First published 2007
American society underwent massive transformation between the 1970s and 2000s. The broad economic prosperity that followed World War II fractured into severe inequality. Republican power surged, pulling politics rightward. Government's relationship with citizens changed at its core. Jacob Hacker examines how these shifts interconnected, weaving together economics, politics, and policy. Contributors trace specific changes across multiple domains. Lawrence Jacobs shows how Medicare both responded to and reshaped health politics. Kimberly Morgan reveals how tax policies enabled conservative grassroots movements that starved social programs of funding. Deborah Stone demonstrates how new policies made employment the primary measure of good citizenship. Frances Fox Piven follows low-income women navigating increasingly demanding welfare systems. Joshua Guetzkow and Bruce Western document mass incarceration's effects on social policy and African American civic participation. For many Americans, government shifted from providing opportunity to imposing control. The book connects these individual stories to reveal a comprehensive political transformation that reshaped democracy itself.
Genres: social-change, political-science, economics, social-issues, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: social-justice
Setting: America, United States
Period: 1970s, 2000s
287 pages · Hardcover · Russell Sage Foundation