Three widely discussed works are helping to heat up the debate about race again. But the limits of a politics of racial conscience should be all too apparent.
Books, Culture & the Arts
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Delectable Materialism: Were the Critics of Consumer Culture Wrong All Along?
It takes an immigrant, or a Soviet visitor, to celebrate the culture of consumerism. Why, as a nation, are we so eager for material improvement, yet so skeptical of materialism?
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
The Reconstruction of Rights
Too many Americans today think of rights solely as limiting their obligations to others and responsibilities as citizens. But rights, rightly understood, flourish only when democracy flourishes, too.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
The Cultural Enemy Within
In the past year, the opinion has gained currency, particularly in conservative circles, that the great ideological battles of our time are shifting to the terrain of culture. The controversies over free speech and the arts; multiculturalism and education; the relevance of gender, race, and class to the study of the humanities and society; the […]