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

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.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781524731632
  • ISBN: 1524731633
  • ISBN: 9780525432012
  • Physical Description: 441 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
  • Edition: First edition
  • Publisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2018.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
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:
Social change > United States.
Political culture > United States.
Equality > United States.
Democracy > United States.
United States > Social conditions > 1960-1980.
United States > Social conditions > 1980-2020.
United States > Politics and government > 1945-1989.
United States > Politics and government > 1989-

Available copies

  • 16 of 16 copies available at NC Cardinal. (Show)
  • 1 of 1 copy available at Onslow County Public Library.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 16 total copies.
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Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Jacksonville Main Library 306.0973 BRI (Text) 36015000670295 Adult Nonfiction Available -