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How the antitax fringe went mainstream—and now threatens America's futureThe postwar United States enjoyed large, widely distributed economic rewards—and most Americans accepted that taxes were a reasonable price to pay for living in a society of shared prosperity. Then in 1978 California enacted Proposition 13, a property tax cap that Ronald Reagan hailed as a “second American Revolution,” setting off an antitax, antigovernment wave that has transformed American politics and economic policy. In The Power to Destroy, Michael Graetz tells the story of the antitax movement and how it holds America hostage—undermining the nation's ability to meet basic needs and fix critical problems.In 1819, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the power to tax entails “the power to destroy.” But The Power to Destroy argues that tax opponents now wield this destructive power. Attacking the IRS, protecting tax loopholes, and pushing tax cuts from Reagan to Donald Trump, the antitax movement is threatening the nation's social safety net, increasing inequality, ballooning the national debt, and sapping America's financial strength. The book chronicles how the movement originated as a fringe enterprise promoted by zealous outsiders using false economic claims and thinly veiled racist rhetoric, and how—abetted by conservative media and Grover Norquist's “taxpayer protection pledge'—it evolved into a mainstream political force.The important story of how the antitax movement came to dominate and distort politics, and how it impedes rational budgeting, equality, and opportunities, The Power to Destroy is essential reading for understanding American life today.

Now in its twelfth edition, Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal continues the book's tradition of offering a clear, concise, and comprehensive introduction to the ideas and ideals that shake and shape our political world. The text outlines a framework defining each ideology in terms of the four functions ideologies performs — explanation, evaluation, orientation, and political program — allowing students to compare, contrast, and analyze the various ideologies, developing their own unique views and critical thinking skills.New to this Edition A new co-author, Jennet Kirkpatrick, recognized for her teaching and scholarship in political theory, feminist theory, and resistance. Chapter 2; updated material on voter suppression and populism. Chapter 3; expanded discussion of the relationship between Adam Smith's moral and economic theories; how John Stuart Mill's views on free speech might apply to contemporary controversies; differences between John Rawls and Robert Nozick, and between neoclassical and welfare liberals more generally. Updated; discussion of the “Great Recession” and broader issues of economic inequality. Chapter 4; extended discussion of Edmund Burke's place within the conservative tradition. Updated; assessment of contemporary conservatism in light of Donald Trump's presidency; new section on Christian Nationalism. Chapter 5; extended discussion of Marx's theory of history. Chapter 6; updated the status of the socialist and communist traditions in China, Russia, and the United States. Chapter 7; charted the resurgence of far right and neo-fascist politics in Europe. Discussion of the “Alt-Right” in the United States has been expanded, including new sections on QAnon and the “Great Replacement” theory. Also expanded upon; discussion of whether fascism could gain serious traction in the United States, and a new section on the reasons why some critics say Donald Trump is either a fascist, or dangerously close to becoming one. Chapter 8; updated sections on Black liberation and feminism, including reference to George Floyd's murder and the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Also, new material on settler colonialism and on the issues for all liberation ideologies raised by the case of undocumented immigrants, and extended discussion of liberation theology. Chapter 9; updated material on the severity of the climate crisis, and the variety of responses that have emerged to address it. Chapter 10; a new section on Hamas, and extended discussion of protests against Islamist rule in Iran focusing on the responses to Mahsa Amini's death in police custody. Also updated; sections on ISIS and the Taliban in light of the former's erosion and the latter's return to power, in addition to references to internecine conflicts among radical Islamists. Chapter 11; updated reasons for the conclusion that there will be no end of ideological conflicts soon, especially with the continued power of religious worldviews, globalization, and---perhaps most especially---the return of fascism worldwide.

Disordered Violence looks at how gender, race and heteronormative expectations of public life shape Western understandings of terrorism as irrational, immoral and illegitimate. Caron Gentry examines the profiles of 8 well-known terrorist actors and looks at the gendered, racial, and sexualised assumptions in how their stories are told.

Since the Reagan Revolution of the early 1980s, Republicans have consistently championed tax cuts for individuals and businesses, regardless of whether the economy is booming or in recession or whether the federal budget is in surplus or deficit. In Starving the Beast, sociologist Monica Prasad uncovers the origins of the GOP's relentless focus on tax cuts and shows how this is a uniquely American phenomenon. Drawing on never-before seen archival documents, Prasad traces the history of the 1981 tax cut—the famous “supply side” tax cut, which became the cornerstone for the next several decades of Republican domestic economic policy. She demonstrates that the main impetus behind this tax cut was not business group pressure, racial animus, or a belief that tax cuts would pay for themselves. Rather, the tax cut emerged because in America--unlike in the rest of the advanced industrial world—progressive policies are not embedded within a larger political economy that is favorable to business. Since the end of World War II, many European nations have combined strong social protections with policies to stimulate economic growth such as lower taxes on capital and less regulation on businesses than in the United State. Meanwhile, the United States emerged from World War II with high taxes on capital and some of the strongest regulations on business in the advanced industrial world. This adversarial political economy could not survive the economic crisis of the 1970s. Starving the Beast suggests that taking inspiration from the European model of progressive policies embedded in market-promoting political economy could serve to build an American economy that works better for all.

