Available From UC Press

The Moral Commonwealth

Social Theory and the Promise of Community
Philip Selznick
Philip Selznick's study of moral and social theory establishes the intellectual foundations of an important new movement in American thought: communitarianism. Emerging in part as a response to the excesses of American individualism - particularly rampant during the 1980s - communitarianism seeks to restore the balance between individual rights and social responsibilities. The Moral Commonwealth attempts to explain and justify this communitarian turn and give it a liberal interpretation.
Philip Selznick is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California at Berkeley.
“An outstanding accomplishment. This masterful result of a life-long study of social sciences, social philosophy, and ethics yields a book no student of our social or moral foundation, condition, and hence future, can afford to miss.”--Amitai Etzioni, author of the Moral Dimension