Alienated America
Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse
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Narrated by:
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Charles Constant
About this listen
Respected conservative journalist and commentator Timothy P. Carney continues the conversation begun with Hillbilly Elegy and the classic Bowling Alone in this hard-hitting analysis that identifies the true factor behind the decline of the American dream: It is not purely the result of economics as the left claims, but the collapse of the institutions that made us successful, including marriage, church, and civic life.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump proclaimed, “the American dream is dead”, and this message resonated across the country.
Why do so many people believe the American dream is no longer within reach? Growing inequality, stubborn pockets of immobility, rising rates of deadly addiction, the increasing and troubling fact that where you start determines where you end up, heightening political strife - these are the disturbing realities threatening ordinary American lives today.
The standard accounts pointed to economic problems among the working class, but the root was a cultural collapse: While the educated and wealthy elites still enjoy strong communities, most blue-collar Americans lack strong communities and institutions that bind them to their neighbors. And outside of the elites, the central American institution has been religion.
That is, it’s not the factory closings that have torn us apart; it’s the church closings. The dissolution of our most cherished institutions - nuclear families, places of worship, civic organizations - has not only divided us, but eroded our sense of worth, belief in opportunity, and connection to one another.
In Alienated America, Carney visits all corners of America, from the dim country bars of Southwestern Pennsylvania, to the bustling Mormon wards of Salt Lake City, and explains the most important data and research to demonstrate how the social connection is the great divide in America. He shows that Trump’s surprising victory was the most visible symptom of this deep-seated problem.
In addition to his detailed exploration of how a range of societal changes have, in tandem, damaged us, Carney provides a framework that will lead us back out of a lonely, modern wilderness.
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My Fellow Conservatives, Give This A Listen
- By Dallas D.L. on 02-12-15
By: Barack Obama
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Forget "Having It All"
- How America Messed Up Motherhood - and How to Fix It
- By: Amy Westervelt
- Narrated by: Amy Westervelt
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In Forget "Having It All", Westervelt traces the roots of our modern expectations of mothers and motherhood back to extremist ideas held by the first Puritans who attempted to colonize America and examines how those ideals shifted - or didn't - through every generation since.
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A Thorough and Well-Researched Book on The "Mom Predicament"
- By Merle B on 04-10-19
By: Amy Westervelt
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Reason
- Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert B. Reich
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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From Robert B. Reich, passionate believer in American democracy and public servant, Reason is a guide to confronting and derailing what he sees as the mounting threat to American liberty, prosperity, and security posed by the radical conservatives, Radcons as he calls them.
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Reason
- By Ron Green on 03-13-05
By: Robert B. Reich
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Korea
- The Impossible Country
- By: Daniel Tudor
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Long overshadowed by Japan and China, South Korea is a small country that happens to be one of the great national success stories of the postwar period. From a failed state with no democratic tradition, ruined and partitioned by war, and sapped by a half-century of colonial rule, South Korea transformed itself in just 50 years into an economic powerhouse and a democracy that serves as a model for other countries. With no natural resources and a tradition of authoritarian rule, Korea managed to accomplish a second Asian miracle.
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Amazing book
- By Antoine on 12-14-18
By: Daniel Tudor
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The 9.9 Percent
- The New Aristocracy That Is Entrenching Inequality and Warping Our Culture
- By: Matthew Stewart
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In 21st century America, the top 0.1 percent of the wealth distribution have walked away with the big prizes even while the bottom 90 percent have lost ground. What’s left of the American Dream has taken refuge in the 9.9 percent that lies just below the tip of extreme wealth. Collectively, the members of this group control more than half of the wealth in the country - and they are doing whatever it takes to hang on to their piece of the action in an increasingly unjust system.
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Fantastic
- By Davena on 01-05-23
By: Matthew Stewart
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This Noble Land
- My Vision For America
- By: James A. Michener
- Narrated by: Arthur Addison
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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This Noble Land is Michener's most personal statement about America, an examination of the issues that threaten to fragment and undermine the nation - racial conflict, the widening gulf between rich and poor, the decline of education, the inadequacies of our health care system - as well as a thought-provoking prescription for sustaining our "outstanding success". First published shortly before Michener's death, This Noble Land stands as a wake-up call for a troubled era, infused with the wisdom and passion of a lifetime.
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A startling realization
- By Amazon Customer on 08-15-15
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The Way We Never Were
- American Families and the Nostalgia Trap
- By: Stephanie Coontz
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Leave It to Beaver was not a documentary, a man's home has never been his castle, the "male breadwinner marriage" is the least traditional family in history, and rape and sexual assault were far higher in the 1970s than they are today. In The Way We Never Were, acclaimed historian Stephanie Coontz examines two centuries of the American family, sweeping away misconceptions about the past that cloud current debates about domestic life. The 1950s do not present a workable model of how to conduct our personal lives today, Coontz argues.
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fantastic report on the dangers of nostalgia
- By Richard Stine on 06-29-21
By: Stephanie Coontz
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Ghetto
- The Invention of a Place, the History of an Idea
- By: Mitchell Duneier
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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On March 29, 1516, the city council of Venice issued a decree forcing Jews to live in il geto - a closed quarter named for the copper foundry that once occupied the area. The term stuck. In this sweeping and original interpretation, Mitchell Duneier traces the idea of the ghetto from its beginnings in the 16th century and its revival by the Nazis to the present. As Duneier shows, we cannot understand the entanglements of race, poverty, and place in America today without recalling the history of the ghetto in Europe, as well as later efforts to understand the problems of the American city.
