Summer of Our Discontent

The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse

Hardcover, 272 pages

English language

Published Aug. 5, 2025 by Alfred A. Knopf.

ISBN:
978-0-593-53440-3
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OCLC Number:
1514624593
ASIN:
0593534409
Goodreads:
221251875

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In this provocative book, Thomas Chatterton Williams, one of the most revered and reviled social commentators of our time, paints a clear and detailed picture of the ideas and events that have paved the way for the dramatic paradigm shift in social justice that has taken place over the past few years. Taking aim at the ideology of critical race theory, the rise of an oppressive social media, the fall from Obama to Trump, and the twinned crises of COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd, Williams documents the extent to which this transition has altered media, artistic creativity, education, employment, policing, and, most profoundly, the ambient language and culture we use to make sense of our lives.

Williams also decries how liberalism—the very foundation of an open and vibrant society—is in existential crisis, under assault from both the right and the left, especially in our predominantly networked, Internet-driven monoculture. …

3 editions