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  • A Time to Build

  • From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream
  • By: Yuval Levin
  • Narrated by: Ford Enlow
  • Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (5 ratings)
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A Time to Build

By: Yuval Levin
Narrated by: Ford Enlow
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Summary

A leading conservative intellectual argues that to renew America we must recommit to our institutions

Americans are living through a social crisis. Our politics is polarized and bitterly divided. Culture wars rage on campus, in the media, social media, and other arenas of our common life. And for too many Americans, alienation can descend into despair, weakening families and communities and even driving an explosion of opioid abuse.

Left and right alike have responded with populist anger at our institutions, and use only metaphors of destruction to describe the path forward: cleaning house, draining swamps. But, as Yuval Levin argues, this is a misguided prescription, rooted in a defective diagnosis. The social crisis we confront is defined not by an oppressive presence but by a debilitating absence of the forces that unite us and militate against alienation.

As Levin argues, now is not a time to tear down, but rather to build and rebuild by committing ourselves to the institutions around us. From the military to churches, from families to schools, these institutions provide the forms and structures we need to be free. By taking concrete steps to help them be more trustworthy, we can renew the ties that bind Americans to one another.

©2020 Yuval Levin (P)2020 Basic Books
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"Mainstream Republicans dismayed by the current state of their party...will savor this well-reasoned and hopeful study." (Publishers Weekly)

"A provocative, inspiring look at the underlying cause of our polarization and dysfunction." (Kirkus)

"A Time to Build is exactly what America needs right now. A moving call to recommit to the great project of our common life. And from Yuval Levin, one of the most thoughtful and pertinent of our public intellectuals, who writes like a dream if dreams were always clear. What an encouraging book this is, and what an important one." (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal)

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Interesting book but lacks evidence for claims

The book has an interesting thesis and is well written. However claims are only backed up with anecdotes.

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