Thieves in High Places: They’ve Taken Our Country and It’s Time to Take It Back

Living proof that Texas doesn’t just produce power hungry madmen, Austinite Jim Hightower is a passionate progressive with real political experience. Twice elected Texas Ag Commissioner, Hightower has made a 20-year career in radio and print as a down-home-style, grassroots populist writing books and barnstorming across America to address “the real folks” outside official polls. In his latest work, Hightower lambastes the “kleptocrats,” “Wobblycrats” (big-money-sucking Democrats who always vote Republican), empire builders, right-wing media barons, the evils of Wal-Mart, the Bush administration’s abuse of the environment (and nearly everything else) and genetic food engineering. Although he doesn’t document his sources as fastidiously as Michael Moore does, Hightower has a warm sense of humor and clear-eyed optimism that carry the book as it navigates the rampant problems of modern America—and he has never lost faith in the common, so-called “idiot” American.