The Hidden History of Big Brother in America
How the Death of Privacy and the Rise of Surveillance Threaten Us and Our Democracy
Part of the Thom Hartmann Hidden History series
America's most popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how the government and corporate America misuse our personal data and shows how we can reclaim our privacy.
Most Americans are worried about how c
The Hidden History of American Healthcare
Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich
Part of the Thom Hartmann Hidden History series
Popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how and why attempts to implement affordable universal healthcare in the United States have been thwarted and what we can do to finally make it a reality.
"For-
The Hidden History of the War on Voting
Who Stole Your Vote-and How To Get It Back
Part of the Thom Hartmann Hidden History series
"Hartmann's history of voter suppression in America is necessary information given current news about voter registration purges and redistricting...a particularly timely topic for an election year, and anyone who is seriously concerned about the survival
The Hidden History of the American Dream
The Demise Of The Middle Classand How To Rescue Our Future
Part of the Thom Hartmann Hidden History series
America's most popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author explores the fall of the American Dream and the steps we can take to bring it back.
The widening wealth gap is all too familiar to many Millennials and GenZers, especially when home ownership and the lack of debt seem like faraway fantasies. And it's no surprise when they only hold about 4.6% of the country's wealth while Boomers held 22% at around the same age. So what happened to the promise of the American Dream?
In this new, final entry of his celebrated Hidden History Series, Thom Hartmann uncovers the rise of the American middle class through the progressive policies of FDR, through to its downfall with the increasing privatization and economic deregulations of the Reagan era.
He also explores potential solutions including:
• Wealth and inheritance taxes to lessen economic inequality
• Supporting unions through increasing labor rights
• Renationalizing public spaces and transportationThe American Dream often remains just a dream for many, but this book highlights what needs to be done to take it back and help make it a reality for us all.
The Hidden History of Monopolies
How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream
Part of the Thom Hartmann Hidden History series
"This is the most important, dynamic book on the cancers of monopoly by giant corporations written in our generation."-from the foreword by Ralph Nader
American monopolies dominate, control, and consume most of the energy of our entire economic system; they function the same as cancer does in a body, and, like cancer, they weaken our systems while threatening to crash the entire body economic. American monopolies have also seized massive political power and use it to maintain their obscene profits and CEO salaries while crushing small competitors.
But Thom Hartmann, America's #1 progressive radio host, shows we've broken the control of behemoths like these before, and we can do it again.
Hartmann takes us from the birth of America as a revolt against monopoly (remember the Boston Tea Party?), to the largely successful efforts of both Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt and other like-minded leaders to restrain corporations' monopolistic urges, to the massive changes in the rules of business starting during the "Reagan Revolution" that have brought us to the cancer stage of capitalism.
He shows the damage monopolies have done to so many industries: agriculture, healthcare, the media, and more. Individuals have taken a hit as well: the average American family pays a $5,000 a year "monopoly tax" in the form of higher prices for everything from pharmaceuticals to airfare to household goods and food. But Hartmann also describes commonsense, historically rooted measures we can take-such as revitalizing antitrust regulation, taxing great wealth, and getting money out of politics-to pry control of our country from the tentacles of the monopolists.
The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment
How to Talk about Race, Religion, Politics, and Other Polarizing Topics
Part of the Thom Hartmann Hidden History series
"In this precise primer on firearms practices and policies, progressive talk-show host Hartmann examines the history of routine gun usage and extreme gun violence and assesses the influence of gun ownership on contemporary political, economic, and social
The Hidden History of Neoliberalism
How Reaganism Gutted America and How To Restore Its Greatness
Part of the Thom Hartmann Hidden History series
America's most popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how and why neoliberalism became so prevalent in the United States and why it's time for us to turn our backs to it.
With four decades of neoliber
The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America
8 Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change
Part of the Thom Hartmann Hidden History series
"Hartmann delivers a full-throated indictment of the U.S. Supreme Court in this punchy polemic." -Publishers Weekly
Thom Hartmann, the most popular progressive radio host in America and a New York Times bestselling author, explains how the Supreme Cour
The Hidden History of American Oligarchy
Reclaiming Our Democracy from the Ruling Class
Part of the Thom Hartmann Hidden History series
Thom Hartmann, the most popular progressive radio host in America and a New York Times bestselling author, looks at the history of the battle against oligarchy in America-and how we can win the latest round.
Billionaire oligarchs want to own our republic, and they're nearly there thanks to legislation and Supreme Court decisions that they have essentially bought. They put Trump and his political allies into office and support a vast network of think tanks, publications, and social media that every day push our nation closer and closer to police-state tyranny.
The United States was born in a struggle against the oligarchs of the British aristocracy, and ever since then the history of America has been one of dynamic tension between democracy and oligarchy. And much like the shock of the 1929 crash woke America up to glaring inequality and the ongoing theft of democracy by that generation's oligarchs, the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has laid bare how extensively oligarchs have looted our nation's economic system, gutted governmental institutions, and stolen the wealth of the former middle class.
Thom Hartmann traces the history of this struggle against oligarchy from America's founding to the United States' war with the feudal Confederacy to President Franklin Roosevelt's struggle against "economic royalists," who wanted to block the New Deal. In each of those cases, the oligarchs lost the battle. But with increasing right-wing control of the media, unlimited campaign contributions, and a conservative takeover of the judicial system, we're at a crisis point.
Now is the time for action, before we flip into tyranny. We've beaten the oligarchs before, and we can do it again. Hartmann lays out practical measures we can take to break up media monopolies, limit the influence of money in politics, reclaim the wealth stolen over decades by the oligarchy, and build a movement that will return control of America to We the People.