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FREEDOM FROM THE MARKET

Name: FREEDOM FROM THE MARKET
Author: Mike Konczal
ISBN: 978-1-62097-537-4

AMERICA’S FIGHT TO LIBERATE ITSELF FROM THE GRIP OF THE INVISIBLE HAND

by Mike Konczal ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 12, 2021

For readers inclined toward democratic socialism, this is a valuable source of support.

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An economic manifesto on behalf of the 99% poorly served by the present economy.

As economist and journalist Konczal rightly notes, the idea, courtesy of Milton Friedman, that financial markets are self-regulating and that business should take care of business has meant undue hardship for most consumers. Countered by a movement of people, especially younger ones, who are “hungry to reclaim a world outside the market,” the Friedman-esque mantra is increasingly giving way to a different view: Government is understood not to be a bystander in the economy but instead the provider of key services that are now seen as profit centers, including health insurance and education. Market dependency contributes to unfreedom while placing limits and regulations on capitalism enhances freedom. It’s a thoughtful rebuke to “glib libertarian fantasies,” though of course libertarians will decry Konczal’s prescriptions as socialistic. Early on, the author urges that private enterprises be removed from the health care market, whose resources are captured and kept out of the reach of those who most need health care. Conversely, as he observes, under the present economic regime, the “public” has been removed from public utilities, public lands, and public enterprises in favor of an ever smaller elite. This scenario flies in the face of a history that has included such transformative moments as the passage of the Homestead Act, which transferred 10% of public lands to smallholder ownership, and the social insurance program that provided pensions to Civil War veterans and, by 1910, “delivered benefits to more than 25 percent of all American men over sixty-five, accounting for a quarter of the federal government’s expenditures.” Demands for economic reform have been manifested in such things as the eight-hour workday, proving that regulatory limits can work and offering hope for those “people fighting to take back their lives from the market.”

For readers inclined toward democratic socialism, this is a valuable source of support.

Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-62097-537-4

Page Count: 256

Publisher: The New Press

Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020

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A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

by Howard Zinn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1979

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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

Categories:

- BOOK REVIEW
A YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
by Howard Zinn ; adapted by Rebecca Stefoff with by Ed Morales

- BOOK REVIEW
TRUTH HAS A POWER OF ITS OWN
by Howard Zinn with Ray Suarez

- BOOK REVIEW
THE HISTORIC UNFULFILLED PROMISE
by Howard Zinn

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BEYOND THE GENDER BINARY

From the Pocket Change Collective series

by Alok Vaid-Menon ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020

A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.

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Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.

The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.

A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)