We’ve just uncovered a lonely and forgotten box containing our highly regarded 1992 book, The Loss of Virtue: Moral Confusion and Social Disorder in Britain and America. Edited by Digby Anderson, and featuring a preface from John O’Sullivan, The Loss of Virtue was a huge hit. This is from NR’s 1993 ad promoting the book:

Honesty. Discretion. Trust. Diligence. Fortitude. Civility. Tolerance. These and others were the implicitly accepted virtues that once held society together. They were the moral glue that gave the community meaning and stability and individuals a sense of responsibility and direction. But today’s “progressive” leaders have rejected and ridiculed these core virtues, and replaced them with countless individual “rights,” social equality, and fuzzy values like “compassion” and “social justice.” The result has proven disastrous: widespread moral confusion and social disorder that have ruined millions of lives. The Loss of Virtue, edited by National Review contributor Digby Anderson, is the most thorough and analytical—and readable—account yet of the social degeneration brought on by the liberal abandonment of virtue.

The book features 15 powerful essays:

  • Digby Anderson on Domestic Economy: improvidence and irresponsibility in the low-income home
  • Christie Davis on Moralization and Demoralization: a moral explanation for changes in crime, disorder, and social problems
  • Simon Green on Manliness and Civility: lost sources of self-restraint and social cohesion
  • John Gray on Toleration: and the currently offensive implication of judgment
  • Jon Davis on Duty and Self-Sacrifice for country: the new disparagement of public ideals
  • Christopher Daneker on Service and National Service: the obligations of citizenship
  • Patricia Morgan on Fidelity in the Family: one absolute, not another ‘choice’
  • Richard Lynn on Self-control: the family as the source of ‘conscience’
  • Adrian Furnham on Fortitude: the modern tendencies to narcissism and blaming others
  • Robert Grant on Honesty, Honour, and Trust: the decline of self-policing in society
  • Anthony O’Hear on Respect and the dangers of an unfettered ‘critical spirit’ in education
  • Denis O’Keeffe on Diligence abandoned: the dismissal of tradition
  • Mark Almond on Discretion: quietly discrimination between the deserving and undeserving poor
  • Antony Flew on Self-Improvement: its neglect by the contemporary main stream churches
  • David Martin on Making people good—again: the role of Authority, Fear and Example

If you would like one of these scarce copies (there are little more than a dozen) of The Loss of Virtue: Moral Confusion and Social Disorder in Britain and America, you can have it for only $25.00. That includes shipping and handling, and a free copy of NR’s special 2010 collection, The Obama Reader. Order here. NOTE: THIS ITEM HAS SOLD OUT.