Download or read book Natural Aristocracy written by Kevin Railey and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2012-06-04 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Railey uses a materialist critical approach to argue that Faulkner'sobsession with history and his struggle with specific ideologies affecting southern society and his family guided his development as an artist. Faulkner may have written himself into history in a way that satisfied the image he had of himself as a natural, artistic aristocrat.
Download or read book The Aristocracy of Talent written by Adrian Wooldridge and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-07-13 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left? In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system. Wooldridge also shows how meritocracy has now become corrupted and argues that the recent stalling of social mobility is the result of failure to complete the meritocratic revolution. Rather than abandoning meritocracy, he says, we should call for its renewal.
Download or read book Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education written by William G. Bowen and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 200? with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Jefferson once stated that the foremost goal of American education must be to nurture the "natural aristocracy of talent and virtue." Although in many ways American higher education has fulfilled Jefferson's vision by achieving a widespread level of excellence, it has not achieved the objective of equity implicit in Jefferson's statement. In Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education, William G. Bowen, Martin A. Kurzweil, and Eugene M. Tobin explore the cause for this divide. Employing historical research, examination of the most recent social science and public policy scholarship, international comparisons, and detailed empirical analysis of rich new data, the authors study the intersection between "excellence" and "equity" objectives. Beginning with a time line tracing efforts to achieve equity and excellence in higher education from the American Revolution to the early Cold War years, this narrative reveals the halting, episodic progress in broadening access across the dividing lines of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The authors argue that despite our rhetoric of inclusiveness, a significant number of youth from poor families do not share equal access to America's elite colleges and universities. While America has achieved the highest level of educational attainment of any country, it runs the risk of losing this position unless it can markedly improve the precollegiate preparation of students from racial minorities and lower-income families. After identifying the "equity" problem at the national level and studying nineteen selective colleges and universities, the authors propose a set of potential actions to be taken at federal, state, local, and institutional levels. With recommendations ranging from reform of the admissions process, to restructuring of federal financial aid and state support of public universities, to addressing the various precollegiate obstacles that disadvantaged students face at home and in school, the authors urge all selective colleges and universities to continue race-sensitive admissions policies, while urging the most selective (and privileged) institutions to enroll more well-qualified students from families with low socioeconomic status.
Download or read book The 9 9 Percent written by Matthew Stewart and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “brilliant” (The Washington Post), “clear-eyed and incisive” (The New Republic) analysis of how the wealthiest group in American society is making life miserable for everyone—including themselves. In 21st-century America, the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution have walked away with the big prizes even while the bottom 90% have lost ground. What’s left of the American Dream has taken refuge in the 9.9% that lies just below the tip of extreme wealth. Collectively, the members of this group control more than half of the wealth in the country—and they are doing whatever it takes to hang on to their piece of the action in an increasingly unjust system. They log insane hours at the office and then turn their leisure time into an excuse for more career-building, even as they rely on an underpaid servant class to power their economic success and satisfy their personal needs. They have segregated themselves into zip codes designed to exclude as many people as possible. They have made fitness a national obsession even as swaths of the population lose healthcare and grow sicker. They have created an unprecedented demand for admission to elite schools and helped to fuel the dramatic cost of higher education. They channel their political energy into symbolic conflicts over identity in order to avoid acknowledging the economic roots of their privilege. And they have created an ethos of “merit” to justify their advantages. They are all around us. In fact, they are us—or what we are supposed to want to be. In this “captivating account” (Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone), Matthew Stewart argues that a new aristocracy is emerging in American society and it is repeating the mistakes of history. It is entrenching inequality, warping our culture, eroding democracy, and transforming an abundant economy into a source of misery. He calls for a regrounding of American culture and politics on a foundation closer to the original promise of America.
