What do you think?
Rate this book
The Age of Grievance
From bestselling author and longtime New York Times columnist Frank Bruni comes a lucid, powerful examination of the ways in which grievance has come to define our current culture and politics, on both the right and left.
The twists and turns of American politics today have become nearly impossible to predict, but the tone is a troubling given. It’s one of grievance. A perilous share of Americans across the full breadth of the political spectrum respond to every big disappointment, every little frustration, every way in which the world doesn’t hew precisely to their liking by deciding that they’ve been wronged, identifying the people responsible for that and raging at the injustice of it all. The blame game is the country’s most popular sport and victimhood its most fashionable garb.
Grievance isn’t always and necessarily bad. It has often done enormous good. The United States is a nation born of grievance, in the revolt of royal subjects unwilling to accept a bad deal, and across the nearly 250 years of our existence as a country, grievance has been the engine of morally urgent change. But what happens when all sorts of grievances—the greater ones, the lesser ones, the authentic, the invented—are jumbled together? When grievances become all-encompassing lenses, all-purpose reflexes, default settings? When people take their grievances to extreme and even violent lengths that they didn’t before?
A violent mob storms the US Capitol, rejecting the results of a presidential election and embracing the fiction that it was rigged. Conspiracy theories flourish. Politicians appeal not to our better angels but to our worst impulses, encouraging selfishness instead of selflessness, trading inspiration for retribution. Fox News, the country’s most watched cable news network, and Tucker Carlson, its sneering star, knowingly peddle lies in the service of profit. The Supreme Court loses touch with the country, overturning Roe v. Wade and shrugging off Clarence Thomas’s transgressions. College students chase away speakers and college administrators dismiss instructors for dissenting from progressive orthodoxy. Will Smith slaps Chris Rock. And there’s a potentially devastating erosion of the civility, common ground and compromise necessary for our democracy to survive.
How did we get here? What does it say about us, and where does it leave us? Timely, important, and enlightening, The Age of Grievance examines these critical questions and charts a path forward for a nation that may be growing tired of outrage.
The twists and turns of American politics today have become nearly impossible to predict, but the tone is a troubling given. It’s one of grievance. A perilous share of Americans across the full breadth of the political spectrum respond to every big disappointment, every little frustration, every way in which the world doesn’t hew precisely to their liking by deciding that they’ve been wronged, identifying the people responsible for that and raging at the injustice of it all. The blame game is the country’s most popular sport and victimhood its most fashionable garb.
Grievance isn’t always and necessarily bad. It has often done enormous good. The United States is a nation born of grievance, in the revolt of royal subjects unwilling to accept a bad deal, and across the nearly 250 years of our existence as a country, grievance has been the engine of morally urgent change. But what happens when all sorts of grievances—the greater ones, the lesser ones, the authentic, the invented—are jumbled together? When grievances become all-encompassing lenses, all-purpose reflexes, default settings? When people take their grievances to extreme and even violent lengths that they didn’t before?
A violent mob storms the US Capitol, rejecting the results of a presidential election and embracing the fiction that it was rigged. Conspiracy theories flourish. Politicians appeal not to our better angels but to our worst impulses, encouraging selfishness instead of selflessness, trading inspiration for retribution. Fox News, the country’s most watched cable news network, and Tucker Carlson, its sneering star, knowingly peddle lies in the service of profit. The Supreme Court loses touch with the country, overturning Roe v. Wade and shrugging off Clarence Thomas’s transgressions. College students chase away speakers and college administrators dismiss instructors for dissenting from progressive orthodoxy. Will Smith slaps Chris Rock. And there’s a potentially devastating erosion of the civility, common ground and compromise necessary for our democracy to survive.
How did we get here? What does it say about us, and where does it leave us? Timely, important, and enlightening, The Age of Grievance examines these critical questions and charts a path forward for a nation that may be growing tired of outrage.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published April 30, 2024
About the author
Frank Bruni
18 books235 followersFrank Bruni was named restaurant critic for The New York Times in April 2004.
Before that, Mr. Bruni had been the Rome bureau chief from July 2002 until March 2004, a post he took after working as a reporter in the Washington D.C. bureau from December 1998 until May 2002. While in Washington, he was among the journalists assigned to Capitol Hill and Congress until August 1999, when he was assigned full-time to cover the presidential campaign of Gov. George W. Bush. He then covered the White House for the first eight months of the Bush administration, and subsequently spent seven months as the Washington-based staff writer for The New York Times Sunday Magazine.
Mr. Bruni is the author of The New York Times bestseller about George W. Bush called Ambling into History (HarperCollins: hardcover, 2002; paperback, 2003). He is also the co-author of A Gospel of Shame: Children, Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church.
Before that, Mr. Bruni had been the Rome bureau chief from July 2002 until March 2004, a post he took after working as a reporter in the Washington D.C. bureau from December 1998 until May 2002. While in Washington, he was among the journalists assigned to Capitol Hill and Congress until August 1999, when he was assigned full-time to cover the presidential campaign of Gov. George W. Bush. He then covered the White House for the first eight months of the Bush administration, and subsequently spent seven months as the Washington-based staff writer for The New York Times Sunday Magazine.
Mr. Bruni is the author of The New York Times bestseller about George W. Bush called Ambling into History (HarperCollins: hardcover, 2002; paperback, 2003). He is also the co-author of A Gospel of Shame: Children, Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 186 reviews
March 23, 2024
I need everyone to read this book, delete at least one social media app from their phones, and chill the hell out.
August 29, 2024
I almost passed on this book. Given the stress of our times, why would I want to read another book about how broken and dysfunctional we are as a country? I mean, talk about banging one's head against a wall. After a short time and a few sample pages, however, I decided to stay with “The Age of Grievance.” I respect Frank Bruni and I wanted to hear what he has to say. I’m very glad I stayed with it. It’s a hell of a book that deserves a large audience open to hearing what he's saying.
Before I continue, I will stipulate from the beginning that I agree with Bruni. Not everyone will, of course. I speak for no one else.
Briefly stated, Bruni’s argument is that we have become a culture of non-stop grievance and resentment and anger. This dysfunction feeds on itself and is fed by people who benefit from its persistence for political or financial gain, power, out of an excess of idealism, or simply because it gets attention. It takes away our ability to think clearly and act rationally, to be at peace with ourselves or to connect and listen to each other.
Bruni captures it well, I think: I have watched that vast sociopolitical psychosis… degrade some of my friends’ and acquaintances’ mental health as they doomscroll and shitpost (how do we even have these neologisms, let alone these phenomena?) the days away… We’ve lost the ability to control how much of our lives we surrender to grievance and to declare some areas off-limits. In short, with our non-stop tantrums and cries of Foul! and Unfair! and Hurt!, we have made for ourselves “an era of mass immaturity.”
Grievance, Bruni writes, is not in itself a dirty word. There are in the world many righteous grievances and outrages worthy of condemnation. Indeed, “The United States is a nation born of grievance, in the revolt of royal subjects unwilling to accept a bad deal, and we’re hardly the only democracy brought into being by rightly aggrieved people recognizing and refusing to accept inequality and exploitation.”
But: “Not all grievances are created equal," Bruni says, "and not all expressions of grievance raise identical concerns. Some don’t raise any at all. There are wildly disproportionate outbursts, mildly disproportionate outbursts, and ones called defensibly and even commendably to their trigger.”
“Part of what’s so striking about the current state of political play,” he continues, “... is the directness and fierceness of the competition between Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, people on the right and people on the left, for the Grievance Bowl’s Lombardi Trophy.” It's exhausting -- emotionally, psychologically, culturally -- and corrosive. And both sides -- all sides -- are at fault.
Bruni points to non-stop manufactured outrage on the Right. There’s Trump with his “American carnage” and “stolen election” and, well, just about everything he says. And Sean Hannity seething about illegal aliens getting all the baby formula. And Tucker Carlson making an earnest documentary warning American men that the Elites “want you to be fat, sick, depressed and isolated” (how to treat the threat of the Left’s attack on men and masculinity? Carlson prescribed “testicle tanning,” because of course he does). And DeSantis and Disney, and riots over the removal of Confederate statues, and… need I go on?
As a political strategy, of course, outrage works very well. So well, in fact, that the strategy has been adopted at virtually every level of government, from state legislature to school board. Mac Warner, for example, the Republican secretary of state in West Virginia, set up a “See Something, TEXT Something” program designed to expose the vast number of people voting illegally. Bruni’s response: When I learned of that, I was disgusted: voter fraud is an invented panic. I was impressed: Warner had nonetheless found a clever way to clamber aboard that bandwagon. But I was above all baffled: How do you spot illegal voting? Do you use binoculars, as with bird-watching? “Look, sweetheart, there’s an American goldfinch—and there’s a Honduran migrant with a stack of fraudulent ballots in his backpack!”
