Conspicuous Criticism: Tradition, the Individual, and Culture in Modern American Social ThoughtOriginally published in 1996 and newly revised, Conspicuous Criticism is a ringing defense of the need for religion and tradition in contemporary society. Writing with moral passion and critical verve, Christopher Shannon offers a convincing indictment of the forces that isolate the individual in modern capitalist society and counters more than a century of efforts by modern intellectuals to displace tradition in favor of a humanism that actually diminishes humanity in the name of freeing its potential. Featuring in-depth analyses of the works of John Dewey, Thorstein Veblen, C. Wright Mills, and others, Conspicuous Criticism is a call to reinstate traditional relations to God, nature, and the common good. Scholars in fields from American studies to intellectual history will be forced to grapple with Shannon's trenchant critique, which is well on its way to becoming a classic of Christian thought. "Conspicuous Criticism inspired a concern about the modern world that in the years since I've not been able to brush aside."--Eric Miller, First Things |
Contents
The Perspective of Workmanship | 1 |
Middletown as Transition | 29 |
A New Individualism | 65 |
Copyright | |
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activities American culture anthropomorphic become Benedict bureaucracy central century Christopher Lasch Classical liberals consciousness Conspicuous Criticism context critique cultural relativism culture concept demands democratic Dewey Dewey's direct distinction domination economic embodies empiricism ethic everyday exchange experience freedom and reason handicraft Hoover human humanistic Ibid idea of culture ideal individual industrial instinct of workmanship institutional integration interaction John Dewey kind knowledge Lasch liberal living Lynd's Lynds machine process Mass Media meaning Middletown Mills's modern moral nature necessity nineteenth-century normative notion offers one's organic organicism particular Patterns of Culture pecuniary perspective political postmodern premodern principle problem rational reality scientific seems sense simply social change social order social relations social science social scientist social whole social-scientific society sociological imagination structure suggests technical technocratic theory things Thorstein Veblen thought tion tradition values Veblen vision workers Wright Mills