Enjoy an exclusive excerpt and review from the forthcoming Claremont Review of Books! EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK The new issue of the Claremont Review of Books is due out soon, but we didn't want to delay in sharing this exclusive sneak peek of Christopher Caldwell's gripping new book, The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties. We hope the following excerpt and accompanying review by Helen Andrews, both of which appear in the forthcoming issue, will entice you to add this important new book to your library. Not a subscriber of the Claremont Review of Books? For just $19.95 per year gain access to more great book reviews and thought-provoking essays about the most important questions of our time. The Price of the 1980s An exclusive excerpt from The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties By: Christopher Caldwell  "What was the countercultural culture that lasted for a decade or two after the 1960s? To those who rallied behind it, it was a progressive reworking of old values, a drawing out of new possibilities. To those who lamented it, it was a mere looting of the old culture, a decadence, a spending down. In theory it could have been both at the same time. But by the 1970s, Americans were reaching a verdict. They were drifting away from the idea that the country was in the middle of a renaissance and beginning to worry that it was going down the tubes. This was not just a reaction to a slowing economy. Certainly, in an economy hemmed in by strong trade unions, new environmental regulation, and newly expensive oil and gasoline, it seemed impossible to create jobs. In December 1974 alone, the country lost 600,000 of them. But Americans were concerned more about the culture than the conjuncture. American automobiles had once been a symbol of the country’s world-bestriding economy. Now their shoddiness was astonishing, embarrassing, no matter how obstreperously auto workers demanded to be compensated as the “best workers in the world.” In 1977, Plymouth brought out a new “T-Bar coupe” called the Volare. “To the new generation of Americans who have never known the driving pleasure of wind through the hair,” the ads ran, “we proudly dedicate our new T-Bar Volare Coupe.” It was a way for Chrysler to avoid saying that it had lost the capacity to build convertibles at an affordable price. Starting in 1978, General Motors began producing station wagons—such as the Buick Century and the Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser—in which the rear windows didn’t roll down. Magazine ads for Ford and Cadillac depicted their new models against a dim backdrop of historic ones, as if to console themselves that, if their products were third-rate, they had at least once made better ones..." Read More The Law That Ate the Constitution A review of The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties By: Helen Andrews During a democratic town hall event hosted by the Human Rights Campaign and CNN on October 10, 2019, then-candidate Beto O’Rourke proposed revoking the tax-exempt status of churches and religious organizations that oppose gay marriage. “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break,” he intoned, “for anyone, or any institution, any organization in America, that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us.” O’Rourke’s abuse of the term “civil rights”—his pandering attempt to borrow the moral grandeur of 1964 in order to abrogate the First Amendment—is no longer an anomaly. On the contrary, as Christopher Caldwell so ably shows in The Age of Entitlement, his remark is a perfect example of what civil rights has come to mean. One of the most astute observers of contemporary politics, Caldwell argues that the United States now has two constitutions. The first is the one on the books. The second arose in the 1960s and replaced the old liberties with new, incompatible ones based on group identities. “Much of what we have called ‘polarization’ or ‘incivility’ in recent years is something more grave,” he writes. “[I]t is the disagreement over which of the two constitutions shall prevail.” More bracing still, he puts the blame for this crisis on the most sacred totem in American politics: our civil rights legislation..." Read More Meet the author! Join us in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, February 26 as Claremont president Ryan Williams and senior fellow Michael Anton interview author Christopher Caldwell about the book! "The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties" A discussion with Christopher Caldwell Wednesday, February 26 6:30 PM University Club Washington, DC RSVP About___Magazine___Fellowships___CCJ___Events___Donate The mission of the Claremont Institute is to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life. ‌ ‌ ‌ The Claremont Institute | 1317 W Foothill Blvd #120, Upland, CA 91786 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | About Constant Contact Sent by [email protected] in collaboration with Try email marketing for free today!