Grievance is expressed differently on the Left, but it's just as powerful. We are told to be mindful of what we say, that our words must not be harmful, and that we should be sensitive to one another’s hurts, real and potential, that one’s “feelings” always matter. Laudable goals, to be sure, but some of it goes over the edge. Outrage in academic quarters over language, for example, led Johns Hopkins University in June 2023 to develop a “glossary” for how to talk about LGBTQ matters. A “lesbian,” the reader/researcher is told, is “a non-man attracted to non-men.” Similarly, Stanford University developed an “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative” with 150 words and phrases to be avoided. Among them: “brave,” “basket case,” “rule of thumb,” and “hip-hip hooray.” Even the Associated Press jumped in, recommending that their reporters avoid “general and often dehumanizing ‘the’ labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the French…”
The impulse to police language is personal for Bruni. He lost most of his vision in one eye a few years ago and is at elevated risk of going blind in the other. “Every time I stumble across some tsk-tsk about doing away with “blind study” because it’s cruel to me," he writes, "I want to scream. It’s not. It’s a succinct and evocative metaphor—nothing more.”
There is no shortage of truly vile and hateful language, Bruni says, citing the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, as one example among others. But: To go by a new cadre of antiracism evangelists, we essentially breathe white supremacist air, and the only real fix would be reinventing and rebuilding our societies from scratch. How is that a sellable, workable action plan? I’m an American football fan, so please forgive the American football metaphor: It moves the goal posts not just dauntingly far downfield but to a whole other end zone in a whole other stadium in a whole different ZIP code. They’re unreachable.
Bruni (himself a columnist for The New York Times) assigns more than a little blame to what he calls the “all-Armageddon-all-the-time news media.” Data analysis has repeatedly shown that opinion pieces draw more clicks than well-researched news reports and analyses, and so media outlets feed the craving. Today’s journalism, he writes, “puts considerably greater emphasis on problems than on solutions, amplifies conflict while shrugging at conciliation…, and takes a five-alarm-fire approach to minor blazes as well as raging infernos. In a crowded marketplace, in a jangled world, five-alarm fires seem to generate the most discussion and garner the most clicks, so our breathlessness can be attributed as much to consumers—without whom we lack the revenue to provide any news, sunny or stormy—as to us.”
Doubtless there are people who will be angered by “The Age of Grievance.” Or offended. They will say that Bruni is insensitive to the sufferings of this group or that, or too far to the Right or Left, or the unwitting victim of some socio-cultural pathology, or an example of precisely what one side or the other is criticizing. However, as Bruni points out, multiple polls and research show that Americans on both the Left and the Right are tired of the divisiveness, of having to be constantly on guard against inadvertently saying the wrong thing, of toxic politics. He offers a number of ideas and suggestions about how to counter the aggrieved spirit of our times. He also acknowledges that it won't be easy. But the problems we face as a nation — as a species — are very real and complex, and none of them can be solved by manufactured anger and performative outrage. If we’ve allowed ourselves to be infantilized as he says, we have to change how we think of ourselves and how we interact with one another.
He offers two quotes I found compelling and useful, if taken seriously. The first is from journalist Krista Tippett: “I don’t actually think we are equipped, even physiologically or mentally, to be delivered catastrophic and confusing news and pictures, 24/7. We are analog creatures in a digital world.” This strikes me as very right. We have no natural defenses against what social media and the internet are throwing at us. Quite the opposite, in fact: our brains evolved to respond first to immediate threats, and when our environment is flooded all the time with threat, we're stuck in a dark and unproductive place. So we must come up with defenses of our own devising.
The second quote is from comedian Chris Rock, who has himself been a victim of the grievance demon: “If everybody claims to be a victim, when the real victims need help, ain’t nobody going to be there to help them, okay? And right now, we live in a world where the emergency room is filled up with motherfuckers with paper cuts.”
This sounds right too. The question is, is the din of grievance too loud for the call for reason to be heard? Bruni offers a number of suggestions about what we might do.
My thanks to Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
Before I continue, I will stipulate from the beginning that I agree with Bruni. Not everyone will, of course. I speak for no one else.
Briefly stated, Bruni’s argument is that we have become a culture of non-stop grievance and resentment and anger. This dysfunction feeds on itself and is fed by people who benefit from its persistence for political or financial gain, power, out of an excess of idealism, or simply because it gets attention. It takes away our ability to think clearly and act rationally, to be at peace with ourselves or to connect and listen to each other.
Bruni captures it well, I think: I have watched that vast sociopolitical psychosis… degrade some of my friends’ and acquaintances’ mental health as they doomscroll and shitpost (how do we even have these neologisms, let alone these phenomena?) the days away… We’ve lost the ability to control how much of our lives we surrender to grievance and to declare some areas off-limits. In short, with our non-stop tantrums and cries of Foul! and Unfair! and Hurt!, we have made for ourselves “an era of mass immaturity.”
Grievance, Bruni writes, is not in itself a dirty word. There are in the world many righteous grievances and outrages worthy of condemnation. Indeed, “The United States is a nation born of grievance, in the revolt of royal subjects unwilling to accept a bad deal, and we’re hardly the only democracy brought into being by rightly aggrieved people recognizing and refusing to accept inequality and exploitation.”
But: “Not all grievances are created equal," Bruni says, "and not all expressions of grievance raise identical concerns. Some don’t raise any at all. There are wildly disproportionate outbursts, mildly disproportionate outbursts, and ones called defensibly and even commendably to their trigger.”
“Part of what’s so striking about the current state of political play,” he continues, “... is the directness and fierceness of the competition between Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, people on the right and people on the left, for the Grievance Bowl’s Lombardi Trophy.” It's exhausting -- emotionally, psychologically, culturally -- and corrosive. And both sides -- all sides -- are at fault.
Bruni points to non-stop manufactured outrage on the Right. There’s Trump with his “American carnage” and “stolen election” and, well, just about everything he says. And Sean Hannity seething about illegal aliens getting all the baby formula. And Tucker Carlson making an earnest documentary warning American men that the Elites “want you to be fat, sick, depressed and isolated” (how to treat the threat of the Left’s attack on men and masculinity? Carlson prescribed “testicle tanning,” because of course he does). And DeSantis and Disney, and riots over the removal of Confederate statues, and… need I go on?
As a political strategy, of course, outrage works very well. So well, in fact, that the strategy has been adopted at virtually every level of government, from state legislature to school board. Mac Warner, for example, the Republican secretary of state in West Virginia, set up a “See Something, TEXT Something” program designed to expose the vast number of people voting illegally. Bruni’s response: When I learned of that, I was disgusted: voter fraud is an invented panic. I was impressed: Warner had nonetheless found a clever way to clamber aboard that bandwagon. But I was above all baffled: How do you spot illegal voting? Do you use binoculars, as with bird-watching? “Look, sweetheart, there’s an American goldfinch—and there’s a Honduran migrant with a stack of fraudulent ballots in his backpack!”
Grievance is expressed differently on the Left, but it's just as powerful. We are told to be mindful of what we say, that our words must not be harmful, and that we should be sensitive to one another’s hurts, real and potential, that one’s “feelings” always matter. Laudable goals, to be sure, but some of it goes over the edge. Outrage in academic quarters over language, for example, led Johns Hopkins University in June 2023 to develop a “glossary” for how to talk about LGBTQ matters. A “lesbian,” the reader/researcher is told, is “a non-man attracted to non-men.” Similarly, Stanford University developed an “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative” with 150 words and phrases to be avoided. Among them: “brave,” “basket case,” “rule of thumb,” and “hip-hip hooray.” Even the Associated Press jumped in, recommending that their reporters avoid “general and often dehumanizing ‘the’ labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the French…”
The impulse to police language is personal for Bruni. He lost most of his vision in one eye a few years ago and is at elevated risk of going blind in the other. “Every time I stumble across some tsk-tsk about doing away with “blind study” because it’s cruel to me," he writes, "I want to scream. It’s not. It’s a succinct and evocative metaphor—nothing more.”
There is no shortage of truly vile and hateful language, Bruni says, citing the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, as one example among others. But: To go by a new cadre of antiracism evangelists, we essentially breathe white supremacist air, and the only real fix would be reinventing and rebuilding our societies from scratch. How is that a sellable, workable action plan? I’m an American football fan, so please forgive the American football metaphor: It moves the goal posts not just dauntingly far downfield but to a whole other end zone in a whole other stadium in a whole different ZIP code. They’re unreachable.
