2,263 words
Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)
The Question of Public Virtue
When Lasch wonders whether American democracy can survive crime, drugs, and urban decay, he is sounding another populist theme that harks back to classical republicanism: the dependence of popular government on public virtue. (more…)
Christopher Lasch
2,180 words
Part 1 of 2 (Part 2 here)
Christopher Lasch
The Revolt of the Elites & the Betrayal of Democracy
New York: W. W. Norton, 1995
Christopher Lasch (1932–1994) was an American historian who taught for many years at the University of Rochester, authored a number of important books, and spoke beyond academia to the broad, educated public. (more…)
4,378 words
Hamilton Gregory
McNamara’s Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam War plus The Induction of Unfit Men, Criminals, and Misfits
West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania: Infinity Publishing, 2015
Hamilton Gregory unveiled a seldom-explored facet of modern military history with McNamara’s Folly. Similar subject matter is touched on with the inspiring film Forrest Gump (more…)
5,855 words
Gregory Clark
The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014
One of the continual areas of inquiry in sociology and economics is that of social mobility. Much effort is put forth in attempts to uncover the degree to which it occurs and to delineate the factors involved in its occurrence (or lack thereof) among various demographic groups. (more…)
2,924 words
Translated by G. A. Malvicini
We have already had the occasion to point to the illusoriness of the claim that modern man, in general, has achieved an autonomy and self-consciousness he previously lacked. This illusion can in part be explained by the fact that attention today is primarily directed towards external conditions, to the disappearance of certain material limits to the freedom of the individual — (more…)