The Age of Acquiescence

Posted on 26 May 2018 by Steve Fraser

A groundbreaking investigation of how and why, from the 18th century to the present day, American resistance to our ruling elites has vanished.From the American Revolution through the Civil Rights movement, Americans have long mobilized against political, social, and economic privilege Hierarchies based on inheritance, wealth, and political preferment were treated as obnoxious and a threat to democracy Mass movements envisioned a new world supplanting dog eat dog capitalism But over the last half century that political will and cultural imagination have vanished Why THE AGE OF ACQUIESCENCE seeks to solve that mystery Steve Fraser s account of national transformation brilliantly examines the rise of American capitalism, the visionary attempts to protect the democratic commonwealth, and the great surrender to today s delusional fables of freedom and the politics of fear Effervescent and razorsharp, THE AGE OF ACQUIESCENCE will be one of the most provocative and talked about books of the year. Download The Age of Acquiescence – kino-fada.fr I m blaming this book for my experience of the last two days hiding in bed without showering or speaking to humans and pretending the exterior universe is not present Fuck Just incredibly depressing and full of systematised injustices.NO MORE OF THIS NOW.How did Americans react to economic inequality in the past Why do we not rise up in the present Answering those questions is the task of The Age of Acquiescence.The first two thirds concern that first question Fraser surveys how Americans perceived and often organized against economic inequality from the 1700s through the early 20th century.This is useful stuff, a tour of labor movements, political parties, key thinkers, strikes, suppressions, and trials We read of Haymarket and the Pullman How did Americans react to economic inequality in the past Why do we not rise up in the present Answering those questions is the task of The Age of Acquiescence.The first two thirds concern that first question Fraser surveys how Americans perceived and often ...Age of AcquiescenceFirst, Steve Fraser has a word for us to learn Precariat You can probably see the word from which this portmanteau derives, in turn riffing on proletariat Yes, we are the class of the precarious.So, why didn tAmericans join Occupy Wall Street a few years back, or start their own, similar movements That s the thesis of this book.One of the greatest strengths of this book is Chapter 10, titled Fables of Freedom Brand X Of course, branding and its adjunct, marke Age of AcquiescenceFirst, Steve Fraser has a word for us to learn Precariat You can probably see the word from which this portmanteau derives, in turn riffing on proletariat Yes, we are the class of the precarious.So, why didn tAmericans join Occupy Wall Street a few years back, or start their own, similar movements That s the thesis of this book.One of the greatest strengths of this book is Chapter 10, titled Fables of Freedom Brand X Of course, branding and its adjunct, marketing, become fiercer by the day But, as Fraser shows, their roots go back at least to the Keynesian consumerism which he marks as the real settlement of the New Deal and later He s true about this in general American mainstream...The first book in a long time to actually scare me.mandatory reading.This book is divided in two parts covering the two American Gilded ages the one in the past and the one we are currently living in The last Gilded age lasted from the end of the American Civil War and went on into the 1920s and 1930s ending in New Deal which gave the US a temporary truce in its ongoing class war The first Gilded age was marked by a strong populist resistance by a burgeoning labor movement and farmer populism The moneyed classes were so obvious and transparent that a clear opp This book is divided in two parts covering the two American Gilded ages the one in the past and the one we are currently living in The last Gilded age lasted from the end of the American Civil War and went on into the 1920s and 1930s ending in New Deal which gave the US a temporary truce in its ongoing class war The first Gilded age was marked by a strong populist resistance by a burgeoning labor movement and farmer populism The moneyed classes were so obvious and transparent that a clear opposition by workers could easily form This resistance culminated in the New Deal and class compromise and the Keynesian welfare state and consumer society of the mid twentieth century This respite was a time of high growth and shared prosperity Good things only last so long The crises of the seventies with the Oil Shocks, Stagflation, the deindustralization of the rust belt and the growth of the financial sector brought renewed...I picked upAge of Acquiescence because it was recommended as a companion work to Capital in the 21st Century Age of Acquiescence is also certainly worth the long read although its focus is narrower Its author, Steve Fraser, asks a basic and important question Why isn t there an American movement that rails against the economic disparity that we see in the 21st century Why are we acquiescing to the monied and the very powerful, to the inequalities that stem from capitalism as we practice i I picked upAge of Acquiescence because it was recommended as a companion work to Capital in the 21st Century Age of Acquiescence is also certainly worth the long read although its focus is narrower Its author, Steve Fraser, asks a basic and important question Why isn t there an American movement that rails against the economic disparity that we see in the 21st century Why are we acquiescing to the monied and the very powerful, to the inequalities that stem from capitalism as we practice it The answer to that question has much to do with the history of the United States Fraser works to show the reader that during the first Gilded Age the turn of the 19th to the 20th century which Fraser extends a few decades into the 1920s and even the 1930s for some examples , ordinary, working class folks protested against the economic disparity inherent in capitalism, against the dreadful working conditions under which they slaved And yes, Fraser does make an arg...The first half of this book is a tour de force, a biting, outraged history of the rise of industrial capitalism in the US and the multitudes of organized resistance to that power that created an unceasing tension in the American landscape forthan 5 decades straight.The second half is necessarily bleaker Fraser appears to have succumbed to some of the fatalism he diagnoses in contemporary America s non response to the unending corrosion of the working class and the wholesale destruction of The first half of this book is a tour de for...After hearing the author interviewed on National Public Radio I wanted to dislike this book I came away feeling that this would be just another left liberal attack on capitalism I was wrong In fact Fraser mostly won me over to his point of view This book is an attack on capitalism, however the author s reasoning is much different from what is normally presented, and as such it deserves our attention What got me was a sense that the author has genuine, humane feelings about the circumstances After hearing the author interviewed on National Public Radio I wanted to dislike this book I came away feeling that this would be just another left liberal attack on capitalism I was wrong In fact Fraser mostly won me over to his point of view This book is an attack on capitalism, however the author s reasoning is much different from what is normally presented, and as such it deserves our attention What got me was a sense that the author has genuine, humane feelings about the circumstances of the working class in America, something that I do not see in many academics and journalists Combining that with an extraordinary accounting of the history of labor struggles since the 19th century, he began to win me over Even my frustration with the author s confusion with regard to the difference between free markets and crony capitalism receded into the background as I took in his compelling case for ordinary folks as they face down the...Good, but could have been better Fraser articulates an interesting question why was the first Gilded Age so contentious and our current Gilded Age so quiescent but writes and overwrites around the answer This book desperately needed better editing, particularly in the first half which was painfully, almost unbearably overwritten I m glad I made it through the first half, because I thought his account of our current issues was much better written and muchinteresting Still, I don Good, but could have been better Fraser articulates an interesting question why was the first Gilded Age so contentious and our current Gilded Age so quiescent but writes and overwrites around the answer This book desperately needed better editing, particularly in the first half which was painfully, almost unbearably overwritten I ...Why aren t the majority of U.S citizens rising up against their gradual or not so gradual impoverishment under the current economic system That s the question Steve Fraser sets out to answer in his book from earlier this year, The Age of Acquiescence It might look like an ill timed question, given the surprising mass support for the Presidential campaign of self described democratic socialist Senator Bernie San...

26 May 2018

Steve Fraser