Why does America attract such caustic comment from both left and right? Why is it aberrantly obsessed with sex? Why is business seen as next to divinity? Why does she keep the death penalty? And what makes her oscillate unnervingly between isolationism and ruinous foreign aggression? All of these different strands make it hard to size America up. One moment you see the successful, liberty-loving democracy and neo-liberal economic order that America calls on the world to emulate. The next you see a less inviting picture, which as an advertisement for the American way of life is the reverse of inspirational: The boom in pornography, the rigors of political correctness, the gun laws, the problems of overripe individualism, the rise of religion and its influence on politics and fears about where the country may be heading. In this highly topical, highly original and controversial book George Walden, shows why America's puritanical origins explain why she is the maddening country she is. More religious than any other country, the paradox of America is that, like Europe, she is destined to become less rather than more religious, as faith becomes more a lifestyle than a matter of belief - and that she will ultimately be torn apart.