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The Great Exception

The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics

Jefferson Cowie

$34.99

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English
Princeton University Pres
27 June 2017
Where does the New Deal fit in the big picture of American history? What does it mean for us today? What happened to the economic equality it once engendered? In The Great Exception, Jefferson Cowie provides new answers to these important questions. In the period between the Great Depression and the 1970s, he argues, the United States government achieved a unique level of equality, using its considerable resources on behalf of working Americans in ways that it had not before and has not since. If there is to be a comparable battle for collective economic rights today, Cowie argues, it needs to build on an understanding of the unique political foundation for the New Deal. Anyone who wants to come to terms with the politics of inequality in the United States will need to read The Great Exception.
By:  
Imprint:   Princeton University Pres
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 216mm,  Width: 140mm,  Spine: 20mm
Weight:   340g
ISBN:   9780691175737
ISBN 10:   069117573X
Series:   Politics and Society in Modern America
Pages:   288
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Primary ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
PROLOGUE Philadelphia, 1936 1 INTRODUCTION Rethinking the New Deal in American History 9 CHAPTER 1 The Question of Democracy in the Age of Incorporation 35 CHAPTER 2 Kaleidoscope of Reform 63 CHAPTER 3 Working-Class Interregnum 91 CHAPTER 4 Constraints and Fractures in the New Liberalism 123 CHAPTER 5 The Great Exception in Action 153 CHAPTER 6 Toward a New Gilded Age 179 CHAPTER 7 The Era of Big Government Is Not Over (But the New Deal Probably Is) 209 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 231 NOTES 235 INDEX 263

Jefferson Cowie is the James G. Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class. His work has also appeared in such publications as the New York Times, the New Republic, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Reviews for The Great Exception: The New Deal and the Limits of American Politics

Cowie--like the best work of the mid-century historian Richard Hofstadter, whom he frequently cites--has written not so much a work of American history as a brilliant meditation about a central dilemma of American history. --In These Times Jefferson Cowie offers a grand interpretation of the road blocks to change... A rich survey, studded with insights culled from a generation of scholarship. --Michael Kazin, Bookforum Cowie sings the achievements of the New Deal in a tragic register, emphasizing its transformative power while lingering on its compromises... Cowie's vision is coherent and arresting, and helps to make sense of recurring puzzles in American political experience. As a literary-intellectual posture, moreover, his fatalism is downright infectious. --Democracy Important. --Harold Meyerson, American Prospect One of the year's most important political books. --E.J. Dione Jr., Washington Post Engaging and highly readable, Cowie's book provides an excellent, thought-provoking introduction to American economic and political history. --Choice


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