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Shame : how America's past sins have polarized our country

Title
Shame : how America's past sins have polarized our country / Shelby Steele.
Author
Steele, Shelby.
Publication
New York : Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, [2015]

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TextUse in library Sc D 15-1264Schomburg Center - Research & Reference

Details

Description
vii, 198 pages; 22 cm
Summary
"The United States today is hopelessly polarized; the political Right and Left have hardened into rigid and deeply antagonistic camps, preventing any sort of progress. Amid the bickering and inertia, the promise of the 1960s-when we came together as a nation to fight for equality and universal justice-remains unfulfilled. As Shelby Steele reveals in Shame, the roots of this impasse can be traced back to that decade of protest, when in the act of uncovering and dismantling our national hypocrisies-racism, sexism, militarism-liberals internalized the idea that there was something inauthentic, if not evil, in the America character. Since then, liberalism has been wholly concerned with redeeming modern American from the sins of the past, and has derived its political legitimacy from the premise of a morally bankrupt America. The result has been a half-century of well-intentioned but ineffective social programs, such as Affirmative Action. Steele reveals that not only have these programs failed, but they have in almost every case actively harmed America's minorities and poor. Ultimately, Steele argues, post-60s liberalism has utterly failed to achieve its stated aim: true equality. Liberals, intending to atone for our past sins, have ironically perpetuated the exploitation of this country's least fortunate citizens. It therefore falls to the Right to defend the American dream. Only by reviving our founding principles of individual freedom and merit-based competition can the fraught legacy of American history be redeemed, and only through freedom can we ever hope to reach equality. Approaching political polarization from a wholly new perspective, Steele offers a rigorous critique of the failures of liberalism and a cogent argument for the relevance and power of conservatism. "--
Subjects
Call Number
Sc D 15-1264
ISBN
  • 9780465066971
  • 0465066976
LCCN
2014046421
OCLC
2014046421
Author
Steele, Shelby.
Title
Shame : how America's past sins have polarized our country / Shelby Steele.
Publisher
New York : Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, [2015]
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Local Subject
Black author.
Research Call Number
Sc D 15-1264
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