The American Hour: A Time of Reckoning and the Once and Future Role of Faith

Guinness, OS

ISBN 10: 0029131715 / ISBN 13: 9780029131718

Published by New York, NY, U.S.A.: Free Press, 1992

About this Item

Top corner of free front endpaper has been cut, otherwise this is a nice, near fine copy in a near fine to fine mylar protected DJ. A presentation copy. The book is inscribed and signed by the author "To Bob Bellah - With deep appreciation for your own work" and is dated in 1992. Robert N. Bellah is a noted author and professor. Slight trace of wear to DJ and DJ edges, 8vo., 458 pages. 0.0 0.0 0.0. Bookseller Inventory # 17550

Bibliographic Details

Title: The American Hour: A Time of Reckoning and ...

Publisher: New York, NY, U.S.A.: Free Press

Publication Date: 1992

Binding: Hardcover

Book Condition:Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Signed: Inscribed by Author

Edition: 1st Edition...

About this title

Synopsis:

"In "The American Hour", Guinness examines the growing crisis in America's moral and cultural order. In particular, he explores its impact on three areas which he considers vital to the health of America: on identity, as in the currently contested notion of what it means to be an American; on American public philosophy, including the now controversial relationship of religion and public life; and on American republican character, including the distinctive emphasis on the importance of the "habits of the heart". Guinness goes on to set forth a vision of a reforged public philosophy, one through which we can solve the practical questions of living with our deepest differences. He also sees the possibility of a new, vital and constructive role for religion in American public life.

From Publishers Weekly:

Former executive director of the Williamsburg Charter Foundation, a project that celebrates the right to religious liberty embodied in the U.S. Constitution, Guinness ( The Gravedigger File ) tries to cover a wide range of material as he examines "transformations and corruptions in America's . . . moral and cultural order" and suggests, not very convincingly, that the American people might be redeemed by faith. America lacks an identity, he argues as he surveys the cultural changes of the last 40 years. Rejecting both the fundamentalist desire to establish religion officially in public life and the secular humanist wish to exclude it altogether, he suggests compromising on "a civil public square in which citizens of all faiths, or none, are free to enter and engage one another in the continuing democratic discourse." While Guinness offers some useful insights, they are obscured by his sloppy prose style: bloated with quotes and shallow analysis (such as the wholesale condemnation of "non-liberal ideologies" in U.S. universities), the book reads like an intellectual Megatrends .
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.