In The Politics of Petulance Alan Wolfe argues the core of our problem isn’t Trump himself-it’s that people are mired in an age of political immaturity. That immaturity isn’t grounded in virtually any one ideology, neither is it a function of age or education. In 2016, many Americans were provided tantalizingly simple answers to challenging problems, and, like children on offer a lunch of Pop Rocks and Coke, they reflexively-and mindlessly-accepted.

The good news is that we have been right here before. Wolfe about The Politics of Petulance: America in a day and time of Immaturity reminds us that people know how to develop up and encounter down Trump and additional demagogues. Wolfe reinvigorates the tradition of public engagement exemplified by mid-century intellectuals such as for example Richard Hofstadter, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Lionel Trilling-and he attracts lessons off their fights with McCarthyism and conspiratorial paranoia. Wolfe mounts a powerful case that people can learn from these to forge a new path for politics intervention today.

Wolfe continues to be thinking and authoring American life and politics for decades. He views this moment as you of true risk. But he’s not nausea his hands; he’s bracing us. We’ve faced demagogues before. We are able to discover the intellectual maturity to fight. Yes we are able to.