E PLURIBUS UNUM:
Out of the Many, the One

...But which is more important - the many, or the one?"

Americans have passionately disagreed on this topic since colonial times, and nowadays is no different: in the context of the Gilded Age and the "New Immigration" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as today: Is American society a "melting pot" or a "salad bowl"? Some other metaphor?

And the subsidiary questions still apply to this question:

How powerful a solvent is life in America to immigrants, their children, and their children's children? How successful have immigrants been traditionally in preserving their ethnic heritages? Is immigration today any different? How was the "new" immigration of the late nineteenth century different than the "old" immigration of earlier times? Was it, in fact, different? To what extent has American always been a diverse place? A "nation of many nations"? To what extent have Americans conformed to national "mainstream" standards of language, law, and culture? Is there even such a thing as an American "mainstream" culture - or only American subcultures?