The Way of the W.A.S.P.: How it Made America and How it Can Save it...So to Speak by Richard Brookhiser

by Richard Brookhiser

Argues that Americans need to break the stereotype of the WASP as uptight, bland, and elitist and to reinforce the classic WASP ideals of industry, public service, family duty, and conscience to revitalize the nation's faltering moral leadership

Genres: History, Politics, American History, American, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published December 31, 1990

About the author

Richard Brookhiser, author of Founding Father (Free Press 1996), is a senior editor at National Review and a columnist for The New York Observer.

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting despite itself, Brookhiser's wandering book argues for a return of the WASP virtues of conscience, industry, use, success, and civic-mindedness (with a sixth virtue, "anti-sensuality" meriting no comment as to whether it should return). It reads like a really long column from a news magazine - and the reader should be ready for lots of insider comments without context. Google will be your friend when reading this book. It was written in the aftermath of the first Bush presidency, as in George HW Bush, and the idea the author was playing with was the return of the WASP president afforded us an opportunity to think about what the country had lost with the demise of the WASP establishment. Some will love Brookhiser's desire for the return of the WASP "virtues." Predictably, others will hate the idea.

[Rachel Bayles · Rating 3 out of 5]

It ain't easy being a wasp. This book is all over the place, but interesting all the same.

[TR · Rating 2 out of 5]

'WASP' is an absurd neologism, and although the puritan/protestant ruling class was far preferable to the one America has now, a better aristocracy can be imagined and made.