E. Michael Jones: Degenerate Moderns

Modernity as Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior

Ignatius Press, 1993     Amazon.com

Back Cover:

In this groundbreaking new book, Jones shows how some of the major determining leaders in modern thought and culture have rationalized their own immoral behavior and projected it onto a universal canvas. The main thesis of the book is that, in the intellectual life, there are only two ultimate alternatives: either the thinker conforms desire to truth or he conforms truth to desire.

In the last one hundred years, the western cultural elite embarked upon a project which entailed the reversal of the values of the intellectual life so that truth would be subjected to desire as the final criterion of intellectual value. In looking at recent biographies of such major moderns as Freud, Kinsey, Keynes, Margaret Mead, Picasso, and others, there is a remarkable similarity between their lives and thought. After becoming involved in sexual license early on, they invariably chose an ideology or art form which subordinated reality to the exigencies of their sexual misbehavior.

“Degenerate Moderns is a marvelous tour de force. Jones provides the reader not only with an overview of the sources of modern culture but also with a way of understanding what otherwise might seem simply surprising…at the root of many of the most influential books and theories lies the sexual problems of their authors. Sophisticated, informative and learned as this book is, it can be read as a high level corroboration of what your mother always told you. Jones is one of the most readable writers I know.”  Ralph McInerny, University of Notre Dame

“In the Ethics, Aristotle pointed out that ‘Men start revolutionary changes for reasons connected with their private lives.’ This is also Michael Jones’ thesis in his profound new book. It is extraordinary how much of the modern landscape is illuminated by this perspective, as Jones dissects the moral lives of the progenitors of modernity and shows the intellectual consequences. His treatment of Mead, Kinsey, Freud and Jung is devastating. This is not an ad hominem attack, but a brilliant illustration of the inescapable relationship between the order of the soul and the order of everything external to it.”  Robert Reilly, ‘Voice of America’

“A fascinating blend of biography, intellectual history, and investigative reporting. This book takes up where Paul Johnson’s Intellectuals leaves off. It should be required reading for anyone who wishes to understand the intellectual fashions of the Twentieth century.”  William K. Kilpatrick, Author, Psychological Seduction

About the Author:

E. Michael Jones is a writer, former professor, media commentator and the current editor of Culture Wars magazine (formerly Fidelity magazine).