Coming Apart: The State Of White America, 1960-2010 (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
In the history of this country, people haven't interacted with those of other races and classes in other than superficial ways. The post WWII years saw many culture changes which are noted in the intro. The upper class in this country has always be white. And other people have wanted to copy that lifestyle. (Anyone else read Babbitt by S Lewis?) So the real focus is on a 'new' white elite that is bigger than it used to be and is more educated. It was interesting to watch this being billed as something new and wrong. Cognitive sorting replaces inheritance as a means of wealthy class.New poor class also developed during this same time. It starts back before 1960.Didn't find this as helpful as I'd hoped it would be. This turned into a conservative vs. liberal book in Part 1, chapter 3. Language is loaded and frequently insulting to both liberals and the common man he refers to whom the liberals are not in touch with. See: Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care? by N Gross. I listened to the audio book. I stopped after the acknowledgements and did not listen to the Appendices nor did I view all of the charts and graphs that were provided on the PDF CD. The book is heavy, very heavy with statistics and Murray does not seem to make a point. He does near the end somewhat spell out a series of points. Essentially the book is about the new growing lower class of poor white Americans and the growth of the new upper class of rich or wealthy white Americans along with the divide between these 2 groups. Murray believes this divide is because of the unraveling of a set of 4 core values [which I can't remember and did not write them down] though remember to be Honesty, Industriousness, Neighborliness, and Faith/Religion. Murray argues that this divide has occurred because of cognitive ability which he believes is a predictor of wealth. He further argues that this cognitive ability further divides society because smart people only want to marry and associate with smart people and hence never the twain [new lower class and new upper class] should mix. Murray toward the end argues against the European Welfare State by pointing at that at one time in America most Americans were proud to work at a blue collar job and support a family and not sponge off the U.S. Government for support. He points out that the European Welfare State teaches that life should be enjoyed and one should not worry about a job, healthcare, old-age, and death because the government will take care of all that. He correctly points out that the problem with this has been exposed with the likes of Greece, Italy, and most of the rest of the EU that cannot pay their welfare bills and do not have enough younger members of the population to afford their welfare obligations. Murray also asks that the New Upper Class preach what they practive which is to be successful, raise a family and pay for that family yourself (rather than creating more welfare babies and families) and to preach to the New Lower Class that there is a way to pull yourselves out of poverty and welfare and that it is by working and achieving self-actualization. Murray argues that the welfare state prevents people from achieving self-actualization. Murray does detail the growing unseemliness of CEO pay as part of the growing problem in America and quotes, though anonymously, one of his friends who is a CEO as saying CEO pay is obscene. Murray asks, "How much do you value what has made America exceptional and what are you doing to preserve it?" and says "Preach what you practice. I tend to agree with Murray's arguments though I only give it 3 stars because it is such a data heavy book that was pretty boring and did not seem to have a point until the very end.
What do You think about Coming Apart: The State Of White America, 1960-2010 (2012)?
Incredible book supported by mountains of research. Simply outstanding.
—renuz
fantastic and original analysis. Not your usual social rant
—miah
Very contrived statistics to fit with author's agenda.
—jime
