ABSTRACT
A pervasive theme in writings during the latter part of the 1980s and into the 1990s about America is that the society is in moral crisis and undergoing serious decay. Several causes have been attributed to the supposed moral decay. Among the most frequently stated are: changes in the structure of the family (Bloom, 1987; Etzioni, 1993; Whitehead, 1993; Wilson, 1993); the effects of the culture of the 1960s with its emphasis on freedom, sex, and drugs (Bloom, 1987; Kirkpatrick, 1992); a failure to attend to traditions (Bennett, 1992; Kirkpatrick, 1992; Ryan, 1989; Wynne, 1979, 1986); a questioning of traditions (Etzioni, 1993); the ways youth have been morally educated in the schools (Bennett & Delattre, 1978; Kirkpatrick, 1992; Sommers, 1984); the failure of universities to provide adequate education (Bloom, 1987; Sommers, 1984); too much of an emphasis on rights (Etzioni, 1993); the onset of radical individualism (Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, & Tipton, 1985; Hogan, 1975; Sampson, 1977); the influences of feminism (Bloom, 1987; Kirkpatrick, 1992); and the teachings of elites (intellectuals, scholars) who create theories hostile to the ideas of virtue, character, and the language of morality (Bennett, 1992; Bloom, 1987; Himmelfarb, 1994; Wilson, 1993).
