Morris Berman

An emerging cult classic about America's cultural meltdown—and a surprising solution. A prophetic examination of Western decline, The Twilight of American Culture provides one of the most caustic and surprising portraits of American society to date. Whether examining the corruption at the heart of modern politics, the "Rambification" of popular entertainment, or the collapse of our school systems, Morris Berman suspects that there is little we can do as a society to arrest the onset of corporate Mass Mind culture. Citing writers as diverse as de Toqueville and DeLillo, he cogently argues that cultural preservation is a matter of individual conscience, and discusses how classical learning might triumph over political correctness with the rise of a "a new monastic individual"—a person who, much like the medieval monk, is willing to retreat from conventional society in order to preserve its literary and historical treasures. "Brilliantly observant, deeply thoughtful ....lucidly argued."—Christian Science Monitor

The Twilight of American Culture

An ambitious and provocative analysis of the relationship between culture, mind, and body in the history of Western society, Morris Berman's influential classic Coming to our Senses has been engrossing audiences with its carefully-researched and thoughtful exploration of somatic experience for decades. Finally back in print for a new generation of readers, Berman's treatise on the West's historic denial of physicality is relevant as ever in a society increasingly plagued by addiction, depression, and distraction. Berman deftly weaves threads of history, philosophy, and psychoanalysis into an elegant and accessible argument about the ways our physical experience of the world relates to the culture in which we exist. To make his case, Berman draws on studies of infant behavior with mirrors; analyzes symbolic expressions of human-animal relationships ranging from cave-wall etchings to Disney cartoons; investigates esoteric breathing techniques and occult rituals; and examines the nature of creativity. Berman also illuminates Christianity's origins in early Jewish meditation techniques, explains how the notion of romantic love evolved out of medieval Christian heresy, how modern science grew out of Renaissance mysticism, and how Nazism was the most recent episode in a recurring cycle of orthodoxy and heresy. A demanding and radical work of history, social criticism, and philosophy, Coming to our Senses is a beautifully-written and vastly important book. Readers interested in related titles from Morris Berman will also want to see: Are We There Yet (ISBN: 9781635610567), Spinning Straw Into Gold (ISBN: 9781635610536).

Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West

Coming to Our Senses

The Reenchantment of the World is a perceptive study of our scientific consciousness and a cogent and forceful challenge to its supremacy. Focusing on the rise of the mechanistic idea that we can know the natural world only by distancing ourselves from it, Berman shows how science acquired its controlling position in the consciousness of the West. He analyzes the holistic, animistic tradition--destroyed in the wake of Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--which viewed man as a participant in the cosmos, not as an isolated observer. Arguing that the holistic world view must be revived in some credible form before we destroy our society and our environment, he explores the possibilities for a consciousness appropriate to the modern era. Ecological rather than animistic, this new world view would be grounded in the real and intimate connection between man and nature.

The Reenchantment of the World

the roots of imperial decline

Why America failed

The Final Phase of Empire

Dark Ages America

انحطاط الحضارة الأمريكية

Presents an analysis of the "nomadic" consciousness of our ancestors, and the forces --religious and political --that overwhelmed it during the Neolithic era, and considers its revival in the twentieth century.

A Study in Nomadic Spirituality

Wandering God

Vol. II de la trilogía sobre la Evolución de la Conciencia. La historia de las raíces somáticas y ocultas de nuestras conductas. Algunos de los temas tratados son el amor romántico como producto de una herejía del cristianismo (trovadores) y la ciencia moderna que surge del misticismo renacentista.

La historia oculta de occidente

Cuerpo y Espíritu

The Roots of Imperial Decline

Why America Failed

El crepúsculo de la cultura americana, profundo diagnóstico y crítica del declive cultural de los Estados Unidos, plasma una visión interna del estado actual de la cultura estadounidense y los diferentes escenarios a los que puede enfrentarse en un futuro. El propio Berman describe este libro así: “Es una especie de libro guía para el siglo veintiuno en adelante. Busca darle al lector un sentido de dónde estamos, en términos históricos, y lo que esto significa; un modo tanto para orientarse a sí mismo en los eventos contemporáneos, como para ser capaz de hallar significado en una cultura que se desintegra, y tal vez contribuir de algún modo a la eventual reconstrucción de esa cultura sobre una base muy distinta [...] estoy convencido de que permanece un núcleo vital dentro de nosotros que anhela la realidad, que conoce la diferencia entre el mundo de algodones de la nación Bostock y el denso, opaco mundo de pensamiento dificultoso y vida desafiante. Si esta distinción tiene sentido intuitivamente para ti; si al fin estás harto de CNN y Hollywood y John Grisham y la “espiritualidad” New Age, entonces coge una silla, desconecta tu teléfono (beeper, TV, fax, ordenador, etcétera), y dame unas cuantas horas de tu tiempo.”

El crepúsculo de la cultura americana

In Dark Ages America, the pundit Morris Berman argues that the nation has entered a dangerous phase in its historical development from which there is no return. As the corporate-consumerist juggernaut that now defines the nation rolls on, the very factors that once propelled America to greatness—extreme individualism, territorial and economic expansion, and the pursuit of material wealth—are, paradoxically, the nails in our collective coffin. Within a few decades, Berman argues, the United States will be marginalized on the world stage, its hegemony replaced by China or the European Union. With the United States just one terrorist attack away from a police state, Berman's book is a controversial and illuminating look at our current society and its ills.

Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire

George Haskel, a retired professor of German literature, decides to found an institute to promote dullness, as a counterpoint to the hustling celebrity culture of contemporary America. The venture soon attracts a number of brilliant misfits, who transform the project into a political movement, the Authentic Party, that ultimately swells to 8 million members. Events begin to overtake George and his merry band, as luminaries such as Bill Maher, Woody Allen, and Jerry Brown get on board. The final showdown with the White House threatens a coup d'etat: Will America undertake a radical shift in the direction of authenticity, or will it remain committed to business as usual?"

Morris Berman

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