| AUSTIN, TX
- October 22 -What is going on here? Have business book buyers gone mad, or are they just suffering a conscience hangover from the go-go 90s?
Jim Hightower's new book, 'Thieves In High Places: They've Stolen Our Country And It's Time to Take it Back', has landed at #7 on the New York Times Business Best-Seller List.
Hightower, a frequent scourge of big-business excess in his syndicated radio and newspaper commentaries, has not only taken the corporate "kleptocrats" to task for their oft-unpunished crimes, but he also celebrates the many untold successes of ethical enterprisers.
"I'm not anti-capitalist or anti-corporate," Hightower says. "I'm anti-crook".
"Business book buyers are responding because they're fed up with the ethic of greed that's swept through Corporate America," he says. "And they're eager to hear about the success of those who position their principles right alongside profits."
With chapters such as "BushCo," "Never Have So Few Done So Much For So Few," and "Bad Apples," Hightower trains his eye on the corporate influence in politics, corporate welfare, and corporate crime.
But in "Public Spirit," "Taking Charge of Dinner," "No Sweat," and "The Road to Privacy", he heralds the triumph of socially responsible entrepreneurs who light the way toward a sustainable future.
Michael Moore and Al Franken may have gotten the lion's share of the publicity by virtue of their outsized personae and on-camera mugging. But Jim Hightower is the only one of the bunch who walks the talk by getting out on the front lines of the myriad grassroots struggles going on around the country.
Wal-Martyrs fighting for living wages - Hightower's there; Farmers fighting Tyson Foods - Hightower's there; FTAA marches - Hightower's there; Apollo Alliance rallies (to declare "energy
independence") - Hightower's there.
Even when he's not pushing a book, he's on the road every single week cheerleading for these folks who are often facing bigger, better-funded opponents in their struggles for social reform.
No person in America today is more in touch with what's going on at America's grassroots than Jim Hightower. He's witnessing and taking part in stories that the mainstream media is, by and large, missing.
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