Evil geniuses : the unmaking of America : a recent history / Kurt Andersen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Andersen, Kurt, 1954- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wealth--Political aspects--United States--History.

Wealth.

Big business--United States--History.

Big business.

Corporate power.

History.

United States.

Corporate power--United States--History.

Democracy--United States--History.

Democracy.

United States--Economic conditions.

Economic conditions.

United States--Social conditions.

Social conditions.

United States--Politics and government.

Politics and government.

Economic history.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 430 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Random House, [2020]

Summary:

"Americans have disabled the government's ability to solve even basic problems, making us vulnerable to the most dangerous demagogue ever to pretend to the White House. Kurt Andersen shows how the masterminds of the economic right rode an unprecedented wave of nostalgia by dressing up their harsh new rich-get-richer system in patriotic old-time drag, making it their mission to take over the government for their purposes alone and convincing the country that the mid-century consensus about the function of the American government was all wrong. Only a writer with Andersen's crackling energy, deep intelligence, and ability to see complex systems with clarity could make such a vital book both intellectually formidable and completely entertaining. In his diagnosis of what happened and what it means for us today, Andersen spares no one, committing to a pinpointing of his own boomer generation as accessories to the great dismantling of the American experiment"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

A brief history of America. Land of the new: America from 1600 to 1865 ; Land of the new: an economic history from the 1770s to the 1970s ; Approaching peak new: the 1960s

Turning point. The 1970s: an equal and opposite reaction ; The 1970s: liberalism peaks and the counterrevolution begins ; The 1970s: building the counter-establishment ; The 1970s: from a bicentennial pageant to a presidency ; The 1970s: neoliberal useful idiots

Wrong turn. The Reagan revolution ; Raw deal: what happened in the 1980s didn't stay in the 1980s ; The rule of law ; The deregulation generation ; The culture of greed is good ; How Wall Street ate America ; Workers of the new world, you lose ; Insecurity is a feature, not a bug ; Socially liberal, fiscally conservative, generally complacent ; The permanent Reagan revolution ; The 1990s: restrained and reckless

Same old same old. Rewind, pause, stop: the end of the new ; The politics of nostalgia and stagnation since the 1990s ; Ruthless beats reasonable ; Winners and losers in the class war ; American exceptionalism

Make America new again. Winners and losers (so far) in the digital revolution ; How the future will work ; This strategic inflection point ; What is to be done? ; The plague year and beyond.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 391-405) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Andersen, Kurt, 1954- Evil geniuses

ISBN:

9781984801340

1984801341

OCLC:

1155487147