The De-Moralization of Society.

• Author: Kreyche, Gerald F.

by Gertrude Himmelfarb / Alfred A. Knopf, 1995, pp. 314, $24.00

Reviewed by GERALD F. KREYCHE American Thought Editor, USA Today, and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

Everyone agrees that America is in a moral mess. Churches, schools, even the government seek to shore up values and restore morals. Yet, by way of contradiction, we are told to be nonjudgmental about the actions of others and to recognize the rights of each's chosen lifestyle. Today, the meaning of family--the basis for nearly all societal mores--has been emasculated. Currently, it includes unwed mothers, as well as gay and lesbian relationships, and as a result has become a reflection of immorality itself.

The focus of this book is to trace the present breakdown of U.S. society to its abandonment of the virtues that governed Victorian times in England and America. Many will scoff at this, saying that such times were more a paradigm of hypocrisy than societal virtue, as evidenced by second-class citizenship of women, exploitation of children, and the pauperization of the masses.

Yet, Himmelfarb, an emeritus professor of history from The City University of New York and a specialist on Victorian times, while not denying such charges, maintains that they merely are stereotypical. She argues her case effectively, supporting her claim that the last 200 years have produced a social change which has abandoned virtues, replacing them with values.

Virtues bespeak permanence. Essentially unchanging, they are authoritative, viewed as nearly universal, and carry a sense of gravity about them. On the other hand, values are subjective and relative, based more on belief, feeling, opinion, convention, and even idiosyncrasy.

The virtues that typified the Victorian milieu were respectability, good manners (including civility), self-help, self-discipline, orderliness...