Timothy P. Carney

So good that it's few imperfections are glaring. Some of them I mentioned in my prior notes. Another one that bugged me in the last section was the lack of research on men's quality of life post-divorce. Nor am I fond of the organization of the book. It was unpredictable. I couldn't see the path through the forest.

But let's talk about the good.

Carney asks different questions and tries to do extra digging He also does a good job exploring both sides and his tone is incredibly hopeful. Many books that try to explain the 2016 election are either derogatory, pessimistic, or overly partisan. I feel like he tries to straddle the middle.

He doesn't try to sow distrust either, which, in our incredibly partisan times, is applaudable. Worth reading with Let Them In, Lost Connections, and the works of Arthur and David Brooks.… (mer)

Who were the early Trump voters? Carney says the more relevant question is where were the early Trump voters and his answer is communities that have become alienated and believe the American Dream is dead. The American Dream is a community a place where you feel connected via institutions like the church, the baseball league, the Y, the Elks Club, the Union and work. But church is most important. Trump succeeded where civil society died, and people became alienated.

The causes of the death of these institutions? International competition, technology displacement, sorting of class by higher education into exclusive communities, centralizing government and its displacement of local charitable and community programs, and the hyper-individualism that encourages a retreat from society.

At times I felt like he was holding up the 50’s and the 60’s as the idealic era for the American Dream, but was it instead a unique time that is unreasonable to expect to be replicated. When else will the rest of the world be decimated and unable to compete? I also think it isn’t unusual for society to go through a period of religious withdrawal, which is often times followed by religious revival. So if alienation is a function religious withdrawal and religious withdrawal is cyclical (long cycle) then the Trump phenom is just one of those things that will happen, then go away.

I enjoyed this book. It was well written, it was thoughtful and it made me question my views, everything I want from a book. It makes me want to read a book on a history of alienation and its ties to religious withdrawal and revival.

2019-10-08… (mer)