The Conscience of a Liberal (Hardcover)

by Paul Krugman (Author)
Key Phrases: movement conservatism, welfare explosion, movement conservatives, New Deal, United States, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Economist and New York Times columnist Krugman's stimulating manifesto aims to galvanize today's progressives the way Barry Goldwater's The Conscience of a Conservative did right-wingers in 1964. Krugman's great theme is economic equality and the liberal politics that support it. America's post-war middle-class society was not the automatic product of a free-market economy, he writes, but was created... by the policies of the Roosevelt Administration. By strengthening labor unions and taxing the rich to fund redistributive programs like Social Security and Medicare, the New Deal consensus narrowed the income gap, lifted the working class out of poverty and made the economy boom. Things went awry, Krugman contends, with the Republican Party's takeover by movement conservatism, practicing a politics of deception [and] distraction to advance the interests of the wealthy. Conservative initiatives to cut taxes for the rich, dismantle social programs and demolish unions, he argues, have led to sharply rising inequality, with the incomes of the wealthiest soaring while those of most workers stagnate. Krugman's accessible, stylishly presented argument deftly combines economic data with social and political analysis; his account of the racial politics driving conservative successes is especially sharp. The result is a compelling historical defense of liberalism and a clarion call for Americans to retake control of their economic destiny. (Oct.)
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Product Description
This wholly original new work by the best-selling author of The Great Unraveling challenges America to reclaim the values that made it great. With this major new volume, Paul Krugman, today's most widely read economist, studies the past eighty years of American history, from the reforms that tamed the harsh inequality of the Gilded Age to the unraveling of that achievement and the reemergence of immense economic and political inequality since the 1970s. Seeking to understand both what happened to middle-class America and what it will take to achieve a "new New Deal," Krugman has created his finest book to date, a work that weaves together a nuanced account of three generations of history with sharp political, social, and economic analysis. This book, written with Krugman's trademark ability to explain complex issues simply, will transform the debate about American social policy in much the same way as did John Kenneth Galbraith's deeply influential book, The Affluent Society. .

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; First Edition edition (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393060691
• ISBN-13: 978-0393060690
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (126 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #73,241 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

107 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth Every Penny, November 30, 2007

By	!Edwin C. Pauzer (New York City) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

As baby boomers, we grew up with products "Made in the USA," parents who enjoyed life-long employment, health care, affordable education, Social Security and pensions that make the golden years more golden. This is what author, Paul Krugman describes in his new book "Conscience of a Liberal." He calls this the "Great Compression" where the politics of equality was borne from the New Deal in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt defied the laws of Adam Smith and his invisible hand, and redistributed the wealth of a nation, effectively killing the "Gilded Age" where society was comprised of the very wealthy and the poor.

FDR's New Deal saw the minimum wage becoming half of the average wage earner, the rise of unions, and the mansions of the nation's wealthiest becoming museum attractions. This was the creation of the middle class that was vehemently opposed by Republicans who believed that government intervention would turn the country communist and ruin the economy. It didn't.

By the time Dwight Eisenhower, republican, became president most republicans had made their peace with the New Deal and only a fringe of extremist republicans, known as movement conservatives, still opposed it.

The movement conservatives made a brief, unsuccessful surge with the nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964. They got a break when democrats embraced civil rights, which broke the Solid South away from the democrats. Racism and the wrath of the angry white male were exploited and the message of Ronald Reagan could not be missed when he launched his campaign in Philadelphia, MS. Sound familiar?

Through skillful marketing of ideas, conservatives were able to exploit racism and frame themselves as strong on defense, tough on crime, and opponents of big government and taxes even though they lacked the record to support any of these assertions. Once again, we returned to a Gilded Age with a rising disparity between the have's and the have nots, and a declining middle class. Middle class income is less than it was under President Lyndon Johnson, and bankruptcies and mortgage foreclosures have increased because of crushing medical debt and jobs being shipped overseas.

