The Identity of the West

The Might of the West, by Lawrence R. Brown. Obolensky, $10.00 In The Might of the West, Lawrence Brown has made a most impressive contribution to the understanding of the history of Western civilization and of the crisis of the twentieth century. Challenging the accepted assumptions of received historical opinion by its forthright rejection of historical egalitarianism, it is not likely to be very well received. But then, this is not the first time in human experience that an immense gulf has existed between the true scholars of the epoch and those who succeed in imposing upon society as intellectual leaders. It has happened before that the accepted norms of “educated” opinion are solidly based upon fallacies, long painstakingly exposed by the best thought of the age. But in this respect our age is one of the worst; in the whole area of thought about the nature and destiny of men, about their relations with each other, about their political, social and economic institutions, the greater part of what is taught in our schools and colleges, and preached through our omnipresent communications media, is decades behind the work of serious scholarship.

One could cite field after field, from the simplistic relativist ethics that our social workers and juvenile criminals alike soak up from their “education,” to the vulgar semiMarxist, semi-Keynesian economics that instruct our present course towards national bankruptcy. Nowhere, however, is the gap between true scholarship and received opinion more profound than in the field of history. And nowhere, perhaps, is that separation, between men intent on the search for truth and ideologists intent only on advancing their panaceas, more fraught with danger. For our sense of identity as participants in the fate of our nation and our civilization depends upon our sense of the history of that nation and that civilization.

FS

About the Author

Frank S. Meyer

Frank S. Meyer was a senior editor of National Review.

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The Might of the West, by Lawrence R. Brown. Obolensky, $10.00 In The Might of the West, Lawrence Brown has made a most impressive contribution to the understanding of the history of Western civilization and of the crisis of the twentieth century. Challenging the accepted assumptions of received historical opinion by its forthright rejection of historical egalitarianism, it is not likely to be very well received. But then, this is not the first time in human experience that an immense gulf has existed between the true scholars of the epoch and those who succeed in imposing upon society as intellectual leaders. It has happened before that the accepted norms of “educated” opinion are solidly based upon fallacies, long painstakingly exposed by the best thought of the age. But in this respect our age is one of the worst; in the whole area of thought about the nature and destiny of men, about their relations with each other, about their political, social and economic institutions, the greater part of what is taught in our schools and colleges, and preached through our omnipresent communications media, is decades behind the work of serious scholarship.

One could cite field after field, from the simplistic relativist ethics that our social workers and juvenile criminals alike soak up from their “education,” to the vulgar semiMarxist, semi-Keynesian economics that instruct our present course towards national bankruptcy. Nowhere, however, is the gap between true scholarship and received opinion more profound than in the field of history. And nowhere, perhaps, is that separation, between men intent on the search for truth and ideologists intent only on advancing their panaceas, more fraught with danger. For our sense of identity as participants in the fate of our nation and our civilization depends upon our sense of the history of that nation and that civilization.