

Heycke surveys multiethnic polities in history, focusing on societies that have shifted between the melting pot and multicultural models. Beginning with ancient Rome, he demonstrates the appeal of a unifying, syncretic identity that diverse individuals can join, regardless of their ethnic or racial origins. He details how early Islam, with its ideal of an inclusive ummah, integrated diverse groups, and even different faiths, into a cohesive and flourishing society. Both civilizations eventually abandoned their integrative ideals in favor of a multicultural paradigm. The consequences of that paradigm shift are instructive for societies that seek to emulate it.
In the modern era, many nations have implemented multicultural policies like group preferences to compensate for past injustices or current disparities. Heycke examines some notable examples: Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka. These nations were on a rough trajectory toward ethnic tolerance and comity, a trajectory that multicultural policies altered dramatically. They contrast with Botswana, a country that opposes group distinctions so resolutely that it prohibits the collection of racial and ethnic statistics.
Since World War II, ethnic conflicts have killed over ten million people. But the consequences of ethnic division go far beyond that. Heycke analyzes those consequences in an international statistical survey of ethnic fractionalization. This survey, combined with the extensive historical record of multiethnic societies, illustrates the staggering costs of accentuating group differences and the benefits of a unifying identity that transcends those differences.
- Price: $30.99
- Pages: 288
- Carton Quantity: 28
- Publisher: Encounter Books
- Imprint: Encounter Books
- Publication Date: 11th April 2023
- Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
- ISBN: 9781641773195
- Format: Hardcover
- BISACs:
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / General
HISTORY / Social History
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Social Policy
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination & Race Relations
“Jens Kurt Heycke provides a much-needed, meticulously researched—and courageous—defense of the melting pot from classical antiquity to 21st-century America. His data and analyses show how and why the assimilationist model alone has always unified fractionalized ethnic and racial groups into a coherent national whole. Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire stands as a dire warning to beleaguered Western democracies that have foolishly rejected the melting pot that has so often proven the pathway to their survival and success.”
—Victor Davis Hanson, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author of Mexifornia: A State of Becoming
“The United States has been, from its colonial beginnings, a multiethnic society. It has had to choose between being a melting pot society—assimilating newcomers and, while appreciating different heritages, seeking a single national identity—and a multicultural society, with separate enclaves and official quotas and preferences for those deemed members of different groups. Americans are not the first nation to face such a choice and, in Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire, Jens Kurt Heycke shows how other societies have faced this choice—and why Americans should embrace the melting pot model in the future.”
—Michael Barone, senior political analyst, Washington Examiner, and founding co-author, The Almanac of American Politics
Heycke surveys multiethnic polities in history, focusing on societies that have shifted between the melting pot and multicultural models. Beginning with ancient Rome, he demonstrates the appeal of a unifying, syncretic identity that diverse individuals can join, regardless of their ethnic or racial origins. He details how early Islam, with its ideal of an inclusive ummah, integrated diverse groups, and even different faiths, into a cohesive and flourishing society. Both civilizations eventually abandoned their integrative ideals in favor of a multicultural paradigm. The consequences of that paradigm shift are instructive for societies that seek to emulate it.
In the modern era, many nations have implemented multicultural policies like group preferences to compensate for past injustices or current disparities. Heycke examines some notable examples: Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka. These nations were on a rough trajectory toward ethnic tolerance and comity, a trajectory that multicultural policies altered dramatically. They contrast with Botswana, a country that opposes group distinctions so resolutely that it prohibits the collection of racial and ethnic statistics.
Since World War II, ethnic conflicts have killed over ten million people. But the consequences of ethnic division go far beyond that. Heycke analyzes those consequences in an international statistical survey of ethnic fractionalization. This survey, combined with the extensive historical record of multiethnic societies, illustrates the staggering costs of accentuating group differences and the benefits of a unifying identity that transcends those differences.
- Price: $30.99
- Pages: 288
- Carton Quantity: 28
- Publisher: Encounter Books
- Imprint: Encounter Books
- Publication Date: 11th April 2023
- Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
- ISBN: 9781641773195
- Format: Hardcover
- BISACs:
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / General
HISTORY / Social History
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Social Policy
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination & Race Relations
“Jens Kurt Heycke provides a much-needed, meticulously researched—and courageous—defense of the melting pot from classical antiquity to 21st-century America. His data and analyses show how and why the assimilationist model alone has always unified fractionalized ethnic and racial groups into a coherent national whole. Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire stands as a dire warning to beleaguered Western democracies that have foolishly rejected the melting pot that has so often proven the pathway to their survival and success.”
—Victor Davis Hanson, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author of Mexifornia: A State of Becoming
“The United States has been, from its colonial beginnings, a multiethnic society. It has had to choose between being a melting pot society—assimilating newcomers and, while appreciating different heritages, seeking a single national identity—and a multicultural society, with separate enclaves and official quotas and preferences for those deemed members of different groups. Americans are not the first nation to face such a choice and, in Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire, Jens Kurt Heycke shows how other societies have faced this choice—and why Americans should embrace the melting pot model in the future.”
—Michael Barone, senior political analyst, Washington Examiner, and founding co-author, The Almanac of American Politics