The Conscience of a Liberal

by Paul Krugman

The Conscience of a Liberal

published	October 1st 2007 by W. W. Norton
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0393060691 (isbn13: 9780393060690)
ebook
pages	352
description	*This wholly original new work by the best-selling author of The Great Unraveling* challenges America to reclaim the values that made it great.<...more [close] This wholly original new work by the best-selling author of The Great Unraveling challenges America to reclaim the values that made it great.** With this major new volume, Paul Krugman, "the heir apparent to Galbraith" (Alan Blinder) and, today's most widely read economist, studies the past eighty years of American history, from the reforms that tamed the harsh inequality of the Gilded Age to the unraveling of that achievement and the reemergence of immense economic and political inequality since the 1970s. Seeking to understand both what happened to middle-class America and what it will take to achieve a "new New Deal," Krugman has created his finest book to date, a work that weaves together a nuanced account of three generations of history with sharp political, social, and economic analysis. This book, written with Krugman's trademark ability to explain complex issues simply, will transform the debate about American social policy in much the same way as did John Kenneth Galbraith's deeply influential book, The Affluent Society. [close]
date added	06-11-07 edit book

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Dylan

Dylan rated it:

02/24/08

bookshelves: economics, political-philosophy

Read in February, 2008

In the 1990s Paul Krugman famously asserted that 70% of the wealth that had been accumulated between 1977-1989 belonged to the top 1% of the population. Those facts still remain, but history has distorted the legacy of President Reagan, turning an actor and communicator into a great policy maker. The truth is that for the average American, Ronald Reagan was anything but a great policy maker. In fact, he was the ultimate creator of the income inequality that we live with today.

In 2007, wit...more

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Mwbworld

Mwbworld rated it:

07/01/08

bookshelves: non-fiction, progressive-politics

Read in May, 2008

Too often superlatives are used in discussions and reviews that the words seem trite and silly and have ceased to have the effect that they should. So sadly, many of the things I might say I won't - instead let me just say that it really is an important work and one that anyone who considers themselves progressive, liberal or a Democrat should read.

The strength of the book is not that he is necessarily presenting startlingly new ideas or ideas unique to him. Instead it is that he takes a ...more Too often superlatives are used in discussions and reviews that the words seem trite and silly and have ceased to have the effect that they should. So sadly, many of the things I might say I won't - instead let me just say that it really is an important work and one that anyone who considers themselves progressive, liberal or a Democrat should read.

The strength of the book is not that he is necessarily presenting startlingly new ideas or ideas unique to him. Instead it is that he takes a great deal of political and economic analysis by others and themes he has expounded over time and brings them together into an effective framework.

From his introduction (pages 5 - 7 of the hardcover):

"There have, then, been two great arcs in modern American history—an economic arc from high inequality to relative equality and back again, and a political arc from extreme polarization to bipartisanship and back again. These two arcs move in parallel: The golden age of economic equality roughly corresponded to the golden age of political bipartisanship. As the political scientists Nolan McCarty, Keith Poole, and Howard Rosenthal put it, history suggests that there is a kind of “dance” in which economic inequality and political polarization move as one.2 They have used a sophisticated statistical technique to track the political positions of members of Congress. Their data show the Republicans moving left, closer to the Democrats, when income inequality declined, producing the bipartisanship of the fifties and sixties. Then the Republicans moved right, creating today’s bitter partisanship, as income inequality rose. But what makes the dancing partners stay together?

One possibility is that inequality takes the lead—that, to change metaphors, the arrow of causation points from economics to politics. In that view the story of the last thirty years would run like this: Impersonal forces such as technological change and globalization caused America’s income distribution to become increasingly unequal, with an elite minority pulling away from the rest of the population. The Republican Party chose to cater to the interests of that rising elite, perhaps because what the elite lacked in numbers it made up for in the ability and willingness to make large campaign contributions. And so a gap opened up between the parties, with the Republicans becoming the party of the winners from growing inequality while the Democrats represented those left behind.
...