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Impressive
- By Jean on 12-10-16
By: Mitchell Duneier
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Beyond the Messy Truth
- How We Came Apart, How We Come Together
- By: Van Jones
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In Beyond the Messy Truth, Jones offers a blueprint for transforming our collective anxiety into meaningful change. Tough on Donald Trump but showing respect and empathy for his supporters, Jones takes aim at the failures of both parties before and after Trump's victory. He urges both sides to abandon the politics of accusation and focus on real solutions. Calling us to a deeper patriotism, he shows us how to get down to the vital business of solving, together, some of our toughest problems.
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I never hated anyone before
- By Joanna Bugajska on 11-17-17
By: Van Jones
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All the Single Ladies
- Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation
- By: Rebecca Traister
- Narrated by: Candace Thaxton, Rebecca Traister - introduction
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In a provocative, groundbreaking work, National Magazine Award finalist Rebecca Traister, "the most brilliant voice on feminism in this country" (Anne Lamott), traces the history of unmarried women in America who, through social, political, and economic means, have radically shaped our nation.
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Excellent book, destroyed by narration
- By Theresa Holleran on 03-06-16
By: Rebecca Traister
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The Politics of Resentment
- Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker
- By: Katherine J. Cramer
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the election of Scott Walker, Wisconsin has been seen as ground zero for debates about the appropriate role of government in the wake of the Great Recession. In a time of rising inequality, Walker not only survived a bitterly contested recall that brought thousands of protesters to Capitol Square, he was subsequently reelected. How could this happen? How is it that the very people who stand to benefit from strong government services not only vote against the candidates who support those services but are vehemently against the very idea of big government?
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Important, but shallow
- By Catherine Spiller on 12-11-18
What listeners say about Alienated America
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mark A. Lindsey
- 03-31-19
Very detailed data analysis
This is an unbiased assessment of the different parts American society with fair-minded comparison to history and constructive suggestions to make this country more universally thrive again.
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- Donald L. Huxley
- 02-24-19
Roadmap to MAGA
Carney describes the institutions that made America great and how in the 60’s the elite left started to tear them down. As Charles Murray pointed out our elite adopted these values and institutions while destroying them for the lower classes. We thus have 2 societies. Carney does a great job in describing this process. He then describes how America can be rebuilt from the bottom up. It is an easy and fun read. Well documented. It is worth everyone’s time to read.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Elyse K. Fischer
- 02-29-20
Everyone Must Read
This is one of the most entertaining, insightful and interesting books I have encountered in the last decade. It is based not on conjecture but on careful analysis and pain-staking research and interviews. Through this, it brings us face to face with the deepest challenges facing our culture, the challenge of love grown cold and alienation in substantial portions of our country. What’s more, it proposes difficult yet attainable solutions that those, on the right and left, minded to see a more civil and flourishing society can and should devote themselves to. I leave it feeling reminded, hopeful, and pressed to devote myself to the love of my neighbor. Thank you Timothy Carney (and Charles Constant).
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1 person found this helpful
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- Archer
- 05-29-19
Better than expected!
A full rundown on what is wrong in American society - in a nutshell, we’ve lost our community and the institutions that bound us together. Now, the hyper-individualist attitude combined with consumerism, and enabled by technology addictive technology has us living in a time of isolation and loneliness. Small (and often wealthy) communities with common culture are going strong while the rest of America creeps toward the precipice of final destruction.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Marie
- 03-18-19
A good companion to Murray's Coming Apart
Mr. Carney is making the podcast rounds to hawk his book. What I heard in those interviews was a story about America's social ties coming apart, like in Charles Murray's Coming Apart. What I got was a bit of that as well as a dose of "why did Trump win in 2016," which I had 0, negative zero interest in.
Despite the intrusion of Trump as a topic, the book was very interesting to listen to and gave me and my spouse (for the parts I shared) something to think and talk about. I'm sure there are a zillion reviews about what is in the book, so I'll keep mine simple. It is a good social studies book about social capital and its importance. In my own studies, I do local history and note the change in my own ethnic community and its downward spiral in some areas due to the loss of organizational and church involvement. It also made me think about work in a different way and why a universal basic income is foolhardy.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Roy Roebuck
- 07-07-19
Excellent sociological analyis of what ails US.
Lays out the local community basis for US decline, driven by centralizing and thus depersonalizing support.
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- GaHillBilly
- 05-07-19
Interesting, but a mix of research and speculation
Very interesting, but the careless mingling of speculation with research based conclusions renders it less useful than it might have been.
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- Ellen Gilmartin
- 11-02-19
Practically ignores important aspects
This book made some excellent points, and backed them up meticulously. I was disappointed that after beating some of the same dead horses about the impacts of community alienation from the perspective of white America for hours, we have a tiny footnote on black Americans in the last 15 minutes. The author stresses the fact that family and church (meaning, any faith community) are the bedrock of society. He never addresses the systematic and mostly ongoing exclusion of LGTBQ people from both these core institutions. What is the impact of this? What fallout are we dealing with now due to the paranoid and still ongoing exclusion of anyone deemed “different” from respectable white middle America? We need a sequel.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Chad
- 08-17-20
Methodically written
I loved the straightforward story telling. The author is very clear what his message is from the beginning.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Michael Cash
- 03-15-19
Required Reading
If every American would give just a little of his or her time to consider the core theses of this book, it would do our nation good. Mr. Carney has touched on something important here.
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