The Wreck Of Western Culture: Humanism Revisited

Humanism built Western Civilisation as we know it today. Its achievements include the liberation of the individual, democracy, universal rights and widespread prosperity and comfort. Its ambassadors are the heroes of modern culture: Erasmus, Holbein, Kant, Shakespeare, Velázquez, Descartes and Freud.

Those who sought to contain humanism's pride within a frame of higher truth - Luther, Calvin, Poussin, Kierkegaard could barely interrupt its torrential progress. Those who sought to reform humanism's tenets - Marx, Darwin, and Nietzsche were tested by the success of their own prophecies. So runs the approved view; it is not shared by John Carroll.

Here, John Carroll significantly reworks his thesis on the failure of the West's 500 year experiment with humanism and its dire cultural consequences. Originally published in 1993, this edition is rewritten, expanded and updated in light of recent events and closes with September 11, 2001.