Arthur Ekirch Jr. on the major trend in American history

Since the time of the American Revolution the major trend in our history has been in the direction of ever-greater centralization and concentration of control - politically, economically, and socially.  As part of this drift toward 'state capitalism' or 'socialism,' the liberal values associated with the eighteenth-century Enlightenment - and especially that of individual freedom - have slowly lost their primary importance in American life and thought.

~ Arthur A. Ekirch Jr., The Decline of American Liberalism (1967)