Coming Apart (2012) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Quotes edit see section history

• “It is not the existence of classes that is new, but the emergence of classes that diverge on core behaviors and values--classes that barely recognize their underlying American kinship.”

• “To be an American was to be different from other nationalities, in ways that Americans treasured. That culture is unraveling.”

• “At the top are those who have risen to jobs that directly affect the nation's culture, economy, and politics. ... I will call this subset the narrow elite. ... The narrow elite numbers fewer than a hundred thousand people, and perhaps only ten thousand or so. ... A narrow elite existed in 1960 as in 2010, but it was not a group that had broadly shared backgrounds, tastes, preferences, or culture. They were powerful people, not a class.”

• “... preceding November 21, 1963, ... you could live in a typical house in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the nation for about twice the average cost of all houses built that year nationwide.”

• “By and large Mrs. Post, like others among America's wealthy, spent her leisure time doing the same kinds of things that other Americans did. The wealthy just did them in fancier surroundings and had servants.”

• “The latent propensity to create a different culture existed, but the intellectuals of Harvard Square didn't have the critical mass to reshape the community in the ways that their tastes and preferences would reshape it when a critical mass materialized.”

• “The Great Harvest Bread Company has opened up a franchise in town, one of those gourmet bread stores where they sell apricot almond or spinach feta loaf for $4.75 a pop ... If you ask them to slice the bread in the store, they look at you compassionately as one who has not yet risen to the higher realm of bread consciousness.”

  David Brooks from Bobos in Paradise (late 1990s)

• “The new-upper-class culture is different from mainstream American culture in all sorts of ways. Some are differences in lifestyle that individually are harmless but that cumulatively produce cultural separation between this new upper class and mainstream America. Still others involve differences that consist of good things happening to the cognitive elite that are not open to the rest of America.”

• “... mainstream America is a lot more relaxed than the new upper class about their children. ... less inclined to obsess about how smart their baby is, how to make the baby smarter, where the baby should go to preschool, and where the baby should go to law school. ... Most mainstream American parents lose no sleep whatsoever because their child's college is not in the top ten ...”

• “The essence of the culture of the new upper class is remarkably consistent across the political spectrum.”

• “The reason that upper-middle-class children dominate the population of elite schools is that the parents of the upper-middle class now produce a disproportionate number of the smartest children.”

• “... homogamy has increased at both ends of the educational scale--college graduates grew more likely to marry college graduates and high school dropouts grew more likely to marry other high school dropouts. ... Increased educational hogamany inevitably means increased cognitive hogomany. ... Highly disproportionate numbers of exceptionally able children in the next generation will come from parents in the upper-middle class, and more specifically from parents who are already part of the broad elite.”

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• America
• Belmont
• United States
• Northwest Washington
• Austin
• Manhattan
• Europe
• Princeton
• New York City
• Philadelphia
• Cambridge
• San Francisco
• Los Angeles
• Upper East Side
• England
• Kensington
• Boston
• St. Jude
• Wall Street
• Putnam
• Columbia
• Texas
• France
• White Fishtown
• Massachusetts
• Maryland
• Bethesda
• Chicago

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• narrow elite: those who have risen to jobs that directly affect the nation's culture, economy, and politics
• broad elite: those who are both successful and influential within a city or region; members of the new upper class who are not part of the narrow elite
• new upper class: the most successful and influential-- top 5% in terms of education and income.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Charles Murray (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 301

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Nonfiction › Social Sciences