We Wanted Workers Unraveling The Immigration Narrative

Download We Wanted Workers Unraveling The Immigration Narrative full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online We Wanted Workers Unraveling The Immigration Narrative ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative

Author : George J. Borjas
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393249026
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (932 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative by : George J. Borjas

Download or read book We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative written by George J. Borjas and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From “America’s leading immigration economist” (The Wall Street Journal), a refreshingly level-headed exploration of the effects of immigration. We are a nation of immigrants, and we have always been concerned about immigration. As early as 1645, the Massachusetts Bay Colony began to prohibit the entry of “paupers.” Today, however, the notion that immigration is universally beneficial has become pervasive. To many modern economists, immigrants are a trove of much-needed workers who can fill predetermined slots along the proverbial assembly line. But this view of immigration’s impact is overly simplified, explains George J. Borjas, a Cuban-American, Harvard labor economist. Immigrants are more than just workers—they’re people who have lives outside of the factory gates and who may or may not fit the ideal of the country to which they’ve come to live and work. Like the rest of us, they’re protected by social insurance programs, and the choices they make are affected by their social environments. In We Wanted Workers, Borjas pulls back the curtain of political bluster to show that, in the grand scheme, immigration has not affected the average American all that much. But it has created winners and losers. The losers tend to be nonmigrant workers who compete for the same jobs as immigrants. And somebody’s lower wage is somebody else’s higher profit, so those who employ immigrants benefit handsomely. In the end, immigration is mainly just another government redistribution program. “I am an immigrant,” writes Borjas, “and yet I do not buy into the notion that immigration is universally beneficial. . . . But I still feel that it is a good thing to give some of the poor and huddled masses, people who face so many hardships, a chance to experience the incredible opportunities that our exceptional country has to offer.” Whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent, We Wanted Workers is essential reading for anyone interested in the issue of immigration in America today.

We Wanted Workers

Author : George J. Borjas
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 0393249018
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (932 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis We Wanted Workers by : George J. Borjas

Download or read book We Wanted Workers written by George J. Borjas and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From "America’s leading immigration economist" (The Wall Street Journal), a refreshingly level-headed exploration of the effects of immigration. We are a nation of immigrants, and we have always been concerned about immigration. As early as 1645, the Massachusetts Bay Colony began to prohibit the entry of "paupers." Today, however, the notion that immigration is universally beneficial has become pervasive. To many modern economists, immigrants are a trove of much-needed workers who can fill predetermined slots along the proverbial assembly line. But this view of immigration’s impact is overly simplified, explains George J. Borjas, a Cuban-American, Harvard labor economist. Immigrants are more than just workers—they’re people who have lives outside of the factory gates and who may or may not fit the ideal of the country to which they’ve come to live and work. Like the rest of us, they’re protected by social insurance programs, and the choices they make are affected by their social environments. In We Wanted Workers, Borjas pulls back the curtain of political bluster to show that, in the grand scheme, immigration has not affected the average American all that much. But it has created winners and losers. The losers tend to be nonmigrant workers who compete for the same jobs as immigrants. And somebody’s lower wage is somebody else’s higher profit, so those who employ immigrants benefit handsomely. In the end, immigration is mainly just another government redistribution program. "I am an immigrant," writes Borjas, "and yet I do not buy into the notion that immigration is universally beneficial…But I still feel that it is a good thing to give some of the poor and huddled masses, people who face so many hardships, a chance to experience the incredible opportunities that our exceptional country has to offer." Whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent, We Wanted Workers is essential reading for anyone interested in the issue of immigration in America today.

Immigration Economics

Author : George J. Borjas
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674369912
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (743 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Immigration Economics by : George J. Borjas

Download or read book Immigration Economics written by George J. Borjas and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-06-09 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly 3% of the world's population no longer live in the country where they were born. George Borjas synthesizes the theories, models, and econometric methods used to identify the causes and consequences of international labor flows, and lays out with clarity a full spectrum of topics with crucial implications for framing debates over immigration.

