U. professor questions modernity in newly published book, collection of essays

T.J. Jackson Lears, a Board of Governors distinguished professor in the Department of History, recently published his new book titled "Conjurers, Cranks, Provincials, and Antediluvians: The Off-Modern in American History," according to a post on X by the Rutgers History Department. This book is a compilation of essays from the last five decades of Lears' career.

Lears told The Daily Targum that he began writing essays during graduate school in search of a wider audience. As Lears prepared to retire, he wanted to preserve and tie all his work together but was unsure what shape that would take.

Charlie Riggs, a former Ph.D. student under Lears, stepped in and decided to collect the essays. While reading everything Lears has written, Riggs identified an off-modern concept as the common thread in Lears' work, which eventually became the book's subtitle.

Lears said that the story of U.S. history is most often made to portray progress and transformation. Lears' off-modern perspective critiques this story and offers an alternative to the linear narrative of progress.

"A lot of people find that they're skeptical about this kind of narrow-minded technological definition of progress, and they don't want to say no to it altogether. They're not anti-modern, but they do want to step aside," he said.

Lears' fascination with these stories began during his time as a cryptographer in the Navy during the Vietnam War. Lears said that he realized he did not want to be involved in interviewing for a high-security assignment that involved nuclear weapons when he discovered that they were looking for someone who would solely focus on the technical processes of the job and not the larger impact.

"I soon discovered my main preoccupation in life was asking questions about how we got to this place where we were really being told to just consider the technical issues involved in moral decisions and to ignore the moral dimension of them altogether," he said. "So this was a huge part of modernity."

Lears then declared himself a conscientious objector and left the Navy. He went on to teach at a school for girls in the Virginia juvenile court system but soon realized that he would be better suited to teaching in college, where he could grapple with what afflicts modernity.

Lears found that many of his subjects critique modernity for its absence of spiritual and moral grounding and its encouragement of destructive consumption.

"I don't want to go back and live in a cave that people who question modernity are often told to do, but I do want to raise questions about limits, to consumption habits, to our expansive economic growth and to our sort of aimless spiritual drift, which I think affects a lot of people. It makes them very unhappy," Lears said.

Through his book, Lears aims to show readers that the narrative of progress hides many dangers. The off-modern perspective combats this by encouraging skepticism and also reassures readers that their discontent with modern U.S. society is not unusual and has historical precedence.

Reflecting on his career and latest book, Lears said he is proud of his writings and his teaching, particularly at the graduate level. Lears has taught at Rutgers since 1986, saying that he appreciated the diversity of the people who come to the school.

"I think what I liked was being at a public university where I could deal with people who could not have, particularly privileged backgrounds, but who did have a lot to offer, not only to the historical profession but to the world at large in terms of their own intellectual achievements," he said.