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What's The Matter With America?: The Resistible Rise of the American Right Paperback – 2 Sept. 2004
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSecker
- Publication date2 Sept. 2004
- Dimensions15.2 x 2.4 x 21.4 cm
- ISBN-100436205394
- ISBN-13978-0436205392
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Book Description
From the Publisher
His writing is so dazzling and witty and scornful it can stand comparison with the works of Twain or Mencken ... Frank is in a different league from Michael Moore. He is a smarter and better writer." Geoff Mulligan
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Secker (2 Sept. 2004)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0436205394
- ISBN-13 : 978-0436205392
- Dimensions : 15.2 x 2.4 x 21.4 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 2,796,174 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 725,585 in Society, Politics & Philosophy
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Questions frequently asked Thomas Frank.
- Kansas, really?
- Aren’t you one of these liberals that you’re always scolding?
- Is it true that President Trump uses “The Wrecking Crew” as a field manual?
- “The Baffler” – what’s that all about?
- You don’t look particularly cool. Why do you write about coolness?
- Why aren’t you, like, a college professor or something?
- Why all these books about politics? I mean, that’s hardly the right subject for a culture critic or whatever it is you call yourself.
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He finds the answer in the Republican conservative Backlash Movement, created in the 1960s as a reaction to the `liberal' policies of the Democrats.
This anti-intellectual Movement captured the blue-collar man, in the first place, by creating an enemy, the `liberal elite', which they presented as contemptuous of the beliefs and practices of the masses of ordinary people and as pure parasites producing nothing else than movies and newspaper columns.
Secondly, the Backlash Movement's `ideology' stresses that culture and religion outweigh economics as a matter of public concern. They omit systematically the politics of economics from their messages. Of course, this is `a big lie', because hard dollars are the heart of the matter in the US.
When the Backlashers could take power, their patently hypocritical workman talk was exposed in Thomas Frank's now classic, but all too real, persiflage: `Vote to stop abortion; receive a rollback in capital gains taxes. Vote to make our country strong again; receive deindustrialization. Vote to screw those politically correct college professors; receive electricity deregulation. Vote to get government of our backs; receive conglomeration and monopolies. Vote to stand tall against terrorists; receive Social Security privatization. Vote to strike a blow against elitism; receive more concentrated wealth.'
This book is a must read for all those who want to understand the world we live in.
Franks ends with a critique of the Democrats' sell-out under Clinton. Equal blame lies with the Democrats' abdication from the debate on economics (taxation, public services, regulation) in favour of business-friendliness. Sound familiar? New Labour learned a lot of what it knows from Clinton's 'tiangulations'.
It's also worth saying that Frank can REALLY write: never a dull sentence or a pat phrase. I was dismayed to discover he's still in his 30s. Far too clever for his own good. Buy, read and begin to understand how Dubya got where he is today.
explains how america can have both some of the best and brightest in the world, yet politically is going downhill fast.
on a different level of insight to the likes of michael moore.
and it's not a leftist polemic by any means, it's a genuinely intelligent attempt to get inside the mindset, tactics and worldview of the new right wing in the states.
i can't recommend this book enough, for anyone seeking to understand america - and by extension - our world - it is truly essential.
the only downside is that the conclusions (for america at least) are very bleak. but inescapable.
i don't write many reviews on amazon, but felt compelled to write this one... a must read.