Bruni (himself a columnist for The New York Times) assigns more than a little blame to what he calls the “all-Armageddon-all-the-time news media.” Data analysis has repeatedly shown that opinion pieces draw more clicks than well-researched news reports and analyses, and so media outlets feed the craving. Today’s journalism, he writes, “puts considerably greater emphasis on problems than on solutions, amplifies conflict while shrugging at conciliation…, and takes a five-alarm-fire approach to minor blazes as well as raging infernos. In a crowded marketplace, in a jangled world, five-alarm fires seem to generate the most discussion and garner the most clicks, so our breathlessness can be attributed as much to consumers—without whom we lack the revenue to provide any news, sunny or stormy—as to us.”
Doubtless there are people who will be angered by “The Age of Grievance.” Or offended. They will say that Bruni is insensitive to the sufferings of this group or that, or too far to the Right or Left, or the unwitting victim of some socio-cultural pathology, or an example of precisely what one side or the other is criticizing. However, as Bruni points out, multiple polls and research show that Americans on both the Left and the Right are tired of the divisiveness, of having to be constantly on guard against inadvertently saying the wrong thing, of toxic politics. He offers a number of ideas and suggestions about how to counter the aggrieved spirit of our times. He also acknowledges that it won't be easy. But the problems we face as a nation — as a species — are very real and complex, and none of them can be solved by manufactured anger and performative outrage. If we’ve allowed ourselves to be infantilized as he says, we have to change how we think of ourselves and how we interact with one another.
He offers two quotes I found compelling and useful, if taken seriously. The first is from journalist Krista Tippett: “I don’t actually think we are equipped, even physiologically or mentally, to be delivered catastrophic and confusing news and pictures, 24/7. We are analog creatures in a digital world.” This strikes me as very right. We have no natural defenses against what social media and the internet are throwing at us. Quite the opposite, in fact: our brains evolved to respond first to immediate threats, and when our environment is flooded all the time with threat, we're stuck in a dark and unproductive place. So we must come up with defenses of our own devising.
The second quote is from comedian Chris Rock, who has himself been a victim of the grievance demon: “If everybody claims to be a victim, when the real victims need help, ain’t nobody going to be there to help them, okay? And right now, we live in a world where the emergency room is filled up with motherfuckers with paper cuts.”
This sounds right too. The question is, is the din of grievance too loud for the call for reason to be heard? Bruni offers a number of suggestions about what we might do.
My thanks to Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
February 10, 2024
Thanks to Frank Bruni, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, and Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book. The Age of Grievance is a smart, well-reasoned discussion of the role that grievance has played and continues to play in the politics and daily lives of Americans. I particularly appreciated the last chapter, where Bruni suggests that humility in our political leaders, journalists, activists, and ourselves, might be the key to future improvement in our grievance-obsessed culture. He concludes that “[i]t’s not too late to turn around,” and I sincerely hope he’s right about that. The Age of Grievance is a thought-provoking read — highly recommend.
May 15, 2024
Great read for anyone, like myself, who is a centrist and trying to figure out why the hell so many people on both ideological extremes are aggrieved. Bruni looks at many different prisms that breed extremism and are leading society to a cultural abyss.
Bruni offers solutions to tone down grievance culture - but for politicians, big tech, news sources, and the top 1% --- what's the incentive? He does recommend a couple good options for readers.
It makes me glad that GoodReads is the only social media I use and I don't own a TV.
Highly recommend this book for anyone who reads or listened to talks by Jonathan Haidt, Johann Kari, and especially Thomas Frank.
Bruni offers solutions to tone down grievance culture - but for politicians, big tech, news sources, and the top 1% --- what's the incentive? He does recommend a couple good options for readers.
It makes me glad that GoodReads is the only social media I use and I don't own a TV.
Highly recommend this book for anyone who reads or listened to talks by Jonathan Haidt, Johann Kari, and especially Thomas Frank.
April 8, 2024
Frank Bruni, the acclaimed columnist for The New York Times, conducts a thorough analysis of our societal fixation on grievances, permeating both ends of the political spectrum. Grievances hold sway in our tumultuous political landscape, with each faction interpreting dissatisfaction or dissent as personal injury, fueling animosity and resentment. Bruni acknowledges the historical importance of grievances while examining the contemporary fusion of authentic and fabricated ones. Through compelling political, cultural, and personal anecdotes, Bruni invites us to add our measured voice to the conversation. This book would be a valuable catalyst as a community read on the subject of civic engagement. As with other Bruni works thoughtful, compelling and beautifully written.
July 30, 2024
I always appreciate a book that shows me a different way to look at things. In particular, I’m taking the final chapter on humility to heart.
August 6, 2024
I can’t disagree with the fundamental argument that we live in an era of grievance driven politics on right and left. But, he goes from decrying the excesses of leftist college students to those of the President of the United States backed by his entire party without an adequate discussion of the difference in degree and kind between these grievances then it undermines its own argument. Overall a fairly shallow book that relies on anecdotes.
September 21, 2024
For me, this book was moderately thoughtful but limited in its perspective, the kind of work that reads better in its moment than over the long term.
The author is a journalist but mainly a columnist, and he’s accustomed to writing brief pieces that explore a topic seriously but not in great depth. The habit of mind created by that career produced a book that tackled big topics but in an episodic fashion; as he tried to write long, he became more repetitive than profound.
The topic at hand is the growing tendency among Americans to feel aggrieved. Bruni is clear-sighted in describing the dynamics of how a mind-set of grievance acts on the human psyche: it thrives in arrogance and a sense of entitlement, it makes people less tolerant and less resilient. It promotes divisiveness and a sense of entitlement. It causes us to lose perspective, the ability to distinguish between large and small grievances, to gain perspective on our woes. It is antithetical to empathy.
Some topics of discussion were more interesting to me than others. I found the chapter on what ails our institutions of higher learning particularly insightful, and I enjoyed his insider glimpses into the blind spots and failings of the news industry, though he simultanously demonstrated some of those blind spots. I thought he did a pretty good job of evenhandedness, spanking both left and right for their excesses while not allowing for false equivalences. There are both qualitative and quantitative differences between the ways grievance acts on the right and on the left.
Bruni makes a good-faith effort toward the end of this relatively short book to point toward a path away from our collective obsession with feeling put-upon, but for me his remedies fell short. Proposing social media algorithms that reward thoughtfulness is a charming notion but unlikely; proposing more bipartisanship in Congress the same. Ranked-choice voting has been demonstrated to be fully effective only when combined with proportional representation, which, considering the constitutional barriers to making such a change in America, is little more than a thought experiment.
Bruni’s catchall antidote is to practice humility and I’d personally love to see humility make a comeback in America. Unfortunately, when it’s practiced by some but not others, the arrogant tend to take home all the spoils, at least over the short term.
The author is a journalist but mainly a columnist, and he’s accustomed to writing brief pieces that explore a topic seriously but not in great depth. The habit of mind created by that career produced a book that tackled big topics but in an episodic fashion; as he tried to write long, he became more repetitive than profound.
The topic at hand is the growing tendency among Americans to feel aggrieved. Bruni is clear-sighted in describing the dynamics of how a mind-set of grievance acts on the human psyche: it thrives in arrogance and a sense of entitlement, it makes people less tolerant and less resilient. It promotes divisiveness and a sense of entitlement. It causes us to lose perspective, the ability to distinguish between large and small grievances, to gain perspective on our woes. It is antithetical to empathy.
Some topics of discussion were more interesting to me than others. I found the chapter on what ails our institutions of higher learning particularly insightful, and I enjoyed his insider glimpses into the blind spots and failings of the news industry, though he simultanously demonstrated some of those blind spots. I thought he did a pretty good job of evenhandedness, spanking both left and right for their excesses while not allowing for false equivalences. There are both qualitative and quantitative differences between the ways grievance acts on the right and on the left.
Bruni makes a good-faith effort toward the end of this relatively short book to point toward a path away from our collective obsession with feeling put-upon, but for me his remedies fell short. Proposing social media algorithms that reward thoughtfulness is a charming notion but unlikely; proposing more bipartisanship in Congress the same. Ranked-choice voting has been demonstrated to be fully effective only when combined with proportional representation, which, considering the constitutional barriers to making such a change in America, is little more than a thought experiment.
Bruni’s catchall antidote is to practice humility and I’d personally love to see humility make a comeback in America. Unfortunately, when it’s practiced by some but not others, the arrogant tend to take home all the spoils, at least over the short term.
June 9, 2024
Books like these tend to suffer from two problems. Firstly, they are of a certain political and social moment and so tend to age quickly. The references and examples become dated and what seems topical and insightful now rapidly seems like yesterday's urgency. Given this one is still new(ish), that's not yet the case. Perhaps in a couple of years things will improve and this will seem like a quaint warning . I suspect, however, it won't.
