Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America

by Robert B. Reich Narrated by Robert B. Reich

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Intertwining his own personal stories of growing up in a working-class family during America’s post-WWII socio-economic boom, the former U.S. Secretary of Labor uses his lifelong experience to reflect on the challenges of today’s generation and inspire the return of the American Dream.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ¿ From political economist, cabinet member, beloved professor, media presence, and bestselling author of Saving Capitalism and The Common Good, a deeply felt, compelling memoir of growing up in a baby-boom America that made progress in certain areas, fell short in so many important ways, and still has lots of work to do

"Important and galvanizing.” -Senator Bernie Sanders

"Essential reading for understanding this moment in American history.” -Molly Jong-Fast, New York Times bestselling author of How to Lose Your Mother

A thought-provoking, principled, clear-eyed chronicle of the culture, politics, and economic choices that have landed us where we are today-with irresponsible economic bullies and corporations with immense wealth and lobbying power on top, demagogues on the rise, and increasing inequality fueling anger and hatred across the country.

Nine months after World War II, Robert Reich was born into a united America with a bright future-which went unrealized for so many as big money took over our democracy. His encounter with school bullies on account of his height-4'11" as an adult-set him on a determined path to spend his life fighting American bullies of every sort. He recounts the death of a friend in the civil rights movement; his political coming of age witnessing the Berkeley free speech movement; working for Bobby Kennedy and Senator Eugene McCarthy; experiencing a country torn apart by the Vietnam War; meeting Hillary Rodham in college, Bill Clinton at Oxford, and Clarence Thomas at Yale Law. He details his friendship with John Kenneth Galbraith during his time teaching at Harvard, and subsequent friendships with Bernie Sanders and Ted Kennedy; and his efforts as labor secretary for Clinton and economic advisor to Barack Obama. Ultimately, Reich asks: What did his generation accomplish? Did they make America better, more inclusive, more tolerant? Did they strengthen democracy? Or did they come up short?

Reich hardly abandons us to despair over a doomed democracy. With characteristic spirit and humor, he lays out how we can reclaim a sense of community and a democratic capitalism based on the American ideals we still have the power to salvage.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"As bullied as [Reich] was, he never became a bully. He has dedicated his life to promoting fairness, not revenge....His numerous books have a moral center because he has a moral center.... Reich has been remarkably prescient, regularly warning about the dangers of inequality and the perils posed by a financial industry run amok….Over the last four decades, Reich has seen what happens when his colleagues succumb to complacency, presuming that everything will be just fine in the long run....Even though this book is billed as a memoir, it’s ultimately a call to action."
—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

“I am a big fan of Robert Reich. He is the rare academic who addresses the real problems facing America and fights to fix an economic system propelled by uncontrollable greed and contempt for human decency. He has used every position and platform at his disposal to reverse the unbridled pursuit of power and profit by the ultra-wealthy at the expense of working people. We would all do well to follow his example. Coming Up Short, an important and galvanizing account of a life dedicated to public service, is a good place to start.”
—Senator Bernie Sanders

"In Coming Up Short, the former adviser to multiple presidents lays out all that’s wrong with the country and how we might get back on track....A full-throated...rallying cry to get things back to where they belong."
—The Washington Post

“Being bullied as a child helped Robert Reich become a champion for the little guy. As Secretary of Labor, political economist, and public intellectual, he has called out the bullies, demagogues, and oligarchs who exploit working people and now threaten to subvert democracy. With characteristic wit and verve, Reich’s thoroughly absorbing memoir shows how his generation fell short in achieving a just society, and how the next generation can do better.”
—Michael Sandel, author of The Tyranny of Merit

“Robert Reich is one of the most important political thinkers and activists of our time, and Coming Up Short is essential reading for understanding this moment in American history.”
—Molly Jong-Fast, New York Times bestselling author of How to Lose Your Mother

“What Reich self-deprecatingly claims he lacks in physical stature, he more than makes up for in moral standing and civic pride . . . . Reich’s memoir is both economic treatise and political reckoning, stemming from a deep love of country and commitment to progress, in pursuit of doing what’s right as opposed to what is popular or expedient . . . . Clear-eyed and critical, Reich’s assessment of where America is headed is both sobering and, characteristically, hopeful.”
—Booklist, *starred review*

“In this passionate political memoir, Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor under Bill Clinton, calls on Democrats to refocus on the working class . . . . Along the way, he works in piquant sketches of political figures…. Reich’s arguments are convincing . . . . A perceptive insider’s account of Democratic disarray.”
—Publishers Weekly

"A sharply pointed chronicle of a society that, Reich laments, gladly tolerates the strong brutalizing the weak."—Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

2025-04-19
The former labor secretary examines the failure of his generation to fulfill the promise of building a better world.

Reich, an economist and UC Berkeley professor—and anti-Trump commentator—jokes toward the end of his book that if it’s true that you lose half an inch of height every five years after 60, then, at his tallest not-quite-five-feet, “if I live as long as my father did, I may vanish.” His title refers instead to the fact that his peers did not respond adequately to what Reich considers the perennial human challenge: standing up to bullies. Remembering his boyhood, Reich links his bullied early years to the bullying that goes on all around us today, thanks in good part to a demagogue, himself a bully, “who’d exploit the powerlessness and rage of Americans who felt economically bullied.” It might have been any bully—Reich prophesied that long ago in the generic—but we all know who came along in the void left by a generation that, whether self-absorbed or because of some other fault, didn’t continue to work toward “the decent, sustainable, and just society that was within our grasp.” Indeed, he continues, many of his age-mates and younger contemporaries worked toward the opposite goal, evidenced by the Roberts Supreme Court’s apparent commitment to undoing voting rights laws and the marked rise in economic inequality since the 1960s, the last decade in which blue-collar workers could buy a home on one income. Other harms that Reich enumerates are Donald Trump’s refusal to commit to the peaceful transfer of presidential power, the mania on the part of corporate heads to maximize shareholder profit at any cost, the vast expansion of the national debt, “rendering it impossible for the government to invest in things average Americans desperately need,” and much more.

A sharply pointed chronicle of a society that, Reich laments, gladly tolerates the strong brutalizing the weak.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940194442164
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	08/05/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

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