Excellent, accessible overview of socioeconomic trends over the last decades and what they bode for the future.
A senior writer at the New York Times argues that lack of investment in the next generation is keeping Americans from attaining the so-called American dream.
As Leonhardt reports in this well-researched, thoughtful work, the phrase “American Dream,” coined during the Great Depression, was once meaningful to many poor, struggling, and immigrant American families, but now it’s often used “ironically or bitterly.” Using a combination of personal stories and statistics, the author demonstrates that “a shining future” in the form of better educational prospects, jobs with livable wages, and greater health and material well-being than one’s parents enjoyed was very much in reach for many Americans by the mid-20th century. For example, Leonhardt learned from a longitudinal study that tracked progress for Americans in terms of tax rates that an astounding 92% of children born in 1940 grew up to have higher household income than their parents. Until the 1980s, quality of life improved dramatically in terms of physical health, declines in inequality, rising incomes, and material benefits, and the bounty was shared relatively broadly. However, in the last three to four decades, inequality has widened. “The result,” writes the author, “is stagnation in nearly every reliable measure of well-being.” He examines trends in power, business culture, and investment, arguing that the “rough-and-tumble capitalism” under recent Republican administrations has run roughshod over “democratic capitalism,” which “describes a system in which the government recognizes its crucial role in guiding the economy.” Leonhardt illustrates his argument through the work of influential Americans across the ideological spectrum, from Frances Perkins to Dwight Eisenhower and Robert Bork. His economics-heavy overview considers factors such as the decline of labor unions, split within left-leaning political circles, embrace of law and order, rise of interest groups, and decline in investment in education, among others.
Excellent, accessible overview of socioeconomic trends over the last decades and what they bode for the future.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9780812993202
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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