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Low Dishonest Decades: Essays & Reviews, 1980-2015
Literary Nonfiction. LOW DISHONEST DECADES charts the thirty–five years in which income inequality has established itself in America as a fundamental problem. Thomas Geoghegan praises this book as "a matchless political education" by a writer David Bromwich describes as "a keeper of the conscience of American radicalism." George Scialabba's prose is clearly written, humane in outlook and thought provoking, qualities missing from our current public discourse.
219 pages, Paperback
Published October 11, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 21, 2023
In Low Dishonest Decades, George Scialabba writes reviews and essays tied together by their rumination on the erosion of small "d" democracy, civic virtue, public debate and discourse, and a government that can robustly provide for it's people. Rather than accept debasement by a government molded by reactionaries to serve as an instrument of class war conservatism, he defends the merits of social democracy while cataloging exactly how this virtue has been undermined in the United States.
Throughout his pieces, the charting of that assault tours uninteresting places and what at first might seem like minor details. Take for example Ronald Reagan's attack on government printing. Scialabba traces this back to a deeper, trenchant impact on the ability of accountability offices, journalists, and the public to fully and adequately assess programs, both in their failures and their successes. Part of what makes these "low and dishonest" decades is variables like that, the one sidedness of information, an engineered sabotage. Among this orchestrated sabotage is George Scialabba's reminder of the attack on unions, of deliberate corruption of the tax system, of privatization, of capture of agencies by industry, and more. He does not let any of the books he's scrutinizing be glib on the causes of such decay and decline. Instead, he anchors these things back in their proper place, as part of an overarching political project, fragmentary, but coherent in their overall anti-democratic effect.
Also included are pieces which take to task TV histories on the Vietnam war for heaping on more and more mythology, even if stylized and fresh in presentation, but nevertheless still chronicles in imperial self flattery, distortion and propaganda.
In the collection, you'll find proof of a reader that has mastered the frameworks of people like Noam Chomsky and John Dewey, and treatments of then current events (such as Central America during the Cold War) with clever thought experiments to illustrate imperial double standards, hollow rhetoric, and the fealty of intellectuals to systems of power.
Altogether, this collection makes clear Scialabba's mind, his quietude, his exactness, his granularity, and his breeziness are a gift to us all. It's more than evident that this is a man who reads because he cares with seriousness about the weighty ideas on the page, and disdains their kitsch abuse and deployment by professional politics and elite academia. He'll show you how supposedly really smart people have just learned to parrot and to write a good sentence. He'll put the beating heart back behind democracy and with great nuance show you how to spot a subtle leap in logic, a claim over wrought, and he’ll do it without exhausting, because you get the sense he understands mass democracy requires winning people over and showing patience. On that measure, this collection is a first rate political education.
Throughout his pieces, the charting of that assault tours uninteresting places and what at first might seem like minor details. Take for example Ronald Reagan's attack on government printing. Scialabba traces this back to a deeper, trenchant impact on the ability of accountability offices, journalists, and the public to fully and adequately assess programs, both in their failures and their successes. Part of what makes these "low and dishonest" decades is variables like that, the one sidedness of information, an engineered sabotage. Among this orchestrated sabotage is George Scialabba's reminder of the attack on unions, of deliberate corruption of the tax system, of privatization, of capture of agencies by industry, and more. He does not let any of the books he's scrutinizing be glib on the causes of such decay and decline. Instead, he anchors these things back in their proper place, as part of an overarching political project, fragmentary, but coherent in their overall anti-democratic effect.
Also included are pieces which take to task TV histories on the Vietnam war for heaping on more and more mythology, even if stylized and fresh in presentation, but nevertheless still chronicles in imperial self flattery, distortion and propaganda.
In the collection, you'll find proof of a reader that has mastered the frameworks of people like Noam Chomsky and John Dewey, and treatments of then current events (such as Central America during the Cold War) with clever thought experiments to illustrate imperial double standards, hollow rhetoric, and the fealty of intellectuals to systems of power.
Altogether, this collection makes clear Scialabba's mind, his quietude, his exactness, his granularity, and his breeziness are a gift to us all. It's more than evident that this is a man who reads because he cares with seriousness about the weighty ideas on the page, and disdains their kitsch abuse and deployment by professional politics and elite academia. He'll show you how supposedly really smart people have just learned to parrot and to write a good sentence. He'll put the beating heart back behind democracy and with great nuance show you how to spot a subtle leap in logic, a claim over wrought, and he’ll do it without exhausting, because you get the sense he understands mass democracy requires winning people over and showing patience. On that measure, this collection is a first rate political education.
July 19, 2018
Low Dishonest Decades: Essays and Reviews 1980-2015 / George Scialabba. Scialabba was a Presidential Lecturer at the University of Montana this past year. I bought this book out of respect for the morals and intelligence he displayed that evening. I discovered that I like reading a “chapter” a day in this type of book along with a deeper immersion in another book. By the time I read the last essay, I was convinced of the worth of Scialabba’s middle of the left stance. The blend of his extensive historical knowledge with his reliable realism and ethical concern won my vote. Also, as often happens, it was quite striking to read such strong criticism of past American leadership in today’s situation: nothing and yet everything has changed. Has he found the words for it?
October 18, 2025
Non mi ha entusiasmato come le raccolte For the Republic e Only a voice. George Scialabba è un lettore attento e un recensore onesto, ma è decisamente sprecato quando parla di libri appena usciti; a mio parere dà il meglio di sé quando può divagare su un argomento ampio (democrazia, modernità, progresso) e ancora di più quando può parlare degli intellettuali che stima.
December 13, 2016
My review and interview with the guy James Wood called "one of America's best all-around intellects" is up: http://artsfuse.org/153059/book-inter...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews