The Monsters Progress
There was a time—it was the 1950s and early '60s–when “loneliness” was a major category of serious public discourse in this country. Official '50s optimism notwithstanding, David Reisman's The Lonely Crowd—about the social isolation created by postwar urban, industrial and corporate conditions—was debated everywhere, and anthologies such as Man Alone brought together a century's worth …

