Good Reads

This category contains 26 posts

The Rich Don’t Always Win. Really.

The Rich Don't Always WinToo Much editor Sam Pizzigati’s history of the forgotten triumph over America’s original plutocracy that created the American middle class.

On ‘Making It’ Alone and ‘Punishing Success’

An important new book offer a timely demolition of the claim that the rich owe their fortunes to their individual pluck and performance.

A Game-Day ‘Program’ for the NFL Lockout

To have any shot at comprehending the unfolding pro football lockout story, we need to first understand the mindset — and the mega millions — of our contemporary sports world’s ever-grasping owners. A review of Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love by Dave Zirin.

Some Welcome Hope for the Holiday Season

A look behind the subprime scandal that reveals the subhuman behavior that the chase after grand fortune almost inevitably engenders. A review of All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons, edited by Jay Walljasper.

These Criminals All Wear Ties

A look behind the subprime scandal that reveals the creepy subhuman behavior that the chase after grand fortune almost inevitably engenders. A review of The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America — and Spawned a Global Crisis, by Michael Hudson.

The Closer the Focus, the Deeper the Divide

The national statistics on the economic and social gaps that divide us, suggests this new research two years in the making, actually understate how unequal American life has become at the more local level, where people live it. A review of the new Measure of America 2010–2011.

The Super Rich: A Delicious Skewering

Our ultra rich don’t just have humungous piles of cash. They have, argues this sprightly new survey of uber wealth, enormous political power, too, enough to make life much rougher for the rest of us than it ever needs to be. A review of The Trouble with Billionaires by Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks.

When Did America Really Go Haywire?

Two top political scientists tell us when America turned terribly wrong — and how the rich and powerful organized to do the turning. A review of Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer — and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class.

From Old Europe, a New Roadmap

Does modernity require inequality? Or can we build totally modern societies that respect solidarity and community? A review of Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age by Steven Hill.

Our Finest Basher of ‘Bigness’

In 1900, the super rich in the United States seemed to totally dominate everything. By the 1950s, the United States had become a thoroughly middle class nation. What happened? People like Louis Brandeis happened. A review of Louis D. Brandeis: A Life by Melvin Urofsky.