The decadent society : how we became the victims of our own success
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published
New York : Avid Reader Press, 2020.
ISBN
9781476785240, 1476785244
Status
Eisenhower Public Library District - Stacks
909.83 DOU
1 available

Description

Loading Description...

Also in this Series

Checking series information...

Copies

LocationCall NumberStatus
Eisenhower Public Library District - Stacks909.83 DOUOn Shelf
LocationCall NumberStatus
Bensenville Community Public Library District - Nonfiction909.83 DOUOn Shelf
Berwyn Public Library - Stacks909.83 DOUOn Shelf
Bloomingdale Public Library - Nonfiction909.83 DOUOn Shelf
Blue Island Public Library - Stacks909.83 DOUOn Shelf
Calumet City Public Library - Nonfiction909.83 DOUOn Shelf
Show All Copies

More Like This

Loading more titles like this title...

More Details

Published
New York : Avid Reader Press, 2020.
Format
Book
Physical Desc
x, 258 pages ; 24 cm
Language
English
ISBN
9781476785240, 1476785244

Notes

General Note
Includes index.
Description
Today the Western world seems to be in crisis. But beneath our social media frenzy and reality-television politics, the deeper reality is one of drift, repetition, and dead ends. The Decadent Society explains what happens when a rich and powerful society ceases advancing - how the combination of wealth and technological proficiency with economic stagnation, political stalemates, cultural exhaustion, and demographic decline creates a strange kind of "sustainable decadence," a civilizational languor that could endure for longer than we think. Ranging from our grounded space shuttles to our Silicon Valley villains, from our blandly recycled film and television - a new Star Wars sage, another Star Trek series, the fifth Terminator sequel - to the escapism we're furiously chasing through drug use and virtual reality, Ross Douthat argues that many of today's discontents and derangements reflect of sense of futility and disappointment - a feeling that the future was not what was promised, that the frontiers have all been closed, and that the paths forward lead only to the grave. In this environment we fear catastrophe, but in a certain way we also pine for it - because the alternative is to accept that we are permanently decadent: aging, comfortable and stuck, cut off from the past and no longer confident in the future, spurning both memory and ambition while we wait for some saving innovation or revelations, growing old unhappily together in the glowing light of tiny screens. Correcting both optimists who insist that we're just growing richer and happier with every passing year and pessimists who expect collapse any moment, Douthat provides an enlightening diagnosis of the modern condition - how we got here, how long our age of frustration might last, and how, whether in renaissance or catastrophe, our decadence might ultimately end. --,From dust jacket.

Reviews from GoodReads

Loading GoodReads Reviews.

Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Douthat, R. G. (2020). The decadent society: how we became the victims of our own success (First Avid Reader Press hardcover edition.). Avid Reader Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Douthat, Ross Gregory, 1979-. 2020. The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success. Avid Reader Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Douthat, Ross Gregory, 1979-. The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success Avid Reader Press, 2020.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Douthat, Ross Gregory. The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success First Avid Reader Press hardcover edition., Avid Reader Press, 2020.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

Staff View

Loading Staff View.