Consensus scholarship, the dominant school of American social thought in the postwar period, failed to predict or explain the disorders of the 1960's. For years, leading scholars had insisted that the United States was a pluralistic society characterized by shared social and political values and a "genius" for compromise. This analysis first argues that the attack on consensus theory has succeeded, such that the myth of peaceful progress has been buried beyond resurrection. Next, the analysis explores some of the apparent structural limitations on American domestic violence. If these limitations persist, domestic violence will remain particularized, and consensus theory can be restated in an expanded form. Under these circumstances, political violence of a certain type can be considered part of the system, either playing an overall stabilizing role or representing an acceptable cost of doing business and politics American style. The analysis concludes that prior structural restraints on the types and intensity of domestic rebellion are likely to prove ineffective in the future. Paradoxically, the very forces militating against a revival of low-intensity mass violence may be opening the door to rebellion of a less inhibited type. 56 notes.