American Culture in Peril
Publication Year: 2012
Thirty years ago, Ronald Reagan rode a wave of patriotism to the White House by calling for a return to what he considered to be traditional American values--personal liberty, free markets, and limited government. After the cultural struggles and generational clashes of the 1960s and 70s, it appeared that many Americans were eager to abide by Reagan's set of core American principles. Yet, despite Reagan's continuing popularity, modern America remains widely perceived as a nation weakened by its divisions. While debates over cultural values have been common throughout the country's history, they seem particularly vitriolic today. Some argue that these differences have resulted in a perpetually gridlocked government caught between left and right, red states and blue. Since the American Founding, commonly shared cultural values have been considered to be the glue that would bind the nation's citizens together. However, how do we identify, define and interpret the foundations of American culture in a profoundly divided, pluralistic country?
In American Culture in Peril, Charles W. Dunn assembles top scholars and public intellectuals to examine Reagan's impact on American culture in the twenty-first century. The contributors assess topics vital to our conversations about American culture and society, including changing views of the family, the impact of popular culture, and the evolving relationship between religion, communities, and the state. Others investigate modern liberalism and the possibilities of reclaiming a renewed conservatism today. American Culture in Peril illuminates Reagan's powerful legacy and investigates whether his traditional view of American culture can successfully compete in postmodern America.
Contributors
Hadley Arkes
Paul A. Cantor
Allan Carlson
Jean Bethke Elshtain
Charles R. Kesler
Wilfred M. McClay
Ken Myers
Published by: The University Press of Kentucky
Front cover
Download PDF (171.2 KB)
p. c-c
Title Page, Copyright
Download PDF (40.5 KB)
pp. i-iv
Contents
Download PDF (38.8 KB)
pp. v-vi
Preface
Download PDF (49.2 KB)
pp. vii-xii
Seven years ago Regent University established the annual Symposium in Honor of Ronald Reagan, designed to bring to the campus leading scholars and public intellectuals to discuss matters of vital importance to American culture and society. The response of the public has been impressive:...
Introduction
Download PDF (71.9 KB)
pp. 1-10
Like the constantly changing patterns of light produced by a kaleidoscope, a broad and changeable array of values distinguishes American culture. Focusing on the values themselves, though—the product of the kaleidoscope—presents a daunting task, much like piecing together a mosaic of fragments without benefit of the artist’s vision of...
Part 1: Ronald Reagan and Modern Culture
Download PDF (13.7 KB)
pp. 11-12
Ronald Reagan and Modern Liberalism
Download PDF (99.3 KB)
pp. 13-32
“The central conservative truth,” Daniel Patrick Moynihan once wrote, “is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth,” he added, “is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.”1 Although there is wisdom in Moynihan’s dictum, it suffers two defects. In the first place, it leaves unclear what culture is and where politics comes from—or to put it...
A Touch for First Principles
Download PDF (98.8 KB)
pp. 33-52
In the 1980s, in the days of President Reagan, Lou Cannon started a running line in the Washington Post, called “Reaganism of the Week.” The insinuation here was that Reagan was speaking a version of what Mel Brooks would describe as “frontier gibberish.” In other words, the president was simple-minded. Or he persistently missed the complications...
Part 2: Cultural Conflict in America
Download PDF (13.7 KB)
pp. 53-54
The Fickle Muse
Download PDF (114.3 KB)
pp. 55-78
As an English professor discussing the future of American culture, I think of culture as meaning primarily “the arts.” For the past two decades, I have been especially interested in popular culture, and I can say in all immodesty that I am regarded as one of the world’s foremost academic authorities on The Simpsons.1 Thus, focusing on popular culture, I will make the following predictions about the future...
Will the Postfamily Culture Claim America?
Download PDF (97.3 KB)
pp. 79-96
Ole and Lena are a mythical Swedish-American couple, probably residing
somewhere in Minnesota, notable for their remarkably dysfunctional
marriage. One story goes like this:
Ole and Lena have grown old, and one day Ole becomes very sick.
Eventually, he is confined to his upstairs bedroom, barely conscious,
bedridden, and growing ever weaker. After several weeks of this, the...
The Critic and Culture
Download PDF (83.1 KB)
pp. 97-112
Everybody’s a critic. It seems to be a natural right among Americans to gripe about pretty much everything, but government above all. How many times have you heard the plaint “They are all a bunch of crooks,” that politics is an innately dirty game. Trust in politicians and the political process is at a nadir among us. In addition, for many decades, cultural elites anointed themselves the designated critics of...
Part 3: The Possibilities of Cultural Change
Download PDF (13.7 KB)
pp. 113-114
Two Cities, How Many Cultures?
Download PDF (99.2 KB)
pp. 115-134
In 1939, just before England entered World War II, T.S. Eliot gave three lectures at Cambridge that were later assembled in an essay entitled “The Idea of a Christian Society.” There are numerous brilliant observations in that essay, but I would like to begin my essay by focusing on one sentence: “The fact that a problem will certainly take a long time to solve, and that it will demand the attention of many...
Sources of Renewal in Twenty-First-Century America
Download PDF (100.6 KB)
pp. 135-154
These past few years have been a rough and discouraging stretch for Americans in general, and perhaps especially for American conservatives. Yet in such times all of us should recall the counsel of Shakespeare, expressed by the exiled and deposed Duke Senior in...
Contributors
Download PDF (50.4 KB)
pp. 155-158
Index
Download PDF (58.1 KB)
pp. 159-166
E-ISBN-13: 9780813136035
Print-ISBN-13: 9780813136028
Publication Year: 2012
