Postmodernism Rightly Understood: The Return to Realism in American Thought

Product Description

Postmodernism Rightly Understood is a dramatic return to realism―a poetic attempt to attain a true understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the postmodern predicament. Prominent political theorist Peter Augustine Lawler reflects on the flaws of postmodern thought, the futility of pragmatism, and the spiritual emptiness of existentialism. Lawler examines postmodernism by interpreting the writings of five respected and best selling American authors―Francis Fukuyama, Richard Rorty, Allan Bloom, Walker Percy, and Christopher Lasch. Lawler explains why the alternatives available in our time are either a “soulless niceness,” which Fukuyama, Rorty, and Bloom described as the result of modern success, or a postmodern moral responsibility that accompanies love in the ruins, as articulated by Percy and Lasch. This is a fresh and compelling look at the crisis of the human soul and intellect accompanied by the onset of postmodernity.

Review

…admirably ambitious… But Lawler is a gadfly―of that distinctively southern sort, with an eviable combination of intelligence, learning and wit. Lawler’s account far surpasses the leading scholarship on Percy….. — Steven J. Lenzner, Political Theorist, Cambridge, Massachussetts,
The Weekly Standard

Lawler challenges us to take Post-Modernism away from the academic left and give it to those who see the end of the modern Enlightenment as an opportunity for recovering the truth about God and man formerly known as “moral and metaphysical realism. His work inspires hope that our age of disillusionment can be followed a new age of faith. — Robert P. Kraynak, Colgate University

Postmodernism Rightly Understood is an admirable, and admirably ambitious, book. Not the least of its ambitions is to show what it is about the character of modern life―and postmodern thought― that renders it so difficult to address the twinproblems of love and death and why our humanity requires that we make the effort. Lawler employs an enviable mix of intelligence, learning and wit to make his case. For this reason alone, Postmodernism Rightly Understood deserves to be read widely and debated thoroughly, and not simply by academics. — Steve Lenzner,
The Weekly Standard

This is a remarkably insightful book. The understanding of ‘modernity’ and ‘post-modernity’ requires serious intellectual effort. Lawler has, in a sense, turned the tables on the usual understanding of ‘postmodernity’ to ask if there is in it anything that can be ‘rightly understood’? This leads him to investigate the American discussion of this issue. He recalls the discussions of classical and medieval thought. The solution to the many modern and post-modern enigmas is a return to a systematically rejected, but unfounded realism. In this he follows the lead of Christopher Lasch and Walker Percy in examining the theses of Fukayama, Rorty, and Allan Bloom. It is an original, brilliant effort. — Rev. James V. Schall S.J., Georgetown University

Lawler’s book on a number of contrasting writers on post-war society and politics of the West is an excellent one. I found Lawler’s chapters on Fukuyama, Percy, and Lasch to be models of intellectually provocative commentary.
Postmodernism Rightly Understood is a necessary panegyric for competent and dignified citizens for our times. — Kenneth Deutsch, SUNY, Geneseo

Postmodernism Rightly Understood is an admirable, and admirably ambitious, book. Not the least of its ambitions is to show what it is about the character of modern life―and “postmodern” thought― thatrenders it so difficult to address the twin problems of love and death and why our humanity requires that we make the effort. Lawler employs an enviable mix of intelligence, learning and wit to make his case. For this reason alone,
Postmodernism Rightly Understood deserves to be read widely and debated thoroughly, and not simply by academics. — Steve Lenzner,
The Weekly Standard

…admirably ambitious…But Lawler is