American Happiness and Discontents: The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020

by George F. Will

Examine the ways in which expertise, reason, and manners are continually under attack in our institutions, courts, political arenas, and social venues with this collection from the Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative columnist.
 
George F. Will has been one of this country’s leading columnists since 1974. He won the Pulitzer Prize for it in 1977. The Wall Street Journal once called him “perhaps the most powerful journalist in America.” In this new collection, he examines a remarkably unsettling thirteen years in our nation’s experience, from 2008 to 2020. Included are a number of columns about court cases, mostly from the Supreme Court, that illuminate why the composition of the federal judiciary has become such a contentious subject.
 
Other topics addressed include the American Revolutionary War, historical figures from Frederick Douglass to JFK, as well as a scathing assessment of how State of the Union Addresses are delivered in the modern day. Mr. Will also offers his perspective on American socialists, anti-capitalist conservatives, drug policy, the criminal justice system, climatology, the Coronavirus, the First Amendment, parenting, meritocracy and education, China, fascism, authoritarianism, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, and the morality of enjoying football. American Happiness and The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020  is a collection packed with wisdom and leavened by humor from one the preeminent columnists and intellectuals of our time.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, Economics, Current Affairs, Audiobook, Government

528 pages, Hardcover

Published September 14, 2021

About the author

George Frederick Will is an American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winner best known for his conservative commentary on politics. By the mid 1980s the Wall Street Journal reported he was "perhaps the most powerful journalist in America," in a league with Walter Lippmann (1899–1975).

Will served as an editor for National Review from 1972 to 1978. He joined the Washington Post Writers Group in 1974, writing a syndicated biweekly column, which became widely circulated among newspapers across the country and continues today. His column is syndicated to 450 newspapers. In 1976 he became a contributing editor for Newsweek, writing a biweekly backpage column until 2011.

Will won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for "distinguished commentary on a variety of topics" in 1977.[6] Often combining factual reporting with conservative commentary, Will's columns are known for their erudite vocabulary, allusions to political philosophers, and frequent references to baseball.

Will has also written two bestselling books on the game of baseball, three books on political philosophy, and has published eleven compilations of his columns for the Washington Post and Newsweek and of various book reviews and lectures.

Will was also a news analyst for ABC since the early 1980s and was a founding member on the panel of ABC's This Week with David Brinkley in 1981, now titled This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Will was also a regular panelist on television's Agronsky & Company from 1977 through 1984 and on NBC's Meet the Press in the mid-to-late 1970s. He left ABC to join Fox News in early October 2013.

Reviews

[Fred Forbes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm registered as an independent and tend to lean right on financial issues, left on social. But as the right becomes more shrill, more insulting, less truthful and and more misleading, I find myself leaning further left on most any of their policies and positions.

But, there are some conservatives worthy of consideration due to their thoughtful, respectful and intelligent writings and arguments and I am glad to give them some time. Their ranks include Sowell (currently 92), Krauthammer (passed 2021), Buckley (passed 2008) and George Will. So I fear the talented bearers of the conservative flag dwindle, at least those I considered worthy of attention, but if you wish to review the beliefs of the right without all the name calling, George is certain worth consideration - he might even change your mind on some things!

[Richard Propes · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's difficult to describe the experience of reading Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George F. Will's latest book "American Happiness and Discontents," a collection of reflections simultaneously precise, convicting, quite humorous, and remarkably pointed in their observations.

So profound is Will's presence in the journalistic world that you likely have formed an opinion about the libertarian-conservative journalist whether you've ever read his work or not. This collection of his essays is a reminder that Will is not easily pegged or labeled, his political and cultural insights often transcending the very labels he is projected to endorse often by those who really have no true understanding of what those labels mean.

"American Happiness and Discontents" was a slow read, at least for me, Will's words demanding full-on attention and focus and his essays so relentlessly thought-provoking that to immerse oneself in too many of them at one sitting is to truly miss the value of his words.

I laughed at times both because of what Will said and how Will said it. He seems to have a fondness for the word "ameliorate," a word that I'm exaggerating when I say it's in every other essay. At one point, I thought about going back to the beginning and counting each use and donating to charity for each time the word appears in the book.

I dare say a charity would be quite grateful for the final donation amount.

