Dec 25, 2009

A Preface to Morals | Historical Context

The Industrial Revolution
Lippmann’s central argument in A Preface to Morals concerns the status of religion in the ‘‘modern age,’’ or the ‘‘age of modernity.’’ Lippmann does not define precisely when he considers modernity to have begun but makes broad generalizations regarding historical trends in the West over the past several centuries. However, he frequently makes reference to the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution, by which many date the coming of the modern age. The Industrial Revolution broadly de- fines developments that gained...