The Rise of the Imperial Self America's Culture Wars in Augustinian Perspective

by Dworkin, Ronald W.

• ISBN13: 9780847682195
• ISBN10: 0847682196
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-06-28
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

The Rise of the Imperial Self establishes a geneaology of aristocracy and places America firmly within an aristocratic tradition originally articulated by St. Augustine, but adapted to American society by Alexis de Tocqueville. Ronald W. Dworkin then traces the evolution of American culture from Tocqueville's America, when American aristocracy was defined by a love of something beyond the self to today's preoccupation with individuality, self-expression, autonomy, and self-esteem--the "imperial self."

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
America and the City of Man
Expressive Individualism, Manicheism, and the "Higher Self"	p. 3
The Expressive Individualist, the Donatists, and the Honor of Work	p. 21
Christianity, Public Opinion, and Republican Principle in the Imagination of Tocqueville's American	p. 29
Pelagianism in the Society of Expressive Individualism	p. 39
Donatism in the Society of Expressive Individualism	p. 59
Platonism in the Society of Expressive Individualism	p. 75
The Expressive Individualist and Self-Esteem	p. 87
The Expressive Individualist and the Spirit of Ressentiment	p. 91
America and the City of God
The Creation of the Aristocrat in the City of God	p. 101
Tocqueville's American as an Aristocrat in the City of God	p. 121
The Fall of the Aristocrat in the City of God and the Rise of the "Organization Man"	p. 139
The Rise of the Imperial Self	p. 171
Conclusion	p. 207
Notes	p. 219
Bibliography	p. 241
Index	p. 247
About the Author	p. 251
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