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| View Larger Image | The Politics of Inequality: A Political History of the Idea of Economic Inequality in America | Hardcoverby Michael J Thompson (Author)
| List Price: | $40.00 | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Columbia University Press | | Page Count: | 264 Pages | | Publication Date: | October 24, 2007 | | Sales Rank: | 736,346th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Since the early days of the American republic, political thinkers have maintained that a grossly unequal division of property, wealth, and power would lead to the erosion of democratic life. Yet over the past thirty-five years, neoconservatives and neoliberals alike have redrawn the tenets of American liberalism. Nowhere is this more evident than in our current mainstream political discourse, in which the politics of economic inequality are rarely discussed.In this impassioned book, Michael J. Thompson reaches back into America's rich intellectual history to reclaim the politics of inequality from the distortion of recent American conservatism. He begins by tracing the development of the idea of economic inequality as it has been conceived by political thinkers throughout American history. Then he considers the change in ideas and values that have led to the acceptance and occasional legitimization of economic divisions. Thompson argues that American liberalism has made a profound departure from its original practice of egalitarian critique. It has all but abandoned its antihierarchical and antiaristocratic discourse. Only by resuscitating this tradition can democracy again become meaningful to Americans. The intellectuals who pioneered egalitarian thinking in America believed political and social relations should be free from all forms of domination, servitude, and dependency. They wished to expose the antidemocratic character of economic life under capitalism and hoped to prevent the kind of inequalities that compromise human dignity and freedom-the core principles of early American politics. In their wisdom is a much broader, more compelling view of democratic life and community than we have today, and with this book, Thompson eloquently and adamantly fights to recover this crucial strand of political thought. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 1 review)
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Excellent Analysis of a Forgotten Topic by John McClay  5 Stars
August 07, 2008
Thompson's book is not only laudable for its precise intellectual and historical command but for the topic it rejuvenates. The subject of inequality has been extant for as long as human beings have been around from Egypt to Greece to Rome to Imperial Britain to the industrious nation of America. Thompson's analysis traces the ideas and concepts of inequality through to today eloquently and smoothly. His command of literature, history, and ideas on inequality of the times is commendable in and of itself.
However, the paramount reason for this book to deserve praise is the topic it attempts to revive. Inequality among people in a society causes social friction, unrest, disproportionate resources, and leads to eventual degradation and decay of a democratic state, in which the citizens are expected to be equal. Thompson makes the case, soundly, that since the New Deal era of state intervention and the creation of a welfare state, the country's opinions and politics have shifted and reacted against state intervention leading up to present times. The fear of state intervention (possibly linked to the Soviet Union's demise) creates greater inequality as businesses and corporations take advantage of the all but false concept of America's "free market" economy.
This book begins a much-needed discussion on American politics in relation to economics, democracy, history, and our future as a country of equality.
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