What is the difference between right and wrong? What does it mean to lead a good life? How binding is the marriage vow? What are your obligations to an employer? To your friends? To yourself? Is it always immoral to tell a lie? "[A]n alert and knowledgeable social critic," Alan Wolfe asked Americans around the country such questions in "his intriguing exploration of our collective character, testing prevailing notions of the culture war" (New York Times Book Review). Focusing on the traditional virtues of loyalty, honesty, self-restraint, and forgiveness, Wolfe "strips away ulterior agendas to give us a look at the raw material of the American conscience" (New York Observer) and discovers that "Americans...have not so much left traditional morality behind as they have redefined it in ways that suit their individual tastes, purposes, and situations" (Washington Post). "Wolfe is right that [the search for moral freedom] is a revolution...a very American revolution."-Newsweek

About the Author
Alan Wolfe is the director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College and the author of, most recently, the best-selling One Nation after All.


Book Information
ISBN 9780393323023
Author Alan Wolfe
Format Paperback
Page Count 268
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 310g
Dimensions(mm) 208mm * 140mm * 20mm