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Overview
One of the most enduring themes in American political discourse is the idea of decline. Since the very beginnings of the European settlement of North America there have been voices pointing to an inevitable regression of the people from the standards set by heroic ancestors. This discourse of decay has often taken the form of the jeremiad in which public intellectuals, pundits, and politicians point to the causes of decline and callfor a return to older and nobler standards of conduct. The jeremiad has seen a revival in the last twenty-five years. Mark Stephen Jendrysik traces the history of this form of political discourse from its modern reinvention by Allan Bloom to its current uses by such figures as Bill O'Reilly and Hillary Clinton.
About the Author:
Mark Stephen Jendrysik is chair of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of North Dakota and author of Explaining the English Revolution: Hobbes and His Contemporaries
Synopsis
This book identifies where modern Jeremiahs place the sources of national decline and their purposed solutions and its analysis also reveals the central problem faced by this form of writing: the need to balance condemnation of certain practices within the democratic polity with calls for repentance. For these writers and political actors, the tensions created by these demands prove impossible to resolve, as the modern jeremiad further divides an already divided nation.