Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy

Chris Hayes has penned a book that contains the same breadth of perspective and depth of inquiry that made "Up" so much fun to watch. He has identified a critical element of our current intellectual and political malaise, and explores it with interesting insight and analysis. It's too soon to tell if his prediction about how we might find our way out of the mess we're in will come true, but I hope it will - the problem he describes is real and dire, and if we can't find the way toward a new method of creating and maintaining a more equitable consensus, the democratic experiment here in the US may fall victim to its own self-delusions, and that could get very bloody. For all its grim assessment of our situation, this is an optimistic book, and well worth the time.

Chris Hayes has written a thought-provoking book on where America is headed! If there is any doubt about who will be the "ruling class" in the years to come, this book leaves no doubt. The 1 percenters, the religious right-wing groups (including those in the Republican party); this is what we have to look forward to if America doesn't wake up!

An excellently written book about the major woes and possible framework of correcting the course of the United States on social, political, and economic levels. I found the reading and listening combination gave a feel more like a conversation or lecture on the topics in question than the average reading experience could ever give. A must read/listen if you want a better understanding of the situations we now find ourselves in.

I began watching Chris Hayes on Saturday and Sunday mornings soon after the "Up with Chris Hayes" program was started and I was so impressed with the program topics and the analysis of current events that I couldn't wait for his book to come out. I pre-ordered a copy on my Kindle, and I have not been disappointed.

I am an "Upper", so forgive me if this sounds biased. If you want a detailed analysis of how America has found herself in the mess that she is in, this is the book for you! We have this sense that America is in a bad place right now, but Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy deftly explains what went wrong and how we came to be here. I find myself smiling and nodding a lot while reading Twilight of the Elites.

This is a book that I know I will read over and over again simply because Chris has his finger on the pulse of the nation here.
Great reading!!!

i am just about finished this book--it is absolutely fascinating--yes i too am of fan of chris hayes but was not sure what to expect--what i found was a powerful analysis of why we are the way we are--as part of the meritocracy--i am a 'boomer' --i read so many thoughts that co-incided with what i have seen and lived--i even saw myself and it was not pretty per say--the narrative explains how we got to where we are today--the whole idea of 'the elites' has lead this society down a very rocky road--the issues of the church, baseball, wallstreet i truly believe come down to the belief that those in power view or have been constantly told during their lives that they are the elite--as tom wolfe put it in 'bonfire of the vanities': we thought that we were 'masters of the universe'--i would advise any thoughful person to read this and think it through for themselves

This book tied together a number of threads I have observed. For example, how was it possible for investment bankers to have destroyed entire economies, lose enormous amounts of money and then demand their bonuses? Or how is it possible for Mitt Romney to make the case that he is a self made man? I think this is a very important contribution to understanding what is wrong with society and how to fix it.

The book is very well-written and the quotations painstakingly referenced. Christopher Hayes successfully defends his thesis that our current and future crises can only be addressed by moving past partisan and ideological divides. He clearly demonstrates that these crises are the result of the inevitable failure of institutions built on a well-intentioned but flawed meritocratic foundation. However, he offers no actionable plan for moving into the desired post-stalemate era. Strangely, I'm not disappointed - it's a pretty tall order, and will require a fundamentally new paradigm for governance. An interesting challenge, and absolutely necessary.

Twilight of the Elites is the most profound book I have read in years. Chris Hayes wrote and read the audio version of this thoughtful and fascinating work. I watch his show and am always impressed by the matter-of-fact approach he takes with the conversations he has on Saturday and Sunday mornings put him at a level that no weekend political show approximates. His book is even beyond that. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

A very impressive book. I t begins in a spectacular manner. I have given this book to some German friends, one a PhD in economics, who was very impressed. But then he's a fan of Noam Chomsky. My question is, will this be availabel in German??
This book, and Twilight of Elites are my gifts to our children this year.

Given a understanding of elite v common majority. The power given to the few elite accompanied with a distant life style (out of Touch) is a danger to communities and country. The elite whom rule are to distance to make an effective decision for for their constituents. However, a hierarchical structure is necessary to motivate a decision or solution.

One of my favorite intellectual feasts is watching Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow discussing the topic of the day. This is a wonderful read. I started this thinking his thesis wrong, but totally came around to his point of view. Well written, well argued and worthwhile. A book that speaks to this country's current unease.

