The Civil Rights Movement. The Cuban Missile Crisis. The assassination of a president and a senator. Praise turns into protest; hope into disenchantment. The 1960s was an era born in hope that ended in deep conflict. during this era, Reinhold Niebuhr, once dubbed "America's theologian," retired from Union Seminary in New York. in this book, the author introduces us to Niebuhr's life in the 1960s from his critical vantage point as Niebuhr's former student and later, colleague. Though little has been published about this decade in Niebuhr's life, the author's analysis shows a theologian whose work shifts to speak more effectively to the less religious, more secular world around him. The author introduces readers to never-before-seen letters between the author and Reinhold and Ursula Niebuhr, which shed light not only on the impact Niebuhr had on the 1960s but also on the way the 1960s shaped Niebuhr.

The Civil Rights Movement. The Cuban Missile Crisis. The assassination of a president and a senator, both from the same family. Praise turns into protest; hope into disenchantment, as democracy's new day goes up in flames. The 1960's was an era born in hope and ends in deep conflict. During this era, Reinhold Niebuhr, once dubbed "America's theologian," retires from Union Seminary in New York. Though little has been published about him in this decade, much of Niebuhr's life and work are as much shaped and transformed by this era as his work shapes and transforms the discourse in theology, ethics, and the politics of the age. Ronald H. Stone, a former student-turned-colleague of Niebuhr, brilliantly introduces readers to the Niebuhr of the 1960's. In his analysis of Niebuhr, he shows a theologian whose work sometimes turns less theological and becomes more secular in his writing with a view toward speaking to a less religious, more secular world around him. Stone's delightful book introduces readers to never-before seen letters between the author and Reinhold and Ursula Niebuhr, Stone points the way for theologians, ethicists, politicians, and those otherwise seeking justice and peace into the conflicted world today.

This book centers on the major theme of Reinhold Niebuhr's lifework, the nature of humanity and the political and social life. Idealistic and realistic social philosophies are reevaluated and tribalism is analyzed as a pervasive quality of humankind's societies. A thinker who has always advanced by criticizing his own assumptions, Dr. Niebuhr continued to break new ground and to reconsider some of his earlier judgments. In this book, Dr. Niebuhr reviews the doctrines of the political order advanced by religious and secular interests; he traces the long history of the paradox of man's obvious universal humanity and the tribal loyalties which are the roots of human inhumanity; and he deals with the complex relation between ambition and creativity. Adding to and modifying his remarkable contribution to contemporary thought, Dr. Niebuhr has written a book that is of fundamental importance.

“[Niebuhr] is one of my favorite philosophers. I take away [from his works] the compelling idea that there’s serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away . . . the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard.”—President Barack Obama Forged during the tumultuous but triumphant postwar years when America came of age as a world power, The Irony of American History is more relevant now than ever before. Cited by politicians as diverse as Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Niebuhr’s masterpiece on the incongruity between personal ideals and political reality is both an indictment of American moral complacency and a warning against the arrogance of virtue. Impassioned, eloquent, and deeply perceptive, Niebuhr’s wisdom will cause readers to rethink their assumptions about right and wrong, war and peace. “The supreme American theologian of the twentieth century.”—Arthur Schlesinger Jr., New York Times “Niebuhr is important for the left today precisely because he warned about America’s tendency—including the left’s tendency—to do bad things in the name of idealism. His thought offers a much better understanding of where the Bush administration went wrong in Iraq.”—Kevin Mattson, The Good Society “Irony provides the master key to understanding the myths and delusions that underpin American statecraft. . . . The most important book ever written on US foreign policy.”—Andrew J. Bacevich, from the Introduction

This book presents Reinhold Niebuhr, the prominent American theologian, in dialogue with seven individuals who each had a major influence on American life.

A definitive collection of writings by the theologian and public intellectual who was the conscience of the American Century “One of my favorite philosophers,” remarked Barack Obama about the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) in 2007. President Obama is but one of the many American political leaders—including Jimmy Carter and Martin Luther King Jr.—to be influenced by Niebuhr’s writings. Throughout the Depression, World War II, and the Cold War, Niebuhr was one of the most prominent public voices of his time, probing with singular style the question of how to act morally in a fallen world. This Library of America volume, prepared by Niebuhr’s daughter, is a collection of four indispensable books—Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic (1929), Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1944), and The Irony of American History (1952)—and other essays, sermons, and lectures. Notable entries include Niebuhr's world-famous Serenity Prayer, plus his writings on Prohibition, the Allied bombing of Germany, apartheid in South Africa, and the Vietnam War—many of which are collected here for the first time. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.