However, I can't deny that "American Happiness and Discontents" gave me a healthy new respect for George F. Will precisely because he avoids easy opinions and easy conversations in favor of true analysis and a fearless willingness to confront cultural icons and beloved voices. It would be nearly impossible to disagree with Will on everything he writes in "American Happiness and Discontents," a fact with which I'd imagine Will is comfortable yet I'd also imagine he'd be completely comfortable challenging you on your disagreement.

There were, of course, essays that didn't particularly hold my attention. This wasn't so much because they were flawed as they were simply outside my own social lens. Other times, intriguing essays felt a tad brief but, well, isn't that always true of essays or columns?

George F. Will has a masterful way of saying a whole lot in very few words. He is clear. He is concise. He is incredibly intelligent and he is surprisingly funny. I'd dare to say that prior to reading "American Happiness and Discontents" it had never occurred to me that I'd likely enjoy sitting down over a beer with Will and watching a baseball game.

I don't even like baseball.

While Will is primarily known as a political columnist, it takes only barebones fact-finding to realize he's also written popular books on baseball and he's well versed in a variety of areas impacting daily life. "American Happiness and Discontents" includes quite a few columns centered around mostly Supreme Court cases while also exploring the American Revolutionary War, a variety of historical figures, a scathing and darkly funny assessment on State of the Union addresses, American socialists, anti-capitalist conservatives, drug policy, the criminal justice system, Coronavirus, the First Amendment, parenting, meritocracy and education, China, fascism, authoritarianism, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, and the morality of enjoying football.

"American Happiness and Discontents" is intelligent, a minimal standard for Will, and it is also engaging, thoughtful, entertaining, and, again I say, surprisingly funny. Will had only been a columnist for three years when he won the Pulitzer Prize, an award to be followed by numerous other awards and an award he followed by becoming one of America's most recognized and respected columnists and intellectuals.

"American Happiness and Discontents" is a reminder of just how much one man's voice matters and that man's voice in this case is George F. Will. .

[Angie Boyter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do not hesitate to read this wonderful collection of Will's columns from the past 12 years just because you do not align yourself with him politically!
The columns cover a tremendous array of subjects, from historical events like the Somme's importance in WW I to sports (or course!) to Bob Dylan and the Nobel Prize to the NEA to denim to the James Webb Space Telescope and more. What they all have in common is fine articulate writing and an intelligent expression of Will's opinion, so I can understand it even when I don't agree with it. His knowledge of history about EVERYTHING is especially impressive. Perhaps the best column, in my opinion, was In Praise of Binge Reading, which beautifully expresses the downside of our digital information overload.
One warning though: I got this book from the library, and I think that was not a good strategy. Books of individual columns like this are best for me when I can dip into them a few at a time, which I was not able to do when there is a long waiting list for the title! Go ahead and spend the money. I think you will not regret it.

[Paul Sand · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Imported automatically from my blog. Some formatting there may not have translated here.]

A collection of short pieces by the incomparable, indispensable George F. Will, mainly his syndicated column. It's big, slightly under 500 pages, which means there are a lot of those pieces, and they cover a lot of disparate topics. You don't want to overdose; I spread out my reading over the three weeks allowed by the folks at the Portsmouth Public Library. (Yes, they're ultrawoke, it's Portsmouth after all, but they do a pretty good job of buying books by conservative/libertarian authors.)

I thought the best way to "review" the book would be to provide a sampling of paragraphs here and there that made me smile/nod/wince. Limiting myself to a "fair use" ten.

Here's something I didn't know about a famous photograph:

Eddie Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Saigon’s police chief shooting a Viet Cong in the head during the 1968 Tet Offensive seemed to validate some Americans’ sympathies for enemy. Hastings casts a cold eye, noting that the Viet Cong was in civilian clothes and had just cut the throats of a South Vietnamese officer, his wife, their six children and the officer’s 80 year-old mother.

On President Trump:

This unraveling presidency began with the Crybaby-in-Chief banging his spoon on his highchair tray to protest a photograph — a photograph — showing that his inauguration crowd the day before had been smaller than the one four years previous. Since then, this weak person’s idea of a strong person, this chest-pounding advertisement of his own gnawing insecurities, this low-rent Lear raging on his Twitter-heath has proven that the phrase malignant buffoon is not an oxymoron.

