BOOK REVIEW: Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild our Country
By Thom Hartmann, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Hardcover, 2010, 227 Pages, $24.95
Thom Hartmann is the best kind of subversive. Not content to merely tip over the apple cart, he also wants to paw through the pile of Granny Smiths to see which pieces are good and which should be thrown out. In modern American politics, Hartmann finds plenty of spoiled fruit. "Will our republic survive as a democracy? Or will it continue to deteriorate into a corporate oligarchy, where all the forms and trappings are in place but they're merely a decorative shell over a rotten, bloated, tiny group of billionaires who pull all the strings, own all the media (and every other industry of substance), and work all politics exclusively to their own benefit?"
Hartmann is a popular progressive radio talk show host. In addition he is a heroically prolific author who has written over 20 books on everything from history and politics to attention deficit disorder. In his latest, he takes on the current state of the nation. Through a combination of historical analysis, impassioned reasoning