There is "the democratizing uniformity of dress and discourse, and the casualness and absence of deference" characteristic of popular culture.

People are absorbed into "a culture of consumption" launched by the 19th-century department stores that offered "vast arrays of goods in an elegant atmosphere. Instead of intimate shops catering to a knowledgeable elite,"

In spite of "endless talk of difference," American society is an amazing machine for homogenizing people.

these were stores "anyone could enter, regardless of class or background.

This turned shopping into a public and democratic act."

The mass media, advertising and sports are other forces for homogenization.

Writing for the National Immigration Forum, Gregory Rodriguez reports that today's immigration is neither at unprecedented levels nor resistant to assimilation.

In 1998 immigrants were 9. 8 percent of population; in 1900, 13. 6 percent.

Immigrants are quickly fitting into this common culture, which may not be altogether elevating but is hardly poisonous.

By the third generation, one third of Hispanic women are married to non-Hispanics,

Hence the description of America as a "graveyard" for languages.

In the 10 years prior to 1990, 3. 1 immigrants arrived for every 1, 000 residents;

"By the third generation, the original language is lost in the majority of immigrant families."

in the 10 years prior to 1890, 9. 2 for every 1, 000.

The children of immigrants tend to be bilingual and proficient in English.

Foreign-born Asians and Hispanics "have higher rates of intermarriage than do U. S. -- born whites and blacks."

The 1990 Census revealed that "a majority of immigrants from each of the fifteen most common countries of origin spoke English 'well' or 'very well' after ten years of residence."

and 41 percent of Asian-American women are married to non-Asians.

Now, consider three indices of assimilation -- language, home ownership and intermarriage.

By 1996 foreign-born immigrants who had arrived before 1970 had a home ownership rate of 75. 6 percent, higher than the 69. 8 percent rate among native-born Americans.

Are there divisive issues and pockets of seething anger in America? Indeed.

yet "some Americans fear that immigrants living within the United States remain somehow immune to the nation's assimilative power."

It is big enough to have a bit of everything.

Rodriguez notes that children in remote villages around the world are fans of superstars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks,

But particularly when viewed against America's turbulent past, today's social indices hardly suggest a dark and deteriorating social environment.