Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Guillermo Riveros/George Packer's The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation. In addition to being selected as a National Book Award finalist, The Unwinding was named to Publishers Weekly's list of the best nonfiction books of 2013 and iTunes' "Ten Books You Must Read This Summer." On Thursday, Nov.