© Columbia University Press
The Politics of Inequality: A Political History of the Idea of Economic Inequality in America
Paper, 264 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14075-1
$27.50
/ £19.00
November, 2007
Cloth, 264 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14074-4
$40.00
/ £27.50
"This is an important and original work, subtle and sophisticated in its analysis and unique in its scope." — Philip Green, professor of political science, New School University
"Thompson provides a great service in revisiting--and reviving--the tradition of seeing extreme economic inequality and democracy as incompatible." — Daniel Brook, The Nation
"[A] sweeping intellectual history . . . Recommended." — CHOICE
"At a time when the term 'liberal' has been equated, mistakenly, with the values of equality, Michael J. Thompson has provided us with a necessary corrective. He shows that American political thought was, in the earlier years of the Republic, deeply concerned with restraining concentrated economic and political power in order to achieve more equality. But under the dominance of neoliberalism, political thought has lost its way, and Thompson's work can go a long way to restoring its original egalitarian impulse. This book is not only superb intellectual history but also an important intervention into contemporary debates." — Stanley Aronowitz, author of Left Turn: Forging a New Political Future and How Class Works: Power and Social Movement