"Be prepared for a mind-opening experience."
-The Christian Century
"Highly readable; excellent for students. . . . A tonic and eye-opener for anyone who wants a politics that works."
-Jane Mansbridge, Adams Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
"America Beyond Capitalism comes at a critical time in our history-when we all know our system isn't working but we are not sure what can be done about it. This book takes us outside the confines of orthodox thinking, imagines a new way of living together, and then brings that vision back into reality with a set of eminently practical ideas that promise a truly democratic society."
-Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States
"Succeeds brilliantly in taking the Jeffersonian spirit into the last bastion of privilege in America, offering workable solutions for making the American economy one that is truly of, by, and for the people."
-Jeremy Rifkin, author of The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream
"The kind of careful, well-researched, and practical alternative progressives have been seeking. And it's more-visionary, hopeful, even inspirational. I highly recommend it."
-Juliet Schor, author of The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need
"A compelling and convincing story of the future."
-William Greider, author of The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy
- The top 5% of Americans own just under 70% of all financial wealth.
- The top 1% of Americans now claim more income per year than the bottom 100 million Americans taken together.
- The top 2/10th of 1% makes more on the sale of stocks and bonds in one year than everyone else combined.
The coming November election could become a truly fundamental turning point for Democrats and progressives.
But new ideas and a new long term strategy are obviously needed if we are ever to regain serious positive momentum. This requires the kind of profound reassessment of first principles and broad vision which conservatives undertook when they were sidelined and out of power in the 1950s and 1960s.
In America Beyond Capitalism, noted political economist and historian Gar Alperovitz argues that the first decade of the 21st Century is producing conditions that will force the United States to undergo historic changes. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have until now had coherent responses to these challenges.
America Beyond Capitalism is not simply another indictment of our national ills. It builds upon the latest scholarship, theoretical and empirical as well as practical developments at the state and local level to produce systematic proposals for the progressive rebuilding of a democratic America.
Though times may get worse before they get better, major political realignments are the rule, not the exception, in American history, Alperovitz argues.
http://www.garalperovitz.com/
