Handmaking America: A Back-to-Basics Pathway to a Revitalized American Democracy

Handmaking America reaches back to the Arts-and-Crafts roots of progressive thought, advancing a practical, achievable vision for a society that recovers the essential strength of the American idea.

America has survived a near economic disaster. While the state of employment and housing will one day improve, we will never return to the false prosperity that defined the first decade of the 21st century. Progressives hold the key to quality of life in our coming post-consumerist society. We need to confront right-wing ideology and how post-industrial capitalism has undermined work, government, and our very way of life. We need to move beyond the think-tank induced assumption that an unfettered marketplace, low taxes, and international adventurism will somehow give us an America capable of inspiring the world. Handmaking America is an ambitious, wide-ranging look at where America has gone and what we need to do to get back on the right track.