The Politics of Petulance :America in an Age of Immaturity

4.31 ( 65 Ratings by Goodreads)
The Politics of Petulance

The Politics of Petulance :America in an Age of Immaturity

(Author)
4.31 (65 Ratings by Goodreads)
hardback
Published: 6 October, 2018
Standard worldwide delivery by Tue, July 21 - Fri, July 24
Order within 0
Condition: NEW
$30.59
Price includes shipping
Available 20 in stock
- +
Add to basket Wishlist This
FREE Returns within 30 days
More Details

Popular Books by Alan Wolfe

View All Books by Alan Wolfe
The Power Elite
The Power Elite
Alan Wolfe
$21.19 $22.06
New
Add to basket
The Politics of Petulance
The Politics of Petulance
Alan Wolfe
$28.18
New
Add to basket
The Human Difference
The Human Difference
Alan Wolfe
$47.41
New
Add to basket
Cultivating Citizens
Cultivating Citizens
Alan Wolfe
$55.93
New
Add to basket
Politics at the Turn of the Century
Politics at the Turn of the Century
Alan Wolfe
$57.94
New
Add to basket
Christianity and American Democracy
Christianity and American Democracy
Alan Wolfe
$41.95
New
Add to basket
Whose Keeper?
Whose Keeper?
Alan Wolfe
$70.11
New
Add to basket
Whose Keeper?
Whose Keeper?
Alan Wolfe
$123.77
New
Add to basket
Moral Freedom
Moral Freedom
Alan Wolfe
$26.79
New
Add to basket
Religion and Democracy in the United States
Religion and Democracy in the United States
Alan Wolfe
$61.59 $64.22
New
Add to basket

Description

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.
See more

More Details

Type Book
ISBN13 9780226555164
ISBN10 022655516X
Number Of Pages 224
Item Weight 1000 g
Publisher / Reseller The University of Chicago Press
Format hardback
See More +

Media Reviews

Alan Wolfe amply vindicates his position as one of our country's most valuable public intellectuals in this fascinating analysis of our current political condition. The heart of the book is a valuable reexamination of a group of prominent mid-twentieth-century intellectuals, most importantly Richard Hofstadter and Daniel Bell, and Wolfe's delineation of what he labels a 'mature liberalism' suitable for a complex political system and which he fears is lacking today. Some of his older readers will still remember those Wolfe writes about, but, like Wolfe himself, may look at them in a new light; younger readers will find an introduction to a group of thinkers who still have something to teach. For all readers, though, it will offer a chance to imbibe Wolfe's own thoughtful reflections about a country he loves and is correctly worried about.
--Sanford Levinson, An Argument Open to All: Reading the Federalist in the 21st Century
In The Politics of Petulance, Alan Wolfe delivers a bracing piece of advice--take a look in the mirror, whether you voted for Donald Trump or no--to every American agonizing over the question of how our country came to be governed by an immature, ignorant bully. Wolfe, a longtime intellectual provocateur, has a knack for illuminating and elucidating the beating heart of his main argument--and this is especially valuable for readers who sometimes disagree with him, as I sometimes do, about particular aspects of intellectual history. His most important observation in this timely book is that Americans who waste their time disdaining Washington and blaming everyone else for Trumpism need once again to stop ignoring the better angels of our history and recognize the noble possibilities of politics.


--Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason in a Culture of Lies

Show more