[3] In 1971, the Canadian government referred to cultural pluralism, as opposed to multiculturalism, as the "very essence" of the nation's identity.
[citation needed] The notion of cultural pluralism in the United States has its roots in the transcendentalist movement, and was developed by pragmatist philosophers such as Horace Kallen, William James, and John Dewey.
Randolph Bourne, a later theorist, provided one of the most famous articulations of cultural pluralism through his 1916 essay, "Trans-National America".
[6][7][8] His 1915 essay in The Nation, titled "Democracy versus the Melting Pot", was written as an argument against the concept of the 'Americanization' of European immigrants.
Young's work, in African studies, emphasizes the flexibility of the definition of cultural pluralism within a society.