Who killed the American Dream? David Leonhardt, a senior writer at The New York Times, picks up his magnifying glass and investigates in Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream. Note the past tense in the title. In order to find the culprit, we must first learn about the deceased. What was the American Dream? As Leonhardt notes, while the range of definitions is vast, at its root, the American dream is about progress. In particular, he zeroes in on a “core part” of the dream, that children will lead better lives than their parents did. Leonhardt makes the definition … [Read More...] about Whither the American Dream?
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Stuck in the Middle With You
In 1944, Friedrich Hayek wrote in “Why the Worst Get on Top” in his The Road to Serfdom: It seems to be almost a law of human nature that it is easier for people to agree on a negative program—on the hatred of an enemy, on the envy of those better off—than on any positive […]
Battle Cry in the Culture War
Let’s start with a quick quiz. Name this book: The United States is in great peril because it has abandoned its Christian roots and is being taken over by people who are immersed in a humanistic worldview which is antithetical to God. The result will be a tyranny which will oppress Good Christians everywhere. Trick […]
Crafting a New Evangelical Imagination
“All great systems, ethical or political, attain their ascendancy over the minds of men by virtue of their appeal to the imagination; and when they cease to touch the chords of wonder and mystery and hope, their power is lost, and men look elsewhere for some set of principles by which they may be guided.”Russell […]
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Frankenstein Meets Faust
“My Dear Managers, Are we at war then? If you still want peace, here is my ultimatum….If you do not meet these conditions, tonight you will present Faust in a cursed house. A word to the wise is sufficient. O.G.” Who is the O.G.? (No, not Ice-T.) It’s the mysterious Opera Ghost in Gaston Leroux’s […]
Jane Eyre is an Awful Book
Jane Eyre is absolutely the worst book which ever, for reasons I cannot fathom, ended up on anyone’s list of Great Books. It is awful. Just awful. Now that we have established that fact, perhaps you can help me solve a mystery. I have talked about this book many times with students. I always have […]
SMITH’S MAN OF SYSTEM IN ROMEO AND JULIET
The biggest threats to liberty always come from people who look at the world and become firmly convinced that their plan to overhaul the whole system will bring great joy. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith argues that such people will inevitably bring harm to society. In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare has provided a marvelous example of such […]