Reset, Kurt Andersen
Reset, Kurt Andersen
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Reset
How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America

Author: Kurt Andersen

Narrator: Kurt Andersen

Unabridged: 1 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/28/2009


Synopsis

“This is the end of the world as we’ve known it,” Kurt Andersen writes in Reset. “But it isn’t the end of the world.” In this smart and refreshingly hopeful book, Andersen–a brilliant analyst and synthesizer of historical and cultural trends, as well as a bestselling novelist and host of public radio’s Studio 360–shows us why the current economic crisis is actually a moment of great opportunity to get ourselves and our nation back on track.

Historically, America has always shifted between wild, exuberant speculation and steady, sober hard work, as well as back and forth between economic booms and busts, and between right and left politically. This is one of the rare moments when all these cycles shift dramatically and simultaneously–a moment when complacency ends, ossified structures loosen up, and enormous positive change is possible.

The shock to the system can enable each of us to rethink certain habits and focus more on the things that make us authentically happy. The present flux can enable us as a society to consolidate the enormous gains of the last several decades in areas such as technology, crime prevention, women’s and civil rights, and the democratization of the planet. We can reap the fruits of a revival of realism and pragmatism at home and abroad. As we enter a new era of post-party-line common sense, we can start to reinvent hopelessly broken systems–in health care, education, climate change, and more–and rediscover some of the old-fashioned American values of which we’ve lost sight.

In Reset, Andersen explains how we’ve done it before and why we are about to do it again–and better than ever.

About The Author

Kurt Andersen is author of Heyday and Turn of the Century, and frequently writes for New York and Vanity Fair. He is host and co-creator of the Peabody Award-winning public radio program Studio 360. In 2006, he founded Very Short List, an e-mail service for connoisseurs of culture who would never call themselves “connoisseurs.” He was co-founder of Spy magazine, and has been a columnist and critic for The New Yorker and Time. Andersen lives with his wife and daughters in Brooklyn.


Reviews

Goodreads review by robin on January 10, 2025

American Renewal Written during the depths of the recession in 2009 and just after the inauguration of President Obama, Kurt Andersen's short book, "Reset-- How this Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America", sounded a note of optimism. Anderson, a novelist, radio host, and former editor, trie......more

Goodreads review by Andy on January 09, 2022

Kurt Andersen's essay emphasizing that we can and should turn our current political and economic lemons into lemonade is an interesting monologue. Andersen makes the argument that, historically, in times of trouble American society has re-evaluated its needs vs its wants and walked away stronger as......more

Goodreads review by Ken on March 14, 2018

Written at the on set of the great recession and just after Obama's election, this little book is dated today. If nothing else, the author's speculation about what may or should happen in the future is interesting reading.......more

Goodreads review by Karla on December 04, 2024

I wish his 2009 optimism had come true.......more

Goodreads review by Amanda on March 18, 2015

This is an interesting read about how the meltdown our culture has been through provides an opportunity to recalibrate so that we move forward in a more productive, humane way in our work and lives. It is broad in scope touching on economic, political, and societal trends but practical in nature. Th......more