Rich People's Movements: Grassroots Campaigns to Untax the One Percent (Studies in Postwar American Political Development) 1st Edition

by Isaac Martin (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0199907878

ISBN-10: 0199907870

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On tax day, April 15, 2010, hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets with signs demanding lower taxes on the richest one percent. But why? Rich people have plenty of political influence. Why would they need to publicly demonstrate for lower taxes-and why would anyone who wasn't rich join the protest on their behalf?

Isaac William Martin shows that such protests long predate the Tea Party of our own time. Ever since the Sixteenth Amendment introduced a Federal income tax in 1913, rich Americans have protested new public policies that they thought would threaten their wealth. But while historians have taught us much about the conservative social movements that reshaped the Republican Party in the late 20th century, the story of protest movements explicitly designed to benefit the wealthy is still little known. Rich People's Movements is the first book to tell that story, tracking a series of protest movements that arose to challenge an expanding welfare state and progressive taxation. Drawing from a mix of anti-progressive ideas, the leaders of these movements organized scattered local constituencies into effective campaigns in the 1920s, 1950s, 1980s, and our own era. Martin shows how protesters on behalf of the rich appropriated the tactics used by the Left-from the Populists and Progressives of
the early twentieth century to the feminists and anti-war activists of the 1950s and 1960s. He explores why the wealthy sometimes cut secret back-room deals and at other times protest in the public square. He also explains why people who are not rich have so often rallied to their cause.

For anyone wanting to understand the anti-tax activists of today, including notable defenders of wealth inequality like the Koch brothers, the historical account in Rich People's Movements is an essential guide.

From Publishers Weekly

U.C. Davis sociologist Martin (The Permanent Tax Revolt: How the Property Tax Transformed American Politics) recounts a century of efforts to repeal or sharply curtail the federal income tax, which was instituted in 1913. His book pays homage and is a worthy counterpart to Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward's classic Poor People's Movements. The anti-tax movement, which defined the rich as the constituency sought to benefit and which was led by community organizers from the right, borrowed methods of mobilizing local groups from such liberal causes as women's suffrage. While the anti-tax advocates never succeeded, they had a real impact when their cause was linked with related initiatives, such as a federal balanced-budget amendment. (In 1982, the Senate passed a constitutional amendment that combined the two proposals, but it wasn't backed by a two-thirds majority in the House, as is required for it to be enacted.) And the movement influenced tax legislation—especially laws advanced by Coolidge, Reagan, and G.W. Bush, who were all sympathetic to the cause. Reagan's 1981 tax cut, for example, reduced marginal rates for the wealthiest from 70% to 50%. Martin explores the movement's influence on the GOP during the past 30 years, noting that the party has come to be dominated by anti-tax campaigners and predicting that rich people's movements will continue to influence public policy... and perhaps even increase... the extremes of inequality in America. 6 b&w illus. (Sept.)

Review

"...deeply engages questions about the causes and consequences of movements and brings into sharp focus an influential set of movement campaigns that scholars have ignored... It is must read for anyone wanting to understand the causes and consequences of movements and their campaigns as well our current political predicament." -- Mobilization

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0199928991
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (September 2, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199907870
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199907878
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.19 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.3 x 1.1 x 6.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,786,513 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,689 in Political Ideologies
- #2,402 in Taxation (Books)
- #3,712 in Economic Policy

Customer Reviews:
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Isaac William Martin

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P. Troutman

Couldn't be more timely.

Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2013

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The author, who is successfully establishing for himself the implausible niche as the guy who writes compelling books about the history of American tax policy, couldn’t be more timely as the latest iteration of the anti-taxation movement has gained enough numbers in the House of Representatives to grind much of the usual business of Congress to a near halt. This book goes back to the debates that led to the Sixteenth Amendment and the beginning of mass income tax in this country. It traces the ebb and flow of efforts by the non-wealthy to cut taxes on the rich, including in 1960s California [of course!] the short lived ‘T Party’. It’s clear that the author originally intended to find a few dull, stodgy dupes of the rich and was surprised—and pleased—to discover much deeper history filled with a Dickensque cast with an array of motivations. (I suspect that adherents of Tea Party philosophies might wish that their predecessors were a little less colorful.)

This is an important book, well told. I suspect non-sociologists might be occasionally irked by what would feel like to them to be digressions when the storytelling is paused to analyze some bursts of quantitative data, such as the demographics of who supported which organization or the extent to which different corporate sectors contributed moneys. But these represent relatively few pages.

19 people found this helpful

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Jane Lilly Lopez

An easy and interesting read

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2014

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Getting through most academic books is a real struggle -- even getting beyond the introductory chapter is often too much to bear. But this book read smoothly from start to finish, exposing the lesser-known history of rich people's activism in a way that is accessible to many audiences. If you're planning on being rich and politically active, want to know how to bring down the 1%, or are just looking for something informative and entertaining to read, look no further!

4 people found this helpful

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KDelphi

I couldn't finish this book

Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2013

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I was really looking forward to reading this. Almost no one has taken the time to look, in depth, at how/why the wealthy have almost completely taken over the U.S. system of government. Unfortunately, I am not sure Isaac Martin has either.

But, mostly, I just found it boring reading. Sorry.

4 people found this helpful

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Christine Mendenhall

Poor quality

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2021

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Pages are discolored, which was not noted on the description for "Good." Very disappointed.

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jeffrey davidson

in great condition

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2019

good book

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2013

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I bought this after reading and rereading Martin's previous book The Permanent Tax Revolt. I hope that Isaac Martin has more books in him on taxation politics/policy!

3 people found this helpful

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Bill Legere

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2017

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pleased

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Abe Krieger

The Normal Vs. The Pathologically Aggrieved

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2013

I couldn't make it through this book. It's an interesting topic handled in the most uninteresting way.

Also, there is no rich people's movement; there are the normal and the pathologically aggrieved. The normal are most of the rich, those who aspire to be rich, and those who will never be rich but realize that most of the rich deserve their wealth. The pathologically aggrieved are mostly black, mostly liberal, mostly financial failures who see the rich as someone responsible for their failure. The normal don't like the idea of gov. trying to take from them to give to the pathologically aggrieved, and who can blame them.

9 people found this helpful

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Rich People's Movements: Grassroots Campaigns to Untax the One Percent (Studies in Postwar American Political Development) 1st Edition