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Rendezvous with Oblivion
Rendezvous with Oblivion: Reports from a Sinking Society | Thomas Frank
3 posts | 3 read | 3 to read
From the acclaimed author of Listen, Liberal and Whats the Matter with Kansas, a scathing collection of his incisive commentary on our cruel timesperfect for this political moment. What does a middle-class democracy look like when it comes apart? When, after forty years of economic triumph, Americas winners persuade themselves that they owe nothing to the rest of the country? With his sharp eye for detail, Thomas Frank takes us on a wide-ranging tour through present-day America, showing us a society in the late stages of disintegration and describing the worlds of both the winners and the losersthe sprawling mansion districts as well as the lives of fast-food workers. Rendezvous with Oblivion is a collection of interlocking essays examining how inequality has manifested itself in our cities, in our jobs, in the way we traveland of course in our politics, where in 2016, millions of anxious ordinary people rallied to the presidential campaign of a billionaire who meant them no good. These accounts of folly and exploitation are here brought together in a single volume unified by Franks distinctive voice, sardonic wit, and anti-orthodox perspective. They capture a society where every status signifier is hollow, where the allure of mobility is just another con game, and where rebellion too often yields nothing. For those who despair of the future of our country and of reason itself, Rendezvous with Oblivion is a booster shot of energy, reality, and moral outrage.
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Schwifty
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This is a series of essays Frank wrote during Obama‘s second term through Trump‘s first year in office. He explores such phenomena as the spread of McMansions, the treatment of Bernie Sanders in the media, Presidential libraries, the corporatization of the university, the death of the humanities and probably most importantly, why the Democrats ran a lousy campaign in 2016 and why millions of Americans believed Trump was the better option.

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catiewithac
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I highly recommend this book of essays. Most were previously published in The Baffler or The Guardian, but culled together and organized by topic they pack a real punch! 🥊 Frank takes aim at superfluous university bureaucrats, smug neoliberalism, & Trump. What‘s under fire 🔥 is anything just plain dumb. Frank is a Midwesterner at heart ❤️ and knows the economic despair wrought by inequality, corporate greed, trade deals, and bank deregulation.

Samplergal My library (red state) doesn‘t have it. Ugh. 6y
catiewithac @Samplergal request that your library buy it! I suggest purchases all the time. I‘m in Indiana and it doesn‘t get any redder than here 🤓 6y
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LizBurton
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Just posted a review of Thomas Frank's latest at Goodreads and my blog, Portable Soup. Recommended especially for his fans