American Happiness and Discontents, George F. Will
American Happiness and Discontents, George F. Will
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American Happiness and Discontents
The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020

Author: George F. Will

Narrator: Jim Meskimen

Unabridged: 18 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/14/2021

Synopsis

Examine the ways in which expertise, reason, and manners are continually under attack in our institutions, courts, political arenas, and social venues with this collection from the Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative columnist. 

In this collection, George F. Will, referred to by the Wall Street Journal as ""perhaps the most powerful journalist in America"", examines a remarkably unsettling thirteen years in our nation’s experience, from 2008 to 2020. Included are a number of columns about court cases, mostly from the Supreme Court, that illuminate why the composition of the federal judiciary has become such a contentious subject. Other topics addressed include the American Revolutionary War, historical figures from Frederick Douglass to JFK, as well as a scathing assessment of how State of the Union Addresses are delivered in the modern day. 

American Happiness and Discontents is a collection packed with wisdom and leavened by humor from one the preeminent columnists and intellectuals of our time.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Fred on November 08, 2023

I'm registered as an independent and tend to lean right on financial issues, left on social. But as the right becomes more shrill, more insulting, less truthful and and more misleading, I find myself leaning further left on most any of their policies and positions. But, there are some conservatives w......more

Goodreads review by Richard on March 28, 2021

It's difficult to describe the experience of reading Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George F. Will's latest book "American Happiness and Discontents," a collection of reflections simultaneously precise, convicting, quite humorous, and remarkably pointed in their observations. So profound is Will's......more

Goodreads review by Angie on December 23, 2021

Do not hesitate to read this wonderful collection of Will's columns from the past 12 years just because you do not align yourself with him politically! The columns cover a tremendous array of subjects, from historical events like the Somme's importance in WW I to sports (or course!) to Bob Dylan and......more

Goodreads review by Paul on December 07, 2021

[Imported automatically from my blog. Some formatting there may not have translated here.] A collection of short pieces by the incomparable, indispensable George F. Will, mainly his syndicated column. It's big, slightly under 500 pages, which means there are a lot of those pieces, and they cover a l......more

Goodreads review by Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog on May 06, 2024

Before conservative opinion makers took up the model of the shock jock and sank to the level of noise makers with only an occasional reference to facts; there were serious thinking wordsmiths like William F Buckly and, when he wants to be George F. Will. We have literally millions of reasons to regr......more

Quotes

"A deeply erudite, always opinionated commentator, Will laments the erosion of literacy and advocates for binge-reading rather than binge-watching, and he parses the intricacies of recent Supreme Court cases with authority....A gentleman scholar and scold, Will continues to wield his sharp, discerning prose."
 —Kirkus Reviews

"[An] erudite and eclectic collection....Will's eulogies of conservative leaders...are particularly rich and insightful....Will is a consistently provocative and articulate opinion-maker. Fans will delight in this expansive survey of his recent judgments."—Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Conservative Sensibility

"A thoughtful, elegant reflection on American conservatism and the Founders' political thought."—The Atlantic

"A blockbuster -- if a book so thoughtful and learned and graceful can be called a 'blockbuster.'"—Jay Nordlinger, National Review

"When you read a work as wise, incisive and superbly written as this one, you rightly assume it was produced by a first-rate mind."
—The Wall Street Journal

"Staggeringly good. Easily one of the best books on American Conservatism ever written."—Jonah Goldberg

"[A] magnum opus..... Will still beats all his rivals in his ability to combine high thinking with a shrewd capacity to understand day-to-day American politics.... It is hard to think of any of today's angry young "movement" conservatives surviving in journalism for fifty years, as Mr. Will has, and still having enough to say to produce a big book at 78."—The Economist

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