Summary and Analysis of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America: Based on the Book by George Packer
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This short summary and analysis of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America includes:
- Historical context
- Chapter-by-chapter overviews
- Profiles of the main characters
- Detailed timeline of key events
- Important quotes
- Fascinating trivia
- Glossary of terms
- Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work
About The Unwinding by George Packer:
Detailing the United States’ decline in the latter half of the twentieth century, journalist George Packer’s The Unwinding reads like a memoir but contains the hard-hitting facts of an exposé. Packer’s history of America looks at a cast of interesting figures—from community organizers to laborers, Democratic Party staffers to small business owners—including household names such as Oprah Winfrey, Colin Powell, Raymond Carver, Jay-Z, and Elizabeth Warren, to produce a stunning portrait of what the United States has become and where it’s headed next.
The Unwinding won the National Book Award, was a National Book Circle Award finalist, and was named by the New York Times as one of the best books to read to understand the Trump presidency.
The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.
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Summary and Analysis of The Unwinding - Worth Books
Contents
Context
Overview
Summary
Timeline
Cast of Characters
Direct Quotes and Analysis
Trivia
What’s That Word?
Critical Response
About George Packer
For Your Information
Bibliography
Copyright
Context
Many economists consider the golden age of capitalism to be the postwar 1940s through the early 1970s. Employment was high and the economy was humming; education was cheap and accessible; middle-class families lived in newly built suburbs; and an average worker had enough money to go on vacation or buy a new car. Additionally, millions of unionized workers served as a bulwark against corporate power and influence, and the civil rights and feminist movements were active on college campuses, as was the burgeoning gay rights movement.
Then it all fell apart.
Corporate deindustrialization began to hollow out factories, industries, and even whole cities. Jobs moved overseas, large corporations abandoned entire regions, and unemployment soared. Even as worker productivity rose, wages stagnated or dropped, and social mobility declined. Meanwhile, the cost for necessities like healthcare, education, and retirement skyrocketed. The economy and the labor market have never recovered. Jobs continue to be outsourced, and prices on basic needs like healthcare and education continue to rise.
Many economists and political scientists blame this breakdown on neoliberalism: an ideological view that prizes globalization above local economy, corporate profits above social mobility, and finance above industry, as well as a powerful form of state-capitalism. Starting with Jimmy Carter, each president since the 1970s—both Republican and Democrat—has put these beliefs into action. Reagan applied them with remarkable zeal: Under his administration, anti-union forces, outsourcing, deregulation, and tax cutting flourished. Welfare provisions and healthcare came under fire. George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton were enthusiastic proponents, so much so that with successive presidents, the terms of the debate about labor and government influence have been permanently altered.
But the key factor now is Wall Street. The country, at the time of Unwinding’s publication in 2013, was in the grasp of a wild boom-and-bust economy beholden to big finance. Now,