As always, Hayes doesn't disappoint. Whether his insights and values are expressed on camera or in print, Chris Hayes always use thought provoking, well balanced facts and suggestions to lay out his point of view. His perspective remains fair and relevant, yet it's always clear which side he is on. (So well written!)

While attending the #1 rated school for International Business in the U.S. in the 1980s and having participated as a non-paid teaching assistant to a course on China trade relations supplementing the professor's lectures each session, I was told I could not receive an "A" for the course as my Bachelor of Arts degree was achieved from a State University and not from Harvard/Oxford/Yale, therefore it would be "unfair" to give me an "A" while those whose Bachelor's degrees originated from such Ivy League Schools could not be explained as less equivalent to that which I received. I did at the time tell the professor that this was discrimination, and his answer to me was "Go ahead and complain; it won't change anything."

Many years later as a professor of International Business and Economics at a small, private, University, my Dean asked me if I would be willing to contribute to the election campaign for State Senator of this same professor who had discriminated against me based on where I attained my Bachelor's degree. I told him to ask people who had graduated from Harvard/Oxford/Yale to contribute to the individual's campaign and told him why I would not.

This very readable book, which at times actually made me laugh (though what he describes is not a laughable matter); it not only contributes to explaining why the generation behind me feels alienated; it helps me to understand why I might feel such as a minority participant in my employment field as a woman in sales and business throughout the previous generation.

Hayes makes an almost compelling case that many of our social problems resulted from our establishment of a "meritocracy" under which our political and business leadership came to be as a result of our widely shared belief that "the most able among us" should both win in "the game of life" and become our leaders.

'Twilight of the Elites' lays out some very compelling ideas, adding to the conversation a unique and valuable perspective on what ails an American society broadly believed by the public to be "on the wrong track". It's also full of vivid anecdotes and compelling analysis that made it a pleasure to read.

The narrative starts by pulling together the apparently disparate major scandals we all watched unfold over the first decade of the 21st century ("the Fail Decade") into the generalized theme of "institutional failure". I hadn't looked at it quite that way before and I think viewing Congress, corporations, Wall St, the Catholic Church, MLB, academia, the press, etc. all under the umbrella of "institutions" and looking at trends over time across institutions and institutional leaders ("elites") is a good framework. Survey data is presented, showing that trust in virtually all the core American institutions polled on has declined steadily over the last four decades (and presumably before the surveys started, in the wake of Watergate, as well).

Chris Hayes attributes this mistrust to the spectacular failures of these institutions - failure, I'd say, to live up to the role we expect them to play in our society. He blames this institutional failure on the "elite failure" of the people who've succeeded in the American "meritocracy" by securing positions of authority and power atop one or more of society's institutions. Hayes then puts forth his thesis that at the root of this trend is what he calls the "Iron Law of Meritocracy" which I would summarize as the idea that because of human nature, excessive inequality of outcome cannot remain compatible with equality of opportunity. The "winners" who earn a spot in their generation's elite will ultimately wind up using the power and money they've "won" to secure their own privilege and to skew the rules of the game for the next generation in a way that favors their own children and social circles. The bigger the resource gap between privileged families and everyone else, the more the "opportunity" that is supposed to justify the inequality becomes a purchasable commodity. A blatant example is the official preference given to the children of large donors at the top private universities. Informal but probably more lucrative are the "connections" enjoyed by those with family and friends in high places.

