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irenec 's review for:
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
When the Clock Broke is a wonderfully depressing book that shows how the social, economic, and political disillusionment and dislocation that produced right-wing populism in the 2010s US have roots and antecedents decades old.
"Breaking the clock" was a reactionary metaphor for halting human progress, and Ganz demonstrates that in effect progress did stop in the early '90s, when the social and political consequences of de-industrialization and backlash produced populist figures. In "American Maelstrom", Boston Globe reporter Michael Cohen's history of 1968, the conclusion is that "it has never stopped being" that year that set the West's contemporary ideological battle lines.
With When the Clock Broke, Ganz makes a strong case that it hasn't stopped being 1992, either. And he doesn't conclude this wry, observational book by urging us not to stop thinking about tomorrow, either..
"Breaking the clock" was a reactionary metaphor for halting human progress, and Ganz demonstrates that in effect progress did stop in the early '90s, when the social and political consequences of de-industrialization and backlash produced populist figures. In "American Maelstrom", Boston Globe reporter Michael Cohen's history of 1968, the conclusion is that "it has never stopped being" that year that set the West's contemporary ideological battle lines.
With When the Clock Broke, Ganz makes a strong case that it hasn't stopped being 1992, either. And he doesn't conclude this wry, observational book by urging us not to stop thinking about tomorrow, either..
Content Warnings
Minor: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Sexual harassment