Scholar Stanley Rothman, 1927 – 2011
“The ideas of the New Left have spread to become “the new normal,” replacing national community with individual narcissism ill suited to our nation’s continuation.” ─ The End of the Experiment, The Rise of Cultural Elites and the Decline of America’s Civic Culture, Stanley Rothman, Copyright © 2016 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Page xi.
“In Part I [of this book], “The Unraveling” Rothman lays the foundations for America’s cultural transformation by explaining how the shifts in post-industrial society increased the influence of the modern intellectual class.” ─ The End of the Experiment, The Rise of Cultural Elites and the Decline of America’s Civic Culture, Stanley Rothman, Copyright © 2016 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Page xv.
“The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American People.” – George Washington, first inaugural address”.
“The quotation [above] with which this book begins is quite probably from George Washington’s first inaugural address. Like the other founders, Washington was aware that free republics had been far less common in human history than had despotic empires. America was an experiment. Under God, protected by vast distances from the corruption of Europe, lacking vast differences in status and wealth, America might, just might, show a new direction for mankind. What were required [my emphasis] were civic virtue and the right set of political institutions.”
“It is my contention, however, that the experiment has failed, that democracy in America is in decay, and that the immediate future belongs to the bureaucratic state. Clearly, therefore, this book is partly a scholarly polemic.” ─ The End of the Experiment, The Rise of Cultural Elites and the Decline of America’s Civic Culture, Stanley Rothman, Copyright © 2016 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Page 3.
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Sic Transit Gloria Mundi – a Latin phrase that means “Thus passes the glory of the world.” It has been interpreted as “Worldly things are fleeting.”
