Irving Babbitt

Few men in America’s intellectual history have sought as much as Irving Babbitt to be a crucible for the cultural values that America, expecially in its “progressive” epoch, had no inclination to receive. Over sixty years after his death, Babbitt remains a figure of controversy. He retains his reputation as a reactionary defender of genteel morality and taste, yet, as Thomas Nevin reminds us, he continues to be a scholar of importance and an erudite, forceful teacher who influenced — among other