Structure

The structure of Age of Anger is extremely simple at the macro-level and slightly more complicated at the micro-level. At the macro-level, the book is divided into seven chapters, each of which explores a loosely-defined historical period and its corresponding trend in intellectual thought. The chapters follow a chronological order, with the first and last chapters being exceptions to the general rule because they are treated as a prologue and epilogue, respectively. However, the remaining chapters progress smoothly from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first, making numerous returns to the past and jumps ahead into the future all throughout the book. This is where the structure becomes slightly more complicated.

As mentioned, within each chapter, intellectual trends and movements arising in certain periods give the author cause to return to the past or jump ahead into the future, depending on which would most help to illuminate the...