2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed

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A meticulously reported, character-driven, unforgettable investigation of a time when nothing was certain and everything was at stake, by the acclaimed sociologist and best-selling author Eric Klinenberg

“A gripping, deeply moving account of a signal year in modern history, told through the stories of seven ordinary people. Klinenberg’s narrative shows how the legacy of that year continues to shape us, our politics and our personal lives.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
The Emperor of All Maladies • "I can easily see this book being invaluable in the future."—Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times

2020 will go down alongside 1914, 1929, and 1968 as one of the most consequential years in history. This riveting and affecting book is the first attempt to capture the full human experience of that fateful time.

At the heart of
2020 are seven vivid profiles of ordinary New Yorkers—including an elementary school principal, a bar manager, a subway custodian, and a local political aide—whose experiences illuminate how Americans, andpeople across the globe, reckoned with 2020. Through these poignant stories, we revisit our own moments of hope and fear, the profound tragedies and losses in our communities, the mutual aid networks that brought us together, and the social movements that hinted at the possibilities of a better world.

Eric Klinenberg vividly captures these stories, casting them against the backdrop of a high-stakes presidential election, a surge of misinformation, rising distrust, and raging protests. We move from the epicenter in New York City to Washington and London, where political leaders made the crisis so much more lethal than it had to be. We bear witness to epidemiological battles in Wuhan and Beijing, along with the initiatives of scientists, citizens, and policy makers in Australia, Japan, and Taiwan, who worked together to save lives.

Klinenberg allows us to see 2020—and, ultimately, ourselves—with unprecedented clarity and empathy. His book not only helps us reckon with what we lived through, but also with the challenges we face before the next crisis arrives.

"A masterful piece of rigorous journalism, rigorous sociology, and incredible story-telling."—Chris Hayes, MSNBC News

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In Eric Klinenberg’s excellent 2020, we are given both micro-incident—closely reported scenes from the lives of representative New Yorkers struggling through the plague year—and macro-comment: cross-cultural, overarching chapters assess broader social forces . . . Throughout, Klinenberg’s mixture of closeup witness and broad-view sociology is engrossing, and reminds this reader of the late Howard S. Becker’s insistence that the best sociology is always, in the first instance, wide-angle reporting. As we flow effortlessly from big picture to small, we learn from both."
Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker

"2020 is...a masterful piece of rigorous journalism, rigorous sociology, and incredible story-telling."
—Chris Hayes, MSNBC News

"Covers an extraordinarily rich range of issues and insights, some of them familiar, others utterly fresh...One of the most striking expressions of America’s political brokenness that I’ve yet encountered."
—Rick Perlstein, The American Prospect

“2020 reshaped our politics, unveiled cracks in our society and transformed the ways we work, live, and interact with each other. But we’ve never really reckoned with those changes. Eric Klinenberg has just released a wonderful book…that unpacks the ways that terrible year revealed what we value and changed how we interact. A beautiful book and one that, despite my initial anxiety, I’m really happy to have read.”
—Jon Favreau,Host ofPod Save America

"By bridging the gaps between individual, community and population, [Klinenberg] shows how pandemics alter society and exacerbate inequality. He follows the threads that connect the individual lived experience to the national phenomenon." 
Laura Spinney, New Statesman

"I can easily see this book being invaluable in the future."
Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times

"Elegantly written and well researched."
—The Economist

"When I think 2020, I think blur: social unrest, economic turbulence, all amplified and fueled by a world-historical pandemic. As someone who teaches at a public health school, I’ve wondered for a while what a book that successfully captured that year would look like. Eric Klinenberg’s
2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed is that book. It’s written with the critical distance we need to finally get our heads around it; the deep research to make it more than armchair analysis; and the ambitious sweep that brings fractured threads together."
—Merlin Chowkwanyun, Public Books

"Remarkable . . . full of intriguing insights."
Literary Review

"A call for thought and planning—and a shaming. Klinenberg...tells a factual story, of course. But the unexpectedly moving trick he pulls off—the way he humanizes statistics alternately chilling and numbing—is by writing profiles of seven New Yorkers grappling with the disease, both at work and at home."
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“A gripping, deeply moving account of a signal year in modern history, told through the stories of seven ordinary people trying to survive at the epicenter of the crisis. Klinenberg’s narrative not only exposes the social fault lines that made 2020 epically traumatic but also shows how the legacy of that year continues to shape us, our politics and our personal lives.”
—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies

“In 2020, Eric Klinenberg explores the meaning and impact of the pandemic through the experiences of seven New Yorkers who lived through it. The result is a book that's at once intimate and far-ranging, a work that reveals the importance of social solidarity and also its fragility.”
―Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction

“A sociological investigation of an unforgettable year. Klinenberg profiles a radicalized bar manager, a determined school principal, and a cast of Americans whose stories reveal how 2020 reshaped life in the United States. By asking fresh questions—Why did crime and social division spike in the U.S. but not elsewhere? How did masks get so politicized?—
2020 compellingly reveals what the pandemic laid bare about our culture, our institutions, and ourselves.“
—Matthew Desmond, best-selling author of Poverty, by America and Evicted