Yet I’ve become increasingly convinced that much of the causation runs the other way—that political change in the form of rising polarization has been a major cause of rising inequality. That is, I’d suggest an alternative story for the last thirty years that runs like this: Over the course of the 1970s, radicals of the right determined to roll back the achievements of the New Deal took over the Republican Party, opening a partisan gap with the Democrats, who became the true conservatives, defenders of the long-standing institutions of equality. The empowerment of the hard right emboldened business to launch an all-out attack on the union movement, drastically reducing workers’ bargaining power; freed business executives from the political and social constraints that had previously placed limits on runaway executive paychecks; sharply reduced tax rates on high incomes; and in a variety of other ways promoted rising inequality."

In this book, Krugman offers the reader a way to look at the political and economic changes over roughly the past 75 years and begin to understand what is Liberalism and why it is valuable and important to society.

He contextualizes the shifts of the Republicans and Democrats over that time and charts a course for how Democrats can truly develop a vision and set of actions to bring about useful change.

The book is especially important given that in the current election year Democrats could gain in the House and Senate, and potentially regain the White House. If they manage to find their spines and unified direction the country may yet be turned around for the better.

While it is not a definitive answer to all the problems facing us (what book could be), it is a timely guidepost and an excellent place to begin a discussion of what is the true nature and values of the Democratic Party - which seem increasingly forgotten by the people and leaders of the party. It is also a powerful reclamation of the word Liberal.

Throughout the book he references many other books that was extremely valuable to read also, but sadly (which I hate in books) fails to bring them together in a "recommended books" section. So comb the footnotes there are treasures there too.

Well worth the time spent reading it....less

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Julia

Julia rated it:

04/04/08

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: Alayne, Katijane, Amber, Nate

Did you know that, at the start of the 1970s, the highest tax rate was 70 percent, as opposed to 35 percent now? This is the kind of thing you learn from The Conscience of a Liberal.

I love PK; I think he is heaven sent. In fact, he just became my best friend. This book falls just short of a perfect read, but I doubt very much that many agree with me. In it, Krugman is trying to sell the welfare state by coherent economic argument - bril! I love that he is unabashed in his desire for a p...more Did you know that, at the start of the 1970s, the highest tax rate was 70 percent, as opposed to 35 percent now? This is the kind of thing you learn from The Conscience of a Liberal.

I love PK; I think he is heaven sent. In fact, he just became my best friend. This book falls just short of a perfect read, but I doubt very much that many agree with me. In it, Krugman is trying to sell the welfare state by coherent economic argument - bril! I love that he is unabashed in his desire for a progressive movement. Nothing is made moderate or watered down; his arguments are based on a highly controversial assertion: that race and racial politics is the primary reason that the United States lags so far behind other advanced modern countries in terms of its establishment of a social safety net and permanent limitations on inequality. V V interesting. The fact is that I have totally bought into the propaganda from the movement conservatives, and this book revealed this to me. Specifically, I felt as though universal, government-supported health insurance was a great and necessary thing in theory, but that it would be a hugely difficult (if not impossible) task in practice. NOT saying that we shouldn't endeavor it anyway, just saying that it does not make sense to compare our potential system to the system in France or even Britain. The United States is like no other modern country, in its size, its amount of wealth power and influence, its level of income and opportunity equality, and its history of race relations. It is foolish to think that the evidence from any other country is easily applied to the US; HOWEVER, PK very gracefully admits this and simultaneously offers proof that none of these facts of the United State's singularity should be a significant hindrance to the goal of providing universal health insurance, something he argues needs to be the cornerstone of a progressive agenda. Achieving universal health insurance is the last unfinished goal of FDR's New Deal, and should be the accomplishment that re-establishes the faith of the United States citizenry in the welfare state, faith that has been maliciously eroded by a very scary bloc of movement conservatives. Anyway, the book is great, it's a quick read and very accessible. HIGHLY recommended for anyone interested in serious political change with a slight economic edge to their thinking.

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Pete

Pete rated it:

03/09/08

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: commies in training

What's with the well-reasoned arguments and incontrovertible facts, Paul? Enough with the "evidence" and "studies". I mean, why do you want to show that your arguments are correct with actual data. Jeez.

