Christopher Lasch (1932–1994)
Author of The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations
About the Author
Christopher Lasch (1932-1994) was a professor of history at the University of Rochester and wrote, among many other works. The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics and the best-selling Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy.
Image credit: Culture Rover
Works by Christopher Lasch
Why the Left Has No Future 1 copy
Associated Works
The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made it (1948) — Foreword, some editions — 1,246 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Lasch, Christopher
- Other names
- Lasch, Kit
- Birthdate
- 1932-06-01
- Date of death
- 1994-02-14
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Omaha, Nebraska, USA
- Place of death
- Pittsford, New York, USA
- Cause of death
- cancer
- Places of residence
- Omaha, Nebraska, USA (birth)
- Education
- Harvard University (BA|1954)
Columbia University (MA|1955|Ph.D|1961) - Occupations
- professor
historian
moralist
social critic - Organizations
- University of Rochester
Northwestern University
University of Iowa - Awards and honors
- Bowdoin Prize (1954)
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Reviews
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Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 21
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 3,386
- Popularity
- #7,529
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 27
- ISBNs
- 127
- Languages
- 15
- Favorited
- 14
It's important to recognize that Lasch's definition of "progress" is different than the way it is typically used in popular discourse. I have no doubt that Lasch would include the identity politics that we now identify with progressivism in his critique had he lived to see their development as it stands today. It's safe to say that the liberation of various groups that have been historically oppressed is of course a good thing, and the "progress" we've made in the time since Lasch's book was published is a net good in my opinion, though I'm sure Lasch would do his best to attenuate that opinion if he could. However, the "progress" that Lasch is critiquing here is explicitly defined in the beginning and (especially) the end of the book as bigger than the word as we typically use it. So big, in fact, that it can be difficult for people who grew up in the society as it stands today to even recognize it as a idea that can have any alternative, it is so taken for granted. It is essentially this: having thrown off the strictures of religion and tradition, a huge part of humanity believes that our ability to expand (our knowledge, our economy, our lebensraum) is essentially infinite. Lasch here is gravely warning against this ideology, which by this point has become the unquestioned norm. He is mourning the loss of limits, without which human ambition becomes avaricious, pompous, destructive. In this book, he is documenting what he sees as the spiritual, economic, and (for this he deserves much credit for being ahead of his time) environmental degradation of humanity and the planet. The biggest, baddest manifestation of this loss of limits is the looming, seemingly unstoppable reality of climate change, which has made clear the absurd wastefulness and profligacy of Western life, and highlighted the insidiousness of capitalism's promise that it can spread this standard of living to every person on Earth. What may seem like a generous promise of global prosperity, is instead a base money grab, and struggle for survival for an economic system that needs constant growth and expansion of markets to keep itself alive.
Though he may get lost in the weeds of political theory and history, Lasch is essentially trying to layout a secular version of what almost all religions have taught - human effort is, in the end dwarfed by the machinations of God, and that to try and transgress the limits of existence is to call disaster upon yourself. Though the reality of a higher being seems to have been refuted a long time ago, it is of utmost importance that humanity, especially nonbelievers, recognize the value of such a concept, and which trampling upon and leaving in the dust of history has contributed so much to creating the precipice we now find ourselves looking over the edge of.… (more)