The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics - Paperback

by Christopher Lasch (Author)

Can we continue to believe in progress? In this sobering analysis of the Western human condition, Christopher Lasch seeks the answer in a history of the struggle between two ideas: one is the idea of progress - an idea driven by the conviction that human desire is insatiable and requires ever larger production forces. Opposing this materialist view is the idea that condemns a boundless appetite for more and better goods and distrusts "improvements" that only feed desire. Tracing the opposition to the idea of progress from Rousseau through Montesquieu to Carlyle, Max Weber and G.D.H. Cole, Lasch finds much that is desirable in a turn toward moral conservatism, toward a lower-middle-class culture that features egalitarianism, workmanship and loyalty, and recognizes the danger of resentment of the material goods of others.

Back Jacket

'An extraordinary book by one of our wisest social and political observers, Lasch's brilliant analysis of our secular dreams and hopes, our blind spots and foolishness, ought to help us all figure out what we believe and where we are headed as this century comes to an end.'--Robert Coles