1st Edition

The End of the Experiment The Rise of Cultural Elites and the Decline of America's Civic Culture

By Stanley Rothman Copyright 2016

    The End of the Experiment ties together Stanley Rothman's theory of post-industrialism and his four decades of research on American politics and society. Rothman discusses the rise and fall of the New Left, the sixties' impact on America's cultural elites, and the emergence of new post-industrial humanistic values.

    The first part of this book explains how cultural shifts in post-industrial society increased the influence of intellectuals and redefined America's core values. The second part examines how the shift in American social and cultural values led to a crisis of confidence in the American experiment. And in a final section, Rothman's contemporaries provide insight into his work, reflecting on his continued influence and his devotion to traditional liberalism.

    Rothman presents a quantitative study of personality differences between traditional American elites and new cultural elites. Rothman argues that the experiment of America—as a new nation rooted in democracy, morality, and civic virtue—is being destroyed by a disaffected intellectual class opposed to traditional values.

    Foreword by Robert Maranto

    Preface by Matthew Woessner

    Acknowledgments by Althea Nagai

    Part I: The Unraveling of Liberal Capitalism

    1 Post-Industrial America

    2 A Changing America

    3 Post-Calvinist Society and the Rise of the Modern Intellectual

    4 The Communications Revolution and American Society

    Part II: New Strategic Elites

    5 Elites in Conflict: The Theory (with Althea Nagai)

    6 Elites in Conflict: The Findings (with Althea Nagai)

    7 Personality, Occupation, and Social Change
    (with Althea Nagai)

    8 Afterword by Althea Nagai

    Part III: Rothman's Impact

    9 Stanley Rothman: Scholar and Academic Citizen
    by Stephen H. Balch

    10 The New Left and Political Intolerance
    by April Kelly-Woessner

    11 "People Are More Important Than Ideas": The Achievement of Stanley Rothman
    by David J. Rothman

    Bibliography

    List of Contributors

    Index

    Biography

    Stanley Rothman