reads Heycke's book can say he wasn't warned."  —Jorge González-Gallarza, City Journal "Out of the Melting Pot offers fascinating historical and recent examples of successful - and unsuccessful - multi-ethnic societies. We would do well to heed its warnings."  —Graeme Kemp, The Equiano Project