But seriously, folks. Krugman writes like the really good teaching economist that he is. This book rocks.

He's got a great - if not entirely original - dissection of the right wing movement's growth. Ditto arguments on income inequality and health care. He's got...more

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Mateo

Mateo rated it:

01/19/08

Read in December, 2007

If you're an unreconstructed lefty like me, you'll enjoy Paul Krugman's unapologetically liberal--emphatically not radical--new book. If you're not, you may find the book contains some surprising facts, figures, and conclusions.

Krugman's thesis is that, against conventional wisdom, politics have driven economics, and not vice-versa, over the last 30 or so years of right-wing dominance, resulting in the profoundly unequal society we live in. He claims that before the Reagan Revolution (wh...more

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Jeffrey

Jeffrey rated it:

10/30/07

Read in February, 2008

In America, the gap between the rich and everyone else is widening dangerously, ending an era of unprecedented prosperity, and diminishing the expectations of the middle and working classes. We think market forces over which humans have no control are responsible for such reversals of fortune. But as this book shows, the widening gap between rich and poor is the direct result of government policies.

Krugman is an economist and a popular columnist. Writing clearly and dispassionately, he expl...more

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Abby

Abby rated it:

02/27/08

bookshelves: favorites

Read in February, 2008

recommended to Abby by: Dad
recommends it for: everyone who considers him/herself a liberal/progressive

I had a great review written in my head when I first finished the book, but of course it's all been forgotten, so I'll keep it short. Paul Krugman does a fantastic job of explaining the Democratic party (and the Republican) and how they evolved into the parties they are today. He basically explains their histories since the late 1800s until now and the power struggles between and within them. He takes that extensive history and uses it to give context for the state of the parties today and th...more

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Steven

Steven rated it:

08/17/08

bookshelves: politics, race

Read in August, 2008

Paul Krugman is unabashedly liberal; sometimes I wish the Democratic Party was a bit more like Mr. Krugman. In this book Krugman chronicles the history of progressive economic policies and how those post New Deal gains have slowly been rolled back by the modern conservative movement. The historical analysis set forth in the book is certainly its high point and I especially enjoyed the evidence presented to further the assertion that the New Deal lead to the rise of the American middle class in...more

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Mark

Mark rated it:

06/08/08

bookshelves: political

Read in January, 2008

The weakness of this book is that it is largely preaching to the choir. Yes, the national Republican Party is run by a bunch of lying bastards who hate minorities, the poor, democracy, and Christianity. BUT...you've either accepted that or you've closed your eyes in denial. Writing a partisan tract isn't going to change anyone's mind.

The best part of the book is a history of the evolution of the Republican party in the twentieth century. Krugman layers this with comparisons of how the ec...more

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Jbussoli

Jbussoli rated it:

07/19/08

Read in July, 2008

This was a really interesting read for me. Learning about the ebb and flow of both the Democratic and Republican parties since the end of the Gilded Age (Roaring 1920's) was very interesting and new to me as a Canadian. I'm not sure how much of this is taught in American schools but for this alone it is a great read.

Understanding the difference between the Republicans of Eisenhower's time and the Democrats of FDR and Truman certainly illustrate the differences in the politics of today and t...more

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Brian

Brian rated it:

11/23/07

bookshelves: currentevents

Read in November, 2007

Paul Krugman is despised by the conservative movement because he, like a lot of liberal thinkers, seeks equality not just under the law but also in the economy. It is not socialism that Krugman is fighting for, simply a return to the middle class American society he grew up in in the 1950s following WWII. Krugman matter-of-factly lays out a convincing case for the return of the Gilded Age thanks to a bunch of a renegade conservatives trying to undo FDR's New Deal. While taking hits at his favori...more

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Liesl

Liesl rated it:

06/21/08

bookshelves: nonfiction, societal-commentary

Read in January, 2008

I have been a fan of Paul Krugman's since I was assigned his book Accidental Theorist in my Intro to Macro class in college. I was very excited when Conscience of a Liberal came out. And what a great education it was. It retaught me things I learned in middle and high school, but couldn't appreciate at the time about the New Deal and its effects. It has also helped me develop my ideas about health care and, while I don't agree with every point he makes about health care, it has helped me be able...more

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Jenny

Jenny rated it:

01/21/08

Read in January, 2008

If you want to understand the current political and economic situation in the U.S., read this book.

