Sydney M. Williams
Burrowing into Books
“A Time to Build,” Yuval Levin
March 15, 2020
“The family is our first and most important institution, not only from the perspective
of the history of humanity, but also (and more simply) in the life of every individual.”
A Time to Build, 2020
Yuval Levin (1977-)
Yuval Levin is the founder of “National Affairs,” a director of the American Enterprise Institute and a contributing editor of National Review. His belief is that we need to rebuild our institutions (“The durable forms of our common life”) – families, schools, universities, church, the military, civic organizations and legislatures – into the formative organizations they once were.”
The book (short at 204 pages) is divided into three parts – a description of the crisis, institutions in transition and a suggested path forward. “Everybody,” he writes in the introduction, “knows that Americans have long been losing faith in institutions.” In losing faith, “…we have lost the words with which to speak about what we owe each other.” These institutions, which were once molds that formed who we were, have become platforms for those who use them for their own purposes. This is not the only problem confronting us, but it is the one, he writes, “…about which we tend to be most blind.”
Yuval Levin takes us through the political world where he claims problems are not so much ones of ideology, but of social psychology, “…unleashed and unmoored from institutional constraints.” Thirty pages of the book are devoted to campus culture where “…our degraded capacity for unity and solidarity is the result of a degraded capacity for accepting differences…The trouble is not that we have forgotten how to agree but that we have forgotten how to disagree.” Abetted by administrations and faculty inculcated with a culture of moral activism that does not allow for dissent, colleges graduate students endowed with a sense of political correctness that was “...utterly unfamiliar in the world of work until the last few years.” Writing of the effect of social media, Mr. Levin notes: “In some important respects, this has been an age of isolation not despite but because of social media.” Social media affirms us, rather than shape us. Shopping on-line is convenient, but is there the same sense of loyalty one has to real stores and the people who work in them?
Of all our institutions, family is most important: “Family is the most primordial, and therefore the most foundational of the institutions that form society…It forms us by constraining us – moving us to ask: ‘As a parent, as a spouse ,is this what I should be doing.’” Yet, we are living through a collapse of traditional family forms. Marriage rates have fallen, People marry later and have fewer children. Forty percent of American children are born into one-parent households. “A diminished sense of the family as a formative and authoritative institution leaves us less prepared to approach other institutions with a disposition to be formed by them.” Because this definition of family does not include all forms – single parenthood, cohabitation, same-sex marriage, etc. – it suggests today’s popular culture prefers individual choice (inclusion) over form, its ability to be formative. Family, today, becomes a “…kind of platform, a way of being recognized.”
“The rise of megastar pastors,” Mr. Levin writes in a section on religion in America, “has raised the prospect of a genuine celebrity culture within American Christianity.” There is a downside. He quotes Christian author and journalist Andrew Couch about a fading sense of responsibility that traditional pastors once had to their flocks, and the loss of institutional structure that tended to protect congregants against abuses of power.
Mr. Levin believes that the renewal of institutions is critical to our moral health as a society, and it is hard to disagree: “They constrain and structure our activities; they embody our ideals in practice; they offer us an edifying path to belonging, social status and recognition; and they help to legitimize authority.”
He writes of how we transitioned from a WASP system of elites, who had closed their institutional doors to women and religious, racial and ethnic minorities, to a meritocratic system of elites. But, because this new elite “…does not think of itself as an aristocracy, it does not perceive itself to be in need of restraints.” In contrast, while WASPs were wrong to be exclusive, “…they were not wrong to impose a demanding code of conduct on those within their institutions.”
Yuval Levin concludes his book with a modest request of the reader: “…act through institutions a bit more, not just atop or against or around them. And, in acting through them, to strengthen and reform them: not just to trust our institutions but to make them more trustworthy.” Doing so will allow “…a greater awareness of how integrity, trust, confidence, belonging and meaning are established in our lives.”
Mr. Levin’s call for rebuilding is devoutly to be wished. Can or will it happen? My heart wants to believe in the future he sees as possible, but my head has doubts. I pick up the paper, turn on the news and am overwhelmed with hashtags, political correctness and identity politics – of the cynicism embedded in most of today’s trend-setters. On Saturday I read an op-ed by Barton Swaim in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal. The story was about Alma Deutscher, a fifteen-year old prodigy who writes and plays classical music. “I’ve always wanted to write beautiful music, music that comes out of the heart and speaks directly to the heart.” Yet, critics claim her music is unacceptable because it does not reflect the ugliness of the world in which we live. What a sad commentary on Western culture. The infestation of hatred toward our past, toward Western giants in art, history and literature has gone on so long and has dug so deep that I fear a way forward may prove more difficult than the remedies proposed by Mr. Levin. This is an important book. Yuval Levin has broached an important subject. I hope I am wrong.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Follow the author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Great on Kindle
Great Experience. Great Value.
Putting our best book forward
Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Get the free Kindle app: 
Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.
Frequently bought together
This item: A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream
$16.97
Get it as soon as Thursday, Dec 4
Sold by Main Valley and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.+
$17.71
Get it as soon as Saturday, Nov 22
In Stock
+
$9.99
Get it Nov 20 - 24
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
What do customers buy after viewing this item?
Page 1 of 1 Start over
Lowest Price
in this set of productsThe Fractured Republic: Renewing America's Social Contract in the Age of IndividualismHardcover$3.99 shippingGet it Nov 20 - 24Only 1 left in stock - order soon.Most purchased | Highest rated
in this set of productsAtomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad OnesHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Saturday, Nov 22- American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation―and Could AgainHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Saturday, Nov 22
- The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined AmericaHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Saturday, Nov 22
- Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital AgeHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Monday, Nov 24Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
- The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and LeftPaperbackGet it as soon as Thursday, Dec 4
- AbundanceHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Saturday, Nov 22
- The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental IllnessHardcoverFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Saturday, Nov 22
- Party Ideologies in America, 1828–1996PaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Saturday, Nov 22
- Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American CommunityPaperbackFREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by AmazonGet it as soon as Saturday, Nov 22
From the Publisher
The Fractured Republic
|
The Great Debate
|
American Covenant
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Reviews |
246
|
426
|
127
|
| Price | $15.99 | $17.60 | $17.71 |
| Explore the Works of Yuval Levin | In The Fractured Republic, Yuval Levin argues that this politics of nostalgia is failing twenty-first-century Americans. | An acclaimed portrait of Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the origins of modern conservatism and liberalism | A top conservative scholar reveals the Constitution’s remarkable power to repair our broken civic culture, rescue our malfunctioning politics, and unify a fractious America |
About the author
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.
Top reviews from other countries
- David WoolfReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2022
Exceptional Burkean take on US institutions..........
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase - ChillyfingerReviewed in Canada on March 7, 2020
An Essential Addition to The Armchair Philosopher's Library
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
