Americans have witnessed significant social change in the last few decades, including an increase in single-parent families, an expansion of minorities’ rights, a reevaluation of male/female roles, and growing conflict over social and sexual norms. While such change continues, and perhaps accelerates, many commentators disagree about its effect on the social “fabric” and whether change will usher in a brighter or darker future.

Alan Wolfe, a dean at the New School for Social Research in New York City, describing “the disappearing center of American society,” catalogs what he views as some of the larger forces changing American life: an increasingly elderly and immigrant population, influential ideological/political movements, neglect of social problems, and disregard for rules and laws. Daniel Burstein, editor of the book Critical Intelligence: Global Political Economy and the American...