How the United States Traded Factories for Finance in the Seventies - Book Report/Review Example

Book Review: Stein, Judith. Pivotal Decade: How the United s Traded Factories for Finance in the Seventies. Yale University Press, London. 2010. Print. Pivotal Decade provides a challenging and appealing but at the same time an exciting account of events experienced by Americans the period after the great depression and the World War II. Accordingly, Stein delivers her perspective regarding the real events encountered by Americans at that moment when the country was struggling to attain stability after the historic Great Depression. As pointed out by the author, the primary aim of this book was to elucidate the transformation from the Age of Compression to the age of inequality. She applies economics concepts especially the Keynesian ideology to explain and justify vital economics claims made in the analysis. In the introductory sections of the book, the author applies an interactive approach by engaging her audience through a wide range of questions not only to engage them in the discussion by invoking their thinking but also inciting such thoughts. Stein’s critical evaluation of issues throughout the book turns out to be a tremendous material for students, teachers, American history researchers, and others who are passionate about American history. This book review, therefore, considers the bibliography, structure of the book, main arguments, evidence, and any generalizations made by the author. Also, this book review evaluates the content of the book based on the accuracy of the material and claims, sources utilized by Stein to justify her claims and position, and determining whether the information presented in the book is up-to-date. The paper will also entail pointing out the shortcomings of the book as well as mentioning the points that could be disagreed with. The structure of this book enables readers to follow the transformation of the American economy beginning the 20th century and understand the relevance of the two significant events including the Great Depression and World War II. The author quickly and efficiently connects the unexpected consequences of these two events to the Keynesian economics, monetary and fiscal policy for regulating unemployment, and response of states to the 1930s global financial crisis. For instance, chapter one of the book titled the Great Compression introduces the readers to divisive approach to economic issues and events that followed the world’s Great Depreciation. Although the chapter’s entire discussion centers on the Great Depression, the author called the chapter “great compression” perhaps to illustrate her the irony of the events that took place in the American soil starting 1945. Stein utilized this section to justify what she insinuated that historians would better understand the current financial crisis by first understanding the American economy in the 1970s. According to her perception, the backbone of the current American history is the Great Depression and the World War II. Today, the life most Americans has improved thanks to the effects of the Great Depression as they slowly forgot that they suffered because of the same world depression (Stein). Here, the author disagreed with what had been said earlier on by other authors concerning likely effects of the Second World War. In chapter one still, Stein applies a comparative analysis to compare reports from different sources such as the Economist and Fortune magazines. Stein’s seasoned critique of existing literature provides the readers with the knowledge required to analyze and evaluate pieces of information and justify whether the arguments a valid or inappropriate to a particular situation. More fascinating, Stein builds her arguments that a nation may suffer from unemployment since fluid wages and prices are likely to accommodate the unemployed on classical economics. In this chapter, the author provides a different and beneficial approach through her exhaustive analysis of the Keynesian economics. She seems to agree with the Keynesian idea that a country could promote supported policies that were at the start of the Great Compression. The chapters are divided into several subchapters to address more specific issues and provide needed facts. The case of the U.S, Europeans and Japan as examined by the author helps the readers connect the period of postwar liberalism emanating from the New Deal and how it influenced economic growth. Ultimately, Stein believed that after liberalism, students particularly women played a vital role in constructing the current American democracy. Even though the majority of students were not active anti-war protesters, the largest section of the antiwar movement was comprised of the student population (Stein). The structure of this book interconnects perfectly with the way the author organized the chapters with the primary aim of pointing out and elaborating the main arguments exclusively. The organization of ideas or the content is through chapters and subchapters. Stein divided each of the eleven into subsections that logically conform to the topic presented in each chapter. Each subchapter is discussed clearly to ensure a constant flow of ideas and continue to invoke the mind of readers. For instance, chapter two has three subchapters that adequately expound the main idea: affluence challenged and restored. The author also applies real-world examples and evidence throughout the book as a way of justifying her claims made in each chapter. For example, the case of Nixon and Roosevelt were used by the author to illustrate the issue of American growth. Many of its chapters involve quotation of speeches from prominent people such as Roosevelt, who played a crucial role in influencing American democracy and constructed what the American history is. Nixon’s first inaugural speech was quoted, in which he admitted learning how to manage the modern economy to maintain its constant growth (Stein). Besides, the main discussion is also based on various assumptions such as President Nixon’s presumption that material questions concerning political affluence had been resolved already given that the federal government had learned how to control the economy. Under the political affluence subsection, Stein provides a critical overview of President Nixon’s role in influencing the tax collection function of the government. Even though this chapter was properly organized in such a way to match the key ideas of the main chapter, it can be inferred that the author wandered out of scope by discussing one person instead of addressing the issue widely. Most of the subsections of chapter two such as politics of affluence and the return of the economy discuss a person: President Nixon, rather than sticking to the main objective established earlier in the book. Also, chapter three and four of the book gives a detailed chronological account of political events that justify the rivalry in the American political system. Moreover, this book is based on several themes that help the author to speak out her mind and present crucial facts to readers as well. Stein believed that democrats and republicans deliberately ignored the economic mayhem of 1971 following the presidential election held in 1972. When analyzing the post-1968 Democratic Party restructuring, Stein believed that the party battles thrived in platform committees, campaigns paths, and in the press. Also, she believed that these reforms gave birth to new party leaders who perceived that the free middle class could triumph in the elections without the party’s famous constituencies (Stein). Also, she argued that the reformers of the Democrats were fostered by the citizens’ customs that were observable in the 