Tales of a New America

by Robert B. Reich

Overview

The Harvard political economist argues that Americans must rethink some important cultural myths and self-definitions if the U.S. is to retain its dominant role within the emerging global economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307830623
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/10/2013
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Robert B. Reich is the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He has served in three national administrations and has written over fifteen books, including Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few; Beyond Outrage: What Has Gone Wrong with Our Economy and Our Democracy, and How to Fix It; and The Work of Nations. He is also the author of the bestsellers Supercapitalism and Locked in the Cabinet. His articles have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. He is a co-creator of the award-winning 2013 film Inequality for All and the chair of the national governing board of Common Cause. He lives in Berkeley.

Editorial Reviews

Japan's resurgent growth and unrest in the Third World signal the end of the United States' preeminent position as a world power. American conservatives bent on a rigid, militarist posture and liberals who preach altruism both have utterly failed to adapt to a changed reality. That is Reich's thesis, developed in chapters examining the corrosion of our cultural myths. While the Horatio Alger parable of ``the little guy who makes good'' is losing its inspirational hold in an economy of scarcity, America's fear and aggressiveness toward ``them out there''be they Russians or Latinosseem to be intensifying. Reich ( The Next American Frontier urges cooperation among political factions as our only hope. He sounds like a conservative when he attacks government regulation, like a liberal when he argues that we should view welfare as public investment in our future. His contention that both the arms race with the Soviets and the trading race with Japan are sapping our economy is well worth considering. (March 26)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

( The Next American Frontier ) proposes that America's political culture has been uniquely expressed in four parablesthe Mob at the Gates, the Triumphant Individual, the Benevolent Community, and the Rot at the Top. Both conservative and liberal interpretations of these tales divide people into ``us'' and ``them.'' While the conservatives seek to impose discipline on ``them'' (e.g., the Soviet Union, Third World nations, Japan, poor people), liberals seek to conciliate ``them.'' Reich urges, instead, expansion of the category of ``us'' through collective efforts involving reciprocal gain, obligation, and trust (e.g., efforts to increase the wealth of both developing nations and American workers). He sees a mythology embracing an expanded ``us'' and interdependence evolving, for implementation by new leadership. Recommended for academic and large public libraries. David Steiniche, Social Sciences Dept., Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph

Library Journal