American Mojo: Lost and Found: Restoring our Middle Class Before the World Blows By

by Peter D. Kiernan

Overview

In American Mojo: Lost and Found, Peter D. Kiernan, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author, focuses on America’s greatest challenge—and opportunity—restoring the middle class to its full promise and potential.

Our educated, skilled, and motivated middle class was the cornerstone of America’s postwar economic might, but the country’s dynamic core has struggled and changed dramatically through the last three decades. Kiernan’s extensively researched story, told through individual histories, shows how the middle class flourished under unique circumstances following World War II and details how our middle class has been rocked and shaped by events abroad as much as at home. By excluding too many Americans, the middle class we reverently recall was fractured from the beginning.

What emerges through his storytelling is a picture of middle-class decline and opportunity that is fuller, more moving and profound, and ultimately more useful in terms of charting a path forward than other examinations. His unique global perspective is a vital ingredient in charting the way ahead. This new frontier thesis shows that middle-class greatness is again within our grasp—if we take some powerful medicine and seize the global opportunity. America possesses the skills and talent the world needs. Americans must embrace what brought our middle class to prominence in the first place—our American Mojo—before it is too late and other countries steal the march.

All that is at stake is the soul of our nation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781630269234
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	06/09/2015
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Peter D. Kiernan, award-winning bestselling author, is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and advisor to businesses, nonprofits and government. After a multi-decade Wall Street career, he left in 2000 to pursue venture capital start-ups, nonprofit work and writing. A 25-year Robin Hood Foundation board member and past Chair of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, he has served on the boards of numerous hospitals, colleges, graduate schools, disability and poverty fighting organizations, and charter school initiatives and currently serves on the Al Smith Foundation. A frequent contributor on TV talk shows, radio programs and public speaking forums, Kiernan’s last book, Becoming China’s Bitch won the International Book Award and was a New York Times bestseller. He holds an MBA from Darden and a BA from Williams College and lives in New England with his family.

Read an Excerpt

In twenty years the global middle class will be unrecognizable. Why? Because outside our border lies 80 percent of the world’s purchasing power, 92 percent of the world’s economic growth, and 95 percent of the world’s consumers. And they are hungry for change in a way that should be familiar. Today, dozens of nations have explicit plans to create their own middle class miracle. A billion more middle class members should emerge in the next decade. What does that surge mean for the restoration and livelihood of the American middle class? Like we did in the fifties, these countries are short-cutting their way to a dynamic middle class by providing it with conditions to prosper. Meanwhile we drift along, vaguely concerned that our middle class is shrinking, that wages are sideways at best, and that our population is changing right before our eyes. If we have no plan at all, what does that mean for our prospects? We still look at middle class problems myopically—as purely domestic affairs. 1955 is dead and gone. This book assumes the missing global perspective ignored by domestic policy ostriches who so often dominate discussion. When it comes to the middle class, all the world’s a stage.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents Introduction Part One: Lost Chapter One: Paradise Lost Chapter Two: The Invasion Chapter Three: Chocolate Milk Chapter Four: Dream Stealer Chapter Five: Love/Haight Chapter Six: The Three Uglies Chapter Seven: Flying the Hump Chapter Eight: Tall Paul and the Tamers Part Two: Found Chapter Nine: The One Percent Problem Chapter Ten: The One Percent Solution Chapter Eleven: The Renaissance Chapter Twelve: The Zone Chapter Thirteen: The Black Middle Class Chapter Fourteen: American Matriarchy Chapter Fifteen: Latin Hustle Chapter Sixteen: G, Myself and I Chapter Seventeen: La Grippe Chapter Eighteen: Live to Work or Work to Live Chapter Nineteen: Middle Earth Chapter Twenty: A Cyclone Roles East Chapter Twenty-One: Capture, or Be Captured Chapter Twenty Two: Mojo Found—Where You Least Expect

Editorial Reviews

04/27/2015
Kiernan (Becoming China's Bitch) chronicles, in highly entertaining fashion, the American middle class's rise over the course of the 20th century, as well as its currently imperiled state. Observing that "80% of the world's purchasing power, 92% of the world's economic growth, and 95% of the world's consumers" are now outside the U.S., Kiernan asks whether Americans are in danger of being left behind. Each chapter begins with the story of a person who participated, and in some cases played a key part, in the progress of the American middle class, from the potato magnate who made McDonald's possible, to Betty Friedan and her contribution to unleashing the economic potential of American women. The stories touch on many topics, including the post-WWII housing boom, the economic impacts of racism, the culture war's origins in the late 1960s, and Reaganomics. The book would have benefited from less grandiose prose—at one point, Kiernan pronounces his narrative "an unabashed love story about struggle, triumph, and moments of despair." But overall, this is a riveting read that sets out not to draw definite solutions from past successes and failures, but to educate the general readership with storytelling. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Thoughtful and thought-provoking, American Mojo: Lost and Found is ultimately an optimistic resource of practical and proactive macroeconomic strategies for the twenty-first century, highly recommended." —Midwest Book Review

“Peter Kiernan is a man with a big vision—for the middle class. In this robust and imaginative analysis of how the middle class must be secured he cuts through the fog and presents a clear vision for a new course. Bravo.” —Tom Brokaw

"American Mojo is a page-turner of a gripping story, one that reads like fiction but in fact weaves the drama of the breakdown of our healthy middle class. And then hope brims from the pages as Peter Kiernan guides us toward a truly possible future where the jewel of our nation, our middle class, could actually shine again for real. If you care about America, there is no more important book out there today." —Diane Nyad, champion ocean swimmer, author, and frequent public speaker for social betterment

From the Publisher