The Age of Entitlement

America Since the Sixties

By: Christopher Caldwell

Narrated by: Christopher Caldwell

Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

A major American intellectual and “one of the right’s most gifted and astute journalists” (The New York Times Book Review) makes the historical case that the reforms of the 1960s, reforms intended to make the nation more just and humane, left many Americans feeling alienated, despised, misled - and ready to put an adventurer in the White House.

Christopher Caldwell has spent years studying the liberal uprising of the 1960s and its unforeseen consequences and his conclusion is this: Even the reforms that Americans love best have come with costs that are staggeringly high - in wealth, freedom, and social stability - and that have been spread unevenly among classes and generations.

Caldwell reveals the real political turning points of the past half-century, taking you on a roller-coaster ride through Playboy magazine, affirmative action, CB radio, leveraged buyouts, iPhones, Oxycontin, Black Lives Matter, and internet cookies. In doing so, he shows that attempts to redress the injustices of the past have left Americans living under two different ideas of what it means to play by the rules.

Essential, timely, hard to put down, The Age of Entitlement “is an eloquent and bracing book, full of insight” (New York magazine) about how the reforms of the past 50 years gave the country two incompatible political systems - and drove it toward conflict.

©2020 Christopher Caldwell (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio

Do laudable ends justify unconstitutional means?

I remember my HS history teacher telling the class that the importance of the Civil Rights Acts justified the unconstitutional means used to enact them. Christopher Caldwell makes a compelling case that that is not so. Because only the aspirational ideals of the Constitution can unite disparate Americans, undermining the Constitution undermines America.

A New Look At our Changing Culture

An extremely intelligent and interesting book whose thesis, if correct, dramatically impacts each of us and our country for the future. Without being overtly political, it explains a lot about the forces and the dynamics that are tearing this country apart. Trump is never mentioned but he is explained. The loss of rights and the replacement of those rights with ideology is worrisome and largely missed or ignored.
This book causes the reader to stop and look at our culture through a new lens.

Socio-political masterpiece!!!

If you're a Libertarian, or conservative trying to wrap your head around various issues, this is the bible of modern American politcal knowledge!

Answers the question of why we are So divided

The premises for this book is Intriguing and the author makes a great case for it. However, this is not an easy book to get through with a lot of SAT vocabulary and complicated sentence structure that makes this a difficult read. Although the historical Context is excellent and necessary, the author spends an inordinate amount of time going over the same ground here. I was let down by the author not offering any solutions to the problem that he so deftly constructed.

The Beginning of the End

I listened to this book in one day's time, as Caldwell was articulating what I had thought for years. As a fervent supporter of our 1789 Constitution, I am dismayed that we have denied the principle of Liberty -- our most important heritage. The Civil Rights legislation created the legal framework for forced Equality and resulted in the political morass in which we now find ourselves. In enforcing Equality for specific classes of race, gender, color, religion, national origin, disabilities, age, and sexual orientation we have almost destroyed Liberty. Caldwell implies that we cannot have both Liberty and forced Equality and that our current polarization is the result. Although he doesn't mention the French Revolution, I see a parellel in which Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity were to have been enforced by the state, but instead resulted in the Reign of Terror and mass executions. I would have liked more analysis of why Trump was elected and whether his election indicates an ongoing power for conservatives.

The smartest book

I found this account of recent history & its analysis by the author to be one of the most factual, intellectual & downright smartest that I have ever read. Highly recommend...

Thoughtful and well researched

Mr. Caldwell masterfully details the emergence of political correctness from the ever expanding interpretation of the Civil Rights Act. His prescient vision has been reinforced in the months since this book’s publication. One may not fully agree, however, it will expand and enhance a thoughtful dialogue.

Thought provoking

What surprised me about this title: It clarified for me, why the Left in American politics is so reviled, in a way that made sense. Not the nonsense of Trumpists or most of the "alt. Right". As for even-handedness the author also clearly points out how the leaders or the modern GOP like Reagan, were frauds.
Most importantly, for this writer , the author manages to convince me, a lifelong Democrat, that the idiots running current the Democratic party, are too foolishly ignorant, to understand how they have betrayed the US Constitution... by choosing to elevate so called "Civil Rights" to the status of another, more powerful "constitution" than the one we have always considered the basis of our republic (via ongoing civil litigation). The book explains how, by choosing to ignore laws based on the US Constitution in favor of whatever legal rules the most recent version of Political Correctness insists upon, overall, human rights in America, which we have cherished for more than 200 years have been stripped away. We've lost, for instance rights like "freedom of speech" and, consequently, freedom of thought.and freedom of association. This book has helped me understand why I have been unable to accept, most of the current tenets of the party I used to support, wholeheartedly. The author/narrator is a voice of reason who gives US citizens a clear picture of what has actually gone wrong, with our country during the past 5 decades. The author seems to trust that there are still people in this nation who understand honest explanations and don't require political ranting and raving ,in order to demonize their political opposition. and inflame their supporters.
Overall, it is a rare written work that has been able to make such a profound impact on my old mind, like this one does .Why ever didn"t the current GOP take the time to describe "the Swamp" they intended to drain and why it was necessary to do the "draining"....which would have included the various bureaucratic interpreters of the rules following upon civill rights" judgements.

Excellent but frustrating

This book spells out all the little things that got us to where we are today.

fantastic book

Smart, well-written, well-spoken. It helps you to understand how the U.S. got to where it is now. illuminating and insightful.