-
The Upswing
- How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $22.67
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated
- The Collapse and Revival of American Community
- By: Robert D. Putnam
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on vast new data that reveal Americans' changing behavior, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from one another and how social structures - whether they be PTA, church, or political parties - have disintegrated. Until the publication of this groundbreaking work, no one had so deftly diagnosed the harm that these broken bonds have wreaked on our physical and civic health, nor had anyone exalted their fundamental power in creating a society that is happy, healthy, and safe.
-
-
Long Long book
- By William S. Gross on 11-13-17
By: Robert D. Putnam
-
Our Kids
- The American Dream in Crisis
- By: Robert D. Putnam
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the American dream: get a good education, work hard, buy a house, and achieve prosperity and success. This is the America we believe in - a nation of opportunity, constrained only by ability and effort. But during the last 25 years we have seen a disturbing "opportunity gap" emerge. Americans have always believed in equality of opportunity, the idea that all kids, regardless of their family background, should have a decent chance to improve their lot in life.
-
-
A more relatable, less rigorous, Coming Apart
- By Catherine Spiller on 03-28-15
By: Robert D. Putnam
-
A Time to Build
- From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream
- By: Yuval Levin
- Narrated by: Ford Enlow
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Americans are living through a social crisis. Our politics is polarized and bitterly divided. Culture wars rage on campus, in the media, social media, and other arenas of our common life. And for too many Americans, alienation can descend into despair, weakening families and communities and even driving an explosion of opioid abuse. Left and right alike have responded with populist anger at our institutions, and use only metaphors of destruction to describe the path forward: cleaning house, draining swamps. But, as Yuval Levin argues, this is a misguided prescription.
-
-
Missing what really ails us
- By Richard Dine on 03-22-21
By: Yuval Levin
-
The Tyranny of Merit
- What's Become of the Common Good?
- By: Michael J. Sandel
- Narrated by: Michael J. Sandel
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world-renowned philosopher and author of the best-selling Justice explores the central question of our time: What has become of the common good? World-renowned philosopher Michael J. Sandel argues that to overcome the crises that are upending our world, we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied globalization and rising inequality. Sandel shows the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgment it imposes on those left behind, and traces the dire consequences across a wide swath of American life.
-
-
Enlightening
- By Robert McIntosh on 09-18-20
-
American Grace
- How Religion Divides and Unites Us
- By: Robert D. Putnam, David E. Campbell
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American Grace takes its findings from two of the largest, most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion and public life in America, plus in-depth studies of diverse congregations---among them a megachurch, a Mormon congregation, a Catholic parish, a reform Jewish synagogue, and an African American congregation.
-
-
Interesting Analysis
- By Daniel on 10-08-12
By: Robert D. Putnam, and others
-
The Sum of Us
- What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
- By: Heather McGhee
- Narrated by: Heather McGhee
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy - and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis of 2008 to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a root problem: racism in our politics and policymaking. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for White people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all.
-
-
Good book but Recording tech is poor. Glitches
- By Jeannepup on 02-25-21
By: Heather McGhee
-
Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated
- The Collapse and Revival of American Community
- By: Robert D. Putnam
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on vast new data that reveal Americans' changing behavior, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from one another and how social structures - whether they be PTA, church, or political parties - have disintegrated. Until the publication of this groundbreaking work, no one had so deftly diagnosed the harm that these broken bonds have wreaked on our physical and civic health, nor had anyone exalted their fundamental power in creating a society that is happy, healthy, and safe.
-
-
Long Long book
- By William S. Gross on 11-13-17
By: Robert D. Putnam
-
Our Kids
- The American Dream in Crisis
- By: Robert D. Putnam
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the American dream: get a good education, work hard, buy a house, and achieve prosperity and success. This is the America we believe in - a nation of opportunity, constrained only by ability and effort. But during the last 25 years we have seen a disturbing "opportunity gap" emerge. Americans have always believed in equality of opportunity, the idea that all kids, regardless of their family background, should have a decent chance to improve their lot in life.
-
-
A more relatable, less rigorous, Coming Apart
- By Catherine Spiller on 03-28-15
By: Robert D. Putnam
-
A Time to Build
- From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream
- By: Yuval Levin
- Narrated by: Ford Enlow
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Americans are living through a social crisis. Our politics is polarized and bitterly divided. Culture wars rage on campus, in the media, social media, and other arenas of our common life. And for too many Americans, alienation can descend into despair, weakening families and communities and even driving an explosion of opioid abuse. Left and right alike have responded with populist anger at our institutions, and use only metaphors of destruction to describe the path forward: cleaning house, draining swamps. But, as Yuval Levin argues, this is a misguided prescription.
-
-
Missing what really ails us
- By Richard Dine on 03-22-21
By: Yuval Levin
-
The Tyranny of Merit
- What's Become of the Common Good?
- By: Michael J. Sandel
- Narrated by: Michael J. Sandel
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world-renowned philosopher and author of the best-selling Justice explores the central question of our time: What has become of the common good? World-renowned philosopher Michael J. Sandel argues that to overcome the crises that are upending our world, we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied globalization and rising inequality. Sandel shows the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgment it imposes on those left behind, and traces the dire consequences across a wide swath of American life.
-
-
Enlightening
- By Robert McIntosh on 09-18-20
-
American Grace
- How Religion Divides and Unites Us
- By: Robert D. Putnam, David E. Campbell
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American Grace takes its findings from two of the largest, most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion and public life in America, plus in-depth studies of diverse congregations---among them a megachurch, a Mormon congregation, a Catholic parish, a reform Jewish synagogue, and an African American congregation.
-
-
Interesting Analysis
- By Daniel on 10-08-12
By: Robert D. Putnam, and others
-
The Sum of Us
- What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
- By: Heather McGhee
- Narrated by: Heather McGhee
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy - and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis of 2008 to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a root problem: racism in our politics and policymaking. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for White people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all.
-
-
Good book but Recording tech is poor. Glitches
- By Jeannepup on 02-25-21
By: Heather McGhee
-
Noise
- A Flaw in Human Judgment
- By: Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, the co-author of Nudge, and the author of You Are About to Make a Terrible Mistake! comes Noise, a revolutionary exploration of why people make bad judgments, and how to control both noise and cognitive bias.
-
-
Another masterpiece from Kahneman
- By JDM on 05-21-21
By: Daniel Kahneman, and others
-
A Brief History of Equality
- By: Thomas Piketty
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world’s leading economist of inequality presents a short but sweeping and surprisingly optimistic history of human progress toward equality despite crises, disasters, and backsliding, a perfect introduction to the ideas developed in his monumental earlier books.
-
-
Required reading for a more equitable future
- By Ryan Porter on 06-29-22
By: Thomas Piketty
-
Last Best Hope
- America in Crisis and Renewal
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: George Packer
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Excellent analysis of complex problems in US.
- By Midwest Grandpa on 06-16-21
By: George Packer
-
Nasty, Brutish, and Short
- Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids
- By: Scott Hershovitz
- Narrated by: Scott Hershovitz
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some of the best philosophers in the world gather in surprising places—preschools and playgrounds. They debate questions about metaphysics and morality, even though they’ve never heard the words and perhaps can’t even tie their shoes. They’re kids. And as Scott Hershovitz shows in this delightful debut, they’re astoundingly good philosophers.
-
-
Accessible, Entertaining and Practical
- By J. L. Sherwood on 05-23-22
By: Scott Hershovitz
-
The Great Experiment
- Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure
- By: Yascha Mounk
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some democracies are highly homogeneous. Others have long maintained a brutal racial or religious hierarchy, with some groups dominating and exploiting others. Never in history has a democracy succeeded in being both diverse and equal, treating members of many different ethnic or religious groups fairly. And yet achieving that goal is now central to the democratic project in countries around the world. It is, Yascha Mounk argues, the greatest experiment of our time.
-
-
Intellectually honest and optimistic
- By Ed W on 05-30-22
By: Yascha Mounk
-
Rationality
- What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
- By: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 21st century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding - and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for COVID-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, medical quackery, and conspiracy theorizing? Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are an irrational species - cavemen out of time saddled with biases, fallacies, and illusions.
-
-
Kinda disappointed
- By Trebla on 10-02-21
By: Steven Pinker
-
Why We're Polarized
- By: Ezra Klein
- Narrated by: Ezra Klein
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Why We’re Polarized, Klein reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America’s descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump’s rise to the Democratic Party’s leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture. America is polarized, first and foremost, by identity. Everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics.
