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  • American Happiness and Discontents

  • The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020
  • By: George F. Will
  • Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
  • Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins

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American Happiness and Discontents

By: George F. Will
Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
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Publisher's Summary

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.

George F. Will has been one of this country’s leading columnists since 1974. He won the Pulitzer Prize for it in 1977. The Wall Street Journal once called him “perhaps the most powerful journalist in America”. In this new collection, he examines a remarkably unsettling 13 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. Mr. Will also offers his perspective on American socialists, anti-capitalist conservatives, drug policy, the criminal justice system, climatology, the coronavirus, the First Amendment, parenting, meritocracy and education, China, fascism, authoritarianism, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, and the morality of enjoying football. American Happiness and Discontents: The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020 is a collection packed with wisdom and leavened by humor from one the preeminent columnists and intellectuals of our time.

©2021 George F. Will (P)2021 Hachette Books

Critic Reviews

"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)

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