Lewis H. Lapham. Age of Folly (2016) Subtitled America Abandons Its Democracy. Published before Trump won the 2016 election, with essays from 1990 to 2015.
But depressingly relevant. And essential for making sense of what’s happened since 2016.
And I think that’s about all that needs to be said about this book. Recommended.
****
Footnote: In the Atlantic Magazine of January 2025, David Brooks has published an acute analysis of how the attempt to create a meritocracy has had unexpected consequences, one of them being the rage against elites that’s translated into the populism that elected Trump. Brooks spends a couple of pages explaining how the failed experiment could be transformed into a winning one, but I think he’s a tad naive politically.
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