A Generation Abandoned: Why 'Whatever' Is Not Enough - Paperback

by Peter D. Beaulieu (Author)

A Generation Abandoned explores the disruptive cultural events especially of the past half century as these have undermined the confidence of the young in themselves and in civil society, and finally in our place in the universe. The overall theme is the contrast between this sense of abandonment and our inborn and neglected orientation toward personal worth and the common good (the natural law). Much of what is peddled as "social evolution" today is shown to be a throwback to darker times.

The analysis submits to a refreshingly conversational tone, but also draws incisively from a very broad pallet of history, literature, theater, theology, and simplifying and illuminating anecdotes (some of them first hand). An early chapter outlines the "perfect storm" of the 1960s. Later chapters expose the word games of the cultural elite, the saga of the family through history and now its abrupt erosion, and the difference between any meandering "arc of history" and a more grounded arc of relations--our rationalized "culture of death" versus a flourishing "human ecology."

Author Biography

Peter D. Beaulieu earned a bachelor of architecture degree and a doctorate in urban and regional planning, both from the University of Washington. His career includes a tour as a junior officer in the United States Navy, long public service, a hobby of freehand drawing, and a vocation as a husband and father. He served on the Pastoral Council of the Archdiocese of Seattle and was a founding member of the G. K. Chesterton Society of Seattle. His two earlier books are Kristi: So Thin is the Veil (Crossroads, 2006), a meditation on his late wife's serene path through terminal cancer, and Beyond Secularism and Jihad: A Triangular Inquiry into the Mosque, the Manger & Modernity (University Press of America, 2012).