There were a few tensions in the book that felt unresolved:
1) "Meritocracy", the key concept in the book, was implicitly defined in a way that I think obscures some extremely important distinctions. Etymologically and historically - as an ideal to political philosophers seeking to design a competent system of governance for the sake of the entire society - the term "meritocracy" is about producing competent leadership that will best serve the greater society. On the other hand, the idea of creating an economic system that's designed to lavish extravagant economic rewards on society's most deserving by virtue of their "merit" is conceptually distinct; we could call it "meritonomy". Clearly, it's hard or impossible to totally separate meritocracy from meritonomy in practice - both for incentive reasons and because some degree of self-dealing probably inevitably follows from concentrated power. But I would've liked separate discussions of the cultural ideas that: a) meritocracy is designed to funnel people based on merit in order to produce the best leaders and thus best institutions, with money serving as an incentive, and b) meritocracy is a competition, and you more or less earn what you justly deserve according to the natural rules of the "free market". That we tend to accept as natural the idea that Wall St's speculative traders make far more money than bank regulators or civil engineers - and don't object to this order as long as they're good at trading and aren't getting directly bailed out with taxpayer money - seems to me a pretty strong indicator of how far our cultural notion of "meritocracy" has veered from the idea that merit should function, directly or indirectly, to serve society. On the other hand, the idea of "elite failure" implies that elites do have some obligation to the rest of us.
2) What really offends me about the Hunter College High School Chris describes - more than the fact that admission chances can be marginally improved by having parents able to pay for test prep - is that the life trajectories of those who don't get in, even just barely, is likely to be so dramatically inferior. In a country with no shortage of productive capacity, there's no excuse for "making it" to be viewed as an exclusive prize. That, to me - more than the un-level playing field - is the most fundamental problem with our system of "meritocracy". Yet Hayes' criticism of the lack of socioeconomic mobility almost seems to imply - probably inadvertently on his part - that if extreme inequality were the result of some mythical "level playing field" that would justify it. My problem with that as the primary critique of meritocracy is as follows: Even if we accept the idea of a "level playing field", why would a system of "meritocracy" justify someone in the 99.9th merit percentile reaping rewards orders of magnitude great than than someone in the 90th percentile? Not even the most unapologetic cognitive snobs depict an IQ curve, for example, that remotely resembles the shape of the income distribution. Yet Hayes - however rhetorically and with disapproval of the whole "cult of smartness" - tosses out the question: "Could there be something similar [to the fractal inequality we see in incomes] with intelligence?" My reaction was: Huh? Not even Charles Murray (co-author of "The Bell Curve") believes any such thing. To be fair, Hayes does mention the winner-take-all nature of the economy (if the best soprano can sell her recordings worldwide, that spells trouble for the fifth-best soprano) and explains how access to one form of social capital (money, platform and networks) - once acquired - can be easily traded in for another. That for Hayes to use his TV show to repeatedly pitch his book is the perfect illustration... is an irony I think Hayes intended the reader to pick up on. Appreciated would have been a more explicit acknowledgement that - while exponentially more successful measured by income, platform and networks - Hayes knows he's not, by anyone's definition, orders of magnitude smarter (or any other trait-er) than his readers; nor, in turn, are his readers and audience orders of magnitude smarter than the average person. This, to me, would be a deeper critique of meritocracy as justification for extreme inequality.
3) Hayes often casually equates "meritocracy" with "high levels of income inequality". Yet in practice, there are countries with a much more structured, Hunter College High School-esque form of "meritocracy" or of funneling than we have in America - I'm thinking of the make-or-break college entrance exam in South Korea or the early school tracking in Germany - and yet with lower levels of pay disparity between the relative "winners" and the "losers" in this sorting process.
4) I would've liked more of a conceptual distinction to be drawn between a) elites using their "on-the-job" authority to FAIL in the context of that role, and b) elites using their money and connections off the job to buy - directly or indirectly - competitive advantages for their kids. Eroding social mobility and institutional break-down are different phenomena. The Iron Law of Meritocracy refers to the former while the Fail Decade blow-ups refer to the latter. The two seem to alternate as the central indictment of meritocracy.

There were many insightful ideas in the book.
1) I particularly appreciated the discussion of high stakes. Hayes talks about the incentives they create, and the environment that breeds. His conclusion is: "It's harder than it looks to devise a system that greatly rewards success - and punishes failure - that isn't also a system that rewards cheating." I would extend the definition of cheating to include tactics that violate the spirit of the law or of common decency, whether or not they conform to the letter of the law. The extreme levels of income inequality we see are not only unfair and socially corrosive, they up the stakes in a way that can not only induce cheating, but eventually turn casual corruption into the norm.
2) The self-justification provided to "elites" by the notion that they're operating within a "meritocracy" is another important insight in the book.

The book's title - while evocative - is a bit misleading. First, I wouldn't have known going in that the title was "aspirational" - rather than descriptive of a post-meritocratic state - if I hadn't happened to catch Chris Hayes saying so himself in one of his media appearances around the time it came out. Second, the book is overwhelmingly a social critique rather than an outline of Hayes' aspirations for an alternative system. My interpretation of Chris Hayes' call for a "twilight of the elites" - and I'm projecting here - is something akin to the following:
- a call for his fellow "elites" to get over themselves already
- that money and power alone are not self-evident proof of their holder's "merit" and certainly not of their contribution to society
- for everyone to carry with them the understanding that despite the lack of hereditary aristocracy, luck of many kinds still plays a huge role in life outcomes
- for people to view their jobs not just in terms of competitive achievement and personal reward, but as a way to use their talents to play a positive role in society
- that "smartness" alone isn't enough
- that making it in the world shouldn't be seen as an exclusive and scarce resource
- and that extreme inequality can not only turn people bad but is ultimately bad for all of us

This is a critically important book, and you should read it. You should buy it if you can, because to the extent it sells, it creates "platform" for Mr. Hayes. "Platform" is one of the types of power he discusses in the book. And, our country needs his influence.

