The Unwinding

An Inner History of the New America

By: George Packer

Narrated by: Robert Fass

National Book Award, Nonfiction, 2013

A riveting examination of a nation in crisis, from one of the finest political journalists of our generation. American democracy is beset by a sense of crisis. Seismic shifts during a single generation have created a country of winners and losers, allowing unprecedented freedom while rending the social contract, driving the political system to the verge of breakdown, and setting citizens adrift to find new paths forward. In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives.

The Unwinding journeys through the lives of several Americans, including Dean Price, the son of tobacco farmers, who becomes an evangelist for a new economy in the rural South; Tammy Thomas, a factory worker in the Rust Belt trying to survive the collapse of her city; Jeff Connaughton, a Washington insider oscillating between political idealism and the lure of organized money; and Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire who questions the Internet’s significance and arrives at a radical vision of the future.

Packer interweaves these intimate stories with biographical sketches of the era’s leading public figures, from Newt Gingrich to Jay-Z, and collages made from newspaper headlines, advertising slogans, and song lyrics that capture the flow of events and their undercurrents. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation. Packer’s novelistic and kaleidoscopic history of the new America is his most ambitious work to date. Includes bonus content read by the author.

©2013 George Packer (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

A Patriot's Dream

This book starts off slow and it's a little hard to follow at first but if you stick it out, you won't be disappointed.

Gritty book, grating performance

A compelling fine grained account of the implosion of the American Dream is sabotaged by an inept upbeat and resolutely anodyne performance. What next? Mr. Rogers reads Celine?

worth the while book

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I found myself interested in each of the stories and looking forward to their continuation. Mr. Packer does a very good job of describing and explaining the detailed circumstances of the storylines. I could have easily listened to several more hours. The book seemed to end abruptly but did a good job of getting the point across and backed it up with valid content.

Good, but bleak.

Must read if you still wonder why Trump won. As the country unwinds, hard working people are desperate for any change, or answers.

AMERICAN ANGER, FEAR, AND FRUSTRATION

George Packer drives a stake into America’s heart in “The Unwinding”. American anger, fear, and frustration build in the minds of all—whether Republican, Democrat, Tea Partyer, or Libertarian.

Whether an accolade of private enterprise or government, Packer offers stories of Americans that show American’ belief makes no difference because America is no longer a land of opportunity but a land of greed; not of the free but of the shackled—a risk noted by Thomas Hobbes in the “Leviathan”. The shackles come from society’s failure to protect individuals from the tyranny of special interests. One side argues that it is because of ineffective government–the other side argues it is because of too much government.

The unwinding of the financial crises reflected in the dot-com bubble of 2000-2001 and the 2007-08 sub-prime mortgage crises unfolds in stories told by Packer in this disturbing narrative. America has become a nation of extremes with each extreme using whatever means necessary to deny success of either “tea party”, “libertarian” or “occupy wall street” followers. The consequence is a “do-nothing” congress, an ineffectual President, and a politicized Supreme Court. One is left with fear, anger, and frustration after completing Packer’s diatribe. The only consolation is in history.

America has been in crises before–in 1776, 1789, 1865, 1929, 1941, 1951, 1967-68, 2001. Americans survived before; Americans will survive again but how angry Americans are, and how frustrating it is to watch America muddle along while Congress fails to act.

Good but...

There were parts of this book I really liked, but it did get slow in some areas. There is also this wierd thing done between chapters where headlines are used. This make look interesting in print form, but for me it did not transfer to this format well.

Terrible edit. Heavy breathing is horrid

It's very difficult to get past the panting. Heavy breathing dominates the story. It should be edited out.

The Best Summary of the Last Decade or Two

This is a book that simply follows a few people through the years. Some are known, like Oprah, but most are not. It works through the political changes and the Housing Bubble, the loss of good jobs and the rise of corporate power. There are parts I skipped, but it is easy to pick up somewhere down the line. Most of it is not very pleasant, but maybe if people would think this stuff through, we would make better decisions.

Smart and insightful

I was thoroughly impressed with this book. It is America’s story told through the direct experiences of several individuals from different backgrounds and different levels of success over several decades. I couldn’t put it down. While the greed of Wall Street and the complete dysfunction and corruption of our political system was sometimes hard to stomach, it was credible in every way. The author ,refreshingly , did not appear to be unduly biased in any way. The lives of struggling Americans and their lost way of life was the most painful to read. Read this book.

Still relevant in 2025

Following the lives of a few representative individuals, Packer describes how the loss of guard rails like Glass-Steagall and the dismantling of American industry by NAFTA destroyed the American middle class and ends the American dream.