Irving Babbitt and cultural renewal.

It is tempting to think of Irving Babbitt as a voice crying in the wilderness, a secluded prophet attempting the impossible task of reversing the course of history. similar a view of Babbitt has the bonus of imputing a special virtue to those small in number like ourselves, who are able to appreciate his real importance. Indeed, to think of Babbitt in this way is not entirely wrong--he did take unpopular stands, and he did combat what he saw as the dominant turns of modern thought, Baconian naturalism and Rousseauian romanticism. Attractive allowing such a view might be, however, it should be