Well before most critics started noticing the crises of mental health, alienation, and stunted maturity among members of Generation Z (people now in their teens and twenties), writer and teacher Jeremy Adams discussed all of this and more in his 2021 book Hollowed Out. Seeing it firsthand as a government and history teacher in Bakersfield, he accurately identified the problems afflicting this cohort and how those problem correlated with the rise of smartphones and social media. Today, this is common knowledge, and there are many books about it, but three years ago, these problems were either ignored or immediately attributed to the Covid lockdowns.
I loved the book, and my review hopefully expressed how much it resonated with me. As a high school English teacher here in Texas, I saw many of the same things as Adams. Adams did such a good job articulating the pathologies of Gen Z that it was something of a letdown when the book concluded with a general call for loving our young people more and saving them from the nihilism taking root in them. Sure, this is a fine recommendation as far as it goes, but what specifically does he think we should do to help Zoomers out of their funk?
In his new book, Lessons in Liberty: Thirty Rules for Living from Ten Extraordinary Americans, Adams answers this very question: “Let us study the best American men and women in our rich history and focus on the best they have to offer.” Unlike
