The Roots of American Misery
Among recent inquiries into the sources of American discontent, one finds many simplistic diagnoses based on dubious cliches, but also deep insights that look beyond headline economic indicators and conventional wisdom. And yet analyses that address root causes and offer meaningful solutions remain few and far between.
Michael J. Sandel, The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020.
Anne Case and Angus Deaton, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, Princeton University Press, 2020.
TOWNSHEND, VERMONT – ’Tis a season of trauma and introspection in the United States. As America faces a choice between an Obama-era restoration and the ongoing Grand Guignol presidency of Donald Trump, four leading scholars – two from Harvard and two from Princeton – offer accounts of how their country went from city on a hill to global laughing stock.