"Ehrenreich's book delivers more than the title suggests.Readers might anticipate a narrative in which new technologies primarily explain economic development...but there's more, such as his deep analysis of the role of nonprofits,such as the Chamber of Commerce and the National Football League, which are business interests more than public welfare. Ehrenreich's work is novel in other respects: he does not concentrate on dramatic changes, such as the invention of the steam engine. Revolutionary developments were obviously important, but Ehrenreich has a more nuanced interpretation in which the world is defined not so much by sharp breaks as by very complex, relatively gradual developments. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty."M. Perelman, Choice (December 2016)
"What ails America? In John Ehrenreich's wide-ranging analysis, growing inequality and political discontent are part of a larger shift toward a new kind of capitalism unconstrained by forces that previously kept it in check, including government, unions, andhere’s a twistthe prosperity of the professional classes. Ehrenreich’s vision of the country’s direction is bleak, but his faith in democratic principles invites hope that the country can restore some semblance of a humane balance."Timothy Noah, author of The Great Divergence
"Questioning both conservative and progressive narratives, John Ehrenreich offers us a fascinating 'long look' at America. Behind us is the industrial capitalism of the nineteenth century and the corporate capitalism of the twentieth. An accumulation of signs of stress signal our arrival, he argues, at Third Wave Capitalismcharacterized by the dominance of large global corporations, a growing blur between the private and public sectors, and a ‘me-directed’ narcissistic personality. Sobering, startling, importanta big-think book."Arlie Hochschild, author of The Outsourced Self and So How’s the Family? and Other Essays
"Third Wave Capitalism is a brilliant take on what ails our society and our politics. John Ehrenreich looks beneath and also beyond the conventional explanations of the forces undercutting democracy. By allowing us to understand better, he also allows us to hope."E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Why the Right Went Wrong
"By highlighting the huge role of the nonprofit sector, and especially the 'Eds and Meds' that have become the hope of our devastated industrial cities, John Ehrenreich gives us an entirely distinctive perspective on contemporary American capitalism. No analysis of neoliberal America can be complete without Ehrenreich’s contribution."Frances Fox Piven, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, coauthor with Richard Cloward of Regulating the Poor and Poor People’s Movements
"In Third Wave Capitalism, John Ehrenreich links themes of poverty, inequality, racial disparities, out-of-control health care costs, and assaults on public educationand explains them in terms of the broad changes in American capitalism over the last half century. A brilliant and subtle analysis!"Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Bait and Switch and Nickel and Dimed
"John Ehrenreich crisply and meticulously shows that our retrograde politics, grotesque inequalities, and bad national moods are all of a piece; that oligopoly, the systematic gouging away of public services, the blurring of public-private boundaries, and the dampening of public life are elements in the same awful story of power abuse and bad ideas. This is an immensely clarifying book."Todd Gitlin, Columbia University, author of Occupy Nation
"Our nation is confused because the current economy does not behave by the rules of older stages of capitalism. John Ehrenreich tells us this is a new age. In his description of the changes he has written a very valuable book that is that rare thing, useful."Jeffrey Madrick, The Century Foundation, editor of Challenge
"This book is a wonderfully written account of the hyper-individualistic, market-oriented era in which we live, labeled 'Third Wave Capitalism' by the author. By weaving historical narrative, with powerful statistics and personal anecdote, John Ehrenreich describes the growth and impact of the 'medical-industrial complex' on our failing health care delivery system. Collective action challenging corporate control of health care, including single-payer health insurance reform, is the only adequate response."Oliver Fein, Weill Cornell Medicine
"Third Wave Capitalism details how the nation's corporate sector’s rapacious profit-seeking has ravaged our health care sector, and is transforming our public schools into reductive market institutions.Anyone committed to more effective health care and education for democracy will find John Ehrenreich’s trenchant analysis indispensable."Norm Fruchter, Senior Scholar, Annenberg Institute for School Reform, author of Urban Schools, Public Will: Making Education Work for All our Children