On a court case that sought to stop the Greece, NY Board of Supervisors from opening their meetings with a prayer:

Taking offense has become America’s national pastime; being theatrically offended supposedly signifies the exquisitely refined moral delicacy of people who feel entitled to pass through life without encountering ideas or practices that annoy them. As the number of nonbelievers grows — about 20 percent of Americans are religiously unaffiliated, as are one-third of adults under the age of 30 — so does the itch to litigate believers into submission to secular sensibilities.

Physics 101, and the prospects for nuclear fusion:

As in today’s coal-fired power plants, the ultimate object is heat — to turn water into steam that drives generators. Fusion, however, produces no greenhouse gases, no long-lived nuclear waste and no risk of the sort of runaway reaction that occurred at Fukushima. Fusion research here and elsewhere is supported by nations with half the world’s population — China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the European Union. The current domestic spending pace would cost $2.5 billion over 10 years — about one-thirtieth of what may be squandered in California on a 19th-century technology (a train). By one estimate, to bring about a working fusion reactor in 20 years would cost $30 billion — approximately the cost of one week of U.S. energy consumption.

Mr. Will and I are both fans of Virginia Postrel:

America now is divided between those who find this social churning unnerving and those who find it exhilarating. What Virginia Postrel postulated in 1998 in The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise and Progress - the best book for rescuing the country from a ruinous itch for tidiness - is even more true now. Today's primary political and cultural conflict is, Postrel says, between people, mislabeled "progressives," who crave social stasis, and those, paradoxically called conservatives, who welcome the perpetual churning of society by dynamism.

On free-range parenting:

Today's saturating media tug children beyond childhood prematurely, but not to maturity. Children are cosseted by intensive parenting that encourages passivity and dependency, and stunts their abilities to improvise, adapt and weigh risks. Mark Hemingway, writing at The Federalist, asks: "You know what it's called when kids make mistakes without adult supervision and have to wrestle with the resulting consequences? Growing up."

On the very large target of current insanities at institutions of higher education:

As "bias-response teams" fanned out across campuses, an incident report was filed about a University of Northern Colorado student who wrote "free speech matters" on one of 680 "#languagematters" posters that cautioned against politically incorrect speech. Catholic DePaul University denounced as "bigotry" a poster proclaiming "Unborn Lives Matter." Bowdoin College provided counseling to students traumatized by the cultural appropriation committed by a sombrero-and-tequila party. Oberlin College students said they were suffering breakdowns because schoolwork was interfering with their political activism. Cal State University, Los Angeles established "healing" spaces for students to cope with the pain caused by a political speech delivered three months earlier. Indiana University experienced social-media panic ("Please PLEASE PLEASE be careful out there tonight") because a priest in a white robe, with a rope-like belt and rosary beads was identified as someone "in a KKK outfit holding a whip."

On the silver lining in the rage for "sustainability":

There is a social benefit from the sustainability mania: the further marginalization of academia. It prevents colleges and universities from trading on what they are rapidly forfeiting, their reputations for seriousness.

On abortion:

A New York Times editorial (Dec. 28, 2018) opposing the idea that “a fetus in the womb has the same rights as a fully formed person” spoke of these living fetuses — that they are living is an elementary biological fact, not an abstruse theological deduction — as “clusters of cells that have not yet developed into viable human beings.” Now, delete the obfuscating and constitutionally irrelevant adjective “viable,” and look at a sonogram of a ten-week fetus. Note the eyes and lips, the moving fingers and, yes, the beating heart. Is this most suitably described as a “cluster of cells” or as a baby? The cluster-of-cells contingent resembles Chico Marx in the movie “Duck Soup”: “Who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”

On a lighter note, the Beach Boys:

Boomers must be served, so Mick Jagger, who long ago said, “I’d rather be dead than sing ‘Satisfaction’ when I’m 45,” is singing it at 68. In 1966, the 31-year-old Elvis Presley asked the Beach Boys for advice about touring; he has been dead for nearly 35 years, but they play on, all of them approaching or past 70, singing “When I Grow Up (to Be a Man)” without a trace of irony. Southern California in their formative years was not zoned for irony.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before conservative opinion makers took up the model of the shock jock and sank to the level of noise makers with only an occasional reference to facts; there were serious thinking wordsmiths like William F Buckly and, when he wants to be George F. Will. We have literally millions of reasons to regret the preference for the shouters over the better mannered and more grounded representation available from the author.

