American conservatism and American nationalism have been the dual foci of my past work. Having started with an interest in McCarthyism, I have sought to find the origins of anti-radicalism back in American history. In this process I have recognized that every American political tenet cannot but face the tensions between the social reality of ethno-cultural diversity and the political demands to accommodate and absorb this diversity into a common national identity. In my doctoral dissertation, which dealt with a specific case of immigration policy during the Progressive period of the early twentieth century, I tried to depict how political ideology intertwines with the question of national identity. Based on these past attempts I now intend to write a general history of American nationalism, and the proposed project is part of this larger task, in which the question of liberalism and conservatism has pivotal meaning.