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ETHNIC STUDIES AS MULTI-DISCIPLINE 213

the Civil Rights Movement had taken hold, but the programs also arose
out of the recognition in the late 1950s that the conventional textbooks
in history, especially, as well as those in sociology, anthropology, and
literature did not represent the range or the reality of population groups
in this society.
Ethnic Studies put itself forward in two directions. These partly
contradicted one another, but each sought a remedy to the situation. One
trajectory aimed at integrating the history and Uterature texts, i.e.,
providing a documented presence of Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and
American Indians in and with respect to the general run of American
history and letters. The other direction asserted the need to legitimate
the prideful rectitude and unique character of each of the hitherto
neglected ethnoracial groups through academically respectable special
studies programs. Both approaches went on simultaneously, although the
latter one, an assertion of an ethnoracial thymos, seems to have made
greater headway. Conventional history courses have made attempts to
bring the ethnoracial "other" in; however, these attempts are uneven in
their quality. One result has been a decline of consensus history or
consensus historiography, and a similar decline in monocanonical literature
in American studies. Still another result has been a rise in claims by
other human groupings—to take two examples, those that represent
women and those seeking legitimation for different sexual orienta-
tions—each making its demand for representation and dignity on the
educational curricula in the humanities and the social sciences. / suppose
we might call these 'insurgent academic movements^ Ethnic Studies, often
taking the form of Black Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano Studies,
Native American Studies, etc, being the first, and then the others, beginning
with Women*s Studies, taking the former as a model as they faced similar
problems Exactly right. Ethnic Studies arose first, and the others modeled
themselves on it.
What distinguishes ethnic differences and relations in the United States
from differences among and relations among the several 'nationalities' in
Europe? I don't think these phenomena are the same. Indeed. This is a
central issue. The ethnic-studies issue might be conceived as a special
variant of an older idea, viz. "American exceptionalism." That is, the
conceit that what is said about America historically and sociologically is
exceptional with respect to the way one talks about seemingly similar
matters in Europe. In Europe, beginning in 1919, the breakdown of the
Ottoman and the Austro-Hungarian Empires was followed by the