This is a very insightful book. William Finnegan is a journalist with the New Yorker and a very good writer.
In this book, he studies the lives of four working class families, and their communities, across the country. Despite differences in region, ethnicity and culture, they are all on the other side of post-WWII prosperity and sliding down, down down. FTW is everywhere.
How did it happen? The people of a certain era were provided great and free public schools, but rejected the same for their kids. Unions used to be great, but now just increase costs of consumer goods and cut into corporate profits. After these things have served their purpose, they're too expensive to maintain for future generations.
And this book was 19 years before President Trump, who is both reflective of this decline and will no doubt accelerate it.
I can't really describe it as a pleasant read, but it certainly helped me to understand things better.
