He is trying to hustle one last zeitgeist. Please try again. “The paradigm shift of the 1980s really was equivalent in scale and scope to those of the 1960s and the 1930s,” Andersen writes. $13.99. America is in a vicious cycle in which enormous economic inequality buys political leverage which increases the inequality enabling them to buy even more political power. Andersen proposes that the lengthy retreat into nostalgia was a reaction to the economic changes of the '80s and '90s, "a kind of national cultural self-medication". Skip to the end of the images gallery. Sorry I bought it. On the Shelf. Who can blame him? Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. The book describes this period as "[M]aking our vision of capitalism more fair, less harsh, and politically sustainable, a robust foundation for a growing middle class whose spending fueled more economic growth and a society that made most of its citizens reasonable content and proud.". Every American should read this book - how we got here, and where we should go next, Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2020. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America By Kurt Andersen Random House: 464 pages, $30 Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980 [why we are where we are, and how to correct] Historical build-up, topical understanding, fact-based history. Add to Wish List. Random House, $30 (464p) ISBN 978-1-984801-34-0. It entered The New York Times Best Seller list for nonfiction at number 7,[1] the Washington Post list at number 9,[2] and the Los Angeles Times list at number 5. In "Part Four: Same Old Same Old", nostalgia is in full-swing, recycling old TV shows, movies, musicals, and fashion. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America by Kurt Andersen So many small businesses going under because of COVID, and still, Vlasic survives. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Does much to explain (and maybe even understand) the US and the way the mind works - saw an exact example of the 'looking for a better time' process on the ABC's "Gruen" of Dec 16. The Democrats, though, are almost as complicit as the Republicans. It used to be called the New World. Unable to add item to List. The book provides detailed information on free-market political economics in America and the many evil geniuses that made it happen. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. In "Part One: A Brief History of America", Andersen frames the development of what would become the United States as a society with an unprecedented openness to all that is new. In Evil Geniuses, Andersen has served up a big helping of culpa, hold the mea. It takes a fair bit of effort to get through it because it's a veritable tome. With lucid writing and head-snapping insights, Kurt Andersen explores how a confederacy of the right and big business, with unabashed greed, deliberately reengineered our economy. The U.S. saw a "promiscuous deregulation frenzy" and the rapid growth of conservative institutions such as Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, The Heritage Foundation, George Mason University, Mercatus Center, Institute for Humane Studies, ALEC, and Citizens for a Sound Economy. America is also shown to be exceptional (in a negative sense) when looking at differences in healthcare spending, healthcare quality, and life expectancies, as well as the costs of higher education. VOTE and GET TO WORK on fixong America! With lucid writing and head-snapping insights, Kurt Andersen explores how a confederacy of the right and big business, with unabashed greed, deliberately reengineered our economy. Kurt Andersen has written a wonderfully useful book to educate us about the unmaking of America. Skip to main content.sg. In my opinion, the United States is in big trouble politically. Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2020. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History is a nonfiction book by Kurt Andersen, published in August 2020. Excellent read, though, and I'm sure that I could have doubled my involvement in it by delving into the references and double checking my understanding more often as I read every chapter. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. The book provides detailed information on free-market political economics in America and the many evil geniuses that made it happen. There's a problem loading this menu right now. A group far less enamoured by the New Deal (and the Keynesian economics it embraced) were those on the Far-Right of US politics, namely the super-rich, big business and, naturally, Wall Street, all of whom were incandescent over the high marginal tax rates they were being asked to pay. Out of stock ₱1,440.00. Often brings in events that aren’t relevant. Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2020, The author has a very hard time getting to the point. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. Four decades on, the cost of the Neoliberal project has been a disaster, with the economic elite wealthy to obscene levels, the middle-class all but wiped out and the poor struggling along as best they can. Download Notes as PDF. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America. It was a journey reading this book, but worth the time. All boats rose together. The top income tax rate went from 70% to 50% in 1982, then to 38.5%, then to 28% in 1986. Now it’s run by a man who wants to make it great “again.” dem party has lost its way and lost its ability to tell stories. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America - A Recent History: Andersen, Kurt: Amazon.sg: Books. Mr. Andersen explains the system in more detail, but that's all the evidence I need to know that there is no justice in America. You can’t properly review an audio book, of course. Evil Geniuses concludes, "For Americans now, will surviving a year (or more) of radical uncertainty help persuade a majority to make radical changes in our political economy to reduce their chronic economic uncertainty and insecurity?...Or will Americans remain hunkered forever, as confused and anxious and paralyzed as we were before 2020, descend into digital feudalism, forgo a renaissance and retreat into cocoons of comfortable cultural stasis providing the illusion that nothing much is changing or ever can change? Like the good people before us, we are in for the literal fight of our lives as our present and future depends on our efforts now. See search results for this author. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. ", Evil Geniuses suggests that a modern-day Rip van Winkle who had fallen asleep in the 1970s and awoken in the 1990s would be aghast at the country's relapse into another Gilded Age. Worth 2X the price!, Best & Most Important Read of the Decade! There was a proliferation of complex derivatives, incognito leverage, mortgage-backed securities, leveraged buyouts and venture capital, hedge funds, junk bonds, as well as the start of 401Ks which opened an immense new revenue stream for Wall Street while enticing employers to do away with traditional pension plans, coupled with deregulation laws and tax changes. EVIL GENIUSES The Unmaking of America: A Recent History By Kurt Andersen. Rebecca Carroll, WNYC cultural critic and host of the podcast Come Through Missing 411 : North America by David Paulides. Evil Geniuses The Unmaking of America : A Recent History (Book) : Andersen, Kurt : "Americans have disabled the government's ability to solve even basic problems, making us vulnerable to the most dangerous demagogue ever to pretend to the White House. I simply found this book far too unrelentingly depressing to continue. View All Available Formats & Editions. The main subject of the book is the excessive power granted to big business starting in the 1970s. If you want to understand why the US has lost its way, just read this book. "[8], A review in the Chicago Tribune says "The elements he is able to pull together and weave into a narrative that so convincingly pinpoints how we arrived at this moment are consistently novel and interesting. Kurt Andersen has written a wonderfully useful book to educate us about the unmaking of America. I finished the audio version of it earlier this week — read by Andersen, a welcome touch. A huge, secure, and contented middle class emerged. "[6] Kirkus Reviews calls it "A rousing call for desperately needed systemic transformation. .orange-text-color {font-weight:bold; color: #FE971E;}Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more. But then the New Deal gave way to the Raw Deal. "[9], Tom Krattenmaker in The Humanist says Evil Geniuses "demonstrates a remarkable ability to see through to the truth of the politics and culture of recent decades, and to make sense of them in a way with crucial relevance to now. The Federalist Society addressed the first prong. The book is Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America–A Recent History. Download books for free. To fix that will require understanding the roots of the problem. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History is a nonfiction book by Kurt Andersen, published in August 2020. On the Gini index which provides a standard measure of inequality, America today is the most unequal of rich countries, ranking a bit lower than Haiti and a bit higher than Uruguay. Free shipping and … DARK AGENDA: The War to Destroy Christian America- Kindle Edition. Now I really understand the history, and what we need to do! We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. To conclude, Mr Andersen covers all the above ground in interesting detail and in an engaging style, which is never boring but, importantly, there is also humour in his presentation, possibly even some optimism, which I hope is not misplaced. $5.99. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! by Kurt Andersen (Goodreads Author) During the twentieth century, America managed to make its economic and social systems both more and more fair and more and more prosperous. We will all have our opinions on the success (or otherwise) of Trump’s term in office but, over the past four years, one ‘achievement’ seems to stand out, namely a one trillion dollar tax cut - for the wealthy!! We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: a Recent History Kurt Andersen No preview available - 2020. "[10], Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), "Hardcover Nonfiction Books - Best Sellers", "Bestsellers: The latest list from the American Booksellers Association", "Kurt Andersen Asks: What Is the Future of America? The FCC fairness doctrine was eliminated. Please try again. ", "The Revelation of Kurt Andersen: With 'Evil Geniuses' a Media Mandarin Discovers