Niebuhr is known to be President Obama’s favorite theologian-philosopher. It is easy to see why Niebuhr's writings can be claimed by both modern-day progressives and neoconservatives: he was an unabashed socialist, who believed in American exceptionalism and a muscular foreign policy. This collection, spanning the course of his life, from working as a pastor in Detroit to his time as a public intellectual in New York, shows the nuance in the development of his thoughts, as well as his bedrock principles, which remained constant. Particularly insightful are the essays where he expounds on the dichotomy of civil society versus the governmental State, the morality of the individual versus the morality of society (or lack there of), and on socialism versus Socialism (both of the State and Party varieties). He is most illuminating when he critiques those intellectual bedfellows who would seem closest to him.
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