JUNE 2018 - AudioFile
The title will tell you much of what you need to know about what this thoughtful audiobook has to say. Having served in three presidential administrations, the author, and narrator, Robert Reich has the knowledge and perspective to offer real solutions to why we are so divided as a nation. The United States was founded on the idea of the common good. Reich’s point is that we need to assess what that is and how we can rekindle it. His narration is just as interesting as his ideas. Reich has a dark, robust, compelling voice that commands the microphone and demands attention. He even tries character voices which are, well, interesting. Overall, he succeeds because he’s reading from the heart. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
The New York Times Book Review - Michael J. Sandel
In recent decades, American public discourse has become hollow and shrill. Instead of morally robust debates about the common good, we have shouting matches on talk radio and cable television, and partisan food fights in Congress. People argue past one another, without really listening or seeking to persuade. This condition has diminished the public's regard for political parties and politicians, and also given rise to a danger: A politics empty of moral argument creates a vacuum of meaning that is often filled by the vengeful certitudes of strident nationalism. This danger now hovers over American politics…Robert B. Reich's new book, The Common Good, is a welcome response to this challenge…Reich's proposals would make a good starting point for a new progressive political project.
Publishers Weekly
03/19/2018
Americans have gotten into the habit of looking out for number one at an overall cost to economic and political well-being, argues professor and former labor secretary Reich (Saving Capitalism) in this disquieting meditation. He believes Americans have lost their sense of connectedness, to one another and to larger ideals, leading to political self-destruction in the form of the Trump administration. As to the question of how this all happened, Reich sees Americans as having fallen prey to a whatever-it-takes mentality—whether applied to winning elections, maximizing profits, or rigging the economy. As a remedy, Reich urges a return to the historical ideal of a shared, common good. Most people, he points out, are set up for some degree of cooperation and compassion. Yet society has ended up with self-interested disaster artists such as Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager recently convicted of fraud, who embody the steady erosion of a civic trust Reich sees being fully dismantled by President Trump. This manifesto is geared more toward describing the problem—if there is no common good, Reich points out, there is no society—than resolving it. When Reich asks whether the common good can be restored, he seems genuinely unsure, though he urges his audience to try. Clear-voiced and accessible, this is a provocative look at where the U.S. has failed, if not quite a map to future success. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
Against the grain of much liberal thinking . . . Reich’s proposals would make a good starting point for a new progressive political project.” —Michael J. Sandel, The New York Times Book Review
“Very timely . . . Reich’s work is an important call for reform that should appeal to a wide audience disaffected with the status quo.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“Reich’s lucidly defining and empowering call for revitalized civic awareness—complete with an enticing list of recommended reading and discussion guide—is an ideal catalyst for book-group conversations.” —Booklist
“Clear-voiced and accessible.” —Publishers Weekly
“Brief but well-argued . . . a provocative essay.” —Kirkus
JUNE 2018 - AudioFile
The title will tell you much of what you need to know about what this thoughtful audiobook has to say. Having served in three presidential administrations, the author, and narrator, Robert Reich has the knowledge and perspective to offer real solutions to why we are so divided as a nation. The United States was founded on the idea of the common good. Reich’s point is that we need to assess what that is and how we can rekindle it. His narration is just as interesting as his ideas. Reich has a dark, robust, compelling voice that commands the microphone and demands attention. He even tries character voices which are, well, interesting. Overall, he succeeds because he’s reading from the heart. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2018-01-09
Reich (Public Policy/Univ. of California; Saving Capitalism, 2015, etc.) takes a note from Adam Smith and runs with it in this spirited defense of the public sphere.The best economy may be one in which unrestrained trade occurs in keeping with the laws of supply and demand, but it is also one in which human needs are met and externalities such as environmental costs are taken into account. In this new gilded age, writes the author, the common good is often ignored, even if a few interesting things are happening. For one thing, Donald Trump "has at least brought us back to first principles….Trump has got us talking about democracy versus tyranny." The president and his ilk have also gotten us talking about whether there is such a thing as a social contract or a public domain after all. In this brief but well-argued treatise, Reich contrasts shareholder and stakeholder capitalism, the excesses of the former often explained away by the notion that the executive has a fiduciary obligation to increase returns to shareholders no matter what the cost. "The argument is tautological," writes the author. "It assumes that investors are the only people worthy of consideration. What about the common good?" The enemies of the common good are countless, from latter-day slumlords to deregulated megabanks and untrammeled hedge funds, all of which disregard the rules society has evolved to keep transactions fair, "tacit rules that can be exploited by people who view them as opportunities for selfish gain rather than as social constraints." Reich examines the rise of ruleless society as a function of declining trust in social institutions. Against all this, among other things—and now borrowing a page from Sandra Day O'Connor—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.Idealistic and stronger in description than prescription, but a provocative essay nonetheless.