The core premise of the book is this; gross inequality of outcome leads to elite behaviors which are ultimately destructive to the society. Mr. Hayes begins with the thesis that the last 12 years have been a "fail decade". He cites Bush v. Gore, 9/11, the Enron Scandal, the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, MLB's steroids scandal, the enabling of serial pedophiles by the Catholic Church, the Financial crisis and Jerry Sandusky's institutionally protected reign of child molestation as some of the evidence of this failure. That's a pretty compelling string of fail. He attributes these disasters and others to incompetence and corruption in our elite institutions, and he blames the sharp increase in inequality we've seen in this country for elite failure.

The case he makes is hard to rebut. Mr. Hayes begins his discussion with "The Iron Law of Oligarchy" which is the idea that any group, regardless of its purpose or values, will inevitably split into elite members and mass members. Elite members, by virtue of their innate characteristics (drive, ambition, talent) will come to exercise greater influence on the group's decisions and actions than the mass membership. Subsequently, they become more concerned with the groups internal hierarchy, and their place within it, than with the group's putative goals.

Americans are comfortable with this type of inequality, provided that it is the outcome of "merit". The key element of American political mythology is that all of the participants enjoy "equality of opportunity". Subsequent inequality of outcome and circumstance is then (theoretically) attributable to the actions of the individual. If the playing field is level, the outcome of the game is legitimate. Equality of outcome is not desirable because it limits the best and most talented individuals. This is not only detrimental to the individual, but also to the larger society, which is deprived of their talents.

Mr. Hayes then proposes a corollary to the Iron Law of Oligarchy: the "Iron Law of Meritocracy". This posits that any group of elites will act to secure and extend their privileged position in society. They are able to do so because of the inequality of outcome their exceptional talents has created. Meritocracy is thus inherently unstable; it's beneficiaries will act to undermine it on behalf of themselves, their friends and their families.

The results of this "self-dealing" are seen in the string of catastrophes listed above. Inequality of outcome has reached a level in this country that our elites have successfully eliminated equality of opportunity. Consequently our elites are no longer competent. They are no longer incented to benefit the mass membership through their actions. Elite interests have become divorced from the interests of the larger society.

"three decades of accelerating inequality have produced deformed social order and a set of elites who cannot help but be dysfunctional and corrupt."

The author offers a typology of power wielded by elites including Money, Platform (access to mass audience) and Network (access to other members of the elite). He then makes the important point that while these "types" of power are conceptually different, they tend to reinforce each other and go together. Mr. Hayes goes on to chronicle the reasons why elites become dysfunctional. Beneficiaries of the system of elite selection and recruitment are of course convinced of the legitimacy of the system that put them at its apex. They work to preserve it.

At the same time, they work to subvert the "principle of mobility" that lies at the heart of meritocracy, by providing their friends and family with perks and advantages not enjoyed by the mass populace. Mr. Hayes documents this tendency with some depressing statistics regarding social mobility and income stagnation in the United States since 1980. Elites, convinced that they've earned their perks, enjoy those perks to their fullest. Among those perks is increasing isolation from the mass society they rule. They're less likely to ride the bus, less likely to encounter the poor and more able to avoid the daily headaches that plague most of us. Mr. Hayes refers to this as "social distance". This deprives them of critical feedback regarding the consequences of decisions they make which affect the broader society.

One particularly poignant example cited by Mr. Hayes is the ruthlessly punitive nature of our criminal justice system. The consequences of that particular holocaust are avoided entirely by elites, but have devastated segments of the larger society.

"...the closer those in charge are to the consequences of their actions, the more responsive they'll be and the better decisions they will make."

Protected from the worst consequences of our justice system, elites are not deterred from self-serving actions which, while illegal, are unlikely to result in incarceration, or even meaningful fines. The internal values of elite subculture have become so hyper-competitive that a myopic focus on profitability, or electoral success, or winning baseball games excludes every other consideration. And this pathology is magnified by the enormous rewards our acceptance of inequality offers to the successful. Finally, once "cheating" has taken root in the system, not cheating becomes impossible. Mr. Hayes demonstrates this with a particularly cool and intellectually playful application of Gresham's Law. The results of this corruption of our elites have been listed above. Having watched institution after institution betray its public trust, the mass membership has grown almost entirely skeptical about the motives and public pronouncements of the elites. This delegitimation of our decision makers has created "a crisis of authority" in which there is no consensus on what our problems are or how they can be solved. We cannot agree on what the facts of our circumstances are, because the determination of "fact" is a function of elites whom we no longer trust.