George F. Will is a highly credential journalist. However, is he not writing as a journalist but as a very respected, long-time editorial columnist, also known as opinion pieces. In this role he has no duty to report fairly or evenly. These are his opinions and they need only reflect how he came to them or why he feels them justifiable. Unfortunately, in this collection, there is a huge amount of the same thing, down to the same quotes and the same factoids and so little evenness in case-building that much of it reads as propaganda.

Given how often I agreed with particular points, it was disappointing often I questioned to what exactly I was agreeing. Where we disagreed, it was disappointing how easily it was to note the shortcoming of his deliberately one-sided essays.

A point for point response would take near as long (over 500 pages) as the collection. Again, I frequently agreed with him.

Starting with a middle section 7, Particular Goings-On in the Groves of Academy. As a long-time free speech advocate, I too am alarmed with an on-campus trend to self-censor and overly protect the most sensitive. The college campus should be a safe space for loud and frequent disagreements over everything from election politics to the patrimony to cultural appropriation. All should be doable without creating “safe spaces”, for the overly delicate or referral to comfort animals. (more on them later). Off campus, these topics will arise without any social cushions and whatever your beliefs, either you have to tools to hold your own, learn from those with whom you otherwise disagree, and otherwise act like an adult or the university has contributed to you as a future failed citizen.

In his 50 pages on this topic there are too many columns that duplicate previous columns. Often down to the same quotes. Further Mr. Will fails to address two very important points, driving and in part justifying trends.

Most importantly, the free market of ideas, which is what a college campus should prefer to self-censorship has been systematically, deliberately and with malice been poisoned. Rumor, lies and hate inspired speech is so plentiful and so aggressively mean spirited that there is a desperate need for gate keeping. The role of the university as campus gate keeper in the otherwise free market of ideas, has existed in various forms forever. Colleges have a long tradition of placing controls on what is and is not allowed on campus. Much of this was tied to the fact that originally colleges were religious institutions, and that later they advertised themselves as being reliable adult supervisors.

The other new thing that seems to escape Mr. Will is that capitalism, something Mr. Will seems to love without admitting to any kind of limitation, is critical to university decision-making. Customer acquisition cost is a major expense. Customers on campus are called students. A student, once admitted is a customer, customer loyalty is a matter of playing to customer satisfaction and giving up on older, traditional disinterest in what makes a happy student. There is little history of customer satisfaction as applied to students, so there will be some wild swings as the education industry dials in.

In one, or is it three columns(?) he bemoans the loss of some degree programs in favor of some degrees he hates. He would have you think it is a matter of in which direction to turn the hose of otherwise unlimited university funding. The capitalistic measure of profit and loss centers are suddenly unknown. Either a department can produce sufficient throughput to justify its existence or it has to go. A department that is a cost center, rather than a profit center is on the always threatening chopping block.

In one particularly interesting case, Mr. Will reports on a very junior university administrative staff member fired, without process for what was a manifestly and unreasonable complaint. Mr. Will’s appeal to process is interesting. Process is something one gets from government. Something Mr. Will prefers to hate, or where provided by union contracts. Maybe what Mr. Will meant to say was, if this person had had Union protection the complaints would never have gained traction. Throughout this collection one can be sure to know what Mr. Will hates but not so much what he advocates.

On the subject of comfort animals; Mr. Wills missed a lovely opportunity. Having hypothesized a comfort snake being allowed the freedom of commercial air travel, and having reported actual sightings of more than one comfort duck waddling freely in the aisles- Can we savor the clown car of lawyers and plethora of law suits should the comfort snake consume the comfort duck before the eyes of a suddenly discomforted and emotionally distressed child? The wife just sent me an ad for people to train comfort cows. Use your imagination.

