The Age of Grievance

By: Frank Bruni

Narrated by: Frank Bruni

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Brilliant...Bruni writes with humor, insight, and precision.” —Wall Street Journal • “The best prescription for our redemption.” —The New York Times • “A wise and humane book for our foolish and cruel era.” —Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation

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 are unpredictable, but the tone is a troubling given. It’s one of grievance. More and more Americans are convinced that they’re losing because somebody else is winning. More and more tally their slights, measure their misfortune, and assign particular people responsibility for it. The blame game has become the country’s most popular sport and victimhood its most fashionable garb.

Grievance needn’t be bad. It has done enormous good. The United States is a nation born of grievance, and across the nearly two hundred and fifty 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 people take their grievances to lengths that they didn’t before? A violent mob storms the US Capitol, rejecting the results of a presidential election. Conspiracy theories flourish. Fox News knowingly peddles lies in the service of profit. College students chase away speakers, and college administrators dismiss instructors for dissenting from progressive orthodoxy. Benign words are branded hurtful; benign gestures are deemed hostile. 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? The Age of Grievance examines these critical questions and charts a path forward.

Critic reviews

"NEW YORK TIMES columnist Frank Bruni narrates his persuasive examination of the outrage that currently dominates American discourse with a tone of authority underlying his overall conversational delivery. Bruni’s astute observations have a mix of gravitas and wit that keeps this topic from feeling quite so oppressive."

A book for our time especially

An unusually well balanced perspective on how to approach difficult social issues that we all face now.

Absolutism and Arrogance in the Free World

Frank Bruni is one of those writers who not only has a way with words but knows how to express his opinions in order to give the listener a sumptuous feast for thought.
There are many writers who believe that they can narrate the written word - very few succeed. Frank Bruni is not only a succinct writer but a suberp narrator making this a perfect audio book for those who appreciate the spoken word.
In his own words: "When grievance flowers - perspective withers".
This book not only gives one a deep background of the reasons behind our extremist views in a "democratic" society, but also the insights on how to moderate them.
A great listening experience.

Age of grievance

Excellent writing and content. Exceptionally well informed and perceptive. Highly recommended to everyone concerned with state of the country

Bruni is always thoughtful, fair and measured.

I love this book. But I’m listening and now I want to read lots of the books Bruni references. Is there any way to attach a bibliography to the audible version of this book? I will go back and write down the titles if I must. But it would be so, so helpful to have a list of referenced material.

grievance is killing us

though the book dwells mostly on political and social grievances and grievance enhancing mechanisms, much of the ideas in the book and also be applied to other grievance cultures with psychology, religion, parenting and numerous other applications. the books core message to me was that ultimately grievance has a diminished return and eventually we become addicted to it and it slowly erodes and eats away at our prospects true self.