Thesis (Ph. D.)--Duke University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis examines the study of national character through the work of the psychologist Erich Fromm, the sociologist David Riesman, and the historian David Potter. Above all Intend to provide a critical exegesis of the three thinkers will relate them to one another by discussing the Interconnections In their thought, beginning with Fromm's social psychological theory of character, turning to Riesman's theory of sociology and, finally, Potter's theory of American history. Each, I argue, must be studied in the context his time--above all the climate of horror and uncertainty at mid-century.