''The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity'' () is a book by

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

Jeffrey Sachs Jeffrey David Sachs () (born 5 November 1954) is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst, and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor. He is known for his work ...

. It was published by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

on October 4, 2011 in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and by

Bodley Head The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name was used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books from 1987 to 2008. In April 2008, it was revived as an adul ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

on October 6 of the same year. In the book, Sachs criticizes excessive

lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agency, regulatory agencie ...

, as well as a poor response by American government to

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

, and describes American politics as a

corporatocracy Corporatocracy (, from corporate and el, -κρατία, translit=-kratía, lit=domination by; short form corpocracy) is an economic, political and judicial system controlled by corporations or corporate interests. The concept has been used ...

in which "powerful corporate interest groups dominate the policy agenda." Sachs suggests that both political parties are right-of-center, and identifies four powerful lobbies: the

military–industrial complex The expression military–industrial complex (MIC) describes the relationship between a country's military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving factor behind the r ...

, the Wall Street–Washington complex, the

Big Oil Big Oil is a name used to describe the world's six or seven largest publicly traded and investor-owned oil and gas companies, also known as supermajors. The term, particularly in the United States, emphasizes their economic power and influence ...

–transport–military complex and the health care industry. The book is 336 pages long. As described by Random House: the book is an "incisive diagnosis of our country’s economic ills but also an urgent call for

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

to restore the virtues of fairness, honesty, and foresight as the foundations of national prosperity." The title comes from the quote from

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.Holmes was Acting Chief Justice of the Un ...

: "Taxes are the price we pay for civilization." In the review in the

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

, American politician

Paul Ryan Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the List of Speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. A member o ...

states: "Yet at its core ''The Price of Civilization'' is not about taxes or economics. It is about the 'pursuit of happiness' as one academic understands it." The book focuses on the changes going on in the world, the effects of these changes on the economic conditions and the necessary actions that will be required to deal with these changes in this new world if America is going to succeed. Sachs criticizes excessive lobbying for interfering with democracy, and sees America's

two-party system A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referre ...

as stifling lesser parties. He blames the

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

voting arrangement for being one of the factors leading to a two-party system: A Chinese translation of the book was published in 2013.

References

External links

Facebook page for Jeffrey SachsFacebook page for The Price of CivilizationRandom House profile on bookBodley Head UK page for The Price of CivilizationYouTube video on bookInterview about the book on The Young Turkswww.kirkusreviews.com Book Review
*
Review from the Guardian UK.Reuters review.WSJ reviewInterview from WNYC.org The Take Away October 7, 2011Interview on Bloomberg TV October 7, 2011 to discuss book.Jeffrey Sachs on Morning Joe discussing The Price of Civilization October 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Price Of Civilization Books about economic policy 2011 non-fiction books Random House books The Bodley Head books

See also

References

External links