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Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History

During the twentieth century, America managed to make its economic and social systems both more and more fair and more and more prosperous. A huge, secure, and contented middle class emerged. All boats rose together. But then the New Deal gave way to the Raw Deal. Beginning in the early 1970s, by means of a long war conceived of and executed by a confederacy of big business CEOs, the superrich, and right-wing zealots, the rules and norms that made the American middle class possible were undermined and dismantled. The clock was turned back on a century of economic progress, making greed good, workers powerless, and the market all-powerful while weaponizing nostalgia, lifting up an oligarchy that served only its own interests, and leaving the huge majority of Americans with dwindling economic prospects and hope.

Why and how did America take such a wrong turn? In this deeply researched and brilliantly woven cultural, economic, and political chronicle, Kurt offers a fresh, provocative, and eye-opening history of America’s undoing, naming names, showing receipts, and unsparingly assigning blame—to the radical right in economics and the law, the high priests of high finance, a complacent and complicit Establishment, and liberal “useful idiots,” among whom he includes himself.

Read an excerpt from the Evil Geniuses Introduction.

Listen to an excerpt from Chapter 1 "Land of the New" (and buy the audio book):

INSTANT New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and Publishers Weekly bestseller!

 
 
 

A few books that informed Evil Geniuses and Fantasyland > 

Highbrow brilliant on the New York Magazine approval matrix:

EG quotes

"The book is terrifically entertaining and engaging. The elements he is able to pull together and weave into a narrative that so convincingly pinpoints how we arrived at this moment are consistently novel and interesting."

—John Warner, The Chicago Tribune

"Kurt Andersen, with a rare talent, has written a history book like a police procedural that tracks the murder of a country, an economic and moral decline that began just when the U.S. was becoming more fair and equal…So good, it should be assigned reading."

Heather Mallick, The Toronto Star

"A great, really important, exceptionally well-done, extraordinarily timely book. It's brilliant, and the best summation of how we got here that I've ever read."

David Rothkopf, Deep State Radio

"Evil Geniuses is engaging, enraging, enthralling, appalling; a true tour de force. And most of all, it's the truth. Exactly the book we need right now."

Michael Tomasky, Daily Beast columnist, author of If We Can Keep It

“This is the one book everyone must read as we figure out how to rebuild our country. A triumph.”

Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci

“Evil Geniuses is a vivid catalog of American socio-political history...with Andersen as its clear-eyed, masterful archivist.”

Rebecca Carroll, host of WNYC’s Come Through, author of Surviving the White Gaze

“A dazzling, mind-bending, must-read chronicle.”

John Heilemann, host of Showtime's The Circus, author of Game Change and Double Down

“Andersen brilliantly exposes how nostalgia has erased complexity from our country’s narrative to preserve the status quo for the benefit of those in power.”

Ken Burns, director of The Vietnam War and The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

“[An] essential, absorbing, infuriating, full-of-facts-you-didn’t-know new book...a radicalized moderate’s moderate case for radical change," in which he "carefully, meticulously, overwhelmingly, argues through facts. As he makes this wide-ranging case, Andersen never loses the texture of actual human beings. He is a graceful, authoritative guide, and he has a Writer-with-a-capital-W’s ability to defamiliarize the known."

Anand Giridharadas, New York Times Book Review

“Kurt Andersen interrogates the past half century with characteristic intellectual ambition and literary bravado...at once cultural history, memoir, and riff.”

Jacob Weisberg, author of The Bush Tragedy and Ronald Reagan: A Biography

"Elegantly written, full of insight, and ultimately optimistic, Evil Geniuses challenges America to do better, to be better. If you want to know why America is where it is and how it can change: this is your book. Above all Evil Geniuses is fun to read: it's a romp. It educates and amuses. It challenges us too: keep the faith. Things really can get better. For lovers of America this is your go-to book. A wry look at what went wrong and sober thinking about what needs to happen now."

—Justin Webb, host of BBC One's Breakfast News

“Evil Geniuses is Kurt Andersen at his riveting best - a genuinely original exploration of the forces that have shaped today's economy and society, and what can be done to repair the damage. A route-map out of the strange season of pandemic.”

—Matt D’Ancona, The Guardian (U.K.)

Press & Appearances

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Evil Geniuses Week on Morning Joe

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