This book offers a utopian narrative. Herbert J. Gans, one of the most influential and prolific sociologists and social commentators of our time, achieves a realistic utopia set in the second and third decades of the twenty-first century. In Gans' imagined but highly informed future, elected officials, policymakers, activists, and citizens have transformed America into a much more humane and effective democracy. Gans' chapters on social, political, and economic policy issues - jobs; war; tax reform; global warming; economic, racial, gender, and religious equality; family policies; the creation of affordable housing and energy-saving communities; education reform; and more - provide realistic guidelines aimed at making this future possible.