SOURCE: Hoggart, Richard. “The Value of Virtue.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 4812 (23 June 1995): 15.

In the following review, Hoggart asserts that The De-Moralization of Society is valuable reading for those on both sides of the political spectrum, provides discussion of Himmelfarb's distinction between virtues and values.

To a rootedly left-of-centre individual, a new book from the Institute of Economic Affairs promises little pleasure. So it had best be said straight away that this [The De-Moralization of Society] is an admirable study which could be read with great profit by left and right. At first the subtitle—From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values—seems to promise some Thatcherite-cum-Keith Joseph, reach-me-down philosophizing. Not so; Gertrude Himmelfarb validates the distinction. The essence of her case is that “values” are without significance unless they express themselves as socially shared meanings; that is, agreed virtues. As in, at their best, the Victorian virtues of self-reliance...