Research on "trust" now forms a prominent part of the research agenda in history and the social sciences. Although this … research has generated useful insights, the idea of trust has been used so widely and loosely that it risks creating more … confusion than clarity. This essay argues that to the extent that scholars have a clear idea of what trust actually means, the …

. We first show that trust of second-generation Americans is significantly influenced by the country of origin of their … attitudes. We show that trust inherited by second-generation Americans from their country of origins has changed over time. This … result allows us to use the inherited trust of second-generation Americans as a time-varying instrument to track back the …