Larry M. Mead is Professor of Politics and Public Policy at New York University. His previous books helped define the thinking behind the welfare reform of the 1990s, which required many recipients to work as a condition of aid. His most recent book, "Burdens of Freedom: Cultural Difference and American Power", presents a "new and radical interpretation of America and its challenges" and deals with the difficulty that many of today's immigrants have in adopting America's individualistic and "inner-driven" culture.