[book post] The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics by Christopher Lasch

"If social cohesion is impossible without coercion, and coercion is impossible without the creation of social injustice, and the destruction of injustice is impossible without the use of further coercion, are we not in an endless cycle of social conflict?" -Reinhold Niebuhr

The True and Only Heaven is a great rambling shaggy dog story at its heart, though instead of being told by some bearded dude over a campfire, it's told by an academic near the end of his life, just kinda going on about The Entirety Of American Populist History, with extensive footnotes and citations.

There is a thesis here, though it's erratically argued. Lasch wants to call attention to what's good and praiseworthy in the ethic and worldview of populism—the worldview, broadly speaking, of the lower-middle class, the petit bourgeoisie, the small-time farmers and independent craftsmen and business owners that loom so large in the American consciousness. He doesn't deny the characteristic vices of this class—how their feelings too often manifest as or get entangled with racism, tribalism, and insularity. But their virtues, he argues, are too often overlooked or trammeled down by the progressive mainstream: their egalitarianism,their respect for workmanship, their respect for loyalty, and their struggle against resentment. In this respect his outlook's very similar to James C. Scott's, in Two Cheers for Anarchism:( intro )

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( the good parts )

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( the meh parts )

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( the annoying parts )

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( takeaways )

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( other interesting stuff )

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( sick burns )

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so yeah that's the book!

check out the tag on my tumblr if you want the highlights/quotes/etc i noted while i was reading the thing~