First published 2018
Michiko Kakutani explores how objective truth became endangered in contemporary America. The Pulitzer Prize winning critic traces decades of cultural shifts that created our current crisis. She examines how conspiracy theories resurged, how crowds replaced experts, and how people retreat into confirming beliefs. Kakutani identifies trends across social media, literature, television, academia, and politics that elevated personal opinion over facts and science. She shows how forces from both political sides combined to undermine shared reality. The former New York Times critic connects today's challenges to warnings from George Orwell and Hannah Arendt about authoritarianism. Kakutani provides both diagnosis and direction for readers navigating truth-challenged times.
Genres: american, politics, non-fiction, 21st-century, current-affairs, academic
Vibes: thought-provoking
Tropes: diagnosis-and-direction
208 pages · Hardcover · Tim Duggan Books