2020

December 1, 2023
An intimate look at the advent of Covid-19 in the United States. Sociologist Klinenberg, director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU, examines the impact of the pandemic on America through the experiences of seven New Yorkers of different ages, races, ethnicities, economic statuses, and political ideologies, setting the details of their lives within a larger geographical, political, and social context. He discusses, for example, how other countries dealt with the pandemic, and how trust--in government and science--became a crucial issue in shaping people's behavior. Just as masks are "made of social fabric," attitudes about social distancing, shutdowns, and vaccinations reflected the multiple realities of a "polarized, segregated, and unequal" nation. Klinenberg's subjects include an elementary school principal living in a multigenerational family residence in Chinatown; a Puerto Rican woman in the Bronx working as a political appointee in the Andrew Cuomo administration; a bar owner in Staten Island, frustrated by the impact of long closures on his fledgling business; a feisty retired district attorney, a first-generation Irish American, living with her Ecuadoran husband and children in an ethnically diverse, densely populated Queens neighborhood; a mixed-race couple with two young daughters in Brooklyn; a photographer active in the Black Lives Matter movement; and a man whose father had worked as a custodian for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which forbade wearing masks as a violation of its dress code (like many other essential workers, he contracted Covid and died). Besides these central characters, Klinenberg brings in many others who speak to their own experiences, ranging from depression to food insecurity. Many who lived alone suffered feelings of isolation, neglect, and marginalization. Although the author found some hopeful evidence of solidarity, the pandemic unfortunately incited fear and resentment, making the U.S., unlike other countries, "exceptionally explosive" as a result. A vivid, multifaceted portrait of a wounded nation.

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December 1, 2023
Not everyone has been infected with COVID-19, but all of us have been indelibly affected by it. Year One of the pandemic in 2020 wrought fear, isolation, loss, and uncertainty. America largely fractured. Even when safe and effective vaccines for COVID-19 became available, a sizable number of Americans were unwilling to be vaccinated. Sociologist Klinenberg (Palaces for the People, 2018) figuratively employs magnifying glass, binoculars, and telescope in examining the effects of, and reactions to, the pandemic on ordinary people (through detailed interviews), neighborhood communities (the boroughs of New York City), and nations (UK, China, Taiwan, Australia, the U.S.). He compiles a superb ""social autopsy"" of turbulent 2020, investigating how institutions, societies, and political leadership cracked. He also notes the significance of Black Lives Matter protests and that year's contentious election. The results of this postmortem exam are insightful and infuriating. Klinenberg highlights the magnitude of racial inequities and socioeconomic disparities, the disintegration of trust, and the plague of misinformation. Masks, social distancing, and the surge of destructive behavior in the U.S. receive attention. This exceptional discussion of the chaos and catastrophe of COVID-19 ranks alongside Lawrence Wright's The Plague Year (2021) as essential reading on the subject. Let's hope that the experience of 2020 has bestowed upon us 20/20 lucidity, resolve, and solidarity moving forward.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 8, 2024
New York University sociologist Klinenberg (Palaces for the People) revisits in this complex and at times riveting work the tumultuous and traumatic first year of the Covid-19 pandemic in New York City. Presenting powerful personal narratives drawn from in-depth interviews alongside surveys and other studies, Klinenberg captures the year’s political upheaval by showcasing a wide variety of individual perspectives, ranging from those who protested George Floyd’s murder to those radicalized by the loss of individual liberties in the name of public health. Poignant stories of people caught up in the chaos and uncertainty are the book’s greatest strength. Thankachan Mathai, a trained physicist from India who had found work as a janitor with the city’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, felt duty-bound to continue working in the very early days of the pandemic and succumbed to the disease in March of 2020. Daniel Presti, another profile subject, was launching a new bar when Covid first emerged; feeling increasingly abandoned by city government, he began to operate the bar in defiance of local health measures. In the volume’s latter half, Klinenberg leans more heavily into studies and surveys, somewhat to the detriment of the narrative. Still, readers ready to reflect on 2020 will want to check out this vivid and nuanced account.

January 1, 2024

Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University, Klinenberg argues that Covid didn't so much cause radical shifts in society as highlight problems already there, particularly the taut dividing lines separating people worldwide by class and race and leading to social injustice, economic inequality, and environmental degradation. With suggestions for moving forward. Prepub Alert.

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