How long does it take to read The Irony of American History?
The Irony of American History by Reinhold Niebuhr takes about 3 hours 11 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 11 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1952. 174 pages, about 47,850 words.
7 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 5 hours 19 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 11 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours |
The page count is the median across 11 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
"[Niebuhr] is one of my favorite philosophers. I take away [from his works] the compelling idea that there's serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn't use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away . . . the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard."—President Barack Obama Forged during the tumultuous but triumphant postwar years when America came of age as a world power, The Irony of American History is more relevant now than ever before. Cited by politicians as diverse as Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Niebuhr's masterpiece on the incongruity between personal ideals and political reality is both an indictment of American moral complacency and a warning against the arrogance of virtue. Impassioned, eloquent, and deeply perceptive, Niebuhr's wisdom will cause readers to rethink their assumptions about right and wrong, war and peace.
Subjects: Philosophy, Civilization, Foreign relations, History, United States, Nonfiction
