The Twilight of American Culture [Paperback]

Morris Berman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 2001 | ISBN-10: 039332169X | ISBN-13: 978-0393321692 | Edition: Reprint

An emerging cult classic about America's cultural meltdown—and a surprising solution.

A prophetic examination of Western decline, The Twilight of American Culture provides one of the most caustic and surprising portraits of American society to date. Whether examining the corruption at the heart of modern politics, the "Rambification" of popular entertainment, or the collapse of our school systems, Morris Berman suspects that there is little we can do as a society to arrest the onset of corporate Mass Mind culture. Citing writers as diverse as de Toqueville and DeLillo, he cogently argues that cultural preservation is a matter of individual conscience, and discusses how classical learning might triumph over political correctness with the rise of a "a new monastic individual"—a person who, much like the medieval monk, is willing to retreat from conventional society in order to preserve its literary and historical treasures. "Brilliantly observant, deeply thoughtful ....lucidly argued."—Christian Science Monitor

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"If you have finally had it with CNN and Hollywood and John Grisham and New Age 'spirituality,' then pull up a chair, unplug your phone (beeper, TV, fax machine, computer, etc.), and give me a few hours of your time. I promise to do my best not to entertain you."

A slightly forbidding introduction to a book, but indicative of its author's disgust at the homogenized McWorld in which we live, and an enticing challenge to read on. As the title The Twilight of American Culture suggests, Morris Berman's outlook is somewhat bleak. Analogizing the contemporary United States to the late Roman Empire, Berman sees a nation fat on useless consumption, saturated with corporate ideology, and politically, psychically, and culturally dulled. But he believes that this behemoth--what Thomas Frank called the "multinational entertainment oligopoly"--must buckle under its own weight. His hope for a brighter tomorrow lies in a modern monastic movement, in which keepers of the enlightenment flame resist the constant barrage of "spin and hype." Ironically, despite his disdain for "the fashionable patois of postmodernism," he approvingly quotes poststructuralist theorist Jean-François Lyotard's maxim "elitism for everybody" in describing this cadre of idiosyncratic, literate devotees, these new monks.

Berman is plainspoken and occasionally caustic. The Twilight of American Culture is an informed and thought-provoking book, a wake-up call to a nation whose powerful minority has become increasingly self-satisfied as their stock options ripen, while an underclass that vastly outnumbers the e-generation withers on the vine and cannot locate itself on any map. It is a quick and savage read that aims to get your eyes off this computer, your nose out of that self-help book, and send you back to thought and action. --J.R. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

American culture is in crisis, argues Berman, pointing out that "millions of high school graduates can barely read or write"; "common words are misspelled on public signs"; "most Americans grow old in isolation, zoning out in front of TV screens"; and "40% of American adults [do] not know that Germany was our enemy in World War II"--never mind that most students don't even want to learn Greek or Latin. Berman's lament that "like ancient Rome [American culture] is drifting into an increasingly dysfunctional situation" at first makes his book seem like a neoconservative treatise along the lines of the late Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind. But Berman, who teaches in the liberal arts masters program at Johns Hopkins University, doesn't locate the cause of this malaise in multiculturalism or postmodernism, as Bloom did (although he is no fan of either one), but rather in the increasing dominance of corporate culture and the global economy, which he claims creates a homogenous business and consumer culture that disdains art, beauty, literature, critical thinking and the principles of the Enlightenment. Berman's provocative remedy is to urge individuals who are appalled by this "McWorld" to become "sacred/secular humanist" monks who renounce commercial slogans and the "fashionable patois of postmodernism" and pursue Enlightenment values. While Berman's eclectic approach often makes for engaging reading, his quirky and almost completely theoretical solutions are unlikely to galvanize many readers. Agent, Candice Fuhrman. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (June 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039332169X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393321692
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 76 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Way To Think About Some Very Old Problems June 17, 2000

By Charles D. Hayes VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

If I were to write a short list of contemporary authors who have most affected my thinking during the past two decades, Morris Berman would be at the top. His books "Coming to Our Senses" and "The Reenchantment of the World" not only gave me new insights into the notion of a more embodied existence, they also gave me a lasting epistemological appreciation of the kind of rigor necessary to bring light to any subject that one truly wants to learn more about. My views about the possibilities the future holds for humankind run hot and cold. I'm optimistic one day and pessimistic the next. But I've long held the position that while the mass of American culture seems to be, as Neil Postman observed, "drowning in a sea of amusements," individuals still have an opportunity to live as meaningful a life as is possible to live. Now Berman comes along with "The Twilight of American Culture," which captures this reality not only in a theoretical sense but also in a very practical way. Berman advocates creating "zones of intelligence" both public and private and says, "This is not about `fifty ways to save the earth,' `voluntary simplicity,' or some program of trendy ascetic activities. Nor does it involve anything showy and dramatic, and virtually anyone reading this book is capable of making an effort in this direction." "The Twilight of America Culture" is a rear-guard action for finding an oasis of meaning in an insane world. Highly recommended.

