I can’t possibly do justice to the breadth of scholarship and depth of argument in Christopher Lasch’s The True and and Only Heaven, Progress and its Critics, in just a couple of sentences. Instead, I will settle for picking out a few reasons why I think this is the most important book I have read so far this year. Lasch made me question what I understand by ‘progress’ and whether it is always a positive aspiration. I’ve long been enthusiastic about scientific and technological progress but wary of proponents of social progress - ‘progressives’ who peddle ideas about gender identity, the family, racial thinking and the importance of being ‘on the right side of history’. Lasch made me question whether it is possible to draw such a sharp distinction between the two or whether progress and progressivism are linked in the worldview promoted by a technocratic ‘expert’ class. Lasch makes apparent the tensions between progress and tradition, between different social classes in a consumption-driven stage of capitalism, between populism and conservatism, and so much more. A lesson I always take from reading Lasch is that trends that might, on the surface, seem new, often have intellectual roots that stretch back very far indeed. He calls on us to take ourselves seriously, read more and know more.
What I read in July...
What I read in July...
What I read in July...
I can’t possibly do justice to the breadth of scholarship and depth of argument in Christopher Lasch’s The True and and Only Heaven, Progress and its Critics, in just a couple of sentences. Instead, I will settle for picking out a few reasons why I think this is the most important book I have read so far this year. Lasch made me question what I understand by ‘progress’ and whether it is always a positive aspiration. I’ve long been enthusiastic about scientific and technological progress but wary of proponents of social progress - ‘progressives’ who peddle ideas about gender identity, the family, racial thinking and the importance of being ‘on the right side of history’. Lasch made me question whether it is possible to draw such a sharp distinction between the two or whether progress and progressivism are linked in the worldview promoted by a technocratic ‘expert’ class. Lasch makes apparent the tensions between progress and tradition, between different social classes in a consumption-driven stage of capitalism, between populism and conservatism, and so much more. A lesson I always take from reading Lasch is that trends that might, on the surface, seem new, often have intellectual roots that stretch back very far indeed. He calls on us to take ourselves seriously, read more and know more.