Yuval Levin has created a thinking man’s book on where America is today, versus where many liberals and conservatives think it is, and where it should go from here. This is a thinking man’s book because it would be easy to debate his words from a biased point of view, until we think about the bigger picture he presents.
He notes the liberal desire to build on the Great Society begun in the ‘60’s and the conservative desire for a community-focused society like after WWII (or of the Reagan years) but he notes that at those times our culture and economy were at different points than today, and we can’t wish them back, or even create their return. It’s like longing for the days of our youth; you can’t go back. The way forward from today starts with where we are at today. And Levin gives examples of our current muddled thinking about where we are at and about how to move forward, like recognizing this is an age of individualism and self-deemed uniqueness, and yet wanting a single government program to meet everyone’s desires. That’s illogical.
He notes that in “opening ourselves to an immense diversity of cultures, we have weakened the roots of mutual trust, (and the) mediating institutions of family, community, church, unions and others.” In praise of diversity, “our culture is becoming a sea of subcultures,” and the “Nominally Religious”, who have generally composed nearly half the population … are becoming “Nones” in their quest for individualism.
Levin offers no simple answers to “Where do we go from here?” He does, however, point to a need to reinforce our mediating institutions but not from the top down, but rather through subsidiarity --- “the entrusting of power and authority to the lowest and least centralized institutions capable of using them well --- a key to addressing the particular problems of our age of individualism”. Capable of using them well is a good phrase, but a most debatable one. But I agree with the general premise he makes that we must work hard together at the lowest levels, not the highest. A government can’t unite us; we must know each other, in our diversity, to unite together in purpose.
With his focus on subsidiarity, I’m guessing Levin would favor Britain’s Brexit, as well as state lawsuits against the Executive Office dictates. I think he would favor e pluribus unim over “celebrate diversity”. And I suppose he’d favor orderly immigration, with local-developed plans for a “melting pot” rather than communities of like-minded people setting up their own laws (and flags) within our country.
I grew up in a Polish ethnic neighborhood, but we were Polish-American, not Polish, period. We didn’t speak Polish in school, and we expected to learn and love American ways, rather than expecting others to change to ours (except, of course, we expected others to learn to like kielbasa). And then we all moved away from those neighborhoods. I don’t think Levin is proposing we go back, we can’t, but rather that we know our neighbors today, and work together in our local churches and communities.
I think Yuval would have liked Magnus, whose book The Shed That Fed A Million Children I recently reviewed. When Magnus saw something needing to be done, even halfway around the world, he rallied his neighbors to help those in need. That’s subsidiarity at its fullest. I think I heard it described in yet another Book as “love your neighbor.” And you can’t delegate that to a government.
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The Fractured Republic: Renewing America's Social Contract in the Age of Individualism Hardcover – May 24, 2016
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Yuval Levin
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Print length272 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherBasic Books
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Publication dateMay 24, 2016
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Dimensions6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
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ISBN-100465061966
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ISBN-13978-0465061969
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Wall Street Journal:
"Compelling.... Yuval Levin has written an incisive and irenic critique of contemporary American society, together with a series of reflections that offer a way forward without trafficking in the false hope of 'solutions.' That he has done so in fewer than 250 pages of clear, well-organized prose ought to make the book famous for a generation. Maybe, in time, we can stop asking why the former days were better than these."
J.D. Vance, Wall Street Journal:
"Mr. Levin is among the Republican Party's great intellectual leaders and has proposed a new direction for conservatism. We'll soon learn whether the party's political leaders follow his wise advice."
Senator Mike Lee, Wall Street Journal:
"Amid the confusion and clamor, Yuval Levin's The Fractured Republic stands out as a penetrating diagnosis of the emerging fault lines in American society."
Commentary:
Superb.... The Fractured Republic is not a manual or blueprint for reform, and it does not offer a checklist of repairs to make America whole again. Instead, it merges a deep philosophic understanding of the American experiment and a conceptual analysis of American history into a practical basis from which we can examine contemporary American problems with crystalline clarity. Levin calls his book an 'essay,' and it provides the bracing shock of illumination that is the hallmark of all great essays."
Weekly Standard:
"[This book] couldn't have come out at a better time. The Fractured Republic is half diagnosis and half prescription. And both halves are essential reading, especially as we contemplate what the current election means for our body politic."