Plutocracy", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evil_Geniuses:_The_Unmaking_of_America&oldid=1002694060, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 25 January 2021, at 17:30. In, "Part Five: Make America New Again", Evil Geniuses points out that the number of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs with good salaries and benefits have drastically decreased. Must Buy! Published on August 23, 2020 by Steven Maimes, Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2020. During this period, Americans, by and large, tended to trust their governments but this began to go awry, starting with the disastrous Vietnam War, the race riots (following the assassination of Martin Luther King) and, ultimately, the unmasking of the criminal Watergate conspiracy, leading to the resignation from office of President Richard Nixon. Writing Brilliance! Kurt Andersen’s newest book, “Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History,” tells the story of our political culture’s long march to the right, from Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign to Donald Trump. "[5], Publishers Weekly says "Much of Andersen’s material will be familiar to newshounds, but he arranges it into a cohesive argument backed by hard data and stinging prose. At the same time, society indulged in waves of nostalgia. On top of the current economic and political inequality, America (along with the rest of the world) faces the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, as well as changes in the global climate. Politics, in turn, became "fights over which parts of the past should or shouldn't and can or can't be recycled or restored.". Michael Horowitz wrote a memo on behalf of the Sarah Scaife Foundation that laid out a three-pronged vision for conservative influence in the legal system: recruit top students from top law schools; "adopt and fund a strategy that sought a genuine right-wing revolution in the high-end legal profession and judiciary"; the movement needed to appear philosophical, idealistic, and independent. During the 12 or so years culminating in Ronald Reagan’s 1980 election victory, an insidious campaign, mounted by these conservative elements and with cooperation from parts of the media, drip-fed the message that the nation’s unrest and distrust was the inevitable result of ‘too much socialism’; the concept of Neoliberalism was, accordingly, put forward as a remedy. The political economy was changing from "a more or less win-win game to one that was practically zero-sum". In Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History, Andersen uses his sharp journalistic skills and keen storytelling ability to show and explain how this “unmaking” happened and who did it. Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2020. The books Losing Ground and Wealth and Poverty argued against welfare policies and for supply-side economics. Probably the most depressing book I ever tried to read. We grew up getting by, participating in our own culture, work, and family. You should think about this book for along time. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History (Hardcover) By Kurt Andersen. For the U.S. to survive and prosper, a more democratic and sustainable form of capitalism is critical. Where earlier decades had distinctive cultural characters, the character of the 1980s had merely continued through the following decades: "the eighties never ended". The basic tenets of this doctrine are small government, large tax reductions for the wealthy and deregulation, all of which were subsequently pursued by Reagan and remain the main policy pillars of US Republicans to this day. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. .orange-text-color {font-weight:bold; color: #FE971E;}View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look. Praise For Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History… “This is the one book everyone must read as we figure out how to rebuild our country. Kurt Andersen shows how the masterminds of the economic right rode an unprecedented wave of nostalgia by dressing up their harsh new rich … Account & Lists Account Returns & Orders. He sums it up toward the end as an account of “how we let a powerful clique and its enablers turn a quintessentially modern and reasonably fair political economy that led the … NOOK Book. Coordinated plans by conservative corporate interests sparked efforts to realize the vision of the Powell Memorandum, which described a four-front conservative war on academia, media, politics, and the legal system to counter trends in liberalism and restraints on capitalism. Well-researched, clear and informative, and beautifully written. People are being replaced by automation and robots and pushed into occupations that are not as easily automated but tend to pay less. Introduction. $30.00 . Brings social responsibility into clear focus. This book explains many of the reasons why. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. All developed countries confronted similar economic challenges from the '70s through the '90s, such as slower economic growth, machines replacing workers, and cheaper manufacturing in poorer countries. At the same time, Americans have become overwhelmed by novelty. A devastating hstory of how greed led to the creation of our gilded age of ghastly inequality. