The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

I think this is an essential book that examines recent American history, told through biographical sketches, and pinpoints the ideas, innovations and political decisions that have shaped this country . I have recommended it to many people on social media.

George Packer offers a Dos Passos's treatment of American History with similar sentence fragments and headlines to mark breaks in Time. He introduces us to a flow of characters that certainly capture a broad cross section of our people and their travels and achievements. And any given section is often revealing about the stresses that new forces, or reoccurring forces, have imposed on these characters; and more broadly on what they represent.

But in Dos Passos's works you comes away with a feeling that you had experienced some of the reasons behind historical change, in Packer's Inner History of the New America that feeling very seldom settles in. To me, Packer's Inner History carries the burden of Chris Hedges' warning in his Death of the Liberal Class: "The tragedy of the liberal class and the institutions it controls is that it succumbed to opportunism and finally to fear. It abrogated its moral role. It did not defy corporate abuse when it had the chance. It exiled those within its ranks who did. And the defanging of the liberal class not only removed all barriers to neofeudalism and corporate abuse but also ensured that the liberal class will, in its turn, be swept aside."

In the style of The New Yorker article, he tells us much more than we need to know. There is a message delivered but it slowly fades away amidst the relentless details. This reviewer would often skim paragraphs and pages waiting for the insights that Packer is cable of delivering but finding them too vague to imprint.

I don't know who I might recommend this work to. You either have seen what Packer terms "The New America" forming or you have not.
And in the first case you will find little that is new to you and in the latter you will likely fail to see it, or chose to deny it.

Packard notes the polling result that 80% of the sample believed their children will not be as well off as they themselves have been in the future and his story could carry that weight. Such numbers are of course not written in stone but they clearly indicate the drift of the `New America." Not an easy tale to tell.
Five star reviewers were excited, and he can write -- no doubt. Just be forewarned, you may be disappointed.

Good storytelling is used to describe the changes in American society. The book follows the lives of several people (and families) during the recent Recession and how the American 'landscape' has changed. It is interesting and thought provoking reading; I wonder if we have learned anything from our past excesses.

Mr. Packer has written a brilliant book about what has happened to the lives of various Americans in recent decades. This single volume follows several people from widely different backgrounds through the years from 1978 to the present. Each section is divided into chapters where the main characters are presented at successive stages in their lives, against the background of an America in which society rewards a few individuals with huge riches, while middle class people struggle with loss of jobs, homes, and lifestyles and poor ones sink into a desperate existence. These stories are interspersed with biographies of famous people, such as Colin Powell, Newt Gingrich, and Elizabeth Warren, and their effect on society.
I found that I was fascinated with following the thread that placed different people from places like Youngstown, Ohio, Tampa, Florida, North Carolina, Silicon Valley, and others in the midst of events like the closing of factories in the U.S., the real estate bubble, Occupy Wall Street, the biofuels movement, and the Great Recession. This is a book that puts a very human face on events which many of us experienced in a more disinterested way through speeches and news accounts during those years.
Well-researched and excellently written.

George Packer sets the tone in the prologue that there are things that are not fully explainable. He asks who can tell when things began to change in America. Throughout the book there are thought-provoking personal stories of people from various walks of life at various times during these last several decades who wonder how and when things began to unravel, or unwind. Packer also does a good job of explaining complicated financial matters to people like me who wouldn't recognize a derivative if I saw one. Through the eyes of a Wall Street broker, a Youngstown factory worker, a guy living in Washington and others, he gives a behind-the-scenes look at daily lives through times of change and how it impacted individuals. I found the book easy to read but not easy reading. It brings up some unsettling issues, but the author does it in such a way that the reader cares about the people in it and their situations. This book should find its way into classrooms in high school and colleges to give a clear picture of recent American history, political science, sociology, economics and more. It's also a helpful reference for individuals who want a perspective on the last four decades.

George Packer's "The Unwinding" is easily one of the best and most important works of non-fiction in 2013. Packer looks at where we are as a country through the transformation of the last 30 years by examining the lives of individuals that represent these broader transformations: the deterioration of industrial blue-collar jobs moving overseas, the rise of the digital economy, the struggle for renewable and clean energy to replace fossil fuels, growing income disparity between the wealthiest and poorest in America, a deeply fractured political system increasingly polarized and unable to accomplish anything due to unwillingness to compromise across all spectrums.

