How Democracies Die.  Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.  Historically, we think of democracies as giving way to dictatorships after violent military coups or violent revolutions.  However, since the end of…

The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay.  Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. From 1980 to 2019, US inequality has grown rapidly from…

The Business of America is Lobbying.  Lee Drutman. During the past forty years, wealthy special interests have managed to create a cycle of increasing influence on US government leading to…

Democracy in America?  What has gone wrong and what we can do about it.  Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens. Our government in Washington is so mired in gridlock and inaction…

Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy.  Adam Jentleson. As America faces enormous challenges, the Senate has become a kill switch that cuts…

Supreme inequality: The Supreme Court’s Fifty-year Battle for a More Unjust America.  Adam Cohen Despite its idealized image, the reality of the US Supreme Court throughout its history is that…

We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights.  Adam Winkler. The earliest version of a corporation, the societas publicranum, was created in ancient Rome in about 300 B.C.…

Why Cities Lose: The Deep Roots of the Urban-rural Political Divide.  Jonathan A. Rodden. It is hardly surprising that a system of political representation designed 234 years ago for four…

Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation & Deception. George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller. 2015.The authors, both Nobel laureates in economics, argue that the common economic model of…