History as Social Criticism: Conversations with Christopher Lasch

Toward A (Not The) Political Philosophy Of Populism: Democracy, Moral Dualism And Minimalst Theory In Christopher Lasch

“…Lasch apparently shared this assessment of his role as a friendly examiner of progressive and liberal perceptions, warning that an intellectual tradition that cannot criticize itself has probably become moribund (Lasch 1995: 81). "If I seem to spend a lot of time attacking liberalism and the Left," he wrote, "that should be taken more as a mark of respect than one of dismissal" (Blake andPhelps 1994: 1311).…”

The semantic drift: Images of populism in post‐war American historiography and their relevance for (European) political science

“…Not only did Hofstadter offer one of the most iconoclastic treatises in post‐war scholarship, it also provided an example for how later historians and cultural critics were to undertake the task of combining both historical research and social criticism. As his student Christopher Lasch admitted, Hofstadter's work shared the “mythic resonance” of earlier Frontier historians such as Turner and Beard, whilst offering a wholly different ideological message (Lasch, ; Blake & Phelps, ).…”

Christopher Lasch: Critic of liberalism, historian of its discontents

“…But for him, such sentiments compelled him to 'redouble' his efforts to write in clear, relevant prose, so as to 'have some influence, however small, on the course of events that otherwise just seemed inexorably to unfold' (Blake andPhelps 1994, 1320-1). In short, there was a politics to his prose, and to his historical scholarship, as his desire to educate his readership on social issues served to guide his historical subject matter.…”