The depth of reporting and dimension that Packer creates with these individuals and his ability to bring their complex and rich narratives together in a way that is greater than the sum of the individual parts makes for compelling and thought provoking reading. Packer introduces various years throughout this journey with some seminal newspaper, TV and music headlines that capture the gestalt of the period and the context for the stories to come.

If there is one non-fiction book you read this year, it must be this one. It casts a critical eye on the state of our nation at this juncture in history and reveals a country desperately in need of leadership to address seemingly intractable problems that most of its everyday citizens are skeptical can be addressed because they've lost faith in the functioning of our political systems and leaders.

This book talks about what has happened to commerce and productivity in the USA. Since the author specifically talks about Tampa and NC,
which are areas I am familiar with, I enjoyed reading his slant on what has happened to productivity in these locations.
Fl the store reader

Generally, of course, excellent writing and good information. I wish he hadn't split up the stories. Hard to remember the broken-up stories and stay involved emotionally. Also liked the longer stories; not the sometimes gratuitous snippets of character studies.

In the last year it has become popular toexamine the various issues behind the rise in inequality in the country. This text falls well within that over arching theme. I found it well written and interesting, but by now the subject has been pretty well chewed up, even if the myriad cause and effect are still being debated.

All felt pain. Some chose to inflict it on others, and chose to lash out blindly, and the best of them chose to rise up and raise others in their rising, in their attempts to relieve their suffering. And here we are.

"The Unwinding" is a really good read. George Packer has taken factual events and has presented them by tracing there effects on real people. The book moves very well and and explains his premise in a most interesting manner. The "Unwinding" has given me a clearer understand of how the US has arrived at its current state.

This book captures and develops the stories of individuals who were caught up in the 2008 recession. It personalizes the hope, dreams, successes and failures of ordinary Americans, investors, polititians, attorneys aND lends insight into the financial blight resulting from greed and outright fraud.

These biographies of extraordinary people exemplify the lost and found of America today: paradoxical, redemptive and most of all heartfelt. "Unwinding" does not mean undoing; it means fresh starts and new beginnings.

Interesting book that discusses the breakdown of many of the traditional underpinning of the social contract between government and the governed, as well as other contracts. The effect on innocent citizens is discussed in a well written manner.

Anyone who simply enjoys wonderful writing will love this book. No one can beat Packer when it comes to elegant, carefully constructed sentences that packs in a ton of information. Some may look at the length of this book and be deterred but be assured that no one but Packer could have pulled so much information together in such a short space. And you will read it with delight and be dismayed when you realize it is coming to an end. His approach to tackling this very large, very inportant topic by simply examining the lives of a select group of people is pure genius. He doesn't have to labor over the "big" conclusions. The stories he chooses to tell are the perfect vehicle for understanding what has happened in this country over the last 40 years. There is no right v. left polemic in this. This is history as the story of people at its best and whoever reads this will have a better insight into the destructive forces that are undermining the foundations of our equality.

"Well that explains a lot"
This book puts recent turmoil in context. Packer's New Yorker article "Hillary Clinton and the Populist Revolt," published right before the 2016 election, covers the times with similar clarity.

This well-written account of our history, a new phase, resonated with me because I have worked for the past 40+ years and have experienced much of what the author portrays in his book. I experienced the death of the steel industry in Homestead and other mills in the city of Pittsburgh. I have seen relatives and friends displaced by the mill closings. It also effected where I was employed and one division was closed, then another until the entire plant closed and what was left moved south. I have also seen the many vacant houses right here in Florida. The author wrote about how these past 30+ years have effected those from all walks of life - from the very rich to the average joe's just trying to make a living and feed their families and keep a roof over their heads. This is essential reading and also just one corner of a much larger picture, but reads as if this is a work in progress. I expect more from this author in the future. There are many more voices to be heard. Superb journalism.

A very sophisticated survey of Americans, particularly from rural areas or small towns, who are losing ground in the new economy, as well as those who feel betrayed by their politicians. The author writes for the New Yorker and has covered the war in Iraq.

