American Individualism Reconsidered
Individualism is a distinctively American ideology or myth whose adequacy for coping with contemporary or future experience is under increasing attack even while allegiance to it remains at a high level. The mentality of liberal individualism gained the upper hand in the nineteenth century over thos...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Springer
1981
|
| In: |
Review of religious research
Year: 1981, Volume: 22, Issue: 4, Pages: 362-376 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
|
| Summary: | Individualism is a distinctively American ideology or myth whose adequacy for coping with contemporary or future experience is under increasing attack even while allegiance to it remains at a high level. The mentality of liberal individualism gained the upper hand in the nineteenth century over those corrective concerns for the public good and social justice that are found in even its supposed originators, the Puritans, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and Adam Smith. Communitarian thought and a tradition of social justice have never died out, but the tide of criticism is swelling. From diverse sources have come calls for recovery of the importance of mediating structures (Berger and Neuhaus), for change to a new American communitarian ideology (Lodge), for a return to republican virtue (Bellah), and for some form of socialism (Harrington and Heilbroner). In the midst of the criticisms, however, there is recognition of assets in individualism that should not be abandoned along with the liabilities. Both realism about America and the way myths change and appreciation for values in individualism prompt an attempt at transformation in a more communitarian direction instead of wholesale repudiation. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2211-4866 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Review of religious research
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3509768 |