Postmodernism Rightly Understood is a dramatic return to realism—a poetic attempt to attain a true understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the postmodern predicament. Prominent political theorist Peter Augustine Lawler reflects on the flaws of postmodern thought, the futility of pragmatism, and the spiritual emptiness of existentialism. Lawler examines postmodernism by interpreting the writings of five respected and best selling American authors—Francis Fukuyama, Richard Rorty, Allan Bloom, Walker Percy, and Christopher Lasch. Lawler explains why the alternatives available in our time are either a "soulless niceness," which Fukuyama, Rorty, and Bloom described as the result of modern success, or a postmodern moral responsibility that accompanies love in the ruins, as articulated by Percy and Lasch. This is a fresh and compelling look at the crisis of the human soul and intellect accompanied by the onset of postmodernity.

"...admirably ambitious... But Lawler is a gadfly—of that distinctively southern sort, with an eviable combination of intelligence, learning and wit. Lawler's account far surpasses the leading scholarship on Percy....." - The Weekly Standard

"Postmodernism Rightly Understood is an admirable, and admirably ambitious, book. Not the least of its ambitions is to show what it is about the character of modern life—and postmodern thought— that renders it so difficult to address the twinproblems of love and death and why our humanity requires that we make the effort. Lawler employs an enviable mix of intelligence, learning and wit to make his case. For this reason alone, Postmodernism Rightly Understood deserves to be read widely and debated thoroughly, and not simply by academics." - The Weekly Standard

"Postmodernism Rightly Understood is an admirable, and admirably ambitious, book. Not the least of its ambitions is to show what it is about the character of modern life—and "postmodern" thought— that renders it so difficult to address the twin problems of love and death and why our humanity requires that we make the effort. Lawler employs an enviable mix of intelligence, learning and wit to make his case. For this reason alone, Postmodernism Rightly Understood deserves to be read widely and debated thoroughly, and not simply by academics." - The Weekly Standard

"...admirably ambitious... But Lawler is a gadfly—of that distinctively southern sort, with an eviable combination of intelligence, learning and wit. Lawler's account far surpasses the leading scholarship on Percy." - The Weekly Standard

"Lively and engaging . . . represents something of great importance to the authenticity and reality of modern realism. . . . Lawler has, I think, presented a very powerful argument about the real needs of postmodernity." - Homiletic & Pastoral Review

"Enlightening treatment of contemporary American intellectual thought in Postmodernism Rightly Understood. The work will be eminently interesting not only to specialists in political philosophy and specialists in political philosophy and students of postmodernism, but even to casual observers of American letters." - Perspectives on Political Science, Vol. 29, No. 2

"Deeply serious and richly thought-provoking" - American Political Science Review

"Since many conservatives might be intimidated by such a risky and ambitious project, they can be greatful that Peter Augustine Lawler has shown them the way in his new book. It challenges religious and cultural conservatives to take postmodernism away from the academic Left and to develop it themselves—"rightly understood," of course. Each essay is elegantly writtnen, the five esays hang together nicely because of the way Lawler frames the unifying isuue..." - Modern Age