A model of meticulous and incisive scholarship, Equality in America dissects American attitudes toward equality by placing those beliefs in historical context and demonstrating a relationship between political and economic equality. The book is based on a study of leaders from all significant sectors of American society, including top business and labor leaders, those highest in the media and in political parties, and leaders from the feminist and civil rights movements.
The book takes on the thorny puzzle of how economic inequality, which is the inevitable result of a free economy, coexists with political equality, which is a necessary ingredient of democracy. In the course of their argument, the authors take issue with free market economists and Marxist analysts, both of whom treat self-interest as the driving force behind individual and collective behavior, leaving little place for the role of beliefs and values.
- ISBN10 0674259602
- ISBN13 9780674259607
- Publish Date 1 April 1985 (first published 31 January 1985)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 18 January 2011
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Harvard University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 368
- Language English