SHAME: HOW AMERICA’S PAST SINS HAVE POLARIZED OUR COUNTRY
Book ID/图书代码： 02740015B84245
English Summary/英文概要： The United States today is hopelessly polarized; the political Right and Left have hardened into rigid and deeply antagonistic camps, preventing any sort of progress. Amid the bickering and inertia, the promise of the 1960s—when we came together as a nation to fight for equality and universal justice—remains unfulfilled.
As Shelby Steele reveals in Shame, the roots of this impasse can be traced back to that decade of protest, when in the act of uncovering and dismantling our national hypocrisies—racism, sexism, militarism—liberals internalized the idea that there was something inauthentic, if not evil, in the America character. Since then, liberalism has been wholly concerned with redeeming modern American from the sins of the past, and has derived its political legitimacy from the premise of a morally bankrupt America. The result has been a half-century of well-intentioned but ineffective social programs, such as Affirmative Action. Steele reveals that not only have these programs failed, but they have in almost every case actively harmed America’s minorities and poor. Ultimately, Steele argues, post-60s liberalism has utterly failed to achieve its stated aim: true equality. Liberals, intending to atone for our past sins, have ironically perpetuated the exploitation of this country’s least fortunate citizens.
It therefore falls to the Right to defend the American dream. Only by reviving our founding principles of individual freedom and merit-based competition can the fraught legacy of American history be redeemed, and only through freedom can we ever hope to reach equality.
Approaching political polarization from a wholly new perspective, Steele offers a rigorous critique of the failures of liberalism and a cogent argument for the relevance and power of conservatism.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 今天的美国陷入无奈的两极分化，政治上右翼和左翼形成了对立的阵营，阻碍了任何进步。而在争执声中，20世纪60年代许下的诺言——当我们作为一个民族团结起来争取平等和公平时许下的诺言——至今尚未兑现。
正如作者Shelby Steele在《羞愧》一书中所揭露的，眼下这种僵局的根源可以追溯到抗议的年代。自那时起，自由主义就完全聚焦于将现代美国从过去的罪孽中挽救出来。结果是长达半个世纪的出于好意、单却收效甚微的社会计划，例如反歧视行动。最终，Steele认为，60后自由主义彻底失败，并未达到其宣称的目的，即真正的平等。讽刺的是，试图弥补过去罪孽的自由主义者仍旧在不断地剥削这个国家最为不幸的公民，并且这种剥削将永远持续。
因而，捍卫美国梦想的责任落到了右翼人士身上。只有通过恢复我们最根本的个人自由原则以及良性竞争才能拯救整个美国，也只有通过自由我们才能指望获得平等。
Steele从全新的视角剖析了政治两极分化现象，批判了自由主义的失败，并且提出了针对保守势力的具有说服力的观点。（LYR）
Awards/获奖情况：《纽约时报》书评编辑推荐
华尔街日报
“Shelby Steele是为数不多的敢于探讨美国黑人真实困境的作者。在《羞愧》一书，作者着重探讨了我们国家的政治两极分化现象以及美国黑人渴望改革的愿望，这是他所著的最复杂、最具挑战的一本著作……”
纽约时报书评
“本书文风热忱、通俗易懂，作者以热情、真诚的方式表达了自己的看法，言辞生动，具有说服力。”
出版商周刊星级评论
“这类评论性的文章来得正是时候，任何遭受美国生活中持续不和谐困扰的人们都会对此表示关注，而这类评论使得此类关注显得格外必要。”
Kirkus
“有关美国政治分化及种族关系的保守主义分析，更加缜密，又少了些刻薄。”
Charles Johnson, 国家图书大奖获奖作家
“在一个向当代美国这样两极分化的社会，每个人都深陷自我毁灭的文化战争中。阅读Shelby Steele的著作最大的乐趣之一是我们会发现真正勇敢、鼓舞人心的心灵和精神，不带任何意识形态、自欺欺人及恐惧……”
George Weigel，道德与公共政策重心杰出高级职员
“Shelby Steele敢于挑战美国美国，试图从道德的角度掌握这个国家的过去与现在，这对于自由与公正的未来是重大的贡献。”
New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
Wall Street Journal
“Shelby Steele is one of the very few writers able to tell home truths about the plight of black Americans.... In Shame, an essay on the political polarization of our country and on the want of progress among black Americans, he has produced his most complex and challenging work.... The irony here is that Shelby Steele might just be a Tom of a different kind—a black Tom Paine, whose 21st-century common sense could go a long way to bringing his people out of their by now historical doldrums.”
New York Times Book Reviewl
“A spirited polemic…Steele delivers this message in an ardent, readable style…Steele…speaks with passion, eloquence and unremitting honesty.”
Publishers Weekly, starred reviewl
“This timely critique warrants attention from anyone troubled by the persistence of racial discord in American life, from Selma to Ferguson.”
Kirkusl
“A conservative analysis of political polarization and race relations in America, more thoughtful and less vitriolic than most volleys from either side.”
Charles Johnson, National Book Award-winning author of Middle Passagel
“In a society as polarized as contemporary America, mired in self-destructive culture wars, one of the great pleasures of reading Shelby Steele is that we find ourselves in the presence of a truly courageous, even inspiring, mind and spirit refreshingly free of ideology, self-deception, and fear. With Shame, Steele continues his deeply thoughtful and responsible search for the underlying truths, seldom spoken, about our social lives, proving yet again through often trenchant analysis why he is one of the few black public intellectuals that America absolutely needs.”
George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Centerl
“Shelby Steele’s courageous challenge to Americans to get a moral grip on the country’s past and present is an important contribution to a future of liberty and justice for all, in the colorblind society of aspiration, solidarity, and achievement of which the classic civil rights movement dreamed.”
About the Author/作者介绍： Shelby Steele是胡佛研究所的高级职员，曾荣获布拉德利奖和国家人文奖，著有《我们的性格》，获得过国家图书评论大奖。Steele现居加利福尼亚州中部海岸。
Shelby Steele is the Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Winner of the Bradley Prize and a National Humanities Medal and the author of the National Book Critics Circle award-winning The Content of Our Character, Steele lives in the Central Coast of California.
Format:HARDCOVER
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
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