Moral Fire: Musical Portraits from America's Fin de Siècle (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520267442)

Joseph Horowitz writes in Moral Fire: "If the Met's screaming Wagnerites standing on chairs (in the 1890s) are unthinkable today, it is partly because we mistrust high feeling. Our children avidly specialize in vicarious forms of electronic interpersonal diversion. Our laptops and televisions ensnare us in a surrogate world that shuns all but facile passions; only Jon Stewart and Bill Maher share moments of moral outrage disguised as comedy."

Arguing that the past can prove instructive and inspirational, Horowitz revisits four astonishing personalities-Henry Higginson, Laura Langford, Henry Krehbiel and Charles Ives-whose missionary work in the realm of culture signaled a belief in the fundamental decency of civilized human nature, in the universality of moral values, and in progress toward a kingdom of peace and love.



Author: Joseph Horowitz
ISBN-10: 0520267443
ISBN-13: 9780520267442
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 05/22/2012
Pages: 270
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.14lbs
Size: 9.14h x 6.33w x 0.91d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 12/01/2012