Biography of a Nation of Joiners

AT first thought it seems paradoxical that a country famed for being individualistic should provide the world's greatest example of joiners. How this came about is the object of this sketch, but the illusion of paradox may be dispelled at once. To Americans individualism has meant, not the individual's independence of other individuals, but his and their freedom from governmental restraint. Traditionally, the people have tended to minimize collective organization as represented by the state while exercising the largest possible liberty in forming their own voluntary organizations. This conception of a political authority too weak to interfere with men's ordinary pursuits actually created the necessity for self-constituted associations to do things beyond the capacity of a single person, and by reverse effect the success of such endeavors proved a continuing argument against the growth of stronger government. The tendency was reinforced by the absence of fixed social classes. As Alexis de Tocqueville pointed out in the I830's, men in