Sincerity: How a moral ideal born five hundred years ago inspired religious wars, modern art, hipster chic, and the curious notion that we all have something to say (no matter how dull)

Sincerity: How a moral ideal born five hundred years ago inspired religious wars, modern art, hipster chic, and the curious notion that we all have something to say (no matter how dull)

by R. Jay Magill Jr.
Sincerity: How a moral ideal born five hundred years ago inspired religious wars, modern art, hipster chic, and the curious notion that we all have something to say (no matter how dull)

Sincerity: How a moral ideal born five hundred years ago inspired religious wars, modern art, hipster chic, and the curious notion that we all have something to say (no matter how dull)

by R. Jay Magill Jr.

Paperback(Reprint)

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Overview

“A serious and engaging cultural history painted on an admirably large canvas.”—Laura Kipnis, New York Times Book Review

What do John Calvin, Sarah Palin, Jean-Jacques Rosseau, and Bon Iver have in common? A preoccupation with sincerity. With deep historical perspective and a brilliant contemporary spin, R. Jay Magill Jr. tells the beguiling tale of sincerity’s theological past, its current emotional resonance, and the deep impact it has had on the Western soul. At a time when politicians are scrutinized less for the truth of what they say than for how much they really mean it, Sincerity provides a wide-ranging examination of a moral ideal that remains a strange magnetic north in our secular moral compass.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780393346220
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date: 07/22/2013
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 274
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

R. Jay Magill, Jr. is an independent scholar living in Berlin, where he works for the American Academy as a writer and editor, as well as a host of a radio program on NPR Worldwide. He is the author of Chic Ironic Bitterness, published in 2007, and from 1999-2005 was an editor, staff writer, and then Executive Editor of the National Magazine Award winning DoubleTake Magazine. During that time, Magill was also a teaching fellow at Harvard University, for which he received the Derek Bok award. He has written for, among other publications, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Policy, American Prospect, Der Spiegel, and Print; and as an illustrator he has produced scores of political cartoons and caricatures for a variety of newspapers, periodicals (e.g. The Believer), posters, and books (e.g. The Ultimate Guide to the US Economy). Since 2005 he has been a staff illustrator at the political bimonthly The American Interest, in Washington, DC.

Table of Contents

Introduction 11

I Reform Thyself! 23

II A Saint's Heart 45

III Those Tricky Bourgeois Gentlemen 61

IV Natural Man Redeemed 79

V Romantic Escapes 94

VI Cascading Cynicism 118

VII Long Live "Sincerity" 168

VIII Hip Affected Earnestness 194

Hipster Semiotic Appendix 215

Epilogue 223

Acknowledgments 235

Notes 239

Bibliography 249

Index 259

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