Pinched

July 25, 2011
The Great Recession may have receded, but its consequences will resound through our society for years to come, as shown in this fascinating exploration from Peck, managing editor of the Atlantic. Though life in major cities and affluent suburbs has returned to something like normal, jobs remain scarce and the housing market devastated. The downturn will have an irrevocable, transformative impact on American life and cultureâand Peck extrapolates those consequences and possible responses by looking at comparable economic calamities of the past: the panic of the 1890s, the Great Depression, and the oil-shock recessions of the 1970s. The current recession has affected the rich and poor unevenly, and this economic rift is mirrored geographically, as some areas recuperate from the crash and some founder. On the societal end, women are fast becoming the essential breadwinners and authority figures in many working-class familiesâand the previously over-confident Millennial Generation is showing the career conservatism of the generations before them. In the meantime, race relations have become yet more strained and complicated, xenophobia festers, and rural conservatism grows. Peck wraps up his exegesis with a consideration on the future of politics and possible strategies for healing the aftereffects of the recession. An important, far-thinking consideration of the reverberationsâsocial, political, psychologicalâof the financial crash.