The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer
At first I was irritated at this book because I was expecting a more academic book dissecting what we kind of know has been going on. Because of globalization, weakening union membership, more winner take all markets inequality has shot up, leaving many behind while a few people get rich.
Instead what I got was a series of ethnographies. I didn't get this book to hear the story of a person getting laid off from the mill in the 1970's as the mills moved overseas, I already knew that. But slowly the series of ethnographies worked into a kind of novel and, like a novel, you get invested in the characters. Slowly the ethnographies ran into each other, bounced off of each other, ran on opposite sides of the issues and continued from the 70's, through the 80s,90s, and 2000's ending with Obama's second inaugural. You watch children grow up, parents lose their jobs because of the economic changes, take other jobs, or fail, or succeed, while others took advantage of the new economic situation and flourished.
Unlike Matt Taibbi's books that's designed to outrage you about inequality this one treats everyone with some respect so that there isn't an easy lesson to take from it. Those who were more well off got there for reasons. They weren't simply "the rich" and those who failed in this new America continuously tried to get better instead of being simply human failures.
There are biographies from Oprah, Peter Thiel, Jay Z, Obama, Gingrich, but also Wall Street traders, poor white families trying to make it, union workers turned activists after GE destroyed their union, Tea Party activists, biodiesel entrepreneurs, A "Biden man", etc
One small paragraph that grabbed my attention was when the author was describing a family whose parents didn't have a high school diplomas. Paraphrasing he said they loved each other, none of them smoked or drank, they were never going to separate, and they all wanted to do better and by conventional morality that would have been enough to keep them afloat in the old America. Not in the new America. I thought that was a nice turn of phrase.
Anyways, I would recommend this book if you're looking for less political analysis and are more in the mood for a novel like book that captures the texture of what the last 30 years of economic events feels like to the actual people who grew up in it.
Last edited by Huehuecoyotl; 01-14-2017 at 06:02 PM.