"An urgent report from the front lines of "dirty work"-the work that society considers essential but morally compromised"-- Drone pilots who carry out targeted assassinations. Undocumented immigrants who man the "kill floors" of industrial slaughterhouses. Guards who patrol the wards of the United States' most violent and abusive prisons. Press offers a paradigm-shifting view of the moral landscape of contemporary America through the stories of people...

The founder of "Washington Monthly" describes the drastic and negative changes occurring in Washington, D.C., that are driving the economic divide and culture of consumerism. "We Do Our Part" was the slogan of FDR's National Recovery Administration. Peters compares the flood of talented, original thinkers who flowed into the nation's capital to join FDR's administration with the tide of self-serving government staffers who left to exploit their opportunities...

Examines how the wealthy classes have contributed to growing inequality in society and explains how the quest to increase wealth has hindered the country's economic growth as well as its efforts to solve its most pressing economic problems.

From the author, an economist, this book is an examination of innovation and success, and where to find them in America. An unprecedented redistribution of jobs, population, and wealth is under way in America, and it is likely to accelerate in the years to come. America's new economic map shows growing differences, not just between people but especially between communities. In this book, the author provides a fresh perspective on the tectonic shifts...

Today's most widely read economist challenges America to reclaim the values that made it great. Here he 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...

A sharp examination of the troubled state of retirement in America shares sobering insights into how the real estate crash and limited social security are preventing retirement and inducing widespread poverty in aging Baby Boomers. "As millions of baby boomers reach their golden years, the state of retirement in America is little short of a disaster. A third of Americans have no retirement savings at all. The real estate crash wiped out much of the...

Allen makes the case that we cannot have freedom as individuals without equality among us as a people. Evoking the colonial world between 1774 and 1777, Allen describes the challenges faced by John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston--the "Committee of Five" who had to write a document that reflected the aspirations of a restive population and forge an unprecedented social contract. Although the focus is...

"One standard story about America is rooted in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Another story concerns America's moment of reckoning after the Civil War, when it was possible to believe that the country would transcend its racist roots. Kermit Roosevelt III argues here that today, with the country increasingly riven along violent divides, we can find a path forward by shifting our benchmarks from the first story, which fostered...

"In Tales of Two Americas, some of the literary world's most exciting writers look beyond numbers and wages to convey what it feels like to live in this divided nation. Their extraordinarily powerful stories, essays, and poems demonstrate how boundaries break down when experiences are shared, and that in sharing our stories we can help to alleviate a suffering that touches so many people."--Page 4 of cover.

"It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even as the country divides itself at every turn, the meritocratic ideal -- that social and economic rewards should follow achievement rather than breeding -- reigns supreme. Both Democrats and Republicans insistently repeat meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to the heart of who we are. It sustains the American dream. But what if, both up and down the...