Third Wave Capitalism by John Ehrenreich

Third Wave Capitalism by John Ehrenreich

In Third Wave Capitalism, John Ehrenreich documents the emergence of a new stage in the history of American capitalism. Just as the industrial capitalism of the nineteenth century gave way to corporate capitalism in the twentieth, recent decades have witnessed corporate capitalism evolving into a new phase, which Ehrenreich calls "Third Wave Capitalism."Third Wave Capitalism is marked by apparent contradictions: Rapid growth in productivity and lagging wages; fabulous wealth for the 1 percent and the persistence of high levels of poverty; increases in the standard of living and increases in mental illness, personal misery, and political rage; the apotheosis of the individual and the deterioration of democracy; increases in life expectancy and out-of-control medical costs; an African American president and the incarceration of a large percentage of the black population.Ehrenreich asserts that these phenomena are evidence that a virulent, individualist, winner-take-all ideology and a virtual fusion of government and business have subverted the American dream. Greed and economic inequality reinforce the sense that each of us is "on our own." The result is widespread lack of faith in collective responses to our common problems. The collapse of any organized opposition to business demands makes political solutions ever more difficult to imagine. Ehrenreich traces the impact of these changes on American health care, school reform, income distribution, racial inequities, and personal emotional distress. Not simply a lament, Ehrenreich's book seeks clues for breaking out of our current stalemate and proposes a strategy to create a new narrative in which change becomes possible.

Ehrenreich's book delivers more than the title suggestsReaders 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 *

Explores the emergence of third-wave capitalism in the 1960s and through the early twenty-first century as a new phase in the history of American capitalism and as a way to explain the apparent contradictions in the wealth, health, educational attainment, and race relations of American history.

* JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC LITERATURE *

John Ehrenreich is Professor of Psychology, State University of New York, College at Old Westbury. He is the author of The Altruistic Imagination: A History of Social Work and Social Policy in the United States, also from Cornell, and The Humanitarian Companion: A Guide for Aid, Development, and Human Rights Workers. He is coauthor of The American Health Empire: Power, Profits, and Politics and Long March, Short Spring: The Student Uprising at Home and Abroad and editor of The Cultural Crisis of Modern Medicine.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9781501702310
ISBN 10	1501702319
Titel	Third Wave Capitalism
Autor	John Ehrenreich
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Hardback
Verlag	Ilr Press
Erscheinungsjahr	2016-04-05
Seitenanzahl	256
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar