Title

The de-moralization of society : from Victorian virtues to modern values

Description

Gertrude Himmelfarb, like so many Americans, is appalled by crime, drug addiction, illiteracy, juvenile delinquency, illegitimacy and welfare dependency. The solution she proposes, in this follow-up to her much-praised On Looking into the Abyss, is as simple as it is radical - and has the further advantage of solid historical substantiation. We must look back on the Victorians with open minds; they must cease to irk us. And then, Himmelfarb hopes, we can begin to learn from them.

Identifier

542470

679438173

Creator

Himmelfarb, Gertrude

Format

1st ed.

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

http://magik.gmu.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=542470

Language

eng

Date

1995

Program air date: April 2, 1995

Publisher

A.A. Knopf

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on front endpaper: One reviewer called you rabidly anti-materialistic. John Stuart Mill-p.88 first feminist. Beatrice Webb--Fabian Society. George Eliot-man's name. Oxford-first women degrees 1920s. Underlinings/Notes: Underlinings: Victorian values--character, conduct , social ethos. Aristotle's cardinal virtues: wisdom, justice, temperance, courage, prudence, magnanimity, munificence, liberality, gentleness. Victorian guilt. Rise of respectable society--measured by decline of crime, violence, drunkenness and illegitimacy and increased stability of the family. Single-parent families not a serious problem in Victorian England. Gentleman--moral virtues--integrity, honesty, generosity, courage, graciousness, politeness, consideration for others. Woman-worship. Mill on women. Lamb marks sections on birth control, women's causes, problems of pauperism. Notes: "Thatcher '83," "Clinton speech," "Virtues v. Value," "Mrs. Grundy," "Marx, Nietzsche, intellectual universe," "Dickens's novels," "virtue now," "William Bennett," "hypocrisy," "John S. Mill," "Oscar Wilde," "Gladstone," "The Queen, no cards, booze," "John Wesley," "Tocqueville," "Gentleman," "Edmund Burke," "Webb," "Huxley," "women opposed suffrage," "E.B. Browning," "Florence Nightingale," "women against suffrage," "male names for female writers," "divorce," "incest," "birth control," "Difference between poor and pauperism," "public relief," "new poor law," "Old Testament, Talmud," "Bicycles," "fin de siecle," "single parent," "illegitimacy," "New Victorians=kinship with George Orwell's Big Brother."

Subject

"Social values--United States."

"Social values--England."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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