The Politics of Petulance Lib/E: America in an Age of Immaturity

In The Politics of Petulance Alan Wolfe argues the core of our problem isn't Trump himself--it's that we are mired in an age of political immaturity. That immaturity is not grounded in any one ideology, nor is it a function of age or education. In 2016, many Americans were offered tantalizingly simple answers to complicated problems, and, like children being offered a lunch of Pop Rocks and Coke, they reflexively--and mindlessly--accepted. The good news is that we've been here before. Wolfe reminds us that we know how to grow up and face down Trump and other demagogues. Wolfe reinvigorates the tradition of public engagement exemplified by mid-century intellectuals such as Richard Hofstadter, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Lionel Trilling--and he draws lessons from their battles with McCarthyism and conspiratorial paranoia. Wolfe mounts a powerful case that we can learn from them to forge a new path for political intervention today. Wolfe has been thinking and writing about American life and politics for decades. He sees this moment as one of real risk. But he's not throwing up his hands; he's bracing us. We've faced demagogues before. We can find the intellectual maturity to fight back. Yes we can.

About the Author :
Alan Wolfe is professor emeritus of political science at Boston College as well as a contributing editor to the Wilson Quarterly. He is the author of One Nation, After All: What Middle-Class Americans Really Think About God, Country, Family, Racism, Welfare, Immigration, Homosexuality, Work, the Right, the Left, and Each Other, a 1999 New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Johnny Heller, a Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Award winner, has recorded over 800 audiobooks spanning every genre. He is a four-time Audie Award winner; an AudioFile Best Voice, Booklist Editor's Choice List, and Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award winner; and the winner of over thirty Earphones Awards. His national and international audiobook coaching workshops are called "game changing" by attendees. AudioFile magazine named him one of the top fifty voices of the twentieth century.

Review :

"A withering broadside against the immaturity that infests American politics, revealing itself in populism and demagoguery. Both the left and the right take it on the chin in this tough-minded analysis by Wolfe...A persuasive and alarming book."

"Narrator Johnny Heller's raspy voice has the right draw for listeners because he comes across with authority. The edge in his tone captures the author's conviction and works well with the sometimes searing critiques that Wolfe offers."

"Wolfe describes and examines a host of postwar political thinkers, many of whom, like Hannah Arendt and Joseph Schumpeter, had come from the horrors of Europe...Wolfe is at his best when he is discussing these writers, first-class thinkers who responded powerfully to their era's challenges."