54 of 57 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finding American with Both Hands August 9, 2000

By charles boltz

Format:Hardcover

In "The Twilight of American Culture," Morris Berman tells his readers that America is like any other civilization and that it will decline. In fact, he writes, American civilization has been in a steady decline for some time now. So what do we do? "If the historical record is clear on this point, there is no way out. We might as well fiddle while New York and Los Angeles burn." But Berman has a better idea. He calls it the monastic option. Here, one gets the sense of a secret order of the enlightened whose members may know of each other, and even be friends but never gather as an order. There are no "membership cards and badges (whether real or metaphorical), avant-garde language and appropriate party line, organization and even visibility," writes Berman Instead, Berman envisions these "monks," men and women, going about their business of preserving bits and pieces of their culture, shunning any inclination or attempt to institutionalize their work, for to do so "would be the kiss of death." In our current situation which Berman highlights with terms like Starbuckized, Coca-colonization and Rambification, any endeavor toward the excellent is likely to be bought out and sold by entrepreneurs ready to market it. Once the excellent has been packaged for sale, it is doomed to join the rest of American culture mashed together in an indistinguishable mess of the good and bad, the excellent and execrable, the elite and the rabble. While this book is an important addition to any thinking person's library, it will have a particular appeal to educators who are well aware "that our entire consciousness, our intellectual-mental life, is being Starbuckized, condensed into a prefabricated designer look...." To know the truth of what Berman has to say and suggest, all educators have to do is remember they work with the understanding that students are their customers.

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars We need political action, not "monks" (3.5 stars) June 20, 2003

By J. Grattan TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

According to the author, American culture, or American society, is in "shambles." It is a society that has been dumbed down and hollowed out as multinational corporations have virtually penetrated all of society's domains. What does such a society look like? In lieu of Enlightenment reasonableness, American society is kept in a superficial state of busyness by such mechanisms as the constant introduction of technological gadgetry (Internet, DVDs, etc), entertainment spectacles (Super Bowl, Olympics, etc), and sensationalism (Princess Di, OJ, Monica Lewinsky, etc), and infotainment, the dispensing of mountains of disconnected trivia or "information" that is not geared to inform. Kitsch, that is, "something phony, clumsy, witless, untalented, vacant, or boring [which is regarded as] genuine, graceful, bright, or fascinating" pervades the culture. There is a patina of vitality to the culture but it hides a spiritual dying.

A sub-theme of the book is that all civilizations, regardless of how grand, will face a decline, as did Rome's. One can look to such factors as social and economic inequality, declining returns on investment in solving social problems, dropping levels of social intelligence and understanding, and spiritual death as indicators of a civilization in decline. Being that the author holds that American culture is in the midst of such a decline, a purpose of the book is to serve as a guide to those who self-select themselves as "monks" who are willing to preserve non-commercial American culture and reject the global "McWorld" culture of "slogans, spin, and hype." The precedent for this monasticism is the transcription and preservation of the Greek and Roman cultures undertaken by some orders of monks from 500 AD to 1100 AD after Rome's fall, though the author admits that those monks had little understanding or appreciation for what they were saving.

Perhaps most indicative of American cultural decline is the state of education in America. Educational institutions have in a wholesale manner adopted a business culture; they are truly in the business of selling products and entertainment to students as consumers. The author finds little difference between the selling of diplomas for entry into good jobs by universities and the selling of indulgences for entry into heaven by the Church in the Middle Ages. None of these institutions are really interested in transforming the buyer. The author notes that only a small segment of the adult population reads so much as one book a year. The books that are sold consist largely of "short, sloganistic books that promise to improve lives overnight."

Much of the author's characterization of the corporate hegemony over American culture is quite accurate. But there is an element of narrowness to his thinking that could stand some review. In particular, there is a certain amount of harshness in his separation of the thinking class from the drones. Quoting Robert Browning from memory and being conversant with the works of Shakespeare, Flaubert, Virginia Woolf, and Voltaire would be a high hurdle for most to jump. And only a miniscule number of people could possibly produce the witty essays of a Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's, rich in their referrals to all manner of literary and historical items. That probably indicates some good fortune early in life. Also, we can all construct our litmus tests for passage into the select. A broader view is needed. At one point the author suggests that what is needed is a "healthy skepticism, individual creativity, and free choice." Furthermore, despite his criticism of universities, the author, at heart, clings to the notion of universities as being the ideal locale for learning. Frankly, many would question whether the young even have the worldly knowledge to fully benefit from a liberal education. There is no real reason for that dependency. Thinking, reading, and studying should be lifelong enterprises conducted anywhere that hopefully would have relevance in the general culture.

The author's ideas concerning the pursuit of a "monastic option" are most puzzling. The author really presents no immediate purpose for his modern monks. In an era of overwhelming data, there is no need for the data preserving exploits like those of the monks in the Dark Ages. Apparently, when the global consumer culture eventually collapses of its internal contradictions, the monks will be ready to restore a pre-consumer culture primarily by example. But waiting for the system to collapse, which is bound to occur due to the unsustainability of the world's population on diminishing resources and a degraded environment, on the off chance that some underground monks, who unsurprisingly resemble liberal arts professors, will bring everyone back to their senses, seems to be a very risky proposition. In addition, the author eschews grass roots political action as a means of correcting the current corporate excess. Of course, that route has immense difficulties, but there is some chance that change could occur before the extinction of life, as we know it. Democratic action is in fact a huge part of our cultural past. Why not urge the thinking class to draw upon the American traditions of Jefferson, Paine, Lincoln, FDR, the Knights of Labor, the IWW, the Wagner Act, etc to reassert the right of citizens to participate in the governance of their affairs and institutions. There are probably more citizens disenchanted with American culture than the author realizes.

The book is strongest in its depiction of American culture and what it has become under corporate dominance. But the arguments for inevitable civilization decline, reliance on underground "monks," and the eschewing of collective political activity are far less compelling. It is difficult to contemplate a way out of the current cultural situation that does not involve a renewed sense of political participation along with cultural transformation.