By Charles MurrayI didn't actually finish this book when I read it back in 2012, not because it wasn't interesting reading, but because it was a new book at the time and couldn't be renewed - and I just never got back to it. The book, however, was cited as a "must-read" by an interviewed author in a recent NY Times Book Review - wish I could remember the interviewed author's name😐 - and the book seemed relevant at the time I read it. Maybe it is even more relevant today?
Why has the US changed over the last 50 years (~1960-2010) from a nation of innovators and law-abiding citizens to a lazy, crime-ridden country on the verge of failure? [asks the author] Murray looks at two different sets of criteria in white America during this period:
1) the increasing class structure (isolation of the over-educated elite "class" and the marginalizing of the increasingly poorer "class"), and
2) the 4 conditions necessary to self-govern (vs dictatorship or military/royal led society): honesty, strong work ethic, marriage, religiosity.
Regarding the 4 ideals listed above, the author makes his case that these are the convictions that hold a diverse society together (especially in the face of differences in income and education) but he claims they are crumbling, resulting in greater crime rates, less commitment to work, poor role models for kids. (The same ideas were echoed in an interview with A T Wall, former long-time director of RI Dept of Corrections, on 9/16/12 [about the same time I was reading this book]).
Considering how divisive our country has become in more recent years - especially on display during the last presidential election - perhaps it's time to finish Charles Murray's book.
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