As I could say also of Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn: there’s no one in my life from whom I’ve learned more than my friend and mentor Douglas Dowd. I have been strengthened in my determination to help make good our country’s so-far broken promises. –Daniel Ellsberg

A master reference work by a guy who personifies everything that is great about America. –Robert McChesney

With 160 entries from arrogance to zoos, Douglas Dowd puts the U.S. back in its cage. The ultimate primer and reference work on what has gone wrong in our country. Biographical sketches from Kissinger to Sacco and Vanzetti, combined with solid analysis of horrific deeds provides the reader with an education like no other.

This is a must-have reference work that’s as entertaining as it is profound.

From racism to violence, from

militarism

to power, Dowd’s entries provide an education by provocation. The bitter truth is that although we have had every opportunity to become a truly wonderful society, we have failed to shed our past faults and are now evolving toward something the opposite of wonderful: The gap between our realities and our ideals, despite important changes now and again, widens to resemble the Grand Canyon. –from the preface

A professor of economic history at Johns Hopkins University in Italy and also at the University of California, Douglas F. Dowd has written over 10 books critical of capitalism, including Capitalism and Its Economics: A Critical History, The Twisted Dream: Capitalist Development in the United States Since 1776, and Understanding Capitalism: Critical Analysis From Karl Marx to Amartya Sen.