The Revolt Of The Elites And The Betrayal Of Democracy

by Lasch, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780393313710
• ISBN10: 0393313719
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-01-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

In a front-page review in the Washington Post Book World , John Judis wrote: "Political analysts have been poring over exit polls and precinct-level votes to gauge the meaning of last November's election, but they would probably better employ their time reading the late Christopher Lasch's book." And in the National Review , Robert Bork says The Revolt of the Elites "ranges provocatively [and] insightfully." Controversy has raged around Lasch's targeted attack on the elites, their loss of moral values, and their abandonment of the middle class and poor, for he sets up the media and educational institutions as a large source of the problem. In this spirited work, Lasch calls out for a return to community, schools that teach history not self-esteem, and a return to morality and even the teachings of religion. He does this in a nonpartisan manner, looking to the lessons of American history, and castigating those in power for the ever-widening gap between the economic classes, which has created a crisis in American society. The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy is riveting social commentary.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction: The Democratic Malaise	3	(22)
I THE INTENSIFICATION OF SOCIAL DIVISIONS
The Revolt of the Elites	25	(25)
Opportunity in the Promised Land: Social Mobility or the Democratization of Competence?	50	(30)
Does Democracy Deserve to Survive?	80	(12)
Communitarianism or Populism? The Ethic of Compassion and the Ethic of Respect	92	(25)
II DEMOCRATIC DISCOURSE IN DECLINE
Conversation and the Civic Arts	117	(12)
Racial Politics in New York: The Attack on Common Standards	129	(12)
The Common Schools: Horace Mann and the Assault on Imagination	141	(20)
The Lost Art of Argument	161	(15)
Academic Pseudo-radicalism: The Charade of ``Subversion''	176	(21)
III THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
The Abolition of Shame	197	(16)
Philip Rieff and the Religion of Culture	213	(17)
The Soul of Man under Secularism	230	(17)
Bibliography	247	(14)
Index	261