Thread by @dan_pericles

Will Davies' compelling review of Keir Milburn's _Generation Left_ (LRB Feb 20) led me to purchase the book. The "generation" is the one affected by the 2008 crash / 2011 Occupy movements, and the picture is dire: UK and USA both now riven by 1/

politybooks.com/generation-lef…

differences of class, age, gender, home ownership, and even reading (Brexiteers or old, white, established & read papers; their foes young, mixed, poorer & rely on social media; USA similar). For many older folks, "2008 did not take place." For others, now in terrible jobs & 2/

without their own homes, it continues.
In this picture, generation / wealth overlap substantially. Whether home-owning faculty (in California, some beneficiaries of Prop 13) will or can act effectively on behalf of the larger group still in question: such is the 3/

power structure. Milburn insists that electoral politics is only part of the problem: we need "extra-parliamentary" efforts and new expanded alliances.

He does provide lots of data. Davies, adding a ref to Adkins, Koning and Cooper in Sydney, 4/

adds that the dominant interest "over the past forty years has been [that of] investors and owners. Generational conflict is an outcome of this political choice." Has my generation acted wisely?

I read this fast, others will say more. 5/

Milburn uses Karl Mannheim, always interesting to see. 6/