Secondly, by laying out the evidence for the problemj, the authors of this kind of book can end up with a lopsided affair: heavy on the problems and light on any solution . And often the solutions presented can be so idealistic that the book that presents them can be weighed down by issues they are meant to solve. Some of Bruni's solutions for the grievance wars of recent US politics - such as building parks and public spaces that cross social and cultrual borders to get people of different backgrounds mingling - seem very nice but highly naive. Yet the final section on how greater humility in a political world of strident and dogmatic certainty is, in fact, worth the price of wading through the mire of all the problems the book details.
I suppose the world will see in November 2024 whether the US is prepared to turn away from the toxicity of grievance or if it will embrace it even more.
Secondly, by laying out the evidence for the problemj, the authors of this kind of book can end up with a lopsided affair: heavy on the problems and light on any solution . And often the solutions presented can be so idealistic that the book that presents them can be weighed down by issues they are meant to solve. Some of Bruni's solutions for the grievance wars of recent US politics - such as building parks and public spaces that cross social and cultrual borders to get people of different backgrounds mingling - seem very nice but highly naive. Yet the final section on how greater humility in a political world of strident and dogmatic certainty is, in fact, worth the price of wading through the mire of all the problems the book details.
I suppose the world will see in November 2024 whether the US is prepared to turn away from the toxicity of grievance or if it will embrace it even more.
June 15, 2024
4+++
A timely, thoughtful, very well researched book that should be required reading for everyone nursing grievances, in other words, for everyone.
That being said, I might have DNFed it in the first chapter as Bruni kept citing the excesses of the Right, which are admittedly colorful, while seemingly ignoring their equivalent wrongs on the Left! I persisted, however, due to the very positive review by my Goodreads friend Bruce Katz, which is worth your attention. The author does take the Left to task as the book proceeds, and I would call the overall writing fairly well balanced. Unfortunately, I gotta acknowledge that Trump-style activity does make for interesting reading. I was left with a big desire to chat with the author further!
This will be a definite nomination for my Sunday Philosopers book group.
A timely, thoughtful, very well researched book that should be required reading for everyone nursing grievances, in other words, for everyone.
That being said, I might have DNFed it in the first chapter as Bruni kept citing the excesses of the Right, which are admittedly colorful, while seemingly ignoring their equivalent wrongs on the Left! I persisted, however, due to the very positive review by my Goodreads friend Bruce Katz, which is worth your attention. The author does take the Left to task as the book proceeds, and I would call the overall writing fairly well balanced. Unfortunately, I gotta acknowledge that Trump-style activity does make for interesting reading. I was left with a big desire to chat with the author further!
This will be a definite nomination for my Sunday Philosopers book group.
May 23, 2024
2.5 stars? I love Frank Bruni, I read his newsletter regularly and I happen to agree with the vast majority of his perspectives shared both in that weekly email and in this book. But I just don't know if this needed to be a book.
It's 200+ pages detailing analysis of why and examples of how we're so painfully aggrieved as a society today. He writes about the loss of our ability to connect with those who disagree with us, and how that self-centered single-mindedness (and a whole lot of valid reasons for being aggrieved) feeds destructive cancel culture and this mess of an American political system.
It's a good study of our time. It's interesting. I underlined a lot. But at times it has so many examples of how messed up things are (in both political parties, tho one is more inclined to violence than the other, he notes) that I felt drowned by it all. I wish more time had been spent on the solutions, which are buried at the end, only in the last two chapters. I would also love to know how many times the word "grievance" is written, because I swear it must be as many times as pages in the book.
Anyways. Still a Bruni fan, and these ideas are worth sharing and discussing. But (dare I say it, on Goodreads of all places) articles and newsletters are perhaps a better medium than books for sharing and discussing these ideas at the vast scale needed to enact the change he outlines. Though maybe sitting with the book helps the ideas sink in better? Who knows, maybe I'm just airing my grievance.
It's 200+ pages detailing analysis of why and examples of how we're so painfully aggrieved as a society today. He writes about the loss of our ability to connect with those who disagree with us, and how that self-centered single-mindedness (and a whole lot of valid reasons for being aggrieved) feeds destructive cancel culture and this mess of an American political system.
It's a good study of our time. It's interesting. I underlined a lot. But at times it has so many examples of how messed up things are (in both political parties, tho one is more inclined to violence than the other, he notes) that I felt drowned by it all. I wish more time had been spent on the solutions, which are buried at the end, only in the last two chapters. I would also love to know how many times the word "grievance" is written, because I swear it must be as many times as pages in the book.
Anyways. Still a Bruni fan, and these ideas are worth sharing and discussing. But (dare I say it, on Goodreads of all places) articles and newsletters are perhaps a better medium than books for sharing and discussing these ideas at the vast scale needed to enact the change he outlines. Though maybe sitting with the book helps the ideas sink in better? Who knows, maybe I'm just airing my grievance.
July 30, 2024
For about the first two-thirds, I was feeling like this was going to be a 2-star read for me or 3 stars at best. The first several chapters are just example after example of how grievance has gone out of control in our country over about the past twenty years or so. I started thinking, yeah, buddy, we know, tell us something new.
Then he writes about how social media super-charged grievance and cancelling, which we also already knew.
But the last few chapters really redeemed this book for me. Bruni ties our grievance economy to real violence, including in the halls of Congress. And he makes the bold point that some grievances are more serious than others. He cites, for example, Tucker Carlson’s bizarre obsession with the green M&M. He also quotes someone who implied that her “weird lunch” with her male employer was equivalent to a rape. Microaggressions may be hurtful, but they are not the same as job discrimination, redlining, physical aggression, marriage discrimination, etc. Not long ago, that would have gone without saying. Now it is courageous to say it, and someone will surely complain loudly about how aggrieved it makes them feel to have their grievance belittled.
Bruni also suggests some ways to tone down our culture of grievance. Some of them are simple and personal: get to know your neighbors. Some are harder and political. End gerrymandering. Implement ranked-choice voting. Allow independents to vote in primaries. Make it easier to vote. Fund a national service program that would bring together young people from different parts of our country. Design cities so that people encounter each other more. He cites some governors who have managed to get things done in a bipartisan way: Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts.
Finally, Bruni urges us to re-learn humility. Neither side of our political divide has all the answers. No advocacy group can be certain that their particular cause should be our most urgent priority. For God’s sake, can we learn to listen to each other again? And can we do it without taking offense at every little thing?
One point I wish that Bruni had touched on a little more is rationality over emotion. Feelings are legitimate, but any good therapist will tell you that they have to be modulated with reason. Too many people nowadays are quite certain that what they feel is the last word on everything. Bruni does cite the excellent work of Jonathan Rauch on this topic in his book The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. But I would have liked to see fewer examples at the beginning of this book and a little more treatment of rationality and truth-seeking at the end.
Like my reviews? Check out my blog
Author of The Saint's Mistress
Then he writes about how social media super-charged grievance and cancelling, which we also already knew.
But the last few chapters really redeemed this book for me. Bruni ties our grievance economy to real violence, including in the halls of Congress. And he makes the bold point that some grievances are more serious than others. He cites, for example, Tucker Carlson’s bizarre obsession with the green M&M. He also quotes someone who implied that her “weird lunch” with her male employer was equivalent to a rape. Microaggressions may be hurtful, but they are not the same as job discrimination, redlining, physical aggression, marriage discrimination, etc. Not long ago, that would have gone without saying. Now it is courageous to say it, and someone will surely complain loudly about how aggrieved it makes them feel to have their grievance belittled.
Bruni also suggests some ways to tone down our culture of grievance. Some of them are simple and personal: get to know your neighbors. Some are harder and political. End gerrymandering. Implement ranked-choice voting. Allow independents to vote in primaries. Make it easier to vote. Fund a national service program that would bring together young people from different parts of our country. Design cities so that people encounter each other more. He cites some governors who have managed to get things done in a bipartisan way: Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts.
Finally, Bruni urges us to re-learn humility. Neither side of our political divide has all the answers. No advocacy group can be certain that their particular cause should be our most urgent priority. For God’s sake, can we learn to listen to each other again? And can we do it without taking offense at every little thing?
One point I wish that Bruni had touched on a little more is rationality over emotion. Feelings are legitimate, but any good therapist will tell you that they have to be modulated with reason. Too many people nowadays are quite certain that what they feel is the last word on everything. Bruni does cite the excellent work of Jonathan Rauch on this topic in his book The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. But I would have liked to see fewer examples at the beginning of this book and a little more treatment of rationality and truth-seeking at the end.
Like my reviews? Check out my blog
Author of The Saint's Mistress
May 19, 2024
Took me until about halfway through to really grasp the thesis, but once I did, I came to realize that Bruni is on to something. Yes, at one level this is a book that’s basically a compilation of dumb and deranged things people with extreme political beliefs have done in the past handful of years. But the analytical lense Bruni deploys - that much of those deranged things, coming from both sides of the political spectrum, can be viewed as essentially a pissing contest of who is more wronged/oppressed/etc. - is clever.
