Summary of Victor Davis Hanson's The Dying Citizen

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Victor Davis Hanson's The Dying Citizen in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: Human history is full of the stories of peasants, subjects, and tribes. Yet the concept of the “citizen” is historically rare—and was among America’s most valued ideals for over two centuries. But without shock treatment, warns historian Victor Davis Hanson, American citizenship as we have known it may soon vanish.

In The Dying Citizen, Hanson outlines the historical forces that led to this crisis. The evisceration of the middle class over the last fifty years has made many Americans dependent on the federal government. Open borders have undermined the idea of allegiance to a particular place. Identity politics have eradicated our collective civic sense of self. And a top-heavy administrative state has endangered personal liberty, along with formal efforts to weaken the Constitution.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Dec 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781669341963

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Victor Davis Hanson's The Dying Citizen

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

In America, the middle class has been eroding for years now, and millions of Americans are now becoming our own updated version of the European peasantry.

#2

The Greeks believed that those who toiled for themselves were the most worthy of citizenship. The middle class, which included merchants and artisans, was considered the most essential part of a city’s population.

#3

However, even after the fall of the Roman Empire, the idea of Western broad-based citizenship never died out. Instead, it reemerged in various manifestations throughout Europe over the next millennium and a half.

#4

Today, the American middle class is dying. The new middle class is made up of people who don’t own property or have much money. They are the beneficiaries of a technological society, but they are completely dependent on it as well.

#5

However, the American Dream is quickly becoming a nightmare for the middle class, as cheap interest rates and budget deficits destroy the savings of those who can least afford it.

#6

America was different from most countries in that it allowed for constant self-improvement and change through democratic means.

#7

In the early twentieth century, the American middle class was beginning to feel the effects of the Great Depression. Families were being forced to sell their farms in order to pay off debts accumulated in buying and maintaining them. As a result, the American middle class began to shrink.

#8

Middle-class families struggled to keep up with the rising cost of housing and college tuition, which were both largely caused by government regulations.

#9

The universities have also shown little concern for the declining lot of students, instead opting to focus on abstract radicalism that tends to benefit the faculty rather than the students.

#10

The consequences of ossification for younger