America, Compromised

There is not a single American awake to the world who is comfortable with the way things are. So begins Lawrence Lessig's sweeping indictment of contemporary American institutions and the corruption that besets them. We can all see itfrom the selling of Congress to special interests to the corporate capture of the academy. Something is wrong. Its getting worse. And its our fault. What Lessig shows, brilliantly and persuasively, is that we cant blame the problems of contemporary American life on bad people, as our discourse all too often tends to do. Rather, he explains, We have allowed core institutions of Americas economic, social, and political life to become corrupted. Not by evil souls, but by good souls. Not through crime, but through compromise. Every one of us, every day, making the modest compromises that seem necessary to keep moving along, is contributing to the rot at the core of American civic life. Through case studies of Congress, finance, the academy, the media, and the law, Lessig shows how institutions are drawn away from higher purposes and toward money, power, quick rewardsthe first steps to corruption. Lessig knows that a charge so broad should not be levied lightly, and that our instinct will be to resist it. So he brings copious, damning detail gleaned from years of research, building a case that is all but incontrovertible: America is on the wrong path. If we dont acknowledge our own part in that, and act now to change it, we will hand our children a less perfect union than we were given. It will be a long struggle. This book represents the first steps.