-
-
Good as an intro, skip if you’re a wonk
- By Tony on 01-29-20
By: Ezra Klein
-
The Dawn of Everything
- A New History of Humanity
- By: David Graeber, David Wengrow
- Narrated by: Mark Williams
- Length: 24 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution - from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state", political violence, and social inequality - and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
-
-
exactly what I've been looking for
- By DankTurtle on 11-10-21
By: David Graeber, and others
-
Where Is My Flying Car?
- By: J. Storrs Hall
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The science fiction of the 1960s promised us a future remade by technological innovation: We’d vacation in geodesic domes on Mars, have meaningful conversations with computers, and drop our children off at school in flying cars. Fast-forward 60 years and we’re still stuck in traffic in gas-guzzling sedans and boarding the same types of planes we flew in over half a century ago. What happened to the future we were promised? In Where Is My Flying Car?, J. Storrs Hall sets out to answer this deceptively simple question.
-
-
Explains many things indeed
- By Mikhail Kabakov on 02-13-22
By: J. Storrs Hall
-
Discrimination and Disparities
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discrimination and Disparities challenges believers in such one-factor explanations of economic outcome differences as discrimination, exploitation, or genetics. It is listenable enough for people with no prior knowledge of economics. Yet the empirical evidence with which it backs up its analysis spans the globe and challenges beliefs across the ideological spectrum.
-
-
Hard Pill To Swallow - I’m better for it
- By Charles Abernathy on 01-14-19
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Apollo's Arrow
- The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live
- By: Nicholas A. Christakis MD PhD
- Narrated by: Nicholas A. Christakis MD PhD
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Apollo's Arrow offers a riveting account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as it swept through American society in 2020, and of how the recovery will unfold in the coming years. Drawing on momentous (yet dimly remembered) historical epidemics, contemporary analyses, and cutting-edge research from a range of scientific disciplines, best-selling author, physician, sociologist, and public health expert Nicholas A. Christakis explores what it means to live in a time of plague.
-
-
Nothing new
- By Amazon Customer on 02-18-21
-
The Genetic Lottery
- Why DNA Matters for Social Equality
- By: Kathryn Paige Harden
- Narrated by: Katherine Fenton
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Genetic Lottery, Harden introduces listeners to the latest genetic science, dismantling dangerous ideas about racial superiority and challenging us to grapple with what equality really means in a world where people are born different. Weaving together personal stories with scientific evidence, Harden shows why our refusal to recognize the power of DNA perpetuates the myth of meritocracy, and argues that we must acknowledge the role of genetic luck if we are ever to create a fair society.
-
-
Mix of Genetic Science and Ideology
- By James on 10-12-21
Publisher's Summary
From the author of Bowling Alone and Our Kids, a “sweeping yet remarkably accessible” (The Wall Street Journal) analysis that “offers superb, often counterintuitive insights” (The New York Times) to demonstrate how we have gone from an individualistic “I” society to a more communitarian “We” society and then back again, and how we can learn from that experience to become a stronger, more unified nation.
Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissism — Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times.
But we’ve been here before. During the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, America was highly individualistic, starkly unequal, fiercely polarized, and deeply fragmented, just as it is today. However, as the 20th century opened, America became — slowly, unevenly, but steadily — more egalitarian, more cooperative, more generous; a society on the upswing, more focused on our responsibilities to one another and less focused on our narrower self-interest. Sometime during the 1960s, however, these trends reversed, leaving us in today’s disarray.
In a “magnificent and visionary book” (The New Republic) drawing on his inimitable combination of statistical analysis and storytelling, Robert Putnam analyzes a remarkable confluence of trends that brought us from an “I” society to a “We” society and then back again. He draws on inspiring lessons for our time from an earlier era, when a dedicated group of reformers righted the ship, putting us on a path to becoming a society once again based on community. This is Putnam’s most “remarkable” (Science) work yet, a fitting capstone to a brilliant career.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Upswing
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dennis G.
- 12-19-20
For Progressives only. Won't make sense otherwise
I thought this book would be similar to Bowling Alone - an overall snapshot of social, political, and civic happenings in America and possible explanations why. However, Putnam seems to be more interested in rewriting history from his perspective than making any attempts to promote solutions for polarization on how 'America can come together again.'
