THE END OF IDEOLOGY DEBATE

History has made the intelligentsia skeptical of ideology--vide the crimes of Hitler and Stalin in the name of political principles--which have tended to discredit the stances of both ""right"" and ""left."" Professor Waxman presents a collection of essays (or excerpts from books) by distinguished contributors who argue the viability of ""ideological politics."" Waxman himself asserts that there is an ""absence of ideological politics in modern industrial society,"" rejoices in the death of ""fanatical, closed-system approaches,"" and calls for a new ""broad, plastic ideology. . . which will enable us to transcend our current stagnation."" The majority of contributors, however, are content to survey the historical situation and point out the erosion of doctrinaire positions by the co-existence of apparently impossible situations--as Edward Shils notes, ""combinations like collective ownership and tyranny, large-scale governmental controls with public liberties."" The writers include Raymond Aron, Seymour Lipset, Irving Horowitz, C. Wright Mills, and Daniel Bell. Essays are presented chronologically (the first appeared in 1955). The subject is parochial, and probably will excite much less interest than the theologians' similar debate over whether or not God is dead--a limited audience.