Synopses & Reviews
Try to imagine your life in a full-blown European social democracy, especially the German version. Free public goods, a bit of worker control, and whopping trade surpluses? Social democracy doesnt sound too bad.
Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? reveals where you might have been happieror at least had time off to be unhappy properly. It explains why Americans should pay attention to Germany, where ordinary people can work three hundred to four hundred hours a year less than we do and still have one of the most competitive economies in the world.
Review
[C]lever and immensely appealing.
The Nation
Witty and ironicand to the point. . . . [A] necessary primer.
Financial Times
Geoghegans passing comments are entertaining and his acerbic wit fun as he buttresses his case with hard facts. . . . [P]olitical economics with a human face.
Chicago Tribune
[T]ruly eye-opening.
St. Petersburg Times
Geoghegan . . . once again entertains and instructs us. And by showing that a more humane form of capitalism is not only possible but actually succeeding in the heart of Europe, he also gives us hope.
Alternet
Review
Most diverting
[Geoghegan] has the great virtue of being witty and ironic—and to the point
A necessary primer.”
—Jurek Martin, Financial Times
Clever and immensely appealing.”
—Katha Pollitt, The Nation
All dissatisfied Americans, not just progressives, should read the book.”
—Jeremy Gantz, Alternet
A travelogue, self-discovery prose and business book all at once
written with humor and candor, making for an easy, fun read.”
—Courtney Crowder, Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
Tired of working til you drop and not going anywhere? Try to imagine your life in a full-blown European social democracy—especially the German version. In an idiosyncratic, entertaining travelogue written in a chatty, anecdotal style [thats] appealingly digressive and winning” (
Publishers Weekly), Thomas Geoghegan explains the appeal of boring” Germany, where workers sit as directors on the big corporate boards and ordinary people have six weeks off and retire with pensions like golden parachutes.
Free public goods, a bit of worker control, and whopping trade surpluses—the German version of European socialism” doesnt sound too bad. Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? explains where you might have been happier—or at least had time off to be unhappy properly. Written with humor and candor, making for an easy, fun read” (AARP Bulletin), it is also a timely, cogently argued, laugh-out-loud-funny book” (Katrina vanden Heuvel). And it tells us why Americans should pay attention to Germany, where ordinary people can work three hundred to four hundred hours less a year than we do and still have one of the most competitive economies in the world.
About the Author
Thomas Geoghegan is a practicing attorney and the author of several books, including the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist
Which Side Are You On?,
In Americas Court, and
See You in Court(all available from The New Press). He has written for
The Nation, the
New York Times, and
Harpersand lives in Chicago. In 2009, he ran as a progressive candidate for Rahmn Emanuel's congressional seat and was endorsed by Barbara Ehrenreich, James Fallows, Thomas Frank, James K. Galbraith, Hendrik Hertzberg, Alex Kotlowitz, Sara Paretsky, Rick Perlstein, Katha Pollitt, David Sirota, Garry Wills, and Naomi Wolf, among others.
Born in Cincinnati in 1949, Geoghegan is a graduate of St. Xavier High School, Harvard University, and Harvard Law School. He has worked as a contributing editor at theNew Republic, a lawyer in the United Mine Workerss legal department, and a policy analyst for the U.S. Department of Energy. He is a partner at the law firm Despres, Schwartz, and Geoghegan, where he has worked since 1979. As a public-interest lawyer, he has filed lawsuits to enforce child labor laws, expand voting rights, crack down on the payday loan industry, and require public health measures to stop the spread of tuberculosis among the homeless. As a labor lawyer, he has represented nurses, machinists, railroad workers, steelworkers, teachers, truck drivers, the rank-and-file anticorruption group Teamsters for a Democratic Union, as well as workers who lack the protection of a union.
Geoghegan has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship, a German Marshall grant, and fellowships at the American Academy in Berlin and the Institute of Politics at Harvards Kennedy School of Government.