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The conservative intellectual Yuval Levin argues for renewing America by committing wholeheartedly again to America's institutions, arguing against criticisms of the apparatus of American government coming from right and left.
About the author
Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. The founder and editor of
National Affairs, he is also a senior editor at
The New Atlantis, a contributing editor at
National Review, and a contributing opinion writer at
The New York Times. His previous books include
The Fractured Republic and
The Great Debate. A former member of the White House domestic policy staff under George W. Bush, he lives in Maryland.
Summary
A leading conservative intellectual argues that to renew America we must recommit to our institutions
Americans are living through a social crisis. Our politics is polarized and bitterly divided. Culture wars rage on campus, in the media, social media, and other arenas of our common life. And for too many Americans, alienation can descend into despair, weakening families and communities and even driving an explosion of opioid abuse.
Left and right alike have responded with populist anger at our institutions, and use only metaphors of destruction to describe the path forward: cleaning house, draining swamps. But, as Yuval Levin argues, this is a misguided prescription, rooted in a defective diagnosis. The social crisis we confront is defined not by an oppressive presence but by a debilitating absence of the forces that unite us and militate against alienation.
As Levin argues, now is not a time to tear down, but rather to build and rebuild by committing ourselves to the institutions around us. From the military to churches, from families to schools, these institutions provide the forms and structures we need to be free. By taking concrete steps to help them be more trustworthy, we can renew the ties that bind Americans to one another.
Foreword
A leading conservative intellectual argues that to renew America we must recommit to our institutions
