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This book is an expanded version of a nine-part Pulitzer Prize-winning series published in The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1991. The pointed question, and the overall tone of the series, struck a chord with readers, who lined up around the block at the…

This book is an expanded version of a nine-part Pulitzer Prize-winning series published in The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1991. The pointed question, and the overall tone of the series, struck a chord with readers, who lined up around the block at the newspaper’s headquarters to purchase copies and flooded the paper with thousands of messages and letters (at a time before widespread E-mail made that an easy thing to do). Statistics showed the widening gap between rich and poor, and how changes in the tax law had encouraged this gap. It noted the decline in defined benefit pensions, and other trends that accelerated after the turnaround and prosperity of the later 1990s. I admired its ambition and thoroughness of the investigation, so I bought a copy of the paperback reprint for posterity. I was reminded of it in 2011 when the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements expressed similar discontent to the early 90s and focused on some of the same issues (growing federal debt and deficit, and widening income inequality).  Donald Barlett and James Steele say they are now revisiting the series. Their former newspaper, alas, is in a rough patch now, its golden age of ambitious investigative journalism and editorial integrity a distant memory. 

This Old Book: 'America: What Went Wrong?'

February 16, 2012 by Patrick LaForge
February 16, 2012 /Patrick LaForge
journalism, politics, books, Pulitzers, economy, Philadelphia Inquirer, newspapers, This Old Book, America: What Went Wrong?
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