Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life

Front Cover
University of California Press, 1985 - Philosophy - 355 pages
Meanwhile, the authors' antidote to the American sickness--a quest for democratic community that draws on our diverse civic and religious traditions--has contributed to a vigorous scholarly and popular debate. Attention has been focused on forms of social organization, be it civil society, democratic communitarianism, or associative democracy, that can humanize the market and the administrative state. In their new Introduction the authors relate the argument of their book both to the current realities of American society and to the growing debate about the country's future. With this new edition one of the most influential books of recent times takes on a new immediacy.

From inside the book

Contents

The Pursuit of Happiness
3
Finding Oneself
55
Love and Marriage
85
S Reaching Out
113
Individualism
142
Getting Involved
167
Citizenship
196
Religion
219
ΙΟ The National Society
250
Transforming American Culture
275
Public Philosophy
297
Copyright

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About the author (1985)

Robert N. Bellah, an American sociologist, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1955 and teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. He is best known for his work on community and religion. Although he has written on religions in nonwestern cultures, he has focused much of his research on the notion of civil religion in the West. To Bellah, American society confronts a moral dilemma whereby communalism competes with individualism for domination. His most important book, Habits of the Heart (1985), considers the American character and the decline of community. Bellah holds that the radical split between knowledge and commitment is untenable and can result only in a stunted personal and intellectual growth. He argues for a social science guided by communal values.

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