Matt Taibbi’s “The Divide” Might Be the Most Important Book You’ll Read this Year

On February 20th, 2014, Matt Taibbi sent shockwaves through the media landscape, announcing that he was leaving his long-time position at Rolling Stone for a new venture working alongside Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and Laura Poitras. Although Taibbi’s site has yet to launch, he has had time to finish and release his newest book “The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap“. Having recently finished it, I believe that it may be one of the most important books of the year.

I freely admit to being a long-time fan of Taibbi’s work. Griftopia continues to be one of my more recommended books. In The Divide, Taibbi explores the dichotomy of justice in American society, where the poor live in a virtual police state and the rich literally can’t go to jail.

Throughout the book, Taibbi juxtaposes the stories of low income Americans and illegal immigrants with those of Wall Street’s lords of high finance. That we have two Americas is is pretty much common knowledge at this point for anyone that’s really paid attention to the world at large, but that Taibbi does is highlight how the rich and the poor now live in what’s functionally two completely different countries. In Poor America, the police are an ever-present threat that will throw you in jail for standing on the sidewalk and round you up on the mere suspicion of being a criminal. In Rich America, you can steal literally billions of dollars and never spend a single day in a courtroom.

For us as a society to ever break the chains that keep us where we are, we must first recognize that they exist. And that is why Taibbi’s book is so important.

“With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored…the first thought forbidden…the first freedom denied – chains us all, irrevocably.”