The Present Age challenges readers to reexamine the role of the United States in the world since World War I. Nisbet criticizes Americans for isolationism at home and discusses the gutting of educational standards the decay of education the presence of government in all facets of life the diminished connection to community and the prominence of economic arrangements driving everyday life in America. Robert Nisbet (1913-1996) taught at Columbia the University of California at Berkeley Smith College and the University of Bologna.