The efforts of liberal thinkers to incorporate mutualistic social principles into Americans’ understanding of liberalism extended through the century, but the strongest and most holistic conceptions of the social sphere took hold during the New Deal era and World War II. Contrary to recent accounts that locate the weakening of that social liberal project in the 1970s and attribute it to underlying economic changes, this article builds on two generations of historiography to argue that the decline began during the long 1950s when totalitarianism changed the political context of social thought. The theory of mass society that developed to explain the rise of totalitarianism replaced the citizens of liberal democratic theory with the anxious, rootless masses of modern society and forecast the collapse of liberal democracy into totalitarianism. Americans cast totalitarianism as the antithesis of America, its Other in the narrative of American identity, a threat both without and within. In that context, mutualistic conceptions of the social sphere were put on the defensive and individual liberty was valorized. Liberal intellectuals, trusting in American capitalism and in the weak social state, focused on the threat of McCarthyite anti-intellectualism and mass irrationality. Their commitment to social democracy weakened and their chief concern shifted to the no-longer-autonomous individuals of modern society.

中文翻译：

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美国社会思想中的社会发生了什么？第1部分

自由主义思想家将互惠主义社会原则纳入美国人对自由主义的理解的努力延续了一个世纪，但社会领域最强大和最全面的概念在新政时代和第二次世界大战期间站稳了脚跟。与最近将这一社会自由主义计划在 1970 年代削弱并将其归因于潜在的经济变化的说法相反，本文基于两代史学，认为这种衰落始于 1950 年代漫长的 1950 年代，当时极权主义改变了社会的政治背景。想法。为解释极权主义兴起而发展起来的大众社会理论用焦虑的、无根的现代社会群众取代了自由民主理论中的公民，并预测自由民主将崩溃为极权主义。美国人认为极权主义是美国的对立面，是美国身份叙事中的他者，是内外的威胁。在这种情况下，社会领域的互惠主义概念被置于防御地位，个人自由得到了重视。相信美国资本主义和脆弱的社会国家的自由主义知识分子关注麦卡锡式的反智主义和大众非理性的威胁。他们对社会民主的承诺减弱了，他们的主要关注点转移到了现代社会不再自治的个人身上。信任美国资本主义和脆弱的社会国家，专注于麦卡锡的反智主义和大众非理性的威胁。他们对社会民主的承诺减弱了，他们的主要关注点转移到了现代社会不再自治的个人身上。信任美国资本主义和脆弱的社会国家，专注于麦卡锡的反智主义和大众非理性的威胁。他们对社会民主的承诺减弱了，他们的主要关注点转移到了现代社会不再自治的个人身上。