America's Political Class Under Fire: The Twentieth Century's Great Culture War

ISBN-13: 9780415946919 / Angielski / Miękka / 2003 / 290 str.

David A. Horowitz

Opis

While the clash between what has been called the modern and undeveloped worlds has led to America's military involvement in the Middle East and other places, few people realize the tension between the modern and the traditional within the United States. David A. Horowitz analyses the tension between the so-called new class of knowledge professionals and their critics, who accused them of being out of touch with the common sense of everyday people, strangers to the American way, even communists.

Recenzje

"The American political system, as devised by the Federalist authors, the architects of the Constitution, was structured so as not to rely upon intellectuals. The "machinery of government" would operate on its own, and America had little possibility of becoming "a nation of philosophers." Yet, as David A. Horowitz has demonstrated, intellectuals as a political class have been at center of numerous public controversies throughout American history. Horowitz probes the problem of our own varying mandarin class with thorough research, lucid writing, and thoughtful reflection. Should the "brains trust" be trusted? That is the question." -- John Patrick Diggins, Distinguished Professor of History, Graduate Center, CUNY
"David A. Horowitz mounts a vigorous challenge in this book to the conventional wisdom of political historians, both on the left and right. Rebels against the rule of the "best and the brightest" have often altered the outcome of elections and the shape of government policies. Now, at last, they have a full and empathetic treatment of what they believed and what they accomplished." -- Michael Kazin, author of The Populist Persuasion: An American History and Professor of History, Georgetown University

Spis treści

Introduction: America's Controversy with New Class Guardians 1. Secular Liberalism on Trial in the Turbulent 1920s 2. Shadow Government: The Brains Trust Under Fire, 1932-1936 3. The Welfare State and Its Discontents, 1936-1941 4. Planners versus Enterprisers: The Free World at Home During World War II 5. Pledging Allegiance: The Political Class and Cold War Loyalty, 1946-1952 6. Hidden Persuasions: The Disputed Agenda of 1950s Policy Elites 7. Zero Sum Governance: Social Interventionists and Race Politics, 1954-1968 8. Class War: The Liberal Establishment Besieged, 1968-1980 9. Far from Paradise: Social Guardians in the Postmodern Era, 1980-2000 Conclusion: The Guardian Class and American Democracy Notes Bibliography of Archival Sources and Public Documents

O autorze

David A. Horowitz is Professor of History at Portland State University. He is the co-author of Beyond Left and Right: Insurgency and the Establishment (1997).