Radical Niceness

Moral Freedom: The Search for Virtue in a World of Choice, by Alan Wolfe (Norton, 256 pp., $24.95)

ALAN Wolfe, a prominent public intellectual and sociologist of moderately liberal convictions, is fast establishing himself as our foremost chronicler of—and apologist for—the moral softening of America. In his last book, One Nation After All, Wolfe discovered that Americans of different regions, classes, religions, and political convictions are united in their embrace of nonjudgmentalism—and decided that, some minor reservations aside, there was little reason to lament this development. In Moral Freedom, he employs a nationwide opinion poll, as well as in-depth interviews with 205 people from eight disparate communities, to demonstrate that America has become a nation averse to moral absolutes. Once again he draws sunny conclusions from his findings.

DL

About the Author

Damon Linker

Moral Freedom: The Search for Virtue in a World of Choice, by Alan Wolfe (Norton, 256 pp., $24.95)

ALAN Wolfe, a prominent public intellectual and sociologist of moderately liberal convictions, is fast establishing himself as our foremost chronicler of—and apologist for—the moral softening of America. In his last book, One Nation After All, Wolfe discovered that Americans of different regions, classes, religions, and political convictions are united in their embrace of nonjudgmentalism—and decided that, some minor reservations aside, there was little reason to lament this development. In Moral Freedom, he employs a nationwide opinion poll, as well as in-depth interviews with 205 people from eight disparate communities, to demonstrate that America has become a nation averse to moral absolutes. Once again he draws sunny conclusions from his findings.