Commentary:
"In a bleak political year, there comes a shaft of light in the form of an extraordinary new book, The Fractured Republic.... [Levin] is among America's most important and humane conservative thinkers. Yuval Levin's brilliant new book offers social conservatives a more effective approach to social engagement not only because it's more positive but because it's more true, because it appeals to people on a deeper level, because offering people a healing grace and hope is what is likely to be especially attractive and powerful in this time of disorientation, distemper, and confusion."
Christian Century:
A gracefully written, big-picture analysis of American society and politics."
Jonah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times:
"Brilliant."
David Brooks, New York Times
"There are just a few essential reads if you want to understand the American social and political landscape today.... Today, I'd add Yuval Levin's fantastic new book, The Fractured Republic...I learned something new on every page."
Michael Gerson, Washington Post:
Instead of desperately trying to go back in time to recover lost unity, Levin urges citizens to look forward as well as downward, to improve the cultural patch around them. This future orientation may seem like an odd message for a conservative, and it is all the more powerful for coming from one. The goal is not to make America great... again. It is to make America great in a distinctly 21st-century way."
New Criterion
Insightful This is the great value of Mr. Levin's book: it cuts through the confusion of the present moment, explains how we got to where we are, and suggests some possible avenues out of the impasse Yuval Levin deserves great credit for opening up the discussion with this most illuminating essay.
Peggy Noonan, columnist, The Wall Street Journal
Yuval Levin's thinking is serious, substantive, and deeply informed, yet his tone is always heartening and serene. His style itself is an element of his thought. The Fractured Republic helps us think clearly about this moment in the life of our country that almost refuses to be clearly understood. He finds solutions in the best of the American tradition. Our weaknesses, he says, are only the opposite side of our strengths. Anyone looking for a realistic source of hope will find it here.
Representative Paul Ryan, Speaker of the US House of Representatives
Yuval Levin is one of the most insightful and original thinkers of our time. In this book, he shows why conservatives are best-equipped to help Americans navigate this new and fragmented world we're in. This is required reading for anyone interested in saving the American Idea.
National Review
A rich, nuanced history of the last 70 years.... The Fractured Republic is an invaluable resource for understanding how America came to its present predicament and what must be done to rescue it.
"Compelling.... Yuval Levin has written an incisive and irenic critique of contemporary American society, together with a series of reflections that offer a way forward without trafficking in the false hope of 'solutions.' That he has done so in fewer than 250 pages of clear, well-organized prose ought to make the book famous for a generation. Maybe, in time, we can stop asking why the former days were better than these."
J.D. Vance, Wall Street Journal:
"Mr. Levin is among the Republican Party's great intellectual leaders and has proposed a new direction for conservatism. We'll soon learn whether the party's political leaders follow his wise advice."
Senator Mike Lee, Wall Street Journal:
"Amid the confusion and clamor, Yuval Levin's The Fractured Republic stands out as a penetrating diagnosis of the emerging fault lines in American society."
Commentary:
Superb.... The Fractured Republic is not a manual or blueprint for reform, and it does not offer a checklist of repairs to make America whole again. Instead, it merges a deep philosophic understanding of the American experiment and a conceptual analysis of American history into a practical basis from which we can examine contemporary American problems with crystalline clarity. Levin calls his book an 'essay,' and it provides the bracing shock of illumination that is the hallmark of all great essays."
Weekly Standard:
"[This book] couldn't have come out at a better time. The Fractured Republic is half diagnosis and half prescription. And both halves are essential reading, especially as we contemplate what the current election means for our body politic."
Commentary:
"In a bleak political year, there comes a shaft of light in the form of an extraordinary new book, The Fractured Republic.... [Levin] is among America's most important and humane conservative thinkers. Yuval Levin's brilliant new book offers social conservatives a more effective approach to social engagement not only because it's more positive but because it's more true, because it appeals to people on a deeper level, because offering people a healing grace and hope is what is likely to be especially attractive and powerful in this time of disorientation, distemper, and confusion."
Christian Century:
A gracefully written, big-picture analysis of American society and politics."
Jonah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times:
"Brilliant."
David Brooks, New York Times
"There are just a few essential reads if you want to understand the American social and political landscape today.... Today, I'd add Yuval Levin's fantastic new book, The Fractured Republic...I learned something new on every page."
Michael Gerson, Washington Post:
Instead of desperately trying to go back in time to recover lost unity, Levin urges citizens to look forward as well as downward, to improve the cultural patch around them. This future orientation may seem like an odd message for a conservative, and it is all the more powerful for coming from one. The goal is not to make America great... again. It is to make America great in a distinctly 21st-century way."
New Criterion
Insightful This is the great value of Mr. Levin's book: it cuts through the confusion of the present moment, explains how we got to where we are, and suggests some possible avenues out of the impasse Yuval Levin deserves great credit for opening up the discussion with this most illuminating essay.
Peggy Noonan, columnist, The Wall Street Journal
Yuval Levin's thinking is serious, substantive, and deeply informed, yet his tone is always heartening and serene. His style itself is an element of his thought. The Fractured Republic helps us think clearly about this moment in the life of our country that almost refuses to be clearly understood. He finds solutions in the best of the American tradition. Our weaknesses, he says, are only the opposite side of our strengths. Anyone looking for a realistic source of hope will find it here.
Representative Paul Ryan, Speaker of the US House of Representatives
Yuval Levin is one of the most insightful and original thinkers of our time. In this book, he shows why conservatives are best-equipped to help Americans navigate this new and fragmented world we're in. This is required reading for anyone interested in saving the American Idea.
National Review
A rich, nuanced history of the last 70 years.... The Fractured Republic is an invaluable resource for understanding how America came to its present predicament and what must be done to rescue it.
About the Author
Yuval Levin is director of social, cultural, and constitutional studies at the American Enterprise Institute and the editor of National Affairs. A former member of the White House domestic policy staff under George W. Bush, he has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, among many other publications. His previous books include The Fractured Republic and The Great Debate. He lives in Maryland.
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Product details
- Publisher : Basic Books; 1st edition (May 24, 2016)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0465061966
- ISBN-13 : 978-0465061969
- Item Weight : 1.09 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
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Best Sellers Rank:
#466,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #426 in Political Parties (Books)
- #1,378 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism
- #1,490 in Political Commentary & Opinion
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Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2016
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Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2017
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I'm a mostly-lefty that grew up in a very-righty household, so I appreciate reading modern conservative perspectives to challenge and grow my personal politics. While this book has a great deal of well-reasoned ideas and critiques, the writing style was overwhelmingly repetitive and challenging to get through, to the point that I wondered more than once if an editor had laid hands on it. The same thesis could be written in half the number of pages (which would also lend itself to some more time spent on prescription instead of simply diagnostics). I think the assessment of the divide in America is excellent and quite fair to both political parties in most regards, and I would love to present these ideas to my more liberal friends, but I just can't recommend the book without the caveat that it's very hard to read.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2021
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It's certainly a good book, but writing style is a bit dry with too much repetition for my taste. Readers can be busy people so we need authors to please be concise and to the point.
Overall it tends toward an ivory tower discussion. For example Levin makes the point that we need to build up our mediating institutions, but he doesn't in my view come to grips with how the individualism that's fracturing those institutions can be effectively addressed. If it's an either/or problem, we should recognize that.
Similarly, the text was short on connection to the literature in this area. For example, he takes up the idea of negative and positive liberty without reference to Isaiah Berlin, who came up with the distinction. This lack of connection makes Levin's arguments seem idiosyncratic and artificially selective, even uninformed at points. So his style oddly reflects the lack of social connection that he laments.
Similarly, his discussion of limited government is extensive. This is hardly a new topic, but he takes up the issue from a limited perspective. It would have helped the argument a lot to include context from the history of ideas and historical trends, and to be more succinct about his own ideas.
Overall it tends toward an ivory tower discussion. For example Levin makes the point that we need to build up our mediating institutions, but he doesn't in my view come to grips with how the individualism that's fracturing those institutions can be effectively addressed. If it's an either/or problem, we should recognize that.
Similarly, the text was short on connection to the literature in this area. For example, he takes up the idea of negative and positive liberty without reference to Isaiah Berlin, who came up with the distinction. This lack of connection makes Levin's arguments seem idiosyncratic and artificially selective, even uninformed at points. So his style oddly reflects the lack of social connection that he laments.
Similarly, his discussion of limited government is extensive. This is hardly a new topic, but he takes up the issue from a limited perspective. It would have helped the argument a lot to include context from the history of ideas and historical trends, and to be more succinct about his own ideas.
Top reviews from other countries
Sparkyminds
1.0 out of 5 stars
Abstract Apple Pie Anyone?
Reviewed in Australia on September 22, 2016Verified Purchase
A tedious, repetitious deposition on the virtues of small scale traditional institutions, with little evidence to support any of its arguments and nothing concrete suggested as a way forward
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