America’s foremost political historian.

Highlights

For more than three decades, Kevin Phillips has been consistently and "transcendentally right" (as one reviewer has put it) about the dynamics of political change in America and a deeply insightful analyst of the role of wealth in democracy.

He brings to audiences a rich historical perspective, penetrating, independent insight, and an uncommonly articulate voice on the major issues of our time. His commitment to public service and strong sense of history make his presentations valuable to any audience—business, college, or public forum—that cares about where America is headed in the future.

Kevin’s best-selling books have influenced presidential campaigns and changed the way America sees itself.

His most recent book is his most prescient so far. Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism is about the insecurity of America's future as the leading world economic power, given a dangerous web of interconnected and unaddressed problems in American political and economic culture.

His other New York Times bestsellers include American Theocracy, American Dynasty and Wealth and Democracy.

Called a "modern Thomas Paine," Kevin Phillips is a regular commentator for National Public Radio and a former commentator for CBS News.

Bad Money

This book is about the insecurity of America's future as the leading world economic power, given a debt-gorged and negligent financial sector, and the vulnerability caused by the nation's expensive dependence on imported oil.

Over the past thirty years, the American economy has become increasingly financialized and securitized, until the financial sector replace the manufacturing and service sectors as the center of wealth generation and political commitment. Exulting in its power and exalted by its successes, it ignored the risks that it took with more and more complicated ways to make money. Now, some of the risks are all too obvious. But not all. And the real debate about his direction in American life has yet to take place. As he has so many times before, Kevin Phillips steps into the silence with a voice ringing with truth—the real facts, the deep insights, the dire warnings about the threats to our future.

In its hubris, claims Phillips, the financial sector has hijacked the American economy and put our very global future at risk. 'Bad money' refers not just to the depreciated dollar but to the dangerous attitudes and flawed products of wayward megafinance. But the causes and the consequences reach deeper and farther than just finance. And the patterns of the current crisis and the larger arc of trends in the economy match alarmingly with the patterns of decline of previous great world economic powers. Global overreach, worn-out politics, excessive debt, and exhausted energy supplies are all chilling signals that America is declining as the world superpower.

American Theocracy

From ancient Rome to the British Empire, world-dominating powers are brought down by the combination of global overreach, militant religion, diminishing resources and ballooning debt—just the combination now at work in the United States, argues Kevin Phillips in American Theocracy. The book continues the themes that Kevin has been exploring throughout his career: the corrosive influence of wealth on democracy, the role of monied interests in political circles and the dynamics of political change. This extraordinary book adds new depth to his arguments and a new (for him) element of concern—the role of radical religion among today’s political elites. At one time a Republican strategist, Kevin has become a powerful independent critic of the party and its abandonment of its own principles. With his trademark combination of eloquent, persuasive prose and overwhelming historical evidence, this book is certain to ignite an important discussion about America’s course and to follow its predecessors onto the bestseller charts.

Credentials

• Strategic advisor to President Nixon
• Former editor-publisher, The American Political Report
• Contributing columnist, Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal
• Regular commentator for National Public Radio
• Former commentator, CBS TV News at the 1984, 1988, and 1992 Democratic and Republican National conventions
• Other books include The Cousins Wars, Boiling Point and Arrogant Capital

Books

The Emerging Republican Majority (1969)

The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath (1990)

Boiling Point: Democrats, Republicans and the Decline of Middle-Class Prosperity (1993)

Arrogant Capital: Washington, Wall Street, and the Frustration of American Politics (1994)

The Cousins Wars: Religion, Politics and the Triumph of Anglo-America (1999) William McKinley (2003)

Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich (2002)

American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush (2004)

American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21^st Century (2006)

Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism (2008)