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Title: Excellent Book for the Self-Righteous
Review: Stephen L. Carter is a distinguished professor of Law at Yale University. He makes it clear that he is a Christian and writes from that perspective. He spends much time pointing out what everybody already knows, viz. that we live in a highly uncivil, angry, and impolite society. This book will most likely be read by those who are already concerned about that fact. But the tone of Carter's pronouncements will not make you feel compassionate concern for those who WON'T be reading this book. And so it is, at bottom, a sermon to the converted, with all the self-righteous overtones one expects from a dignified member of U.S. society. Nobody who has not already been seduced into feelings of guilt and repentance should get anywhere near this book. It will simply enrage you, and make you want to become uncivil all that much more.
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