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)

Indeed statistics can be bent for any purpose

I must say I'm having a hard time deciding whether or not to even bother finishing this book. Krugman is petulant, and uses data (whether or not it is reliable data) toward his own pre-conceived conclusions. There are many, many sections where he contradicts himself, or otherwise ignores facts that don't fit what he's trying to accomplish.

Through past works, I've come to know Krugman as a talented economist. He bastardizes his expertise with this liberal feel-good book. Now that Obama is trying to repeat most of what Krugman advocates, we'll see if he owns up to the coming failures.

Great Book!!!

This is a must listen!

"Everything wrong with conservatives"

let me give you the spark notes;
- Christian Conservatives are racist
- we have to punish the rich to reward the poor
- we need single payer healthcare
I don't know if the Author forgot about all the examples of big government committing genocide but he is all about laying the groundwork for Socialism and just can't understand why Conservatives would oppose something so good for the population...

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

I was expecting economics and a discussion of ideas or maybe some philosophy. Instead, this is an imaginative view of history.

The title implies a moral justification for ones beliefs, but this book makes no attempt to address that. It should have been called "The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy." That is the main subject.

This is a case study on what happens when someone who is an expert on one domain thinks that makes him an authority on everything.