In April 1989, a gang of teenagers attacked a jogger in New York's Central Park; the press dubbed the crime "wilding." Charles Derber maintains that the chilling antisocial mentality behind this offense is far more widespread than people would like to believe.

With a fascinating twist of perspective, Derber reveals startling links between criminal wilding on the street, emotional wilding in families, economic wilding on Wall Street, political wilding in Washington, and other forms of "legitimate" sociopathic behavior. He argues that morally these actions are different, but socially they reflect the unbridled pursuit of self-interest. Through the lens of this broader view of wilding, Derber examines such cases as O.J.

Simpson, Tonya Harding, Susan Smith, Lyle and Erik Menendez, Michael Milken, the S & L and Orange County scandals, and such issues as corporate greed, screen violence, campus cheating and hazing, drug dealing, child and spouse abuse, and the Newt Gingrich revolution. In The Wilding of America, Derber makes a cogent and compelling case that wilding extends far beyond random violence by youth gangs.

Americans are, he argues, in danger of becoming a nation of wilders - one in which their often ruthless exercise of individual freedom threatens to unravel society itself. But there may be solutions. In a passionate final chapter, Derber shows how Americans can rethink individualism, and how they can construct a compassionate society and a more responsible vision of the American Dream.