The Case for Modern Man [antikvár]

PREFACE TO BEACON PRESS EDITION Once a book has been published, a sensible author will take the same attitude towards it that a selfish parent takes towards a child that has grown up. If it does well, he will be happy; if it is criticized, he will say that he did the best he could with difficult material; and most of all, he will simply be happy to get it off his hands. The one thing he will refuse to do is to try to make it more presentable than it was when it first went off on its own. The pages that follow, therefore, must speak for themselves, and I shall not try in a new preface to say what they may fail to say. It is obviously gratifying, however, that "The Case for Modern Man" should appear in a paperback edition. A great deal has happened since the book first appeared, and I am often asked whether I think that the condition of "modern man" has signally improved. The question, I take it, is only half serious. Obviously, the condition of "modern man" has not greatly improved; but neither has it grown much worse. The issue seems to me still to be what it was. It is the question of the standards we should properly employ to measure our condition. The events that have transpired since the publication of The Case for Modern Man seem to me to reinforce the thesis that we shall solve very few of our problems if we turn our backs on the rational methods and liberal ideals that distinguish the modern period and of which it has the greatest right to be proud. I hope that some of the readers of this new edition will agree. CHARLES FRANKEL Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts September, 1958