"Klinenberg...compiles a superb 'social autopsy' of turbulent 2020, investigating how institutions, societies, and political leadership cracked....This exceptional discussion of the chaos and catastrophe of COVID-19 ranks alongside Lawrence Wright's
The Plague Year (2021) as essential reading on the subject. Let's hope that the experience of 2020 has bestowed upon us 20/20 lucidity, resolve, and solidarity moving forward."
Booklist, Starred Review

"Rigorously researched....[Klinenberg] pays tribute to people’s resilience and generous responses in the face of terrible odds, via profiles of seven individuals....Engrossing, this book captures the lingering uncertainty that has characterized the COVID pandemic, while assessing its global effects and likely future challenges. This vital title has breadth."
Library Journal, Starred Review

“Riveting…a vivid and nuanced account.”
Publishers Weekly

About the Author

ERIC KLINENBERG is the Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He is the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Modern Romance and author of Palaces for the People, Going Solo, Heat Wave, and Fighting for Air. He has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Wired, and This American Life. He lives in New York City.

Review:

4.4 out of 5

87.50% of customers are satisfied

5.0 out of 5 stars A Comprehensive Look at 2020, the Pandemic

L.R. · March 9, 2024

This is a really good book. Not a fun read. Not lighthearted. But it is a great read. It is a comprehensive look at the year we'd all like to forget, but definitely shouldn't. In addition to the very human, real stories shared by individuals from very different backgrounds and social status, Eric Klinenberg provides information and insight into what went right, and what went so very wrong. The best thing about this in-depth, thorough review of one of the most impactful years of our lives, is that it is shared without bias, without prejudice, and without judgment. Honest and raw... a great read.

4.0 out of 5 stars It was the best plagues, it was the worst of plagues.

D.B. · May 26, 2024

I loved that it was focused in New York. I equally despised it for the same reason. I grant that Eric K linen berg made a respectable choice, and it approached with care. Also he is dedicated to covering global impact. In a hundred years from now I suspect people will benefit from this book. Read with care.

5.0 out of 5 stars Cathartic and depressing at same time

n. · March 16, 2024

I am really enjoying this book. Over half way done. It is helping me come to grips with what happened. But it also saddens me because there was so much more we could have done to save people from dying from COVID. Two things that really amazed me: people were not fighting to GET the vaccine and people were fighting not to wear masks. As a scientist, I find this clear disregard of the data, well, to quote Spock, "Highly illogical".

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and highly readable revision of the COVID pandemic experience

t.f. · February 25, 2024

This book is an essential read for all of us who lived through the COVID pandemic and still are not quite clear on what it all meant--in other words, everybody. Prominent sociologist Eric Kleinenberg is an insightful reporter who uses personal stories to bring to life much of the confusion and suffering we all shared. We all know what happened; this book helps you understand many of the reasons why. You will never think about COVID in the same way again.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Warning

A.C. · April 13, 2024

Will our democratic leadership rise to the challenge of the next pandemic?A reminder of what happened in 2020 and why we need to remember what happened and the cost of failed leadership.

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant retrospective

D. · March 25, 2024

This book was brilliantly conceived, researched, and written. Very readable but infinitely disturbing. Well worth the read.

1.0 out of 5 stars sadly biased account of COVID.

S. · March 13, 2024

A more balanced approach would have been much more helpful. The author did not even discuss the data that now indicate that the virus escaped from a Chinese lab.

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential lessons for the future

S.G. · February 22, 2024

"2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed" by Eric Klinenberg is a profound and captivating exploration of the tumultuous year that reshaped the world. Through the lens of seven diverse individuals in one city, Klinenberg masterfully illustrates the profound impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest, and political upheaval, painting a vivid portrait of resilience, adversity, and transformation.Klinenberg's narrative is deeply humanizing, offering an intimate glimpse into the lives of his subjects as they navigate unprecedented challenges. The book stands out for its ability to balance personal stories with broader socio-political analysis, providing a nuanced understanding of 2020's events and their implications on society. Klinenberg, a renowned sociologist, uses his expertise to dissect the complexities of the year, from the failures of public health systems to the movements for racial justice, highlighting the interconnectedness of global and local issues.What makes "2020" particularly compelling is Klinenberg's skill in storytelling. The individuals' stories are told with empathy and depth, making the reader feel connected to their struggles and triumphs. These personal narratives serve as a powerful lens through which the reader can understand the broader societal shifts, making the book not only an account of a year but also a testament to human resilience.Klinenberg does not shy away from critiquing the systemic failures exposed by the events of 2020. His analysis is incisive and thought-provoking, offering valuable insights into how societies can better prepare for future crises. Yet, despite the challenges detailed in the book, there is an underlying current of hope. The resilience of the individuals and communities Klinenberg profiles suggests a capacity for healing and rebuilding that is profoundly inspiring."2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed" is also a call to action, urging readers to reflect on their own roles within their communities and the broader society. Klinenberg's discussion of "social infrastructure" and its role in fostering resilience and solidarity is particularly relevant, offering a blueprint for creating more inclusive and supportive communities.In summary, Eric Klinenberg's "2020" is a masterful blend of personal narrative and sociological analysis that captures the essence of a year that will be remembered for generations. It is a book that not only documents the events of 2020 but also challenges us to think critically about our society and our place within it. For anyone seeking to understand the complexities of the year and its impact on human lives and society, "2020" is an essential and enlightening read, offering lessons that are crucial for navigating the future.

2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed

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