CONTENTS PREFACE 13 i. INTRODUCTION: THE OBSOLESCENCE OF LEFT AND RIGHT The Current Mood 21 Limits: The Forbidden Topic 22 The Making of a Malcontent 25 The Land of Opportunity: A Parent's View 31 The Party of the Future and Its Quarrel with "Middle America" 35 The Promised Land of the New Right 38 2. THE IDEA OF PROGRESS RECONSIDERED A Secular Religion? 40 Belief in Progress as the Antidote to Despair 41 Against the "Secularization Thesis" 44 -7-