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Book Cover
Book
Author Brill, Steven, 1950- author

Title Tailspin : the people and forces behind America's fifty-year fall--and those fighting to reverse it / Steven Brill

Copies

LOCATION CALL NO. STATUS
 Bangor Pub. Lib. Stacks  306.0973.B769t    AVAILABLE  
 Maine State Lib. Stacks  306.0973 B857t 2018    AVAILABLE  
Edition First edition
Phys Descr 441 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
Note "This is a Borzoi book"--Title page verso
Summary "From the award-winning journalist and best-selling author of America's Bitter Pill: a tour de force examination of 1) how and why major American institutions no longer serve us as they should, causing a deep rift between the vulnerable majority and the protected few, and 2) how some individuals and organizations are laying the foundation for real, lasting change. In this revelatory narrative covering the years 1967 to 2017, Steven Brill gives us a stunningly cogent picture of the broken system at the heart of our society. He shows us how, over the last half-century, America's core values--meritocracy, innovation, due process, free speech, and even democracy itself--have somehow managed to power its decline into dysfunction. They have isolated our best and brightest, whose positions at the top have never been more secure or more remote. The result has been an erosion of responsibility and accountability, an epidemic of shortsightedness, an increasingly hollow economic and political center, and millions of Americans gripped by apathy and hopelessness. By examining the people and forces behind the rise of big-money lobbying, legal and financial engineering, the demise of private-sector unions, and a hamstrung bureaucracy, Brill answers the question on everyone's mind: How did we end up this way? Finally, he introduces us to those working quietly and effectively to repair the damages. At once a diagnosis of our national ills, a history of their development, and a prescription for a brighter future, Tailspin is a work of riveting journalism--and a welcome antidote to political despair"-- Provided by publisher
Brill believes that over the last half-century America's core values-- meritocracy, innovation, due process, free speech, and even democracy itself-- have somehow managed to power its decline into dysfunction. In examining the people and forces behind the rise of big-money lobbying, legal and financial engineering, the demise of private-sector unions, and a hamstrung bureaucracy, he answers the question on everyone's mind: How did we end up this way? -- adapted from publisher's info
Note Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-416) and index
Contents The protected and the unprotected -- Meritocracy becomes the new aristocracy -- Casino country -- The greening of the First Amendment -- Making markets efficient--and marginalizing those left behind -- "Lip service" for America's workers -- Dysfunctional democracy -- Moat nation -- Why nothing works -- Broken -- Protecting the most unprotected -- Storming the moats
Subject United States -- Social conditions -- 1960-1980
United States -- Social conditions -- 1980-
Social change -- United States
Political culture -- United States
Equality -- United States
Democracy -- United States
United States -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989
United States -- Politics and government -- 1989-
OCLC # 1010776846
ISBN # 9781524731632
1524731633