My generation grew up in a nation of strong democratic values and broadly shared prosperity. But both those values and that shared prosperity have been slipping away. We can reverse that trend. Political and economic reform turned the oligarchic America of the Gilded Age, a place of vast inequality, bigotry, and corruption, into the imperfect but far better society of the postwar era. The challenge now is to do again what the New Deal did: to create institutions that will support and sustain a decent society. Book jacket. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Starred Review. Economist and New York Times columnist Krugman's stimulating manifesto aims to galvanize today's progressives the way Barry Goldwater's The Conscience of a Conservative did right-wingers in 1964. Krugman's great theme is economic equality and the liberal politics that support it. America's post-war middle-class society was not the automatic product of a free-market economy, he writes, but was created... by the policies of the Roosevelt Administration. By strengthening labor unions and taxing the rich to fund redistributive programs like Social Security and Medicare, the New Deal consensus narrowed the income gap, lifted the working class out of poverty and made the economy boom. Things went awry, Krugman contends, with the Republican Party's takeover by movement conservatism, practicing a politics of deception [and] distraction to advance the interests of the wealthy. Conservative initiatives to cut taxes for the rich, dismantle social programs and demolish unions, he argues, have led to sharply rising inequality, with the incomes of the wealthiest soaring while those of most workers stagnate. Krugman's accessible, stylishly presented argument deftly combines economic data with social and political analysis; his account of the racial politics driving conservative successes is especially sharp. The result is a compelling historical defense of liberalism and a clarion call for Americans to retake control of their economic destiny. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

In this eloquent defense of liberalism, New York Times op-ed columnist Krugman (economics; Princeton Univ.; The Great Unraveling) drafts a blueprint for progressive political change. His central theme is that current liberals are actually politically conservative because they want to preserve and expand upon the effective policies of Roosevelt's New Deal. Conversely, the Republican Party, in his view, has today been taken over by "movement conservatives" whose chief goal is to dismantle the New Deal. Arguing that trends are shifting in favor of liberal and progressive approaches to governing, Krugman provides a perceptive critique of why Clinton's 1993 health insurance proposal failed and how liberals can avoid the same mistakes. His themes are similar to those expressed by Douglas Massey in Return of the "L" Word and Robert Reich in Reason, but Krugman is better able to explain his views to a general readership. The book will be in great demand in both public and academic libraries and may even lead some readers to Krugman's more scholarly writings. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/07.] Thomas A. Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, PA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

*Starred Review* Economist Krugman debunks the old theory that economics drives politics-that the rise in the conservative movement in the U.S is tied to forces of growing economic inequality and greater power exerted by the rich. He argues instead that it is the political environment that drives economics-that the policies of the conservative movement have set out to roll back the New Deal, resulting in economic inequality not seen since the Gilded Age in America. And the dirty little secret at the heart of the appeal of the conservative movement is racial animus, according to Klugman, who asserts that much of the emotion behind efforts to thwart New Deal programs that support the needy is the mistaken notion that such programs will primarily aid minorities. Krugman cogently explores the history of the politics of inequality through the current era of conservatism, which appears to be on the wane as Americans realize the cost to the middle class. In fact, Krugman sees the elements of a new New Deal, fueled by the twenty-first-century equivalent of Social Security, universal health care. An eye-opening book for Americans of whatever political philosophy. Bush, Vanessa. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

1 The Way We Were	3
2 The Long Gilded Age	15
3 The Great Compression	37
4 The Politics of the Welfare State	57
5 The Sixties: A Troubled Prosperity	79
6 Movement Conservatism	101
7 The Great Divergence	124
8 The Politics of Inequality	153
9 Weapons of Mass Distraction	173
10 The New Politics of Equality	198
11 The Health Care Imperative	214
12 Confronting Inequality	244
13 The Conscience of a Liberal	265
Notes	275
Acknowledgments	285
Index	287

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.