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The Samaritan's Dilemma: Should Government Help Your Neighbor?
Author(s): Deborah Stone (Author)
- Publisher: Nation Books
- Publication Date: 1 July 2008
- Language: English
- Print length: 304 pages
- ISBN-10: 1568583540
- ISBN-13: 9781568583549
Book Description
Politics has become a synonym for all that is dirty, corrupt, dishonest, compromising, and wrong. For many people, politics seems not only remote from their daily lives but abhorrent to their personal values. Outside of the rare inspirational politician or social movement, politics is a wasteland of apathy and disinterest.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Francine Prose, “Oprah Magazine”
“Quite frankly, I’ve never understood why it might be a bad idea to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and help the poor. But the next time I find myself in an argument with someone who believes that welfare and public education are ruining our society, and that universal health insurance will destroy our medical system, I will be very glad to have read (and to be able to quote) Deborah Stone’s “The Samaritan’s Dilemma,” Beginning with the disturbing observation that most Americans’ feelings about politics have become almost entirely divorced from their notions of kindness and obligation toward those in need, Stone’s calm, logical, and immensely reassuring book dismantles the standard arguments against a more caring society (“Help makes people dependent”) and persuades us that acts of charity and social responsibility actually make us stronger as individuals and better citizens of a democracy. She looks at examples of “everyday altruism”–from Meals on Wheels to family caregiving–and at the ways in which, over the last decades, our government has actively discouraged Americans from acting on their better impulses. Finishing “The Samaritan’s Dilemma,” you not only want to give the book to your neighbors and send it to your congressional representatives but may find yourself wishing that, when the time comes for our next president to assemble a cabinet, Deborah Stone could be appointed our first Secretary of Compassion.”
“Quite frankly, I’ve never understood why it might be a bad idea to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and help the poor. But the next time I find myself in an argument with someone who believes that welfare and public education are ruining our society, and that universal health insurance will destroy our medical system, I will be very glad to have read (and to be able to quote) Deborah Stone’s “The Samaritan’s Dilemma,” Beginning with the disturbing observation that most Americans’ feelings about politics have become almost entirely divorced from their notions of kindness and obligation toward those in need, Stone’s calm, logical, and immensely reassuring book dismantles the standard arguments against a more caring society (“Help makes people dependent”) and persuades us that acts of charity and social responsibility actually make us stronger as individuals and better citizens of a democracy. She looks at examples of “everyday altruism”–from Meals on Wheels to family caregiving–and at the ways in which, over the last decades, our government has actively discouraged Americans from acting on their better impulses. Finishing “The Samaritan’s Dilemma,” you not only want to give the book to your neighbors and send it to your congressional representatives but may find yourself wishing that, when the time comes for our next president to assemble a cabinet, Deborah Stone could be appointed our first Secretary of Compassion.”
About the Author
Deborah Stone is a Research Professor of Government at Dartmouth College and a founding editor of The American Prospect. She is the author of three previous books, including Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision-Making, which has been translated into five languages and won the Aaron Wildavsky Award from the American Political Science Association for its enduring contribution to policy studies. She has taught at M.I.T. and Brandeis University, and as a visitor at Yale, Tulane, University of Bremen, Germany, and National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan. Her essays have appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, Boston Review, Civilization, and Natural History. She has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and Harvard Law School, was a Phi Beta Kappa Society Visiting Scholar, and is now a Senior Fellow of Demos.
