For readers inclined toward democratic socialism, this is a valuable source of support.
An economic manifesto on behalf of the 99% poorly served by the present economy.
As economist and journalist Konczal rightly notes, the idea, courtesy of Milton Friedman, that financial markets are self-regulating and that business should take care of business has meant undue hardship for most consumers. Countered by a movement of people, especially younger ones, who are “hungry to reclaim a world outside the market,” the Friedman-esque mantra is increasingly giving way to a different view: Government is understood not to be a bystander in the economy but instead the provider of key services that are now seen as profit centers, including health insurance and education. Market dependency contributes to unfreedom while placing limits and regulations on capitalism enhances freedom. It’s a thoughtful rebuke to “glib libertarian fantasies,” though of course libertarians will decry Konczal’s prescriptions as socialistic. Early on, the author urges that private enterprises be removed from the health care market, whose resources are captured and kept out of the reach of those who most need health care. Conversely, as he observes, under the present economic regime, the “public” has been removed from public utilities, public lands, and public enterprises in favor of an ever smaller elite. This scenario flies in the face of a history that has included such transformative moments as the passage of the Homestead Act, which transferred 10% of public lands to smallholder ownership, and the social insurance program that provided pensions to Civil War veterans and, by 1910, “delivered benefits to more than 25 percent of all American men over sixty-five, accounting for a quarter of the federal government’s expenditures.” Demands for economic reform have been manifested in such things as the eight-hour workday, proving that regulatory limits can work and offering hope for those “people fighting to take back their lives from the market.”
For readers inclined toward democratic socialism, this is a valuable source of support.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-62097-537-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: The New Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
IN THE NEWS
PERSPECTIVES
A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.
Bearing witness to oppression.
Award-winning journalist and MacArthur Fellow Coates probes the narratives that shape our perception of the world through his reports on three journeys: to Dakar, Senegal, the last stop for Black Africans “before the genocide and rebirth of the Middle Passage”; to Chapin, South Carolina, where controversy erupted over a writing teacher’s use of Between the World and Me in class; and to Israel and Palestine, where he spent 10 days in a “Holy Land of barbed wire, settlers, and outrageous guns.” By addressing the essays to students in his writing workshop at Howard University in 2022, Coates makes a literary choice similar to the letter to his son that informed Between the World and Me; as in that book, the choice creates a sense of intimacy between writer and reader. Interweaving autobiography and reportage, Coates examines race, his identity as a Black American, and his role as a public intellectual. In Dakar, he is haunted by ghosts of his ancestors and “the shade of Niggerology,” a pseudoscientific narrative put forth to justify enslavement by portraying Blacks as inferior. In South Carolina, the 22-acre State House grounds, dotted with Confederate statues, continue to impart a narrative of white supremacy. His trip to the Middle East inspires the longest and most impassioned essay: “I don’t think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel,” he writes. In his complex analysis, he sees the trauma of the Holocaust playing a role in Israel’s tactics in the Middle East: “The wars against the Palestinians and their Arab allies were a kind of theater in which ‘weak Jews’ who went ‘like lambs to slaughter’ were supplanted by Israelis who would ‘fight back.’” Roiled by what he witnessed, Coates feels speechless, unable to adequately convey Palestinians’ agony; their reality “demands new messengers, tasked as we all are, with nothing less than saving the world.”
A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9780593230381
Page Count: 176
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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