The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age Without Good or Evil

by James Davison Hunter

The Death of Character is a broad historical, sociological, and cultural inquiry into the moral life and moral education of young Americans based upon a huge empirical study of the children themselves. The children's thoughts and concerns-expressed here in their own words-shed a whole new light on what we can expect from moral education. Targeting new theories of education and the prominence of psychology over moral instruction, Hunter analyzes the making of a new cultural narcissism.

Genres: Education, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Sociology, History, Politics, Self Help

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

James Davison Hunter is the Labrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture, and Social Theory at the University of Virginia and Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture.

Reviews

[Frank R · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a broad consensus that having good character is important, though we rarely use that term anymore. We all desire our children (and ourselves) to be honest, responsible, compassionate, and prudent. But is that even possible in an age where our desire to be tolerant and inclusive has driven out all notions of evil?

We don't even speak of "character" anymore (good or bad); today the term is personality, and those are either attractive or unattractive, boring or interesting, but never something so judgmental as good or bad. Without the creeds, rituals, and driving narratives of a common religion, American society has reduced its moral universe to a simple list of platitudes: Don't Do Drugs, Be Honest, Play Nice, Be Fair, and especially Don't Judge! When we look for a WHY behind this list of "values", all we have to offer is that living that way will make you feel good, will help you get ahead, and will build your relationships with other people. In other words, the basis for our modern morality is utilitarian and based purely on feelings. This is a weak foundation for morality, as it provides neither true inspiration to be moral, nor true shame when one fails.

Furthermore, Hunter's book provides evidence from actual studies that show that children whose moral compass is based purely on the self are more likely to cheat, have sex, commit suicide, and drink than their peers whose moral compasses are based in theology or the authority of adults.

There is much more in this challenging and important book. Hunter provides no solutions, and indeed displays the flaws in the solutions most on offer from the Left and the Right. Highly recommended.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hunter has written a thorough explanation of the progression of the death of character. His detailed work helps the reader understand the difficulties the teacher will face in schools and the required character programs for which teachers are inevitably being held accountable for in the classroom. This is both a work of stunning proportions and a vital call to understand the ramifications for society.

[Leonardo]

...Hunter traces out how America lost its older ideas about virtue and character. Before the Industrial Revolution, Americans honored the virtues of ‘producers”—hard work, self-restraint, sacrifice for the future, and sacrifice for the common good. But during the twentieth century, as people became wealthier and the producer society turned gradually into the mass consumption society, an alternative vision of the self arose—a vision centered on the idea of individual preferences and personal fulfillment. The intrinsically moral term “character” fell out of favor and was replaced by the amoral term “personality.”

The Happiness Hypothesis Pág.176

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hunter rightly eviscerates the self-esteem fetish in American schools, and shows how modern character education programs are abject failures at positively influencing long-term behavior. His Protestant worldview, however, predisposes him to conclude that positive reinforcement -- teaching children that virtue should be pursued at least in part because it makes us feel good and whole -- is inherently flawed. In reality, it is entirely consistent with Christian dogma rightly understood, and with an understanding that children are crafted in the image and likeness of God, and hence happiest when they live virtuously.

[Chris J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, it's not a bad book. I just wouldn't tell anyone they needed to read it. I can't really recall how it got on my reading list, to be honest.

[David F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound and Deeply Troubling

This book challenged me to think about modern society in a new way, challenging assumptions about what I thought were obvious values. Hunter makes a compelling case for why Character is dying, and was destined to do so under the current cultural framework we have inherited.

The book spends a lot of of space painstakingly detailing the history of character in the U.S., and while I found this section long and dense, I understand its importance. The book concludes with a rewarding synthesis of all the material and is worth getting to. Hunter cites philosophers and sociologists from across history, and the sheer breadth and scope of this work is impressive. Hunter’s citations of Charles Taylor were particularly thought provoking (though I had not read the books mentioned).

