The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee is out in paperback
Dear reader,
Today, Heather McGhee’s bestselling book The Sum of Us, is out in paperback! Winner of the Porchlight Best Business Book Award, longlisted for the National Book Award, and one of the best books of 2021, The Sum of Us explores the American economy and asks why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis of 2008 to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, McGhee—an expert in economic and social policy—traces these issues back to a root problem: racism in our politics and policymaking. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color.
Journeying across the country, McGhee tells the story of how public goods in this country—from parks and pools to functioning schools—have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how the U.S., unique among the world’s advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare. But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: the benefits we gain when people come together across race to accomplish what we simply can’t do on our own. It leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than a zero-sum game.
Happy reading! —The One World Team
ON SALE TODAY!
One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone—not just for people of color.
In The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Maine to Mississippi to California, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm—the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. The Sum of Us is not only a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here but also a heartfelt message, delivered with startling empathy, from a black woman to a multiracial America. READ MORE »
Order The Sum of Us
START RETAILER BUTTONS
END RETAILER BUTTONS
End Module
START HORIZONTAL LINE
END HORIZONTAL LINE
START GREEN HEADLINE OVER WHITE BACKGROUND MODULE
AN EXCERPT FROM THE SUM OF US
END GREEN HEADLINE OVER WHITE BACKGROUND MODULE
START TEXT BLOCK WITH BUTTON
Introduction
“Why can’t we have nice things?”
Perhaps there’s been a time when you’ve pondered exactly this question. And by nice things, you weren’t thinking about hovercraft or laundry that does itself. You were thinking about more basic aspects of a high-functioning society, like adequately funded schools or reliable infrastructure, wages that keep workers out of poverty or a public health system to handle pandemics. The “we” who can’t seem to have nice things is Americans, all Americans. This includes the white Americans who are the largest group of the uninsured and the impoverished as well as the Americans of color who are disproportionately so. “We” is all of us who have watched generations of American leadership struggle to solve big problems and reliably improve the quality of life for most people. We know what we need—why can’t we have it? KEEP READING
PRAISE FOR THE SUM OF US
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • WINNER OF THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ms. magazine, BookRiot, Library Journal
“This is the book I’ve been waiting for.”—Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist
“Illuminating and hopeful . . . McGhee isn’t a stinging polemicist; she cajoles instead of ridicules. She appeals to concrete self-interest in order to show how our fortunes are tied up with the fortunes of others. ‘We suffer because our society was raised deficient in social solidarity,’ she writes, explaining that this idea is ‘true to my optimistic nature.’ She is compassionate but also clear-eyed, refusing to downplay the horrors of racism. . . . There is a striking clarity to this book; there is also a depth of kindness in it that all but the most churlish readers will find moving.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times
“Required reading to move the country forward . . . Every so often a book comes along that seems perfectly timed to the moment and has the potential to radically shift our cultural conversation. [The Sum of Us] is one of those books. . . . It is a sometimes angry or frustrated book, rooted in McGhee’s long career at Demos trying and mostly failing to secure legislation that would benefit the public. But in the end, it’s a hopeful book because McGhee’s vision is so clear and so convincing.”—Chicago Tribune
“If everyone in America read this book, we’d be, not only a more just country, but a more powerful, successful, and loving one. A vital, urgent, stirring, beautifully written book that offers a compassionate roadmap out of our present troubled moment.”—George Saunders, New York Times bestselling and Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo
JOIN HEATHER MCGHEE ON TOUR
Friday, February 11 – 8 PM EST
Loyalty Bookstore (virtual event)
In conversation with Clint Smith
Friday, February 25 – 12 PM PST
Commonwealth Club of California (virtual event)