Additional Praise for Thomas Geoghegan’s
Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?
“Think you’ve seen Paris, Berlin, or, for that matter, Chicago? Well, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen it through the eyes of Tom Geoghegan. He’s not just a witty and congenial traveling companion; he’s a brilliant social commentator who’s taught me how much I still have to learn from countries I thought I knew all about. Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? is delightful reading, but it left me seething about what America could be, if we were willing to put human values first.”—Barbara Ehrenreich
“Read Tom Geoghegan to learn how Europe is getting capitalism right. Read Tom Geoghegan to learn why ‘a thousand or so years of European history are coming to a head in our lifetimes.’ Read Tom Geoghegan to learn why Germany is outcompeting the U.S. and making its populations healthier and happier in the process. And, since America’s greatest social critic is also a great Irish storyteller, read Tom Geoghegan to laugh, and maybe even to jerk a tear or two. But most of all, read Tom Geoghegan so we can get to work making America better for our grandchildren.”
—Rick Perlstein, author of Before the Storm and Nixonland
“In this timely, cogently argued, laugh-out-loud-funny book, Thomas Geoghegan reveals the sexy secrets of the European model of life and work. With cleverness and wit, this book explains what Americans are missing out on (more leisure, a secure social safety net) and why we need social democracy American-style.” —Katrina vanden Heuvel
“Truly eye-opening . . . Geoghegan’s book pulls back a curtain.”
—Robyn Blumner, St. Petersburg Times
“This is wonderfully provocative, entertaining, and thought-provoking. . . .The point of the book is to show how much more humane America could be it if adopted the German model. In this the author does a superb job.... The humor . . . should not distract the reader from the author’s thesis, which is that there could be a kinder, better, more humane America. In fact, such a place exists. It is called Europe.”
—William A. Pelz, Labor Studies Journal
“Geoghegan’s passing comments are entertaining and his acerbic wit fun as he buttresses his case with hard facts.... Political economics with a human face, far from dry and filled with unexpected conversational asides.”—Art Winslow, Chicago Tribune
“The book’s central mission—to detail a more humane form of capitalism—couldn’t be more relevant to overworked Americans quietly thinking to themselves, there has to be a better way.... Geoghegan’s particular genius is for making public policy, economics and labor relations entertaining while also transforming them into moral imperatives of the utmost importance. With this book, he once again entertains and instructs us.”
—Jeremy Gantz, Alternet
“Thoughtful and engagingly written.”
—David Maine, PopMatters
“Entertaining.”
—Rupert Cornwell, The Independent (London)
“The narrative unspools in a chatty, anecdotal style; it’s jumpy, appealingly digressive, and winning, all the more so for being such an unabashed polemic that refuses to be resigned to the rising rate of inequality in the U.S.”
—Publishers Weekly