More Equal Than Others: America from Nixon to the New Century (Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America) [Hardcover]

Godfrey Hodgson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America | Publication Date: February 23, 2004

During the past quarter century, free-market capitalism was recognized not merely as a successful system of wealth creation, but as the key determinant of the health of political and cultural democracy. Now, renowned British journalist and historian Godfrey Hodgson takes aim at this popular view in a book that promises to become one of the most important political histories of our time. More Equal Than Others looks back on twenty-five years of what Hodgson calls "the conservative ascendancy" in America, demonstrating how it has come to dominate American politics.

Hodgson disputes the notion that the rise of conservatism has spread affluence and equality to the American people. Quite the contrary, he writes, the most distinctive feature of American society in the closing years of the twentieth century was its great and growing inequality. He argues that the combination of conservative ideology and corporate power and dominance by mass media obsessed with lifestyle and celebrity have caused America to abandon much of what was best in its past. In fact, he writes, income and wealth inequality have become so extreme that America now resembles the class-stratified societies of early twentieth-century Europe.

More Equal Than Others addresses a broad range of issues, with chapters on politics, the new economy, immigration, technology, women, race, and foreign policy, among others. A fitting sequel to the author's critically acclaimed America In Our Time, More Equal Than Others is not only an outstanding synthesis of history, but a trenchant commentary on the state of the American Dream.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hodgson sets out to say some things outside "the two ruling narratives of American history over the past three decades: the liberal recessional or conservative triumphalism." Above all, he observes, "Great and growing inequality has been the most salient social fact about the America of the conservative ascendancy. It is hard not to ask whether that was not one of the conservatives' strategic goals." Yet inequality is mentioned more than discussed, while conservative mechanisms that may increase it are barely even mentioned until 100 pages later. Despite occasional flashes of insight, Hodgson, biographer of Daniel Patrick Moynihan and a scholar at the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford University, repeatedly muddles matters with generous dollops from those ruling narrativesâ€"such as the Democratic Leadership Council's analysis of what ailed the Democrats in the 1980sâ€"regurgitated as gospel. Similarly, he attributes white backlash to "the noisy claims of radical black leadership" in his chapter on race, while his chapter on women blames articulate feminists not so much for antagonizing men and conservative women but for letting their middle-class "cultural" movement get in the way of a second, "primarily economic" women's movement, "silent and largely the sum of private decisions." He rightly notes that the Internet boom was built on decades of government-funded, university-nurtured research, then says, "[T]he legendary entrepreneurs deserve every bit of their fame and fortune." Hodgson inadvertently demonstrates what he seeks to explain: how inequality can grow so sharply, yet be marginalized in political discourse.
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Review

In More Equal Than Others, an up-to-the-minute critique of modern American life, the British historian Godfrey Hodgson combines intelligent discussions of pressures that have shaped American society during the last quarter-century . . . With a factoid-packed jeremiad against the triumph of the suburb--the demographic zone where half the population now lives, where two-thirds of new jobs are located, whose voting strength overawes Congress. . . . Although Hodgson writes as a liberal, he levels [his] charges across party lines. -- Allen D. Boyer, New York Times Book Review

[A] wonderfully written, wide-ranging and profoundly depressing book. Hodgson's theme is that the US has changed for the worse in the past 25 years: inequality is supplanting equality, even equality of opportunity. -- Kathleen Burk, Financial Times

[Hodgson] sees a country which the postwar liberal consensus has indeed moved right, turning free-market capitalism from an economic theory into a cultural template. The result is an America in which financial segregation increasingly preserves opportunity for a wealthy elite. . . . [He] argues convincingly that American society has come to resemble old-fashioned Europe, with its strictly class-structured elites. -- Michael Carlson, The Spectator

The most thoughtful, thorough and sorrowful book imaginable on what has happened in these years. -- Bernard Crick, The Independent

Godfrey Hodgson . . . delivers a relentless indictment of an American grown . . . far too sure of itself. In More Equal Than Others, he argues that a wave of right-wing triumphalism has overtaken the country since the Soviet Union's death from exhaustion. In its train, it has brought us a sanctification of the unfettered market, an intensification of Americans' long-standing contempt for government, and--most appallingly--a complacent acceptance of unprecedented inequalities in wealth, education, and opportunity. -- Matthew A. Crenson, Political Science Quarterly

