The Survival of Culture

Can the cultural values that have distinguished Western civilization survive the present-day preoccupation with relativism and the quest for pleasure? In this important and wide-ranging collection of essays, ten distinguished critics reflect on the direction of our society, emphasizing both the dangers that threaten our institutions and the vivifying survivals that are worthy of being cherished and nurtured. Among the contributors, Robert H. Bork considers the contemporary assaults on the tradition of law; Anthony Daniels, the English doctor and essayist, finds that he must defend the venerable principle that physicians traditionally subscribe to: “First do no harm”; Roger Kimball assesses the prospects of high culture; Hilton Kramer writes on the future of criticism; Kenneth Minogue shows how Western society has increasingly fallen prey to a “new Epicureanism”; Eric Ormsby warns of the fate of research libraries in the age of the Internet; David Pryce-Jones takes a hard look at the way the bureaucratic imperatives of the European Union are undermining freedom and democracy; Diana Schaub investigates the values of Generation X; Mark Steyn defends Western values against the anti-Western, anti-democratic forces that operate within the West itself; and Keith Windschuttle shows how efforts to alter the historical record threaten the very survival of culture. In all, The Survival of Culture provides a critical fever chart of our age, plotting the health of our cultural institutions and mounting a powerful attack on their adversaries. Drawn from the pages of The New Criterion, these vividly written essays are guaranteed to spark controversy and debate.