“For the most part, people are unaware and uninformed about the tremendous impact privatization can have on our daily lives and its effect on our democracy. The Fox in the Henhouse provides an eye-opening look at this issue. It requires us to become more informed, to deliberate strategies, and to consider what action should be taken.”
—Congressman Melvin L. Watt
“This book has some fancy long words in it, but it also has some great stories and songs. You'll learn what some of the long words really mean—the long words used by high and mighty people in this land of the free. Remember, Ben Franklin was 81 when the U.S. Constitution was finally put together 218 years ago. A woman asked him, ‘Mr. Franklin, what kind of a government do we have now?’ He replied, ‘A republic. If you can keep it.’”
—Pete Seeger, Musician
“…a wake-up call for all who care about our democracy and the assault on public services. While prisons-for-profit is the most alarming aspect of this trend, what the book reveals are the ideological underpinnings of privatization driven by the same greed that produced WorldCom and Enron.”
—Larry Cohen, Executive Vice President,
Communications Workers of America (CWA)
“In this impassioned, intellectually exhilarating, and genre-bending book, philosopher Elizabeth Minnich and artist-activist Si Kahn deconstruct the arguments for privatization and identify the cultural traditions, institutions, and social forces that are at work to counter its destructive impact. Every socially concerned American is in their debt.”
—Esther Kingston-Mann, author of The Romance
of Privatization and In Search of the True West
“…one of the most important political books of the year.… No one can talk authoritatively about the moral climate of America without taking into account the issues this book brings to light.”
—Danny Goldberg, CEO, Air America Radio
“For the last thirty years, a critical part of the conservative assault on government has been their claim that the private sector always works better. It is time to unpack and dismantle each of the components of this myth. Kahn and Minnich have done just that on the issue of privatization. It is a book that every state legislator and editorial writer needs to read and absorb.”
—Miles Rapoport, President, Demos, and former
Secretary of the State of Connecticut
“The complexities and dangers of privatization are splayed out in a manner that is reasonable, resonant, and worrisome. The argument for both the public and the independent (non-profit) sector is eloquent. The alarm has been sounded and ‘we the people’ have been warned. I pray we do not simply roll over and hit the snooze button!”
—Donna Red Wing, Senior Advisor, The Interfaith Alliance
“The Fox in the Henhouse is a fitting metaphor for privatization, the transfer to the corporation of government's functions to defend citizens and protect their welfare.… With style, stories, and wit, Kahn and Minnich show how to keep the fox out of henhouse America and offer an alternative vision of one nation, unprivatized. Best of all, they prove to be engaging and engaged leaders and role models.”
—Peter D. Kinder, Founder and President, KLD Research
& Analytics, Inc., and coauthor of Investing for Good
and The Social Investment Almanac
“The Fox in the Henhouse centers itself in the struggle to right injustice, from Jim Crow and the convict lease system in the past century to the for-profit private prisons that help create the outrageous mass incarceration so many suffer from today. Minnich and Kahn are determined to bring these abominations to light and unrelenting in their insistence that justice for all must prevail.”
—Van Jones, Founding Director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
“The relentless corporate campaign to turn public goods—such as education, criminal justice and public health—into private commodities is one of the great unreported scandals of our time. The Fox in the Henhouse exposes this threat to democracy and community in a narrative that is clear, convincing and, yes, inspiring. If you care about America's future, read this book.”
—Jeff Faux, Founder, Economic Policy Institute
“…With incisive analysis and passionate protest, in prose and in song, Kahn and Minnich link… the corporate assaults on our personal lives and our public institutions.… An ever more greedy private sector has launched a full-scale assault against the democracy to which we owe all our hard-won protections, and they are winning. Unless we organize and fight back in ways and on issues that are outlined here, we will lose the America we cherish.”
—Ruth Messinger, Executive Director, American Jewish World Service
“…Elizabeth Minnich and Si Kahn, living up to their reputations for committed and ethical commentary, have produced a well-researched and clearly presented case against the corporate takeover of the public sector, including higher education. Those of us who struggle to keep our institutions focused on the idea of public service, social responsibility, and a just world now have a companion reader to advise us as we do our work.…”
—Joseph Jordan, Director, Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black
Culture and History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“…It is both na?ve and dangerous to turn over essential functions of civic life to a private sector whose driving force and end goal is economic profit. The Fox in the Henhouse is a solemn, comprehensive, and well-documented warning that if we succumb to the growing movement to privatize… core government functions, we put at risk both the moral values and the democratic process which lie at the heart of our national self-understanding.”
—Vernon S. Broyles, III, Office of Corporate Witness,
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
“The Fox in the Henhouse could not have come at a better time.… The threats of privatization go far beyond the future of Social Security or outsourcing jobs overseas… [A] must-read if we're serious about achieving equal opportunity for all Americans—equal opportunity for education, employment opportunity, and home ownership.”
—Wade Henderson, Executive Director, Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights
“Kahn and Minnich… present a frighteningly clear exploration of the corporate takeover of the public sphere that is rapidly eroding fundamental rights and freedoms… and eviscerating democracy itself. Theirs, however, is a prophetic call to action, not despair. ‘We the People’ must reassert the primacy of the public good over private profit for the sake of us all and before it is too late.”
—Sara M. Evans, author of Tidal Wave: How Women Changed
America at Century's End, and Regents Professor of History,
University of Minnesota
“This important book will equip Americans to stand up to the right-wing drive to put everything, even our criminal justice system, under the control of unaccountable corporations.”
