In the ninth chapter, he continues his critique by examining the current state of politics, tracing its various movements (e.g. While he critiques pieces of modernity along the way, he saves his fuller critique of the modern project for the eight chapter. Next, Shapiro recounts the development of Western civilization from the birth of Christianity all the way to the twentieth century through chapters four through seven. Following this, the second and third chapter pair together as an exposition of Western values derived from Jerusalem and Athens, respectively.
The first chapter establishes the basic principles underlying the rest of the work, namely, that the purpose of civilization is to seek the common good, that the ultimate end of human life is happiness, and that human beings have the capacity to pursue these goods in life. In the introduction, Shapiro recounts recent events that led him to writing this book, particularly his campus tours which resulted in misguided college students attacking him for being a “white nationalist” for his defense of traditional Western values. The book is divided into nine chapters with a separate introduction and conclusion. First: what is Western civilization? Second: why are so many within it actively working for its dissolution? In the Right Side of History, Ben Shapiro tries to make sense of this problem by answering two fundamental questions.
On the one hand, scientific and economic advances have allowed our material conditions to thrive far beyond what our ancestors could have imagined, and on the other hand, there is an increasing sense of alienation and despair looming in modern society, as suicide rates grow while fertility rates fall. We face an undeniable paradox in Western civilization.
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