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William Greider
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Who Will Tell The People? : The Betrayal Of American Democracy Paperback – January 1, 1993

by William Greider (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 41 ratings
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Who Will Tell the People is a passionate, eye-opening challenge to American democracy. Here is a tough-minded exploration of why we're in trouble, starting with the basic issues of who gets heard, who gets ignored, and why. Greider shows us the realities of power in Washington today, uncovering the hidden relationships that link politicians with corporations and the rich, and that subvert the needs of ordinary citizens.
How do we put meaning back into public life? Greider shares the stories of some citizens who have managed to crack Washington's "Grand Bazaar" of influence peddling as he reveals the structures designed to thwart them. Without naiveté or cynicism, Greider shows us how the system can still be made to work for the people, and delineates the lines of battle in the struggle to save democracy. By showing us the reality of how the political decisions that shape our lives are made, William Greider explains how we can begin to take control once more.
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Simon & Schuster Jun-01-1993
  3. Publication date
    January 1, 1993
  4. Dimensions
    9.18 x 6.15 x 1.19 inches
  5. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000C4SSVC
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster Jun-01-1993 (January 1, 1993)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.18 x 6.15 x 1.19 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 41 ratings

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William Greider

William Greider

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William Greider is the bestselling author of five previous books, including One World, Ready or Not (on the global economy), Who Will Tell the People (on American politics), and Secrets of the Temple (on the Federal Reserve). A reporter for forty years, he has written for The Washington Post and Rolling Stone and has been an on-air correspondent for six Frontline documentaries on PBS. Currently the national affairs correspondent for The Nation, he lives in Washington, D.C.

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Lawrence Raymond
    5.0 out of 5 stars How Power Is Misused to Perpetuate Control!
    Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    This is a brilliant account of how democracy has been subverted by the system created to serve it! Worse, it shows how those elected use the old language of the republic to conceal their misappropriation of power. Even when laws are passed to remedy problems the congressional corporate power elite and their lackeys appear before the Management and Budget Committee in congress to water down enforcement, negating the positive effect that might have resulted otherwise.
    William Greider, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and celebrated journalist, has provided a remarkable insight into why and how democracy is declining from within the government; in concert with
    both political parties.
    A must read for students as well as concerned citizens. Highly recommend, even though examples are drawn from an earlier era it is a a poignant lesson in government and history.
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  • Neal-Head
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting
    Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2024
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    Among many examples, it's interesting to read this book on American democracy written in the early 90's and reflect on how "now" was anticipated then way back then.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Carol. Noble
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Hobo Philosopher
    Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2007
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    In trying to understand the modern day world - governments, societies, and general direction of the civilization - I found myself very confused. I wanted to find a professor who could get me up to speed on what is really going on in the world around me. As you know one must choose selectively because there are "so many books and so little time". Consequently I have chosen William Greider as my "Civics" professor.
    I have finished my third book by William Greider this morning, "Who Will Tell the People." I thought that to be a wonderful title for a book. I have been asking myself that same questions on many different subjects for many years. If you have also been wondering "Who Will Tell the People", I think I can tell you quite sincerely that one of the people who will tell the people is certainly William Greider.
    This book is about Washington, "K" street and the money, games and influence. I thought that I knew about all that stuff but unfortunately I didn't know the half of it.

    Richard Edward Noble - The Hobo Philosopher - Author of:

    America On Strike - A survey of Labor strikes in America.
    11 people found this helpful
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars In fact I think I might like to try it someday
    Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    If you are prone to getting angry. Don't read this book. It is a look at how the less that rich have been used and abused since the start of the republic. I'm not against anyone getting rich. In fact I think I might like to try it someday. I am against the rich being able to change the rules of the game or as in this case writing the rules right from the beginning.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Veterans' Lawyer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Avoid this book at all costs if you can't handle the truth!
    Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Reading this book in 2015 may be pointless since all the worst things Greider warned about have come to pass in spades. But it's still a necessary read for anyone wanting to understand how a tool like Brian Williams or Bill O'Really? could ever be viewed as journalists. Or how the press went from being the watchdog of power, to being the Man's well-trained lapdog.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • Norman G Humphries
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2015
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    A must read by all if you really want to know how the system works!
    One person found this helpful
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  • J. Davis
    3.0 out of 5 stars Some good parts but dated
    Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2008
    Verified Purchase
    William Greider is a good writer and this was an excellent read- in 1992. Many of the complaints he has- such as a regressive tax code- are less applicable after the Clinton years. I just couldn't get into the S&L scandals anymore. Old news.
    This is not to say there is nothing of value in the book. Greider does talk eloquently of the corruption of the political process by big money. I think the best part of the book is "Rancid Populism," a chapter on the Republicans' constant betrayal of the middle class and poor at the hands of the wealthy.

    Perhaps this book needed an updated edition for the 21st century. Much of it seemed irrelevant today. Who cares whether Henry Gonzales (former Congressman) does on his Saturday nights?
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Deke Solomon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Why Should Anyone Read William Greider?
    Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2016
    Who Needs William Greider, Anyway?

    I first read William Greider’s Who will tell the People in 1993, in the youth of the first Clinton administration. For your average American, things then were bad and getting worse but had not yet gone absolutely haywire. Who will tell the People offered readers some hope for American democracy because Mr. Greider’s work was and remains among the best analyses of which “mainstream journalism” was then capable.

    Things have changed. Since the back-to-back ascendancies of William Jefferson Clinton, George Walker Bush and Barack Hussein Obama and now, with either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Donald John Trump in the offing, “mainstream journalism” offers no hope at all. The world to which Who will tell the People relates is now behind us, somewhere on the other side of Lewis Carroll’s famous looking glass. As our national clock ticks off the passage of years, fewer and fewer Americans recall what the United States once looked like, what it was like in fact, what its principles and aspirations were, what the Constitution of the United States and our Bill of Rights actually meant, and what those things made possible that — if the status quo holds — may never be realized or dreamt of again.

    In Harper’s Magazine of September 2016 (p. 49), author and essayist Mark Lilla argues mockingly that ‘Only an Apocalypse Can Save Us Now’. Lilla’s article makes good, rational fun of people who feel as this writer does. Mr. Lilla avers frankly that dissenters are merely victims of acute nostalgia and likens us to radical Islamists.

    Too bad for Professor Lilla: rationality isn't such a much these days. This writer notices, for example, that Lilla’s essay offers no solution to the mess in which America is mired. So my rejoinder reminds Mark Lilla that a tenured chair at Columbia University lends the sitter security of a rather smug sort, in part because it enables him/her to enjoy many things that paranoid yokels of the hinterland are systemically denied. From the yokels’ perspective, then, it is good that talk is cheap and we am certain that Professor Lilla enjoys today’s featherweight, fascist journalism much more than the dreary, factual sort practiced by doddering old yokels like William Greider.

    The journalism America now practices is ridiculous on its face. Its lies are contemptible; its insidious voices grow more poisonous by the hour. People who think and truly believe that billionaires such as the Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch and others will write grants, buy advertising, and in other ways fund hard-hitting articles about the virtues of organized labor and the vices of capitalism will wear their irons placidly. Tenured professors remain tenured for the time being. Paranoid yokels must seek another way forward.

    Speaking once again of Who will tell the People, this writer holds that the worth of Greider’s 1993 book today is principally as a reference and an example. Every American should read Who will tell the People. Every American should discover a few of the things that went wrong on the other side of the looking glass. The future that presently howls down upon us, if we hope to survive it, will demand from all of us all we can learn of the past.
    8 people found this helpful
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