Democracy in Chains: the deep history of the radical right's stealth plan for America eBook: Nancy MacLean: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store
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Product details
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 806 KB
Print Length: 370 pages
Publisher: Scribe (27 July 2017)
Sold by: Amazon Australia Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B073Q7VMB1
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
Most helpful customer reviews on Amazon.com
Amazon.com: 4.4 out of 5 stars 538 reviews
Jack Hicks
4.0 out of 5 starsHow we got to today
30 March 2018 - Published on Amazon.com
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Democracy in Chains, Nancy MacLean, 2017
I was thinking; should I recommend a book which is likely to alarm and disturb people about the current state of our political system more than they already are? However, this book is too well researched and too important not to be read. Nancy Maclean gave a lecture at the Lensic three weeks ago and I was alarmed enough to get her new book. The book concerns a character the name of whom most people have never heard, James Buchanan. He began his career at the University of Virginia in the 1950’s as head of the economics department and became politically involved in his states efforts to stop implementation of Brown vs. Board of education in 1955. Here the terms “School Choice” and “School Vouchers” were first used to try to convert Virginia’s public education system to a private system. Eventually Virginia’s and Buchanan’s efforts to destroy public education were thwarted by the federal judiciary. The effort radicalized Buchanan and led him on a lifelong quest to convert America to the causes of economic freedom for the wealthy, the “makers” and libertarianism. The book tells the story of how Buchanan eventually allied himself to the Koch Brother’s millions at George Mason University in Virginia to establish the intellectual backbone and Cadre to implement Koch’s ideas. As Lenin realized the importance of establishing an ideologically pure and dedicated cadre of zealots in the Russian revolution, so the Koch Brothers and Buchanan came to the same conclusion. So out of George Mason economics department came the foot soldiers to man the many Koch think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, The Cato Institute, Freedom Works, ALEC, the Reason Foundation and then into the Republican party. Out of the GMU law center, the Mercatus Center, came ideologically pure libertarian recruits to The Koch’s Federalist Society from where they are now being appointed in unprecedented numbers to the Federal bench. What this book makes you realize is the unprecedented scale, the long range over decades, step by step plan, the ideological determination and the billions of dollars from one family to implement what is in essence an oligarchy of the super-rich. Both Buchanan and Koch realized that their plan could not be implemented through public support. Rather it had to be implemented by subterfuge, by slowly changing the rules of the game, changing the courts, changing who could vote. In the last year, being distracted by a reality show carnival barker, mostly below media scrutiny, we have seen ideas being implemented that are shown in the book as having been conceived many decades ago by Buchanan: efforts to privatize social security and Medicare, evisceration of environmental, medical insurance and financial regulations, appointment of right-wing ideologues as judges, right-to-work union busting, hollowing out of key federal bureaucracies, privatization of public functions, tax cuts for the rich and corporations, voter suppression. As MacLean says “The United States is now at one of those historic forks in the road whose outcome will prove as fateful as those of the 1860s, the 1930s and the 1960s. To value liberty for the wealthy minority above all else and enshrine it in the nation’s governing rules, as Calhoun and Buchanan both called for and the Koch network is achieving, play by play, is to consent to an oligarchy in all but the outer husk of representative form”. We are truly at a dangerous junction and moment. This is essential reading for all concerned. JACK
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Jules Law
5.0 out of 5 starsOne of the most fascinating things about this book--for readers ...
6 July 2017 - Published on Amazon.com
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One of the most fascinating things about this book--for readers of almost any political stripe--is its careful and detailed exploration of the complex relationship between libertarianism and conservative causes. This is not at all a simple, single, or predictable relationship, and MacLean does a superb job of setting the evolving relationship between the two in its social and historical context. At the heart of this book is the story of a single figure, James Buchanan, and MacLean's unprecedented archival discoveries about his intellectual and political development are fascinating. I have to be amused at the libertarian critics of this book who explicitly lament that MacLean didn't talk to them in her attempt to understand the history of the movement. This is a work of scholarship which reconstructs the history of an intellectual and political movement using documented sources.
Let me get down to the nub of what is already the most significant dispute between MacLean's critics and her defenders (bracketing the substantial portion of her critics whose one-line reviews betray that they clearly haven't read the book): MacLean's argument is based on a careful and detailed juxtaposition of the rationales adopted by libertarians in the 1950s and 1960s, and the concrete social and political context raging around them at the time (most crucially, the resistance to court-mandated de-segregation). Those who believe that MacLean must produce a smoking gun and ballistics analysis--say, an admission by Buchanan that he opposed integrated public schools because he didn't like African Americans--will I'm sure continue strenuously to deny that there was any connection between the libertarianism of the era and broader conservative agendas. Anyone committed to the belief that intentions and agendas have to be gaged by attention to concrete historical context (not least by a consideration of the audiences and venues for which statements were designed) will find MacLean's patient, detailed and comprehensive research indispensable.
One of the most fascinating and enduring lessons of MacLean's book is that the relationship between libertarianism and conservatism is vexed and far from inevitable--as are the relationships of either of these to Republicanism, states rights theory, or religious activism. Anyone interested in any of these topics should read this book. Which is easy advice, because it's engagingly and lucidly written, enabling readers to make their own decisions.
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rle750
5.0 out of 5 starsThis is a brilliant book, a true history assembled from archival discovery ...
7 July 2017 - Published on Amazon.com
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This is a brilliant book, a true history assembled from archival discovery and written with verve. It is important. Everyone who cares about how Americans got to our present political pass must read it.2,147 people found this helpful.
Rogananda
5.0 out of 5 starsA must read for American citizens
13 May 2018 - Published on Amazon.com
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As my wife told me, "this is a book everyone should read." The book has incredibly important information about the damaging of our democracy. The research is good and insightful, though it is effected by opinion. I agree with most of the opinions that the author has, but I hope a large percent of the public will be exposed to the facts the author has uncovered. Right wing libertarian and neoliberal economic ideas have dominated the US since 1980 in spite of repeated proof of their contribution to market (financial) failure and increased class division. Democracy in Chains exposes an important trail in the politics behind the rise of these political economic ideas, starting with Jim Buchanan in Virginia in the 1950s and referring back to Calhoun in the previous century. MacLean has shown that class division is the intent of the people behind these ideas.
Democracy in Chains is a well written book but the author has limited exposure to economic theory and I thought that was noticeable at times.
I have chosen this for my book club. Unfortunately, the book does not have appropriate follow up questions so it cannot be a shared library "book bag". It would be nice if that were added.One person found this helpful.
Joe Thompson
5.0 out of 5 starsit exposes the financial and intellectual links between rightwing academics like James Buchanan
7 July 2017 - Published on Amazon.com
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This illuminating book is required reading to understand the infusion of radical libertarian thought and corporate wealth in our current politics. Specifically, it exposes the financial and intellectual links between rightwing academics like James Buchanan, DC lobbyists, and the Koch brothers. It's a sobering, frightening, and inspiring read.1,601 people found this helpful.
Go to Amazon.com to see all 538 reviews 4.4 out of 5 stars
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