It might seem like a trite observation that idiots on the left and right do dumb shit. But Bruni proposes that a lot of this dumb shit are not merely acts of political disagreement, but rather a disastrous (and occasionally violent) combination of pity party and temper tantrum.
His writing style is convincing and level headed. His criticisms of both the left and right are blunt and often scathing. There’s some sarcasm and wit sprinkled throughout, and the whole book has an aura of “can you, dear reader, believe how pitiful we are?” but without belittling the undoubtedly serious topics he addresses. Smart and enjoyable through the end.
It might seem like a trite observation that idiots on the left and right do dumb shit. But Bruni proposes that a lot of this dumb shit are not merely acts of political disagreement, but rather a disastrous (and occasionally violent) combination of pity party and temper tantrum.
His writing style is convincing and level headed. His criticisms of both the left and right are blunt and often scathing. There’s some sarcasm and wit sprinkled throughout, and the whole book has an aura of “can you, dear reader, believe how pitiful we are?” but without belittling the undoubtedly serious topics he addresses. Smart and enjoyable through the end.
August 9, 2024
The Age of Grievance, which should perhaps have been retitled The Age of Unjustified Grievance, provides what is now increasingly pat social criticism of the obviously deranged dimensions of American politics and culture. Bruni argues Americans have becomes preoccupied by claims to victimization, and these claims have reached a totalizing and existential intensity through the usual escalatory cycle of political battles. He is loathe to entirely dispense with the utility of grievance politics wholesale as he believes such politics can drive progressive/left-liberal social change, pointing to historical examples with the rights and social position of women, minorities, and gays.
Bruni supports his critique of grievance politics with an endless procession of anecdotes cribbed from his life or the news. There is in little in the way of quantitative social analysis other than some references to research performed by economists and sociologists (much of it interesting but fragmentary). Thus, readers are mostly just receptacles for Bruni's considered opinions on the cultural moment. Subsequently, this is likely only to be a useful read for those who have entirely ignored news and news commentary for the last half decade or are especially interested in how Frank Bruni sees the world.
In many ways, The Age of Grievance is an exemplar of the usual NYT op-ed tier sophistry. Spin up silky prose with an air of detached erudition and appear to deliver an incisive and encompassing indictment of American dysfunction (in this case a culture of widespread vindictiveness and self-absorbed emotionality), while actually endorsing the existing values and goals of the current elite (i.e. those like Bruni himself - affluent urban left-liberals/progressives). This is the sort of thing that is obviously going to upset those with different values and goals. It also does nothing to remedy the identified dysfunction. The diagnosis and prescription are unfortunately shallow. Bruni fails to offer enough for those estranged from the elect. It is highly unlikely that whatever the elite of today want will solve all today's ills. It's even possible, if not likely, that today's elite are responsible in some ways for our culture of victimhood. Why would doubling down on the (partial) instigators solve the problem?
There are of course some true and important things being said by Bruni. He is far from the first one to say these things though (as he acknowledges) and some of these true and good things are cliché and seem hollows (i.e. the whole "be humble" conclusion offered in the final chapter). Nonetheless, it is good for those of his ilk and position to counter-signal their own in-group. They have to buy trust with the out-group if conciliation is possible. Although I think many readers of this ilk will not see it as an authentic peace offering in the culture war. However, it is at least working to create space for that possibility from the within the coastal bubble.
The experience of happening upon a talented writer who "gets it" but somehow still manages to be wrong is bemusing (though of course it shouldn't be). I don't how much of this is a function of failures on the part of the writer or that of the audience. I'm inclined to blame both to some extent. Our author has enjoyed a life of privilege in left-liberal, coastal enclaves and holds down two sought-after sinecures, one as a NYT op-ed columnist and another as a professor of public policy at UNC. He is able to demonstrate some ability to rise above his milieu to mildly criticize some of its excesses, but he seems to be somewhat unaware of just how dominant his way of thinking is across American institutions (even ones meant to represent those with values in conflict with his). He also seems a bit incurious about the deep origins of the dysfunction he recognizes. And some of the research he references suggests he curiosity should be piqued. However, his target audience is also the same left-liberal elite or elite-aspirants who are loathe to take kindly to the idea that their contributions to sociopolitical dysfunction may be on par with MAGA-hat-wearing deplorables.
Ultimately, this is an acceptable entry in 21st century American cultural commentary. Bruni's prose is engaging even when his thought slips in sloppiness. It is another great example of a book that should have been an essay though.
Bruni supports his critique of grievance politics with an endless procession of anecdotes cribbed from his life or the news. There is in little in the way of quantitative social analysis other than some references to research performed by economists and sociologists (much of it interesting but fragmentary). Thus, readers are mostly just receptacles for Bruni's considered opinions on the cultural moment. Subsequently, this is likely only to be a useful read for those who have entirely ignored news and news commentary for the last half decade or are especially interested in how Frank Bruni sees the world.
In many ways, The Age of Grievance is an exemplar of the usual NYT op-ed tier sophistry. Spin up silky prose with an air of detached erudition and appear to deliver an incisive and encompassing indictment of American dysfunction (in this case a culture of widespread vindictiveness and self-absorbed emotionality), while actually endorsing the existing values and goals of the current elite (i.e. those like Bruni himself - affluent urban left-liberals/progressives). This is the sort of thing that is obviously going to upset those with different values and goals. It also does nothing to remedy the identified dysfunction. The diagnosis and prescription are unfortunately shallow. Bruni fails to offer enough for those estranged from the elect. It is highly unlikely that whatever the elite of today want will solve all today's ills. It's even possible, if not likely, that today's elite are responsible in some ways for our culture of victimhood. Why would doubling down on the (partial) instigators solve the problem?
There are of course some true and important things being said by Bruni. He is far from the first one to say these things though (as he acknowledges) and some of these true and good things are cliché and seem hollows (i.e. the whole "be humble" conclusion offered in the final chapter). Nonetheless, it is good for those of his ilk and position to counter-signal their own in-group. They have to buy trust with the out-group if conciliation is possible. Although I think many readers of this ilk will not see it as an authentic peace offering in the culture war. However, it is at least working to create space for that possibility from the within the coastal bubble.
The experience of happening upon a talented writer who "gets it" but somehow still manages to be wrong is bemusing (though of course it shouldn't be). I don't how much of this is a function of failures on the part of the writer or that of the audience. I'm inclined to blame both to some extent. Our author has enjoyed a life of privilege in left-liberal, coastal enclaves and holds down two sought-after sinecures, one as a NYT op-ed columnist and another as a professor of public policy at UNC. He is able to demonstrate some ability to rise above his milieu to mildly criticize some of its excesses, but he seems to be somewhat unaware of just how dominant his way of thinking is across American institutions (even ones meant to represent those with values in conflict with his). He also seems a bit incurious about the deep origins of the dysfunction he recognizes. And some of the research he references suggests he curiosity should be piqued. However, his target audience is also the same left-liberal elite or elite-aspirants who are loathe to take kindly to the idea that their contributions to sociopolitical dysfunction may be on par with MAGA-hat-wearing deplorables.
Ultimately, this is an acceptable entry in 21st century American cultural commentary. Bruni's prose is engaging even when his thought slips in sloppiness. It is another great example of a book that should have been an essay though.
August 17, 2024
Frank Bruni is a long-time journalist, NYT columnist, and, since 2021, a professor of journalism at Duke University. In the Age of Grievance, he writes extensively on how divisive American culture has become on social and political issues in recent decades through the pervasive feeling of grievance (both actual and perceived, and on all sides of the current American political spectrum and hot button sociopolitical issues).
I strongly resonated with the majority of Bruni's points in this book. I especially like this quote from chapter 8, when Bruni talks about writing graciously about a political figure from a different party than his own:
I think we could all practice more humility and civility these days, and practice nonjudgmental and open-minded listening to others' viewpoints. That's why I consciously and consistently read books from people whose political and social viewpoints don't match my own, rather than stay in an echo chamber of feel-good, preaching-the-the-choir views. That's why I don't outrightly and blanketly dismiss people because they've been labeled negatively (rightfully or not), and pompously and self-righteously presume that they can't possibly have anything worthwhile to say (or that my fragile ego can't withstand the presence of a dissenting argument). There are very few people who self-identify as 100% villains and lack any redeeming qualities, and the better we are at recognizing the humanity in others and the common goals we share, the better off we are as a society.
