From the bestselling author of "What's the Matter with Kansas?" comes a wonderfully insightful and sardonic look at why the worst economy since the 1930s has brought about the revival of conservatism. Economic catastrophe usually brings social protest and demands for change--or at least it's supposed to. In "Pity the Billionaire," Frank, the great chronicler of American paradox, examines the peculiar mechanism by which dire economic circumstances have delivered wildly unexpected political results.

Reviews

"No one fools Thomas Frank, who is the sharpest, funniest, most intellectually voracious political commentator on the scene. In Pity the Billionaire he has written a brilliant expose of the most breath-taking ruse in American political history: how the right turned the biggest capitalist breakdown since 1929 into an opportunity for themselves." --Barbara Ehrenreich

"Tom Frank has the Tea Parties in his sights! Brisk and searing and deeply informed by the lessons of history (shocking notion!), Frank's latest guide for the perplexed is nothing less than a precious gift to us. Read it, and finally--You. Will. Understand." --Rick Perlstein

"Thomas Frank has crossed the Styx and returned to sing of the tortured, tormented souls of the Tea Party and their sufferings in the Socialist America they have conjured from thin air. This he does with grace, style and humor, which not all of his subjects share. Be glad that in this election year you can read Pity the Billionaire instead of turning on the television or the radio or your computer. Pity the Billionaire? Hell. Pity us all." --James K. Galbraith

"Thomas Frank is the thinking person's Michael Moore. If Moore, the left-wing filmmaker, had Frank's Ph.D. (in history from the University of Chicago), he might produce books like this one." -Michael Kinsley, "The New York Times Book Review"

"A feisty and galvanizing book... This is the kind of analysis - historically astute, irreverent and droll - that makes Frank such an invaluable voice. As he's done in a series of perceptive books, Frank cuts through the partisan blather and explains how money and cynical ideas shape a certain kind of contemporary politics. "Pity the Billionaire" is further evidence that he's as good at this as any writer working today." -"San Francisco Chronicle"

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"An astonishing story...Frank is one of the best leftwing writers America has produced."-"The Guardian"

"Thomas Frank writes English and not the chat of the pundits and mains