• Winner of the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award • National Book Award Finalist • Time magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of the Year • New York Times Notable Book • Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2017 This “epic history” (The Boston Globe) from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Frances FitzGerald is the first to tell the powerful, dramatic story of the Evangelical movement in America—from the Puritan era to the 2016 election. “We have long needed a fair-minded overview of this vitally important religious sensibility, and FitzGerald has now provided it” (The New York Times Book Review).The evangelical movement began in the revivals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, known in America as the Great Awakenings. A populist rebellion against the established churches, it became the dominant religious force in the country. During the nineteenth century white evangelicals split apart, first North versus South, and then, modernist versus fundamentalist. After World War II, Billy Graham attracted enormous crowds and tried to gather all Protestants under his big tent, but the civil rights movement and the social revolution of the sixties drove them apart again. By the 1980s Jerry Falwell and other southern televangelists, such as Pat Robertson, had formed the Christian right. Protesting abortion and gay rights, they led the South into the Republican Party, and for thirty-five years they were the sole voice of evangelicals to be heard nationally. Eventually a younger generation proposed a broader agenda of issues, such as climate change, gender equality, and immigration reform. Evangelicals now constitute twenty-five percent of the American population, but they are no longer monolithic in their politics. They range from Tea Party supporters to social reformers. Still, with the decline of religious faith generally, FitzGerald suggests that evangelical churches must embrace ethnic minorities if they are to survive. “A well-written, thought-provoking, and deeply researched history that is impressive for its scope and level of detail” (The Wall Street Journal). Her “brilliant book could not have been more timely, more well-researched, more well-written, or more necessary” (The American Scholar).

Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal, 9/e, thoroughly analyzes and compares political ideologies to help readers understand these ideologies as acutely as a political scientist does. Used alone or with its companion Ideals and Ideologies: A Reader, 9/e, this best-selling title promotes open-mindedness and develops critical thinking skills.

A follow up book to his classic Home Style: House Members in their Districts, this new book by the preeminent legislative studies scholar, Dick Fenno, is intended for use in courses on Congress, political campaigning, and American government. Written in Fenno's “homespun” story-telling style, this book argues that authenticity — knowing what a representative is like in his/her district and looking beyond mere roll call voting — contributes significantly to understanding the full body of work done by our members of Congress. It further posits, by recounting Fenno's actual life's work, that the best way to gain a sense of authenticity is to do what Fenno is most famous for — i.e., making multiple trips and spending a great deal of time observing representatives at home, with their constituents, in their districts. The book is an engaging, quietly provocative, and unique title that offers an alternative to what some consider the increasingly specialized and technical nature of political science

A provocative new vision of free market capitalism that achieves liberal ends by libertarian meansCan libertarians care about social justice? In Free Market Fairness, John Tomasi argues that they can and should. Drawing simultaneously on moral insights from defenders of economic liberty such as F. A. Hayek and advocates of social justice such as John Rawls, Tomasi presents a new theory of liberal justice. This theory, free market fairness, is committed to both limited government and the material betterment of the poor. Unlike traditional libertarians, Tomasi argues that property rights are best defended not in terms of self-ownership or economic efficiency but as requirements of democratic legitimacy. At the same time, he encourages egalitarians concerned about social justice to listen more sympathetically to the claims ordinary citizens make about the importance of private economic liberty in their daily lives. In place of the familiar social democratic interpretations of social justice, Tomasi offers a'market democratic'conception of social justice: free market fairness. Tomasi argues that free market fairness, with its twin commitment to economic liberty and a fair distribution of goods and opportunities, is a morally superior account of liberal justice. Free market fairness is also a distinctively American ideal. It extends the notion, prominent in America's founding period, that protection of property and promotion of real opportunity are indivisible goals. Indeed, according to Tomasi, free market fairness is social justice, American style.Provocative and vigorously argued, Free Market Fairness offers a bold new way of thinking about politics, economics, and justice—one that will challenge readers on both the left and right.

George W. Bush's religiosity has invited much analysis and controversy about the impact of religion on government. This collection of leading scholars'essays first examines the impact of various religions voting groups on the 2004 presidential campaign, and then reviews and assesses the impact of religion on the policies of the Bush presidency.

Somewhere in the 1970s liberals in the United States lost their way. After successes like the New Deal, they became arrogant. So argues Douglas Massey in Return of the'L'Word. Faced with the difficult politics of race and class, liberals used the heavy hand of government to impose policies on a resentful public. Conservatives capitalized on this with a staunch ideology of free markets, limited government, and conservative social values. The time is ripe for a liberal realignment, declares Massey, but what has been lacking is a consistent liberal ideology that explains to voters, in simple terms, government's vital role in producing a healthier, more financially equitable, less divided society. This book supplies that ideology. Massey begins his powerful manifesto by laying out the liberals'mistakes over the past twenty years. Drawing on insights from the expanding field of economic sociology, he then sets forth a clear set of liberal principles to explain how markets work in society, principles he applies to articulate salable liberal policies. After outlining a new liberal political philosophy, Massey traces liberalism's opposition and says plainly: liberals should have no illusions about the competition's resolve and skill. He closes with a practical approach to liberal coalition-building in America. The political economy conservatives have constructed in recent decades has benefited 20 percent of the people. Liberal success requires a return to material rather than symbolic politics, showing most Americans why it is in their economic as well as moral interest to support the liberal cause.