The Future of American Progressivism [Hardcover]

Roberto Unger (Author), Wang (Author), Cornel West (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 1998

Returning to the most fundamental goal of democracy - the realization of the potential of all citizens - and drawing on the best of the American progressive tradition, the authors challenge the widely held assumption that it's impossible to stimulate economic growth and at the same time guarantee opportunity and a minimum of resources for all citizens. Seizing the quintessentially American idea that everything is possible, Roberto Mangabeira Unger and Cornel West argue that we can use it to reinvent our public institutions. While they propose specific reforms in business, taxation, social security, and education, their program is an image of American political and civic life as a vital, evolving, and hopeful arena for solving our collective problems.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The United States boasts one of the healthiest, most powerful economies in the world--but is it ensuring a strong future for itself? In this thought-provoking collaboration, bestselling author and preeminent public intellectual Cornel West and internationally acclaimed social theorist Roberto Mangabeira Unger describe a nation suffering from an educational and health-care meltdown and an ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor. The U.S., they contend, has become a meritocracy, one that is both firmly racist and classist. Why, Unger and West ask, is America, which subscribes to what they term "a religion of possibility" and has a long, rich tradition of innovation, unable to apply its collective genius to solve the vexing problem of our times and preempt the conflicts that threaten our future?

Unger and West offer a solution that promises to "mark a path rather than to define a blueprint." They want to return the United States to the deepest goal of democracy: to realize the greatest potential of all citizens. They blast the myth that the nation comprises three major social classes (upper, middle, and lower), and instead suggest that it is divided into four: the high-power professionals and big-business executives, the small-business class, the working class, which includes both blue- and white-collar workers, and the racially stigmatized underclass. Their solution tackles the "poisonous mixture" of racism and classism head-on as they propose health care for all children; an educational system that "equips the child with the means to think and to stand on his own feet" with schools that "recognize in the child the future worker and citizen, a little prophet"; and broad-based taxation of consumption that will benefit both the rich and the poor, assure savings for all citizens of this country, and close the gap between the classes.

Drawing on progressive political and economic theories in their effort to return the U.S. to its philosophical foundation and ensure a solid future that every citizen can look forward to, Unger and West may have found an answer that is as practical as it is provocative. --Kera Bolonik

From Booklist

Harvard University professors Unger and West offer a slim but weighty analysis of obstacles that progressivism faces and reforms that could enhance both Americans' lives and American democracy. Our "religion of possibility," they argue, bears three burdens: "enduring hierarchies of class, race, and gender," the "sometimes narrow-minded obsession with individual self-reliance and self-improvement," and the "failure to submit the country's basic institutions to the experimentalist impulse that is otherwise so strong in America." If progressives hope to do more than "humanize the inevitable" cruelties of global capitalism, they must challenge received wisdom and press for institutional reform. "To democratize the market economy and energize representative democracy," Unger and West offer ideas on taxes; pensions and investment; racial discrimination and class injustice; politics, money, and media; enabling economic risk taking by middle-class and poor Americans; and new forms of organization and empowerment at work and in communities. Some ideas will be familiar; others, unconventional. But that's the point: to stimulate debate and encourage more new ideas. Mary Carroll

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press; First Edition edition (September 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807043265
• ISBN-13: 978-0807043264
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,783,324 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Necessarily complex, an inspired challenge for US society., June 22, 1999

By 

DeLa - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Future of American Progressivism (Hardcover)

Unger and West carefully, methodically characterize current American socio-economic circumstances to build their case for a new era of American progressivism which is based on the "religion of possibility." It is an inspired attempt to encourage all Americans to begin thinking differently, imaginatively, about the situations that keep the nation from being truly democratic. Extremely thorough, this book is a challenge to us all to seek out alternatives to the status quo. It is a challenge to leaders to serve the best interests of the nation as opposed to the special interest groups who line their pockets. I only wish Cornel West would run for president. I don't know who else would stand up for what is morally, politically, and socially correct. I'd drop everything to campaign for him....

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Conflicts and Recommendations for Creating a Progressive Soc, May 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Future of American Progressivism (Hardcover)

Unger and West are two dynamic intellectuals whose passion and commitment to democracy are manifest in the broad strokes with which they paint their vision of the future. They discuss the enduring power of hierarchies of race, class, and gender which keep us locked into our current patterns in society. Then provide seven recommendations for creating a progressive society. This book is an excellent supplement for nearly any ethics or poly sci course.

0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dishonest, June 25, 2009

By 

J. Cambuel - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Future of American Progressivism: An Initiative for Political and Economic Reform (Paperback)

What the two authors don't tell you is that for a true Stalinist Revolution to take place - the entire middle class would have to be destroyed or is that what their actually calling for.

To learn about the vermin also known as progressives, statists and liberals buy American Progressivism or The Forgotten Man.