3 Review(s)

America Against Itself is an in-depth, multi-faceted analysis of the pervasive cultural warfare that threatens to undermine the American social structure. Partly autobiographical, slightly polemical, and thoroughly challenging, America Against Itself is an in-depth, multi-faceted analysis of the pervasive cultural warfare that threatens to undermine the American social structure. Richard John Neuhaus, author of The Naked Public Square, employs a large measure of social criticism, moral philosophy, and religious reflection in analyzing this contemporary Kulturkampf. He addresses the limits and imperatives of politics as well as religion's role in defining our common culture. Among the subjects tackled are the abortion debate, the urban underclass, and the nature of altruism in a world that rewards uncaring. In addition, Neuhaus reflects on his role in "The Movement" of the 1960s, and how, despite its idealistic intentions, it went so wildly wrong. America Against Itself is not a prolonged lamentation against the prevailing moral and intellectual decline that seems characteristic of the contemporary era. Instead, Neuhaus presents a careful and sympathetic analysis of why we have turned against the highest ideals of the American experiment, and issues a bracing call to turn anew to the challenging vision of "a new order for the ages." This book is a disturbing, but ultimately hopeful, testament from one of America's foremost public intellectuals, whose passage through three tumultuous decades proves a valuable qualification for probing the complex issue of conflicting moralities struggling to exist in a representative democracy.