Troubled

A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class

De: Rob Henderson

Narrado por: Rob Henderson

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
One of The Economist’s Best Books of the Year!

In this “affecting…intriguing…heartbreaking” (Booklist) coming-of-age memoir, Rob Henderson vividly recounts growing up in foster care, enlisting in the US Air Force, attending elite universities, and pioneering the concept of “luxury beliefs”—ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class while inflicting costs on the less fortunate.

Rob Henderson was born to a drug-addicted mother and a father he never met, ultimately shuttling between ten different foster homes in California. When he was adopted into a loving family, he hoped that life would finally be stable and safe. But divorce, tragedy, poverty, and violence marked his adolescent and teen years, propelling Henderson to join the military upon completing high school.

A “vivid, insightful, poignant, and powerful” (Nicholas A. Christakis, author of Blueprint) portrait of shattered families, desperation, and determination, Troubled recounts Henderson’s expectation-defying young life and juxtaposes his story with those of his friends who wound up incarcerated or killed.

As he navigates the peaks and valleys of social class, Henderson finds that he remains on the outside looking in. His greatest achievements—a military career, an undergraduate education from Yale, a PhD from Cambridge—feel like hollow measures of success. He argues that stability at home is more important than external accomplishments, and he illustrates the ways the most privileged among us benefit from a set of social standards that actively harm the most vulnerable.

Great look at how family is key to success

A biography that is equal parts raw, real, and revealing. It blows my mind how similar our upbringing was, but the one area I was doing better, an intact family with lovin Excellent read.g mom and dad, made all of the difference in my life.

Outstanding!

Incredible life story! The concept of luxury beliefs is of paramount importance. College educated elites are supporting beliefs that harm society as a whole and specially the poor. All to gain status and pass as virtuous people. It’s quite the contrary. What a shame…

Fantastic. Both narrative and argument were superb.

This will make you rethink what privilege really means. Almost everyone knows that the culture of the elite educational institutions is problematic, but criticism from most quarters is reflexively dismissed as political. Henderson uses his compelling personal narrative to illustrate the absurdity of the luxury belief class without being ideological or political. It's hard to see how anyone in the upper classes could waive off his critique in good conscience. It is also an very readable story that captures the touchstones of late 90s/early 2000 childhood.

Powerful story. Insightful conclusion.

I was impressed by the quality of the narrative. Henderson lays out a raw, but coherent memoir. It is edited well and keeps moving.

However, the best part of this book is in the final two chapters. The author synthesizes his experiences and insights into a powerful conclusion that will challenge most readers.

Reality beats the narrative

A life lived in real underprivillege. A real life of trauma and a real redemption that is a brutal punch in the face of wokism especially in the Ivy League academia and campuses.
An insider story that confronts and contradicts the current lying ideology of Western schools and media.