Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses

This new collection of essays by the author of Life at the Bottom bears the unmistakable stamp of Theodore Dalrymple's bracingly clearsighted view of the human condition. It suggests comparison with the work of George Orwell.

A Wide Range of Topics

In these twenty-six pieces, Dr. Dalrymple explores a variety of subjects, including:

• Literature and ideas, from Shakespeare to Marx
• The breakdown of Islam
• The legalization of drugs

Insight from Experience

Informed by years of medical practice in a wide variety of settings, his acquaintance with the outer limits of human experience allows him to:

• Discover the universal in the local and the particular
• Show impatience with the humbug and obscurantism that have long marred our social and political life

A Return to the Importance of Literature

As in Life at the Bottom, these essays are:

• Incisive yet undogmatic
• Beautifully composed
• Free of disfiguring jargon

Our Culture, What's Left of It is a book that restores our faith in the central importance of literature and criticism to our civilization.