The Cultural Imperative: Global Trends in the 21st Century

Aiming his work at the general lay reader, Lewis (the head of a cross- cultural and language training institute) advances a theory on the origins and intractability of cultural differences and proposes a model for identifying the characteristics of different national cultures. The majority of the work is devoted to detailing what he thinks are the defining characteristics of different cultures, with a scale that labels cultures as existing along a tripartite axis of linear-active, multi-active, and reactive categories. An epilogue written in the wake of the September 11th attacks looks at cultural clashes between the U.S. and the world of Islam. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)