The politics of petulance : America in an age of immaturity

Resource Information

The work The politics of petulance : America in an age of immaturity represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Mid-Continent Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The politics of petulance : America in an age of immaturity

Title remainder

America in an age of immaturity

Statement of responsibility

Alan Wolfe

Title variation

America in an age of immaturity

Creator

• Wolfe, Alan, 1942-

Author

• Wolfe, Alan, 1942-

Subject

• New_300
• Politics, Practical -- United States
• Democracy -- United States
• United States -- Politics and government -- 21st century
• Populism -- United States
• Liberalism -- United States

Language

eng

Summary

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

Cataloging source

ICU/DLC

Dewey number

320.51/30973

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Target audience

adult