Rediscovering America's Values [Hardcover]

Frances Moore Lappe (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A leading activist in the fight against world hunger, Lappe ( Diet for a Small Planet ) here envisions a more democratic economy, one in which big corporations would be responsive to community needs, while workers would win decision-making power in their companies. She asserts that society's failure to tend to the welfare of all citizens has led to "damage control": belated, ineffectual efforts to salvage or warehouse people. She favors a ceiling on wealth accumulation, affirmative action for groups hurt by discrimination and the creation of media channels free from control by corporations or other vested interests. Lappe's proposals are presented in the form of a sometimes windy philosophical dialogue between herself and a more conservative, imaginary other, who represents what she misleadingly terms the "liberal worldview." Yet her brave, challenging essay is valuable for its power to encourage people to assess the kind of society we now haveand to envision alternative scenarios for the future. Author tour.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Lappe, well known for her writings on world hunger ( Diet for a Small Planet , Ballantine, 1975. rev.ed.) constructs an "imaginary dialogue" between classic liberal dogma, represented by thinkers ranging from Hobbes and Bentham to Hayek and Milton Friedman, and her own "alternative perspective" that articulates new social, political, economic, and moral imperatives. The dialogue explores some of the central concepts and questions of our time--freedom, democracy, capitalism, wealth, poverty, equal opportunity--in an effort to find "shared values fit for the twenty-first century." Intellectually provocative and presented in a manner accessible to educated adults, this serious book demands serious readers.
- Kenneth F. Kister, Poynter Inst. for Media Studies, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 325 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (April 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345320409
• ISBN-13: 978-0345320407
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,001,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Frances Moore Lappé is a democracy advocate and world food and hunger expert who has authored or co-authored 16 books. She is the co-founder of three organizations, including Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy and, more recently, the Small Planet Institute. In 1987 she received the Right Livelihood Award (a.k.a, the "Alternative Nobel.") Her first book, Diet for a Small Planet, has sold three million copies and is considered "the blueprint for eating with a small carbon footprint since long before the term was coined" [JM Hirsch, Associated Press].

Her most recent books include Hope's Edge, written with her daughter Anna Lappé, about democratic social movements worldwide and Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad, awarded the Nautilus Gold/"Best in Small Press" award. In June 2008, that book and Diet for a Small Planet were designated as must-reads for the next U.S. president (by Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan, respectively) in The New York Times Sunday Review of Books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important and wonderful book, November 8, 2006

By 

Paul Davis - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rediscovering America's Values (Hardcover)

This is a marvellous and important book that should have been read by all US residents. It presents a lengthy and deep dialog between two voices, one of them Lappe's own and the other an imagined (but heavily cited) representative of what can most succintly termed a conservative republican perspective. The book is a revelation in the sense that it is willing to consider the rather radical notion that each perspective may have a sincere, informed and consistent political philosophy behind it, and that this philosophy needs to be respected and understood.

Covering almost every area of political dialog and debate, Lappe goes deep into the philosophical and practical differences between the two worldviews she presents. Never shallow, never trite, never disrespectful. In an era when its too easy to believe the worst about one's political opponents, this books offers a glimpse of a different world: not one in which its any easier to overcome the substantive and real differences of opinion, but one in which a deep recognition of how and why these differences exist is the basis for all politics.

I cannot stress enough the benefits that would accrue to US society if this book was widely read.

Finally a comment on the Publisher's Weekly review. Lappe is not mistaken in her use of the term "Liberal worldview" (note capitalization). The more recent use of the term "liberal" to refer to left-of-center/progressive politics is a distortion of the historical term Liberal, and since Lappe is somewhat concerned with the history of the ideas in her book, this distinction is important. Historically, the Liberal worldview is the one that traces its lineage back to Adam Smith and the Renaissance, and forward to Hayek, Friedmann and others.