Drawing upon both classical insights and more recent writings. Hearn provides a compelling account of social breakdown in the United States. The book examines the conditions most responsible for the deterioration of social institutions, notably of the family, and of communitarian interdependencies, such as those which support neighborhoods.

More specifically, Hearn analyzes the defining forces of liberal modernity - among them, especially, the market economy (favored by the political right) and the democratic welfare state (endorsed by the political left) - whose steady expansion has diminished the social contexts that nurture trust, mutuality, and a robust sense of both personal responsibility and social obligation.

The originality of Hearn's book lies in the solutions he proposes, which differ from those rooted in what Hearn calls "the languages of modernity." Hearn advocates modes that would serve instead to renew solidarity and reclaim social virtue, a repertory of strategies that would answer Emile Durkheim's call for the creation of moral individualism.