Short Synopsis
The founder of the groundbreaking site The Huffington Post tracks the gradual demise of America as an industrial, political, and economic leader and explains how our politicians are abandoning the middle class and betraying the American dream.

Full Synopsis
It's not an exaggeration to say that middle-class Americans are an endangered species and that the American Dream of a secure, comfortable standard of living has become as outdated as an Edsel with an eight-track player—that the United States of America is in danger of becoming a third world nation.

The evidence is all around us: Our industrial base is vanishing, taking with it the kind of jobs that have formed the backbone of our economy for more than a century; our education system is in shambles, making it harder for tomorrow's workforce to acquire the information and training it needs to land good twenty-first-century jobs; our infrastructure—our roads, our bridges, our sewage and water, our transportation and electrical systems—is crumbling; our economic system has been reduced to recurring episodes of Corporations Gone Wild; our political system is broken, in thrall to a small financial elite using the power of the checkbook to control both parties.

And America's middle class, the driver of so much of our economic success and political stability, is rapidly disappearing, forcing us to confront the fear that we are slipping as a nation—that our children and grandchildren will enjoy fewer opportunities and face a lower standard of living than we did. It's the dark flipside of the American Dream—an American Nightmare of our own making.

Arianna Huffington, who, with the must-read Huffington Post, has her finger on the pulse of America, unflinchingly tracks the gradual demise of America as an industrial, political, and economic leader. In the vein of her fiery bestseller Pigs at the Trough, Third World America points fingers, names names, and details who is killing the American Dream.Finally, calling on the can-do attitude that is part of America's DNA, Huffington shows precisely what we need to do to stop our freefall and keep America from turning into a third world nation.

Third World America is a must-listen for anyone disturbed by our country's steady descent from twentieth-century superpower to backwater banana republic.

"Luckily for Congress, the White House, and Corporate America, no one reads anymore, because if people discover this book, America will become a very different place." ---Bill Maher

"A voice of conscience in a time when we need conscience more than ever.... Huffington is right: it's not too late for citizens to wake up politicians or to take matters into their own hands." ---Elizabeth Warren, coauthor of The Two-Income Trap

"With great passion and insight, Arianna tells it like it is.... Here, clearly, is a book for our times." ---Robert B. Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor

"Marlo...does a nice job of softening the harsh edges of Huffington's prose. The result is surprisingly soothing---a tough diagnosis meted out with an appropriate dose of sugar." ---Publishers Weekly Audio Review

New York Times Bestseller

Publishers Weekly Bestseller