Christopher Lasch

About the author

Christopher Lasch (1932–1994) was an American historian and social critic who spent his career as a history professor at the University of Rochester. Best known for The Culture of Narcissism (1979), a surprise bestseller that won the National Book Award, he used historical analysis to argue that major institutions were steadily eroding the competence and independence of families and communities. His political outlook evolved from neo-Marxist critiques of Cold War liberalism toward an unusual blend of cultural conservatism and left-leaning anti-capitalism, drawing on Freudian critical theory to diagnose what he saw as America's deepening cultural and political deterioration.