Yuval Levin, The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism

I find myself looking for solutions these days. I’ve grown weary of the endless analysis of our problems. Enough already. Usually such analysis splits on the ideological axis—it’s either from the left or the right. The solutions then seem tired, worn, inspiring little confidence. Yuval Levin is a bracing breath of fresh air. He demonstrates that both the left and the right are paralyzed by nostalgia for their separate visions of a golden age. We need to move forward. Solutions begin to emerge in this outstanding book. We will find solutions, says Levin, in “soul-forming institutions,” the family, the church, various enlightened organizations. The “gospel of individualism,” liberating though it has been, has exhausted its limits. Levin points back to Alasdair MacIntyre, and currently to Rod Dreher, for a kind of “Benedict option,” the reinvigoration of genuine community as the way forward toward both personal and societal renewal. Don’t we yearn these days for solutions? Here is an extremely thoughtful book pointing a way toward renewal and perhaps fresh new beginnings.