In this demanding work, Christopher Lasch makes an accessible critique of what is wrong using the values and beliefs of America’s professional and managerial elites. The distinguished historian argues that democracy today can be threatened not with the people, mainly because Jose Ortega y Gasset (The Revolt from the Public) had said, but from the elites. These elites-mobile and progressively global in outlook-refuse to accept limits or ties to country and place. As they isolate themselves in their systems and enclaves, they forego the middle course, divide the country, and betray the idea of a democracy for all those America’s citizens. That is Lasch’s clarion require a go back to the virtues of community, responsibility, and religion.