Changes : Roots: the presence of the past -- Quirks: the weirder world -- Origins : Maps: becoming western -- Patriots: becoming democratic -- Lights: becoming educated -- Skeptics: becoming ex-Christian -- Machines: becoming industrialized -- Lovers: becoming romantic -- Profits: becoming rich -- Responses : Christians: grace, freedom, and truth -- Opportunities: possibilities for a postsecular world

"More than any other year in the last millennium, 1776 is the year that made us who we are. It was an astonishing year of innovation and upheaval, and the world has not been the same since. In this book, Andrew Wilson makes this case by identifying seven distinctives of contemporary society that trace their roots, in some significant way, to 1776. Wilson contends that our society is Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian, and Romantic. Our world is WEIRDER, Wilsons argues, and traces each of these distinctives back to an event or a publication that occurred in 1776"--