Lord Acton is the author of the maxim, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." In this intellectual biography, Gertrude Himmelfarb regards Acton as a man more of our age than of his own. He was a Liberal Catholic and a distinguished historian, and his vigorous denunciations of nationalism, racism, statism, and bigotry rank among the classics of political and social thought.

Lord Acton: A Study in Conscience and Politics

Biographies & Memoirs

Himmelfarb, Gertrude

Leaders & Notable People

University of Chicago Press

In One Nation, Two Cultures, one of today's most respected and articulate cultural critics gives us a penetrating examination of the gulf between the two sides of American society -- a divide that cuts across class, racial, ethnic, political, and sexual lines. While one side originated in the traditional idea of republican virtue, the other emerged from the counterculture of the late 1960s and has become the dominant culture of today. In clear and vigorous prose, Himmelfarb argues that while the dominant culture pervades journalism, academia, television, and film, a "dissident culture" continues to promote the values of family, a civil society, sexual morality, privacy, and patriotism. The clash between these two cultures affects all areas of American society. Despite her forceful critique, Himmelfarb sees encouraging signs for the future of American culture. She explores the place of religion, family, and the law in American life and proposes democratic remedies for the nation's moral and cultural diseases. Though there are many legitimate grievances against government, she contends, our citizenry cannot afford to delegitimize it. And she concludes that it is a tribute to Americans that, without serious social strife, we remain one nation even as we are divided into two cultures. One Nation, Two Cultures is a stimulating work, one sure to provoke lively discussion and controversy.

One Nation, Two Cultures

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

KNOPF

From one of today's most respected historians and cultural critics comes a new book examining the gulf in American society--a division that cuts across class, racial, ethnic, political and sexual lines. One side originated in the tradition of republican virtue, the other in the counterculture of the late 1960s. Himmelfarb argues that, while the latter generated the dominant culture of today-particularly in universities, journalism, television, and film--a "dissident culture" continues to promote the values of family, a civil society, sexual morality, privacy, and patriotism. Proposing democratic remedies for our moral and cultural diseases, Himmelfarb concludes that it is a tribute to Americans that we remain "one nation" even as we are divided into "two cultures."

One Nation, Two Cultures: A Searching Examination of American Society in the Aftermath of Our Cultural Revolution

Social Sciences

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

In her enduring study of the impact of Darwinism on the intellectual climate of the nineteenth century, Gertrude Himmelfarb brings massive documentation to bear in challenging the conventional view of Darwin's greatness. Touching on biography, history, and philosophy, she traces the origins and development of Darwin's views against the opinions of his time; assesses the influences on him; and shows what he intended his theory to mean, what his readers took it to mean, and what it has in fact meant. By such a route Ms. Himmelfarb recaptures "a sense of how a scientist, with the most innocent of intentions and the best of faith, can give birth to a theory that has an ancestry and a posterity of which he may be ignorant and a life of its own over which he has no control. "A thorough and masterly book punctuated with a delicate sense of humor.... Until he has read, marked, learnt and inwardly digested this authoritative volume, no one should presume henceforth to speak on Darwin and Darwinism." Times Literary Supplement "An illuminating contribution...a dramatic story."â€”Yale Review "Absorbing, well written, and splendidly organized."â€”I. Bernard Cohen

Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution

Science & Math

Evolution

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

On liberty and liberalism: the case of John Stuart Mill

Politics & Government

Alfred.A. Knopf

Discusses the views of great thinkers from 1750 to 1850--including Adam Smith, Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Paine, Edmund Burke, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, and Friedrich Engels--toward the condition of the poor in England

The Idea of Poverty

History

Examines the best and the worst of the social and intellectual concepts of Victorian morality, including discussions on utopia, marriage, civilization, and reason

Marriage and Morals Among the Victorians

Europe

IDEA OF POVERTY

Vintage

Marriage and Morals Among the Victorians and Other Essays

The Idea of Poverty: England in the Early Industrial Age

Faber and Faber Ltd.

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