Mac McCorkle
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199571833
- eISBN:
- 9780191722264
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571833.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter looks at how Niebuhr has been variously interpreted. It focuses on two representative writers — former New Republic editor Peter Beinart and historian David Chappell. Their efforts range ...
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This chapter looks at how Niebuhr has been variously interpreted. It focuses on two representative writers — former New Republic editor Peter Beinart and historian David Chappell. Their efforts range widely and impressively beyond a focus on Niebuhr. But both fit the mould of public intellectuals who desire to reconstruct a ‘usable’ Niebuhrian legacy for our times. Their common flaw is to claim a more or less perfect Niebuhr from one stage of his intellectual career. While Chappell celebrates the radical 1930s Niebuhr of MoralMan and Immoral Society, Beinart champions the Cold War Niebuhr found in such 1950s works as The Irony of American History. In effect, their accounts serve as critiques of each other's portraits.Less
This chapter looks at how Niebuhr has been variously interpreted. It focuses on two representative writers — former New Republic editor Peter Beinart and historian David Chappell. Their efforts range widely and impressively beyond a focus on Niebuhr. But both fit the mould of public intellectuals who desire to reconstruct a ‘usable’ Niebuhrian legacy for our times. Their common flaw is to claim a more or less perfect Niebuhr from one stage of his intellectual career. While Chappell celebrates the radical 1930s Niebuhr of MoralMan and Immoral Society, Beinart champions the Cold War Niebuhr found in such 1950s works as The Irony of American History. In effect, their accounts serve as critiques of each other's portraits.
Richard I. Cohen (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- August 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190912628
- eISBN:
- 9780190912659
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190912628.003.0051
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism, Religion and Society
This chapter reviews the book Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel (2016), by Dov Waxman. Trouble in the Tribe examines the debate over the defection of growing numbers of ...
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This chapter reviews the book Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel (2016), by Dov Waxman. Trouble in the Tribe examines the debate over the defection of growing numbers of young Jews from the pro-Israel camp, which Peter Beinart claims is due primarily to their disillusionment with a Jewish state that has betrayed their liberal principles. While many of Beinart’s critics acknowledge that Jewish youth have indeed grown more distant from Israel, they attribute this less to political disillusionment than to a weakening of their Jewish identity. For Waxman, “perhaps the biggest reason why young American Jews tend to be more dovish and critical of Israel is that they are much more likely than older Jews to be the offspring of intermarried couples.”Less
This chapter reviews the book Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel (2016), by Dov Waxman. Trouble in the Tribe examines the debate over the defection of growing numbers of young Jews from the pro-Israel camp, which Peter Beinart claims is due primarily to their disillusionment with a Jewish state that has betrayed their liberal principles. While many of Beinart’s critics acknowledge that Jewish youth have indeed grown more distant from Israel, they attribute this less to political disillusionment than to a weakening of their Jewish identity. For Waxman, “perhaps the biggest reason why young American Jews tend to be more dovish and critical of Israel is that they are much more likely than older Jews to be the offspring of intermarried couples.”