The book ends with some suggestions for reforming the system. Such reform is straight-forward, at least in its basic form; reduce inequality. This will have the effect of increasing the pool from which elites are recruited, reducing the incentives for elites to cheat and improving their awareness of the consequences of their decisions. The authoritative case Mr. Hayes makes is enhanced by his prose; he writes with both elegance and directness. The book is extremely accessible. I can even call it a "page turner" with perfect accuracy, adding only the caveat that I get more excited by this type of material than is sane and normal. While Chris Hayes is something of a "darling of the Left" and makes no attempt to hide his ideological predispositions, the book itself is not ideological. Readers with a conservative viewpoint will find themselves in perfect agreement with most of what he has to say.

This is mandatory reading for those of you serious about citizenship, and concerned with the direction of our country.

Excellent. Those who suffer from the delusion that all is fair will invariably reject Hayes' premise. They're wrong. His book painstakingly details problems with our current political and economic system. Fantastic read.

Fact-filled and insightful. The changing mindset, and resulting culture shift, within our most successful demographics has profound impact on how our society functions - and succeeds or fails in the long run.

Twilight of the Gods is accurately written account of what is wrong with America. Authors gives me great examples and easily proves his argument. He did leave out to me obvious war examples - like we dropped fire bombs on Dresden and not Hitler in Berlin - and killed many poor Japanese but did not go after their leaders.

I like Chris Hayes he makes some interesting arguments especially about how the elites will circle the wagons around each other if there is a scandal but ultimately he is a somewhat in the box thinker.

This is an interesting look at the social/economic structure of present day America with all its faults and weaknesses. It's a realistic look at how far the pendulum has to swing back in order to remake democracy.

In "Twilight of the Elites", Chris Hayes has given me a gift for which I have longed but had not been able to articulate. Watching American politics and watching the insanity of Wall Street and money-hungry CEOs and investors, I carried around an abiding awareness that something was broken; that something had happened to us that was awful, but I could not quite find a way to describe. It is astounding that in a man so young (Chris Hayes) there could be such a marked ability to turn facts and history into wisdom. He not only tells us how bad it has gotten and why, Chris Hayes also makes powerful argument about how we can have a better future.

Very good read. Thought the final proposal for a solution might feel rather open ended for a society used to delegating decision making, the transit throughout different examples of corrupt behavior and possible root causes make a very compelling case on the problems we must address in our modern world. Countries in South America (and allegedly Asia) are living the growing stages of a meritocratic model, this book is a good eye opener for us to stay alert on the risks of the model if left unchecked.

Everyone knows what is happening with American society, well everyone that wants to know. Mr. Hayes has provided the reference to explain what has happened. Although he does not offer the prescription, if you don't understand the problem or do not have the facts to convince you, then this is definitely a must-read. A very well- written book.

This book provides a fresh look at the concept of the American Dream and the ever-increasing difficulties of achieving it. As the book points out, economic power and political power go hand and hand. People at the top of the economic ladder are more likely to want to maintain the status quo and use their power to do it. In short, being well connected has become more important than hard work and playing by the rules.

Book seems to be well-researched, documented and is certainly one of the major issues of our day. Benefits over the last thirty years seem to be skewed to the top income and wealth levels and we as a society need to have a conversation about this.

Christopher Hayes' quick wit, interesting vocabulary, and astute observations, are evident throughout this book and so the book is recommended. Fun to read and informative the author does a great job of describing the problem with new and different perspectives that had not occurred to me. Only four stars because I was hoping for a big finish with plenty of insightful solutions to America's woes but I found that to be a little thin. Four stars also because the quality of the paper onto which the writing is printed is not trimmed and not up to par. I could down load books but I like to own books and if I take the trouble to acquire a new book I expect that the quality of the pages to be first rate. But that's not Christopher's fault that was no doubt the publisher's poor decision. When I purchase a hard bound book I really want the construction materials to be high quality even leather bound if available.