The Border Within

Author : Tara Watson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022627022X
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (262 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Border Within by : Tara Watson

Download or read book The Border Within written by Tara Watson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-01-17 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Today the United States is home to more unauthorized immigrants than at any time in the country's history. As scrutiny around immigration has intensified, border enforcement has tightened. The result is a population of new Americans who are more entrenched than ever before. Crossing harsher, less porous borders makes entry to the US a permanent, costly enterprise. And the challenges don't end once they're here. In The Border Within, journalist Kalee Thompson and economist Tara Watson examine the costs and ends of America's immigration-enforcement complex, particularly its practices of internal enforcement: the policies and agencies, including ICE, aimed at removing unauthorized immigrants living in the US. Thompson and Watson's economic appraisal of immigration's costs and benefits is interlaid with first-person reporting of families who personify America's policies in a time of scapegoating and fear. The result is at once enlightening and devastating. Thomspon and Watson examine immigration's impact on every aspect of American life, from the labor force to social welfare programs to tax revenue. The results paint an overwhelmingly positive picture of what non-native Americans bring to the country, including immigration's tendency to elevate the wages and skills of those who are native born. Their research also finds a stark gap between the realities of America's immigrant population and the policies meant to uproot them: America's internal enforcements are grounded in shock and awe more than any reality of where and how immigrants live. The objective, it seems, is to deploy "chilling effects" -- performative displays aimed at producing upstream effects on economic behaviors and decision-making among immigrants. The ramifications of these fear-based policies extends beyond immigrants themselves; they have impacts on American citizens living in immigrant families as well as on the broader society"--

Labor Economics

Author : George J. Borjas
Publisher : Gardner Press
ISBN 13 : 9780071270274
Total Pages : 560 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (72 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Labor Economics by : George J. Borjas

Download or read book Labor Economics written by George J. Borjas and published by Gardner Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Labor Economics, 5e is a well-received text that blends coverage of traditional topics with modern theory and developments into a superb Labor Economics book. The Fifth Edition builds on the features and concepts that made the first four editions successful, updating and adding new content to keep the text on the cusp of recent events in the Labor Economics field. The new edition continues to be the most concise book in the market, enabling the instructor to teach all relevant material in a semester-long class. Despite the book’s brevity, the instructor will find that all of the key topics in labor economics are efficiently covered in the Fifth Edition. Thanks to updated pedagogy, new end-of-chapter material, and even stronger instructor support, the Fifth Edition of Labor Economics remains one of the most relevant textbooks in the market.

Failure to Adjust

Author : Edward Alden
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1538109093
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (381 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Failure to Adjust by : Edward Alden

Download or read book Failure to Adjust written by Edward Alden and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-09-15 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Updated edition with a new foreword on the Trump administration's trade policy* The vast benefits promised by the supporters of globalization, and by their own government, have never materialized for many Americans. In Failure to Adjust Edward Alden provides a compelling history of the last four decades of US economic and trade policies that have left too many Americans unable to adapt to or compete in the current global marketplace. He tells the story of what went wrong and how to correct the course. Originally published on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, Alden’s book captured the zeitgeist that would propel Donald J. Trump to the presidency. In a new introduction to the paperback edition, Alden addresses the economic challenges now facing the Trump administration, and warns that economic disruption will continue to be among the most pressing issues facing the United States. If the failure to adjust continues, Alden predicts, the political disruptions of the future will be larger still.

My Boy Will Die of Sorrow

Author : Efrén C. Olivares
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0306847272
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (68 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis My Boy Will Die of Sorrow by : Efrén C. Olivares

