The Age of Insecurity, Astra Taylor
The Age of Insecurity, Astra Taylor
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The Age of Insecurity
Coming Together as Things Fall Apart

Author: Astra Taylor

Narrator: Rebecca Mitchell

Unabridged: 8 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/20/2024


Synopsis

Finalist, 2024 Writers' Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

These days, everyone feels insecure. We are financially stressed and emotionally overwhelmed. The status quo isn't working for anyone, even those who appear to have it all. What is going on?

In this urgent cultural diagnosis, author and activist Astra Taylor exposes how seemingly disparate crises—rising inequality and declining mental health, the ecological emergency, and the threat of authoritarianism—originate from a social order built on insecurity. From home ownership and education to the wellness industry and policing, many of the institutions and systems that promise to make us more secure actually undermine us.

Mixing social critique, memoir, history, political analysis, and philosophy, this genre-bending book rethinks both insecurity and security from the ground up. By facing our existential insecurity and embracing our vulnerability, Taylor argues, we can begin to develop more caring, inclusive, and sustainable forms of security to help us better weather the challenges ahead. The Age of Insecurity will transform how you understand yourself and society—while illuminating a path toward meaningful change.

About Astra Taylor

Astra Taylor is a filmmaker, writer, and political organizer, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Athens, Georgia; she currently lives in New York. Her latest book is Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions, and her other books include the American Book Award winner The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age. She regularly writes for major publications, has directed multiple documentaries, toured with the band Neutral Milk Hotel, and cofounded the Debt Collective.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ben on January 24, 2024

A m a z i n g. If I haven’t already recommended this book to you, this is my official plea to grab a copy or borrow from me.......more

Goodreads review by Andrea on April 02, 2024

3.5 rounded up to 4. It's a mostly solid book looking at the implications of rising uncertainty across many domains, and how we might help people be secure so that we can pursue worthwhile collective ends, like climate stability and democracy. There are some gaps I wasn't able to look past: 1. She int......more

Goodreads review by Kelsey on January 02, 2024

A really good account of how manufactured insecurity keeps the working class subdued and powerless and the wealthy unhappy in their positions. This, starting from the privatization of land in the 17th century where the commons was transferred to private ownership up to the removal of collective righ......more

Goodreads review by Kara on April 26, 2025

Oh boy, I don’t know if this was the best time or worst time to read The Age of Insecurity. It was certainly A Time. Written just prior to Donald Trump’s second term as President of the United States, Astra Taylor’s Massey Lectures for 2023 nevertheless capture the zeitgeist of the 2020s with uncomf......more

Goodreads review by Avvai on December 19, 2023

The first two sections of this book were really strong and I questioned and learned a lot. I liked reframing our current economic age in terms of security and insecurity. I thought it was really insightful that everyone, no matter what your economic and social status in life is, grapples with insecu......more