Whose Millennium?: Theirs or Ours?

"Magisterial in its historical sweep, fiercely democratic in its vision, Whose Millennium? is the thinking person's 'bridge to the 21st century.' There is an alternative to rampant inequality and the corruptions of power, and-ever so modestly and persuasively-Daniel Singer points the way."

--Barbara Ehrenreich

This visionary book challenges the chorus of resignation-the notion that there is no alternative, that profit is the best relationship between people, and that the market guarantees democracy. Daniel Singer insists that a more free and egalitarian society can be won, and he predicts that the new millennium will be an age of confrontation, not consensus, with Western Europe as a probable first battlefield.

In social criticism of rare scope and insight, Singer probes the outcome of the Russian Revolution and Russia's post-1989 turmoil, the transformation of the Polish trade union movement Solidarity into a reactionary and clerical force, the failure of social democracy in Western Europe, the emergence of an unbalanced world after the collapse of one superpower, and the massive 1995 strikes and demonstrations in France-which, Singer argues, were the first revolt against the prevailing idea that there is no alternative to market stringency.

As an alternative, Singer calls for "realistic utopia": a politics engaged with present-day possibilities but daring to pursue a world beyond capitalism, one that would put into consistent practice the ideals of democracy and equality.

The Progressive - Jane Slaughter

Singer's sophisticated analysis is easy to absorb because of his clear and often poetic writing style....[He] takes the long view. This book is a way to understand "capitalism not as an eternity, but as a historical phase with a distant beginning and a possibly proximate end," he writes.

Daniel Singer is the European correspondent for The Nation.