Download or read book My Boy Will Die of Sorrow written by Efrén C. Olivares and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INTERNATIONAL LATINO BOOK AWARD WINNER - The Raul Yzaguirre Best Political/Current Affairs Book This deeply personal perspective from a human rights lawyer—whose work on the front lines of the fight against family separations in South Texas intertwines with his own story of immigrating to the United States at thirteen—reframes the United States' history as a nation of immigrants but also a nation against immigrants. In the summer of 2018, Efrén C. Olivares found himself representing hundreds of immigrant families when Zero Tolerance separated thousands of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Twenty-five years earlier, he had been separated from his own father for several years when he migrated to the U.S. to work. Their family was eventually reunited in Texas, where Efrén and his brother went to high school and learned a new language and culture. By sharing these gripping family separation stories alongside his own, Olivares gives voice to immigrants who have been punished and silenced for seeking safety and opportunity. Through him we meet Mario and his daughter Oralia, Viviana and her son Sandro, Patricia and her son Alessandro, and many others. We see how the principles that ostensibly bind the U.S. together fall apart at its borders. My Boy Will Die of Sorrow reflects on the immigrant experience then and now, on what separations do to families, and how the act of separation itself adds another layer to the immigrant identity. Our concern for fellow human beings who live at the margins of our society—at the border, literally and figuratively—is shaped by how we view ourselves in relation both to our fellow citizens and to immigrants. He discusses not only law and immigration policy in accessible terms, but also makes the case for how this hostility is nothing new: children were put in cages when coming through Ellis Island, and Japanese Americans were forcibly separated from their families and interned during WWII. By examining his personal story and the stories of the families he represents side by side, Olivares meaningfully engages readers with their assumptions about what nationhood means in America and challenges us to question our own empathy and compassion.

The Riches of This Land

Author : Jim Tankersley
Publisher : PublicAffairs
ISBN 13 : 1541767845
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (417 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Riches of This Land by : Jim Tankersley

Download or read book The Riches of This Land written by Jim Tankersley and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2020-08-11 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid character-driven narrative, fused with important new economic and political reporting and research, that busts the myths about middle class decline and points the way to its revival. For over a decade, Jim Tankersley has been on a journey to understand what the hell happened to the world's greatest middle-class success story -- the post-World-War-II boom that faded into decades of stagnation and frustration for American workers. In The Riches of This Land, Tankersley fuses the story of forgotten Americans-- struggling women and men who he met on his journey into the travails of the middle class-- with important new economic and political research, providing fresh understanding how to create a more widespread prosperity. He begins by unraveling the real mystery of the American economy since the 1970s - not where did the jobs go, but why haven't new and better ones been created to replace them. His analysis begins with the revelation that women and minorities played a far more crucial role in building the post-war middle class than today's politicians typically acknowledge, and policies that have done nothing to address the structural shifts of the American economy have enabled a privileged few to capture nearly all the benefits of America's growing prosperity. Meanwhile, the "angry white men of Ohio" have been sold by Trump and his ilk a theory of the economy that is dangerously backward, one that pits them against immigrants, minorities, and women who should be their allies. At the culmination of his journey, Tankersley lays out specific policy prescriptions and social undertakings that can begin moving the needle in the effort to make new and better jobs appear. By fostering an economy that opens new pathways for all workers to reach their full potential -- men and women, immigrant or native-born, regardless of race -- America can once again restore the upward flow of talent that can power growth and prosperity.

Kind of Kin

Author : Rilla Askew
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062198815
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (621 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Kind of Kin by : Rilla Askew

Download or read book Kind of Kin written by Rilla Askew and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-01-08 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Kind of Kin by award-winning author Rilla Askew, when a church-going, community-loved, family man is caught hiding a barn-full of illegal immigrant workers, he is arrested and sent to prison. This shocking development sends ripples through the town—dividing neighbors, causing riffs amongst his family, and spurring controversy across the state. Using new laws in Oklahoma and Alabama as inspiration, Kind of Kin is a story of self-serving lawmakers and complicated lawbreakers, Christian principle and political scapegoating. Rilla Askew’s funny and poignant novel explores what happens when upstanding people are pushed too far—and how an ad-hoc family, and ultimately, an entire town, will unite to protect its own.

