The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty

by David G. Myers

In this compelling book, well-known social psychologist David G. Myers asks why in an era of great material wealth America suffers from such a disturbing array of social problems and a deep spiritual poverty. Examining the research on social ills from the 1960s through 1990s, Myers concludes that materialism and radical individualism have cost us dearly. He offers positive, well-reasoned advice on how to spark social renewal and dream a new American dream.

David G. Myers is John Dirk Werkman Professory of Psychology at Hope College. His research and writings have appeared in five dozen periodicals, from Science to Scientific American, and his textbooks for introductory and social psychology are studied at nearly one thousand colleges and universities.

Genres: Psychology, Religion, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Self Help, Spirituality, Faith

414 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

David G. Myers is a professor of Psychology at Hope College in Michigan, and the author of 17 books, including popular textbooks entitled Psychology, Exploring Psychology, Social Psychology and several general-audience books dealing with issues related to Christian faith as well as scientific psychology.

Reviews

[Kapil Goyal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lot of it is pretty dated but one could still relate to author's ideological core drift. Wouldn't call it a must read but given the mad rush going on in the world right now - its a good book to pause and... think about the social trends around us.

[Ulysses]

Note to self: if a book intends to diagnose and propose treatments for America’s national social and cultural ailments, and is more than 20 years old, don’t pick it up— it will be laughably stale.

[Franziska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, I know I have said this about other books before, but this is really a must-read for anyone who is interested at all in family, marriage, divorce rates, children, poverty, crime, violence, media influences, economics, etc etc. This book discusses research on all these topics, and tries to review/discuss current social trends in the USA and how things have changed over the decades (and also what can be done to change things). While this books is completely research-based (which I love), the author (one of the US most prominent social psychologists)clearly pushes for the protection and support of marriage and family.

The best about this book to me is its academic value. Even though the author takes a clear stance, his views are based on the results of research. This is a fantastic book to read for anyone who cares about what's happening in this country socially, and who'd like to have something more tangible to talk about than mere opinions.

I definitely loved the book so much and consider it so valuable that I'll go and buy it.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The social science data is now a bit out of date, but I appreciate this books ability to annoy both the left and the right. Coming down in communitarian territory he advocates against individualism, corporate life, and guns, as well as for family and against teen pregnancy and the TV. In the end I share some of his communitarian views and his answers are modestly demanding and centered on faith and community.

[Khari · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t find this book at all compelling.

I didn’t find it interesting either. Which is a real shame, because it’s a book about sociology, I should have found it interesting but I didn’t. Part of the problem is it hasn’t aged well, and it should have. It’s not like the phenomenon that he is talking about have disappeared in the last 30 years, no they are continuing to degrade and get worse, so that wasn’t the problem. The problem was twofold, he was overly optimistic and seemed to think that a political change was the only thing that was needed to address the societal issues that he was decrying, such as the disintegration of the nuclear family. The other problem is related to optimism: he believed everyone who said that they were for something, especially if they were a celebrity, without bothering to consider the source, or whether or not the source was genuine.

At one point he quoted James Dobson, Hillary Clinton, and Jesse Jackson as all bring pro nuclear family, and I had to laugh at it. While it is true that all of those people have at one point or other in their lives expressed their support for a two parent family, only one of those people has consistently advocated for it and the other two have much more consistently advocated for the idea that all family structures are equal, which somewhat goes against this book’s empirical case that the societal outcomes of children raised in a committed, two parent, male and female relationship far exceed those who are not.

It’s like he believed that in order to reach a wider audience he had to find some celebrity to agree him, or no one would read the book. It was also annoying because although he did have endnotes, they weren’t included in the texts and they weren’t organized by page number at the end of the book either, so I couldn’t even check his data easily.

In short, the book was more boring than it should have been, his predictions were off, none of his fawning over celebrities aged well, and the book’s title didn’t match its contents. Where was the discussion of spirituality, of religion, of God? Don’t read it if you are looking for a biblical worldview on the societal trends of the 90s, you will be disappointed.

[G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive guide to North American lifestyle, compiling stats and very interesting studies in the world of psychology and human behaviours, government influence, etc. Wish there was an updated version of this, as a lot of the stats are now outdated/irrelevant.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a great title and such an interesting topic - but it was pretty dry reading.

[Leonardo]

Citado en el curso GG101x.

[David]

Quoted on The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz