Kuttner argues for a saner, more managed system of American capitalism—that he does so in a manner that is not only...
American Prospect founder and co-editor Kuttner (Everything for Sale: The Virtues and Limits of Markets, 1997, etc.) issues a scathing broadside aimed at the failures of laissez-faire American capitalism.
Globalization in its current form, the author argues, has failed—to hold leaders and institutions accountable; to provide prosperity for any but a small, wealthy elite; to create a stable private economy in the United States. Despite reassurances about the self-regulating nature of markets and the equalizing power of free trade, inequality has widened and benefits have diminished for all but a few. As investment bankers and corporate CEOs have reaped the benefits of mergers and acquisitions and speculative finance, the increasingly vulnerable middle class has watched New Deal–era protections such as Social Security, Medicare and pensions erode. None of this information is particularly revelatory: The excesses of the 1990s, in particular, have been covered more than adequately elsewhere. Kuttner’s unique talent is in cutting through the knee-jerk assumptions that have become orthodoxy in American policy debates—free trade is good, equalization among global markets is inevitable, economic benefits accrue to those who work harder and smarter—and suggesting a new prescription for turning America’s economy around and creating a more just, egalitarian society. Central to Kuttner’s remedy is the rebuilding of America’s “equalizing institutions,” including an intriguing expansion of Medicare, starting with those age 25 and below, and implementing more controls on currently unfettered markets in technologies, stocks and labor.
Kuttner argues for a saner, more managed system of American capitalism—that he does so in a manner that is not only refreshing but reassuring is a testament to both his broad understanding of history and his impressive grasp on the inner workings of modern American capitalism.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4000-4080-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2007
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics,...
A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump’s ascent and the fall of other democracies.
Following the last presidential election, Levitsky (Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, 2003, etc.) and Ziblatt (Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, 2017, etc.), both professors of government at Harvard, wrote an op-ed column titled, “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?” The answer here is a resounding yes, though, as in that column, the authors underscore their belief that the crisis extends well beyond the power won by an outsider whom they consider a demagogue and a liar. “Donald Trump may have accelerated the process, but he didn’t cause it,” they write of the politics-as-warfare mentality. “The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization—one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture.” The authors fault the Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Trump, even if that meant electing his opponent, and they seem almost wistfully nostalgic for the days when power brokers in smoke-filled rooms kept candidacies restricted to a club whose members knew how to play by the rules. Those supporting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders might take as much issue with their prescriptions as Trump followers will. However, the comparisons they draw to how democratic populism paved the way toward tyranny in Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and elsewhere are chilling. Among the warning signs they highlight are the Republican Senate’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as well as Trump’s demonization of political opponents, minorities, and the media. As disturbing as they find the dismantling of Democratic safeguards, Levitsky and Ziblatt suggest that “a broad opposition coalition would have important benefits,” though such a coalition would strike some as a move to the center, a return to politics as usual, and even a pragmatic betrayal of principles.
The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics, rather than in the consensus it is not likely to build.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6293-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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