They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate the Next Political Era

by E. J. Dionne Jr.

Overview

In his book, They Only Look Dead E. J. Dionne not only challenges the conventional wisdom that America is moving to the right but also offers a more promising way forward.

Prophetic and inspiring, They Only Look Dead forecast the changes in American politics before they happened and instantly altered the debate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780684827001
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	03/20/1997
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

E.J. Dionne, Jr., is a bestselling author, a syndicated columnist who appears twice weekly in The Washington Post and nearly a hundred other newspapers, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a professor at Georgetown University. His Why Americans Hate Politics won a Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a nominee for the National Book Award. He is a regular commentator on National Public Radio and on other radio and television programs. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Mary Boyle, and their three children.

Editorial Reviews

Despite the title, this book is less a contrarian projection of the future than a savvy if incomplete analysis of our current political landscape. Washington Post columnist Dionne (Why Americans Hate Politics) suggests that our current political chaos derives from multiple crises-of economics, politics, morality and our national purpose-with interesting parallels to upheavals the country faced in the late 19th century, culminating in the first Progressive era. And the ``Anxious Middle''-the swing group in elections-is pandered to, says the author, by both parties. He goes on to suggest that President Clinton, even without his gaffes, would have faced intractable divisions within his party, that Newt Gingrich represents a new breed of technology-oriented conservatism and that journalism must adapt to promote a more serious level of debate. Dionne argues quite plausibly that the new conservatism will fail because it ``seeks to define away'' the problems we face, yet his vision of a new Progressivism ignores some practical steps, such as a move away from identity politics, that must presage such change. Author tour. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The author of Why Americans Hate Politics (LJ 4/1/91) wants to know why the Democrats hate themselves so much that they brought about the Republican victory through their own failure to govern.

Library Journal