Krugman clearly and concisely explains the economic and political history of the 20th century United States. He argues that politics drives economics (not the reverse), and he focuses on how our current economic situation, in which the rich keep getting richer and the poor and middle class poorer, is a reversal of the economic equalizing that New Deal legislation--Social Security, unemploymen...more

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Shira

Shira rated it:

07/20/08

Read in July, 2008

This book is a good read for anyone who wants to get a better understanding of the historical reasons for our current political and economic situation and policies. I particularly think his focus on the growing inequality in the US and the negative consequences it has brought about is important reading. As nearly always happens when I read Krugman's columns, I found myself nodding my head constantly in agreement with arguments. I suppose that perhaps that could be bad, as I am not reading som...more

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Morgan

Morgan rated it:

12/05/07

Read in December, 2007

krugman argues persuasively that political changes, rather than impersonal economic and technological changes, have driven the return to gilded age levels of social inequality, and that political changes can take us back in the other direction. He also makes the claim that racism is the glue that has held the bizarre GOP coalition of big business and working class whites together for the last fifty years. He finishes with a call for aggressive partisanship on the part of progressives in the fac...more

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Marlene

Marlene rated it:

02/08/08

Read in February, 2008

recommended to Marlene by: Karl Knaub
recommends it for: Everyone (of either party) planning to vote in this year's primary and general elections.

Wow, a political/economic treatise that is eminently readable! The author uses statistics sparingly and tellingly. Sure, there are "lies, big lies, and statistics," but Mr. Krugman's statistics have the "feel" of truth about them. As someone who, at 66 years of age, has lived through most of the period he discusses, I can vouch for the fact that the 50's--a period of greater wage equality--had the feel of hopefulness and rising prosperity for my middle class family. S...more

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Jon

Jon rated it:

02/19/08

It's so much fun watching him gracefully decimate political and economic dogmas that I wish he would've put in a section debunking the myth that the Great Society was a failure. (He defended the War on Poverty pretty excellently in a recent column). The big success here is that unlike every other one of these "what we ought to do" books, his prescription isn't some "tah dah" hocus pocus about "reframing" issues or devising electoral strategies or whatever. It's this...more

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Bill

Bill rated it:

10/28/07

Read in October, 2007

Krugman argues that the New Deal led to a lessening of inequality In America which in turn fueled our postwar boom and promoted relatively non-partisan politics until the '70's. Since then, movement conservatism's methodical dismantling of the social safety net has led to an ever-widening income gap and an ever-increasing partisanship in politics. Krugman thinks, however, that movement conservatism has had its day, since the race-baiting that has helped it win close elections is rapidly losing...more

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Wendy

Wendy rated it:

11/24/07

bookshelves: politics

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: anyone interested in the causes and consequences of economic and social inequality

Krugman sets out to do three things in this book:
- Demonstrate how political policy drastically reduced economic inequality in America in the decades after World War II, and how changes in policy in more recent years have pushed America towards greater inequality.
- Outline how "movement conservativism" has achieved the political victories that allowed it to implement the changes in policy that lead to greater inequality.
- Outline what liberals should do to restore a more equal s...more

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Robert

Robert rated it:

06/25/08

Read in February, 2008

recommended to Robert by: David Livingston

This book probably deserves a four-star rating. The fact that I gave it three is more my fault than the author's. Aside from being an award winning columnist, Paul Krugman is a political economist at Princeton; and there's the problem. Much of this book has to do with American political economics, and every time I read or hear anything about economics my eyes glaze over. There are just too many numbers and too much jargon; and I just don't get it.

Having said that, Krugman's indictment of...more

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book data (includes all editions)

avg rating (all editions): 4.02 (229 ratings)
avg rating (this edition): 4.00 (229 ratings)
number of reviews: 71

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