Centuries from now, when the historians of the future identify our time as the great inflection point in human history—the moment when the pace of change began to accelerate dramatically in the inter-connected spheres of technology, politics, international relations, religion, health, the environment, and gender roles—they will say one forward-looking American intellectual understood exactly what was happening at the time, grasped its larger meaning, offered wise counsel for how to manage it, and encapsulated his insights in a short, timely, and eminently readable book. That scholar, they will say, was Darrell West, and that book was Megachange.—James Rosen, Fox News chief Washington correspondent

West's Megachange is an extraordinary study of a world in unpredictable flux, an exploration of every headline-catching change, and a bracing plea for understanding a future we still have a chance to control and build. Hooray for a book every policymaker should read, also every citizen concerned about tomorrow's peril and promise.—Marvin Kalb, a former network correspondent, is author of Imperial Gamble and senior adviser to the Pulitzer Center

This wide-ranging account identifies and analyzes today’s disorienting transformations with uncommon acuity. Its power lies not only in fascinating accounts of difficult and vexing instances, but in showing how the constellation of these diverse but reinforcing occurrences is generating fierce and profound uncertainty.—Ira Katznelson, Columbia University and the Social Science Research Council

Facing the age of megachange, the old order must learn to adapt—or suffer upheaval.

Today&;s shifts come fast and big—what Darrell West calls megachanges: dramatic disruptions in trends and policies that occur on a regular basis.

Domestically, we see megachange at work in the new attitudes toward same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization, Trumpism, and border security. Globally,
we have seen the extraordinary rise and then collapse of the Arab Spring, the growing influence of non-state actors, the spread of ISIS-fomented terrorism, the surprising Brexit vote, and the fracturing of once-stable
international alliances.

Long-held assumptions have been shattered, and the proliferation of unexpected events is confounding experts in the United States and around the
globe. Many of the social and political institutions that used to anchor domestic and international politics have grown weak or are in need of dramatic reform. Extremism in one part of the world can reverberate far
from the original source.

What to do? West says that we should alter our expectations about the speed and magnitude of political and social change. We also need to recognize that
many of our current governing processes are geared to slow deliberation and promote incremental change, not large-scale transformation. With megachange
becoming the new normal, our domestic and global institutions require updates so we can cope with the massive economic, political, and social tidal waves of change.