In Covid's Wake

“A New Yorker Best Book We Read So Far”“Important … Unique… . It’s an invitation to have a reckoning. ”—Michael Barbaro, New York Times’ The Daily“Thanks for writing this book. Really, really important. The country needs a reckoning on a lot of these things.”—Jake Tapper, CNN’s The Lead“Compelling.”—Fareed Zakaria, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS“A revelatory look back on the pandemic. Its conclusions are devastating to both the left and the right; most of us got big things wrong. (I certainly did.)”—Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker“Essential and revelatory.” * Andrew Sullivan *“Convincing .”—David Scharfenberg, Boston Globe“Must read. Among other things, a frank discussion of how the Laptop Class championed policies—lockdowns and school closures—that primarily impacted the Have Nots, while the Haves enjoyed remote work, online shopping, booming stock portfolios, and groceries delivered by the poor.”—Tyler Austin Harper“This is a very good book and I think ongoing progressive denial about what went wrong here set the table for a lot of what’s happening today under Trump.”—Matthew Yglesias“

The authors have produced the most dismaying dissection of U.S. policymaking since David Halberstam’s Vietnam War policy autopsy, “The Best and the Brightest.’ Their book is more dismaying, but also exhilarating. Vietnam revealed the insularity and hubris of a small coterie of foreign policy shapers. Macedo and Lee identify much broader and deeper cultural sicknesses. But their meticulous depictions and plausible explanations of the myriad institutional failures demonstrate social science at its finest.

”—George Will, Washington Post“Provocative.”—Sara Talpos, Undark“Eye-opening … . [The book] persuasively and passionately details what went wrong.”—Daniel Bell, Literary Review“In Covid’s Wake should be required reading for every American—in truth, for every citizen of a democracy. It’s the harsh diagnostic necessary before we can hope for a cure.”—Martin Gurri, Free Press“Many people who now see America’s pandemic response as regrettable nevertheless still believe that, taken in proper perspective, we couldn’t really have done much better. That belief will not survive the reading of [In Covid’s Wake].”—Philip Wallach, Wall Street Journal“Macedo and Lee expose the flawed decisions through careful analysis designed to shape future policy decisions… . The bigger lessons for Christians should be that power tends to accentuate sinful tendencies and that sin will always be exposed in time. There’s no way we’ll make correct decisions all the time, but we’ll always be well served by pursuing truth, goodness, and beauty with generosity toward those who dissent. In Covid’s Wake offers pastors and church leaders a powerful case study to help them lead through difficult circumstances with grace and wisdom.”—Hunter Baker, Gospel Coalition“Compelling, extraordinarily readable. You will not regret reading this book … . Really terrific.”—Andrew Sullivan“Covid is not ancient history. Any survey probing why so many young voters are turning right that excludes their pandemic experience is wasting time. The road to recovery starts with looking in the mirror. The seminal book, In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us, by two Princeton scholars should be compulsory reading across the spectrum.”—Edward Luce, Financial Times

Stephen Macedo is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. He is the author of Just Married: Same-Sex Couples, Monogamy, and the Future of Marriage (Princeton); Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy; and Liberal Virtues: Citizenship, Virtue, and Community in Liberal Constitutionalism.

Frances Lee is professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University. She is the author of Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign; Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate; and (with James M. Curry) The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Age.