Packer provides insights into the lives of very different people, who share so much in common, and he brilliantly tells the story of how America came to be where it is today. This book is going on the top shelf!

Great book. He took material that could easily have turned into white noise and made it a modern folk song. All of the tales were familiar but the way they were told revealed truths that were right there in plain sight.

very original... this topic which is so heavy and overdone, with a very fresh human and entirely different perspective. very good. very touching and entertaining... very visual... like reading a movie. solid writing.

Gripping character profiles. A revealing history of declining facets of American life over recent decades. A serious contribution to the history of ideas in America today. Packer shows uncanny range in his knowledge of policy, politics, and ideals.

Packer provides insights into the lives of very different people, who share so much in common, and he brilliantly tells the story of how America came to be where it is today. This book is going on the top shelf!

Great book. He took material that could easily have turned into white noise and made it a modern folk song. All of the tales were familiar but the way they were told revealed truths that were right there in plain sight.

very original... this topic which is so heavy and overdone, with a very fresh human and entirely different perspective. very good. very touching and entertaining... very visual... like reading a movie. solid writing.

Gripping character profiles. A revealing history of declining facets of American life over recent decades. A serious contribution to the history of ideas in America today. Packer shows uncanny range in his knowledge of policy, politics, and ideals.

This well documented and detailed collection of stories portrays a collection of individuals who experience the realization of their failure to reach their personal, financial and career goals. It shows how technology, international free trade, corporate greed and personal choices change lives, both favorably and unfavorably. There are points through the early stages of this read when one learns of part of a person's story, and then, after the reader learns about someone else's situation, there is a return to how things have progressed in from when we last heard about someone.

This is an entertaining well constructed read that enlightens the reader about how stuff really happens. It is a very enjoyable experience that keeps a person wanting to go forward to see what happens next.

Compelling and quite readable. I really liked Packers technique of multiple biopics to view the 08 recession. His characters paint an economy where those on the lowest rung are one bad turn away from disaster and homelessness and for those at the very top, wall st and the multinationals, the game seems rigged.

Packers characters portray a 21st century economic landscape where there will be a few billionaires, a smattering of highly skilled laborers, and the remaining country making 8 bucks an hour.

Clearly documenting the financial meltdown at the beginning of this century, the author's political bent is hard to discern...by the end of the book you realize his disdain for the establishment is eclipsed by his admiration for the idealists and visionaries he is writing about. There is hope, perhaps that is the message after all.

An interesting premise of how action taken have repercussions good and bad. Some of the book is a novel as in fiction, some characters are real. The structure is easily read and the writing excellent.

The Great Recession has been a tough slog for many - especially the poorly educated. Good review/info on the economics involved. Derivative madness, effect of the repeal of Glass Steagall, etc. Useful social science perspective re the American culture in transition. Important, unique insights re the operation of the mad, mad digital world and the people involved. In a capitalist economy the little guy gets hurt and the innovative, bright, well educated survive and prosper most of the time; know/learn how to rebound. So it goes. George writes more like a novelist, which is enjoyable to read - has spent a ton of research time on these interrelated personal episodes of successes and failures. Life ain't easy and we all became overly dependent on big business / manufacturing. Slaves, even. Yet, there are people who can read the chaotic environment and create a career out of nothing in spite of the on-going upheaval; harness it to their use. Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z. What makes them tick?

I found reading through all the self-centered scams and people caught in someone else's profit scheme to be depressing. Are we all products of Anny Rand? I hope not. It takes the core out of our society.

This was a very interesting book. Written through the eyes of multiple Americans, all trying to live the American dream. Some succeed, some fail, but it is interesting to see what they go through in their daily struggles.

The Unwinding tells the story of American society from the 1970s to the present through the voices and eyes of the people who have lived that story, witnessing all it's incredible hope and failures. In those stories there are also the seeming roots of the birth of something different and not yet fully defined for this society of ours. It is great reportorial writing that stand with Studs Terkel's "Working" as great books about American values and dreams since the end of World War II. Anyone who cares about our society and our economy will find the book not only entertaining but of great value.