Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Decline of Discourse

**This event will take place in English**

Join us for a conversation with the author of Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse- an incisive, culturally observant analysis of the evolving mores, manners and taboos of social justice (“anti-racist”) orthodoxy, which has profoundly influenced how we think about diversity and freedom of expression, often with complex or paradoxical consequences.

In this provocative book, Thomas Chatterton Williams, one of the most revered and reviled social commentators of our time, paints a clear and detailed picture of the ideas and events that have paved the way for the dramatic paradigm shift in social justice that has taken place over the past few years. Taking aim at the ideology of critical race theory, the rise of an oppressive social media, the fall from Obama to Trump, and the twinned crises of COVID-19 and the M**der of George Floyd, Williams documents the extent to which this transition has altered media, artistic creativity, education, employment, policing, and, most profoundly, the ambient language and culture we use to make sense of our lives.

Williams also decries how liberalism—the very foundation of an open and vibrant society—is in existential crisis, under assault from both the right and the left, especially in our predominantly networked, Internet-driven monoculture.

The author will be in conversation with Director of La Maison Française of NYU and professor in the Department of French Literature, Thought and Culture at NYU François Noudelmann.

Host or Publisher La Maison Française of NYU