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Christopher Lasch

The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy Paperback – January 17, 1996

by Christopher Lasch (Author)

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"[A] passionate, compelling, and disturbing argument that the ills of democracy in the United States today arise from the default of its elites." ―John Gray, New York Times Book Review (front-page review)

In a front-page review in the Washington Post Book World, John Judis wrote: "Political analysts have been poring over exit polls and precinct-level votes to gauge the meaning of last November's election, but they would probably better employ their time reading the late Christopher Lasch's book." And in the National Review, Robert Bork says The Revolt of the Elites "ranges provocatively [and] insightfully."

Controversy has raged around Lasch's targeted attack on the elites, their loss of moral values, and their abandonment of the middle class and poor, for he sets up the media and educational institutions as a large source of the problem. In this spirited work, Lasch calls out for a return to community, schools that teach history not self-esteem, and a return to morality and even the teachings of religion. He does this in a nonpartisan manner, looking to the lessons of American history, and castigating those in power for the ever-widening gap between the economic classes, which has created a crisis in American society. The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy is riveting social commentary.

Print length

276 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

January 17, 1996
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.9 x 8.3 inches
ISBN-10

0393313719
ISBN-13

978-0393313710
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cultural critic Lasch, who passed away before this book was published, argues that American democracy is withering in the hands of professional and managerial elites who lack a sense of social and civic values.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Christopher Lasch (1932–1994), professor of history at the University of Rochester, wrote, among many other works, The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics and the best-selling Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Revised ed. edition (January 17, 1996)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 276 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393313719
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393313710
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #61,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #108 in Democracy (Books)
- #138 in Sociology of Class
- #459 in U.S. Political Science

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209 ratings

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A Great Historian/Sociologist

Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2021

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One of Lasch's hallmarks is his ability to foresee future realities. Works written decades in the past remain immediately relevant to current times. THE REVOLT OF THE ELITES is no exception. Its thesis is that the elites—those who "control the international flow of money and information, preside over philanthropic foundations and institutions of higher learning, manage the instruments of cultural production and thus the terms of public debate . . . have lost faith in the values, or what remains of them, of the West" (p. 26). The 'masses' have lost interest in revolution and "their political instincts are demonstrably more conservative than those of their self-appointed spokesmen and would-be liberators. It is the working and lower middle classes, after all, that favor limits on abortion, cling to the two-parent family as a source of stability in a turbulent world, resist experiments with 'alternative lifestyles' and harbor deep reservations about . . . ventures in large-scale social engineering" (p. 27).

Sound familiar? The striking thing is that this is a posthumous publication, consisting of a number of previously-published pieces dating to the early 90's. In other words, Lasch was anxiously contemplating these present realities over thirty years ago. The reader should realize, however, that while the book announces a central thesis many of the pieces contained here are tangential to the principal subject. On the other hand, the abandonment of western values by the so-called elites is such an all-encompassing subject that the constituent parts of the book all bear some relation to the main subject.

Lasch is often labeled 'conservative' but he spares no one from his analyses and often adds a stinging tail to those analyses. (See, for example, his remarks—pp. 192-93—on the radicalization of the humanities. He notes that, ultimately, the 'radicals' are corporate beings, seeking tenure via shortcuts. Ultimately they threaten no real vested interests [except, of course, traditional scholarship] and fully participate in the corporatization of the university, what should be the true object of our concern.) He confronts controversial subjects head-on and inevitably has pungent things to say. On race, for example:

"The thinking classes seem to labor under the delusion that they alone have overcome racial prejudice. The rest of the country, in their view, remains incorrigibly racist. Their eagerness to drag every conversation back to race is enough in itself to invite the suspicion that their investment in this issue exceeds anything that is justified by the actual state of race relations. Monomania is not a sign of good judgment" (p. 90).

I would invite potential readers to utilize Amazon's "Look Inside" feature to survey the subjects of the book's 13 chapters. All are interesting. Lasch is never dull, he is always knowledgeable concerning his subjects and he always draws blood.

Highly recommended (with the caveat that this is largely a collection of separate essays).

46 people found this helpful

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A customer

A tour de force that helps readers understand their country, and culture and how they evolved

Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2016

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Readers of Chris Hayes' "Twilight of the Elites: America after Meritocracy" may recognize some common themes here. But Lasch presented his far more complete and prescient descriptions of our situation some eighteen years earlier. When I read Hayes' book, some months before Trump's nomination, I immediately recommended to all my liberal friends that they read it. But now, after reading Lasch's even more nuanced critique, I see the work of an incredibly perceptive intellectual whose perceptions and analyses are far more nuanced and comprehensive. This is the kind of work that we once expected the best academics to produce, intended for a broad audience.

91 people found this helpful

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Iacobus de arenoso

Startlingly Prescient and Highly Recommended

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2018

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Lasch was most active in the late twentieth century yet it would seem he was seeing into the future with this book and his equally (or more) famous book, The Culture of Narcissism. In Revolt of the Elites he posits that the degeneration of Western Democracy has been caused by the abandonment by the wealthy and educated elites of their responsibilities to support culture, education, the building of public facilities, etc. in these societies. The rich and educated in Western Liberal, Capitalist, Democracies have, since the 1970s, increasingly abandoned society, keeping all of their earnings to themselves and have adopted a listless transient existence forgoing any significant commitments to community. This, Lasch tells us, is a new phenomenon; where in the past the elites, the wealthy and the educated gave freely of themselves and their earnings to help bring to their communities the finer benefits of the capitalistic, liberal democratic system of society and governance, now this strata of society gives little, aims to pay as little tax as possible, and does not regard themselves as belonging to any community at all. This, Lasch maintains, is causing the breakdown of the Western Democracies, the United States in particular. Democracy itself is not so much under attack by this phenomenon, but withering away from lack of interest as it were.

In these past couple of years much attention has been paid to the threats to democracy posed by the re-emergence of populism, protectionism, nationalism, authoritarian demagogues, conspiracy theories and fear of immigration. Lasch's book shows how and why these recent forces have encountered little resistance from the already eroded democracies in America and elsewhere.

Highly recommended.

43 people found this helpful

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Austin Costakis

More relevant today than ever.

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2020

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Christopher Lasch is arguably one of America's greatest social critics and was incredibly prescient in his writings. Increasingly conservative intellectuals such as Ross Douthat, Rod Dreher, and Julius Krein are becoming critical of the effect that an unrestricted market economy has had on American society. And on the left there are people like Angela Nagle who are critical of cultural liberalism. All these intellectuals had Lasch as a predecessor, but are arguably not as incisive as the late sociologist and definitely lack his theoretical depth. The book itself was in pretty good shape.

16 people found this helpful

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LA

A Must Read in Order to Understand the Modern Progressive Movement

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2021

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Although published some years ago, "Revolt" perfectly captures and anticipates the current events and philosophies that drove the modern progressive movement to disdain the average American citizen in favor of elitist objectives that favored the few. This is a must read for anyone trying to understand how a small but determined liberal elite could have come to dominate, and erode, America's civic and political culture.

4 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Favorite book this year

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2021

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Spectacular and clear eyed, what can happen when you're not married to defending liberalism (looking at you IDW types.) I know solutions are hard but always hungry for them and light here.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

An intelligent, prophetic

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2017

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An intelligent, prophetic, incisive book that deeply analyzes current society, not only in the United States but at the global level. I recommend it as an indispensable reading to understand the current situation in the world.

22 people found this helpful

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John Fletcher

Revolt Successful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2014

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This was Christopher Lasch's final book before his untimely death, and it's depressing to see that the patterns he identified two decades ago are still with us, and indeed are stronger than ever. Today's elites, unfazed by the total collapse of their economic ideology and the near-death of the banking system, are even stronger and less self-aware than they were when he wrote.
But that's not all. The Left, or what remains of it, has swallowed the same rat poison and joined the elites, abandoning ordinary people for elitist ideas and the gobbledegook of "isms" which have proliferated like weeds. Ordinary people simply don't count any more.
Not all of Lach's criticisms are fair: like a lot of Anglo-Saxons he doesn't really understand post-modernism, and looking back now, it's clear that it never had any real influence outside University literature departments.
That said, a book which is even more important today than it was when it was written, given that the elites have, pretty much, now won.

35 people found this helpful

M. M

Superb, essential reading for anyone who lives in the 21st century.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 2, 2022

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The author describes how our society is divided now, into symbolic, in-person and repetitive workers, their origins and attitudes. This replaces the class structure of the past, and seems to describe well who we are by what we do, 20% symbolic, the rest :workers.
Symbolic analysts, = bankers, advertising makers, government employees, those who think doing something on a laptop is ‘creative’ . In-person workers being those who have to be there: haircutting, care workers, nurses, shop assistants. Finally, at the bottom: repetitive workers, factory employees who do the same task over and over. Their reward amounts not neceeccessary in that order.
The author gives very good descriptions of the groupthink of the symbolic analysts, their world of whatever happens to be Correct at the moment, their nomadic enclaves around the world where they only meet others of the same views. The book describes how their cultural Marxism has taken over democracies with activists ensuring there is no other view on race, gender and sexuality: the only lenses any issue can be seen through.
If you want to read how this diaspora came about, the rise of the people now in charge, this is the book for you.

Amazon Customer

Dated but still interesting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2021

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If the reader is familiar with the more contemporary critique of liberalism and democracy, through such works perhaps as “Why Liberalism Failed” and “The Demon in Democracy,” may find this book a little dated. Yet, considering its date of publication, it seems that many of these latter works would not have been possible without it. In that respect it must be included in the “curriculum” of a thoughtful critic of modernity, liberal democracy, and the “American Dream.”

Cliente Amazon

Lectura imprescndible para comprender lo que está ocurriendo en EE.UU. en estos momentos

Reviewed in Spain on March 2, 2017

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Debería estar traducido y ser de lectura obligatoria para la clase política española, es un libro que pone de relieve que la oposición al pensamiento único, lleva tiempo gestándose en EEUU, critica la visión monolítica de una "progresía" elitista que es el origen de la mayoría de las discrepancias en el seno de la sociedad occidental y obstáculo para alcanzar un equilibrio entre los diversos puntos de vista, al pretender anular toda la tradición y las profundas raíces que constituyen en esencia el orgullo y bases más destacadas del proyecto político revolucionario original norteamericano, donde el concepto de democracia revestía unas características y objetivos bastante diferentes de los actuales. .
.

4 people found this helpful

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Woullllnboouboule

Fast shipment, bookin perfect shape!

Reviewed in France on February 25, 2020

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Fast shipment, bookin perfect shape! Perfect!

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