Essential reading for anyone interested in substantiating criticisms of supply-side economics and related theories.
A survey of the negative impacts of Republican economic policies that speculates as to why many people remain faithful to a party that’s working against their interests.
The focus of this dense volume is Weisberg’s assertion that the United States government is no longer a democracy but a plutocracy. He traces America’s economic history, placing greatest emphasis on events since the “Reagan Revolution.” He also takes time to explain various historical defenses and critiques of capitalism through the years. As reflected in the title, Weisberg doesn’t mince words. He calls out what he sees as the hypocrisy of “free-market fundamentalists” who espouse libertarian theories except when it comes to hot-button issues, such as abortion and LGBT rights. There are innumerable moments when he deftly characterizes specific policy decisions as hypocritical, as in an extensive discussion of the debt limit, which was raised 17 times under Ronald Reagan. Weisberg points out that many Republicans who held the government hostage on this issue during Barack Obama’s presidency voted for five increases “without objection” during George W. Bush’s administration. However, the author doesn’t exclusively criticize Republicans here; he also argues that Obama’s refusal to consider invoking the 14th Amendment during his negotiations with Congress constituted “an astonishing piece of ineptitude.” Weisberg also gives credit to those whom he sees as voices of reason within the GOP, such as former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, who argued against Bush’s tax cuts. Furthermore, the author shows the deleterious effects of specific policies on state and international levels, singling out Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s “supply-side delusions.” He also cites Great Britain and Chile as examples of flawed privatized retirement systems and underscores the failure of austerity measures in Europe. Weisberg is perhaps at his sharpest when discussing the causes of the recent Great Recession, the benefits of the bailouts and stimulus package, and the acute nature of the health care crisis: “In short, the Republicans were primarily responsible for the deficit, and now they were using it as a pretense pursuant to their STB [“Starve-the-Beast”] tactic, to minimize or eliminate the safety net.” The author fittingly adds an alarming epilogue in which the GOP has essentially ceded all control to the erratic leadership of Donald Trump. The “Glossary of Abbreviations” will help readers keep governmental acronyms straight, and the appendix presents excerpts from the Libertarian Party’s 1980 platform, featuring its vice-presidential candidate, the late David Koch—who was later a major Republican donor. Overall, the text’s one major drawback is its weak copy editing—missing words, imprecise punctuation, and spelling errors, including multiple instances of “United Sates” and “Regan.” In a well-documented volume with nearly 3,500 endnotes, it’s critical to know where quotations end and the author’s own words begin. Some crucial dates are fumbled, as well, such as “the November 2011 election” that granted Obama a second term. Despite all this, the project remains a valuable addition to the discussion of American voters who prioritize identity politics over policy.
Essential reading for anyone interested in substantiating criticisms of supply-side economics and related theories.Pub Date: June 28, 2019
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 940
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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