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From bestselling authors and journalistic titans Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, “Abundance” is a once-in-a-generation, paradigm-shifting call to renew a politics of plenty, face up to the failures of liberal governance, and abandon the chosen scarcities that have deformed American life.A Cappella Books and Georgia Center for the Book welcome author bestelling author and host of the podcast “Plain English,” Derek Thompson to discuss his new book with New York Times columnist Ezra Klein, “Abundance."
This event is free and open to the public. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the venue. Register to reserve your seat via the ticket link below.
About the Book
To trace the history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history of unaffordability and shortage. After years of refusing to build sufficient housing, America has a national housing crisis. After years of limiting immigration, we don’t have enough workers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we haven’t built anything close to the clean-energy infrastructure we need. Ambitious public projects are finished late and over budget—if they are ever finished at all. The crisis that’s clicking into focus now has been building for decades—because we haven’t been building enough.
"Abundance" explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryear’s villains. Rather, one generation’s solutions have become the next generation’s problems. Rules and regulations designed to solve the problems of the 1970s often prevent urban-density and green-energy projects that would help solve the problems of the 2020s. Laws meant to ensure that government considers the consequences of its actions have made it too difficult for government to act consequentially. In the last few decades, our capacity to see problems has sharpened while our ability to solve them has diminished.
Progress requires facing up to the institutions in life that are not working as they need to. It means, for liberals, recognizing when the government is failing. It means, for conservatives, recognizing when the government is needed. In a book exploring how we can move from a liberalism that not only protects and preserves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and propose a path toward a politics of abundance. At a time when movements of scarcity are gaining power in country after country, this is an answer that meets the challenges of the moment while grappling honestly with the fury so many rightfully feel.
About the Authors
Derek Thompson is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the host of the podcast “Plain English.” A news analyst with NPR, Derek appears weekly on the national news show “Here and Now” and is a contributor to CBS News. He is the author of the national bestseller “Hit Makers.” He lives in Washington, DC.
Ezra Klein is an opinion columnist and host of the award-winning “Ezra Klein Show” podcast at The New York Times. He is the author of “Why We’re Polarized,” an instant New York Times bestseller, named one of Barack Obama’s top books of 2022. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Georgia Center for the Book at DCPL, 215 Sycamore St, Decatur, GA 30030-3413, United States,Decatur, Georgia
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