THE UNWINDING: An Inner History of the New America – George Packer

“The Roosevelt Republic that had reigned for almost half a century came undone. The void was filled by the default force in American life, organized money.”

That quote from page three of The Unwinding could summarize the entire book for you in a sentence.  The author, George Packer is a journalist praised for his war reporting, as in the Iraq-focused book The Assassin’s Gate. He kept his focus domestic on this outing. Rather than focus on a particular event, Packer keeps his vision wide and deep this time.  The author focuses on the stories of a handful of Americans over the course of several decades. In particular, we see how the economic crisis of 2008 transforms their lives.  Packer features small businessmen as well as factory workers in a fast-changing economy. He profiles a political operative for then-Senator Joe Biden, and a Silicon Valley visionary.  For some of them, the story of the decades is one of ups and downs, or muddling through; for others, tragedy.

Can you guess how things went for the Silicon Valley visionary?

This book is a disturbing and harrowing look at the destruction of our American social contract. It critiques the idea that hard, loyal work for a corporation will see you compensated fairly, treated well, and set-up for retirement.  Many of the folks Packer profiles grew up taking this notion for granted. Others chased it, thinking that they could be the first in their line to achieve it.  The author also intersperses chapters about notable people in this period of American life. Oprah Winfrey, Newt Gingrich, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, Elizabeth Warren, Occupy Wall Street protestors and more are included in this way.  I’m told this is an attempt to echo the structure of John Dos Passos’ USA Trilogy, a classic set of novels I’ve yet to read.  It reminded me more of The Grapes of Wrath, if you’re familiar with it from high school. 

There’s no turtle trudging through the new deserts of Oklahoma here, but there might as well be.  Along the way we see elites get richer and the poor get poorer. Machines and algorithms foreclose on people’s futures without thought or mercy. Politicians (including Joe Biden) dismiss national concerns as easily as they do their own longtime aides. For better or worse, it’s a harrowing read with real insight and intimacy. But it offers few answers to the problems it raises. It calls for a new activist movement to push back against corporations and elites who benefit from a system that exploits the rest of us. There’s nothing wrong with this. We need one. Is it building right now as Starbucks workers organize and the Great Resignation continues? Packer traces these stories toward a common destination of national unraveling and uncertainty. In thirty years what destination will seem obvious, in hindsight, from our actions today?