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Christopher Lasch

The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics Paperback – September 17, 1991

by Christopher Lasch (Author)

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"A major and challenging work. . . . Provocative, and certain to be controversial. . . . Will add important new dimension to the continuing debate on the decline of liberalism." ―William Julius Wilson, New York Times Book Review

Can we continue to believe in progress? In this sobering analysis of the Western human condition, Christopher Lasch seeks the answer in a history of the struggle between two ideas: one is the idea of progress - an idea driven by the conviction that human desire is insatiable and requires ever larger production forces. Opposing this materialist view is the idea that condemns a boundless appetite for more and better goods and distrusts "improvements" that only feed desire. Tracing the opposition to the idea of progress from Rousseau through Montesquieu to Carlyle, Max Weber and G.D.H. Cole, Lasch finds much that is desirable in a turn toward moral conservatism, toward a lower-middle-class culture that features egalitarianism, workmanship and loyalty, and recognizes the danger of resentment of the material goods of others.

Print length

592 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

September 17, 1991
Dimensions

5.5 x 1.5 x 8.3 inches
ISBN-10

0393307956
ISBN-13

978-0393307955
Lexile measure

1440L
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A profound and intellectually honest work of breathtaking historical scope that could easily set the terms of political debate in a post-cold-war world in which the ideologies of right and left seem totally exhausted. . . . A cleareyed study of our usable past."
― Kirkus Reviews

"Powerful and moving. . . . A magisterial synthesis."
― Michael Stern, San Francisco Chronicle

"Christopher Lasch has written a great book about the most important things. As a major contribution to public discourse, The True and Only Heaven will be at the center of discussion for years to come."
― Robert Bellah, coauthor of Habits of the Heart

From the Back Cover

'An extraordinary book by one of our wisest social and political observers, Lasch's brilliant analysis of our secular dreams and hopes, our blind spots and foolishness, ought to help us all figure out what we believe and where we are headed as this century comes to an end.'--Robert Coles

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company (September 17, 1991)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393307956
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393307955
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1440L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.64 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.5 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #137,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #470 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism
- #905 in Criminology (Books)
- #1,274 in Political Science (Books)

Customer Reviews:
35 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		57%
4 star		22%
3 star		16%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		6%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Koparcener

Insightful

Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2017

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Christopher Lasch was a professor of history at Rochester University until his untimely death in !994. This work was published in 1991 and deals with cultural influences affecting America that foresaw much of the problems we are dealing with today. Very insightful

5 people found this helpful

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marshall ma

Poorly assembled

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2020

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Author is good, but order elsewhere. Half of the pages were loose!

2 people found this helpful

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matrixcube

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2018

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dense

One person found this helpful

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Louis Lehmann

THIS IS HIGHLY RELEVANT TODAY

Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2013

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Written many decades ago, this is a comprehensive analysis of the meaning of progress throughout the ages. It underscores how little attention "progress" pays to the reality of a world in which resources are shrinking and what that could mean for the quality of our lives

10 people found this helpful

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Michael Gordy

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2015

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Lasch may have passed away (all too early), but his ideas and critique have not.

6 people found this helpful

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dan horton

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2017

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Shows congruity between events spanning 3 centuries.

4 people found this helpful

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Kathleen W.

Nice addition to my Kindle collection

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2017

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I haven't yet read this. Nice addition to my Kindle collection.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Dave

Comes to light as we enter 2014; Dysfunctional Government & Dysfunctional Society

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2014

Couldn't agree more with the top three reviewers, although I had purchased the book the year of its release I'm rediscovering it and think its truthfulness is coming to light as we enter 2014. I think the book speaks out on the dawning of what has now become a dysfunctional state in American affairs - Dysfunctional Government and a Dysfunctional Society. As the book alludes, this began with government serving the interests of big business, not of the peoples. Born from this was the great flight of corporations to overseas manufacturing in effort to max. profits (in offshore tax-free wealth) and cut benefits (wages & healthcare) that set the stage for an orchestrated derailment of economic equality which led to unemployment and freeze on working class wages keeping with inflation. The powerful bought their way into meddling with America's ingredients to suit themselves and when the recipe failed the public's left as the big loser, the good puppets to the Sell and the Buy; the Bigger and the New.

14 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Mark Connolly

A voice in the wilderness.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2015

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Truly Prophetic! This monumental work is lucid, penetrating, ever erudite and resistant to reductionism. As a keen reader of his oeuvre, Lasch is always passionate and a scholar of the highest rank but this is him at his very finest.
The True and Only Heaven should be required reading for many University courses and every home should have one. Unfortunately, this timeless polemic applies as much to our own day, and my own country as it does to the USA. I would almost like to hit our politicians over the head with it, literally or figuratively.
R.I.P to a great American hero and historian of Hope.

4 people found this helpful

Client d'Amazon

A great book by a great thinker

Reviewed in France on January 9, 2016

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In his very last book, Christopher Lasch developed an unequalled cultural analysis of the notion of progress and its counterintuitive consequences in terms of decay. Optimism and pessimism are understood as two sides of the same coin, against which he promotes hope. While optimism refers to a unidirectional and naïve collective dynamic which goes along with bureaucratisation, hope centres on culture and a shared sense of responsibility. Completing the intellectual path he had developed in the "Culture of Narcissism", Lasch tirelessly strove to provide his readers with a comprehensive understanding of the path followed by America and the west since the modern era. Importantly, Lasch's cultural analysis of the deadlock faced by modern societies doesn't point at external factors like immigration. On the contrary, it centres on the west's own historical logic, which is undermined by the very idea of progress and its shortcomings. Lasch's advocacy of a certain type of populism unequivocally transcends not only left/right politics but also the theatrical and infantilising type of populism which is emerging from the rubbles of western democracy.