Buy The Book

Philip Rieff is the greatest social thinker you’ve never heard of. The second volume of his posthumous and mindbending three-volume opus, Sacred Order/Social Order, has hit shelves (there is a copy, for instance, down at Kramerbooks in Dupont). It’s edited by the very sharp Alan Woolfolk, and I recommend it highly. Though I haven’t had time to review it properly, in it you will discover both Rieff’s secret affinity for Aristotle and his vision of culture after its complete collapse, which, yes, he sees coming. It’s not light reading (duh), but it is gripping stuff, especially if you like Kafka, Emerson, Nietzsche, and other modern geniuses of the soul — the people Rieff calls modern culture’s ‘officer class.’ Plus, one of the dust jacket blurbs is taken from my review of the first volume of the trilogy, so obviously it’s a great conversation piece for any cool kid’s bookshelf.

(Intellectually and sartorially intimidating promo photo obtained thru Bookforum.)