Synopses & Reviews
Never before have so many Americans been more frustrated with our economic system, more fearful that it is failing, or more open to fresh ideas about a new one. The seeds of a new movement demanding change are forming. But just what is this thing called a new economy, and how might it take shape in America? In What Then Must We Do?, Gar Alperovitz speaks directly to the reader about where we find ourselves in history, why the time is right for a new-economy movement to coalesce, what it means to build a new system to replace the crumbling one, and how we might begin. He also suggests what the next system might look like — and where we can see its outlines, like an image slowly emerging in the developing trays of a photographer's darkroom, already taking shape. He proposes a possible next system that is not corporate capitalism, not state socialism, but something else entirely — and something entirely American. Alperovitz calls for an evolution, not a revolution, out of the old system and into the new. That new system would democratize the ownership of wealth, strengthen communities in diverse ways, and be governed by policies and institutions sophisticated enough to manage a large-scale, powerful economy. For the growing group of Americans pacing at the edge of confidence in the old system, or already among its detractors, What Then Must We Do? offers an elegant solution for moving from anger to strategy.
Review
"Gar Alperovitz's new book is so plain-spoken and accessible that it takes a moment to appreciate the magnitude of his accomplishment. After examining new patterns of positive change emerging in America today — including many undernoticed changes that involve democratizing the ownership of wealth — he develops a brilliant strategy for the type of transformative change that can lead America from decline to rebirth. In giving a sense of strategic direction and honest possibility to the call for a new economy, Alperovitz has made an enormous contribution exactly where it is most needed." James Gustave Speth, author of America the Possible: Manifesto for a New Economy
Review
"In this important new book, Gar Alperovitz is telling us there's something happening here in corporate-driven America, be it social enterprise, community land trusts, worker-owned businesses, or employee stock ownership plans. We all know that the free-market economic system no longer works for the vast majority of citizens and Alperovitz is showing us that there is a better, equally American way, to spread the wealth and put more people to work, while making the nation a safer and healthier place to live. This is not an utopian fantasy or a call for social engineering, but a plain-spoken and easy-to-absorb analysis by one of our leading economists of what's gone wrong and how to make it better." Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker
Review
"Gar Alperovitz continues to challenge us to recognize and assume responsibility for creating an America beyond capitalism." Grace Lee Boggs, author of The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century
Review
"As Gar Alperovitz reaches an ever-larger audience, the cooperative and community based economy he is encouraging will attract increasing numbers of consumers away from big business and its corporate state. What Then Must We Do? offers a powerful argument, written in a conversational style to prod you into the kind of meaningful discussions that lead to more equality and accountability in our political economy." Ralph Nader, author of The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future
Review
"There can be neither peace, nor democracy, nor social justice until we change the system that underpins the American empire and policy-crippling maldistribution of wealth. For decades, Gar Alperovitz has been at the forefront of attempts to understand what could lie beyond our increasingly-broken system of corporate capitalism. This book offers by far the most serious, intellectually grounded strategy for system-changing yet to appear. It could be the most important movement-building book of the new century — and, thereby, one of the most important political books as well." Daniel Ellsberg, author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers and cofounder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation
Review
"Alperovitz's latest is distinguished by clear, accessible, straightforward writing that dares to raise the systemic nature of today's problems in the United States and to show why system change is therefore the necessary solution. This call for the long-overdue 'next American revolution' will move system change forward on the agendas of many. Richard D. Wolff, author of Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism
Review
"The move to broadly participatory, locally rooted, cooperative ownership is essential to America's future. Gar Alperovitz presents a brilliant, accessible, and practical plan of action to make it happen." David Korten, board chair of YES! Magazine and author of Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth
Review
"If ever there was ever a time to consider new directions for our faltering economy, it is now! Gar Alperovitz' new book provides a comprehensive survey of the explosion of new cooperatives, worker-owned firms, city and state investment efforts and dozens of other 'new economy' development strategies — and fashions them into a coherent strategy. Absolutely essential reading for anyone concerned with building the next Progressive Era." Van Jones, author of Rebuild the Dream
About the Author
Gar Alperovitz, Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland, is cofounder of The Democracy Collaborative. He is a former fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard and of King's College at Cambridge University, where he received his PhD in political economy. He has served as a legislative director in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and as a special assistant in the Department of State. Earlier he was president of the Center for Community Economic Development, Codirector of The Cambridge Institute, and president of the Center for the Study of Public Policy. Dr. Alperovitz's numerous articles have appeared in publications ranging from The New York Times and The Washington Post to The Journal of Economic Issues, Foreign Policy, Diplomatic History, and other academic and popular journals. His most recent book is America Beyond Capitalism (a new edition of which appeared in 2011). Dr. Alperovitz is also author of The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, published in 1995, the 2002 book, Making a Place for Community: Local Democracy in a Global Era (with Thad Williamson and David Imbroscio), and the 2008 book Unjust Deserts (with Lew Daly).