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History 464. by Kurt Andersen | Editorial Reviews. Grover Norquist's Taxpayer Protection Pledge enforced hard-right orthodoxy. Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2020. I agree with a previous reviewer that everyone should read this book. Where do we go from here has rarely been a more important question. Please read this book. A 1998 proposal was written by the American Petroleum Institute to promote scientific uncertainty on climate change, followed by a 2002 memo by Frank Luntz that encouraged increasing climate-change-denial propaganda and recommended using climate change rather than global warming. He notes that in 2018, the Wall Street Journal found that 58% of people want the government to do more to help people. In the 1980s, American companies averaged 18% markup over costs; in 2020, the average markup is 67%. A longing for more comfortable, familiar times turns into a "national immersion in nostalgia". The book Anarchy, State, and Utopia argued for a minimal state. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America - A Recent History Hardcover – 13 October 2020 by Kurt Andersen (Author) › Visit Amazon's Kurt Andersen Page. Excessively large and powerful companies are relieved of the pressure of competing on price. Evil Geniuses is engaging, enraging, enthralling, appalling; a true tour de force. Free shipping. Hello Select your address All Hello, Sign in. Within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an organization of the world's most developed countries, only Turkey, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, and South Africa are more economically unequal. Common terms and phrases. The mid-1970s are America's peak of economic quality with the national consensus still expecting the government to act on behalf of the public good. Even the cultural genre of the future, science fiction, spawned a nostalgic subgenre, steampunk. Expected advances in automation and artificial intelligence will, in the near future, cause even workers to become economically obsolete. Andersen points out, "[N]ew technology enabled but did not require a global digital-information duopoloy consisting of Google and Facebook. Two legal movements gained adherents: originalism and law and economics, with a common mission to "utterly remake our society and political economy using the legal system, to make both resemble their vision of the American good old days". OK, boomer. Trends that diminished the power of workers included offshoring, gutting organized labor (air traffic controller strike), right-to-work laws, outsourcing, and noncompete agreements even for some minimum wage workers. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. This period saw the founding or expansion of the Pacific Legal Foundation and Mountain States Legal Foundation, the Business Roundtable, American Enterprise Institute, Hoover Institution, and The Cato Institute. .orange-text-color {font-weight:bold; color: #FE971E;}Ask Alexa to read your book with Audible integration or text-to-speech. Part 4 examines the differences in how countries responded to those economic challenges which resulted in very different levels of economic inequality between the U.S. and other highly developed nations. We will become Russia if we do not take stock and productively and fairly fix our present and future for us and our children and everyone; AND keep working always to form a more perfect Union. Something went wrong. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Without a doubt, and thanks largely to Roosevelt’s New Deal, America’s best era was the twenty years following the end of WW2, characterised by benign government, a vibrant economy and a generally kinder, more cohesive, society; most jobs tended to be well-paid and, typically, a single wage-earner per household would guarantee a more than acceptable standard of living. Hardcover $ 26.99 $30.00 Save 10% Current price is $26.99, Original price is $30. "[7], A review in Religion Dispatches describes the book as "an extended mea culpa for his own inability, and the inability of culture liberals like him, to grasp what said geniuses were doing to remake the political economy" and says "Andersen deserves credit for showing how an ever-more-powerful overclass has shaped the political economy we all inhabit", but criticizes the book for failing to fully engage with the issue of racism and not addressing what it calls The Righteous Mind problem: "how the lasting legacy of Puritanism tends to undergird deference toward the wealthy while fueling reaction against the ironic counterculture that Andersen himself helped to create. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History. Order now and we'll deliver when available. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. Regulations were rolled back and antitrust efforts dwindled. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. .orange-text-color {color: #FE971E;} Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for me to give this book a rating, as I didn’t finish it, I only made it to page 220 or so, but I can take a minute to explain why. Buy this book. I get it – it’s laser focused on how things went wrong – and believe me, I didn’t need any convincing that things in America have gone wrong, but reading about how and why in such detail and at such length – it just became more than I could take. " Evil Geniuses is a vivid catalog of American sociopolitical history — a dedicated deep dive into this country's paradoxical legacy of innovation and ego, with Andersen as its clear-eyed, masterful archivist." D-coded . Antitrust efforts have been extinguished and industries have become concentrated in oligopolies. Liberal books Silent Spring, Unsafe at Any Speed, and The Greening of America are widely influential, and while 70% of Americans in 1968 felt that businesses fairly balance profits and public interest, by 1970 only 33% agreed with that statement. Reviewed in Australia on December 17, 2020. Andersen considers the U.S. to be at an inflection point, which Andy Grove described in 1996 as when "fundamentals are about to change." $26.99. The main subject of the book is the excessive power granted to big business starting in the 1970s. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. Evil Geniuses describes the economic checks and balances that were put into place to achieve a balance between fairness and security, such as unions, laws on minimum wage and child labor, regulatory agencies and antitrust laws, the non-profit Blue Cross and Blue Shield associations, and New Deal programs. On music, the book quotes Simon Reynolds, "Is nostalgia stopping our culture's ability to surge forward, or are we nostalgic precisely because our culture has stopped moving forward and so we inevitably look back to more momentous and dynamice times? A fascinating tale of the USA’s 40 year slide into a social, political and economic dystopia! Notes and Sources for Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History. Free shipping. There was a problem loading your book clubs. A triumph.”. A profoundly important book for understanding America's political/economic/cultural evolution over the last 50 years. Writing/book is superb, BEST & MOST INFORMATIVE BOOK EVER! Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 16, 2020. In the late 1800s, there was a shift toward economic fairness being considered part of the social contract. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History Kurt Andersen. Back in 2016, this widespread and profound outrage at Washington was seized upon as an election game-changer by Donald Trump, when he vowed to “drain the swamp”. Our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc... had to fight wars, robbers barons, and autocrats/kleptocrats, mean/bad people, etc.) Please try your request again later. Also under Clinton, in 1999 the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act repealed part of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933, removing barriers in the market among banking companies, securities companies and insurance companies that prohibited any one institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank, and an insurance company, and then the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 removed regulation of derivatives. Photos of people from the 1980s would not look out of place in the streets today. Find books Kurt Anderson: “Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America” As the pandemic lays bare social, legal, racial and financial injustice in America, it is vital to examine how the system got its start. Lobbying expenditures have more than doubled since 1998, with 95 of the 100 top-spending groups representing business interests. Right-wing money spent on universities, think tanks, and the legal profession is a long-term investment toward influencing ideology and public policies. 19 thoughts on “ EVIL GENIUSES: THE UNMAKING OF AMERICA By Kurt Andersen ” Deb September 21, 2020 at 5:09 am I’ve said before that I believe the Reagan Administration’s decision to overturn the Fairness Doctrine—which had required tv and radio stations to give equal time to opposing views—was possibly the most damaging event of his presidency. Notify me when this product is in stock . [3] In January 2021, Evil Geniuses was number 14 on the bestsellers list of the American Booksellers Association.[4]. thoughtful, in-depth history and a wake up call to dems as to mastering marketing, Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2020. seeing how the dems have fallen behind the mastery of marketing and the stale attitudes i saw from the inside when working on 2016's campaign, this book nails the evil genius secret sauce dems are missing. We hardly noticed that we are living in a time of extreme political economics and political capitalism. The civil unrest and counterculture of the 1960s, bringing rapid changes that at times seemed wild and out of control, resulted in an emotional backlash throughout society and began a lengthy period of longing for a "simpler" or "better" idealized past. Andersen compares General Motors and AT&T in 1962 with Apple and Google in 2020: the former employed more than a million people, while the latter with revenues and profit margins twice as high employ only a quarter-million people. During the twentieth century, America managed to make its economic and social systems both more and more fair and more and more prosperous. And most of all, it’s the truth—about how these rapacious bastards have picked this country’s bones for the last fifty years, and what the rest of us need to do to turn the tables. Most of us have a poor understanding of economics and capitalism.