Pity the Billionaire : The Hard Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right

Economic meltdown usually brings calls for change - or it's supposed to. But when Thomas Frank set out to find these, all he heard were loud demands that the losers be hit harder and that the winners get more. We were told for decades that the market knows best, then had a once-in-a-lifetime crash. And now we see a popular uprising supporting free-market principles. As Frank explains, until 2009 the man on the dole did not weep for the man lounging on his yacht. Using first-hand reporting, a deep political understanding and a wicked sense of humour, Frank looks at the weird double-think that has enlisted the powerless in a fan club for the prosperous. "Pity The Billionaire" takes us on a wild road-trip through the strange landscape of the American Right, the Tea Party and Glenn Beck, makes sense of a topsy-turvy world and shows how instead of complying with the new speed limit, conservative America has stamped hard on the accelerator. It is essential reading for understanding how we all got to where we are, and how we might get out.

Thomas Frank is the author of The Wrecking Crew, What's the Matter with America?, and One Market Under God. A former opinion columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Frank is the founding editor of the Baffler and a monthly columnist for Harper's. He lives outside Washington, D.C.