"These wide-ranging essays--on many individual political, economic, cultural and legal issues--have as a recurring underlying theme the decline of the values and institutions that have sustained and advanced American society for more than two centuries... Whether these essays (originally published as syndicated newspaper columns) are individually about financial bailouts, illegal immigrants, gay marriage, national security, or the Duke University rape case, the underlying concern is about what these very different kinds of things say about the general direction of American society... "--Dust jacket flap.