First published 2013
George Packer chronicles three decades of American transformation by following four distinct lives. Dean Price, raised on a farm, becomes a champion of economic change in the rural South. Tammy Thomas, a factory worker in the industrial heartland, fights to survive as her city collapses around her. Jeff Connaughton navigates Washington's political circles, torn between his ideals and the lure of wealth. Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire, questions the internet's significance while crafting his own radical vision of tomorrow. Packer weaves these personal stories together with biographical portraits of major public figures, from Newt Gingrich to Jay-Z. He incorporates newspaper headlines, advertising slogans, and song lyrics to capture both major events and underlying cultural shifts. The result reveals a superpower facing collapse, where former elites lose their status, institutions fail to function, and ordinary people find themselves abandoned. This kaleidoscopic narrative captures the emergence of a new America.
Genres: american-fiction, business, american, contemporary, economics, biography-memoir, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: biographical, kaleidoscopic-narrative, personal-stories
Setting: America, Rural South, Silicon Valley, Washington
Period: 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s
448 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux