Like Dickens and de Tocqueville, whose American journeys in the last century challenged us to look at ourselves in new and surprising ways, Rathbone’s outsider perspective provides more than a ‘thick description’ of some distant and abstract subculture. On the Outside Looking In is in the end a powerful mirror held up to our American dream—what we behold is a frighteningly fragile future and a world in desperate need of repair.
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Prof. Ayers,
I just read your Nov. 2007 post “A Classroom Dialogue”. I would recommend you post a condensed analysis of “Things Fall Apart”. That book in particular is an excellent piece of work. The Prof. for the course made it required reading and in addition distributed hand-outs explaining his beliefs about the basic conditions for positive social evolution. Something has remained of his instruction. That is this: “When the leaders are models of virtue, then the cultivation of virtue occurs naturally.”
PS Somethings wrong. You’re whacking everyone’s posts. WHAT’S up ? Say the word and I will volunteer to try getting in touch with the Prof. and see wether he can tie these two concepts together (per paragraph 1), with some direct Q&A., but it will not be easy and you might not like results. You just remember one thing. “There’s so much worth talking about.” Thanks for the forum.
Thanks for the thought…