The Conscience of a Liberal

By: Paul Krugman

Narrated by: Jason Culp

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

America emerged from Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal with strong democratic values and broadly shared prosperity. But for the past 30 years, American politics has been dominated by a conservative movement determined to undermine the New Deal's achievements.

Now, the tide may be turning, and in Paul Krugman, the world's most widely read economist and one of its most influential political commentators, charts the way to reform.

Krugman ranges over a century of history and shows that neither the American middle-class nor the baby boomers who grew up in the increasingly oligarchic nation we have become over the past generation evolved naturally. Both were created, to a large extent, by government policies guided by organized political movements.

The Conscience of a Liberal promises to reshape public debate about American social policy and become a touchstone work for an entire generation.

©2007 Paul Krugman (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A compelling historical defense of liberalism and a clarion call for Americans to retake control of their economic destiny." ( Publishers Weekly)

Deeply researched confirmation of liberal thought

Krugman brings considerable research and detailed history to explain the formation of liberal thought and its results, liabilities, and threats. An excellent performance by Culp. Almost makes you want to take notes!

Good but not very balanced

I like Paul Krugman but this one is a little over the top. He tries to convince that movement conservatives are the root of all evil from wage inequality to global warming, however and enjoyable listen and well presented.

required reading!

If you want to become an informed citizen and not throw away your ballot in what is looking more and more like the most important election in fifty years, this book, along with former Vice President Al Gore’s recent book, are required reading. Presented in a manor easy to understand, even with statistical research thrown in, Mr Krugman's attack on Movement Conservatism and its threat to all things we hold sacred hits like an approaching storm. His antidotes to get us back on track are well thought out and seem amazingly reachable, like the calm after the storm is over.

Five stars also go to the reader. It's read like it was actually written by him.

a must for any budding liberal economists

great narrator! informative and thorough and certainly broke down a lot of complex ideas and made them palatable to someone who hadn't studied economics since HS

A poor and shallow defense of liberal philosophy

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

If you are already convinced of the liberal position, I suppose this book would serve as a good champagne bath. If, however, you'd like a more substantive presentation of the position, I recommend The Law of Peoples by John Rawls.

Has The Conscience of a Liberal turned you off from other books in this genre?

This book has turned me off to other books by Dr. Krugman. I hoped a scholar of his renown would be able to deliver a deep defense of the positions he holds. Instead, I found a purely emotive presentation of his worldview. I was very disappointed, and will look elsewhere in the future when consuming material on liberal political ideology.

Any additional comments?

I went in to this book as a Libertarian hoping to gain perspective on the underlying logic of the liberal worldview. Instead, Dr. Krugman delivers a shallow diatribe against the wealthy and in favor of redistribution of wealth without ever addressing the philosophical underpinnings of the position. Beginning from the apparently axiomatic point that the wealthy owe a debt to the poor, Dr. Krugman spends his book outlining the various ways in which societal problems could be addressed if only we would tax the wealthy or regulate Wall Street. Absent is any defense of why it is justified to do these things. I really wanted to like this book; sadly, I did not.

Lest you think I merely hated the book because I disagreed with the premise, I would suggest that the work of John Rawls provides a much more satisfying read. I still do not agree with his premises, but I greatly enjoyed his precise logic and feel that I better understand the liberal position after reading his work.

Poorly researched

What a load of garbage. If phrases like "studies suggest" and " some researchers believe" are enough for you to be convinced of something, then you might enjoy this book. Krugman thinks that correlation is the same as causation. The arguments presented in this book are no deeper than a middle schooler writing a paper.

WOW! A MUST READ!!!

Everyone MUST read this book!

Disappointing!

Any additional comments?

I was very disappointed in this book, especially how out dated it was. I think it would be a much better book if the author would just update it to this decade.

meh

Made a few good points but overall a one sided argument with a bunch of half-truths.

Not really what I was hoping it to be

I reread this book to familiarize myself again with Krugman‘s thinking and now I remember why this book never really stuck in my mind besides the title.

I just wish this book focused more on the reasonings why Krugman is a liberal and maybe how liberals approach policy and social issues so on and so forth. It more just felt like a book consistently ripping on Republicans (which is fine) but I felt like it didn’t really give me what I would have wanted in a book that’s supposed to uphold the liberal thinking.

Someone left a review saying this book should have been called, “the right wing conspiracy,” which I totally agree with because krugman stated that exact line towards the middle of the book and I think that would’ve been a more fitting title. I just wished it focused more on the conscience of someone who is a liberal rather than Republicans are bad here’s why Republicans are bad and that’s also why Republicans are still bad. Which as I was saying would have been fine, but it just didn’t give me what I wanted.