Customer Reviews

Renewing American Culture: The Pursuit of Happiness (Conflicts and Trends in Business Ethics)

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Excellent book. An enduring human challenge is choosing to take action that will likely result in positive outcomes that will benefit almost everyone, or taking action that benefits the few at the expense of the many.

In Renewing American Culture, The Pursuit of Happiness, we are reminded of the genius of the American Founding Fathers and the critical role that the humanities can play by providing a frame of reference that can guide us if we choose to work together in the pursuit of happiness for the common good of all mankind.

My high hopes were not fulfilled by reading this book. I appreciate its motivation and support most of its conclusions. I agree especially that there is a need to revitalize the role if the humanities in developing ethical and civic minded citizens. Sadly, I found the lack of good editing weakened the book's impact. Illustrations of my concerns follow.

First, a key to the book is a concept, apparently developed by the authors, called "spiritual capital." Its discussion begins with a statement that the term could not be found on the web by the authors. The discussion continues without ever defining the term. The concept is concerned with our religious heritage and its importance to our prosperity and ultimately our happiness. What is unclear is how, from the authors' point of view, a society can have excellent social capital without meaningful spiritual capital. If spiritual capital is the essence of social capital, then why say so without bothering to create a distinct new concept.

Second, the book makes numerous provocative assertions without providing support for them. For example: "Given the importance of entrepreneurs in the economy, it may be argued that their spirituality is given amplified expression in the business activity the commence and sustain over time." The authors do not provide a citation of an expert who has developed this position or offer any support of their own in the paragraphs that follow. Entrepreneurs in various societies have often been from religious or ethnic minorities, but it is unclear whether it is their religiosity or the fact that they were outsiders that made them take risks and innovate. Likewise, I have not heard it argued that Silicon Valley is an area of religious devotion compared to the rest of the nation.

A final concern related to the previous one is that the use of footnotes and references is irregular. For example, a correct claim is made about Adam Smith on page 38, but there is no footnote indicating where in Smith's works this view can be found and Smith is not mentioned in the index.

Since the dawn of the "computer age" the shelves of bookstores have been cluttered with books by cultural seers warning of the new day - global competition, the world is shrinking, the world is flat, etc. The advice usually doled out by these people is something along the lines of make sure the next generation studies computer science and learns to speak Chinese because we are all doomed - just look at the American's SAT scores...

In this thoroughly refreshing book, authors Malloch and Massey make a very convincing case that America's greatest need is a renewed state of liberal education. Like other books addressing these types of issues they too agree that America and the World are on the cusp of a whole new age where technology and communications make for a different world and hence require a new kind of citizen. Distinguishing this book in my opinion is the author's argument that not only is the world changing because of the information age but that information and the way it is used is changing as well. Gone they argue are the days where the person with the most information has the advantage, because the very information that is being used is changing as fast as we can accumulate it - now comes the time when the advantage goes to who is best capable of creatively managing and using that information. The value of creativity, allowing one to flourish in a world of fluid information can best be met by people who understand metaphor as much bits and bytes. Liberal education they contend is the answer. A generation of Americans who learn how to learn is the answer to genuinely Renewing American Culture.

This is a very interesting, well written book. I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Modern culture challenges us with tough problems and the solutions are seldom obvious or easy.

Renewing American Culture gives me a solid framework for thinking about these issues and offers great hope for the future.

My only problem is that it would be a richer experience to read Renewing American Culture as part of a book club or group discussion.

It's the kind of book that makes you want to talk about what you're reading.