We Do Our Part: Toward a Fairer and More Equal America

We Do Our Part: Toward a Fairer and More Equal America

Charles Peters explores American politics and civic life since the New Deal in a book filled with â€œvivid, funny, often touching anecdotesâ€ (James Fallows, The Atlantic).

â€œWe Do Our Partâ€ was the slogan of Franklin Delano Rooseveltâ€™s National Recovery Administrationâ€”and it captured the can-do spirit that allowed America to survive the Great Depression and win World War II. Over the course of a sixty-year career as a Washington, D.C., journalist and historian, Peters, the founder of The Washington Monthly, has witnessed drastic changes firsthand. Ranging from the history of lobbying to the explosion of high-end fashion and travel reporting, this surprising book explains how we can consolidate the gains we have made while recapturing the generous spirit we have lost.

We Do Our Part is entertaining, insightful, and engaging. Spanning decades of politics and culture, Peters compares the flood of talented, original thinkers who flowed into the nationâ€™s capital to join FDRâ€™s administration with the tide of self-serving government staffers who left to exploit their opportunities on Wall Street and as lobbyists from the 1970s to today. During the same period, the economic divide between rich and poor grew, as we shifted from a culture of generosity to one of personal aggrandizement. With the wisdom of a prophet and the wit of a great storyteller, Peters connects these two trends by showing how this money-fueled elitism has diminished our trust in one another and our nationâ€”and changed Washington for the worse.

If liberal Democratsâ€”and Peters is oneâ€”want to win again, they need to be fair to everyone, including the working man who was once essential to the party of FDR. We Do Our PartÂ shows us where we have been and where we are going, drawn from the invaluable perspective of a man who has seen Americaâ€™s better days and still believes in the promise that lies ahead.

Praise for We Do Our Part

â€œWe Do Our Part is not directly about the Trump era or phenomenon, though Charlie gets to Trump at the end. But it is all about the resentful, unequal, uncaring parts of todayâ€™s American culture that Trump has inflamed and that have made Trump possibleâ€”and how to cope with them. . . . Vivid, funny, often touching.â€â€”James Fallows, The Atlantic

â€œAn important book on the central issue facing our country . . . The truth [Charles] Peters aims to impart in this book is one that all Americans, and especially liberals, need to understand: An America in which the elite serves the interests of the majority isnâ€™t a pipe dream.â€â€”Washington Monthly

â€œA thoughtful, well-reasoned argument for American citizens to pull back from political brinksmanship and embrace the values of the Roosevelt era.â€â€”Kirkus Reviews

â€œA wise and brilliant book by a wise and brilliant man. Charlie Peters loves this country deeply, and this book is packed with insights on how we can make America more just, more civil, and, well, great. Everyone should read it.â€â€”Nicholas Thompson, Editor, The New Yorker

â€œCharles Peters, who remembers the New Deal as an indelible personal experience, has given us a deeply moving, and also deeply troubling, account of how we got from the national political culture he knew when he was young to the one we have today. This is a book about the past that makes it possible for us to imagine a better future: one in which public service regains its rightful place of highest purpose in American society.â€â€”Nicholas Lemann, Dean Emeritus of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
Country USA
Brand Random House Books for Young Readers
Manufacturer Random House
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2017-03-07
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780812993523

Country	USA
Brand	Random House Books for Young Readers
Manufacturer	Random House
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2017-03-07
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780812993523

We Do Our Part: Toward a Fairer and More Equal America

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