An acclaimed portrait of Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the origins of modern conservatism and liberalism.**"Clever and intellectually persuasive ... A thoughtful introduction to this famous paradigmatic opposition.” -**Washington PostIn The Great Debate, Yuval Levin explores the roots of the left/right political divide in America by examining the views of the men who best represented each side at its origin: Edmund Burke...

**From a leading conservative intellectual, a clearheaded assessment of why American society is so fragmented—and innovative proposals for strengthening the nation“Should be required reading for all those trying to understand contemporary America.” —Financial Times**Americans today are anxious—about the economy, about politics, about our government. The institutions that once dominated our culture have become smaller, more diverse, and personalized. Individualism h...

**A leading conservative intellectual argues that to renew America we must recommit to our institutions“A Time to Build is exactly what America needs right now.” —Wall Street Journal**Americans are living through a social crisis. Our politics are polarized and bitterly divided, and culture wars rage across the country. Left and right alike have blamed our institutions and use only metaphors of destruction to describe the path forward: cancelling, defunding...

The essays in this book reflect on the paradoxical relationship of liberal education and liberal democracy. Liberal education emphasizes knowledge for its own sake, detached from all instrumental purposes. It also aims at liberation from the manifold sources of unfreedom, including political sources. In this sense, liberal education is negative, questioning any and all constraints on the activity of mind. Liberal democracy, devoted to securing individual natural rights, purports to be the ...

America finds itself in a moment of profound and complex governing challenges. A crushing recession followed by a feeble recovery have shaken the foundations of our financial and economic system. We are struggling with the exploding costs of health-care and entitlement spending, and fiscal disaster looms as our society ages. American families are anxious about wage stagnation, barriers to social mobility, and the nation’s competitiveness in an era of globalization. Meanwhile, our large gov...

**A top conservative scholar reveals the Constitution’s remarkable power to repair our broken civic culture, rescue our malfunctioning politics, and unify a fractious America“Salient and timely.” —Wall Street Journal**Common ground is hard to find in today’s politics. In a society teeming with clashing political perspectives, many people have grown frustrated under a system of government that constantly demands compromise. More and more on both the right and the le...

Leon R. Kass has been helping Americans better understand the human condition for over four decades-as a teacher, writer, scholar, public champion of the humanities, and defender of human dignity. From bioethics to civic education, from interpreting the Bible to weighing the moral implications of modern science, Kass has offered wisdom, guidance, and instruction. In this volume, fifteen of Kass's admirers, including students, colleagues, and friends, honor his work by reflecting on the bro...

A top conservative scholar reveals the Constitution’s remarkable power to repair our broken civic culture, rescue our malfunctioning politics, and unify a fractious AmericaCommon ground is hard to find in today’s politics. In a society teeming with irreconcilable political perspectives, many people have grown frustrated under a system of government that constantly demands compromise. More and more on both the right and the left have come to blame the Constitution f...

An acclaimed portrait of Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the origins of modern conservatism and liberalism.**"Clever and intellectually persuasive ... A thoughtful introduction to this famous paradigmatic opposition.” -**Washington PostIn The Great Debate, Yuval Levin explores the roots of the left/right political divide in America by examining the views of the men who best represented each side at its origin: Edmund Burke...

**A leading conservative intellectual argues that to renew America we must recommit to our institutions“A Time to Build is exactly what America needs right now.” —Wall Street Journal**Americans are living through a social crisis. Our politics are polarized and bitterly divided, and culture wars rage across the country. Left and right alike have blamed our institutions and use only metaphors of destruction to describe the path forward: cancelling, defunding...

Americans today are frustrated and anxious. Our economy is sluggish and leaves workers insecure. Income inequality, cultural divisions, and political polarization increasingly pull us apart. Our governing institutions often seem paralyzed. And our politics has failed to rise to these challenges.No wonder, then, that Americans - and the politicians who represent them - are overwhelmingly nostalgic for a better time. The Left looks back to the middle of the twentieth century, when un...

**The 10th anniversary edition, with a new preface by the author“A persuasive and intimate book . . . showing how, phones in hand, we turn away from our children, friends, and coworkers, even from ourselves.” —Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post“[Turkle] presents a powerful case that a new communication revolution is degrading the quality of human relationships.” —The New York Review of Books“Neil Postman was the greatest media analyst of the late 2...