Want to understand why America is almost as bad off as it was in 1890? ... when we were in the Guild-ed Age? ...then read this book and understand why the 1% should NOT control 90% of the wealth...time to revamp our tax system and make the wealthy pay their fair share...this is America and we do NOT leave another American behind!

I like Christopher Hayes so I thought I would try his book. I was a little reluctant as I expected it to be little dry. Instead every chapter comes alive with examples of the decline of true meritocracy. I'm not finished the book yet so I don't know if Chris has any good ideas about how to restore America to the true land of opportunity but I sure hope so.

Twilight of the Elites by Christopher Hayes is one of the most stimulating, relevant books of social and political analysis. The topics raised by the author are in the news everyday. President Obama recently reiterated views about the problems of growing inequality in America and the need to protect against fraudulent abuses by rich powerful Wall Street elites. This book is very well researched, most readable, and filled with vivid examples.

For months I've been entertained and challenged by the thoughtful insights of Chris Hayes, as an occasional TV political commentator and then as a regular two-hour Sunday morning host on MSNBC, and with the publication of this book not only does he give us benefit of the origins of his somewhat deep and pithy insights, he opens new doors of inquiry as to how we've arrived at this time and place of social and economic imbalance. Hopefully, his future efforts will go further into exploring alternatives and needed changes in making ours a more widely fulfilling society. Thums up, Chris !

Chris Hayes is a tremendous writer and broadcaster. He describes the way that our society has changed for the worst due to the rise of the "elites". I am a secondary teacher in a very poor urban area. Many of these "elites" are "role models" for my students. I wish our young people could see through some of the rhetoric that these people through around, but many adults do not even see through it.

This is a thoughtful, extremely well written examination of exactly WHY America is in the confounding, divisive state it is in. There is a ray of hope for the country, but only if we all start to understand what we're up against and why. This book is a great first step. Well done, Mr. Hayes.

I appreciate the vantage point Chris Hayes brings to this topic. Unlike the people who think they earned their advantages -- top notch schools or a trust fund -- Chris Hayes understands that opportunities are too rarely earned. Hard work is less likely to bring success than access.

Chris Hayes has a refreshingly innovative take on the origins of the crisis of leadership in America. Skillfully combining quotes from current politicians and past century scholars, he creates a unified theory that connects the Tea Party to the Occupy Movement. His summation of the cultural forces which led to the recent global recession is the most compelling explanation I have ever read.

An inspiring and frightening examination of the status quo. An objective and reflective look at the best and worst our present system inspires and the necessity of change. You will never view our society in the same light having undertaken such a close examination. It should be a required reading for those in political office and the 1 percent, and a recommended reading for all.

Chris Hayes has a refreshingly innovative take on the origins of the crisis of leadership in America. Skillfully combining quotes from current politicians and past century scholars, he creates a unified theory that connects the Tea Party to the Occupy Movement. His summation of the cultural forces which led to the recent global recession is the most compelling explanation I have ever read.

An inspiring and frightening examination of the status quo. An objective and reflective look at the best and worst our present system inspires and the necessity of change. You will never view our society in the same light having undertaken such a close examination. It should be a required reading for those in political office and the 1 percent, and a recommended reading for all.

i really enjoyed this book. it was a different take on how the 1% is digging their own grave. if course, it is unfortunate they will drag this country down. look at how the senate just voted down any hope for gun control legislature when all polls say 90% of the country wants this.

This is a must-read book. It provides a framework for all that we are about to hear and expected to digest in the coming months, and well beyond that. But, Chris, to some of us still in the reading public, YOU are the intruder, the interloper - it was you who changed the atmosphere, the culture, the ambiance, - and why is there no mention of that? Maybe that's for your next book. Anyway, thank-you for a wonderful book, we are proud! Marilyn DeMario, HCHS '59

This book takes a superficial look at the underlying reason our economic system is the way it is. It's an easy and light read on the subject--more like a very long magazine article than a full length book. So, if you want a quick read or the basic foundation of the subject, this is your book. If you want a more in-depth study of the new era to come opt for something more scholarly or journalistic.

Christopher Hayes has so much insight, it is refreshing. I would highly recommend his book and obviously his show. It is great to read someone who approaches the problems intellectually and not emotionally.

Chris Hayes book was an excellent complement to first book in Ken Follett's trilogy that I had just completed. I wish more people would read this type of book and then, maybe, our world would run more smoothly!

A must read for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of today's American society, not ideologies but about how things really are. We are all in the same boat. Hayes pragmatically leaves the solutions for us to figure out for ourselves. Let's do that.