Can Europe survive after abandoning the national loyaltiesand religious traditionsthat provided meaning? And what will happen to the United States as it goes down a similar path?
The eminent French political philosopher Pierre Manent addresses these questions in his brilliant meditation on Europes experiment in maximizing individual and social rights. By seeking to escape from the national form, he shows, the European Union has weakened the very institutions that made possible liberty and self-government in the first place. Worse still, the spiritual vacuity that characterizes todays secular Europeand, increasingly, the United Statesis ultimately untenable.
