The Cynical Society: The Culture of Politics and the Politics of Culture in American LifeThe Cynical Society is a study of the political despair and abdication of (individual) responsibility Goldfarb calls cynicism—a central but unexamined aspect of contemporary American political and social life. Goldfarb reveals with vivid strokes how cynicism undermines our capacity to think about society's strengths and weaknesses. Drawing on thinkers from Alexis de Tocqueville to Allan Bloom and on such recent works as Beloved, Bonfire of the Vanities, and Mississippi Burning, The Cynical Society celebrates cultural pluralism's role in democracy. |
Contents
Cynicism and the American Way of Politics | 1 |
Cynicism as a Cultural Form | 13 |
Mass Society as the Underside of Democracy | 30 |
Democracy in America | 46 |
The Decline and Fall of American Culture? | 65 |
The Pursuit of Obscurity | 82 |
Ideology on the American RightA Clear and Present Danger | 103 |
Other editions - View all
The Cynical Society: The Culture of Politics and the Politics of Culture in ... Jeffrey C. Goldfarb No preview available - 1992 |
Common terms and phrases
academic action Allan Bloom American culture American Dilemma American political anti-Federalist anticommunism arts and sciences audience autonomous culture Bloom Bush campaign challenge Chapter Chicago commitment common Communist concern conservative Constitution Crisis in Education critical Cultural Form cultural literacy cynicism debate Democracy in America democratic democratic culture discourse distinction Dukakis economic Edward Shils elite Federalists film freedom fundamental Glasnost Hirsch Ibid ideals ideas ideological critique ideology individual institutions intellectual issues Jacoby judgment leaders leftist liberal manipulation Marxist mass culture mass media mass society mass structures ment Mick Jagger Mississippi Burning modern normative observed party periphery political and cultural political culture popular position practices Press principles problems racism radical Reagan reason republican Ronald Reagan schools Shils significant social order sociological Soviet Talcott Parsons television tests theoretical theory tion Tocqueville totalitarian tradition understanding understood University Wright Mills York Yorker
References to this book
Social Trust: Toward a Cosmopolitan Society Timothy Earle,George Cvetkovich No preview available - 1995 |
Moral Conflict: When Social Worlds Collide W. Barnett Pearce,Stephen W. Littlejohn Limited preview - 1997 |