Marginalized in the Middle - Hardcover

Wolfe, Alan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226905160 ISBN 13: 9780226905167

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1996

Synopsis

Addressing volatile social issues such as gender, pornography, race, welfare, immigration, and schooling, Alan Wolfe examines the ills of American society in the 1990s. He shows that it is possible to be critical and fair at the same time, and concludes that social criticism does not lie within the boundaries of either left-wing or right-wing ideas, but rather is connected to a broad understanding of liberalism. This immensely readable book illustrates the power of social criticism to enlarge discussion of issues at the heart of democracy today.

"In applying a realist approach to controversies over immigration, pornography, race relations, and the apparent communications gap between the genders, Wolfe seeks to demonstrate the advantages of combining the insights of criticism and the tools of social science."—Library Journal

"A plea for a return to liberal thinking, an insistence on the value of 'social criticism beyond politics.' "—Washington Post Book World

"[Wolfe] surveys contemporary public discourse on racial and sexual relations, welfare policy, immigration, pornography, education and cultural politics . . . he manages to bring some fresh thinking to most of these stale debates."—T. J. Jackson Lears, New York Times Book Review

About this title

About the Author

Alan Wolfe is professor emeritus of political science at Boston College as well as a contributing editor to the Wilson Quarterly. He is the author of One Nation, After All: What Middle-Class Americans Really Think About God, Country, Family, Racism, Welfare, Immigration, Homosexuality, Work, the Right, the Left, and Each Other, a 1999 New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

From the Back Cover

Addressing volatile social issues such as gender, pornography, race, welfare, immigration, and schooling, Wolfe examines the ills of American society in the 1990s. Through readings of Andrew Hacker, Elijah Anderson, and Christopher Jencks, for example, he offers a penetrating critique of our thinking about race. Similarly, his discussion of gender and feminism questions whether feminists have sacrificed the concerns of women for the sake of theory. Wolfe uses these and other readings to illustrate the paradoxes of social criticism. Exposing the weaknesses of mere polemics, Wolfe shows how some critics sacrifice fruitful social criticism for the sake of preserving political commitments. He concludes that social criticism does not lie within the boundaries of either left-wing or right-wing ideas, but rather is connected to a broad understanding of liberalism. Wolfe shows that it is possible to be critical and fair at the same time, and fair at the same time, and pinpoints exactly what is at stake in these controversial debates. This immensely readable book illustrates the power of social criticism to enlarge discussion of issues at the heart of democracy today.

Reviews

Wolfe (America at Century's End, LJ 11/1/91) argues here that there are two kinds of social critic?the realist and the romantic. For the time being, the romantic sensibility is dominant. Feminists, environmentalists, and New Right pundits all favor polemic and ideology over scientific reason. But the realists, as exemplified by the author, may be on the rebound. In applying a realist approach to controversies over immigration, pornography, race relations, and the apparent communications gap between the genders, Wolfe seeks to demonstrate the advantages of combining the insights of criticism and the tools of social science. Although he acknowledges the energy and commitment of contemporary right-wing intellectuals, he is generally dismissive of their left-wing counterparts; his heart is with the political center, which "furnishes what is original and unexpected." For larger libraries with collections in sociology, political science, and political philosophy.?Kent Worcester, Social Science Research Council, New York
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226905160
• ISBN 13: 9780226905167
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 299