
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


James Davison Hunter is a renowned sociologist at the University of Virginia who introduced the term "culture war" to the US discourse. He's a leading expert on cultural change and cultural battles in America.
He joins me to discuss his new book Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis, which tells the deep cultural story underlying today's polarized politics.
This important book describes the deep structure of American culture as resting on what he calls the "hybrid Enlightenment," joining various strands of European Enlightenment thinking with largely Calvinist Christianity. The various contradictions in this hybrid Enlightenment, such as slavery, were worked out over time. But that hybrid Enlightenment also became unraveled over time, leaving Americans without the cultural underpinnings necessary to sustain solidarity. The result is nihilism and culture war.
Democracy and Solidarity is a compelling and important read to understand our present cultural moment.
Buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Solidarity-Cultural-Americas-Political-ebook/dp/B0CW17D3N3/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
Dr. Hunter is also the publisher of the Hedgehog Review magazine: https://hedgehogreview.com/
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/
By Aaron Renn4.9
464464 ratings
James Davison Hunter is a renowned sociologist at the University of Virginia who introduced the term "culture war" to the US discourse. He's a leading expert on cultural change and cultural battles in America.
He joins me to discuss his new book Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America's Political Crisis, which tells the deep cultural story underlying today's polarized politics.
This important book describes the deep structure of American culture as resting on what he calls the "hybrid Enlightenment," joining various strands of European Enlightenment thinking with largely Calvinist Christianity. The various contradictions in this hybrid Enlightenment, such as slavery, were worked out over time. But that hybrid Enlightenment also became unraveled over time, leaving Americans without the cultural underpinnings necessary to sustain solidarity. The result is nihilism and culture war.
Democracy and Solidarity is a compelling and important read to understand our present cultural moment.
Buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Solidarity-Cultural-Americas-Political-ebook/dp/B0CW17D3N3/?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=theurban-20
Dr. Hunter is also the publisher of the Hedgehog Review magazine: https://hedgehogreview.com/
Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.aaronrenn.com/

2,198 Listeners

983 Listeners

839 Listeners

353 Listeners

983 Listeners

839 Listeners

1,091 Listeners

427 Listeners

469 Listeners

1,393 Listeners

1,070 Listeners

450 Listeners

646 Listeners

982 Listeners

1,188 Listeners