Take away America, its freedom, its optimism, its institutions, its Judeo-Christian beliefs, and its educational tradition, and little would remain of the West, besides the geriatric routines of a now toothless Europe. Add America to the discussion, and all the dire prophecies and mournful valedictions of of the twentieth century seem faintly ridiculous. Yet, precisely because the West now depends on America, a country launched on a path that recognizes no place and no time as its own, Western identity has become an urgent matter of debate.