I believe more people need to read this book. Dr. Jonathan Haidt suggested it to me, and I am glad I read it. Unfortunately this version has lots of typos in the transcription (at first it was very confusing because often periods or commas are added where they shouldn’t be) - expect about one or two every page. Don’t let this stop you from reading it though - this is a rare book that will likely cause you to think deeper about the current cultural conflict.

[Jason Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had this book on my shelf for several years and finally opened it after reading Hunter's excellent work, "To Change the World," which I loved.

This book is a bit of a conundrum. Hunter begins and ends by asserting that character is best understood as the result of moral education within a particular moral tradition. It seems obvious he is implying the quest for character of the last hundred years in an America devoid of particularity is destined to be futile. And his conclusion bears this out.

Between the intro and the conclusion, though are 150+ pages of mostly academic, taxonomic histories of the various attempts to address character formation within our pluralistic culture. He terms them the Psychological, the Neoclassical, and the Communitarian.

Having completed the book, I'm not really sure why Hunter wrote it. I would have been much more interested in an expansion of his views on particularity and how agreements might "be found *within* moral diversity not in spite of it," a major point he tossed out in the third to last paragraph.

There is a lot of historical information, but overall I found the book unsatisfying.

[Eli · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't really get into it. The writing style was not very pleasant to read but I got the gist of the book pretty quickly (the author asserts that there are three ways of building character - psychology, neoclassicalism ("judeo-christian ideas of morality"), and community - and modern society (liberalism specifically) relies heavily on psychology and downplays the other two. From there on, it just explains those concepts and how in the goal of not offending or excluding people, society ends up made up of people who lack character. Maybe there is more to it but it was insufficiently interesting to me so I dropped it. I also just was not a fan of the style of writing, lack of compelling evidence, and just the general tone that you are trapped at a dinner party next to someone espousing their favorite pet opinion that you are politely listening to while trying to escape or segue to a new topic. Maybe at some future point in my life I'll be more open to this but I dunno.

I think I decided to read this book because of some really impactful quotes from it in a Jonathan Haidt book, The Happiness Hypothesis, which I enjoyed.

[Kevin M. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book to be a chore to read. There were a few gems of insight regarding the loss of character, but this book appears to be targeted for sociologists and not for the lay reader. I was hoping to gain some noteworthy explanations for the decline of character in the U.S., but this book on the whole did not provide it for me.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really phenomenal. A book that I will be chewing on for a long time. It is a bit dated, unfortunately, as it was published in 2000.

It does look as though Hunter has published a new book (2018) on the same topic, so I look forward to getting an updated version with updated data.

[Ian McManus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scathing rebuke of our moral health, manifest in our education curriculum: we have nothing to pass down to the next generation exposing us as self-centered hypocrites. A compelling read but abrupt ending and author doesn’t attempt to outline a vision for where we go from here.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

That's a good

[Maarten · Rating 4 out of 5]

America-centered, but interesting nonetheless.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hunter presents an interesting history of the driving forces behind American moral education and an evidence-driven skewering of the vacuous character training which public institutions currently serve up. Today's creed of tolerance deems it unacceptable to teach anything of the traditional moral frameworks societies have relied on to inspire selfless morality. Modern, psychology-based character training has failed. The reader is left here - contemplating the appearance of a dead-end. What emerging path can be found both capable and agreeable of leading a multicultural society beyond moral anarchy?

I rated this highly because I enjoyed the early history chapters. The second half of the book gets three stars.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hunter did a great job giving a brief history of moral education in America. He pointed out the philosophical underpinnings of the various approaches to moral education from the Puritans to modern day pedology. There are many things I learned in this book; the first being that the decline of moral education is not a recent phenomenon of the last sixty years, but rather a much deeper problem originating nearly at the birth of this nation. Secondly, it is pluralism and inclusiveness that have been the titanic forces behind the erosion of character. Sadly, Hunter does not offer many solutions after giving the reader this grim prognosis.

[Holli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Statistical and investigative data showing how moral education among children in America does not work. Read for a philosophy class.