---
product_id: 237671
title: "The Unwinding"
brand: "farrar, straus and giroux"
price: "€ 24.24"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
category: "Book"
url: https://www.desertcart.sk/products/237671-the-unwinding
store_origin: SK
region: Slovakia
---

# The Unwinding

**Brand:** farrar, straus and giroux
**Price:** € 24.24
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Unwinding by farrar, straus and giroux
- **How much does it cost?** € 24.24 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sk](https://www.desertcart.sk/products/237671-the-unwinding)

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## Description

The Unwinding

## Images

![The Unwinding - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511QvRLvA2L.jpg)
![The Unwinding - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31H558I81hL.jpg)
![The Unwinding - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DOyY7bICL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Eating dessert first
  

*by G***R on Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2013*

I am a voracious reader, averaging a book every ten days. I try to alternate fiction with non fiction. While non fiction is educational and often illuminating, it usually requires that I pay careful attention and not simply drift off into the haze of another time or place. On the other hand even great fiction is a bit akin to candy and I keep hearing my mothers voice in my ear - "Eat your vegetables first."On very rare occasions I come across a book that has the qualities of both - the informational value and understanding engendered by careful and diligent research and the compelling narrative of great fiction. The Unwinding by George Packard is one of these rare works. Packard has accomplished the rare feat of combining great research with compelling story telling. He makes the places and time palpable to the reader. And he does this with a most interesting format, short chapters on people and places that he keeps returning to and intertwining with each other until the conclusion is almost overwhelming.Without getting hyperbolic this is one of the most interesting and compelling works detailing how the US has become a declining society. One that is in danger of not just failing, but becoming irrelevant. Where income and inequality is destroying us and a classed based, stratified society is returning - something we thought we had moved beyond.And possibly more importantly this is the story of how we let it happen - shooting ourselves in the metaphorical foot. Is it doleful and a downer without doubt. Sad and painful all in one. Yet we have not hit rock bottom as yet and there is more than a little hope that we will recover - right the ship so to speak. There are promising signs out there both in the social and political spheres, and I am optimistic. Other wise I would simply pull the blanket over my head and no longer interact with the world at large.Many, including myself, have written about this phenomenon but in either a very broad brush way or abstract, academic terms. These writings are often so abstract that they do not cut through the fog of every day life and the tsunami of words, sounds and images that envelope us, so as to evoke core emotions and an understanding of the problem at a visceral level. George Packer does this brilliantly in his latest book The Unwinding: an inner history of the new America, by using the stories of real people and real places, small towns and big cities, to bring to his reader a resounding epiphany.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    The cynical view of what happened to the golden America
  

*by T***R on Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2013*

Clearly, George Packer is a well established member of the anti-establishment and that view determines the polarization of his pen as he sketches a series of lives and their experiences with what he terms the unwinding. He defines the unwinding as the change in American society present in the last 40 years as we have transitioned from a manufacturing-based and more localized economy to our present state. The author describes this world for us as a place where the institutions of government have failed us because they have been taken over by special interests and the only guardians of hope are the iconoclast organizers, journalists and activists determined to fight the system.However, any time these activists get to work, they better not get too big because they risk becoming part of the establishment, which creates a strange tension for me: while you can't trust any private institution to act responsibly, he seems to have a blind trust in the government to regulate and level the playing field. Through a set of engaging and short biographical vignettes, he builds the case for increased regulation to protect the public from our failed institutions. He puts a name and a history on what otherwise might be another name who loses their home. He portrays hapless families used by the big banks to take away their home, and to be content there, but to take away their dignity, their health and even their sanity in an insatiable act of greed. His message is clear -- a disease has taken over our country and it is in general the establishment and in particular republican party (wholly owned by big business) and the democrats of the permanent political class. But isn't he missing something here? Aren't we all culpable when it comes to greed? I know it is obvious, but I can't escape the fact that no one was forced to sign any of the mortgage papers that provided the legal justification to reclaim their homes after they repeatedly failed to make payments.While he exalts the value of the individual against the institution, even his heroes come off a bit weak. Dean Price, Tammy and Peter Theil all get their platform while some are put before us for outright scorn or tabloid entertainment: Breitbart, Gingrich, and Oprah. Yes, all the biographies are interesting, but besides their entertainment value many failed to fall into the larger narrative in any meaningful way.Despite my overall disagreement with his diagnosis, I greatly enjoyed this read and recommend it to my friends. He also exposes you to inside the system and does give some very interesting perspectives. The way he tells it in biographical sketches made the book very compelling and did teach me a lot about the world and the way he set up his framework forced me to ask some very interesting questions related to how I think the world fits together.In the end, was left motivated by the book to do something. Not just motivated to be part of the solution, but I was committed to not be at the mercy of legal and banking systems. Most of all I want to be full in my humanity. I want to be an individual empowered by the ability to have freedom of action and freedom to be and I want to be part of the world that empowers individuals to do the same.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
    Great book
  
  

*by F***L on Reviewed in France on May 9, 2018*

I more than enjoyed reading this book, I recommend it to anyone interested in social evolutions, politics, or the United States by and large. A great book.

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*Product available on Desertcart Slovakia*
*Store origin: SK*
*Last updated: 2026-01-24*