They Rule: The 1% vs. Democracy

by Paul Street

This book reflects on key questions raised by recent movements and statements about the status of American politics and polity from the Tea Party to Occupy, from the 1% to the 47% to the 99% that is the rest of us. These questions have also been raised by previous generations of labor, farmer, socialist, anarchist, and populist protestors and critics: Who owns and rules America beyond the pretense of democratic popular governance? Why does it matter that the nation s economy, society, culture, and politics are torn by stark class disparities and a concentration of wealth in the hands of a privileged few? What is the price of that savage inequality? And what can we the people do about it in defense of democracy, a livable natural environment, and the common good of all? Along the way, this book sharpens readers sense of who the US oligarchy are; how their fortunes have changed over the course of American history; how they live and think; and how to detect and de-cloak them. Paul Street is a master at revealing what lies beneath the surfaces of American politics and society and bringing his readers to the forefront of action.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

244 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2013

About the author

Paul Street is an independent radical-democratic policy researcher, journalist, historian, author and speaker based in Iowa City, Iowa, and Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of six books to date: Empire and Inequality: America and the World Since 9/11 (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2004); Segregated Schools: Educational Apartheid in the Post-Civil Rights Era(New York: Routledge, 2005); Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis: a Living Black Chicago History (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007); Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2008); The Empire’s New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power (Paradigm, 2010); and (with Anthony DiMaggio) Crashing the Tea Party: Mass Media and the Campaign to Remake American Politics (Paradigm, 2011).

Street’s essays, articles, reviews, interviews, and commentaries have appeared in numerous outlets, including CounterPunch, Truthout, the Chicago Tribune, Capital City Times, In These Times, Chicago History, Critical Sociology, Journal of American Ethnic History, Social History, Review of Educational, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, Dissent, Black Agenda Report, Economic & Political Weekly (India), Tinanbantu (South Africa), New Left Project (United Kingdom), Press TV (Iran), The Times of India (India), Morning Star (England), Al-Alkhbar (The News in Beirut, Lebanon), Dissident Voice, Black Commentator, Monthly Review, History News Network, Tom’sDispatch, AlterNet., the Capital City Times (Madison, WI), and the Iowa City Press Citizen, and (above all) ZNet and Z Magazine. Street’s essays are picked up and reproduced in numerous languages) across the planet/World Wide Web in venues too numerous to track and mention.

Street’s writings, research findings, and commentary have been featured in a large number and wide variety of media venues, including The New York Times, CNN, Al Jazeera, the Chicago Tribune, WGN (Chicago/national), WLS (ABC-Chicago), Fox News, and the Chicago Sun Times.

Street has appeared in more than 100 radio and television interviews/broadcasts and on the popular live Web book-chat at “Firedog.” Lake

Street has taught various aspects of U.S. history at a large number of Chicago-area colleges and universities and was the Director of Research at The Chicago Urban League (from 2000 through 2005), where he published two major grant-funded studies: The Vicious Circle: Race, Prison, Jobs and Community in Chicago, Illinois, and the Nation (October 2002) and Still Separate, Unequal: Race, Place, Policy and the State of Black Chicago (2005).

Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

An emotional book about an emotional revolution. It's about "them" and "us" and if you are with "us" than you should be ready to die, or at least be maced so that the people Street favors will climb into power. Than it will be all milk and honey. Unless you are deemed an enemy of the revolution and you get shot in some field for becoming "them" in a world of "us".

[Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

We have to use what little is left of democracy, a commitment to the US Constitution, to place limits on capitalism. We don't need to worry about capitalism as long as it reflects a distinct minority that has little influence on our government. I think Street and his other references make this clear.

[Rory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched and forcefully argued.

[Martin Bassani · Rating 4 out of 5]

They Rule, and judging by general inability to do anything about it, they will continue to rule. Just look at what people are protesting about!

Paul Street makes a good job explaining the nature of our problem but I suspect most people reading this book are already aware of the problem. The vast majority of others know something is wrong, but without grasping the true nature of the problem we are utterly unable to focus on possible paths to real solutions.

Without the necessary wisdom all problems and their effects assume equivalent significance. This results both in lack of focus and lack of application of a critical mass of solution which might result in even minimal structural changes. We are unable to begin to move the flywheel.

Can a critical mass of Americans awaken on time to begin to make a difference to avert self-destruction? It is theoretically possible but practically unlikely.

[Thomas Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start by saying that this book is a lot less about the growing wealth gap than about how those with wealth chose to use it to their ends. This is certainly not everyone in the 1%, at least not directly.

This is a very informative book even if it is not always that easy to read. A great deal was not new to me but I follow this sort of writing; for most readers this includes many jaw dropping points. Readers will be informed even as they may be depressed by how short are their odds of restoring democracy.

[Malcolm Pellettier · Rating 4 out of 5]

surprisingly well researched....Well, it surprised me. Sadly, nothing terribly new or horribly insightful, but a wonderful compendium of progressive profs and theorists who do have powerful insights, thus making it pretty indispensable as a resource.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Until you know everything in this book, you are part of the problem.