Given another several pages, we should investigate how, if or why Mr. Will likes inter-genrational transfer of poverty . His quaint hated Prius owners, a lot of people did, only now the market is flush with Teslas, and more e vehicles on the way. Strange that he hates jeans wearers and others making free market choices. He may be right about head trauma and football, but he forgets that football has a long history of creating disabilities and death. Then again, he seems to hate team sports under the notion that team sports create or serves or directly links to big government. No, I do not get that one either. Time has not served him well in hating human caused global warming. He case is 1, climate always changes, long ago addressed as incomplete, and 2 a strange notion that only and always good trends continue indefinitely. Though he seems right to predict that effective corrections in human behavior is a hard goal to imagine.

As for the title of the book, Mr. Wills is very long on his discontents, and only in the last pages is there something almost like happiness. Not exactly happiness, these are columns written to honor such of the departed that he admired. Even here he has to include snide asides. He is fond of filling spaces with barely related factoids. Frequently listing who came from the same city or schools. They seem to have been jammed-in, under in the apparent belief that someone he liked out did the less George Will approved geographic neighbors.

I clearly have my discontents with Mr. Wills book. My bottom line is that he has for decades proved that conservative thinking, need not be based on the notion that being ugly is proof of sincerity. However uneven is his attitude towards science, the word is too often in quotes, anyone seeking to challenge him, or more recently sue him on facts had better come fully loaded. Mr. Wills opinions are drawn from more than his desire to toss red meat to the mob.

[Ronald J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of George Will’s columns, which he began writing in 1973, for the past 50 years, totaling 6,000 or so. Will reminds us that we need to pay more attention to ideas rather than presidents who come and go. The book divides a selection of his 750 word columns into 12 sections, all written between 2008 to 2020. He starts with history, where the entry on Prohibition—a book review—is excellent, along with another on Coolidge, who made a virtue of inaction and said, “It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.” The joke told about Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge is hilarious. Afterwards, Politics and Policies; Justice (a lot on Supreme Court rulings); Science (as is said, “a physicist is an atom’s way of knowing about atoms”); Thinking Economically (lots of good book reviews here); The Culture War (1619 Project, Will quotes, ‘Who controls the past controls the future: Who controls the present controls the past,’ and adds, “Has this, the slogan of the party governing Oceania in George Orwell’s 1984, supplanted ‘All the news that’s fit to print’ as the Times’s credo?”; Academe and universities, where Will tackles free speech, inappropriate speech, microagressions, the supposed “rape culture/epidemic,” the constant repetition of diversity, in everything but thought, discrimination in admissions, especially against Asian-Americans, and the spinelessness of college presidents and administrators; Matters of Life and Death (abortion, euthanasia, Down Syndrome babies, which Will knows something about, as his son, Jon Will, was born 40 years from May 4, 1972, and there’s a lovely entry on him); Darkness Remembered (the Holocaust, “…the museum inflicts an assaultive, excruciating knowing: Nothing—nothing—is unthinkable, and political institutions by themselves provide no permanent safety from barbarism, which permanently lurks beneath civilization’s thin, brittle crust.” Hitler began tentatively, with small measures, German proverb: Wehret den Anfangen—beware the beginnings; Complaints and Appreciations (Will dislikes denim); Games (football and baseball, mostly); and finally, Farewells, Mostly Fond [except Castro], remembrances of people who have passed.

This is an incredible collection of well-crafted, beautifully written pieces. Will is masterful in conveying mesmerizing information in 750 words. I’ve always been a fan of Will’s writings, whether or not I agree with him. You may not agree with everything in this work, but you will be delighted in learning from a learned, and engaging, writer in every single column.

[Richard Marney · Rating 4 out of 5]

To start, I have read George Will’s columns since university days and, whilst I am decidedly on the other side of the “ideological aisle”, and still can’t restrain myself from chuckling and shaking my head in bemusement when considering his (alleged) comment equating public transport and socialism, I admire his intellect, wit and substantial contribution to the national debate in America.

This collection of essays on American history, law, politics, and culture will not entertain all readers from start to finish. However, along the way most will find some chapters to help relive moments from their own history or at least to understand better the pages from others’ experiences. I skimmed some parts and delved deeply (even rereading) others.

I will pick this book up again.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Will presents a large selection of his reflections over the past decade. He covers a wide array of topics from fascism to football, from court decisions to cultural trends. You may not agree with all, or any, of Will's conclusions, but there is one thing that is not debatable. Will is a consummate wordsmith whose trenchant and pellucid style makes him a grandmaster of the American essay.

[Joanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am that rare liberal who generally likes George Will because much of his writing is so good. This book, however, was excruciating to get through. First, it's not so much of a book as it is a compilation of Will's old column's. Second, it's not even a compilation of his best work. I got through ONLY because I am not a quitter, but if I did not already know that I like George Will's work, if this had been my first exposure to him, I probably would never read anything else he wrote again. Can you tell I really did not like this "book"?

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I do not share George Will's political views (probably because he was born into the intellectual upper crust and I had to fight my way to its lower rungs) there is much about him that I like. We both agree that baseball is wonderful, football barbaric, college sports a total waste and Donald Trump almost indescribably reprehensible. So when I heard Will say in a radio interview that he wrote this book to confront the fever in America that causes some citizens to rate their pleasure by the misery of the other side it sounded both helpful to the country and exactly the kind of book I would want to read.

I can't remember the last time I was more disappointed by a book.

First of all, he didn't write the book at all. He edited it, as it is nothing more than a collection of columns he composed between 2008 and 2020. Second, though the title promises to deal with happiness and discontent, he seldom touches on either element and then only briefly. Worst of all, many of the columns are cheap shots from one side (his conservative view that seems to think we all get what we deserve just because he has what he wants and that is certain government can only do harm) against anyone on the other side that might think the world would be better off if Jeff Bezos and the Walton spawn were forced to share some of their billions with their workers or the society at large.

Perhaps worst of all, though he often attacks Trump and the way he has diminished and divided our land, he seems oblivious to the way many of the columns he wrote here sniping (and often taking cheap shots) at his much-maligned and often stereotyped "Progressives" coupled with his continued distain for government helped pave the way for Trump's victory. His work from 2008 to 2016 presents Washington as the swamp Trump then promised (falsely, like everything else) to drain. I kept waiting for the column where he confessed his error, but it never came.

If Will ever writes the book he promised in the interview and title, it might be worth reading and a valuable step toward national sanity.. But this is a rip off.

[John Munro · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Will has been commenting on the American political scene since 1973, and whether or not you endorse his conservative views, his command of the English language and ability to dissect an issue justifies the time spent, even if you need to check the dictionary in the process.
This book is a selection of his columns since the ‘W’ administration during the designated period , arranged by topic – twelve of them – ranging from Supreme Court decisions to science to obituaries of various notables in American culture. This has the advantage of allowing the reader to skip through a topic without missing out on chronologically-dependent material.
One of the problems with the arrangement of material by topic is that some columns are a repetition of others, in the sense that portions of the text are virtual duplicates of their predecessor. As this is a rare occurrence , it is a minor quibble.
Most of his columns examine subjects that have conflicted the nation, some since the founding, such as the role of government in our lives and its inexorable increase since then. However, the book also includes number of topics of less serious import, such as baseball, football team naming, music and the PC college campus. Will has not confined his commentary style to the sober analysis of the topic at hand; he has included columns on what many writers would call easy targets, those that can amuse the reader and still make a cogent point. His disdain for the actions of students and faculty on free speech and student diversity often take a humorous angle, trusting that the reader doesn’t need his analysis to see the absurdities in institutions that are supposedly educating the next generation of government and business leaders.
His most entertaining commentaries in this category include an essay on the Oregon’s transition to self-serve gas stations (hilarious) , and the Plague of Denim in our fashion choices ( can you imagine George Will in jeans?). His selection of topics does not include much commentary on the Presidents of the era. A notable exception is a description he penned of Trump, and for spoiler avoidance, I suggest that you look for the phrase ending in ”oxymoron” in the few mentions of the former president.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A recent Goodreads review I posted lamented the absence of intellect in the modern conservative movement. A short-sighted error on my part, as Will continues to provide insightful conservative commentary, as shown in this book.

Will defines conservatism as a belief in "limited government, balanced budgets, free trade, curbs in executive power, entitlement reform, [and] collective security." To this end, he demonstrates the convergence between democratic socialism and "right-wing anticapitalism" even if the two sides engage in "molten denunciations" of one another. Examples cited of the right's slide to authoritarianism include Fox News host Tucker Carlson (who believes the biggest threat to live your life as you choose is the private sector), Josh Hawley (who has a perverse definition of individualism and decries "market worship"), Marco Rubio (who speaks in platitudes about a loss of "dignified work" and wealth bypassing those responsible for "real production"), and obviously former President Trump (the "Crybaby-in-Chief"). Of particular note is his column American Socialists: Half Right, pointing out Trump's socialist proclivities.

