Book Description
Red and Blue states . . . the “Religious Right” and the “Liberal Media” . . . NASCAR dads and soccer moms . . . Is America clearly and bitterly divided? Are today’s social and political differences truly worrisome, or the unavoidable products of a diverse democracy? In Is There a Culture War? two leading authorities on political culture lead a provocative examination of division and unity within America.
Long before most pundits and analysts considered the notion of a “culture war,” James Davison Hunter and Alan Wolfe were laying the groundwork for the debate. Now, for the first time, these two important thinkers join in dialogue to search for the truth about America’s cultural condition. Two other brilliant voices enter the forum, commenting on Hunter’s and Wolfe’s views–historian Gertrude Himmelfarb and Morris Fiorina, author of Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America.
About the Author
James Davison Hunter is the William R. Kenan Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, where he is also executive director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. Among his several books is The Death of Character: On Moral Education of America’s Children (Basic Books, 2000).
Alan Wolfe is a professor of political science at Boston College, where he directs the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life. He is the author of numberous books, most recently Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What It Needs to Do to Recover It (Princeton, 2005).