May 15, 1927 — June 20, 2013
PHILIP SLATER
SOCIAL CRITIC / AUTHOR / PLAYWRIGHT
Phil in 1971, shortly after The Pursuit of Loneliness became a best-selling book.
BIOGRAPHY
Philip E. Slater (May 15, 1927 — June 20, 2013) was the author of the influential 1970 best-seller The Pursuit of Loneliness (Beacon 1970), as well as nine other books of sociology and social commentary. Slater believed fervently in democracy’s adaptive superiority, a theme that ran throughout all his work. In a prescient 1964 Harvard Business Review article called “Democracy is Inevitable,” he and co-author Warren Bennis predicted the fall of the Soviet bloc and the rise of democracy, arguing, “Democracy… is the only system that can successfully cope with the changing demands of contemporary civilization.”
“A brilliant, sweeping and relevant critique … illumines each of the many aspects of American culture that it touches.”
— The New York Times review of The Pursuit of Loneliness (1970)
