Nicholas Lemann: The Transaction Society (Tanner Lecture 1)

This talk is called "The Turn Against Institutions," lecture one of the Tanner Lectures.

In "The Transaction Society: Origins and Consequences," Lemann proposes that American society fundamentally changed in the second half of the twentieth century from privileging institutions, interacting in a pluralistic fashion, to privileging transactions. The first lecture was an intellectual history tracing the broad turn against strong institutions as a social ideal, in favor of efficiency and broad notions of fairness and justice.

The second lecture (http://youtu.be/TyLNlyAJkdc) is more specific about how this change in ethos manifested itself in actual social, legal, and economic arrangements, and will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the social regime resulting from these changes.

The McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society is committed to bringing ethical reflection to bear on important social problems through research, teaching, and engagement. Visit the Center's website for more information: http://ethicsinsociety.stanford.edu

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