The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties

Written by Christopher Caldwell

Narrated by Christopher Caldwell

A major American intellectual and “one of the right’s most gifted and astute journalists” (The New York Times Book Review) makes the historical case that the reforms of the 1960s, reforms intended to make the nation more just and humane, left many Americans feeling alienated, despised, misled—and ready to put an adventurer in the White House.

Christopher Caldwell has spent years studying the liberal uprising of the 1960s and its unforeseen consequences and his conclusion is this: even the reforms that Americans love best have come with costs that are staggeringly high—in wealth, freedom, and social stability—and that have been spread unevenly among classes and generations.

Caldwell reveals the real political turning points of the past half-century, taking you on a roller-coaster ride through Playboy magazine, affirmative action, CB radio, leveraged buyouts, iPhones, Oxycotin, Black Lives Matter, and internet cookies. In doing so, he shows that attempts to redress the injustices of the past have left Americans living under two different ideas of what it means to play by the rules.

Essential, timely, hard to put down, The Age of Entitlement “is an eloquent and bracing book, full of insight” (New York magazine) about how the reforms of the past fifty years gave the country two incompatible political systems—and drove it toward conflict.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Jan 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781797104171

Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell is a contributing editor at the Claremont Review of Books and a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. He was previously a senior editor at the Weekly Standard and a columnist for the Financial Times. He is the author of The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties and Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West.

Reviews for The Age of Entitlement

[Christopher Hunt · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A brilliant examination of the unintended - and in hindsight, inevitable - consequences of the Civil Rights Act.

[devin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The author starts with an interesting premise: that the 1964 Civil Rights Act created an alternate constitution that has become a tear down of our First Amendment rights to freely assemble. He tries to help his argument by focusing on history since the act’s passage and essentially ignoring the hundreds of years of oppression of non-white males. While definitely not a defender of that racist past, the author leaves out the painful context that helps explain how we came to the Civil Rights Act and the laws and social change that have come since.

There are times the author takes a clear-eyed, middle-of-the-road view of events, but he does not linger there. He is a conservative and his argument is true to his beliefs. This is a political book more than a history book. It is a dispassionate look at an emotionally-charged topic that ultimately fails to deliver on its premise. It’s a stretch to convince this reader that the right to freely assemble is being curtailed in the U.S. Look around, we are free to believe whatever we want and gather with the like-minded and protest, choke social media, start non-profits, etc. It’s the other side of that freedom the author is arguing: that it’s increasingly difficult to infringe on the rights of others to assemble. That’s kind of the point of civil rights.

There is a lot to learn in this book and it is worth reading. It helps shed light on what sometimes seems like the right’s preference for constitutional convenience (don’t tread on me - tread on them!). The author dwells on political correctness and the seeming extremes/absurdities it brought to society, not dwelling nearly as long on the point of so-called political correctness: showing respect to those in our world who are for the most part non-white males. By substituting “respect” for what has become a derisive term, it’s easier to say “I’m not going to be politically correct” than it is to say “I am going to disrespect you.” Which is a typical post-reconstruction tactic.

So read this book as political commentary and not strictly history. Though, with his premise of dualing constitutions, it does make a good alternate history for those who seem to prefer an alternate reality.

[Jonathan Kyser · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book offers the kind of insight that usually isn't achieved until long after the events have ended.

[John Lyon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Informative and insightful, politically incorrect and courageous. Follows the historical development of Political Correctness as a defacto constitution.

[Jim Caldwell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Must read. The most cogent explanation of the current political situation I have seen.

[Christopher Boddie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ok, Provides an interesting and undeniably accurate on some counts perspective of the post-civil right US. However, the book is constantly interrupted by the authors opinions and personal agenda. The author is clearly intelligent and a seasoned academic , but every five minutes leave all this at the door to go on a rant of personal perspective. However the author in my opinion never really expresses anything too radical or crazy, even during said rants. This makes the book a decent read and helpful in understanding civil rights and how it is perceived by ALL Americans.

[Curtis Jensen · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ballsy move to claim the 1964 civil rights act destroyed freedom of association, but He didn’t provide adequate analysis to support his claim, and in the end, the book sounded like a lot of griping.

[Paige McLoughlin · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Causistry and Aggrievement of the conservative knows no bounds in protection of its power.

[A Garo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The premise of Caldwell’s book is that the civil rights act of 1964 has supplanted the constitution of 1776. This statement would be and is extremely controversial too many, dismissed as White supremacy and racism by the left. But, It’s almost impossible to refute the fact based evidence that is presented in this book and it leads one to draw the conclusion that the bleak reality presented here is true. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand how we got to this point, It did not begin with the 2016 election, but in fact has been building for the past 60 years