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Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse
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About This Book
An incisive, culturally observant analysis of the evolving mores, manners and taboos of social justice ("anti-racist") orthodoxy, which has profoundly influenced how we think about diversity and freedom of expression, often with complex or paradoxical consequences. In this provocative book, Thomas Chatterton Williams, one of the most revered and reviled social commentators of our time, paints a clear and detailed picture of the ideas and events that have paved the way for the dramatic paradigm shift in social justice that has taken place over the past few years. Taking aim at the ideology of critical race theory, the rise of an oppressive social media, the fall from Obama to Trump, and the twinned crises of COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd, Williams documents the extent to which this transition has altered media, artistic creativity, education, employment, policing, and, most profoundly, the ambient language and culture we use to make sense of our lives. Williams also decries how liberalism—the very foundation of an open and vibrant society—is in existential crisis, under assault from both the right and the left, especially in our predominantly networked, Internet-driven monoculture. Sure to be highly controversial, Summer of Our Discontent is a compelling look at our place in a radically changing world.
Reviews
"Extensive footnotes at times overtake the core text, yet Summer of Our Discontent succeeds in analyzing recent history and its ongoing impact."
"This is a clever and compelling book that embraces complexity."
"Williams has pulled off an astounding chess move: He has written something that is virtually impossible to disagree with without proving its grounding thesis ..."
"This is a strange, muddled book."
"The writing is consistently pretentious ..."
"The result is a serious effort to take stock of the illiberalism besetting contemporary American culture that too often gets bogged down in its own anti-wokeism."
"Bizarrely hyperbolic ..."
"A thoughtfully reasoned contribution to the literature of race and racism in our time."
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