But at least when it comes to “beauty over justice,” I think our society provides ample illustration of that value. The new celebristocracy provides ready-made models of that good life sung by 21st century troubadours. National honor appears to be doing pretty well, too. And it seems like the “thinker[s] who regard[] with disinterest or contempt the concerns of political life” are exactly the people he’s ostensibly criticizing. . . .those who ignore the lessons of, say, a Nussbaum on the importance of classical humanistic learning to citizenship.

In any event, I think Kronman is a deeply wise man whose book The Lost Lawyer is a classic work of jurisprudence. I just wish this first excerpt weren’t grounded in the “culture wars” . . . the problem’s a lot bigger than that, as Bill Readings has noted. The bottom-line imperative is probably a much bigger threat to humanities than an underpaid adjunct who’d rather have her students read Junot Diaz than Faulkner.