Preface

One train may hide another coming in the opposite direction.
The Trump train offers us a daily spectacle of sound and fury, of cynicism and brutality, that never ceases to amaze us. In it we see a divided country, a paralyzed political system, the specter of authoritarianism, and the prospect of a transatlantic rift. We wonder, too, at this version of a democratic disease that could well spread to our shores.
But another American train has left the station, this one carrying developments and even major upheavals to which we would be wise to pay attention.
Such is the thesis developed by this book, that of a revival in progress.
A revival of the will to understand the roots of the current problems.
A revival that is mobilizing various actors to find solutions based on novel foundations.
A bipartisan revival, still nascent and not yet fully embraced, that is nonetheless emerging in more and more domains—from antitrust law to the minimum wage, by way of the fight against the opioid crisis, digital regulation, and soon climate issues—in a spirit both of recognition that all parties bear a responsibility for the present imbalances, and of obligation to look past the divisions to forge new compromises.
A revival, in sum, deep within the country, beyond the Beltway circling Washington, D.C.—because the United States has never been reducible to what happens at the federal level.
This book, then, offers a new perspective, a departure from the pessimistic visions most often advanced in Europe about the evolution of America…