Unwinding

Schockierend und empfehlenswert zu lesen, um gewisse Entwicklungen in den USA besser zu verstehen.

Una colección de mini-biografías que se extienden desde finales de los 70 hasta 2012, algunas de personajes conocidos, otras de americanos víctimas de la degradación de las condiciones de la clase trabajadora. Muy bien escrito, describe perfectamente el espíritu de los tiempos: la desindustralización, los recortes sociales de Clinton, la burbuja inmobiliaria y la rendición de Obama ante sus culpables en un entorno de corrupción institucional y desesperanza.

This is a very well-done description, in stories, of what's changed in the US from the mid-50's or so. It neither glorifies that era, nor flinches from what made that era so different from our own.

The stories of people from Tammy, the black working-class mother in Youngstown Ohio, to Peter Theil, libertarian dot-com financier, are fascinating in their variety, and what the experiences of their lives tell us about what's happening now.

Yes, some of them made bad decisions, and others were lucky, but Packer makes clear the trend lines in our society, and the ways opportunity has shifted.

It is, however, completely journalistic, and devoid of much in the way of analysis or ideas for what might come next. The writing is a little uneven at times, but overall, it's worth a read.

An incredibly detailed and often engaging history of the last 40-50 years or so. It's also strangely dispassionate. I suppose the author is trying to present things how they actually occurred, using the collection of vignettes and stories to make a point, but it was different that a lot of other non-fiction, where the point is much more overt. I also suppose that it's strange that I'm complaining about a book being subtle and understated in much of its commentary. There are probably a lot of people who would think that's a good thing.