Despite these criticisms of the right, Will saves his sharpest rebukes for progressivism, which seems well-earned by the indication of his columns. Left-wing pursuits highlighted are absurd (Oregon's ban on self-service filling stations), ridiculous (a college proclaiming someone guilty of racial harassment for the crime of reading an anti-KKK book because the Klan were displayed on the book's cover) and pure evil (punishing a Colorado State University Pueblo student for rape even though the "victim" has repeatedly stated her intimate encounters with the accused were consensual). It will be hard to come away from reading Will's section on higher education and feel hopeful for future college students. Also of note are Will's columns condemning abortion-on-demand, as he provides some eye-opening numbers on abortions done to eliminate Down syndrome children (I state this as a moderate on the abortion issue).

Many commentators have noted Will's turn towards libertarianism, and there are definitely libertarian-sympathetic columns in this collection. His support for natural rights puts him at odds with conservative legal thinkers, and not too many folks on the right will mention how punitive the justice system can be towards African-Americans. However, while highlighting the failures of the drug war, he is not quite able to come out in favor of drug legalization, as he believes addiction levels will increase, creating a "public health disaster." This runs counter to a study done by Jeffrey Miron, who believes drug use would only go up slightly (with an astronomical decrease in homicides). Another study by Glenn Greenwald looked at the impact of decriminalization in Portugal. While not full-blown legalization, "drug‐​related pathologies — such as sexually transmitted diseases and deaths due to drug usage — have decreased dramatically."

The book also contains book reviews (sparking my interest in books by Michael Strain, Amity Shlaes, and Max Hastings) and an ode to binge reading. Certain readers might not be so happy with Will's distaste for football, combat sports, and blue jeans.

Definitely recommended (despite my love for boxing and Friday participation of blue-jean day at work).

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️ finished: 11/26/21
⭐️ rating: 8/10
⭐️ takeaway: in collection of columns spanning thirteen turbulent years of American life, the author comments on cultural, intellectual, and political trends, as well as how these influence our shared understanding of history. within each section (i.e. political and constitutional analysis, science, economics, academia, culture wars, etc.) the approximately 750-word columns flow easily from one to the next, with sometimes significant repetition of content that, far from slowing down the reading experience, demonstrates his evolutionary thinking on a particular subject. my favorite sections were those on higher education and culture wars, in which he traces the “coarsening” of American culture and the dissolution of civil discourse to the (perceived) decline of our foremost intellectual institutions. regardless of politics, his style is both engaging and demanding, and reflects his belief that great writing (and thinking) is the key to making meaning in our world.

[Robert Federline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came upon this book by accident. I needed something quickly, and this was available. The title sounded interesting and the author was not a total unknown.

That said, the book was surprisingly interesting, and well-written. George Will is generally regarded as a conservative, but the essays/former articles in this book are noteworthy because they criticize conservatives just as much as they do liberals. More fascinating still, however, is the perspective of now being able to look back on these articles, written about current events, but which are now descriptive of history. Seeing how often (and it is not universal) the predictions were right or wrong in light of how the events actually unfolded.

I would recommend this to anyone who is convinced of the rightness and soundness of their own positions on virtually any political issue, because it can be humbling and enlightening to view even this recent history from the perspective of only a few years.

[Mark Lawry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate to say it as a huge George Will fan, but this could have been a lot better. I was expecting a serious book on the topic in question. He is a giant of intellect and a Pulitzer Prize winning writer. When the book was released I watched an interview where he explained the main point. The idea was to trace how populism has taken over the parties. This is not a book about that, but a collection of short essays over the years. Perhaps the reader is supposed to tie together all the essays and come up with a main theme and I missed it. The essays were all fine in their own right. Reading him reminds me of why I was a Republican before Trump took over the party. That being said, I would have preferred a solid single book that was what he described in his interview.