Download or read book John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy written by Luke Mayville and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why American founding father John Adams feared the political power of the rich—and how his ideas illuminate today's debates about inequality and its consequences Long before the "one percent" became a protest slogan, American founding father John Adams feared the power of a class he called simply "the few"—the wellborn, the beautiful, and especially the rich. In John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy, Luke Mayville explores Adams’s deep concern with the way in which inequality threatens to corrode democracy and empower a small elite. Adams believed that wealth is politically powerful not merely because money buys influence, but also because citizens admire and even identify with the rich. Mayville explores Adams’s theory of wealth and power in the context of his broader concern about social and economic disparities—reflections that promise to illuminate contemporary debates about inequality and its political consequences. He also examines Adams’s ideas about how oligarchy might be countered. A compelling work of intellectual history, John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy has important lessons for today’s world.
Download or read book A Personal Aristocracy written by True Blue Indigo and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Book of the Courtier meets Eckhart Tolle in this essential work of new consciousness literature. Jesus, Buddha, Baha-u'llah, Martin Luther King, Guru Nanek, Mohammed, Gandhi, Mother Theresa and others are widely considered the spiritual nobility of the world. In contrast to the ancient material nobility whose power is based upon material wealth acquired through force, the power of this spiritual nobility is based upon the true power of spiritual wealth and an endless capacity to give, love, and uplift humanity. This impulse to replicate the energetic signature of the spiritual nobility is arising spontaneously all around the world, a new love-based form of humanity dawning. When everyday people embark upon the path of their own personal self-ennoblement they are taking the most important journey any human being will take in their lifetime to become the change they desire to see in the world. This new form of humanity will be the basis for a 21st Century spiritual nobility, a new aristocracy, a leap in human development into fully realized human beings. True Blue Indigo's A Personal Aristrocracy encourages the exploration of beauty and graciousness that surpass the old forms by imbuing the best of the secular with spirit. Short, meditative chapters open with an illuminating epigraph and move on to consider such qualities as dignity, honor, reverence, truth, and forbearance, followed by sound strategies for integrating these traits into daily life.
Download or read book Aristocracy A Very Short Introduction written by William Doyle and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-11-25 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging introduction shows how ideas of aristocracy originated in ancient times, were transformed in the middle ages, and have only fallen apart over the last two centuries.
Download or read book Nietzsche s Culture of Humanity written by Jeffrey Church and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nietzsche scholars have long been divided over whether Nietzsche is an aristocratic or a democratic thinker. Nietzche's Culture of Humanity overcomes this debate by proving both sides wrong. Jeffrey Church argues that in his early period writings, Nietzsche envisioned a cultural meritocracy that drew on the classical German tradition of Kant and Herder. The young Nietzsche's 'culture of humanity' synthesized the high and low, the genius and the people, the nation and humanity. Nietzsche's early ideal of culture can shed light on his mature period thought, since, Church argues, Nietzsche does not abandon this fundamental commitment to a cultural meritocracy. Nietzche's Culture of Humanity argues that Nietzsche's novel defense of culture can overcome some persisting problems in contemporary liberal theories of culture. As such, this book should interest Nietzsche scholars, political theorists and philosophers interested in modern thought, as well as contemporary thinkers concerned with the politics of culture.
Download or read book From Aristocracy to Monarchy to Democracy written by Hans-Hermann Hoppe and published by Ludwig von Mises Institute. This book was released on 2014-11-18 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this tour de force essay, Hans-Hermann Hoppe turns the standard account of historical governmental progress on its head. While the state is an evil in all its forms, monarchy is, in many ways, far less pernicious than democracy. Hoppe shows the evolution of government away from aristocracy, through monarchy, and toward the corruption and irresponsibility of democracy to have been identical with the growth of the leviathan state. There is hope for liberty, as Hoppe explains, but it lies not in reversing these steps, but rather through secession and decentralization. This pocket-sized, eye-opening pamphlet is ideal for tabling, conferences, or sharing with friends. It can revolutionize the way a reader sees society and the state.
