Timothy Noah, The Great Divergence *** 1/2

I read the Hillman Prize-winning series of articles in Slate that formed the basis of this book. Each article, corresponding roughly to a chapter in the book, examined one possible explanation for the extreme growth in income inequality over the past three decades and found that none of the usual suspects could account for the phenomenon. Not only is it an compelling mystery story, but Noah's analysis delves into most of the hot-button topics of contemporary politics: immigration, globalization, racism, classism, computerization, equal opportunity, and tax policy. He has interesting data and makes insightful points in all of these areas. In the end, Noah's suggestions in the chapter on "What to Do" are mostly the traditional liberal prescriptions.

I found the book to be slightly less compelling than the original Web articles. It sacrifices focused journalistic clarity for a greater depth of data. I sometimes started drowning under the mass of statistics.