MORALITY IN AMERICA

Morality in America is a current as well as constant concern, as J. Robert Moskin discovered when his 1957 Look article on the subject received a greater response than any other article published that year bar one (on rare coins). He has based this book on the foundations of the article and interviewed some one hundred leaders in various fields for their views on the state of the nation's soul. It is a nation which claims to believe in the Ten Commandments, the teachings of Christ, the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution's first ten amendments; where four institutions have the prime power and the primary responsibility to influence morality--government, business and labor unions, the press and the churches. In a country that is swiftly changing, we appear to have a ""crisis morality."" Science has damaged our sense of individual responsibility; the churches must seek relevance in light of it and our moving universe. The author, through the words of many men, among them the Church's Pope John, Raymond Aron, theologians Tillich and Niebuhr, the U.N.'s U Thant, historians Toynbee, Catton, Schlesinger, sociologist Riesman, Negro leader Martin Luther King, Jr., offers opinions on the pivotal areas of American morality, from international to interpersonal relations. While a spot check like this has its fascination, it is also curiously inconclusive, and its value is as a stimulant.