1960s and the earlier period of 1970s. In this case, the authors took her invaluable time to shade light on the historic American political system for readers so that they understand the history of the development of the American democracy since the Great Depression of the 1970s and the years after the famous World War II. Additionally, the author argued that there was a conflict between encouraging participation and to mandate demographic outcomes. The books illustrate the significant political influence that individuals had on parties and how such powers determined the outcome of policy decisions during reforms, elections, and creating coalitions. This idea shows the role that the public and media have in the selection of eligible candidates. By inspecting the changes in the political system, the author enables the readers to understand how the old and modern political systems differ and enumerate the factors that are likely to affect the process of candidate selection by the public. For instance, Stein explained in the book that the primary elections needed a team of technocrats such as lawyers and pollsters that ensured a professionalized political, enhanced the cost of elections as well as isolating candidates (Stein). The book presents an abrupt swing from politics to love and then business of crude oil when the Dallas soap opera is introduced in the book. Regarding the title of the book, the author clearly uses the oil business to reflect or illustrate how the oil business was a headache to the American economy given the competition from the Middle East and some of the North African countries that produce supply their oil globally. As a matter of fact, Stein argued that the flow of funds obtained from oil importers especially those countries from the industrialized world could be a source of wealth and power. The siphoning of money from those countries in the industrialized world that import oil to the oil exporters especially the Middle East and North African countries was identified to be a center of creating wealth and power (Stein). The book is a multidirectional discussion; the author points out the apparent challenges that affected the American wealth and power in that era. As argued by Stein, the United States moved from surplus to operate under deficit because of a few challenges that were clearly elucidated by the author particularly in chapter four. At a point in time, the United States of America and its huge multinational corporations were in charge of the oil business. However, the World War is noted by the author as the main factor that made the United States to lose its monopoly and lose grip of the oil industry. Essentially, Stein recognizes that the power of the major oil producing and supplying nations became challenged in the oil industry as Middle East countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, the Middle East politics and economics played a vital role in increasing the power of the oil states. The author explains how the Middle East countries exercised their political powers and economic aspirations by cautioning Nixon to force Israel to return the territory that it took after the 1967 war, for oil to continue flowing to the United States (Stein). The informative discussion about the lost political and economic power introduces the diplomatic tricks that justify why the U.S traded factories to obtain finance in the 1970s. Apparently, it was impossible to maintain the cohesion of the industrial countries, and since the community was thought to suffer from internal differences, it was tough to for the United States to be seen as great as before. The book also provides a logical account of awful events that faced OPEC and the resulting effect on the wealth and power of the United States in the long-run. In the analysis, Stein presents a model that was used by diplomatic states so as to ease the political wars that affected various industries including steel, autos and computers. Although the NRA model could have worked, Stein noted that nobody advocated for this old model as an option to ease the pressures. Whichever the case, the author, outlines the possible advantages that the governments would have enjoyed including accumulating, collating, and analyzing essential economic information. The states could have also utilized the model in examining records as well as identifying labor resources and funding required to effect the projects (Stein). Considering the tough economic times caused by these wars, some countries such as Germany were left with no option but to lower taxes and raise spending on infrastructure to bolster growth come to the end of 1997. Technically, the book also informs the readers that some nations such as Germany and Japan considered the melting oil crisis as a serious structural issue that changed every part of their economies. These countries were really under pressure to stimulate economic growth by compensating meager demands in the home market with exports. Although the NRA model had been ignored, the book illustrates how the German model was considered after approval through the labor-management review board. The book being an exciting history, Stein manages to construct a chronology of historical events and gives an account of political and economic activities surrounding the pivotal decade in the 1970s. The procedural discussion of issues makes it easier for students, teachers or researchers to follow the narrative from the start to the end without fear of missing the point or getting lost. From chapter one to chapter eleven, readers can quickly follow the activities described in the paper and evaluate them according to the theme of the paper. An additional strength of the book is that the author provided sufficient evidence to justify the claims made in the paper as expected from other studies published earlier. Some of the evidence include the statistical figures to justify the claims about controlling inflation, the rate of unemployment, and the real price of imported oil. Such arguments about measurable economic variables require data to back them up. Precisely, the content in the book offers crucial evidence throughout all the chapters to back the allegations. However, the book has several shortcomings including the use of statistical data or figures without acknowledging the source. Most of the figures provided by Stein in the paper are not cited implying that the source is either unknown, or they are made up figures. Secondly, Stein discusses individuals such as Nixon and their decisions in various situations instead of focusing on the main thesis when writing. In the book, the information that the author provides about a person makes the aim of the discussion change. The fact that Stein spent various pages discussing individuals while the book was to discuss the states provide the serious basis for critiquing this book. Otherwise, the book successfully communicates the intended message to the audience given its chronological narration. Pivotal Decade is a modern captivating book in which Stein argue that people should first understand the 1970s history for them to be able to understand the contemporary financial crisis. The period of liberalism, especially after the Great Depression and World War II, resulted in various awful events including loss of wealth and power by countries such as U.S, increased inflation, unemployment and other economic problems. The book achieves the goal of persuading the readers concerning the Pivotal Decade issues hence it is a good book to use for academic purposes. Works Cited Top of Form Stein, Judith. Pivotal Decade: How the United States Traded Factories for Finance in the Seventies. New Haven [Conn.: Yale University Press, 2010. Print. Bottom of Form Read More