Synopses & Reviews
Emphasizing the importance of culture and the arts in society, this reprint of a 1960s classicthe author's last book of social criticismincludes a new introduction that situates the late Paul Goodman in his era and traces the development of his characteristic insights. The probing introduction speaks for a new generation of young scholars as it discusses the initial impact and continuing relevance of Goodman's problematic love affair with the radical youth of the 1960s. Timely and compelling, Goodman's narrative reassesses what he considered a moral and spiritual upheaval comparable to the Protestant Reformation"the breakdown of belief, and the emergence of new belief, in sciences and professions, education, and civil legitimacy." With new analysis of 1960s activism, this survey shows that Goodman's prescient voice is as relevant today as it was four decades ago.
Review
"Paul Goodman appears increasingly as our most exemplary intellectual, that is, the most deeply representative and the most worthy one." Theodore Solatoroff, Washington Post
Review
"[Goodman's] pleading, sane, frank, troubled and by now tired voice is one of the truest and wisest in American life." Kenneth Keniston, New York Times
Review
"As a whole, New Reformation is in many ways the culmination of Goodman's writing, a synthesis of his ideas, tempered by both age and experience. With the revival of popular interest in his writing, many of his ideas are slowly gaining traction with a new audience." —Fifth Estate magazine
Synopsis
Emphasizing the importance of culture and the arts in society, this reprint of a 1960s classic--the author's last book of social criticism--includes a new introduction that situates the late Paul Goodman in his era and traces the development of his characteristic insights. The probing introduction speaks for a new generation of young scholars as it discusses the initial impact and continuing relevance of Goodman's problematic love affair with the radical youth of the 1960s. Timely and compelling, Goodman's narrative reassesses what he considered a moral and spiritual upheaval comparable to the Protestant Reformation--"the breakdown of belief, and the emergence of new belief, in sciences and professions, education, and civil legitimacy." With new analysis of 1960s activism, this survey shows that Goodman's prescient voice is as relevant today as it was four decades ago.
Synopsis
New Reformation was Paul Goodman's last book of social criticism. The man who set the agenda for the Youth Movement of the Sixties with his best-selling Growing Up Absurd, and who wrote a book a year to keep his "crazy young allies" focused on the issues as he saw them, stepped back in 1970 to re-assess the results of what he considered a moral and spiritual upheaval comparable to the Protestant Reformation--"the breakdown of belief, and the emergence of new belief, in sciences and professions, education, and civil legitimacy."
Michael Fisher's introduction situates Goodman in his era and traces the development of his characteristic insights, now the common wisdom of every radical critique of American society. A poet and novelist famous in his day for books on decentralization, community planning, psychotherapy, education, linguistics, and media, nowhere is Goodman's voice more prescient and still relevant than in New Reformation.
About the Author
Paul Goodman is the author of Decentralizing Power and the bestselling Growing Up Absurd. He set the agenda for the youth movement of the 1960s and lectured on subjects ranging from politics, education, and community planning to psychotherapy, religion, and literature.