Americans today are frustrated and anxious. Our economy is sluggish; and leaves workers insecure. Income inequality; cultural divisions; and political polarization increasingly pull us apart. Our governing institutions often seem paralyzed. And our politics has failed to rise to these challenges. No wonder; then; that Americans--and the politicians who represent them--are overwhelmingly nostalgic for a better time. The Left looks back to the middle of the twentieth century; when unions were strong; large public programs promised to solve pressing social problems; and the movements for racial integration and sexual equality were advancing. The Right looks back to the Reagan Era; when deregulation and lower taxes spurred the economy; cultural traditionalism seemed resurgent; and America was confident and optimistic. Each side thinks returning to its golden age could solve America's problems. In The Fractured Republic; Yuval Levin argues that this politics of nostalgia is failing twenty-first-century Americans. Both parties are blind to how America has changed over the past half century--as the large; consolidated institutions that once dominated our economy; politics; and culture have fragmented and become smaller; more diverse; and personalized. Individualism; dynamism; and liberalization have come at the cost of dwindling solidarity; cohesion; and social order. This has left us with more choices in every realm of life but less security; stability; and national unity.Both our strengths and our weaknesses are therefore consequences of these changes. And the dysfunctions of our fragmented national life will need to be answered by the strengths of our decentralized; diverse; dynamic nation.Levin argues that this calls for a modernizing politics that avoids both radical individualism and a centralizing statism and instead revives the middle layers of society—families and communities; schools and churches; charities and associations; local governments and markets. Through them; we can achieve not a single solution to the problems of our age; but multiple and tailored answers fitted to the daunting range of challenges we face and suited to enable an American revival.
#820741 in Books David A Hollinger 2006-02-27Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.00 x .75 x 5.50l; .72 #File Name: 0465030653312 pagesPostethnic America Beyond Multiculturalism
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Tenth Anniversary Edition has TWO VersionsBy Curled Up With a Good BookIMPORTANT: If you are buying this for class; make sure that you are purchasing the most recent copy; which includes "Postscript 2005" as the last chapter. In my final class; two out of the six of us had copies which ended with "Postscript 2000". The worst part if you need the most latest version is that the covers are EXACTLY the same for these two editions. Both have "Tenth Anniversary Edition" listed on the over. The Postscript 2005 version is 296 pages long; while the Postscript 2000 version is 264 pages. I bought my copy from a seller other than ; so I'm hopeful that is selling the latest version.4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Nice Revitalization of CosmopolitanismBy Teddy HesterI found Hollinger's book to contain many pithy clarifications of the behemoth of confusion we generally call multiculturalism; including its "foster[ing] of sensitivity to diversity so acute that it has become too diverse for the ethno-racial pentagon to contain." Yes; Hollinger is an historian rather than a psychologist or a sociologist; so we get this MC discussion from that viewpoint; which I found enlightening. I applaud the way he revitalized the concept of cosmopolitanism from the elitist; smorgasbord; school-boy rap to its more useful orientation toward openness to new social constructs and affiliations; not tied so much to prescribed; racial identities which were designed to highlight some differences at the expense of others. Granted; his four or five chapters of historical background do seem to overshadow the chapter in which he offers his postethnic alternative; but his vision isn't quite the pie-in-the-sky vision some seem to feel it is. Hollinger invites us to think outside the box (or the ethno-racial pentagon; as it were) and envision changes to America's MC dilemmas. This was a well-constructed; quick read; full of lots to think about.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Four StarsBy ElizabethInteresting read.
