Last Best Hope

America in Crisis and Renewal

By: George Packer

Narrated by: George Packer

Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

2021 Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year
2021 New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year
2021 NPR Best Book of the Year

Acclaimed National Book Award-winning author George Packer diagnoses America’s descent into a failed state and envisions a path toward overcoming our injustices, paralyses, and divides.

This program is read by the author.

In the year 2020, Americans suffered one rude blow after another to their health, livelihoods, and collective self-esteem. A ruthless pandemic, an inept and malign government response, polarizing protests, and an election marred by conspiracy theories left many citizens in despair about their country and its democratic experiment. With pitiless precision, the year exposed the nation’s underlying conditions - discredited elites, weakened institutions, blatant inequalities - and how difficult they are to remedy.

In Last Best Hope, George Packer traces the shocks back to their sources. He explores the four narratives that now dominate American life: Free America, which imagines a nation of separate individuals and serves the interests of corporations and the wealthy; Smart America, the world view of Silicon Valley and the professional elite; Real America, the White Christian nationalism of the heartland; and Just America, which sees citizens as members of identity groups that inflict or suffer oppression.

In lively and biting prose, Packer shows that none of these narratives can sustain a democracy. To point a more hopeful way forward, he looks for a common American identity and finds it in the passion for equality - the “hidden code” - that Americans of diverse persuasions have held for centuries. Today, we are challenged again to fight for equality and renew what Alexis de Tocqueville called “the art” of self-government. In its strong voice and trenchant analysis, Last Best Hope is an essential contribution to the literature of national renewal.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

©2021 George Packer (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Concise.

concise. but covers enough history to gather the many threads as to the who, what and whys.

authors narration is very good. a pleasing timbre.

Wow! Terrific book!

This book does a deep dive into what is going on in America. You need this information as background to allow you to understand what has happened and what will happen. I highly recommend it.

Great read!

Packer has written a well researched, positive review of todays America. He makes a strong argument that we are the world’s best hope.

A Sad Diagnosis along with a Hard & Simple Cure!

This is a very important Book which should be disseminated and discussed far more widely than it has been to date.

Packer has accurately limned the Fault Lines along which We Americans have created our Tribes. He traces the roots of our divisions far back beyond the Pandemic while assigning it a good amount of blame, but he acknowledges how deeply they run.

Unfortunately, after painting the Ugly Portrait of 2021 America, the only chemical solution he prescribes is the Cod Liver Oil that is probably too unbearable to stomach:

Turn off Twitter, Join a Bowling League, Meet Real Human Beings and Realize what a Fantastic Gift Life in American Democracy is and Work every Day to elect Leaders who will make it work!

He’s right of course and his recommended Policy Changes are spot on, but are we willing to do the hard work needed?

Insightful and thought-provoking

Is it possible for any human being to accurately sum up a society as conflicted and contradictory as ours? I'm doubtful, but George Packer's book is insightful and thought-provoking. My favorite chapter was the one called Equalizers, in which the author tells the stories of three American reformers (Horace Greeley, Frances Perkins, and Bayard Rustin), reflecting on their times and making trenchant comparisons to ours.

A very thoughtful and compelling book!

Every American needs to read this wonderful book
It is a book I will read twice.

Great insights

Hard words for tough times. wonder who will read it on the "other" side? The story remains unfinished.

this puts things in perspective

I loved the story and it really got me thinking. very saddening facts at times. my take away is that there is always hope if people just come together and converse.
just find people unlike you, have dinner with them and all will be fine.

Thought provoking and astride from the typical politics

Packer lays out an accurate historical account of forces at work in America.
This is a giant task in and of itself and he does it handily.
He is partly a socialist in avocation but even handed in his rebuke of one line of thinking.
Unapologetic and provocative.
Read if you are
A Self-described Libertarian
A Well Educated College Prof
A 2nd Amendment supporter
A Critical Race theorist
Because YOU are the future of America…. If you choose a wider embrace of democracy and equality

A smart political read for our times.

A good read to help make sense out of these recent years. Well-written and yes, filled with hope. We need all we can get.