Reviews: Disappointed? Read This Book

January-February 1997

By James W Skillen

The Politics of Disappointment is about American elections from 1976 through 1994. If you are trying to figure out why politics seems to make less and less sense these days and why you do not enjoy voting like you did in the good old days, then you will enjoy this volume.

The author, Wilson Carey McWilliams is a member of the Advisory Council of the Center for Public Justice and is Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University. He has been writing for years on the history of American culture and politics.

McWilliams explains the title of his book this way: "In retrospect, Vietnam and Watergate, those symbols of disillusionment, seem only events in a much longer story... There have been good, even triumphant moments since [the 1950s and 1960s[, but most Americans, looking backward, are finding it hard not to see a long, slow slide: real wages declining, society deteriorating, gaps widening between old and young and rich and poor, the hopeful integrationism of the civil rights movement turned into a bitter politics of race." And more.

The elections of 1976 through 1994 have reflected the growing disappointment of American voters, and McWilliams helps make sense of the voting habits. Given the fact that the 1996 election did not do much to change American prospects for the future, I suspect that what McWilliams says in this volume will be sufficient to help us understand ourselves until at least the year 2000. In any case, if you are looking for a book on the elections that has historical and cultural depth, you will enjoy this one—even if you remain disappointed.

The Politics of Disappointment is available from Chatham House Publishers, Box one, Chatham, NJ 07928.