Putnam acknowledges the major divide in the 1960's and that what people call America has been in dispute for three generations but fails to accommodate for it.
He tries to take a broad perspective on America as a whole, but (in two instances) comes extremely close to outright saying "I don't really know what conservatives are up to."
When I read books by politically right wing authors, they are generally fair and accurate to incorporate both narratives of America from 1960s to present day, or at least specify they are only speaking of theirs. However, this book attempts to prescribe a one-size-fits-all solution regardless. This ends up invaliding the entire thesis of the book because of how crystal clear it is to me that he didn't have enough information about American culture to diagnose its problems correctly.
Many chapters in this book were merely the retelling of history solely through a Progressive / Social Justice standpoint. Anyone who has read a Sowell book could dissolve the narratives of entire chapters, possibly 1/3 to 1/2 of the entire book, with a few short sentences. Quoting the gender pay gap and claiming that "more progress still needs to be made until equality is reached" may have been an acceptable stance to hold from 1970 to 2010, but today [late 2020], taking this stance only shows one's willful act of ignoring contrarian viewpoints to protect their own outdated beliefs about the world. it's as if Putnam just stopped paying attention to discussions in America 2010 onward. Several of his talking points have even been fully refuted as early as the 1960's.
And that's the big problem I have with this book. From 1/4 of the way in until the end, It's chapter after chapter of "this is history as I was taught" and "here's how great the Progressives are." I almost forgot what the book was about several times until he would summarize the chapter and thus, remind me that he has a thesis by breaking the fourth wall. What Putnam has accidentally done here is chronicle, in detail, what those on the political right call "the narrative." I will remember this book more for this than anything he wrote relating to his "I We I" thesis.
You know the story already:
"The first half of the 20th century was white supremacy and oppression. The great depression happened and FDR fixed it. The 50's were dull and conformist. The 60's embraced our individuality and liberated us from our past. Women were freed from the burden of raising their children to peruse 'better things in life.' Vietnam protests happened, and they were great. Racism and sexism still have a long way to go before everyone is truly equal. Other than that, not much else happened. That's all you need to know."
I'm not of these social justice types, so I myself just don't see this "I We I" thing he keeps talking about. He builds it from his political, economic, cultural, and social analysis from this Progressive narrative. I can see the economics points he makes and some of the social points, as well. But ultimately It doesn't match the reality in front of me, and doesn't hold up when a broader, more detailed and complete understanding of American history is present.
He really only goes into "solutions" at the very end of the book, but I have to admit, I just don't understand his point. Not because my reading comprehension is poor, but because I simply don't hold the same religious(?) views on human nature as he does. Is he essentially saying that things are guaranteed to get better just because time is still moving?
The best definition of Progressivism I've heard is that these people believe humans can be (and will ultimately be) "perfected," as that's the natural flow of humanity. If you hold a different view than this, this book won't make much sense.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ehan ferguson
- 11-28-20
Foot off the Gas
I enjoyed the premise of this book as well as the many valid points not often discussed by other authors. However, Putnam does have the tendency of making bold claims about the recent past without providing sufficient evidence to back them up. For example, Putnam alludes to growing white opposition to racial integration since the 60s’ that manifests today. He calls this the “foot off the gas effect”, which implies that Americans have somehow devoted less effort to racial equality since the 60s’. Which is hard to parse given the increased emphasis on antiracism in recent decades. Apart from mentioning principled opposition to affirmative action, he never addressed how we exactly are taking our foot off the gas in this regard. In the section on gender, he also takes disparate outcomes and infers sinister motivations on the part of men. For example, he cites the often used and misleading wage gap statistics as another foot off the gas event. In addition, he makes a few conflicting statements about the role of childcare in the above wage gap. Bottom line, when Putnam says “foot off the gas” he is vaguely accusing society of a sin of omission or commission directly or indirectly causing the downturn. I do find it refreshing that while hyping up the past, Putnam refrains from being overly nostalgic for the days of lynch mobs and coat hanger abortions, unlike other authors. This book also exaggerates the role of libertarian ideals in leading to the “downturn”. As of this review, the highest-ranking libertarian official is a state senator in Montana, hardly an influential ideology in its pure form. My final point is that by exclusively focusing on the United States many of Putnam’s grander points are highly limited in scope. America is not a vacuum, and the “I we I curve” is very much a global event. Putnam’s arguments would be better served if he devoted at least a paragraph to the wider world. In sum, I agree with a lot of Putnam’s points about the last century, but if I actually posed them myself (in the way Putnam did) in my Poli Sci class, I’d be lucky to get a b-.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stan Letovsky
- 01-03-21
Interesting theory of 20th century American history
“Bowling Alone” author Putnam and coauthor Garrett take us from the first gilded age of the late 1890’s to the second, current one, charting the correlated behavior of many variables, from income inequality to baby names. In all of these variables they identify a common, century-long waveform they call “I-we-I”: a cultural shift from self-centered individualism to “happy days” collectivism and back again. They use this thesis as a lens to examine trends in the evolution of economics, culture, politics, and race and gender relations, marshaling copious amounts of data as supporting evidence. While not without flaws - the concluding recommendations seem a bit naive, and the lack of any discussion of the relationship between America’s trajectory and trends in the wider world seems like a missed opportunity for improved understanding— it was, overall, a worthwhile listen, especially for people who enjoy seeing new insights extracted from history.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Morton Kondracke
- 12-14-20
Book to be Read by Everyone!
