One Nation, Two Cultures

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.

Acclaimed historian Gertrude Himmelfarb builds on a cultural insight made by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations: every civilized society has a pair of yin- and yang-like subcultures, one that values hard work and thrift, and a bohemian foil that treats vice more indulgently. "Much of the social history of modern times can be written in terms of the rise and fall, the permutations and combinations, of these two systems," she writes. The problem, according to One Nation, Two Cultures, is that what used to be called the counterculture, with its full embrace of moral relativism and disdain for religious devotion, now dominates American life. It controls the media and the universities, and has started to reach down into the public at large. The "dissident" minority culture is no longer made up of tuned-out Woodstock radicals, but otherwise ordinary Americans who cling to traditional bourgeois values. What sets One Nation, Two Cultures apart from the increasingly tired "culture wars" debate is the historical backdrop it provides. Himmelfarb draws on her immense knowledge of Victorian England and her deep reading of old sources to make her case. With both concision and precision, she explains the problem, gives it vital context, and outlines a few reasons for optimism. Social conservatives who enjoyed Slouching Towards Gomorrah, Robert Bork's bestseller, will definitely want to read One Nation, Two Cultures.