The Wrecking Crew

The New York Times–bestselling author of What's the Matter with Kansas? shares a "no-holds-barred exegesis on the naked cynicism of conservatism" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

In his previous book, Thomas Frank explained why working America votes for politicians who reserve their favors for the rich. Now, in The Wrecking Crew, Frank examines the blundering and corrupt federal government those politicians have given us.


Casting his eyes from the Bush administration's final months of plunder to the earliest days of the Republican revolution, Frank describes the rise of a ruling coalition dedicated to dismantling government. While deregulating some industries and defunding others, they always turn public policy into a private-sector bidding war.


It is no coincidence, Frank argues, that the same politicians who guffaw at the idea of effective government have installed a regime in which incompetence is the rule. Stamped with Thomas Frank's audacity, analytic brilliance, and wit, The Wrecking Crew is his most revelatory work yet—and his most important.