—Roger Hickey and Robert Borosage, Campaign for America's Future
“It is way past time that the destructive move toward privatization is exposed for how it can undermine democracy and economic opportunity. The ‘ownership society’ really means you are just on your own. Kahn and Minnich do us a great service, providing both the exposé and ways in which we can fight back.”
—Heather Booth, President, Midwest Academy
“If you ask people who provide vital services to the public every day—educators, health care professionals, public safety workers—they'll tell you they want the resources, training, and staffing to provide a service they can be proud of. But if you ask global corporations, all they see when they look at public services is dollar signs. The promise of America is supposed to be that if you work hard and contribute to your community, you can expect reliable, fair, and accountable public services for your family. The Fox in the Henhouse explains how that promise is being taken away, and what it will take to restore it.”
—Andy Stern, President, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
“…Our private lives are not safe without publicly protected, equal civil rights. The Fox in the Henhouse was obviously written to wake us up to the real threats of privatization. It's urgent: read it!”
—Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin
“In accessible and understandable language, this book deals with critical issues soberly and with the right touch of song, poetry, and history.”
—David Cohen, cofounder, Advocacy Institute,
and past President, Common Cause
“Elizabeth Minnich and Si Kahn are longtime crusaders for the common good, which is threatened by the growing substitution of marketplace values for public ones. This book sounds the alarm and gives us ways to answer it.”
—Gara LaMarche, Vice President and Director
of U.S. Programs, Open Society Institute
“The Fox in the Henhouse is clearly meant to remind us that corporate power and great concentrations of wealth threaten democracy. Neither our public rights nor our private and community lives are the driving causes of globalizing corporations. Profit, not democracy, is their bottom line. It is urgent that we keep all our public goods from being sold off to the private sector.”
—Nan Grogan Orrock, Georgia State Representative,
and President, Women Legislators' Lobby
“In this engaging and disturbing book, Kahn and Minnich raise and confront critical ethical and moral questions about the nature of privatized power and corporatized politics in our society today. If you care about the future of our public democracy, please read The Fox in the Henhouse.”
—Rabbi David Saperstein, Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
“The aggressive movement to undermine public institutions and privatize public resources threatens the very possibility of democratic action on behalf of the public good. Kahn and Minnich document the breathtaking scope of privatization threats—to the values of community and accountability, and to the future of an America governed of, by, and for the people.”
—Ralph G. Neas, President, People For the American Way Foundation
“…We cannot afford to ignore this call to action from two lifelong activists, organizers, and moral leaders. While their stories are disturbing, they also offer us hope by showing how we can organize, build our power, and fight for the future of our democracy.”
—Simon Greer, Executive Director and CEO, Jewish Fund for Justice
“…Kahn and Minnich give us a lucid, readable, and compelling picture of privatization and consolidation of corporate influence that would make Tom Paine proud. With Kahn's trademark plainspoken language and Minnich's probing insight we are given tales, terminology, and tools to take back our democracy. The Fox in the Henhouse should be required reading for every patriotic American.”
—John McCutcheon, President, Local 1000, American Federation of Musicians
“…a desperately important book. With poetry, stories, and hard analysis, it demolishes the privatization myth that threatens everything decent and human in our society—and shows the way back to a way of life that is not for sale.”
—Charles Derber, author of People Before Profit and Hidden Power
“…a roadmap for activists as we fight for and win an America and a world where the values of a caring community, responsibility for each other, and a government that protects the public interest triumph over leaving everyone—no matter how vulnerable—on their own.”
—Jeff Blum, Executive Director, USAction
“This book explores the most important issue that we face. The need to understand privatization eclipses even the nuclear power industry and the war, because the corporations' agenda underlies and explains what is otherwise senseless.”
—Scott Ainslie, CEO, Cattailmusic.com
“Every working person in this country, whether they are represented by a union or wish they were, needs to read this book. It tells us not just what we have lost, but how and why we must organize, fight back, and win.”
—John Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO
“Kahn and Minnich… draw the connections between predatory profits and the constant, relentless deterioration of the public good. Only through public service, as well as community building jobs, where dedication and sacrifice are matters of principle, not worn out and archaic beliefs, can democracy grow and survive. This book documents the struggle from the headlines and frontlines down to the grassroots, where every person counts, and every voice must be heard.”
—Wade Rathke, Chief Organizer, ACORN
“Kahn and Minnich have written a highly readable treatment of a subject that is usually addressed with impenetrable academic prose or wonkish policy-speak. The result is both a compelling discussion of the consequences of unbridled corporate power and a thoughtful essay on the human condition.”
—Philip Mattera, Director, Corporate Research Project
of Good Jobs First, and author of Inside U.S. Business
“…an immensely readable and profound book. It uncovers corporate privatization from the ground up and shows how it is being imposed from the top down. Read this book if you want to understand the problems and find out about joining together to reclaim common space.”
—Neil Tudiver, Assistant Executive Director, Canadian Association of
University Teachers, and author of Universities for Sale: Resisting
Corporate Control over Canadian Higher Education
“…a fun, soulful, and inspiring read. An essential guide for anyone concerned that corporate robber barons are looting our common wealth and public services.”
—Chuck Collins, United for a Fair Economy and
coauthor of Economic Apartheid in America
“We are moving toward an oligarchic society where a relatively small handful of the rich decide, with their money, who will run, who will win, and how they will govern. The defenders of the present system will fight hard to hold on to their privilege, and they write the rules. Nothing less than our democracy is at stake.”
BILL MOYERS
For our grandparents and parents, whose lives and work have inspired us and more others than they ever knew; and for the next generation, Simon P. Kahn, Jesse M. Kahn, David Fernandes, and Gabe Kahn. Each in his own original way, they help us to believe that the future we work for is worth it all.
