The Divided States of America

Why Federalism Doesn't Work

By: Donald F. Kettl

Narrated by: Terrence Bayes

An innovative system of power sharing that balanced national and state interests, federalism was the pragmatic compromise that brought the colonies together to form the United States. Yet, even beyond the question of slavery, inequality was built into the system because federalism by its very nature meant that many aspects of an American's life depended on where they lived. Over time, these inequalities have created vast divisions between the states and made federalism fundamentally unstable.

Exploring the full sweep of federalism from the founding to today, Kettl focuses on pivotal moments when power has shifted between state and national governments - from the violent rebalancing of the Civil War, when the nation almost split in two, to the era of civil rights a century later, when there was apparent agreement that inequality was a threat to liberty and the federal government should set policies for states to enact. Despite this consensus, inequality between states has only deepened since that moment. From health care and infrastructure to education and the environment, the quality of public services is ever more uneven.

Making an urgent case for reforming federalism, The Divided States of America shows why we must - and how we can - address the crisis of American inequality.

©2020 Princeton University Press (P)2020 Tantor

Excellent historic overview

Great explanation of the complexity of the design of the American experiment. Highly recommend for history lovers.

Far Liberal Left

The history for the first third of the book wasn't terrible and the audio was good but by the 2nd third of the book it became extremely dry and started aiming more left and less fact based. By the last 3rd it had completely thrown out any cover of a personal bias and became far left. *Being reviewed by a graduate student studying politics. I am a conservative but can tolerate a solid argument from the other side when well supported. This was not by the last 3rd.