As Putnam demonstrates exhaustively, our current state of political polarization, income inequality and rule by corporate lobbies of by and for themselves has its antecedents in the 1880s-early 1900s Gilded Age, an era also marked by strife. It was an era of laissez faire economics, social Darwinism and hyper-individualism. The US became a fairer, more co-operative polity because of the Progressive Movement, which instituted reforms across the board (except did not combat racism), giving women the vote, ending child labor, improving health. The Upswing lasted through the ‘50s ( the ‘20s excepted), then stopped. We went from a “ we” society of broad collaboration, less inequality and more collegial politics back to an “I” society focused on individual success at the expense of everyone else. Trump, the total narcissist, is the exaggerated epitome of “I”! How to reverse it again? Putnam isn’t as prescriptive as I wish he were, but his gist is: collective, collegial and broadly based (bipartisan) reform action, local, state and national. He finds hope in movements toward gun safety, health reform, criminal justice reform etc But he urges advocacy groups not to become extremist and turn off potential supporters. I think the growing political reform movement (check Represent.us to see) represents the new Progressive Era (which needs a better name because the label “Progressive” has been seized by the “woke” Left that can’t win broad support. For sure, America cannot go on as divided as it is. We have to bring back “we” thinking because we are all Americans and in this together!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ventures
- 12-09-20
A slog to read, boring and clinical
the author has found some really interesting data points that might fill a New York Times essay. In fact he has done just that with an excellent essay recently published which covers the topics of the book including some of the interesting learnings or takeaways. However the amount of material present is surely not enough to comprise a book of this length. each chapter is incredibly drawn out, often including an introduction section which summarizes everything you've already read for the first half hour. the book also fails to deliver on its promise of explaining how we can turn things around. Everything with respect to the present is shoved into the latter half of the final chapter and is certainly glossed over. second only to its egregious length, a great error of this book is a lack of international context. Additionally, the book is rather queerly designed to exclude women and blacks from The Narrative until two chapters in which they are explicitly addressed. I highly recommend folks who find these topics interesting to pursue the New York Times I say instead and leave this book on the Shelf.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- KarynH
- 12-27-20
Worth the Price
The book is well written, although a bit dry. I’d love for it to be read by today’s “conservatives,” but before that, it should be read by today’s “progressives.”
This gives me a little hope that we’ll start a new upswing in my lifetime, but the drivers of it will be Millennials and Gen Z. My Gen X fellows don’t appear motivated to improve things in this way.
-
Overall
- Tom
- 12-19-20
Subjective Facts
Contradictory, but interesting.
I was looking for the research and resources for word usage over time.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Calemos
- 11-18-20
Dull and uninteresting.
Dull and uninteresting study written for middle class, suburban soccer moms. definitely written by someone out of touch with the real world. If your a white suburban Democrat you might find it to your taste.
thought about quitting half way through but it was noise in the car, and some parts were halfway interesting.
doubt this will be read by anyone beyond 2021.
Seems like the "white elitist liberal trying to solve social problems " genre is coming out with these garbage books left and right these days.