In this persuasive study of culture politics, Richard Nelson examines the role of confidence and doubt as the cement that holds the nation together. He explores confidence in its dual meanings - of trusting faith and of deception, guile, and illusion. His book confirms that our national identity is deeply imbued by both. One binds the populace through the need to believe in a hopeful and positive future. The other leads to national crises through disillusionment and doubt.

Nelson argues that through the influence of the artist, the advertiser, and the actor, as well as from the liberal-conservative tension that exists in the dual meanings of confidence, we derive our idea of America.