In this book, the author (a distinguished political philosopher) argues that the social/political crisis of 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis marked by obvious declines in appreciation of humanities, a drop in the qualitative output of our university systems, and a disquieting disconnect between today's students and the spiritual and cultural traditions of their heritage.

Includes index.

Foreword / Saul Bellow -- Introduction. Our virtue -- Part one. Students -- The clean slate -- Books -- Music -- Relationships. Self-centeredness ; Equality ; Race ; Sex ; Separateness ; Divorce ; Love ; Eros -- Part two. Nihilism, American style -- The German connection -- Two revolutions and two states of nature -- The self -- Creativity -- Culture -- Values -- The Nietzscheanization of the left or vice versa -- Our ignorance -- Part three. The university -- From Socrates' Apology to Heidegger's Rektoratsrede. Tocqueville on democratic intellectual life ; The relation between thought and civil society ; The philosophic experience ; The enlightenment transformation ; Swift's doubts ; Rousseau's radicalization and the German university -- The Sixties -- The student and the university. Liberal education ; The decomposition of the university ; The disciplines ; Conclusion.