American Amnesia, Jacob S. Hacker
American Amnesia, Jacob S. Hacker
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American Amnesia
How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Rich

Author: Jacob S. Hacker, Paul Pierson

Narrator: Holter Graham

Unabridged: 17 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/29/2016


Synopsis

A “provocative” (Kirkus Reviews), timely, and topical work that examines what’s good for American business and what’s good for Americans—and why those interests are misaligned.

In American Amnesia, bestselling political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson trace the economic and political history of the United States over the last century and show how a viable mixed economy has long been the dominant engine of America’s prosperity. We have largely forgotten this reliance, as many political circles and corporate actors have come to mistakenly see government as a hindrance rather than the propeller it once was. “American Amnesia” is more than a rhetorical phrase; elites have literally forgotten, or at least forgotten to talk about, the essential role of public authority in achieving big positive-sum bargains in advanced societies.

The mixed economy was the most important social innovation of the twentieth century. It spread a previously unimaginable level of broad prosperity. It enabled steep increases in education, health, longevity, and economic security. And yet, extraordinarily, it is anathema to many current economic and political elites. Looking at this record of remarkable accomplishment, they recoil in horror. And as the advocates of anti-government free market fundamentalist have gained power, they are hell-bent on scrapping the instrument of nearly a century of unprecedented economic and social progress. In the American Amnesia, Hacker and Pierson explain the full “story of how government helped make America great, how the enthusiasm for bashing government is behind its current malaise, and how a return to effective government is the answer the nation is looking for” (The New York Times).

About Jacob S. Hacker

Jacob S. Hacker is the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University. A Fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC, he is the author of The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream, The Divided Welfare State, and, with Paul Pierson, of American Amnesia: The Forgotten Roots of Our Prosperity; Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class; Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy. He has appeared recently on The NewsHour, MSNBC, All Things Considered, and Marketplace. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

About Paul Pierson

Paul Pierson is the John Gross Professor of Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of Politics in Time, Dismantling the Welfare State?, and (with Jacob S. Hacker), American Amnesia: The Forgotten Roots of Our Prosperity; Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class; Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy. His commentary has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, and The New York Review of Books. He lives in Berkeley, California.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Rita on October 09, 2016

The thesis of "American Amnesia" is that no nation achieves prosperity, and remains prosperous, unless they have a strong, central government with the power to rein in capitalistic excesses. Capitalism, if left to its own devices, will never make the necessary investments in education, infrastructur......more

Goodreads review by Brad on June 04, 2017

There is some vital content in American Amnesia and I recommend it for that reason alone. I'm not a fan of the authors' writing style, it feels a little too academic, perhaps making it less accessible to the people who need it the most. At the same time, the organization of the book could use a litt......more

Goodreads review by Public on March 14, 2018

Solid and well put-together. I also really liked Winner Take All Politics, another book by this duo. Hacker and Pierson do great work. I kind of feel like this book was preaching to the choir - I read a lot of material like this so it was right in my wheelhouse - I don't need to be convinced that a......more

Goodreads review by Mark on November 25, 2019

How did Eisenhower turn out to be so wrong when he asserted that any party that attacked unions and social security would be committing electoral suicide? Why did George Romney praise unions and government action and Mitt Romney villify them? Why did the language in the New York Times shift from des......more

Goodreads review by Jim on January 18, 2019

pretty good read. started to drag on towards the end of the book. could be that I've read some of the source material already so it was a re-hash.......more