The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis--and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
"Former college president and now U.S. Senator Ben Sasse reads with the clarity and confidence of a voice pro in this friendly warning aimed at America's parents, teachers, and governing officials." — AudioFile Magazine
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER — read by the author.
In an era of safe spaces, trigger warnings, and an unprecedented election, the country's youth are in crisis. Senator Ben Sasse warns the nation about the existential threat to America's future.
Raised by well-meaning but overprotective parents and coddled by well-meaning but misbegotten government programs, America's youth are ill-equipped to survive in our highly-competitive global economy.
Many of the coming-of-age rituals that have defined the American experience since the Founding: learning the value of working with your hands, leaving home to start a family, becoming economically self-reliant—are being delayed or skipped altogether. The statistics are daunting: 30% of college students drop out after the first year, and only 4 in 10 graduate. One in three 18-to-34 year-olds live with their parents.
From these disparate phenomena: Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse who as president of a Midwestern college observed the trials of this generation up close, sees an existential threat to the American way of life.
In The Vanishing American Adult, Sasse diagnoses the causes of a generation that can't grow up and offers a path for raising children to become active and engaged citizens. He identifies core formative experiences that all young people should pursue: hard work to appreciate the benefits of labor, travel to understand deprivation and want, the power of reading, the importance of nurturing your body—and explains how parents can encourage them.
Our democracy depends on responsible, contributing adults to function properly—without them America falls prey to populist demagogues. A call to arms, The Vanishing American Adult will ignite a much-needed debate about the link between the way we're raising our children and the future of our country.
Related to The Vanishing American Adult
Related audiobooks
Digital Detox: The Two-Week Tech Reset for Kids Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Them: Why We Hate Each Other--and How to Heal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grow Up Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race--and Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/512 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Race to the Bottom: Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Public Education Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Maker Versus the Takers: What Jesus Really Said About Social Justice and Economics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death by Living: Life Is Meant to Be Spent Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great Society: A New History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hiding Place Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Did America Have a Christian Founding?: Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Seven Men: And the Secret of Their Greatness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Is Awkward: How Life's Uncomfortable Moments Open the Door to Intimacy and Connection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Digital Madness: How Social Media Is Driving Our Mental Health Crisis--and How to Restore Our Sanity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise of the New Puritans: Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Be Married (to Melissa): A Hilarious Guide to a Happier, One-of-a-Kind Marriage Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Politics For You
Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Can't Joke About That: Why Everything Is Funny, Nothing Is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elon Musk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Behold a Pale Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 48 Laws of Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The War on the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right-Wing (And How I Got Out) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Vision of the Anointed: Self-congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Small Mercies: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Out of the Wreckage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An American Marriage: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Vanishing American Adult
29 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Incredibly inciteful and and historically documented progression of Americans to the current generation. Will all the money and effort spent on the next generation be effective? How does it compare to the past and does that even matter?
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Ben Sasse just abandoned the principles of "character" he lectures us about in this politically self-serving, conservative values-claiming book. He voted to support Trump's fake "emergency" in the Senate on 14 March 2019.
Twelve other Senate Republicans saw that this was constitutional overreach to circumvent the power of Congress. Sasse capitulated to Trump.
The vote was 420 to ZERO in Congress. Emergency powers cannot be used unless they are: "necessary, sudden, urgent, unforseen and not permanent", as GOP Senator Susan Collins noted in voting against it.
In sum, Sasse repeats the obvious about moral decline in this book -- but does not live by it himself when he exercises his own power to vote in the Senate. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Many of the problems are correctly identified, but it's unclear how the solutions can be made to work.