A Fabulous Failure - Politics and Society in Modern America by Nelson Lichtenstein & Judith Stein

About the Book

"When Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, he was surrounded by advisors with radical ideas about everything from economic management to health care reform to labor relations to social policy. With the White House and Congress under full Democratic control, a new, more equitable vision of American capitalism seemed possible-even likely. And indeed, over the course of the 1990s, the economy performed remarkably well, real wages rose, and unemployment was at a 25-year low. In a 2001 book, Alan Blinder and Janet Yellen would term it "The Fabulous Decade." And yet today, Clinton's 8 years in office are seen by those on the left as a monumental failure, with these short-term gains achieved thanks to a full-sale capitulation to the neoliberal ideology of the right, which brought with it financial deregulation, privatization of government services, and the growth of class inequalities. In this comprehensive and sweeping political history of the 1990s, Nelson Lichtenstein considers why the Clinton White House ended up embracing neoliberalism so fully, despite the array of other options available-options being championed by those around Clinton, and sometimes even Clinton itself. Exploring the major issues of the time-deficit politics, NAFTA, labor relations, tech regulation, mass incarceration, and more-Lichtenstein reveals an "intellectual history of an economy that wasn't," and explores why neoliberalism was cemented into the US's economic and financial system by the end of Clinton's term in office"--

Book Synopsis

How the Clinton administration betrayed its progressive principles and capitulated to the right

When Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, he ended twelve years of Republican rule and seemed poised to enact a progressive transformation of the US economy, touching everything from health care to trade to labor relations. Yet by the time he left office, the nation's economic and social policies had instead lurched dramatically rightward, exacerbating the inequalities so troubling in our own time. This book reveals why Clinton's expansive agenda was a fabulous failure, and why its demise still haunts us today.

Nelson Lichtenstein and Judith Stein show how the administration's progressive reformers--people like Robert Reich, Ira Magaziner, Laura Tyson, and Joseph Stiglitz--were stymied by a new world of global capitalism that heightened Wall Street influence, undermined domestic manufacturing, and eviscerated the labor movement. Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Al Gore proved champions of this financialized world. Meanwhile, Clinton divided his own party when he relied on Republican votes to overhaul welfare, liberalize trade, and deregulate the banking and telecommunications industries. Even the economic boom Clinton ushered in--which tamed unemployment and sent the stock market soaring in what Alan Blinder and Janet Yellen termed a "fabulous decade"--ended with a series of exploding asset bubbles that his neoliberal economic advisors neither foresaw nor prevented.

A Fabulous Failure is a study of ideas in action, some powerfully persuasive, others illusionary and self-defeating. It explains why and how the Clinton presidency's progressive statecraft floundered in a world where the labor movement was weak, civil rights forces quiescent, and corporate America ever more powerful.

Review Quotes

"

A Fabulous Failure does a marvelous job delivering on both [Clinton's] policy and politics in a highly readable narrative.

"---Paul A. Myers, Myersbooks History

"

Dazzlingly impressive in its scope and depth. . . . A Fabulous Failure serves as an indispensable resource to anyone, providing fresh insight into topics like the health care debacle (including a careful discussion of why Obama succeeded where Clinton failed), the NAFTA debate, and the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, all of which have been covered elsewhere. At the same time, it spotlights issues such as trade policy with Japan and workplace management that have been given short shrift by other historians.

"---Lily Geismer, American Prospect

"[A] very persuasive read."---David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews

"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year"

"In demonstrating both the internal and external limits on the Clinton administration's ability to strengthen the welfare state, Lichtenstein and Stein have not only provided a singularly useful analysis of global capitalism at the end of the twentieth century -- they have also shown how popular movements are crucial in realizing meaningful social change. . . . And in dissecting the passion play that was the Clinton administration, A Fabulous Failure provides an immensely usable history. Because the problems with which Clinton struggled -- how to create growth and redistribute it in the context of a world characterized by strong economic competition -- remain with us."---Jason Resnikoff, Jacobin

"Splendid."---James K. Galbraith, EH.net

"The most comprehensive and scholarly account of the administration of President Bill Clinton focused on domestic policy that one could hope to read. . . . An excellent work."-- "Choice"

"Timely and valuable. . . .An intricate account of the Clinton administration's indeed many failures, as judged in retrospect."---Grit Grigoleit-Richter, H-Soz-Kult

"

A progressive perspective on why the Clinton administration delivered so little.

"-- "Kirkus Reviews"

About the Author

Nelson Lichtenstein is Research Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His books include State of the Union: A Century of American Labor (Princeton). Judith Stein (1940-2017) was Distinguished Professor of History at City College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her books include Pivotal Decade: How the United States Traded Factories for Finance in the Seventies.