One of his most pointed books looking at modern society, how we got here and what the serious problems are.
He looks at both how the two World Wars and, most interesting, the 60s social revolution have landed us where we are today.
He explores and defines the idea of social democracy, as opposed to socialism, and why it rose to prominence after the horrific social fallout of the two world wars. He also looks at how the 60s obsession with self-expression and individual freedom led to the demise of social democracy and the rise of social relativism.
He underlines the continuing need for strong government, and democratic participation, in the face of the challenges and social upheaval heading our way from both ecological causes and the effects of globalization. He underlines the impossibility of big business dealing with crisis issues (even like the crash in 2009 which was exclusively economic). He points out that, while we have allowed much of our economy to become global, government is still local, and cannot be any other way.
One issue he brings up that I am not sure I see the way around is that much of the social democratic benefits were enacted in a time when people had a much stronger cohesive national identity. We have to have something to build the concept of "group" on if we are going to work together as a society. Consumerism and the fragmentation of social life through the internet has tended to minimize these larger local group identities.
Worth rereading.
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