Publisher Thoughts
Christopher Caldwell has spent years studying the liberal uprising of the 1960s and its unforeseen consequences and his conclusion is this: even the reforms that Americans love best have come with costs that are staggeringly high—in wealth, freedom, and social stability—and that have been spread unevenly among classes and generations.
Caldwell reveals the real political turning points of the past half-century, taking you on a roller-coaster ride through Playboy magazine, affirmative action, CB radio, leveraged buyouts, iPhones, Oxycotin, Black Lives Matter, and internet cookies. In doing so, he shows that attempts to redress the injustices of the past have left Americans living under two different ideas of what it means to play by the rules.
Essential, timely, hard to put down, The Age of Entitlement “is an eloquent and bracing book, full of insight” (New York magazine) about how the reforms of the past fifty years gave the country two incompatible political systems—and drove it toward conflict.
Staff Thoughts
The Washington Times stated, “In all, a deeply felt, highly readable, and dead-honest account of America since the 1960s and the terrible wrong turn we took than and continue to follow, disrupting what we used to call the American way, and leading to the increasing alienation of many of our most productive citizens, who believe they may be losing their country.”
The above quote is very apropos from my reading. I identified with this book by Christopher Caldwell in a significant way. This book also challenged my memory as to certain events and the resultant actions they caused. I will read it again before the end of this year. I might cheat as the last two chapters numbers 7 and 8 say tons. They are in fact over one third of this book. I personally give this a 5-star rating.
