The Return: The 19th Century and the Remaking of America
Steven Windmueller, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Jewish Communal Studies
In his blog for “The Times of Israel,” Dr. Steven Windmueller argues that the United States is experiencing a deliberate shift back toward a 19th-century framework marked by nationalism, protectionism, and a new “Second Gilded Age” of inequality. He suggests that this transformation could weaken democratic institutions and disproportionately harm minorities through legal rollbacks, re-segregation, and rising exclusionary rhetoric, including antisemitism. At the same time, Windmueller presents this moment as a wake-up call, urging renewed civic engagement and a recommitment to pluralism and democratic values.