A Reckoning

2020

What unites us? What divides us? What do we value? Sociologist Eric Klinenberg had been studying what crises reveal about societies for over two decades when his home of New York became the deadliest hot spot of the global pandemic. In this book he combines what he and his research team learned on the ground from the events of that year with data gathered around the world to provide unprecedented insights into what societies are made of, why they come together or fall apart, and how they shape our lives. 
 
At the heart of 2020 are the deeply reported stories of seven people, including a school principal, a bar manager, a transport worker and a political aide, living within the same city yet worlds apart. Klinenberg shows how their diverse experiences were determined, like those of different countries, not by geography, preparedness, or vaccines, but by social factors: how much we trust each other and our government, whether we value the collective or the individual, and how the actions of our leaders fostered or undermined those relationships. 
 
The year 2020 was one of the most consequential in history. Why did the best prepared countries, the USA and UK, suffer the worst death-rates, while many vulnerable countries avoided them? Why, within a single city, were some communities so much more devastated than others? Why did America erupt into protest and violence while other societies endured lengthy lockdowns with relatively little disruption or dissent? In answering these questions, this riveting and affecting book shows that 2020 was also a once-in-a-generation opportunity: to see the truth about ourselves and our societies, as well as the challenges we must meet before the next crisis arrives.

A gripping, deeply moving account of a signal year in modern history, told through the stories of seven ordinary people trying to survive at the epicentre of the crisis. Klinenberg's narrative shows how the legacy of that year continues to shape us, our politics and our personal lives

Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies

A sociological investigation of an unforgettable year, 2020 compellingly reveals what the pandemic laid bare about our culture, our institutions, and ourselves

A book that's at once intimate and far-ranging, that reveals the importance of social solidarity and also its fragility

Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

Eric Klinenberg is the Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He is the co-author of the bestseller Modern Romance and author of Palaces for the People, Going Solo, Heat Wave and Fighting for Air. He has contributed to the Guardian, New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, Atlantic, Rolling Stone and Wired. He lives in New York City.

Eric Klinenberg

How To Build a More Equal and United Society

How can we bring people together? 
 
Sociologist and best-selling author Eric Klinenberg introduces a transformative and powerfully uplifting new idea for health, happiness, safety and healing our divided, unequal society. 
 
'This wonderful book shows us how democracies thrive' Steven Levitsky &amp; Daniel Ziblatt, authors of How Democracies Die 
 
Too often we take for granted and neglect our libraries, parks, markets, schools, playgrounds, gardens and communal spaces, but decades of research now shows that these places can have an extraordinary effect on our personal and collective wellbeing. Why? Because wherever people cross paths and linger, wherever we gather informally, strike up a conversation and get to know one another, relationships blossom and communities emerge – and where communities are strong, people are safer and healthier, crime drops and commerce thrives, and peace, tolerance and stability take root. 
 
Through uplifting human stories and an illuminating tour through the science of social connection, Palaces for the People shows that properly designing and maintaining this ‘social infrastructure’ might be our single best strategy for a more equal and united society.

Eric Klinenberg

Palaces for the People

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