Lasch, Christopher

Lasch, Christopher (lăsh), 1932–94, American historian, b. Omaha, Neb., grad. Harvard, 1956, Ph.D., Columbia, 1961. After teaching at the Univ. of Iowa (1961–66) and Northwestern Univ. (1966–70), he became a professor of American history at the Univ. of Rochester. In his early works, The New Radicalism in America (1965) and The Agony of the American Left (1969), he offered a sharp analysis of the limitations of liberal activism. He was critical of what he perceived to be the self-centered and shallow nature of American culture. In his later works, his impatience with conventional liberal and progressive responses to American social problems are central themes. These works include Haven in a Heartless World (1977), The Culture of Narcissism (1979), The Minimal Self (1985), and The True and Only Heaven (1991).