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Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America

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Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America
AuthorJames Davison Hunter
GenrePolitical Science
PublisherBasic Books
Publication date
December 2, 1991
ISBN9780465015337

Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America is a book written by James Davison Hunter and published in 1991.[1] It concerns the idea of a struggle to define American public life between two cultures: the progressives and the orthodox. The book illustrates its framework of historical analysis through several of the contemporary issues of the time: abortion rights, school prayer, gay rights, and more.[2]

Progressive and orthodox views are primarily systems of moral understanding. He identifies orthodoxy as a viewpoint through which moral truth is static, universal, and sanctioned through divine powers; contrasting progressivism, which sees moral truth as evolving and contextual. These two groups are locked in an everlasting "culture war"[3] to assert dominion over the various institutional and systemic entities influenced by contemporary cultural praxis, most visibly the governing branches of America.[4][5]

References

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  1. ^ Hunter, James Davison (December 2, 1991). Culture Wars: The Struggle To Define America. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-01533-7.
  2. ^ Kowaleski, Mark R. (Fall 1992). "James Davison Hunter. "Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America" (Book Review)". Sociological Analysis. 53 (3): 337–338. doi:10.2307/3711713. JSTOR 3711713.
  3. ^ Willick, Jason (May 25, 2018). "The Man Who Discovered 'Culture Wars'". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  4. ^ "Transcript: Is There a Culture War?". Pew Research Center. May 23, 2006.
  5. ^ "Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction". Kirkus.

Sources

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