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Charles Murray provides a data-driven report on how white America’s changing faithfulness to what he calls the United States’ four founding virtues: Religiosity, Marriage, Industriousness and Honesty, has changed the fabric of American society since 1960.
Having read this book over a period of a few weeks on either side of the 2016 presidential election that has brought Donald Trump within six weeks (as of this review) of the Oval Office, I saw how anyone with Murray’s perspective could have predicted how the vote would be split along lines of geography, education, and income. “Coming Apart” remains a highly relevant read to those with the patience to work through some fairly dense material about why America is what it is today.
Murray views the four founding virtues mentioned above as the basis of “American exceptionalism,” a phrase he uses to summarize how America is different from (not necessarily better than) any other country. That said, Murray’s veneration of the four founding virtues and their role in the success of the American experiment over many generations – is clear. So too, is his fear of America ending its experiment with a government that allows people to define and pursue their own happiness, rather than defining it for them. That, in Murray's view, would result in the United States becoming unexceptional among nations.
The book is not for someone in search of a canned ideology or a casual read. Murray marshals much sociological data, and observations of 19th-century sociologists about how Americans used to be, in support of his conclusions and prognosis for whether the American Experiment can continue. Readers will need to focus to absorb it.
Murray’s thesis regarding the American educational system as a people-sorting mechanism that helps to self-perpetuate a new stratification of citizens into the current elite class, is cogent and fascinating. Add data showing that smart, well-educated kids come from smart, well-educated parents, and you have the rise of new American ruling families. They are a scant percentage of our total population. They lead us yet they have, in many ways, lost touch with us. Murray offers a somewhat amusing, yet thought-provoking quiz to help you understand how much you have in common with the elites who have isolated themselves, in many ways, from the other 98% of Americans.
Murray’s analysis of what has happened to working-class white America’s adherence to the four founding virtues from 1960-2010, is sobering. And, Murray sees the subtle abandonment of these principles among the new elite class as well; an abandonment of commitment if not yet in behavior.
The final chapter contains a critique of socialist (European-style) democracy that, while worded kindly, contains powerful insights as to why such a system, however well-meaning, would represent a serious blow to the United States’ status as a place that promotes the pursuit of happiness. Those who are just interested in getting an overview of Murray’s thought, might skip ahead to read this chapter.
The author brightens his prognosis for America by recalling the American tradition of rising to the difficult occasion. He awaits a new, secular “Great Awakening.” This makes me consider millennials, and their well-chronicled focus on serving others and seeking out meaningful lives. Perhaps America’s greatest hope to retain its exceptionalism – no, make that its distinctiveness among the nations – are the children and grandchildren of my generation who may find their meaning and call to service within the framework of the institutions of religion, family, vocation and fair play that the Founding Fathers had in mind. Some will find that formula trite; Murray might say that those people are making his point about abandonment of the four founding virtues, for him.
- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Crown Forum; Reprint edition (January 29, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 030745343X
- ISBN-13: 978-0307453433
- Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: 610 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#42,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #63 in Ethnic Demographic Studies
- #92 in Sociology of Class
- #1705 in United States History (Books)
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