A definitive collection of the theologian and public intellectual who was the conscience of the American Century. "One of my favorite philosophers," remarked Barack Obama about the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) in 2007. President Obama is but one of the many American political leaders-including Jimmy Carter and Martin Luther King Jr.-to be influenced by Niebuhr's writings. Throughout the Depression, World War II, and the Cold War, Niebuhr was one of the most prominent public voices of his time, probing with singular style the question of how to act morally in a fallen world. This Library of America volume, prepared by Niebuhr's daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, collects four indispensable books: Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic (1929), Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1944), and The Irony of American History (1952), along with a selection of essays, sermons, lectures, prayers, including his world-famous Serenity Prayer, and writings on current events-Prohibition, the Allied bombing of Germany, apartheid in South Africa, the Vietnam War-many of which are collected here for the first time.
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
A definitive collection of the theologian and public intellectual who was the conscience of the American Century. "One of my favorite philosophers," remarked Barack Obama about the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) in 2007. President Obama is but one of the many American political leaders-including Jimmy Carter and Martin Luther King Jr.-to be influenced by Niebuhr's writings. Throughout the Depression, World War II, and the Cold War, Niebuhr was one of the most prominent public voices of his time, probing with singular style the question of how to act morally in a fallen world. This Library of America volume, prepared by Niebuhr's daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, collects four indispensable books: Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic (1929), Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1944), and The Irony of American History (1952), along with a selection of essays, sermons, lectures, prayers, including his world-famous Serenity Prayer, and writings on current events-Prohibition, the Allied bombing of Germany, apartheid in South Africa, the Vietnam War-many of which are collected here for the first time.
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
REINHOLD NIEBUHR (1892-1971) began his career as a
young pastor in Detroit. By 1928, when he moved to New York City to
take a position at the Union Theological Seminary, he was a
committed pacifist, and ran for Congress in 1932 as a
Socialist. Breaking with his pacifist and socialist associates
shortly after the outbreak of World War II in Europe, he
articulated a realist political philosophy that aligned with his
ever-evolving theology. Niebuhr’s thinking has influenced American
culture in profound ways, whether through the simple but powerful
“Serenity Prayer” known to millions or via the influence of his
writings on social and political figures such as Martin Luther
King, Jr. and Barack Obama.
ELISABETH SIFTON, an editor and book publisher for forty years,
is the author of The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times
of Peace and War. She lives in New York City and in Princeton, New
Jersey.
“The indispensable Library of America, the most useful publishing
venture in American letters, has produced an edition of Niebuhr’s
major works, annotated by Niebuhr’s daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, a
highly regarded editor and publisher. It belongs in the
library of every student of U. S. foreign policy." —Walter
Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs
“Reading his work today, amid our own challenges of social
inequality and imperial hubris, suggests we still need Niebuhr’s
insight as much as ever.”—Adam Kirsch, The New York Review of
Books
“A fine introduction to one of the 20th century’s most influential
intellectuals.” —Barton Swaim, The Wall Street Journal
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