Further reading:
Mistakes Were Made, but Not by Me: Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World by Max Fisher
QAnon and On: A Short and Shocking History of Internet Conspiracy Cults by Van Badham
My statistics:
Book 179 for 2024
Book 1782 cumulatively
I strongly resonated with the majority of Bruni's points in this book. I especially like this quote from chapter 8, when Bruni talks about writing graciously about a political figure from a different party than his own:
To mention [good] qualities at the time of a person's death isn't an act of moral laundering - it's the essence of civility.
I think we could all practice more humility and civility these days, and practice nonjudgmental and open-minded listening to others' viewpoints. That's why I consciously and consistently read books from people whose political and social viewpoints don't match my own, rather than stay in an echo chamber of feel-good, preaching-the-the-choir views. That's why I don't outrightly and blanketly dismiss people because they've been labeled negatively (rightfully or not), and pompously and self-righteously presume that they can't possibly have anything worthwhile to say (or that my fragile ego can't withstand the presence of a dissenting argument). There are very few people who self-identify as 100% villains and lack any redeeming qualities, and the better we are at recognizing the humanity in others and the common goals we share, the better off we are as a society.
Further reading:
Mistakes Were Made, but Not by Me: Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World by Max Fisher
QAnon and On: A Short and Shocking History of Internet Conspiracy Cults by Van Badham
My statistics:
Book 179 for 2024
Book 1782 cumulatively
June 11, 2024
Nailed it.
August 6, 2024
I’m tired of this grandpa
June 13, 2024
An important book that taught me a lot about myself that I did not want to learn. It wasn’t “enjoyable” as much as it was incredibly informative.
June 26, 2024
Required reading!!!!
July 9, 2024
I am disappointed in this book. When an individual does a book that has so much potential as this one I still expect people not to be bias. Shame on me I guess.
April 30, 2024
United States Publication: April 30, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this advanced reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.
We are in the golden age of grievance. Bruce Handy wrote in June 2023, "With anger now the defining emotion of our own times, an in splenetic tribute to the previous century's Roaring 20s, I suggest we dub the current decade the Raging 20s." Frank Bruni concurs. Among many of his insights into this age of grievance is that the aggrieved set our culture wars in motion and escalated them. We are in an era of mass immaturity. (Chapter 2) The groundwork for it was laid through social media platforms, lack of civic studies, the breakdown of government through political partying in-fighting, and the human desire to hold on to a grudge and refuse to cede wrong thinking. Our stubborn hold on cognitive dissonance has fueled this age of grievances. And lest you think Bruni shines the spotlight on the many sins of the Republican party fueling this fire, he swings the spotlight over to the Democratic party as well. Nobody can escape the reality, we are all culpable - regardless of our political leanings, religious or not affiliations, whether we put the toilet paper roll on over or under, etc. (By the way, the only correct way to put on the toilet paper roll is over.)
Bruni traces the history of grievance. From its useful and positive uses to its damaging and dangerous ones. He compares grievance then and now and how it has changed in tone and in action. Grievance then served a larger purpose and got some things done, like forming a new country. Grievance now? It serves no real purpose; all it does is give space for loud voices that have no real complaints, only personal affronts. These loud voices are trying to make national news that can lead to events like January 6, 2021. And terrifyingly, they are succeeding. "Almost no cultural event, no bit of news, no topic of national conversation is roped off from grievance, by which I mean a complaint or concern that should or could be a modest point of dispute, negotiable with businesslike diction and businesslike decorum, but is blown up wildly out of proportion." (Chapter 3)
But, as Bruni gives evidence, the age of grievance has become addicting and dangerous - both physically and mentally. Scientific studies show how and why grievance turns the rational into the irrational, "....brain imaging studies show that harboring a grievance (a perceived wrong or injustice, real or imagined) activates the same neural reward circuitry as narcotics....[and] what your brain wants to do with that grievance - how it both extends the high and brings it to its most satisfying conclusion - is retaliate. To be clear, the retaliation doesn't need to be physically violent - an unkind word, or tweet, can also be very gratifying." (James Kimmel, Jr., lecturer at Yale University School of Medicine, Chapter 3) This leads to a string of revenge and punishment behaviors from the person, or persons, who see themselves as oppressed because of their grievances.
Chapter 4 finds Bruni going waaaaay back to when the grumblings started and how they transformed into grievances. It's noted that in 1835 Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, observed a perpetually unsatisfied yearning in Americans, who, he said, "are forever brooding over advantages they do not possess." Now, instead of merely being unsatisfied, we have escalated those yearnings into grievances, and we are looking for someone to blame. He also explores the other contributing factors to this current age of grievance: climate change, increased income inequality, and self-aggrandizing behaviors that lead to widening disparities in all facets of life - income, ethnicity, gender, and sexual preferences, to name a few. The progress America is used to making and enjoying has come to a screeching halt, and with it, the optimism we collectively had. The grievances of this current age "affect how, every day, we interact or fail to interact with one another. They affect the stories we tell about ourselves and our world, ratcheting up the subjectivity of those narratives and corrupting the truth of them. They skew our perspectives. They skew us." (Chapter 8)
So, what to do? How can we, individually, quit participating in this age of grievance? Bruni prescribes a few hopeful remedies at the conclusion of the book. (Chapters 9 and 10) Frank Bruni, himself, is a beacon of hope and optimism, able to loosen the grip on his own cognitive dissonance and see things for what they are, not for what he may perceive them to be. In his gracious way, he leads us down that path as well.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this advanced reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.
We are in the golden age of grievance. Bruce Handy wrote in June 2023, "With anger now the defining emotion of our own times, an in splenetic tribute to the previous century's Roaring 20s, I suggest we dub the current decade the Raging 20s." Frank Bruni concurs. Among many of his insights into this age of grievance is that the aggrieved set our culture wars in motion and escalated them. We are in an era of mass immaturity. (Chapter 2) The groundwork for it was laid through social media platforms, lack of civic studies, the breakdown of government through political partying in-fighting, and the human desire to hold on to a grudge and refuse to cede wrong thinking. Our stubborn hold on cognitive dissonance has fueled this age of grievances. And lest you think Bruni shines the spotlight on the many sins of the Republican party fueling this fire, he swings the spotlight over to the Democratic party as well. Nobody can escape the reality, we are all culpable - regardless of our political leanings, religious or not affiliations, whether we put the toilet paper roll on over or under, etc. (By the way, the only correct way to put on the toilet paper roll is over.)
Bruni traces the history of grievance. From its useful and positive uses to its damaging and dangerous ones. He compares grievance then and now and how it has changed in tone and in action. Grievance then served a larger purpose and got some things done, like forming a new country. Grievance now? It serves no real purpose; all it does is give space for loud voices that have no real complaints, only personal affronts. These loud voices are trying to make national news that can lead to events like January 6, 2021. And terrifyingly, they are succeeding. "Almost no cultural event, no bit of news, no topic of national conversation is roped off from grievance, by which I mean a complaint or concern that should or could be a modest point of dispute, negotiable with businesslike diction and businesslike decorum, but is blown up wildly out of proportion." (Chapter 3)
But, as Bruni gives evidence, the age of grievance has become addicting and dangerous - both physically and mentally. Scientific studies show how and why grievance turns the rational into the irrational, "....brain imaging studies show that harboring a grievance (a perceived wrong or injustice, real or imagined) activates the same neural reward circuitry as narcotics....[and] what your brain wants to do with that grievance - how it both extends the high and brings it to its most satisfying conclusion - is retaliate. To be clear, the retaliation doesn't need to be physically violent - an unkind word, or tweet, can also be very gratifying." (James Kimmel, Jr., lecturer at Yale University School of Medicine, Chapter 3) This leads to a string of revenge and punishment behaviors from the person, or persons, who see themselves as oppressed because of their grievances.
Chapter 4 finds Bruni going waaaaay back to when the grumblings started and how they transformed into grievances. It's noted that in 1835 Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, observed a perpetually unsatisfied yearning in Americans, who, he said, "are forever brooding over advantages they do not possess." Now, instead of merely being unsatisfied, we have escalated those yearnings into grievances, and we are looking for someone to blame. He also explores the other contributing factors to this current age of grievance: climate change, increased income inequality, and self-aggrandizing behaviors that lead to widening disparities in all facets of life - income, ethnicity, gender, and sexual preferences, to name a few. The progress America is used to making and enjoying has come to a screeching halt, and with it, the optimism we collectively had. The grievances of this current age "affect how, every day, we interact or fail to interact with one another. They affect the stories we tell about ourselves and our world, ratcheting up the subjectivity of those narratives and corrupting the truth of them. They skew our perspectives. They skew us." (Chapter 8)
So, what to do? How can we, individually, quit participating in this age of grievance? Bruni prescribes a few hopeful remedies at the conclusion of the book. (Chapters 9 and 10) Frank Bruni, himself, is a beacon of hope and optimism, able to loosen the grip on his own cognitive dissonance and see things for what they are, not for what he may perceive them to be. In his gracious way, he leads us down that path as well.
