A startling look at how concentrated financial power and consumerism transformed American politics, resulting in the emergence of populism and authoritarianism, nov the Democratic Party—while also providing the measures had a need to create a new democracy.

People in america once had a coherent and crystal clear understanding of political tyranny, 1 crafted by Thomas Jefferson and updated for the industrial age by Louis Brandeis. A concentration of power, whether in the hands of the armed service dictator or a JP about Goliath: The 100-Calendar year Battle Between Monopoly Power and Democracy Morgan, was understood as autocratic and harmful to specific liberty and democracy. This idea stretched back again to the nation’s founding. In the 1930s, people observed that the fantastic Depression was caused by financial concentration in the hands of the few whose misuse of their power induced a economic collapse. They drew upon this tradition to craft the New Deal.

In Goliath, Matt Stoller explains how authoritarianism and populism have returned to American politics for the first time in eighty years, as the outcome of the 2016 election shook our faith in democratic institutions. It has taken to the fore harmful forces that many modern Americans by no means even knew existed. Today’s bitter recriminations and panic represent a lot more than simply fear of the near future, they reveal a basic dilemma about what is happening as well as the historic backstory that brought us to this moment.

The true ramifications of populism, a shrinking middle class, and concentrated financial wealth are only just beginning to manifest themselves beneath the current administrations. The lessons of Stoller’s study will only develop more relevant as time passes. Building upon his viral article in The Atlantic, “How the Democrats Killed Their Populist Soul,” Stoller illustrates in wealthy detail how we attained this tenuous moment, and the steps we must take to generate a new democracy.