«The Unwinding»

I started to read The Unwinding by New Yorker writer George Packer, but found myself less than thrilled with the anecdotal/episodic structure. It purports to tell the story of the gradual displacement of the elements of our society that gave it cohesion, once that unity born of the New Deal and World War II had run its course, but there is no unifying analysis or insightful commentary. Similar themes are treated much better in Gar Alperovitz's What Then Must We Do? and Richard D. Wolff's Making Democracy Work: The Cure for Capitalism, both recently appearing.