One Nation Undecided
Clear Thinking about Five Hard Issues That Divide Us
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- USD 16.99
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- USD 16.99
Descripción editorial
A unique primer on how to think intelligently about the thorniest public issues confronting us today
Let's be honest, we've all expressed opinions about difficult hot-button issues without always thinking them through. With so much media spin, political polarization, and mistrust of institutions, it's hard to know how to think about these tough challenges, much less what to do about them. One Nation Undecided takes on some of today's thorniest issues and walks you through each one step-by-step, explaining what makes it so difficult to grapple with and enabling you to think smartly about it.
In this unique what-to-do book, Peter Schuck tackles poverty, immigration, affirmative action, campaign finance, and religious objections to gay marriage and transgender rights. For each issue, he provides essential context; defines key concepts and values; presents the relevant empirical evidence; describes and assesses the programs that now seek to address it; and considers many plausible solutions. Schuck looks at all sides with scrupulous fairness while analyzing them rigorously and factually. Each chapter is self-contained so that readers may pick and choose among the issues that interest and concern them most. His objective is to educate rather than proselytize you—the very nature of these five issues is that they resist clear answers; reasonable people can differ about where they come out on them.
No other book provides such a comprehensive, balanced, and accessible analysis of these urgent social controversies. One Nation Undecided gives you the facts and competing values, makes your thinking about them more sophisticated, and encourages you to draw your own conclusions.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Yale law professor Schuck (Why Government Fails so Often) explains how Americans can think rigorously about hard public issues. The five issues he focuses on are certainly controversial poverty, immigration, campaign finance, affirmative action, and religion's place in public life but Schuck works hard to be evenhanded, noting that controversy arises precisely because there are rational arguments for differing views. As he states, he doesn't "much care where readers come out on these issues so long as they approach them with... clear thinking." Despite this disclaimer, Schuck doesn't sit on the sidelines, observing that the facts about immigration "argue in favor of far-reaching legislative and administrative policy changes." Specifically, he argues for increased legal immigration until American workers have been retrained to fill the job needs of today's economy, a goal that he says "must be among our highest social priorities." However, readers may feel that the central concept Schuck advocates evidence-based policy arrived at after respectful consideration of differing viewpoints and perspectives is too idealistic for the realities of 21st-century American politics.