"Daybreak" Reviewed in "Too Much"

Too Much is an online weekly on excess and inequality. This week's edition features a review of David Swanson's "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming A More Perfect Union." It begins:

These two new books, at any first glance, don’t have much in common. The first, Daybreak, comes from David Swanson, a journalist turned activist who spent the Bush years mobilizing Americans against unchecked executive branch power. He writes to help fashion — and inspire — real “citizen power.”

Paul Theobald, the author of the second, teaches at Buffalo State. In Education Now, this scholar takes us back to the 17th and 18th centuries and helps us understand how the ideas that took root in those years have evolved — for better and worse — to shape our democracy, our workplaces, and our schools.

Both these books, as intriguing as their subjects may be, wouldn’t normally be topics for Too Much review. But both authors come to a conclusion that, in the end, makes them absolutely appropriate candidates for Too Much attention.

The United States, both authors contend, will never move significantly beyond our various social, political, and economic imperfections so long as Americans let unlimited wealth and income concentrate in the hands of a precious few. Read more.