George G. Kirstein wrote a book that, quite frankly, feels like it was written last Tuesday. It wasn’t. It came out in the late 1960s. Yet, if you pick up a copy of What Went Wrong today, you’ll find yourself nodding along with a weird sense of "oh, so we've always been like this." It is a fascinating, slightly cynical, and deeply observant look at the American social and economic fabric.
People are still searching for this book. Why? Because we are obsessed with failure. Or, more accurately, we are obsessed with the mechanics of how things that should work—systems, cities, economies—somehow don't. Kirstein wasn't just some disgruntled guy with a typewriter. He was the former publisher of The Nation. He had a front-row seat to the mid-century American dream and the cracks forming in its foundation.
He saw the rot. He wrote about it. And here we are, decades later, still asking the same questions.
The Core Thesis of What Went Wrong
Let's be real: most "critique" books from that era are dry. They’re academic slogs that make you want to take a nap by page twenty. Kirstein’s work is different because it focuses on the gap between what we say we value and what we actually build. He looks at the American landscape and sees a series of contradictions.
We wanted grand cities; we got urban decay. We wanted economic freedom; we got stifling bureaucracies. The What Went Wrong book doesn't offer a single, unified "Aha!" moment. Instead, it’s a collection of observations about the loss of individual agency in a world that was becoming increasingly institutionalized.
Honestly, it’s a vibe.
It’s the literary equivalent of looking at a beautiful new highway and realizing it just destroyed a vibrant neighborhood. Kirstein captures that specific brand of 20th-century disappointment. He discusses the "tyranny of the minority," which is a concept that feels incredibly relevant in our current era of hyper-niche interests and polarized political blocks. He wasn't talking about ethnic minorities; he was talking about how small, organized groups of people with specific interests often dictate the direction of society for everyone else.
It’s basically the lobbyist problem before we had a name for it.
Why the 1960s Perspective Matters Now
It’s easy to dismiss old books as "outdated." Don't do that here. The 1960s were a hinge point. Everything was changing. The post-WWII boom was cooling off, and the reality of the Cold War was setting in. Kirstein was writing at a time when the "Great Society" programs were being tested.
He was skeptical.
Not because he was a hater, but because he understood human nature. He saw that you can't just throw money at a problem if the underlying philosophy is broken. That’s a lesson we are still learning in 2026. Whether it's the failure of modern tech platforms to actually connect people or the way urban planning still struggles to create livable spaces, the echoes of Kirstein’s observations are everywhere.
He noticed that as organizations grow, they stop serving their original purpose. They start serving themselves. Their main goal becomes survival. If you've ever worked at a big corporation and wondered why everything is so needlessly complicated, Kirstein has the answer.
It’s because the system is doing exactly what it was designed to do: persist.
The Specific Failures Kirstein Identified
Kirstein breaks down several areas where the American experiment hit a wall. One of the most striking is his take on the "Leisure Society." Back then, everyone thought that by the year 2000, we’d all be working 15-hour weeks and spending the rest of our time painting or playing tennis.
Total fantasy.
Instead, we became more productive and just... worked more. We traded our free time for more "stuff." Kirstein saw this trade-off happening in real-time. He argued that we were becoming slaves to our own standard of living. You buy a bigger house, so you have to work more to pay for it, which means you spend less time in the house. It's a loop. A weird, exhausting loop.
He also dug into the decline of the "public" in public life.
- The loss of the "town square" feeling.
- The rise of privatized interests over the common good.
- The way architecture began to reflect a fear of the public rather than an invitation to it.
- The creeping influence of advertising on every facet of our mental space.
These aren't just historical footnotes. They are the blueprints for our current reality. When you read the What Went Wrong book, you realize that our current problems with social media echo chambers and the "loneliness epidemic" aren't new. They are the logical conclusion of trends that Kirstein was documenting in 1968.
The Misconceptions About This Book
Some people think this is a conservative manifesto. It’s not. Others think it’s a radical leftist scream. It’s not that either.
Kirstein was a pragmatist. He was a guy who looked at a broken engine and pointed out where the gears were grinding. He wasn't necessarily trying to start a revolution; he was trying to start a conversation. He wanted people to stop and look at the "progress" they were so proud of and ask: "Is this actually making our lives better?"
Often, the answer was no.
Lessons for Today’s World
So, what do we actually do with this information? It’s one thing to read a book and go "yeah, things are bad." It’s another to actually apply it.
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The biggest takeaway from Kirstein is the importance of Scale.
He argued that things work best when they are at a human scale. When institutions get too big, they lose their soul. They lose their ability to care about the individuals they serve. This applies to everything from your local government to the apps on your phone. If something feels like it's "too big to fail" or "too big to understand," it's probably already broken in some fundamental way.
Another insight involves the "Paradox of Choice." While he didn't use that exact term—Barry Schwartz would popularize that much later—Kirstein was already noticing that having more options didn't necessarily lead to more happiness. It led to more anxiety. It led to a constant feeling that you were missing out on something better.
Sound familiar? It’s Instagram FOMO, fifty years early.
Actionable Steps Based on Kirstein’s Philosophy
If you want to avoid the "what went wrong" trap in your own life or business, there are a few practical moves you can make.
Audit your dependencies. Kirstein was big on individual autonomy. Look at the systems you rely on. If a single platform or institution disappeared tomorrow, how much of your life would crumble? The more "independent" you can make your life—whether that's through diversifying your income or building local community ties—the less you are at the mercy of the systemic failures he describes.
Prioritize Human-Scale Connections.
Stop trying to reach "everyone." Whether you’re a creator, a business owner, or just someone trying to make friends, focus on the small and the deep. Systems fail when they try to be everything to everyone. Your life works better when it’s focused on a few things that actually matter.
Question "Efficiency."
In the What Went Wrong book, Kirstein subtly points out that the quest for efficiency often kills the things that make life worth living. A park isn't "efficient." A long dinner with friends isn't "efficient." A walk through a neighborhood without a destination isn't "efficient." But these are the things that prevent the "rot" he describes.
Don't optimize your life into a state of misery.
Final Thoughts on the Legacy of the Work
George G. Kirstein didn't have all the answers. No one does. But he had the guts to ask the right questions at a time when most people were blinded by the neon lights of "progress."
The book is a reminder that failure isn't usually a sudden event. It’s a slow drift. It’s a series of small, seemingly logical decisions that eventually lead to a place nobody wanted to go. By reading it, we get a chance to look at our own "slow drifts" and maybe, just maybe, steer the ship in a different direction.
It’s not a comfortable read, but it’s an essential one. Especially if you’ve ever looked around at the modern world and felt like something was... off.
You aren't crazy. Kirstein saw it coming.
Next Steps for Readers:
- Find an original copy. Search used bookstores or sites like AbeBooks. The physical experience of reading a 1960s hardcover adds a layer of context that a screen can't provide.
- Map your own systems. Take ten minutes to write down three "systems" you participate in (work, social, city) and identify one way they have drifted from their original purpose.
- Read "The Image" by Daniel Boorstin. If you find Kirstein’s work resonant, Boorstin’s book from the same era covers similar ground regarding how we’ve replaced reality with "pseudo-events."
- Practice "In-Person" Advocacy. The next time you have a problem with a local institution, skip the email and go talk to a human. Reclaiming that human-scale interaction is exactly what Kirstein would have advocated for.