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Article: But Seriously.(Review)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- October 25, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Mr. Goldberg is editor of National Review Online and a columnist for Brill's Content.
For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today, by Jedediah Purdy (Knopf, 226 pp., $20)
For Common Things is the longest very short book I've ever read. It's barely over 200 pages, and I feel like I've been taking the reading-comprehension portion of the SAT for a month. It's not that Jedediah Purdy isn't a very smart young man, and it's not that his observations are wildly off the mark. To the contrary, some of his arguments should be applauded by anybody who worries about the corrosive influences of post-modernism and rampant materialism. But good ...