The Present Age

Though not a direct critique, Walzer provides a pluralistic vision of justice and community that indirectly challenges Nisbet’s notion that older, more organic communities are normatively superior.

Wolfe argues that Nisbet was overly nostalgic about premodern social structures and insufficiently attentive to the benefits of modern individualism and pluralism. While Wolfe respects Nisbet’s concern with community, he contends that Nisbet underestimated the liberating aspects of modernity,…

Robert Nisbet warned against those who claim to promote freedom and community, but are really only interested in grasping a power that destroys both.

A foundational critique of democratic centralization and the loss of intermediary institutions—central to Nisbet’s own thesis.

A parallel philosophical critique of the moral fragmentation of modernity and the loss of shared ethical traditions.

Nisbet’s most famous and philosophically rich work, focused on the historical and sociological roots of modern alienation.