Paper $19.00 ISBN: 9780226583983 Published May 2008
E-book $7.00 to $19.00 About E-books ISBN: 9780226583990 Published January 2010

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The Irony of American History

Reinhold Niebuhr

The Irony of American History
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Reinhold Niebuhr

With a new Introduction by Andrew J. Bacevich
198 pages | 5-1/4 x 8 | © 1952, 2008
Paper $19.00 ISBN: 9780226583983 Published May 2008
E-book $7.00 to $19.00 About E-books ISBN: 9780226583990 Published January 2010
“[Niebuhr] is one of my favorite philosophers. I take away [from his works] the compelling idea that there’s serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away . . . the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard.”—President Barack Obama
 
Forged during the tumultuous but triumphant postwar years when America came of age as a world power, The Irony of American History is more relevant now than ever before. Cited by politicians as diverse as Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Niebuhr’s masterpiece on the incongruity between personal ideals and political reality is both an indictment of American moral complacency and a warning against the arrogance of virtue. Impassioned, eloquent, and deeply perceptive, Niebuhr’s wisdom will cause readers to rethink their assumptions about right and wrong, war and peace.

 “The supreme American theologian of the twentieth century.”—Arthur Schlesinger Jr., New York Times

“Niebuhr is important for the left today precisely because he warned about America’s tendency—including the left’s tendency—to do bad things in the name of idealism. His thought offers a much better understanding of where the Bush administration went wrong in Iraq.”—Kevin Mattson, The Good Society
 
“Irony provides the master key to understanding the myths and delusions that underpin American statecraft. . . . The most important book ever written on US foreign policy.”—Andrew J. Bacevich, from the Introduction

Barack Obama | New York Times
“[Niebuhr] is one of my favorite philosophers. I take away [from his works] the compelling idea that there’s serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away . . . the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard.”

Brian Urquhart | New York Review of Books
“A blessing of this time of liberation and hope is that serious works of political analysis and philosophy may contribute to the new administration's approach to its daunting agenda of global and national problems. That Barack Obama has made clear his admiration for . . . Niebuhr's The Irony of American History is in itself reassuring. . . . It would be hard to think of another book from the 1950s that retains, nearly sixty years later, both its compulsive readability and so much of its relevance. The elegance, strength, and charm of Niebuhr's writing invite quotation at every turn. . . . It is impossible to summarize a book so strong and yet so subtle, in which every word has meaning.”

Arthur Schlesinger Jr. | New York Times

“The supreme American theologian of the twentieth century.”

Kevin Mattson | The Good Society

“Niebuhr is important for the Left today precisely because he warned about America’s tendency—including the Left’s tendency—to do bad things in the name of idealism. His thought offers a much better understanding of where the Bush administration went wrong in Iraq.”

Andrew J. Bacevich | the new Foreword

“Irony provides the master key to understanding the myths and delusions that underpin American statecraft. . . . The most important book ever written on US foreign policy.”

Contents
INTRODUCTION

PREFACE
 
I. The Ironic Element in the American Situation

II. The Innocent Nation in an Innocent World

III. Happiness, Prosperity and Virtue

IV. The Master of Destiny

V. The Triumph of Experience Over Dogma
 
VI. The International Class Struggle

VII. The American Future

VIII. The Significance of Irony
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
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History: American History

Religion: American Religions | Philosophy of Religion, Theology, and Ethics | Religion and Society

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