Introduction

The way we live, work, and die—alone and with other Americans—have so many hidden layers that we might as well say that there are two Americas: one we think we know and the other virtually unknown to us.

Such a thought is compelling enough to motivate a sociologist to start writing down what he thinks about the hidden America.

Then, what emerges from this effort is a picture of America that is at once so familiar and so alien. It is the alien part of America that troubles us, that scares us, and that pushes us to escape into louder, more colorful, and more pleasant unreality.

As our escapism becomes more urgent each day, so does its testimony to the emptiness and loneliness of our solitary existence.

Huer discusses this alien part of America in American Paradise.