Download or read book The Assault on American Excellence written by Anthony T. Kronman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I want to call it a cry of the heart, but it’s more like a cry of the brain, a calm and erudite one.” —Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal The former dean of Yale Law School argues that the feverish egalitarianism gripping college campuses today is a threat to our democracy. College education is under attack from all sides these days. Most of the handwringing—over free speech, safe zones, trigger warnings, and the babying of students—has focused on the excesses of political correctness. That may be true, but as Anthony Kronman shows, it’s not the real problem. “Necessary, humane, and brave” (Bret Stephens, The New York Times), The Assault on American Excellence makes the case that the boundless impulse for democratic equality gripping college campuses today is a threat to institutions whose job is to prepare citizens to live in a vibrant democracy. Three centuries ago, the founders of our nation saw that for this country to have a robust government, it must have citizens trained to have tough skins, to make up their own minds, and to win arguments not on the basis of emotion but because their side is closer to the truth. Without that, Americans would risk electing demagogues. Kronman is the first to tie today’s campus clashes to the history of American values, drawing on luminaries like Alexis de Tocqueville and John Adams to argue that our modern controversies threaten the best of our intellectual traditions. His tone is warm and wise, that of an educator who has devoted his life to helping students be capable of living up to the demands of a free society—and to do so, they must first be tested in a system that isn’t focused on sympathy at the expense of rigor and that values excellence above all.
Download or read book Tocqueville written by Lucien Jaume and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-21 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major intellectual biography of Toqueville that restores democracy in America to its essential context Many American readers like to regard Alexis de Tocqueville as an honorary American and democrat—as the young French aristocrat who came to early America and, enthralled by what he saw, proceeded to write an American book explaining democratic America to itself. Yet, as Lucien Jaume argues in this acclaimed intellectual biography, Democracy in America is best understood as a French book, written primarily for the French, and overwhelmingly concerned with France. "America," Jaume says, "was merely a pretext for studying modern society and the woes of France." For Tocqueville, in short, America was a mirror for France, a way for Tocqueville to write indirectly about his own society, to engage French thinkers and debates, and to come to terms with France's aristocratic legacy. By taking seriously the idea that Tocqueville's French context is essential for understanding Democracy in America, Jaume provides a powerful and surprising new interpretation of Tocqueville's book as well as a fresh intellectual and psychological portrait of the author. Situating Tocqueville in the context of the crisis of authority in postrevolutionary France, Jaume shows that Tocqueville was an ambivalent promoter of democracy, a man who tried to reconcile himself to the coming wave, but who was also nostalgic for the aristocratic world in which he was rooted—and who believed that it would be necessary to preserve aristocratic values in order to protect liberty under democracy. Indeed, Jaume argues that one of Tocqueville's most important and original ideas was to recognize that democracy posed the threat of a new and hidden form of despotism.
Download or read book Revolutionary Characters written by Gordon S. Wood and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-05-18 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this brilliantly illuminating group portrait of the men who came to be known as the Founding Fathers, the incomparable Gordon Wood has written a book that seriously asks, "What made these men great?" and shows us, among many other things, just how much character did in fact matter. The life of each—Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Paine—is presented individually as well as collectively, but the thread that binds these portraits together is the idea of character as a lived reality. They were members of the first generation in history that was self-consciously self-made men who understood that the arc of lives, as of nations, is one of moral progress.
Download or read book Former People written by Douglas Smith and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2012-10-02 with total page 763 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Epic in scope, precise in detail, and heart-breaking in its human drama, Former People is the first book to recount the history of the aristocracy caught up in the maelstrom of the Bolshevik Revolution and the creation of Stalin's Russia. Filled with chilling tales of looted palaces and burning estates, of desperate flights in the night from marauding peasants and Red Army soldiers, of imprisonment, exile, and execution, it is the story of how a centuries'-old elite, famous for its glittering wealth, its service to the Tsar and Empire, and its promotion of the arts and culture, was dispossessed and destroyed along with the rest of old Russia. Yet Former People is also a story of survival and accommodation, of how many of the tsarist ruling class—so-called "former people" and "class enemies"—overcame the psychological wounds inflicted by the loss of their world and decades of repression as they struggled to find a place for themselves and their families in the new, hostile order of the Soviet Union. Chronicling the fate of two great aristocratic families—the Sheremetevs and the Golitsyns—it reveals how even in the darkest depths of the terror, daily life went on. Told with sensitivity and nuance by acclaimed historian Douglas Smith, Former People is the dramatic portrait of two of Russia's most powerful aristocratic families, and a sweeping account of their homeland in violent transition.
Download or read book Race in America written by Patricia Reid-Merritt and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-01-23 with total page 571 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the socially explosive concept of race and how it has affected human interactions, this work examines the social and scientific definitions of race, the implementation of racialized policies and practices, the historical and contemporary manifestations of the use of race in shaping social interactions within U.S. society and elsewhere, and where our notions of race will likely lead. More than a decade and a half into the 21st century, the term "race" remains one of the most emotionally charged words in the human language. While race can be defined as "a local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics," the concept of race can better be understood as a socially defined construct—a system of human classification that carries tremendous weight, yet is complex, confusing, contradictory, controversial, and imprecise. This collection of essays focuses on the socially explosive concept of race and how it has shaped human interactions across civilization. The contributed work examines the social and scientific definitions of race, the implementation of racialized policies and practices, and the historical and contemporary manifestations of the use of race in shaping social interactions (primarily) in the United States—a nation where the concept of race is further convoluted by the nation's extensive history of miscegenation as well as the continuous flow of immigrant groups from countries whose definitions of race, ethnicity, and culture remain fluid. Readers will gain insights into subjects such as how we as individuals define ourselves through concepts of race, how race affects social privilege, "color blindness" as an obstacle to social change, legal perspectives on race, racialization of the religious experience, and how the media perpetuates racial stereotypes.
Download or read book The Wild West written by Will Wright and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2001-08-09 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, written by the author of the celebrated volume Six Guns and Society, explains why the myth of the Wild West is popular around the world. It shows how the cultural icon of the Wild West speaks to deep desires of individualism and liberty and offers a vision of social contract theory in which a free and equal individual (the cowboy) emerges from the state of nature (the wilderness) to build a civil society (the frontier community). The metaphor of the Wild West retained a commitment to some limited government (law and order) but rejected the notion of the fully codified state as too oppressive (the corrupt sheriff). Compelling and magnificently suggestive, the book unpacks one of the core icons of our time.
Download or read book The Five Thousand Year Leap written by W. Cleon Skousen and published by Verity Publishing. This book was released on with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Founding Fathers of the United States of America created the first free people in modern times. They wrote a new kind of Constitution which is now the oldest in existence. They built a new kind of commonwealth designed as a model for the whole human race. They believed it was thoroughly possible to create a new kind of civilization; giving freedom, equality, and justice to all. The Founders created a new cultural climate that gave wings to the human spirit. They built a free-enterprise culture to encourage industry and prosperity. They gave humanity the needed ingredients for a gigantic 5,000-year leap in which more progress has been made in the past 200 years than all of prior recorded human history. All of this came about because of 28 basic principles the Founders discovered, upon which all free nations must be built in order to succeed. This eBook includes the original index, footnotes, table of contents and page numbering from the printed format, and also new illustrations.
Download or read book Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal written by Terence Ball and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-08-31 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal analyzes and compares political ideologies to help readers understand individual ideologies, and the concept of ideology, from a political science perspective. This best-selling title promotes open-mindedness and develops critical thinking skills. It covers a wide variety of political ideologies from the traditional liberalism and conservatism to recent developments in identity politics, green politics, and radical Islamism. NEW TO THIS EDITION An expanded account of the right to vote and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. A new section on "fusionist" conservatism that attempts to ally different kinds of conservatives. A discussion of Putin’s post-Soviet expansion of Russia’s territory and influence, the apparent rebirth of "Mao Zedong thought" in China, and the ideology of Juche in North Korea. Coverage of "democratic socialism" in the context of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. Updates on fascism past and present. A more in-depth account of the origins of black liberation and a discussion of the new "Black Lives Matter" movement. New directions in feminist theory and the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage. An account of Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical on the environment and humans’ duty to protect it. An expanded discussion of radical Islamism, especially with regard to the varieties of Islamism, the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS), and the effects of recent terrorist attacks on national and international politics. Discussion questions added to the end of each chapter. Additional graphs and photos throughout. An updated, author-written Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank.
