Discussion Questions: Habits of the Heart

1. Based on your reading of Habits of the Heart and your general knowledge of 1980s American culture, discuss the kinds of moral problems that Americans were facing in the 1980s.

2. Some critics have argued that Bellah's methodology is based upon a rather narrow sense of what is American. At the outset, he justifies his decision to limit his survey to interviews with "white, middle-class Americans" by arguing that "everyone in the United States thinks largely in middle-class categories, even when they are inappropriate." Do you find his explanation persuasive?

3. In the introduction to Habits of the Heart, Bellah profiles four of his informants. What aspects of American cultural life do Brian, Joe, Margaret, and Wayne represent?

4. What might Bellah and his associates have found had they chosen to survey a less homogeneous group?

5. In lecture on Wednesday I discussed the importance of changing technologies, particularly the changing apparatus of television. What impact do you think technological changes had on American culture in the eighties?

6. To what extent is Habits of the Heart still relevant today?

7. What does Bellah's interpretation of American individualism have in common with that of Roibert Westbrook? How is it different?