Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 264 pages
- Published by: Columbia University Press October 24, 2007
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0231140746
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0231140744
-
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 5.8 x 1 inches
- Weighs: 12.8 ounces
Product Review
"Thompson provides a great service in revisiting--and reviving--the tradition of seeing extreme economic inequality and democracy as incompatible." -- Daniel Brook,
The Nation"[A] sweeping intellectual history Recommended." --
CHOICE
Product Review
"At a time when the term 'liberal' has been equated, mistakenly, with the values of equality, Michael J. Thompson has provided us with a necessary corrective. He shows that American political thought was, in the earlier years of the Republic, deeply concerned with restraining concentrated economic and political power in order to achieve more equality. But under the dominance of neoliberalism, political thought has lost its way, and Thompson's work can go a long way to restoring its original egalitarian impulse. This book is not only superb intellectual history but also an important intervention into contemporary debates." -- Stanley Aronowitz, author of
Left Turn: Forging a New Political Future and
How Class Works: Power and Social Movement
Reader ReviewsThompson's book is not only laudable for its precise intellectual and historical command but for the topic it rejuvenates. The subject of inequality has been extant for as long as human beings have been around from Egypt to Greece to Rome to Imperial Britain to the industrious nation of America. Thompson's analysis traces the ideas and concepts of inequality through to today eloquently and smoothly. His command of literature, history, and ideas on inequality of the times is commendable in and of itself. However, the paramount reason for this book to deserve praise is the topic it attempts to revive. Inequality among people in a society causes social friction, unrest, disproportionate resources, and leads to eventual degradation and decay of a democratic state, in which the citizens are expected to be equal. Thompson makes the case, soundly, that since the New Deal era of state intervention and the creation of a welfare state, the country's opinions and politics have shifted and reacted against state intervention leading up to present times. The fear of state intervention (possibly linked to the Soviet Union's demise) creates greater inequality as businesses and corporations take advantage of the all but false concept of America's "free market" economy. This book begins a much-needed discussion on American politics in relation to economics, democracy, history, and our future as a country of equality.
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