IN DEFENSE OF GOVERNMENT: The Fall and Rise of Public Trust

In his In Defense of Government, Jacob Weisberg draws on the entire history of the republic to construct a lucid and compelling case that the government can and must be an agent for social change and economic progress.Explaining why the public really lost faith in government, Weisberg lays bare both the incoherence of the Republican assault on everything the federal government touches as well as the feebleness of the Democratic responses coming from the Clinton administration and elsewhere.As an alternative to conservative evasion and liberal confusion, Weisberg proposes a new progressive answer. The restoration of public trust, he argues, demands limited but activist government. A reasoned polemic, this book is both an antidote for depressed liberals and a powerful challenge to thoughtful conservatives.