Books

Balancing biography and quantitative research, Robert Putnam paints a sobering picture of the state of the American dream.

In Terry Eagleton's compelling narrative, three plotlines run concurrently: a parade of ideas from the Enlightenment to the present, a sustained argument about the role of culture, and a burlesque apologetic for Christianity.

Michael Walzer addresses a surprising question: the interplay between social revolutions and reactive counterrevolutions.

Frances Taylor Gench doesn't ignore difficult texts about women; she wrestles with them. That's because she is committed to the Bible as scripture.

Mark Taylor's cultural history of speed starts at the Reformation and examines the interwoven threads of religion, society, politics, art, and economics.

Some have dismissed the culture wars as a sideshow. Andrew Hartman insists that the issues at stake in cultural politics are real.

Padraig O'Malley is not the first scholar to call the two-state approach a failed paradigm. Yet where others suggest an alternative, O'Malley remains in the deconstructing stage.

Plenty of scholars have discussed interfaith relations in medieval Spain. What makes David Nirenberg's book distinctive is his emphasis on how each religion's self-image was shaped by its portrayal of the others.

Are today's young adults more immature than their age mates in previous generations? Yes, says Julie Lythcott-Haims, but it's not their fault.

The strangers of Richard Alba and Nancy Foner's title are mainly low-status immigrants and their children. The timeliness of their book is indisputable.

According to Heath Carter, working people have been some of Christianity's most important theological innovators.

Tim Bascom experienced a revolution through a teenager's sensibility. But despite the great material this provides, his memoir has a plodding feel.