The dream and the nightmare : the sixties' legacy to the underclass / Myron Magnet.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Magnet, Myron.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Poor--United States.

Poor.

United States.

Social values.

Subculture--United States.

Subculture.

United States--Social conditions--1960-1980.

Social conditions.

United States--Social conditions--1980-2020.

United States--Social policy--1980-1993.

Social policy.

Physical Description:

269 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : Encounter Books, 2000.

Summary:

Myron Magnet's The Dream and the Nightmare illuminates how the radical transformation of American culture that began in the 1960s brought today's underclass -- overwhelmingly urban and minority -- into existence. Lifestyle experimentation among the white middle class sent a destructive message to those at the bottom of the social ladder, precipitating disastrous changes in attitudes toward work and family, law and civility, and thereby closing the routes upward.

Magnet contends that the way to lift the underclass out of poverty is to return to values honoring hard work, individual responsibility, freedom under the rule of law, the importance of community, and equal individual rights rather than group rights.

Magnet's analysis of social decay has been cited as an inspiration for the "compassionate conservative" philosophy of presidential candidate George W. Bush, who says that aside from the Bible this is the most influential book he has ever read.

Contents:

What's gone wrong?

The power of culture

The underclass

The hole in the theory

The homeless

Homelessness and liberty

Victimizing the poor

Race and reparations

Rebels with a cause

The living constitution

Trashing the culture

The poverty of spirit.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-254) and index.

ISBN:

1893554023

OCLC:

43927415