Making Sense of the Molly Maguires

Author : Kevin Kenny
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780195116311
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (163 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Making Sense of the Molly Maguires by : Kevin Kenny

Download or read book Making Sense of the Molly Maguires written by Kevin Kenny and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1998 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A group of 20 Irish immigrants, suspected of comprising a secret terrorist organization called the "Molly Maguires", were executed in Pennsylvania in the 1870s for the murder of 16 men. This work offers a new interpretation of their dramatic story, tracing the origins of the Molly Maguires to Ireland and explaining the growth of a particular structure of meaning.

The Leavers (National Book Award Finalist)

Author : Lisa Ko
Publisher : Algonquin Books
ISBN 13 : 161620804X
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (162 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Leavers (National Book Award Finalist) by : Lisa Ko

Download or read book The Leavers (National Book Award Finalist) written by Lisa Ko and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FINALIST FOR THE 2017 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed, Bustle, and Electric Literature “There was a time I would have called Lisa Ko’s novel beautifully written, ambitious, and moving, and all of that is true, but it’s more than that now: if you want to understand a forgotten and essential part of the world we live in, The Leavers is required reading.” —Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth Lisa Ko’s powerful debut, The Leavers, is the winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver for a novel that addresses issues of social justice. One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon—and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel—as he grows into a directionless young man—and Polly, Ko’s novel gives us one of fiction’s most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heartwrenching choice after another. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past.

Of Love and Papers

Author : Laura E. Enriquez
Publisher : University of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520344359
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (23 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Of Love and Papers by : Laura E. Enriquez

Download or read book Of Love and Papers written by Laura E. Enriquez and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Of Love and Papers explores how immigration policies are fundamentally reshaping Latino families. Drawing on two waves of interviews with undocumented young adults, Enriquez investigates how immigration status creeps into the most personal aspects of everyday life, intersecting with gender to constrain family formation. The imprint of illegality remains, even upon obtaining DACA or permanent residency. Interweaving the perspectives of US citizen romantic partners and children, Enriquez illustrates the multigenerational punishment that limits the upward mobility of Latino families. Of Love and Papers sparks an intimate understanding of contemporary US immigration policies and their enduring consequences for immigrant families.

Foundations of Migration Economics

Author : George J. Borjas
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0191092142
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Foundations of Migration Economics by : George J. Borjas

Download or read book Foundations of Migration Economics written by George J. Borjas and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-07 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a series of research articles written over the past four decades by leading economists George J. Borjas and Barry R. Chiswick. Borjas and Chiswick are leading experts on the adjustment of immigrants in their destination country and their impact on the economy. Although they worked separately throughout their careers, and did not always agree, their intellectual interaction has greatly increased understanding of the economic consequences of international migration and immigration policy across developed immigrant receiving countries. This volume brings together their contributions for the first time to demonstrate how public policy issues on immigration have evolved over time. An in-depth analysis of the key issues relating to international migration Foundations of Migration Economics explores the assimilation of immigrants, focusing on the earning changes of immigrants with a longer duration in the host economy; how immigrant networks and ethnic enclaves influence the labor market and linguistic adjustment of immigrants; determinants of language proficiency and to what extent pre-migration skills are effectively employed by the destination; and the effect of immigration on the earnings of earlier waves of immigrants and native-born workers.

The Globalization Paradox

Author : Dani Rodrik
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199603332
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (996 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Globalization Paradox by : Dani Rodrik

Download or read book The Globalization Paradox written by Dani Rodrik and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-24 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For a century, economists have driven forward the cause of globalization in financial institutions, labour markets, and trade. Yet there have been consistent warning signs that a global economy and free trade might not always be advantageous. Where are the pressure points? What could be done about them?Dani Rodrik examines the back-story from its seventeenth-century origins through the milestones of the gold standard, the Bretton Woods Agreement, and the Washington Consensus, to the present day. Although economic globalization has enabled unprecedented levels of prosperity in advanced countries and has been a boon to hundreds of millions of poor workers in China and elsewhere in Asia, it is a concept that rests on shaky pillars, he contends. Its long-term sustainability is not a given.The heart of Rodrik>'s argument is a fundamental 'trilemma': that we cannot simultaneously pursue democracy, national self-determination, and economic globalization. Give too much power to governments, and you have protectionism. Give markets too much freedom, and you have an unstable world economy with little social and political support from those it is supposed to help. Rodrik argues for smart globalization, not maximum globalization.

