The revolt of the elites and the betrayal of democracy Introduction : The democratic malaise The revolt of the elites Opportunity in the promised land : social mobility or the democratization of competence Does democracy deserve to survive Communitarianism or populism The ethic of compassion and the ethic of respect Conversation and the civic arts Racial politics in New York : the attack on common standards The common schools : Horace Mann and the assault on imagination The lost art of argument Academic pseudo radicalism : the charade of Subversion The abolition of shame Philip Rieff and the religion of culture The soul of man under secularism