And this is where Paul Krugman claims that conservatism is running on its last pint of gas. With record low unemployment and a booming economy, Americans are still uncertain about the their future and their prospects. They have had no tax relief, no job security, income failing to keep pace with cost of living increases, rising health care insurance costs, no end to an unpopular war, rising education costs, and companies repudiating their pension promises. With forty-five million Americans having no health insurance and sixteen million being under-insured, conservatives are no longer able to convince Americans that they are better off with tax relief going to the richest companies, while they are trying to dismantle Medicare and Social Security, in other words, the New Deal.

In spite of the current widening gap, Krugman sees an optimistic future, a demise of movement conservatism and a return to the politics of equality through universal health care. He points out that this is not socialized medicine but socialized insurance. The government program, Medicare operates efficiently with smaller administrative costs than major insurance companies, which have considerably higher operating expenses. The author's second point is that while racism still exists, it is not as deep as it was twenty years ago, and can no longer be exploited by movement conservatives. Equally important, he believes that Americans will eventually see that conservatism is of no advantage to them, only to the corporations and the wealthy.

Writing in a style and vocabulary that will not require the reader to carry a dictionary, this award-winning columnist and economist provides an interesting background of American populism, political history of America in the 20th century, and the remedy for the current politics of inequality.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience. It is worth every penny.

217 of 254 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Politcal/Economics Book of the Decade, October 14, 2007

By	Ted Linden "tl" (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Krugman does it again with an impeccably reasoned history of the interaction between US politics and economics. I wasn't expecting much new, but Krugman repeatedly opened my eyes by putting our current political conflicts in the context of 140 years worth of economic and political history. He documents how the distribution of economic resources are guided not only by Adam Smith's invisible hand but also by politics. He describes how we achieved relative equality with high productivity growth during the 1940-60s, analyzes how political decisions led to our current moderate growth with most of the benefits accruing to a small fraction of the population, and discusses the way movement conservatives have achieved and maintained political power while furthering the economic interests of a small minority. The second half of the book suggests a modest plan for liberals to achieve when they regain political power--beginning with universal health insurance.

I've often found it hard to understand what motivates conservatives. I now understand their history and ideas much better. Compromising with them isn't going to work. It will be interesting to see how conservatives respond to this book. They will clearly quibble, attack, and distract, but it is hard to see how they could counteract Krugman's carefully documented main points.

This book is a must read for everybody concerned about the direction our country is moving. The timing is propitious as it arrives just as the radical conservative movement is beginning to falter. It refutes essentially every argument radical conservatives use to advance their cause and distort discussions. And it will be the book of the decade if it does begin the process of getting our political discussions about the undoing our social safety nets back to where they were in the 1950s. Krugman quotes Eisenhower as writing of those who would "attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs...." that "Their number is negligible and they are stupid." Radical conservatives will always be with us, but they do not need to remain in political power.

136 of 158 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT KRUGMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, October 13, 2007

By	G. D. Peterson (San Mateo, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been waiting for this book. I read through 1/2 of it last evening. It is a well-thought out book that well-written and more tightly argued than his weekly columns. The books even exercises some retraint in dealing with the Republicans, probably because he has to differentiate between the Republican economic ideology and the current Republican fiasco that is George W. Bush.

He makes a cogent argument that the government solutions to the Depression and to managing W.W. 2 created both a thriving economy and a thriving middle class that was sustained until 1970. He makes it clear that the middle-class hasn't done nearly as well since.

In his NY TIMES columns, Krugman holds the view that the Bush admin is a rogue government, working against the interest of the majority of it citizens, putting forth policies that the majority of Americans object to. The sense of contempt, of outrage that is present in the columns is missing here. As I said, the book is restrained: I would have liked a thoughtful attack on the Hooverites and their designs on the future of this country: some critical venom for these bizarre people would have been very entertaining.

It is telling when Krugman mentions that his collegues at the Times encouraged him to soften his attacks on Bush after the election in 2004. The conformism of the New York Times has not always been helpful to this country. That is why it took the Washington Post to pursue Watergate: it was a story that that needed to be pursued, not managed.