Robert B. Reich makes a powerful case for the expansion of America’s moral imagination. Rooting his argument in common sense and everyday reality, he demonstrates that a common good constitutes the very essence of any society or nation. Societies, he says, undergo virtuous cycles that reinforce the common good as well as vicious cycles that undermine it, one of which America has been experiencing for the past five decades. This process can and must be reversed. But first we need to weigh the moral obligations of citizenship and carefully consider how we relate to honor, shame, patriotism, truth, and the meaning of leadership. Powerful, urgent, and utterly vital, this is a heartfelt missive from one of our foremost political thinkers.
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“Former US secretary of labor, Reich examines what he sees as a divided America. His takeoff point is the call made fifty years ago by President John F. Kennedy for Americans to contribute individually for the common good. Reich despairs that instead Americans have become increasingly selfish. He harshly criticizes the freebooting of CEOs, the self-first philosophy of Ayn Rand, and the divisive presidency of Donald Trump…Reich concludes that pulling together as a society is the only strategy for long-term mutual prosperity.”
— Library Journal (starred review)
“Reich takes a note from Adam Smith and runs with it in this spirited defense of the public sphere…The author urges a renewal of civic education to enable people ‘to work with others to separate facts and logic from values and beliefs,’ including, one assumes, the belief that it is acceptable to rob the public blind.”
— Kirkus Reviews“Reich…gauges the deterioration of our understanding of and commitment to the common good in spite of the fact that our shared principles and civic interconnectivity comprise the very fabric of society…[A] lucidly defining and empowering call for revitalized civic awareness.”
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Robert B. Reich is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations and has written more than a dozen books, including several New York Times bestsellers. His articles have appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. He is co-creator of the award-winning film Inequality for All. He writes a weekly column for Newsweek and the London Guardian. He is co-creator of the award-winning film Inequality for All and the Netflix original Saving Capitalism, and co-founder of Inequality Media.