A wave of liberal authored books are hitting the proverbial bookshelves this year lamenting the slow economy, calling for substantive change, and offering little in the way of cover design. The new crop of books reflect the left’s mood swings in reaction to the Obama administration’s handling of the economy, concerns over corporate power, government spending and investment: heightened cynicism, despair, futility, disillusionment, disappointment, anger, fatalism, abject panic…..
Oh, the good ol days, when we all agreed that we HATED W BUSH! When the reaction to the terrible Bush/Cheney White House included a veritable presidential library of such books. Through every fault of its own, Bush/Cheney, inc. became a publishing cash cow, from the omnibus “Bushwhacked!” to all the glorious takedown/mockeries like “The End of America!”, “Worse than Watergate!”,”The Anti Intellectual Presidency”, “Pretensions to an empire”, “Voting to Kill!”, and all the “Bushism” stocking stuffers.
Chris Jackson, executive editor of Spiegel & Grau, a Random House Inc. imprint says:
“I published a bunch of liberal books during the (George W.) Bush administration and the theme was basically, ‘I hate Bush. This time, we’re dealing with the limitations of what a president can do and systematic things like the influence of the financial industry and the relationship between the 1 percent and the 99 percent.”
Upcoming releases “The Great Divergence” by Timothy Noah and “The Price of Equality” by Joseph Stiglitz focus on the growing gap between rich and poor. James Carville’s “It’s the Middle Class, Stupid”, is campaign oriented. Others are prescriptions for the economy like “End This Depression Now!” by Paul Krugman and a new book by former Obama advisor Van Jones, “Rebuild the Dream”, which I’m currently reading. I just pre-ordered “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt,” co-authored by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco, a report from the frontlines of poverty in America with accounts of some of the country’s most devastated communities, “sacrifice zones” like Camden, a poster child of postindustrial decay. The authors call for reform, as places like Camden stand as warnings of what much of the United States stand to become if we cement in place a permanent underclass.
The Price of Inequality, End This Depression Now, The Great Divergence, It’s the Middle Class, Stupid!, Rebuild the Dream, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt
