The Triumph of Meanness: America's War Against Its Better Self [Hardcover]

Nicolaus Mills (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 1997

The Triumph of Meanness is a penetrating examination of the souring of American attitudes in the 1990s, covering everything from negative advertising and church burnings to the latest macabre, sadistic forms of entertainment. Nicolaus Mills presents a compelling argument that a culture of meanness is sweeping across America. This mean-spiritedness is not confined to the arena of politics, where mudslinging and assaults on the poor and vulnerable are commonplace. Meanness penetrates every aspect of our everyday lives, from relations between men and women to the programs we watch on TV. Witness the huge popularity of serial-killer trading cards, the spectacles of public humiliation on TV talk shows, the guiltless aplomb with which CEOs announce the downsizing of thousands of loyal employees, the bumper stickers that ask, "Where is Lee Harvey Oswald when his country needs him?" We have crossed a line, Mills maintains, that "not long ago seemed to mark the outer bounds of decency." Mills a

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Humiliating talk shows. Serial-killer trading cards. Vicious politics. Mills, a coeditor of Dissent, here argues that Americans have become too damn mean for their own good.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

With all the complaining about incivility these days, Mills' roundup of rudeness is certainly timely. Not meant to be prescriptive, it merely lays out the cases of such repulsive phenomena as immigrant bashing; resurgent racism, both white against black and black against Jew; corporate downsizing and CEO greed; brutal new entertainments like ultimate fighting and gangsta rap; antifeminism and shock feminism (e.g., lionizing Lorena Bobbitt); and cynical, "gotcha" political reporting. But Mills fails to enter some other, huge arenas of bad will--such as those in which the debates over abortion, gay rights, and racy TV programs rage--and he does not explain how certain things he cites exemplify meanness. The Republicans' 1994 Contract with America, for example, is a particular bete noire of his, but he doesn't analyze or even quote any of its 10 proposals. Apparently the meanness Mills limns so fluently, if partially, has triumphed indeed. Even he is mean spirited toward proposals that don't conform to his notions of compassion and goodwill. Ray Olson

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 1St Edition edition (August 28, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395822963
• ISBN-13: 978-0395822968
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,917,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth another look in the days after the 2010 election, November 7, 2010

By 

William R. Schreiber (South Portland, ME United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Triumph of Meanness: America's War Against Its Better Self (Hardcover)

There are 25 pages of notes supporting the author's arguments. The criticism of the previous review simply proves Nicolouas Mills premises that we are in a state of unfounded meanness where facts and well constructed arguments are dismissed out of hand. The loudest, the meanest, the one with the most money prevail. Someone said, "a confused mind always says no." What better way to get people to vote against their best interest's by bulling, fear-mongering and good dose of prescribed economic volatility. This book is worth your time at full or discounted price.

4 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Where's the argument?, May 3, 2000

By 

Joel Warren Lidz (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Triumph of Meanness: America's War Against Its Better Self (Hardcover)

Professor Mills simply provides a laundry list of claims he happens to regard as mean-spirited and asks us to assess them likewise. I hope this is not what has come to be acceptable in social "science." I thought science involves the presentation and interpretation of evidence in order to rationally defend a thesis. Or am I missing something here?

Joel Warren Lidz, Ph.D. Department of Philosophy Bentley College Waltham, MA 02154 [e-mail]