Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook296 pages4 hours
The Politics of Petulance: America in an Age of Immaturity
By Alan Wolfe
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
How did we get into this mess? Every morning, many Americans ask this as, with a cringe, they pick up their phones and look to see what terrible thing President Trump has just said or done. Regardless of what he’s complaining about or whom he’s attacking, a second question comes hard on the heels of the first: How on earth do we get out of this?
Alan Wolfe has an answer. In The Politics of Petulance he argues that the core of our problem isn’t Trump himself—it’s that we are mired in an age of political immaturity. That immaturity is not grounded in any one ideology, nor is it a function of age or education. It’s in an abdication of valuing the character of would-be leaders; it’s in a failure to acknowledge, even welcome the complexity of government and society; and it’s in a loss of the ability to be skeptical without being suspicious. In 2016, many Americans were offered tantalizingly simple answers to complicated problems, and, like children being offered a lunch of Pop Rocks and Coke, they reflexively—and mindlessly—accepted.
The good news, such as it is, is that we’ve been here before. Wolfe reminds us that we know how to grow up and face down Trump and other demagogues. Wolfe reinvigorates the tradition of public engagement exemplified by midcentury intellectuals such as Richard Hofstadter, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Lionel Trilling—and he draws lessons from their battles with McCarthyism and conspiratorial paranoia. Wolfe mounts a powerful case that we can learn from them to forge a new path for political intervention today.
Wolfe has been thinking and writing about American life and politics for decades. He sees this moment as one of real risk. But he’s not throwing up his hands; he’s bracing us. We’ve faced demagogues before. We can find the intellectual maturity to fight back. Yes we can.
Alan Wolfe has an answer. In The Politics of Petulance he argues that the core of our problem isn’t Trump himself—it’s that we are mired in an age of political immaturity. That immaturity is not grounded in any one ideology, nor is it a function of age or education. It’s in an abdication of valuing the character of would-be leaders; it’s in a failure to acknowledge, even welcome the complexity of government and society; and it’s in a loss of the ability to be skeptical without being suspicious. In 2016, many Americans were offered tantalizingly simple answers to complicated problems, and, like children being offered a lunch of Pop Rocks and Coke, they reflexively—and mindlessly—accepted.
The good news, such as it is, is that we’ve been here before. Wolfe reminds us that we know how to grow up and face down Trump and other demagogues. Wolfe reinvigorates the tradition of public engagement exemplified by midcentury intellectuals such as Richard Hofstadter, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Lionel Trilling—and he draws lessons from their battles with McCarthyism and conspiratorial paranoia. Wolfe mounts a powerful case that we can learn from them to forge a new path for political intervention today.
Wolfe has been thinking and writing about American life and politics for decades. He sees this moment as one of real risk. But he’s not throwing up his hands; he’s bracing us. We’ve faced demagogues before. We can find the intellectual maturity to fight back. Yes we can.
Unavailable
Author
Alan Wolfe
At the time of original publication, Alan Wolfe was Professor of Sociology and Political Science and Dean of the Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, and author of The Limits of Legitimacy and America's Impasse, among other books.
Read more from Alan Wolfe
The Politics of Petulance: America in an Age of Immaturity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whose Keeper?: Social Science and Moral Obligation Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What It Needs to Do to Recover It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Human Difference: Animals, Computers, and the Necessity of Social Science Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Politics of Petulance
Related ebooks
Democracy Betrayed: How Superdelegates, Redistricting, Party Insiders, and the Electoral College Rigged the 2016 Election Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnder the Cover of Chaos: Trump and the Battle for the American Right Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica at War with Itself Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America's Got Democracy!: The Making of the World's Longest-Running Reality Show Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Marxism and Political Correctness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fight for $15: The Right Wage for a Working America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Unseen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Third Wave Capitalism: How Money, Power, and the Pursuit of Self-Interest Have Imperiled the American Dream Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trump's Counter-Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPragmatism and the Problem of Race Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Movements Anchor Parties: Electoral Alignments in American History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUs Against Them: Ethnocentric Foundations of American Opinion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTax the Rich!: How Lies, Loopholes, and Lobbyists Make the Rich Even Richer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNeither Liberal nor Conservative: Ideological Innocence in the American Public Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Specter of Democracy: What Marx and Marxists Haven't Understood and Why Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRebirthing a Nation: White Women, Identity Politics, and the Internet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Politics of Our Time: Populism, Nationalism, Socialism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlt-Right Inferno: Amity Underground, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cancel This Book: The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDemocracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism - New Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anti-Knowledge: Essays From the Era of Negotiable Truth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDissidents of the International Left Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Partisan Sort: How Liberals Became Democrats and Conservatives Became Republicans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Democracy Development Machine: Neoliberalism, Radical Pessimism, and Authoritarian Populism in Mayan Guatemala Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTeardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Political Ideologies For You
The Communist Manifesto: Original Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mein Kampf: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kamphf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Anarchist Cookbook Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U.S. Constitution with The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/525 Lies: Exposing Democrats’ Most Dangerous, Seductive, Damnable, Destructive Lies and How to Refute Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalism and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The January 6th Report Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Why We're Polarized Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Politics of Petulance
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
1 rating0 reviews