Schwartz, Barry

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Swarthmore College Works Psychology Faculty Works Psychology 1-1-2006 Review Of "America's Crisis Of Values: Reality And Perception" By W. Baker Barry Schwartz Swarthmore College, bschwar1@swarthmore.edu This work is brought to you for free and open access by . It has been accepted for inclusion in Psychology Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact myworks@swarthmore.edu. Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-psychology  Part of the Psychology Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits you  Recommended Citation Barry Schwartz. (2006). "Review Of "America's Crisis Of Values: Reality And Perception" By W. Baker". American Journal Of Sociology. Volume 111, Issue 4. 1254-1255. DOI: 10.1086/503005 https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-psychology/4 America’s Crisis of Values: Reality and Perception by Wayne BakerAmerica’s Crisis of Values: Reality and Perception by Wayne  BakerReview by: Barry SchwartzAmerican Journal of Sociology, Vol. 111, No. 4 (January 2006), pp. 1254-1255Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/503005 .Accessed: 03/03/2014 18:45Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp .JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. .The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toAmerican Journal of Sociology.http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 130.58.64.71 on Mon, 3 Mar 2014 18:45:53 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsAmerican Journal of Sociology1254America’s Crisis of Values: Reality and Perception. By Wayne Baker.Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005. Pp. xvi307. $35.Barry SchwartzSwarthmore CollegeIs there a “crisis of values” in the United States? There is little doubt thatalmost everybody thinks so. And in this thoughtful and thought-provokingbook, Wayne Baker takes this shared perception as a given. His questionis whether this perception is accurate. And his answer is yes, but not inthe way you might think.Baker begins the book by refining what a “crisis of values” might mean.It could mean a loss of traditional values over time. It could mean a lossof traditional values in comparison with other societies. Finally, it couldmean an increase in irreconcilable moral differences within contemporarysociety. One sees all three meanings at play in the writings of the mostdramatic hand wringers of recent years, though it is principally the thirdmeaning that people have in mind when they talk about modernAmerica’s “culture wars.”To assess whether this concern about values is justified, Baker reliesprimarily on data from the distinguished World Values Survey. This sur-vey has been administered periodically since 1981 to citizens in 65 coun-tries spanning the globe. And the data from the survey permit an as-sessment of the historical (though 25 years is admittedly not a very longtime, most proponents of the “crisis of values” thesis would argue thateven in that limited period, American values have eroded), the cross-cultural, and the intracultural hypotheses. And in some 63 tables andfigures, Baker provides assessments of all three hypotheses. This is whatBaker finds:1. America’s values are as traditional today as they were in 1981. Thus,there has been virtually no historical decline.2. America’s values have been and still are among the most traditionalin the world. Indeed, the United States is a real outlier when it comesto traditional values in comparison with other economically advanceddemocracies.3. Finally, America’s social attitudes, cultural values, and beliefs are nomore polarized now than they were a generation ago.Thus, the data suggest, rather strongly, that in all three senses of the“crisis of values” with which the book begins, there is none.So why, then, is there such an apparent consensus that the United Statesis in moral crisis? To sketch Baker’s answer requires that we look a littledeeper into how Baker, and the World Values Survey, classifies values.The World Values Survey identifies two critical dimensions of culturalvariation and change: one is a dimension that goes from traditional tosecular-rational values; the other is a dimension that goes from survivalvalues to self-expression values. It is on the level of these dimensions thatThis content downloaded from 130.58.64.71 on Mon, 3 Mar 2014 18:45:53 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsBook Reviews1255Baker concludes there is little evidence for a crisis of values. Cross-culturally, the United States (with Ireland) is the most traditional of ec-onomically advanced democracies. Historically, American traditionalismhas not changed a bit. And though its approval of self-expression is sub-stantial and has increased, it has increased no more than that of scoresof comparable societies. However, it is important to note that the UnitedStates is virtually unique in its simultaneous commitment to tradition andself-expression, and that these two commitments themselves create con-flicts and contradictions.But, Baker argues, there is a level of value analysis required that goesdeeper than the level at which the World Values Survey is pitched. Hecalls this the level of “moral visions.” And at this level, there has beenan increase in polarization in the United States in recent years. The par-ticular moral visions being contested are “absolutism” and “relativism.”Between 1981 and 1995, the proportion of “absolutists” in the UnitedStates increased from one-third to one-half across age, income, class, andracial groups. So the United States is now split down the middle. Bakeris at pains to point out that there is plenty of slippage between moralvisions and moral values, so that people with different visions can havethe same values (though presumably with different justifications). None-theless, the dispute about moral visions takes its toll.Baker suggests that differences in moral vision are especially significantin the United States, because unlike other nations, which he calls “birth-right nations,” that are built on common ancestry, history, language, cus-toms, religion, and the like, the United States is built on common ideas.So a cultural disagreement about these ideas represents a threat to nationalidentity in the United States that it would not in other societies. Whatthis means is that people in the United States are engaged in a high-stakes struggle, both between and within individuals, to reconcile abso-lutism with relativism—tradition with self-expression. It is the salienceof this struggle, both within and between us, that gives rise to the senseof moral crisis, that induces us to focus on differences and ignoresimilarities.This review has only scratched the surface of this deeply provocativebook. It raises many questions for further investigation, and it will rewardcareful study.License to Harass: Law, Hierarchy, and Offensive Public Speech. ByLaura Beth Nielsen. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005.Pp. 225. $35.00.Susan FineranUniversity of Southern MaineIn her book License to Harass: Law, Hierarchy, and Offensive PublicSpeech, Laura Beth Nielsen provides a provocative overview of offensiveThis content downloaded from 130.58.64.71 on Mon, 3 Mar 2014 18:45:53 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Review Of  America\u27s Crisis Of Values: Reality And Perception  By W. Baker

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Review Of America\u27s Crisis Of Values: Reality And Perception By W. Baker

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