"Part memoir and part meditation on the failed efforts to achieve racial equality in America, [this book] advances Shelby Steele's provocative argument that 'new liberalism' has done more harm than good. Since the 1960s, overt racism against blacks is almost universally condemned, so much so that racism is no longer, by itself, a prohibitive barrier to black advancement. But African Americans remain at a disadvantage in American society, and Steele lays the blame at the feet of white liberals"-- Provided by publisher.

The Great Divide -- A collision -- Hypocrisy -- The moral asymmetry of hypocrisy -- The compounding of hypocrisy -- Characterological evil -- "The Battle of Algiers" -- No past, no future -- America's "characterological evil" : a pillar of identity -- The denouement -- After evil, "the good" -- The new liberalism -- Dissociation -- Relativism and anti-Americanism -- The culture -- Conservatism : the new counterculture -- A politics of idealism -- Liberalism is beautiful, but conservatism is freedom.