Amazon.com Review
A staple of American conversation, from barstools to sermons to op-ed pages, is that money isn't everything. And yet it seems that nowadays, nothing else counts nearly so much. In this book, Andrew Hacker, an eminent sociologist, uses his knack for making statistics come alive to address such questions as "Has affirmative action helped African-Americans financially?," "Do the same professions that used to ensure lifelong economic security still do so?," and "Are the rich getting richer, and if so, why aren't the poor doing better as well?" Hacker doesn't conclude with a call for income redistribution--he doesn't think it would be heeded--but the facts he amasses tell the story of a country that inordinately promotes non-social ambition and, just as excessively, penalizes children.
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From Library Journal
In his best-selling Two Nations (LJ 3/15/92), political scientist Hacker examined the role of race in the social and economic life of America. In his latest work, he argues that an equally enormous financial division separates Americans. He explains why there are increasingly more individuals at the extremes of the income scale while the middle is contracting. Besides the income gap between blacks and whites, Hacker shows where immigrants stand on the income scale, and he assesses the financial disparities between the sexes. He also explores how other elements?e.g., greed, talent, and education?are factored into the income gap equation. Hacker combines detailed data on individual incomes and wealth in the United States with an exceptional analysis of economic and social class divisions. His well-researched work will interest scholars and students as well as the general public. Recommended for academic and public libraries.?Ali Abdulla, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, N.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