[Richard Moneymaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a really great roundup of selected columns published from 2008-2020. Will is the most reasonable, erudite, concise and intelligent American conservative writer alive. He really has no peers in this realm. It's easy to read since each column is no more that 1000 words. There is a bit of the "You kids get off my lawn!" to it but that's to be expected from a guy his age. So much has changed in his world, he clearly is not in favor of many of the things that have come to pass. Though I strongly disagree with some of his positions, I sincerely enjoy reading his work and feel I gain quite a bit of insight from the stances he takes and the reasoning behind his positions. There is really no one in the current "conservative" media who is his equal. I'll sure miss him when he's gone

[Garrett Brock · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you slept through the last decade and want a card-carrying conservative to tell you all about it, this is the book for you. "Old Man Yells At Cloud" is the perfect bed-time reader, to unwind with an article about nightmare abortion clinics, dead celebrities, or other domestic atrocities, right before you sleep. The topics addressed in this book are so diverse, few people could find every one of them genuinely interesting. Credit given when due, George F. Will is more thoughtful than his curmudgeon cousins in non-legacy media, you can almost see yourself in the reflection of his articles.

[Jimmy Osterhout · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not spent a lot of time with George Will. Mostly because my politics do not necessarily align with his. That said I appreciate his common sense approach to most subjects. In many respects I found myself agreeing with his points on law. I truly appreciated the way he approached the topic of culture and cultural appropriation. As someone who is half-Chinese, I believe that the more we rescind the invite for others to dabble and even laugh or poke fun at expense of our differences, we push others further and further away from understanding.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book as I have never previously read any of George Will's columns or knew his approach on social and political issues. This book covers a range of topics from socialism, baseball, climate, COVID-19 to the American revolutionary way. In summary, it covers many important topics throughout America's history up to the current issues still happening today.Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

[Steve Hostert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was quite interesting collection of columns by George Will covering the 2008 thru 2020 and covers a wide variety of topics on the Supreme Court, politics, college campus affairs just to name a few.

George Will is one of the most talented and thoughtful authors I have read and look forward to reading more of his books.

Almost forgot to mention baseball topic which is of great interest to me.

[David Hymas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m a fan of George Will. Even when I disagree with him, which is often, I respect his principled stances and learn from his intellect. Unfortunately this book is nothing more than literally a reprinting of his columns. The only new thing is that they are organized by subject matter, which helps I suppose. But overall printing endless columns of about a 1000 words doesn’t work to fill17 hours of an audiobook. Disappointing.

[John Deardurff · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Will is not for everyone as his writing can be dense, but his ideas are not... even if they are a bit more libertarian than my own. This is a collection of 750-word essays on a variety of topics written between 2008 to 2020 that covers a wide range of topics. American History, Conservative Policies, The Supreme Court, Science, Religion, and even Book, Music, & Movie reviews.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just brief bios

This is just a book of brief bios you could get on Wikipedia. If you look at the chapter heads you will find that out. I read a few bios before making my assessment. William Buckley and Goldwater caused me to dig deeper into research. Watched the Baldwin Vs. Buckley debate and begin a video on Goldwater.

[Tre Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read especially if you don't, like myself, agree with many of his ideas. G. Will' s thoughtful and intelligent articles, about such diverse topics from The American Revolution to the Super Bowl, challenge the reader to challenge their own ideas. Isn't this the point of all honest scholarship?

[John Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

a must-read for students and lovers of the English as written in the United States of America

A collection of Will’s observations and comments on a host of topics, collated by broad category. Will draws on his own observation and the writing of others to enlighten and challenge the reader.

[Dale S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miss William Buckley and hear little today of George Will. However, lot's of memories when you read George Will and William Buckley. George thank you for being the voice rational and alternative thinking. George Will packed this book with wisdom and leavened by humor from one the preeminent columnists and intellectuals of our time.

[Chrisanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neutral. If I were Will, I would carefully edit most of these pieces out. I was an adult for most of this and only one out of every 4 really jogged my current events memory. That quarter of the book was quite thought-provoking, though.

[Pete Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know many these days who are able to skillfully write with the wisdom and wit that Will does. This is a collection of essays over a variety of topics which, whether you are interested in them or not, you will enjoy Will's ability with the written word.

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 / 5.0

Love George Will's thoughtful writing even when I disagree with him. Brings founded thought historical context to everything he scribes.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful compilation. So much history and erudition.