May 3, 2024
Frank Bruni can write. He is one of the most lucid authors of his generation and that alone is good reason to read this book. Whether you agree with him or not, it is a pleasant and informative read. It flows with insight.
The theme is one of political division defined by grievance, but it goes beyond the typical divide between left and right and speaks to the foundational politics of anger and revenge that fuels both sides of the inevitable debate. We are beyond polarized. Disagreement has disappeared from our discourse. We hate. Nothing short of crushing our opponents will calm us down. Or so we think.
As I read, I couldn’t help but think back to my own parents. Now deceased, both were the children of immigrants, both were born in the 1920s, and both served in the US Navy during WWII. I was born in the 1950s and one of the things I remember most vividly about them is that neither believed in institutional politics. To this day, I have no idea which political party either one affiliated with, and not once would they even admit publicly who they voted for in a presidential election, although both believed in civic duty and were sure to vote in all of them.
To them, WWII and the Cold War that followed were all about ridding the world of tribal politics. Germany and the USSR were both defined by their institutional political parties. They had fought, in their minds, to free the world of such polarized thinking. The beauty of the US political system, to them, was that our politics was built around individuals, not ideologies. What little they spoke about politicians, they spoke about the person, not their agenda.
At one point Bruni speaks of China and muses his astonishment that so many Americans, in years past, already believed that the Chinese economy was bigger than our own, which it’s not. Now retired and living in the Midwest, I lived in China for 14 years working for an American company there. And upon my return I was struck by how laser-focused Americans are on the CCP. The Chinese aren’t. They seldom talk about the Party, but not because they are forbidden to. Their priorities are just elsewhere. As Bruni posed his question it occurred to me that if you asked the question of which economy was bigger to the average Chinese they would simply stare in bewilderment as to why you were asking such an irrelevant question. If forced, I am sure they all would have answered correctly – the US.
One of Bruni’s conclusions is that the current culture of anger, grievance, and revenge prevents any meaningful discussion of the real issues we all face. He’s right. We have forgotten the universal truth that all of reality is a duality. There are two sides to everything. The Chinese call it yin and yang, but the concept has long been built into the American worldview, until recently. Sports is a duality that historically defined the American psyche in a balance of the celebration of both victory and sportsmanship. Now there is only one correct side and a side that must be obliterated.
While the topics are serious and could result in reader melancholy, Bruni does bring a refreshing humor to the discussion. In discussing West Virginia’s absurd attempt to enable everyone to police illegal voting, for example, he writes: “But I was above all baffled: How do you spot illegal voting? Do you use binoculars, as with bird-watching? ‘Look, sweetheart, there’s an American goldfinch – and there’s a Honduran migrant with a stack of fraudulent ballets in his backpack!’” If we stop laughing, we will surely fail.
Bruni is realistic but there is always an underlying optimism of the truly inquisitive mind. I am struggling to remain so. The political strategy used by both sides today is self-reinforcing. As a blogger and writer who often finds myself seeing validity in both sides of every issue, I know firsthand that it is difficult to thread the needle of duality, and if you try, no one will buy your books or read your newsletters. Grievance? I’m sure. Reality is a duality.
Bruni closes the book with a call for humility all around. And I couldn’t agree more. Having lived in the corporate world of business for almost fifty years I believe with all my heart that the key and only criterion for leadership of any kind is humility. One building block of that is acceptance of the Buddhist truth that all of life is suffering. I am not a Buddhist, and I don’t mean suffering in the sense of pain or oppression. I mean suffering in the sense of seeing ourselves in the right perspective, the duality of individuality and the need for collective obligation.
A timely book, superbly written. I highly recommend it, whichever uniform you wear.
The theme is one of political division defined by grievance, but it goes beyond the typical divide between left and right and speaks to the foundational politics of anger and revenge that fuels both sides of the inevitable debate. We are beyond polarized. Disagreement has disappeared from our discourse. We hate. Nothing short of crushing our opponents will calm us down. Or so we think.
As I read, I couldn’t help but think back to my own parents. Now deceased, both were the children of immigrants, both were born in the 1920s, and both served in the US Navy during WWII. I was born in the 1950s and one of the things I remember most vividly about them is that neither believed in institutional politics. To this day, I have no idea which political party either one affiliated with, and not once would they even admit publicly who they voted for in a presidential election, although both believed in civic duty and were sure to vote in all of them.
To them, WWII and the Cold War that followed were all about ridding the world of tribal politics. Germany and the USSR were both defined by their institutional political parties. They had fought, in their minds, to free the world of such polarized thinking. The beauty of the US political system, to them, was that our politics was built around individuals, not ideologies. What little they spoke about politicians, they spoke about the person, not their agenda.
At one point Bruni speaks of China and muses his astonishment that so many Americans, in years past, already believed that the Chinese economy was bigger than our own, which it’s not. Now retired and living in the Midwest, I lived in China for 14 years working for an American company there. And upon my return I was struck by how laser-focused Americans are on the CCP. The Chinese aren’t. They seldom talk about the Party, but not because they are forbidden to. Their priorities are just elsewhere. As Bruni posed his question it occurred to me that if you asked the question of which economy was bigger to the average Chinese they would simply stare in bewilderment as to why you were asking such an irrelevant question. If forced, I am sure they all would have answered correctly – the US.
One of Bruni’s conclusions is that the current culture of anger, grievance, and revenge prevents any meaningful discussion of the real issues we all face. He’s right. We have forgotten the universal truth that all of reality is a duality. There are two sides to everything. The Chinese call it yin and yang, but the concept has long been built into the American worldview, until recently. Sports is a duality that historically defined the American psyche in a balance of the celebration of both victory and sportsmanship. Now there is only one correct side and a side that must be obliterated.
While the topics are serious and could result in reader melancholy, Bruni does bring a refreshing humor to the discussion. In discussing West Virginia’s absurd attempt to enable everyone to police illegal voting, for example, he writes: “But I was above all baffled: How do you spot illegal voting? Do you use binoculars, as with bird-watching? ‘Look, sweetheart, there’s an American goldfinch – and there’s a Honduran migrant with a stack of fraudulent ballets in his backpack!’” If we stop laughing, we will surely fail.
Bruni is realistic but there is always an underlying optimism of the truly inquisitive mind. I am struggling to remain so. The political strategy used by both sides today is self-reinforcing. As a blogger and writer who often finds myself seeing validity in both sides of every issue, I know firsthand that it is difficult to thread the needle of duality, and if you try, no one will buy your books or read your newsletters. Grievance? I’m sure. Reality is a duality.
Bruni closes the book with a call for humility all around. And I couldn’t agree more. Having lived in the corporate world of business for almost fifty years I believe with all my heart that the key and only criterion for leadership of any kind is humility. One building block of that is acceptance of the Buddhist truth that all of life is suffering. I am not a Buddhist, and I don’t mean suffering in the sense of pain or oppression. I mean suffering in the sense of seeing ourselves in the right perspective, the duality of individuality and the need for collective obligation.
A timely book, superbly written. I highly recommend it, whichever uniform you wear.
Read
July 16, 2024[4.25] Log it as an eerie coincidence. I finished Bruni’s intriguing deep-dive into societal polarization and unbridled anger only hours before the first assassination attempt of a U.S. presidential candidate in decades. It is rare when I begin a book with my inner voice grumbling, “You probably won’t finish it.” I wondered if a book-length examination of our grievance culture that weaves together some previous newspaper columns would be overdose at a time when I often turn to books as an escape from our tumultuous times. But I soon realized that there were so many enlightening concepts to unpack and ponder that Bruni’s work would not end up on the DNF list.
The book’s promotional blurb and author interviews assert that Bruni takes aim at both sides of the political spectrum. This is a fair assertion, but more admonitions seem to be directed at the MAGA right.
The author doesn’t ignore the reality that addressing grievances has had positive impacts throughout history. Consider the civil rights movement. But he argues that toxic politics, the internet, AI and other forces have fueled an era of “extreme aggrievement.” The danger, he maintains, is that “grievance is the enemy of perspective, proportionality and nuance."
In an interview in the Columbia Journalism Review, Bruni urges the media to avoid using tired playbooks that can lead to oversimplifying complex political issues. “Dicing and slicing political coverage sends this message that we’re in different camps that maybe compete against one another, rather than that we’re all Americans, ultimately in the same boat,” he says.
Bruni skillfully explores the dangers of confirmation bias, stressing the importance of training ourselves to consume “balanced news diets so we resist the temptation to overstuff ourselves with information that feeds our existing biases and misconceptions.”
The book is well-written, thoroughly researched and incredibly timely.
