One Nation, Two Cultures [Hardcover]

Gertrude Himmelfarb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 16, 1999

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

From Publishers Weekly

This is a complicated, disturbing treatise on the moral balkanization of contemporary society by a leading light of the intellectual right that, in spite of its urgent cadence, sings predictably in the dour choir of the culture wars. Himmelfarb (The De-Moralization of Society, etc.) draws on varied historical sources in order to see through the public spyglass darkly: she explores close correlations between this century's countercultural movements and various marked declines in the virtue of the polity, as exhibited in such alarming symptoms as the welfare state, with its insidious attack on individual motivation and choice, and the relation between widespread cohabitation and "alternative" parenting and a concomitant degradation of marriage. She extends this model, in succinctly constructed chapters, into many of our contentious cultural arenas: for example, discussing contemporary divides between a bland ideal of "civil religion" and competing factions of evangelism and secularism, viewing "fundamentalism," because it comes in various forms, as a pluralist creed. She depicts this sort of cultural schismA"dissidents" possessing religiously influenced moral lives and accustomed to traditional family models vs., for example, the triumphant social entropy of Clintonite governance and Hollywood pop-cultureAas our current primary conflict, negating issues of class, wealth, labor or identity politics. Her arguments are forceful and sophisticated, but dovetail cleanly with contemporary rightist rhetoric: refusing to acknowledge, for instance, that participants in unorthodox lifestyles may subscribe to authentic frameworks of personal morality or that even flawed governmental-assistance initiatives may serve noble and necessary ends. This substantive, well-articulated volume is destined to provide credence to the dark fears of true believers. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1ST edition (November 16, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375404554
• ISBN-13: 978-0375404559
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,745,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A balanced, thought-provoking analysis...., March 8, 2000

By 

William Reinhardt - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Nation, Two Cultures (Hardcover)

It is amazing what a skilled writer with intellect can do within a realatively few pages. Professor Gertrude Himmelfarb does an incredible, balanced analysis of the tumultuous changes that have polarized many American cultural writers into ideologues. She reduces this polarization to simplicity without offending the staunchest zealot. Her basic premise is that the formerly dominant American culture has become the disssident culture and the formerly dissident culture has become the dominant culture. She discusses some of the resulting consequences.

She begins with an insightful historical perspective and then tackles tough American issues such as Civil Society, the Family, the Law and Polity, and Religion. She concludes with a summary of the ethics gap between the two cultures and some modest predictions. A fascinating read.

One reviewer called the book "A coherent, devastating attack." Another called it "An elegant , literate defense of nineteenth-century English mores and morals." It is much more. It will make you wonder what the future has in store for us....

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Neo-Conservative perspective on the culture, August 18, 2000

By 

Dr Robin B O'Hair (Brisbane, Queensland Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Nation, Two Cultures (Hardcover)

Irving Kristol - Gertrude Himmelfarb's husband - once made the point that in the USA an 18 year old girl could dance nude in a bar, so long as she was paid the minimum wage. This book explores the existence of two cultures in the USA. Whilst pollsters and demographers can break down these cultures into many different groups, there is a broad line which can be drawn between the cultures. Cultures are largely defined by attitude in the modern world, as opposed to ethnic or Quaker garb, for instance, and Himmelfarb seeks to chart the salient differences in attitude. In that she is largely successful. It is a thought provoking book. Her use of Adam Smith's insights does her credit - there always was a looser culture based on the security of aristocratic position, which meant loose behaviour would not be economically disastrous for its practitioner. At day's end, the underlying viewpoint that it is unfortunate that there are two cultures, can be rejected or accepted as one chooses. Indeed, if the argument is accepted that there are two delineated cultures, then it clearly shows that government has no business interfering in the educating of children to try to homogenize the culture. The existence of two cultures removes the foundation for the confidence that demonstrating how to use a condom in school classes without parental permission is in any way appropriate or has ever been appropriate. Himmelfarb cannot be faulted for not dealing with subjects beyond her book's compass, but it should be appreciated that this book does not deal with, in any detail, the etiology of the counter-culture or its long march to cultural hegemony, nor does it suggest any concrete proposals for the protection of the traditional Puritan culture from governmental intrusion. For anyone who can remember both 1963 and 1971, it is likely to at least provide a conversation piece. Himmelfarb has done a sound job.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Typically Astute Insight, January 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: One Nation, Two Cultures (Hardcover)

Professor Himmelfarb lays out in words what most Americans have known in varying degrees: there is a cultural divide between Americans that seems to evade an obvious or cohesive solution (at least for the time being). Her descriptions of this divide are unambiguous, and she speculates on possible solutions to the problem. There is no question that the 'everything must be permissible or we are not free' trend has had devastating effects on women and children in our society, and she provides perspectives on potential solutions. How do we balance the safety and well-being of our children (and therefore our future) without imposing unreasonable limits on individual freedom? Are any limits acceptable, or must we self-destruct in a distorted kamikaze defense of individual license? The greatest benefit of this book is to define the problem in a clear and intensely interesting way. As in her other work, Professor Himmelfarb never disappoints.