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (February 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691117888
• ISBN-13: 978-0691117881
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,451,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All animals are equal, but..., May 16, 2004

By 

Celia Redmore "Celia Redmore" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: More Equal Than Others: America from Nixon to the New Century (Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America) (Hardcover)

There is general agreement in the United States that the last few decades have been much more profitable for the wealthiest few percent of the population than for everyone else. "More Equal Than Others" makes the point that even this understanding of inequality is greatly underestimated by most Americans. Godfrey Hodgson, who is a long time Washington correspondent for the British media and who wrote this book for The Century Foundation in New York, believes that the US media have consistently presented a picture of the country that makes it appear more economically successful and more egalitarian compared to other countries than is in fact the case. He claims that recent statistics show that the US is, by some measures, the least egalitarian of the eleven most industrialized countries.

Hodgson bases his case on a review of history from the 1970's through the first couple of years of this century. Much of what he presents will be entirely familiar to anyone who has lived in the US during that time. Indeed, the book has a tendency to present history by anecdote, rather than analysis. Nevertheless, it contains nuggets of information which should interest any close social or political observer of the country. Where he doesn't persuade, he certainly proves himself to be a worthy debating partner. Above all, he makes us think.

Godfrey Hodgson's political concern is made transparent by both the book's title and its dust jacket, which shows two photographs: One is of a man in a suit looking at the skyline from a penthouse office; the other is of a group of people seated around a table under a freeway overpass. That neither photograph needed to be staged is unarguable. By chance, I am writing this review looking out from just such a luxury high-rise overlooking an empty lot where three men are asleep on the ground. They must remember better days, because they have lined up their pieces of cardboard against a wall like beds in a dormitory. Only feet away is one of the busiest freeways in the United States.

The question is whether Hodgson's book will play only to the liberal choir, or whether he has introduced enough new facts, or presented existing facts in a sufficiently original manner, to persuade any of those freeway drivers to stop.

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. - George Orwell, Animal Farm"

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful survey of the USA today, August 14, 2004

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William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: More Equal Than Others: America from Nixon to the New Century (Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America) (Hardcover)

This is a useful survey of the USA's society and economy by Godfrey Hodgson, a British journalist and author, who is an Associate Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford University.

Chapters deal with politics and the Constitution, the economy, immigration, technology, women, slavery and race, the frontier, society, foreign policy, the world and the new century. He explodes the myth that the market, not the government or the universities, built the Internet.

What he calls the `conservative ascendancy' is really just corporate power leading to a corporate state. All the polls show that the American people have far saner views than either wing of the capitalist party. But in the USA, money talks, so much so that its courts now hold that the First Amendment's protection of free speech protects the absurdly high levels of election spending.

The ruling class has turned the USA into the most unequal of all developed countries: its great and growing inequality means that it has the least opportunity, the least social mobility and the fewest escapes from poverty. The USA is failing economically: average wages were 10% lower in 1999 than in 1973. In 2000, it had lower annual incomes per head than Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg. Between 1960 and 2000, productivity grew more slowly in the USA than in Britain, France or Italy.

Hodgson raises, but does not answer, the question why, after the Soviet Union's suicide, world peace and prosperity did not ensue. What caused the wars and slumps of the 1990s? The Soviet Union's demise proved that it was not the Soviet Union that prevented peace and prosperity, but capitalism.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful!, October 25, 2004

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: More Equal Than Others: America from Nixon to the New Century (Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America) (Hardcover)

British journalist and historian Godfrey Hodgson dissects the rise of conservatism in the U.S. during the last quarter of the twentieth century. Hodgson is an unapologetic liberal, and though he's ultimately optimistic about America, he finds much to lament in this period. Even die-hard conservatives might be given pause by his warnings about growing social stratification and inequality. Hodgson's greatest contribution to the political discussion may be his examination of this time period from so many angles, exposing myths and misconceptions about each facet of society, especially the much-ballyhooed prosperity of the '90s. The book is plagued by inadequate fact-checking on minor issues, however, which could call his larger points into question, despite 43 pages of end notes and an extensive bibliography. Despite these flaws, we find this thoughtful study useful for anyone trying to understand American politics and future trends.