Answering Back

Reviews / Votes

"With passion, disarming candor, and fair-minded analysis second to none, David Coates captures the pulse of American politics. Answering Back makes the best case yet for how to revitalize the Left--and outmaneuver the Right--in the political space broken open by the Obama presidency. If you are interested in the fate of American democracy and want to become a stakeholder you must read this book." --Joel Krieger, Norma Wilentz Hess professor of Political Science, Wellesley College; Editor in Chief, The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World Answering Back is a very timely book. It will deepen the reader's understanding of the main issues in the debates between liberals and conservatives--especially those on the far right. The book is written from a liberal perspective, but it documents both the liberal and conservative sides of the issues. It achieves one of its main objectives very well--raising the quality of these debates. -- Dr. Ray Marshall, University of Texas "Aiming to defend and sustain the victories of President Obama and the Congressional Democrats in 2008, Coates expands and updates his previous volume, A Liberal Tool Kit (2007), which supports liberal candidates and investigates conservative and liberal arguments on eight policy issues in the US faced by the new Democratic administration: trickle-down economics and the role of public spending, welfare reform, social security, health care, immigration control, religious issues and the social agenda, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the causes of the financial meltdown. For each, he presents the conservative views and a point-by-point progressive response to them. The chapter on whether the economy was safe in Republican hands has been replaced by the chapter on the financial meltdown." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.