Table of Contents

PREFACE
Back to the Future

CHAPTER ONE
Prelude: The Revenge of the Radcons

CHAPTER TWO
Public Morality

CHAPTER THREE
Real Prosperity

CHAPTER FOUR
Positive Patriotism

CHAPTER FIVE
Winning: It Will Take More Than Reason

Appendix A
Discussion Guide to the Liberal Reawakening

Appendix B
Recommended Reading

Notes
Acknowledgments
Index

About the Author

Robert B. Reich is University Professor at Brandeis University and Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis’s Heller Graduate School. He is also a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley. He served as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. This is his tenth book. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

“We’ve got Reich, they’ve got Coulter. We win. A brilliant and passionately argued book. Read it.” —Al Franken

“Passionately written, politically charged. . . . Compulsively readable.” —The Plain Dealer

“Valuable. . . . Sharp and fresh. . . .Part memoir, part explication of the contending and contentious ruling ideologies of Red and Blue America—radical conservatism and liberalism at odds—and part call to arms. . . . Not . . . an attack book, but a positive one, a call for a rebirth of a liberal ascendancy.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“Utterly lucid and engaging.” —Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickle and Dimed

“Appealing. . . . Mr. Reich explodes a number of fallacies on the left . . . and the right. . . . Eminently wise.” —The New York Times

Today's conservatives ("Radcons") are reckless, vituperative extremists, deeply at odds with the caution and civility of traditional conservatives like Edmund Burke, argues Reich (Locked in the Cabinet), Clinton's first secretary of labor. Liberals, he asserts, remain squarely in the tradition of Jefferson and FDR, not (as Radcons allege) the late '60s New Left. Yet liberals have ceded certain issues and qualities to Radcons that they should take back. Moral outrage is one: "There is moral rot in America, but it's not found in the private behavior of ordinary people. It's located in the public behavior of people at or near the top." Quoting liberally from conservatives like Robert Bork (who was Reich's law school professor and gave him his first job), Reich wholeheartedly approves of their moral indignation but disagrees with their targets. Referring to John Q. Wilson's "broken windows" argument for zero tolerance of petty vandalism, he writes, "The corporate fraud, conflicts of interest, exorbitant pay of top executives, and surge of money into politics are like hundreds of broken windows." Despite such well-made points, the good-natured Reich can't sustain outrage for more than a few sentences. His second main topic-reclaiming economic growth as a liberal banner-is more seriously compromised by his underdeveloped mix of neoliberalism and social democracy (despite his lucid critique of the Radcons' economic ideas and record). But he roars home with his last main subject, "Positive Patriotism," rejecting "chest-thumping pride" in favor of defining America by its ideals. Although his book is uneven, Reich's distinctive perspective provides insights targeted well beyond November's election. Agent, Rafe Sagalyn. 60,000 first printing. (May 12) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

"We've got Reich, they've got Coulter. We win. A brilliant and passionately argued book. Read it." -Al Franken

"Passionately written, politically charged. . . . Compulsively readable." -The Plain Dealer

"Valuable. . . . Sharp and fresh. . . .Part memoir, part explication of the contending and contentious ruling ideologies of Red and Blue America-radical conservatism and liberalism at odds-and part call to arms. . . . Not . . . an attack book, but a positive one, a call for a rebirth of a liberal ascendancy." -Chicago Sun-Times

"Utterly lucid and engaging." -Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickle and Dimed

"Appealing. . . . Mr. Reich explodes a number of fallacies on the left . . . and the right. . . . Eminently wise." -The New York Times