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"Culture Wars" Author Offers New Book Examining Character — A Hot Topic In This Election Year 
September 14, 2000 -- James Hunter, whose widely discussed "Culture Wars" book called attention to the moral conflicts dividing America, is author of a new work, "The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age Without Good or Evil." The William R. Kenan Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, Hunter currently serves as the director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at U.Va. He is author of several books and numerous articles and essays concerned with the problems of meaning and moral discourse in contemporary culture. Review copies of "The Death of Character" may be obtained by contacting me at (804) 924-7116 or via ilw2t@virginia.edu or Joanna Pinsker at Basic Books at (212) 207-7690 or joanna.pinsker@perseusbooks.com. Hunter can be reached at U.Va. at (804) 924-7293 or via e-mail at jdh6c@virginia.edu. A copy of the Basic Books release describing the work follows: THE DEATH OF CHARACTER: Moral Education in an Age Without Good Or Evil The "character issue.'' We hear about this from the right and the left, from conservatives and liberals alike. Everyone professes deep concern with rebuilding our children's ( and our politicians') characters, but is unwilling to commit to the necessary changes in our school curriculum. In The Death of Character, James Hunter examines this controversial issue with an eye towards the upcoming election season. The problem, in today's climate of "inclusion", is that absolute rights and wrongs, formerly the building blocks of moral education, have been removed from the classroom while everyone scrambles to teach "self-esteem" and the new therapeutic world-view. This education policy fails to equip our children with a healthy sense of moral boundaries and doesn't give our youngsters the groundwork for moral decision-making as adults. Since the institutions that train our children have lost the "idea" of character, how can we expect our political leaders to bring about a positive change in our country's "moral fiber"? In The Death of Character, Hunter insists that we need to re-examine the system from the ground up, to not be afraid to teach right and wrong, and to teach our children that there are consequences for inappropriate actions. How else can we expect our children (and our political leaders) to have "upright characters" if the proper training is not provided? Advance Praise: "A brave exploration of spinelessness and self-deception in the dominant moral sectors of our time." --Michael Novak, George Frederick Jewett Chair, American Enterprise Institute "This excellent, accessible and well-written book traces the decline of moral discipline in American life. From Sunday schools and education reform to the YMCA, self-help manuals, "parent effectiveness training" and the changing priorities of the Girl Scouts, Hunter shows how the ethical demands of character have been replaced with a banal civility of the most superficial moral attachments. This is a book to be widely read and discussed by everyone concerned with moral education in the very broadest sense of the term." --Adam B. Selligman, Institute for the Study of Economic Culture, Boston University "James Hunter has a talent for writing important books--books that freshly map the contours of our culture, and in so doing, transform the way we talk and think about our lives. With The Death of Character he has done it again, mercilessly dissecting our confused discourse about moral education. Hunter shows that the way back to "character" will be much harder than we have been willing to acknowledge." --Wilfred M. McClay, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Contact: Ida Lee Wootten, (804) 924-6857 |
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