Jewish social scientists throughout the post-war period succeeded in pathologizing America’s Christian subconscious as a wellspring of “bigotry.” Lear and his team of writers likewise brought this distorted rendering of the American psyche to life in the Archie Bunker persona, a man whom the celebrated producer describes as “a fearful human being” who “was afraid of tomorrow. He was lamenting the passing of time,” Lear says of the Bunker pater, “because it’s always easier to stay with what is familiar and not move forward.”