Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean

This was a very hard book to read. It took me two weeks to finish because I took breaks to read some lighter material. It describes the buildup of a powerful Libertarian movement poised to control our increasingly threatened Democracy. The author provides a detailed picture of James McGill Buchanan, an Economist who spent his life developing and spreading his belief in a libertarian government that could make dominant an economic policy that would safeguard the wealth of the few. The wealthy and Corporations he taught should not have to pay taxes to support all the people who needed the benefits of such things as social services or even schools and roads. Now the author states that "The United States is now at one of those historic forks in the road whose outcome will prove as fateful as those of the 1860s, the 1930s, and the 1960s. To value liberty for the wealthy minority above all else and enshrine it in the nation's governing rules, as (John) Calhoun and (James McGill) Buchanan both called for and the Koch network is achieving, play by play, is to consent to an oligarchy in all but the outer husk of representative form." Recommended.

Our Towns:A 100,000 Mile Journey Into the Heart of America by James Fallows and Deborah FallowsA fascinating narrative about some towns that are reinventing themselves through private/public collaboration into locations that entice people to take up residence.

A fascinating narrative about some towns that are reinventing themselves through private/public collaboration into locations that entice people to take up residence.