My guest this week is Princeton sociologist Paul Starr, a masterful scholar of American institutions. He is perhaps best known for his 1984 book, The Social Transformation of American Medicine, which won both the Bancroft Prize and the Pulitzer Prize. In his new book, American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now, Paul describes postwar America as a compact between economic growth, civic moderation, and social hierarchy. Prosperity and patriotism masked deep contradictions—racial exclusion, patriarchal norms, conformity enforced by Cold-War discipline. Beginning in the 1960s, those contradictions burst open. Civil-rights activism, feminism, and a broader ethic of individual self-expression shattered the old consensus. The resulting liberation of identities and markets alike generated what he calls the “revenge” of the right: Reaganism, neoliberalism, moral conservatism, and eventually Trumpist populism.
The United States, he suggests, has oscillated between these poles ever since—its liberal institutions pulled between the demands of social revolution and the constraints of an inherited order. Today, he warns, the liberal center may be unable to reconcile the energy of change with the need for cohesion. In this conversation, we delve into the dialectic between the liberal struggle for the expansion of rights and the conservative reaction against that expansion. Paul is an unapologetic, old-school liberal, and American Contradiction reflect his belief in the necessity of the social revolution he describes, though he acknowledges that strategic mistakes were made. He sees Trump as the apotheosis of the right’s resistance to that revolution and a case study in the dangers of concentrating power in the presidency. While the book makes its case brilliantly, I’m skeptical of Paul’s apparent disregard for the positive contributions of conservative thought and policy to American life. He’s written a book worth arguing with, and I’ll post a response to him later this week in which I do just that.
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0:00 Paul: The past shows us there’s a basis for hope for this country
3:40 The origins of Paul’s new book, American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now
11:07 Is the push-pull between liberation struggles and institutional resistance a uniquely American phenomenon?
13:31 Ground News ad
15:39 The black freedom struggle as a template for change
21:37 From civil rights to progressive overreach
24:31 Can the Democrats take back lost ground?
30:58 Paul: Trump’s immigration crack-downs are acts of political revenge
35:53 The social triumph and political tragedy of immigration
45:54 How modern media fragmented American society
52:59 Paul: We need to restrain executive power
57:39 The importance of remembering our past without being shackled by it
Recorded November 20, 2025
Links and Readings
Paul’s new book, American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now
Anne Case and Angus Deaton’s book, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
Pauli Murray and Mary Eastwood’s article, “Jane Crow and the Law: Sex Discrimination and Title VII”
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book, Abundance: How We Build a Better Future
Paul’s American Prospect article, “The Social Triumph and Political Tragedy of Immigration”
Paul’s book, The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communication