The book’s promotional blurb and author interviews assert that Bruni takes aim at both sides of the political spectrum. This is a fair assertion, but more admonitions seem to be directed at the MAGA right.
The author doesn’t ignore the reality that addressing grievances has had positive impacts throughout history. Consider the civil rights movement. But he argues that toxic politics, the internet, AI and other forces have fueled an era of “extreme aggrievement.” The danger, he maintains, is that “grievance is the enemy of perspective, proportionality and nuance."
In an interview in the Columbia Journalism Review, Bruni urges the media to avoid using tired playbooks that can lead to oversimplifying complex political issues. “Dicing and slicing political coverage sends this message that we’re in different camps that maybe compete against one another, rather than that we’re all Americans, ultimately in the same boat,” he says.
Bruni skillfully explores the dangers of confirmation bias, stressing the importance of training ourselves to consume “balanced news diets so we resist the temptation to overstuff ourselves with information that feeds our existing biases and misconceptions.”
The book is well-written, thoroughly researched and incredibly timely.
September 10, 2024
Author and journalist Frank Bruni is currently a Professor at Duke University and a long-time commentor and columnist for magazines and newspapers, including the NY Times. In this 270 page long political/sociological commentary, the author identifies what he views as a major factor in creating the fractured divisive and polarizing political situation in America today, where enmity exists between family members and long-time friends who hold differing political views.
Bruni identifies the increasing desire and feeling of Americans to feel victimized and have grievances as being a major cause of this divisiveness. I agree with Bruni on this and felt that way before I read this book, perhaps because my job involves resolving employment grievances. But I could neither articulate nor substantiate my feelings on the increased tendency for Americans to feel victimized or feel put upon by others. So, I very much appreciate Bruni’s providing me with that articulation and substantiation by writing this book.
In this book, Bruni successfully identifies examples of where this has happened in our society (a back cover blub calls it a catalog of grievances), what factors could have caused this culture of grievances and, in the last chapter, what could be done to change this. The one thing Bruni doesn’t explain, though, is how to go about getting people to engage in the mindset needed to accomplish this societal change. (How do you get people to be more humble?) Alas, Bruni may be wise, but he’s not divine.
I did not rate this as 5 stars because, as with many single-issue commentaries, there is a bit of repetition and padding in order to stretch out the material to a full-length non-fiction book. Despite this, I never did feel bored. I rate this as 4 stars.
Bruni identifies the increasing desire and feeling of Americans to feel victimized and have grievances as being a major cause of this divisiveness. I agree with Bruni on this and felt that way before I read this book, perhaps because my job involves resolving employment grievances. But I could neither articulate nor substantiate my feelings on the increased tendency for Americans to feel victimized or feel put upon by others. So, I very much appreciate Bruni’s providing me with that articulation and substantiation by writing this book.
In this book, Bruni successfully identifies examples of where this has happened in our society (a back cover blub calls it a catalog of grievances), what factors could have caused this culture of grievances and, in the last chapter, what could be done to change this. The one thing Bruni doesn’t explain, though, is how to go about getting people to engage in the mindset needed to accomplish this societal change. (How do you get people to be more humble?) Alas, Bruni may be wise, but he’s not divine.
I did not rate this as 5 stars because, as with many single-issue commentaries, there is a bit of repetition and padding in order to stretch out the material to a full-length non-fiction book. Despite this, I never did feel bored. I rate this as 4 stars.
May 21, 2024
This is the book I needed to read. I am a person who prioritizes justice. I feel morally compelled to speak for those who are denied justice. However, I'm also worn out by dealing with people who feel they've been unjustly treated over the smallest things. In his wisdom, Frank Bruni also recognizes that we've all grown almost addicted to feeling aggrieved.
With all possible objectivity, Bruni examines the plethora of grievances that permeate American society today, from both sides of the political spectrum and through all areas of endeavor. He points out that we originated as a country based on a grievance against those who exerted unjust powers over us, and that subsequently we crafted a constitution that allows for the airing of grievances and redress of them through a judicial system. He also emphasizes that we are less able to address true injustices and grievances effectively, when we're beset with multitudes of loud and angry grievances from those who cannot let go of the idea that they're being personally wronged at every turn. When our candidates and elected officials are focused only on grievance and not on a vison for a better future for us all, we are lost. His is a voice asking for less angry confrontation and more problem solving through reasonable human connection.
With all possible objectivity, Bruni examines the plethora of grievances that permeate American society today, from both sides of the political spectrum and through all areas of endeavor. He points out that we originated as a country based on a grievance against those who exerted unjust powers over us, and that subsequently we crafted a constitution that allows for the airing of grievances and redress of them through a judicial system. He also emphasizes that we are less able to address true injustices and grievances effectively, when we're beset with multitudes of loud and angry grievances from those who cannot let go of the idea that they're being personally wronged at every turn. When our candidates and elected officials are focused only on grievance and not on a vison for a better future for us all, we are lost. His is a voice asking for less angry confrontation and more problem solving through reasonable human connection.
September 17, 2024
Review: The Age of Grievance (Frank Bruni) "...humility is the antidote to grievance" I was thoroughly engrossed in every page of this extraordinary book (and thanks to friend Mark Prout who brought it to my attention!). So many of us are wondering how this country ever reached the toxic atmosphere we feel all around us, and here is a clearly written book that helps us follow the dots. And it offers hope. Here we live in one of the most fortunate countries in the world, in spite of its problems, and yet we have devolved--on the left as well as the right--into squabbling and bitterness and a sense of grievance guiding our lives. We have left tolerance by the wayside, but tolerance doesn't mean "a surrender or even compromise of principles; a person can hold on to those while practicing tolerance, which has fallen out of fashion, supplanted by grievance. But tolerance shares DNA with respect. It recognizes that other people have rights and worth even when we desagree vehemently with them." We lose when we feel driven to cast stones constantly. "If we can't relate to people who aren't just like us, if empathy is an illusion and attempts to muster it are insults, if we're a hodgepodge of rival grievances rather than a team of unified aspirations, how can we prosper and how can we endure?" And just one more: "Grown-ups are supposed to be able to compromise like that. But ours is an era of mass immaturity." Sigh. This book is incisive, beautifully composed, and thoughtful. It makes me want to be a better human.
June 9, 2024
This book is definitely not something I would normally pick up, but after hearing Frank Bruni talk at an author event, I decided to give it a try. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really liked the approach and the engaging writing style. I also appreciated the somewhat neutral political stance he takes in the sense of pointing out pros and cons on both sides of American politics. At times the book challenged my thinking and I definitely didn’t agree with everything and I 100% think that was the point of this book. It made me reevaluate how I view politics and my mentality about the current state of the country. I also really appreciate that he offered solutions to some of the problems he brought up because too often we focus on all the negative without recognizing what we can actually do about it which is very depressing. This book is jam packed with information and I’m definitely going to need to reread it to fully understand all the points he brought up. I highly recommend anyone who is voting in this country to read this book!
August 7, 2024
Tough subject, well researched and written. I’ve read Bruni’s NYT column frequently and like his perspective and writing style. Was nice to hear this in his voice on audiobook. The book does an excellent job of looking at how politics and politicians (both sides - pretty balanced look at the issues) have devolved to be more performative and less productive. And that social media has amplified all of that in ways that human nature makes it hard to change. Thankfully, he offers a couple of chapters of examples and ideas for changing it. It’s both tough to hear and hopeful, if we’re willing to fight the pull of grievance and rebuild the social contract. We don’t have to agree, just need to be more aware and less reactionary.
June 2, 2024
Finished The Age of Grievance by Frank Bruni, the longtime New York Times columnist, now also a Journalism Professor at Duke. Bruni previously authored a number of books, including these best sellers: Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania (2015),Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater, 2009 and Ambling Into History: The Unlikely Odyssey of George W. Bush (2002) I have been desperate for a book like this, that I might better understand the torn fabric of our politics and culture, to understand how in the world we got to a place of such discord. If you want to comprehend the animosity among family, friends and acquaintances with differing political views this is the book for you. The book is not slanted to either side of the political divide and Bruni points to possible solutions.
August 5, 2024
This was an insightful look into how grievance has shaped our culture the past handful of years and it’s prolific and insidious influence. Bruni, in my opinion, did a fair job of unpacking its presence it on both sides of the political spectrum. It highlights a lot of what many politically and culturally aware individuals recognize or sense regularly while offering language to understand how we arrived at this reality and how grievance fuels it. It’s made me think about how I view a number of issues and consider if I come from grievance when approaching them. Furthermore, it presented simple, yet continually accurate, advice for fixing it: talk to one another and try to actually connect instead of battle. My favorite part was when it referenced the last congress and how they didn’t even abide by rules kindergarteners do and how they had to go back to some of those basics. Really bolstering confidence in the bodies of governance.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 186 reviews