Native Speaker

Author : Chang-rae Lee
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1573225312
Total Pages : 377 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (732 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Native Speaker by : Chang-rae Lee

Download or read book Native Speaker written by Chang-rae Lee and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1996-03-01 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ONE OF THE ATLANTIC’S GREAT AMERICAN NOVELS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS The debut novel from critically acclaimed and New York Times–bestselling author of On Such a Full Sea and My Year Abroad. In Native Speaker, author Chang-rae Lee introduces readers to Henry Park. Park has spent his entire life trying to become a true American—a native speaker. But even as the essence of his adopted country continues to elude him, his Korean heritage seems to drift further and further away. Park's harsh Korean upbringing has taught him to hide his emotions, to remember everything he learns, and most of all to feel an overwhelming sense of alienation. In other words, it has shaped him as a natural spy. But the very attributes that help him to excel in his profession put a strain on his marriage to his American wife and stand in the way of his coming to terms with his young son's death. When he is assigned to spy on a rising Korean-American politician, his very identity is tested, and he must figure out who he is amid not only the conflicts within himself but also within the ethnic and political tensions of the New York City streets. Native Speaker is a story of cultural alienation. It is about fathers and sons, about the desire to connect with the world rather than stand apart from it, about loyalty and betrayal, about the alien in all of us and who we finally are.

Good Economics for Hard Times

Author : Abhijit V. Banerjee
Publisher : PublicAffairs
ISBN 13 : 1541762878
Total Pages : 398 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (417 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Good Economics for Hard Times by : Abhijit V. Banerjee

Download or read book Good Economics for Hard Times written by Abhijit V. Banerjee and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The winners of the Nobel Prize show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day. Figuring out how to deal with today's critical economic problems is perhaps the great challenge of our time. Much greater than space travel or perhaps even the next revolutionary medical breakthrough, what is at stake is the whole idea of the good life as we have known it. Immigration and inequality, globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth and accelerating climate change--these are sources of great anxiety across the world, from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. The resources to address these challenges are there--what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. If we succeed, history will remember our era with gratitude; if we fail, the potential losses are incalculable. In this revolutionary book, renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo take on this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics explained with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect. It is an extraordinary achievement, one that shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.

Last Best Hope

Author : George Packer
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374603677
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (746 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Last Best Hope by : George Packer

Download or read book Last Best Hope written by George Packer and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of The New York Times's 100 notable books of 2021 "[George Packer's] account of America’s decline into destructive tribalism is always illuminating and often dazzling." —William Galston, The Washington Post Acclaimed National Book Award-winning author George Packer diagnoses America’s descent into a failed state, and envisions a path toward overcoming our injustices, paralyses, and divides In the year 2020, Americans suffered one rude blow after another to their health, livelihoods, and collective self-esteem. A ruthless pandemic, an inept and malign government response, polarizing protests, and an election marred by conspiracy theories left many citizens in despair about their country and its democratic experiment. With pitiless precision, the year exposed the nation’s underlying conditions—discredited elites, weakened institutions, blatant inequalities—and how difficult they are to remedy. In Last Best Hope, George Packer traces the shocks back to their sources. He explores the four narratives that now dominate American life: Free America, which imagines a nation of separate individuals and serves the interests of corporations and the wealthy; Smart America, the world view of Silicon Valley and the professional elite; Real America, the white Christian nationalism of the heartland; and Just America, which sees citizens as members of identity groups that inflict or suffer oppression. In lively and biting prose, Packer shows that none of these narratives can sustain a democracy. To point a more hopeful way forward, he looks for a common American identity and finds it in the passion for equality—the “hidden code”—that Americans of diverse persuasions have held for centuries. Today, we are challenged again to fight for equality and renew what Alexis de Tocqueville called “the art” of self-government. In its strong voice and trenchant analysis, Last Best Hope is an essential contribution to the literature of national renewal.