[Jason Vines]

For the past couple weeks, The Age of Abundance by Brink Lindsey, the Vice President for Research at Cato Institute, has captivated me. The book, which rolled off the presses a few months ago, offers a brilliant interpretation of America's political evolution over the past century:

The country's achievement of mass affluence--which 99% of humanity throughout history never experienced, and which still eludes much of the planet--allowed Americans to think about not just preservation of life, but quality of life. Mere subsistence gave way to self-realization as Americans' primary goal. This freedom led much of the first generation to grow up under mass affluence, the Baby Boomers, to question all of the constraints and traditions that would bind them, even the capitalist ones that enabled mass affluence in the first place. The resulting hippie movement provoked fierce reactions in Americans who still clung to old-fashioned values, sparking the evangelical uprising of the past 30 years, which goes too far in the other direction by pushing antiquated social mores.

As the dust settles from the clashes of these ideological camps, the majority of Americans have become broadly libertarian, embracing the capitalist ideas that brought mass affluence to the United States (while still, because of economic illiteracy, supporting Social Security, universal health coverage schemes, and other market "corrections") and accepting the diversity of behavior and expression that mass affluence makes possible.

(Brink Lindsey discusses The Age of Abundance in this video.)

Many political science texts are dry, but Lindsey's poetic style makes The Age of Abundance fun while avoiding the realm of "infotainment."

The only qualm I have with the book is, after masterfully describing how the modern libertarian synthesis arose, it spends too little time exploring how that synthesis functions today. But I guess that could be the subject of another book in itself.

Edit: Brink Lindsey discusses The Age of Abundance with Daily Show host Jon Stewart.

This post has been edited by Jason Vines: 16 August 2007 - 09:03 PM
Reason for edit: Added Brink Lindsey Daily Show video.

[Merlinus Ambrosius]

Sounds interesting. I'll have to put it on my read list for winter break.